//------------------------------// // Chapter4.1: Fluttershy // Story: Seeing Double // by klockwork //------------------------------// Fluttershy flew off in the opposite direction she had seen Rainbow Dash fly. She had tears balling up in her eyes and was trying her hardest to make them stop as it blurred her vision. She decided she just wanted to hide somewhere, somewhere where she would never be found. She flew at a speed she had never gone before. She could already feel her wings straining and she wanted desperately to take a break. She looked around and noticed an abandoned building, or at least it looked that way through her blurry vision. It seemed decrepit and falling apart and that was enough evidence for her. She charged downwards and crashed through the first window she saw. She tumbled inside breaking down the window. Immediately her fall was broken, hard, by crashing right through a wooden ledge which she could only guess was the second story floor. She crash landed right into the ground and had the wind knocked out of her. She was making odd moaning noises which were a combination of her pain and sobs. She slowly got up and looked around. The first thing she noticed was the blood covering areas on her. Glass and wood pieces were stuck in her fur. Luckily nothing looked fatal, and being the vet she was, she could tell. The room was dark. If there wasn't a new hole in the ceiling and a few windows, then it would have been pitch dark. The house was empty, like she guessed. No furniture or structures were around, not even a staircase up to the second floor. Through her sobs she heard a foreign noise. She suddenly stopped her crying and let loose a small squeak as she heard it. It sounded like boards creaking, as if somepony was walking around somewhere. She was too confused to notice what direction it had came from so she just quickly fluttered up and began searching every inch of the room. She couldn't see anypony on the first floor, so they were either upstairs or in her head. She dreadfully didn't want to go upstairs through the single hole, out of fear that somepony was waiting for her to do just that. She then heard it again, somepony was definitely walking around upstairs. This time she knew what direction it was coming from. She knew what she had to do. She remembered all of the times she had to be brave and stand up for herself and others. Fluttershy got angry, real angry. She thought of what her counterpart was acting like and tried to mimic it as well. She gathered up all her inner strength and charged up at the spot where she heard the creak come from. Once again, she broke through the floor, this time hitting her head on something harder. The pony who had been responsible for the noise flew to the ground on the side of the hole. She quickly readied herself for another attack, although she knew she wouldn't be able to bring herself to willingly make the first strike and harm the pony. She looked over the pony who was now slowly getting up off the floor, and it was like she was looking in a mirror. Partly because she was, the upstairs room was filled with mirrors along the walls. There was no wood on the walls, only mirror. Everything combined with this new confusion welled up inside her. The intruder was standing right in front of her, but she couldn't see her. She looked frantically in all directions expecting to see somepony else, but she didn't. Fluttershyx stood up and looked at the hyperventilating mare in front of her freaking out. She decided to have a little fun, something she hadn't experienced in a while. "Don't worry. It'll all be over soon." Fluttershyx said in a more calm voice. It sounded just like Fluttershy's. "Hush now, quiet now." She said before pausing. Fluttershy shot her glance over to where the voice had come from, with an even more terrified look on her face. "Its time to lay your sleepy head." Fluttershyx continued from a different position, and just like before Fluttershy turned to face her, yet she couldn't see her still. "Hush now, quiet now." Fluttershyx continued the lullaby from a different location again, and once more Fluttershy turned to face her. Every time she saw Fluttershy turn, she had a more and more terrified look on her face. "Its time to go to bed." Fluttershy made one last spin to point at the voice. Quiet ensued afterwards. Nopony made a noise until Fluttershy let loose a terrified squeak. Just as soon as she did, Fluttershyx shouted a new line to it, except much louder and more menacing: "FOREVER!!" She jumped out and tackled Fluttershy to the ground and quickly put her in a hold where Fluttershy had no ability to retaliate. "Aww, its too bad you couldn't go to the Manor like your friends will. But its just too tempting to let you go now." Fluttershyx whispered menacingly glaring straight at Fluttershy. Fluttershyx licked Fluttershy's coat, right before biting into it with her fangs. Fluttershy let out an ear piercing cry of pain. "Mmmm, its been awhile since I've tasted flesh." Fluttershyx said with blood dripping from her teeth along with it pouring from the new wound on Fluttershy. Fluttershyx had bitten right into an artery causing an excess spew of blood to continuously pour out from it. Fluttershyx geared herself up for another bite into her meal, but was interrupted by a bright flash of light. Fluttershyx cried out in a spur of pain as she was momentarily blinded. Fluttershy didn't seem to notice as she was already bawling on the ground as blood dripped down her body. The light began to come closer until it finally rammed right into Fluttershyx sending her flying across the room smashing into the mirror. Cracks were sent all along that side of the wall radiating from the impact point, where a hole was now in place showing the outside and letting more light in. "Here." A soothing voice said. "Let me help heal you up you poor little thing." Her horn began to glow, and the glow quickly transferred over to Fluttershy quickly stopping the bleeding and healing her wounds, even the piece of missing flesh was covered back up. She looked as good as new. The pain from it all left her body immediately as well. "Thank you, thank you so much... Princess!!" Fluttershy said exasperated as she stood up and looked up at Princess Celestia. "Princess? I wish, its been a while since I've been called that." Celestiax said. "It was my pleasure to help. I heard a commotion coming from in here, along with seeing a broken window on the roof. I'm guessing you already know, but my name is Celestiax and yours is? I know your not that demented Fluttershyx considering I just blasted her off of you." "Your... your nice?" Fluttershy asked a bit confused. "Yes, I guess that was the reason I was taken over by her. And no time hasn't changed me." Celestiax replied. Fluttershy had a bit of a confused look on her face, and was even more confused on the inside. She was wondering how that was even possible. If Celestiax was caring and kind in her world, then wouldn't that make the DMV version cruel like Fluttershyx? "Are you OK?" Celestiax asked seeing the strange look on Fluttershy's face. "Uh, ya. OH NO! I just remembered my friends are in trouble!" She didn't want to reveal the truth to her not knowing if it was all a trap or not, but she knew her friend's lives were probably in danger. She hadn't seen who Rainbow Dashx had gone after, but she knew whoever it was, was in deep trouble. "Rainbow Dashx is chasing after them!" "What? Well we should go help them then, the military isn't nice, I can say that first hand." Celestiax shuddered. "Are you another group of rebels or something?" She asked. Come on, tell me on the way. Lets go search for them." The pegasus and the alicorn flew back out through the holes in the ceiling off to search for the others. Fluttershy was still conflicted, she saw no reason for this to be a trap, she attacked Fluttershyx in cold blood. And if Celestiax was the nice one, then that meant that Celestia was faking her kindness. Either way, something was being hidden. "You know, if your scared of admitting to whatever it is you were doing to me," Celestiax said after listening to silence out of Fluttershy "you shouldn't be. I am the leader of the rebel forces. Fluttershyx had tried to keep me down, but I was too powerful. I wonder how my sister is doing on the moon... Oh yes, I still haven't gotten your name yet either." "Oh um..." Fluttershy began quietly. She decided it was worth the risk to tell her. She didn't seem to be faking, something else must be going on. "My name is actually Fluttershy too. And technically were not part of the rebellion. Me and my friends are actually from another dimension where everypony is the opposite of the ones here. We call this place the dark-matter-verse I think it was. That mysterious spire is a rift between the two dimensions, we came here to stop anypony from going into it and destroying our world." Fluttershy said bravely. "Oh... well that does seem to make sense of all these loose ends." Celestiax said tying everything together in her mind. "In that case, how is life there? If its the opposite than Celestia must still be in power. How bad is it?" She asked. "Actually, shes just as kind and nice as y..." Fluttershy was cut off by a ringing. "Oh sorry, excuse me. My radar is picking up more activity, it must be one of your friends." Celestiax said levitating a small mechanical device over in front of her and it radiated a green field on top of it pointing a holographic arrow towards the east. Fluttershy had never seen anything like it. "What is that?" Fluttershy asked amazed by the device. "Its a radar, you don't have them back in your world?" Celestiax asked. "No, we don't have anything like that. We don't have any technology, I think that's what Twilight called stuff that worked magic in itself like that thing." Fluttershy replied. "Oh. Maybe that's the fault in your leader, since I'm guessing you were about to say she was just like me. You guys aren't as advanced as us by her doing." Celestiax said. "Maybe..." Fluttershy began to think about everything. Nothing really went together in her mind, but she never was too smart at psychology or politics or anything of the sort. She was a genius when it came to being a doctor, and nothing else. "Well, we don't have time to dwell on that for now." Celestiax said as the radar began beeping even more. "It seems were getting close to our destination..." She was cut off by a loud yelp coming from nearby. "Over there!" She cried as the two of them dove down towards the ground where they heard the yelp. As they neared the ground, they saw Rainbow Dash had just been tackled to the ground out of the sky by Rainbow Dashx. "Did you guys send in all of the opposites of the Imperial government from this world in?" Celestiax asked as they hit the ground. "I have no idea which is which though." "Rainbow Dash! Are you OK?" Fluttershy cried. "Yes, I'm fine." Both Rainbows said in sync, now stopping the fighting and sitting up. "I'm Rainbow Dash, not you." They both said. "No, I am! Shut up! Come on Fluttershy, who you gonna believe, me or this impostor." Both Rainbows said at the exact same time. It was impossible for Fluttershy to see who was who. They were right, Rainbow Dashx was a master of espionage and spying. "Ummm... I can't tell!" Fluttershy cried. "I have an idea," Celestiax began as she pulled out her radar. "OK, now who can tell me what this is?" She asked. "Its a..." They both began before switching paths. "radar." The one on the left completed while the one on the right said "a metal thingy." Before Rainbow Dashx could do something else, Celestiax shot a blast of magic at her knocking her back into the building behind her. "Soooo.... whats a radar?" Rainbow Dash asked. "And thanks for knowing I'm the real me. And also, why are you here Princess?" "Its a device that locates direction on a specific marker and I'm the Celestia of this world." Celestiax answered. "Apparently your Princess has a different vision on how to rule or something, at least she isn't cruel like our leader is: Fluttershyx if you haven't figured it out by now." "Oh..." Rainbow Dash said thinking things of Celestia over. "What about the Luna here?" "Locked away where she can't harm anypony and where Fluttershyx will never find her." Celestiax said with disgust thinking about her sister. "We don't have time for that story though." Rainbow Dashx had been left unchecked while they were talking. In less than a second she got up from the ground and charged forward. She grabbed Rainbow Dash from behind and shot off into the sky at an alarming rate. The wind nearly knocked the other two ponies onto the ground. The two of them just stood there stunned at what just happened. Both Rainbow Dashes were already so far away they didn't even hear her screaming as she was carried away. "Damnit!" Fluttershy eventually yelled, angry at losing Rainbow twice already. "Can your radar track them again?" "No, when she was hit with my magical blast, it must have deactivated the chip in her." Celestiax said playing with the radar. "Well, what do we do know?" Fluttershy said at a loss. "I can help you with that, no problem." A familiar voice came from behind them. With lightning fast reflexes Celestiax spun around and blasted another bolt from her horn at Fluttershyx. This time, she seemed ready for it as she was quick to dodge it. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Fluttershyx said. "Don't worry. We'll take good care of you." As she said this a bunch of pegasi and unicorns appeared out of nowhere. The pegasi landed from the sky while the unicorns removed their invisibility spells. "Come on. Lets go to the castle. I'll give you the full tour, all complementary." Fluttershyx said menacingly with an evil grin at her face. "Don't worry, we'll find your friends for you. You can just sit back and relax in your own special rooms while we do all the work. I insist." The ponies were herded into a carriage with an anti magic field around it. The field also prevented escape. The carriage could be pulled but no pony inside could get out. Of course Celestiax tried relentlessly to break it, but to no avail. Eventually Celestiax fell back giving up on attempting to escape. She was also exhausted from all the casting. "Well, are you finally done attempting to break from my impenetrable prison?" Fluttershyx asked. "Shut up." Celestiax said. "Well, even though you are my guests, I must apologize and say that I won't. I'm sure you, Fluttershy, are wondering about this world and would love a tour through the new Canterlot." Fluttershyx began before quickly being cut off. Another carriage with the same anti magic field on it flew by theirs nearly hitting it. This carriage was filled with the screams of what sounded like maybe up to ten ponies. The carriage seemed to be flying over to the Cloudsdale weather factory. It only shocked Fluttershy even more, since her first impression was child slavery. Her eyes began to water thinking about it along with all the other hell that must go on here. "Oh you must ignore them. It is of no importance." Fluttershyx said waving away the carriage. "Quit your crying. I would think that rebels of this day would be more stable." Fluttershyx laughed seeing Fluttershy cry over the scene. "Anyways, we'll be to the castle soon where you can get the full tour. The highlight of it though will be the crime and punishment sector. But I guess you already guessed that." Fluttershyx continued laughing even more. Her laugh sounded nothing like Fluttershy's did. It was disturbing and sounded just like the mad scientist laugh Twilight had once shown them. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************ "Uhhhhhh, Spikex? Are you sure you left the boat here?" Twilightx said standing on the shore of the island near the spire. She was running around the coast looking for the boat they had used to get to the island. They had gone on a recon mission from Fluttershyx to discover what this spire was about. They had discovered that it was a rift to another dimension that houses ponies that are of the direct opposite of their personalities. Unfortunately when the two were done with their research, they came back to see they were missing their boat. "I swear, I left it right here." Spikex said. "Well this sucks." Twilightx said sorrowfully. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************ The remainder of their ride to the castle was quiet and uneventful. Fluttershy whined scared for most of the trip. Celestiax just lied down defeated. "We're heeeeerreeeeee" Fluttershyx shouted as the carriage docked on the balcony of the castle. The guards carefully unloaded their prisoners into the castle. A new set of guards came out of the balcony entrance and fixed up the prisoners. Two tied down their wings and a third put a cover on Celestiax's horn which prevents magic from being used. "Come on, lets begin our tour. We'll start in the Crime and Punishment sector... and end their too!" Fluttershyx said obviously having fun toying with her prey. Most of the guards dispersed after the two were tied up. Only four guards and Fluttershyx remained. They surrounded and escorted their prisoners into the dark castle. Fluttershy had seen parts of the castle back in her realm, but this one looked much different. In fact, she wasn't even sure if this sector existed for this purpose in the other castle. Inside the walls and doors were all painted black. Only a few bulbs hanging from the ceiling illuminated the hallway. The doors were made of some type of metal and bolted. It was obvious that they were intended to hold back anypony from escaping. The guards pushed them and forced them to begin their journey through the castle. Behind some doors they could hear the terrified or pained shrieks of ponies from behind them. It made Fluttershy cringe every time. If she weren't being forced to move then she would have collapsed and just began bawling. Her eyes were tearing already. As they continued down they heard a particularly loud shriek coming from behind a door that was different from the rest. Not only was it metal like the rest, but it seemed was bolted up and covered in a way that made it look like opening it was impossible. The shrieks coming from behind it didn't sound terrified or scared either, just insane. Suddenly the shrieking became quiet for a moment before a scratchy voice came from the other side. "I CAN HEAR YOUR HEARTBEAT FLUTTERSHYX! YOU CAN'T HOLD ME IN HERE FOREVER!" the voice shouted and then continued with a maniac laugh that sent shivers down Fluttershy and Celestiax's spines. "Oh don't mind her. She can't escape, that room and door is designed so that entering it and leaving it is impossible. We built it around the prisoner inside. She was too dangerous to be kept in society, and killing her was out of the question. We tried, but lost 30 trained ponies lives. She single-handedly killed her entire execution squad." Fluttershyx said ignoring the scream coming from the other side of the door. "Who... who is it?" Fluttershy asked horrified. "Oh names are of no importance." Fluttershyx said waving away the question. "We're almost to our destination anyways." They only walked for a few more minutes down the winding hallways until they stopped in front of a door. One guard stepped forward and unlocked the metal door and the other three pushed Celestiax inside. "See ya later Celestiax. I hope you missed your old cell, because I went through all this trouble to keep it vacant for you specifically." Fluttershyx said before the door was slammed shut and locked back up. "I'm sure your wondering were your going, my copy." Fluttershyx said turning to look at Fluttershy. "Copy?" Fluttershy said trying to still keep the secret from her evil counterpart. "Yes. Do you think I'm stupid? I knew it from the moment I found you. Why else would I be in Ponyville when I could be here? I'm offended. I simply didn't want Celestiax to know in case you hadn't told her. Shes already enough of a nuisance to me. Although, the rest of my empire doesn't know. Just me, I can sense magical properties and things of the such. In fact, I sent the Twilight Sparklex of our world to the island just to act like I didn't know. In fact, she should have returned by now... I wonder where she went." Fluttershyx wondered. "Do you happen to know?" "Umm... we stole her boat to leave the island I think." Fluttershy said quietly. Being alone against this monster scared her even more than when she was with Celestiax and she couldn't help but comply. Fluttershyx laughed at this. "Oh that's rich! I'll I have to pick her up later." She said while laughing still. "Now come on. I have a special room just for you! I have some questions that I want immediate answers to." Fluttershyx said before motioning the guards to continue towards another room. They walked down the hallway a while before stopping at a door that was labeled: "Interrogation Room: 78". The guards opened this room and then Fluttershy was forced in, followed by Fluttershyx. The guards locked the door and stayed outside. It was just the two of them alone in the room. The room was simple. It was lit well and near the back of the room, there was a table that seemed to have a few drawers in it, and it had seats on either side of it. "Come on, sit down." Fluttershyx said as she walked over to the far side of the desk and took a seat. Fluttershy obeyed and took her own seat. The moment she sat down latches shot out holding down her hoofs. Fluttershy let out a small yelp in surprise. "Oh quit your whining. It won't hurt at all. Now, lets begin. So basically, I want to know why the hell you six have decided to invade my realm." She said angrily. Fluttershy just sat there in silence. She was too scared of being face to face with the evil version of herself. Not only was she scared, but she pulled on all of her bravery to stay quiet. The reason they were in was trivial at this point, but still. She had her pride and maybe their was a chance Fluttershyx hadn't realized she could take over her world yet. "Being quiet, eh? You know, it would be easier for everyone if you just spoke. Now again, why are you here?" Fluttershyx asked again a bit calmer. Again, she was met by silence. Fluttershy had her eyes squeezed shut in an attempt to help herself stay quiet and to prevent the tears from falling down from her eyes. "Ugh. You know, you are pathetic." Fluttershyx began insulting her impatiently. "You are meek and you are weak. Your a pushover to everypony and again, pathetic. It must be fact since I'm the opposite. I didn't take over Equestria from being a pathetic waste of flesh!" She shouted angrily. Fluttershy couldn't take it anymore. She was about to just burst out crying her eyes out when she remembered something. She remembered all those times she was assertive, she was mean and didn't take shit from anypony. She remembered Iron Will's training. She had forced that Fluttershy away because it hurt everypony's feelings, but she wanted to hurt this one's. She was sick of her counterpart. There was nothing nice about her, nothing at all. "Me? Pathetic?" Fluttershy replied angrily, eyes now opened, but with a look of anger and contempt in them. "At least I don't have to push everypony around and make everypony fear me because I'm a big meanie jerkface and can't feel successful without everypony bowing down to me. That sounds pathetic to me. I bet you'd be scared half to death if a revolt happened. You'd give in, why? Because your a fake!" Fluttershy's voice raised in volume and anger with every word until she was shouting. "Its all an act to you! You have to feel all high and mighty just to feel like you can do anything! I doubt that it was you who took over! You probably hid away like the coward you are and let your minions capture everything for you! Then you came in and said 'Hey! WORSHIP ME OR DIE! I AM A GOD!'". "OK... no more Mrs. Nice Pony and no more games. Oh yes, I am married, and it wasn't by force." Fluttershyx said sternly while opening her drawer. She pulled out something that Fluttershy couldn't see then she slammed the drawer shut. "Now you have one more chance. Tell me, WHY. THE. FUCK. ARE. YOU. HERE!!!!!???" She screamed in Fluttershy's face. "Why? Will you hide away like a coward if you think we're here to threaten your rule? Your scared, I can see it on your face." Fluttershy said in reply. She could feel the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Even when she was assertive, she was never this good at it. She wasn't even thinking straight. "OK. Lets do this the hard way. I'm done with this bullshit talking with you." Fluttershyx said before getting up hiding whatever she pulled out of the drawer behind her. She strolled over to behind Fluttershy and said. "One last chance before shit gets serious. And trust me, you don't want that." "Buck you." Fluttershy said in reply. In reply to Fluttershy's disobedience Fluttershyx brought whatever she was holding down on Fluttershy's head, hard. Fluttershy tried to let out a yelp of pain, but before she could, she was already out cold.