Vinyl Scratch turned the laminated card in her hand around again and again, scrutinizing every detail on it. It had been a some time since she had met Gadwall and they had relocated themselves to a hotel. Since then the unicorn had been trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

As the gryphon had explained to the white mare, he was an agent sent to Equestria from the nation of Aeros, a far away land across the ocean where the gryphons ruled. She had heard the name before when she went to school as a filly, part of Equestrian history was the treaty with the gryphon race, but aside from that she didn't really know much about the place. When it came down to it she could only take Gadwall's word that he was some sort of secret agent. The only reason she was scanning his identification with such intensity was to see if there was something glaringly wrong with it.

However the card seemed very legitimate, having fancy gold trim and a symbol stamped on it that she could only assume was the Aeros royal insignia. Try as she might though she couldn't see anything wrong with it. Giving up the unicorn handed the card back to the male gryphon. "Do you believe me now, Miss Scratch?" Gadwall politely asked.

"Yeah, I believe ya." The mare replied. "It's just Vinyl by the way. So what exactly is this 'protective custody' all about?"

"Didn't you read that letter I sent you?" Gadwall asked the unicorn.

Vinyl pulled the letter out of her pocket and unfolded it right in front of the gryphon. "I read it alright, but all I got from it is that there is some group possibly after me and that my friend is involved. I want details now or I'm walking."

Gadwall shook his head at the mare's threat to leave. "I'm afraid you don't understand what protective custody means. I have been assigned by the sovereign queen of Aeros to keep you safe no matter what, even if it is against your will." Vinyl got up from the bed she was sitting on and rolled up her sleeves. The gryphon seemed pretty fit for a male of his race, but Vinyl had been in her fair share of brawls and didn't think for a second that she couldn't take Gadwall if she had to. "Wait." The gryphon said putting up his hands, more so he wouldn't have to hurt the mare by defending himself than worrying about his own safety. "Just because I said you can't leave doesn't mean I won't explain what is happening."

Hearing Gadwall say he would tell her what was going on Vinyl settled down a bit, but still didn't like the idea of being held against her will. She really wasn't one to do what those in authority wanted her to do. "Ok, I'm listening."

The gryphon took a deep breath and thought for a moment of where he should start. There was a lot of information to tell the unicorn mare and he wasn't sure how much he should really say. "I think to start, I should tell you that we believe that the girl you were with earlier is part of the group that I spoke of in that letter."

"You mean that Gilda girl?" Vinyl commented, trying to make sure she understood what he meant.

"Yes." Gadwall continued "The fact that she knows of Satine almost proves that she is somehow involved. To elaborate, Satine is a gryphon who has a criminal record a mile long, including the capture and trafficking of ponies."

Vinyl's eyes instantly went wide as she heard what Gadwall said. Even up to this point she never thought that it was something so serious. "And you're telling me that Octavia is with this woman?!" Vinyl yelled as she rushed Gadwall, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "Where is she?! What are they doing with her?! Why don't the guards know about this?!" The mare shot question after question at the gryphon, getting a few good shakes in.

"Calm down!" Gadwall yelled back before taking a hold of Vinyl's wrist. Pressing one of his talons down on a pressure point the male gryphon forced the mare to release him and before she could react twisted her arm around her back. "I promise you that we're doing everything in our power to help your friend, but things like this take time."

The mare struggled against Gadwall's firm grip, unwilling to settle herself. He was stronger than she had assumed, but she still had the advantage of being a unicorn. With a quick shimmer of her horn she grabbed a small picture hanging from the hotel wall and in her current state of anger chucked it in the direction of the gryphon holding her. Gadwall ducked as he saw the projectile, narrowly dodging it. He quickly realized that had to de-escalate the situation and pulled Vinyl to the bed, forcing her onto it so that she was laying face down. Then grabbing a pillow off the mattress he put it over the mare's head in an attempt to stop her from continuing to toss items at him from across the room, knowing that most common unicorns could only grab things with their magic that they had in their line of sight.

For roughly a minute the two were locked in this position, the white mare doing her best to escape while the gryphon put all his effort into making sure she didn't. Eventually Vinyl stopped though, and as she did Gadwall removed the cushion he used to blind the mare. Once it was out of the way he could see that Vinyl's glassed had been knocked off and she had a very disgruntled look in her eyes, but even though she was still upset, she didn't try to fight him.

"Are we done?" Gadwall said, slightly exhausted from restraining the girl.

Vinyl glared straight ahead of her, not even looking at the male gryphon. "Yeah, we're done."

"Well then..." Gadwall released the mare and sat on the bed, allowing her to sit up right herself before deciding to go on with his explanation. "As I was saying, we are wor- OW!" The gryphon grabbed his shoulder as a blunt pain entered his thoughts. Looking right beside him he saw Vinyl rubbing her knuckles before shaking out her hand to alleviate the pain she received from punching him.

"You jerk." Said Vinyl. "You nearly pulled my arm out of it's socket. Gonna be sore for days."

As Vinyl rubbed her shoulder, Gadwall found himself mimicking the action, grumbling as he did. "Let me get to the point. Yes, we believe that Octavia might be in the clutches of Satine along with many other ponies. While the Aeros Secret Service is doing its own separate investigation, we aren't keeping Equestria out of the loop. Our queen has informed your princess of the matter, and I am sure she has sent somepony to look into it."

"Then why is it that I'm here with you instead of with one of the palace guards?" Vinyl questioned the gryphon.

"You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the fact that our intel said that you are next target of 'The Society'." Gadwall replied.

"The Society huh. That's a pretty dumb name." Said Vinyl, completely unimpressed.

"The name doesn't matter. What does is what we have heard about them. It isn't just a matter of them just enslaving ponies for physical labor." Gadwall said, his voice gaining a grim tone. "If we are to believe the rumors, then this group is using extreme methods to break the wills of the ponies they have so they become willing slaves, serving the group both physically and sexually." Vinyl didn't want to think about what the gryphon was implying. The idea of Octavia being forced to fuck some stallion or gryphon against her will was terrible. She was glad when the door to the room came open and distracted her from the images that were forming in her head.

A young looking female gryphon walking into the bedroom. It was Gadwall's assistant, the one who had lured Gilda away from Vinyl earlier. "Ah, Alula." Gadwall greeted the girl. "I see you didn't have any trouble getting away from the suspect."

Alula nodded. "She wasn't very smart. She didn't question me even once and even let slip some information about a meeting the Society where going to have right here in Canterlot."

"Excellent." Gadwall said, obviously happy with the results his assistant had made. "What did she say?"

The gryphon girl closed the door behind her before relaying the rest of what she had heard. "She said that a whole bunch of them would be holding some sort of party at a restaurant in week's time. A real fancy one."

"Well that's great!" Vinyl interjected. "You know where they are going to be now. You can go tell the guards and go round them up."

"I'm afraid it's still not that easy." Said Gadwall. "We can't just go in there and grab everypony if we aren't sure that their leader isn't there as well. Acting too soon can cause more bad than good."

"What in Equestria are you talking about? Just go in there and knock some heads around." Vinyl said, not very happy with the male gryphon's response.

"Please, Miss Scratch, try to understand." Alula said, slipping herself in between the two on the bed. "What Gadwall means to say is that if we go in and fail to catch the ringleader, then we'll alert them to our presence. That could make them panic and go into hiding, possible taking the ponies they have captive with them. If that happens then there is no telling how long it will be till we find them again."

Gadwall put a hand on the gryphon girl's shoulder. "Very good Alula. I couldn't of said it better myself." He looked past his assistant to Vinyl. "Now do you see what we mean?"

Vinyl didn't want to admit it but what the gryphons said made sense. It didn't matter how many of this group they caught if they couldn't save every one of their victims, especially if one of the ones they got away with was Octavia. She was going to have to just settle down and think rationally about this. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves she did her best to revert to her usual relaxed demeanor. "Ok... ok. So then what is your plan."

Happy to see the white unicorn become a little more compliant he was glad to share what he had in mind. "Well firstly we won't be able to do much until the day of the party. Mostly me and Alula will be doing a bit of reconnaissance on the location and will be pulling some strings to see if we can't get in somehow. Once that is done, we'll go there on the night of party and see if we can learn of where their headquarters is by asking the guests, or if we are lucky, the pony in charge could even be at the event. Depending on how many guests there are there they might not take notice if there are a few extra people there."

The plan was pretty sound. The only thing that bothered the unicorn mare was that waiting for a week would mean that Octavia would be at the mercy of the Society for that much longer. It was the best she could ask for though. "So what's my part in all this? Do I help with scoping out this place or maybe I could...." A talon pressed against Vinyl's lips, silencing her.

"Your part is staying here and keeping yourself safe." Said Gadwall "Me and Alula will handle all this. Meanwhile you can help yourself to the comforts of our hotel room and get room service on my account."

Grabbing Gadwall's claw the mare moved it away from her muzzle. "No way, you can't just ditch me here. I want to help." Vinyl knew that she could be of help if they would let her. She was far from helpless. While Gadwall was able to overpower her earlier she felt it was more because of her being too mad to focus on what he was doing. Plus she had an advantage that neither her or his assistant had; magic. Even basic spells could be a major help in getting things done or causing a distraction..

"You can help by being a good girl and letting the professionals handle this." Gadwall was adamant about the unicorn not getting involved. He knew that if she acted rashly or brought too much attention to herself it could completely ruin his plans. It was best if she stayed out of sight. "Now, we can do this the easy way...." Reaching into his pocket the gryphon pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "Or the hard way."

"You wouldn't dare." Vinyl said coldly

"I don't want to, but if you want to cause problems for me then I'll have no other choice." In a show of good faith he set the cuffs on a dresser near the door. "I trust you'll make the right decision."

Vinyl really didn't like this. The idea of being cooped up in an apartment for an entire week. Even back in Ponyville she never used the place she and Octavia rented for more than a place to crash and keep her things. Even if she didn't mind sitting around for days on end, there was still the matter that what was going on with her roommate would cause her no end of worry. To put it frankly it was going to be the longest week of her life.

"Grah!" The unicorn let out an anguished groan and threw herself backwards onto the bed. Even if she just snuck out when the two gryphons left there was still two big issues, she didn't know which restaurant they were talking about and they were the only ones with information about her friend. There was no way she could help independently and without the gryphons to update her she would just worry more. She had to stay, if only for her own sanity. "I am going to charge the fuck out of your credit card. Starting with dinner."

Gadwall couldn't help but laugh at her small act of defiance. "You have whatever you want, spare no expense." The gryphon had experience with girls like this one, girls that had strong wills and didn't take well to being told what to do. Aeros was full of "Vinyls". There was always a way to reach them though, no matter how rough they were around the edges, and food seemed to be one of the ways through their defenses. "And while you do that me and Alula will get started." Going to the door he opened it and let his assistant walk out in front of him. "Don't worry. This will all be over before you know it."

With those final words Gadwall shut the door behind him, leaving the mare to herself. With the two gryphons gone Vinyl grabbed the cushion that Gadwall used on her earlier and shoved it in front of her face. Screaming and cursing as loudly as she could manage she let out all of her frustrations.

A week passed by and as Vinyl had expected she was bored out of her skull. By the end of the second day she demanded that Gadwall get her a deck of cards the pass the time. By the fourth she had used them to make a card tower several feet tall. When the night of the party came she was going stir crazy and was ready to get outside, no matter how she did it.

"Absolutely not!" Gadwall said to the white mare.

"Come on, nopony is going to come after me. They are going to be too preoccupied with that damned party of theirs. I'll just go someplace public." Vinyl felt that she was being really reasonable. It wasn't like the Society would make a move someplace where other ponies would see them.

Gadwall thought otherwise though. "We were lucky the first time that you were only caught by one of their grunts. All it would take is for one of their higher ups to spot you and follow you back here, and not only would you be endangered, but so will our entire operation."

Vinyl was about to tell the gryphon off, having had enough about how it seemed that he only saw her as a burden, but she was stopped by the return of Alula who had been out picking up some supplies for that night. She didn't look too happy though. In fact there was a bit of fear showing on her face and she was panting like she had been running. Gadwall was the first to speak, wonder what was wrong. "Alula, did something happen?"

"That girl... Gilda. She saw me out in the city and she recognized me from before." The gryphon girl said, putting a bag on a coffee table in the living room of the hotel before taking a seat. "This time however, she confronted me saying that she knew that I wasn't part of the Society. Luckily I was in a crowded area and when I yelled she let me go in surprise."

The male gryphon didn't seem very happy about this news. "Did she follow you here?"

Alula shook her head. "I took an indirect pattern back here. I don't think that she followed me for too long."

Hearing what she had to say, Gadwall brought a talon to his beak and thought about the situation. "This still changes things. I can't take you to the party with me now. If that girl shows up you'll blow my cover. I'll have to go it alone."

"Awww.... but I picked out the perfect dress for a disguise." Reaching into the bag the she brought in with her Alula pulled out a red party dress.

"Wait a moment." Said Vinyl. "All this time of telling me that I'm going to get caught if I go out and when she is the one who get found out you just brush it off like it's nothing? What the heck?!" The unicorn wasn't really upset at Alula. Over time she had kinda come to learn that most of her actions were at the behest of Gadwall so when she was used to lure Gilda away it was at his order. In a sense the male gryphon had caused this to happen.

"I stand by my decision to have you stay here." Gadwall replied. "In a way it is better that we found out that this would happen now then later. If she was found out at the party itself then we might not have made it out."

Vinyl didn't like his answer though as it seemed to her that he was just sidestepping the question. "Well you must've needed Alula there for some reason. What was she going to do before this happened?"

The unicorn mare thought that the gryphon was going to just dismiss her questions again, but this time he was a lot more forthcoming. "Well she was going to accompany as my escort as during social functions like this it does bring up a level of attention to go alone. Once I established myself there I was going to send her off under the pretense of getting refreshments so she could try and find something that would lead us to where the Society might be holding the ponies they enslaved. During that time I would mingle and see if I could get a member with loose lips to divulge the location. Doing it that way would've allowed for better odds of getting the information we were after."

"And now you just want to take on all that by yourself. You're going to need help. Take me. I can do this just as well as she can." Said Vinyl before turning her gaze to Alula. "No offense."

"You can't come with me." Gadwall said reinforcing his stance on the subject. "They would notice you immediately and even if they didn't know you were a target you would stick out like a sore thumb amongst all those upper class ponies."

"Oh for fuck's sake..." She didn't finish her thoughts, instead going over to Alula and snatching the red dress out of her talons. Without saying a word she took off her tinted glasses, tossing them onto the coffee table before going back to the bedroom area and slamming the door shut. The two gryphons eyed the door in confusion, wondering what the white mare was up to. Before long Gadwall found himself going up to the door, curiosity getting the better of him.

At first he tried the direct approach, grabbing the handle and turning it. The knob wouldn't move though, the door being locked. "Vinyl..." He said knocking a few times. "Look, I'm sorry but you and I both know that I'm telling the truth. A pony like you could never blend in with-" The door suddenly flew open and the male gryphon was stunned by what he saw.

Before him was Vinyl, but not the Vinyl that he had come to know over the last week. The mare had removed her normal punk attire, and in its place she had put on the red dress. Now that he saw it on someone, he could see that it had a low cut neckline that showed off a bit of the mare's cleavage. Attached to the top part of the front was a small strap that went around her neck to hold it up. Going around her he noticed that the outfit was backless, covering nothing until it reached her hips. If Alula or a pegasus was wearing the dress this would've allowed their wings room to be free, but it still had its charm on the body of a unicorn. Trailing down to her waist the last thing he noticed was the slits on either side of the dress' long skirt that revealed her legs and and the lowest part of her rear, keeping her cutie mark out of sight.

While the dress alone made the mare look radiant, Vinyl didn't stop there. While in the room she had taken the time to comb her mane and tail, straightening them out from their normal messy style. Along with having her glasses off her normally hidden magenta eyes made her look like a completely different mare. "Hey Alula, you got any lipstick?" The gryphon girl looked into the bag the dress was in before and pulled out a small tube of the desired makeup. Taking it from the girl Vinyl opened it before applying it on her lips, turning them a lovely color of red. "So, what do you think?" She said to Gadwall, turning around a few times.

"W-well... you do look... rather brilliant." Gadwall replied, hardly able to contain his feelings. The mare had cleaned up very well and the extreme transformation from punk to prim was so unexpected that the surprise of it unexpectedly excited the gryphon. Realizing that he was forming an uncomfortable erection in his pants he turned away to conceal it.

Vinyl snickered, the gryphon's actions only made what was happening to him more known to her. "So, I take it I pass for one of those snooty looking snobs. Think I can go now?"

Gadwall couldn't deny that the unicorn had proven her ability to not only class herself up, but come up with the perfect disguise for herself as well. Perhaps he could take her with him. Besides if she was willing to go to this extent to convince him, odds were he couldn't make her stay any longer and having her next to him would be less of a risk than allowing her to go out alone. "Fine, you win. You can come and help me, but you will have to stay close and do exactly what I say. Understand?" Vinyl nodded as a large smile grew across her muzzle, having overcome Gadwall's stubborn opinions of her. Now all she had to do was wait for the time that the party started. After all the time she had spent waiting a few more hours was nothing.

Dusk came and Vinyl was leaning against the wall right next to the door leading out of the apartment. The only thing holding her back from walking right out of it was the male gryphon, who was getting ready in the bedroom like she had earlier. She didn't have to be patient for too long though and soon the gryphon stepped out wearing a fancy black tuxedo. "Ah... that's a lot better." He said as he allowed his assistant to to adjust and straighten out the suit. Once she was finished he went to the door and opened it before extending his arm to Vinyl. "Shall we my dear?"

Vinyl let out a small "Pfff" sound at how he was acting. Now that he was more willing to let her help the gryphon seemed like less an oppressive force and had become little more than humorous in her eyes. Nevertheless she took his arm in her own so she could play the role of his date to the party.

"Alula, watch over the place while I'm gone." Gadwall said to his assistant. "Leave a window open just in case though. If that Gilda girl comes looking for you, I want you to fly away as fast as you can."

"Yes sir." Alula replied. With that the gryphon male and and the unicorn mare left.

Shortly afterwards the two were on the streets of Canterlot heading to the restaurant where the members of the Society where supposedly meeting and Vinyl couldn't wait to crack their operation wide open. "So just to make sure we got the plan together, why don't we go over it a bit before we make it to party?"

The gryphon couldn't believe how resourceful and focused to the task at hand the mare was. In many ways he was glad that he had gotten to her when he did. If Gilda had gotten away with her then it was possible that he might of never been able to complete his assignment. "Well Vinyl I am afraid it is going to be a bit harder than we originally thought. While the party is going to be held at the restaurant it is not going to be in the main area. From the information I got from one of my sources, a series of tunnels go out from underneath it and that is what we are going to have to make our way to if we want to find the Society. On the upside I did get us reservations into the dining hall. All we have to do is get into their wine cellar where to tunnels start. Think you are up to it?"

"Are you kidding?" Vinyl replied. "Improvising is my specialty. I'll get us in their easy as pie."

"I hope so." Gadwall said. "As a unicorn I will be counting on you and your magic to get us out of any tight spots if we get found out. Got any spells that can divert attention?"

"I got that covered. Those bastards try to mess with us and they won't know what hit them." Said the mare with a bit of pride. Her musical magic would be more than enough to trough those uptight ponies into a state of confusion, being able to produce a noise so loud that the unexpecting ponies would most likely curl over in pain. She would need some kind of instrument to focus it on, but being that this was a party she was sure she could figure out something.

"Well then I think that we are about as ready as we will ever be. Besides...." Gadwall said coming to a stop. "We're here."

In front of the two stood a large, classy looking restaurant. In front of the door was a line of ponies waiting to be allowed inside and above it was a sign that said "Crystal Cuisines". "Huh.... never noticed this place before."

"It's fairly new." Gadwall explained. "Its specialty is recipes that originate from the Crystal Empire. While the business itself seems legitimate, the fact that the Society are holding a meeting here raises suspicion. We might have to inform Celestia after we are done here so she can look into the matter."

Vinyl was about to ask why not inform her now, but the answer Gadwall gave her before popped into her head. Celestia would most likely send in her guards and if that happen there was the possibility that it could cause more harm than good. For now it was up to them to get whatever information they could and try to remember the faces of every member she saw. As they got to the back of the line, Vinyl psyched herself up in preparations for what was sure to be a night she would never forget.

Author's Note

No notes today. Just hope you guys didn't think it dragged to much and that you enjoyed the chapter.