Dear Rose:
I know sending your reports to me must be inconvenient, so I want to thank you once again for going to the effort. Sunset’s been doing her best to get them to me as quickly as she can, still sealed of course, so don’t worry about that. Usually she gets them to me when I send her my weekly package of newspapers and magazines. After I read the reports, I send them on to Celestia in Canterlot. I don’t know for sure, but she probably shares them with Luna too. (It still feels a little weird for me to be calling them by name, without any titles or styles, but they insist on it.) After that, I think the reports get filed somewhere in the palace for future reference. They have better facilities for that kind of thing anyway, and any time I need them again I can ask.
I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise the sirens are struggling with their studies. I’m pretty sure they never got any formal schooling before they were banished to your world, and I doubt they attended any classes after that. Even when they were enrolled at CHS they never bothered to show up for anything except Battle of the Bands assemblies. They don’t strike me as the sort who value education, which is terrible! It’s no wonder Mr. Rhetor is having so much trouble, even without having to deal with their grumpy attitudes. I hope he’s able to make more headway in the future, and I think he’s absolutely right about Sonata. I talked with some of the faculty at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but we just don’t have the science here yet to diagnose cognitive difficulties like that so clearly, or to address them as effectively, so she’s much better off there for now.
At least he and Ms. Harmonia seem to be doing the best they can. I’m sure it can’t be easy for them, since the sirens definitely are what Sunset says you folks call “a handful”. Just one of them would be trouble, and three of them must be more than three times the trouble. I’ll bet their own children never gave them so many problems, but you did say they spent a lot of time in some pretty rough places dealing with some pretty rough people, so I’m sure they can work with the situation if anypony anybody can.
Now that I think about it, I should give you some of that advice you asked for when we met in your office, since we didn’t have time then. I don’t think the sirens are likely to be physically violent, unless they’re driven to extremes—they always worked by manipulating those around them rather than by force. They may even be physical cowards, but I’m not as sure about that. They’re very self-centered, of course, which makes sense with their background, and they definitely are bullies, which fits the profiles you included in your first report. Speaking of which, I shared the article you attached, about how bullies actually think more of themselves, not less like common wisdom has it. It was a real eye-opener for me, and for the school faculty! I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some quiet changes in Equestria’s school systems.
They must love each other deep down, though, because they’ve always stuck together even when things were really bad for them, both before and after the Battle of the Bands. Part of it may be that “us against the world” thing you mentioned, but I think there’s more to it than that. It’s not clear from the record if they’re related, but they sure act like sisters. They squabble a lot, but they’ve never left each other, and I think that’s important. But I guess you probably already figured that out.
During my trip to Canterlot and the School for Gifted Unicorns, I spent some time in both the school and the palace libraries, trying to dig up anything I could on the sirens. There wasn’t a lot, I’m afraid. It was a long time ago, before cheap printing was available, so there aren’t a lot of records with more detail than brief mentions, like in surviving log books and similar things. Still, I went ahead and collated all the mentions we could find. (I got some help from a friend of mine in town and a couple of research librarians.) Those notes are attached. I don’t know how useful they’ll be, but you did say you wanted any information you could get, even if it seemed trivial.
Oh, I almost forgot. Sunset told me of an idea your world’s Twilight Sparkle had that I should have thought of first. The big mystery we all wondered about is the time differential between the two worlds, with the portal opening up for three days every thirty moons for centuries, but the sirens showing up in your world only a little while ago. I’ll bet the people there who know about it, like you, have wondered too! Well, the idea Sci-Twi (that’s our nickname for her) came up with was, the sirens got stuck in limbo until Sunset used the portal to go from our world to yours. Somehow that let the sirens fall out of limbo into your world at the same time. You can ask Sunset about it for more details if you need them. When she first heard the idea she wasn’t happy, because it was one more thing for her to feel guilty about, but there was no way for her, or anyone else, to know it would happen!
The sirens must have been pretty young when they were banished, but that does kind of make sense because they turned out to be such brats. That doesn’t answer the question of why they didn’t try to come back when the portal opened again, but my guess is they didn’t know it existed, so naturally they wouldn’t know they could get back at all.
Anyway, I should finish this up. If you need anything else from me, or from Equestria, please let me know. If I can do it or get it for you, I will. That’s a Pinkie Promise! (Don’t ask.) And I really, really do appreciate getting your reports, along with the interesting attachments. If nothing else, they’re teaching us some important things.
Your friend,
H.H. Princess Twilight Sparkle