Phantom

All around her was mist.

No matter which way Aria turned, the fog was there, thick and impenetrable.  She waved her hand--no?  A hoof?  She had to bring it close to her eyes to be sure...even then she found that her vision was a bit blurry, like the world was just a hair out of focus.  Still, there was her...hoof.  That had to be a good sign, right?  A thin, scaled limb ending in a sharp cloven hoof.  She brushed her face, feeling the ridge of her muzzle, ending in a snout.  Ran her tongue over teeth that were probably sharper than was strictly necessary for her usual diet at this point.  She looked down, a kind of morbid fascination taking her when she realized she couldn't kick her legs because she had no legs to kick, a scaly piscine tail in their place.  This must be the 'phantom limb' phenomenon she sometimes heard about.

They'd done it, then.  They'd made it through.  She barked a laugh, the harshness of her voice surprising her.

Experimentally, she hummed a few scales, basic vocal warm-up exercises.  Each note ground at her, somehow very rough on her ears.  This wasn't being rusty at singing; they'd done scales as a matter of instinct, something they fell back on when they were thinking or concentrating.  It had done wonders to help them re-learn control after the disaster of the Battle of the Bands.  Music had always been a part of their lives, even during their banishment.  Even as Aria listened, she could feel it in her bones more than her ears.

No...her voice really was just very hoarse.  Like she was barely a step from a roar at any moment.

For some reason, this made her very sad.  She'd spent so long with the voice she'd carried as a human girl.  Had she forgotten the voice she carried as a proper siren?  Had they always sounded so...bestial?  Aggressive?  The human form might've been horribly suited to water, but her voice had always been clear and beautiful (at least until they'd been defeated, but they'd practiced hard to get them back).

Aria wondered if Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle sounded different as ponies.

Ultimately it brought her back to the swirling mists.  Where was she?  Where were her...sisters?  Sisters was the only word for them at this point in life.  They'd been through so much together, even if they didn't necessarily get along.  She smiled, despite herself, and shook her head to clear her thoughts.  Right.  Reminiscing wouldn't get her out of this place and she had people...sirens...waiting on her.

First, review the facts.  She was...somewhere.  In a place bound by a horribly thick fog.  She was back in her siren form, and she was suspended in air, somehow or another.  There was certainly no ground for her to be resting on.  Aria tried swimming, but she couldn't be sure she was actually going anywhere with no points of reference, and there was no resistance when she moved her flukes.  The siren might just be spinning her wheels, to borrow a human turn of phrase.  She struggled to remember what had come between the screaming hellscape of the portal and the now, but she could only recall a white shape of some kind in a dim, fuzzy room.  Useless knowledge, for the moment.

Second, with the facts, choose a course.  Aria considered her options.  She could try swimming in a direction at random, but that might be dangerous, if she was actually able to go anywhere at all.  There was no telling what could waiting in the endless haze.  On the other hoof, if she sat here, it seemed unlikely that her situation would change.  After a brief moment of thought, an aimless and harsh tune in her mouth, she set off in...some way.  Maybe she'd hit a wall, or something.

After what felt like hours, exhaustion finally got the better of the siren and she fell still, tail feeling like jelly for the constant paddling.  It was like there was no gravity, she mused, but it still did nothing to dull the exertion of constant movement.  She craned her head about, the featureless mist still in all directions.

Was this some sort of nightmare, she wondered?  An ironic hell where she was doomed to wander alone for the rest of her days for daring to want more from life?

It was another human adage that hell was other people, and for a lot of her life, she had found herself in agreement (though it was a considerably more egalitarian phrase earlier on).  In the face of the silence broken only by the sound of her breath and occasional harsh scales she habitually sang, she found herself struck by the irony that she would KILL for some kind of contact.

She found sleep tugging at her, her labors starting to tell on her body.  It wasn't like she was in any danger, she reasoned.  If something were to kill her in her sleep it'd be a change of pace.  The morbid thought made her laugh aloud again, only for a heavy weight of tiredness to press down on her.

Aria closed her eyes.  Yeah.  She could just...rest.  Maybe the situation would change when she woke again.

She opened her eyes to sunlight.  She raised a hoof instinctively, but found to her dismay it did little to protect her from the irritation.  Really, what was so great about a huge ball of--

Her eyes flew open.  Sunlight.  The fog had cleared!  Aria jumped to her...hooves?  She startled, turning in a circle as she looked over her body.  This wasn't right.  She reached up with a forelimb and brushed her dorsal fin, or where it had been, and found only hair...well, it'd be mane now, wouldn't it?  She stared at her hoof, no longer cloven and sharp but rounded.  Still very hard, though, she noted.  The tactile sensations through it were...different.  She breathed in, air filling lungs that were strong and healthy, not withered by months of undernourishment and lethargy.  She laughed aloud, the sound like bells compared to her voice as a siren.

Once more, Aria did a round of scales, and was delighted to have the crystal clarity of her old voice answer.  She laughed again, spinning in place on four hooves, until a thought struck her.  She turned about, getting a look at her haunch.  Sure enough, there was a cutie mark!  The five-pointed star and two sweeping curves she had on all her clothes back in the human world...well, that would do well enough, she supposed.  But why was she a pony, all of a sudden?

Before that, even, where was she?  She cast about, taking in the mostly plain stone-and-mortar room she found herself in.  A large set of windows faced her, covered in intricate metalwork.  She noted sardonically that the bright material, despite being laden with sweeping curves and interesting patterns, was very sturdy.  It was unlikely to break even with direct impact, and moreover, it covered enough of the glass that there was no room for a pony to get through at any point.  Pretty though it was, it was barred.  Across the small room was a door with a substantial lock attached.

More interesting was the trio of glassy spheres seated in the center of the chamber on a dais suspended in what she had to concede were magnificently crafted cases, each cradling their prize with brilliant golden filigree.  She paced around the treasures, for surely treasures they were, and noticed with interest that one of them seemed to be cracked near the bottom.  The other two were pristine...perhaps this one had been mishandled?  The siren looked around once more; the security of the room made a little more sense to her now.  This was a vault of some sort or another.  But how had she gotten in here?

Aria didn't have time to consider as the lock behind her clicked loudly, a complex mechanism working as the door swung open.  She froze in place, ears pinned to her skull, caught red-hoofed (though whether it counted since she was clearly already in the room was debatable).

Into the chamber stepped the largest pony Aria had ever seen, a magnificent alabaster mare with a long, pointed horn and wings folded at her sides.  Upon her brow sat a golden diadem, and a similarly styled peytral adorned her chest.  Perhaps most imposing was her mane and tail, gentle pastels of many colors flowing through them as they floated about her on an ethereal wind.  A pair of violet eyes completed her visage, and before them the siren felt horribly small and weak.  This had to be the leader of ponies, their Empress.

She couldn't will herself to move.  Her legs had locked up, knees weak.  Sweat beaded on the siren's face as the immense alicorn approached, seemingly staring a hole right through her.  The Empress loomed over her...and ignored her.

Aria was dumbstruck as the ruler walked right by her and inspected her treasures.  She paused when she noted the cracked sphere, her brow knitting only slightly.  Just as suddenly as she had arrived, she turned and left the room at a brisk walk.  The door made to close behind her...

Time seemed to freeze as a thought struck the siren; if the door locked again, there'd be no telling when it was opened again.  This was a vault; it wasn't meant to be visited often.  She might die in here, even putting aside that the Empress seemed to ignore her.  Panic seized her, the siren awkwardly scrambling on her hooves as she bolted for the door.  She had just barely slipped through, by some stroke of fortune not running into anypony only to trip on the carpet just outside, an ignominious rolling mess ending with her on her back and her head spinning.

She rose to her hooves in alarm, looking around...but the lavishly decorated hallway was deserted.

Now what?