Twilight was away with her friends for the evening at Manehattan for a retreat and should be back around tomorrow, leaving Spike alone in the Castle of Friendship. And that was completely fine for him.
Let’s test that baby out! Spike thought as he entered his chambers, his brand-new over-ear headphones had just arrived the other day, and he was excited to try it out on some tunes.
He snatched it from the desk and leaped to his bed, the packaging was the usual picture on a box with its brand name and its series on the side. With a couple of sweeps from his claw, he tore the top off and pulled out the headphones and its cables.
"Okay, let's play this," he said as he plugged in the device and played the tune from his phone. A knock came from the door before he could blast the volume all the way up. "Come in."
The door opened and revealed Starlight Glimmer. "Heya, Spike," she said with her usual happy tone.
"Oh, hey," Spike answered, his attention was still on his phone. "I thought you were with Twilight?"
"Nahhh, I just want to relax here, in the castle and drink coffee and mostly, read some comic books," Starlight said, her magic grasped the stack of comic books that was on the nearby desk, Spike only nodded in approval of her business. She was about to take her leave before noticing the headphones. "Hey, are those the new headphones you've just bought?"
A simple nod from Spike was her answer.
"Cool, what are you listening to?" She asked as she put down the comics.
"Sirens," Spike simply answered.
"Oh, what kind of band is that?" Starlight continued to ask.
"It's not a band."
"A DJ then?"
"Not a DJ."
"Perhaps a podcast?"
Spike shook his head.
"An audiobook?"
"No, it's nothing like that," Spike tapped the screen, pausing the tune and took off his headphones. "I'm literally listening to sirens."
"A literal siren?" She asked and received a nod from the dragon, Starlight was confused at this point. "I'm not buying it," she shook her head.
Spike didn't say anything except extending his claw with the headphone, his proof to the unicorn that he wasn't kidding. Starlight grasped it with her magic and gently placed on her ears. He tapped the phone, and... Nothing.
Starlight raised an eyebrow to the dragon, to which he simply replied, "Wait for it."
The sudden rising tone of the siren startled her as she pulled her head a little. The sound changed to its opposite pitch every few seconds, which gave this unsettling feeling of meeting death itself. She didn't know whether Spike was increasing the volume, but it was certainly getting louder the longer she listened.
Thoughts of horror began flooding her mind, thoughts of death and pure destruction on a massive scale, a sudden flash of one great power exploded from far away, the sky turned black as everything around started to crumble and every living creature vaporized by the incredibly deadly energy. No creature can escape it.
And once it ends, there will be nothing left. Nothing but dust, debris, rubble, shrapnel, or ruins of once a vast civilization, an empty wasteland. And the last thing standing within the barren land would be the siren itself, its pitch gradually decreasing and finally came to a stop before falling to the ground and shattered into pieces.
With that, the world fell silent.
"Starlight?" Spike called again, waving his arm in front of the unicorn.
Starlight shook her head violently at her vision, taking the headphone off with her glow and dropped it. With a quick leap, Spike was able to catch it before it could reach the ground.
"Hey, careful! This thing is still brand-new!" He barked, but quickly noticed Starlight's emotionless face, staring at him. "Um, Starlight? You okay?"
She shook her head once more. "How do you listen to this?" She asked, still in shock.
"Uhh," Spike pondered the odd question as he placed the headphones on his neck. "You just listen to them?"
"But why in Equestria would you listen to an hour of it?"
Spike could only shrug at that. "I guess because I find it relaxing?"
"RELAXING!? You call that horror-inducing sound relaxing!?" Starlight almost shouted, the dragon only flipped his phone towards her in response.
"Read the title."
"One hour of RELAXING SIREN SOUNDS!?" Starlight read loud and clear, scrolling down to see its description. "Fall asleep with this relaxing— How!?"
"Starlight."
"I saw the world got completely obliterated and everything was dead, it was horrifying!" She shrieked.
"Starlight, calm down. It's just one of many tunes I like to listen to," Spike calmly said. "And believe it or not, I do fall asleep while listening to this."
Starlight frowned, her mind couldn't think of anything, no, she couldn't think at all at this point.
"I, I just don't understand. How can you listen to this thing?" Starlight tried to ponder as she was still baffled that Spike, a sweet and innocent little dragon, who was probably the kindest dragon everypony had ever met, had this, this questionable taste in music, or those so-called relaxing sounds.
"It's—" Spike paused for moment as he thought for an explanation, but then shrugged. "You know those videos which a barber does this relaxing massage to a customer, but it looks like a murder?"
Starlight tilted her head while raising an eyebrow. "What?"
"Yeah, with all the head slapping and bone cracking and somehow the customer isn't injured or dead?"
Starlight just stood in silence.
"Yeah, those stuff exists and ponies find those relaxing," Spike explained, then lifted his phone. "Mine's apparently siren sounds."
That was two completely different things to compare, but Starlight got the idea. Mostly to say the least.
And then there was silence, but only for a moment.
"Well, I'm going to read these to clear my mind," Starlight grasped the pile of comics with her glow and slowly made her way out, she could hear the faint siren coming from the dragon's ears. "Don't let the others catch you listening to that, though."
"Noted," Spike said, lying down on his bed and started cranking up the volume.
Starlight took a last glance at Spike, who put a thumb up to her. A few hooves away from his room and she could already hear the dragon's loud snoring and the faint siren noise.
Author's Note
Thought of this whilst listening to siren sounds as I'm going to bed. Don't ask me why.
