The Oblivion Organization

   Fluttershy was slightly awake.  She didn't have the strength to move so she just laid there; face down on a metal floor.  She could tell she was in a vehicle of some kind.  She listened to the sound of the engine and finally decided that she was in a truck.  If she had to guess, it was an armored truck, given the steel plating and the rivets that held them together.

  She tried to move again, only managing to flip over onto her back.

At least she could take in her surroundings now.

She looked around, and saw that there was a nothing peculiar about the truck itself, but what did grab her attention was that Pinkie and Twilight were there too.  She tried to speak, but no sound resonated from her.  She summoned some saliva and coated the inside of her mouth and throat with as much as possible.  She attempted to speak again.

"Gir-Girls?" she said meekly, "Girls, wake up!"

She winced as that last word shot pain through her esophagus.  She could only manage a harsh whisper; her throat was sore.  She tried wetting her throat a little more, but remained ready to speak through the pain.

"GIRLS!"

Fluttershy whimpered slightly at the pain and involuntary tears began to form in her eyes (much like as if one was to be hit in the nose).  Through them, she could see the warped images of Twilight and Pinkie.  The blinked the tears away, feeling them snake down the sides of her cheeks.  She then tried to flip over onto her stomach and use her wings to lift her up and move her.  Luckily, they required less energy than her legs to move.

She levitated slowly upwards, never exceeding three feet from the steel floor.  She flew to Pinkie first (not out of favoritism, but because she was closer) and mustered up enough strength to poke her face.  She did not expect what happened next.

Pinkie jumped up, eyes bulging and hooves swinging.  She hit Fluttershy in the nose before realizing her attackers weren't present and that she was in a different location.  Fluttershy flew back a little from the hit, stabilizing herself with her wings.  Those involuntary tears began to form again and she wiped them away as well as her nose.

She found out that she was bleeding.

The sight of her own blood didn't bother her.  What did bother her, and pissed her off really, was the fact that somepony else made her bleed. Calm down, Fluttershy, it was an accident.  Pinkie would never hurt you on purpose.

She looked at Pinkie, who was studying the room, but all she could see was red.

She hovered there, eyes closed, taking in deep, controlled breaths.  Slowly, she began to feel calm again.

"Pinkie?"

Pinkie Pie looked at Fluttershy and noticed that her nose was bleeding.  She galloped over to her in a hurry; the sounds of her hoofsteps bouncing off the walls and floors, causing Twilight to stir in her slumber.

"Oh Fluttershy, what happened?  Did you fall?" She giggled.

Fluttershy analyzed Pinkie.  She took notice of her fluffy pink mane, the happy smile, and the all-around bubbly personality.  The only thing that seemed out of place was a small stain on her chest.  It was dried up and it matted her coat a little.

   Pinkie noticed Fluttershy staring at her chest so she looked to see what was so interesting.  She saw the stain and her eyes widened.  That's Dashie's blood. It has to be, but I don't have blood anywhere else on me.  Oh she cannot find out.  Quickly, she covered it with a hoof and gave Fluttershy a sheepish smile.

  Fluttershy looked up at Pinkie's face now; her expression changing from a state of curiosity, to a mixture of confusion and surprise.

  She knew what a blood stain looked like.

  "Pinkie... where is that stain from?" she asked carefully.

   Pinkie's plastic smile faded.  She began to look a little worried, and for good reason.  She didn't want Fluttershy to know of what she did for a living.  It would frighten her.  Fluttershy is naive, and wouldn't be able to cope with it very well.  Besides, not only would it scare her, she would go and tell everyone else and get Pinkie disowned by all her friends and sent straight to the moon.  She loved her friends, and would never hurt them.  Sure she hurt Rainbow Dash, but something had taken over her mind back then.  She couldn't control her homicidal self.  Once Dashie passed out because of the cupcake, any and all regret she had for what she was to do had disappeared.

   She felt horrible for what she did now, she regretted it all, but she couldn't resist the blood, the gore, the innards of every pony she killed, the beautiful strokes of her scalpel that caused their skin to just split apart, and the sweet aroma of it all.

  She could see it all in her mind.

   Fluttershy was still expecting an answer even though her friend had just completely zoned out.  Her nose had stopped bleeding finally, and now she just stared at Pinkie; confused.  Pinkie’s hair was falling and becoming straight.  A creepy smile then began to appear on her face.

"Pinkie? Are you ok?  What's wrong?" Fluttershy said, cautiously.

  Pinkie's head tilted a little.  "Whatever do you mean, Fluttershy? I'm-"

   The truck hit a bump and knocked Pinkie over.  Her head bounced off the floor; busting it open.  Blood began to pool around Pinkie's head.

"OH CELESTIA! Pinkie, are you alright?!"

  Fluttershy flew over to her and noticed that Pinkie's body was convulsing.

"PINKIE! Hold on, I'll help you!"

  She zipped over to Twilight's unconscious body.  She shook her vigorously; attempting to wake her up.

Twilight didn't stir.

She glanced back, more worried than what she originally had been.  Pinkie's body was still convulsing, more aggressively this time though. She shook Twilight again.  Nothing.  She slapped her face a couple of times and was screaming into her ears.

"TWILIGHT! GET UP NOW! PINKIE NEEDS OUR HELP!"

   Twilight stirred, but her hair was blocking her eyes so Fluttershy couldn't tell if she was awake or not.  She moved the hair from her left eye and saw it was closed.  She hit Twilight in the stomach and felt a surge of relief as the purple unicorn shot awake.  The feeling of relief was quickly replaced with pain as Twilight instinctively shot her across the room using her magic.

"Oh! Sorry Fluttershy! You scared me." She used her magic to move her hair to conceal her right eye.

"I'm fine, Twilight. We need to help Pinkie Pie!" She looked over where her pink friend was, but she was gone.  The only thing that remained was the pool of blood that had escaped from her skill; now moving freely about the floor.

  Fluttershy went to look around the room and jumped at the sound of Twilight screamed.

"PINKIE! NO!"

Fluttershy whipped around to see Pinkie Pie right behind her.  Her hooves were raised and aimed to strike.  Fluttershy wasn't expecting the sudden attack and was dealt a hard hit to her jaw.  Her head went with the force of the punch and hit the wall.  Her head was ringing and she felt another hit to the bottom of her jaw this time, snapping her head upwards.  She tried to recover and anticipate another punch, but instead a kick landed on her chest and propelled her backwards onto her side.

  She was out.

   Pinkie lunged through the air, intending to land her friend's neck.  She would've hit her mark had she not been thrown up into the ceiling.  She fell limply and attempted to get back up when a purple aura surrounded her body and floated her towards Twilight.  She snarled and thrashed, futily attempting to break the magical bind that was cast upon her.  She was brought to Twilight's face.

   Pinkie spit at Twilight, but Twilight caught the saliva in a little ball of telekinesis and flung it aside.  They both repeated this process until Pinkie realized it just wasn't going to happen.  Finally given a break, Twilight was able to examine Pinkie.  Her hair was straight; coated with blood, her eyes had rolled to the back of her head, and she was foaming at the mouth.  Twilight could only deduce that, given the blood on the floor, the amount of blood in her hair, and Fluttershy's worrying for Pinkie, she hit her head on the floor and somehow fell into a psychotic rage.  She already knew about what Pinkie, and Fluttershy, did in their free time so she knew this was nowhere close the sadistic, twisted, and cannibalistic surgeon she really was.  She was now, a ruthless, barbaric, empty-minded killing machine.

   Twilight sighed.  She could only think of a couple of solutions to this problem.  She could: A.) Bash Pinkie's head against the wall a couple of times, or B.) She could try to reason with her; bringing out the Pinkie Pie before the psychotic break, without causing harm.

  She decided "option A" would be more fun.

   Twilight smirked and threw Pinkie against the wall.  She didn't feel too bad for doing it.  After all, it wasn't technically Pinkie Pie, and it was for her own good.  She wasn't going to kill her, just knock something back into place.  She continued to throw her against every surface there was, against the walls, the celling, the floors, and the door.

   Twilight's magical grip on Pinkie dissipated as she just realized where exactly she was.  She face-hoofed.  Things had gotten so real so fast, that she didn't have time to take in her surroundings.  She looked over and saw Pinkie standing up.  Pinkie can really take a beating, she thought.  She looked to see if her eyes were back to normal.  Pinkie looked up and Twilight let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Twilight? What happened?" Pinkie said, wobbling back and forth a bit.

"Nothing to worry about Pinkie," she said reassuringly.  She looked over at Fluttershy. "Just lay down.  I'll try healing you both before you wake up.  Then we can get out of here."

Pinkie nodded her head and fell to the floor.  Twilight trotted over to Pinkie and her horn began to glow.  She concentrated, and a bright light began to form from the tip of her horn.  The light began to form into a ball.  The ball then moved over Pinkie and started to shine even brighter. So bright in fact, that it made Twilight close her eyes.

When she opened them again, she found that Pinkie’s wounds were healed.  The blood was still there, but any damage that was done to her body was gone.  Now all she had to do was to make sure that Pinkie rested.  This task would be easy, given that any energy Pinkie could’ve possibly have had left in her was probably all being used to breathe.

Twilight trotted over to Fluttershy and examined her body.  There were a couple of bruises, a bloody nose, and a scratch.  She probably got the scratch from one of the rivets when she hit the floor.  She didn’t suffer any real damage, but Twilight decided to fix her up anyways.  She wouldn’t have to use as much energy to heal Fluttershy; there was barely any work to do at all.

She concentrated again and the bright-white ball of light hovered over her “shy” companion.  The light the ball produced wasn’t as blinding as it was over Pinkie, but Twilight assumed that was because Pinkie’s wounds were direr than Fluttershy’s.  Once the healing process was complete, she stepped back and watched the ponies’ bellies swell and deflate in a slow, rhythmic pattern.  She could hear their soft intakes of oxygen and smiled as she wondered how peaceful they must be.

She was sorry for what was going on.  She didn’t want these two to go through what was inevitable. She had to talk some since into Synthia somehow or force her to stop what she was doing, but Twilight knew only she could do it.

After all, Synthia was Twilight’s first successful experiment.

Twilight thought back to when Synthia was created.  She was experimenting with cloning spells and Rainbow Dash had offered to help, since, y’know, “Cloning was cool.”  She chuckled, but then frowned as she remembered what had happened…

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were in the library laughing and having fun.  Twilight had pretty much duplicated everything and was now trying to find every copy of every object.  She had discovered that she could remove the copies using the same spell, but it would take more out of her.  She continued doing this as Rainbow provided enough of a positive atmosphere to keep Twilight going.

As she made the last copy disappear, Rainbow Dash cheered and Twilight collapsed to the floor; exhausted.  She was breathing heavily, but smiled as Rainbow started organizing everything.  She laid there and, after a few moments of controlled breathing, got up to assist Rainbow in cleaning the place up.  It was her mess too after all.

She wrapped a book in a purple aura and floated it up onto a bookcase.  She tried to float two next, but the constant copying and deleting tired her and she used up all her magic for the day.

Or so she thought.

She picked up the book that taught her the cloning spell and placed it on her pedestal to study later.  When she set it down, she saw a phrase in the book that she never saw before.  She eyed it for a second, and then read it to herself.

“The first copy is always perfect, but more than that will not provide the desired effect.”

She knew what the phrase meant, she wasn’t confused about that.  What bothered her was that the warning was vague.  She guessed that, if she copied something twice, it would turn out to have an imperfection.  That answer appealed to Twilight, but she had to know exactly how imperfect the second copy would be.

She looked over to her throw pillow and concentrated hard.  Her magic was pretty much empty, but she believed she could manage two more copying spells before she passed out.  Her horn began to glow and the pillow began to split, almost as if the pillow was a cell, going through mitosis.  The pillow split completely and two identical pillows laid on the floor right next to each other.  Twilight then focused her magic on the clone pillow (a task that would be difficult had she not seen where the copy split off and landed.)

Rainbow Dash, in the meantime, had just got done cleaning the library and watched Twilight clone her throw pillow.  She raised an eyebrow and watched as Twilight was going to clone the clone.  Rainbow was curious as to what would happen too, but then something above her made a sound.  She looked up and her eyes widened as Twilight’s new chandelier fell.

The chandelier hit Rainbow before she could get out of the way in time, and sent Rainbow to the floor.

In the way of Twilight’s spell casting.

The spell was cast right when Rainbow had fallen into her line of fire.  Twilight tried to cancel the spell, but it was too late.

Rainbow Dash was splitting into three.

Twilight’s mouth went agape as she noticed the two other copies that were being created at the same time.  She had no idea how it could've been possible until she looked at the chandelier.  There was a mirror attached*. Maybe the reflection messed with the spell? *Her thoughts were shut out as the splitting became more intense.

She stepped back and cried as she watched, and heard, her friend, and her clones, scream in pain.  They all were begging her to stop the spell, but she couldn’t help.  She tried to cancel it, but she didn’t even have enough juice to levitate a stick.  She clenched her eyes and waited for the process to end.

The screams stopped and Twilight opened her eyes.  She was surprised to see three unconscious Rainbow Dashes, perfectly identical to the next.  She could only assume the middle one was her true friend, and nudged the unconscious pegasus with her muzzle.

Nothing.

She nudged her again.

Nothing.

Tears began forming in her eyes and she was about to break down and cry, but then all the Rainbow Dashes began to get up at the same moment.  Twilight gasped and her tears began to appear in greater amounts.  She backed up slowly, cautious of what to do.  She wanted to say something, but was afraid that all of them would answer.

“Rain-Rainbow Dash?” she said in a small voice.

All three of the Rainbow Dashes looked at her and responded in unison, “Yeah?”  Their eyes widened and they looked at each other in shock.  They then, in unison, screamed at the top of lungs before being lifted up from the ground, surrounded by a purple aura.  Familiar with magic and the colored aura, they turned to Twilight and saw her with her eyes glowing white, magic flowing from them and affecting everything around her; lifting things from the ground and some even circling around her.

“Which one of you is the real Rainbow Dash?!” she snarled.  Her brain was not working properly, and she knew this, but she didn’t care right now.  All she cared about was finding the real Rainbow and deleting the copies.  She just needed to find out which one was the original.

Twilight decided she needed to calm down; she was really going to feel the after-effects of this huge amount of casting.  She set them all down and thought that a diplomatic approach would be suitable.

“Ok, I will find out which one is which.  Which one of you was originally to the right of the middle one?” she said carefully, the tense tone not quite disappearing from her voice.

The one to the very right raised her hoof.  “I was to the right of the middle one.  Does that make me the real one?”  She seemed nervous.  They all did.

“Maybe, just stand next to the window; where you initially woke up at.”

The other two began making a fuss, stating that she had the wrong one, that they were the original; not the other one.

Twilight sighed, “Would you two just calm down?! Just because I put her by the window, doesn’t make her the real one!”  Twilight already knew which one it would be; the one in the middle.  “Now, which one of you was in the middle when you guys woke up?”  The reason she didn’t ask this to begin with, was because she didn’t trust them yet.  She would trust the “process of elimination” tactic.

One of the Rainbow Dashes raised a hoof, “I was Twilight, please, I know what happened and everything. I AM THE REAL ONE!”

“Then move aside.”

Her horn began to glow and a beam shot out of it, narrowly missing the real Rainbow and hitting the one behind her.  The targeted Rainbow Dash screeched in pain as the beam hit her left eye.  The Rainbow by the window saw what was going on and flew through the window.  Twilight, surprised by the sound of breaking glass, lost her concentration and the deleting spell was cancelled.  The targeted clone quickly took advantage of the situation and flew out the same window the previous clone broke through, cutting her face.

The real Rainbow jumped to pursue them, but Twilight grabbed her mane with her teeth.  She pulled back with surprising strength and was able to ground Rainbow Dash and pin her.

“Rainbow, no!  Calm down! I will find them.  I don’t need the town seeing two of you, let alone three!  Besides, when I look for them, I don’t want to delete you instead.  Just stay here out of sight unless I say.  Okay?”  Twilight was not going to have Rainbow this up even more.

“Twilight, I-,” Rainbow began.

“NO! Just stay here.  No ifs, ands, or butts.  I have this under control… I think.”

She got off of Rainbow, confident she wouldn’t fly away.

She wasn’t disappointed.

Instead, Rainbow walked over and kissed Twilight on the cheek.  “You do that then.  I won’t go anywhere.”

Twilight blushed slightly, and watched as Rainbow began cleaning the place up again.  She smiled, knowing that this was to be a difficult time for them both.  She headed towards the broken chandelier, and saw her reflection.  That's when it hit her.

She was in the reflection of the mirror too when the spell was cast.