It confused him somewhat that he was glad to see the horse laughing softly at his 'words'. Being 'glad' or 'happy' wasn't something he could often attribute to himself. 'Content', perhaps occasionally, but even then only very briefly.
He supposed that it was more relief than anything. Having at least one person/horse on his side would likely be a boon. His disguise wasn't overly helpful anymore regardless, given how quickly the suspicions would have mounted if he'd continued to fail at acting dumb. Having her less paranoid was likely more beneficial in the long run.
Nevertheless, he left her with the piece of paper and turned to focus on the Pegasus that had yet again ended up in the floor. Though muffled, he could plainly make out the fact that she seemed to be cursing loudly over what he'd done.
Her head popped out of the ground after one solid pull, leaving her purple eyes rolling in their sockets. She shook her head, clearing the dizziness from her vision, and glared at the suited Human angrily. One forehoof scuffed at the dirt like a bull preparing to charge.
"You get away from my friend right now, buster! And no playin' innocent, I heard what she said!"
Hazama stared, frowning in some form of disgust. It was his first day on this new world, and it felt like more than a week with the shit that he'd been put through. None of it particularly dangerous thus far, but very, very annoying.
With a groan and an imperceptible rolling of his eyes, he stepped back into the middle of the path, realigning himself with the horse after his leap.
Did she really think this was going to work for her? After the last two times he'd blatantly avoided her attacks without so much as caring? She must have known how fruitless this was, especially since, if he was an evil love-eating monster or whatever, he'd have already taken the yellow one out before she had time to scream?
Then again, logic didn't seem to be a strong aspect of these creatures, so what did he know?
"U-Uhm, R-Rainbow Dash, he's not actually a C-Changeling…" Fluttershy murmured.
She didn't expect her friend's expression to morph into one of horror, her eyes going wide and pupils shrinking with fear at the seemingly comforting phrase. The yellow Pegasus cocked her head to one side, confused.
"O-Oh no! It's got you under his spell already! Don't worry, Fluttershy, I'll getcha free!"
Both Hazama and the yellow horse facepalmed at the same time, though luckily for the former Rainbow Dash was too busy staring at her 'possessed' friend to notice his action.
This was going to be one of those times where every possible explanation would be discarded in favour of attempted assault, wasn't it?
'Well, at the very least it'll be fun to have someone as dumb and angry as Rags to fuck around with.' Hazama thought, smirking internally as he thought of how easy it was to rile the self-proclaimed 'Grim Reaper' up. Turns out trying to kill him and all his friends and family would do the trick. Who knew?
"N-No, it's really not like that, Rainbow Dash! I-"
"Nah, I ain't listening to the lies he's making you say! Just hang tight, Fluttershy!" The blue Pegasus snorted, waving her hoof in the air dramatically as she cut off her far more reasonable friend.
Fluttershy huffed in rare irritation, wishing not for the first time that her best friend would spend more time listening and less time acting. But in any event, there wasn't much hope in convincing her friend with words anymore, not when she got in the 'heroic' mood.
Biting her lower lip in apprehension as an idea came to her, she turned to the Human that had called himself Hazama. Hazama. What a strange name, not like anything she'd heard an owner call their Human before.
But then a few things slotted into place for her. Things that she hadn't had the time to run over in her head because of how fast Rainbow had swooped in to save the day.
She'd found him alone at the edge of the Everfree Forest. He had a full set of expensive clothes on, and seemed fully comfortable in them, navigating pockets and even writing things on a notepad. The writing thing could be passed off as something taught to him as a way of introducing himself to strangers, but that didn't explain the way he acted. Calm, without needing any collar or guidance. This Human was intelligent. Not like a pet taught to do fifty different tricks, but like a Pony. The laughter and smiling was just the nail in the apple stall.
Which is why what she was about to ask might very well be considered rude.
After the events at Princess Cadance's wedding, she had spent time researching Changeling physiology wherever she could for both defensive purposes and in case one ever ended up in her care. That last part was never mentioned to her friends, but she had learned over time that the Changelings had been dying out for the past century, and only a few scattered hives remained. As a result, they'd been much more desperate this past decade, fighting and conquering when before they'd not dared risk it.
So she'd garnered some knowledge and a lot of pity concerning the Changeling race, which was the reason she'd thought Hazama was a confirmed changeling before.
One such piece of information that she'd learned was something concerning their disguise function, which she'd also noticed when her friends had to fend off a wave of Drones at the wedding.
"Haz…Hazam… Uhh, excuse me?" she whispered, feeling a barely noticeable shudder run up her spine as the Human turned to gaze at her.
Hazama himself was curious. She'd tried and failed to pronounce his name, which he didn't overly blame her for. His name was outside their understanding of names, so it was understandable. It sounded like she had a question to ask, though, and she didn't seem too confident about it.
Taking a moment to lean sideways and avoid another speedy-but-reckless charge by the rainbow-maned horse, he pivoted on his heels to properly face the yellow Pegasus, shooting her a questioning look as he didn't feel like wasting more paper or spending time writing things.
"Oh dear this is going to sound bad, but um, I think you need to, err… Let her hit you…" She said, trailing off with a flush on her face near the end of her sentence, refusing to meet his eyes. For good reason, too, as he fixed the top of her head with a highly disbelieving stare.
Hazama took a deep breath, and counted down from five, exhaling at 'zero'. If any of the other horses he'd met so far in this world said that to him, he'd have had some kicking to do for even suggesting such a thing. But so far this one had appeared to be the most reasonable, outside of maybe the white Unicorn. He was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and let her explain herself.
Fluttershy waited until she heard Rainbow Dash make another easily avoided charge, cursing as she went, before daring to look up and continue.
"It's just that… Changelings lose their disguises if they get hurt..."
Now he understood. The rainbow bitch seemed to be too dumb to be convinced verbally, and he'd much rather someone like her didn't figure out what he really was. Taking 'damage' seemed to be the only opportunity to solve this problem.
The yellow horse had cringed back, expecting him to get offended by the suggestion. Now, he was, but he'd dealt with much worse blows to his self-esteem than suffering a 'loss' to the bull-headed Pegasus.
It's not like he would actually get hurt regardless. He had taken hits from Sector Seven's Mad Dog and got up afterwards, and could go toe-to-toe with Terumi, weakened at the time though he was due to his lack of a vessel. Any damage this technicolour horse could dish out was minimal in comparison to those two, especially the former.
Seriously, he didn't know how Azrael was that freakishly strong, but that was one scary son of a bitch. And he had been holding back at the time. Substantially. Hazama had to hand it to Kokonoe; managing to contain him must have been one of the biggest undertakings ever. Second only to maybe the things that Izanami and Terumi were plotting.
So yes, he'd have to swallow his pride and not dodge the next pass. While it wouldn't hurt him at all, there was always the risk of getting his suit dirty, or losing his hat. Neither of these things were ideal, but one of them was at least avoidable. With a sigh, he plucked his trusty hat from his head, leaving his mop of green hair open to the world, having recovered from the earlier electric shock.
Fluttershy opened her eyes when something pressed itself on top of her head, squashing her ears quite uncomfortably. The Human (Hazama, she had to remind herself) had removed his trilby and placed it between her ears, the brim pressing them downwards.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Rainbow coming back around for another pass and, judging by Hazama's grimace, so could he.
With a weary-sounding sigh, the Human turned and stood back in the centre of the road, making sure to look in her direction constantly for some reason. Making sure she didn't run off with his hat, perhaps? He did seem rather attached to it…
"Now I gotcha!" the cry was heard, the figure of Rainbow Dash swiftly approaching the Human from behind.
He had just enough time to widely roll his eyes before he got crashed into, sending both parties flying through the air until they landed on the dirt many metres away, an action that made Fluttershy wince as she started to gallop up the path to their landing site.
Rainbow was laying on her back atop the Human, who had somehow spiralled around in the air to be facing backwards towards the direction of Fluttershy as he lay belly-down on the ground, lips in a hard, straight line. She'd find out later that it was the dirt now clinging to his white shirt that was making him more upset than the impact itself.
The main difference between the two, however, is that only Hazama appeared to be fully conscious. Rainbow Dash herself kept struggling to roll off of him and stand up, but kept flopping onto his back, groaning all the while.
"I…Did it…I got the Changeling…!" She huffed, finally managing to swing her body up onto all fours, her knees bending and wobbling continuously, but she was stable for now.
"Oh my, Rainbow Dash, I think his Butterfly flew away before you hit him…" Fluttershy whispered before she could help herself, clamping her hooves over her mouth after the words escaped. A shade of pink appeared on her cheeks when Rainbow looked at her friend very strangely, before chuckling hoarsely herself.
"H-Heh. Good one, 'Shy." Rainbow Dash grinned, before looking down at the now-grumbling Human with a frown, "But now what're we gonna do with the Changeling? We can always take him to the Royal Guard in town, get 'em to take him to Celestia and get banished to the sun or something cool like that!"
Fluttershy groaned. She hadn't considered that her knowledge of Changelings wasn't common. Of course Rainbow didn't know how their disguises worked!
"Rainbow Dash… Changelings lose their disguises when they get hurt…" she whimpered, wondering how upset Hazama was going to be when he came to the same conclusion as her.
The blue Pegasus, for her part, simply stood with her mouth agape for a moment in the breeze, looking slowly between her friend and the Human she'd just spent the last while attacking, and had just bowled over.
"Oh. So… No banishing to the sun, then?" Rainbow Dash half-whined, still running with adrenaline after the battle, if one could call it that.
Fluttershy shook her head, accidentally dislodging the hat on her head and sending it down to the ground.
She could hear Hazama let out a louder, not-faked pained groan when it landed in the dirt
