In a common stereotype, females are thought to gossip about everything. Once one of them hears a juicy secret, it doesn't stay a secret for long. Soon, every female knows of the latest scandal, insult or back-biting that goes on in a social group. They spread the rumor, adding on things as it goes until the truth is almost lost.
Ironically, the stereotype works both ways, as our dear Butterscotch found out.
The yellow pegasus happily hummed to himself as he trotted out to collect his mail. The day was bright and sunny, the breeze blew by softly and Butterscotch was in the throes of joy. With an insane act of courage that he couldn't explain, he had gotten himself a date with Red Gala. The date was scheduled for this Friday, a picnic on Butterscotch's lot after Gala had finished work and cleaned up. As he happily thought about the impending date, he failed to notice several sets of eyes watching him. The butter yellow pony finally opened his eyes to pull out a small stack of letters from his mailbox and turned around, reading who the letters were sent from before smacking straight into a wall of colors.
His letters flew everywhere as Butterscotch fell back on his rump, rubbing his face and whimpering in pain. Opening his eyes again, he saw the faces of several ponies staring down at him. At the fore was a very familiar cyan pegasus with a spectrum mane. His magenta eyes stared straight at Butterscotch's, as if trying to figure out what he was looking at.
"Hey, Butterscotch," he started in a friendly tone, offering a hoof to help him up.
"Blitz, what's going on here?" Butterscotch asked, taking the hoof and pulling himself up.
"Well, I came here to talk with you, but I don't know what they--" he motioned to the ponies behind him, "--are here for."
Butterscotch leaned out to look at the crowd, who had stealthily filled his lawn. In the group were some familiar faces, like those of Lyre, Berry Smash and Carrot Mop all of whom were staring at the yellow doormat with interest. Butterscotch gave them a nervous grin before speaking.
"Um, nice to see you all," he began.
A tense silence filled the air as the group stared at Butterscotch, whose ears slowly pressed against his head and his knees began to wobble.
"E-e-excuse me, b-but I need t-to get to my h--" he stammered out.
As if he had said the magical words, the group rushed up to him and began talking all at once to the yellow pegasus. Suddenly mobbed by ponies, Butterscotch yelped as a flood of questions came to him, all about Red Gala.
"How did you get her to say yes?!"
"Was it part of a bet?!"
"How many chickens did you bribe her with?!"
The poor yellow pony shrunk at the sheer volume of questions, slowly curling himself up as more piled on. His teal eyes darted around at the mass of ponies, each leaning closer to one another and the hole above him growing smaller. Butterscotch covered his head and whimpered, imagining this was how the victims in those science fiction novels Dusk loved so much felt when they were assimilated.
"H-help me!" Butterscotch cried out with tears starting to form around his eyes.
A strong hoof shot out of the crowd and wrapped itself around Butterscotch, causing him to yip in fear. The hoof pulled him upwards and, when Butterscotch opened his eyes, saw Rainbow Blitz holding him above his head as the ponies below jumped and shouted to him like a pack of wild animals.
"Hey, back off!" he shouted down to them, "Nopony is going to learn his secrets before I do!"
Pulling Butterscotch closer to him, the prismatic stallion bolted off towards Sweet Apple Acres. The timid pegasus squealed quite girlishly when Blitz lowered closer to the trees, causing him to grab onto Blitz in a most unflattering way.
"Scotch, what the hay are you doing?!" Blitz yelled over the roar of the wind.
Butterscotch was clinging to Rainbow Blitz's chest, hugging him a little too closely for comfort. It was when Butterscotch tried to get his rear legs wrapped around him did Blitz flip out.
"Butterscotch, get the buck off of me!" he shouted, completely forgetting he was flying.
"Slow down!" Butterscotch wailed back, trying to hold onto him more as the wind whipped around them, threatening to tear Butterscotch away.
"Dude, get off of me! This looks totally wrong!" Blitz responded, pulling in his hooves and shoving them into Butterscotch's head in a vain attempt to get him off.
"No! I don't wanna die!"
"For the love of Solaris, Scotch, let go of me!"
The two fought for a bit, Blitz trying to pry off the timid pegasus while Butterscotch clambered around, trying to hold onto him like a terrified cat. With the main flyer distracted, neither one of them noticed the bright red barn they were closing in on. It took until Blitz had busted through the sign to Sweet Apple Acres did Butterscotch see it.
"Eeep!" he shouted as he spread his own wings and let go of Blitz.
The cyan pegasus grunted as he began to right himself when a wall of red filled his vision. He didn't have anytime to react, save for uttering one complete word and the start of another.
"OH SH--!"
AJ stood at a tree, ready to kick the apples loose from the sagging boughs. His bandaged ankle was a little sore, the result of years of work and thousands of apple harvests. His hoof had just been lifted when...
Elusive stood at his drawing board, looking over schematics of several new types of suits he was going to make. This new style called Steampunk seemed rather interesting, a mix of modern mechanical know how and Celestian period fashion. He had been working on a centerpiece suit, one that recently lacked any color inspiration. Just at that moment...
Bubble Berry sat in his room, frustrated with his cake shooting oven. He had spent the day trying to figure out how the cake flinging matrix had failed when...
Dusk stared proudly at his freshly reorganized library. It had been a lot of work to fix what had happened over the last two days, particularly after Blitz's idiocy with the Elements of Harmony. Glad he was able to finish shelving the books, Dusk stood there and smiled proudly at the books when...
Equestria had never delved into the dark science of explosives. Ponies had never used gunpowder, nitroglycerin or even aluminum foil and ammonia. In a society built upon the pillars of friendship and harmony, such violent things were viewed as only useful for mining and various other tasks, ranging from food preparation to cleaning solutions. The closest anypony would ever get to a dangerous explosion was when a unicorn used magic.
Well, at least until the only pony to pull off a Sonic Rainblast collided with an inanimate object, like a barn.
In a totally inexplicable way, the moment of impact was absolutely silent for Butterscotch. The timid pegasus's eyes widened as a blast of light exploded out from the barn, temporarily blinding him as his forward momentum carried him closer. The harshness of the aforementioned light forced Butterscotch to cover his eyes when a wave of air hit him. The air felt solid, like a mattress was pushing against him. Caught totally off guard, Butterscotch let loose a terrible scream as he was flung far away from the explosion, spiraling up into the blue sky like some silly anime character.
The light was not only seen by Butterscotch. In the town of Ponyville, hundreds of ponies hissed and yelped at the bright flash of light all at the same time. It took their eyes mere seconds to adjust, allowing them to look at the bright flash in the distance. Silence quickly subdued the town as all eyes were focused on the flash, which was gaining a full spectrum of colors as well as a mushroom shape. Their awed faces continued to stare until their ears picked up on a low rumbling in the distance.
Many of them shouted in fear and started to run as a wall shaped cloud of dirt raced to them, following the rumbling. At the fore of the wall were two ponies, an orange stallion wearing a brown stetson and a red mare, each running as if their lives depended on it. It was a miracle they had managed to escape from the orchards before the cloud came ripping through the trees, peeling away the apples from the branches. Their pace was almost unbelievable as they weaved around various obstacles in their path. AJ nimbly leaped over a fence and kept running while Red Gala ran through it, breaking a large section without slowing down. The look of pure, unadulterated fear was etched on their faces as the cloud bore down on them.
"Run, Gala!" AJ shouted to his sister, "Run like tha Nightmare himself is after ya!"
"Eeyup!" came her reply, much louder and more mare-ish than AJ had ever heard.
The siblings ran through town as the dirt cloud swept over it, delivering an incredibly strong blast of wind to the houses. Many of them creaked and moaned as the wind tried to shove them over with the cries of terrified ponies echoing inside of them. AJ weaved around many of the buildings, trying to find a place to hide when he noticed the large oak tree library with its door wide open and a purple unicorn standing in the doorway, his eyes huge and his pupils pinpricks. Redirecting his course, AJ ran as fast as he could to Dusk, hoping to beat the wall of dirt to there.
"Get inside!" he shouted to Dusk, "Get in tha library now!"
Dusk blinked twice, his eyes frozen as he stared at the wall of dirt and air approaching.
"Dusk, move it!" AJ shouted again to him as he bore down on the doorway.
Time seemed to slow for AJ as he charged to Dusk. When he was less than ten feet from the door, his tail whipped forwards as the wall caught up to him. Straining his already overworked muscles, AJ kept running as the wall began to overtake his flank before jumping up and tackling Dusk, who seemed to just notice him. The two flew into the library as the wall collided with the oak tree, causing it to groan loudly and lurch a bit. Around the two ponies, books flew from the shelves as they hung in the air, much like some cheesy action stunt. The dirt quickly wrapped around them as they fell to the floor, concealing them.
Red Gala kept running, even after losing her brother in the town. She ran like she never had before, busting through market stalls and wagons, unwilling to stop. She had seen some terrible things in her life; her parents funeral, the cost of repairing the family barn, the Great Furry Incident, Darkhorse Knight's return and even Pappy Smith taking a bath without closing the door, but the wall of dirt following her was quickly rising through the list. It terrified her in a way most things never could, like some horrible dream had come to life.
As she ran, she blew through the marketplace with ease, followed by the town square and then the park. It was there, in the very park, that Gala heard a very familiar voice.
"Everypony, into the schoolhouse now!" came the concerned voice of a Mr. Cherry Lee.
Ahead of her, Gala could see the cranberry stallion herding a small group of colts and some fillies towards the schoolhouse in the distance. The group reached the school pretty quickly and Cherry Lee ordered them inside, counting heads along the way. Once the last colt was in, he gave a quick look out at the wall approaching and locked eyes with a familiar mare.
"Red Gala?!" he shouted to her.
Gala didn't have time to respond as she bolted towards him, barely keeping ahead of the wall. A look of terror was on her face, causing Cherry Lee to be unable to look away.
"Over here!" he shouted to her, waving his forehooves.
Little did he know that Gala was already on her way towards him. The red mare felt the wall of air start to push her forward as she got to the steps of the schoolhouse, lifting her rump into the air as Cherry Lee reached out for her. He managed to grab one of her forehooves as the wall swept over them, causing the schoolhouse to creak and the colts inside to scream like fillies. Cherry Lee held onto Gala as he felt himself get pulled out the door with her, but managed to wrap his tail around the post inside used for hanging coats on a rainy day, stopping his and Gala's movements. Pulling her closer to him, Cherry Lee gave a powerful pull with his tail and both he and Red Gala flew inside the door.
About five minutes passed as the wall of dirt and air disappeared from the town of Ponyville. Tentatively, the residents poked their heads out of their shelters, whether it be houses, stores or barrels. Miraculously, none of the houses were pushed over, destroyed or even had a window pane broken, unless a rock or two hit them. Slowly, everypony came outside and asked about one another before looking at the rainbow colored puff of clouds rising into the air in the distance.
At the Golden Oaks Library, Dusk rubbed his head as he pulled himself out from under some books. Next to him, an orange hoof weakly wiggled from underneath a carpet of white pages. As Dusk looked around, he noticed every single shelf was empty, their contents spewed all over the floor again.
Over at the schoolhouse, Cherry Lee was busy trying to explain to his students he wasn't a hero and the kiss he had gotten from Gala was merely a thank you in response to him saving her. He blushed almost as red as Gala's coat while she nervously peeked through the door, hoping the town was still there.
Butterscotch, after flailing through the air for five minutes, crashed into a pond near his cottage, completely unharmed.
Over at ground zero, Rainbow Blitz opened his eyes weakly. He was covered in wood planks and felt like he had just ran into solid rock. Above him, a mushroom shaped cloud of rainbow colors rose up from the ground.
"-it," he finished.