The weather was particularly sunny one afternoon. Rainbow Dash, having nothing productive to do, flew up into a towering tree on the outskirts of Ponyville. She laid down on a leafless, shady branch, looking up at the sky. Soon, she felt a wave of drowsiness encompass her and she shut her eyes.

"Rainbow Dash, is it?" Rainbow scowled and blinked open one eye at the sound of her own name. She looked down. There stood a pegasus pony underneath the tree, looking back up at her. He wore a pair of sunglasses and a coat like an incognito celebrity. Even so, she saw that his fur color was a deep purple. She wondered briefly how the stallion knew her name, but she assumed that it was from her fame as the defender of Equestria, the bearer of the Element of Loyalty. Or possibly, even as the winner of the Best Young Flyer competition! Curious to know what the stallion wanted, she pompously floated down to the ground.

"Yep! That's me! The one and only Rainbow Dash!" she said as she put a hoof to her chest. She enunciated her own name with a proud, almost arrogant flair, as if she expected a spontaneous fanfare. When there was none, she looked around sheepishly and set her hoof back on the ground.

"I heard that you were fastest flier in all of Equestria," he said in a charismatic monotone, taking Rainbow momentarily off-guard. "That is, according to your own claims."

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow and flew up, levitating herself just in front of the stranger. "Is this a challenge?" she said, placing her hooves akimbo.

The mysterious stallion smirked and nodded. "I'd say so," he replied tersely, addressing Rainbow as if he was royalty. "I challenge you to a race all the way to Sweet Apple Acres."

Not wanting to deny a challenge, the rainbow mare smirked back. "You're on!" she yelled. She floated up higher as the stranger flew up as well. "Ready... set... go!" Rainbow shouted before launching toward the horizon with a powerful flap of her wings, leaving a trail of shimmering rainbow behind her. She knew that he would never beat her. After all, she was the only pony that had pulled off the legendary Sonic Rainboom - twice! Nopony had ever done that. Not even her longtime idols, the Wonderbolts. The leaves of the trees underneath her shuddered as she rapidly accelerated. She didn't look back until she finally saw Applejack's farm coming up from behind the horizon. With a final spurt of speed, she made a magnificent parabolic arc, touching down just in front of Sweet Apple Acres. With a triumphant grin, she turned around, expecting a crestfallen pegasus to land behind her. Her opponent was nowhere to be found. Confused, she looked left and right for her challenger.

A shadow loomed over her body and onto the ground in front of her. A chill went over her body as she suddenly realized that somepony was standing behind her. She whirled around. Her eyes widened. Even though Rainbow was renowned to be fast, she wasn't quick enough to react when the owner of the shadow forcefully wrapped a leg around her neck and, with another hoof, pushed a towelette onto her snout, sending her into infinite darkness despite her unremitting struggles.

Light.

The cyan mare groaned as the rays of Celestia's sun penetrated her cornea. She blinked several more times, everything still in a haze. There were two blurry figures in front of her, but she couldn't make out any definite shapes.

"She's waking up," muttered one of the figures impatiently.

"'Bout fuckin' time."

After several more seconds of blinking, her vision finally adjusted. Two ponies, both wearing matching sunglasses and coats, stood, watching her. There were trees all around them. Panicking, she instinctively moved her wings and hooves. They didn't budge. She looked down, horrified, and saw that her legs had been bound with rope. Assuming that her wings were in the same condition as well, she wondered why she was wearing a coat. She glanced up at her ponynappers, who looked back at her mercilessly.

"Miss Rainbow Dash... is it?" said the pegasus in an unsympathetic tone. "Right now, you have a highly explosive bomb strapped on your chest." She felt her heartbeat stop as she looked down at her body, confirming the claim, and realizing what the coat was used for. She yelled out in alarm, but all that came out was a frantic muffle. Her mouth had been taped shut. The other stranger, an earth pony, giggled sadistically as the prismatic mare desperately attempted to escape her binds to no avail.

"Calm down, calm down," assured the earth pony. "Don't worry, it's pretty stable. I built it myself," he said proudly. Rainbow just stared at the vile pony, tears forming in her eyes. "But you shouldn't do anything to provoke it, like fall on your stomach or something. Then you'll go BOOM." he said, attempting to convey an explosion by gesticulating one of his front hooves wildly.

Rainbow didn't even feel her body move as she jumped up and tried to run, forgetting that her hooves were bound together by a taut rope. She fell forward, but the two stallions grabbed her and pushed her back on the ground on her rump.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't fuckin' do that!" admonished the pegasus sternly. "I'll hit you across your pretty face with my damn hooves if I have to!" he warned, raising a hoof. Rainbow, tears streaming down her face, stopped struggling and capitulated. "That's better," he said, taking a step back. "So what do you think, weather mare? Y'think we can take the tape off?" She nodded her head wildly, wanting to escape at least one of her binds. He reached over and pulled the tape off - hard.

Despite the stinging pains of the ripped-off fur, Rainbow mustered up the strength and courage to yell out. "Help! Help me! Somepony help me!" To her horror, her captors began to mockingly chant as well.

"Help! Help!"

"Somepony help this mare!"

The pegasus leaned over to the cyan pegasus and smirked that dirtily reminiscent smirk. "You fuckin' retarded? There's nopony out here to hear you! This is the fuckin' Everfree Forest!"

"Yeah! Only the trees are here to listen to your cries!" said his partner-in-crime.

"Actually, trees can't hear her, either. They... they don't have any ears."

"Well-"

"Why are you doing this to me?" Rainbow spoke up.

"Why the hell would anypony else do something like this? For bits, of course!" replied the pegasus. It was evident that he was the ringleader of the two criminals.

"But-but I don't have much money! I can sell the things that I have in my house! That'll get you, like, a thousand bits. I-I swear to Celestia." she stammered.

The two ponies snickered. "Only a thousand bits? You can do better. We need a million bits."

"Where the hell do I get that much money?" she asked, shocked.

The ringleader shrugged. "I dunno. The bank might be the easiest. I don't give a crap. All I want is the fuckin' money."

"We." The other pony said sternly.

"Whatever. All we want is the fuckin' money."

Rainbow still stared at the two malefactors with a facial expression featuring both pure hatred and fright. All she had wanted was to take a nap; what had she done to deserve this?

"Okay, now we'll explain what the bomb's for."

The earth pony approached her. "You see, this bomb has a timer on it, see? When the time runs out, BOOM, you'd be deader than a door knob." The pegasus began to laugh maniacally. "And if you decide to call the cops, we push this trigger, and you'd be no better off. You understand?" Rainbow nodded weakly, the color draining from her face from the prospect of her exploding in the middle of Ponyville. "Hell, we might even press it again to see if you can explode twice!" The two ponies guffawed uproariously while Dash gawked at the insane ponies.

"Anyway, we'll always be watching you. So no funny business, okay? It's 9:42 AM. We're giving you 12 hours." With that statement, the pegasus reached over and pushed a button on the bomb, and the timer blinked to life, ticking as every second passed. "Call us when you get the money. Here. It's on speed dial." He tossed a cell phone to the rainbow-maned pegasus, who caught it swiftly in her mouth.

"Now, if you do well and get us the money, you'll be free and everypony's happy. But if you don't do well... well, allow me to demonstrate for you."

Rainbow's captors walked toward her and stood next to her, revealing what Rainbow recognized as a Smartypants doll behind them.

"Ring, ring. 'Oh, it's you, Miss Smartypants. How are you?' 'Oh, what do you mean, you couldn't get the money? It was too hard? Well, that's too bad, 'cause... Time. Is. Up.'" The earth pony pressed a button. The doll exploded, dismembering it swiftly, tossing its limbs apart and propelling tons of white matter out into the air.

"Oh, shit!" cried Rainbow, dropping the phone and struggling in her binds.

"I liked that doll," the pegasus pony said without any emotion. "I don't even fuckin' know you." He clapped his hooves and walked away, his accomplice untying the rope. As soon as she was liberated, Rainbow picked up the phone, kicked off into the air, and sped out of the forest. "Go on. Get the hell out of here! Have fun!" he called after her. As soon as she was out of sight, both ponies pulled off their coats.

"C'mon, we've got some supervisin' to do," said the pegasus, motioning to the earth pony. Next Chapter: Chapter 3 Estimated time remaining: 7 Minutes