"You should probably wake up now."

Courage jerked up, her eyes snapping open. The sound of moving chain accompanied her every movement, reaching a paw up she found out why. A thick chain led from a lug on the wall to a hefty steel collar around her neck. "Hey, what is this?" When she opened her mouth to complain, she almost failed to make any sounds at all. "And why is my throat so dry?"

A clanging sound drew Courage's attention to one of the imps that was opening a tiny door in the cage she was in. "Here, dog, you drink. Fight today again."

Her throat ached and despite a warning voice, Courage moved forward and started drinking from the bucket. She jerked back immediately. "This is horrible!" The taste of salt on her tongue told her that she wasn't going to get much refreshment from the bucket. "Look, I didn't mean to come in here, just let me go, okay?"

The thirst pulled Courage's head back down and despite the salt in the water, she drank more, kept drinking, drank the whole bucket down. Panting hard, she shook with the horrible feeling of dryness and thirst. Courage's anger started to rise, and when an imp came back to get the bucket she lowered her head and sent a bolt of magic at them. "Bring me water!"

"You get no water until after fight." The big, fire-maned demon-pony reached up with one paw-like foreleg, unfastening some hidden latch on the door and opening it. "Follow, fight, and get water."

The demon gestured at Courage and she felt a wave of heat strike her, focusing in on her neck. A clank sounded and when she looked down, she saw a link of the chain had been slagged. She shuddered more from the fact that the heat should have seared her painfully, than from the fact that it didn't. Walking after the retreating demon, she heard the clank of the few links still attached.

"Our first fight," the loud announcer voice was booming, "is our returning challenger from yesterday!"

Even inside the dungeon halls, Courage could hear the voice, and the thunder of the crowd. Bright light singed her eyes and she stared out through a portcullis, the sand of the arena burning with heat. Imps to each side cranked a windlass and hauled the gate up.

"Go! Fight! Kill!" A wave of heat followed the demon-pony's voice, and the heat called to Courage, inspired her.

Stepping out onto the sand, Courage saw her first non-canine opponent. Standing nearly five ponies tall, the steel machine belched fire out. It looked for all the world like a big metal demon-imp, and while it moved slowly, she could see that it wasn't going to be easy to fight. The left arm had a spinning blade on the end of it, and the right had a giant claw.

A hot rush of pleasure poured over Courage, but it had nothing to do with sex. Letting out an inarticulate scream of rage, she charged the metal giant. The sand disappeared behind her as Courage charged in an odd lope. She wove a little left and right, baiting the machine. At the last second, after weaving to the right, she committed fully in that direction, skirting around the claw that reached for her and got behind it.

Courage was shocked from the battle rage when her teeth rattled against the steel of the monster's legs. "What the buck am I doing?" She tried to hop back, to get away from it as it turned, but a gout of flame licked along her back. Not only didn't the flames inflict pain, the seemed to stoke her up, Courage's eyes widened and she dodged the saw-blade next. "This fight isn't working. I can't… bite through it." She dodged the claw and scooted backwards a few extra body-lengths to buy time. "Okay, think, what can break through steel?"

"More steel?" The amusement in the voice was obvious.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." Courage shifted back a bit further as the imp-machine advanced. "I wonder what is controlling it? Is it a puppet? Or like a train, with a driver?" Her mind processed through the ideas, but with her belly screaming in hunger, and her mouth salivating at the thought of things being inside, she had to shake her head. "Okay, need to look around it, find a weak point.

Taking off to her left, Courage ran fast and hard, charging just outside of the metal monster's reach. It was no good, as she moved around it, the thing turned to face her. After her fourth attempt, she drew back again. "No good, it turns fast enough to make this approach impossible." This time, Courage called to that savage part of herself, the part that had reacted to the initial steps onto the sand, that had smelled something to bite in the metal thing.

Courage had never moved so fast, nor so nimbly, in her life. She dodged past the saw this time, hearing it crash down into the sand behind her, before dodging behind the metal monster. This time she looked up.

With Courage's legs dancing, she wove left and right, following the big metal monster's movements by instinct, she could focus on her target. "There's a gap there." She started to giggle and, when she got directly behind the thing after a little more dodging, spread her wings and pumped hard. Unable to really enjoy the flight for what it was, Courage landed on the metal creature's back. "Now, let me see what is inside…"

"Hey! Get off!" A demonic imp yelled out through the gap in the armor. "If you jump off, we will only kill you a little bit!"

Giggling like a filly, Courage brought her horn up and pressed the tip just between the plates. "I bet this thing's magic-proof." Testing with a few little zaps, Courage found her guess correct, every inch of the metal plating was enchanted against magic. Laughing, she channeled all her anger and annoyance into the blast and let it fly between the gap to bounce and zip around within the armor of the metal imp.

Even as the metal can started to fall forward, Courage began to dig and rip at the metal with her forepaws. To her delight, her new claws actually seemed effective against the stuff and soon she peeled back and enlarged the hole. The smell of burning meat was intense, her magic bolt seemed to have shared a lot more in common with a fireball than an arcane blast. Just like when she had first entered the arena to fight the metal monster, Courage's animalistic nature took control.

"Wake up! Wake up!"

Something sharp poked at Courage, without thinking she snapped her mouth at it, then blasted the thing with her horn. She felt warm, sated. The crowed cheered and simmered, lifting their voices when she pulled the spear from the imp's grip, almost pulling the imp closer too. "Back off!" Shaking her body, Courage stood up. She felt good, better than she did when she first woke up, the reason was, her belly was full.

"Come on, forget the imps, unless you are still hungry?" It was the fire demon again, sounding just as cheerful as ever.

Courage's eyes focused down to pinpricks and she started to retch. I ate them, I ate those imps… But no matter how she tried to void and disgorge the meat and blood, her body would simply not give it up.

"You embraced this circle well. It suits you, just give up and settle here."

"Buck you." Courage's voice was a snarl, she seemed completely not in the mood to spar orally with the strange benefactor. "Unless you can tell me how to get out of this place, then just… just buck off."

"In every Circle you have been in so far, how have you escaped it?"

The words startled Courage to a halt, just inside of the portcullis. The steel-bound wood slammed into the ground behind her. "I… I went against the nature of the Circle." She contemplated that. "This is violence, how do I resist that? They make me fight!"

Silence was Courage's reply. "Oh, I know, I know. You said too much already. Blah blah blah." She walked forward again, finding the bucket of well water. She wasn't achingly thirsty this time, horrible though the reason was for it, but she did want to clean her face off. Leaning over the bucket, Courage froze at the image staring back at her.

The reflection's fur was much closer to red than Courage's had ever been. Her horn was a darker shade again, bordering on blood-red now. Opening her mouth, she saw the reflection no longer had the even pony-teeth of a herbivore; instead there were canine teeth, sharp, pointed, perfect for rending. Channeling magic to purify the water with a spell, she gasped loudly. Her magic wasn't yellow-orange, it was orange-red. "What is happening to me?"

"This place is what is happening. It makes demons of monsters, and monsters of all." A large canine, not unlike those Courage had killed on her first day, wandered over. "Did you purify that? Got the sleeping drugs out of it?"

"They want me back in the arena soon, it won't have any… so that is why I passed out?" Courage looked into the water, saw a few droplets of blood from around her maw had dripped in. "Uh, gimme a sec I can-" She froze as the canine moved in and licked her, lapping at her face and cheeks.

The face-bath went on for a few minutes, ending in the wolfess pressing her muzzle to Courage's lips, forcing her mouth open and even licking around the inside of her mouth. The attention gave rise to something in Courage, a heat that had nothing to do with fire and everything to do with lust.

When the female canine turned and started drinking the water, Courage didn't hold back her urges anymore, and leaped atop her. Instinct pulled her forelegs in tight around the canine, hugging behind her hips and with a buck forward, Courage heard the wolfess exclaim in shock. "Hold on to something." Fire raced through her blood as she adjusted herself. She wanted to buck hard right away, to keep bucking, but she also needed a better angle. "Gimme a sec… not exactly well practiced at this."

Courage needn't have worried, the bitch under her groaned happily and pushed back. The tightness of her warm body only encouraged her to buck and drive, pulling her way up her back. "MINE!" Her snarl, the raw possessiveness of it, startled Courage—but not enough to stop. She drove and pushed, her body feeling hotter and hotter by the second until an electric tightness squeezed around her balls. She knew what was coming, she knew she was coming. Her body took over, the instincts of a stallion and dog wolf blending together as she drove herself deep into the bitch and howled.

White fire burned through her, Courage screamed with pleasure as it erupted into the bitch. Flame boiled up before her eyes as she watched the wolfess' fur light up, she was no longer just wolf, she was a demon. Still unloading, Courage felt the whole building around her tremble. "What… what the buck?"

"He is mad with you. You are only meant to feel rage, anger, violence. He feeds on it."

Courage's attention was on the voice. "So… wait, who is 'he'?" She looked around, expecting the demon-pony to appear.

"You have been inside him for a day now, haven't you heard him breathe? Haven't you heard his voice? He loves you in his own way. You killed merely for the sound of his breathing."

"B-B-Buck." Courage, still spraying, pulled back and off the bitch. "Okay, we are getting out of here." She looked around, saw other various animals and beasts. "I don't know how many of you can understand me, but I am not going to play this game anymore!" It wasn't the monster she was becoming that stepped forward and hugged the burning wolfess, it was the pony she still was inside. "Can you stand?"

She felt the wolf nod against her wing as she pulled her close. "Come on then, let's get out of here." She took a step, then another.

The stadium shook more, the hallway trembled as dust fell from the vaulted ceiling. Courage got near to the portcullis and threw power into her horn. Cranking both the windlasses at the same time wasn't easy, but she didn't expect this escape to be. "Come on, damn you! What are you all waiting for?" All the beasts drew back, huddled in their cages. "Ah to Tartarus with you." She stepped forward, pulled the bitch with her. "Hey, what's your name?"

"I… I can't remember. What are you going to do?" Leaning against Courage, the wolfess was confused, but felt power in her new mate.

"Well, I can't keep thinking of you as… how I have been. What about Snaps?" Courage judged their distance from the tunnel and let go of the cranks. "Can you hold on tight, Snaps?"

Blinking at having been screwed, named, and now being helped, Snaps nodded and tried to grip on to Courage, but realized she would foul the demon-pony's wings no matter how she tried. "Go, leave me here. At least one of us-"

Courage shook her head, instinct taking hold again. Leaning over the wolf, she opened her mouth and clamped down on Snaps' neck—like a mother wolf would her cub. Gripping tight, but not wanting to bite through, she marveled at how the flames licked over her without hurting. She spread her wings and looked up.

"You embrace the violence, but still carry your love, and your heart. You are quite exciting to play with. Have some help."

"NO!" The word was nearly deafening, but Courage tried not to shrink back from it.

Courage pushed with her wings, fighting her own weight, and that of Snaps. She didn't see her wings grow larger, her muscles swelling more, but one moment she was fighting to lift Snaps, and the next they were in the air.

"NO NO NO! COME BACK AND FIGHT!"

The top of the stadium, formerly a perfect circle, started to get smaller, as three huge sections started to close in. Courage beat her wings, circling higher and higher. I will never give in! She shot through the last gap before the opening closed. Beating her wings, she looked down and a shiver of fear passed over her. The stadium was a shell, a facade built around the maw of a giant worm. It was as far around as the outer walls.

"Violence."

GET ME OUT OF HERE! Courage threw the thought out with all her anger behind it, all her rage at being trapped in that thing. The world turned black around her.

Author's Notes:

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and I they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, I they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! I They will pick one question per chapter. (note, the commissioner will answer questions in the comments, since this is their OC)

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