57 - Songblocked
Dear Twilight,
I am saddened by any news that means you will be away from us longer, but I am proud of your reasons for it. Do what is right for your friend, and we will stay strong here in your absence. Applejack reports that she has organized a militia of volunteers to protect Ponyville and your castle. She sends her love and included is one of her apples, freshly harvested. Rarity has been dispatched to deal with labor issues in Manehatten, where she has been making excellent progress with delicate negotiations. Rainbow Dash has been taking her duties as weather mare seriously and keeps the area free of dangerous disturbances. We have not been able to reach Fluttershy. She did not reply to the letter I sent her, but I will dispatch some guards to check in on her.
May Those Same Stars Bring You Home,
Celestia
This was a good morning. Twilight felt the crisp air was full of possibilities, and it is with that positive attitude that she gathered up her friends eagerly in front of the guild hall. "Let's see if we can't get at those books," she said firmly, as if it were some kind of battle cry. She was met with eager cries from her friends and they marched in step through the city, only stopping when a nervous stallion stood before them.
"Excuse me," he said, raising a hoof to point at Spike. "I wanted to thank that one, for saving me the other evening. That was very brave of you."
Spike smiled and flushed, unused to sudden praise, "It wasn't anything. I'm just glad you didn't get hurt."
The stallion shook his head, "Of course it's something. You could have kept the money, or ignored it, or even killed that mare. I'm told she's in jail now, and maybe she'll come out a little better than she went in." He approached Spike, "May I know your name, dragon?"
"Spike," Spike volunteered, reaching out a hand and shaking the offered hoof when it came.
"That is a fitting name, Sir Spike. I'm Silver Streak," introduced the stallion. "Nice to meet you. Good luck in your journeys."
He quickly dismissed himself and let the party continue as Spike smiled, "It's like the Crystal Empire all over again."
Twilight raised a brow, "Do you feel you earned it, this time?"
He quickly nodded at Twilight, then paused, "Hey! I earned it at the Crystal Empire too!"
Twilight didn't answer him and they all walked onward, reaching the guard station that barred the way to the castle. Pinkie Pie bounced to the front, "We're here to get new appointments!" she called out to the guards standing there.
One of the guards, a mare, looked at Pinkie dubiously, "Appointment for what? You look like a trouble maker."
"What?" asked Pinkie, surprised, "You said that stallion would be back, you personally," she pointed at the mare she had seen before.
The mare shook her head, "I never saw you before. You should go before we arrest you for creating a disturbance."
One of the other guards stepped forward in solidarity, drawing his blade as he came.
Twilight shook her head, "We're not here to cause trouble. We just want to speak to the majordomo about visiting the library." Her words were met with a raised sword and she shuffled back quickly out of the way.
Long Road advanced to take her place, "Now see here. This is no way to treat a mare of Twilight's stature, or to show gratitude to those who have helped you before."
"You're not welcome here, ass. Get yourselves out of our sights, last warning," said the female in practically a hiss. The group drew back around the corner.
Spike raised his shoulders, "What was all that about? They just kept staring through us."
Long Road raised an ear, "You noticed that too? I thought it was just me."
Spike shook his head, "Like they were brainwashed or something."
Pinkie clopped two hooves together, "Like when that siren visited Ponyville?"
Spike quickly nodded, "Yea, exactly. Maybe they're being controlled."
Twilight tapped her chin, "That could be it exactly. Spike and I will go over the wall and see what we can see."
Soft Mane pouted a little, "Can't I come?"
Twilight shook her head, "The less ponies, the less likely we'll be seen. Just a quick peek." She spoke some words of power and touched Spike with her horn, making the dragon vanish from sight. She quickly repeated the trick for herself. "Let's go. If we're not back in five minutes, something went wrong."
Soft singing reached their ears as they quickly flew over the castle grounds and they came down just to the side of a small pond by the side of the road winding up to the castle. Within were three very familiar figures sunning themselves and watching the road for anypony wandering past.
* Picture used without permission by Ilona the Sinister
Twilight staggered back into an unseen Spike, almost knocking the both of them over as she exclaimed, "Sirens!"
The orange one whipped her head around, scanning over the area the voice came from, "Sisters, did you hear that?"
The blue sea horse blinked and cocked her head, "Is it a friend?"
The purple one struck the blue one on the back of the head, "No, Sonata. That's the voice of Twilight!"
The orange one smiled, showing sharp teeth, "No scraps of magic in this world, girls, let's show her how we really play." She began to sing in soft wordless tunes, the other girls joining after an instant, joining her in their lulling tune.
Spike had already fled, thinking Twilight was with him, but this was not the case. Twilight's ears fell and her eyes became glassy. The song filled her every thought and she trotted towards the pond, desiring to be closer to these fascinating creatures and do what she could to make them happy.
Spike landed beside the waiting companions, "It's the sirens!" he yelped, making them all jump.
Pinkie blinked at the blank spot from where Spike's voice came. "I can't see you, Spike, and what are sirens?"
Spike waved his claws manically, though none could see this, "Sirens, they were on the other world, with all the humans. But they're here, and they have all their magic! Uh, Twilight? You could explain better. Twilight?" The sound of the worried dragon's footsteps wandering around as the eyes of the others followed the sound.
"Spike," said Long Road, "I don't think Twilight is with you." He scowled, "We have to save her. Tell us everything you know."
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Oh Cool!
And your right about time I read a well written story with the siren's in there birth form.
Hope there is gonna be an explanation on how they got there.
Now this is gonna be good
Oh poop. That's definitely not good, especially if the sirens work enough like the usual Pathfinder ones that they can make Twilight attack her friends. Still, the question becomes how they got here from Canterlot High's universe. As Adagio said, magic's all but dead on that world, so what got them here, and how? Given the sheer amount of tribulation in just trying to get to a library, I see the hoof of a god here. Either Kara is much more displeased than she let on (in which case, why didn't the dopplegangers just kill Soft?) or she's not the only deity upset by the disrupted status quo.
Or I'm wrong. Also a possibility.
In any case, getting reinforcements might be a good idea. After all, there's an adventurers' guildhouse nearby, and mind-controlling fish-horses in the palace are everyone's problem.
Oh, and the song made your fingers slip a little:
This is one of those weird bits of English. Because ponies are discrete units (unlike the more nebulous concept of probability,) the comparative should be "fewer."
5535634 Thanks for snapping me out of it. Typo fixed. Did you notice that Twilight and her friends tend to say 'pony' while others usually say 'one' or 'people'?
Kara is Kara. She is a goddess of subterfuge. Winning a literal religious war by outright murdering the other side is admitting weakness and showing how frightened she is of the new/old goddess. Of course, if a third party she puts in the way causes them harm, well, not HER fault, or so she'd say. The doppelgangers are hers, the sirens are, at best, hired help.
5535639
Ah. She has to work within her domain. I suspected that might be the case. I just hope there's no pony god of pragmatic evil.
5535650 Oh, there are, but they have no particularly big gripe with Lashtada.
The Nightmare is about controlling the night to fulfill your ends. She loves practical evil to get what you want.
Blaze is about the love of battle, and would be right behind any solution that involves hitting it with everything you have in a brutal assault until it stops moving.
Either agent those two sent would be much more immediately lethal to deal with, where as Kara sends more subtle foils. But neither of the other two care about love, where as Kara's turf is being impinged on.
Oh good, Pony-form sirens. Kelpies are way cooler than high-schoolers.
A siren visited Ponyville?
5652748 Comics.
It really sucks when the party mage gets hijacked by the enemy...
5535663
And then maybe nuke it just to be sure.
I have no idea about who are those three, I didn't saw EQG yet. But hey, my specialty is to discover things far from their source!
Those guards seemed pretty hostile to me. Is it influence from the sirens, or they act like this against every troublemaker? Because the guards in my Pathfinder games are more apathetic.
7574092 Being brainwashed does nothing good for their manners.