Or: How A Siren Nearly Ruined Seaquestria's First Hearths' Warming.
The Hearth's Warming That Almost Wasn’t
Written by: RCharge
Edited by: EverfreePony
Hearth’s Warming. That time of year when ponies, griffons, dragons, and many other races came together and celebrated the warmth of the season. Even so, not every part of Equis celebrated this holiday.
Enter Seaquestria.
For years, the seaponies that resided in Seaquestria didn’t know of the holiday known as Hearth’s Warming. It wasn’t until just recently that a young hippogriff named Silverstream regaled her tales of the holiday from her time on the surface. She spoke of holiday feasts, ponies that came together for the holiday season… even the snow that fell from the sky. She also mentioned decorations and ponies that caroled out in the streets. Her recounting of the activities of the holiday filled the water with a warm, comforting feeling, and word quickly spread from house to house about this strange new holiday.
Needless to say, every seapony that lived down in Seaquestria liked the idea of this holiday a lot. They gathered corals, seashells, anything that could be made into a decoration, and hung it on their homes. Supervised by Silverstream, they made Hearth’s Warming trees, lights, garlands from seaweed, and many other decorations that were similar to those of their land-faring neighbors. Everyone in Seaquestria was happy.
All except for one.
Having heard the commotion, a siren emerged from the nearby caverns on the outskirts of Seaquestria. She stuck her head out of her cavern and rested her forehooves on an outcropping by the entrance, light reflecting off of her purple scales. When she saw the harsh glare that emanated from below, her large midnight blue dorsal fin thrashed once in annoyance.
“What’s all this commotion?” Hooves crossed, she stared out from the caverns. She continued to mull over her situation as she monologued to herself, “That was such a good dream too. Can’t I get a moment’s respite around here?” She groaned as she looked down at Seaquestria. “Ah well… guess I should go and see what all the commotion is about. Not like I’ll be able to get back to sleep right now anyway.”
She began to swim down towards the underwater city as she heaved a mighty groan. “Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse down here... something has to subvert my expectations,” she thought, a grumble escaping her lips.
The current angled her course towards the city as she brought a foreleg up to shield her midnight blue eyes from the light. “Why does everything have to be so bright? I still have no idea what this is and already I hate it.” As the city came into view, her curiosity gradually overcame her anger. “Okay… maybe it’s not that bright up close. No less irritating though. Eh, I’ll take whatever I can get at this point.” She rubbed her chin with a hoof as she mulled over the situation. “Maybe it isn’t as bad as I initially thought?”
She entered the city and immediately regretted her decision. Her senses were assaulted by many different things at once. Sounds of laughter permeated the water as fillies and colts swam to and fro with their parents watching nearby. She automatically rolled her eyes at the scene, it was too cutesy for her tastes. The further she went into the city, the worse of a decision she found it to be. She quickly noticed several homes that went all out on the lights and decorations, her attention unable to focus on them. The glare of thousands of lights blinded her, tiny colourful spots clouding her vision.
Bright lights flashed on both sides of the street from various shops and residences, which left a migraine budding in her brain. She groaned and rubbed her temple as she mentally cursed whoever decided that was a good idea.
She paused, sniffing. The smell of fish made her mouth water with how tempting it was. For just a brief moment, the dull ache in her head was forgotten as she looked in a window to see a swordfish being baked. However, she soon remembered what her objective was and forced herself to persevere.
At the end of the street she was on, she stopped. Seaponies were caroling in the streets supervised by Silverstream. The display made her sick to her stomach. They sang and they sang, they sang until their voices were hoarse.
At first it wasn’t too bad, however their sharp tone-deaf sounds caused her ears to ring which didn’t help her migraine at all. “Stop singing! Stop this horrible, wretched, accursed singing!” she cried out. She realized what she did about three seconds too late when she covered her mouth with her hooves.
The carolers stopped abruptly, staring at her in shock. That wore off rather quickly however as they just simply looked at her with sour expressions. “Hey! I’ll have you know we practiced for three whole hours!” Before the situation became more heated, she covered her head with a foreleg and quickly swam on to avoid the awkward encounter. She only vaguely heard the angry protests as the carolers were left behind in her haste.
Soon it wasn’t just the carolers. Every seapony that saw her stopped and focused their attention on her. At first she was simply annoyed at the fact that everyone stared. She could brush off the first few encounters, but as her excursion in the city dragged on, she became more and more unsettled by the fact that everyone seemed to be fixated on her. Unfortunately for her not every seapony was content with simply staring. When she stopped in front of the palace, a seapony started to pass by her but abruptly did a double take. The bemused expression on her face told the siren that this seapony was the first to register what she was.
“Hey, who invited the siren?” When she said that, a small crowd quickly gathered in front of the palace. “No good’s gonna come from a siren being in town.” A collective hum of agreement punctuated the water when one of the collected mentioned that, “Yeah, you remember the last one that came into town? Tried to enslave us with its song! Simply dreadful!”
At that comment, the siren seethed in quiet rage. What was their deal anyway? It’s not like she came into town and looked to ransack the place. Although at this rate she began to wonder why she didn’t attempt to. She was about to speak up when the fanfare of trumpets signaled the crowd to part. It was at that moment her migraine chose to return with a vengeance. She clutched her ears as the ringing overpowered her hearing, causing her to whimper and seethe from the ache that pounded in the forefront of her skull. The crowd parted quickly, the path occupied by none other than Queen Novo. It was at that moment that she gestured for her procession to halt with a raised fin.
“My fellow seaponies… what’s the matter? This time is one of celebration and gathering together with loved ones, not arguing.” The Queen glanced left and right and noticed the look of contempt on the faces of her loyal subjects. Her confusion didn’t last long before she noticed the siren that clutched her head and seethed in the middle of the road. “You,” she began as the siren snapped herself from her thoughts. She looked at the queen and glanced about unsurely before pointing a webbed hoof at herself. “Yes, you! Approach me so we may speak.” After a generous helping of hesitation the siren drifted forward until she settled in front of Novo.
“Oh? Are you going to actually speak to me or are you just waiting to get a better look so you can demean me some more?” The siren huffed indignantly as she crossed her hooves again. “Because I think your loyal subjects are doing a good enough job on their own!”
Novo’s expression was stone cold and unreadable. “What is your name?” she asked as one of the procession guards interposed himself between the two.
“B-but, my Queen! She is a siren! Why are you fraternizing with her like this?” The disgusted guard threw his fins into the air for emphasis. “She should be run out of Seaquestria, not spoken to like a potential friend! We need to nip this in the bud as soon as possible!” His tone of voice allowed for no arguments on the matter. The look he was given by Novo simply stated that she was having none of that.
Even though her guard gave her a very good reason to drop the conversation and leave, she began to speak again despite his warnings, “Well? Speak up! I don’t have all day.” The guard simply sighed and extricated himself from between the two, returning to his position in the procession.
The siren huffed in indignance again before she rolled her eyes. “Starlit Song.” Having said her piece, Song fell silent again. Hushed murmurs wafted in from the collected seaponies. A wave of Novo’s fin suppressed the muttering and returned the street to an awkward silence.
“As you can no doubt tell… your kind is not exactly welcome in Seaquestria. We have had a few like you come into our city and--” Novo began, but Song wasn’t having any of that.
“Save your breath, Queenie,” Song interjected as a few gasps filtered in from the crowd around them. “Don’t give me that sob story about how your people were being brainwashed… I don’t care to hear about it. I was already informed from your so-called ‘loyal subjects’.” A pair of hooves fanned out to indicate the collected before she continued, “Frankly, I just came down here to tell you all to just turn off the lights and keep the noise down so I can get some rest.”
Song spun in place once as she soaked in the sights. “I don’t know what this is you’re doing, but I also don’t care enough to ask. It’s loud, obnoxious, and is making me sick just watching it.” Song paused as she saw the looks of disgust on the seaponies’ faces. Either they didn’t faze her or she chose to ignore them as she added, “If you could just give it a rest, I’ll be on my way.”
Silence permeated the air when Song stopped speaking. Eventually it gave way to angry murmurs. “You have no right to come into town and tell us to stop!” Hums of agreement rose from the remainder of the crowd. “Yeah! We don’t have to listen to you! You can’t tell us what to do!”
“Enough!” Song screamed, the seaponies reeling back from her sudden outburst. “If you all won’t stop on your own… I’ll make you stop!” Song turned and swam out of the city as she angrily muttered to herself, “They’ll regret this… I’ll make sure of it.”
“Pay her no heed, my loyal subjects,” Novo began as murmurs already started up in the crowd. “We shall ensure that she does not interrupt the festivities. Guards shall be posted so that nothing goes wrong tonight or tomorrow. Now, come! Let us resume our merrymaking!” Cheers erupted from the crowd as several seaponies clapped their fins together. Not long after, the crowd dispersed and Novo continued on too as she took in the sights.
This was largely ignored by Song who seethed the entire way back to her cavern. Sitting herself by the cave’s entrance, she lounged on the jagged outcropping and dry-heaved at the display. “I’ve got to find a way to get them to stop. This is just too sickening of a display to allow it to continue...”
A hoof rested on her chin as Song contemplated her options. She thought and thought until she could think no more. A foreleg stomped against the outcropping in irritation repeatedly as one idea melted into the next.
Suddenly her head snapped up as a mischievous smirk curled her lips upward. She had an idea. A really nasty, clever, simple idea. “I’ll just sneak down there while they sleep and take all of the decorations! Genius! This plan is so simple it’ll be literally impossible for me to fail!” As she returned to her cavern, she rubbed her hooves gleefully, then mentally cursed herself for not thinking about it sooner.
Night fell over Equis and with it creatures from all over settled down for peaceful slumber, knowing that Santa Hooves would be visiting them to deliver their much anticipated gifts. Nopony was awake, save for a certain siren who had an objective set firmly into her mind.
She carried several sacks haphazardly woven from strands of seaweed as she floated towards the city. However, she noticed a pair of figures by the city gate, quickly diving behind a nearby boulder.
Squinting her eyes, she peeked out and saw that the figures were guards posted at the entrance to the city. She wracked her brain to try and recall if she saw them there on her first visit, but she couldn’t. Needless to say, she didn’t expect this on her second pass of the city. She darted back behind the boulder and weighed her options.
“Well, horsefeathers! Now what do I do?” Song idly rubbed her cheek with a hoof, deliberately avoiding her gills. “I got it!” Covering her muzzle with her hooves, she softly squeaked. One guard’s head darted left and right.
“Hey, Warm Seas!” A sharp jab with a fin evoked a snort from the second guard who blinked his eyes.
“Whuzzat? I’m totally awake! Not sleeping at all, no sirree!” Seas said as his comrade facefinned. “What’s the problem anyway, Salt Water?”
“Did you he--” Salt began before he simply shook his head and groaned. “Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to ask you anything,” he groused as Seas snapped his head over to Salt.
“Excuse me?” Seas shot back with an indignant snort as Salt looked over to him and heaved an almighty sigh.
“You’re always asleep at your post, Seas! Every bucking time you get posted out here at night, you fall asleep! It’s like bucking clockwork! I can almost guess down to the minute when you’ll do it too!” As the two devolved into angry half-whispers, Song slowly swam by them and into the city unnoticed.
“Phew, that was close. Now… time to start pilfering these stupid decorations!” Song floated from house to house to enact her plan. Doors were left unlocked, which made her entry easier than it probably should have been. She quietly grabbed the trees and dragged them outside, ornaments and all. She also took the garlands hung on the walls. All of the lights that she found came with her too, along with the presents that were left there in wrapping paper of bright red and dark blue. Most of the homes were small, which made her job easier. But to her dismay, every time she entered one, she was stricken with a wave of paranoia.
Whenever something creaked she froze and remained perfectly still. When nothing happened, she darted her head left and right before her pace quickened ever so slightly. Every door she opened seemed to squeak abnormally loud, every ornament on every tree seemed to jingle louder and louder with every motion she made, and every roof thatch appeared to be loose when she grabbed a string of lights.
“Why are these homes so spaced out? I expected to be in and out… not swimming for five minutes between homes...!” She groaned as she yanked lines of seashell lights off of houses and plucked coral trees from open windows. She arrived at the palace and stopped to admire it. A large strand of seaweed garland was wrapped around the entirety of the dome-shaped building, along with a lit coral star that sat on top of it.
The sight of this alone turned her stomach, but that wasn’t the worst part of it. When she got closer, she noticed the lights. Those infernal lights that flooded her vision and caused a migraine to flare up in the forefront of her skull. Song groaned as she was forced to shield her eyes with a foreleg on her approach. She was already reaching out to steal those too, but a guard floated up to her and blocked her path.
“Halt! What are you doing with those?” he asked as Song froze in place. It was at this moment that she cursed herself for not wearing a disguise. “Well? Speak up before I lose my patience.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, sir,” she lied as the guard pointed a fin at Song’s bags that overflowed with decorations.
“Those. What are you doing with those decorations?” Song sucked water through her teeth when she realized that her plan was about to go up in flames. She bit her lower lip; she had to come up with a lie and come up with one quick.
“I was… taking them to the reef just outside of the city! Y-you see… some of these shells are… b-broken! Yes! I noticed they were broken and I was… going to find some new ones!” Song reached into one of her bags and quickly cracked one of the shells with her hoof before taking out the string with the broken one on it. “See? Broken!” she exclaimed behind a forced smile as the guard eyed the string dubiously.
“... I don’t see why I should believe you, given the scene you made earlier today.” Song swallowed hard, but before she could say anything, the guard spoke up again, “However, that shell is most definitely broken... and the reef is the best place to find those kinds of shells… alright, I guess that makes sense. However, I’ll be watching you.” Song nodded her head vehemently as she quickly swam away from the awkward encounter. Soon she reached the outskirts of the city.
“What an idiotic guard!” She cackled as she swam past the reef and toward the caverns, “Too bad I couldn’t appropriate the palace decorations… but it’s a sacrifice I’ll gladly make to get out of that scenario scot-free!” She rubbed her hooves together with a wide smirk on her face as she disappeared into the caverns with her illicitly acquired decorations.
Morning arrived in Seaquestria as the seaponies all awoke to discover their decorations have been stolen. Mass panic ensued as they flooded the streets and scoured the city from top to bottom in their search. Song looked down at the chaos and clutched her stomach as she laughed at their expense. However, after a while of watching this unfold, she paused as a new feeling started to churn in her stomach. “Ugh… maybe this has gone on long enough?” She glanced over her shoulder at the hoofful of bags and decorations while she heaved an almighty groan. “... Sometimes, I hate having a conscious.” she muttered as she grabbed the bags and swam toward the city.
“I knew she was up to no good…” The same guard that caught Song last night muttered to himself. He was about to go searching for her when Song swam in through the main entrance of the city with the bags of decorations.
“Um… here! I… found these bags on the outskirts of the city…” Song began as the others looked at her, some with disbelief and some with disgust as she sighed. “Oh, alright… fine! I took the decorations! I took them all! I was sick of this! All the singing… all of those bright lights… blech!”
She made a sour face as she looked away and crossed her hooves. “Here’s your stupid decorations back… not like they’ll do me any good anyways,” she groused as she released the bags and began to swim away.
However, something tugged at her tail and made her stop. She turned around to see a young filly that looked up at her with a hopeful expression. As she glanced up, she noticed that the other seaponies were looking at her with softened expressions as well. At first, she was hesitant to say anything due to how those looks unnerved her. However, she eventually swallowed her pride. “Why are you all looking at me like that? I brought them back… what do you want now?”
“Come on, Song! Now you can help us redecorate!” a quiet voice came from below her as the filly who gently tugged on her tail spoke up with a mirthful giggle.
Song paused and considered this. On one hoof she just wanted to up and leave. This celebration was quickly becoming rather low on her list of tolerated things. However, another look down at the filly caused her to rub a foreleg along her face. “I said it once and I’ll say it again. I hate this thing… whatever it is.” Song snorted indignantly as she gestured with her forelegs in a half circle. “All of your singing… all of the lights… everything about this accursed celebration is simply horrible!”
The seaponies let out a collective sound of disappointment as they began to disperse. However, they didn’t get far before a whistle from Song got their attention. “Hey! Where are you going? I didn’t say I was finished, did I?”
Worried glances were exchanged as the seaponies slowly drifted back over. “While it’s true I hate this whole thing… I suppose it has some merits.” Song lazily swirled a hoof as she spoke. “You know what? Yeah. Yeah, I’ll help you redecorate… on one condition,” Song said as she looked out at the collected seaponies. “The minute you start getting annoying, I’m out of here and never coming back. Got it?”
Murmurs floated among the crowd before one spoke up. “Yeah, I think we can agree to that.” Several other seaponies nodded to each other as the filly grabbed one of Song’s forelegs. “Yay! Come on, Song! This is going to be so much fun!”
Song barely had any time to lift up the bags to carry them along before she was guided down the street by the overly-excited filly. She knew what house’s decorations were in what bag, seeing as she was the one who put them there, and set down the appropriate bag in front of each building. She brought out the lights as she draped them over the roofs and around doorways. She passed over the wreaths and trees, even the potted plants that she took along the way. At one point the seaponies started to break into song. They twirled and danced between hanging up decorations, singing about the joy the celebration was bringing to them as well as the celebration itself. At first she was able to ignore them, but eventually the singing became so obnoxious she couldn’t focus on her work.
For as angry as it made her when she watched them, somewhere inside of her the warmth of the season finally began to work its magic on her. She found herself eventually singing and dancing along with the rest as she flung wreaths and lights that somehow seemed to land in perfect arcs. She heaved a sigh of relief when the final wreath was hung on the last house she stole from.
“Alright. We’re done. Now I have to be on my way back to my cavern,” Song said with finality as she began to depart. However, she was stopped by a few seaponies before she could even leave their presence.
“Oh come on, Song! You helped us redecorate. You even sang songs with us. Why not stay for the feast? Nopony deserves to be alone on Hearth’s Warming.”
Song froze in place as she remembered the fish she smelled earlier. She began to salivate just thinking about it. As she wiped it with a foreleg, her stomach also betrayed her with a low growl. “Not you too…” she thought . With a sigh, Song turned around to face them. Her normally sour expression was no longer present. Instead, an amused smile took its place as she tilted her head slightly. “Oh… fine. Only because you twisted my foreleg.”
It quickly became apparent that the inviting part was the easiest one. After realizing that inviting her to their homes individually wasn’t ideal, they decided to hold the feast inside of the palace. Song was made to sit at the head of the table as their guest of honor. She protested, albeit weakly, as she settled in the chair.
The uncomfortable event continued as the food was brought out, including a rather large swordfish that was settled in front of Song. Before she could protest, a carving fork and knife was presented to her. “What… you want me to...?” she asked and only received a nod in return. With now tear-rimmed eyes, she cut into the swordfish as the seaponies cheered.
