Chapter 1 - The Sound of the Belle
Miss Cheerilee killed the engine of the small motorboat just as its hull cleaved a trench in the sand. She glanced briefly at her map, then at her watch, before hopping out of her meager ship and dropping anchor on the beach. The ocean sun beat down on her lavender mane as her hooves made circular indents in the soft sea-washed banks of the tropical island.
Smells of brine and flower blossoms mingled in the breeze; lifting her head, she inhaled the fresh, unfamiliar air of this unfamiliar piece of land that stood in a wholly unfamiliar part of the ocean. She cracked her neck to one side, then to the other, before opening her eyes and scanning the island.
Her gaze immediately fell upon the Palm trees that littered the grassy turf past the sand, each tree blessed with an abundance of tropical fruit, their umbrella-like fronds kindly gracing the shore with immense amounts of shade. Purple, white and orange flowers littered the field beyond, generating the sweet and welcoming aroma that Miss Cheerilee had been greeted with when she'd first set hoof on the island. Above the treetops, songbirds could be heard singing a joyous tune of harmony and comfort. It was, undeniably, a beautiful and peaceful place.
This island just wouldn't do at all.
With a quick leap, Miss Cheerilee returned to her controls and threw the boat's engine into reverse. There was a collective moan from the fillies and colts behind her as she looked over her shoulder at her sea charts and pulled the wheel sharply to starboard.
"Ugh," Scootaloo groaned, rolling her eyes, "how many islands have we stopped at now? I lost count after fifteen."
"Miss Cheerilee, what was wrong with that one?" Sweetie Belle piped up, "It had lots of food and shelter and-"
"Exactly," said Miss Cheerilee, who was only half listening as she focused on putting the island as far behind them as possible, "it was too simple. Princess Celestia wanted me to give you all a real survival experience, and as nice as it would be to take a vacation instead, I can't have you all going back home telling your parents you spent a month sipping coconut milk and eating cantaloupe and pineapple under a palm tree."
"We wouldn't tell them that though!" Applebloom cut in, "We'd cover for ya', right crusaders?"
A chorus of ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders Secret Keepers! Yay!’ shook the boat with the intensity of a small rock concert. Miss Cheerilee opened an eye cautiously before taking her hooves away from her ears and placing them back upon the wheel of the motorboat.
"As much as I appreciate the sentiment, girls," she said with a feigned smile, "I'd like to think I've taught better than that. You know it's not good to lie to your parents. They only want what's best for you-"
"Sometimes I wonder if they really do, though," Diamond Tiara cut in snootily, marching past the crusaders and into Miss Cheerilee's field of view, "I thought bribing the Equestrian Treasury to put my face on the ten-thousand bit note was what was best for me, but my father refused! Can you believe that?"
"You can't bribe the Equestrian Treasury, stupid," said Scootaloo, "they print the money! They don't need yours!"
"Shut up, blank flank."
"Prissy."
"Loser."
"Stuck-up."
"Prole."
"Girls!" Miss Cheerilee shouted, inserting herself between the two angry fillies and pushing them apart from each other, "We haven't even landed on shore yet and already you're bickering! This is supposed to be a team building activity. You're not going to get anything done at all if you're just going to be at each other's throats the whole time. You need to work together. This is your first lesson of the trip - survival is about using your resources, and from here on out, everypony on this boat is a resource to the rest of the group.
"For this next month you are all going to be relying on each other to find food, shelter and safety. Now clearly, name-calling and and pointless arguing isn't going to help your cause at all. So let's all make it to the island without fighting so that nopony throws anypony else overboard, okay?"
There was a moment's pause before the class mumbled a general consensus of yes, ma'am.
"Good! Now, the next island is about half an hour away. We'll be there in no time."
The three crusaders meandered over to the stern to watch the ocean race past them. Of all the views on the boat, this one was easily the most exciting. At least, it was when they weren't being bothered by Diamond Tiara, which they were just about to be.
"Hey, blank-flanks. Hope you're enjoying yourselves."
"We were until a minute ago," Applebloom deadpanned, "what do you want?"
"What do I want?" Diamond Tiara laughed, "what could I ever possibly want from such low-life proles?"
Applebloom's nostrils flared and she arched her shoulders as if to throttle Diamond Tiara, but Sweetie Belle stepped in and pulled her back.
"Let it go," she whispered in Applebloom's ear, "it's not worth it."
Applebloom continued to glare fiercely into bourgeoisie filly's eyes for a moment before slumping backward in defeat. Diamond Tiara leaned back upon the rear gate of the boat and smirked nonchalantly at the frustrated crusaders.
“You know,” she said mockingly, “at this point, I wouldn’t put it past you to ‘throw me overboard’ as Miss Cheerilee put it. I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise her, either. So if I were to just…” Diamond Tiara leaned even further back upon the rail, her hooves leaving the deck. “Don’t-!” shouted Applebloom, reaching out a hoof to stop her. Diamond Tiara smirked triumphantly at them. “You blank flanks are so gullible,” she said, lowering herself slowly back onto the deck, “like I would actually-” And then it happened. Her hoof touched the deck. There was a loud squeak, and then a yelp, and suddenly she was in the water. For a moment, the crusaders could only stare in horror as Diamond Tiara flailed helplessly in the water. But quickly enough, the three of them rushed off to fetch Miss Cheerilee. "Stop! Stop the boat!" Sweetie Belle cried out, running to the bow as fast as she could, with the other two crusaders trailing behind and pointing madly at the water, "Miss Cheerilee, stop the boat!"Miss Cheerilee glanced back and saw Diamond Tiara screaming and kicking in the water. Without a moment's hesitation, she turned off the engine, dropped anchor, and grabbed a floatation ring off the side of the cabin. "I saw them! They pushed her, I saw!" Silver Spoon screamed in Miss Cheerilee's direction, stopping for a moment to shoot an evil grin at the crusaders."I...we didn't-!""That's not important right now!" Miss Cheerilee put her front hooves up on the edge of the boat and tossed the floatation ring. With a sputter, Diamond Tiara collapsed into the life preserver and allowed herself to be towed back into the boat.A single tug brought her up onto the back edge. Miss Cheerilee scooped her up and brought her into the cabin. Gently, she leaned in and put her ear up to Diamond Tiara.“She’s breathing. Vitals are all there, she’s just out cold. Everypony run along now, she need’s space. Except,” she pointed a hoof at the escaping crusaders, “you three, stay here. I need to talk to you.”The crusaders timidly edged back towards Miss Cheerilee and Diamond Tiara.“I swear, we didn’t-!” “I know,” said Miss Cheerilee softly, “I believe you. I know you’re not capable of being this unkind, even to somepony you don’t get along with. I just want to let you know that your classmates might not be so understanding. With everything that’s happened, this looks very bad, and it’s in your best interests to make it right, even if it wasn’t your fault.”“Alright,” said Applebloom, “So…what should we do?”“A good first step might be to show some concern for Diamond Tiara,” Miss Cheerilee said with a half-smile, “good luck, my little ponies.”* * *
Diamond Tiara awoke to find that a large blue towel was draped over. In a she blinked slowly, and eventually sat upright. Her eyes wandered around the room before eventually landing upon the three crusaders who sat across from her. Her gaze quickly turned into a glare as she stared at them furiously, her eyes shooting laser beams of hatred. The crusaders wandered over to her, hoping a bit of concern would lighten her mood.
“Hey, you alright?” Applebloom asked.
“Why do you care?” Diamond Tiara spat.
“Well, you did fall overboard. We just wanted to make sure you were okay, is all.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. No thanks to you three,” her words were absolutely venomous as she spoke. She gave a slight shiver. “You’re going to pay, you know that right?”
“Pay? We’re going to pay? We haven’t done anything to you!”
But Diamond Tiara only muttered, “you’re going to pay…”
It wasn’t long after that they reached the island. From where they stood upon the boat, it looked pretty promising.
“Alright, my little ponies!” Miss Cheerilee called out, “we’re taking a two hour break here while I go scout the island. It looks like this might be a good one! Hop off, take a rest, lie down in the sand, whatever you like! Just don’t run off too far.”
Scootaloo hopped off the edge of the ship and hovered down to the sand. Applebloom leapt down after her a tad less gracefully. Sweetie Belle was the last one off the boat, choosing instead to take the stairs like everypony else. The three of them softly plopped down upon the warm sand and let their eyelids fall over their eyes.
“This island is nice and comfortable,” Applebloom murmured, “I could just lay here for hours and hours. I bet Miss Cheerilee will reject it in an instant, and we’ll all be headed back to that first island in no time...”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” said Scootaloo, “I bet she’s just so sick of searching that she’ll want to stay on this beach and relax for the next month.”
“Who could blame her?” Sweetie Belle said softly, “if we ended up on this island, it might not be so bad. Now come on you guys, hush now quiet now. I didn’t get any sleep last night...”
And the three of them slowly drifted off to sleep.
* * *
No, no, no, no, NO! Miss Cheerilee screamed at herself within her head. This island was all wrong. It was even worse than the last one. For all the challenge it displayed, they might as well have been greeted by a parade of bunnies in grass skirts and leis. Miss Cheerilee was going to have to own up to her deal with her students and bring them all back to the first island. She didn’t like the idea one bit – the first island was barely challenging at all. It seemed there were just no dangerous places in Equestria.
Miss Cheerilee had briefly considered camping out in Ghastly Gorge for a month instead, but Princess Celestia had insisted on an island. Why was that exactly? Given the state of things, it didn’t seem to be the most practical idea. Not that it was any of Miss Cheerilee’s concern – her instructions had been to give the students the greatest challenge possible, and at the moment, the greatest challenge was the first island they’d visited. Miss Cheerilee certainly didn’t want any of her students getting hurt, but honestly, was the tiniest sensation of danger and despair too much to ask?Reluctantly, Miss Cheerilee returned to her controls once again.“Good news, class…we’re going back to the first island.”The crusaders glanced at Diamond Tiara."I think it would be best if we took this inside," Scootaloo whispered to her.Diamond Tiara and the crusaders went inside the cabin of the boat, glaring at each other as they did so. Animosity clogged the air, suffocating any atmosphere of peace or benevolence that had the nerve to arise. The hatred was intense, so thick you could cut it with a knife. "You're really getting on my nerves, crusa-dorks. When we land, stay out of my way. Or else.""Outta your way?" Applebloom laughed, "as in you're actually going to be doing something? And here I thought you were just going to pay somepony to do everything for you! Or is that still the plan?""Look, proles, I worked hard to get where I am-"Applebloom let out a snort of laughter that made Diamond Tiara stop short."What, pray tell, is so funny?""You!" Applebloom giggled, "you’re a total riot! You say you worked hard to get where you are, but I bet you wouldn't know an honest day's work if it bit you in the flank! You're so naive it's hilarious!"Sweetie Belle whispered in Applebloom's ear, "you may want to check yourself. This will end badly.""You should listen to your little friend, Applebloom," said Diamond Tiara snidely, "her roots are in buffalo country, so she'll know all about situations that will end badly."This time it was Sweetie Belle's turn to fly off the handle. She full-on tackled Diamond Tiara, knocking her to the wood floor of the cabin. Legs were flying everywhere as Diamond Tiara attempted to fend off a thoroughly-angered Sweetie Belle.“One of my best friends is half-buffalo you little-”“Sweetie Belle!”The tiny unicorn found herself lifted off her hooves and pulled away from the fight. With a light plop she landed on her back and looked up to see the stern face of Miss Cheerilee glaring down at her."Sweetie Belle, I am disappointed in you! I expected such rash action from Scootaloo, but never from you! Violence is not the answer! If you need to air out an issue, then you talk about it, got that? Now apologize to Diamond Tia-""Erm, Miss Cheerilee?" Applebloom cut in, looking out the window, "ah don't mean to interrupt, but...shouldn't you be steerin' the boat?"Applebloom jabbed a hoof at the bow of the tiny ship, and more importantly, what rapidly approaching land mass lay past it. About half a knot ahead of them was another island, only there was no shore in sight. A large cliff painted itself across their field of vision, and where the gray face of the rock met the water, a slough of spires littered the sea, splitting the white-capped waves into an unpredictable cacophony of rushing water. As fast as she could, Miss Cheerilee dashed out of the cabin. With a single leap she was at the controls, where she cranked on the wheel of the boat, pulling the class hard to port and bringing them around the coast of the small island. When the steep drop transitioned into a slightly more hospitable shoreline, Miss Cheerilee brought the boat to a halt and turned back to her students."Is everyone okay? Anyone hurt?"A moan or two escaped the group of young ponies, but the response was generally positive."Alright, next time let's not distract the captain, okay class?" Miss Cheerilee smiled briefly at her students before putting on a slightly more serious face. "I hope you've learned your lesson, girls. Petty arguments can lead to disaster. Just now, all of us could have been badly hurt, simply because I had to break up your fight. When we get onto the island, I won't be playing referee. I'll be in the same boat as you, so to speak, trying to find food and shelter. It'll be up to you to keep conflict to the barest minimum, so that this," Miss Cheerilee waved a hoof snappily at the large cluster of breakers and the sheer cliff face, "doesn't happen again. Do I make myself clear?" There was a moment's pause before the class mumbled a general consensus of yes, ma'am. "Good. Now, let's take a look here at the map...this island is...let's see...it's...it's...where is it? This island is nowhere on the map!""Oh darn," said Applebloom, "I guess we can't use this island. It's too dangerous.""You'd get in real trouble with the school board if you let us loose on an island like this," said Sweetie Belle."We should probably just turn around and head back to the other island," said Scootaloo."Nonsense!" said Cheerilee, "this island is perfect! I'll dock the boat. Everypony, grab your packs and get ready to land!"Miss Cheerilee edged the accelerator forward and pulled the boat around to face into before. She then leaned into it and haphazardly drove her tiny ship up onto the rocky bank of the island. Shells and sediment could be heard scraping at the hull of the boat."Well?" said Miss Cheerilee expectantly, "what are you all waiting for? Hop out!"They glanced nervously at the shore. The skyline was shadowy and the entire island was engulfed in a darkness that seemed to radiate from the forest ahead. An inauspicious wave of dank, humid air washed over the group of school ponies. It certainly was not the most welcoming place. Reluctantly, the fillies and colts began filing out onto the unfriendly shore.In an attempt to break the silence, Scootaloo ran ahead and shouted, “Cool! This place is amazing! Look at it! It’s so dark and dreary, I bet there’s tons of scary stuff we can find here!”Applebloom glanced nervously around before following her lead, “Yeah! Shoot, I wonder what’s in that forest! I bet there’s something creepy and awesome in there!”“Totally! I…” Sweetie Belle faltered as she tried to keep the ball rolling, “…I really like it’s…mane?”Scootaloo facehoofed and Applebloom simply gawked, but despite Sweetie Belle’s stumble, the seed was sown and everypony was properly psyched to check out the island. In a near instant everypony was running around excitedly on the shore. Miss Cheerilee let out a long whistle to regain their attention."Now, before we go too far I want to see what you've all brought as luxury items," Miss Cheerilee announced, "Everyone, find a nice open area and empty the contents of your packs on the ground in front of you. Quickly now, we've got to get this over with so we can start setting up camp."The school ponies all turned their saddlebags out upon the beach, revealing the luxury items they had been permitted to bring alongside their chosen necessities such as rations and first aid. Applebloom had brought her blanket from home. Scootaloo, a signed photograph of Rainbow Dash. Sweetie Belle, against her will, had been sent with one of her sister’s hats. Applebloom and Scootaloo saved face when Miss Cheerilee came by to check her luxury item. Miss Cheerilee, on the other hand, made no remark, and chose simply to smile apologetically at the filly’s unfortunate predicament. She then moved on to Pipsqueak, where she seemed to raise an eyebrow.“Pipsqueak...you, er, brought a turntable?” she asked, looking down at the record player he had packed.“Yes, ma’am! I love the sound of a vinyl record!”“It’s just...you seem a bit...young to know what a turntable is.”“We’ve got one at our treehouse,” Sweetie Belle interjected, “it’s not that uncommon.”“Yeah,” said Applebloom, “but that was from when mah older sis’ still used it. I think they’re kind of rare otherwise.”“Girls! That’s not the point. I was just curious, nothing more. Pipsqueak, you’re in the clear.”Featherweight brought a camera. When Miss Cheerilee got to Diamond Tiara, she frowned.“I said only one luxury item, Diamond Tiara.”And indeed, there was far more than one item lying in the sand before her. Aside from her signature semi-crown, she had brought a cellphone, a portable mini-fan with a neck-cord, three bottles of hoof-polish, and more changes of clothing than anypony else present had ever owned in their life, mostly on account of they seldom wore clothes to begin with.“Diamond Tiara, please choose one item to keep, and put the rest back on the boat.”Diamond Tiara frowned sourly as she pulled her trademark head ornament from the pile and replaced her other belongings in her saddlebag.The three crusaders giggled at Diamond Tiara’s misfortune, and when Miss Cheerilee turned away, Applebloom unfolded her blanket.“Silly Diamond Tiara’s too spoiled to know how to hide things proper. Check this out.”The blanket came fully unfolded, revealing three maroon-and-indigo capes lined with gold fabric on the inside.“Ta-da! Our crusader capes! I brought ‘em so we could do our crusadin’ the right way!”A silent chorus of Cutie Mark Crusaders Professional Bootleggers! Yay! Rang out in their small circle just as Miss Cheerilee was beginning to talk again."Alright class, so because it's our first day and we haven't had time to gather any supplies, we're going to cheat a bit. We've got fire starters and food rations. Let's use them wisely though, okay?""Okay!"In no time, a campfire was started, and over it roasted an enormous feast of soy dogs, refried beans and hay crisps. The young ponies gazed into the firelight, eagerly awaiting their chance to munch away happily at their first meals on the island.They were here. Finally, they were able to enjoy this trip, and it was going to be glorious. Just an absolute blast. It wasn’t long before everypony inevitably began to get hyped for the following day."We're gonna go explore the island tomorrow!" Scootaloo mentioned excitedly, "who's with us?"A few voices made their presence known, and eventually the whole group agreed that exploring the island would be loads of fun."Great! It's settled then!" said Scootaloo contently."Alright!" Snips and Snails shouted in unison."This is gonna be awethome!" said Twist, "what about you Diamond Tiara? You up for a little adventure?""Sure, I guess." "Yeah, so the way I see it," said Applebloom, "once we unearth all this island's secrets, we get our island adventuring cutie marks, and when we get off the boat back home we all walk home in pride! Yeah?""Yeah! Cutie Mark Crusaders Island Adventurers! Yay!" “I wonder what all’th out there on thith ithland,” Twist pondered, “I can’t wait to exthplore it!”“I hope I can get some cool pictures!” Featherweight piped up, “I’d hate to leave without catching some memories on film!”“I wonder if some ancient society used to live on this island,” said Pip excitedly, “if they did, I’d fancy a glimpse of their ruins!”Everypony seemed to agree that this trip was going to be absolutely amazing. They had tons to do, and it seemed as though they might not have enough time to do it. With the promise of a big adventure and tons of fun the next morning, they all drifted off to sleep.When they awoke the next morning, however, they discovered that their first day on the island might not go exactly how they had hoped. The boat was there, to be certain, but it seemed a lot smaller than it had the previous day. Had tide shifted them up the beach? No, that’s a stupid idea. Rather, it would seem as though the boat was not at the shore at all, but rather several meters out into the ocean, drifting away slowly.Actually, that was exactly correct.When the entire camp had been made aware of this fact, there was a mad dash to wake Miss Cheerilee, everypony all at once asking her what they should do.“Class, I know your luxury items are important to you, and I did promise you them, so I’ll tell you what. I’ll go into the forest and find some supplies to make rope with, but meanwhile I want you all to build a camp. Okay? So when I get back, if the camp is set up, I’ll get you your luxury items back. If it isn’t, I’ll help you set up until it is done, but then you have to make the rope using my instructions. Do we have a deal?”Excited hollers and shouts echoed through the class. Everypony loved the idea. Everpony, that is, except for three young crusaders.“Can we come with and help ‘ya, Miss Cheerilee?” Applebloom pleaded.“Sorry, Applebloom,” said Miss Cheerilee in her best I-really-do-mean-it voice, “it’s too dangerous in there. I’m responsible for you, and if you get hurt on my watch, I’ll never forgive myself.”“But we won’t get hurt!” Scootaloo insisted.“We’ll be really careful!” Sweetie Belle urged.“I’m sorry girls, but I can’t take that risk. You three run along now, there’s a camp waiting to be set up.”Setting up camp only took about an hour or so. Featherweight gathered palm fronds, and Applebloom kicked over a couple of dead pines to make a support for their roof. Weaving together the fronds, she created a waterproof roof for their camp. The entrance was roughly twenty feet wide and the inside had plenty of space for the twelve school ponies plus Miss Cheerilee to sleep. With their work completed, the remainder of the day was spent pacing the beach.The class had sincerely begun to realize how lost they were without Miss Cheerilee. She knew how to handle these situations. And yet, it had been a full nine hours since she'd set off into the forest, and there was still no sign of her. Without Miss Cheerilee, they couldn't scavenge for food, and without the rope she said she would make, they couldn't get the boat back and get to their rations. Either way, they were sunk, and they knew it.
