//------------------------------//
// 3. How they were then. 
// Story: Sirens' Wrath 
// by Arkidonius 
//------------------------------//

	Magnus sat at the kitchen table. He was smiling as he looked around the magnificent room he was in. The dinning room and kitchen of the apartment had been combined into one, but it shared the beautiful look of the faux log cabin that the room had going for it. Aria was standing at the stove, stirring something in a pot with a wooden spoon. It smelled heavenly and very milky, like some kind of thick stew. Magnus looked at her for a long time. She seemed very...wifey...for someone who seemed so emotionally reserved from the few moments they had met. She was barefoot, wearing simple clothes, possibly even sleepwear. She had a large purple apron on that was frilly and looked somewhat sexy in its design. Maybe this was intentional? Magnus hadn't really had time to process any of this. Two other women lived in this house with Adagio. Could they all be lovers in a way? Adagio did make a point to tell him they were not use to male guests. Magnus shook his head. It wasn't like something like this was unheard of, but it might answer a few things. Or maybe it wouldn't, but he was starting to realize he was fixated on this a little bit longer than he should be. 

Adagio placed a mug of coffee in front of Magnus with a little smile and went over to the fridge. She got out a few sodas and placed them on the table. One of them she opened and poured into a glass. She opened up a drawer in a cabinet next to Aria, giving her a little nudge with her butt as she did. This was on purpose, and the two smiled at each other after. Adagio took out what Magnus could just slightly recognize as a crazy straw. She put the straw in the glass, and placed it in front of Sonata, who had magically bounced her way in once she heard the sound of the soda opening. She sat in her chair drinking her soda through the funky twisted straw, purring as she did. Adagio messed with her hair and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Sonata simply closed her eyes and beamed. Magnus couldn't help but smile at just how adorable she was. 

Adagio sat down and looked at Magnus from across the table, her fingers were intertwined as she rested up on her elbows. "So, you've been very quiet since you got here." She had an eyebrow raised and was studying him carefully.

"Have you given him a chance to talk or answer anything? Or is that just you being YOU again and demanding things?" Aria said this at no one in particular as she continued to cook. 

Adagio rolled her eyes and made a disgusted noise. "Ignore her, but, DO you have any questions before I start?"

Magnus started to shake his head, and then stopped. "I do have a few, but In the grand scheme of things, they may seem ignorant." He took a sip from his coffee. It was bitter, but very rich. Nothing like the coffee he and his mother had at home. "At any rate...I'm sure I will think of some after you get done. It's always better to hold questions until the end of something. So, go ahead and do whatever it is you are going to." 

Adagio nodded slowly. She took a long drink and exhaled. "Ok, so...we can start at the beginning."


~


"How much do you really know about the universe? It's an odd question, I know, but it's a good basis for what I am going to tell you. To say we three come from another world would imply we are alien. Now, we are from a different world, but to us, YOU are the odd ones out. But in your existence, you believe that only you are the things that matter. Right? Right. Now, back on track, we come from the same planet as you, but different. It exists in another plane of existence, possibly parallel to this one. A lot of things are different, but the key things that are the same is the existence of people in almost the same places. Or at least timelines. Now running into someone from another dimension that is you in this one can be terrible for the stability of the world the visitor goes to. I think your scientists have theorized this at more than one time. We of course didn't really have a problem. We are old. VERY old. But our origins are much like anything you would expect, to an extent."

"You call your world Earth, we call ours Equis. There are two major differences in our worlds. The first one is the biggest. Our world is dominated by Equines. Fancy word for horses. But not just horses. We have all manor of creature that only exists in your ancient mythological stories. But at the heart of every story, no matter how farfetched, there HAS to be truth somewhere. Your world is dominated by humans, hordes of them. Our population isn't as big, and we exist more in harmony with our world than you do. The second difference is the biggest one, and the reason I think, that our worlds are as different as they are. Your people don't...really believe in magic. Our world is FULL of it. Actual magic, the kind that can alter reality and break certain laws your science can't, and almost everyone has a way of tapping into it in some way. It allowed our world to advance in a much different way to yours. Our world is simple, low population, vast swathes of pure untouched nature, and things that only exist in the minds of your worlds most skilled readers. Which brings me to myself and my sisters."

"My name is Adagio, Adagio Dazzle. The one at the stove is Aria Blaze, and our little one there is Sonata Dusk. As you already know with me, I am not human. Neither are they. We are all the same type of creature, but in this world we are human. We were known as Sirens. In our world, we were beautiful. I would like to think we still are by human standards, but it is hard to tell sometimes. I don't remember my birth, but I wouldn't expect you to either. We were a powerful race once. There were a large number of us. We had an impressive kingdom near the edge of a large ocean. We were at peace. I can remember sharing most of my childhood with my nest mates. We were closely resembling what your people would have called ... Hippocampi. These, I believe, were Greek. Ancient creatures your 'great' story tellers sprinkled into things to justify their meat heads doing dumb things and 'being heroes'. I digress. We were young by our standards, but even then we were old by yours. Ours was timeless, it comes with being as magical as our race was. Our oldest was thousands and thousands past any other, and even then the ravages of time did not begin to plague them. We thought our own little secluded world would be just that...simple. We were wrong."

"They attacked suddenly one night. Caught us all off guard. Our people didn't know war, but there's did.  The Griffons. They swooped in and...and took everything from us. They stole our riches, our art, our statues, anything that could have determined ANY kind of wealth. They took it all. We let them have it because we thought they would leave us alone later if they did, but they didn't. They came back for us. They killed our men first, they tried to defend us...we had no weapons. None of us did, there was never a thing we had to deal with that we couldn't solve with our voices. They were ruthless in the slaughter. We could only hide in the shallows, mostly because we were too afraid to leave our great city in the reef. Once the men were gone, the went after the others...there was no chance. I can remember only bits and pieces. I remember a few of the Nest Mothers move us somewhere, covered us up with seaweed and wood...and then...silence. I didn't move for days, and I kept Aria and Sonata close to me. Mostly we slept, waiting for our caretakers to come back. When we finally emerged from our hiding spot...we were the only ones left. I'll never forget the smell...the death, the destruction, the fires. We walked around the remains of the city for days, picking at what food we could. I wanted to cry, I wanted to die. But...I was older than them. They had yet to shed their first coat of scales. They were still innocent enough to only be confused on what happened. The reality of it hadn't sank in. I had to be strong for them, because they would die without me. Everything about our people was gone. The reef was slowly sinking from the rampage hat had happened. They had destroyed some of the supports we had keeping the city up and afloat. The ocean was pink with the remains of the slaughter, and scavengers had begun to move in to clean up. We saw only some feathers amongst all of the carnage of our people, the only proof of our attackers, an the only proof that we had at least tried to fight them off. I led them out of the city, and into the woods. We took shelter in a cave as I took command as a mama bear."

"We lived in the woods for hundreds of years. I know that SEEMS like a long time, but it is still infantile in our terms. The others had grown stronger, and our powers had finally began to facilitate. We, as sirens, much like in your peoples stories, had the uncanny ability to sing and control. It was just the gift of our people. It was more like...having an influence over the situation a bit better. We were always taught to be peaceful, and to never influence free will. But...desperate times called for desperate measures. It was how we survived. We would enchant the ones who got too close, and then bewitch them into thinking we never existed, and to go far away. After a time, Aria had the idea of making them give us all of there supplies first before we made them disappear. It was how we survived after that unfortunate day, and we did it without guilt or remorse. Any people or travelers that would come by, we would use our voices to witch them away. It took all three of us, we were still so weak and so new and had no teachers to help us. Each day we grew stronger though, I made sure of it. I became our mother, and in time we grew into our own. I knew we couldn't live like this forever though. There was too much fear and too much uncertainty. We needed somewhere with more...magic, since our peoples' essence had been lost. And my desire to do so couldn't have come at a better time. We gathered what few trinkets we wanted to keep from our few hundred years in the woods, and swam west across the oceans. We had heard of a mainland there from the travelers...but we still had no idea for sure. Not too long after we had left, a terrible storm hit. We managed to be far enough out at sea when it happened to not feel any real effects...but we got to watch as it destroyed the woods, and what was left of our homeland, effectively erasing it from existence. I remember there was so much lightning, so much wind. And I could swear that maybe... JUST maybe, I heard laughing and cawing from the clouds above. We were all that was left for real now."

"It took almost a week, but we finally reached a beach. It was populated, covered in ponies of all colors. Ponies! We had never seen another creature like us before. We were exhausted and weak. Worst of all, they regarded us as monsters the moment they put eyes on us. They all fled from us. It didn't hurt me so much, I was already hardened from what had happened. But the others...it broke their hearts. I led them from the beach into the mountains not too far from where we had made landfall. That proved to be fool hardy unfortunately, and we almost lost ourselves to dragons. Dragons! Of all things! I had thought once we began to see them up there, that with our scaly tails...they would consider us safe? Maybe give us refuge. I don't think I have ever been more wrong. They hated everything we were. Abominations I think was the choice word they used. We ran as far as we could from the burning place. We tried settling inside of another forest away from those terrible mountains, but that proved to be EVEN WORSE. It was an odd place that was just...too alive. Too strange and different. Everything was alive in some way. We found weird beasts made of wood, odd thorny vines that couldn't be stopped. There was weather that was only over the forest, and there was the cave...that cave with the crystal tree...there was too MUCH magic there, and it proved to be too much to even be in the same air as it. And don't get me started on the ruined castle. We were not welcomed guests and it made us painfully aware of this fact. We had to flee after only a week. Eventually, we settled on a tiny plateau not too far away from a quiet, serene little valley. It had clean rainbow water, and trees and bushes that could provide us with all the sustenance we would need. We decided this would be our home. And we made it as such."

"I took care of my two sisters as best as I could. I call them sisters but, in truth, we come from different clutches. I couldn't call them children but...in a way they almost were. At least to me, I wasn't too much older, but my outlook was adult. We lived on our little hill side for a long time, we never wanted for anything, and all was at peace for us. IT gave us plenty of time to work on our singing, and on our magic voice. That was of course, until we saw them move in. Ponies, three different types to be exact. The Earth ponies, strong and mighty, they were able to work the land and started to grow food, bounties and bounties of food, and set up a small town called Ponyville. But...they began to tear up and destroy the valley as they did. We lost trees and animals. We simply would move when they got close...but it didn't make it better. The second type came in on a massive cloud city, the Pegasi. Great ponies with majestic wings like eagles, they had command of the skies and the weather, and helped the farming ponies to have suitable lands to farm and cultivate. But...they had such command of the weather, they would often create and make it to whatever they wanted on a whim. And those wings...those feathers...it was like watching our demons from the past come back. Aria and Sonata never would be ok with them. And the terrible weather made us leave our warm sun filled hillside, and we had to YET AGAIN take refuge in a cave like filthy monsters. The last ponies, the Unicorns, were the type that most interested me. They came and built a great city up in the mountains, not too far from us, called Canterlot. They had the ultimate command of magic, and did almost nothing of their own accord, yet they controlled vast untold amounts of wealth. They had the royalty and ruling classes, and also were greatly the most intelligent. Our...well...MY lust for power told me I needed them."

"I won't lie, what we did wasn't right while we lived there, or anywhere close to being moral...but it was what I thought needed to happen. For us, for my family, for the only people I had left. It started out simple enough...our voices had grown in such a way we could more permanently convince people to do what we wanted. I wouldn't call it brain washing per say...more like, extreme cases of long term persuasion. We only had a few at the start, just enough to keep us with a steady supply of food, water, shelter, and the occasional amenity. We lived like this for hundreds of years, living like ghosts of the fringes of Unicorn society. We were safe, we were protected, and we did not want for anything. And then...we became greedy."

"We began to take and ask for more than we could keep. We began to take culture, we took riches, wealth, knowledge. I had them build a library for us, and a music studio. We had caterers come to us and cook fancy meals for us. Service ponies would come and massage us, oil our scales, and polish our hooves. Singers and dancers would come entertain us like we were deities. We were no longer simple manipulators taking the excess before it was wasted...we became parasites in our paradise and in their world. And it wasn't long before they caught us. Oh, and when they did...it was terrible. Horrible. One of them had broken free from our magic spell, mostly because we had been sloppy with remembering to make sure how influenced they were. They came as an angry mob. Pitchforks, torches, bags of feathers, you name it, they had it. But, we learned something else we never knew...we could FFED off of that power and grow strong. In our taking of their wealth, we came in possession of great gemstones. Soul stones I think they were called once. Because of some of our inherent, natural magic, we were able to bond the gems to us, and the results were beyond expectation. They caused us to gain power one hundred times over, but more so, we could store our magic, or magic power around us to be used later, or to even feed off of. At this point, food had just become a gift, or a hard habit to break. When they came to run us off, all of the anger, the hate, the pure NEGATIVITY began to fall from them. And we could see it. We could feel it. We could taste it, and we used it. We pulled it into us, and our voices became unstoppable as we did. We were able to overpower their shields and spells. We screamed loud, and we ran them off. Our lives changed in an instant. We were no longer frail and scared. We were powerful, mighty, magical beasts that demanded equal parts respect and fear. We were as gods now in our own rights and minds. But with great pride...comes a great fall."

"It was simple enough. In Ponyville there was a competition. A musical one of all kinds! My sisters and I were ecstatic. We prepared songs the night before, and went together down to the town to enter. They were so...excited! I think for the first time I actually got to see them as they should have been, excited children enjoying just being young. Normally, this contest was for ponies only. We were...allowed...a one time only exception so they didn't ruin their friendly reputation with us, but more importantly, with the other towns and people around them. We waited hours until it was finally our turn...and it was bad. Like BAD bad. We were booed off the stage and ran out. We were using our real voices, our real talent...which apparently wasn't TOO great on it's own. We didn't want magic to influence us this time, but in only focusing on that, we had forgot how to actually sing. WE ran back to our cave to cower and lick our wounded pride, but I wasn't ready to quit. In a few hours I had fixed our routine into something that hopefully anyone could love, something more with the times and modern. We went back and tried again. They let us back on because people had gotten such a laugh, they were hoping they would get it again. This time, we BLEW THEM AWAY! I still remember the loud, thunderous applause. We were so great that it attracted someone of great importance...a Unicorn by the name of ... Star Swirl the Bearded. I say this with disdain for a reason. He was a pony of unstoppable magical might, but he is the reason we are here, and exactly like we are. He was so interested in what we could do, that he too wanted to challenge us. So he did. We battled for days and days...mind you this wasn't with magic or force, this was with sound. We went down in history for creating every musical genre that Equestria had...and probably still does. In the end, we defeated the greatest magical source in the land. We won, us! Three orphans from a society that was erased. We cried out tears of joy. But only anguish would follow. He was so...angry, so filled with hate, that he did the unthinkable. Rather than admit defeat at the hands of three 'savage monsters' he tore out some...device. A mirror of sorts. He cast a spell and threw us in it. When we came too...we were here. Stranded in a field of grass, locked inside the bodies you see now..."


~


Adagio had finished, her head hanging down low above the table. Her breathing was a little ragged, and it was obvious she was close to losing it. Everything she had just told and admitted was obviously very difficult for her. Aria had stoically passed out plates to Adagio and Magnus pilled high with spaghetti. Sonata was snoring quietly, her head on her arms, drooling slightly. Aria smiled at her, and left the kitchen, only to return after a bit with a blanket, draping it over Sonata. Magnus smiled at this cute display. She really was like the child in this little family. Adagio had already begun to eat, not bothering to look at Magnus. "That was...extensive." Magnus said picking up his fork.

"But do you believe it, is the real question." Adagio glanced up at Magnus as Aria replaced everyone's empty drinks and took off her apron to sit down with her own mug of coffee. She had no plate in front of her, but instead was chewing on a granola bar. "I can tell you honestly that everything was the truth, none of it was made up, and all of it helped make us into who we are today." Adagio looked up again and wiped her mouth delicately with a napkin.

"I...well...while it does seem to be on the border of fantasy, I've seen you do things today that fall into a more believable place with what you have just said. So, yes. I believe you." Magnus looked at Adagio, and then to Aria, who's face was full of concern.

"Adagio, you showed him things? We talked about this." Aria's eyes were squinted in anger. Everyone looked to Sonata briefly as she cooed and stirred in her sleep, pulling the blanket up closer to her and sighing contently. 

"Only the simple things, calm down Aria. It was only to prove a point anyway." Adagio gently patted her hand. This eased Aria's face a bit, but her eyes were still full of the worry she had. Or maybe it was placed with mild annoyance at being petted like a cat.

They sat and ate quietly. Magnus tried to think of what to say or ask. His mind was full of everything that was just pummeled into it. Aria eventually got up to start cleaning up, telling Adagio about her day, and some of the trouble Sonata got into. Magnus couldn't help but keep smiling as the two bickered back and forth like an old couple. A married couple. He himself didn't have much memory of his mother and father's married life, but what parts he did have were more angry and distant. This seemed light and aloof, and in some way, seemingly full of love, regardless of the tone used.

Dinner eventually passed, and more coffee was dispensed. Any kind of fatigue Magnus had from the long day was now gone, and was replaced with jitters. The clock up on the wall was getting close to ten in the evening. "So, you told me at length what happened BEFORE all of...this." Magnus waved his hand around. "But, what about after you got here? It's apparent you have lived for a long time, but how much of that was here?" Adagio looked up with a little smile.

"I guess you aren't too scared to want to run. That makes you one of the good ones. The rest isn't quite as interesting, but If you wish to know, I can tell you." 

Magnus sat back in his chair a bit, gripping his steaming mug of coffee and nodded as Adagio continued with her tale.