Imbalanced

by Nameless Narrator

Into The Abyss: Unforgivable

[Blazing's Entry]

I had to do it.
I had to do it.
I had to do it.

No matter how much I tell this to myself I have hard time believing it. The thing is that it might really have been the right choice.

[End Entry]

I levitate my swords towards the cloud and get ready to stab through it when a better idea comes to mind. In a flash of steel I swing the swords to disperse the cloud underneath Rainbow Dash making her drop like a rock mid-snore. The 'thud' is loud enough but with how low the clouds are hanging the fall only causes the pegasus to cough violently with breath knocked out of her.

Aware of my opponent's main threat in her speed I lower the swords and cross them close enough to her neck to shave her coat, careful not to slit her throat during the coughing fit. When silence rules again and Rainbow finally notices what's going on she freezes right on the spot.

"Rainbow Dash?" I ask, narrowing my eyes.

"Not cool, dude. Not cool."

Time to play it right.

"Sombrero wanted me to check up on you. Lazy as usual I see."

The pegasus presses her back to the ground at the mention of the crystal king.

"Hey, me and AJ have this place under control. There's no reason for worry. We are trustworthy and happy citizens and so are the ponies under our watch."

She's terrified, or a really good actor.

All I want is to hug the pegasus and tell her everything is okay but there is too much at stake. I wave my hoof towards the cloud-ridden sky.

"Happy citizens are not born out of a disgusting sky like this," I say firmly, narrowing my eyes even more which forces a little yelp from the pegasus. The eye destroyed by Void must look really villain-esque.

"I can clear this sky in two seconds flat," ensures me the pegasus and a small, prideful smile appears on her face.

"Wasn't it supposed to be ten seconds flat?"

"Ya calling me a newbie?"

"Then do it, we have a mission to fulfill."

Ratnbow Dash salutes and immediately bursts up into the air with unnatural speed. The gust of wind causes few window shutters to rock and raises a cloud of dust everywhere except around me which, when Rainbow finally notices the area untouched by her enhanced abilities, illicits a weak 'eek' from her.

She's done. You could say anything and the poor girl would believe it.

Yea. Even Rising Thunder wasn't this scared when I threatened him in his own house.

So why are you still so sure you have to do this? The ponies are pretty nice here, RD is fairly likable even with the crazy piercings so why continue?

I promised.

You were lied to!

I will be the one to pay the price but I will do this, or as much as I'm able to. Wait, my head was never this contradictory. I get it... betrayal.

That was quick, little pony.

Then get out.

I will, but remember one thing. I wasn't lying in any of the propositions.

That was way too easy but the voice of the Element doesn't press the issue.

The sky clears up faster than my healthy eye is able to see and few moments later the blue pegasus lands in front of me.

"See? Easy peasy. You can tell the king everything is fine, right?" she giggles nervously.

"That depends on your performance now. Take me to Spike!" I say in the most commanding voice I'm able to muster. Years of training newbie guards come to my help here.

"How do you-?" RD stops when she sees my raised eyebrow, a one hundred percent success rate move.

"To the cave, now!" I growl, hoping I guessed the dragon's and his slave's location correctly.

"Fiiiiine."

Rainbow grabs me with both pairs of legs and shivers when my swords glow from telekinesis. I make sure they are a visible threat to dissuade the pegasus from dropping me mid-flight or at least enable me to wound her fatally before dropping to my pizzafication.

I've never seen a pegasus able to carry another pony so far at such speed and I expect the Element to be at work here but whether thanks to my swords weakening her or the distance itself she's sweating and shaking when we finally land at a cave mouth close to the peak of Canterlot mountain. I have hard time keeping balance on my wobbly legs and derailing my thoughts from inevitable death by pancake but RD is tired and scared enough not to notice.

"Take a break. We'll be going back soon," I command.

"I'm not a pony to refuse free rest," smiles RD and her back smacks the ground in front of the cave.

As silently as possible, I creep inside the dragon cave using shadows as the only viable protection against something completely out of my league. A stroke of luck comes when I realize I've been hearing a repeating rumbling noise for quite a while already. If my suspicion is correct, then a dragon in this stage of growth considers his 'pet' a part of his treasure and keeps her with his hoard.

That presumes Scream wasn't lying to you.

Even she didn't believe I would be stupid enough to try to deal with Spike. This will show her.

Show her that you're good enough or dumb enough?

Ha HAAA! We'll see that pretty soon.

With just few more steps, a massive cavern opens in front of me and a giant dragon wearing a jewel bearing diamond symbol on his claw snores out a puff of smoke. I focus on searching for anything resembling a pony and soon I can see a fat, white mare chained to the floor. With a collar on her neck, Rarity is watching the cave entrance. That might be an overstatement though... watching usually requires some semblance of will and her blank stare relays that there is none.

I keep shuffling towards her and thanks to the lack of horseshoes which I lost due to Scream's teleportation I manage to get to her unnoticed by the snoring dragon. With all my attention focused on the huge mouth I almost scream and sentence myself to death when a gentle touch carresses my leg. I bite my hoof to stop it and hear a silent giggle next to me where Rarity is watching me curiously.

"Who are you?" she whispers.

"My name is Blazing Light."

"That's a lovely name. Why are you here, mister Light?"

"I-" I hesitate.

"You must get out. I know that a handsome knight like you is just perfect for rescuing a lady but there is nothing you can do here. Nopony can help me anymore."

Handsome... is she blind or something?

Rarity notices the shocked expression on my face and smiles reassuringly, melting my resolve.

"I'm not here to help you," I breathe out and look at the ground, tears forming in my eye.

"Then why are you risking your life here, treasure?" she doesn't even seem disappointed to hear the truth.

It dawns on me that she knows full well her life was over the moment she was given away but her strength to face it all without breaking down is something putting me to shame. Someone like her deserves to know everything.

"I'm here to kill you to enrage Spike and turn him against Sombra otherwise his armies will invade my Equestria and enslave or kill everypony there," I whisper, not even trying to stop the tears hitting the ground.

"You do realize that all I have to do is scream and Spike will burn you alive?"

"I'm just a coward but seeing you being able to handle losing everything in stride... you just deserve to know."

"You are risking painful death for your country. That's not cowardice but the mark of a true knight."

"I wish I could say it's something noble like that but I can't. I'm just a dog pointed in a direction and released without knowing anything except who to bite."

"I find it hard to believe, dear. So... how do we do this?"

"What?"

"You think I like being chained here? Unfortunately I know my chances more than well so all I ask is for it to be quick and not messy, like some queen from old legends. I can't stand messy."

"You are the bravest pony I've ever met."

"A true lady can't be weak," says Rarity and assumes a proud pose, sitting on her hind legs and sticking her chest out.

I levitate the silvery greatsword towards her chest.

"Waitwaitwaitwait," whispers Rarity quickly.

The sword stops.

"I almost forgot about your reward, brave knight."

"I don't see a-"

"Be quiet! You are saving a fine lady from the dragon albeit by an... unusual method and she is still grateful for your deeds. Lean here!" her commanding whisper has more authority than any theatrics used by me on Rainbow Dash.

When I lean down, which doesn't take long since I'm just a bit taller than her, she kisses me on the cheek.

"Oh screw it!" she exclaims noiselessly and wraps her front legs around my neck while kissing me again deeply.

When it's over, Rarity carefully rearranges her messed-up mane and assumes her pose again.

"Don't lose heart now, mister knight," she says and closes her eyes.

The silvery sword flies up again, it is somehow more fitting for her than the ashen grey one, and it takes all my telekinetic powers to keep it steady.

"Goodbye," I breathe out and stab her cleanly, piercing her heart.

Slowly lowering the body not to make noise I bite my lip and creep out of the cave.

That was...

I know.

She wasn't fat...

I know.

She was pregnant.

I... know.

"We are leaving," I tell Rainbow harshly after wiping my eyes.

"You dragged me all the way here for such short nonsense?" asks Rainbow, deeply annoyed.

"Yes. Now we're going back to Ponyville and then you can do whatever you please. I'll be going back north," I lie.

During our descent to Ponyville, Rainbow notices a colder patch on her side and examines it. I forgot to wipe Rarity's blood from the blade. She turns her head to look at my weapons and notices that the ex-silver blade is looking rusty.

"What did you do?" Rainbow asks and underlines the question by slowly releasing the grip on my body.

Her answer takes the form of two swords surrounding her neck.

"Take us down... slowly," I threaten.

"WHAT DID YOU DO? ...Rarity?" she shouts and then whispers when she realizes the only possibile outcome and releases the grip completely.

I try to stab her neck but completely underestimate the burst of speed and miss. Falling down to the fields on the outskirts of Ponyville I notice that Rainbow isn't better off. While my swords missed her neck, her acceleration caused them to shear her wings clean off and fall at meteoric speed to the ground.

Fortunately for me, we weren't flying too high and even without hardened armor the fall leaves me only heavily bruised. I get up and look around to take my only chance before the pegasus runs away.

Then I see her shape and know that running away is the last thing on her mind. Coughing blood and looking at the bleeding stumps of what used to be her wings, the rapid fall hurt her much more than me. With pegasi lower bone density allowing them to walk on clouds I have no doubt the impact must have shattered even the smallest of her bones.

Despite that, she tries to crawl away when I get closer.

"Leave me be! We don't want to do anything against the king, we are loyal!" she groans.

Last chance to turn back, you've already managed something nopony expected you to.

That wasn't enough. The dragon will rage but there is no guarantee he will do enough damage to justify leaving this place now.

You DO realize that there is no way to go back, right?

What?

The swords! Scream can't find you here even if you succeed. She sent you here to die.

Oh.

You CAN end this peacefully.

I can't... not after what I did to Rarity. I don't want to.

I look at the defenseless pegasus. This is different than the cave where Rarity truly wanted her misery to end. This would be murder, no kill, no accident, just cold-blooded murder.

"I'm really sorry."

"What? You think that makes everything better? Get away from me! All we wanted was to live together and not get pulled into your war shit!" Rainbow screams.

I'm not dumb enough to approach a pegasus on her back and get kicked in any soft spot so I keep my distance and draw the swords closer.

"I'll try to make it as painless as possible."

"Go buck yourself! HELP! ANYPONY HE-" the scream ends in a gurgle and is cut short as her twitch causes me to miss her heart and pierce her neck.

To end the tortured bubbling noise, my next blow doesn't miss.

"RAINBOW! RAINBOW!" a familiar voice calls from the distance. It is somepony I'm desperately unprepared to meet in my current state so I crawl as far as I can among the wheat lanes and try not to throw up from everything that happened up until now.

When I realize I've been found it is already too late. Through tears I only see a mechanical gryphon claw getting closer and then a haze of red behind my eye and a burst of pain from my chest sends me to the ground.

"For torturing Rainbow, ya will rot in the arena, bastard, and Ah'll take care ya don't die too fast," is what I hear from the mechanically enhanced brown earthpony while lying between broken pieces of my chitin armor.

Comments

[Anonymous Critic]

My Shit-hit-fan-Ometer is detecting higher levels of shit hitting the fan.

[Mezilsa]

Buck. BUCK. BUCK! BUCK!!!

I am not sad, you are sad!
*sniffles and curses his desire to read EVERYTHING*

[Amos Anon]

Dang. Killing a pregnant mare? That's just... dark.

[Teraunce]

Wow! you are really exhausting the world's supply of fecal matter to throw at round spinning things.

[ramdom_player201]

Ye, this story is missing a lot of red tags. Those include: death, violence, probably more.

[Nameless Narrator]

11774803
This story is older than most of the tags :D I'll pop a Violence in. We'Re skirting death a bit.