//------------------------------// // Ch. 4 How Short Life Can Be // Story: Of Sirens and Feathered Serpents // by TheronSniper //------------------------------// Laid out on the unused workbench, Adagio surveyed the meal brought to them still steaming hot fresh from the kitchen. The Dazzlings were awed at the savory dishes that were said to be of asian cuisine, flavorful and filling. Even if they were in white styrofoam containers, the chefs who produced the food carried the presentation through their takeout. Amazingly, beyond the mouth watering smells and the interesting packets of sauces and condiments. The sirens never tried this type of human food having sustained themselves at chain stores or simple things from grocery stores. Of course, back then they needed no real physical food to survive, and a regret surfaced at having spent so long on the new world without attempting a taste of what it had to offer. She made a mental note to fix that with what time they had left. The two lackies of Sentry had left without a word, somehow they knew they were thanked by the look of awe and lip licking by the girls who looked ready to pounce. Flash was the only one to remain, having had questions to ask but feared announcing them too soon would not bold well for him. And so he waited, watching the sirens taste and sample the extra goods that would enhance their dinners before either tossing them aside or lopping them into the bounties. Soon following, their ate with the same wild vigor as they had when they first ate after a few days, and it made him shiver at their ferocity. Thankfully the moment was as fast as their mouths and in a few minutes they were cleaning themselves up with the provided napkins and sighing contently. Hovering in their culinary induced euphoria, Flash jumped on the chance, "So uh... how's everything been?" Adagio smacked her lips as she sat on the large comforter they were given to sleep on, "Good, very good." "Were you able to do everything you needed to do today?" he asked. "Ya?!" Aria scoffed, "Finally got all that grim off us if you didn't notice." "Totally cool for realzies! It was sooo awesome to feel a hot shower again!" Sonata nearly shouted in joy. "Yes, we've met our more basic needs and the food you brought was very satisfactory. Thank you for asking." Dazzle smiled at him in a weird way. He locked up at the way her eyes fell upon him, "GOOD! Good... like I said you girls have use of this place till your back on your feet." the feeling of sweat starting to peak out of the pores tingled his skin. The golden siren nodded, "Another thanks from us, we'll be looking for jobs tomorrow. We don't plan on hunkering down here for too long." He wanted to ask what he stayed for to get a reaction to, but something kept pressing him to stall as he leaned against the wall, "For as long as you have been here, I don't think you'll have a problem. But best of luck to you anyways." Dazzle leered at him curiously, his odd way of trying to strike up a conversation perplexed her for a time. She half expected him to be in and out, having little to really do with them with whatever busy little life he thought he had. While the other girls basked in the feeling of satiation, she took the chance to investigate. "I hate to beat the dead tree trunk, but why are you still here?" she asked playing with a curly lock of orange yellow hair. He tensed up, feeling the desire to evacuate the shed if something hadn't still nailed his body into place and seemingly answered for him, "I'm... not sure? Guess I feel like I must know my new neighbors for the safety of my home and parents." She scoffed, "Really? You actually consider us a threat still? You were there, we're powerless and unable to feed off of negative energies without the rubies your little lover girl happily destroyed. But seeing as your such a prying eye I'll give you a bit of a fact to ease that mind of yours." "And that is?" he tilted his head and crossed his arms over his chest to act strong. The lead girl drew closer to him till they were nearly face to face, her eyes possessing a sense of control and fear inducing air about her. When she spoke, it came as whispers to let only his ears hear and only once as it seemed she'd say the words. Her hot breath flowing over his ears, "We were immortal before, and now that our gems are gone. We'll die soon... but we won't let your little Equestrian girlfriend break us. We will live life to the fullest, we will live like sirens back home, we will out do each and every one of you with your pathetic little lives of glamor and friendship. So fear not the walking corpses before you, we will be gone soon enough." As she pulled away, a look of absolute dread mixed with sadness painted upon Sentry's face. He could not even form words of which to respond, their eyes just glued to each other as the facts redid all he knew about them. Unless she lied to him, had the girls sentenced them to their graves? He had to know about the subject to confirm it and maybe have Sunset help them before their time came, a group of girls his band helped out and soon they would expire! Adagio watched the boy leave with a shaken spirit and a lost look about him, "I hear the Bahamas are a great place to start, once we get situated how about we make that our first place to enjoy?" Sonata cried out to the ceiling with a hoop and a holler, "Alright! I don't know what that is but sounds like fun!" "So long as they got fish and good booze, I hear that humans have a higher tolerance to alcohol than ponies due. Laying on a beach with their finest stuff and feeling the buzz we see humans sleep to seems like a good first go at this whole thing." Aria laughed having never drank before. "Yes... maybe japan too? I saw an advert for their airlines and the place looks plentiful and rich." Dazzle giggled as the three formed together on the comforter for a little nap their meal brought on. Flash's Room After hearing the latest news of their well being, Flash forewent asking them about the show dates and instead dived into his computer in the room. A slight mix of panic had him searching every site he could about immortality and its lore, his drive to seek the truth lead him to ignore his folks and miss dinner. They of which assumed he had a test coming up and had to prepare for, leaving him be to his research. Several hours after he began which nailed the clock at just short of midnight, a lone thunderstorm passed through. Distant crackles became frequent and louder as the little cell blew through. He could see the lightning through the blinds in his window to the backyard, but it did little to draw him away from his research. Rain poured in droves once the cloud system finally reached his home, an orchestra of cascading water off the roof and into the various surfaces around the house acted as the music for the work he took upon himself. How he wished the rain washed away the sinking feeling he had for the Dazzlings after everything narrowed down. All the supposed stories spoke the same language Adagio had told him not long ago. Immortals were beings sustained by some kind of source of power, regardless of the type if it were, suddenly removed from their bodies would essentially collapse their true age to the point it had naturally gone to sand and dust. Depending on the type of power, the befallen either suffered like a vampire thrown into open sun, others held on enough to last a month or so, and the lucky few just faded away from the world like a light bulb turned off. No sign or evidence of them even being there beyond their possessions they had, their physical bodies were beyond material remnants. The impossible couldn't be avoided anymore, they were killing the sirens. He had no such hatred in himself to allow such a thing to occur, no matter how bad someone was they did not deserve to die. Flash leapt from his room and stealthily escaped the house, exiting the back door and quietly going through the tall grass. He needed to see them again as the visions of dried up corpses or worse had come to mind ever since he looked up immortals and magic. Of course it had been sources of the human world, but they had to have some similarities given that the Dazzlings were Equestrians and in a magicless place like his home planet. After he gave a gander through the shed's window, he would shoot to Sunset even if he had to wake her. His pants and shoes long since soaked and retaining water as he hobbled through the rain. This was important, no one needed to be made murders for their ignorance, nor was his discomfort even a concern as the rain bit into his body heat fast. Then again he wondered why Sunset or Twilight ever thought of what fighting the sirens would really do to them other than stopping their ascent to power? It would be similar to a guy who went to martial arts classes and used those skills to defend himself, only to severely maim the poor thug into a coma? As he drew to the window his mind never stopped, ‘There’s no way they’re going to die. They can’t die! No one’s suppose to die!’ His heart thumped to the intensity of the circumstances, the horror that might await his virgin eyes. Reaching the shed wall quietly as possible even with soggy shoes making noise, pausing to catch his breath. Feeling as if the heart would jettison out of his throat, and quivering as the will to see the girls finally won out after the struggle. He was rewarded with sleeping teenage girls, all three of them huddled side by side as they dreampt in deep REM. A laugh would have escaped him had he not known the girls would have awoken from it, so instead he left the window and pumped a fist while his legs carried him out to see Sunset and wake her up in the middle of the night. Trying his best to not trip through the tall grass with the minor flooding going on. In the rush, what he did not see was the little snake resting on Sonata’s forehead coiled into a little ball under the bangs of her hair. The same serpent which she played with before the food had arrived, she had found it again after they ate their fill as it somehow gotten inside. She always enjoyed playing around with critters, and for sirens back home sea snakes were the best pets to have if you kept them fed enough. Their venom served as a great deterrent for monsters and hungry predators of the water. She successfully hid the snake in her clothing until night time came, and she brought it out to play with it some more once Adagio and Aria were sleeping soundly. Having let it work itself around her thin fingers while its tongue tasting their air, Sonata had a field day with her new friend as it offered her spontaneous interactions. Though eventually even her meal forced the rest they had to take, someone about this world's food which brought on the sandman. After setting the little snake on the floor near their impromptu bed, the cerulean siren soon slipped into a dream of Equestria right before Starswirl banished them into the mirror. They had just won the next to the last match with the old geezer, and the judges called for a break before the final event. Adagio and Aria were patting themselves on the back at the way they held the crowd sway, Sonata joining in as they relished in the negative emotions they’d been absorbing. “I can’t believe it, they still cry out for us! I haven’t felt this full since Aquestria!” Adagio shivered in ecstasy from the power coursing through them. “Worthless unicorn mage, no matter what he threw they loved us all the more. All those fans… mmhmmm so delicious!” Aria licked her teeth. “What are we going to do next Adagio? After we like stomp him and win?” Dusk inquired. “Aria, did you see the way he almost cried?! I could of sworn that one tomato that was thrown really hit his pride.” Dazzle laughed. Sonata tried again and again to say something to add to the after battle chat, but each time she did there was never any reciprocation. They ignored her and though it took a few more tries to really get the message across, eventually she stopped and went up to shake Aria into acknowledging her. “Blaze it’s not funny anymoreeeeeEORRR!!” she cried as her forelimbs went through her fellow siren as if she were nothing but a cloud of smoke. Plopping on the hard granite surface of the waiting room, Dusk picked herself up and studied what just happened. She used her tail to go through Adagio and the same thing happened and it all made sense soon enough as the gears in her mind went to work. “Ohhhhh I’m dreaming, right…” she pouted seeing that even in her dreams those two were still on a level above her. “Why the long face? Surely someone as talented as you should be living in some grand palace catered to by your adoring fans?” a voice hissed in the background behind the red curtain to the stage. “Wh…whose there?” she called out as she spun in place, her bulky length scrapping the rock floor after not activating the levitation spell they always used on land. “Meee? Oh I’m just someone like you! Someone with greatness and loving adoration rightly decreed by nature to thee, only to be stolen by another who wanted it for themselves!!” the hissing picked up its volume and soured the tone of the voice. “Like me? Are you another siren?!” she gasped. There was a pause at first and then a grumble, “No, but I am familiar with the defeat you and your kind have suffered. To cut to the chase, very soon the one known as Sunset Shimmer will be notified about you three and something will be done about it. So you need to trust me to get you out of this before a problem happens and they blast you again!” it warned, echoing all around the enchanted singer. “What’s she going to do? We’re already human?” Sonata whimpered hoping there was not a more horrible punishment than they already endured. “The fact that your without your gems is bad enough, you’re dying and she’s going to speed it up. So I suggest you side with me so you may live and get revenge!” the being of power spoke. “Uhhh… that’s kinda Adagio’s job? I just sing and support, I like tacos more than vengeance!” she quipped happily at the topic of food. “Fascinating…. Really….” The voice a sarcastic tone though Sonata failed to notice. “Uh so why can’t I see you? You some kind of ghost?” Dusk gasps, “YOUR like Casper the friendly ghost right! Come to see my dreams be good and get rid of the evil doers like the time the Rainbooms destroyed our gems?! She said exuberantly enough that even the voice had a pause before saying anything. “No... well sort of, look stay with me here.” Soon the world of the coltesseum vanished in a quick wash of dreamscape where the two soon hovered over open grassy plains and a coastline not far from them. The sounds of rolling waves crashing into the steep cliffs of what reminded Sonata of the Corish north, it made her giggle when their unique accents always brought out the best moods out of the trio. Save for Aria who hated most of everything and never buckled to even the most quiet of places. Why the being chose this place of all to talk to her was strange, but even more stranger when she actually looked around and found it. “Let me get into something more comfortable and then we’ll really talk. I hope you like this place, as it seemed to be one of the many parts of Equestria you liked the most.” The voice became a mixture of feminine and masculine tones talking as one, with a source of bright light manifesting to Sonata’s left not a few feet away. What appeared to be like a star that had fallen into her dreams shined with the might of the moon, and soon started to elongate. It reminded Sonata of those cooking shows where they chefs had made their own noodles out of wads of things called dough. The twisting writhing light of eye burning power reached an impressive fifteen feet if she guessed right, as if all three sirens were lined up together by any comparison. Cracks of black formed along the mutating oval until the webs reached the ends. It reminded Dusk of the worms in the mud when Aria once pushed her into a puddle after a previous failed attempt to get their magic back. They thankfully turned what would have been a hurtful act into a glorious day with the wriggling fleshy things she'd never seen before other than what lived in the ocean.These were harmless and not itchy things that liked to get in between the scales to suck out blood. She hated those worms as they were difficult to remove, Adagio forcing her to go see the cleaning wrasse in the reefs they passed often. Yet an earthworm was far from what was in her own dream, as the shell of light finally gave out under the stress that seemed to be exerted under it. With a sound of glass exploding, fragments shot in all directions, harmlessly passing through the siren as they disappeared into nothing but fuzzy dust balls. That was when it became clear who had invaded her nightmare as it felt. To her utter shock, it was not ghost or casper, not even a banshee of some kind with the sight of a green scaly body with golden belly scales leading up to a feathered head. Almost as if it were made of jade, the stone she remembered seeing in Neighpon once, gave of a magnificent jewel like appearance to the being. They reflected the surroundings like a dull mirror, commanding Sonata to awe in its impressiveness it rightly deserved. Of course the end of the other end appeared to be some kind of rattle or many gold ringlet’s attached to the tip of the hovering lengthy body. The face of her visitor finally put two and two together, with the huge ornaments adorning the golden accessories it was no mistaking who this was. “You’re a GARGOYLE!!” she innocently jeered. Having maintained a prime posture to compliment their mesmerizing stature, it crumbled at the misidentification stupendously. Which left the giant serpent to sag in disappointment much like how Adagio would. “Oh for the love of… NO you peon! Before you is a mighty god! One who once ruled over Mezzotech, the god of life, the light and wisdom of the Equeztec Empire, Lord of the Winds, and Ruler of the West!! We are Coatl, Quetzalcoatl! One who vowed to return to the Equeztecs and lead them to a new golden age!” the serpent hissed in fury at the indignity it suffered from the siren. “Opps, my bad, so sorry.” she grinned under the hateful glare of the coatl. “Not that I’d expect You to know anyways, I’ve been stuck here with my kind ever since that blasted blue monkey tricked me! Now I’ve been trying to get back and take what was rightfully mine from the egotistical toad who wants to ruin everything!” the god swirled around Sonata rapidly gaining speed and wind. Dusk tried to shield her eyes and ears from the vortex growing around her, but it was becoming very difficult as the eye of the tornado had started to pull at her. She didn’t understand what was going on and quickly tried to call out for the snake thing to stop. “PLEASE!! DON’T HURT ME! I’LL DO ANYTHING YOU WANT JUST STOP!” yelling as soon as her tail had been grasped by the whirlwind and began to drag her into the current. With one last breath, she felt neither tug nor gust which assaulted her a second ago, she could feel the grass beneath her and the sun shining on her scaly body. Her dorsal crest fluttering with her scared state, but with no sound of the horror that nearly consumed her it felt safe to open her eyes. Lifting her forelimbs off her head, she peered out as her eyes trailed up the serpent form hovering above her. A few inches from her snout was the viper itself, the red sclera and black pupil leading into nothingness bore into her mind. At this distance, the siren could make out the polished gold plates of armor and the stone guards covering the cheeks. She could see herself in the reflection, but her own fear ceased any attempt to have fun with it. The feathers seemed to be apart of the snake, which seemed weird to the former singer as she’d never seen even serpent dragons have any back in Equestria. It definitely looked the part of a deity, but the fangs it host gave it an all more sinister feel that even she wanted to back away cautiously. There was no telling what kind of poisons or venom it had to inject. “You… we are quite the same we are. I watched what happened to your group not long ago, just like me you were tricked. Losing your power to another, and banished into nothingness or at least before I intervened.” The coatl backed away winding in on itself like a rattlesnake. “You what?” she smiled while asking cluelessly. “I said I helped you, keep up with the conversation or forget the help then! Anyways, you realize what happens when immortals lose the power that sustains them do you not?!” it commanded an answer with the forked tongue flicking out in frustration. “Yes, Adagio said something about it and that we were going to go on a trip around the world to be happy! Something about showing up the ones who took away our magic.” She replied rubbing her head with a taloned forelimb. “Yes indeed, but she did not know that the effect was instantaneous with the removal of the source. When you ran away from the stage, did you not feel suddenly tired for a moment? Like the you would soon be heading to the golden city of Tenochtitlan as the other Equeztecs near death? Or whatever you call the afterlife?” it waved its rattler like a had to dismiss the likely wrong name for the siren’s grave heaven. Swishing her tail from side to side meekly, Sonata nodded to confirm the assumption. They did feel like sleeping when they left the Battle of the Bands, but nearly in an instant they were rejuvenated like a shot of human coffee Aria seemed to like every now and then regardless of them not really needing food or drink when they had the gems. “You would have turned into the sands of time had I not given you some of my power, and I have much to spare so long as you keep in my good grace.” A more female tone superseded the male pitch. “You mean… we… we would…” she stammered as a few tears started to signal a bout of crying. “Now now, Quetzalcoatl saved you so no tears my little one, you lived since and still do. Now as to the reason I’ve done so, your Equestrian are you not?” the coatl lowered itself to eye level with the hippocampi and used her thin tongue to remove the tears on her face before they fell. Sniffling and doing her best to not act on her emotions, “Y…yes that’s true.” “Good, then I still sense that magic in you three, it’s how I was able to give you life before it vaporized into this barren world. I managed to seal some away that latched onto it, so for now you’ll remain alive. There is a price for my kindness, you and your band of enchanted performers will serve me and get us back to Equestria. I’ve been stuck here for far too long and I need to see to my subjects… that is if the blue menace didn’t destroy what I and my kin created… the glorious city...” it sighed and mourned over its missing home. “You mean there’s a way back?! Can we get our gems too!” she floated towards the Coatl’s coils and stood on the lengthy muscle pile which did not seem to offend the god. “If you do not ruin the attempt I give you three, I will use my powers to restore your gems. All you need to do is find the portal those Equestrians seem to use to visit this world, find out if its guarded on the other side by protective spells of any kind. I don’t believe the ruling power on the other side would just let a portal exist without security of some kind.” It proposed using the end of its tail to wrap around Sonata and lift her with it as it rose up. “Once you have proof that the way through is clear, call for me and I will appear. Then we will go through and be free of the shackles of our exile to become what we were meant to be. So long as you stay clear of my lands of course.” Her tongue tickled Sonata’s muzzle as she giggled. “Well, I think Adagio would do anything to have power back, Aria wouldn’t care how we’d get them. How will I convince them though? They’ll think I’m just saying stuff and ignore me.” She pondered about all the other times she talked and how little they took her seriously most of the time. “I expected that, so I will show myself for a brief moment. Just make sure they’re paying attention. I can only use my power so much with the pressure of this world trying to suck it from my very being. I call this place a desert of magic for a reason. Now awaken…” “Awaken…” “…awaken…” Sunset’s Dormroom She awoke with a grueling haze of sleep that had been disturbed by the loud doorbell being assaulted by someone outside. Shooting off her bed and assuming a combat stance as if she were about to be attacked, a line of drool she had going that spotted her pillow she had slept on dribbled off her jaw. Her hands were ready to chop into windpipes of assailants and legs primed to buck anyone in the gut. The doorbell continued to howl, which it soon enough lifted the grogginess just enough she could open her eyes to see reality. “Huh?! Whaaa…?” she cracked the fleshy lids that exposed the dark room of her bedroom. Something kept crying out in the entire dorm, a ringing of some kind she couldn’t figure out what it was even as she stumbled to the door, jamming her pinkie toe into the door itself. Cursing in Equestrian, she limped over through the hallway and into the living room as tiny as it was before meeting the front door with her forehead. The thud surprisingly stopped the person that had continuously been calling on the house enough for her to respond to the dull pain and sensitive spot of impact. Sunset unlocked the latches and revealed herself, the pain from the outside lights flooding into the nocturnal state of the interior forced her eyes closed again. Some guy began chatting up a storm towards her with out stopping for a breath. Oddly enough it seemed familiar to her, but her mind couldn’t process it until her photo receptors adjusted to the artificial illumination. To which she soon made out the figure of a very wet Flash Sentry still chatting in panic. “… and that’s when I looked to the internet and found out that immortals die when they lose their power! Sunset, I think you’re going to be the cause of the Dazzlings death!” he bemoaned and grabbed her shoulders shaking the poor lass into alertness. “Calm down Flash! What’s going on with the sirens?” she groaned as it was too early for any hijinks for her. “Sunset, listen very carefully, I believe when you took their powers away, their immortality went with it. And if what I looked up is correct, without magic their age quickly catches up with them. You and the Rainbooms may very well be labeled as… murderers!!!” his seriousness seemed comical the way he spoke of it. “WHAT?!!? That can’t be, they should have just turned human! The transformation from siren to human form should have buffered the aging process into a standard human lifespan. Unless… they were that old… and I don’t know anything about siren magic either.” She stared through him as she thought about the graveness of the mistake to their reforming magical laser. She’d been the only other one that had been touched by the cleansing magic, but she wasn’t immortal. A regular unicorn with a standard set of expected years to live, of course she couldn’t compare herself to them how stupid were they to just assume they saved the world and not harmed magical beings who lived off dark magic? Why had Twilight not seen this coming? Five minutes of waiting and Sentry couldn’t take it anymore, “Shimmer snap out of it! We need to help them! Maybe send them back home? At least they could live maybe longer I don’t know! A world of magic for them, like fish to water or something?” he spouted desperately. “I need to talk to Twilight, come inside!” she yanked him in and slammed the door. She immediately flipped on the light and gestured for him to take a seat on the leather sofa while she disappeared into her room to acquire the magical tome she talked with the princess through. Flash removed most of his wet garments before he himself sat down and worried greatly. Worried even more that the pony Twilight would be counted as a possible culprit to their demise, was that possible? What kind of laws existed in Equestria that might find even heroes subject to law when even an evil creature is inadvertently killed? Sunset arrived and sat next to him, the air conditioning system kicked on as she opened the book to the latest page. He watched as she sent an urgent contact message first, to get her on the line. Much like how he texted with his band mates whenever either of them would be running late to a show or practice. It did not take long for the response to come, which read, ‘Sunset, I’m here, what’s the problem? You realize how late it is?’ “Good she’s awake! Now tell me everything you know so I can send it over.” She asked of him that he gladly obeyed. For the next ten minutes they spent sending a condensed form of his experience, right down to the way Adagio told him about their future in the human world. Whether this was a ploy of some kind, it did not seem to have any kind of a lead other than to gain trust of some kind. Yet with their source of power gone, what could they do technically? They were regular seaponies at best, maybe a kelpie at best without their magic of course just a possible talent for singing. Shimmer sent the options she thought of that included sending them back so they’d have a little longer to live and possible among their own kind. The rubies they sported were one of a kind and couldn’t be remade or so in theory, and they had no real knowledge of sirens to begin with. For all Twilight admitted, they were as unique as Discord possibly made by Grogar or some other fell caster who tried to make super weapons to combat the forces of good and harmony. With all the guesswork laid on the table, the Princess of Friendship fell back on the only thing she knew was right. She had to ask Princess Celestia about this incident and see what the crown deemed safe and permissible. ‘I’ll contact you soon once I get any response. If you can try to befriend them and keep them close. Notice any changes in their age or bodies, I don’t know how fast the process is taking upon them. But if it comes down to it… give them a little magic in anyway you can. Equestrian magic should be enough to prolong their lives. Your friend, Twilight Sparkle.’ Sighing heavily, “So there’s a possibility then… at least you’re in a loop with them. Go to the Dazzlings and try to do anything to keep them at your house. Better we can try to have them easy to get to rather than anywhere in this place.” Shimmer put a hand on his own, “I never expected this to actually happen, for the magic of friendship to be capable of… guess that shows how little I know about magic still.” Flash shook his head, “Even Twilight was unaware, don’t blame yourself because we at least caught it before it was too late. I’ll head over and make them breakfast, see if I can’t butter them up into staying.” “Go ahead, I’ll try to do some research myself, but… ahhhaaaaaaa… after I get a little more sleep. I don’t want to make a mistake again while I’m half tired. I’ll warn the girls, if we do make some kind of friendship with the sirens it’ll be best they’re ready and willing.” The two sat up as she set the magical book aside. “Right, goodnight then.” He said with a sullen tone, knowing the depth of the situation was not making anything any easier.