Rainbow Dash was making her way home after a long day of being a weatherpony. One day, she would leave the weather-pony business behind and be the best Wonderbolt ever, but that was sill awhile away. Right now, she was stuck doing boring, dirty, and exhausting weather work. So exhausting, in fact, she often found herself choosing to walk home through the streets rather than spend the extra effort to fly back. Today was one of those days.
A day of weatherponying often left her sweaty and covered in miscellaneous debris that had been flying in the wind. Today had been particularly bad; an accident involving a pill of leaves and twigs had left her throughly coated in dead flora particulate. Her mane and tail were absolutely full of it, and she wanted nothing more than to get home and begin cleaning them as fast as possible.
To speed up her occasional treks through town, Rainbow had a few little shortcuts she used. Currently, she was cutting through an alley to avoid having to go all the way to the actual intersection. Just as she reached the ally’s exit, two men wearing black hoodies, matching black cargo-pants, and green ski-masks stepped in to her path. Naturally wanting to avoid a collision, Rainbow moved to the left. Before she could slip past and exit the alley, a third man wearing an identical green mask swung around that corner too, blocking her path completely. Rainbow’s mental alarm-bells stayed quiet; any kind of street crime, including robbery, was virtually unheard of in Ponyville.
“Hey, You’re some of those humans Twilight was talking about!”
The three men closed in on Rainbow wordlessly, their superior hight forcing her to increase the angle of her neck to maintain eye contact. One took the lead while the other two fell in behind him, their thick hind legs making it impossible for Rainbow to get past. With all three apes boxing her in like this, Rainbow was starting to feel a bit nervous. Her rear leg twitched, then took a step back; the situation was tickling all her pry instincts.
“Hey! What is this?” she asked in a higher, more shrill, and less confident voice than she was accustomed to.
The lead man grinned hard enough to deform the green fabric of his mask.
“Weell, me’n th’ boys’ve seen s’me mighty impressive pretty pony manes ’n’ tails ‘n our time here ‘n Equestria, but none as beautiful or as magnificent as yours. B’tween us, we must’ve brush’d half th’ ponies ‘n this town, b’ none of uz ‘ave evah brush’d th’ one we desirah most, yours.” The huge money took one swift step forward, putting Rainbow in arm’s reach.
Rainbow’s eyes widened as the situation became clear. This was bad. Against the protests of her exhausted muscles, she tensed her body in preparation of flight. In the moment before she took off, she felt a muscular paw wrap around the base of one wing.
“Ya not goin’ anywa’ ‘til we’ve had our fill,” said another, huskier voice from behind her.
While the one gripping her wing held her firmly in place, the three men within her sight each began pulling a different instrument of violation from their pockets. The lead man drew an oval-ended hair brush from his hoody pocket while the man to his left pulled a thin comb from his back pocket and the one to his right, with a terrifying tearing sound, yanked a thick bristled brush from a velcro pocket on his cargo pants.
As the implications began to sink in, Rainbow panicked.
“You can’t do this to me! Twilight will hear about this and she’ll have you all sent back home! Or imprisoned, or something!”
The lead man grinned and rubbed his cloth-covered chin. “Twilight ain’t g’nna hear ’bout nothing, not if ya know what’s good f’you.”
Rainbow opened her mouth to retort, but her sharp words transformed in to a startled squeak as her mane was roughly tugged backwards and a huge paw was wrapped around her muzzle, covering her mouth. She tried to struggle from his grasp, but her efforts only seemed to encourage him. Rainbow felt tears begin to form as he adjusted himself to keep her pinned but free the limb he was using to grip her mane. His hand rustled around in his own hoodie pocket for a moment before returning with a menacing stainless steel brush moment later. Rainbow felt tears forming as he forced it through her mane for the first time, brutally tugging on each and every tangle, yanking the plant debris from its folic home.
“We’re gonna have lots’a fun with you. Hehehe...” He half grunted, half growled into her ear.
Twilight hummed cheerfully as she trotted through the streets of Ponyville. Things were gong great with her human research; she had filled an entire bookshelf with notes on their habits and behavior, her test-subjects were happy and healthy, and the human governments were ready and willing to provide more if she should need them.
As she passed by one of the small alleys that connected Ponyville’s larger streets, something colorful caught her eye. “Is that...” With horror, she realized that it was.
“Rainbow Dash! What happened to you?”
Twilight rushed to her friend’s side. The rainbow pony before her lay sprawled out on the alley floor, half hidden behind a trashcan. Her mouth was hanging open and her head rested in the resulting pool of drool. Her furry blue coat was filthy, full of the dirt, grime, and soot that coated the alley. In shocking contrast, her mane and tail were not only free of any matting or staining, but appeared carefully groomed. Both had the tell-tale sheen of hair-gel; and even from here, Twilight could smell the scent of flowery perfume emanating from the prone pony and mixing with the alley’s other smells.
It was clear what had happened. Twilight's immense disgust propelled the tasty breakfast of pancakes Spike had lovingly cook for her less than an hour ago onto the paved ground, where it quickly flowed into a conveniently placed storm drain.
Author's Note
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Was inspired by repeated discussion about gang-brushies
