"But, do I have to?" Rainbow Dash groaned in a bored voice.
"Yes," Twilight said flatly, "Spike is out helping Fluttershy with a small dragon problem, so I need help shelving these books."
They were both sitting in Twilight Sparkle's library. Stacks of books piled three times as high as the ponies littered the floor. It was like a paper jungle. The shelves were void of any books. Twilight stood next to a stack, looking at Rainbow Dash with a confident and slightly smug look. Rainbow Dash sat on her rump, with her fore-hooves between her hind ones. She looked like she would rather be anywhere else in the Equestria.
It was a mistake that Rainbow was even in the library. Rainbow had ascendantly hit Twilight as she was flying home from dropping off Spike. Although it wasn't that uncommon of an occurrence, Twilight still took the opportunity to guilt Rainbow into some work. Twilight's library in her new castle was so large, she wouldn't be surprised if it took two weeks to sort all the books. And Spike would be gone for at least that long.
Twilight flouted a couple of clipboards over from the table. She set one down in front of Rainbow Dash and kept the other at chest level with herself.
"Now to business, these are to keep track of what books go where," Twilight said commandingly. She looked down at her clipboard, "I'll start you off with the chemistry section, it's that stack there."---she pointed at a stack to her left without looking up---"You need to stack them as shown in the diagram, got it?" Twilight looked up.
Rainbow Dash hadn't moved since she put the clipboard down. She was just staring at it with revulsion. Rainbow Dash looked up, and made eye contact with Twilight.
"Don't even think about it!" Twilight shouted. But before she was even finished, there was a flash of rainbow and Dash was gone.
"Ugh!" Twilight said loudly, then sighed, "May as well get started, I'm going to be here awhile."
"Oh thank goodness," Rainbow Dash sighed, glad to have escaped Twilight's prison. "Not this time missy," Rainbow said to herself. There was no way she was going to get stuck stacking shelves for days on-end.
Rainbow started walking through Ponyville, not sure what she was going to do, probably take a nap. The streets were full of bustling ponies going about their business. Two Stallions were sitting at a nearby dinner, one glanced at Rainbow and smiled, Rainbow smiled back.
It got her thinking: Ponyville was such a friendly town. Everypony knew everypony else, kinda like one big family. Crime was practically unheard of, a foreign concept to most ponies here. Parents never had to worry about ponynappings, in fact, parents would often send their fillies to pick up groceries and such.
Deciding that she would spend the day with Tank; Rainbow Dash spread her wings, and flapped them, taking off into the air.
She quickly made it to the threshold of her house. Reaching out and Turing the door Knob, Rainbow Dash walked inside. "Tank!" She called, "Come here buddy!"
Tank came hovering around a corner, suspended in the air by the propeller on his shell. "Hey!" Rainbow Dash said in a puppy dog voice. She quickly launched herself at Tank, holding him in a hug. They rolled around on the living-room floor for a few seconds. "Ohh hey, I wasn't gone that long," Rainbow said, with a laugh. Tank was holding on to Rainbow harder than he usually did. Rainbow stopped and looked at Tank, still lying on the floor.
Tanks eyes were full of, fear. "Tank? What's the matter?" Rainbow's face and voice were full of concern. She had never seen Tank so afraid. She noticed where he was looking, He wasn't looking at Rainbow, his eyes were fixed on a spot behind her.
Rainbow turned her head, she saw two Pegasus walking towards her. They wore tight black leather: it covered them from head to hoof. It had a special pouch where the ponies mane and tail were, so it just looked like a black bun. They had black tinted goggles so Rainbow couldn't see the eyes.
It all happened so fast. Before Rainbow knew what was happening, one of the ponies lept onto her, holding a white cloth up to her mouth. Rainbow tried to scream, to kick, to do anything, but she was feeling drowsy. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head, and everything went dark.
"What about the turtle?" One of the ponies in black said.
"It's just a stupid turtle, leave it," The other pony said, walking up to Rainbow with a body-bag.
"Why'd we wait so long to do this? 's easy as pie," The first pony said.
"She's an Element of Harmony, that makes making her disappear a lot harder," the second pony answered. Laying the body-bag beside Rainbow Dash and unzipping it.
"So why now? She's still gonna be hard to cover up, no different then any other time."
"I don't know just help me with this, she's heavy."
Rainbow Dash awoke to a sharp pain in her side. She jolted, clutching her side with a hoof.
"Wake up!---"
"Hey! don't you dare touch her again, or you can join them," The voice was full of scorn and frustration
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was a pony standing over her, the pony who had hit her. The pony was looking behind him, there was another pony standing in the back of the room. The two seemed to have a little stand off, but neither said anything. Then the one who had hit Rainbow stepped back, towards the back of the room. The pony was covered in black leather, like the ones who had ponynapped her.
Rainbow looked around. She was in the back right corner of what appeared to be a small concrete box. There was one small light in the middle of the ceiling, next to it was some kind of vent. The wall on the opposite side of Rainbow was nothing but mirror. There was a door forward and to her right, which the pony in black was guarding. There was a laud-speaker in one corner of the ceiling. It reminded Rainbow of one of those police interrogation rooms she had seen. She looked to her left, along the wall she saw five other mares, all sitting on the floor, each looking terrified.
In the back of the room, there was a stallion: he had a light gray coat with a silver mane and tail, which had streaks of pure white in it. His mane was short and combed to one side, his tail was long, it almost touched the ground. He wore a black vest and a white tie. He was still glaring at the pony in black, then he turned towards the mares.
The stallion walked up to the mares on Rainbow's left, he started at the furthest one and walked along the line. Stopping at each mare to look them over. Many of the mares looked frightened, a couple flinched when he walked passed. "Hmm...mh... Uh huh..." The stallion said as he looked at each mare. "Oh," he exclaimed when he stopped at a mare Rainbow couldn't see, "I already know where you'll be going," He said in a exited tone.
Then he got to Rainbow, who was laying on her belly with her side against the wall. He stopped and looked her up and down. "And you're the special case aren't you?" he said as more of an observation than a question, as if Rainbow was supposed to know what that meant. "Though why your still here I have no idea, " He said to himself under his breath.
He then turned and headed for the door. Rainbow, confused and still drowsy did what she thought was best. "What the hell!" Rainbow shouted at the stallion, "Who do you think you are? Let us go!" Rainbow shot to her hooves, and started walking towards the stallion.
The stallion turned and said "Don't make me get violent," He spoke with what sounded like genuine concern.
"I'll show you violent!" Rainbow shouted, spreading her wings and intending to hurl herself at the stallion. But the pony in black quickly crushed that plan. The pony slammed their hooves on Rainbow's back with such force she collapsed to her belly. Legs spread wide on either side of her. The pony then grabbed Rainbow around the waist and threw her against the wall with the other mares.
"Fighter," The stallion in the vest said, looking back at the mirror wall. "You guys owe me." He looked at Rainbow Dash, "The one way you're 'gettin out of here is with help, and only help. He smiled, then walked towards the door, keeping an eye on Rainbow Dash. He opened the door and walked out, followed closely by the pony in black. Rainbow made a beeline for the door but it closed before she got there. Her head slammed against the door as it closed. She reached up and started rubbing it softly.
All six mares lay there, none making a sound. Rainbow was rubbing her head, trying to think about what was happening. She had no idea why all this had happened,
'What did these ponies want with six mares?' She thought, 'And what did that stallion mean when he called her the "Special case"?'
Rainbow had no answers for these questions, and thinking about them only seemed to make her head hurt more.
Rainbow turned around to look at the other five mares laying against the wall. The one opposite to the end that Rainbow had been at was a lime green earth-pony with light blue hair. The next one was yellow with pink hair, also an Earth-pony. The next had caramel brown fur with the same color hair, she was a Pegasus. The next one looked familiar. She was a light blue unicorn who had mane that was half darker blue and half silver. Rainbow tried to place a name but she couldn't.
Rainbow decided to talk to her, she got up and walked over to the blue unicorn. The unicorn was lying on her belly, she had her face buried in her hooves. She appeared to be crying, Rainbow laid in front of her.
"Hey," Rainbow said softly. The unicorn didn't react. "Hey come on, don't cry. I've seen you around Ponyville, what's your name?"
The mare looked up at Rainbow with tear filled eyes. "M-Minuette," the mare said quietly.
"That's a pretty name," Rainbow said, she was trying to comfort herself as much as she was Minuette.
Minuette stopped crying and asked softly, "You're Rainbow Dash right? I've seen you around Ponyville too."
"Do you live there?" Rainbow asked, trying to keep her mind off their situation.
"Oh no, I live in Canterlot, I just come to Ponyville to visit my friend Lyra," Minuette wiped her eyes, the tears had stopped coming.
"I know Lyra. Green unicorn right?" Rainbow said, glad to see Minuette was felling a bit better.
"Yeah..."
"Why don't you use magic and try and get us out of here?" Rainbow Dash asked after a few seconds of awkward silence.
"Well, I can try," Minuette closed her eyes, her horn erupted with yellow magic, but nothing happened. "I can't, It---I--- Somthings stopping me."
"It's okay, but, we should try and get out of here. Could we smash that glass you think?" Rainbow said, looking at the mirror-wall.
"Don't think so," Minuette said, her voice was becoming less quite and more like its joyful self Rainbow remembered. Rainbow was looking around the room, trying to spot any other why of escape.
"Hey," Rainbow whispered to Minuette, "Lets try and cheer up these other ponies, ok?"
"Ooh I'm good at that, " Minuette whispered back optimistically. She gave a little wink, lifted herself a few inches off the ground, turned around, and started talking to the caramel pony.
Rainbow turned to her left and looked at the pony lying there. She was a dark purple Pegasus with lighter purple hair. She had been watching Rainbow and Minuette talk. The pony looked Rainbow up and down apprehensivly. Her eyes were full of fear and now she seemed to be trying to get as far away from Rainbow as she could, although she was pressed against the wall.
"What do you want?" The pony said, frightened.
"Nothing, nothing," Rainbow said, trying to comfort the pony. But to no avail, "I just wanna talk."
"Talk about what?" The pony asked accusingly.
"What's your name?" Rainbow asked softly. But the pony just looked at Rainbow.
"Why'd that stallion say you were 'special'?" You know him?" The pony asked.
"I-I don't know, I've never seen him before." The pony looked suspicious, Rainbow clearly wasn't getting anywhere with her. "Would you like me to just leave?" Rainbow asked, already knowing the answer.
The pony nodded, looked to her right, eyed the corner of the wall. She then looked back at Rainbow--who still hadn't moved-- with an expectant look. Rainbow scooted away from the pony. The pony then walked over to the corner she had been eyeing. She never took her eyes off the other mares as she walked. When she got there, she plopped herself in the corner, sat up-right and stared at the other mares. Never taking her eyes off of them.
'Okay,' Rainbow thought to herself, 'she clearly trusts no pony.' Rainbow turned the other way to see how Minuette was doing. She was doing amazing, she was talking to all three of the other ponies. They all looked kinda happy, most had tiny smiles on their faces. Rainbow got up and went over to join the conversation.
"Oh," Minuette said, "Girls, meet Rainbow Dash, she's from Ponyville."
The green earth pony said, "I'm Juniper,"
The yellow earth pony said, "'Hey, I'm Butternickle, but everypony calls me Bickle,"
The brown pegasus said, "Hi, I'm caramel,"
Rainbow waved in response. Minuette went on talking to the others. Rainbow was trying to be pleasant but they needed to find a way out of there. And now that everpony seemed able to talk without bursting into tears, Rainbow interrupted Minuette.
"Minuette," Rainbow said, having to Rase her voice a little to be heard. Minuette stopped talking and looked round at Rainbow, along with the other mares. "We need to find a way out of here," Rainbow looked at each of the mares. "Does anypony have any ideas?" Rainbow asked.
"What about the mirror? Could we break that?" Juniper asked.
"How would we? Buck it? That's a good way of getting dozens of tiny glass shards in your hooves." Bickle responded, a little sarcastically.
"'Have you tried the door?" Caramel asked.
"No," Rainbow said, "but I assume it's locked. Didn't you see me ram into that thing?"
Caramel looked a little embarrassed, she looked down at her hooves and said, "Yeah but, I'm just trying to help."
"Hmm," Rainbow said thoughtfully. There was no obvious way of escaping, so they might have to get creative.
At least an hour had passed and Rainbow still had no ideas. She had gotten up and started pacing around the room. 'Think! Think you dumbass!' But nothing came to her.
"Rainbow?" Minuette asked, you okay?" Minuette had spent the hour lying with Bickle, Juniper and Caramel. Minuette did most of the talking, and Rainbow even heard a laugh at one point.
"Yeah I'm fine," Rainbow said, frustrated. She was getting more and more aggravated at how the other mares didn't seem to have any interest in escaping, they were just chatting it up. 'Who ponynaps mares and just sticks them in a concrete room? Who does that?'
Hours later--Rainbow lost track--she had had enough. She ran at the door turned around and starting bucking, she bucked with all her might. Laud bangs echoed through the small room each time her hooves made contact with the metal door. Rainbow started breathing heavily, but she kept bucking. 'Need out! Need out! Why won't this damn door break!'
Rainbow tired herself out, slowly coming to a stop, she fell to the floor. She let out a scream, a scream of anger, frustration, and fear. Eventually, it died. Rainbow was breathing heavily, she saw Minuette walk over and lay across from her.
"Rainbow," Minuette said softly, "I know you're upset, but you wanna know how i keep calm? I just get my mind off it, that's why I'm talking with those other mares. And this doesn't worry me, Rainbow, because I know everything is going to be okay, you hear me? It's going to be okay." Minuette smiled, a kind of smile that could warm any heart, bring happiness to anypony.
Rainbow looked at Minuette quizzically. 'How could anypony be this optimistic?' Rainbow wondered. Not wanting to dampen Minuette's spirit and worry the other mares, Rainbow kept her mouth shut, though she was thinking that they might never get out of here.
There was a squeaking sound, Rainbow looked behind her. Under the door there was a small hatch, which swung outward. Through the hatch came six trays, filled with food: Pancakes, hay-bacon, grits, and eggs. Along with the trays came six small bottles of water.
"Food!" Rainbow exclaimed, rushing to get a tray and bottle; fallowed closely by the other mares. They each grabbed a tray and starting inhaling their food. Rainbow hadn't noticed how hungry she was, she was so focused on escaping it didn't matter. But now, nothing else matter expect how heavenly the pancakes tasted; some of the best Rainbow had ever had, which surprised her considering where she was.
After Rainbow had devoured her pancakes and hay-bacon, she was about to move onto her eggs when she finally took her eyes off her food. She looked up and saw the other mares inhaling their food aswell, except one. The purple mare sitting in the corner still hadn't moved, she had been sitting there the entire time they had been in the concrete room. Rainbow concidered trying to talk to her again. 'Ehh, it's her life, she can starve if she wants.'
But the mare did look rather hungry, she watched the others eat with lust. But Minuette beet Rainbow to it. Minuette set her food-tray down and picked up the extra, she brought it over to the purple mare. Rainbow listened hard to try and hear them.
"You look hungry, thought I'd bring you this. Do you want the water too?" Minuette asked softly.
The mare looked Minuette up and down with suspicion, "What's it to you?" She asked aggressively.
"Nothing, I'm just trying to help. You know we don't want to hurt you right? We're all in the same situation and we all want to get out of here."
The mare looked a little less angry, "Yeah?"
Minuette nodded, she placed the tray down in front of the mare, "In case you get hungry." She said with a smile. She then walked back to her tray and continued eating.
Rainbow admired how kind and caring Minuette was, she was so happy all the time, it was nice.
Rainbow wasn't sure how much time had passed, her only judge of time was how many times she fell asleep. She had fallen asleep six times, so Rainbow guessed it had been six days. She had spent most of the time talking with Minuette, they had become quite close. Rainbow didn't know one of the worst things about being ponynapped was how boring it would be. When she wasn't talking with any of the mares, Rainbow would walk in circles, extending her wings every so often just to stretch them out. It had been a long time since she had been this long without flying.
They continued to receive food in the same way as the first time. But other than that, there was no contact with any of the ponies outside. No pony talked to them, no pony came in the room, only food and water. The purple mare had come out of her corner but she still didn't talk much and still acted like any of the mares would jump her at any second.
It wasn't until they had been in there for twenty-five days that something new happened. Rainbow had been daydreaming about flying when the door opened. The mares all jumped to their hooves, waiting to see what would happen.
A stallion walked in, then the door closed behind him. It was the same stallion they had seen their first day there. Same vest, same tie, same combed hair.
"Hello," He said grandly, like he was introduceding a performer, "don't worry, you will all be out of here soon,
five days to be specific. But first, I must assign you your positions." Everypony looked surprised at this, positions? "You will all be sent somewhere where you will be made useful." The stallion continued, "Some of you might be set free, if you don't fit our criteria for any of these positions." He looked at the purple mare, "you actually, you'll be set free." The purple mare looked shocked, but still suspicious.
"Free? Really? Why?" Rainbow asked.
The stallion rolled his eyes, "Because she doesn't fit out criteria. I just told you that."
"Criteria for what?" Rainbow asked.
"For our positions, which are: Privet, dancer, server, and free. Privates are mares who have been bought for personal use, who knows what will happen to them. Dancers are mares who are trained to be strippers and they then work for us. Severs are basically everything else, they can serve drinks, clean, you name it. So, with out further ado, Butternickle, server. Caramel, dancer. Juniper, server. Minuette, dancer. Velvet, free."
'Velvet,' Rainbow thought, so that was her name.
"Rainbow Dash, Private. And you went for a hefty price, no surprises there of course, we should really get mares more like you." The stallion finished. "Alright, Velvet you can come with me, the rest of you, just sit tight."
The door opened, Rainbow, without thinking, flapped her wings and flew at the door. 'Like hell I'm getting sold to some pervert!' She thought. She made it out the door, she was in a hallway, but before she could make out any details two ponies in those black leather suits grabbed her and threw her back in the room and quickly closed the door behind them.
"Dame!" Rainbow said, she stood there, unsure of what to do next. 'Private?' She thought 'What kind of pony would buy another? And why me? And why did they let Velvet free? What kind of operation is this?' All questions Rainbow had no answers for.
"Rainbow," Minuette said, concerned, "what do they mean by calling me a dancer?" There was no happiness in her voice, only dread.
Rainbow looked at Minuette helplessly, "Minuette," she said softly. Rainbow didn't need to add anymore then that. Minuette's suspicions had been answered. She slowly walked to a corner and layed down in it. She did nothing but curl into a ball and put her head on the ground, a powerless look on her face.
The other mares had similar reactions: Caramel found her own corner, Bickle and Juniper embraced, trying to comfert both themselves and each other. Rainbow Dash still stood there, 'Private?'
They spent the next five days moping around, barely speaking to one another. Rainbow tried talking to each of the other ponies, but they all had lost there spirit. There was a certain finality that came with being assigned a job. It was like giving a animal a name, once it was named you became attached to it, and it became much harder to let that animal go. Being given a job signified that this was permanent, all hope of escape was lost. Except for Rainbow Dash, she was determined to fight, no matter where she went, no matter who bought her; She would try and escape, and god Damn it she would escape if it killed her.
Rainbow smelt something odd, she looked up, green gas was pouring in from the vent in the ceiling, rapidly filling the room. Rainbow looked at Minuette, nothing but fear was visible on her face. Rainbow felt woozy, she fell to the ground, everything went black.
Rainbow Dash woke up, she was strapped down this time. She was laying on a bed, with red sheets; one of the comfiest beds Rainbow's ever layed on. She looked around, she was in what appeared to be a bedroom. The bed was in the back left of the room, to Rainbow's part was a wall, to her right was a dresser. There were windows on her left, but they were covered by huge red curtains, the walls were red as well, a deep dark red.
Rainbow struggled against her straps, but to no avail. She had plenty of room to move around, but if she tried to get up the straps tiger and wouldn't let her.
Rainbow heard the door open, she stopped struggleing and looked to see who it was. "You!" She shouted at the stallion who entered the room. He closed the door behind him and walked up next to Rainbow, he looked anxious. It was the stallion who had spoke to her while she was in the concrete room. He was wearing his vest and tie.
"Okay, finally time to cut the crap," He said, with a sigh, he was clearly relieved.
"Let me go!" Rainbow shouted at him, as she tugged again at her restraints, not listening to him.
"Shh," he said urgently, putting a hoof to his snout.
"Let me go--" Rainbow started to say, but was cut short by the stallion cramming his hoof in her mouth.
"Shut up!" He said in a even more urgent whisper, "I'm here to help." Rainbow stopped struggling and looked at the stallion. "Okay," he said, "I'm going to take my hoof away, and you're going to be quiet, right?"
Rainbow just looked at him.
"Okay," he said softly, taking his hoof away, "like I said, I'm here to help."
"What do your mean?" Rainbow asked hesitantly.
"Well, as you may have guessed, this under ground mare operation is a pretty big deal. I'm here on special orders by Princess Celestia herself to set as many mares free as I can. That why I'm the guy who checks the mares and decides where they go. I get full access to all mares, I send them where we have other ponies who get the mares out. But, unfortunately we can't set them all free, but we try are best. And you, you're a special case. Why they decided to take a element of harmony now I'm not sure, it's pretty risky. But they did, so I'm here to get you out of here. You're r the number one priority."
Rainbow sat there, shocked at learning all this. "How are you gonna get me out?" She finally asked.
"I'm not sure yet, but for now, you need to act like you still hate me. I'm going to leave, but I'll be in contact soon." The stallion turned around and walked to the door, he opened it without even a glance at Rainbow, and left.
"Well..." Rainbow said to herself, "Now what?"
The next few hours were some of the most boring in all of Rainbow's life. A pony had come in to give Rainbow food, not as good as the stuff she had eaten for the last month.
Several days passed until the stallion came back. But when he did, he had a plan.
"Okay, here it is. Those windows, they've got mechanical locks on them, no way of opening them without unlocking it first. That's what I'll do, when the time comes but first, here." He gave Rainbow a small metal pick with a curve on the end, no bigger than a pencil. "For your straps, you're gonna have to pick the locks. Since you have no experience, this part is going to take... A week maybe, so get picking." He left the room.
Rainbow set to work, she spent every waking hour on picking the locks. It took her three days to get the first. To get them all it took eleven days. After she had them all unlocked, the stallion came back.
"Okay," he said, "next meal time, that's when I'll disable the locks. Once they're off, just open the window and you're home free. You're gonna need to fly east to get back to Ponyville. And this is goodbye, after this I don't think I'll be seeing you again."
"Can you do me a favor?" Rainbow asked, "I've got a friend, Minuette--"
"Yes I know her, you want me to get her out?" Rainbow nodded. "I'll do my best." He then quickly got up and left, without giving Rainbow the chance to thank him.
Next meal time came, Rainbow sat patiently as the pony delivered the food. After they left, Rainbow shot to her hooves, she walked over to the window and spread the curtains. Daylight, Rainbow hadn't seen it in over a month. Her wings were twitching in anticipation of flying. She clicked open the locks, she opened the window, stood on the cill, and took a look back at the room.
She wondered what would happen to the stallion, to all the mares who wouldn't be set free. She looked back out at the beautiful sky. She spread her wings, and lept towards the ground.
