Heat Wave

Three days later

The inside of the tree house library was hot, proving itself to be a microwave even during the cool night without any form of air ventilation.  All of the windows were covered with boards save for the one on the second level which was used by the tree's occupants for observing.  Sam, presently laying on Twilight's bed, carefully creaked the window open to watch the street below.  It was deserted.  Any unfortunate stallions who had been roaming the street when the Heat struck had already been dragged away so some undisclosed location, their pleas for help going unanswered and unheard.  Such desertion was not an unwelcome sight, however, and Sam leaned away from the window and sighed in relief, content that nothing had discovered their hiding spot yet.

For the past three days, the small group of males had taken refuge in the most unlikely of places, Twilight's library.  Somehow, they had evaded capture and Twilight had not returned during those days.  The activities for the tree house's occupants had fallen to predictable patterns: Fancypants and Tim delved in small talk, Soarin', surprisingly, spent his time reading, and Keyshawn sat curled in a corner, slowly rocking and mumbling to himself.  Spike, bless his heart, tried his best to provide the disgruntled human comfort, while Macintosh did a lot of nothing, and Snips and Snails raided Twilight's fridge.  The two colts were currently noisily eating peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches.

“Did you see anything outside?” Soarin' asked Sam as the human descended the tiny staircase.

“It's a ghost town,” Sam replied, taking a seat on a pillow near the round table in the center of the library.  “Since we've huddled up in here, I haven't seen a single pony outside.”

The pegasus nodded and promptly returned to his Daring Do novel.  Meanwhile, across the room, Tim and Fancypants' conversation had turned towards his life in Canterlot.  “Well, I can't deny that it's a comfortable life void of all the worries common folk such as yourselves face.”

The statement caught the attention of everyone in the room, save for Soarin'.  Now the center of attention, Fancypants raised his volume to address his additional audience.  “It may sound like a wonderful dream to live with such luxury and with so little cares, and indeed it is for a limited time.  But, there's a certain point where life becomes...lackluster.  Boring; predictable; void of the chaos that makes the simple life an admirable feat of existence.  The privileged life is...unfulfilling.”

“As if you've experienced everything but it all means nothing,” Sam finished.

“Precisely,” Fancypants agreed.  “But would I give it up?  No, not unless I had to.  The spotlight is where I belong.  I'm a sort of role model amongst the nobles and rich snobs.  And even though their hearts have been sold to the highest bidder, I still try to instill in them a good, unselfish example.”

Aside from the noisy patter coming from Snips and Snails in the dining room as they ate, the library fell silent for a few second.  “Y'all should visit us sometime, then,” offered big Mac, surprisingly being the one to break the silence.  “It's 'bout as common and unsophisticated as ya can get, and we still make th' best apple pies 'round.”

“I thank you for the generous offer, Mr. Big Mac, and I will certainly try to arrange it once we're out of this mess.”

Snips and Snails could be heard shoveling down more food, reminding Tim of something.  “Is anyone hungry?” he asked the group.

“I am,” Soarin' answered first, not diverting his attention from his book.

The others said the same, and Tim jumped to his feet and made towards the kitchen to prepare some food for himself and his friends.  When he got into the kitchen, which doubled as the dining room, he stood, mouth agape, at the scene before him.  The cupboards, drawers, and fridge had all been thoroughly raided, proudly displaying the lack of food each one contained.  Additionally, Snips and Snails had crumbs and other refuse littered about them and the table, a clear indicator that they were the barbarians responsible.

“We're out of food!” Tim called back to his companions in the other room.  Aside form Keyshawn and Spike, everyone rushed out to confirm with their own eyes.  And upon seeing the bare shelves, they all glared angrily at the two colts.

“That...that was supposed to last us a week!” Sam stated in disbelief.

Macintosh came over and gave the empty cupboards an elongated look-over.  His eyes narrowed and he stomped the floor furiously.  “Snips and Snails!” he shouted, turning to face them.  The two colts shrank away from the enraged stallion and tried to avoid his death-glare by hiding behind each other.  “Ya two nincompoops ate all our food!”

“Sorry,” they whimpered.

“Sorry?  Sorry?  Is that all ya got to say for yourselves, is that you're sorry!?”  Big Mac's pure rage almost made him literally combust, and it took the rest of the company holding him back to save the two colts from getting a well deserved buck.

“This is the end!” Keyshawn shouted from the other room.  “We're going to starve in here,” he said, rocking himself back and forth more intensely.

“Stop shouting!” Sam shouted to him, perfectly demonstrating hypocrisy.  “There could be a mare walking by; we don't want them to know we're here.”

The warning was left unheeded.  “I don't care anymore!” the distraught man screamed.  “Let them come; we're only prolonging the inevitable!”

Spike put his hand to Keyshawn's chin and lifted his head to his level, then gave the man's cheek a powerful slap, a red mark forming on the site of impact as a testament of the strength of the blow.  “Calm down, dude; it's not the end of the world,” Spike scolded.

“I...I'm sorry,” Keyshawn said, following with some calming, meditative breathing.  “I'm not myself today,” he said after having calmed himself sufficiently.  “Lost my cool is all.”

“It happens to all of as,” Spike assured.  “Just don't let it happen again, and you're forgiven.”  Keyshwan's rocking stopped and he gave his draconic friend a warm smile.

“Glad to have ya back with us,” Big Mac said as he reentered the library's main room.  “With that out of the way, there's still the food problem.  One'a us has gotta go out there and get some.”  Everyone looked around at each other, waiting to see if anyone was willing to volunteer.

“Not it,” Snips and Snails said in unison after a few seconds of tense silence, to which everyone replied with piercing death-glares.  They gulped nervously as Big Mac walked nervously.

“Ya two got us into this mess,” he said with a hint of mirth, “and I suggest ya find a way to get us out of it.”

The colts looked out a nearby window overlooking the deserted and foreboding streets.  “We're not going out there,” Snips said shakily.

“Yea you are,” Mac replied adamantly.  “Ya two are gonna man up and take responsibility for yer actions.”

“We're taking no responsibility!” Snails shouted back defiantly.  “We're too young to be taking responsibility.”

“Ain't no such thing.  Now git out there and take it like a stallion!”

“But...but we don't want to lose out virginity!” Snips whined.

“Neither do Ah!”

By this point, the rest of the crew had gathered around the arguing stallions, nodding along with what Big Mac had been saying, obviously in agreement with his decision.  However, with his last statement, they all gave him odd and surprised looks.  The atmosphere became silent, awkward, and tense, which only increased exponentially as the seconds dragged on.

“Let me check upstairs before we decide on anything,” Sam suggested, trying to defuse the tension.  No one objected, and he quickly proceeded into Twilight's room, where he  opened the window and cautiously peered out of it.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie shot up from out of nowhere.  Her face was mere inches from Sam's, and a maniacal grin was splayed across her face.  Her sudden appearance mad Sam yelp and quickly retreat back inside, slamming the window shut and covering it with his body, as if thinking that blocking her view of the inside would make him disappear from her vision.  “Guys, we've got a problem,” he announced loudly.  “It's Pink-”

One of Pinkie's hooves shot through the window, somehow reaching around and grabbing onto Sam despite the lack of space.  With all her might, which was much more than Sam thought she was capable of producing, she tried to pry Sam through the smashed-out window.  “Help!” he screamed as Pinkie's other forehoof managed to find a physically impossible way to get itself around him and pull.  Her strength was too much for him, and he was sent through the open hole in the wall.  Luckily, he managed to get a hand on the bottom of the windowsill and continued resisting.

Fortunately for him, the rest of the guys had heard his call for help and had quickly clambered up the stairs before Pinkie could pull him out any further.

“You're mine!” Pinkie screamed maniacally.  Wasting no time, Tim rushed over and grabbed onto Sam's outstretched arm and tried to pull him back through the window.  The others, save for Keyshawn who panicked and fled back to his corner, joined in.  Pinkie was quickly overpowered, and along with Sam, came shooting back into Twilight's bedroom.  Sam lay panting on the floor, exhausted by his exertion, while Pinkie stood triumphantly over him, her grin widening to creepy proportions.

“I say, my dear,” Fancypants said as he walked to Pinkie's side, “your attitude is most improper.”  He swiftly turned and bucked Pinkie off of Sam and into the wall, but not so hard as to give her any lasting injuries.  Dazed by the impact, Pinkie was unable to react in time as Twilight's mattress was flung towards her and magically fastened to the wall, rendering all but her head immobile.

By this point, Sam was finally on his feet again.  He walked over to where Pinkie had been immobilized, crouching so that his face was right in front of hers.  “Looks like you're not having your way with me today, Pinkie,” he taunted.  He tried to say more while withdrawing, but before he had the opportunity, Pinkie's neck stretched in a cartoonish fashion, forcing her lips onto his.  Her tongue forced its way into his mouth, and with a surprising amount of dexterity, formed a vice grip around his own.  She moaned sensually as her heat inspired lust was partially satisfied, and she held him there for several seconds.

Completely stunned by the intrusion, Sam failed to react, even when Pinkie pulled away and a devious smirk crossed her face.  His stupor was broken when she loudly announced in a sing-song voice, “They're in the library~!”

The group panicked and scurried downstairs, where they immediately began pushing, bucking, and levitating any heavy object in sight in front of the door.  Their handiwork finished, they took a step back to see if it would hold.  Not a second later, furious pounding could be heard from the other side.  The barricade gave in slightly due to the force from the mares attempting to break in, and the guys pushed back in response.

“Do you think this will hold them off?” Tim asked loudly, straining himself against a table.

“It feels like it is,” Soarin' replied.  “If we're lucky, we won't be worth the effort and they'll bug off.”

The bombardment lasted for several long minutes, neither side lessening their efforts.  Tired from their exertion, though, the males' resistance soon began to dwindle.  The door began to finally open, shoving everything trying to keep it closed back.

“You know,” Snails said, straining with effort, “they could just use magic to get in.”

The mares outside immediately halted their barrage.  With the sudden lack of opposition, they forced everything back into place and lost their balance.  There was a brief second of delay, which the guys used to get back on their feet and give Snails a death-glare so intense that Snails' heart literally skipped a beat.

“I hate you,” Snips whispered to his dimwitted no-longer-friend.  Almost immediately, the door exploded inwards, hurling the parts of their impromptu barricade scattering in all directions.  The guys ducked for cover, and luckily, no one was crushed.  They got to their feet and looked to the open door, where several panting mares were standing, staring at them with hungry eyes.

Keyshawn screamed and ran upstairs, the only prompting needed for the mares to follow him up the stairs and give chase.  In a desperate attempt to escape, he opened the door to the library's balcony and charged through the boards that they had nailed across the doorway to prevent anything from getting in.  He continued to run, hopping onto the balcony's railing, then jumping off the railing and plummeting to the ground below.

Fortunately for them all, the mares halted their pursuit to help unfasten Pinkie from the wall, giving the rest of them time to zip past and follow Keyshawn's lead.  Sam was first to follow, leaping and landing with a roll and rising unsteadily to his feet.  Having never leapt from a building before, Fancypants gracelessly landed on his side.  Soarin' simply flew, carrying Spike on his back..  Tim and Big Mac jumped off simultaneously, each landing squarely on their feet and hooves.  Tim cringed in pain from the impact but was otherwise unharmed.

“Let's get out of here,” Sam said when they were all on their feet.

“Wait; what about Snips and Snails?” Soarin' asked.

They all looked up to see the two colts clinging to each other and peering over the railing.  They were afraid to jump; justifiably so, as it was a fair distance to fall.  Suddenly, two pink hooves shot out from behind them and dragged them out of the group's view.

“I can't take this anymore!” Keyshawn shouted, pure terror saturating his voice.  He sped away form the group and down the main roadway, squealing and flailing his arms.  Several of the mares that had gathered around the outside of the library trailed after him.

There was nothing the rest of them could do for the colts or for Keyshawn, and they took off before any other mares noticed that they were there.

Sticking to the backstreets and alleyways of Ponyville served the weakened group no good.  They had inadvertently alerted a wandering group of mares and had been aimlessly traversing the rarely used streets since.  During their run, they passed by one of Ponyville's landmarks, the Carousel Boutique.  As they approached, the door opened and Rarity stuck her head out.  Upon seeing the stallions, she retreated back into her home to fetch some rolls of ribbon.

As the stallions passed, she sped out the door and, using her magic, wrapped a length of ribbon around Big Mac's hind legs, tripping him up and causing him to face plant.  “My darling,” she said seductively, reeling in her catch, “you're going to look dashing in leather...”

The other tried to pull him away from the lustful unicorn, but with the pursuing mares fast approaching, they were forced to retreat.  Big Mac desperately hoofed at the ground, trying to get d foothold and pull himself away from Rarity, to no avail.  “Help, guys!” he plearing ot him retreating company.  When they failed to come back for him, he panicked.  “No...no, I don't wanna make butter!”

Spike, still riding on Soarin's back, gave one last glance an the unfortunate Big Mac.  Upon seeing his dear Rarity, an idea formed in his mind.  “This is my chance,” he mumlbed, but Soarin' overheard.

“What?” the Wonderbolt spat in disbelief, looking back to Spike.  “Are you crazy?”

Giving no response, Spike leapt off of Soarin' and dashed towards Rarity.  She had just finished dragging Big Mac into her home, and when she saw Spike approaching, she tripped him up with another length of ribbon.  She levitated his bound form into her home, and a couple of the pursuing mares accompanied him, while the others stayed hot on the trail of Soarin' and Fancypants.

The door to the Boutique magically slammed behind Rarity, dooming Spike and Big Mac to their unfortunate fates.