Chapter 4. The CMC of Manehatan
“So, here it is,” Babs said as she inflated her chest, “our summer headquarters.”
In the middle of Playset Park, sat a brightly colored, elevated, wooden clubhouse surrounded by three playgrounds, six individual slides, four swing sets, and a kid playing on-top of a monkey cage. This was the home of the Manehattan Cutie Mark Crusaders summer headquarters.
“It’s great,” Silver Spoon said with a raised eyebrow, “but why do you call it your summer headquarters?”
“Well, we actually have a real clubhouse that we can store our stuff in at school. But since this place is public property, we can only meet in it. On the bright side; we use it when we’re not in school.” They walked up to the clubhouse. “Hey, Lucky, Switch, we got a new member for ya ta meet.”
Out of the clubhouse, popped a pair of foals’ heads, followed by their bodies.
“Hey, Babs,” the youngest of the two, a green colored filly with a yellow mane said. “Where have you been?”
"Staying out of trouble?” a red colt with a black mane asked.
“Course,” Babs said as she rubbed her neck. “I was just looking for Silver Spoon.”
“I thought your letter said she could show up on any day, so why would you be out looking for her?”
”Anyways, guys, I’d like ya ta meet her. This, is Silver Spoon.”
Silver Spoon waved. “Nice to meet you.”
Babs walked up to the other ponies. “This here is Lucky,” she said as she patted the yellow filly on the back. “And this is Switch.” She said as she moved over to the red colt.
Before Silver Spoon could say anything, she noticed that Lucky was staring at her. And by stare, she meant Lucky looked at her in a way that made her rather uneasy. It didn’t help her nerves when Lucky walked up to her and began to ‘inspect her’ up close.. “Um... do I have something on my coat?”
“Just let her do her thing.” Babs whispered.
Silver Spoon shrugged, rather uncomfortably, and allowed Lucky to examine her. “Hum,” she finally said as she scratched her chin. “Yes, yes, a bit bruised up, but at least she’s not a Zorcgon.”
Silver Spoon’s eyes shot towards her. “A what now?”
“Hey,” Babs said, “a Zorcgon is nothing to write home about.” While she spoke, Silver Spoon could tell that Babs was having problems holding in her laughter. Still, she was pleased when Babs at least whispered to her that she would explain later.
“Yeah,” Switch said. Although the way he said it almost made her feel gloomy. Distracting herself from Lucky’s inspection, she began to take notice of switch’s lack of interest. “She does things that way.”
“Ah come on, Switch,” Lucky beamed, “let’s smile today.”
He shrugged and kept his head down. “Okay.”
As Silver Spoon’s skin crawled, Babs stepped in. “So, yeah, them my friends. Don’t worry, Silver, you’ll grow to love them.” The three friends put their hooves in, even Switch seemed to brighten up for a moment. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Manehattan.” They looked up towards Silver Spoon.
Silver Spoon scratched her chin, but then grinned and placed her hoof in. “So,” she asked as she placed her hoof down, “what exactly are we going to do today?”
“Today,” Babs explained, “seeing as you are our only member among us who has a cutie mark at the moment, we thought you could tell us what ta do ta get one.”
Silver Spoon took a step back. “Oh, well,” she said as she took another step back, “I, well… I’m not sure what to do really. I’m still getting the hang of this. Um… okay, um… how about we just have fun today and I’ll figure it out as we go, okay?”
Bab’s head lowered as she let out a toothy grin. “That sounds fine. So why don’t we head into the clubhouse and relax, guys? We can be Cutie Mark Crusader board game champions today.”
“Alright,” Lucky said with a smile.
“Yay,” Switch said without lifting up his head.
They made their way into the clubhouse, while Babs held Silver Spoon back with her hoof.
“I suppose you’ll want ta know what’s up with them?”
“... I wasn’t—”
Babs held her hoof up. “I know ya wouldn’t say that, but I know you would think that, even uninitially. So it’s probably better if I told ya now.” Babs took in a deep breath. “To sum it up, Switch has something called, bipolar disorder. One day he can be gloomy like he is now, the next he’ll be bouncing all over the place. Just wait until he comes somewhere in between, that’s when he’s at his best.”
“And then there’s Lucky. She has something, not sure what, but it’s where she believes aliens from a fantasy world are invading and can have trouble telling fact from fiction. However, like Switch, she’s the best friend a pony could ask for. So just give them a chance and you'll come ta love um.”
“I’ll be honest,” Silver Spoon said as Babs lead her into the clubhouse, “last year, I would have thought they were weird. Today, after everything that has happened and learning that my cousin is autistic, they’re alright with me.” Which was true, even though she didn’t have a lot of other friend options at the moment, she felt loyal to this group of ponies that had taken her in. They weren't Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo or, Diamond Tiara, but she seemed to fit in quite well.
“Alright, crusaders,” Babs said as she placed herself in the center of the room. “Now, we’s only got's a week left before school starts up again. In that time, we need to come up with new ways to get our cutie marks. Now, with that being said, any suggestions?” The room remained quiet save for Silver Spoon’s tapping hooves.
“You got sumthin, Spoony?”
“What, no, I mean…” her eyes circled the three starring foals. “Well, I was thinking we could start with doing something you like to do.” She adjusted her glasses and straightened her posture. “I mean, my other friends’ cutie marks were of things they already liked to do, like scooter riding and singing. So, what do you guys like to do?” A lack of response sent chills down her spine.
“I don’t know,” Switch grumbled.
“Well,” Lucky placed a hoof to her chin, “is there anything Zorcgan related I can do.”
“Okay, yes,” Silver Spoon said snatching up her hoof at being given something to work with. “Yes, but, oh, are Zorcgon’s in some sort of book, or did you just make them up?”
Lucky glared and marched right up to her. “What, you think a Zorcgon invasion is some sort of joke?”
“Um, well… no. I was just wondering where you came up with the idea for them.” A second later and the punch just might of hit her square in the eyes. As it was, she was able to dodge Lucky’s blow and have Babs rush over to calm Lucky down.
“Hey, none of that now, either of you. We’s got enough enemies without us fighting among one another.”
“But I wasn’t—” Silver Spoon was cut off by a quick glance from Babs. “Right. Sorry, Lucky, how foolish of me to think you just made Zorcgon’s up.”
Lucky switched from pissed to happy faster than a light bulb. “It’s okay. I mean, a lot of adults don’t believe me either.” Silver Spoon wondered why. “But it’s good that you do.” Before she could react, Lucky rushed up and hugged her.
For a moment, Silver Spoon wanted to run for it and make up some excuse as to why she didn’t want to hang out with Babs and her friends anymore because. There was no other way for her to put it; These ponies were weirdo's.
However, another part of her, a part that emerged when she glanced upon her cutie mark, and thought about her own problems—while not as extreme as these ponies—made her understand what it was like for a pony to reject her. Babs said that they were the best friends a pony could ask for, and she was going to trust her in that regard.
“Alright,” Silver Spoon said as she hugged Lucky back, “so when did you first learn about Zorcgons?”
“From the Star Tracking movies of course,” Lucky explained, “they’re so good, they must be real.” She then leaned into Silver Spoon. “I bet the creator has really been sent here to create these movies to warn us of the incoming invasion.”
“Star… Oh, those movies,” she said as she realized what Lucky was talking about.
Star Tracking was a series of movies about ponies in space exploring other worlds beyond. Or it could have been the Star Wars movies. She never thought keeping track would have been important until today. She knew Decimal had quite to collection of toys from the movies, but she knew nothing else about it. She’d never bothered to go see one, but knew enough from living in Equestria to not seem stupid. Although now she was starting to wonder if she wouldn’t be drawn into seeing a few of them soon.
That gave her an idea of how to get through this day. “Say, how about we go see one of these Star Tracking movies?” If she had to see one sooner or later, might as well be sooner. “It can even be my treat.”
For the first time all day, Switch grinned. “You sure know how to pick them, Babs, I like her already.”
Babs blew a string of hair out of her face. “I’d still take her over a Bowtie any day.”
Silver Spoon lifted up her head. “A what?”
“Nopony,” Babs said walking past her, “now, don’t we have a movie to catch?”
“Yay, movie!” Lucky said as she bolted out of the clubhouse.”
“Movie,” Switch said with uninterest.
“Yeah,” Silver Spoon said as she nodded her head, “let’s go see what’s the big deal with these Star movies.”
*****
“That was pretty good movie,” Silver Spoon admitted to Babs as they walked through the streets. “I mean, I don’t see it as great as Lucky sees it to believe, but it wasn’t bad. I did like those costumes of those villains. Klingons where they?”
“Zorcgons, and yeah, it ain’t my thing neither. I just put up with it for Lucky. Still, it’s popular with the nerdy crowd, so who am I to complain if it makes money?”
“I suppose not,” they laughed as they reached her condo complex.
“So, ya up for same time tomorrow?” Babs asked as Silver Spoon walked up the the doors of her apartment complex.
Silver Spoon shrugged. “I can’t, I got to take my cousin to a therapist appointment tomorrow.”
“Therapist? Is he okay?”
“If autism is okay, then I suppose so.”
“Hey,” Babs said as she pressed her face to her own, “autism ain’t nothin ta laugh at.”
“I wasn’t but… wait, how do you know what autism is? I didn’t even know about it until yesterday.”
“Eh, it’s pretty common around our school.”
“Yeah,” Silver Spoon nodded, “new school, I can’t wait. I still can’t believe we go to the same school.”
Babs smiled. “You can thank Apple Bloom’s and mine aunt Orange for that. Still, I’m sure he would make a great crusader. He is a blank flank, right?”
“Yeah, although I’m not sure if he’d be interested in joining.”
“You never know, but I’ll see you around, maybe at least one more day this week at our summer headquarters?”
“I think I can squeeze in one more visit, just don’t be stressed if I don’t.”
“Alright, see ya,” Babs waved off as she walked in the direction of her home as Silver Spoon made her way up to her mother.
*****
“Silver Spoon” her mother said the second she walked into the condo “where have you been?”
“I was hanging out with a friend.” she said, ready for anything her mother might say; she shouldn’t be hanging out with ruffians, she shouldn’t wander the streets of the city by herself, she should be more responsible, stuff like that. “Her name is Bab Seed, and we are going to school together.” she threw in as if that would help.
Instead, her mother seemed rather cool with it, all things considered.. “Oh, well, good for you. You want to talk about how it went, or maybe let me introduce you to some other friends you’d like?”
And there it was. “Um, if it’s alright, mom,” she let out a fake yawn, “I’ll tell you about it in a bit. right now, I want to write a letter to my sister and Diamond.”
That seemed to do the trick. “Alright,” Silver Platter said as she picked up a book she was reading as a servant was giving her a hoof-rub, “but you better make sure either your aunt or I know where you’re going from now on. It’s a dangerous city out there.”
“Yah, Mom,” Silver Spoon nodded as she made her way to her room, ready to make true to her excuse and write those letters.
The trouble was, she couldn’t bring herself to write anything for another hour.
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yeah it's great if you don't mind all the drug dealers and sex offenders hanging around and dropping used needles and
knows what other USED items they leave around.
at first I was thinking Lucky (who is obviously a threat to herself and others) was full on schizophrenic but I was diagnosed once with something called Schizoaffective disorder, which is borderline schizophrenia, exhibiting many of the same symptoms though not as severe. Was later traded for a bipolar diagnosis.
I'm sorry but Babs Seed has allot of trust building to do. I mean it's not like she totally betrayed her own cousin and then the two ponies she just made friends with all in one week.
I'll shutup now.
by the way this is what bipolar disorder looks like.
OH my GAWD I just had a "Galaxy Quest" flashback!
I think having Babs say autism is pretty "common" in her school is either overstating things or there is something terribly wrong in Manehatten that is creating these developmental disabilities.
1 out 68 US students have autism and thats the entire United States. We're talking about one city!
Though I will admit.. we have not yet met a single well adjusted and fully functioning foal in this story. Unless you count Babs and she's not exactly a foal.