Call of the sea

Chapters

One dusty old book
Under the sea
Hearts as strong as sirens
Rise of the sirens
The Banishment
A strange new world
Regretful
Dangerous disease
The silent cry of a young siren
The last page

One dusty old book

"One..." the girl counted, seeing a leaf, falling from its branch:

"two...", she went on saying, as another one did the same thing:

"three...".

It was the day of the fall equinox and the fresh breeze, gently touching the girl's cheeks, carried within the cool of the incoming winter. Bushes of violets had sprouted at dawn and their pollin filled the air with its delicate scent, large pansies showed off their bright yellow-mulberry tint, while a few nigellas attracted the last bees of the season and ,as always, reddish leaves had began to leave their places on the trees and decorated the road in a rainbow of colors.

Sunset adored spending Sunday mornings at the city park; the idea of relaxing away from all the fuss and noises, caused by people running the street every single day, was the best thing she could picture in her mind.

She was there, sitting on her favorite bench by a pond, feeding the park ducks the remainder of her sandwich, smiling at them, as they happily enjoyed their food. A rather small cedar grassnake, hidden in the dry field, carefully neared the water to drink: its black eyes matched the color of the stripes it had on the back, then quickly disappeared as mysteriously as it had arrived; Sunset liked it, since she had a thing for reptiles.

The girl breathed, filling her chest with that chilly air, then took her guitar from the baggage and started playing a nice tune: on this one she had been working particularly hard, it was supposed to be rock and sweet at the same time, but no matter what she tried, even after a full week, she had still been unable to get what she wanted.

“No, no, no!” Sunset exclaimed nervous.

“this will never work!”. Once she had calmed down, the girl got back on her bench, put the instrument away and picked a black note book from the handbag she had brought along with her.

“Where have I done wrong?” Sunset wondered: “I checked and rechecked...I don’t even know how many times, but this song is still imperfect, but I just can’t figure out why”.

She kept gazing at the blank pentagram in front of her, holding a pencil in her mouth, raking her hair in a desperate attempt to find the right inspiration.

“Ah, nothing” the girl sighed after a while.

“perhaps I should let this go: there’s no sense in keep trying now; maybe I should ask Fluttershy to help me tomorrow”.

Having thought so, Sunset picked her guitar up and began to stroll across the park, headed home: some kids were playing soccer by the fountain and, from the looks of it, they were having a lot of fun, while their mothers calmly mingled nearby. The young girl giggled, seeing them; they looked so innocent and happy.

“they certainly don’t need to worry about saving the world, anytime there’s a magic trouble, coming from Equestria!” she said to herself, leaving them to their game.

The street was curiously peaceful and calm that day; it looked like everybody had decided to stay in their nice cozy beds.

“I must have woken up early on Sunday morning again: I can’t really see to get used to sleep in, even when I have the chance” she pointed out, noticing that her watch indicated it was only six am.

“maybe I should stop playing all those video games at night...”.

Truth was, the reason why Sunset had not been able to sleep was a different one.

“So, we were at Sweet Apple Acres and AJ insisted we should make apple fritters for that occasion” the girl wrote down on her journal.

“it was the annual apple family reunion, after all, and she kept saying that all of us were just as important as the rest of her relatives, when she invited us and, and as you can imagine, we couldn’t possibly refuse”.

“Sounds great” Sunset read loudly, after some words had appeared on the following page of the book: “what happened then?”

“We gathered near the barn to cook up some pastries, but it turned out we were out of flour. After Applejack had complained furiously, Big Mac rushed to reach us, dragging two heavy bags, yet he was such in a hurry that he slipped on a puddle and we all ended up covered in flour! You should have seen the that: we were all walking funny, attempting to clean up our eyes!”. While the girl laughed her mysterious interlocutor wrote her back.

“Ha, ha, ha, yeah, it must have been hilarious!”

“You bet!”

“And what did you do next?”

“Oh, well...after we got cleaned, not only did Pinkie use all the flour at once, cooking, but she also devoured the apple fritters in one bite”

“How does she do that all the time?”

“Don’t ask me: I was just as surprised as you probably are right now”

“Yeah, probably”

“Say, how are things back in Equestria?”

“Oh, Sunset, if you only knew: I need to get everything ready for a friendship summit in Griffonstone; it’s all very tough”

“I can only imagine, but, hey, you are the princess of friendship: great power and honor come with great responsibilities; everypony knows that”

“since when did you become so lecture?”

“Let’s just say, there are things about me you still need to find out, but don’t worry, you’ll be pleased with them, too”

“On that I have no doubt, but let’s just say I had quite enough surprises today”

“Really, why?”

“When you go to somewhere you are supposed to know all about and find out it’s the complete opposite of what you thought it can be pretty shocking”

“You mean Griffonstone?”

“Yeah I mean Griffinstone, according to my book it was the best town in all of the world!”

“I thought Pinkie and Rainbow Dash had warned you it wasn’t quite up to your expectations, the last time they visited the place”

“Sure, but I never thought it would be that bad”, reading those words, Sunset suddenly put on a frowning face.

“I am sorry about that, I didn’t think it had disappointing you so much”

“C’mon, don’t worry, Equestria is still full of other interesting places to see”

“Got anything specific in mind?”

“Have I ever told you about the time Rarity and I had to accompany Spike to the dragon lands?”

“You did, you said me he had decided to travel there to find out who he really was and...”

“No, not that one!”

“Then which one?”

“Y’know the time, when he had to compete in the Gauntlet of Fire”

“I don’t recall you telling me such a story”

“What?!” the other one exclaimed: “Are you sure?”

“One hundred per cent sure”

“Shoot, these princess duties are beginning to make me forget things! Maybe I should take a break...”

“You sure need it”

“You really think so?”

“Absolutely and, while you’re at it, you could drop by”

“Fine, I’ll take a break and check my schedule, so I can see when I’m free to come”

“It’s been a while now, since the last time we got to see each other and I do recall you saying ours was just a temporary goodbye back then”

“Okay, I guess I own you one: let’s see...how about I come next week?”

“That would be awesome!”

“It looks like I have some free time on Sunday”

“So, I can finally tell you the latest news from Canterlot High directly”

“I can’t wait, either!”

“Now, what was this Gauntlet of Fire thingy?”

“Oh, yeah: y’see it all started, when Spike’s scales started glowing...”

“Uh!” Sunset sighed: “I guess I should tell her we’d both need to move our regular chat to a different time of day, but it’s just so much fun writing to each other all night!”.

As she was reflecting upon these things, the girl took her beloved headphones, a one of a kind design, covered in pointy spikes, and raised their volume to the maximum level: if there was something she knew about herself, it was that she loved music.

Listening to the rock sound of the tune, playing in her ears, Sunset began to dance in the middle of the street, moving her hips to the rhythm of the music, waving her arms.

“Tum, tum, tum” Sunset closed her eyes, focusing only on one thing,

“Tum, tum, tum” she moved back and forward,

“Tum, tum, tum” her whole body started to dance, like it possessed a will on its own.

All of a sudden, while she was enjoying herself, the girl felt a painful sensation on her left shoulder, opened her eyes and noticed herself being violently pushed by a creepy clothed figure.

“Hey!” she shouted, having taken off her headphones,seeing them run away. “Come back!”; alas, the mysterious one ignored her and kept running on their way: “Such rudeness!”.

At that point it did not take long for a shouting voice to catch her attention.

“Thief, thief, help!” an elder lady, dressing in purple, shrieked: “He’s got my purse, help!”.

Hearing those words, Sunset quickly turned around and chased the suspicious guy around the corner of the street. “You, stop!” she shouted, getting closer to them; unfortunately the robber turned out to be quite fast and managed to climb up a hedge in the blink of an eye, then jumped in a house yard.

The girl followed them with no problem. “I told you to stop!” she exclaimed once more, hoping to catch somebody’s attention, hopefully that of police officer, patrolling nearby. “Give me back that purse!”.

Fast as lightening the thief reached the other side of the house and got back on the walking road with Sunset still chasing them, yet not for long. The reason why the girl did not manage to catch them was that just around the corner the path turned into a confused twisted maze, impossible to go through, at least for the ones who did not know the place too well.

In a flash the robber disappeared in one of those divisions, while Sunset, who was but a few inches behind, lost them, this time once and for all: “Shoot!” the girl gasped, breathing heavily.

“For a moment I thought I had them!”.

After cooling down, she renounced the thought of trying to chase the robber some more and got back on her way.“It’s not worth it” Sunset pointed out. “It’d be better if I get back home; I sure feel sorry for that lady, though” suddenly something strange crossed her mind for a moment:

what was an elder woman doing in the middle of the street at such an hour, anyway?

“Mmm...strange” the girl thought, walking. “I can’t seem to remember this place”, after taking a few more steps forward, she reluctantly had to admit to herself that she had gotten lost.

“Yep...” she went on saying:

“...I’ve definitely never been here before”.

That unexpected situation got her under pressure, which she did not like in the least: sure she was usually good at finding her way back home from everywhere, but being nervous was exactly what she did not need at that moment.

“Oh...boy” Sunset exclaimed, once she had looked around.

“I shouldn’t been here!”

One look at the place andanybody would feel terrorized: it was creepy, hostile, frightening even, the road was desert, nothing in sight but dirt and rubbish spread all around, a few houses with their windows shuttered and holed rooftops, still in one piece by some miracle, anticipated a long walking passage across an even less recommendable area from which the barks of hungry dogs could be heard.

“Well...”the girl gulped again: I’d better get going, before anything bad happens”.

For some weird reason the way back home seemed interminable and it felt like time had been stopped in that remote area of the city: not a single cloud crossed the sky, not even the weakest blow of wind; as a result, the air felt as humid as that of a swamp, not to mention the unbearable noises coming from all over, while pieces of walls were slowly following on the ground from those ghost buildings.

“Come on, Sunset, don’t freak out...”the girl whispered, doing her best to maintain a calm and collected attitude.

“there’s nothing to worry about, it’s just a neighborhood like any other one. After all, it’s just what they always say: don’t judge a book by its cover, so, stop worrying; it’s not like anybody will harm you here, because this place doesn’t look friendly, right?!”.

Not in million years she really meant the things she had mentioned and that was pretty obvious, especially when she heard the loud noise of a pile of empty glass bottles, breaking on the ground.

Quicker than a deer, being chased by a predator, Sunset rushed to one of the nearby houses, moved away the remainder of the wooden door, blocking her path, and entered the horrible building.

It took quite a while for the girl to calm down, sweat was wetting her face, her skin had become so pale she looked like a corpse and her eyes conveyed a childish expression of fragility.

“It sounds like everything’s okay, now” she gasped.

“but maybe it’s not safe to go out, yet...I think I’d better stay in here for a bit: this place looks abandoned anyway”.

Pushed by both fear and curiosity, Sunset decided not to leave and climbed the staircase just next to her. While holding on the handrail, this one produced a terrible squeaking noise, giving the impression it would fall down any moment. The wall, on the other hand, did not look any better: its covering was spoiled by several black and greenish spots, as a result of humidity, and, when touched, felt thin as a sheet of paper; luckily she did reach the top, before anything unpleasant could happen.

As soon as she found herself in a room, having opened the door in front of her, the girl could not help but notice that the place stank of cat litter and old people.

“Ah” she exclaimed, pretending to be coughing.

“This smell is unbearable: when was the last time they did some cleaning here, never?!”. That room looked like a kitchen with its unusable sink, the vintage utensils and a table at the very center, covered in a dusty white cloth. Having sneezed, Sunset decided she had seen enough and got downstairs to the living room.

That part of the house was quite empty as well, if not for a couple of sofas with a bunch of blankets on them: no television or anything technological was there; even the light bulb on the ceiling did not work.

Sunset was about to turn around and walk away, as the sight of a mysterious dark room attracted her: it was not too far, just a few steps away really and, from where she was, she could see that the place was not completely obscured thanks to a fair light, probably penetrating from a window. In the end, although she knew she had remained in that unwelcoming house for far too long already, as usual, her curios spirit was stronger than her good sense.

She quietly approached the room, with her ears fully raised, so she would hear anything suspicious, careful not to get her newest black leather boots dirty,whilewalking: it was Rarity the one who had made them for her, after all.

Once she had entered, for who knows what reason, the atmosphere became much heavier, as Sunset could smell a ton of dust in the air which, of course, made her sneeze several times. The place she found herself in was not much different from the rest of the house, except maybe for the fact that was much smaller: a bed with lots of pillows on stood there, its sheets were undone and dirty, in some spots their color had turned from white to yellow, on the other handshe noticed a small desk and a wooden chair by the window.

On the table was a book, also covered in dust, yet decorated in a nice tawny leather, even if its edges were a bit spoiled; the girl looked at it with great curiosity.

“What’s this?” Sunset wondered, laying her gaze on the only interesting thing she had found in that dreadful house so far.

“It looks like a regular old book”; there was something more to that, though, she could tell, otherwise it would not have caught her attention so much.

She did want to sit down and open it, but the squeaky noise of the chair where she was about to sit, suddenly reminded her that she had somewhere else to be, so she grabbed the book and rushed out of that tremendous place without stopping anywhere this time.

“So that’s basically the point” Sunset said clearly. “I’ve been working on this new song for the Rainbooms all week, but I just can’t get it right, no matter what!”.

“I see...” a kind voice replied on her phone. “Well...I’ll be happy to help, after all, I would never leave you in distress”

“Thanks Fluttershy, you’re a real saviour!”

“Oh, you make me blush, see you tomorrow after school at my place, so we can see what needs to be done”

“I’ d really be lost without you!”

“You’re such a sweat!”

“Now, I must be going: see you tomorrow, Flutteshy!”

“See you tomorrow!”.

Having put down her phone, Sunset laid on her comfortable bed, tired from what had happened that morning: the scent of her sheets was delicate and filled her nose with a pleasant lavender aroma; plus inspired her a certain wish to get some sleep, after all, she had woken up quite early, yet the girl’s stomach did not seem to agree.

“Okay, okay, I get it” Sunset thought: “you’re hungry: let me just cook something up and we’ll have lunch”.

The girl headed to the kitchen downstairs, quickly got some ingredients from the fridge, then set up the oven so it would preheat at four hundred degrees.

She started mixing up yogurt and flour in a large bowl, added: turnip, cheese, salt, black pepper and potatoes and put the whole thing into the oven.

After thirty minutes she removed the mixture and, having made eight indentations with the back of a spoon, cracked an egg on each one of them, then finally returned it to the oven. It did not take long, just eight minutes actually, for the room to be filled with the moth watering scent typical of the Rosti Casserole, a recipe Sunset adored.

Having grabbed knife and fork, the girl made herself comfortable on a chair and dove into the exquisite food: each bite tasted better than the previous one, as the delicious flavor of the Gruyère cheese, together with the eggs and the warm sweet potatoes mixed up in her mouth.

“Delicious!” Sunset exclaimed satisfied, cleaning the dirty corners of her mouth with a hankie, after finishing her lunch.

“It’s a good thing I can cook properly, at least I don’t have to go all the way to a restaurant and wait for years in order to eat. Oh, perhaps I should make something special the next time the others and I hang out all together: I’m sure everyone would enjoy my food!”.

She climbed up the staircase to her bedroom, neared her desk and took a look at the calendar.

“Great, Pinkie’s birthday is next week!The girls and I are gonna have so much fun, plus, as Pinkie always works hard to get everything ready for our birthday parties, it’s only fair for us to be planning hers instead. What was her favorite’s dessert, again? The simple platter, but I’m sure the Cakes have got that covered already, maybe I should prepare...”

While pronouncing those words, she could not help but notice the dusty old book she had found earlier that morning, laying on her desk, calling for her to open and read it.

Sunset raised her gaze at the clock, hanging from the wall, and saw it was only 14: 30: “I still have some time, before our regular Sunday chat: I’m sure it’ll be enough to read it”.

Having sat down on her comfy chair, the girl opened the tawny leather book; the writing on the first page was a bit smudge, especially at the end, but she was able to read it anyway.

"You who hear the sound, in scattered rhymes,

of those sighs on which I fed my heart,

in my first vagrant youthfulness,

when I was partly other than I am,

I hope to find pity, and forgiveness,

for all the modes in which I talk and weep,

between vain hope and vain sadness,

in those who understand love through its trials.

Yet I see clearly now I have become

an old tale amongst all these people, so that

it often makes me ashamed of myself;

and shame is the fruit of my vanities,

and remorse, and the clearest knowledge

of how the world’s delight is a brief dream."

"Great!" Sunset giggled in front of those initial words, adjusting the red curl, dropping on her face.

"the beginning sounds promesing enough!"

Author's Note

To all my beloved readers:
As promised, here's the begining of the newest story that will take most of our time during the following weeks.

I'm sorry if it may sound a bit slow, but this is just a prologue: I promise I will do better in the next chapters.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome, so don't stop thinking twice if you wanna let me know your opinion.

Under the sea

Chapter 2:

Under the sea

The sun was shining bright under the deep blue floats of the Luna bay, warming the summer atmosphere.

An extrordinar number of tropical fish were enjoying its light: from the small Barbs, known for the exquisite look of their deep blue and emerald scales to the weird Bettas with their giant fiery dorsal pines, not to mention the Fresh water Angelfish, colored in a tint black as carbon, and the Fancy Guppies, showing off their azure body.

Some Loaches, feasting on a Coral reef, were quickly chewing their lunch, while a tiny shy Gouramis was hiding among the white arms of a Staghorn coral and a small group of fascinating golden Cichilds played nearby a rear Sea Pen.

Buried under the sand, there was a rather large Demersal fish, careful not to be seen by the wandering predators, while many oysters decorated the sea floor.

Yet among this aquatic heaven, a violent movement of the water was enough to cause all the animals to flee, leaving nothing behind, but if they had been able to talk, they would have certainly shrieked at the sight of what was coming. A creature slowly approached the area: their dimensions were enormous, they must had been terribly strong, strangely they had a pair of upper legs and hooves which made them even more threatening to their neighbors.

Truth to be told, though, as unusual and scary they may have looked, they were beautiful indeed.

Their scales were as golden as the rays of the sun, illuminating the marine floats, if not even more, the large pin they had on the back was absolutely majestic and conveyed an impression of undoubted might. Their eyes were colored in an imperial purple tint, furthermore they were clearly filled with pride and self-confidence, yet on the other hand, it would not taken long for one, observing them, to understand that in their raging fire they kept something profound that had been locked away for a long time.

A pair of long dark eyelashes were visible on their face, they were girly and attractive, certainly the most stunning in all of the ocean; but the expression on the elongated face of the creature was so serious and cold, that could make one’s blood freeze in their veins.

Yet what was most interesting about that one, was that they had a sparkly peace of rock planted deep inside their chest, a beautiful gem of the same intense color of blood.

Now that solitary being was swimming calmly on their way, not turning their head in any direction like nothing was worth seeing.

The movements of their pins were gentle, their sighing heavy, the eyes staring deep at the bottom of the sea floor.

“What’s happening to you Adagio?” the siren said to herself.

“Why are you acting like this?” as she kept whispering, her pace became slower and slower.

“You are far better than this, you are the most fearsome of all the beings living underwater, you’ve got intelligence, strength, courage and beauty all together and yet you’ve let yourself down. But why? Do you feel like something might still be missing from your life, do you want more than what you already posses or is it because of what you’ve seen today? It may be so, but... if it is, I don’t fully understand you: you’ve gone through so much struggle so far, you’ve felt fear and misery, pain and starvation, but in front of those two you started trembling, witnessing their sorrow, and now you are the one looking miserable”.

It was down and withing the fair light of the sun, still needing to rise and the midst of darkness, painting the surrounding environment in an obsidian color, nothing could be heard but the barely perceptible sound of seaweeds, being delicately moved.

Adagio had woken up early that morning, so early her eyes were still heavy from lack of sleep, but she could not have stayed and rested in her hideout, not at a moment like this.

Having not eaten for two days, the rumbling of her stomach would not leave her in peace, besides life had taught her that in these kind of situations there was only one thing to give priority to: eating.

Early hours were perfect for hunting, she knew that well and could not possibly resist the idea of getting her hooves on an easy prey.

“This must be my lucky day” the siren thought from her hiding spot, gazing upon a couple of young sea ponies, slowly proceeding forward.

The first one, taller than the other, was a girl: the scales, covering her body, were colored in an intense red tint, her pins and eyes blue as the floats of the sea; the second one, a boy, had white scales and his eyes were as green as giant emeralds.

“They probably run away from home: this job is going to be so simple it’ll be like stealing candies”.

Adagio stealthy moved toward them, careful not to be heard, then stopped just a few inches away and hid behind a large blue coral.

In the mean time the two youngsters, had interrupted their swimming and started talking to each other.

“We shouldn’t have come here Ruby” the first one whispered: “Mom and dad always say to stay away from the wild area outside the borders of Seaquestria: it’s awfully dangerous!”

“Oh, quit your bellyaching!” his sister protested: “You really need to toughen up, Silver Scale, and this is the best place for such a purpose, plus there’s plenty of fun to have!”

“I don’t know...what if something bad happens?!”

“Like what exactly?”

“What if some creature shows up with evil intentions, what if they wanted to gobble us up?!”

“Are you being serious?”

“Well...”

“Listen, do you see anything, approaching?”

“But...”

“No buts, answer me”

“No”

“No reason to fret then, let’s go”

“Ruby, where are you going?! Wait for me!”

It was right when the two youngsters were about to leave that the siren decided to show up.

“Hi, little ones!” Adagio greeted them with a malicious smile, then took sit on a rock.

“Ah!” Silver Scale screamed terrorized: “A sea monster! It’s going to eat us!”.

While he was saying these things, despite being clearly frightened herself, Ruby made an effort to stand up for her brother and was brave enough to answer that suspicious, yet beautiful being.

“Who are you…and what do you want from us?”

“Relax, I mean no harm” Adagio grinned, showing her ivory teeth: “I’m just a friend who got worried seeing you, wandering around here all alone. Where are your parents?”.

Hearing those words, the shy Silver Scale hid behind his filly sister who was sweating like never before in her young life.

“We’re here all alone” the girl replied.

“Oh, and what two adorable ones like you might be doing in a place like this, don’t you know it’s dangerous to hang out alone in these parts?”

“We know, but...we kinda got lost”

“I see...” the siren giggled, knowing Ruby was lying: “Well, don’t worry I know the way back to your home town, I can take you there myself”

“We’re not supposed to be trusting strangers”

“C’mon, my pretties, I’ve already told you I am no stranger, but a friend”

“It’s kind of hard to believe in your words, counting the fact that we don’t even know your name, yet”

“Is that so? How rude of me not to properly introduce myself. Let’s start over: my name’s Adagio Dazzle”

“And...what are you? You don’t exactly look like a sea pony”

“That’s because I am a siren, my dear!”

“A siren?” the two youngsters questioned at once.

“You don’t know what a siren is? How is that possible?”

“Nopony ever told about your kinds before”

“Well, then you ought to know that sirens like me are legendary magical creatures who posses extraordinary powers, plus our lives are pretty long”

“How old are you, then?”

“Trust me: if I told, you wouldn’t believe me!”

“And what is it that make you sirens so special?” the shy Silver Scale asked.

“Are you really curious about that?” Adagio grinned, licking her lips:

“S...sure!”

“Tell, me do you like music?” the sea ponies nodded in response.

At that moment, the siren lifted herself from the rock she was sitting on, then, as she opened her mouth, the gem on her chest glimmered in a red light, and her vocal cords started to sing.

“Wow!” the two siblings exclaimed, hearing Adagio’s spectacular voice:“You are awesome!”

“You haven’t seen anything, yet...” the siren thought, raising her voice.

At that point the surrounding environment was filled with a greenish smoke, the atmosphere became heavier to breath, then Ruby hit her brother on the shoulder.

“What did you do that for?!” the boy cried, seeing the other sea pony laughing in his face:

“Cause you looked like you needed it, looser!” the girl giggled.

“What, you’re calling me looser?!”

“You heard right, dweeb!”

“How dare you little...”

It did not take long for them to start fighting physically and, so the ones who had previously looked like the best of pals, were now punching, biting and injuring each other.

While this was happening, the smoke, surrounding them became thicker and flawed right into Adagio’s gem, until there was no more left.

“Yummy” the siren giggled, satisfied: “thanks for the meal, my dearest, and remember to play nice!” and left the two sea ponies to blow off their steam.

“Easy as pie” Adagio thought, heading back to her lair: “I’ ll never get tired of that!”.

While she was swimming among the red ruby corals and green seaweeds, grinning from pleasure and congratulating herself for what she had just done, something drew her attention: an odd noise she had never remembered hearing before, yet made her curious more than anything else.

“It ‘s getting stronger” Adagio said to herself, moving: “It’s sounds weird...like somepony were...weeping”.

The more she got closer to the source of that unexpected noise, the more exited she got: her soul was suddenly feeling restless, her eyes burnt in a raging fire, her breath became heavier.

“Not here”, the siren pointed out, after searching a field of seaweeds:

“Where is it coming from?” she thought again, rushing to reach what she thought was the right spot:

“Where?!” she shouted, grinding her teeth:

“Where?”

Unreasonably furious, Adagio, began to tear apart the weeds before her:

“Where are you hiding?” she kept repeating: “Where?! Where?”. All of a sudden, her nose caught a rather strong scent, similar to the one that can usually be smelled on oysters.

“There!” she exclaimed in satisfaction, turning around: “They’re there!”.

Once she had gotten closer to her objective, she sneaked into the nearest field of seaweeds, ready to launch at her prey, but then, after removing the plants, blocking her sight, something stopped her from doing so.

Right there before here eyes, a small creature, the smallest she had ever seen, her body covered in sand, used as blanket, her eyes barely stayed open.

The baby was crying so desperately two long eyes of tears spoiled her innocent face.

She had her scales the azure tint of rare sapphires, a long pin on her back and a pair of hooves on the upper legs.

Next to her stood another youngster, not much older than the other, but, judging by her expression, one could say the little one had been already taught that ponies need to mature fast.

Her body, from pin to hooves, was the color of violets, her belly thin and miserably contracted from starvation and pain. Her eyes were large, circled by two heavy dark bags which clearly conveyed the feelings of those who have suffered much; furthermore her back was covered in scars like she had been hit several times by a strong wipe.

There she stood silent, with her hooves on her friend, gulping in suffering, often caressing the other one’s muzzle with her own in an attempt to cheer her up.

In front of that sight, Adagio felt a sudden trembling in her body, like she had seen something scary, while, unconsciously cracked a weed, producing a low noise.

Hearing it, the purple one, stood up firmly to defend the baby and, having noticed the intruder, put up a ferocious expression, showing off two lines of white pointy teeth in her mouth.

Seeing herself threatened, the siren arose from the field and revealed her full might, nearing her giant frightening mouth to the opponent who surprisingly did not move by an inch.

The more Adagio, tried to intimidate her the more the young one stood up to her, hissing like a sea serpent, having decided not to abandon her friend.

On the other hand Adagio was stunned, witnessing all that bravery:

risking your own life even in a situation as desperate as that one in order to save somepony else's...was something she had never seen before or so she thought.

It was right then that Adagio noticed something about her young adversary: she had a bloody red gem on her chest, just like hers.

“How can that be?” the siren said to herself.

Seeing her distracted, the young one stood still in her position, motionless as a statue.

Having lowered her gaze, Adagio surprisingly decided to spare those two, despite them being awfully easy targets, and left them alone.

“Ah” the siren sighed heavily, putting on a disappointed face: “You’re becoming softhearted”.

It did not take long for her to reach her lair which consisted in a cave, carved deep into a cliff, with a large entrance.

Having left the moth of the cavern behind, Adagio proceeded to the most profound spot of her hideout, situated underground; the further she went the more obscure the place was.

The ceiling above progressively lowered on her head and so did the stalactites attached to it, which forced Adagio to swim almost at the level of the ground.

That long corridor lead her to a large empty hall, the floor was made out of cold gray rock from the cracks of which short seaweeds grew, and the ceiling stood up high almost a thousand feet.

Adagio slowly moved toward the opposite edge of the cavern where she laid her head on what one could define a rudimental rocky pillow.

“You’re getting weak...” she kept repeating to herself in that grotesque loneliness:

“You’re getting weak, and we both know what happens to the weak, don’t we?”

“Mom!” the little siren cried: “Mom, I’m hungry!”

“It’s okay, don’t worry” a kind voice, sweet as honey, replied: “We’ll find some food”

“But we haven’t had any in days”

“Adagio, have I ever disappointed you?”

“No, no, absolutely not!”

“Then trust me: it might take a little while, but I assure you we’ll find something to eat”.

The one who had spoken was a tall siren with her body covered in millions of scales, sparkling in the fiery reddish light typical of rubies.

Her back pin, which she kept moving frequently, was majestic and ended in pointy spikes.

Her hooves were in poor condition like she had been working on a field her whole life, her muzzle long, her smile caring, her eyes were two deep ponds of red violet water.

“Hey mom” her daughter intervened: “Why do we always run out of food?”

“Well, my dear, that’s just happens at times...”

“So, are we supposed to suffer starvation and feed on tasteless mollusks for the rest of our lives?!”

“Of course not, it’s only temporary, till we find a better place to stay”

“But we’ve been wandering far and wide for...I don’t even remember how much time. Why couldn’t we just remain in our old home at the anemones field?”

“We couldn’t, it was impossible”

“But I loved that place”

“Me too, Adagio, but sometimes things don’t turn out they way you would like them to”

“Is it because of all that stuff the inhabitants of the upper world had been throwing in the water? Isn’t it the same reason why all the fish that used to live there run away?”

“Who told you that?” her mother questioned astonished:

“I don’t need somepony else to tell me these things; I learned them myself”.

As the little one swam away, the siren stared at the transparent water surface above her head:

“She’s maturing fast” she thought: “too fast”.

While they were wandering atop the see floor looking for food, Adagio’s mother heard an awkwardly deep sound: it was her daughter’s stomach.

“Darling” she immediately asked worried: “are you feeling all right?

” “Mmm...” the little siren struggled to answer: “Wh...I mean of course, let’s keep going!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I do feel alright let’s go”

“I don’t like when you’re lying to me”

“I am not lying”

“Oh, is that so? Well then, why don’t you come sit here?” her mom said, indicating a huge bolder.

“What do you wanna do?”

“Nothing, just check”.

As soon as her daughter obeyed, the siren noticed her little stomach was swollen, even more than usual, and contracted in pain: “It’s bad”, she said to herself, while reflecting.

“Mom” Adagio suddenly whispered:

“Yes, sweetie?”

“I think I might be starting feeling a little dizzy: my head is spinning and...” it did not take her long to loose consciousness.

“Adagio?!” the other one exclaimed worried: “Adagio?! Is this a joke?! Please stop fooling me, please!”. Despite her desperation, her daughter did not answer her call: “Adagio, wake up! C’mon, it’s time to go, wake up, wake up!”.

Seeing her in that state, the mother took Adagio in her hooves, hugging her tight and started swimming fast. Together they passed miles and miles, but still no food, not even the smallest ostrich, and Adagio had still to regain her senses.

“What do I do?” her mom shouted frustrated in her head: “There’s nothing here or here or there or anywhere!”.

Refusing to give up, the siren kept swimming in a furious race against time to save her daughter, until she found herself in front of the most spectacular view she had ever gazed upon: “That must be...”.

Not far from her had appeared an endless line of coral houses, each of them shining in a warm purple color. Stunning creatures, covered in bright scales, crowded the streets between them and at the horizon the most beautiful of castles the walls of which were decorated in thousands and thousands of orange nudibranchs and small magenta anemones.

“...Seaquestria: I never thought I’d see it”.

Right at that moment the siren heard something: two young sea ponies, probably run off from their parents, had arrived and were nothing but a few inches away.

She kept staring a them, putting on a sorrowful and worried expression:

“I’d rather not do this” she thought, yet the sound of her own suffering daughter, calling her in her sleep, erased her last doubts: “but I’ll do it for you”.

The siren neared the two fillies, playing, who looked astonished to see somepony like her, and without thinking twice made her vocal cords sing.

At the sound of her voice a green smoke filled the atmosphere, the two pals suddenly began to fight, pushing and hitting each other violently.

The energy their anger produced entered the gem she had carved on her chest; then the mother deeply looked at Adagio, who had barely opened her eyes, hearing the singing, and said: “Take it all”.

So, it was that that very negative energy the mother had absorbed was transferred into Adagio’s gem, after that the little one slept peacefully.

The scene repeated quite often, every time the siren was unable to find food for her daughter, until one day something changed.

While on her way, almost right at the border of Seaquestria, Adagio’s mom saw two sea ponies waiting: they were both wearing a full golden armor, the elmets covering their ears, and hold spears in their pectoral fins.

Seeing her approach, those two stood up firmly, staring at her carefully: there was no doubt who they where there for.

“Adagio” the siren said to her daughter who was following: “Stay here hidden and, as soon as those two launch at me, run!”

“What are you saying, mom?” the little one questioned surprised.

“Why would I...”

“No questions, do as I say and no matter how hard I cry, keep running and escape!”

“But...”

“No buts!”

“And if they...”

Hearing Adagio’s voice, the mother turned around and showed the little one a tremendously serious expression: “Do as I say, be strong!”; having never seen her mom so restless, Adagio lowered her head and nodded.

The siren turned her attention to the royal guards before her, stepping proudly forward, while the sea poines prepared their spears.

From behind her mother’s shadow, the child saw the warriors attacking her, the siren defended herself with a blow of her tail. One of the guards managed to avoid it and penetrated the enemy under the shoulder with his weapon, a loud cry was heard.

Hearing it, Adagio felt the instinct of rushing to the battle field, but remembered what she had been ordered not to do.

In the meantime four other guards came out of the seaweed bushes, ready to fight: the siren understood she was fighting a battle she couldn’t win.

A raging fire invaded the little one’s heart, but she saw her mother, gazing at her from far away, so she turned around to escape.

Having taken nothing but a few steps forward, Adagio turned behind and saw her beloved one falling under the many spears, penetrating her scaly body:

“Mom!” she shouted in desperation: “Mommy!”.

As drops of tears lined her face, the look of those murders put in her enough fright to make her run away, when she came back later that day her mom’s body was gone.

“Be strong” the siren whispered to herself, staring at the cavern wall on which she had painted the scene of her mother’s death with her bear hooves.

“She told me to be strong, I thought I was powerful enough, but it seems it doesn’t take much to make even the strongest become weak”.

She stopped talking for a moment to sight: “But maybe even the weak have their purpose”.

Adagio quickly exited her lair, headed to the spot where she had seen the two babies: they were still there, exactly how she had left them.

Seeing her return, the purple one stood up against her with her raging eyes, but this time it did not work on the intruder.

Ignoring her, the siren neared the youngest one, who stared at her deeply: her eyes were two deep ponds of red violet water.

As Adagio took her in her hooves, she heard the other saying:

“Where do you think you’re going with my sister?!”

“Home” she answered.

“Home?” her interlocutor asked, surprised at what she had just heard:

“Yes, home and you’re coming, too”.

Hearts as strong as sirens

Chapter 3:

Hearts as strong as sirens

“It’s useless” Sonata sighed in disappointment: “no matter how many times I try, I always end up ruining everything.

As she was saying these things, her sister Aria kept staring at Adagio to see what her reaction would be, but the only words she heard were:“try harder”, then the siren swam away, leaving both of the youngsters in her lair.

“Oh” the girl wined once more: “I’m never gonna pull this off!”. Seeing her dear one in such state was something not even Aria’s usually blooded heart cold handle, so the siren neared her sister and sat next to her on a rock:

“Hey, Sonata” she whispered in her ear, trying to cheer her up: “It’s okay! You’ll manage”

“Easy for you to say” the other one answered: “You’re amazing at singing, while hi...well I sound like a blasted trombone!”

“That’s not true” went one saying her sister, wrapping her in her hooves closer to her chest:

“You’re not that bad, you just need a little practice: that’s all”

“No, no, no! That won’t happen: you saw what it was like the last time I tried to charm the sea ponies”

“How could I forget...”.

“So...” the youngest of the sirens questioned curious: “...all I have to do is make some music, then the magic will flaw straight into my gem?”

“Yes, it will” Adagio replied briefly, maintaining a firm cold expression on her face which made the little one tremble from fear.

Sonata gulped: Adagio’s stare was motionless, proud and conveyed an enormous impression of superiority. Those eyes had always frightened her, since the day she remembered seeing them for the first time: those pupils black as the dark floats of the night together with her irises, so similar to hers with their red violet tint, had often become in her sleep the most terrible of nightmares.

“Sonata!” Adagio intervened, interrupting the youngster’s day dreaming: “Are you going to get your prey or have you decided to let it escape?”

“No, no, I am going” Sonata quickly replied, shaking her head and laying her eyes on a little sea filly, picking flowers from the pristine sand:

“Good”.

Still feeling insecure, the siren turned around and moved forward the sea pony; her sister Aria was watching her from her hiding spot, behind a large blue coral, right next to Adagio, while thinking: “Good luck”.

As soon as she had gotten close enough, the young filly saw her figure, a thousand times larger than hers, but looked more curious than scared:

“Who are you?” she asked, looking at that peculiar stranger with her enormous lively eyes:

“Hello, my dear, my name’s Sonata Dusk, I am a siren, I’m here to feed...I mean I was just passing by and saw you, adorable one, were here all alone. Now tell, me: where are your parents, did you get lost? I can take you back to Seaquestria with me”.

While witnessing the scene, Adagio placed a hoof on her forehead in sign of desperation and began to shake her head: “she’s gonna blow everything up”.

“Not at all, nice lady” the cheerful filly answered Sonata: “I am not lost, I’m here to pick these” at this point the youngster showed her interlocutor a bunch of golden flowers she was holding in her pins.

“Oh my, they sure look stunning”

“Thanks, these sun corals are my mommy’s favorite, since when she was a little filly. Today is mother’s day, so I thought I’d sneak out of home a little early to get some: they’re the perfect gift for her, don’t you think?”

“Uh, they are pretty let me…” as Sonata let those words slip from her mouth, the distant clopping sound of Adagio’s hoof reminded her what she needed to do: “I mean: they look good, but flowers are so dull and predictable nowadays”

“They are?” the little one questioned disappointed:

“Yeah, how about we get your mom something more like a spectacular musical number?”

“But I don’t know the first thing about music”

“Quit the act” Adagio kept repeating, as if Sonata were able to hear her, despite being so distant from her: “Just sing”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, my friend. In fact I dare say that this is your lucky day, for I happen to be an expert in music!”

“What, for real?!” the sea filly asked, putting on an innocent expression of delight:

“Of course I am: wanna hear one of my tunes?”

“Sure!”

“Then please take a sit and enjoy”.

Once her pray had made herself comfortable on a rock, the siren lifted high up in the water, closed her eyes to focus, opened her azure lips and let her vocal cords sing.

At that moment a shrieking noise was heard, it was so high-pitched it could have shuttered a mirror into pieces:

“Ah” the filly shouted, covering her hears: “Stop please, I can’t take it any longer”. Not hearing a thing Sonata went on singing: “Please!” the sea pony repeated:

“What is she doing?” Aria whispered into her older sister’s ear:

“blowing up the plan”. Adagio arose from the blue coral and rushed to reach the sea pony who was already attempting to escape.

In the meantime Aria neared Sonata, placed a hoof on her shoulder to draw some attention, then said she had sung enough.

Having gotten the chance, the oldest of the sirens hypnotized the pray with her singing, so she and the others could feed. After the sea pony’s negative energy had been completely drained out of her, the little one fainted on the ground, while Adagio laid on the young siren a stare Sonata would never forget.

“You don’t understand, Aria”, the youngster exclaimed: “You, you didn’t see her eyes. They were watching me like I had just fail the purpose of my entire life: so angry and penetrating”; Aria could not bare the sight of her sister crying:

“Does she frighten you that much?”, Sonata did not answer.

It did too a while till the young siren decided to speak again: “Ah, Aria?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think...I may be just not cut out for singing?”

“Don’t be so depressed” her sister answered: “You’ ll manage...eventually”

“Eventually isn’t soon enough. You saw how Adagio reacted the last time I failed: she hasn’t spoken to me since then and I am worried she could decided to do something worse, If I blow up everything again”

“You’re really afraid of that, uh?”

“Yeah” Sonata replied gulping:

“Hey” her sister exclaimed, seeing her, lowering her eyes again:

“Are you up for a story?”

“I am not in the mood for your teasing, Aria”

“I promise you will like this one, plus I swear no teasing is involved”.

Night had fallen from a while and the environment, surrounding Adagio’s lair, had become awfully silent, everything had been covered in darkness and the only things illuminating the area were the photophores, pending from the heads of the anglerfish looking for food.

Adagio was sitting on a bolder right next to the mouth of her cavern:

“Why have you brought them here?” she kept repeating to herself: “you already know how this is going to end don’t you? In your whole life you’ve done everything but looking after fillies, truth to be told you mostly caused them two to fight and fed off their negative energy and now you expect of yourself to take care of those two?”.

While she was reflecting upon these things, her scaly body was suddenly penetrated by a sensation of cold: “Brrr….” the siren whispered, grating her teeth: “You’d better go back inside if you don’t want to freeze: it’s chilly out here tonight”.

Adagio turned around and passed the large corridor, separating her from the deep hall where she used to sleep. When she got there she immediately felt she was not alone; right there next to her on a pile of seaweeds two youngsters rested peacefully: the first one was covered in azure scales and had a long dorsal fin, while the second’s body was purple as a violet bloom, her dorsal fin was shorter than her sister’s, nonetheless it was more spiky.

Both of them looked so calm that Adagio assumed they were having sweet dreams, so she decided to take a nap herself: even the strongest and most fearsome creature, living underwater, needed to rest her eyes a bit.

Despite her good intentions though, the siren was not able to get any sleep, not even for a moment.

“It’s useless” she complained after hours had passed: “it’s seems like I’ll have to skip sleeping tonight, too, might as well stand up”.

Adagio abandoned her rocky pillow to near the little ones and observe them: the were beautiful indeed, their scales shining in the same way as Adagio’s, their hooves looked small and delicate, their fines strong and their muscles well developed despite their young age. Their eyelashes were long and attractive, their oyster scent rather intense, the red gems on their chests shined in a lively light.

“Two other sirens” Adagio whispered to herself, staring at the asleep fillies: “two more creatures that will suffer from our mutual unfortunate destiny”.

As she moved her right hoof towards the youngest, this one opened her eyes and gaze upon Adagio’s with her red violet weepy sight.

“Blast it” the siren thought: “why does this one make me feel awkward all the time?!” The more she kept staring at the little creature, the more she felt weird and restless, even if she had turned around, trying to ignore her.

“Ah, fine, you win!” Adagio sighed in the end: “what is it? Why are you always looking at me like that?” no answer came from her interlocutor: “what, did something eat your tongue?”

“No” The purple one intervened, having woke up:

“Uh?” Adagio questioned curiously:

“she’s too young, she’s never spoken to anypony else, not even me”

“Too young, of course” the siren sighed at that moment.

“Can I ask you something?”

“You’re already doing so”

“Why did you bring us here?”

“That I still need to figure out myself”.

As the night went one, the little siren started wining painfully and trembling in her sleep; from the sound of her voice Adagio could clearly tell that something wrong was going on.

She neared the bed once more, then placed her hoof on the youngster’s forehead: “she’s caught fever” Adagio whispered in the end: “and her conditions are getting worse”.

Watching the little creature in her pain, suddenly caused something to wake in the siren’s soul, something she thought she had removed many years ago, but now she felt back again:

“You know what you have to do” a little voice said in Adagio’s head: “You know what must be done, even if it means you’ll have to cross the last front line and give up who you are to become somepony else.”; she did not need to hear any further.

Having left the cave, wearing a small glass bottle, attached to a shelf necklace, the siren swam up to the surface, where she had already been many times. She turned around and saw the sun, rising at the horizon:

“Time’s running out: you need to be faster” the little voice in her head kept saying.

Adagio neared the shore and in a flash she rose from the water and began to levitate in the middle of the air; her head was spinning: “You’re even out of practice, when it comes to flying: good. You’re really getting too soft”.

Ignoring the complaining of her subconscious, the siren moved quickly through the cool morning breeze, heading to a place only she knew of.

After a good fifteen minutes she saw a bunch of trees beneath her and realized she had finally reached her destination.

Once down almost at the level of the ground, Adagio look around till she found a particular green and white flower, wasting no time she picked it up:

“Now I only need fresh water”; luckily for her a stream run by the clearing she happened to be.

Adagio immediately collected a sample of its water and used it to mix up a solution together with the petals of the flower she had just collected:

“I hope this will work on her as well as it did on me”.

Once more she lifted her body up in the air, once more she rushed on the same way she had gone through to reach the sea, though this time she noticed something new.

While flying on her way, she heard cries and cheers, pleasant sounds and annoying noises:

“What’s with this fuss?” Adagio wondered, lowering her eyes. Right in that moment she saw a village right beneath her: it was so full of light and dancing ponies, one could say they were having a celebration of some sort:

“So here they live, interesting”.

Suddenly a malicious grin appeared on her face, like something wicked had come to her mind: she was definitely plotting something, but there was no time to loose: her little sister was waiting at the cavern.

Having come back to the sea shore, having made sure nopony was there to see her, the siren dove into the water and disappeared under the deep blow floats.

“I’m here” she said to herself, when she arrived at her hideout: “I’m here and now off to see how our patient is doing”.

In the dark underground hall where she had left her, the little one was having a terrible night, as Adagio pointed out, judging on her physical condition: she was there on the seaweed bed, sweating, crying from pain, her sister holding her hooves.

Seeing her like that, the siren felt a sense of ressentiment and remorse, devouring her heart:

“Move” she exclaimed, gulping, trying to hide the fear in her heart:

“No” the purple one replied: “I am not letting her go, like you did a few hours ago”.

Hearing those ungrateful words, Adagio felt a raging fire, slowly burning inside her chest, but eventually managed not to succumb to her rage: “I said move”, this time the other one obeyed.

Having approached the baby, the siren lifted her, taking her in her hooves: “It’s gotten worse” she thought: “I hope it isn’t too late”.

Having placed a hoof on the little one’s cheek, Adagio gently caressed it till the youngster opened her lips, then she made her drink the mixture she had previously brewed.

A terrible exclamation came out of the little one’s mouth: clearly the solution’s flavour was not to her liking, but at least she stop trembling.

“It looks like it worked” Adagio whispered to herself, once she had realized the siren had calmed down: “she’s gonna need a few days to be back in full health, but the risk is gone”.

“What did you to her?” the purple one questioned astonished:

“Nothing special”

“Nothing special?! I had never heard Sonata cry so hard before, but you managed to save her”

“I just gave her a medical remedy my own mother used to give me, whenever I felt sick: it’s always worked on me and apparently it did on your sister as well”.

“A medical remedy?”

“Exactly”

“What do you mean?”

“I brewed a mixture out of fresh water and white willow. You’re not familiar with anything of the sort are you?” instead of answering, the other one lowered her head.

“Guess not, look if you’re interested I could teach a thing or two on the subject, sounds good?”

“Sure” the youngster replied exited.

A moment of silence interrupted their conversation: “You said her name is Sonata?” the siren questioned, still holding the baby in her hooves:

“Yes, it is”

“I find it…very beautiful, while yours is?”

“Aria...Aria Blaze”

“Aria Blaze, it’ll be hard to forget”

“Great, now what’s your name?”

“Adagio Dazzle”. At that very moment, the baby started agitating again:

“What now?!” her sister asked nervous:

“A...Ad...” the little one struggled to say:

“A...da...gio”.

“Her firs words” Aria commented: “she said your name as her first words”

“Yeah” the other one intervened: “it seems that way”.

It was then that for the first time in many years a tear slipped from Adagio’s eyes and a brief sincere smile appeared on her face.

“What?!” Sonata shouted after hearing Aria’s story: “did she really do all those things for me?!”

“Yep, she told me so, while she was showing me all those natural remedies she had mentioned”

“If that’s so, why didn’t you tell me anything about it?”

“Adagio asked me to keep the secret between the two of us” Aria answered, lowering her gaze.

“Oh, why’s that?”

“You see...she’s fighting a battle against her own self”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that, while she might be sweet and caring on the inside, there’s still a part of her that values strength even more: that’s why she won’t reveal anything, even if you look up to her the way you do”

“Wait, how do you...”

“Please, it doesn’t take a genius to get how much you admire Adagio, every time you see her in action, even if that means your humiliation”

“I understand...”Sonata whispered slowly before heading back to her dark corner.

“You could still impress her, y’know?” Aria suddenly added:

“How so?”

“Don’t know, you’re gonna need to find that out yourself” and with these very last words the purple siren went to bed.

“Impress her” Sonata constantly repeated in her mind: “Impress my big sister, but how?”.

Having made up her mind, the young one headed to Adagio’s favorite spot of the cave, where the siren kept a few things, and took a rock tablet and a spiky stick, then sat down and began to write.

No matter how much her head would hurt, no matter how painful her hooves would feel from all that writing, no matter how many times she would need to clean that tablet and restart all over again: she was keen on doing her best to accomplish her objective.

She finished after hours, her eyes felt heavy from lack of sleep: “I did! I actually did it!” Sonata shouted excited, waking up her older sister:

“What’s with all the fuss?! I’m still sleeping here!”

“Aria, I did it, I managed to create something that would make Adagio see me as a completely different siren”

“I’m happy for you, but it looks like she hasn’t come back home, yet”

“Oh, yeah” the little one noticed disappointed:

“Y’know...” Aria went on saying: “...If I were you, I’d try to find her at the anemones field right behind the cave”

“Anemones field, got it!”.

Fast as lightening, Sonata headed to the cavern exit, but stopped after just a few seconds, then went back to her sister: “Thank you, Aria... for everything. Please, don’t think I value you less than her, you’ll always be my best sister-friend forever!” and with these words she hugged her tight.

“Oh, c’mon now: you’re making me blush!” the other one giggled: “weren’t you supposed to be going somewhere?”

“Oh, right, I’m going”.

Having reached the mouth of the cave, following Aria’s instructions, the little siren reached the field behind the lair: every inch of it was covered in magenta and purple anemones, shining in the water, still only partially illuminated by the light of the rising sun.

“There she is” Sonata pointed out, noticing her older sister, sitting on a bolder, keen on staring at that magical view:

“A...Adagio” the youngster whispered, approaching the siren who did not answer her:

“Still mad at me, are you?” Sonata questioned, frowning: “I am sorry about what happened yesterday, I don’t know what happened to me, I was just really nervous and...”.

Seeing her apologies did not effect Adagio, she stopped talking for a moment: “Ah, even if you don’t forgive me, could you at least take a look at this song I wrote? It’s for the next time I sing, if you’ ll ever give me another chance”.

Hearing those words, the other one took the rock tablet from her sister’s hooves and looked at it:

“Nice tune” was what she said, after doing so:

“Oh, great” Sonata exclaimed: “I guess I’ll go practice then, I need to warm up before my performance, so I’ ll have a better chance not to blow everything up again”.

“Sonata!” Adagio said, seeing her going away:

“Yes?”

“You don’t have to leave”.

Noticing the other one had left some space for her on the bolder she was sitting on, the little one rushed next to her:

“Y’now something, Sonata?” the siren said after a moment of silence:

“What?”

“They say singing is often a reflection of your soul’s feelings, so no matter how hard you try, it won’t help, unless you’re happy with yourself”

“Oh, I guess that’s true”

“Is there something bothering you?”; the youngster shyly nodded in response.

“Do you wish to tell me what this is about?”

“Maybe”

“Then, I’m listening”; at that point, despite her good sense suggesting her not to say a word, Sonata opened her heart to her sister

After she had heard everything, Adagio did not say a thing in response, so Sonata thought that it would be better to change the subject: “Why didn’t you come home last night?”

“I stayed here to admire the beauty of this place, it looks even better at night”

“Why do you find it so special? There’s plenty of anemones elsewhere”

“You’re right, but this place reminds me of my home”.

Seeing her, putting on a scowling expression, Sonata attempted to cheer up her mood by gently placing her head on her sister’s shoulder: unusually Adagio did not swam away from her, but kindly shook her head with her hoof instead.

Later on that day, Sonata’s new tune was a success and, while her sister Aria kept congratulating her all the way back home, the young girl had the impression that, even if ony for a brief moment, a smile had appeared on Adagio’s lips.

Rise of the sirens

Chapter 4:

Rise of the sirens

“Are you sure about this, Adagio?” Sonata gulped worried; her sister nodded in response.

“And you’re sure there’s no other way we could survive down here in the water?” Aria added, intervening.

“For the last time, yes: I know what I said sounds extreme, I know it involves risks and, yes, I am one hundred per cent sure there is no other way for us to stay here. The sea ponies we usually attack are starting to get more and more rear; they must have noticed that something suspicious is lurking right beyond the borders of their home, so they stopped going out.”

“Can’t we just find a new home for us to live, somewhere else that is not out there in the upper world?”

“Aria, I’ve already explained to you that even if such a place existed, the wisest choice for us to take is leaving this permanently wet cave and start living above the surface of the sea”.

“But how are we supposed to breath up there?” Sonata asked confused:

“You’ll breath just fine; believe me. I’ve been there already and I guarantee that there is no difference between breathing the oxygen we have here or the one contained in the upper atmosphere. Just remember to use your nose instead of the gills”.

“And can you really tell that is worth going?”.

Hearing Aria saying these words, Adagio stared at her with her intimidating deep eyes: “Don’t you trust me?”

“No, no, that’s not what I meant!” her sister exclaimed, trying to hide the sweat, lining her forehead:

“Then what is that you meant?”

“Well...it’s just...”the girl struggled to say: “…ah, I won’t lie: I’ve been feeling insecure about this since the first time you suggested it. The thought of what could be lying up there...it just freaks me out”.

“I thought I told you needn’t fear: despite having visited that world multiple times, I’m still here in one piece.”

“Yes, but what if there was something you didn’t know, yet?”

“Please, try being more specific”

“What if that world, we’re supposed to live in, hides something greater than we think, dangerous even; maybe even something we won’t be able to handle on our own?”.

“Please, stop!” Sonata interrupted her: “You’re scaring me so much, suddenly I am not so eager to go, either!”.

In the meantime Adagio kept staring at her sisters: Sonata was trembling at the thought of who knows what threat they could meet in that mysterious world they would soon come to know, while Aria, although she might have appeared calm and collected, hid an even greater fear in her silence.

The oldest of the sirens sighed demotivated: she knew very well the true reason that had pushed her to take that decision her dear ones despised so much. It was certainly true that sea ponies had become very rear to come by, still the dizzy sensation that came with breathing air was something she detested; but something was pressing her, something she did not wish to remember, something she could not reveal to the others.

“I understand your fears” she said, finally breaking that awkward silence: “I know both of you would rather remain here in our home and I, too, in the deepest part of my heart wish to stay...”

as she was pronouncing these words, Sonata and Aria laid their gazes on the ground almost at the same time, putting on an expression their sister would never forget:

“...but if I say we have nothing else to do: I swear to you I am telling the truth. We have nowhere to go, we may as we be wanted by the Seaquestria royal guards, we may as well...”

a note of sadness was heard in her voice, as she was speaking:

“...risk our lives, if we don’t leave by tomorrow morning. We also need food this place cannot provide us with anymore, thus we need to find ourselves a new home. The only thing I’m asking you right now is to trust me: trust me, when I’m saying that the upper world is the perfect place for us to move in; I’ve seen what’s out there, just waiting for us. New lands, ponies to dominate with our magic: they are unprepared for countering us, while we’ve been studying them all this time. Furthermore, if anything threatens us, I promise that I will be there for you both, I will always be watching your back, just as I hope you’ll be doing for me”.

A second moment of silence followed, the two younger sirens looked into each others’ eyes until Sonata blushed, uttering: “Oh, c’mon, you don’t need all that fancy talk to convince us!”

“Uh?” Adagio exclaimed, putting on a surprised:

“Like we could ever let you go up there without the two of us: you probably wouldn’t last half a day before running into some of your trouble: who would be there to save you then, uh?” Aria intervened, giggling with affection, while her older sister’s eyes widened, so that her pupils wood look like two deep ponds of black water.

Adagio’s heart was warming and, despite her attempts to hold her lips in a motionless and cold expression, her true feeling soon became crystal clear.

That night, the last they spent in their cave, Adagio could not sleep a wink: unlike her sisterswho were resting peacefully like two baby lambs, she kept tossing and turning on the cold surface of the cavern rocky floor.

“What’s happening to me tonight?!” she wondered with her eyes wide open, feeling sweat wetting her forehead:

“It may as well be what Aria told me earlier” as she thought about these things, the siren turned around to lower her gaze on her sisters’ seaweed bed where the two girls were groaning loudly:

“I’ll never get used to that...” she giggled in the darkness of the hall: “...but what if she were right? What if there was something that even I could not protect them from...”.

Suddenly a little voice in her head suggested that she should turn around.

Right before her snake-like eyes she could see the painting she had made to commemorate the worst nightmare of her life.

“Thank you for reminding me of the biggest mistake I’ve ever made” Adagio complained, talking to herself:

“As if seeing it everyday at down and dusk wasn’t enough already. Ah...Perhaps if I had stood there by your side I could have fought against those sea ponies and saved you, perhaps you would have been here with me, perhaps I wouldn’t need to feel like rubbish every time I walkthrough the mouth of the cavern and see you die again and again.”

While she was reflecting upon these things, her head was filled with the dreaded sound of spears clashing against the thick scales of her mother’s fiery tail.

All of a sudden one of their pointy heads penetrates her flesh under the left shoulder, the siren screams loud. A second guard spawns behind her back: he’s fast, so fast that he manages to hit her neck: Adagio’s mother cries again.

At the same time a third sea pony succeeds in hitting her right eye from which blood starts pouring immediately; now theywillrequire less effort to take her down.

A few other hits of the royal guards’ spears and that vile creature who dared suck energy out of the little ones, draining them completely, has finally been taken down, taken down for good.

The warriors unleash a furious cry: they have won the battle, honor and glory awaits for the mighty, hell to pay for the evil. They walk away in cheers, while the monster is laying defeated on the ground, her warm dark red blood has not yet stopped pouring from her infected wounds, her shiny scales are covered in sand.

The evil siren is no more, just a corpse remains, a corpse taking her last breath.

Not too far away, a little girl witnessed the horrible scene; she looks so innocent with her little body, covered in golden scales and her fragile-looking hooves, yet her red violet eyes clearly convey a tremendous feeling of fear and fury.

She wants to go to her mother, rescue her somehow or at least bid her one last farewell, but she cannot. Her tail, her fins...they don’t move: she’s too afraid.

Seeing her daughter, the siren smiles, she tries to whisper something, but not a single word comes out of her mouth; she attempts again, louder, but her chest hurts.

Suddenly an unexpected noise is heard: the guards are coming back to claim their trophy, after all, no noble warrior has ever been seen come back to his queen empty hoofed. The sight of their helmets, decorated with large colorful feathers, and armors covered in blood; frightens the little one. She runs away without turning back, there is nothing she can do against them if she’s so terrorized.

In the meantime her mother smiles, seeing her run away: her daughter’s now safe and she can finally rest in peace, so she smiles, while a drop of tears lines her cheek.

Adagio’s far away now, too far away to go back. She can’t recognize where she ended up though: maybe it’s just an impression, caused by the fear, or maybe she has actually reached somewhere she had never been to, but it’s no time to stop and think; the guards could have seen her, they could be on her trail.

Desperate, the little one seeks a nearby place to hide, she finds a cave, carved deep into a cliff: it’s dark and humid, yet it’s the only safe place for now. Adagio quickly goes inside, swimming deeper into the carver, until she finds an underground hall; the atmosphere in there feels haunted, for there is no light, but at least nopony will ever find the young siren there.

Adagio lies on a rock and cries, little does she know how long just as little do the royal guards, the very ones who are now being named honorary knights, know that sirens grow fast, faster than anypony can imagine, plus they do not forget and they certainly do not forgive.

Even those noble nights shall fall, while trembling terrorized, theywill soon drop their spears before a large mouth full of ivory teeth.

“Are you seriously going to haunt me the whole night?!” Adagio thought, while turning her head around: her caver was silent, her sisters asleep. Relieved, she sighed ant got laid once more, knowing her nightmare would finally leave her to rest for the remainder of the night.

The following morning the tree sirens woke up as soon as the sun began to rise: “Is everything ready?” the oldest of them asked.

“Yes” Aria replied with a sad tone in her voice:

“Then we’d better get going, the sooner we get to the surface the better”.

“Uh...sis” Sonata interrupted her: “once we’re up there, what are we exactly supposed to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well...Y’see, I ain’t really looking forward to sleeping on the ground tonight...” those words hit Adagio deep: she hadn’t thought about where they were gonna live in the new world, since they were leaving their wet dark marine cave.

“I’m sure we’ll find some place to stay, now let’s go, we’ve wasted enough time already”.

Once the three sirens had gotten out of their lair, they felt an extremely cold current pass through their bodies, making them shake terribly..

As their were swimming higher the soft white sandy see floor became more and more distant, the colorful giant sea stars slowly began to look smaller. A group of opahs, covered in bright silver scales, reminding of the light of the moon, was swimming just next to them, as if they were trying to communicate something, as if they were trying to tell them not to go.

“I will miss you, too” Sonata thought at that very moment, reminiscing the first time she had laid her young eyes on such beautiful creatures.

“Adag...Adagio?” the little siren asked, pointing out a group of fish, passing by:

“Yes, Sonata?” her sister replied calmly.

“What are those?”

“Cherry Barbs, you can tell by their red and black scales”

“I see, what about those?”

“Clown loaches, obviously”

“The color of their bodies looks like yours, don’t you think?”

“I suppose it does, partially”

“Oh, oh and what about that one?”

“Which one?”

“The one with the silver and blue scales”

“It’s a tiger barb”.

While chatting calmly, the two of them where caught in a strong current which made their dorsal fin shake:

“Now what are those?!” the youngster asked shocked by what had just happened, pointing a large group of fish, colored in a peculiar bright tint, as they were swimming away.

“Opahs, pretty rear of them to come by these parts, to be honest”.

“Wow, sis!” Sonata exclaimed, both surprised and enthusiastic at the same time:

“You certainly know a lot about these things!”

“Not really, I just learned a couple of notions, when I was younger”

“Really, all alone?!”

“I was a fast learner”.

A moment of silence interrupted their conversation:

“Hey, sis” the youngster suddenly intervened.

“What is it?”

“Would you mind if I stopped by here at the anemones field from time to time, I think I really like this place”

“Do you?”

“Yes, the colors of the plants and all the fish. I’ve never seen anything like it before, so...”

“Ah” Adagio sighed in the end: “Fine, you can come”.

Hearing those words, made the little siren’s heart soar so muchshe was about to jump from joy, yet her good sense recommend her it would be best tobehavein front of her sister: “Okay...thanks”.

Silence filled the atmosphere once more, this time it lastedquite a while, until Adagio finally broke it. “It’s gotten pretty late for us to stay here”

“It is?” the little one questioned with an expression of disappointment on her face:

“Yes and if we wanna be ready for our usual hunting later we need to start getting ready right now.”

“Oh, of course”.

“Plus, you gotta practice a little if you want your new tune to work on the sea ponies”

“Right, the tune: I’ll be going, then. Should I wake up Aria?”

“Yes, I think she rested plenty, wake her up and let her know that she must prepare to leave the lair in a few moments.”

“I’ll do that right away”.

Having taken nothing but a single step forward, Sonata turned around: “Aren’t you coming?”

“Yes, yes” her sister answered quickly: “I’ll catch up in a bit.” the little one nodded in response.

Once the youngster had left, the siren sighed deeply and began to stare at the water surface:

“Such innocence” she whispered after a while: “Such good in her. I’m sorry she and the other one have to live so awfully, but there is no other way that I know of.”

She interrupted her thinking for a moment: “It didn’t work even for you, did it mom? Leaving in harmony with the other creatures. In the end you had to sacrifice them in order to save the one you loved the most and that good deed you made was apparently not enough to save your life. So what am I supposed to do? How am I to save them from this horrible existence, when even you...”

Suddenly Adagio heard a delicate sound, it was the opahs Sonata had noticed before; they had come back. They were swimming high above her head, almost dancing in the water with their shiny scales, illuminated by the rays of the sun: that view gave the siren an idea.

Adagio remembered well the first time she went to the surface: It had happened when she was still little.

She had always wondered what laid beyond the thick wall of water above her: whenever she felt the heat of the sun warming her back, something started calling for her, something attracted her, something she knew nothing about.

So she took the habit of waking up early in the morning to gaze at the raising daylight, penetrating from the surface of the sea, her eyes glimmered in a mysterious light and her heart began to pound; yether mother was not too happy about that.

One day, despite being still half asleep, the siren sensed that Adagio had left the bed, for they used to slumber together, so she got up as well. She caught her, staring at the sun with such passion she could not help but ask her daughter the reason of her unusual behavior.

The little one, even though she felt embarrassed at first, decided to share her secret with the one she loved the most, after all, who better then her own mom to keep that dream safe?

Having listened to what her daughter had to say, the siren put on an unexpected expression of revolting disgust, as if she were feeling sick; in the mean time the youngster remained shocked:

“Why Adagio?” her mother asked: “Why are you telling me these things, do you seriously think it’s some kind of joke?!”

“I am not joking!” Adagio replied nervous: “I am serious, I really wish to reach the upper world and see what it looks like!”.

A moment of awkward silence followed: the young siren understood what that meant:

“Never!”

“What?!”

“Don’t ever go up there, I forbid you!”

“But why?”

“Certain things must be kept secret for good, now promise!”.

Seeing her mom’s gaze, the little one could do nothing but obey, after all she had no other choice, yet that brief argument was not nearly enough to rob her heart of its most secret and passionate dream. It had instead made Adagio’s desire so intense and strong to push the young siren to do something crazy.

That night, while her mother was resting, Adagio left her in their temporary hideout, a giant anemone, similar to the ones clown fish settle in, and swam high up to the surface.

As soon as she pulled her head out of the water, she felt a sudden lack of oxygen, for her gills had immediately stopped working: luckily her body instinctively began to breath through the nose.

Having quickly gotten used to the dizzy feeling of her head, caused by the air, the first thing she wished to do wasadmire the sky: it was dark as squid ink or perhaps even darker, furthermore countless luminescent spots decorated it, shining in a silver light like sea pearls.

At the very middle of that black blanket stood a white giant orb: Adagio felt like the moon was observing her from far away.

While staring at this breathtaking view, the little one happened to hear a distant sound, coming from the shore. She got closer, probably attracted by the warm color of the torches she had seen burning on the beach and for the first time she saw them with her own little eyes.

Resting on the sand there were two weird looking creatures, their sight immediately frightened the youngster: they were not so tall, their body covered in dark fur, both of them were tailed and hoofed at the end of each leg, plus their head and neck were hidden by a thick hairy mane.

At that moment, perhaps because she was afraid of being spotted by those strangers, perhaps because she feared being caught disobeying by her mother or perhaps because of both, the young siren dove into the water and disappeared beneath the deep ocean floats, promising herself to go back to discover that world sooner or later and she did just that, after her mom had departed.

In the terrible times that followed the beginning of her loneliness, the glimmering of the night stars was the only thing that would cheer her up and the shining of the moon somehow prevented her from having nightmares, whenever she rose up to the surface to stare for a little while at that giant silver orb, before going to sleep in her wet obscure cavern.

“Now it’s time to see whether this world can save us all from or damn us to the same fate my mother faced” Adagio thought, finally approaching the surface of the water with both of her sisters following her.

“Wow!” Sonata exclaimed as soon as the oxygen contained in the air, reached her brain: “You did not mention us this new way of breathing was so... head spinning!”

“Actually I did” her sister answered calmly:.

“Now what?” Aria asked confused:

“Remember the levitating lessons: it’s just like swimming. C’mon, I’ve already spotted somepony on the beach: let’s see if we can get him to help us”.

“Lead the way, sis” and with these very words the three sirens slowly started to near the coast, swimming.

The Banishment

Chapter 5:

The Banishment

“They’re getting close” Adagio whispered with a worried tone in her cold voice: “too close”.

For a while the siren stood up high in the air, staring at the meadow before her eyes, knowing it would soon flood with the rage of battle. Her sister Aria neared her slowly, perhaps because even she was intimidated by the motionless gaze Adagio was laying on the ground.

“Yes?” the golden scaled siren questioned, hearing her coming:

“How did you know I was here?” asked her sister, shocked by the fact that Adagio had been able to sense her presence without turning her head around:

“I felt you, breathing on my neck” the other one answered briefly:

“Since when do you have these kind of super natural abilities?”

“I do not posses such things; truth to be told even a filly could have heard you from miles”

“How so?” Aria questioned, slightly bothered, as if her sister were trying to tease her with her words:

“Your breath…it’s heavy”

“It is?”

“Yes: you’re worried, aren’t you?”.

Having been surprised a second time by Adagio’s incredible perceptive skills, Aria needed a few moments to answer that question: “Well…no, of course not” she said, gulping, while sweat began to wet her forehead: “Why should I be worried?”

“We both know why and we both know you’re liying...”, hearing these things, the younger siren did not reply, yet she slowly landed on the ground and sat on a rock instead.

“Tell me what’s bothering you” Adagio insisted, sitting next to her: “look I know I am still not the best at expressing my feelings, but I am your sister: if we’re not honest with each other, then who else you’ll be telling these things to?”

“Ah, fine you got me” Aria sighed in the end: “I may not be feeling a hundred per cent fine”

“What is it that worries you, then?”

“This all situation...we’re going through...it feels so crazy...so wrong”

“I sympathize” her sister replied: “but there is no other solution”

“That’s exactly what you said the last time”

“And I was right”

“How can you be so sure of that that?! You told us coming here was a brilliant idea, that it would give us what we needed, but look at us: now more than ever I know how wrong you were and I wish I hadn’t followed you back then.”

At that moment Aria’s words pierced Adagio’s heart deep, they hurt like a blade penetrating the weakest part of her body.

“Now we’re here, we had to get used to this cursed world, when both Sonata and I wished to remain hidden underwater, plus we have to fight against who knows what mad ponies in order to stay”.

While her sister was speaking, Adagio did not interrupt to reply to her provocation, like she was used to, not even once:

“What happened, did something eat your tongue or did you suddenly loose your voice, uh?!” even that time no answer came from Adagio which made the siren rage even more: “Y’ know what? Forget it! I’m going to prepare for the battle: join us as soon as you retrieve your precious voice” then Aria left without turning back.

The other siren stayed quite, while staring at the setting sun, not even a word escaped from her mouth, as if for some reason she had truly lost the ability to speak.

As the sun reached the horizon and dusk began to fall over the hills, surrounding the compound, she felt a something similar to a cold breeze, passing through her veins, freezing her blood:

“This aura...” the siren started whispering to herself: “it...extremely powerful: It must be them...they’re...six...no, seven...

...The last one feels week, it must be the pony who recruited the others...

...Yes, it’s him...he’s got the same energy as the first day we met him”.

Adagio turned around and strolled, headed to where the other sirens were waiting, reflecting:

“What was I thinking that day? Why did I even let him go without considering the consequences of having a witness, walking free across Equestria, would cause. I was unforgivably careless and now we will all suffer from what I asked for”.

For a moment she stopped flying and turned her head around to see if the enemy had showed up already, yet luckily for her, thy had not.

“Perhaps Aria was right, when she told me this world was not meant for us, that something unexpected would come for us, something against which we would not be able to win. Only now I understand how foolish I’ve been back then, I was overconfident and too eager to get here and even more foolish to let that stupid pony go away. I should have stopped him, but I’ve misjudged him: thought one little pony would not be problem, that nopony else would believe him and he would eventually fall into our hooves like everypony else. Instead what does he do? He runs off the village, assemble an army and come back to fight us. Curse the day I first laid my eyes on him.”

“Hello there, little friend” Adagio gritted, grinning:

“Ah, ah...” her interlocutor, a rather young pony, gray furred and blue maned with a simple black cloth on his back, murmured:

“What’s that, friend?” the siren went on saying, while her sisters were giggling at fact that the little pony was so shocked by their sight that had remained with his mouth wide open:

“Is something wrong?”

“No, no...” the other one suddenly answered: “I’m just a little surprised, that’s all. Who are you, anyway?”

“My name’s Adagio Dazzle and these are my sisters, we’re sirens, pleased to meet you”.

“I am Stygian...wait a minute, did you perchance say sirens?”

“You heard right, young friend”

“Wow!” the colt shouted amazed: “I can’t believe I’m actually talking to a siren, I thought you didn’t exist, at least that’s what I learned from Strarswirl’s glossary on magical sea creatures”

“Well, then that book of yours is clearly wrong, for, as you can see, we’re real”.

“I see it, but I just can’t believe it...I’ve been looking for proof of your existence my whole life!”

“Oh, you’re such a flutterer” Adagio teased:

“I am not joking: y’see, I’ve been passionate about marine life since I was little”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, really: look” Stygian exclaimed, showing the siren a basket full of sea shelves.

“Did you collect all of them by yourself?” Adagio looked surprised at the enormous number of mollusks the pony kept in his basket:

“That’s right!”

“I’m impressed, really, I’ve never thought we’d meet some day somepony like you”

“What do you mean?”

“Haven’t you guessed it, yet? You’re clearly special!” the siren replied with a malicious tone in her voice.

“Yeah, right” Stygian sighed doubtful: “I am just a scholar: nothing special about me”

“Oh, but you’re wrong” Adagio insisted: “You do have a unique intellect: I can sense that, Stygian”

“I am not exactly sure...”

“Listen, have you ever met somepony as smart as you, somepony who’s read as many books as you, somepony who’s done as many advanced researches as you, in other words somepony who’s more acculturate than you?”

“Not actually...”

“Ever wondered why?”

“I guess so...I mean my mother used to blame me for everything: she said I wasted too much time with my muzzle on a bunch of dusty books instead of hanging out like other colts do, but I never listened.”

“That’s terrible” the siren added, signaling to her sisters to get closer so they would seem interested in what the pony was saying:

“Would you feel better, if we stayed here and listened to your story?”.

The cold sighed: “Once, when I was about sixteen, she got tired of repeating the same thing to me, so she came to me, while I was studying in my room…

...She took one look at me and shouted that I was the biggest delusion in her whole life, that she had done everything wrong with me and if I hadn’t changed soon, I would have no success in my life. She blamed me for having no friends, for not having practical skills, for not being what a big and strong stallion is supposed to…

...So I began to cry, which made things even worse: she said I was not allowed to cry, that I was no longer a baby, but again I failed to live up to her expectations and went on crying like a fountain, till she left.”

“And what happened next?” Adagio asked, keeping pressing Stygian, having maybe sensed something dark about him which attracted her greatly.

“I still remember it as if it were yesterday: it was the beginning of summer and the sun was burning hot…

... When I heard that mare who used to be my mother say those things to me, I felt something evil growing in me: I wished to take my revenge for all the pain she had caused me, I wished to hit her in the face, I wished to hurt her...but I knew I was being wrong, so I did no such things…

...Celestia knows I much I struggled to hold back and in the meantime she kept provoking me, causing me pain, as If she wished to turn me into a monster…

...But I somehow managed to control myself”.

“How did it end?”

“We never talked to each other again: sure I wished to run away from home, but deep down I knew I needed her to survive, I was only a teenager after all, I still had school to go to and I knew nothing about how to get a job, so I just kept quite and endured…

... She never asked for my forgiveness, never; I don’t know if the cause of that was her enormous pride or the idea that she was right, doing what she had done to me…

... On the other hoof, I swore I’d never forgive her and I did not, even know I’m still mad at her and I had no desire to cry for her or to go to her funeral, when she died a few years back.”

Having heard that confession, the sirens had remained speechless, all but Adagio who, having recognized in Stygian a week pony she could manipulate, greened with pleasure.

“I am sorry about your past, friend: I did not wish to bring up such unpleasant memories” she exclaimed, staring at the young pony with her big humid eyes, as if she were about to cry from commotion:

“Do not be sorry, after all it was me who began to talk about this in the first place, but I’ve moved on”.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what we thought, judging by what you were saying just a few moments ago” whispered Aria in Sonata’s ear.

“What did you say?” Stygian asked curious, having heard the two sirens whispering

“What they meant to say...” Adagio interrupted, giving her sisters a terrible angry stare:

“That we know just the thing to cheer you up a bit: a song!”

“A song, you mean you three are singers?”

“Excellent ones I’d dare say and, since we’re looking for an audience, we’d be glad if you...”

“It’d be an honor, I’d love to hear you three singing” Stygian interrupted excited.

“You didn’t let me finish: since we’re here, we though it would be fun to hold a concert, but we’d need a few more ponies as an audience for that”

“So you want me to go gather up some ponies from the village?”

“Exactly!”

Perhaps because that: “Exactly” had been said with too much excitement of perhaps just because he was suspicious, at that moment Stygian understood what the sirens were really after:

“I am not sure, I mean...”

“Oh, c’mon...” Adagio insisted, trying to convince the colt to cooperate: “...everypony loves music: don’t you wanna hear us sing?”

“Sorry, girls: this has been nice, but I suddenly remembered I have something to care of”

“Hey, you, were are you going?!” Adagio shouted, seeing her interlocutor leave in a hurry.

“Well this is what you call a complete waste of time!” Aria exclaimed nervous: “What do we do know?”

“We get somepony else to help us”

“And what if we directly attacked the village instead?” Sonata suggested, intervening: “It’s nothing but a few paces far from here, right?”

“What do you think, Adagio?” the other one asked.

“I think Sonata’s right: no point in wasting anymore time, let’s get this thing done!”

“Yuppy!” the youngest of the sirens shouted euphoric: “I’ve been dying to try out my latest tune!”

“Well, I am sure it won’t be as good as mine!”

“Why do you have to be always so awful to me!”

“Will you two quit arguing: we’ve got a job to do; ready your voices and follow my lead”

“Or my lead...” Aria suggested:

“My lead!” her older sister repeated, giving her a gaze so terrible it convinced her not to start an argument over that matter, too.

It did not take anything but a few seconds for the sirens to reach the nearby village: the houses looked so small from high up in the air one could swear dwarves lives in them instead of ponies.

Each of them was surrounded by a little yard full of chamomile flowers, violets and roses which filled the atmosphere with a delicate fragrance, furthermore they all had a little smoky chimney on their red colored rooftops.

The main road was full of ponies arguing, chatting or even just strolling: they all looked peaceful and unprepared for what was coming for them.

“Such a nice village...” Adagio giggled, staring at her victims with her malicious eyes: “...I almost feel bad for what we’ll have to do, don’t you, girls?”

“I don’t know” Aria intervened, saying: “It’s practically in the middle of nowhere. It’s not like somepony will ever notice we did our job”

“Exactly!” her sister replied with a sudden tone of satisfaction in her voice:

“I don’t get your point, Adagio. Our plan wasn’t exactly feeding off of random unknown villages”

“Yeah” Sonata interrupted: “You said we were going to...”

“I know very well what I said, yet right now I need you both to be a little patience, girls. We start off here, then we slowly increase our powers and, once everything is settled, we take over Canterlot, all clear?”; her sister nodded with their heads in response.

“Good, now let’s get started, the sooner we do this, the better”.

Having explained everything, Adagio proceeded, headed for the main square, followed by her sisters, then, as soon as she reached the place where she had planed to sing, the siren drew her audience’s attention:

“Greetings, everypony! I beg you all to sit an enjoy the show that is about to begin, for we, the sirens, for one time only will give you ponies the exclusive chance to witness the experience of a lifetime: I guarantee you’ll be absolutely speechless”.

At that point, Adagio signaled to the other two to come closer and, seeing the curious ponies gathering before her eyes, she started to sing.

As they were listening to that enchanted music, the ponies from the village soon saw the air turn red as warm blood, their ears began to bleed, as if they were being pierced by a spear and an acute sound, penetrating their head, till where the sirens’ cursed voice began to be heard.

It did not take long for all the villagers to be dominated by the sea creatures’ spell and, judging by the: “slurps” that Sonata made, their mad rage provided the sirens a satisfying meal.

“Well, Aria?” Adagio asked her sister, after the job had been done: “what do you think of what we just accomplished, it wasn’t a complete waste of time, was it?”

“Well...” the young siren replied, blushing: “...I guess no”

“Good...there is something I’m still wondering about, though”

“What’s that?” Sonata questioned curious.

“I bet it’s what we will do with all these ponies under our control” Aria suggested, interving:

“Believe me, I’ve already got plans for them”

“Would you care to tell us?”

“We’ll need and army for when we invade Canterlot, won’t we?”

“I see your point: what is it that’s bothering you, then?”

“I can’t seem to stop thinking about that colt from earlier, I don’t see him anywhere”

“And that is a problem because...”

“What if he managed to escape...”

“You think he could tell others about our plan and cause us trouble? Please, what could one single little pony do against us?”

“As I recall, you were the one scared to come here in the first place, for you dreaded a threat we could not handle on our own”

“I konw very well what I said, but c’mon: can’t you see what we managed to do here? I bet he fell under our combined spell, too.”

“Then why I can’t see him among those other ponies?”

“You probably can’t do that, because you aren’t able to distinguish him from the others right now: they’re too many, plus we are levitating pretty high”

“I am not sure you’re right”

“How many chances are there that he managed to resist our charm and flee?”

“Few, very few, even if it does not take much not to fall under our spell: he could have just covered his ears”

“I do not think he would be that smart”

“Even if he said he knew of our existence?”

“He said he knew very little. What would you say, Sonata?”

“Well...” the siren replied: “I do agree with Aria

“See, nothing to worry about”.

Adagio took some time to reflect, then sighed: “Y’know what, I believe you two might be right about this one. Now let’s prepare for our next big shot, shall we?”

“Curse me and my over confidence” the siren kept blaming herself on the way: “I should have listened to my good sense like I always do, but now...well, now it’s time to go back to the others: let’s just hope we can get out of this mess in one piece”.

In a few more minutes, the siren reached the compound, where her sisters were waiting; seeing her arrive, Aria refused to look at her in the eyes which made the golden scaled siren feel even more guilty about that whole situation.

“So...” Adagio questioned briefly: “How far are they?”

“Not much...” Sonata replied tense:

“Which means we must remain focused: is everypoy ready?”

Yes, our queen!” the army replied all at once.

“Very well then, we shall see if these pillars of Equestria, our spies told us about, are really as powerful as folk claim”

“Ad...” Sonata intervened shyly:

“Yes?”

“I’m scared, Adagio, I truly am. I fear if we don’t win, it might be the end for us”

“We will win”

“But what if...”

“We’ll win” her sister repeated, rubbing her muzzle against Sonata’s in an attempt to calm her.

On the other hand, Aria did not turn her head towards her sister even for a moment, she just stood still, staring coldly at the horizon, waiting for the enemy to show up:

“It would be nice if you, too, said something reassuring” Adagio thought in the meantime, seeing her behaviour.

After a few minutes of unbearable silence the pillars showed up at the top of a hill right before the compound: they were seven like Adagio had sensed, but the sirens could not see their faces, for they were hidden in a sinister shadow.

Seeing the sisters, the famous heroes of Equestria rushed down the hill to fight, all but one who remained motionless to witness at the frighting spectacle that was about to begin.

Soon cries started being heard, then the sound of broken bones invaded the air, as the ponies, serving the sirens fell one after the other.

At that sight Adagio dived from the air, trying to grab a she-pegasus with her teeth, but she failed, for the enemy was faster than expected.

At the same time Sonata was being hit by another pegasus; this one looked very much like a soldier, judging by the armor he was wearing. Noticing that, Adagio headed to her sister fast as lightening and hit a the annoying pony with her tail:

“Is everything all right?” the older one asked:

“I think so” Sonata replied:

“Though he did give me a few kicks: my back feels pretty bad”

“C’mon Sonata, we can do this: we're clearly stronger than them!”.

In the meantime the she-pegasus was being chased by Aria whose eyes burned in a dark raging fire; yet suddenly the mare, who was first flying straight, changed direction and turned right.

At that moment a bearded unicorn on the ground cast a beam from his horn which produced a terrible noise similar to that of a thunder, as it came to hit a cloud on its way.

“Aria!”Adagio shouted desperate, understanding what the pillars had in mind: “Stop following her: it’s a trap!”.

Who knows why Aria did not listen to her sister at that moment? Perhaps she was still mad at her and too proud to give her advice attention, perhaps she had remained too caught up in the rage of fight or perhaps she simply hadn’t heard her.

Anyway she went on following the mare who, having suddenly boosted, flew high up in the sky; while a black hole opened right in front of the purple siren.

“Aria!” Adagio screamed, while running toward her; the hole in the meantime was sucking her sister like a magnet does with iron and no matter how much the siren would struggle, the portal was always stronger than her.

Adagio arrived in time to grab her by a hoof and tried to pull her out with all of her strength, while her poor sister, probably forgetting her pride in the face of danger, whispered:

“Help me!”.

As the dark hole captured both of the struggling sirens, who immediately disappeared into its darkness, Sonata, having remained behind, was feeling paralyzed: her loved ones had gone and now she was alone to fight an enemy who, even if not stronger, had proved to be smarter than the sirens.

Caught by the greatest fear she had ever felt in her whole life, Sonata did the only thing she could think of without hesitating: she followed her sisters into the portal.

“Uh my head…” Aria murmured, trying to distinguish something in the dark mist that blackened her eyes”

“Aria, Aria, is that you?!” a familiar voice exclaimed:

“Adagio, where are you?!”

“I’m here, let me help you stand up!”.

Despite not being able to see anything, the siren could clearly feel something, lifting her from the ground: it smelled like Adagio, but its touch was different, softer than her sister’s scaly front legs.

As soon as her eyes started to see again, Aria shouted terrorized: the one holding her was not Adagio:

“Who or what are you?!”

“I told you I am your sister: don’t you recognize my voice?”

“Yes but...you...if it’s really you Adagio, something must have happened: you look different, very different”

“So do you”

“What?! Are you kidding me?!”

“Indeed not”

“Adagio where are we, what happened to us?!”

“I don’t know”

“Girls” a feminine voice interrupted their conversation:

“Is that you?”

“Sonata!” both of the other sirens shouted at once: “You’re here safe and sound!”

“Yeah, though I must say you don’t quite look like yourselves”

“We know”.

At that point Aria suggested that she should look at her own hooves:

“My hooves!” the young siren shouted shocked: “Where are my hooves?!”

“Curse those fools….” Adagio exclaimed : “they trapped us in another world!”

“I can’t feel any magic...” Aria added worried: “…this world has no magic!”

“Not entirely true...” went one saying her older sister, holding a red gem in her hand:

“There’s still a whisper of magic in our pendents...enough for us to keep singing...enough to gather the energy of chaos...and maybe one day...to go back home.”

A strange new world

Chapter 6:

A strange new world

“How I am supposed to stand up on these all day?” Sonata wined terribly: “I mean it’s just so tiring and what are they even called?”

“Legs, Sonata” Aria intervened, while playing with a curl of her hair: “They’re called legs, now stop complaining for once”

“Oh c’mon” her younger sister protested nervously: “Can’t you just say something nice to me?”

“Will you two cut it out!” Adagio exclaimed, interrupting the conversation: “Look, we all know that we still need to get used to this new world and doing such thing will not be easy, but your constant wining isn’t going to improve our current situation. So, if you two don’t mind, can you please stop complaining and fighting with each other over every singe little thing you don’t like?!”.

Hearing these things, the two young sirens suddenly shut up and turned their faces so that they would avoid meeting the other one’s gaze:

“Oh, for the love of...” their sister thought, placing a hand on her forehead to express her disappointment:

“We’ll never going to get us out of here if you two don’t start cooperating again”

“This place is the worst anyway...” Aria added after a few more moments of silence:

“What do you mean?” Adagio questioned, giving up at the fact that she would need to deal with her sisters’ unpleasant mood, at least for the time being:

“This...house you found us to stay...it’s horrible: the floor is dusty, some of windows broken, the light bulbs don’t work and I think that the bed we have here may as well be infested with bugs; not to mention the squeaky staircase, plus the whole atmosphere feels haunted. Thought you had better taste.”

Although at first she might have been feeling the desire to protest, Adagio knew too well that would bring to no conclusion, if not to make both her and her sister even more mad, so she decided to ignore that comment and answer as briefly as she could:

“It was the best I could find in such a short time: we do need somewhere to spend the night, don’t we?”

“Even it that place looks like it’s inhabited by some sort of spirit?”

“What spirit?” Sonata shouted at that moment: “You guys know I don’t like that sort of things!””

“Yeah we know...” Aria said, smiling maliciously:

“Which is why we won’t bring them up, right?” Adagio intervened:

“Ah, right.”

“Good, now let’s get focused. First things first: tomorrow we’ll have a little tour of the neighborhood and see what it’s like, only then we’ll start doing what we know best, okay?”

“Yes!” the two other sirens answered, even if Aria did sound far less enthusiastic than Sonata, which did not escape Adagio’s hearing.

“Ah...” she sighed almost desperate: “Tomorrow is going to be a long day”.

The sirens did not spend a peaceful night: the weather quickly changed and the sky was filled with black storm clouds. Thunders disturbed their rest, and the deep threatening howl of the wind only made things worse.

Adagio kept tossing and turning in her bed so much she could swear Aria was right about the bugs infesting the mattress, furthermore on the wall of the room hanged a clock which harassed her with its ticking.

“It’s useless...” the girl sighed, opening her heavy eyes: “Even though I feel tired, I just can’t relax enough to sleep. It’s like something’s preventing me from doing it...ah… but perhaps it’s better this way.”

Adagio slowly left her dirty and uncomfortable bed and stepped out of the room; then shut the door behind her, producing a terribly annoying noise. The corridor she walked through afterwards was so dark it truly seemed spectral; Adagio was particularly careful, as she stepped forward, being unable to see were she was going.

If there was a thing she could sense was a stink so tremendous it almost caused her to vomit:

“What the blazes is it that smells so disgusting?!” She exclaimed closing her nose with two fingers:

“I shall make some spring cleaning tomorrow, hope I don’t find any animal carcass or anything of the sort.”

Once she had reached the living room, the girl stopped walking for a moment to stare at her two sisters, resting together on an old sofa. Both of the them we snoring loudly, plus they slept covered in the same smelly gray blanket they had found on the floor.

“Look at them now...” their older sister thought, witnessing at the scene of the two sirens unconsciously hugging each other in their sleep: “... snuggling under that blanket. I wish they were like this even when they are awake...”.

After a few more moments spent staring at her sisters, the siren silently stepped away from the sofa, heading to the exit door; right before leaving, she took one of the black hoodie sweaters she and the others had come by, searching their new house, then opened the door.

As soon as she was out, Adagio felt the cold of the wind, passing through her body, penetrating her veins, freezing her blood.

“Shoot!” she exclaimed, sneezing: “It’s pretty chilly out here tonight. I shan’t spend too much time, scouting the city”.

With her hands in the sweater pockets, Adagio slowly began to stroll through the road in front of her: it was desolated, not a single soul in sight; the only thing she could hear in that dreadful darkness was the spooky noise of approaching thunders: it was clear a storm was about to begin.

Having quickly left the neighborhood where her house was, the girl reached downtown, the place that had seemed so full of life during the day and the perfect spot to begin her and her sisters’ feeding, was now more ghostly than the haunted houses in the stories her mother used to tell her, when she was a little siren.

Although Adagio had seen many things and lived terrible moments in her past, there was something about that place that she could not help but being scared of it. There was something mysteriously frightening in the shut doors of those shops, in those glass windows, shaking at the howl of the cold wind, in that uneven road that had clearly lacked maintenance for a while.

Sighing, the siren kept walking forward with her gaze facing the ground and reached the city park which was nothing but a few paces away from her. The high pines and the old oaks shook dangerously, each of them gave the impression it would fall down any minute. Despite that, the girl sat on a wooden bend very close to a pond.

For a while Adagio said nothing, thought nothing, she just remained there, staring at the surrounding environments: the small and usually cheerful song thrushes, known for they white and tawny feathers, were hidden in their homes, carved deep into the tree trunks, and at that moment their singing sounded more like a cry.

A family of tiny sparrows, which had built its nest between the branches of a giant willow, was living a true nightmare, for, despite its proportion, the tree was being bent by the enormous strength of the wind, while the birds were doing everything they could no to fly away.

A group of large pigeons was flying above Adagio’s head in a desperate attempt to reach a safe spot, while they still could.

In the mean time many flowers were being torn apart by the tremendous power of the incoming storm: the green garden of the park was slowing loosing its beauty.

The week camomiles were the first to be destroyed, shortly afterwards the violets followed, suddenly loosing all of their petals.

The voice of the greenish frogs, inhabiting the waters of the pond, was heard loud and clear as soon as some of their adored lotus flowers, on which they used to sit all day, came to fly away as well; then a vivid lightening stroke, illuminating the sky in a light so bright that one could have sworn it would spit the clouds in two: finally rain began to fall.

“Great!” Adagio exclaimed, bothered by the sensation of wet on her chicks: “And I thought tonight could not possibly get any worse... it seems I was wrong.” The girl covered her head with her black clothed hood: “I guess it’s time for me to get going”.

Having gotten up, the siren had taken nothing but a few steps, when all of a sudden she heard a familiar voice, calling for her:

“Adagio!”

“Uh?!” The young woman said, turning around: “Girls!” she shouted, once she had recognized her sisters, coming toward her: “What are you two doing here?!”

“We could ask you the same” Aria replied, scowling: “What were you thinking, when you left us in the house? It’s pouring with rain out here!”

“Well I...”

“Luckily for you Sonata is a light sleeper and heard you open the door, so, as soon as we noticed a storm was approaching, but you weren’t coming back, we figured out it would be best for us to come and get you ourselves and it looks like we were right”

“You see, girls I...”

“No time for an explanation!” Aria interrupted her: “We need to get back home before the weather here gets any worse, Sonata, hand her the umbrella and let’s go”.

Despite having remained speechless from seeing her sisters, acting with such care and kindness toward her, Adagio, not wishing to be caught by the storm in full might, quickly grabbed the old black umbrella Sonata was holding in her hand and followed the other two sirens back to their new house.

After she had returned home, Adagio had avoided talking to Aria and Sonata, fearing they would bring up the what she had done: “What was I thinking, going out there alone in the middle of the night, while a storm is headed this way?”

At that precise moment a new lightening stoke in the sky, a violent thunder followed: “Correction” the girl went on saying: “It is already here”.

While thinking her situation could not get any worse, the girl was surprised to find out that horrendous place, she had chosen to live in, was unexpectedly provided with a shower:

“Well at least I can get cleaned up...”.

Adagio removed her clothes and entered the shower: it was smaller than it had looked like a moment before, its floor was so dirty it had turned from white to black.

As soon as the siren opened the water a loud: “Ahhh!” came out of her mouth: “It’s freezing! Shoot, I guess I should have expected this, after all, this whole place is not exactly luxurious, is it?”.

Biting her lips to bare the cold, Adagio began to shower: every single drop of water felt like snow slowly slipping on her back, she despised that sensation almost as much as she despised the house she was stuck in; but there was nothing she could do: if she wanted to get clean, she would need to handle the pain.

“It’s done” the girl sighed, once she got out: “I’m never doing that again”.

Having looked around, Adagio ended up finding a white towel which looked surprisingly clean, and wrapped herself in it. Once she had closed the door behind her, the siren walked through the corridor which divided the bathroom from the rest of the house, holding her only clothes in her hand.

As she was expecting, her two sisters were waiting for her in the leaving room. Thy were staring at her deep into her eyes, as if they were slowly searching for the answer to their obvious question inside the corners of her soul.

“Spit it out” Adagio exclaimed, having decided she was finally fed up with that awkward silence: “what is it that you want to ask me so eagerly?”

“We said nothing so far” Aria calmly replied:

“As if I couldn’t tell you two are keeping something from me.”

“You must be imagining things”

“No I am not, plus you’re a terrible liar”

“I am I?”

“Girls!” Sonata suddenly intervened, trying to calm them both: “Can we just not start feuding about this? It’s just not the right time, besides, if you ask me...”

“Stay out of this!” Aria shouted, interrupting her sister nervously: “We’ll settle this here and now!”

“Is that so?” Adagio said maliciously: “And how is it that you wanna settle things, uh?”

“By teaching you the lesson you deserve!”.

Hearing those words, the oldest of the sirens stepped proudly forward, keeping her head high:

“C’mon, what do you wanna do?”

“Cut it out!” her sister replied, grinding her teeth: “don’t provoke me!”

“Oh, yeah, and what will you do if I don’t?!”

“Something I would regret afterwards!

Adagio’s face became pale as that of a ghost, as the girl stopped talking stunned: “You’d dare hit me?!” she finally said: “You would dare hit me, even though I raised you and gave you everything you needed, you wish to hit me?!”

“The fact that you raised me and Sonata does not keep me from teaching you some respect once and for all!”

“Respect you say?! For what? I am the one who saved you by bringing you to my shelter, I taught you everything you needed to know to sing, so you could feed on your own, I never denied you anything you wished for!”

“You’re also the one you brought us to this cursed place!”

“We’ve been banished by some crazy old fool!”

“Yes, but you did say you would protect us from any harm, you were the one who should have stood up for us, and above all you were the one you dragged us in that mess of a situation!”.

Those words hurt Adagio like a spear, piercing her heart: “Fine!” the siren shouted in the end: “If I am the one bothering you, maybe you all would be better off without me!”

“Sounds good to me!”

“It’s settled then!” Adagio exclaimed, while her chicks suddenly became red as peppers.

Having turned around, the girl grabbed her coat from the sofa, where she had left it, and left the house without thinking twice, slumming the door so loudly the whole neighborhood heard her.

In the mean time Aria was still boiling with anger, her breath was heavy like that of a mad bull, her eyes were red like rubies and the expression on her face scared her sister Sonata so much she initially thought not to approach her, yet eventually realized she need to calm her down.

“Aria...” the girl shyly said, placing her hand on her sister’s shoulder: “was that really necessary?”.

Aria did not reply, but kept staring at the door she had heard being slammed with great violence just a few moments ago: her eyes looked lost into an infinite darkness.

Seeing her in that state, Sonata began to shake her shoulder, until she answered: “What have I done?!”.

The clock on the wall indicated three am, when Sonata served her sister a cup of hot tea:

“Where did you find it?” Aria asked stunned, seeing the young girl, approaching with a smoking white cup in her hands:

“I...got lucky, searching the kitchen: here”

“Thanks”.

Aria did not hesitate to take a few sips of the infusion, which did seem to calm her down: the girl slowly laid down on the sofa, not uttering a single word.

“So?” her sister, starting asking, sitting beside her: “Do you wanna talk about what happened or you’re not feeling like doing so”.

“Ah” the siren sighed heavily: “I guess I might as well talk, no point in delaying the inevitable, is there?”

“That’s the spirit...I guess...” Sonata exclaimed confused:

“Not exactly the kind of answer you were expecting, I take?”

“No, not really...though you aren’t still feeling that good, are you?”

“ You're wrong, I am feeling better...really”

“You’re not going to fool me, Aria, what is it that’s bothering you?”

“Oh, nothing, I just sent my big sister away, that’s absolutely nothing t be nervous about, is it?”.

“Ironic as ever...maybe you are feeling good after all”

“Sonata quit moralizing: I practically threw Adagio out of home, saying horrible things to her. How I am supposed to be feeling?”

“That is not a question I am to answer”

“What?!”

“I mean...If you are feeling as badly as you say you are saying, then why are you still here? Why not going after Adagio? Besides, why sending her away in the firs place? What has she done to you to deserve all of this?”

“I said stop moralizing, didn’t ya hear me?!”

“Why are you insulting me now?”

“I am not insulting you, I am just emphasizing my point, that’s all!”

“Oh, yeah? And why are you doing it by yelling at me?”

“Because...because...because you keep harassing me with that hoity toity voice tone of yours and it’s really driving me mad. I thought you were trying to cheer me up, not making me feel even worse!”

“Aria, I am trying to help you, I am your sister after all, but you just won’t allow me to”

“What do you mean?”

“I am trying to say that sometimes, even if you think you’re right, you need to listen to other people: you could find out their opinions are as much valuable as yours”

“What an advice...like I didn’t know that...”

“It seems you don’t, since you are preventing me from talking some sense into you and you let Adagio go away in tears just over an hour ago”

“An hour ago?!” the girl shouted worried: “Why didn’t you tell me earlier it had already gotten so late!”

“Does that matter to you?”.

At that point Aria could not manage to handle the tension that was grewing inside her and blew off all of her steam:

“Listen here: I do not know what’s happening to you: you’ve never talked to me like this before, but, despite what you said to me, I am worried about Adagio and will do everything I need to bring here back here. I was a fool to treat her the way I did.

it was unfair, but I’ve realized the mistake I made and will make it up for it, by bringing here back here and I am sure that, when I find here will we’ll be able to come to an understanding. I’ll do what must be done:

I’ll find here, even if it means I will need to scout this whole cursed city, and I will apologize to her.

She will understand...she always does. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go, so I beg you to leave me be.”

Having said these things, the siren headed to the exit door, grabbed her black coat, which was pretty identical to Adagio’s, and opened the door.

“Wait...” Sonata shouted, grabbing her own coat: “I am coming, too”

“What made you change your mind?” her sister asked:

“I never said I was not going to join you”

“Is that so?”

“I, too, am worried about my sister”

“Fine then, it looks like it stopped raining, too”

“Good, I am not to keen on getting wet”

“Sonata, we used to leave underwater, how could a few drops of rain possibly bother you?”

“I know what I am saying, this rain is different from that back home”

“How so?”

“It feels cold, when it touches my skin and I despise cold”.

At that point her sister could not help but laugh: “C’mon” she finally said: “Adagio can’t have gone too far, plus I might just know where she is: follow me, quick!”

“Of course, let’s go”.

Having taken nothing but a few steps forward, Aria suddenly stopped walking and turned around, facing Sonata: “What is it?” the young one questioned, surprised at the unusually serious look her sister was giving her:

“Why did you get so lecturing earlier? It’s not really your thing, at least I’ve never heard you being so serious before and we spent together our whole life”

“Did it bother you?”

“A bit; it just felt so weird”

“I can be really weird, if it means it can help those I love the most”

“Sonata...”

“Don’t give me that look, Adagio is out there, waiting for us to find her: let’s go!”

“Stay right behind me and keep following: the place I have in mind isn’t that far, but these street corners are so twisted it’s easy to get lost!”

Regretful

Chapter 7:

Regretful

Drops of rain kept falling on her head, as she was strolling on the road, some of them fell on her chicks and produced a terrible sensation of cold, while slowly slipping on her face.

Cast out and alone, Adagio had nowhere to go except maybe for the park she had visited just a few hours before, but, having reflected a while, she realized in the end that would not be a smart idea, for her sisters were sure to go there, looking for her. After all, Adagio did know how sensitive Sonata could be and was sure Aria’s good sense would eventually win over her stubbornness, but she did not wish to see them, any of them, at least for the time being.

The words her younger sister had spoken had broken her heart and this time the girl was not certain she had enough strength left to forgive her.

“Sometimes”

she kept repeating to herself, every time she had felt tempted by the desire of going back:

“The rage we feel, when we get mad, can force us to do crazy things, yet these things we end up doing are usually the reflection of what we truly feel inside, of our strongest emotions”.

The siren knew too well living beings’ brains can be divided into different parts. She also believed that one of them must be hidden inside the deepest corner of our mind so that it can kept safe our deepest secrets, the sort of things we are too ashamed to share and hope to cancel forever, burring them in a place nobody could every find them.

Yet in the end nature always finds its way to bring them up, when we don’t expect: and Aria’s anger had been the perfect prof to Adagio’s theory.

To sum up, if her sister had told her those horrible things, it could only mean one thing: she must have felt those things for real, and the tension their discussion had created, had offered her the right chance to free herself of that heavy burden, taking it all out on her older sister.

“If she despises me so much” Adagio said to herself, weeping and sobbing: “Then I can’t stay with her or Sonata. After all, they have grown up so much they can manage to survive on their own and I have no right to bother them with my presence”.

After a few more paces the girl stopped walking and gazed upon her boots: they were dirty, covered in mud and consumed, just like her soul in that exact moment:

“I’ll have to manage to survive on my own, too from now on” the girl murmured, drying her tears:

“And that’s just fine; I mean I’ve lived on my own for so much time nothing bad could possibly happen to me, after all I am a siren, right?”

As she was saying these things, attempting desperately to comfort herself, a small red car, going at a super high speed, passed by: its weals produced a terrible noise, as they run on the wet road, while its strong headlights blinded the poor girl.

When the car had left, Adagio found herself soaked:

“But what I used to be is no more...”

“She isn’t here!” Aria shouted stressed out, pulling her head from under the black clothed hood she was wearing:

“What did you say?” Sonata questioned, since a thunder had covered the sound of her sister’s voice:

“I said she isn’t here!”

“What do you mean she isn’t here? You said you knew where she had gone!”

“I said I may have known where she had gone, but, as you can see, I was wrong”

“Blast!”

“You said it! I thought she’d come back here to the park, since none of us know this town well enough to go anywhere on our own”

“Oh, oh!”

“What do you mean oh, oh?!”

“I mean that you’re right, none of us know our way around here”

“And If Adagio isn’t here at the park, then who knows where she might be”

“She could even be in grave danger, she could be alone, crying, wiping with nobody to relate to!” Sonata exclaimed, feeling her heart pounding like never before.

“She can take care of herself, I doubt she’s would let her emotions get the best of her “

“But it could!”

At that, point, having realized the was nothing she could do to calm her sister down, Aria rolled her eyes, expressing her disagreement.

Little did she know how right her younger sister was.

“Curse that blasted car driver!” Adagio exclaimed, sneezing for the forth time in only one minute:

“If I get sick because of his recklessness, I’ll be sure to find him and teach him a lesson: maybe he will learn to be more careful to pedestrians!”.

The girl kept wandering without thinking whether to go or who to talk to, considering the fact that there was nobody outside under the cold rain.

Suddenly an unexpected noise drew her attention:

“If there’s a noise” she thought: “It means someone must be nearby and if there’s someone nearby, maybe I can get them to spill some info about this blasted town!”.

Adagio rushed around the corner and found that the source of the weird noise she had heard was a long group of car, lining in front of what seemed to be some kind of rustic restaurant:

“Weird” the siren said to herself: “But, judging by the looks of it, it must be a pretty popular place, guess it’s worth looking into”.

Not thinking twice, Adagio entered the building and headed to one of the free tables, hoping to blind in with the other clients:

“Welcome to Canterlot Pan, where we take care to provide you with the best cuisine and the customer is always right; how may I help you?”

“Uh?!” the girl exclaimed, turning around and seeing a tall blonde waitress in black uniform with a block notes and a pencil in hand:

“What would you like to order?” the young woman repeated, biting the top of her pencil on the block notes, showing great impatience.

“Oh right, this is a restaurant” Adagio thought at that very moment: “Just...bring me your specialty”.

The woman wrote down some notes and headed to the kitchen, doing her best to maintain a huge smile on her face which was feeling more tired by the minute.

Not knowing what to do, while waiting, the siren took the chance to examine the place further: the restaurant was filled with people of all ages, which could only mean the place must have been pretty popular despite its desperate need of
being renovated, given the poor interior design.

Some of them were fighting over a sit by a corner, others lining up in front of a huge counter, separating the hall from the entrance to the kitchen, were a red haired waitress was working as fast as she could to take all their orders at once.

The ones who had already been served were chatting calmly, giggling and slowly enjoying their food which mainly consisted in giant burgers with fries for side dish.

“This place seems really good to start our feeding...if only those two were with me, I’m sure we could...”.

Having said these words Adagio lowered her gaze on the table, suddenly something arose from the deepest part of her souland began to devour her heart, piece by piece.

Every time a tear slipped from the girl’s eye, that horrible sensation grew stronger and stronger: Adagio started sobbing silently so the nobody around could hear her.

Reminiscing what had happened a few hours earlier had not been the best idea: Adagio hadn’t yet forgiven herself for that event, she had just hidden her fears and negative emotions, despite knowing she would not be able to handle the pressure inside her for much time.

Luckily for her, there were a few handkerchiefs one the table, the siren had happened to be sitting at; having taken one, Adagio quickly dried her weepy eyes: despite the affection she felt towards the two youngsters she had been taking care of for so much time, she still had her pride.

“Uh, miss?” a familiar feminine said suddenly:

“Y...yeah?”

“Here’s what you ordered, our specialty: enjoy your meal”.

Once the girl had left, Adagio took a closer look at her sandwich: it consisted in a rather large burger with a hole on the inside, where an almost rare egg had been placed. The whole thing was covered in hot melted cheddar, some slices of fried onions, tomatoes and two leaves of fresh looking lettuce.

Truth to be told the sandwich did not interest Adagio in the least, sure it emitted a mouth-watering aroma; but eating that sort of thing was not exactly the reason she had chosen to enter the fast food restaurant in the first place. Furthermore Adagio had never laid a finger on that sort of food, not even once, and that was certainly not the right moment to try out the local cuisine, especially considering her mood.

Having kept staring at the various costumers entering and leaving that place, the girl finally sighed:

“It’s useless, no matter how long I wait; things won’t turn on my favor, at least not as long as I am alone...”.

Having put on a frowning expression, the siren simply left her seat, leaving her meal uneaten and headed to the exit.

While hearing many young voices yelling at each other, perhaps teenagers, starting to fight over the table she had just left free, Adagio put back on her black clothed hoodie and without uttering a single word she opened the door in front of her. This one produced an awkwardly squeaky noise which made the girl’s hair raise; then the siren left and quickly disappeared in the morning fog.

“It’s useless!” Sonata exclaimed desperate: “We’ve looked everywhere in the neighborhood and still no sign sign of her!”

“You’re free to go back, whenever you like” her sister Aria replied coldly: “But don’t count on me coming with you: I’ll stay here and keep looking for her”

“But no matter where we look or who we ask to; Adagio seems to have disappeared from the face of this world”

“She seems...she isn’t though and I will find her, even if I have to stay here all day and night”.

Having finished her speech, Aria began to walk and turned on the right at the first corner; the younger siren decided to follow her.

Seeing her sister reappear behind her back, did not surprise Aria in the least: “So...” she said at that moment: “You’re still here”

“Yes” Sonata exclaimed, while her chicks started becoming red as peppers:

“Thought you were heading back home”

“Say what you want, but I am not going anywhere without you and Adagio”.

Hearing her older sister’s name made something light up inside of Aria; a sort of spark, hidden in the darkest shadows of her soul.

“Adagio…" at that moment the siren began to remember, remember about the past she had spent underwater, the time when she had been alone with Sonata, the time when she would wish for that tremendous torture to end.

Then a big, strong siren had arrived and took both her sister and her, welocoming them into her life, she had given them food, taught what they needed to survive and given all the attention they had asked for.

She remembered the times when she had heard Adagio, sobbing in her corner of the cave, fighting with the part of her soul that wanted her to stay the cold and motionless being she had always been and the enormous sacrifice that girl had done for her, earning to be considered her older sister.

Now it was Aria’s turn to help Adagio and, if she wanted to do something for her, she first needed to find her and take her home; yet to find Adagio one needed to think like Adagio.

“What is it that she loves the most?” Aria kept asking herself, rubbing her chin with two fingers: “Where would she go in a bad situation like this?”

“Uh...Aria?” Sonata questioned curios, seeing her sister so caught up in her own thinking: “What are you doing?”

“I was just reflecting…” right at that moment, seeing Sonata’s azure skin, an idea came to the siren’s mind: “But of course!” Aria exclaimed, jumping from joy:

“Aria...what are you so exited about?”

“I know where she is, Sonata, for real this time”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, this time we’ll find her, now follow me!”.

Breathing heavily, the two girls rushed across the city roads, while the morning fog was slowly beginning to disappear.

Aria’s breath had become heavy, like that of someone who has just finish running a long marathon. Suddenly she stopped and took a deep breath: “It’s close!”

“What’s close?” Sonata asked now more confused than ever:

“her...follow the scent of home”.

“What?!”

“Follow the scent of home, Sonata!”.

Although she had not exactly understood what she was supposed to do, the young siren quickly figured out that the best thing she could do was just follow her sister.

After a good fifteen minutes spent running, the girls arrived at the coast; where the city skyscrapers met the sea.

Despite being very tired, Aria refused to waste any time and looked around her and there she found who she was looking for: Adagio was nothing but a few paces away from her, sitting on the beach, listening to the sound of the waves.

The girl slowly walked towards her sister, gulping worried; this time Sonata decided to remain out of what she thought was not her business .

Hearing Aria’s heavy breath and sweat, Adagio stood up and turned around, facing her younger sister who was keeping her hands on her pulsing chest. The two of them met each other‘ s gaze, stared into one another’ s eyes for a few moments without saying anything, then run into the other one’s arms.

They held each other in a tight a tight embrace for...not even they know exactly how much time, while Sonata applauded, moved by that sight.

A warm wind, coming from the sea, melted their hearts at once, as the sun was rising high up in the sky, and they slowly started strolling back home.

Dangerous disease

Chapter 8:

Dangerous disease

Quite a lot of time had passed since the sirens had ended up into a completely different world; things had changed in their lives: their habits, their mood and especially their relationship.

After Aria and Adagio had come to an understanding to their last fight, they had began to visibly feel more comfortable around each other: sometimes they even had jokes together between their feeding sessions, speaking of which:

We haven’t talked about the first time the sirens used their magic to absorb negative energy,after being banished from Equestria, have we?

It happened not much time after Adagio and her sister had their argument, on that occasion the oldest of the sisters had visited a fast food restaurant just next to their new place and, on the exact instant she had sat at one of its tables and noticed how it was crawling with people, she understood that it would be the perfect target to try out how her singing magic worked in this new world.

“So...” Adagio said to her sisters, as soon as thy had arrived in front of the entrance to Canterlot Pan: “...is everything ready? Have you tried singing on your own, while I was scavenging around?”

“Hicks!” Aria exclaimed, closing her nose with two fingers: “Are you sure we’re in the right place, Adagio? Cause to me it looks like we’re heading right into a landfill site!”

“Yeah!” Sonata agreed, struggling not to vomit on the ground at the very moment she opened her mouth: “It stinks of rats!”

“Unfortunately we do not have much of a choice...” their sister replied, while playing with a curl of her hair, hanging over her forehead: “...and although the smell from the kitchen may not be pleasant, I absolutely assure you that this is the right to place to start absorbing the energy of chaos from this world. Pretty soon you’ll see I’m right”

“Wait a minute...” Aria intervened right before Adagio opened the entrance door: “Did you just say...kitchen?”

“Well...” the second girl answered: “...yes, that’s exactly what I said.”

“Jeez...what do they cook here?!”

“Burgers”

“Ah?” Aria questioned, staring at her sister, confused :

“You’ll understand what they are soon enough”

“So, what you’re telling me is that the inhabitants of this world eat stuff that smells this bad?!”

“I suppose so, yes”

“Great, just great. If people here have these kind of tastes, there’s no wonder why our new place is such a luxury”.

Hearing those words, the oldest of the sirens rolled her eyes annoyed and opened the door before her sister could complain on something else.

As soon as they entered, Aria and Sonata were immediately shocked by the enormous crowd, lining up in front of the counter, where a rather corpulent blonde boy was sweating, trying to keep up with the costumers’ orders, but eventually his tiredness got the best of him and the boy collapsed on the floor, fainting.

At that unexpected sight, the two young sirens swallowed their own saliva and looked at each other worried and confused, as all sorts of terrifying thoughts came to their minds in a flash, till Adagio woke them up from their daydreaming, beating her hand on a table:

“Why are you staring at the crowd?” she said, sounding more bothered by the minute:

“It’s just...you see that guy over there? He...” Aria replied or at least tried to, as she was suddenly interrupted by her sister:

“What happened to a random guy is not my interest and neither should be yours, now come sit here”. Intimidated by Adagio’s dangerously serious voice, the two young girls slowly neared the white table, their sister was already at, and sat on a pair of chairs.

“So...”Aria began to speak, having the impression Adagio had calmed down: “I think I might have gotten your point now”, hearing that the oldest of the sirens fixed her eyes on Aria, slightly scaring her: “I mean this place is filled with potential victims, plus we can blind in with the crowd and escape with ease if something goes wrong, but when exactly do we start singing?”

“After the waitress comes for the second time”

“Uh?”.

At the very same moment the siren had exclaimed those words, a young read haired woman, wearing a black dress and holding a block notes in her hand, approached them with a smile on her face: “Welcome to Canterlot Pan, where we offer only the best cuisine and the costumer is always right. What can I bring you this evening?”

“What’s the specialty of the day?” Adagio asked, signaling her sisters to remain quite:

“We have a special offer on the fried chicken”

“We'll take some of that, then”, after Adagio had made her order, the waitress wrote down some notes on her block and turned around, headed to the kitchen.

“I’m not exactly hungry” Sonata intervened, noticing her two sisters had stopped talking, creating an awkward silence: “especially after what we smelled earlier”

“Then do not touch the food” Adagio answered: “After all, we’re not here to try out the local cuisine”

“And after that awful smell, I’d rather have our usual meal of negative energy” Aria added, playing with a curl of her hair:

“Oh, c’mon!” Sonata replied loudly: “You two are taking all the fun out of this!”

“What is it that you want, then?”.

Right before the youngest of the sirens could utter a word the waitress approached at her table once more, this time holding a plate in her left hand; Adagio signaled her sisters not to talk: “Here’s what you ordered, ladies, enjoy your meal”.

The girl placed on the table a large dish with a fried chicken at the very center; its skin was golden and soaked in cheap oil: “Shall I cut it in half?” the waitress asked kindly, while Aria was doing her best no to vomit from the revolting smell of the food, keeping her mouth shut with her hand:

“Oh, no thank you, we can do that on our own” Adagio replied, forcing a smile on her face: “Thanks for everything”.

Once the waitress had left, Aria turned around and choked a few times, giving the impression she was truly feeling sick: “Is everything alright?” Her older sister asked quickly:

“No, nothing’s alright” the second girl answered, struggling to maintain her composure: “This thing smells disgusting, let’s get rid of it this instant!”.

At that point Aria took the plate where the food was in order to throw it out of the nearest window, yet Adagio immediately grabbed her arm: “Don’t” she said calmly:

“But”

“Put it back on the table”

“But I”

“If you throw it away, they’ll understand that we’re here for something different from the food”;

hearing those words, the young girl quickly realized her sister was right: they could not let themselves be caught or even draw the littlest attention, so, despite the terrible nausea it caused her, Aria placed the chicken back on the table.

“Wise decision” Adagio commented satisfied:

“Oh please, let’s just do what we’re here for!” Aria exclaimed, not knowing how much more of that loud place she could handle:

“Pardon?”

“Let’s get this over with, I can’t stand staying here any longer!”

“Yeah” Sonata suddenly added, having stayed quite for a while: “This place is the worst”

“You always say that!” Aria intervened, while Adagio rolled her eyes:

“I know but this place really is the worst of the worst. Have you guys seen the décor? The food on the other hoof...I mean hand...”

“Okay, okay!” Adagio exclaimed, interrupting her: “Aria is right, the sooner we put an end to this farce, the better!”

“Glad you see it my way” her sister said, eager to leave that fast food restaurant as soon as possible:

“Get ready, put on your hoods on and wait for my signal”.

After they had obeyed, the oldest of the sisters looked quickly around to make sure nobody was too close or too far from them and nodded with her head. The three sirens closed their eyes and lowered their heads, covered by dark clothed hoods that made it impossible for anyone to see their faces; soon the girls began to sing their magical song and the gems they bored around their necks started to shine more intensely than ever.

As their charm began to work, a greenish smoke appeared out of nowhere and slowly arose from the floor and the corners of the room: its color was bright, even brighter than the sirens remembered and sparkled bright as the night stars.

As soon as the sirens’ song reached the costumers’ s ears, all the people who were previously slowly enjoying their food, joking and chatting with each other, started fighting like wild animals.

Some of them were only insulting the people next to their seat, while to others the magic was strong enough to make them engage a physical fight: a girl used her food as snow balls to throw at the nearest costumers, two brothers began to kick and punch anybody they came across in the room, while another boy was beating the waiter, who had previously fainted, with a chair, causing his nose to bleed and several other injuries.

While this was happening, the green magical smoke, having finally been filled with negative energy, slowly began to enter the sisters’ gems. At that very moment the three girls felt a strong emotion, a new kind of power flowing through their veins, making them fill younger, lighter and, most importantly, incredibly stronger. Adagio, Aria and Sonata, gazed at each other, grinning with satisfaction and quickly left the restaurant, where the fight between the costumers was rapidly getting worse and worse.

“Well...”Aria said, as she and her sisters were walking back home: “...That wasn’t too bad”.

“Are you kidding?!” Sonata intervened exited: “We totally rocked!”.

At the same time the young siren spoke these words, a smirk of satisfaction appeared on Adagio’ s face: “Our magic has gotten stronger” Aria went on saying, giggling:

“I agree and at this rate we’ll be able to restore our full power sooner that we thought” her older sister said, interrupting her:

“And what are we supposed to do with all that power?” Sonata questioned curios:

“For now we’ll do exactly the same thing we used to when we lived back in Equestria”

“You mean submit as many people as we can?”

“Yes, but on the other hand I suppose we could also try to...” at that point a heavy sight escaped from the siren’s mouth, then the girl looked down at the ground beneath her feet.

Having noticed her sister’s sudden change of mood, Sonata moved forward to ask what was bothering her, but was immediately stopped by Aria who suggested she should not do such thing, for she knew very well what Adagio was thinking.

That night the sky was clear, not even a cloud in sight, it was so blue as the ocean and the full moon shined bright as ever, obscuring the surrounding stars. The weather certainly helped Adagio to regain her usual calm mood: the least she wanted was another storm like the one that had kept her from having a good night sleep just a few weeks before.

That night was Adagio’s turn to sleep in the bed; in fact, since they had just one in the house, she and her sisters had decided that every night one of them would get to sleep in there, while the others would rest on the sofa in the leaving room.

The oldest of the sirens did not really like the idea, as the bedroom was a lot dustier and darker than the lounge and had the impression the bed mattress was infested with bugs, but after all rules were rules.

Having closed the door behind her, the siren prepared to go to bed, having gotten rid of her clothing, she wore a gray night gown she had come across, while searching a wardrobe. It was rather comfortable, yet at same time old and perhaps slightly smelly, yet the girl had gotten used to it and preferred wearing it to the idea of keeping her only cloths on even in bed.

Adagio wrapped herself up in the white blanket of the bed and closed her eyes, prepared to finally have a peaceful night, even if that meant waking up with icky hair.

When the siren opened her eyes again, the sun had yet to rise and the clock on the wall indicated it was only three am. Rubbing her still tired face, Adagio was spooked by an unexpected noise, resembling a deep lament, followed by a strong cry.

Fearing the worst had happened to her sisters, the girl got up, leaving the bed, and run through the corridor that separated her room from the lounge.

When she arrived, Adagio found Sonata, lying on the sofa at the center of the room, all wrapped up in a blanket, trembling from cold; Aria on the other hand was sitting on her knees by her sister, holding her right hand.

“What’s happening?!” Adagio questioned worried, approaching her sisters:

“Sonata got sick during the night” Aria explained, staring at her, concerned: “And judging by how she’s feeling it might be serious”

“How serious?” her sister questioned, while her heart was pounding faster and faster:

“Very”

“Oh...let me check.”

It did not take a doctor to tell the youngest of the sirens was not feeling well: her azure skin had become pail, the girl kept trembling from cold as if she had been completed naked under a blanket of snow and the sentences, coming out of her mouth, as she tried to speak, tumbled out incoherently. Her eyes, which she only opened occasionally, were red as fire; seeing them, an expression of horror and fear appeared on Adagio’s face.

“It’s even worse than I though” the siren exclaimed, getting down on her knees next to Aria and Sonata: “When did she start to show signs of her bad conditions?”

“About fifteen minutes ago” her younger sister answered: “She did move a lot under the blanket, while we were sleeping; eventually I woke up and tuned to her to complain and found her like this. I thought of waking you up and warning immediately, but I did not want to leave her alone in this state”.

Having heard these things, Adagio placed her right hand on Sonata’s forehead only to remove it a few seconds afterwards: “Her body temperature is high” she said, turning to Aria:

“it must have raised since when I last checked a few minutes ago” her younger sister replied: “I think she’s getting worse. But you are the healing expert: can’t you tell what’s going on with her?”

“Didn’t I teach you all I know about medicine?”

“It seems I might have been distracted during the lesson, because I haven’t got a clue”

“Okay, fine, let me check”.

The girl slowly neared her ear to Sonata’s head to see if her breathing was regular, at the same time she placed her left hand on the youngster’s stomach and felt it was rumbling terribly. Being curios, Adagio placed her ear on her sister’s belly and felt its rumbling even more: “Don’t tell me...” the siren thought, as she neared her nose to Sonata’s mouth.

“She’s got an intestinal infection, a terrible one to be honest”

“What?!” Aria exclaimed shocked by what she had just heard: “But how?!”

“Smell her breath and you’ll be able to tell yourself”.

“Hicks!” Aria shouted, as soon as she had obeyed: “Her breath stinks of...I don’t even know what to compare it to”

“I think the food they gave us at the restaurant was rotten” Adagio added:

“You mean she...”

“She must have eaten some, while we were distracted”

“But I didn’t saw her touch the food; she didn’t even like it”

“She might have said that, but who knows? Maybe she thought it looked good or was keen on trying the food in this world more than us and took a bite, while we were already headed outside.”

A moment of silence interrupted their conversation; Aria placed her hand on Sonata’s forehead and felt just how high her body temperature was: “What do we do now? Is there any of your natural remedies that could help her, some of the ones I do not remember.”

“There is one” Adagio answered immediately: “Go in my room, get my purse from behind the door; there are things I keep in there just for cases like this”

“Purse behind the door: got it!” Aria exclaimed right before disappearing in the dark corridor that led to Adagio’s room:

“And now I’ll tend to you” the oldest of the sirens whispered, getting up from the floor.

Having reached the bathroom, Adagio took a large blue washing up bowl from under the sink and placed it inside the shower:

“It seems you’ll be useful after all” she said before shooting the freezing water of the shower inside the bowl.

Once it was full, the girl picked it up from the shower floor, then turned around and took three or four dishcloths, which had been left by the sink, and brought everything back to the leaving room.

In the meantime Aria had gone through the corridor that led to the bedroom and got Adagio’s purple purse from behind the door.

When she got back to the living room, she found her older sister, placing wet dishcloths on Sonata’s pulses and forehead; in the meantime the poor thing was trembling and shaking even more at the touch of the cold water in which the dishcloths were soaked:

“What have come up with?” Aria questioned, getting down on her knees next to Adagio:

“It’s something I though of at the last minute, I’m using this wet dishcloths to lower down her body temperature: it will do her good, even if I guess she doesn’t like it”.

After two minutes Adagio removed the dishcloths from Sonata’s body to immerse them in the cold water of the bowl, since they had quickly gotten dry. As she felt that unbearable sensation of cold on her pulses and forehead again, the youngest of the sirens uttered a short phrase: “No more...please”

“Trust me” Adagio quickly replied: “It’s for your own good”, then grabbed her sister’s hand and held it as tight as she could.

“Give me the purse” Adagio said to Aria, after having taken a long breath:

“Here”.

Having opened her small purse, the siren took a small glass bottle containing orange and brown powder: “Take this” she said to her sister: “ It contains a mix of cinnamon and turmeric, brew an infusion: it’ll help Sonata’s intestine get back to normal”.

Hearing these things, Aria nodded and, having grabbed the bottle her sister was handing her, went quickly to the kitchen to put the water boiler on.

Once the water had reached the right temperature, Aria poured it into a teapot and mixed it with the spices she had with her; the water quickly turned bright brown: “I just hope this is what Sonata needs”. The girl thought, while bringing the infusion back to Adagio.

“C’mon Sonata” Aria whispered into her younger sister’s ear: “drink it all up”.

Once the youngest of the sirens had swallowed the liquid in the teapot, an expression of disgust appeared on her face: the infusion Aria had prepared must have had a terrible taste.

“What now?” the youngster asked Adagio, worried: “Now I take care of everything” her older sister replied briefly:

“What?!” Aria exclaimed, shocked: “But I wanna help, Sonata is my sister, too, you know?!”

“I do, but you helped quite a lot already and there’s nothing left for you to do”

“But...”

“Just trust me this once, little sis’, I’ll get her back to health by down, I promise” having heard those words, Aria did not utter a single word.

Both of the sirens stayed up all night; Adagio kept cooling Sonata off with her wet dishcloths, while Aria remained next to her in case she got tired and wanted to switch turns, but the only thing her older sister said to her during that tremendous night was: “Stay here and keep me company: I’ll need it”.

When the clock on the wall finally stroke six am, Adagio placed her right hand on Sonata’s forehead once more only to say: “The fever is gone”

“And the intestine infection, too” Aria added, placing her ear on her younger sister’s belly and noticing is was not rumbling any more: “It seems like your infusion really did the trick!”

“Now she only needs rest” Adagio murmured, seeing Sonata smiling and relaxed:

“As well as we do”Aria snored , right before collapsing on the ground.

At that point the other siren went to her room to take the blanket from the bed before getting back to the lounge. “Sweet dreams, little sis, I’ll watch over you’” Adagio whispered, wrapping Aria in the white blanket of her bed and kissing her forehead: “I’ll watch over you...”

The silent cry of a young siren

Chapter 9:

The silent cry of a young siren

It had been at least two or three hours since the darkness of the night had fallen upon the city of Canterlot; the weather was a bit windy, yet that didn’t seem to bother anyone, walking the street.

The atmosphere in the town felt rather cold: nobody seemed to pay much attention to a man, desperately shouting at the phone, or to a poor little street cat, soaked in water, trying to findsome warmth in a little box that it had chosen as shelter, placed next t a trash can.

Suddenly a cry was heard, slowly followed by the sound of voices, singing an enchanting tune: a bright greenish smoke began to rise from inside the: “Canterlot Pan” fast food restaurant and soon the shouts of an angry mob.

Every costumer suddenly stood from their chairs and began to fight with each other: some simply quarreled, others decided to engage physical fights.

While this was happening, the sweet enchanting melody, sung by three hooded individuals, sitting in a corer, still filled the heavy atmosphere. Then, once the magical green smoke was finally full of negative energy, it entered the red gems the sirens wore around their necks; in the end everybody collapsed on the ground, as if all of their strength had been completely sucked out of of their bodies.

Only the sisters, still sitting at their table, remained unharmed and perfectly calm at the same time.

“Uh...” Aria commented, taking off her black hood: “...That was barely worth the effort Adagio: I’m tired of fast food, I need a meal!”

“I understand” her older sister quickly replied, as Sonata and she reveled their faces from under the hoods: “But the energy in this world isn’t the same as in Equestria; we can only gain so much power here...”

“Ah, I wish we had never been banished to this awful place!”

“Oh really?!” Adagio giggled with an unexpected smirk on her face: “I thought you enjoyed coming here, isn’t it what you said the first time we decided to come to this place?”

“Yeah, but that was different!” Aria answered, playing with a curl of her hair:

“How’s that different, dear sister?”

“Well...for starters we didn’t have much of a choice back then, since we didn’t really know our way around the city, but know that we’ve been stuck hear for quite some time, we should at least be able to find some more decent place to eat”.

While Aria was saying these things, Adagio hadn’t stopped gigging and was trying her best not to burst into laughter from seeing her young sister, getting nervous from something so insignificant to her as finding a more pleasant dining; unluckily she wasn’t good at hiding things, not from her sister at least.

“Why are you laughing at me?” Aria questioned, as soon as she noticed at tear of joy, slipping from Adagio’s left eye: “Wait a minute!” the girl, exclaimed, imagining what that was all about in the first place: “...are you enjoying yourself at my expense?!”.

Hearing that question, Adagio could not help but answer with a soft lady-like giggle:

“Oh, come here you little!”.

At that point the youngster took her revenge on Adagio, messing her hair: “Hey!” was her sister’s answer: “That’s not fair, you know I much effort I need to put into brushing my hair every morning!”

“Oh, of course I know dear sister!” Aria replied with a laugh: “That ought to teach you not to keep the bathroom all for yourself for three hours in the morning and especially not to tease me!”.

After a cold stare that lasted no more than a few seconds, the two sirens fell into one another’ s arms, both bursting uncontrollably in laughter: the bad experience they had a long time ago had truly made the two of them inseparable; sure they still had a few arguments from time to time, but nothing they hadn’t been able to work on together.

While the two girls went on giggling and crying from joy, the third of the sisters, Sonata, did not seem as pleased as her fellow sirens, in fact she kept staring at the window next to her without uttering a single word.

Adagio was the first to notice her sister’s unusual behavior: “Sonata?” she said, inviting the young girl to wake up from her daydreaming:

“Ye...yes, what?!” Sonata exclaimed, startled:

“What is it that you’re thinking about?”

“Uh...” the youngster sighted heavily: “...it’s nothing”

“Not true” Aria intervened suddenly: “You’re hiding something, I can tell”

“Girls” the youngstest of the sirens repeated, clearly bothered: “...It’s nothing really”.

“Listen here, sis” Aria quickly answered with the serious face expression she hadn’t put on in years and that frightened her younger sister the moment she saw it: “You’d make a liar as much as I’d make a gardener, so spill the bins, now!”.

Perhaps because that: “Now!” had been said with a particularly threatening tone of voice or perhaps because she just needed to get rid of the heavy burden she felt on her chest, Sonata finally decided to give up and reveal what was bothering her. “Fine” the young girl answered her sister’s exclamation: “But, at least, promise you won’t tease me”

“We promise” Adagio replied, as her sister was taking a deep breath.

That day had been particularly calm, maybe even too much. Sonata was just headed home from her regular scouting turn, her sisters and she had in fact decided to take turns to scout the nearby neighborhoods, looking for any useful information, yet Sonata hadn’t been exactly lucky that day.

“Ah...” the young siren sight heavily with a sad tone in her voice and a frowning expression on her face: “And here I come empty handed, I truly hope the others won’t get mad at me”.

Sonata was of course exaggerating thinking her sisters would be angry at her for coming back home with no interesting news for them to use, as that happened often to any of them, but still she was upset for not succeeding in her task.

Having walked through the city square, where one of the kids, playing soccer, had almost hit her with the ball, the siren entered a dark corner in the street that led to her house in the poorest area of the whole town.

As soon as she took a few paces; the loud barking of a dog was heard and soon after a terrible smell of rotten fish filled her nose; yet she managed not to vomit in the middle of the street. The depressing view of houses, falling apart, combined with those unpleasant sensations only made matters worse for Sonata who was now feeling more sick than the time she had eaten rotten chicken at: “Canterlot Pan”.

It did not take her long to reach her house, perhaps because she had dashed all the way home to avoid running into any trouble. At the sight of the front door Sonata took one last anxious breath, before setting her eyes on the knob.

Right at that moment she heard an unexpected noise, resembling that of a large metallic object, falling on the ground and then rolling; the girl turned her head curios.

She found out that what had so suddenly fallen on the ground was nothing but a trash can full of smelly rubbish. The girl turned away disgusted, but another much lower sound made her turn around almost immediately.

“Uh?” the girl said curios, seeing something, moving suspiciously under the rubbish that had ended up covering the road; her question was soon answered.

A small figure emerged, a tiny dog, a puggle to be precise: its fur was gray as dust, its legs short and trembling like those of a baby, its paws could barely sustain its weight, its cute ears were constantly flapping.

“Wow!” the young siren exclaimed at that sight, feeling her eyes crying from joy, as her cheeks became red and warm as chilly peppers: “Who are you, little one?”.

Exited, Sonata neared the little dog in order to gently stroke its head, yet as soon as she got too close, the puggle barked softly and got back to hide under the rubbish.

“C’mon, cutie” the girl repeated with a sweet tone in her voice: “There’s no need to be afraid, I just wanna be friends”; unluckily the dog was still too much frightened of the siren to come out.

It did not take much time for Sonata to understand that if she wanted to befriend the little puggle, she would first need to gain its trust and what better way to gain an animal’s trust than through its hungry stomach?

Having realized what she had to do, the youngster quickly entered the house and headed to the kitchen. The atmosphere inside was strangely calm and silent, as if nobody was there.

Truth to be told, the only one Sonata didn’t see in the house was Adagio, but she did not bother to wonder where she could be, as she imagined her older sister had gone scouting the surrounding area herself, despite she was to do just that the day after.

Aria on the other hand was peacefully resting on the sofa in the living room; Sonata did not wish to wake her up, so she tried to move as slowly and silently as she could to reduce the inevitable squeaky noise the wooden floor produced every time she took a step forward.

Despite all, the young siren managed not to interrupt Aria’s slumber, good thing, too, for she desired everything but being caught moving sneakily all over the house, looking for food.

In the end Sonata took some dry meat from a jar in the kitchen and headed outside once again, moving carefully so she would not wake Aria.

She found the puggle exactly where she had left him: “Hey, little one” the girl kindly whispered, showing the food she had taken to the dog: “I’ve got something tasty for ya”.

Once the siren had placed the meat on the ground, the little dog left the rubbish can and neared the girl: its eyes were big, dark, and visibly tired, yet they shined in a bright light.

The puggle smelled the dry meat with its small humid nose, making sure the food was fresh enough to eat, then started gobbling everything up piece by piece.

As the animal was eating, the girl kept staring at it with great attention, as if she had never seen something so adorable: the animal was literally devouring its meal, as if it had not touched food in days. When it had finished, the puggle set its gaze upon Sonata, staring at her, while drops of saliva escaped from its mouth.

“I guess you were really starving” the siren giggled, finally being able to stroke the little one on the head, without it running away; the puggle answered with a light bark.

“I’m sorry little friend” Sonata said, guessing what the dog was trying to communicate: “I can’t give you anymore food for today, but, if you come back tomorrow, I’m sure I’ll be able to find a little something for you to eat. Sound good?”.

As the girl stood up and turned around, headed to the door, the dog gazed upon her, as if it had been surprised at Sonata’s answered, then another light bark escaped from his mouth.

“Don’t worry” the siren repeated with a kind smile on her face: “If I promised I would come back tomorrow, you needn’t fret, little friend. I’ll bring you something tasty, I promise” having spoken these words, the siren disappeared, closing the door behind her, leaving her new animal friend alone.

The next day Sonata kept her promise and brought some more dry meat to the dog that had been waiting for her the entire time without moving from the place they had first met.

“See?” the youngest of the sirens, giggled happily, seeing the puggle launching hungrily at the food: “I brought you your favorite food, just as I said as I would. Was there any need to fret like you did yesterday, when I left?”.

As strange as it may sound, the dog replied with a light bark, as if it had understood the girl's words.

“Uh...” the siren giggled, stoking the puggle on the head: “What do you say, then? Are we friends or not?”.

Once again the dog barked, this time it even began to lick Sonata’s cheeks.

“Okay, okay!” the youngster, laughed happily, hugging the small dog: “I guess, we are”.

After that time the siren run to see her friend every single day to bring it food and to receive one or two licks on each of her cheeks.

The times she visited it became more frequent: every morning she got up earlier than her sisters just to “borrow” some of the food they kept in the kitchen to feed the little dog: once it was some eggs, then baby carrots, salmon fillet and in the end dry meat again.

What was funny about all of this is that, despite all the food disappearing from the kitchen, the other two sirens did not seem to notice or at least this is what Sonata thought, as her sisters never accused her of stealing the food.

The girl went to see her animal friend during the afternoon, too, and at night, before turning in: theirs truly became a magical relationship; Sonata felt bound to that little buggle by something she had never felt, a special kind of affection, very different from the one she felt towards her sisters; then all of a sudden something changed drastically.

One morning the girl woke up as usual at 6 am and took some food in order to feed the dog, but, as soon as she reached the place where the puggle and she usually met, the animal was not there.

The girl, searched for it, called for it several times, but her friend did not show up, despite all the tears the young siren cried that day and the ones that followed, the animal did not show up, never again.

“Now you know” Sonata finally sighed, when she had finished telling her story: “There’s nothing left for me to say”

“You!” Aria shouted angrily at her younger sister: “It was you who stole all our food, and here I thought I had started eating too much without noticing. But no: it was you who took all our food and for what?! To feed a common street dog!”

“Don’t call it that way!” Sonata replied furious: “It is not a common street dog we’re talking about, it’s my friend!”

“Yeah!” her sister answered, while her face became red as a chilly pepper: “A friend that was apparently so important that you decided we weren’t worth knowing”

“It’s not like that!”

“Oh, yes it is, it is indeed!”

“Aria does make a pretty good point” Adagio said, intervening: “Why didn’t you tell us about this friend of yours before, instead of stealing our food?!”

“We’re your only sisters, for pity’s sake!” Aria added nervous.

“I...I was afraid you wouldn’t like it, I guess it was a street dog, after all, plus we cannot exactly afford to have a pet right now”

“What you’re saying is true, but you still should have told us about your doubts: we mustn’t keep secrets from each other”.

“Ah” the youngest of the sirens sighed in the end: “You’re right, Adagio: I am really sorry. Maybe if I had mentioned this sooner we could have...I don’t know...found a solution together, but now it’s too late”

“What do you mean?” her older sister questioned confused:

“Now my fried is gone, forever I mean”

“It could still come back” Adagio said, trying to cheer Sonata up, placing her hand on her sister’s shoulder.

“No it won’t. Truth is, I’m afraid they might have taken it away.”

“Maybe it had an owner”

“No, it did not: I’m sure it had no collar around its neck”

“What does make you think that somebody might have taken it?”

“I’ve seen what they do to street dogs in this world: it’s not nice at all.”

Having heard these things, the oldest of the sirens stopped talking, creating an awkwardly silent atmosphere, yet Aria managed to break it with ease.

“Hey, Sonata, have I ever told you about the time Adagio here ended up having green hair?”.

At the sound of those words, Adagio covered her face embarrassed, yet did not try to stop Aria, she was trying to help Sonata after all.

“You see, some people here like to dye their hair, so, being curios, our sister bought one bottle of dye from a store not far from our place. But when she came back and tried it, while you were out, she found herself with green hair, what’s more it took forever to wash away that green!”.

Despite her mood, Sonata could not help but giggle, while a tear of joy lined her face”

“And have I ever told...”

“I believe that’s enough” Adagio intervened, preventing Aria from telling other embarrassing stories: “It’s grown late: time to go back home”.

At that moment, while Adagio’s cheeks were still red as tomatoes, the youngest of the sirens hugged her older sister in a tight embrace: “Okay” Adagio finally replied, smiling: “You win, okay, now let’s go”.

The thee sister left their seats, headed to the exit door, but as soon as they were outside; an unbearable noise similar to a thunder was heard, shorty followed by a blinding flash of light that almost spit the sky in two.

The sirens remained speechless, their mouths dropped and their gems emitted a strong vibration, before sparkling: the oldest of the sirens was the first to notice that unusual sign.

“Did you feel that?” Adagio exclaimed, turning to her sisters, grinning like she hadn’t done in a long time: “Do you know what that is?”; the other two sirens replied by shaking their heads.

“It’s Equestrian magic!”

“But this world doesn’t have Equestrian magic” Aria, protested, still not understanding what Adagio’s point was:

“It does now and we’re going to use it to make everyone in this pathetic little world adore us!”.

The last page

Chapter 10:

The last page

It was raining that night: while we were performing at the finals of the battle of the bands, there was not even a single cloud in the sky, yet now the moon had disappeared, hidden by a thick cloud, as if it wanted to escape us.

The drops of water, falling from the sky were cold, freezing even, strange thing too, because it was the middle of spring.

Our hair and dresses were soaked; a soft sneeze escaped Sonata’s nose: I realized that, staying out there in the cold, she risked to fall sick again and neither Aria or I wished for that to happen. We headed to our place as fast as possible; on the way a car passed by at high speed and we all ended up even wetter than we were already: now why does this sound so cliché to me?

There was something strange about that whole situation: it was like something evil were lurking in the street corners, just waiting for us; but back then I thought it was just my imagination, or at least that is what I kept reaping to myself every step I took.

Yet that night I felt so afraid and insecure I thought for a moment that I had gone back to being a little siren: that all the things around me were just a horrible nightmare and that my mother would soon come to my rescue, to drive off my fears, but nobody came for me. Instead I found myself surrounded by wicked wraiths, grinning at me, laughing at me, as if I had fallen into their trap. For the first time in many years I felt disoriented and incapable of coming up with a solution to my problems or rather ours.

You see, for the first time in many years I had forgotten I was not alone, that there were other people I had to care about. The darkness that blinded my eyes was thick, but luckily for me I could still hear just fine: in fact it was the sound of Sonata’s voice which woke me up from my bad dreams and brought me back to reality. I regret not having thanked her that night.

When I opened my eyes again I realized that we had reached our house: they say homes ought to be always nice and cozy, yet that night something mysterious had made ours look horrible to my eyes, even more than usual. The place felt colder, the floor squeaked like a rat, the atmosphere was humid.

I lie against the wall, put my hands on the head and start pulling my hair; my eyes staring into a bottomless abyss; my mind going completely blank. There is still one thing I can picture though, something about which I will never forget.

I remember the shattering of our gems; pieces of red crystal, slowly falling on the ground: in front of us a crowd of students, looking completely glass-eyed. Then I hear a peculiar noise so different from the cheering they were shouting just a moment ago. Soon after they start trowing things at us: a tomato, a banana peal, some plastic cups and then I do not remember anymore or maybe I just do not wish to...eggs perhaps?

Another one of Sonata’s sneezes makes me come to my senses; I look at my sister: her cheeks have turned into a dreadful red color. I approach and sit by her on the sofa, luckily there is a blanket I can cover her with: it will not be enough to stop the fever, but at least it will keep her warm.

In the meantime Aria stays silent, lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling as if she had gone mad; her eyes are as empty as mine: I guess she and I are feeling the same burden on our chests, humiliation, and it is heavy.

Sonata sneezes again, her forehead is warming up fast; soon she will be in the same condition as two weeks ago and I will have to cure her, but this time I cannot help her, not as much as I wish to. In fact I can only help her get over her flue, but I know that will not be enough, that an injury will still be there in her heart as in Aria’s and mine. I hate to admit it, but it must be said that medicine can only go so far, for there is still nothing no cure for one’s heart, no remedy, no antibiotic.

I fell ashamed not only about our defeat against the Rainbooms, but also because now that I have no magic I do not know how to help them, my sisters: how will I be able to provide them with everything they need? I spent my whole life submitting ponies and people, making them bow to my will, yet everything I’ve always truly wanted was be with them and now I am nothing but useless.

When Sonata touches my arm, begging for me to save her from the pain that is slowly taking over her, I feel lost; my tongue has frozen in my mouth: how do I explain to her that I simply cannot, that I am nothing anymore?

For the first and hopefully last time in my life I realize a tear has escaped my eye, soon after another one follows and then more and more: for the first and hopefully last time in my life I realize I am crying.

I try to stop the tears, but I just cannot; hopefully if I bury my face in my hands my sisters will not see me like this: gosh... I must look ridiculous to them.

Shortly after I sense something touching my right arm: it is Sonata, but she is not making fun out of me like I was expecting, instead she is hugging me; silently Aria joins us on the sofa and hugs my other arm, her expression is slightly more serious and contained than Sonata’s though. I return both of theirs hugs: for the first and hopefully not last time in my life I feel the warmth of their bodies, pressed against mine; it feels strange, but nice at the same time. Not knowing how to react, yet still wanting to repay them somehow for their gesture, I decide to do the only thing I am good at or at least I used to, when I still had my gem: I hope you girls like it, however bad it may sound.

When I finish my song both Aria and Sonata hug me tighter than before; I suppose they enjoyed the gift I tried to make them. With all my tender and care I place a kiss on both on their foreheads, they moan in pleasure, while I, for the first time in many years, I smile sincerely full of joy.

Let’s enjoy this moment of ours, dear little sisters, for now that our cover here has been blown, we will have to leave the city, but not immediately, only after Sonata is healed.

Well, my most precious ones, now that you are finally reading the last page of my journal I wish to tell you something.

All this time I did nothing but act coldly even towards you, for after my mother’s death I thought that I would survive only if I did things on my own: only now do I realize how wrong I was. After finding you in that field of seaweed and taking you home something within me changed drastically, in fact I began to think I would need to do all I could to save you who were starving, yet to be honest you were the ones who saved me. You made me become a completely different siren, you took what had remained of my heart and even after we lost everything, our home, our powers, you showed me that I still had something: you.

Aria, Sonata, please forgive me for not having a way with words, but if you are reading this, please know that I love you: I always have and always will, no matter what happens. I was just too proud and stupid to understand and admit it before, perhaps if I did, we would be in a better situation now. I still do not know how we will manage to survive in another city without our magic, but what I do know is that as long as we stick together nothing will defeat us, not ever again.

Hope you read this, your big sis

Adagio

Having read these very last words, Sunset closed the book and looked at the clock, hanging over the wall, she noticed that it was still 7 pm: plenty of time to have a chat with Twilight.

The girl had not liked Adagio’s journal: it was that kind of story that leaves you with a heavy unpleasant burden on your chest, far too melodramatic and full of deep regrets.

At first she was unsure if it was appropriate to write to Twilight about her discovery, too, but in the end she decided it would only make the princess of friendship feel guilty for no reason: after all the sires had gone now, they had no magic left to use and everything was back to its place just the way it should be.

Happy with her decision Sunset left Adagio’s journal among the other books in her case, surely later she would come with a good idea to get rid of it, just like the siren it had belonged to.

Author's Note

We have finally reached the end of our story: hope you enjoy it guys.
As I previously announced from next week we will have our first summer themed fun fiction.