My Brave Pony Starfleet Humans

by DakariKingMykan

Act 6: Lack of Confidence

ACT SIX

After Lightning had showered and changed, all six of his friends were waiting outside. “Lightning, what was that?” Buddy asked.

“What was what?” Lightning asked with a cocky expression, thinking he had won them over.

“I think I know what it means.” said Artie. “You’re some super trained athlete.”

Lightning felt something inside him snap, and tried to protest, but the others all thought the same thing, that Lightning was well trained and had some super natural gift.

“You’re fast and strong,
And you can leap high and throw long.” said Rhymey.

“You should really join the team now!” said Dyno. “The Crystal High school won’t stand a chance.” added Myte.

Lightning could hardly stand all the stupidity they were spouting, but before he could tell them anything, the bell rang and it was time to head to final period. Lightning walked along with Starla, as they had the same class together. “What’s wrong?” Starla asked, but Lightning had given up. After all that he had shown, they still didn’t believe his story! “…It’s nothing.” he simply said, but he really felt he needed some cheering up.

Dramatic Arts was the final class of the day, and some of Lightning’s classmates were Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. Artie was in the class too and so was Rhymey, but he had just come in the classroom and bumped right into Fluttershy as she came into the room. “Rhymey.” she said.

Rhymey felt his heart begin to flutter and his nerves shoot through the roof.

“Fluttershy…
Um… hi…!”

She looked a bit nervous too, but Rhymey graciously let her go through first. “Thank you.” she said softly to him and the end of her hair softly brushed against Rhymey’s face making him sigh ever so heavily that he fell on the floor in a daze. Lightning shook his head in pity.

Fluttershy took her seat and pulled out another letter Rhymey had slipped into her locker, but she still didn’t know it was from him. Rarity, Twilight and Pinkie huddled around her eager to see the poem. “Do you know who he is yet?” cried Pinkie “Do you? Do you? Do you?”

“Darling, please…” said Rarity “One of the joys of having a secret admirer is the guessing. Ah… it only makes it so much more romantic and mysterious.” She was acting like a real overdramatic drama queen “Oh, Fluttershy, how I envy you so.”

Fluttershy felt so embarrassed, she hid her face behind her hair. “What if he doesn’t like me in person? What if thinks I’m too quiet, or too meek or even…!” She shuddered nervously, but Twilight cheered her up. “Ah, Fluttershy, I’m sure he’s a really nice guy, but he’s probably as shy as you are. Just give it time.”

“Sure, time to waste.” Sunset mocked as she entered the classroom casually like an actress walking down a red carpet. Everyone glared at her with sour expressions. “I hope none of you ladies in this group are getting your hopes up about that role in the play, but don’t worry, perhaps I could use a lackey to help me.”

Everyone simply turned away and ignored her.

Soon, class was in session, and the acting coach was Professor Abraham “Abra” Kadabra, a professional magician and occasional actor, and another familiar resemblance for Lightning.

“Now, everyone, as you know in addition to you studies, we’ll be holding auditions for the roles in our upcoming production, which shall be based on your skill as well as your conduct.”

The Music Masters was a story about a young girl named Michelle, who was desperate to make her dreams of singing and dancing come true, but her sensitivity and lack of confidence really held her back, especially against her rival, Rita, who was a very mean and very selfish to many. One day, the girl meets a handsome young man, Dylan, and his traveling friend and piano man Cyrus, who both happen to be skilled singers and dancers both looking to put their skills to good use. Dylan teaches Michelle how to build her confidence and how to perfect her singing and dancing, and in return she helps him to overcome his problems, and they begin to fall in love, but Rita seeks to humiliate Michelle and steal Dylan for herself, and sends her timid and bumbling assistant girl, Evelyn, to charm Cyrus in hopes to get inside information.

A real comedy and dramatic musical, requiring many main roles and even supporting roles, particularly dances like ballet, tap, step, jive and stuff, and that’s what Abra’s class was for, to teach people how to act, sing, dance, and all the other things with them, like building confidence… exactly what a girl like Fluttershy needed.

So for the first half of class, they did their studies, and then after which Abra wanted to see how good everyone was from what they had learned in the past weeks. He allowed Lightning to sit out as he was knew and probably didn’t know how to dance well, but Lightning was ready to surprise them all again and asked to go ahead with it anyway. “Well, if you choose so…” said Abra.

As the students lined up, Abra played the same type of music-- a disco jive-- which each and every student was to dance to and Abra would judge their performances. Lightning’s friends did very well, and even Twilight and some of her friends did nice too, only Fluttershy felt so incredibly nervous, that she just couldn’t do it and didn’t bother to try. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy. We all get stage fright.” Sunset teased as she stood up to take her turn, and she was phenomenal. Even Lightning and Starla hated to admit but she was good. “How am I supposed to beat that?”

“You’re not.” Sunset peeped at her.

“Just ignore her.” said Lightning “Remember, just have confidence and do your best.”

Starla nodded in agreement and took her turn. “You may begin, Ms. Shine.” said Abra. Starla nodded and gazed at Lightning who gave her a big thumb up and she danced, back-flipped, twirled, and did so many amazing steps. “Marvelous! Stupendous.” cried Abra. The other students applauded, and Sunset couldn’t believe it herself, but folded her arms scoffed.

Finally, Lightning had a go to show off his skills, and he really busted some serious moves, having spent years learning how to dance, and one of his favorite exercises. He even flipped around and danced on his hands. Abra hadn’t seen anything so bold and daring before. Neither did any of the students.

“Well, I… uh… good heavens!” Abra stuttered and stammered. The bell rang for home time, and as the students left Abra reminded those who had signed up for the auditions, namely Starla and Sunset, that the results of the ballot would be posted on the bulletin board in the main hall of the school.

Lightning felt a lot better after having danced, and even though his friends still didn’t believe his story, they all thought he was phenomenal on the dance floor and thought maybe he should have auditioned, but he didn’t seem all that interested. “You were awesome out there, Starla.” he said

She smiled at him and hope fluttered in her eyes “You think?”

“Girl, I think you’ve got it made.” said Artie “I don’t think I’ll make it, but I’m sure you did.”

Starla felt glad, but then she noticed Rhymey wasn’t with them. They saw him peering around the corner at Fluttershy, who was in tears because she didn’t even try to dance or perform during her turn. Her friends comforted her and tried to perk her up, but it was no use. “It’s not like you even auditioned for the play anyway.” said Pinkie.

“All the more reason I didn’t. I wouldn’t stand a chance.” wept Fluttershy.

Rhymey couldn’t stand to see her like this and quickly wrote a small poem on a piece of paper, and slid it along the floor so it hit her foot. She gazed down at it, but her eyes were so teary she asked Twilight to read it. It read…

“Even though you didn’t try
Don’t be discouraged, Fluttershy
You are still as wonderful as can be
The most wonderful girl I ever would see.”

Fluttershy sniffled and rubbed the tears from her eyes and read the note herself. “You see, even your admirer thinks you’re still wonderful.” said Twilight.

“Hold on…” said Rarity “Doesn’t it strike you as odd that he knew you didn’t try?” Fluttershy realized this, and the girls concluded that whoever was Flutterhshy’s admirer was obviously someone in the same D.A class as she was, not to mention he was obviously nearby to slide the letter to her, but when they looked up the hall they could see no one there.

Rhymey had dashed downstairs and out of the school fast, and was now sitting near the statue moment in the schoolyard trying to catch his breath. “Rhymey!” Lightning called to him as he and the others ran to him. Buddy and the twins joined them. “He chickened out again, didn’t he?” said Buddy.

Rhymey felt ashamed of himself, almost to tears.

“I can’t ever confess to Fluttershy
A broken mess will always be I.
Just one moment I wish to make real
And tell her how I really feel.”

The others hated seeing him like this. “Mírate a ti mismo, Rhymey. You’ve got to man up.” said Dyno. “You can’t spend your whole life running from a pretty girl you like.” added Myte.

Rhymey still didn’t feel any better. “Cheer up, Rhymey. It’ll be all right.” said Buddy. Rhymey smiled softly, but he still felt it was hopeless, and Lightning could sense how he felt, and wished he could do something for both him and Fluttershy.

Suddenly, he could see Krysta waving her wing at him from a tree by the corner. While the others were distracted, he ran over to talk with her, and when the others noticed he was missing, they looked around and saw him at the corner. “He’s talking to that exact same bird again.” said Starla.

“You think he’s all right up here?” Artie asked while pointing to his head.

Twilight’s dog, Spike, woke up from his nap under the tree he was tied to all day, and he could see Lightning talking to Krysta just ahead of him. He growled in anger and struggled to break free from his collar.

“Did you follow Flash around?”

“Yes, I kept watching him through the windows, but he hasn’t shown any other signs of strange activity.” Krysta said “Maybe we’re just misjudging him.”

Lightning wasn’t convinced and he saw Flash leave the school and he met up with a tall lady at a pale blue car in the parking lot near the buses. Lightning and Krysta both recognized the color, and hadn’t seen any other cars colored quite like it, and then there was the lady herself and her resemblance was very uncanny. “Krysta is that…?”

Krysta shuddered with a fearful feeling and the feathers on her back ruffled. The lady and Flash gazed over at them. Lightning and Krysta quickly looked away, but the lady already had her suspicions. “Do you think she saw us?” chirped Krysta.

“I don’t think so.”

Suddenly, they heard Spike barking and saw him snap his leash, and he came after them. “Oh, not again!” groaned Lightning. Krysta quickly perched herself back up in the tree and Lightning glared at the charging dog.

Spike ran, he leapt, and Lightning sidestepped out of the way causing Spike to miss. The dog got up again and charged, but Lightning dodged again causing Spike to crash into the fence.

Twilight had just stepped out of the school with her friends and they could see all the commotion. “…Spike!” She hastily ran over just as Lightning dodged him again. Spike charged one last time, and Lightning dodged it causing Spike to land, splash, into a mud puddle, splattering on both Lightning and Twilight, and all over a car in the parking lot-- Principal Celestia’s car, and she happened to be there getting some things from it at the time. She took one look at her mud splattered car…

The students gasped in horror as Celestia looked as if she was going to explode. She took just one look at Spike, Lightning, and Twilight. “Both of you, my office, NOW!” she bellowed

Twilight felt as if she had just come face-to-face with a demon, but Lightning wouldn’t move. “NOW!!” bellowed Celestia, and not wanting to cause any more trouble, Lightning complied. Lightning’s friends and Twilight’s felt really worried, but Flash and his mother saw everything that happened. Flash gazed at his mother “Should we…?”

His mother nodded and her eyes glowed sinisterly.

…

While waiting in the office for Celestia, Lightning and Twilight, still splattered with a bit of mud kept their faces turned away from one another. Spike continued to growl at Lightning and he was really getting annoyed with it. Finally, Twilight did her best to keep him calm, and she broke the silence. “I hope you’re happy.”

Lightning turned to face her. “What, this is my fault now?”

“If you had left Spike alone, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Well maybe your mutt should’ve left my robin and me alone.”

“Both of you keep quiet.” snapped VP Luna. “You’re both in enough trouble as it is.”

Celestia opened the door to her private office and was about to order the teens to march in, when the main office door opened. It was Flash and his mother. “Principal Celestia, Vice Principal Luna...!” said Flash “I have something to tell you.” and quickly stated how he saw Spike break his leash and started bullying Lightning and Krysta and what happened with the mud was just an accident. “My son speaks the truth.” said his mother “I saw it all happen as well.” She gazed at the two teens, preferably Lightning and he gazed back at her.

Luna talked her sister into letting it slide. Celestia agreed, but only on the condition that no pets were permitted within a mile of the school grounds ever again, no matter what the circumstances. “Do I make myself clear?” she said calmly yet deeply. “Yes ma’am.” complied Twilight

Lightning glared angrily at Celestia, but complied. “Yes… ma’am.”

Celestia nodded and then disappeared into her office. Twilight gazed up at Flash and their eyes met. “Thank you.”

He gazed down at her and nodded “No sweat.” and he left the office, but Twilight kept gazing at him with rosy cheeks, while Flash’s mother gazed at Luna and nodded and then turned to gaze back at Lightning one last time, gazing at him strangely. “Thank you for your help.” Lightning said with a little stiffness in his voice.

The lady nodded at him “Your welcome, young man.” she said back at him sinisterly, and then she left the office too.

“Vice Principal Luna, who was that?” Lightning asked.

“That’s Flash’s mother, Principal Sapphira Sentry, of our rivaling school, Crystal High.”

Lightning’s eyes snapped open. “Did you say…Sapphira?”

Luna blinked once in concern for how he just asked. “Yes, and although I hate to admit it, but there is something about that woman that gives me the creeps.”

Lightning turned to gaze out the window where he saw Flash and Sapphira get into their car. “Not as much as it gives me.” he said, but it said it to himself.

As Sapphira and Flash drove up the road, “There can be no doubt.” she said “Starfleet is more resourceful than I remembered.”

“So, we get rid of him?” asked Flash.

“No, not yet.” said Sapphira.

“But mother, he presents a threat to us and our future as rulers of worlds.”

“Be silent!” snapped his mother. “We will deal with him when the time is right, and not before. I need him alive. He may be vital in tracking down that which we seek.”