High School Musical

by Locomotion

Chapter 2: Strained Relations

As it turned out, Locomotion, Scootaloo, Rumble and Pipsqueak weren't the only ones who had noticed Sweetie-Belle's unusual choice of attire. Apple Bloom and the rest of the Crusaders were equally perplexed that she should be wearing any clothing at all, since she normally saved it for special occasions; but whenever they asked her about it, she would deftly brush it off and change the subject. Even when they tried getting an explanation out of Lickety-Split, he never said a word.

Diamond Tiara, meanwhile, had other ideas. Confused though she was at first, she quickly put two and two together and realised that Sweetie-Belle was indeed hiding something – and it definitely wasn't a pair of blank flanks, she reasoned, otherwise there wouldn't be any point. But whatever she was concealing beneath that dress of hers was clearly preying on her mind, and so the pink-furred Earth filly began formulating a plan.

By the time school had finished, Sweetie-Belle was anxious to get back home before anypony else decided to interrogate her again – but it wasn't her lucky day. Dinky, Tootsie Flute and Apple Bloom were standing just outside the main entrance.

“You okay, Sweetie-Belle?” asked Apple Bloom, concerned. “Ya seemed a bit...Ah dunno...edgy today.”

Sweetie-Belle groaned and slapped a hoof to her face. “I keep telling you, Apple Bloom, I'm fine!” she insisted. “I'm just stressed because of exams!”

“More than just exams, I'd say,” observed Dinky. “You may have been a bit nervy about that sort of thing in the past, but you've never been as insecure as to start wearing formal attire to school for no special reason.”

“What's wrong with that?!” protested Sweetie-Belle defensively. “Am I not allowed to have a sense of fashion?!”

“What?! No, I never said anything of the sort!” exclaimed Dinky hastily. “All I meant was that it's not like you to wear...well, anything to school!”

“And you have a problem with me wearing something now?!”

Dinky didn't answer. Tootsie Flute decided to step in at this point and try to diffuse the white-furred teen's frustration. “Sweetie-Belle,” she asked in a gentle, sisterly tone, “is there something you wish to tell us?”

Sweetie-Belle paused, gritting her teeth and trying to think of an excuse. That was when Diamond Tiara, who was lurking nearby, emerged from her hiding place and made her move; “No point in asking, Tootsie,” she interjected calmly. “Whatever it is that's bothering Sweetie-Belle is obviously way too sensitive for her to share it with anypony.”

“Finally, somepony who can take 'let it go' for an answer!” said Sweetie-Belle, exasperated.

Diamond Tiara shook her head. “Well, no, that's not what I'm implying. What I do suggest is that there's clearly something upsetting you to the point where you don't want to tell anypony about it – as if I didn't already know what it was,” she added under her breath. “But if you won't, then only you can solve your own problem.”

Apple Bloom stared warily at her former nemesis. “Uh...what are you implying?”

“Oh...nothing. I'm just suggesting that you, Sweetie-Belle, might care to enter the talent show with a song of her own creation?”

“WHAT?!?” squeaked Sweetie-Belle in horror. “Me get on stage and...and......and sing?!”

“Well, why not?” responded Diamond Tiara innocently. “This is something you're good at. How hard can it be for somepony with a voice like yours?”

“But...but I can't possibly sing in front of an entire audience!” objected Sweetie-Belle. “I'll probably mince my words before I can get them out of my mouth!”

“Sweetie-Belle, I don't want to force you into this,” said Diamond Tiara pointedly, “but if you won't perform at the talent show, then I might have to start letting other students in on...how shall I put it...the truth?”

Sweetie-Belle's eyes widened, her face ashen with fear. All that effort she had gone through to hide that one new feature she didn't want anypony to find out about, and now it seemed that Diamond Tiara had seen right through her – and to top it all, she was now being given a choice between facing her fears and having her Cutie Mark exposed. How painfully ironic that she wished there and then to be a blank-flank again!

“Now just a minute, Diamond Tiara!” burst out Tootsie Flute severely. “What makes you think you can rope Sweetie-Belle into doing something she's not comfortable with?! If she doesn't want to enter into the talent show, then it should be her choice, not ours!”

“What, let her betray who she really is? I don't think so!” snorted Diamond Tiara dismissively. “I'm doing this for her own benefit, you know.”

“That's as maybe, Diamond, but as Head Filly, there's no way I'm standing for blackmailing,” argued Tootsie Flute firmly.

But Diamond Tiara took no notice. “Tough love, Tootsie,” she replied curtly, and briskly walked away before any of the four fillies could answer.

---

“...I can't believe this is happening!!” wailed Sweetie-Belle, pacing back and forth near the statue while Lickety-Split looked on reticently. “First my Cutie Mark appears before I'm even ready, then all my friends keep asking me questions, and now Diamond Tiara is trying to get me to write and perform my own song! How can this day get any worse?! And how did she find out about my Cutie Mark anyway?!”

“Hardly surprising, considering your hasty attempt to hide it,” observed Lickety-Split gravely. “I don't mean to offend you or anything, but you stuck out like a sore hoof in that gown of yours. It was only a matter of time before somepony started to think something was up with you.”

“Yeah, but why Diamond Tiara?!” went on Sweetie-Belle, a hint of anger creeping into her voice. “I know she's our friend now, but still – what the hay is she hoping to achieve by roping me into this?! Surely she must know I'm gonna be hopeless at it!”

Normally, Lickety-Split wasn't the kind of pony to become annoyed or upset so easily; but today, for one of the few times in his life, he was really beginning to lose patience. “Look, you're blowing this out of proportions, Sweetie-Belle,” he said sternly. “I know Diamond Tiara was probably going a bit hard on you, but for once, I agree with her – this is something you really need to do!”

“Before I'm even ready for it?!” Sweetie-Belle stopped pacing and glared at him. “Are you out of your mind or something?!”

“No,” responded Lickety-Split, slightly offended, “I'm just trying to be rational here. If you don't pluck up the courage now, you never will – and then where would you be?”

Sweetie-Belle seethed with fury. “So it's come to this, has it?! Now that I've got my Cutie Mark, you're trying to force me straight into a music career and not let me take it at my own pace – if ever?!”

“Sweetie-Belle, I'm only trying to help you here!” insisted Lickety-Split. “I can't if you start getting childish about the whole thing!”

“Childish?!” burst out Sweetie-Belle, enraged. “Me, childish?! Well, that's rich coming from you! Whatever happened to the ever-supportive Lickety-Split?! The one who genuinely cared about me, listened to my opinions and respected my feelings?! Where did THAT go, huh?!”

But the brown Earth pony was so mortified by Sweetie-Belle's outburst and the verbal attack that he couldn't answer. He just gaped in shock and dismay as the white-furred filly continued to chastise him.

“I can't believe I've been going out with some narrow-minded imbecile all this time!” she screamed. “You don't care about who I am or what I want to do with my life! You don't even listen to me! You just take me for granted! I mean, seriously, when did you ever share a kiss with me or tell me you loved me?!” She paused for a few seconds, allowing herself to hyperventilate.

“I'm not......I...I never said...” Lickety-Split stammered; but Sweetie-Belle didn't wait for him to finish.

“Stop trying to deny it, you jerk!!!” she thundered, delivering him a hard slap against his cheek.

“I'm not!” burst out Lickety-Split defensively. “This is a Cutie Mark we're talking about, not some...”

“Stuff Cutie Marks!!” hollered Sweetie-Belle. “If this is how you're going to behave towards me, then you can just buzz off and mess some other pony around! I'm through with you!” and she stormed away, her eyes flooding with angry tears.

Paralysed with shock and dismay, Lickety-Split could only watch forlornly as the white-furred unicorn filly who used to call herself his fillyfriend galloped back towards home. He couldn't believe that Sweetie-Belle would be so edgy as to fly off the handle with him, all because she was having trouble accepting her true colours; but at the same time, he couldn't escape the truth in her rant about their relationship. Never once had they locked lips, and neither had he seen fit to tell her how he felt since she already seemed to know – and now, after all the time they had known each other, after all those sweet, romantic dates they had been on, she was making out like he had never cared for her in the slightest.

The brown colt groaned and collapsed onto his haunches, gazing ruefully down at the grass as he let a small tear of his own trickle down his face. What a fool he had been, he thought, to believe that his actions had spoken louder to her than words! And what of the Cutie Mark dilemma, he wondered? Would she ever come out of her shell and start to embrace her true talent? Or would it all lead to a major identity crisis? Should he have tried harder to make her see reason? One thing was for sure, though – it'd probably take a miracle to bring him and Sweetie-Belle together again...

---

“...so is that okay with you then, if we use this place as a sort of...practice area?”

Rarity pondered for a few seconds. “I don't see why not,” she conceded at last, “just as long as you take care around my dresses.”

“We will, Rarity,” Tootsie Flute assured her. “Pinkie Promise.”

“Good – that's settled! Come on in, then, my little ponies.”

With the talent show due in less than two weeks, the entrants intended to use as much of their free time as they could to perfect their acts. They had initially been planning to use the Town Hall, but this had already been booked for the planning of the Summer Sun Celebration, and the Castle of Friendship was out of the question too since Twilight was holding an important summit with the President of Griffonia. In the end, several of them, including Locomotion and Tootsie Flute, had decided to ask Spike and Rarity if they could use some of the fitting rooms at the Carousel Boutique for their rehearsals.

“By the way, Rarity,” ventured Locomotion, “is there any chance you could help me and Dinky with our act? See, I'm planning on performing 'Wreck of the City of Manehattan', and I wanted Dinky to do the visuals for me.”

“Yeah, we're aiming for...sort of holograms, but I've not had much experience with that sort of thing, and apparently Twilight's a bit out of practice too,” put in Dinky. “She did say you were good at that spell yourself, so...could you teach me?”

Rarity chuckled heartily. “Well, there's no denying that I can work wonders with illusionary magic,” she replied. “Very well, Dinky dear, but we'd better do this in the living room in case we end up hurting somepony.”

Dinky nodded gravely in agreement. She had shown an incontrovertible gift for magic since early foalhood, not unlike Twilight who had already taken her on as a personal student just like Princess Celestia before her, but even she wasn't completely infallible. It wouldn't do to take somepony's eye out just because she had messed up with the spell.

The three unicorns made their way upstairs, taking care not to make too much noise as they passed the bedroom door. Spike and Rarity had only been married for three years now, but as with Soarin and Rainbow Dash, they had only gone a few months before producing offspring, in this case taking the form of a green kirin filly whom they named Jade Filigree. Though only eighteen months old at present, she was already growing to be a playful and energetic little scamp just like her father; but right now she was anything but playful, for Rarity had not long put her down for a nap.

“Won't we wake Jade up if we rehearse in the living room?” inquired Locomotion uncertainly.

“With a bit of harmless singing? I should think not,” retorted Rarity with dignity. “It's not as if you're about to perform one of Sapphire Shores' numbers, is it now?”

Locomotion smiled wryly. “Yeah...I suppose not. Now then, Dinky,” he went on as they entered the living room, “I've already given you an idea of the storyline, so here's what I want for my visuals: start off with the Superintendent briefing the driver at Ponyville Central Station...”

“On what engine? City Class?”

“Yeah, but not the modern ones, mind. I want one of those fairly ancient 4-6-0s that used to run along the really difficult parts of the Pennsylhaynia Main Line,” clarified Locomotion. “So yeah, quick briefing, then a look inside the cab, train departs, few scenes of it racing along the line, loses control on the hill, approaches the bridge, off the rails, down into the ravine, then we round it off with the Regional Control staff receiving the message plus whatever imagery you think might be appropriate for the moral at the end. Would that be doable?”

“Hmm...won't be easy, but I'll try,” promised Dinky. “You got a record of the song?”

“First thing I remembered before leaving the house.” Locomotion produced the record in question from his saddlebag, holding it in plain sight for both Dinky and Rarity to see before setting it down on the nearby coffee table. “Got a gramophone we can use, Rarity?”

“Yes, over on the far side of the room, darling.”

“Ah, thanks.”

“Now, Dinky,” said Rarity as Locomotion inserted the vinyl disc into the gramophone, “as you probably know, there is a fine art to illusionary spells, and it takes a great deal of time and practice to get it just the way you want it to be. We won't be able to achieve the level of detail that you and Locomotion are aiming for overnight, but we'll start out simple and work our way up. Now, first things first, we'll need a noise-free environment...” She paused, pricking her ears up in search of the faintest hint of background noise. “Perfect – not a sound. Right, next up – I want you to close your eyes and imagine...that......your favourite cartoon character is standing in front of you.”

“Will do.” Dinky's horn glowed brightly as she followed Rarity's instructions. Slowly but surely, her magic began to form itself into a pony-like figure clad in a purple suit that covered the whole of its body, with a long indigo cape draped across its back and a purple hat, almost like a Stetson, sitting atop its head. Locomotion was most impressed, and even Rarity couldn't help but stare in amazement.

“Cor, blimey!” remarked the red-furred railway enthusiast. “Never thought you'd be able to do Mare-Do-Well so easily.”

“Huh?” Dinky cautiously cracked an eye open, horn still glowing – and could only goggle in disbelief when she realised her achievement. “Wow! That's...way better than I thought it'd be!”

“Hardly surprising, though, considering how potent your magic is,” observed Rarity thoughtfully. “Perhaps the illusionary spell won't be that hard to master after all...reckon you can add a bit of background now, darling?”

Sure enough, Dinky seemed to be making far more progress than either Locomotion or Rarity had anticipated. After nearly half an hour of playing around with the illusion spell, she managed to create a holographic country scene to such a high level of detail that you would have thought it was real. Eventually, all three of them decided to start work on creating the visuals for Locomotion's song recital.

But even with her magical ability, creating the imagery that Locomotion required was by no means easy. The red-furred unicorn tended to be rather particular when it came to railways, and Dinky had a job trying to get the holograms exactly how he wanted them to be – no matter how hard she tried, either the scenes were dragging on too long, or the train was being headed by the wrong engine, or it was all taking place in a completely different part of Equestria. It was only when he took the decision to play the gramophone while she cast the spell that she began to improve.

“Aha! Now that's more like it!” announced Locomotion as they came to the end of the second verse. “Okay, so like I said earlier, for the next bit of the song, we'll want some random shots of the train tackling the Long Draft. You know, the really hilly bit of line between here and Delamare?”

“Yeah, I've got it,” replied Dinky.

“Right – from the top then.” Locomotion reset the playback stylus to the edge of the disc and turned the gramophone on again, watching with interest as Dinky cast the image of the opening scene. Just before the first verse began, the imagery was instantly replaced with a view of the Superintendent standing just outside the infamous engine's cab.

“They gave him his orders at Ponyville Central,
Saying, 'Streak, you're way behind time...'”

Suddenly, the three of them were startled by a knock on the door, causing Dinky to lose control of the visuals in such a way that the locomotive exploded in a massive cloud of fire and steam. Alarmed, Rarity and Locomotion threw themselves down onto the floor to avoid being hit by flying debris. The next thing they knew, Sweetie-Belle was walking into the room with a look of shock on her face.

“Oh, gosh! Is everypony okay?”

Rarity let out a loud groan as she stood herself up and glared at her younger sister. “Couldn't you have picked a better time to walk in on us like this?!” she snapped. “We were in the middle of some serious rehearsals in case you hadn't noticed already!”

Sweetie-Belle was about to answer when they were interrupted once again, this time by the sound of wailing from the bedroom. With an exasperated sigh, Rarity promptly excused herself from the conversation – so much for trying not to wake Jade up, she thought crossly.

“Oh...” Sweetie-Belle looked away ruefully. “Sorry about that. I just wanted to talk with Loco about something.”

“What sort of something?” quizzed Loco, perplexed.

“Um...can't it wait until later?” interjected Dinky. “We're in the middle of something really difficult here, Sweetie-Belle.”

“This'll only take a few seconds.” Sweetie-Belle turned back to Locomotion, ignoring any further protest; “Are you busy tomorrow, Loco?”

“Uh...not particularly, apart from exam revision. Why?”

“Well,” replied Sweetie-Belle, her eyes narrowing in an inexplicably seductive manner, “you and I haven't spent that much time together lately. How about you and me go to the pictures after school?”

Locomotion suddenly began to feel a little uneasy. Was Sweetie-Belle...flirting with him, he wondered? “Um...well...I'd like to,” he stuttered nervously, “but I don't know that there's anything I'd want to watch there.”

“Not even the new Technicolour Tarquin film?”

“Hmm...” Locomotion pondered. “Well...yeah, granted, I still haven't seen 'Love on the Monsoon Express' yet, but I was hoping...”

“That settles it then. I'll see you there at three.” Without waiting for an answer, Sweetie-Belle gave the red-furred stallion a coy wink and trotted out of the room.

Dinky and Locomotion exchanged confused glances.

“O...kay, what do you suppose that was all about?” asked Locomotion, finally breaking the silence.

Dinky frowned. “I don't know. She does seem more than a little out of character, I'll tell you that much for nothing,” she observed. “What I can't understand is why she's taking it as far as to cheat on Lickety-Split.”

“Yeah, it does seem a bit...weird,” agreed Locomotion gravely. “That colt's been nothing but faithful to her ever since they became an item; why should she want to muck him over like that?”

“So...what are you gonna do, Loco?”

Locomotion considered. “I'll probably just play along and see what happens,” he decided, trying to put himself at ease. “She does actually have a point, Dinks, about me and her not spending that much time together of late – could be she just wants to hang out with me as a friend.”

“And if she wants more...?” put in Dinky, visibly concerned.

“Then I'm just going to have to talk it out with her. I mean, yeah, Sweetie-Belle's a nice filly and all, but she's not really my type – and besides, there's no way I'm stealing her away from Lickety-Split, whether she wants it or not.”

“So I should hope,” muttered Dinky unhappily. “I can't think what's gotten between those two, but I sure don't like the look of it...”

Author's Note:

The song "Wreck of the City of Manehattan" is based on "Wreck of the Ol' 97", an American railroad ballad based around the derailment of the Fast Mail in 1903 at Stillhouse Trestle Bridge near Danville, Virginia.