The Oblivion Organization

Fluttershy awoke with a start; kicking and flailing around.  It took her a second to realize that she wasn’t being gassed and attacked.  She began to breathe, slowly at first.  In through her nose, out with her mouth.  She repeated this process, over and over, until her nerves began to calm themselves.  Finally, after one final exhale, she surveyed where she was.

The room was dark and grey and the walls were damp and cracked.  In the center of the room, on the floor, was a rusty drain.  As Fluttershy inspected it closer, it began to look like the drain wasn’t rusted at all, but instead had a reddish brownish stain to it.  The stain seemed to trail away from the drain and to a sink.  She looked up at the sink now and was surprised to see that it looked in pretty decent condition.  The only thing that was wrong with it was that the bowl had a chunk taken out of it and that there were red stains where the chunk was missing. Well, at least now we know where the stain came from.

She looked to the left of the sink to find a dirty toilet in the far corner of the room, covered in grime and rust.  Some parts of it were cracked and looked as if it would shatter if somepony sat on it.  She grimaced as the mental image of her hind quarters making contact with the muck that clung onto it the lid entered her mind.

She looked to her right, past the sink, to see a shower.  It, on the other hand, looked brand new.  It didn’t match well with the room whatsoever though.  It was as if it was just installed.  The only thing that was missing was a curtain, and that threw Fluttershy off a bit.  There should be a curtain there…   She saw a small flash of a red light in the corner of her right eye.  She looked to her right and saw a camera in the corner; surveying the room.  What she also noticed, was that it was angled more towards the shower. Fucking perverts.  She analyzed it further, assuming that the techs that were behind the camera weren’t stupid enough to focus on the shower only and had the entire room in view.

The red light flashed again, except it wasn’t from the camera, it was from a little intercom box on the wall slightly below the camera.  She watched it carefully, waiting for the red light.  She wasn’t disappointed when it, again, flashed.  She decided to see if it worked.  Maybe I can talk my way out of this… this cell? She looked around again, and not seeing any bars or windows, decided that she was in a giant concrete box.

A giant fucking concrete box. Dear Celestia!  Of all the places I had to be stuck in today, it had to be a damned concrete box.  At least put some fucking flowers or some shit in here.  Jesus, what are my captors trying to do?  Bore me to death? Ugh.

Fluttershy was slightly flustered and let it all out with an exaggerated sigh.  She turned around and pounded the only button on the thing with her hoof.  When she did, the little red light flashed.  She hit it again and the red light came back as soon as she did.  She started hitting the button rapidly, making the red light flicker on and off.

“CHILL THE FUCK OUT, I WAS TAKING A PISS!”

Fluttershy lunged back and let out a small scream, but quickly cut it off with her hoof and stared at the intercom.  “Uh, hello?”

“Yeah, I’m here now.  Jeez lady you’re freaking impatient.  What do you want?”

“Um, well I want out of here.  Now, please.” Her heart was still beating from the sudden outburst.

“Well that sucks for you, because you can’t.  It’s almost your turn to fight.”

Fluttershy was stunned. Did she just say…fight? What doe she mean? “What exactly do you mean by that?”

The voice on the other side of the intercom began to laugh.  It reminded her of Twilight’s laugh.  It creeped her out and she wasn’t sure if she was even hearing right.  Almost my turn…to fight.  Well, I can fight, but what for? She looked at the intercom and thought if that was Twilight on the other side.  “Twilight?  Is that you?”

The voice was still laughing and only stopped to say, “No, no it’s not Twilight.  But you’re close.” The voice’s laughing stopped abruptly and Fluttershy could hear muttering words back and forth between two ponies.  She waited for the conversation to die down before she said anything.

“Hello?”

“Yeah?”

“Who was that?”

There was a pause. “Why do you care?”

Fluttershy had to admit, she really didn’t care either way, but she was curious.  “I don’t care really, I’m just curious.”

“Ha, well I guess you can know, since you’re about to die anyways.  That was Rainbow Dash.  She’s been very helpful lately.”

Fluttershy’s heart dropped.  She had no idea how to react.  She was told she was going to die, and her friend was conspiring with the voice? “Put Rainbow on the intercom!” she shouted.

“Eh, no.  I don’t think I can do that.  See, she is busy planning your guys’ demise.  She can’t be bothered right now.  Maybe later- oh yeah, that’s right.  There won’t be a later for you!” The voice let out a maniacal laugh before cutting out; leaving Fluttershy there, alone.

She laid there for a second, not sure what else to do.  She thought about taking a shower, but she didn’t feel like giving the techies the pleasure of watching her clean herself.  Besides, what’s the point in taking a shower if she is supposed to be fighting somepony?  It seemed a bit redundant.  Instead, she thought about who, or what, she had to fight, and when.  To be honest, she was concerned about her own combat skills.  She was good in a fight, and hadn’t lost one yet, but she was always the one armed.  Not only was she armed, but her weapon of choice was the one she was best with.  She wasn’t quite sure how good she would hold up if she was on the opposite end.

All of the sudden, the room began to shake and the wall the toilet, sink, and shower shared began to move upwards.  Soft at first, Fluttershy could hear the sounds of screaming.  As the wall moved higher, the screams began to crescendo until they hit a volume that prevented her from hearing her own self think.

“Go.”

Fluttershy jumped at the voice and at the volume of it.  She was surprised she could hear anything with all the noise and wondered where it came from.

“We implanted a mic into your ear, before you ask.  We can also hear you speak crystal clear since the mic can filter out unwanted sounds.  So if you have a question, just ask.  Also, feel free to scream in agony when the time comes.  We’d appreciate it.”

She heard a small laugh before it cut out.  I’m going to have to go out there.  She gathered herself and walked out the opening.  The wall slammed shut behind her with a thunderous *boom*.  She glanced back, seeing the dust that was picked up from the force, and looked ahead of her.  Slowly at first, she walked forward through a metal hallway that seemed to lead into an opening.  The volume of the screams increased and were clear enough for Fluttershy to distinguish them as cheers rather than screams.

When she reached the opening, she was surprised.  The opening had ended up being set up like an underground coliseum.  On all sides there were ponies.

They were all her friends.

Fluttershy, in horror, watched as all her friends cheered for her blood to be spilled.  She had no idea how to react.  Maybe they found out about me… she thought, afraid that her deepest darkest secret had been revealed and that she was being punished for it.  She looked up at the crowd, tears building in her eyes, but noticed that there were more of her friends.

Clones.

Just like at home.

She blinked whatever tears there were, away.  She knew now that these couldn’t be her real friends.  Her real friends would never want her dead.  They would help her out of this mess.  She scanned the audience now, looking for something, but she didn’t even know what for.  Her gaze stopped when she saw a booth up top.  As she looked closer, she could see two Twilights.  One had a gag in her mouth, was tied up, and had a cap on her horn.  She was laying on the ground, facing the coliseum battle grounds.  The other was sitting and looking down right at Fluttershy with a sick grin on her face.

She watched the sitting Twilight closely.  Never taking her eyes off of her for even a second.  A Rainbow Dash clone then flew over and gave her a megaphone.  The sitting Twilight took it graciously and hovered it in front of her mouth with her magic.

“Send them in.” she said.

Fluttershy knew what she meant and looked in front of her.  She noticed that, around her, there were barred off openings.  On the ground laid various weapons.  Most of them were heavy weapons and were too heavy for Fluttershy to wield, but she found a dagger in the center.  Quickly, she made a mad dash for it.

Big mistake.

About half way to her destination, something hit her legs and tied them.  She fell face first and looked down to see that a grappling hook had been thrown and was tying her legs together.  Thinking quickly, she flapped her wings and flew to the dagger.  While doing this, she looked to her right to see a clone of herself trotting towards it.  She flapped harder and started to make good progress.

Fluttershy made it to the dagger right before her clone and she snagged it into her teeth.  She reached down to cut the rope from her legs, but was tackled out of the air by another clone.  The dagger fell out of her grip and hit the ground.  Luckily, the force of the tackled loosened the rope and she managed to free herself.  She looked at her attacker, not surprised to see it was a clone.  She had just enough time to see that she was wearing the same thing as the Rainbow Dash clones that attacked her at her cottage, except with HER cutie mark on the front.  The clone hit her and held onto her, intentionally letting herself bring both of them down.  Thinking quickly; Fluttershy waited until they were about to hit the ground, and angled her wings so they would flip over.  This made Fluttershy on top and made sure that the clone did not have a soft landing.

She looked at the other clone, but had barely enough time to duck away from the dagger that was thrown at her.  Once the dagger passed, she turned to go and retrieve it.  She ran as fast as she could, looking back in the process to see that the clone wasn’t even pursuing her, but was smiling.

“Look in front of you.” The mysterious voice said with an indifferent tone.

Fluttershy obeyed, and was happy she did when she saw that she was face to face with a manticore.  “Oh…my…” Was all she was able to say before the manticore roared in her face and swiped at her; hitting her and sending her flying to her clone.  She got up, tasting blood in her mouth, and heard the manticore running towards her.  She flew upwards, hoping to fake it out, and flew straight to a short sword she eyed earlier.  She looked behind and, not to her surprise, saw the manticore and the clone fighting it out.  What did surprise her, was that the clone was actually holding her own; dodging the manticore’s attacks and landing her own.  She turned back and dove for the short sword.  She snagged it with her teeth and flew back up.  She then transferred the sword from her teeth to her hooves.

Since the sword was heavier than a dagger or a cleaver, and she wasn’t a strong flyer to begin with, she was close to the ground.  Fortunately, the momentum that she gained from falling was enough to reach her to the manticore.  She stuck the blade out and felt the sickening *thud* of it piercing the skin, but being halted by its skeleton.  She pushed harder, feeling the blade slowly penetrate deeper, but was halted when the manticore grabbed her and pulled her up to its mouth.  The hilt of the sword slipped from her grasp, being embedded in the manticore’s chest.

The manticore let out a loud roar.  Fluttershy looked away to shield herself from the immense force and the spit that spewed out of its throat.  The manticore opened its mouth to reveal a throat big enough for a small pony to fit in perfectly.

Just her size.

Fluttershy closed her eyes to except her fate.  She waited, but then she heard the manticore roar again and it dropped her.  She opened her eyes and took the opportunity to get a safe distance away.  She looked back and was surprised to see the clone with the dagger on the back of the manticore.  She was stabbing furiously at the back of its neck.  Blood was spurting everywhere; it was all over the clone and on the manticore. She… she just saved my life Fluttershy thought.  She watched as the clone relentlessly attacked the manticore, but her heart dropped when she saw its tail stiffen and point toward the clone.

“LOOK OUT!” she exclaimed, flying as fast as she could toward the sword in the manticore’s chest.

The clone looked back and her eyes widened.  The tail snapped forward, intending to kill.  Before the stinger hit, Fluttershy flew up and cut the tail at the end.  The stinger part of it fell to the side and the manticore let out a screech of pain.  It bucked them both off and sent them flying.  Both stabilized themselves in the air and faced the bigger threat at hand.

The manticore looked up at them.  Wounded and ultimately pissed off, it flew upwards, claws out and teeth ready to sink into pony flesh.  Before it reached them, both flew in opposite directions, but the manticore did not pursue either.  Instead, it went towards one of the barred entrances and began biting at it.  Slowly but surely, the bars were bending and giving way to its powerful jaws.  Fluttershy, unsure of what it was trying to accomplish, looked to her newfound ally.

“Um, what is it doing?” She asked, still unsure whether to consider this imposter a friend or foe.

The clone looked back and, with a voice identical sounding to hers, but slightly more firm, said, “I’m not too sure, to be honest.  They don’t typically act this way.  Honestly, it should be dead.  It lost a lot of blood.  Must be desperate.”  The clone frowned, “And it’s never good when a manticore gets desperate.  They start acting crazy, going to full extents to survive.  Typically, that means they just charge their target head-on.  This one… this one is just-” She was cut off as the crowd roared in excitement.

Both were curious to what the excitement was about, and looked over to the manticore.  When they did, neither could utter a word.  They were rendered speechless as a second manticore crawled through the hole in the bars.  Fluttershy and her clone looked at each other.

“Are, are we friends?”  Fluttershy asked.

“Of course.” The clone whispered, “I’m your guardian angel.”

Fluttershy, shocked at her clone’s words, hovered there for a second.  Slowly, she nodded her head.  “Good.” She said meekly.  She looked at the manticores who were chewing on another barred entrance.  “We need to stop them.  Let’s go.” She said.

Both flew down at them and picked up a weapon on the way.  Fluttershy grabbed the short sword and her clone grabbed the blood-coated dagger.

“Target the wounded one first, he’s almost dead.  If we can off him quickly, we have one less manticore to deal with.” The clone said.

Fluttershy nodded her head and headed toward the nearly dead manticore.  About half way there, she flew upwards and dove down, achieving maximum speed.  When her speed was met, she pulled up sharply right under the manticore’s chin with the sword in her teeth.  She jammed the sword up through its jaws and into its skull.

It fell with a mighty *thud*.

Fluttershy, surprised as to how easy that was, took the hilt of the sword in her teeth and pulled, but did not manage to even make the sword budge.  She sneered and turned to the other manticore and was horrified to see that it was half way through the bars already.  Waiting on the other side were two other manticores.  How many of these things do they have?! She thought.

She heard a scream from behind her and shot a glance backwards to see her clone, wings and legs spread.  She looked to her wings and saw that each had an arrow stuck in them.  She turned to Fluttershy now with tears in her eyes, “Look out Fluttershy.  Bad clones.” she choked out.  “I protected you, but I don’t know how long I’ll last.”  She looked at Fluttershy and gave her a caring smile.  “Kill the manticore, Fluttershy.  If you don’t, you won’t stand a chance.  Now!”  The clone pushed Fluttershy towards the beast.

The push caused her to bump into the manticore’s hind legs and it turned; a steel rod in its mouth.  It spit it out at her, but missed.  The manticore then moved its body so it could face her, and got right into her face.  It growled at her and looked straight into her eyes.  Fluttershy smiled, knowing how easy this could be.

She stared back, except not with any normal stare of hers.  It was The Stare.  The stare that frightened a cockatrice into releasing Twilight from her stone imprisonment.  This stare hypnotized any animal into obeying Fluttershy no matter what.

They hated the stare.

When the manticore saw the stare, it had instantly became Fluttershy’s thrall.  The manticore was afraid of her now, and respected her at the same time.  Much as if she was its mother.  Fluttershy took a step forward and the manticore backed up.  “Go kill the bad clones.  You know which ones.” She said, commanding the manticore.

The manticore purred now, licking Fluttershy across her face.  It hugged her, and then launched into action.  The manticore pushed the good clone aside, assaulting the others.  Only now did Fluttershy see who the clones were.  It didn’t surprise her though.  They were Rainbow Dash clones.

Fluttershy watched as both of the clones’ eyes widened and they attempted to flee.  Unfortunately, for one of them, the manticore managed to pierce one with its tail before it could get away.  The other, horrified at what had just happened, stalled.  She looked at her partner, who wasn’t dead yet.  Her partner murmured something to her before the needle on the tail was flicked upwards, slicing the clone’s body from where it pierced, upwards.

The remaining Rainbow Dash clone was horrified at what she just saw.   Quickly, she flew away, and not too soon afterwards did the manticore follow.  Fluttershy looked over at her clone and saw the arrows in her wings.

“Are you going to be ok?” Fluttershy asked.

“I should be fine.   I may not fly for a while, but it’s nothing that will kill me.”  Her clone said assuringly. She looked down and picked up a hoof-held crossbow.  “This is what they were using.  Packs a lot of punch.”  At that moment, she put it on her hoof and aimed it towards the manticore and the fleeing Rainbow Dash clone.

“Make sure you don’t hit the manticore.  I got him on our side now.” Fluttershy said happily.

“I know, and I’m glad.  He’s one of the bigger ones.  He would definitely influence others to be on our side.”  She squinted her right eye and stuck out her tongue.  She steadied her hoof carrying the weapon with the other one, and fired.  After about a second they both heard a scream and watched as the Rainbow Dash clone fell.  She hit the ground and ran as fast as she could.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t fast enough.  The manticore swooped down and picked her up with its two front paws and ripped her in half, but not quickly.  It was slow.   The clone was in an immense amount of pain.  Her mid body began to stretch and give way.  A little later, her skin began to tear apart and you could hear tendons and bones being ripped from each other.  The manticore pulled harder and blood gushed from her.

Fluttershy was horrified, but not at the gore that ensued in front of her, but because she imagined if this was the real Rainbow.  If anyone ever hurt the REAL Rainbow, she would lose it.  She began to pay attention to the scene unfolding in front of her again.  Now the poor pony was not moving, having either bled out or passed out from the pain.  The manticore never stopped, the only thing that kept the clone from officially being ripped into two pieces was the spine.  The manticore reared its head and shot forward, biting it.  It bit down and ripped back, crushing the spine and separating both parts of her.  It then flew to the ground and started to eat the remains happily.  Fluttershy could hear it purring over its dinner.

“That… was really fucked up.” Said the mysterious voice. “Did you see that?  Oh my god…  I’ve never seen a pony with a broken bone… let alone a pony getting ripped in two.”  Fluttershy could almost hear the shutter the voice made.

She looked behind her to see three different manticores at the barred entrance that the now friendly manticore was working on.  She looked at them and saw how skinny they were.  They weren’t getting fed enough.  She also noticed that each manticore had a collar around their neck.  She walked over to the bars and immediately, the manticores began to growl at her.  She tried to stare at them, but they would not meet her gaze.  Instead, she had an idea.

“Um, clone?” She asked.

“Yes?” Her clone replied.

“Give me that crossbow.”

The clone looked confused, but handed it over. “Just be careful with it.”

Fluttershy put it on her hoof and gave her clone a serious look. “You need to hide.”

The clone raised an eyebrow and Fltutershy gestured to their collars, then their stomachs, then the dead bodies, then the bigger manticore. “I’m not too sure what you mean.  Just talk.”

Fluttershy sighed, “I think those collars are preventing the maticores from breaking through the gate themselves.  If I shoot them off, they will go straight for the bodies, if you hide.  They will eat them and get full.  Afterwards, I’m hoping they will appreciate what I did for them and become friendly.  It would be nice to have a few friendly manticores on our side.”

The clone gave Fluttershy a sly smile, “That is very clever, but I have an addition to the plan.  Why don’t we feed them all?  Not only would we have an army of manticores, but we would have our ticket out of here.”

“I like it.” Fluttershy said.

Fluttershy turned around and aimed the crossbow at one of the manticore’s collars.  “Go hide somewhere.   I would rather not get you killed.”  She shot the crossbow by bending her hoof and hitting the trigger.  The crossbow bolt shot forward and made contact with the first collar and knocking it off.  The freed manticore was confused, not being used to its freedom.  It pawed at the bars as a test and was happy to find that he could touch them now.  She fired off another bolt and knocked another collar off.  Quickly, she reloaded and shot once more, hitting the final manticore’s collar off and flew away to the friendly manticore.

“Hide me.” She said, and the manticore obeyed, covering Fluttershy in its wing.

“You had the same idea?”

She jumped at the sound, but settled down when she found her clone under the opposite wing.  “I guess so… Sweet Celestia you scared the living crap out of me.” She chuckled.

Her clone chuckled too, but quickly silenced herself when another manticore walked by with a leg in its mouth.  They could hear the chewing and crunching of the manticores eating the dead remains of all the other ponies.  After a while of utter silence between the two, it had seemed the manticores stopped eating.  Slowly, Fluttershy began to ease out of her cover, but was stopped by her manticore’s tail.  “Just let me leave, I’ll be ok, I promise.”  The tail stiffened and Fluttershy’s heart sunk.

In order to maintain control of one of these things, she has to look it in the eyes every 10 minutes or so.  They have a strong will and never stay as a thrall very long.  Slowly, she eased out of cover, planning on looking this one in the eyes again.  As she did, she was snatched up by another manticore and was brought to its face.  The bigger one turned to see her and growled.  The rest soon followed and in a moment she was surrounded by manticores and in the grip of one.  She struggled to escape, but eventually gave up, knowing this was the end.

She waited for the finishing blow, and jumped when she felt a raspy tongue slide along her face and into her hair.  He’s taste testing me. She thought.  She felt another tongue lick her again, just as raspy.  Soon, she felt four manticores licking her face.  She could hear them purring too.  Wait… they’re not tasting me.  They’re showing affection! She opened her eyes and saw them all.

“Good boys!” she said, “Let me go now.”  She said in a softer tone.

The manticore holding her let her go.

“Hey, it’s cool, they’re not hostile!” Fluttershy shouted to her clone friend.

“Ok…” she heard back.

Fluttershy watched as her clone shot out from cover and into the skies.  She turned back, and one of the manticores flew up after her.  “NO! She is good!” The manticore caught her and fell to the ground, on top of her clone.  Fluttershy ran over there, afraid that her ally was being mauled, but she found that the manticore was licking her face too.  She smiled as she heard the clone laughing, “Oh wow!  They are actually pretty gentle creatures once you’re on their good side.  This guy made sure I didn’t hit the ground at all.  He’s actually trying to tend to my wings.”  Fluttershy looked and, as expected, the manticore was licking the wounds and pulling the arrows from her wings.

Fluttershy looked behind her to see three other very happy manticores.  One had a leg still in its mouth and it made Fluttershy chuckle a bit.  She began to relax now, but noticed something.

The crowd was quiet.

She looked up and saw thousands of awe-struck clones.  All fixated on the, now tamed, now benign, manticores.  She petted the one closest to her and smirked, “What’s wrong?  Never seen a couple of pegasi tame a handful of manticores before?”

None replied, of course, but they still stared at them, as if they had never seen a creature like them before in their lives.  She felt satisfied, she felt…superior to them all.  “What else do you have?  I bet nothing could take us.”  She waved her hoof behind her, gesturing towards her clone and their manticores.  “Nothing.”

“I can.” Said the mysterious voice in her ear.

There was movement in the crowd.  Clones moved aside in haste, either in respect or fear.  Eventually, all the ponies began to conform and moved ahead of time before leaving a trail straight to the arena.  In the trail, was Twilight.

Fluttershy’s heart skipped a beat, “Twilight?  Is that you?  Come down here, what are you doi-“ something struck her in the head; sending her to the ground.  She rubbed it and looked for Twilight again.  Her vision was blurred, but she could barely make out the purple figure floating down into the arena.  The manticores began to bare their teeth and walk closer, but she never faltered.

She felt her clone run forward, a knife in her mouth.  She looked back, as if sensing Fluttershy’s objection, “It isn’t your friend.”  She turned and swung at her, only to be sent flying in the other direction.

The manticores pounced.

Twilight simply picked up the first one and threw it away like garbage, never slowing down.  She picked up two swords that were lying on the ground nearby and as two more manticores attacked, she stuck them out and they pierced their skulls, killing them instantly.

She never broke her stride.

The last manticore, the biggest one, approached her more carefully.  Twilight, or whoever it was, still did not stop.  She walked right up to it and lifted it up, and slammed it against the wall repeatedly.  She smiled as she did it, never once blinking an eye.

The manticore howled in pain.  The repeated thumping against the wall continued until Twilight reached Fluttershy.  By then, the manticore had already been dead and was almost flattened on one side, leaving the other deformed and misshapen.  Fluttershy looked at her with vicious hatred, “You’re not Twilight…”

The mare looked down at her, got real close, and whispered in her ear, “No, but I’m damn close.” And she stomped on Fluttershy’s head.  Knocking her out again.

Twilight, who was really Heartbreak, looked at the path she carved through the manticores and that rogue clone.  She should have killed Fluttershy, not have helped her.  She heard something from behind her and the Fluttershy clone hit Heartbreak in the back of the head with a rock.

Heartbreak fell, but recovered quickly, grabbing the clone with her magic.  She lifted her up from the ground and focused the force of the magic on her legs.  “Who are you, to assault me like that?!”  She pulled on the clone’s legs; bones popping out of place and muscles being torn.  “Who. Do you. Think. You. Are?!”  She pulled again, tearing more muscles than last time.

The clone screamed in agony.  Blood began to flow from her mouth as she spoke, but not to Heartbreak.  “Everypony!  You must listen.  This bitch is-“ she screamed, being cut off by Heartbreak’s tugging.  She caught her breath and shouted again, “She is using you!  You are not slaves!  Think of us, as twins!  Not copies!”  Heartbreak pulled again, tearing one leg off completely.  The clone screamed again and it echoed off the walls.  All the clones flinched, but not at the sound, at what they were witnessing.

“We…are not…slaves!” The clone was still going.  “We can band togeth-“ Heartbreak cut her off one final time, ripping every leg off.  The clone, alive for just a bit longer, said one last thing loud enough for them all to hear.

“Revolution.”