//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 - Rude Awakenings // Story: Equestria Exiled // by AndrewRogue //------------------------------// Vinyl’s head throbbed as the rhythmic thud of her heart filled her ears and pounded behind her eyes. With a groan, she tried to open them, but the searing light that waited on the other side of her eyelids put a quick stop to that. “It appears Vinyl’s finally waking up.” “Good morning!” She cringed as the Flim Flam brothers’ voices thundered in her skull. “Shut up,” she grunted as she cracked an eye open just enough to make out the blurry forms seated across from her. “She seems to be a little angry,” Flam said. “That she does,” Flim agreed. She tried to sit up, but her legs felt like wet noodles. “What the buck did you two do to me?” “Nothing serious, we assure you. The effects will wear off shortly.” “Indeed! You looked quite tired, so we thought you might enjoy a little nap.” The memory of them making her drink their stupid meds surfaced. “That’s some bull,” Vinyl grumbled, trying to form a spell. Unfortunately, her horn didn’t seem to be working right either. Whatever they’d spiked the meds with had done a real number on her. “Where’m I? And where’s Tavi?” “Relax, Miss Scratch,” Flim said, raising a hoof. “You are both in our home and your friend is being tended by our personal physician. You have nothing to worry about.” “Nothing to worry about?” she snapped, ignoring the pain it caused. “You drugged me!” “Only a little.” “That’s right,” Flim nodded, “just enough to put you out for a bit.” “Real bucking reassuring.” With her eyes adjusting, she could make out the room. It put her in mind of the waiting rooms at the fancy clinics on Manehattan Station. Couches, a table, and a whole lot of empty surfaces. The bottle of water on the table looked promising though. “No wonder nopony comes to this station.” “Well, it isn’t like we drug everypony who comes here. Right, brother?” “Right you are, Flam! You and your friend are special guests! After all, it isn’t every day that two of the Empire’s most wanted come to your station.” Silence filled the room, Vinyl’s breath catching in her chest. “Huh?” “Please don’t play dumb, Miss Scratch,” Flam said. Flim sighed. “Indeed. We’d appreciate it if you didn’t waste too much of our time and just told us what criminal enterprise has brought you to our station. Even secret news gets around... provided you know who to ask, of course.” “I seriously have no bucking clue what you’re talking about,” Vinyl lied and hoped it sounded okay. “The Council Guard thing? You do know I fixed that already, right? Totally cleared it up. Made a public apology. It aired on network sites and everything. I could find a VOD if you want.” The brothers exchanged glances and sighed. “Vinyl,” Flim pleaded, “could you please show us a little common courtesy? We aren’t that stupid.” “Or that gullible,” Flam added. “Dunno what to tell you, then.” She tried to levitate the water towards herself, but the spell broke apart the instant she tried to cast it. A magic dampening spell. The kind they stuck on ponies that were entering important places to keep them from casting. They’d gone all out on abducting her, apparently. “Look, Vinyl, we could go on and on about our suspicions and our evidence,” Flim said. “And we do have some very good things we could share,” Flam added. “But we really think you’re smart enough to understand that we wouldn’t have done all this unless we were very sure about what we’re doing.” “Where is Tavi?” Vinyl growled, pushing herself up all the way. Flim sighed and shook his head. “We already told you: she’s being treated by our personal physician.” “She is in quite capable hooves.” “Trust us. We really do want her to recover from whatever it is that ails her.” “If you are lying, I’m gonna kick both your flanks,” Vinyl growled. Of course, she knew that probably wouldn’t be what happened, but it wasn’t gonna stop her from pushing back at the brothers. “Very scary, Vinyl,” Flim mocked. “Very, very scary. Thankfully, we have one of our station’s guards posted just outside to protect us.” Flam nodded. “So, with that in mind, is there anything you’d like to tell us?” Vinyl’s heart pounded in her chest. What did they actually know? They hadn’t mentioned the rock, so they probably didn’t know about it, right? On the other hoof, they’d drugged her, stuck her in a room, and blocked her magic, so clearly they thought they knew something big enough to risk that getting spread all over the Empire. Or did they think she’d not take that right to the networks? How long would they keep trying to talk to her? Long enough for her to come up with a plan? She’d have to hope. Despite the worry that filled her, Vinyl forced a smile. “Yeah. You can go buck yourselves.” The brothers exchanged sidelong glances. “I suppose we should have expected that, right Flam?” “Right you are, brother.” “Well, we do have other things we have to deal with today. So why don’t you have a little water and really think about your situation and whether you really think it’s worth it to keep playing dumb.” “The water drugged too?” Vinyl asked. Flam ignored her. “We’ll be back in a few hours to see if you’ve come to your senses. Just knock on the door if you need more water or anything. You don’t need to kick it.” As the pair moved toward the door, Vinyl slid off the couch and started to take a step forward, but Flim and Flam both responded way faster than she’d expected, their horns glowing green as they turned on her. “Chill,” she managed in a completely unconvincing attempt at easygoing and relaxed. Apparently they were a bit more ready than she thought. If she planned on getting Tavi out of here, she was gonna have to be smart about it. “I just wanted to walk around a bit. Or are you two afraid the dampening spell is wearing off and I was gonna take you both out?” The brothers didn’t answer, just stepping out and shutting the door behind them. ~~~~~~ Bon Bon stared at Rich, trying to process everything he said, her jaw tightening as the story drew to a close. “...and since both Vinyl and Octavia were wanted for questioning back on Manehattan Station, they would take care of it from here.” His delivery of the news was calm and matter of fact. Almost detached. The voice of somepony disappointed they didn’t try and oppose the pair of asses that ran the station. “Trying to stop them would have been stupid,” she offered. “You couldn’t have done anything anyway.” Rich continued to stare at his coffee. “No, I couldn’t have.” “You and Diamond are okay?” she asked, controlling the tone of her voice with practiced ease. “We’re fine. She slept through it.” He gulped down the last of the coffee. “I should have been more careful when I was asking around about a doctor. I didn’t think they were caught up in anything to warrant the brothers’ attention.” “You couldn’t have known. Vines should have told us why they were here and what they were dealing with. It was stupid to hide it. There’s a difference between keeping business quiet and being in active trouble.” He nodded along. “And I should have been smart enough to realize exactly how much trouble they were in last night, damn me.” She cursed her own stupidity, replaying last night’s conversation over in her head. “The rocks they’re looking for apparently aren’t just antiques. They’re supposed to be the actual, honest to Celestia Elements of Harmony. Octavia has one.” That got Rich to look her in the eye. “Really?” “So Vines claims.” “Some ponies take their old mare’s tales seriously.” He shook his head, laughing without a trace of humor. “But if they are real, I suppose it wouldn’t do for an earth pony to get her hooves on one of the legendary treasures of the Alicorns, would it?” Bon Bon returned an equally humorless smile. “No, it wouldn’t.” That was just what the Empire needed: the Council possessing even more power. “Bad luck for Octavia and Vinyl,” Rich said, sighing. Standing, she took a deep breath. “No. I’ve had enough of bad luck and unfortunate circumstances and all that other bull. I refuse let Flim and Flam get away with this. I refuse to let the Council get away with this.” Watching her, Rich shook his head, but didn’t voice a protest. He must have recognized the expression on her face. “I can’t help with this one.” “Even if you could, I wouldn’t ask you to, Rich. Diamond needs you. Ponyville gets by better with you doing most of the work.” She sighed. “That’s always been the problem. It’s hard to do stupid and necessary things like kicking the Flam Flam brothers’ heads in, because most ponies still have a lot to lose.” The stallion looked back towards Diamond Tiara’s room. “You’re not actually going to try and do that, right?” “No.” After all, who’s to say the Flim Flam brothers wouldn’t try to punish her by taking it out on the station’s inhabitants? The other workers? Rich and Diamond? “But I am going to have words.” “Do you think that will really make a difference?” She allowed herself to smile. “Maybe. Depends on how much of a pain Vines is being. If she’s being difficult, I might be able to get her to be less stupid.” Rich frowned. “You’re going to try and convince her to cooperate with Flim and Flam?” Bon Bon shrugged. “For the moment, at least. If they think there’s a profit to be made in letting the two of them go, they’ll do it.” There was a long pause before Rich spoke up again. “If this really does go as far as the Council, it’s going to be very risky to get anymore involved.” “Don’t worry, I’ll leave you out of it.” “That’s not what I meant, Bon Bon.” “I know.” Bon Bon offered him a smile, but nothing more. “I’ll need to take my tablet. There aren’t any reports or invoices you were waiting on from me, were there?” The stallion stared at his empty mug for a long moment, before finally standing up and walking over to her. “No.” Damn Vinyl, damn her friend, damn the Council, and damn Flim and Flam. “Wish me luck?” “Good luck, Bons,” Rich offered, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Come back safe. And make sure Vinyl understands how much she owes us for this mess.” That got a smile out of her. “That’s the one thing I can’t promise. She doesn’t count favors. She just does whatever she wants. Easy enough for her, not so easy for everypony else.” He nodded. “Let me know what’s going on as soon as you can.” She nodded and trotted off, grabbing her tablet off the table with her mouth. Braving the storm for a moment, she headed up the couple flights to her own place and sat on her couch before she made the call. Even with an urgent tag, it still took three tries to get one of them to answer. “Filthy Rich, this had best be—” Flim started as his image flicked on the screen, but he stopped, offering a terse smile. “Oh. Bon Bon.” His eyes flicked to the corner of his console screen, confirming what he thought the caller’s ID had been. “How may I help you? Is something the matter with—” “You ‘arrested’ Vinyl Scratch and her friend.” She made no effort to conceal her disgust, letting the scare quotes clang around the word as hard as they could. Flim’s eyebrow barely twitched. “Oh. Well, yes. I would hope Filthy Rich explained the matter to you, just as we did to him. They are fugitives wanted by authorities in Manehattan, and it’s quite bad business to let such things go, as I’m sure you understand.” “Do you know why they’re wanted?” “Does it matter? As loyal citizens of the Grand Equestrian Empire—” Having no patience for Flim’s nonsense, she pushed on, “Let me talk to Vinyl.” “And why, exactly, should I do that?” Flim dropped the pretense of politeness. “Because I think I can get her to talk to you. And if she talks to you, I think you’ll think twice about giving them back.” Flim tilted his head, frowning. “And why do you think that?” “Would you believe anything I told you?” His smile warmed again. “You really are a very smart pony. I always thought Filthy Rich made the right choice hiring you. Hold on for just a moment while I discuss your offer with my brother.” Bon Bon nodded to an empty screen, Flim departing without waiting for an answer. “Take your time, Flim,” she muttered under her breath. She already knew what the answer was going to be. He already knew what the answer was going to be. This was just part of their little power play. His face reappeared on the screen. “It is your lucky day, Bon Bon. My brother and I agree: we are willing to hear you out. If you would come to our home as soon as you could, then?” Which meant now. “I can leave in a minute.” ~~~~~~ Silence surrounded her. A void that smothered her with its infinite vastness. She had messed up. In the distance, there was a faint noise. She was lost. The sound grew louder, taking on familiar forms that wormed into her mind, forcing unknown memories to the surface. She was alone. The hum of a bow across her cello’s strings. The crack of the air as a rainbow boomed in her wake. The churn of cloud machines. The clatter of a thousand hooves pounding the catwalks around her. Rainbow Dash’s memories. Octavia’s memories. A discordant cacophony of sound and thoughts and feelings buffeted her in the emptiness. The roar of a crowd. The gentle applause of the audience. The crash of thunder. The unending rattle of rain pouring down. She tried to hold onto any of them, but they slipped away from her as quickly as they came to mind, leaving her at the mercy of the next and the next and the next and the next, an endless barrage that hammered at her entire existence. The bone-shaking thud of bass. The click and clack of the train. The voice of her friend. The voices of her friends. She had just wanted ponies to acknowledge her. To be a hero. To matter. To be important. The chirrup of night birds. The soft breath of the pony beside her. The songs of crickets. The town bursting into song. Who was she? The sounds grew indistinct, each melting into the next, the rush of memories replaced by a singular deafening roar of sound, not so much any noise as every noise, from every place, all at once. A sound she couldn’t understand. A sound that drowned out everything, including her thoughts. ~~~~~ Vinyl wanted to die as she strained to summon up a spell for the millionth bucking time. Sweat matted her coat as she felt the spell take form for just a sec, then totally fall apart. Her head ached. Even at the best of times, she was what many would consider a magical lightweight. She didn’t have the raw power for cool stuff like massive death beams and stuff. Even if she did, she’d be able to do like, one, at best, before she dropped. Even a little spell, over and over and over, would tire her out. Especially since being drugged apparently didn’t count as sleep. But this was the only thing she could do. If she wanted to save Tavi, she needed her magic. If she wanted her magic, she had to figure out how the bucking blocking spell worked. “Really wish I’d paid more attention when my tutor talked about anti-magic,” she mumbled, casting another spell in the hope that she’d suddenly discover she had some sort of hidden super magical ability. Sure, it wasn’t much of a plan, but it beat nothing. If she did break the dampening spell, she could catch the brothers by surprise when they came to chat again, then she could grab Tavi, get out of here, and… well, the next part after that. The spell fizzled. “Buck this,” Vinyl snapped as she kicked the table. She regretted it as the half-full water bottle tipped, fell, and spilled the rest of its contents out onto the floor before she could save it. “And buck me.” Some good she was turning out to be. Tavi was the star here. She had the fancy magic rock. She was the object of everypony’s attention. She was the hero in peril. Vinyl was just some groupie who’d gotten in way over her head. She was basically Humdrum from the Power Pony serials. Closing her eyes, she sat back and took a deep breath. And now, instead of doing anything useful, she was getting upset and moping. Totally awesome use of her time. Gathering the magic for another spell, Vinyl hesitated, then let the energy go. She needed to think, not just keep banging her head against the wall. Dampening spells didn’t actually suppress magic, right? That had to be right, because she could still gather and release magic. It was just the spells she tried to cast weren’t happening. So… what? It didn’t stop magic, it stopped spells? How? Vinyl’s horn glowed electric blue as she gathered energy one more time and cast a tiny, simple light spell right at the very tip of her horn. To her surprise, it worked. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the spell outward as slowly as she could manage and that’s when she felt it: a sudden twisting of her spell and then it was gone. So, it was basically a field around her horn that disrupted spells. She grinned. “Aw’right. That’s something at least. Now—” The room’s lights crackled and sparked for a moment, then the room went dark. ~~~~~~ The rain poured over Bon Bon as she walked through Ponyville’s narrow pathways, freezing drops finding their way inside her slicker and filling her boots. Storm weeks disgusted her. They ground life to a halt for everypony, transforming active stations into veritable ghost ship, just to save a few bits. Yes, it let them collect the rainwater, supplement the magic systems, and then export the nice, calm clouds to Manehatten or Las Pegasus or Fillydelphia or wherever. Yes, it made sense. Yes, it helped the Empire. Yes, it was absolute bull that the only stations they did it on were those that mostly housed earth pony populations. A flash of lightning illuminated the squat, industrial buildings around her. She shifted Octavia’s saddlebag on her back. The rock inside had been warm to the touch when she’d left, but now she could feel it through the bag. Maybe bringing the so-called Element had been a bad idea, but she suspected they’d need it for what came next. Another loud crack sounded, but this time it wasn’t lightning. Ahead of her a building suddenly went dark as its lights burst, the rain scattering and swallowing the sparks of light. Bon Bon started to run, her booted hooves scattering water as she ducked between buildings and leapt through narrow gaps in construction. Between the rain and clouds she couldn’t be sure, but that had certainly looked a lot like the building that Flim and Flam kept for themselves. Sliding as she rounded a corner, Bon Bon kept her hooves under her and continued moving as fast as she dared. She wanted to believe that a blowout like that was just the result of bad wiring or a magic circuit malfunction, but her gut told her otherwise. It’d be trouble. She was sure of it. Despite her clothes, she was drenched with freezing water by the time she reached the front of the building. A smattering of reserve lights glowed above the door, but, for the moment, the usually bright home of Flim and Flam barely stood out from the hunched and darkened buildings that most of the earth ponies lived on Ponyville Station called home. She hoped whatever had messed with Flim and Flam’s home wouldn’t go any further. The doorpad didn’t work, so she instead resorted to hitting the reinforced metal door with her hoof, hoping the thud sounded over the rain and thunder. After a moment or two, she repeated the hammering. If she tried, she might manage to kick the door open, but that would probably set the wrong tone for the conversation. After a moment the door twitched and, over a the course of a dozen jerking movements, was pulled open, revealing the brothers. They wore smiles, but it didn’t take a genius to see that they were forced. “Ah, Bon Bon!” Flim said, an edge of fear in his voice. “Just the pony we wanted to see!” “What happened?” she asked. “Nothing, nothing! Only a minor thing!” Flam answered, waving a hoof in the air. “But I do believe we would like to hear what Vinyl has to say. Now.”