It all began with the old pony from scene twenty-four.
Button Mash had been walking in Whitetail Woods, which were absolutely gorgeous in the fall. Leaves of crimson and gold littered the ground, creating a natural, regal carpet. The majority of the trees hung bare, though a few conifers still proudly displayed their green needles every so often. Wisps of warm breath escaped Button’s lips as he exhaled, forming a small fog in the crisp autumn air. The sky was a brilliant blue, perhaps a cloud or two hanging overhead, like cotton balls on the breeze.
Of course, Button Mash had ignored all of this and had been staring intently at his Joy Boy, fulfilling his name and fighting wave after wave of pixelated aliens on a sixteen-bit space background. A couple of hours later, when the Game Over screen had finally popped up, Button had sighed and taken a swig of his juice box. He looked up and recoiled.
“Wh-where am I?” he asked the woods.
“You have entered the Twilight Zone,” something answered, with a voice as scratchy as an allergic reaction. “Hehehahaaa!”
Button Mash jumped back and dropped his handheld video game. Scrambling, he picked it up and held it in front of him like a miniature shield. “Who are you? Wh-what do you want from me? I’m just a poor colt—”
“I have no sympathy,” replied the old stallion who was suddenly in front of him. He breathed deeply and stared at the colt. “Any way the wind blows, it doesn’t really matter to me.”
A pause.
“Be warned!” he yelled, thunder booming overhead in the clear sky. “From this point on, and forever more, you have the curse of Samuel Pones! Hehehahahaaaa!” With a crack! and a flare of white light, the old pony from scene twenty-four vanished. Button Mash stared at the spot where the stallion had stood.
“...Huh, I don’t feel any different. Oh, a way out!” he said, noticing the blinking neon sign that read “TO PONYVILLE” for the first time. He trotted quickly back home to play with his friends before dinner.
“Okay,” whispered Sweetie Belle in the clubhouse. “Here’s the plan. After dinner, we’re going to go visit Zecora to prank her.”
“But that’s in the middle of the Everfree Forest!” wailed Apple Bloom quietly, so as not to tip any passersby off about the Crusaders’ plans. “It’s gonna be pitch black in there!”
“That’s why Scootaloo brought flashlights for all of us!”
Button Mash’s eyes suddenly bulged. He clamped his mouth shut, willing the pressure in his lungs to go down. His lips trembled. Finally, he couldn’t contain himself anymore.
“Aaa-aaaaaah! Savior of Equestria!” he sang out. Immediately afterwards, a heavy guitar riff played for a few seconds, rocking the whole rickety structure of the clubhouse.
The other Cutie Mark Crusaders’ stared at him. “You okay, Button?” asked Scootaloo, her brows raised.
“I…” Button gulped. “I think so. I don’t know what just happened.” He gave a weak smile.
Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Just keep it down, okay? I don’t want Rarity to find out what we’re plotting.”
“Applejack and Big Macintosh neither,” said Apple Bloom.
Scootaloo suddenly became very interested in a wood knot on the wall. “I don’t have family to worry about,” she whispered in a melancholy, baritone voice.
Rolling her eyes, Sweetie Belle smacked the pegasus upside the head. “Yes, you do! Will you stop pretending to be an orphan for once?”
“Ow…” Scootaloo rubbed her bruise. “Yeah, okay. Whatever.”
“Thank you. So anyway,” continued Sweetie Belle, “Scootaloo brought these flashlights—”
“Aaa-aaaaaah! He’ll save every one of us!” The guitar joined in again.
“For pony’s sake, Button!” squealed Apple Bloom. “You need to go talk to Twilight about this… this… lyrical issue of yours!” The other Crusaders nodded.
Button Mash sighed. “Okay… I guess that means I’m not coming with you tonight.” Slowly, he trotted off towards Twilight’s castle. He knew that Apple Bloom was right, and that Twilight would have a solution to this bizarre turn of events.
“I wish I had a solution to this bizarre turn of events!” wailed Twilight. Books lay strewn all over the floor of Twilight’s study, papers were haphazardly stacked up in yard-high piles, and Button Mash was tied down to an operating table. “Somepony to Love” was blaring from a ridiculously large set of speakers as Twilight lifted her bicycle and let out a gasp of triumph.
“Button, I found the book!” Flipping to the appropriate page, she frowned. “I’ll need to gather some ingredients, first. But don’t worry!” she said, grabbing her saddlebags and pushing open the front door. “I’ll be back in a flash!”
“He’s a miracle!”
“You need vhat?!” said Photo Finish. Twilight sighed and braced herself.
“A flash camera.” A faint two-note tune could be heard in the distance. “Please, I promise, I’ll bring it back as soon as I’m done with it!”
Photo Finish glanced at Twilight’s horn and wings. “Ja… I have ze faith in you zat you vill do so.” She thrust a camera into Twilight’s hooves. “Be careful vith it, ja?”
“Thank you so much!” said Twilight. She turned to go and bumped into Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. Twilight gasped.
“Girls! Thank goodness I’ve found you! I need lightning and flood from you,” she said, pointing at Rainbow, “and fog from you, Fluttershy.”
The yellow pegasus scuffed a hoof against the ground. “Um… What kind of fog?”
Rainbow Dash frowned. “Yeah, and what about lightning and… a flood?” She cocked her head to the side. “Is there some sort of weird weather trick to make the radio signals go… y’know....” Rainbow spun a hoof around her ear. “...Ga ga?”
Twilight folded her ears. “Well…” she began. “The kind of things I need are… those of the ‘flash’ persuasion.”
“Aaa-aaaaaah!” went a voice on cue, complete with backing instruments. The pegasi looked at each other, nodded, and joined Twilight in getting the required weather together.
Once back at the library, Twilight rubbed her hooves together. “Okay, Button Mash. I think the girls and I have a solution to this curse.” She sighed. “This is going to hurt you a lot more than it’s going to hurt me.”
“Wait, wh—” But it was too late, as now the colt was exposed to everything that was flashy in some way. Flashlights, flashbulbs, flash fiction, a professional flash mob, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’s flash weather all converged on Button, who sat bolt upright and belted out the chorus, though he could hardly be heard over the band behind him, who had playing the song the entire time.
“Flash!” yelled Button finally, who slumped over, exhausted. Twilight stepped back, a grin on her face.
“How do you feel, Button Mash?” she asked. There was no response at first, only a red and yellow cloud hanging over the colt. “Button Mash?” she repeated, with a bit of trepidation.
Suddenly, the two-toned haze was pulled into Button Mash’s body. The colt twitched, then sprung to his hooves. “My name is Button Mash,” he said in a rich tenor voice, as if possessed. With a ridiculous swagger, he turned to Twilight and looked her straight in the eyes.
“And I’m the fastest pony alive.” In a yellow-red blur, the door to the castle was blown off its hinges as Button Mash sped towards Canterlot.
Twilight’s eyes narrowed. She turned to Spike.
“Five bits that this was the old pony from scene twenty-four’s fault.”
