With a loud crackle and a wave of energy, three figures appeared at once and collapsed almost in unison. Bits of smoke rose from the edges of their bodies and they looked just a little crispy for their journey.
Spike was the first to stagger to his feet. "Everypony alright? That was a rough trip, sheesh I haven't had a teleport that rough since Twilight got used to casting it."
Starlight looked up from where she landed and started to sit up. "Everything was happening so fast, so I wasn't thinking clearly."
"Nnnn," was Cherry's addition to the conversation. She rolled over, heaving for breath as her tail gave a weak slap. "What was that?"
They all rose upright, Cherry getting her mechanical legs working after a few twists of her wrench. "Where are we? What are these?" She walked over towards one of the many towering trees and ran a hoof along it before a splinter carried the tree's objection directly into the frog of her hoof and she keenly cried, wrenching the hoof away. "It bit me!"
Spike hurried to Cherry's side and took a look at her hoof, held in one claw as he leaned in. He could see the pesky splinter. "Hold still..."
"It has barbs?!" Cherry recoiled a little at the idea. "I didn't see any at allLLll, thank you." She pulled back her hoof, sore but no longer intruded upon.
Starlight gave a slow look around. "I wasn't really planning where we were going besides 'away'. Spike, do you recognize where we are? I can't see Ponyville from here."
Spike flicked the splinter away before shrugging. "Looks like the Everfree to me, but since we teleported in, I couldn't say which way is out. Starlight, you can fly, right? Go up and you should be able to see where we are."
Cherry frowned a little. "She doesn't have sky flippers, Spike. Why should she be able to fly?"
Starlight began to glow, her magic wrapping around the entirety of her form. "I'm a unicorn. We're notorious cheaters." She lifted off the ground several inches despite her lack of wings. "Spike, stay close to Cherry, I'll be right back, alright?" Spike gave an emphatic salute before she darted up through the foliage to survey their situation.
Twilight scowled from the chair she was tied to securely. "For the last time, I'm not being mind controlled. I'm not brain washed. Let me go this very instant!"
Mayor Mare shook her head. "I'm afraid that's precisely what a mind-controlled pony would say. This is for your own good, your highness."
Twilight's horn glowed angrily, but the haze of energy cut off about three quarters of the way up her horn where a heavy ring had been placed on it. Her magic would not come.
Emerging from the crowd, shoving ponies aside, came Applejack. "Now what in tarnation are y'all thinkin'? Trussing Twilight up like that, it ain't right." She clopped the ground with an angry hoof before advancing forward. "Ah'll have ya outta there in--"
Bulk Biceps grabbed her suddenly, hefting her off the ground so her hooves dangled and her powerful buckers couldn't get the leverage they needed.
The Mayor nodded at Bulk. "Thank you. Miss Applejack, your friend is under the control of a malevolent siren. Until we can be sure it's gone, we must remain on high alert and Princess Twilight Sparkle remains here, in our care."
With a streak of rainbows, a new pony arrived. "Alright, who's joke is this?" Rainbow frowned, surveying the scene.
"They've gone crazy!" blurted Twilight before a pony beside her stuffed a sock in her mouth.
"Nuh-uh, not on my watch." Rainbow darted forward, only to come to a screeching halt as a filly moved to be in the way. A filly she knew too well. "Scootaloo?! Get out of the way, squirt. I have business to tend to."
Scootaloo shook her head. "Can you prove she isn't being controlled by the siren? If we let her go, she might do something awful."
Mayor Mare nodded in agreement. "We'll gladly release her as soon as the siren is dealt with. We have nothing against Princess Twilight Sparkle. Why, I'd say we love her a great deal, and that's exactly why we'll keep her here, safe, until this emergency is over."
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes dramatically. "Fine! I'll bring you the stupid siren you're all so scared of, then you let Twilight go." Without listening for responses, she was gone in the same streak of colors that had marked her arrival.
Applejack looked over her shoulder at Bulk Biceps. "Don't suppose ya could let me go to go looking fer the siren?"
He snorted, but kept a secure hold of her. She sighed and sagged. It promised to be a long day.
Starlight poked her head out of the canopy of the forest, only to duck it immediately back down, narrowly avoiding the slavering teeth of some unidentified flying beast. She hesitated before timidly peeking out without revealing her unfortunately delicious presence. Her view was limited, but it looked like the forest extended a long distance in every direction. Was this the fabled Everfree?
"Do you see anything?" came from below, where Cherry and Spike waited.
She licked her lips softly. "Not so much..." Taking a slow calming breath, she conjured a protective sphere around herself and dared it one more time, only to shriek and flee. The creature was far from alone. It looked like a migration of the many-toothed horrors, and some had seen her.
Starlight burst into the clearing from above with wide and terrified eyes. Behind her came the strange beasts. They had dull-purple scales, narrow bodies and huge leathery wings that propelled them forward. There were three of them and they gave a communal keening shriek as they spread out and moved for the fleeing unicorn.
Cherry gave a cry of her own, but it more of terror than hunting. Spike was far more determined. "Hey, let her go!" He took a sudden deep breath and gave a gust of green flame that tickled at the belly of one of the creatures flying overhead.
It bellowed in pain, causing the other two to wheel around in the air. All three fixed their tiny eyes on Spike as they hissed, showing off their many teeth.
"Oh, um... good... whatever you ares?" Spike gave a nervous little laugh as they suddenly dove at him and sent him fleeing towards the edge of the clearing.
Cherry got moving for the tree line as well, following the unspoken cue of the others. Fortunately, the beasts' huge wingspan did not serve them well in dense foliage, and they did not try to pursue any of the three once they were out of the clearing. They roared and snapped at the trees, leaving rough and terrible marks on them, but eventually turned as one and moved back up to join their peers above the canopy.
It was very dark there, in the embrace of the forest, at least until Starlight's horn began to glow as she made her way towards Cherry. "I'm glad you're alright. Did you see which way Spike went?"
Cherry walked her way over to Starlight just to throw her forehooves around Starlight in a fierce hug. "What were those things? That was like a whole frenzy of sharks, with air flippers!"
Starlight softly patted her on the back. "It's alright. They're gone now, but where's Spike?"
"Right here." Spike fell in from above but bounced to his feet. "Are you sure they're gone?"
Starlight raised a hoof to an ear, listening quietly a moment. "Sounds safe. So, let's try to take this logically. Going up? Not so good an idea. You think those three were bad? There were a lot more of them up there, I promise you."
Spike felt behind his head. "I don't suppose you got a peek of Ponyville while you were up there?"
Cherry softly bonked him on the head. "I'm just happy she didn't get gobbled up." She took a careful step back and looked around in the dark and gloomy forest. "So which way do we go?"
Starlight frowned a little. "I guess, at this point, any direction's good if we follow it long enough. Let's stick together, stay calm, and we'll be fine."
Spike wriggled his fingers. "Why not just teleport back out the way we came?"
Starlight frowned. "Teleporting blindly is how we got here." She rolled a hoof impatiently. "You really want to try that again? I don't, and it's my horn, so let's get walking."
With that matter settled, they began their way, hopefully towards safety. Of course, they had no way to know if they were heading in or out of the gloomy forest and its dangerous inhabitants.
"Rainbow, darling, over here!"
Rainbow looked down to see Rarity in a trenchcoat and glasses, waving her closer urgently. She flew down to her friend. "Hey Rarity. I'm looking for that siren that's got everyone all worked up."
Rarity lowered her glasses a little. "What do you plan to do if you find it? It could mind control you, just like that." She clopped her forehooves. "Then it'd have the fastest pony in Ponyville on its side."
Rainbow blinked. "What? No way! Have you even seen this siren thing?"
"I've heard stories." Rarity frowned a little. "You shouldn't be flying around right now, dear. Come along, let's go inside and wait for this to blow over."
Rainbow put a hoof on Rarity's shoulder. "Hold up there. Twilight's relying on us! I'm not going to hide while an angry mob has her tied up in her own home, no way!"
Rarity glanced up at the purple castle before shaking her head. "I'm certain they're just trying to fix things. Mayor Mare would never harm Twilight. Why, the scandal of the very idea."
She left, and Rainbow was left alone. RD snorted with increasing agitation before her hooves crashed together with a loud clop. "Of course!" She knew one pony that may know of scary creatures! She darted off with a new plan.
I'm just waiting for Twilight to use the Royal Canterlot Voice to get everyone's attention.
So, I assume the speciest, xenophobic idiots of Ponyville who have clearly learned nothing from the Zecora incident will be appropriately punished for their actions and have to face the consequences? The Mayor, at the very least, should be dismissed on the spot (if not thrown in jail) for forming an illegal mob and leading an assault on royalty, and that would be her getting off lightly.
7179883 I'm sure she will be dealt with on the same scale of severity as MLP's other villians.
7179909
Tartarus, the moon or being imprisoned in stone sounds quite alright, yes.
Great chapter
7179914
Tried to destroy/conquer equestria, tried to conquer equestria, and DID conquer Equestria.
Yep, this sounds on par.
I now have a welt on my head from slamming it on the nearest hard and thick surface. I now believe that Ponyville is an insane asylum. The apple family are the wardens and Twilight was sent to help them out and find the non crazies to be let out. Now we know that they all need fitted jackets with their front legs secured. Twilight is correct this town is crazy!
I'm just wondering, why does Twilight not point out the obvious differences between Cheery and actual sirens? I mean, I know it probably wouldn't work, I'm just curious why she doesn't try.
That's a really long sentence. How about:
She walked over towards one of the many towering trees and ran a hoof along it before a splinter carried the tree's objection directly into the frog of her hoof. She cried keenly, wrenching the hoof away. "It bit me!"
(Also, it's rare to get a splinter from whole trees; that's more of a problem with cut lumber.)
Sorry, but I'm not buying the mob scene. At all. Mayor Mare, Scootaloo, and Bulk Biceps are all completely out of character. The ponies of Ponyville have already been mind-controlled by a siren once, so they know that it doesn't look like this. They also know that Cherry is ten times too small to be a siren besides being the wrong shape. And they are on good terms with the one siren they met, so they have no motivation to riot.
In addition, it is highly doubtful that backwater Ponyville would have a horn blocker, seeing as how there has never been such a thing in the show at all. Finally, it has been repeatedly established that it is near impossible to lay a hoof on Twilight; she teleports reflexively and would have been on the roof the moment they turned hostile.
Mostly though, none of the background ponies would ever oppose any of the elements. If Applejack told them to break up and go home, they would break up and go home.
smoke raised from - smoke rose from
avoiding slavering - avoiding the slavering
tiny e yes - tiny eyes
while you were up there. - while you were up there?
hooves crashed with - hooves crashed together with
*****
Reversal of the burden of proof, logical fallacy. It's up to them to prove that she is, BUT, mobs are not known for following formal logic.
I want to be as irritated with the ponies of Ponyville as others, but something makes me suspect that they are being controlled by someone that wants Cherry out of the picture. Otherwise why not call the Royal Guards in of they suspect foul play against Princess Twilight?
As always the writing and pacing are tight, and I feel genuine concern for Cherry and her friends.
7180017 You're dancing so close to answers, so close...
7179959 My goodness, it seems that the residents of Ponyville aren't the only ones riled up, are they? Some of your readers seem to be reaching for their torches and pitchforks, too Mr. Silver.
7180020 I tried to fix the typos, but they fled into the forest to join the other monsters there. I got new letters to take their places.
Things are getting dark (pun) around here. At least Cherry has Spike and Starlight, right? She'd do not-so-good on her own in the middle of those haunted trees that she still doesn't know the name of.
Yep it is proven mayor mares I.Q is definitely a -86 Ponyville ain't the brightest bunch
Suspicious, very suspicious. Who wants Twilight out of the way as any one stopped blockes the operation of the whole Rainbow OFC thing.
Maybe if Dash gets Zecora, they can catch up with Spike and the girls, as Cherry is going down with Stephen?
Well , look like the only ponies you can count on are the former vilains.
Seems legit , vilains are always smarter ... those smartly designed at least
That... or it is precisely Starlight's plan from the start !
I mean , she is proficient in mind control , powerful enough to hinder Twillight , intelligent enough to out-plan most of anything... She might have planned everything !
Scootaloo....didn't see that coming.
Though it's interesting can't wait for the next chapter :D
The hole "she must be mind control" thing is really irritating me.
7180017 yeah this mob is just too OOC. The mob should have come much later.
Commence read.
They were pacified pretty quickly.
Now a trek through the woods.
This whole conflict of mistaking Cherry for a siren is mostly left field.
Cherry's escapades and discoveries on The Dry were enough to make the adventure tag for me. By experiencing the narrtive largely from Cherry's POV, the story became exciting. It was liberating, eye-opening, adveturous and carefree for a story that wasn't a hardcore adventure. But your transition into the conflict was disbelievingly flawed. So much so, it ruined my immersion into the story.
While using the legends of sirens and their mind-control is a perfectly fair plot device, you hadn't foreshadowed it at all. When Cherry came to The Dry, there was no skepticism, apprehension or fear in the initial reactions of a single pony that saw her. So it is difficult for the reader to expect a siren-related conflict. In turn, having a mob hyped up on herd mentality come out of nowhere was super-forced and ridiculous. You also worfed Twilight excessively to let this happen too.
Sure, you needed conflict, but it felt like twisting an arm as I forced myself to accept something that came out of the blue without some foreshadow. In short, you forgot to lay important groundwork for the conflict.
Shouldn't there be tags for Spike, M6 and Starlight?
7180244 Wish granted.
7180203
While I totally see your point, the ponies near the coast could very well know more about seaponies than those much farther inland, like Ponyville. Perhaps the other ponies had heard of more than one kind of aquatic pony and assumed the best, while the ponies of Ponyville had not, and assumed it was the one kind they had heard of.
Or perhaps there is more here than meets the eye?
... ... ... Wouldn't magically contacting Princess Celestia and explaining what's happening fix this almost immediately? Y'know with Spike's magical fire breath? Starlight, if she's magically capable, could summon or transform something into paper and pencil / quill / pen / whatever. A piece of bark and a sharp stone would work as well. Note gets to Celestia, she chews out Ponyville (who by the way are actually behaving competently -- if misguidedly -- for once, which is more suspicious than the whole 'siren' thing), we move on. And this is of course providing that Twilight didn't just... teleport away when they were trying to put the magic blocker on her horn. Or use that handy dandy force-field. Magic itself might not be the solution for all problems, but clever or thoughtful application of ones available resources is, and magic is one doozy of a resource.
Alternately Ponyville does the smart thing and... contacts Princess Celestia as well, since from their perspective there's nothing stopping the rest of them from falling under 'the siren's spell either, and they don't have any way of 'saving' Twilight otherwise. Y'know by like, sending Rainbow. Who then gets the full story from Twilight. And then chews out Ponyville.
7180198 Actually what if there really was a siren controlling Ponyville and they were after the sea-ponies for some reason?
PLOT TWIST
Hello ex-Mayor mare. After this I don't see her keeping her job and if anyone gets hurt from all this I forsee jail time.
7180431 Sirens eat Seaponies
7180453 Hell, I'd have her arrested for false imprisonment...I wonder if this counts as a coup?
what a great story you have written! i sure do wish luna would show up and help twilight!she would really quell that mob! this is one great story!!congrats to you!
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-
This image might be a spoiler, btw.
users.on.net/~damageinc/13hjbj.jpg
7180399
But that is the same problem. None of the ponies who saw Cherry acted in a way that hinted to this disposition, neither those coastal pony folk or the Ponyvillians. That is only your inference that you used to bridge the gap (unless you can cite a snippet that foreshadows this conflict, that would be nice).
Sure there was that old mare's tale about sirens that Twilight mentioned, but assumptions made by a legend take a back seat to the suspicions/dispositions of the (background) characters. These actions were important to laying down foreshadow for the upcoming conflict.
But aside from the siren myth Twilight mentioned, there is no groundwork at all. In hindsight, hearing her mention it wasn't the best desicion since she is a main supporting character. Twilight and her friends are the last people we'd suspect where doubt would take root, since they have gotten to know her well so far. It would have been way better if Mayor Mare/Ivory Scrolls had been the one to bring it up. She is the leader of the mob, so hearing it come from her in a fear-mongering way would have been enough for foreshadow.
Freaking ponies, why are you so racist?
7181356 You are correct. They are not acting rationally by the logic given.
Sirens are some kind of aquatic dragons, it still amazes me that they would think a hippocampus is one.
That's an interesting way of emphasizing an emotional outburst without turing it into an interjection.
7179914
My money's on 'public apology'.
7180203 Exactly this whole conflict should have been moved back and given time to build.
7181801
No, based on what happened to Starlight Glimmer. And, what the mayor is doing is literally no worse... There will be a spectacular musical number and Cherry will decide to be Mayor Mare's best friend (with all the levels of Pinkie Pie obsession that entails).
Then, after Cherry's run out of things to disassemble (using the mayor's guilt to manipulate her), the mayor's life will be in ruins and she will discover that Cherry is indeed an even bigger monster than she had first feared. Assuming television logic actually made sense in this scenario, which it doesn't at times, Cherry would then cease to develop her craft (spending the next 10 years obsessed with dismantling mechanical inventions she has no capability of putting back together again) because she has no knack for engineering...
Because, after ten years of being obsessed with something, everyone knows that in TV land you never develop any talent, expertise, or skills related to it. Why, I'll bet even Starlight Glimmer has __NO__ personal, political, or social management skills at all because she frittered all her free time away with that foolish hypnosis, mind control, persuasion, hocus-pocus. She's just totally above suspicion hanging out with Princess Sparkle as long as that siren is there. This would explain Spike's inability to micromanage or Fluttershy's inability to know the difference between aggression and assertiveness.
7181881
You just described the better part of my childhood there.
They saying twilight is mindcontroled its sounds like they are mindcontroled to me but anyway awsome story looking to see more of this
7183149 Fixed.
Can only imagine her speaking those lines in Mayor's voice from Luna Eclipsed (in Dire Clown costume)
I just, what? Do these ponies realize that they are now guilty of sedition? They could be charged with sedition quite easily and with little chance of getting out of it, in addition to kidnapping and possibly treason charges that could or could not be made to stick. Mayer mare is without a doubt going to see the inside of a prison for this as she is a government official in the government that twilight is one of the heads of. On top of that they are guilty of forming a mob with the intention of assaulting a declared foreign dignitary. This is the kind of thing that people go away to prison forever if not executed for in real life.
Well this story went off the deep end.
7183154 thy don't seem to be in the ever free or else thy would have seen celestias mountan
Okay i'll bite, WHAT THE HELL WERE THOSE THINGS?
...
Is it wrong I want to see most of ponyville charged, sentenced, banished and imprisoned in the place they're banished to?
See this kind of stupidity is how wars start. Bunch of gullible idiots think some innocent person is evil. They murder said innocent person. The ruling body of the native country of said innocent person goes to war over the murder. Nobody wins.
Who the hell even started that shit?