They called him the Wolf. Tall, sturdy, and of unknown European descent, some said he’d earned such a name because he was such a loner, preferring to engage the enemy alone. Others said it was because he was vicious, fierce, aggressive, and enjoyed the thrill of running a man or pony down to kill it with his bare hands.

Others claimed to know that it was his favorite animal. Whatever the reason, the name stuck. In theory, there was someone out there who knew his real name, but if there was, they were staying rather silent about the whole affair.

And today, Wolf was on the prowl. A city of prey, and he got his pick of the litter. He gave thanks to God, even as he pounced on a fleeing pony, pinning him to the cobblestone street as he wound back a gauntleted fist, and let fly.

If there was a downside to this whole affair, he had to admit, it was that ponies were too soft. None of them fought back. None of them could even take a hit as a punching bag. He rolled his shoulders. Radiation aside, he’d rather be back home, punching bears. At least they got riled up and tried to kill you.

An armored human spotted him, and abandoned their fight with the guardsponies to charge him, and Wolf grinned. Initiative, he liked that in a victim.

The doppelganger threw a punch, and Wolf didn’t bat an eyelid as he caught the fist with one hand, and squeezed. There was a cracking sound, and the doppelganger sank to it’s knees, screeching in pain as amber fluid ran from the fleshy pulp that had been it’s hand.

Wolf tutted. The doppelgangers looked tough, but they were more like resilient beetles. One solid hit, and- crack -that was it. Wolf threw the crushed creature aside, and shook off his right fist, dislodging bits of chitin that had stuck to it, plastered by insectoid gore.

He reached out, and absent-mindedly grabbed a pony by the mane, punching it’s jaw out to knock it out, before wringing its neck. So boring.

“Stop right there!” a voice commanded, and Wolf paused. It was a voice used to getting what it wanted, a voice of authority. Wolf fancied he even sensed a little anger - a sense of obligation to protect the weak that he’d been crushing underfoot for the last few minutes? Perhaps, just... maybe this voice belonged to something worth fighting.

Wolf turned around, and was treated to a strange sight. A large, brick-red earth pony stood at the end of the street, sunlight glinting off the most comprehensive, thickest, heaviest steel armor he’d ever seen on any equine, sentient or otherwise. Crowning the helm and snout were a set of horns he’d only seen when he’d gone rhino hunting.

“What is this?” he asked. “A little rhino wanna-be?”

“Ah might look like a little rhino,” the earth pony said, “But if y’ keep this up, there’ll be big trouble.”

“I doubt it,” Wolf said, reaching out with his left hand and grabbing a pony by the tail as she ran past. She was a pegasus, orange and blue, kicking and screaming ineffectually at her human attacker.

“Don’t!” the earth pony shouted. “Let her go!”

“The strong rule,” Wolf said, lifting the mare off the ground by her tail, and destroying any traction she might have had. “The weak exist to be oppressed. If you want me to stop...” Wolf juggled the mare so he was grabbing her by the throat, and she began to choke and gasp, wings beating frantically as she struggled to break the vice-like grip. “Why not make me?”

“Ah’m Captain Aegis Exemplar of th’ Royal Guard,” the red stallion stated. “And Ah’m tellin’ you to stop.”

“I hear a lot of bluster,” Wolf said, squeezing harder. “But I don’t see a lot of action. You know who’s also all talk and no action? The French.” Wolf squeezed harder still, the mare gasping and hacking. “I fucking hate the French.”

Aegis snorted, and after a moment’s hesitation, broke into a run. Wolf grinned as he watched the oncoming guardspony break into a fully-fledged gallop, hitting top speed in around seven seconds. Not great statistics for a sports car, but for a pony this heavily armored... his knuckles tingled just thinking about it.

He wound back his fist as the captain closed the gap to ten meters. With a whiz of servomotors, Wolf threw a solid punch, putting his torso and shoulder into a straight right that would have made a wall-punching augmetic wince.

Armored knuckle hit armored snout, and with a resounding clang, Aegis was stopped cold, and thrown back a half-dozen paces to land on his side, sliding across the cobbles with a shower of sparks.

Shaking his arm, Wolf laughed as his whole arm tingled with the impact, and let the mare go. She fell to her knees, coughing and gasping for breath, before shooting Wolf a wary look and scooting away a distance before making a break for it.

Aegis groaned, and shook his head as he got up with a clank of steel. That got a laugh from Wolf, and a harsh clashing of metal as Wolf applauded the earth pony.

“Very well done, Captain,” Wolf said. “That was quite the hit, and you’re still getting up?”

“That was nothin’,” Aegis spat. “Mah sister hits harder than you.”

“Oh?” Wolf mused. “Your sister must be built like popeye.”

Aegis pondered that. “Nah. Musician.”

“Oh.” Wolf frowned, standing next to Aegis. “So it was an insult, then. Well, that changes things.”

He lashed out and twisted, delivering a vicious left hook to the side of Aegis’ head, sending the Captain further this time, to land in a planter where he crashed through gardenias and landed on the pavement on the other side.

“It was a shame our fight had to end so quickly,” Wolf sighed. “If you can call a one-sided beatdown a fight. I really thought you were different.”

“Not done yet,” Aegis grunted, and Wolf looked at the armored pony on the other side of the planter like christmas was coming true.

“How is this so?” Wolf asked. “You still stand? Not even a little brain damage?”

“M’ noodle’s fine,” Aegis grunted, turning around. “Thanks for askin’.”

With a crack of steel hooves on concrete, the planter was sent flying towards Wolf. The human grinned, and jabbed at the flying object, smashing it with a crack of concrete. Dirt cascaded everywhere and stone thudded to the ground as Wolf straightened up, and dusted himself off. He missed most of the dirt caught in the crevices of his armor plating, but the point was clear.

Aegis snorted, and charged again. Wolf rolled his eyes, and readied another rhino-stopping punch, letting fly like he did last time... only to merely graze the side of Aegis’ helmet as the earth pony bent his head around the fist and brought his metal horn into Wolf’s gut, lifting him off the ground with a solid headbutt to the solar plexus.

Aegis didn’t stop there, charging straight through a pillar (which shattered against them like pebbles off a brick wall), and through the storefront of a taffy store. (Which smashed in a cascade of glittering glass.) The extended tackle punched through one more wall, decimating a My Little Taffymaster, and Aegis finally stopped running, throwing the human off his horn and onto the street.

Wolf skidded to a halt as Aegis panted hard, and the human got up, shaking glass and rubble off his back.

“Not even winded,” Wolf declared smugly, walking over to Aegis. “Was that really the best you could do?”

Wolf threw a punch downwards, the impact forcing Aegis to bow his head, even if only for a moment.

“Why don’t you fight back?” Wolf demanded, winding back a fist. “What’s wrong with you?”

Another punch. Aegis was thrown downwards again, this time to a knee, where he recovered once more.

“I’m just beating on you,” Wolf complained. “Where’s the drive to survive? Where’s the will to overcome your foe?!”

The crack of steel on steel rang out in the empty street once more, and Aegis dropped to one knee once more. He didn’t rise, his head staying bowed for a moment.

“Ah don’t go for hittin’ things,” Aegis said. “I protect, not attack.”

“Shitty strategy,” Wolf dismissed, slamming a fist into Aegis’s head once more, driving him down once more, slower still to rise. “A good offense is the best defense! Defense won’t help you save others! Defense won’t allow you to keep your daughter when her mother accuses you of being unfit to be a parent! Defense won’t stop nuclear war!”

Wolf beat down Aegis once more, the earth pony collapsing to the ground completely. Wolf bent down, and grabbed Aegis’ horn, pulling the helmet and it’s wearer’s head up, noting that a thin trickle of blood was seeping from Aegis’ nostril. “Nobody ever won a fight without throwing a single punch, Captain!” Wolf lectured. “If you just hide behind your shield all day, how are you ever going to win the day?”

“Y’ don’t need to throw punches to win the day,” Aegis said, coughing up a wad of blood and spitting. “Ah find, you wait long enough and endure, th’ problem just... solves itself.”

“Now that,” Wolf said, winding back a worn, beaten gauntlet, “Is the biggest sack of shit I’ve ever heard.” There was a meaty crunch as Wolf finally landed a hit on flesh, blood and bone for once. Aegis didn’t make a sound, even as he swayed in Wolf’s grip like an oversized punching bag, hooves not touching the ground. And even then, blood trickling from a split lip, Aegis looked Wolf in the visor, and smiled.

“Ah can do this all day.”

Wolf ground his teeth, juggled his grip so he was holding Aegis by the chestplate, and let fly with a barrage of right hooks, beating on Aegis’ helmed head like a child beats a wooden spoon against a metal cooking pot. The noise drew the attention of ponies, and they cowered in their homes and businesses, watching the human invader beat on a captain of their very own Royal Guard with punishing blows that would reduce a lesser pony to a sack of broken calcium and flesh in minutes.

And each time, they watched Aegis’ head rise back up once more, daring him to have another go. The count went up to double digits, and Aegis was down a few teeth, but he was still conscious, and still grinning.

“Y’ wanna know my secret?” Aegis asked in between punches. Wolf just punched him again, for Aegis’ head to rise back up yet again. “Th’ secret to my robust constitution?”

“Like I care,” grunted Wolf, starting to sweat. No matter how hard he hit that helm, it didn’t dent. It didn’t give. It didn’t bend, it didn’t break.

“Ah’ll tell you anyway,” Aegis wheezed. “See this metal? ‘s meteoric steel. Toughest stuff in Equestria. Once it’s forged right, ain’t nopony gonna break it before they break their own weapon. This stuff’s been forged right.”

“I told you,” Wolf grunted, “I don’t care!”

Wolf put everything he had into it. It was the perfect punch, perfectly straight. The kind of punch that wouldn’t just knock someone out, but push their teeth in so hard, they’d be shitting molars in minutes.

Armored, beaten knuckle gauntlets hit meteoric steel helm with a sharp crack of breaking steel. Wolf grinned, leaving his fist in place.

“Not so unbreakable now, huh?” he asked, grinning at Aegis. The earth pony just grinned back.

“Are y’ sure about that?”

Wolf pulled his fist back. Of course the helmet had broke-

Sunlight glinted off a scratched, scuffed surface. But no cracks were visible. He looked down at his own gauntlet, and saw a straight fracture running right through the knuckle plate.

“Told ya,” Aegis grunted, as the plating fell off. Where there had once been knuckle plates were now just purple flames.

Wolf let Aegis go as he staggered backwards, looking at his own burning hand in disbelief, not even feeling the creeping waves of necrosis running up his arm.

“Not possible,” he gasped, backing into a wall and slumping down, still staring at his hand. “This isn’t possible.”

It was hard to say what he was more in disbelief at; the fact that he was dying of thaumic radiation in a radiation-proof suit, or the fact that he’d met something he couldn’t kill with his bare hands. There was a crack and his arm lowered itself. His armor sparked, and he went still, smouldering slightly as his armor began to leak a thick purple fluid. Aegis got up, spat a loose tooth across the courtyard, and grinned.

“Not one punch,” Aegis said, smiling.