• Published 9th Aug 2012
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The Serenade of Silver Belles - Your Antagonist



After a falling out with Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon discovers she has feelings for Sweetie Belle.

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The Fourth Bell Rings- It's Only In Your Head, It's Only In Your Past

The Serenade of Silver Belles

By: Your Antagonist

Edited by: Starwind Dood, Aziraphael, TheWattsMan, Brony2893, and (The Great and Powerful) Plyxe

Chapter 4-It's Only In Your Head, It's Only In Your Past

In the eleven years she’d been alive, Silver Spoon—thanks to her parents’ remarkable wealth—found herself fortunate enough to have witnessed with her own two eyes many things that the average pony could only dream of ever laying eyes on. She’d seen the exotic natural beauty of the islands of Hoofwai’i Neigh, and she’d beheld displays of the miracles that magi-technology would bestow upon Equestria in the near future. She’d stood in awe before the majestic intensity of an erupting geyser. However, the last thing she expected to see today was her life flashing before her eyes on the back of a wagon being pulled at thirty miles per hour.

As the wind whipped through her ears and mane, so did the frightened shrieks of her fellow passengers in addition to those of the innocent bystanders who had the misfortune to find themselves standing in the path of a certain recklessly-driven scooter. Had her capacity to speak not been hindered by the relentless teeth chattering brought about by her adrenaline-jacked body, Silver Spoon would have remarked that she’d never been more on edge in her life, but she was almost certain that her expression portrayed her feelings just as effectively. A quick glance at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle’s horrified faces showed that they hadn’t anticipated this either. However, where Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon were gripping the edge of the cart for dear life, Apple Bloom was bold enough to crawl all the way to the front of the violently rocking cart so that she could confront the reckless pegasus pilot.

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom shouted over the ripping wind. “Why in the hay are y’all going so fast!?” Unfortunately for Apple Bloom, the wind was too powerful, thus causing her words to fall short of the pegasus’ ears.

“What was that?” Scootaloo called over her shoulder.

“I said, you’re going too fast!”

Once again, the wind caused Scootaloo to mishear her friend’s words. “I know, right? This is totally a blast!”


Apple Bloom drove a hoof to her face as she realized that her words were doomed to be lost in translation, but nonetheless, she had to keep trying. “No, no, no! Scoots, ya need to—”

“Hang on girls, this turn is gonna be really sharp!” Scootaloo announced, pointing at an almost horizontal fork in the road just ahead.

“Scoots, ya need to slow down!”

Awww, yeah!” Scootaloo shirked her scooter to the right for a split second, before immediately swinging the handle bar left, forcing the scooter and wagon to fish tail around the house with ferocious momentum.

Time slowed down for the unfortunate passengers of the wagon as the small sidecar began to drift in a dangerously wide arc. In that split second of clarity, Apple Bloom lunged for one of the corners of the cart and held on for dear life, silently swearing to Celestia that she’d never sneak cookies after bed time again if she made it through this. Silver Spoon opted to secure her position near the back of the cart by locking her forelegs around either side of the corner her back rested against. This way, she could fight the g-force and minimize the churning to her weakened stomach at the same time.

However, Sweetie Belle hadn’t spent this time preparing so much as she did cowering in the center of the rampaging vehicle. The unicorn’s ill-preparation would come back to bite her as one of the cart’s rear wheels slammed into a rather large rock, sending Sweetie Belle into the air.

Silver Spoon watched in horror as Sweetie Belle’s airborne state allowed the cart to slowly slide out from beneath her, leaving her susceptible to the coarse gravel street below. In that instant, a powerful emotionally-driven instinct overrode the overwhelming cloud of fear that loomed over Silver Spoon during the entirety of the ride. This strange emotion she had no words readily available for willed her to forsake her safe position on the corner and lunge forward towards Sweetie Belle’s tail, which hadn’t sailed completely over the wagon’s edge. Silver Spoon instinctively bit down on the bulk of Sweetie’s tail and yanked the unicorn back with all of the desperate force she could muster.

To Silver Spoon’s surprise, Sweetie Belle stopped falling and instead slowly began to drop back into the cart. Once she was safely seated in the wagon, Sweetie abruptly wrapped her forelegs around Silver Spoon’s waist, pulling the earth pony into a firm, rib-crushing embrace. Silver Spoon returned the embrace as quickly as Sweetie Belle instigated it an instant before the wagon teetered atrociously to the left, forcing the red metal death trap to tilt upon two wheels.

She gripped Sweetie Belle tighter, attempting to lower herself closer to the bed of the cart, as she felt herself slowly beginning to slide over the edge. Teeth chattering harder than ever, Silver Spoon began making peace with her oh-so-short life. She certainly hadn’t expected it to end like this: falling out of the back of a runaway wagon whose operator was too focused on the thrill of adrenaline to hear the terrified screams of her passengers. Just out of the corner of her eye, Silver Spoon saw Apple Bloom struggling to stand on her hind legs as though she were about to leap.

“Apple Bloom, what are you doing!?”

“Sav— waugh!” The cart jerked again and Apple Bloom fought to regain her balance before continuing her explanation. “Savin’ our flanks, so hang on!”

Silver Spoon watched in fear as Apple Bloom bounced twice and leapt onto the side of the cart that was suspended in the air. Amazingly enough, Apple Bloom’s lunge was enough to slam the wheels back onto solid ground. The cart wobbled and swerved a few times, righted itself, and finally smoothed out to a cruise. Silver Spoon heaved a sigh of relief now that she was out of immediate danger, while Apple Bloom went off on Scootaloo twice as loud as before to ensure that the pegasus would definitely hear her.

Silver Spoon’s waning adrenaline high left her oddly aware of her body’s sense of touch, namely a pleasant warm, quivering sensation on her belly. A light blush crept across her face as she looked down, only to be greeted by Sweetie Belle’s curly pink-and-purple-swirled mane. Silver Spoon bit her lip, contemplating whether or not to tell Sweetie Belle that the worst was over for the moment.

On one hoof, it felt like she was inadvertently taking advantage of her friend, but on the other, it wasn’t like she minded terribly much. After all, Sweetie Belle had been awfully liberal about holding Silver Spoon’s hoof earlier. It could have just been in the unicorn’s nature to exhibit physical displays affection towards her friends so blatantly, but then again, Silver Spoon hadn’t ever seen Sweetie Belle adhering herself to Apple Bloom or Scootaloo as freely as she had to Silver Spoon. An odd thought crossed the earth filly’s mind, but she pushed it back as quickly as it had come due to the sheer ridiculous nature of the epiphany.

After another moment of deliberation, Silver Spoon—begrudgingly—decided to push the taffy-maned unicorn away. That is, until she heard the last sound she’d expect any pony to make after such a life endangering experience: snoring.

How Sweetie Belle managed to fall asleep amidst the hectic nature of the wagon fiasco was beyond Silver Spoon’s comprehension, but it was just as well. Looking at Sweetie Belle’s lightly snoozing form helped ease the remainder of Silver Spoon’s jolted nerves. She also noted that Apple Bloom had stopped shouting and that the wagon had slowed down considerably. They were now cruising along at a smooth, steady pace, and there wasn’t a doubt in Silver Spoon’s mind that Scootaloo was none too thrilled about that.

A light nuzzling followed by slurred mumbling from Silver Spoon’s belly warranted the filly’s immediate attention.

“Mmm… no way, girls… this is my marshmallow… get your own,” Sweetie Belle drawled from her dream state, punctuating her nonsensical rambling with a yawn.

Silver Spoon shrugged and smiled at the sight. There was really no need to wake Sweetie Belle up just yet since the Everfree Forest was still a good distance away, and aside from that, she was beginning to feel rather drowsy herself. Silver Spoon was content enough at the moment to just allow her eyelids to grow heavy and whisk her mind away for a short nap. They’d arrive at the forest soon enough.


Silver Spoon found herself standing amidst a field of unkempt golden grass that had grown to such a length that she could hardly see over it. She looked to her left, only to find more of the tall weeds. She whipped around to her right and found that she was still encompassed by the tall grass. She turned around to see what lay behind, and just as she expected, there was only more of the browning foliage. Unsure of what to do or where to go, Silver Spoon began wandering aimlessly through the tall grass in the hopes that she’d stumble across something besides the field of weeds she found herself trapped in.

However, the further the filly ventured into the grass, the taller the it seemed to become, eventually growing so tall that it encompassed her entire body from hoof to head and then some. Silver Spoon was about to turn around so she could wade through some of the more shallow levels of the grass when she heard giggling from just beyond the other side of the golden veil. Curiosity piqued, Silver Spoon continued to force her way through, allowing faint beams of sunlight to poke through the brush with each grass blade she pushed aside. A moment later, she had finally escaped the pseudo-jungle, only to find herself stumbling into a surprisingly wide, vacant clearing full of hoof-level grass and an odd assortment of flowers.

She looked around the small clearing again, but saw nothing. She was all alone, save for the flora and the view of the remarkably clear blue sky hovering gently overhead. That is, until she heard that giggling again. Silver Spoon whipped her head left and right and saw nothing, but she could tell that she wasn’t alone here. “Hello? Who’s there?” Silver Spoon called out. Only silence answered her. Silver Spoon trotted forward into the sunlit portion of the clearing, scanning cautiously for any signs of life.

Another fit of giggles filled the air and put Silver Spoon on high alert. There were no hoof-steps to be heard, no ponies in sight. With a sigh, Silver Spoon dropped her guard for the moment and rubbed her head as she convinced herself that the laughter was only in her head. However, she certainly couldn’t deny what she heard next.

“Silver Spoon, over here!”

Silver Spoon jolted up and whipped her head about frantically. “W-who said that?”

“Yeah, come play with us!”

“Come on!”

Out of the corner of her eye, Silver Spoon saw something drawing close to her position. She turned her attention to it, but was baffled by what she saw. Crawling towards her was what looked to be the shadow of a pony, yet there was no pony there to cast said shadow. The shadow, however, was not alone. A dozen more shadows filled the clearing, crawling closer while calling out her name.

“Silver Spoon, come hang out with us, it’ll be fun!”

Silver Spoon, began to backpedal, but ended up tripping over her legs, sprawling onto her back. “Get away! Get away!”

“Silver Spoon, let’s be friends!”

“Silver Spoon, let’s go to Sugarcube Corner together!”

The shadows showed no signs of slowing down, and there twice as many as before. Silver Spoon scrambled to her hooves and backed away carefully, this time keeping her eyes fixed on the swarm of shadows closing in. That is, until she saw her own shadow struggling beneath her. Frightened by her own shadow, Silver Spoon lifted a foreleg from the ground, afraid to make contact with her shadowy doppelganger any longer, and that’s when the shade did something she didn’t expect. It waved its free leg towards the other shadows that had now stopped to wave back. Curiously, Silver Spoon rose another leg and her shadow waved that limb independently of its owner as well. Finally, Silver Spoon stepped to the side, allowing her shadow to gallop freely towards the others.

Convinced that she was no longer in danger, Silver Spoon laid down on the grass and watched her shadow interact with its newfound kin. It looked so… happy. The shades seemed to be centered around hers in particular, playing games, laughing, chatting with each other, completely unaware of the real Silver Spoon’s existence. She noticed, however, that one of the shadows hadn’t partaken in the festivities at all. Instead it sat all by its lonesome watching the others play. The shadow seemed rather lonely sitting all by itself, and Silver Spoon felt a little bit bad for it. That is, until her own shadow trotted forward and extended a hoof towards the saddened shade.

The melancholy shadow accepted the offer of Silver Spoon’s and the two trotted over to join the much larger group. Much to her surprise, the other shadows were hesitant to join Silver Spoon’s shadow now that the new shadow had tagged along, but after some convincing from Silver Spoon’s shade, they allowed both to rejoin the group.

Silver Spoon watched the tribe of shadows reengage in their games, with the new member staying as close to shadow Silver Spoon as possible. The grey filly thought nothing of it at first, but then the new shadow began exhibiting hostile behavior. It seemed to be yelling at any of the shadows that dared to approach Silver Spoon’s own, and began physically pushing them away. Silver Spoon’s shadow tried to reason with the new shadow, but it only grew in its hostility towards the others. The hostile shade reached out and seized one of the surrounding shadows, pulling it into itself. As a result the hostile one grew in size and temper. It lashed out, grabbing another shade which was absorbed just as quickly as the first.

Silver Spoon’s shadow leapt in front of the new threat, pleading for it to stop, but it’s pleas fell on deaf ears as the much larger shadow engulfed all of the remaining shadows, growing all the more massive and monstrous as the sky darkened in accordance with the monster’s rage. Silver Spoon’s shadow turned and ran towards its owner and resumed its role as a shadow as the monstrous shadow finished devouring the remaining shades. In the clearing, there was only Silver Spoon and the hulking cannibal shadow. Silver Spoon was disturbed, but not quite frightened: after all, it was just a shadow on the ground. It wasn’t like a shadow could cause any harm to a pony anyhow; they existed on two different planes of existence. Or so Silver Spoon thought.

The shadow, now aware that it was out of food, turned its attention to Silver Spoon, and realized its conundrum. It did something Silver Spoon hadn’t expected in the slightest. As if no longer bound by its two dimensional existence, the shadow reached upwards towards the sky, and planted one massive hoof on the ground in front of itself. This hoof was soon joined by the other erupting from the ground, finding purchase on the clearing. Once the monster had its hooves planted firmly on the surface, it began to pull itself into existence, the head emerging first with a bloodcurdling cackle. The creature turned to face Silver Spoon, baring a mouth full of wicked, gnarled teeth. Then in a voice laced with venomous cruelty, it posed a simple question to the filly. “Where are you going, Silver Spoon?”

Silver Spoon backed away, unable to take her eyes from the enigmatic beast.

“You don’t need the others, you know. After all, don’t you want to play with me, and only me?”

Silver Spoon turned around and prepared to gallop as hard as she could through the grass, but stopped as she watched the overgrown foliage begin to mutate, interweaving itself into horrible, thorny vines.

“We’ll be best friends forever, right? We don’t need other ponies because they’re so far below us, right? We’re better than them all, aren’t we?” It asked, stalking closer.

Silver Spoon frantically searched for a way out, but to her despair there was no escape; the clearing had turned against her.

“Don’t you know you can only be my friend? After all, I know everything about you: your deepest secrets, your darkest fears, and you know that I won’t hesitate or stop at anything to destroy any pony who tries to get between us, even if it’s you. So why even bother?”

Out of fear and helplessness, Silver Spoon sank to her haunches as she prepared to accept her fate; however, much to her relief she heard a chorus of familiar voices begin to chime through from seemingly everywhere.

“Silver Spoon!”

“Wake up!”

“We’re here!”

“It looks like I’ve run out of time to play with you,” growled the shadow. “That’s alright though, Silver Spoon. After all, you can’t run from me forever. You’ll be back here soon enough, and I’ll be waiting for you. That’s a promise.”

Much to Silver Spoon’s relief, the monster backed away and sat down, grinning with its terrible teeth as the clearing began to dissipate in an explosion of light and sound.


“—ake… up… Sil…. oon!”

Silver Spoon slowly and groggily sat up as her mind began to stir into consciousness. The first thing to hit her was the earthy smell of leaves of and dirt rushing by, accompanied by a flickering intensity of light that she noticed through her shut eyelids. Silver Spoon gradually opened her eyes, allowing her surroundings to come into focus slowly as her eyes adjusted to the new environment. She could see trees and various plants zipping by under a dimly-lit canopy of much taller trees, and a slight, steady rocking in her back told her that she was still in the back of the wagon.

“Silver Spoon, wake up!” Sweetie Belle shouted again.

“I’m awake, I’m awake…” the silver maned filly mumbled rubbing her eyes as she sat up. “Where are we anyway?”

“We just entered the Everfree Forest a few minutes ago,” Apple Bloom explained, "but Scootaloo still ain’t tellin’ us anything!”

“Hey!” Scootaloo shouted. “You’ll find out in a few minutes, so just hang on to your hooves, we’re almost there!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah…” Apple Bloom grumbled, sitting back down.

“So this is what the inside of the Everfree Forest looks like?” Silver Spoon mused to nopony in particular. “Looks pretty creepy to me.”

“Wait, you’ve never been in the Everfree Forest?” Sweetie Belle asked incredulously.

“No, my parents always advised me to stay away from here. They’re always going on about strange creatures and plants and curses, something or the other, but those are just rumors, right? I mean this place can’t be that bad, can it?”

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked at each other, chuckled and exchanged weak, knowing smiles with each other. “Sure…” said Apple Bloom.

“Well, I guess it’s not that bad… all the time,” Sweetie Belle added.

“Wait, what do you mean by th—”

“We’re here!” Scootaloo called over Silver Spoon, easing her scooter to a halt.

“Well, it’s about time. Ah was startin’ to get saddle sores from sittin’ down for so long,” Apple Bloom complained, rubbing her rump.

“Well, maybe if you’d have let me go a little faster…” Scootaloo pointed out.

“Wait a minute, saddle sores? But you weren’t wearing a saddle,” Sweetie Belle pointed out.

An air of oblivious silence passed between the three fillies before Scootaloo decided to fill Sweetie Belle in. “Uh, that isn’t what saddle sores means.”

“Wait, it’s not?”

“No, Sweetie, what Ah mean is my butt’s sore because Ah been sittin’ down for so long,” said Apple Bloom.

“Ohhh… huh, that’s funny. I felt great after that nap! Silver Spoon’s an awesome pillow!”

“B-beg your pardon?” Silver Spoon said uncertainly, crawling out of the wagon.

“Heh heh, nothing, Silver Spoon,” Sweetie Belle giggled innocently.

“RIght… anyhow, why exactly are we out here, Scootaloo?” Silver Spoon asked.

Scootaloo grabbed and donned her heavy saddlebag out of the wagon. “C’mon, I’ll show you!” The pegasus turned and began galloping up a nearby slope.

“That girl really knows how to drag something out,” Apple Bloom moaned as she trudged after the pegasus.

“I’ll say,” Sweetie Belle admitted, following suit. “But, who knows? Maybe whatever she’s got in store will help us earn our cutie marks!”

“Well, whatever it is, it had better be amazin’ for all she’s been blowin’ it up to be.”

Silver Spoon couldn’t help but empathize with Apple Bloom’s feelings on the matter, not to mention her back was a little sore from the ride down as well. As she continued to make her way up the hill, out of the corner of her eye Silver Spoon noticed a long black cord tied in a complex looking knot wrapped around a particularly thick tree just ahead of the three fillies. “Well, looks like we don’t have that much further left to climb,” she said.

“Good, now we can finally find out what she’s been schemin’. I’m goin’ up ahead, I’ll see you two at the top.” Apple Bloom took off like a rocket up the final stretch of the slope with speed and athleticism Silver Spoon could only envy. Nonetheless, she continued to soldier her way up the remaining yards of the hill, with Sweetie Belle holding only a slight, four step lead.

Finally, Silver Spoon and Sweetie Belle arrived at the top of the hill only to be greeted by a pale-faced Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo, who was busy fiddling around with various gadgets and ropes from her saddlebags. Silver Spoon also took note that the top of the hill was no longer covered by the Everfree Forest’s canopy of trees, but instead by the open blue sky. In fact, it didn’t even seem like she was standing on a hilltop. The ground was too flat, and there were no signs of a gradual decline. It just seemed to end. It looked more like a cliff than anything.

“Aha! It’s done!” Scootaloo cheered as she held up a rather odd construct that she was attaching to the black rope that Silver Spoon remembered from the tree. The device in question had the build and buckles of a saddle with a few extra straps and loops for the rope.

“You… ya can’t be serious, right?” Apple Bloom asked. “There’s no way we can— I mean that’s just crazy talk!”

Silver Spoon rose an eyebrow at Apple Bloom’s frantic behavior. Normally the farm filly seemed to be composed and headstrong, but to see her tripping all over her words with such frequency, it had to be something big.

“Oh, I’m serious alright! We’re gonna get our cutie marks for sure with this!”

“With what, if I might ask?” pressed Silver Spoon.

Scootaloo turned, grinning, to face the source of the question, to which she responded with two simple words that made the blood into Silver Spoon’s veins turn to ice. “Bungee jumping.”

Chapter 4 End.