Babs' Dilemma

by Yoshi89

Chapter 2: Emergency Meeting

Babs Seed did not speak another word, sliding her pupils from her frozen eyes in between Fudge Cookie's innocent yet dorky smile and his still outstretched fore hoof. His stature remained unchanged even when Babs closed her eyelids and did a double take before opening them wide right at him again. Sundae Shake walked closer to her brother's side, wearing a curious face as Babs' suppressed grin returned and sweat formed on her brow.

"Excuse me for a moment," Babs uttered at last. She waved in Sugar Lips' direction and the pair hopped back into the wagon, leaving Fudge and Sundae by themselves in the alley. The two huddled with the rest of the Manehattan crusaders, drawing in close as Babs glared at the creature's cousin.

"Sugar Lips!" Babs Seed hissed. "You didn't tell me one of them was a colt!"

The other three fillies fell silent and exchanged blank expressions, looking in between Babs Seed and Sugar Lips who started sneering at each other. Middlemist, Nimbostorm and Cirrus Curl each broke off from the huddle and towards the edges of the wagon, unnoticed by their leader and the colt's cousin.

"I tried to warn you," Sugar Lips replied.

"What should we do?" Middlemist asked, taking a step forward.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do," Babs said, backing up so her four filly friends could pay attention. "We're not letting him in!"

"What!?" Sugar Lips gasped, her mouth hanging open. "Why not?"

Babs leaned closer to her devastated tan friend's face and blew her drooping mane from her sight. "Sugar Lips," she said, "do you know what the bad foals in town are going to do to us when they see him in our group? 'Why are you hanging with the loser blank-flanks?' they'll ask him! They'll come after us any chance they get! We'll be the laughingstock in all of Manehattan!"

"We get chased by bullies all the time," Sugar Lips told her. "I don't think it's going to be any different if Fudge joins us."

"He can't hit other fillies though," Nimbostorm said.

"No kidding, Nimbostorm," Babs quipped. "I've had my fair share of fights with colts, especially in my old school. They aren't supposed to hit fillies but some of them don't care."

"Not Fudge, though," Sugar Lips protested.

"Yeah," Cirrus Curl added. "He does seem like a nice colt."

"How's that going to help us from getting bullied, though?" Middlemist asked, turning toward Sugar Lips.

Sugar Lips stared down at her unicorn friend, then slowly spun her head to face the other fillies in the group. She stopped at Babs, unable to give a clear answer to her leader's eyes which had formed impatient slits with green pellets.

"See?" Babs asked. "We'll be helpless if we run into trouble all because of him!"

"No, we won't!" Sugar Lips found her voice again. "He can help protect ourselves from any renegade colts."

"Fudge isn't from here, though," Babs reminded her. "He doesn't know what it's like to be cantering for his life in Manehattan."

"He and Sundae don't really talk much about bullies in Bucklyn," Sugar Lips said. "I don't think they have it as bad as we do."

"Okay, then," Babs said, turning her focus on her four friends. "Who aside from Sugar Lips is in favor of Fudge Cookie joining our crew?"

Babs Seed and Sugar Lips walked together to one side of the wagon and watched as the other three fillies in their club looked in between each other, only communicating through pensive facial movements. Cirrus Curl, standing in between the two fillies put on the spot, darted her head nervously in between Middlemist and Nimbostorm, both appearing more calm and collected than she was. She stared into space for a few seconds and let out a breath before raising a fore hoof in the air.

"Cirrus?" Babs called.

"I'll stand by what I said before," Cirrus Curl spoke. "The more, the merrier."

"That's fair enough," Babs said.

"And besides," Cirrus Curl said with a smirk. "I think he's kind of cute."

The rest of the Manehattan Crusaders looked wide-eyed at the innocent pegasus filly who tried to hide her blushing with a foreleg. "Cute?" the four repeated the dreadful word.

"Is that why you want him in as a crusader?" Nimbostorm asked her.

The blush spread wider across Cirrus Curl's face and she let out a nervous giggle. "Not exactly," she answered. "When Sundae introduced him, he gave me butterflies in my stomach, that's all."

"Yeah, that's great," Babs said, rolling her eyes. "But I didn't organize our Cutie Mark Crusaders chapter to look for coltfriends!"

"I know you didn't," Sugar Lips added. "But Fudge is still my cousin. I brought him here because I thought he'd like crusading with us."

"I didn't think colts could crusade for their cutie marks," Middlemist said, shaking her head.

"I haven't seen them get pushed around for not having one," Babs huffed. "Sometimes, I think they have all the luck."

"What about when we started out, Babs?" Nimbostorm asked. "I even asked a few colts to join but they didn't want—"

"You what!?" Babs asked her, clasping her front hooves on her face.

Nimbostorm defended her action with a shrug. "It was worth a shot."

"See, Babs?" Sugar Lips raised her tone. "Nimbostorm tried to get colts here before I did."

"Any cute ones?" Cirrus Curl wanted to know.

Nimbostorm facehoofed in reply but refused to let the other pegasus' question sink in. "So, that makes me, Sugar Lips and Cirrus Curl," she then said. "Looks like you're outnumbered, Babs."

"I'm just fine with whatever you girls want to do," Middlemist announced.

"All right, all right," Babs groaned, giving into her friends. "We'll let him crusade with us. It'll be provisional, though."

"Provisional?" Cirrus Curl asked her.

"Just to see if he's crusading material," Babs explained.

"You welcomed Sundae with no problem," Sugar Lips said, rolling her eyes.

"Speaking of which, let me have a word with his sister about our compromise," Babs said. "I'm sure she'll understand."

Babs shuffled back out of the wagon and her first glance down the alley stopped her heart from beating. She could not see the beast anywhere in her field of vision but his twin sister remained. The cheerful demeanor Sundae Shake wore when Sugar Lips first introduced her turned into a glower, her pupils following Babs as she walked closer. Babs felt a strangeness in her gut, not helped by her nerves coursing through her body the closer she got until she halted half a foal's length away. Sundae took a deep breath and let it out through her snout, quivering the leader's drooping mane.

"Hey, Sundae?" Babs addressed her. "Where's Fudge?"

"He left," Sundae replied coldly.