“Every civilization has to start somewhere. After building the first settlement, somepony has to go out there and gather basic equine needs. Grass and wheat’s the most important of them. Wait, did I forget to mention cakes? Cakes are simply fantastic too! One can never go wrong with cakes! But they probably wouldn’t have cakes until they gathered all the ingredients! Some places don’t have all the ingredients a pony needs, so they have to hope there’s somepony else who’s got them! That’s the power of social interaction everypony!
The bells of Ponyville schoolhouse rang to signal the end of another school week for its fillies and colts. Miss Cheerilee had just wished all the ponies a good weekend, and all the ponies ran out excitedly to begin their weekend. That occurred with the exception of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, fresh off a failed crusading attempt at teaching ponies how to make art.
“... And tell me again why we decided to separate and teach our classmates how to draw?” Scootaloo questioned Sweetie Belle with a glare.
“Hey! I thought we should have had a chance to express our more artistic side!” Sweetie Belle replied with a glare. “Scootaloo, we’ve already spent an entire week with rollerblades and skateboards.” Sweetie Belle continued with her hooves crossed.
“Sweetie Belle! Scootaloo! Cut that out! We ain’t trying to bring each other down with this crusadin’ business! We’re supposed to be working together to find each of our special talents!” Applebloom waved her hooves towards the two ponies to get them to stop arguing. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both gave out a sigh before Applebloom continued with her encouraging speech,
“Thank you. Ah know it’s been hard to help each other find our special talents because we’re different ponies. But that don’t mean we keep fighting about what to do. If we do something, we all do it together. That’s why we’re Cutie Mark Crusaders. We work together as blank flanks to find our special talents!” Sweetie Belle and Scootalloo gave out their nods before Applebloom continued.
“Hey! Let’s head on over to Sugarcube Corner and have some shakes! Perhaps there we can come up with some new crusadin’ ideas for the weekend!” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded happily before the Cutie Mark Crusaders set off from the school and towards Sugarcube Corner…
“Don’t forget Button Mash! You need to be back here in 2 hours, just before dinner! We’ll be having a dinner meetup with somepony I know from Ponyville! We go all the way back to Manehattan, and she’ll help us settle down.” Button’s mom directed towards Button Mash. Button Mash complained in response,
“But mom! I don’t know anypony here! Where do I start?!” Button Mash gave out a sigh of frustration before he continued, “I wanna be playing with my Gamecolt!” Button’s mom took exception to his attitude. Nevertheless, she understood how hard it was for Button Mash to move away so soon after receiving acclaim for his Pac-Colt victory. She replied as calmly and motherly as she could.
“On the way to our house, we passed by a really huge sweets shop! Tell you what, I’ll walk you back there and give you some bits to have a milkshake. What you do the rest of the way is up to you! Explore Ponyville for a few hours! Make a new friend or two!” Button Mash looked at his mom with lackadaisical concern. He already determined that there wouldn’t be any pony who really appreciated his gaming. So he decided that once he got his milkshake, that he’d immerse himself in his Gamecolt and play some platformer games like ‘Plumber Stallion 3: Changeling’s Revenge’. Button then gave a wacky nod before running off towards Sugarcube Corner, forcing his mother to frantically catch up.
Button Mash arrived at Sugarcube Corner, with his mother closely behind him. She gave him his bits before kissing his cheek as a goodbye gesture. She then trotted away out of his sight to prepare for her dinner with the special guest. Button Mash then trotted into Sugarcube Corner, searching frantically for a seat. He wanted to get back to his game as quickly as he could and eventually sat on a table designated for one pony. Button Mash frantically waved his hooves around and after getting the attention of one of the waitresses, ordered his milkshake.
Once he received his chocolate milkshake, Button Mash quickly gulped on it… the only problem was that the rapid intake of cold drinks led to brain freeze. Button Mash, feeling the rush of cold on his brain, felt a throbbing pain on his head that just wouldn’t go away. He held his head as hard as he could and let out a wail that would put anypony’s ears tremendously shaking.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders had just sat down by their tables, ready to drink up on their milkshakes. While they were drinking up, Sweetie Belle posed the question the three Crusaders had on their minds:
“What are we going to do next?” Sweetie Belle paused briefly. “We’ve tried athletic feats, appliance-based, and artistic cutie marks over the past 2 weeks. And we’re terrible at all of them!”
“Look, Ah know we’ve tried a lot of different things, but we can’t just give up now. We’ll never find our cutie marks if we just give up!” Applebloom retorted in reply, hoping to stir up some more motivation from her fellow crusaders.
“Perhaps we need some help from another blank flank. Maybe they’ll have more ideas we can try or provide a better way for each of us to find our individual talents.” Scootaloo added, hoping that something she said would sputter something onward for the crusaders. Just as she made the suggestion, the three fillies heard a sudden wailing that came from one of the other tables at the other side of the dining area! Applebloom quickly motioned the other crusaders and interjected,
“C’mon y’all! Somepony needs our help! Let’s go save the poor pony! They’re probably in trouble and need our help! Cutie Mark Crusaders Superheroes go!” While Sweetie Belle rushed towards the other side of the bakery with Applebloom, Scootaloo groaned at the idea of being superheroes.
“Look, we’re not being superheroes! We already tried that idea once with Bon Bon and nearly pushed her down a hill while trying to carry her stockpile of candies!” Scootaloo objected with determination. Nevertheless, there was a pony who needed help, so she gave out a sigh and grudgingly rushed over with the other crusaders to help whoever was screaming.
When the crusaders arrived at the source of the scream, all they could do was moan. All they could see was a colt who was silly enough to drink their milkshake so fast that it gave him brain freeze. Applebloom scratched her head in confusion, while Scootaloo gave out a hiss and a shake of her head.
“See Applebloom! What did I tell you? Running down the bakery like that was useless! He just gave himself brain freeze is all!” Scootaloo exclaimed angrily. She then sighed before motioning the others to return to their seats.
While Applebloom reluctantly agreed to move along, Sweetie Belle paused for a moment. Looking at his flank, she noticed that he too was a blank flank! Before she could think anything of it, the other crusaders shouted her name and called her back! Sweetie Belle rushed back, wondering whether it was prudent to tell them about the colt’s blank flank status. Sure he was a blank flank, and Scootaloo suggested that they go out and find one! But he didn’t seem really bright, especially since he reacted very poorly to a simple brain freeze. Plus, she’d never seen the colt before. The types of questions the other crusaders would raise, like how new he was to Ponyville and the like, put her off from telling the other crusaders about him. Perhaps they would meet again at a more opportune time, once the other crusaders forgot about the incident…