A Vinyl Scratch Story, Pt. 6
"Is she ever gonna wake up?" came one voice, masculine.
"Not if you don't get a little patience! Ever heard of a watched pot never boils?" came another, feminine.
Vinyl Scratch woke, but dared not open her eyes or give any indication that she had woke. She was a very levelheaded pony, and she knew that if she let them know she was awake, they would probably not be willing to talk as freely in front of their prisoner. She felt a small device on her horn, probably enchanted to shut off her magic, and shackles around each of her hooves. She was probably chained to the floor or the walls, but she could tell by the lack of tug on the shackles that she probably had at least a small amount of freedom to move about. She was also aware of a slight tingling sensation in the back of her head, probably from where she had been hit.
"Well, the boss ain't gonna wait forever. Eventually he'll stop caring about her well-being and just wake her up by force." said the male pony.
"That's none of our concern," replied the mare. "What the boss does to her is his thing, but we were told to let her wake up on her own to prevent any unwanted struggling. You know as well as I do that someone who wakes up of their own accord is less likely to flip out."
"I know, but it's just so boring. We've been stuck in this room for sixteen hours with nothing to do but watch and wait on her to come to."
"I'm bored, too, but this is what we were paid to do. Just keep the thought of a hundred thousand bits in mind, and you might be able to sit still a little better."
A hundred thousand bits! That was several times more money than Vinyl had earned in her whole life! And someone is willing to pay that much just for her capture? Some really rich pony really did not like her. But she could not think of anypony she had ever made an enemy out of with that kind of money at their disposal. Even after learning something so shocking, she did not stir. The longer she kept still and faked unconsciousness, the longer her captors would be able to talk freely.
"Dear mother of Celestia, why won't she just wake up?" groaned the stallion, growing ever more impatient. "I'm about to just wake her up myself, to hay with his orders!"
"You will do no such thing, you insolent fool!" commanded the mare. Obviously she was the one in charge out of the two. "If you even TOUCH her, I'll let her go free and lock YOU up in her place! I will not have you ruin such a huge paycheck because you can't sit still!"
"Fine. But I don't get it. She seems like any old ordinary pony. Why would the boss be willing to pay so much for one little pony?"
"That's none of our business. In our line of work, the less we know, the better. It's best that we know as little personal information about our targets as possible. To us, the targets need to be just that. Targets. Nothing more than the unfortunate souls who happened to get on the bad side of our employers."
"I know, but you know how it is. Sometimes you just can't help but get a little curious, as many oddball cases as we get." The stallion was getting more antsy by the minute.
"Yeah, I'll admit, there have been a few cases that made me wonder what was so special about the target ponies to our employers. But it's not my place to know, and I know that. And so should you."
Vinyl almost smirked, but remembered she needed to be completely still in order to pass herself off as a knocked-out pony. The stallion was very curious, and she was already formulating a plan to take advantage of his thirst for knowledge. The mare, however, would be a challenge. She was suddenly extremely grateful to have been in her line of work. As many parties as she had been to, she had met plenty of ponies, more than a few of which were quite quirky. A few of those quirky ones had also been psychotic, and she had learned very quickly how to turn their various quirks and weaknesses against them in order to get herself out of a tight spot.
To make her image slightly more convincing, she let out some built-up drool from the corner of her open mouth.
Even when her target was out cold, the mare was quite a bit less open about herself than Vinyl would have liked. But if she could maintain her unconscious facade, maybe the mare would let down her guard and reveal something that Vinyl could use against her. She just needed to be more patient than her captor. And from the sound of it, the mare excelled at patience.
"Look, Silverwind," began the stallion. "I know it's not my place, and I don't plan on finding out anything personal about her, but I'm just saying that sometimes, it would be kinda nice to know exactly what we're getting caught in the middle of before we just up and take the job."
Silverwind! So that was the mare's name! Even that little bit of information was valuable to Vinyl. Now, if Silverwind's idiot partner would get into some juicier stuff, she could use the information to psych out the mare. Vinyl was silently praying that the stallion would keep talking. Her whole escape plan depended on one of the ponies talking about their personal lives.
"Oh, for Celestia's sake, Firehooves! Shut up!" commanded Silverwind, again establishing her authority over the stallion.
Silverwind and Firehooves. Not exactly the juicy personal information Vinyl was hoping for, but it was enough to escape. She would not implement it right then, though. She needed to be patient and wait until one of the ponies was alone.
***Rainbow Dash***
Rainbow Dash was walking towards Sweet Apple Acres. She had to talk to a certain orange pony about something that had been on her mind.
As she reached the summit of the rolling hill overlooking the farm, her ears perked up at the sound of crunching leaves. She was being watched. She pretended not to notice and kept walking as if nothing had raised her suspicion.
As the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres crept closer, Rainbow could hear the soft rustling of the grass underneath her stalker's hooves behind the brush to the right. Whoever was following her must have been a real amateur to be so close and expect to go undetected. The unknown pony seemed to have no intention of confronting her at that time, so she decided it would be best to just play along with it... for the moment.
She entered the main gate into Sweet Apple acres, making her way towards the house. She knocked on the door and stepped back. This would be the first time she had seen Applejack since the breakup, and there was only one question on the Pegasus's mind. "Why?"
Big Macintosh answered the door. "Ayyyyeeeeup?"
"Hey, Big Mac, is AJ here?"
"Ayyyyeeeup. She's in the fields buckin' apples."
"Thanks, Big Mac."
"Ayyyyeeeup."
Rainbow tore off into the orchard, listening for the sound of hooves on bark as well as the pony stalking her. Eventually she located her ex-marefriend. "Hey, Applejack..." The awkwardness of the situation was setting in immediately.
"Oh... Hey, Rainbow..." replied Applejack.
"Uhm, can we talk?"
Applejack already knew what this was about, but decided to let Rainbow make her statement anyways. "Sure, Rainbow. Whatcha need?
"Well, I know that you and me are over, but... I just... I just..."
"Ya wanna know why?" guessed Applejack.
"More than anything, I want to know why. You broke my heart, AJ, and I don't want this to keep us from being friends. I just need to know."
"Rainbow, Ah know Ah hurt you, but ya gotta understand, I jus' didn't think we were gonna work. We were growin' apart, and gettin' into more and more arguments, and Ah jus' didn't wanna see our friendship ruined over some stupid argument we woulda ended up havin'. We can still be friends, though, right, Dash?"
Rainbow nodded. She knew AJ was right, although she did not want to admit it. "Okay, AJ, that's all I needed. Thanks for telling me."
"No problem, Dash. Still friends?"
"Friends. Forever, AJ."
"Alrighty, then."
Rainbow Dash remembered her stalker pony. She didn't want AJ getting caught in the middle of that. "Well, I gotta jet. I'll see you around, AJ."
"Alright, Dash. See ya 'round."
Rainbow Dash left Sweet Apple Acres, still completely aware of the mystery pony in the brush. The pony must not have moved, he or she must have at least had better sense than to go through the farm, as it would practically be begging to be seen.
She trotted off down the same path she used to get to the farm, knowing full well that the pony was right behind her, trying to be as sneaky as possible, and very much failing.
Once she arrived at what she estimated to be the halfway point between the farm and the town, she bolted left, sticking out her front hooves and slamming her follower right in the face.
"Okay, I know you've been following me at least since Sweet Apple Acres, who are you and what do you want?" demanded Dash from her stunned stalker.
The discombobulated pony looked up at Rainbow Dash. None of his body was visible behind his Camo jumpsuit and mask. "I'm here to take you to Vinyl."
Rainbow's anger flared to new heights when her beloved Unicorn's name was mentioned. "WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT VINYL? AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'TAKE ME TO HER'? WHERE IS SHE? SHE HAD BETTER BE SAFE, OR I'M GONNA KICK YOUR FLANK SO HARD, YOU'LL-"
Rainbow Dash never finished her threat. She was struck in the back of the head and was knocked out immediately.
Rainbow's assailant looked down at her, the knot on her head beginning to swell.
"Nicely done." the stallion said after spitting the 2x4 from his mouth.
"It was an easy diversion," replied his partner. "Make myself noticed on purpose so that she won't notice you."
"Indeed. Works every time."
The two shared a laugh as the assailant lifted Dash onto his back. "Come on, Greyson promised us a hundred thousand bits for this one."
The two ponynappers trotted off into the woods to prepare Rainbow Dash for transport to the cabin deep in the Everfree forest.