Finding Rainbow Dash wasn't hard. She was sleeping on her favourite branch in a tree. This perplexed Pinkie since she heard rumours that clouds were more comfortable than any earth pony bed. But then again Pinkie wasn't one to talk, she did many much more strange things than that, most of which she didn't even know why. Pinkie jumped up, way higher than a pony is meant to be able to jump and gave her Rainbow manned friend a playful slap.

"Hiya Dashie, its wakey time!" Pinkie announced.

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, saw the starry night sky and groaned.

"Mmmph Pinkie, Why are you bothering me at this time of night this is far from cool!"

"Sorry Dashie but we have an absolutely humongous huge colossal problem of uh.... problemness!" Pinkie squealed.

Rainbow Dash rubbed her eyes and looked at Pinkie with an intense look.

"This better be good Pinkie, I have practice for the second anniversary of the defeat of Nightmare Moon in a few days.”

"Oh right I forgot about that. I need to organise an amazing party!" Pinkie shouted in excitement. Her voice began to sound a lot more serious as she started talking mostly to herself. "Oh no I'm going to need to make Celestia themed cupcakes. Oh I'm going to need orange frosting really soon. I wonder if I can get it quick enough. Maybe I can just mash up carrots in it. Oh but Carrots in cupcakes, I doubt that will taste..."

"Pinkie!" Shouted Rainbow Dash. "What did you want?”

"Oh right", she replied apologetically. "Fluttershy’s missing; we think she may have been ponynapped by some naughty evil mcevil pony, Why would I forget the date of a celebration, that is soooo not like me?"

Pinkie went on to explain the situation to Rainbow Dash. She put a hoof to Pinkie's mouth as she went on another tangent about decorations for the party.

"Pinkie this could be serious, let's worry about the party after we find her. The problem is though; I don't think I can be much of a scout while it’s still dark". Rainbow Dash said. "We need to figure out which houses in Ponyville have been vacant recently. If there’s a new pony in town, they would have moved into one of those. What about Fluttershy's house, what did you find there?"

"Oh she's not there, but some of her hair seemed to have been pulled out because I found this outside her front door." Pinkie pulled the lock of light pink hair out of nowhere and showed it to Dash. "Angel seems to be missing too.”

Rainbow Dash stretched her wings; determined to search every inch of Ponyville for Fluttershy's ponynapper, maybe even all of Equestria if she had to.

"Okay" Rainbow Dash commanded. "I’ll go and search recently known to be vacant houses and you go do your uh... Pinkie things, we probably shouldn't start knocking on doors and bothering ponies until at least early morning".

"Okie Dokie Lokie" Smiled Pinkie as she started hopping away.

"Oh and if I find anything, I’ll try and do a Sonic Rainboom. I'm getting quite good at them since the Canterlot Royal Wedding, just follow the rainbow.”

Applejack didn't waste any time. As soon as she got back to the farm she bucked the doors to Applebloom, Big Mac and Granny Smith's rooms hard.

"Wake up ya'll, we ave got ta save Fluttershy.”

One by one the sleepy ponies came out of their rooms.

Granny Smith looked angry and started ranting and raving.

"Dag nab it, why ya'll waking..." Granny Smith started.

"Ain't got much time ta explain, Fluttershy’s bin' ponynapped and we’ve a good idea who did it". Applejack rambled. "Ya'll remember the black pony from last week we had lunch with. Yah well, ah think thar was a reason he was acting weird. At first I thought he was jus a keep to imself type, but ah think he was lyin' to us all".

"Eeyup" Replied Bid Mac; he thought Redblood was strange too.

"But Applejack ah got school in the morning" Applebloom protested.

"Then consider tomorrow a day off" Applejack winked at her.

"Ah can't complain ‘bout that". Applebloom agreed. "You’re lucky this time Diamond Tiara, but tha next day ya'll be so sorry" She muttered under her breath.

Applejack looked onward at her family like they were soldiers. Granny Smith of course had limited mobility, so her potential to help was limited, but may turn out the most important.

"Granny Smith" She called out like a military pony. "Ah want ya to search tha house for any of Redblood’s hair or anything else that might help us use Twilight's divination spell to find im.”

"Yes mam" She croaked in her squeaky elderly voice. "An how bout ah make ya'll some zap apple sandwiches.”

Applejack nodded and turned towards Big Mac and Applebloom.

"An ah need you two to help me search Ponyville for Fluttershy or that stallion fella from tha other week.”

They nodded and followed Applejack out of the house.

"Cutie mark crusader investigator, yay!" Applebloom called out with enthusiasm.

"Eeyup" agreed Big Mac.

It would most certainly be great if Applebloom's special talent turned out to be something that could help save Fluttershy.

The three of them charged into town. Not really sure what they should be looking for.

"Actually" Applejack said. "You two search the town. Ah think ah need to go see if Twilight’s come up with anythin' useful.”

"Eeyup" agreed Big Mac.

As the sun began to rise Twilight was exhausted. She had been reading for hours. She could barely read a few sentences now without her eyes shutting involuntary. Spike, being a bit more rested than Twilight, was watching and encouraging her to stay awake.

"Twi, have you found anything yet?" Spike asked.

"No Spike, why is Princess Celestia taking so long to respond, doesn’t she care?" She asked frustrated. Twilight had sent a letter to Celestia detailing the situation. She understood that she may have been asleep, but now that the sun was rising, she had to have read it by now.

"Spike, write a copy of that letter and send it again" Twilight commanded.

"Okay Twilight.” Spike wrote another letter and sent it to the princess in a puff of magical green flames.

"It's nearly morning" Twilight realised. "I'm going to see the mayor and see if she can help mobilize more ponies for the search, you just keep reading the books I put aside Spike, write down anything noteworthy.”

Twilight galloped out towards the sunrise.

Applejack had just missed her when she arrived at her house.

Redblood was happily reading away on his cosy little couch when a knock came from his front door. Finally, he had been waiting for this visit; he was looking forward to getting some help keeping his slave hidden. But there was always the possibility that it could be someone he didn't want a visit from. He had neglected feeding Fluttershy’s pets yesterday out of fear of being discovered. But that should be remedied soon. Redblood looked through a small hole in the door and saw the pony he had been expecting. Redblood opened the door to let them in.

The pony that walked in set Redblood's heart racing, they looked extremely well formed in the very tight black latex that covered their whole body including the horn, mane and tail they were all concealed inside the suit. The only part of it’s face that was not covered were the nostrils and mouth. The pony even wore a pair of dark sunglasses to cover the eyes. In addition, had a metal collar around it’s neck. Redblood had always wondered who this mysterious pony was. But he knew that knowing would cost him everything he had worked so hard on to prepare.

"Please come in" Said Redblood Cheerfully. "I’m starting to have some problems that I would really like you to take care of for me.”

"That's fine; I’ll do anything I can to help, provided you can pay of course". The pony's voice came out sounding artificially deep and masked even the gender this pony was. "I’m assuming it’s her friends you are having problems with, the talk in Ponyville’s been quite rampant with Fluttershy's disappearance. The mayor has organised a search effort and they may find this place eventually, even with all the protection spells.”

"Yes, that's why I need your help" Redblood replied. Maybe your magic won't be enough. I need you to find some other way to get her pesky friends off my back. I’m afraid to go outside because I am pretty sure Fluttershy's clever little deception gave them a clue about what I look like. I’d gladly stay in here for a long time to come, but I care about her animals and I need to look after them.”

The latex pony nodded. "You have no need to worry Redblood; I’m very good at what I do. As long as you can pay, I’ll make sure you’re never found for as long as you want. But be aware that your reputation may not be salvageable, the entire town will hate you because of this, because you’re causing them to panic and waste their time on their vain attempts to rescue her.”

Redblood grinned. "Oh don't worry, I don't care, this is more than worth it.”

"Okay then" Said the pony. "I’ll draw up my plan of what services I’ll provide you and I’ll come up with the bill.”

"Thanks so much for this, you’ve really made me so happy" Redblood beamed as he went to hug the pony.

The pony stuck its hoof out to stop him and yelled, "No getting close to me!"

Redblood reeled back and apologetically lowered his head "Oh right, I'm sorry, Can I at least offer you some warm cider while you work.”

"That would be lovely, thank you". The pony replied. "I'm sorry for snapping, but just like you if anypony finds out who I am, my reputation will be ruined and if that happens, I’ll be out of this line of work.”

Redblood nodded at her and spoke loudly from the kitchen. "That's understandable; can you give me any details on what you plan to do?"

"I can share some of it" The pony replied. "But other things I think you’re better off not knowing. The worst thing to feel during this is guilt for other ponies. I’ll just say that you’re going to cause many ponies quite a lot of pain and suffering.”

Redblood dismissively waved a hoof at the pony "Worth it.”

"Okay" the pony continued. "First of all I'm going to cast a spell to hide your basement further; by an illusion. The spell protecting this place from being seen will need to be recast in order keep it strong and don't worry about her friends, they’re about to become very distracted.”

"Oh one more thing” Redblood grinned evilly. "I need new ways to punish Fluttershy; she’s been somewhat… disobedient. I’d like to purchase some new toys.”

The latex pony went to work adding up Redblood's bill, it was going to be a lot. This was the best customer ever.

"First Item" Redblood started. "Latex, second item leather straps, Third item..."