The Oblivion Organization

by xSirius

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Romance, Tragedy
Length: 16260

Sometimes, it takes a little more than friendship to save the ones you love.

Twilight Sparkle, Pinkamena Diane Pie, and Fluttershy all live their sick and twisted lives in secrecy, doing things in their free time that no normal mentally stable pony would ever think about doing themselves. Now, without any rhyme or reason, they are attacked, captured, and relocated to a location that no one knows about.

Besides Twilight.

Twilight has had an interesting past and she knows why they were captured and where they are being relocated to. What she doesn't know, is what awaits when she arrives and what she will have to sacrifice in order to save herself, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and her one true love. Oh, and the world. That's important too.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-08-06 09:18:54 UTC

Chapter 1: Killer Collecting

Pinkie was alone in Sugar Cube Corner.  She looked at Dashie’s hollow corpse with a slight smile of satisfaction.  These cupcakes are going to be great, she thought.  She walked over to her mirror and analyzed herself.  She was covered in Dashie’s blood and a couple of feathers were sticker to her here and there. Her hair was straight, she liked it that way.

She licked some blood from around her lips and shivered in pleasure. I REALLY need to try this more often.  She smiled fiercely; These cupcakes are going to be REALLY good.   She licked more blood from her hooves when she heard a commotion upstairs.

“Find her, grab her, and throw her in the truck.  In and out, let’s go!”

She grabbed her scalpel with her teeth and attached a brace to each hoof.  Each brace hugged her hooves and was equipped with a retractable blade.  This would allow her to attack with her forelegs, allowing more mobility.

She ran for the stairs and as she reached the base of them, the basement door was thrown open and the silhouette of a pony was all she saw.  Before she could react, she felt something hit her chest and pierce her skin.  She felt electricity course through her body, but she did not stop.  She reared her head and launched the scalpel at where she though the neck would be.   She was right as she saw the silhouette fall and tumble down the stairs.  She jumped over the obstacle, seeing a glimpse of her attacker for the first time.

Her eyes shot open as she saw the rainbow colored mane tumble into the darkness.

She landed at the top of the stairs with a soft thud.  She glanced behind her, but she couldn’t see the pony, only the trail of blood that led to it.

Pinkie turned to see three ponies this time.   There was a flash so she couldn’t take in who they were or if they were armed.  She lunged toward where she last saw the closest pony and swung her right hoof, making contact with a swift cut.  She swing multiple times, hitting the pony with five more swift blows.  She knew her victim was dead when she heard the body hit the floor.

Her eyes began to adjust and she found the source of the immense light and initial flash.  There were three different beams, focused on her eyes.  She ran towards the closest one, intent to destroy it, but she was interrupted as a kick from an unknown source landed on her left side and she hit the floor hard.  Multiple hooves held her down.  She was strong, but she wasn’t strong enough to break free of her assailants’ grip.

A sharp pinch entered her flank, and she quickly began to lose consciousness.  Before she was out, she heard one last thing;  Rainbow Dash’s laughter.

Meanwhile…

Fluttershy pulled her cleaver out of her latest victim.  She dragged the body into her shed and opened a secret door in the floor, towards the back.  This led to her underground torture chamber…and the incinerator.

She approached the incinerator and, with practiced ease, opened the hatch, threw the lifeless husk that used to be a pony in, and turned three different knobs.  They controlled the gas emissions, temperature, and flame level separately.

She stepped back and watched the body burn with an indifferent expression.  She felt no remorse for what she had done.  The only thing she ever felt when killing was the rush, the rage, and the relief.  One thing; however, scared her.  That was the possibility of her friends finding out about what she has been doing.  She cared for her friends and would never hurt them.  She loved them (some she loved more than she ought to) and feared being disowned by them.  Not to mention the inevitable exile to the moon for her crimes.

She walked back upstairs, thinking about what to do next.  She thought about killing again, she REALLY liked killing, but she already reached her monthly quota. Eh, I can do one more.  What will it hurt? She smirked, It would hurt the pony, of course,  she mused.  She even began to chuckle.

She reached the shed and removed the brace she had made for her cleaver.  It was made for a pony to put on his/her hoof.  Originally, it had a blade on it, but she broke it off and attached her own weapon of choice to it instead.  Her cleaver.  It made chopping much more convenient.  She did wonder, though, why it was laying on the ground near Sugar Cube Corner.  An object of that nature, does not belong in a place like that.

Right as she was about to open the shed door, she heard a voice.

“The first one was the one we really had to worry about.  This one should be easy.”

The voice was familiar…but Fluttershy couldn’t put a hoof on it. Could it possibly be- her thoughts were interrupted by the familiar voice.

“You four, look in the house.  You six, surround the shed with your weapons ready.  The rest, you’re coming with me.”

Fluttershy’s ears perked up at hearing this information. They’re looking for me…plus they’re armed…hmmmm... She decided to take her brace, put it on, and wrap a bandage around it, feigning a wound and concealing her weapon.

She slowly opened the door, the bandaged hoof raised to seem like she was babying it.  She walked out and saw something she couldn’t believe.

There were Rainbow Dashes everywhere, all fixated on her  They wore black suits with Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark as an emblem that stood out on their chest.

There was one who seemed to stand out among the rest.  Fluttershy quickly realized that this was because she bore a scar that ran from the top left portion of her forehead, behind an eye patch that covered her left eye, and ending at the base of her muzzle.  She smiled at Fluttershy; an evil sadistic smile that would commonly appear on her own face when she was about to deal the finishing blow to one of her victims.

In a moment, they were upon her, but Fluttershy was quicker than they expected.  She flew up and tore bandage from her hoof with her teeth.  She flew back, anticipating one of them to pursue her.  Her guess was right and she swung her right foreleg, slicing one of the many Rainbow Dashes in the throat.  She watched as the body fell on another clone of Dashie.

They all flew at her at once.  She swung her foreleg, killing another one of them before they grabbed her and pinned her to the ground next to two dead Dashies clones.  The one with the scar approached her with a sword in her hoof, and cut her cheek.  She flinched, and felt the warm blood trickle down her face.  She saw the scarred clone smile, lean over, and lick some blood from her face.  The clone swallowed the blood and gave Fluttershy an eerie look.

The scarred clone then took a needle and stabbed Flutteshy’s flank.  Fluttershy spit in her face and received another cut across the opposite cheek.  She began to feel woozy, but managed to hear the clone with the scar say something.

“I know you can hear me.  Just so you know, we are aware of what you have done.  Which-“

The pony’s sentence was interrupted by a wall of oblivion.

Chapter 2: We Need a Doctor

Chapter 2: We Need a Doctor

Other than the two kidnappings, life in Ponyville seemed pretty normal, on the surface.  Applejack sold her apples, Cherilee took the little fillies and colts on a field trip, Derpy delivered letters, and Rarity made her dresses.  But, even through all this normality, one pony by the name of Twilight Sparkle was not sticking to her normal, daily routine.

Twilight trotted to the bathroom.  She had just finished one of her experiments and she needed to mwash herself.  She was a complete mess.  She could only hope to get these stains out with hot water and shampoo.

She drew the bath water. I should probably see how Pinkie and Fluttershy are doing… later of course. I still have business to attend to after this bath.  Twilight jumped into the tub, feeling the hot water soak through her coat and to her skin.  She dunked her hair in the water to get rid of some of the dried blood ,from her previous experiment, that matted her hair.  She floated the shampoo over to herself and poured the shampoo on her entire body, making sure to clean herself thoroughly.  She then submerged herself entirely and when she came up, she looked at her reflection in the water.

She looked ok, there was a bit of blood that matted a spot on her coat near her neck, but that could easily be taken care of.  Her hair also covered her right eye, which she noted was bleeding again.  Twilight sighed.

“I guess sacrifices must be made for this wonderful treasure of mine.”

She got out of the bathtub and dried herself off.  She then wrapped a bandage around her bleeding eye.  Then, with a smile, she pranced over to a bookcase.  She then surrounded a dusty book with her magic and pulled it outwards.  The book didn’t move and Twilight held a look of confusion and annoyance.  She pulled harder.

*click*

The book shot back and the bookcase slid open, revealing a black iron door with no handle.  The only thing on it, was a trio of sigils.  Twilight’s horn lit up and she began to speak a language that she had created herself out of a combination of three different languages: Latin, Celtic, and Mandarin.  Although she created this language, and could speak it whenever she wanted, she could not have others use it, so communication was pretty much impossible.  The main problem, was not teaching somepony the words, but for them to be able to speak it in the required tone, context, and dialect that Twilight did. If they tried they would explode into a rain of blood and guts.  With that being said, the only use this language provides is to dispel sigils like the ones on the door.

Twilight entered through the door with a small twitch and a slight smile of satisfaction after removing the sigils.  As the entered, the door shut behind her and the bookcase slid back to its original position.

The room was an eerie green color.  There were bottles of unknown substances and plenty of test tubes.  A lot of things you would find in a normal ol’ laboratory.  The only difference, was the immense amount of blood that coated the walls, the operating table, the medical equipment, and a safe.  On the operating table, laid out, was Spike.

“Twilight, please, whatever you’re doing, you have to stop!  This isn’t you Twi-“ Twilight put a hoof over his mouth.

“Now, now Spike, don’t get to flustered. You’ll make it harder for Doctor Twilight to perform her surgery if you keep struggling and adding such a negative atmosphere.”  She began to form a wide smile and her left eye dilated as the pupil shrunk. “I even made a new surgical toy, Spike.  It’s guaranteed to have 100% precision.  I’ll never need anything else to cut another open again.” Her smile began to convert to that of a pony nearly completing a life long project.  It was wide, and overly excited and it scared Spike.

“You ready Spike?” she said through clenched teeth, her voice slightly set in a higher pitch,” HERE IT IS!”

Twilight tore off her bandage and Spike gasped.

Her eye was replaced with a robotic one.

A moment later, a beam shot out and was aimed at Spike’s collar bone.  It traveled downwards, melting and tearing away his scales.  Spike screamed in agony as Twilight laughed maniacally.  The laser reached his groin area and ceased.  The laser only cut Spikes scale layer, never causing any harm to the muscle tissue underneath.

Spike was in a great amount of pain, but not physical pain, emotional pain.  He loved Twilight, he admired her.  Her intellect, her always finding a solution to a problem.  He was so proud to call himself her number one assistant.  But what had he done to deserve this?  He did nothing but do what she told him to.  Tears began to form in his eyes.

Twilight giggled at the sight of her successful invention.  “You know, I can control the power of this right? I can make this thing cut through titanium like a HOT KNIFE THROUGH BUTTER! OOHHH this is such a wondrous occasion!”  She floated a couple of needles and stitches over.  “Now Spike, Doctor Twilight will allow you live, if you-“ She was interrupted as the sound of an explosion resonated through her secret chamber.

“Shit, they found me!” Twilight turned to Spike, “You live, if you keep your mouth shut!”

She ran for the lights and hit the switch.  Luckily, her robotic eye was equipped with night vision so she could see everything clear as day.  She ran to her safe, and quickly opened it.  She floated out a katana and a flash grenade.  She had the katana for a while now, it was a family heirloom, she had just sharpened it recently.  The flash grenade she had constructed herself.

The sound of another explosion mixed with the loud thud of the door hitting the opposite wall rung her ears.  She flinched at the sound, but looked at the door and saw three ponies enter in a hurry.  Twilight pointed her horn towards them and conjured fire out of thin air.  She had bee practicing with black magic and this was one of her favorites.

She watched them burn, and smiled as the aroma of burning flesh reached her nose.  She heard shouting and tossed the flash grenade outside the door.  She turned away, waited for it to go off, and teleported into the library.  As soon as she appeared, she felt somepony bite down on her mane.  She tore away and saw her attacker.  It looked like Rainbow, just with a scar and an eye patch, but Twilight knew better.

“SYNTHIA!”

The scarred clone of Rainbow Dash spit out a tuft of Twilight’s hair and that’s when she noticed she was surrounded by ponies, equipped with night vision goggles which were outfitted with flash protectors.

“Synthia, I will kill you...”

Synthia laughed, “Oh Twilight, long time no see.  How have you been?”

Twilight just stared, in a battle stance, ready for anything.

“Twilight,” Synthia said in a soothing tone,” we need you.  Just come peacefully… I don’t want to hurt you.”

Twilight thought she saw tears forming in Synthia’s eyes.

“We have them, Twilight.  Both of them.”

Twilight’s eyes shot open, “No! I told you to forget about the project! That kind of power will kill us all!”

“They are the only ones we weren’t able to clone, but we-“

“NO! Leave them alone!” Twilight fired her eye laser at Synthia.

“Oh sh-“ Synthia lunged to the side, the laser narrowly hit her rainbow colored mane.  Twiligh watched as Synthia’s hair combusted into flames, but before she knew it, she was being hit from all sides. She felt hoof after hoof hitting her, knocking her to the ground; pulverizing her.

Twilight could feel herself losing consciousness.  She used the last bit of her strength to muster up a spell to push them all back.

The groups of ponies that were beating Twilight were expelled backwards, hitting walls and breaking some of their necks.  One of the ponies landed on Synthia, smothering the flames that engulfed her mane and parts of her suit.  She approached Twilight.

“You had your chance, Twilight.  Now you are going to be a part of this project whether you want to,” Synthia coughed loudly,” or not!” Synthia injected Twilight with a sedative.

“You…bitch…” Twilight managed, before she went under.

Chapter 3: Truck Trouble

   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.

Chapter 4: Twilight's Heartbreak

Twilight snapped back into reality.  She was still in the truck and she was still trapped with Pinkie and Fluttershy.  She looked around, spotting the pool of blood on the floor and trotting over to it.  She looked at her reflection and frowned.

She looked horrible.

Her hair was matted, drool was stuck to the side of her mouth, and her right eye was bleeding again.  Shit, she thought, how am I supposed to stop the bleeding? Fuck, it hurts too.  She casted her healing spell and the little ball of light floated out in front of her.  She pushed her hair to the side to reveal her mechanical eye.

“Twilight?! What is that?!”

Twilight jumped back as the sound of Fluttershy’s voice startled her.  She thought she was still sleeping. “Uhhh… nothing Fluttershy!” she gave her friend a plastic smile, hoping to fool her.

“Nice try Twilight.  Now, what did you do to yourself?  Was that a… robot eye?”

“Uhh… maybe?”

Fluttershy glared at Twilight, “Twilight, we are friends, friends are supposed to share everything with one another.  Why haven’t you said anything about this… this little robot eye?”

“Fluttershy, don’t you dare try to pull the whole ‘Friends tell each other everything’ thing.  I know what you do in your spare time, and not once did you mention it to me!”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened.  Her heart skipped a beat when she heard Twilight’s last sentence.  She couldn’t possibly mean about my… no, there isn’t any way that she would know.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.  All I do in my spare time is taking care of my animals.  Nothing more.”

Twilight huffed, “That’s all you do huh? Really? What do you take care of your animals with? Your cleaver? What about the incinerator in your little torture chamber? You think I don’t know about what you do?!”

Fluttershy’s mouth was agape.  “Wha…how…what?”  She was completely at a loss for words.  How the hell could she have known…? I kept everything quiet; the victim, the chops, everything.  How did Twilight know...? She had to know now.  She had to know how Twilight could’ve possibly figured out her darkest secret.

“Ho…How did you figure it out?” she said, her lips were quivering and tears were forming in her eyes.

“Fluttershy, it’s complicated.  I don’t even think I want to explain.”

“But…but how… I don’t understand.  I never said a word about it.”

Twilight was annoyed, but she guessed she owed her friend an explanation.  It wasn’t her fault Twilight had been spying on Pinkie and Fluttershy.  It was for a good cause though… it may have been out of paranoia, but it was benign nonetheless. “Fluttershy, I’ve been spying on you and Pinkie.”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow.  “What? Why?”

“Like I said, it’s complicated… but I might as well give it a go.”

Twilight cleared her throat.  She was prepared to tell Fluttershy everything.  From the moment she discovered the cloning spell, to when she was captured by Synthia.

She was even going to mention her involvement with the organization.

The truck stopped.

Twilight snapped her neck to the side and watched the door carefully.  Her and Fluttershy both got up, ready to fight.  Twilight moved the hair out from in front of her robotic eye and Fluttershy fell into a battle stance.  The doors slowly opened and let through a very bright light.  Both ponies flinched at the sudden intensity of the light and heard a sound.  Something had been thrown into the back of the truck.  A pop and a hiss were heard shortly after the object hit the metal floor.

Twilight and Fluttershy both started to cough and wheeze.  Neither could see because of the intensely focused beams of light that attacked their eyes, and neither could breathe because of the toxic gas that clogged their tracheas.  Twilight knew this had to be some kind of knock-out gas.  It took her second to figure out exactly what it was.

Chloroform.

Twilight knew it had to be that, but it had to be mixed with something else.  She was losing consciousness fast and chloroform didn’t act that quickly.  “Fluttershy, hold your breath...” she managed, but Fluttershy was already out.  She held her breath and pretended that she fell victim to the gas.  Not long after she fell did a couple of ponies jump into the truck and start to grab Pinkie.  Quickly, she rose up and used her magic to tear the gas masks from their mouths.  She was successful in putting one on her, but failed to put the remaining two on her friends as she was tackled immediately, held down with magic.

Twilight struggled against the binds that held her down to the metal floor and watched as both of her friends were dragged away.  She tried to use her own magic to free herself but it was countered with even more powerful magic.  Who could have a more powerful magic than me?...  She squinted, trying to look past the immense amount of light and managed to spot a silhouette of a unicorn. The unicorn was straining to keep the spell in place, meaning that it wasn’t that her magic was more powerful, but rather she was putting more effort into casting the spell then Twilight was at countering it.

Twilight tried even harder, slowly managing to expel the magic that held her down.  She got on her stomach and began pushing up with her hooves and her magic, steadily making progress.  She was putting all she had in the spell before she final broke free, but her freedom was short lived as she was tackled and a damp rag was held to her mouth.  She couldn’t help but breathe in the chloroform, slowly sinking into a calm and deep sleep.

______________________________________________________________________________

Pinkie awoke with a shock.  She had the weirdest dream that she had tried to kill Fluttershy, and that Twilight was trying to kill her.  She laughed because she knew that would never happen.  Fluttershy was one of her closest friends; she would never hurt her friends.  And Twilight was too naïve to so much as harm a fly.  Poor thing.

She looked around to see that she was in a cell, but not a normal cell.  No, this one had a laser grid in place of the rusty iron bars that would normally associate with a prison cell.  There was a shower in one corner, a bed in another, a toilet and a sink in between the two, and a camera above the bed; aimed outwards to the rest of the cell.  She noted that the camera wouldn’t be able to see her if she was sleeping on the bed, so she went over to test it out.  She pressed down on it with her hoof.  Stiff and uncomfortable, yet more comfortable than the floor.  She jumped on it and laid down.  She wasn’t tired; she just woke up.  She just wanted to be out of the camera’s line of sight.

Pinkie hated being watched and she hated being confined.  The fact that someone, somewhere, was spying on her, watching her, creeped her out.  She hated being confined because she simply suffered from a slight case of claustrophobia.  She didn’t even know she was in the back of a truck until she felt it hit a pothole.  After that, she remembered nothing.

Pinkie’s ears perked up as she heard a sound coming outside of her cell.  She slowly got up, careful to stay out of the camera’s line of vision.  She looked out for the first time and noticed there were other cells too.  They were empty and didn’t have the laser grid blocking the entrance like hers did.  She looked to her left and right.  She wasn’t surprised to see a hallway, but she was surprised to see that not only did it extend from left to right.

It extended above and below her.

She looked down and felt a slight pang of fear as she realized she couldn’t even see the ground.  She looked up and, with no relief, saw that she could see the ceiling.  Where am I? She thought. And what was that sound? It sounded like… like a scream… almost like… Rainbow’s scream… Her heart was stabbed with the sharp blade of regret.  She fell back from the grid and landed on her flank, her hoof on her heart.  Tears began to develop in her eyes and she collapsed; sobbing on the ground.

She felt so sorry for what happened to Rainbow Dash.  She wished she could take it all back.  She wished she could go back in time and stop Rainbow from eating that cupcake… she had no idea how bad she would feel after she killed Rainbow.  She never wanted to, but her number came up and you can’t ignore that.

She crawled over to her bed; tears still pouring the sides of her face.  She reached the bed and climbed up, not even caring that the camera could see her.  She didn’t care that she was being watched, she didn’t care that she was locked up in some stupid cell, and she didn’t care about that damned purple unicorn in the cell across from her.

Purple unicorn…

Pinkie’s head shot upwards and she jumped to the laser grid and looked across the bottomless pit to the cell that contained the purple unicorn.  It looked like Twilight, what with the violet hair and the pink streaks, her light purple coat, her violet eyes, and in general cute body shape, but Pinkie wasn’t so sure.  Something seemed off about her.  Not only did she have makeup under her eyes that looked like spikes, but she was sleeping so weird.

Twilight was sleeping peacefully, like she was at home.

Pinkie put a hoof to her chin and thought a moment. Hmmm… wouldn’t Twilight be trying to find a way out?  I mean, she is trapped in that cell.  Knowing her, she should be freaking out. Pinkie was very confused.  This isn’t what her friend acted like.  She decided that maybe she hadn’t woken up yet to see where she was.

That’s when things really turned Pinkie’s world upside down.

The cell door in Twilight’s cage was busted open and a couple of Rainbow clones rushed in and threw another Twilight on the floor.  One of them was wearing an eye patch.

The sleeping Twilight awoke with a start, and glared at the door.  “Fucking knock next time!”

She gave the now disgruntled 'Twilight', the one with the makeup and the pissed expression, an apologetic look. “Sorry, but we have them, Heartbreak.  We also have this one.” The clone with the eye patch pointed towards the unconscious Twilight, a slight frown on her face.

Heartbreak looked at, what must be the real Twilight, with disgust.  She got up and walked over to her, lifting her up and throwing her against the wall.

“HEARTBREAK! Stop it right now!  I know you have your differences with Twilight, but you cannot harm her right now! We need her!”  The clone snapped.  She flew over with immense speed and picked Twilight up.  She then flew over to the bed and gently laid Twilight down as if she was fragile glass.

Heartbreak sneered and rolled her eyes.   I can’t believe she is SO in love with Twilight.  I don’t get it.  She’s ugly and she’s stupid.  I’m the smart one and I’m- she frowned as she remembered that she was Twilight’s clone and shared the exact same appearance. Well I’m smarter than she is…  She looked at Synthia again and sighed.  Why doesn’t she love me? I’m so much better than she is… A tear started to form in her eyes.

“Heartbreak, are you alright?” Synthia asked “You’re not crying, are you?”  She flew over to her friend.

“NO! I’m fine! Just… just go.  I won’t hurt Twilight.  I just need to talk to her.  Alone.”

“Well in that case, you might want to shut your blinds.  Pinkie has been watching us for a while.”

Heartbreak’s eyes shot open and she turned to look out the cell.  She saw Pinkie there, staring with an expression of awe on her face.  “Oh hell, disable the laser grid and shut those damn blinds.  We all know she’s already completely lost and we don’t want to screw with her head too much too soon.  It will affect the cloning process.”  The laser grid was shut down and two metal walls came from spaces located at each side of the cell’s opening.  They created an ear wrenching and teeth shattering screech that made all the ponies shutter.  The walls met together soon after and the noise stopped.

Pinkie was astonished at what she just saw.   Two Rainbow Dashes; one with an eye patch and a scar across her face, two Twilights; the one with makeup under her eyes being “Heartbreak”, and something about cloning.  What is going on?   Pinkie then turned slowly to her bed, and jumped on it.   A slow sigh followed as she closed her eyes, hoping that this was all a dream and that she would wake up in Sugar Cube Corner, dissecting Rainbow Dash and making cupcakes out of her.  She laughed as her dreams would then come true, she’d finally get to eat Rainbow Dash.  Maybe in not the way she would have wanted, but hey, it’s close enough.  She smirked at that thought and fell asleep, attempting to forget about the events that just took place.

______________________________________________________________________________

Heartbreak looked toward Twilight and thought about all the things that she could do to her right now.  She could kill her, torture her, rape her, anything.   Unfortunately, for Heartbreak, she knew very well that keeping Twilight alive was necessary.  Twilight was, after all, the most powerful unicorn there was.  Plus she mastered the cloning spell to a degree that no other unicorn could possibly fathom of doing.

With this skill, Twilight was (and is) able to make Synthia’s and Heartbreak’s dream come true.

They were tired of being hunted; constantly on the lookout for Twilight.  They just wanted to coexist with the originals and with the copies.  Heartbreak recalled on a shielded memory; one that haunted her in her sleep…

She and Synthia were hiding in a ditch near the Everfree forest, holding each other.  They could hear the screams of their friends and families being cut off by multiple magical *zap*s.  They shivered and tears ran down their faces.  Together, they sobbed in silence, for they could not allow themselves to be discovered.  If they did, they knew they would surely share the same fate that everypony else had.

The sounds of screaming and zapping had ceased.

Heartbreak threw her face into Synthia’s neck; sobbing.  She needed to be held right now; all her family and friends, were gone; deleted by Twilight.  She couldn’t believe that Twilight would do such a thing.  The cried even more now, shoving her muzzle into Synthia’s coat.  She was sad enough that she didn’t care that the sounds of her sobs were escaping from their imprisonment that was Synthia’s coat.

Synthia quickly brought Heartbreak to her, their bodies touching under the soft light of the moon.  “Heartbreak,” Synthia whispered, “you have to be quiet.  Do you want to be deleted too?” She wrapped her wings around Heartbreak, not only muffling any sob sounds that would escape, but comforting her as well.

Heartbreak felt Synthia tense and saw her ears perk up.  She must have heard something.

Heartbreak peered out of the cover of Synthia's wings to see a white unicorn with a curly purple mane and tail.  Her cutie mark was of four diamonds, arranged in compass rose positions.  Synthia stooped down low and covered Heartbreak with her wing, pushing her down lower to the ground to shadow themselves from the moon using the ditch they were in.  The white unicorn looked their way and didn’t seem to notice the two ponies hiding in the darkness.  She squinted and cocked her head.

Her horn started to glow.

Heartbreak could feel Synthia tense up even more and knew that she must be worried.  She could feel Synthia’s wing and noticed that it was now placed to block her vision from the white unicorn.  Heartbreak started to shake as she could tell something bad was happening.

“Heart, I need you to relax and do as I say if the time comes, got it?” Synthia whispered.

Heartbreak shivered “Ye-yes, Synthia.  I understand.” She whispered back.

The white unicorn’s horn shined brightly and the whole area was lit up.  She quickly spotted the two ponies, but before she could set the others off, she was tackled and the light faded away.

Synthia was on top of the unicorn, biting and hitting at immense speeds.  She managed to bust the unicorn’s nose open, give her a black eye, and break her jaw before she was caught in a ball of telekinesis and thrown into a tree.  She got up but received a hoof to the jaw.  She swung wildly in front of her and hit nothing.  She heard a branch snap from behind her and she jumped forward, spinning around, only to be hit with something large from behind her.  She flew, and stabilized herself with her wings.

“Synthia! She’s been teleporting! Be careful!” Heartbreak shouted.

She saw the unicorn trot towards Synthia, and watched as Synthia she flew upwards, probably intending to make a sonic rainboom and pop everypony’s ears.  If she did that, that would distract them long enough to allow them to escape.  She flew higher, but she started to slow and it seemed as if something was pulling her back.  Heartbreak looked closer and could barely spot a blue aura surrounding Synthia.  She saw that Synthia was still rising, but slowly.  The blue aura began to slow her ascension, eventually stopping her.  She was pulling with all her might, but it was futile. She started to descend at a quick pace.

Right before she hit, she stopped and floated there.  She was surveying the multiple unicorns holding her with their magic, all looking like the one she fought earlier.  She then stared at one in particular; she was different than the others and she was in front.  She wore a pink bandana and seemed a lot calmer than the rest.

“Twilight, come over here darling, we captured one of the two you requested.  This one is feisty.” She giggled.

Heartbreak remained hidden, watching the scene unfold.  She knew she had to help somehow, but there was nothing she could’ve done.  She thought and she thought, but not a single useful idea came up.  She jumped as she started to hear shouting.

“TWILIGHT, CALM DOWN THIS INSTANT!” the white unicorn screeched.

Twilight’s eyes were glowing and she was choking Synthia with her magic.  Sweat started to drip off the purple from the amount of force she was putting into the spell.  Synthia choked loudly, grasping for air that would never come.

“TWILIGHT!  I SAID CALM DOWN!”  The white unicorn grabbed Twilight with her own blue aura and threw her aside, stopping Twilight from choking the life out of Synthia.  Her eyes widened as she realized what she had done.  “Twilight, I-“ the unicorn’s words were cut off when Twilight got up and screamed with her hooves over her right eye.

“MY EYE, MY FUCKING EYE!”  Twilight screeched.  She slowly removed her hooves to reveal a sharp stick penetrating her eye socket.

“Oh sweet Celestia!  Hold on Twilight, I will teleport us out of here!  The rest of you will stay here and keep an eye on this one.  You don’t have to keep her within your telekinesis, but if she tries anything, you damn well better hold on to her and hold on to her tight.  She will run out of stamina within a short period.  Twilight, come, let’s get you fixed up.” The white unicorn’s horn lit up and, with a quick flash, Twilight and her disappeared.

Heartbreak watched everything and nearly threw up when she saw what happened to Twilight.  Poor Twilight… she thought.  She looked up again, and saw the unicorn clones surrounding Synthia, just waiting for her to do something, but she just laid there.  Not moving.

Heartbreak was worried, but she knew that Synthia couldn’t be dead.  She laid down in the cold, wet dirt and sighed. There has to be something I can do, she thought.  She brought her hooves in front of her face and a stern expression appeared.   I will not sit here and do nothing, I will help her.  She did nothing to deserve being held like a prisoner like this. She got up and looked out over the ditch to see the same scene, only with Synthia on her hooves now.  She didn’t look like she was going to fly off, but Heartbreak knew she could give her an opening.  She got down and looked around her, searching for a weapon of some sort.  She looked into the Everfree Forest and found the branch that one of the clones had broken off a tree.  She grabbed it in her magic, and turned to the group of ponies.  She gathered herself and crept out of the bank, slowly moving forward.

Heartbreak breathed quietly, making sure to keep quiet so as not to alert one of the clones and become a prisoner also.  She imagined herself as a ninja, stalking her prey, readying her weapon to strike, and felling her victim with a single blow.

She reached them, and approached the closest one.  She raised the branch, angled it to kill, and swung it with all her might.  The branch hit with a sickening *thump* and *crack*, shattering the clone’s skull and disabling the brain.  The others turned back and Heartbreak swung the branch again, smacking one upside the head.  She followed through with a second blow, hitting the clone’s head again, killing the clone, and breaking her branch.  She launched what was left of it at a clone that was trying to flank her from the left.  The branch hit the clone’s forelegs, causing it to tumble into another.

Heartbreak looked to her right to see three clones running straight for her and another two casting some sort of spell.  It took Heartbreak a second to realize that the spell they were casting was the same they had casted when attacking their village.

The Deletion Spell.

Quickly, Heartbreak lunged to the side, dodging the beams easily but landing on her side.  She looked up and saw the three other clones above her.  They picked her up in their telekinesis to give the spell casting clones an easy shot.  Heartbreak struggled against their magic, even using her own to disrupt theirs, but to no avail.  She floated there, accepting what was sure to come next.  She looked at the two clones casting the Deletion Spell and a tear rolled down her face.

*BOOM*

Heartbreak instinctively covered her ears with her hooves, clenched her teeth, and clamped her eyes shut.  The noise was so sudden and so loud that it left her ears ringing and in pain.  She felt the magical grip loosen up on her and she fell to the ground.  She opened her eyes and everything was shaking, from the ground to the sky above; nothing was still.  She looked at the clones and noticed that every one of them was trying to stay on their feet and keep from falling.  She looked up and her jaw dropped at what she saw.

The sky was filled with all the colors of the spectra.  Synthia had created a rainboom.

Quickly, she snapped herself out of the trance she had fallen in and looked for Synthia.  It didn’t take long; however, as Synthia swooped down and snatched Heartbreak up off the ground.  Heartbreak looked below them and saw how the trees, the buildings, and even the clouds flew past them.  She loved this view, and never wanted it to end.  She looked at Synthia and smiled.

“Where are we going?” She asked.

“Somewhere safe,” Synthia replied, “somewhere safe.”

Heartbreak snapped back into reality to see that her original had woken up and was staring at her.

“You back to Equestria yet, Heartbreak?” Twilight asked with a sly grin.

“Shut it Twilight.  The only reason you’re alive is because we need your talent.  We need you to clone Rainbow Dash and the others, fast.  I would do it, but we both know clones can’t cast the cloning spell.”  Heartbreak decided to be straight with Twilight.  No point in beating around the bush.

Twilight snickered, “You think you can kidnap me and my friends, and expect me to just give in?  I don’t think so.”  Twilight lunged after Heartbreak, but was caught with her magic and thrown against the wall.  She tried to move again, but she was being held fast.

“You won’t get out of my grasp this time, Sparkle.” She put more into it and Twilight felt a twinge of pain in her hoofs, but was slightly amused that she reminded her of Trixie.  “Now you listen to me, I am going to make you pay for what you did to my hometown.  I will make you pay for all the innocent lives that you wiped away.  You will regret everything, and I will laugh and watch you shrivel up from the inside out.”

Twilight spat at Heartbreak and was amused that the saliva landed in her snarling mouth.

Heartbreak spit it out.  Not that that the taste was weird, since they shared the same saliva flavor, but it would be awkward if she didn’t.  She looked Twilight in the eyes, confused.  “Why aren’t you trying to escape?”

Twilight giggled, “Because I like being held down against my will.”  She gave Heartbreak a seductive look and licked her lips.

Heartbreak’s heart fell.  “What did you just say? Surely, it wasn’t what I thought it was…” She backed her head up a little bit, but not in time, as a kiss from Twilight landed on Heartbreak’s lips.   Her eyes widened and she felt a surge of feelings rise up.  One of them being, what she could only guess, attraction.  This realization startled her, yet, it did not seem as wrong as it should.  Heartbreak blushed profusely, but she did not protest, instead, she let her magic fall and her guard down, leaning into the kiss.  She closed her eyes…and realized her mistake.

Twilight took advantage and used her magic to throw her against the metal blinds.  She pinned Heartbreak there and trotted over with a smile of triumph and amusement.  “Oh- Oh Heartbreak!” She laughed, “I could’ve easily gotten out of that without seducing you,” she winked, “but that was so much more fun.”  She reached Heartbreak, who was struggling with all she had, and got face to face with her.  “I believe you wanted to talk, how about we do just that without magic this time.  Deal?”  She stared Heartbreak in her eyes; waiting for an answer.

“Yes…” Heartbreak hissed.

Twilight released her magical grip on Heartbreak and stepped back.  Her clone fell to the floor and she laughed.

“You’re lucky I’m your clone.  That’s the only reason you’re more powerful than I am…”

Twilight nodded.  She had to admit, this was true.  The cloned version of something was always slightly inferior when it came to physical strength and magical prowess, but when it came to intellect; the clones actually seemed to become superior.  She then smirked as she recalled how she learned so much about the clones.

Through her experiments.

“Hey, what’s so funny?” Heartbreak asked.

Twilight snapped back into reality, “Oh, it’s nothing you should worry your little head about, baby.” She winked again and chuckled as Heartbreak started to get flustered. “You’re too easy to irritate, Heartbreak.  Somepony might take advantage of that.” She gave Heartbreak an innocent look.

Heartbreak had about enough, but she wasn’t about to challenge Twilight.  After all, she was more powerful than her.  Even if she attacked first, Twilight could easily take her out without breaking a sweat.  The only reason she managed to keep Twilight down in the truck was because the chloroform had weakened her.  She thought for a moment, trying to figure out what exactly she could do to annoy Twilight.  She smiled as her superior intellect pulled through.

“Yes, quite amusing Twilight.  Your facetious remark reminds me of your dear girlfriend, Rainbow Dash.  Yes, that winged pony does love her sarcasm.  Too bad she’s so ill she can’t speak anymore.”  Heartbreak delivered an exaggerated pout towards Twilight.

Twilight’s heart felt like it had been stabbed with a rusty spork.  She went from feeling dominant to feeling hopeless and alone in a matter of seconds.  She had missed Rainbow Dash ever since they kidnapped her while she was sleeping, and the simple mention of her name brought the emotion forth.  She hated them for taking her, she hated for what condition that had her in, and she was bound and determined to get her back.

She looked down, avoiding eye contact with Heartbreak so as not to let her see the tears that were forming in her eyes.  She didn’t want her to receive the satisfaction of seeing how hard that statement hit.  She didn’t think about the fact that the tears would fall to the ground and watched in horror as the tear plummeted down to the ground and hit.  The tiny splash shattered the silence that haunted the cell.

Fuck you gravity.

“Aw, poor Twilight misses her girlfriend.  It feels horrible to miss someone you love.  I would know since I WATCHED YOU KILL THEM ALL!” Heartbreak snapped. “I had friends in that damned town that you cloned up for us!  Not only that, but I had friends in the forest that you cloned up too.  Fuck, you cloned up the entire fifty mile radius around Ponyville, and sent it to some isolated spot in the middle of fucking nowhere, and I made friends there too!  You destroyed everything I came to know and love.  Now, I only have Synthia, and she’s too fucking obsessed over you to pay any attention to me!” Tears started to form in Heartbreak’s eyes, “I have nothing because of you.  You went and wiped out everything with no rhyme or reason.  What, were we not good enough?  Did we not turn out how you wanted?  We were just a failed experiment and you decided that the best decision would’ve been to eradicate us?  WELL FUCK YOU!”  Heartbreak threw Twilight against the cell wall and let her hit the floor.  Before Twilight could react, she brought her closer.  Her eyes were glowing and she began to choke the life out of Twilight again.  “I want to kill you right here, right now, but I can’t.  You are vital to the project, and once you and your friends have served your purpose, you will be sent to a location where you will surely die.  And I will be there to watch.  If you survive, then you will get to see your entire town and your entire country be destroyed under the Oblivion Organization.”  She let Twilight go and watched as she fell to the ground and gasped for air. She leaned down and kissed Twilight on the lips, this time catching Twilight by surprise.  “By the way, you need to work on your kissing.  Rainbow Dash would be disappointed to find out that you got rusty over time.”

She raised her head and watched as Twilight finally was able to control her breathing.  She felt powerful, she felt superior to Twilight at last, but something seemed off.  She wasn’t quite sure what it was and she pondered about it.  Nothing abnormal happened… let’s see… Heartbreak mentally reviewed the recent events and was shocked when a realization came to her.

I had total control of Twilight.

She looked down at Twilight; astonished.  Could I have possibly overpowered her?  If so, then how?  Clones are inferior in that area… no, she must not have bothered to try to escape… Her thoughts slowly disappeared as she watched Twilight’s body convulse.  She raised an eyebrow and noticed that the floor had a small pool of water next to Twilight’s face.  She leaned forward to inspect it, and heard very faint noises that sounded like sobbing.  Is she crying? She stopped just inches from Twilight’s face.  She could smell the purple unicorn’s original scent and her heart fell.  What the- she smells nicer than me!  She grimaced, but only at the thought.  She found the smell very appealing really.

Heartbreak shook her head to clear it, and listened.  She indeed could hear sobbing, and assumed it was about Rainbow.  Initially, Heartbreak thought Twilight as oversensitive, but then put herself in Twilight’s place and realized that if Synthia were kidnapped, and was being drained of all her life essences, she would probably break down and cry too.

She frowned and put a comforting hoof on Twilight.  She hated her, for sure, but she had a caring nature.  After all, the trait was transferred over from Twilight herself, and everypony knows she’s always cared for others beside herself.

“Twilight…are you okay?” Heartbreak asked gently.  She knew that was a stupid question considering she wouldn’t be ok if she was laying there, crying.

Twilight rolled over and looked Heartbreak in her eyes; expecting a sarcastic glare or an over exaggerated look of kindness.  Instead, she was dealt a legitimate look of care and concern.  She smiled, but only for a moment.  She quickly made it disappear and looked away.  She didn’t need sympathy.  Not from her.  She is the one who brought Rainbow up.  Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she threw herself up.  She snapped towards Heartbreak.

“I don’t need your sympathy!  You’re the one who made me feel this way by bringing her up!”

Heartbreak knew Twilight was hurt and realized that she probably shouldn’t have gone that far.  She was a little irritated at her sudden outburst, but she kept quiet and tried to think how to calm her down.  She decided that maybe a better way would be to just leave her alone.  Not only would that allow her a chance to cool down, but it would also prevent Twilight from killing her.

Chapter 5: The Coliseum

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.”