//------------------------------//
// Manehattan Trip 
// Story: Society as We Know It 
// by Comma Typer 
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It was night time. The lights of Manehattan were on, giving the city a beautiful glow, an island of civilization. The noises of the city were even louder, with the carriages rushing their way to their destinations, with the ponies on the sidewalks hurrying their way to wherever they were going to, and with all the sounds coming out of the buildings—music, speeches, shouts, talks.
Out of a coffee shop was the aroma of coffee, vitalizing the ponies who were inside and even the ponies who were just passing by, their eyes opening up a little more as they took a glance at the coffee shop. Beside the coffee shop was a newspaper stand, with a pony wearing a hat yelling to the ponies passing by while he held a newspaper with a hoof. On the newspaper, there was a picture of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna standing beside Princess Twilight Sparkle and a somewhat smiling Dragon Lord Ember as they stood on rough ground in the Dragon Lands.
Beside the newspaper stand was a clothes shop. Most of the ponies going inside were mares, although a few stallions also walked in, eyeing the fancy suits that were on display. The ponies that walked out were carrying bags of clothing, the mares talking much about how the clothes that they bought would be perfect for them.
Beside the clothes shop was an ice cream store with bright colors that attracted the families. Ponies sat on the tables both inside and outside, the colts and the fillies happily eating their ice cream while the parents talked beside them. A happy pony was behind the counter inside, elatedly scooping up ice cream of chocolate flavor, vanilla flavor, strawberry flavor, among others.
Beside the ice cream store was a restaurant, offering a variety of foods and drinks, from pizza to burgers. More ponies were there, lining up. It was a noisy business inside as the ponies behind the counter hurried to prepare the food and the drinks, but the customers were happy as they ate what they bought.
Beside the restaurant was the street. It was a busy street as carriages filled the road and as ponies waited at the intersections, waiting for the carriages to stop. A stallion stood at the intersection, whistling to various carriages and controlling the traffic.
The ponies crowded at the streets, waiting to walk. They talked with each other, discussing how their day had been and what they planned to do for the night. It was a noisy talk, since a pony talking to another pony would also have to hear the talks and the discussions of other ponies that were with him.
Then, the carriages stopped.
Ponies walked on the street, going to the other side of the road.
Then, the carriages went on again, passing by the many ponies on the sidewalk. The stallions pulling the carriages ran as fast as they could, carrying the carriage and the passengers inside. They went past the buildings of Manehattan, passing by ponies as they did so. Some ponies would look at the carriages. Others just walked on, minding their own business.
Then, a carriage passed by a group of four changelings as they stood in front of another newspaper stand.
"Get your news here!" the pony at the stand yelled at the changelings, waving a newspaper at them as they looked at him. "You must be new here. Have you seen what's happening in Equestria?!"
"Uh, I've already bought my newspaper," Neon Guard said.
The pony groaned. "I should've known. It's hard to compete with the ponies here! There's a newspaper stand here, and then when you go to the next block, there's another newspaper stand. Do you want to go to the block after that?! There's another newspaper stand, and another newspaper stand, and there are so many that I don't know how I'm going to get much profit out here!"
"Are you new?" Blue Alarm asked.
"New to Manehattan? Manehattan, a city, a metropolis, a place where ponies can be successful if you can just work hard and if what you're good at is your talent? I'm not new!"
"Then, why are you having trouble?" Blue Alarm asked as more carriages passed by. One carriage stopped to bring down a customer. The customer brought a few bits to the pony pulling the carriage. The pony smiled as he rushed away with the carriage.
"It's not easy!" the pony said, complaining, still holding the newspaper. "You have so many competitors out there! You have ponies living at almost every block of this city! Ponies of different kinds, and that's just the natives, the inhabitants! What about the tourists? They're not here to check the news, they're here to see the city and the landmarks—some ponies see the news as a bad thing!" He groaned, grumbled. "Well, what are you here for?"
"Just enjoying," Blue Alarm said.
"And we're enjoying!" Humerus yelled, flying to the air as he did some tricks to show off his enjoyment and excitement.
Red Noise looked at him with an annoyed look.
"It's good that you can enjoy Manehattan," the pony said. "I've been here for most of my life. I've seen lots of what Manehattan has. I've seen it grow, I've seen the tourists, I've seen the ponies here—I know. It's boring if you already know. You have it well."
"Do you want help?" Blue Alarm asked, approaching the pony.
"You can help if you buy this newspaper," the pony said, holding up the newspaper. "A few bits would help."
"Alright."
Blue Alarm brought some bits to the pony and the pony brought the newspaper to him.
Blue Alarm brought it to Neon Guard.
"What will you do?" the pony asked. "Changelings are, well, I don't know. They always ask about where to go, and they want to go everywhere. They wanna see everything, visit every building, go to every street, see all the parks, take pictures here and there if they have cameras—and seeing changelings with cameras is something that I'm not sure about." He paused. "What did you do for the day?"
"We went to a few new restaurants," Humerus began, "and then we decided to go to the top of some skyscrapers and it was great that we could have ponies who could be at the top as well, and then we went down to go and see more restaurants and other places where we can eat, and then we went to the grocery stores and we saw lots of items on sale there and there's more items there than the Ponyville marketplace, and then we went on to some parks and we talked to some of the ponies there and we had a good time and some ponies were flying kites and I tried to fly a kite but I think I need more practice, and then we decided to go to a music store and see all the instruments that ponies could play and we saw guitars, pianos, drums, violins, and more, and I was excited, and maybe I could try one, but the instruments cost a lot of money so we went away, and then—"
"That's enough!" the pony shouted, tired. "I don't need to hear the entire story, alright?! You don't have to go on talking about it!"
"Are you having a good day?" Humerus said, smiling.
The pony groaned. "Well, it was a nice day. Now, do you have somewhere to go?"
"Well, I wanted to—"
"We'll talk about it!" Red Noise said. "I want to see more of Manehattan at night because it's quite nice."
"Stop interrupting me!" Humerus whined, eyeing Red Noise with anger.
"We don't want to annoy anypony else, do we?" Red Noise said, gesturing at the irritated newspony who was looking at Humerus with an irritated look.
"Alright," Humerus said, balking. "I'll try my best to not do anything bad." He was slightly shivering.
"Have a good evening!" the newspony shouted as the changelings walked away. "Enjoy Manehattan!"
The newspony waved at them and the changelings waved back.



The changelings walked on the sidewalk beside buildings that gave much light, giving many colorful lights on to the street and on to the sidewalks, giving the street a fun feel as ponies walked by, some rushing by, others taking their time as they beheld the sights and the sounds and the smells of Manehattan. There were food stands with ponies selling food and cooking food right there—some ponies were sizzling their food, others were baking their food. The smells combined to create a smell that made the street an aromatic urban food place.
Music blared from speakers as a band of ponies performed a song on stage. It was a mellow, light song. Ponies were gathering in front of the stage, listening and enjoying the music as more ponies walked by.
Some ponies walking by were reading their newspapers. There were police ponies, having no smile nor frown but just expressions that showed that they were focused on the task of protecting the citizens and the tourists. They looked here and there.
"What about we buy some more food?" Blue Alarm asked. "It wouldn't hurt to try some more."
Humerus hurried towards one of the food stands.
The three other changelings followed him.
Humerus stopped in front of a stand where ice cream was being made. The pony behind the stand looked at him, smiling. "How can I help you? We have lots of different flavors!"
"I want half of the flavors, please!" Humerus yelled. Then, he threw some bits at the pony.
The pony gathered the bits that fell to the sidewalk and placed them into the money box. "Are you sure? That's a lot of money to be spending on ice cream."
"Ice cream is good for everypony!" Humerus said. "I don't think anypony can get too much ice cream!"
"I'm trying to sell ice cream, but I don't think you should be eating too much ice cream. You might get sick."
"Well, you better give me some ice cream, the way that I want it!"
"OK!" Red Noise shouted. "We got you!" He flew to Humerus's side. "How much did you give the pony?!"
"Enough for half of the flavors!" Humerus said. He smiled. "I'm going to sample half of the flavors, and then I'll tell you which one is the best!"
"Sample?" the pony said. "Why didn't you say so? If you want a sample, it's free!"
"I like free ice cream!" Humerus yelled. "Where's the bits? I need to get my bits back!"
The pony sighed. "Here." He gave the bits back to Humerus.
Humerus placed the bits back inside his bag. Then, he eagerly looked at the pony, trembling in excitement. "Give me the free samples! Give me the ice cream!"
"Is this a good idea?" Red Noise asked. "Did you even think this through, Humerus?"
"It's the best idea I ever thought of regarding ice cream, Red Noise!" Humerus replied.
Blue Alarm and Neon Guard caught up to the two changelings. "So, what happened?" Blue Alarm asked.
"Don't tell me you wasted your money on ice cream," Neon Guard said, exasperated and worried.
"I've made a good and well-thought purchase," Humerus said. "Even a wise one!"
"Why should I believe you, Humerus?" Red Noise muttered.
"Uh, here," the pony said, giving a bowl of small scoops of different ice cream flavors. "We have the best-selling flavors here. We have the usual vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, mango, and apple."
Then, Humerus grabbed the bowl and gulped down all the ice cream scoops. He threw the bowl back to the counter and sighed. Then, he burped.
His changeling friends and the pony looked at him in astonishment.
"That's the fastest I've ever seen anypony or any changeling eat my ice cream," the pony said. "Should I give you something? Do you want anything?"
"Nope!" Humerus said as he walked away. "I'm completely OK with what I've tasted. It's great! Thanks!"
"Uh, you haven't bought any ice cream!" the pony shouted at him. "If you liked the ice cream, maybe you should try buying some!"
Red Noise groaned. "Let's just follow Humerus!" Then, he flew.
Blue Alarm and Neon Guard also flew.
The pony looked at the changelings. "This is ridiculous! Changelings keep on eating my free samples of ice cream! At least the rest of them paid me! This one didn't even think about paying me! This isn't fair!" He frowned, glowering at the happy changeling as he moved away. He looked at the other ponies passing by him. "If this keeps on going, I'm going to be running out of ice cream to sell by the end of the week!" He sighed an exasperated, tired, and irritated sigh. "At least there's lots of ponies here. Manehattan has lots of ponies. And changelings. And some griffons. And Spike. Spike liked ice cream." The pony watched some more of the ponies passing by. "Maybe I should do something about this."



"There's book stores," Blue Alarm said. "There's camera shops, music shops, fancy restaurants, not-so-fancy restaurants. This street is filled with lots of different buildings! And, the nightlife here is high-quality! Look at all the ponies just enjoying their time here and buying all that they're buying and eating all that they're eating!"
"It makes you think about how the normal Manehattan pony lives," Neon Guard said, passing by more ponies on the sidewalk. Some ponies were carrying bags. Some more ponies were wearing cool clothing. "How does a pony who lives in Manehattan wake up and live a day? It must be quite hectic."
"There's the traffic," Red Noise said, "there's the crowds of ponies, there's the rush of the schedule. That's three things I can tell you about the Manehattan life."
"But, they have so many things!" Humerus said. "What about we try buying a camera?"
"We don't even have enough camera for a good enough camera!" Red Noise yelled. "Cameras aren't cheap!"
"But, they're worth it!"
"Then, try buying one!" Red Noise yelled. "Let's see if Neon Guard would like how you spend your money!"
Ponies stopped walking and looking at the changelings. They weren't smiling. They had concerned looks on their faces.
"Uh, let's not make this worse!" Blue Alarm said. "Let's just walk."
Then, the changelings walked.
The ponies were still looking at them.
"Why did you do that?" Humerus whispered. "That's not nice!"
"What you're suggesting about buying a camera isn't nice!" Red Noise retorted.
"Then, what about we buy something else? Like, a guitar!"
"That's still not good enough! Do you have the money for a guitar?!"
"Uh, it depends!"
"That means that you don't have enough money."
"Uh, yes."
Red Noise groaned, placing a hoof on his head and rubbing his head.
"Let's try not talking," Neon Guard said as they kept on walking. "If you keep on arguing like this, the police ponies might get suspicious of us."
Red Noise grumbled. "OK!"
Humerus smiled.
Blue Alarm kept a neutral expression on his face.
Neon Guard sighed a sigh of relief.
The changelings walked on the sidewalk, walking by the bright buildings of Manehattan and smelling the aromatic smells of the food there, listening to the music blared. The ponies stopped looking at them and went on walking, talking, and eating.