Imbalanced

by Nameless Narrator

Into The Abyss: Sacrifices

[Blazing's Entry]

She didn't kill me, that would be too easy. As long as I get another chance to kill her I don't care.

No family, no future, no life. Just one last duty to fulfill... again.

[End Entry]

---

I was wrong when I expected AJ to be similar to our one, just with the power of an Element which I would be able to negate. This one is a fighter hardened by having to fight for her life in the arena and possibly enjoying it. She's fast, her mechanical enhancement gives her immense strength and it's apparent she's way more experienced than me. After all, what real combat experience do I have? Valiant Charge, horde of changelings, the martial arts master from Nightmare Night and that's all. There is nothing that could have prepared me for going against somepony who fights for her life on regular basis.

I wake up, lying on something soft, with an unknown unicorn wearing a lab coat looking at me. With no regard for him, I sit up and fight off a wave of nausea. A blanket slips off me and I identify the unicorn as a doctor and the room as something which looks like a recovery ward in a hospital. Distant cheering, muffled by thick walls, proves to me that I'm still in the arena though.

"Try it out," says the doctor and nods to my left.

"Huh?" I groan.

"Move around a bit, slowly at first so we can see if the operation was a success and your body isn't rejecting it."

The daylight reflected by metal makes my memory throw up past events. This time I don't faint though and just try to move my left forele... arm.

"It usually takes a bit of getting used to, especially gripping things. There are no normal nerve endings in pony body which accept those signals so we have to make sure your brain can manage."

With that he begins to use his magic to manipulate the claws on my arm by opening it up and making a fist again. After few attempts at moving every single talon I catch on and weakly grasp the blanket. There's one thing I noticed. It might be nothing but it doesn't hurt to ask.

"Why does the arm look different from the ones on AJ and other mechanical ponies? I mean it doesn't smell like some kind of dye."

"Well we ran few tests on your lost leg and the resemblance to changeling chitin was striking. We've had few of those around and they've never taken the augmentation well because the metal part blocked their transformation ability somehow. Applejack gave us a permission to run a small experiment and change the structure of a standard mechanical limb by adding your ground-up chitin into the material making it slightly bronze even without dye."

"Wait... AJ allowed you to save me?"

"Save isn't the right word, mister. We've had a lot of cases like yours where she slowly ripped the victims apart fight after fight while we added more machinery. I'm sure you must have seen the results. That is what awaits you."

"So what now? Do I get time to recover or...?"

"The orders are to send you back down as soon as you wake up. I guess you must have made the champion really angry."

Secrecy doesn't really matter anymore.

"I killed Rainbow Dash."

The doctor almost chokes on absolutely nothing.

"Oh dear."

When I don't react he continues.

"I don't know how you did it but you did us a great favor. Ever since she became an Element bearer her usual laziness and overconfidence skyrocketed and she began causing trouble for Ponyville residents. I mean we used to respect her and she wasn't evil but... well, she was trouble. Nopony really liked her anymore, personally I mean, she's always been a role model and a legend to aspiring fillies thanks to her flying skills. Nopony except for her lover."

"Yeah, I think I get it."

"Exactly. That's why I think I will be seeing you again and again on the operating table until there is only your heart left powering a machinery without any resemblance to past you."

That might be an improvement.

When two Husks come to take me back underground I just silently follow them with the doctor's sad, knowing smile in my back.

My red cellmate looks up from his reading when the cell door clicks and I walk inside. My swords are already there, lying on the pile of hay serving as a bed. I just drop on the hay as well, thinking.

"Hey, Crunchy!" waves the chatty gladiator from the next cell at me.

"Crunchy?" I wonder at my new nickname.

"Well, you know, your skin."

I snicker. The nickname is as bad as it's fitting.

"What's up?"

"Is it true changelings have long tongues?"

Huh?

"I suppose," I answer and stick my tongue out. Queen Chrysalis' tongue was really long, heh, and while mine isn't that oversized it still sticks out a fair distance when I experiment.

The pony's eyes are glued to me.

"I've been here a while and I can give you some tips for going against Applejack."

"How do you know I'm going against her?"

"The mechanical parts are a symbol of those who pissed her off immensely and I've known a fair number of those."

"Alright. What can you tell me?"

"Not so fast. I'm not helping for free."

"I don't have anything and I'm not giving you my weapons."

"I want your tongue."

"WHAT?" I sit up just to lean away from him.

"Eh that came out wrong. It's just that I've heard that changelings are really good at certain things and the bars between cells aren't too close."

It begins dawning on me.

Are we going to do it?

I don't really want to.

You kissed a guy so... natural step forward?

That was different. I actually like... liked Sharp and I would have had no problem doing it with him but this?

Afraid you're gonna like it?

I'm pretty sure I'd have enjoyed it with him or, let's say Heavy Hoof, or, well, somepony I know but this is too weird.

Take it like this. You bucked a venom-crazed mare and enjoyed her attention as well.

Yeah but-

You've eaten out an alicorn who brought you back from the dead few minutes earlier.

That maybe could be seen as a payback?

You've fed the changeling queen who tried to kill you.

That was just feeding from her point of view.

You are partially a changeling as well.

What does that have to do with... no.

Nonononono.

I can't.

Why?

Turning the idea around in my head I can't find an answer aside from being taught since early age that doing that is wrong. Mare on mare - bearable, stallion on stallion - abominable.

Stories which my queen told me about feeding habits of changelings in big cities who weren't able to find a loving partner or a victim flood me. The whorsehouse workers are the luckier ones, others just have to prowl the night while giving themselves away to drunks just to gain a bit of affection which is born from momentary lust instead of biting their victims and attracting the attention of guards.

I bite my lip. What good is self-respect in my situation?

"Fine. I'll do what you want," I tell the happy gladiator.

Think of it as a practice at making your future partner happy in case it's a stallion and not a mare.

Heh, me and having a life partner. I'll also be rich, famous and the prince of Equestria.

With the deed over, I ponder my situation.

The positive thing is that it actually felt pretty good. The bad thing is how little energy it gave me. It was enough to make me feel my armor healing even while bobbing my head back and forth but it was also enough to accentuate the horrible hunger I've been feeling for what seems like forever.

"So, what can you tell me that would help me against Applejack?"

The gladiator scratches his head.

"About that. Well you are new here so..."

"You just wanted a changeling to blow you and don't actually know anything."

I don't even have the strength to be angry when he nods.

"Just leave me be," I tell him, roll over on the bed of hay and cover my head with my forelegs... I mean my arm and a leg.

Thinking I should be crying I'm surprised to find out my eye is completely dry. I guess I've cried out my share of everything.

The lightbulb in my cell shuts down leaving the area dark meaning my cellmate's done with his reading. Few seconds later the hay on the floor rustles and four incredibly muscular legs wrap around me. I guess my cellmate was just waiting for me to show willingness to join the arena even in its dirtier aspect and now is making his move.

I don't resist when something the size of a fifth leg presses against my back but there is no more movement involved. Curious about the lack of action I turn around and the closeness of red coat makes me push against it but the legs around me don't budge and the earthpony's belly and everything else remains pressed against me, only from the front this time.

"Ah know how ya feel right now," says the giant with the same accent as Applejack.

Instead of continuing the futile struggle I let him pull me closer and fall asleep with my head nose pressed into the chest full of red.

Comments

[Teraunce]

Well I see he found Big Mac...a very sad Big Mac.