Bad to the Belle

Orange lights glimmered over the train station, giving the area a comfortable, yet eerie atmosphere. Sweetie Belle admired the night lights of Ponyville or in any area of that matter. It's what made sneaking out of the boutique and curfew fines worth it.

It's a beautiful night to get lost in... Sweetie Belle stood and gazed for awhile, mesmerized by the scenery.

“... Earth to Sweetie Belle!” Cloudchaser waved a hoof in front of the unicorn's face.

“Hey!” Sweetie Belle recoiled, knocking Cloudchaser's arm away.

“We should hurry if we want to be lucky, this train looks like it's about to leave,” the pegasus pointed out, soon pulling her friend over by the arm.

“Okay, okay! Geez...” the unicorn grumbled, frustrated with Cloudchaser.

“Shhh! You don't want us to get caught do you?” Cloudchaser stopped, glaring back.

“...No,” Sweetie Belle sighed, trying to clear her angry mind.

“Good, now lets get going,” she let go of Sweetie Belle's arm as they continued onwards towards the train. An exhaust of smoke squealed from the train as it began to crawl along the tracks. “Oh hay no!” Cloudchaser picked up the pace, Sweetie Belle following suit.

“Hey you're not supposed to be here!” A worker spotted them, wasting no time blowing his whistle to alert the other ponies.

“And bad just got worse...” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, both fillies hauling plot.

“If we can just reach that door,” Cloudchaser motioned with her head, one of the cargo load's door was wide open. Sweetie Belle glanced back to see a small mob of provoked workers chasing them. Every hope of escape dwindled as the train picked up speed.

“Why did I pack so much stuff?” Sweetie Belle groaned, feeling the regret already.

“Come on Sweetie Belle, we're almost there,” the pegasus pushed the unicorn to keep going.

“My legs are going to fall off!” The unicorn's face scrunched up in pain. Once close enough, the fillies swerved over, now side by side with the train. Unfortunately, their pursuers still kept up with them.

“I know this is a bad time, but can't you use your unicorn magic to keep those guys off of us?” Cloudchaser's wear began to show in her voice.

“I... I don't know!” Sweetie Belle wheezed, almost in tears.

“Just try something, anything!” The pegasus yelled. Sweetie Belle began to focus her energy into her horn, still keeping pace with her friend. A growl escaped from her lips as she tried to push all the magic she could from her horn. It resulted in a wave a sound shaking her surroundings. Sweetie Belle was immune to it, but the agonizing noise of amp feedback caused Cloudchaser to flinch, nearly losing her footing. “I didn't mean like that! Ahh!” Cloudchaser began to speak when a pair of hooves sucked her into the train.

“Cloudchaser?” Sweetie Belle glanced behind, wondering if her friend tripped in fell. She could only see a pile of the train works, heads dazed from her magic. “Eek!” The same pair of hooves grabbed the unicorn as well, pulling her inside.

“Put me down!” Sweetie Belle struggled against her captor.

“Hey now! Don't be 'fraid,” the stranger spoke, releasing the unicorn. Sweetie Belle's eyes had to adjust to the candle lights that lit the place up. “I noticed you two fillies were trying to hitch a ride, so ah thought ah'd lend ya a hoof!” His country accent was almost as strong as Applejack's.

Sweetie Belle regained her footing with the motion of the train taking over. She wiped her eyes, letting them take in the sights, still trying to focus. “Who are you?” Sweetie Belle squinted at the colt, hoping the image would saturate.

“My name's Golden Delicious, but y'all can call me Golden,” he shook the unicorn's hoof with much force. The rapid motion somehow fixed Sweetie Belle's vision, she could pick out his black mane and brown coat.

“Uhh, I'm Sweetie Belle,” she replied, caught off guard by Golden's enthusiasm.

“Sweetie Belle? ...Aren't you the sister of that one fashion designer, wat'zer name?” Golden tapped his hoof on his chin, staring at the ceiling in wonder.

“Uh...” The unicorn had no idea whether to lie or not, “you might have me mixed up with someone else,” Sweetie Belle didn't want to run the risk of being found out, specially after getting this far.

“Well sorry for assumin' miss Belle,” Golden's cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

“...Where's Cloudchaser?” Sweetie Belle searched frantically, soon finding her on the floor, passed out.

“You mean yer friend here? She's alright, just passed out is all,” the stallion replied, scratching at his mane.

“Cloudchaser, wake up,” Sweetie Belle tapped the pegasus on the face a few times with an intent to wake her up.

“Nhhh, Just five more minutes,” Cloudchaser uttered lowly, clearly tired.

“Fine, whatever...” Sweetie Belle mumbled, knowing it'd be best to just let the pegasus rest up.

“So you fillies headed to Manehatten too?” Golden asked as the unicorn took a seat next to Cloudchaser.

“...Yeah, why?” Sweetie Belle grew suspicious of the stallions curiosity.

“Ah'm headed there too, paying my cousin Red Gala a visit cause I haven't seen her in awhile... If yer not busy, maybe you'd wanna tag along?” Golden suggested.

“No offense, but I just met you, what makes you think I'd want to visit your cousin?” Sweetie Belle eyed the stallion over, unsure of his motives.

“S'okay, was just askin' is all, usually travelin' ponies like yer'selves have nothing to do, just wanna see all of Equestria,” The stallion shrugged.

“Well Cloudchaser and I will be extremely busy when we reach Manehatten,” the unicorn wanted nothing to do with Golden's plans.

“Well alrighty then,” Golden took the hint that his company wasn't wanted, “anyways, you should probably get some rest too, we've still got a loads way to go until we hit Manehatten,” Golden took his candle off of one of the resting boxes and trotted off into another cargo load. Darkness soon settled in.

“I'll sleep when I want to...” Sweetie Belle grumbled under her breath. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, the unicorn slipped out of her back. He could have left the buckin' light here at least... Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, knowing it was time for another dose of magic.

Concentrating her energy, Sweetie Belle used what was leftover from her last stunt to ignite her horn. Come on... Come on... The unicorn's stress levels began to rise as she strained herself for some light. After a few attempts, Sweetie Belle opened her eyes with an fatigued sigh. A sense of relief poured in as a green glow outlined her surroundings.

“Finally,” Sweetie Belle whispered as she pulled her backpack onto her lap. Knowing her light wouldn't last long, the unicorn dug for her ipony. Blind hooves did no good sifting through food and drinks. “Almost... Got it...” She could feel it on the tip of her hoof, just a bit more deeper and she'd claim her ipony for sure. A few moments of determined labor and awkward grunts was the price to pay for her prize.

“You're mine now!” Sweetie Belle smirked, plucking out the object. “...Wait a minute, this isn't my ipony,” she examined it closely, “what was this doing in the backpack?” The unicorn gawked at what she thought was her ipony. Upon closer inspection, the iphony turned out to be a pretty thick pocket notebook.

The front cover was doodled over with multiple girly colors. At least the green tint of Sweetie Belle's light was able to dull most of the flamboyant colors, sparing her the headache. Her interests still perked, Sweetie Belle decided to check out the first page. Taking a deep breath, the unicorn braced herself for some reading.

Today was indescribable! I was totally expecting Diamond Tiara's party to be a complete pain in the flank! Her and her stupid friend Silver Spoon have been bulling any foal who doesn't have a cutie mark!

Sweetie Belle eventually recognized that she was reading her diary that she kept back in elementary school. The unicorn sighed and hid her face behind a hoof, contemplating whether or not to read on. Unable to connect the dots from the past together, Sweetie Belle trudged onwards hesitantly.

...Well I guess if it wasn't for her, Scootaloo and I wouldn't have met Applebloom, she's another blank flank that was in my school. It's a mystery that it took me this long to notice.

“Tch, Applebloom...” Fond memories of the earth pony were all dead. Sure, the Cutie Mark Cursaders was a little gimmick that gave them all something to do, but only benifited Scootaloo and Applebloom in the end. With two Cursaders retired with their cutie marks, Sweetie Belle was a team of one, no pony to help with her cutie mark.

Eventually she gave up with even trying to find her passion, fell into questionable pony groups, became antisocial towards her sister, and even did things that would make her blush if she found out...

Anyways, after we told them off, Scootaloo and I sat down with Applebloom and had a deep conversation between blank flanks. We even created a group for ourselves! From now on I'm a Cutie Mark Crusader! And together we'll find out who we truly are! Our first crusade will be tomorrow after school, and I can't wait! It's going to be so fun!

Sweetie Belle wished she could travel back in time and slap the deceptive illusion of the Cutie Mark Crusader dream out of her past self. But right now all she could settle with right now is crossing out everypony's name and replacing them with provocative insults. Time spent defacing the page didn't last long as the vengeful unicorn grew weary.

Yawning, Sweetie Belle put the journal away and cuddled up against her backpack. It wasn't the perfect pillow, but it worked better than the boxes that surrounded them.

“Good night Cloudchaser,” Sweetie Belle murmured in a sleepy haze.