Sweetie Belle has to sing and make her sister proud in front of hundreds of strangers. Gulp.
Sweetie Belle loves to sing and make up little songs when she's feeling down When her sister hears one of them, and finds out about her beautiful singing voice for the first time, she suggests Sweetie Belle audition for the Sapphire Shores Singer Search. Now Sweetie Belle will have to sing and make her sister proud in front of hundreds of strangers. Gulp.
Sweetie Belle felt frustrated. On the kitchen table in front of her sat a half-finished page of homework. She absently chewed her pencil, trying to figure out the answer to a math problem that had her well and truly stumped. She wrote some numbers down on the paper, ruled a line, began to add them... and then reread the question and dropped her pencil. Sighing, she reached for her eraser.
From outside the window to her left, Sweetie could hear birds chirping. She knew that it was a sunny day outside, warm but not hot – perfect crusading weather. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were probably off having fun somewhere out there, and she wished she could join them. But Rarity had insisted that she finish her homework before going anywhere, so that was that.
Just then, Rarity stepped into the room. She was wearing her red sewing glasses and had a look in her eyes that told Sweetie she was hard at work on some new designs.
"Rarity?" Sweetie Belle asked, making her eyes go wide as she looked up at her sister. "Um, I know you're working right now, but can you maybe help me with this math problem?"
"Sorry, Sweetie," Rarity said. "But I'm incredibly busy with this order. I have to finish making twenty new outfits by the end of the week, and so I simply don't have time for anything else!" She was already walking into the next room with a glass of water floating behind her.
Sweetie frowned. "But Rarity, it's just –"
"I haven't any time to spare, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity called from the other room. "I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough!"
Pouting, Sweetie looked down at the paper again. But no matter how many times she read the question, she still couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be asking. How could she even begin to answer it if she didn't even know what it was asking? It felt impossible.
"Calm down, Sweetie Belle," she said to herself. "It's just math. Nothing harder than two plus two. I just have to think, and there'll be nothing I can't do!"
Sweetie Belle's mouth started stretching into a smile. There was something she always did when she felt like this, something that helped a whole lot.
"All it is is math, and I can do it if I think. Rarity is right, I'll have this finished in a blink."
Sweetie was feeling much better, feeling almost like she was ready to pick up her pencil and look at the incredibly difficult question again, but then she heard a sudden frantic clopping of hooves against tiles. "What is that heavenly sound?" called Rarity, as she rushed into the kitchen.
Sweetie Belle found herself staring into her sister's excited blue eyes, and blinked a few times, wondering what she could possibly have meant by "heavenly sound". The kitchen was quite silent. But then, Sweetie knew, Rarity did behave quite strangely sometimes. One day she would scold Sweetie Belle for making a mess of her sewing room, or of breakfast, and the next day Sweetie would make a bigger mess and Rarity would get this awed look in her eyes and buy her "dearest darling sister" enough ice-cream to make her sick.
"Sweetie, was that you singing?" Rarity asked.
Sweetie Belle's face felt hot with embarrassment. The songs she made up when she felt frustrated and sad were her special, private thing – even Apple Bloom and Scootaloo only heard some of them. Sweetie couldn't believe she'd been singing this one loudly enough for Rarity to hear. "Sorry if I was bothering you..." she said meekly.
"Bothering me? Perish the thought, dearest sister!" Rarity cried, speaking in the way she sometimes did when she was trying to sound dramatic. Sweetie thought it sounded quite silly and not at all dramatic, but she never said so. "You have a marvellous singing voice, Sweetie Belle! Has anypony ever told you that?"
"Well, uh, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo..." Sweetie began, before looking down at her homework again. She really needed to solve this problem, in silence, without grown-ups showering her with praise. Even her own sister's compliments made her feel weird.
"Sweetie Belle," Rarity said, speaking with a commanding tone, "it would simply not do for you to let this voice of yours go unnoticed. Did you know that the Sapphire Shores Singer Search is going to be having auditions right here in Ponyville in less than a week?" Rarity giggled. "Sapphire told me herself."
Sweetie tried even harder to focus on her homework and said, "No, I didn't, uh, know that, but –"
"You simply must participate, Sweetie! It would make Mother and Father ever so proud!"
"Uh, I guess, but –"
"And me too, Sweetie. I would be honoured to be the sister of a filly – nay, a young lady who shared such a beautiful gift as her lovely voice with the whole of Equestria."
Sweetie's ears perked up. "You would?"
"I would, Sweetie Belle," Rarity told her sister, looking her directly in the eyes.
"Uh, okay then... I guess I can do it." Sweetie Belle smiled a little at the way Rarity said "honoured".
"Wonderful!" Rarity clapped her hooves together. "I'll finish this dress, and then I'll help you rehearse. It'll be a tight squeeze with all the other dresses I have to make, but I simply must make time for my dear sister!"
Sweetie Belle grinned at the idea of spending more time with her sister, the most sophisticated pony in Ponyville, and continued smiling until Rarity had left the kitchen. Then she realised that she'd just agreed to sing in public. To strangers. Lots of strangers. Strangers who would be judging her on her singing. That made her smile less, and less, and less, until she wasn't smiling at all.
All throughout classes the next day, through history and through spelling and especially through math, Sweetie Belle just couldn't concentrate. Luckily, Miss Cheerilee didn't ask her any questions. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, on the other hoof, couldn't stop asking questions – they always knew when she wasn't feeling right. But Sweetie didn't want to answer them at recess, so the three organised an emergency meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders to take place after school.
Once Miss Cheerilee had let the class out for the afternoon, the three Crusaders rushed to their clubhouse. There, Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and told her friends all about the singing contest. She told them how much her sister wanted her to participate, how proud her sister was of her voice and how nervous it was making her. She told them a lot about how nervous it was making her.
Once Sweetie had finished talking, Apple Bloom said, "Ah, come on, it won't be that bad!"
"Yeah, you'll rock their hooves off!" Scootaloo added, making a guitar-strumming motion with her right foreleg to demonstrate. "That awesome singing voice of yours will have the audience clapping so hard everypony'll think there's a cow stampede in town!"
"I don't know..." Sweetie Belle rubbed a nervous hoof on the floor. "What if I forget my lines?"
Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "Come on, when has that ever happened? You never forget the words to the songs we hear you sing."
"That's different!" Sweetie squeaked. "You two are my best friends, but if I do this audition I'll have to sing for complete strangers! And they'll look at me with their judging expressions and their mean eyes, and then I'll get nervous, forget my lines, and then they'll laugh and – and –"
Apple Bloom grabbed Sweetie Belle by the shoulders. "Don't talk like that, Sweetie Belle! None of that's going to happen."
"But – but –" Sweetie had started shaking, and so had Apple Bloom, who was still holding onto her shoulders. "S-s-s-stop!" cried Apple Bloom.
Sweetie stopped shaking, and Apple Bloom released her... and then stumbled backwards and fell on her rump. Scootaloo stifled a chuckle with a forehoof.
"As I was saying," Apple Bloom continued, shooting a quick glare at Scootaloo, "none of that's going to happen, because Scootaloo and I are going to be there in the audience as well... smiling. And when you finish your amazing performance, we're going to stomp our hooves on the ground as hard as we can."
"Really?" Sweetie asked. If her friends were there to support her, maybe everything really would go alright.
"Yeah!" added Scootaloo. "Even if you do mess up horribly, at least we'll cheer!"
Sweetie gasped and started shaking again.
Apple Bloom slapped her forehead. "You're not going to mess up, Sweetie," she said. "Scoots is just sayin' things. You know how she can be." Apple Bloom shot a second, angrier glare at Scootaloo, who made some nervous laughing sounds and rubbed the back of her neck.
"O-okay." Sweetie Belle put on a wobbly smile and tried to look happy. From the looks on her friends' faces, she knew they didn't buy it.
***
Later that afternoon, Sweetie Belle walked home, lost in thought. She had a horrible feeling that the audition was going to be a complete disaster, but she knew she couldn't let her sister down and not do it. What would Rarity think of her?
Sweetie Belle stopped walking and took a few deep breaths. "Maybe it won't be so bad," she said, talking to herself as she sometimes did when she needed cheering up. "You're really good at singing songs, Sweetie Belle! You can practically do it in your sleep. This audition's going to be just fine!"
Feeling a lot better, Sweetie Belle continued trotting, humming a tune as she went. When she was still a few blocks away from home, she saw Fluttershy coming towards her, carrying saddlebags full of food for her animals.
"Hi, Fluttershy!" Sweetie said, putting on a big grin. Fluttershy's soothing voice always relaxed her, and she knew she could do with a bit of relaxation right about now.
"Oh, hello, Sweetie Belle," Fluttershy replied, stopping in front of Sweetie. "You sound very happy today."
"I am! I'm going to be singing in the auditions for the Sapphire Shores Singer Search next week, and I'm gonna do great!" Sweetie swept a foreleg across the air dramatically, as she imagined Rarity might. "The judges will be speechless!"
"Oh," said Fluttershy, "that sounds very... uh, um... nice. Very nice. It's very courageous of you to want to stand up and sing in front of so many ponies. I know I could never do something like that..." Fluttershy pawed at the ground and looked away from Sweetie.
"It's not that hard," Sweetie replied, waving a hoof as if she really thought it weren't that hard. "All I need to do is sing! And all my friends will be there."
Fluttershy nodded. "Oh, well, that's good, but I'm sure it still takes a lot of bravery. The last time I had to perform in front of an audience, I got so nervous that I totally lost control of my body and slipped around all over the catwalk. It was a good thing Rarity was there to cheer for me, or I'd never have been able to show my face outside my cottage again!"
Sweetie blinked at Fluttershy, suddenly feeling a lot less confident. What if something like that happened to her?
"Oh, but I'm sure that won't happen to you," Fluttershy said quickly, smiling far too wide, in a way that told Sweetie Belle she wasn't sure of any such thing.
As Fluttershy trotted away to her cottage, humming a happy tune, Sweetie Belle found she had quite lost her own desire to hum. She slowly walked the rest of the way to her house. Her eyes were fixed on the ground, and an awful nervousness seemed to tie her stomach in knots. She couldn't do the audition, she just couldn't. All kinds of terrible things would happen to her, she was sure of it. And even if Scootaloo and Apple Bloom cheered as loud as they could, the audience would laugh so very much louder.
Sweetie had to tell her sister she didn't want to do the audition. She made up her mind to do it the next day.
It was Saturday morning, three days after the emergency Cutie Mark Crusaders meeting, and Sweetie Belle was pacing around Rarity's kitchen restlessly. Since then, she'd been seeing Rarity every day to practice her singing, and she still hadn't told her she couldn't do the audition.
In fact, they had been practicing for the audition late into the previous evening, so Sweetie had even ended up sleeping over at the Boutique. Although she had almost told Rarity she didn't want to participate many times during the practice, and every practice before then, she simply hadn't been able to bring herself to actually say it.
"Try this song, Sweetie," Rarity would say, and then she'd levitate a wordsheet in front of Sweetie's face and play the piano all at once. "Yes, yes, you sing it beautifully!"
And then Sweetie would smile and sing and enjoy herself and forget all about the audition – for a few minutes. And then she'd remember it again, and say, "Rarity..." but the look of pride in her big sister's eyes made her lose her nerve every time and just start singing another song. Saying that she didn't want to do the audition anymore would mean no more singing practice, and then she probably wouldn't get to spend time with her sister for weeks.
But continuing with the practices would eventually mean she would have to do the audition. "I have to tell Rarity that I don't want to do the audition any more," Sweetie said to herself. "Maybe she'll be sad, but I just don't think I can take it."
As if on cue, Rarity burst into the kitchen. A piece of paper was floating in front of her face, held by her magic. Her sleep mask was still over one eye, making her look, Sweetie Belle thought, a little like a very fashionable pirate. Maybe it would be easier to tell a strange pirate pony that she couldn't do her audition.
"Sis!" Sweetie said, completely failing to imagine saying anything to a strange pirate pony. "There's something –"
"Oh, Sweetie, there's no time!" Rarity wailed, wiping a hoof across her brow. "I misread the pamphlet Sapphire Shores gave me – the auditions aren't next week, they're right now!"
Sweetie just stared at her sister. Had Rarity misspoken? Had she misheard?
"But fear not!" Rarity exclaimed, narrowing her eyes in determination. "If we hurry, we can still make it there! Don't worry, Sweetie, your sister Rarity will get you there on time!"
No, there had been no misspeaking or mishearing, only misreading. Now was the time to say something – Sweetie Belle knew she absolutely could not put it off any longer. Bravely, she began, "Um, about that –"
"Oh!" Rarity rushed out of the kitchen before Sweetie could finish. "I almost forgot something!" she called back.
Moments later, Rarity returned, horn glowing. Sweetie gasped as she saw Rarity float something small and shiny into view. It was a little silver dress that glimmered and sparkled in the sunlight coming through the window. It looked, Sweetie Belle thought, just like a dress Rarity had spent hours and hours making for her to wear at the audition.
"I thought it would help if you had a beautiful outfit to complement your voice, Sweetie Belle," Rarity said, confirming her suspicions.
Sweetie's mouth hung open in shock. Limbs shaking, she slid it over her head and onto her body. It fit just right, and was as comfortable as it was beautiful. That Rarity had somehow found the time to make it, even with her busy schedule, meant there was no way Sweetie Belle could back out of doing the audition now. That was a certainty.
"Th-thank you, Rarity," Sweetie Belle said, wishing she could have been able to wear the dress at another time. "I-it's really pretty. I love it!"
As Sweetie Belle was dragged through the streets of Ponyville by her sister, she noticed that most of the town was going in the same direction as them. Sweetie Belle saw a few familiar faces in the crowd, but a lot of unfamiliar ones as well. It looked like ponies from neighbouring towns had travelled to Ponyville just for the show. The audience would probably be the biggest group of ponies Sweetie Belle had ever seen in one place.
The Sapphire Shores Singer Search auditions were being held in the Town Hall, which Sweetie and Rarity reached in almost no time at all. Sweetie hadn't been inside since the roof was fixed, but she remembered that there were a lot of seats in front of the hall's stage.
"Ah, here we are," Rarity said cheerfully, smiling at Sweetie Belle before turning to the green unicorn mare at the entrance. "Hello! I've brought Miss Sweetie Belle to audition."
Sweetie glanced up and smiled at the unicorn, but her mind was far away. She entered the building with Rarity and found their way to the backstage area, where a number of other contestants were waiting for their turns. None of them looked even nearly as nervous as she felt.
She and Rarity took their seats on one of the benches that had been set up for contestants. "Sweetie, listen up for your number. It's thirteen," Rarity said. "Remember that: thirteen."
Sweetie Belle nodded. She didn't like any numbers very much at all, but she decided then that thirteen was definitely her least favourite one.
"My, my, you've been awfully quiet today," Rarity said. "Saving your voice for the performance? Good idea!"
Sweetie Belle smiled weakly. Her breaths came out in shallow gasps, but now that she was sitting still, she felt a little bit calmer. As long as she still had time before her performance, she would be able to relax a little, and maybe then she would be able to handle her nerves.
She had barely taken three deep breaths when a loud announcer pony shouted, "Thirteen! Contestant number thirteen, please come to the stage!"
Sweetie could not believe her rotten luck. Her newfound sense of calm disappeared immediately.
"That's you!" Rarity shouted, shaking with excitement. "You're up, Sweetie Belle! Go on, it's time to show those judges what singing is all about!"
Before Sweetie Belle could think of a last-minute excuse not to go on stage, she felt herself being pushed across the floor by an extremely excited Rarity, and had to start moving her legs so as not to fall over. The stage came closer and closer, and then she was right in the middle of it, the curtain behind her and the audience ahead.
She was standing in front of a crowd of hundreds. Eyes of all colours were focused directly on her. Faces of all colours were turned to her, and none of them seemed to be smiling. She couldn't see Scootaloo and Apple Bloom among all the big, unfamiliar adult ponies.
"Hello, Sweetie Belle," said a pink pegasus mare sitting behind the judges' table, between a brown unicorn stallion and a green earth pony mare. "What are you going to be singing for us today, sweetheart?"
Sweetie Belle opened her mouth to tell them, but no words came out. What was she going to sing? She racked her brains, desperately trying to remember what song she had chosen, but it refused to come to her. She had spent most of the previous evening singing it, but think as she might, she couldn't remember a single word, or even the tune of her song!
The crowd stared at her, waiting. The whole room was silent, and Sweetie Belle just knew that if she stood in silence for much longer, they would all start murmuring. Worse still, if she admitted she'd forgotten her song, they would laugh at or boo her!
Sweetie tried to calm herself and sing something – anything. All she needed to do was think of a song and sing it, but for the first time in her life, the words just wouldn't come to her. The words were never far away when she was sad or bored or frustrated, but now that she was frightened, there was nothing.
So when Sweetie Belle opened her mouth again, her words still refused to come out. Nothing even vaguely songlike came to mind. Scattered muttering rippled through the crowd, and Sweetie's throat suddenly felt very dry, as if she'd been wandering in a desert. She felt even less like singing that she had a moment ago, if that were possible.
"Miss Sweetie Belle, is there something wrong?" asked the stern-looking brown stallion judge.
"Yes!" shouted a voice. Sweetie clapped her hooves over her snout before realising that it wasn't her own.
It was Apple Bloom's.
Sweetie spun around to see Apple Bloom and Scootaloo standing behind her on the stage, huffing and puffing from running, but also smiling. Apple Bloom winked at her, and some of the dryness left her throat.
"Fillies and gentlecolts!" Scootaloo shouted into the audience. "My name's Scootaloo, she's Sweetie Belle and she's Apple Bloom! And together we are..."
Apple Bloom nudged Sweetie Belle, and the three of them shouted, Sweetie somewhat weaker than the others, "THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!"
"Sorry we were late, everypony," Apple Bloom said, grabbing a microphone. "But we're all here now, and we're going to sing We Are the Cutie Mark Crusaders."
With that, Scootaloo took the microphone from Apple Bloom and launched into the song the three Crusaders had sung at their school talent show. Apple Bloom started dancing like she was fighting with the air, and only fell on her face once the entire time. Scootaloo sang loud and horribly out of key, but shut her eyes tight and gripped the microphone with all the confidence of Sapphire Shores herself.
Feeling relieved that the audience wasn't staring only at her anymore, Sweetie Belle could feel more words coming to her, and, just because she felt like singing, sung along with Scootaloo. "When you're... a little pony..." She didn't have a microphone, though, so it was very soft.
At the end of their performance, the girls held each others' hooves and bowed to the audience, who clapped and cheered and laughed for them. The laughter was the loudest, but as Apple Bloom was quick to remind Sweetie, "It's our comedy act! Laughin' is a good thing!" Sweetie was amazed at how much better that made her feel about it.
The laughter and applause continued for a long time, and Sweetie Belle and her friends bowed a few more times before heading off the stage, big smiles on all of their faces. Sweetie thought she heard something – a faint voice, maybe – coming from somewhere near where the judge's table was, but somehow it didn't seem like anything she needed to worry about.
As Sweetie Belle and her two best friends arrived backstage, Rarity galloped up to them, her eyes wide with surprise. "Sweetie! What – what happened there?"
"We made the whole town laugh with our amazing comedy act!" Scootaloo said, looking very proud of herself. Sweetie nodded and pointed at her friend.
"But... but what about your audition?" Rarity asked. "It surely won't count now!"
Sweetie Belle whispered something to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, and the two of them nodded and trotted off, leaving her and Rarity. "Sis," Sweetie began, "when I got up on stage, I froze up and forgot all of my lines! Everypony was staring at me, and I just didn't know what to do! I was so scared, but then my friends came and saved me!"
Rarity's snout scrunched in confusion. "So... you're happy that they ruined your audition?"
"My friends didn't ruin it!" Sweetie replied, giggling. "They made it better!"
Rarity laid a hoof on Sweetie's shoulder. "Sweetie Belle, I very much doubt that you're going to make it to the next round of the contest now. Doesn't that upset you?"
Sweetie just shrugged. Finally, she felt able to tell Rarity what she had been trying to say to her for days and days. "There's always next time. I don't think I was ready to sing in front of all those ponies anyway. Besides, I... Rarity, I only wanted to audition in the first place so we could spend time together, and so you'd be proud of me!"
Rarity went silent for a while. "Sweetie Belle," she said eventually, "do you know I'll always be proud of you, singing or no singing? Because I will. I promise."
"Really?" Sweetie asked, unsure.
"Yes, of course. Please don't feel like you have to do things to impress me – you should do them because you want to."
Sweetie Belle looked up into her sister's eyes and saw an expression that she knew meant Rarity was being very, very serious. The last tiny knot in her stomach untangled, and she smiled broadly. Looking up at her sister's smile, she walked closer to her and reached out her forelegs.
Rarity smiled and pulled her into a hug, and they stayed that way for quite some time.
"And you know... I really enjoyed helping you practice for this," Rarity said after a while. "Maybe we can do it some more, just for fun? And of course, there's always next year's audition."
Sweetie Belle thought that was a pretty good idea. She was about to reply when Scootaloo and Apple Bloom came running up to her with enormous grins on their faces. "Looking around this audition thing just gave me a great idea," Scootaloo said. "We should hold our own singing competition! We can be..." Sweetie grinned and shared a look with her friends.
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER TALENT AGENTS!" all three of them yelled at once.
The three Crusaders giggled and started towards Scootaloo's scooter and wagon, but before they went, Sweetie Belle turned around and darted back to her sister.
"That would be really fun, Rarity," she said. "Even after I get my talent agent cutie mark, I'm sure I'll be able to squeeze some singing into my tight schedule." Sweetie tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe a week from today? I'll have the ponies I'm going to employ pencil you in between the appointments I'm going to have at two and three."
"I'll make a note of it in my diary," Rarity said. Sweetie Belle saw her sister wave out of the corner of her eye as she rushed off to join her friends.
Nailed to a tree near the centre of Ponyville the next day:
IMPORTANT NOTICE: In light of recent events and after much deliberation, we the organisers of the Sapphire Shores Singer Search have ruled to bar group acts from participating in our event going forward.
↑ The Bloom-Scoot-Belle Talent Agency welcomes group acts! We're not lame like those guys!
