One day earlier
Fluttershy was very happy with the progress Char-Elles was making. Even more so, she was glad that some of her friends seemed to be less fearful of him, if not actually friendly. Pinkie was, of course, but she would have been surprised if she’d been otherwise. Rainbow would take some time. She knew her oldest friend was very protective of her, and the hue-mon’s actions when he’d frightened her into fainting hadn’t won him any points with Rainbow. But hopefully that was all behind them, and they could move on to seeing him the way she did.
After supper for herself and her animals, all was quiet. At first. Sometime during the night, after all had settled in, she was awoken by nervous chittering all through her house. Angel was especially agitated and kept shaking her and pointing outside the bedroom. She’d better get up and investigate.
As a rule, she always locked her doors and windows and checked them all at least once before she went to bed. She hadn’t heard glass breaking, so it was unlikely anything untoward had gotten in. Still, she lit a lantern and peeked out her bedroom door.
“Hello? Is anypony out there?”
All she heard were the squeaks and chirps of her various birds and animals. She ventured out and down the stairs.
“Shhh…quiet, my friends. What’s wrong?”
But they didn’t settle down.
Suddenly there was an explosion of activity, as all the animals went into a panic. Fluttershy’s heart starting beating wildly, as she stared about her.
“What is it?! What do you see?!”
Then she felt a presence behind her, and she whipped around. There was enough time for her light to fall on a nightmare standing there, grinning at her. She opened her mouth to scream, just as it quickly moved forward and stuck something in her shoulder. She fell senseless to the floor.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
She awoke in pain. Groaning, she pushed herself up and looked around. She was in a cage that was filled with sodden, filthy straw. Then she noticed she was wearing some sort of metal collar. She couldn’t see it, but it was heavy and had raised bumps on it like switches. Also, she could feel a strange hum coming from it. She tried a few times to remove it, but it wasn’t going anywhere.
She held her nose as she noticed hers was one of several cages: four were next to her on her side of the huge room, a few others across it. The near cages held creatures she knew: there was a minotaur next to her, a gryphon in the next and a manticore on the end. She didn’t recognize the inhabitants of the other cages, but one…one exceptionally large cage held something from her nightmares. It was vaguely insectoid, but also like a centaur. She stared at it as it paced its enclosure. There were four legs on the lower half, and two arms on the muscular upper body. Its face (?) had monstrous pincers beneath multi-faceted eyes. It hadn’t noticed her yet, and at that moment she was glad of the cages.
She looked at the surrounding room. It was dimly lit, with spotlights over each of the cages. The walls, ceiling, and floor appeared to be metal, with stains on the floor and walls that looked suspiciously like blood. Though she couldn’t see the entire room, she got the sense it was bigger than it appeared to be. On the walls, there were lights and control switches that reminded her of Twilight’s basement laboratory.
She turned to the minotaur.
“Excuse me. Mr. Minotaur? Where are we? What is this place?”
The minotaur didn’t answer her but just sat facing away. He was huddled with his arms upon his knees and stared at the floor of his cage. In the glare of the spotlight, she could see he also wore a collar. She could also see fresh, untreated scars along his back.
“Dear Celestia! What happened to you?”
He slowly raised his head, and then looked over his shoulder at her. She brought a hoof to her mouth to stifle the involuntary gasp as she saw the ruin of his face. He stared at her with his one remaining eye, and then turned back and resumed his former position.
“Who did this?” she quietly asked.
He remained silent, but the gryphon finally deigned to speak. Raising her head from the floor of her cage, she said, “Pipe down, you stupid little pony. Just leave him alone.”
“I’m sorry! But…what happened to him?”
“The same thing that’s going to happen to you, most likely.”
“What do you mean?!”
The gryphon painfully got to her feet and stared at her across the cages.
“You ponies are too soft for this.” She gestured around. “We’re in a fighting pit. See that thing?” She indicated the large cage. “The minotaur fought it. I fought one of the smaller creatures, but if I have to fight that thing, I’ll claw its eyes out and eat them! But you? You don’t stand a chance.” She hooked a claw into her own collar and winced as she tried to adjust it.
“But…but why? Who are the ones who brought us here, and why would they make us fight? If you don’t mind my asking, of course.”
The gryphon gave a bitter laugh. “I don’t mind at all! For entertainment! My people have similar sports, but they’re not this bloody. You ponies couldn’t handle it.”
Fluttershy’s face went pale. She turned and again stared across the room at the insectoid. She peered more closely at the creature. One of its arms was hanging loosely, and it appeared to be in pain. This time, it noticed her starting at itself, and then it charged its bars and roared at her. She flinched away.
The gryphon chuckled. “Better hope you don’t have to fight him, pony! You’d just be a snack.”
“It’s not so tough.”
The words were spoken so quietly Fluttershy wasn’t sure she’d heard them. She looked at the minotaur, who had raised his head and was staring at her.
“Did…did you say something?”
“Manx said, ‘it’s not so tough.’ Manx beat it and broke its arm, but not before it did this to Manx.” He pointed to his face.
“I’m sorry.” She changed the subject. “So that’s your name? Manx?”
He nodded. “You?”
“I’m…I’m Fluttershy.”
The gryphon spoke up. “Fluttershy? What kind of name is that?”
Fluttershy just looked at the floor. The gryphon snorted and then lay back down in her soiled straw. All became silent except for the low thrum of machinery and the pacing of the insectoid. The click of its feet echoed in the stillness.
After a few moments, Manx slowly shifted his position so he was facing Fluttershy. A tremor seized him, and he shook from head to hoof.
“Are you alright? Why are you shaking?” she asked.
He got control of himself and waved her question off.
“Manx is fine, but Manx is sorry Fluttershy is here. The gryphon is right: this is no place for a pony. Manx would help Fluttershy escape if he could.”
“Th…thank you,” she quietly said. “But, can you tell me about the ones who brought us here? If you don’t mind, of course.”
Fluttershy saw anger blaze in the minotaur’s eye, and she backed up at first, thinking it was directed at her.
“They are the real monsters,” Manx growled. “Manx isn’t sure what else they are, but Manx knows they enjoy seeing us suffer.”
He indicated his collar.
“These things are used to control us. They can make us feel pain…lots of pain.”
Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide. She reached up again and tried to remove hers, but Manx shook his head.
“Don’t bother. Manx has tried many times to take his off. Manx did not succeed.” He coughed and trembled again.
“How…how long have you been here?”
He shrugged. “Hard to say. No windows, so Manx can’t see the sun, but it feels like three days.” He used his thumb to shakily point over his shoulder. “The gryphon and the manticore were here before Manx.”
She’d almost forgotten the manticore, it had been so silent. “Is it hurt as well?”
“Don’t know. Manx can see it breathing, but it hasn’t moved from that spot in a very long time.”
Any other reply she was about to make was cut off by the sound of a heavy door sliding open. The gryphon got to her feet and stared out. Manx visibly tensed.
“They are coming.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This world had been under surveillance for quite some time and had been declared off-limits by the Stellar registries. So it had taken many bribes and countless days of traveling undetected to reach it. But it was worth the risks. This world was unique among the many planets they’d snuck onto. Even though this planet had no space-faring technology, through clandestine observation they'd discovered two of the inhabitants somehow had control over their own star and satellite. Such creatures would make valuable additions to their cargo, but such couldn’t just be captured like they had done all the others. No, as powerful as they appeared to be, they had to be subdued from a distance. If the device they’d implanted in that creature they’d captured from that blue planet worked, the target creatures could be weakened enough to be captured and transported. Then they’d study their abilities at leisure.
One of the captors spoke to the other, who replied in the affirmative. Then they both donned their battle suits, activated the extra limbs and flexed the attached claws. Even with their specimens caged and collared, they were taking no chances with any of them.
They both got to their feet and made their way to the pit. It was time to see how well that pony could fight. If it could, then they would get a better price for it. If not, it could still be of use. They had observed an emotional attachment between the pony and the earther. The earther couldn’t be used as a fighter, but it may need motivation to fulfill its mission. Those beings tended to be difficult when directly confronted. The ones that didn’t first die of fright, apparently.
Just before entering the pit, they stopped at an off room and picked out a particular cage. Within it sat a very small and very frightened rabbit. One of the captors held the small cage up to its face, and slowly poked one of its claws through the bars. The rabbit squealed and backed up as far as he could go. The captor smiled, then turned to its companion.
“Motivation.”