Whom The Belle Tolls

by Clockwork Corn

First published 11th of January, 2012

Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon get stranded during a school field trip.

An attempts to aquire a cutie mark during a school field trip goes horribly wrong for Sweetie Belle and after some questionable decisions results in her being left stranded with her classmate and rival Silver Spoon. Left alone in isloation and no apparant way to get home, will the unlikely duo be able to co-exist and what lies in store for them over the horizon?

Chapter 1: Ruining the trip.

The air was warm, the sun was shining, and every filly in Ponyville had gathered for a special field trip to visit the coastal ruins of Mytologisk. Most of the classmates were eagerly sitting around Cheerilee as she explained the history and significance of the ruin. But three little fillies had other ideas. After all who cared about silly old ancient history when you still had cutie mark talents to discover!

“Hey look at this!” Applebloom said discreetly while pressing two stones together, carefully trying not draw attention to herself over Cheerilee’s lesson. “Look at me build! I’ll get a building cutie mark for sure!”

“I think building takes more than just shoving things randomly together Applebloom.” Sweetie Belle interjected. Those stones will just fall apart.”

“This won’t fall apart though! Look at this!” exclaimed an excited Scootaloo as she waved around a colourful mesh of…something. “Erm, what is it?” Belle inquired. “It’s art! I’m an artist!” Scootaloo proudly replied. Belle examined the crude mishmash of crayon and awkward shiny objects plastered onto dirty rags. “That’s… Art? If my sister was here, she would burn that insult to beauty.”

Sweetie Belle didn’t mean offence but Scootaloo was visibly very disheartened and upset. For a moment she looked like she was about to cry but instead turned to anger. “Well what have you done that’s so much better then?” Scootaloo stated each word with passive aggressive vemon. Applebloom quickly stood by Scootaloo’s side and agreed “Yeah! It seems your special talent is just sitting back and judging ours! Why don’t you attempt something yourself!?”

Belle was quite taken aback by the accusatory attitude and worse still, she couldn’t think of anything to try. She hoped improvisation would be her special talent as she responded. “Well I… I err… I think I have a special talent down! I can… Use…” Sweetie Belle quickly glanced around to look for something, anything to help her but couldn’t see a thing that would be useful. “I can use…. My horn!...to… do magic!” Belle quickly realized that every unicorn can do that and it was hardly a special talent! Starting to panic now she had to think fast and say something quickly. “New magic! That I invented myself! I can summon bees!” Belle immediately regretted saying that. ‘Bees!?’ she thought to herself. Where did that even come from, her and her big mouth.

Applebloom and Scootaloo looked on with perplexed expressions. Curious as to what Belle was talking about. “Bees?” They both said simultaneously. Belle could barely do even the simplest of spells, few unicorns her age could. She wanted to back out now but she couldn’t bring herself too. With desperate hope that a miracle may occur she closed her eyes and focused as hard as she could on her horn.
Belle felt energy pass through her horn. She had done something but she couldn’t bare to open and her eyes and see what. There was a loud noise and a bright light… followed by a thump and a lot of commotion. When she opened her eyes the entire class staring at her. Except for Twist who was shaking in fear next to a fallen chunk of one of the ruin’s many broken walls.

“Sweetie Belle!” Cheerilee shouted angrily. ‘Uh-oh’ Belle thought to herself. She must have accidently blasted a patch of the wall off and nearly crushed Twist. “I’m so glad you find important history so boring that you pull pranks on your classmates!” Cheerilee spitted out bitterly in the way only teachers can manage.

“Nono no! I don’t find this at all boring Cheerilee! I didn’t mean to do anything! Really!” Belle protested in earnest but Cheerilee was unimpressed. “Oh, is that so? Then can you tell everyone why the Griffins abandoned this outpost over a century ago? Seeing as I just explained it to the class.”

Belle was caught out here and she knew it. She looked down to avoid Cheerilee’s gaze and kicked at the ground softly. “Because…It… was too… cold?” The other fillies chuckled loudly at Belle but Cheerilee just frowned. “I’m very disappointed in you Sweetie Belle. And I’m going to have a word with your sister when we get back. Anyway class, follow me. Let’s go see the remains of what once was the hatchery.”

Cheerilee lead the class further into the ruin and up some old broken stairs. The entire class followed eargly expect Sweetie Belle who intentionally lagged behind. “Hey Belle! You comin’ or what?” Applebloom shouted merrily. She had already stopped caring about the whole escapade but Belle hadn’t. “I’ll catch up later.” Belle whimpered in little more than a whisper.

“Okay suit yourself! I’m going to see if hatching is my special talent!” Applebloom exclaimed joyfully. “But the actual hatchery’s been gone for over a century silly! She just said so!” Scootaloo interjected. “Well… Maybe rebuilding it is my talent! I haven’t given up on my builders cutie mark!” Applebloom replied.

Their voices got quieter as they walked away until eventually Belle couldn’t hear them at all. Then once she was all alond she turned around and left the ruins to walk down the coast alone. “It’s not fair.” She said to herself, as she sulked. “They all have cutie marks or ideas of how to get cutie marks. While I do is get into trouble and feel dumb...”

Then she looked up saw something that caught her eye. A small boat was floating very close by, loosely hitched to one single post. A smile appeared on Sweetie Belle’s face as she suddenly thought of a new idea.

Chapter 2: The winds of change

With an excited skip in her step, Belle rushed right over to the boat and clambered aboard. It was in pristine condition and small enough to be sailed by one pony while being big enough to be spaciously comfortable! It even had a shiny, recently polished ship’s wheel that was bigger than Belle herself! Not to mention an entire lower-deck. It almost seemed to scream out to her. It was perfect! ‘Why did I never think of it before! Sailing must be my special talent’ Belle thought to herself. ‘This must be fate! The boat in the middle of no-where, the school trip, the trouble I got into! It all makes sense now.’

Belle looked around and saw nopony in sight in any direction. Any doubts or second thoughts quickly left her mind as she justified herself. The weather was so mild… Even if this was a mistake it wouldn’t be a problem for her to get back to shore. And Cheerilee is still so close by.

With insatiable anticipation Belle leaned over the edge of the boat and eagerly cut the rope that tied it to the shore using her sharp horn, without the slightest bit of regret. She then rushed over to the ships wheel as fast as she could. She felt the boat slowly begin to sail into the sea as she played with the wheel like a toy, not even caring if she was doing anything useful with it or not. She was having the time of her life and all the memories of what happened in the ruin escaped her mind for a moment.

”HEY! What in Celestia are you doing!? AAARGH!” The scream was so loud, ear-piercing and so unexpected that Belle fell to the floor and shook. Followed by feeling incredibly fortunate that she didn’t have a heart attack. She got back up to her feet and too her horror saw Silver Spoon’s head popping out of the trapdoor to the lower-deck. Her mane was unkempt and messy, she must have been asleep down there. If only she had looked down there before she set sail!

“Silver Spoon? What are you doing here?” Belle stated in confusion.

“WHAT AM I DOING HERE? What are YOU doing here!? This is my father’s boat!” Silver Spoon responded. Belle gulped hard and felt like she just swallowed a stone. “Your… Your father?”

Silver Spoon snorted more in disgust than anger. “Yes! My father runs the biggest shipyard in Equestria don’t you know?” Belle twitched nervously, she had always known that Silver Spoon’s father was an important and powerful pony but she never knew why.

Mental images rushed through Belle’s mind of what would happen to her now. Silver Spoon is such a drama queen she could tell her father that Belle kidnapped her! And stole her boat! And with her father’s influence and Cheerilee angry at her! She could be banished to the Everfree Forest! Or worse! Maybe she’d have her horn removed as punishment! Would Celestia do that…?

“He’s a busy man and this trip gave us a great chance to spend some time together! I got permission to come out here. Now take me back to the land right now!” Silver Spoon continued her speech.

“I’m sorry I’m so sor-… Wait. Take “you” back? Not… “us” back? So… Your father isn’t down there?” Belle breathed a sigh of relief. She had a chance to get out of all this after all.

“Huh? No. This boat has no supplies so he went to get some food before our trip while I took my 4th nap of the day.” Silver Spoon explained matter-of-factly.

Belle couldn’t believe her ears “Wait so your father left you alone in a boat in the middle of no-where? That’s awful parenting.”

The furious anger returned to Silver Spoon’s eyes “Don’t you make fun of my father you talentless blank flank! I’m not the one who’s been raised to be a thief! Now turn this boat back round! When my father here’s about this-”

Belle quickly grabbed cut the rope to lower the ships sails, then grabbed the ship’s wheel and tried to steer it as far away from the coast as she could. “No! I’ll get in trouble again!”

It took a moment for Silver Spoon to register what was happening. Once she realized she leapt up onto to the upper deck and grabbed the ships wheel from the other-side. The two fillies proceeded to wrestle and struggle over it, pulling it every direction. “You’re already in trouble! Don’t make it worse for yourself blank flank!”

Belle got another mental image of her hornless self having to clean out Celestia’s prized pigsty. “Worse!? I’m never going back! EVER! How could it possibly get any worse than this!?”

Suddenly the ship’s wheel became dislodged due to the fillies’ frantic struggling in every direction, causing it to fall to the floor with a thud. The duo looked on in horror as they lost all control of the ship.

“This is all your fault!” Silver Spoon screeched at the top of her lungs as she angrily shoved Belle.

Belle returned the shove. “My fault!? I was doing fine before you broke the wheel! This is all your fault!”

“WHAT!? This is MY boat! And you’re taking us away from land at full-speed! How is this anything other than your fault you stupid ugly haired blank flank frog-faced little troll!” Silver Spoon snorted loudly and furiously as she became enraged and pressed her face right against Belle's. The two went right nose to nose. Which considering Belle’s horn gave her an advantage she thought.

The two stared each other down, both fuming angrily as they waited for the other to blink first. Suddenly the expression on Belle’s face changed from anger to worry as she noticed something disastrous behind Silver Spoon. “Erm… Silver Spoon!”

“Don’t you ‘Silver Spoon’ me! I have half a mind to throw you overboard and let you swim back to the coast while sharks bi-“

“SILVER SPOON! Look!” Belle interrupted as she pointed at the huge 14 foot tidal wave that was rapidly approaching. Unknown to them the weather had drastically changed while they were arguing so severely. Wind was blasting into the sails at an incredibly rate and the waves around them were dangerously chaotic.

They had travelled a lot further out to sea than either of them thought….