The Battle of the Bands ended days ago. Canterlot was beginning to return to normal now that the massive amounts of magic released during the event were finally calming down. The students of Canterlot High spoke of it to no one outside the student body, of course. There was no way someone who wasn’t present would believe them anyway. Some of them still couldn’t believe it, having seen it with their own eyes. Instead, the school simply celebrated another victory thanks to the Rainbooms chasing off the Sirens.
Said sirens were now sitting at the back of a fast-food restaurant, keeping to themselves. From anyone passing by, they appeared sleep-deprived. Bags hung beneath their eyes and their hair fell limply down their backs. Their usually glowing skin now looked lackluster and somewhat sickly. If one were to look at them more closely, though, it was clear something was… off.
Sonata held her head in her hand, forcing herself to take deep, even breaths. Aria leaned back against the seat in exhaustion, periodically grabbing a napkin to wipe the sweat accumulating on her brow. Adagio seemed the most put together since she merely rubbed her fingers against her temples, as if driving off a minor headache. None of them were anywhere close to being put together; all three Sirens were in excruciating pain.
Death was not something beings like sirens ever needed to contemplate before. They were beings of Equestria, having lived over a thousand Equestrian years in this miserable world without aging a single day. To make matters worse, time moved differently in this world than in Equestria, so they were this world’s equivalent of three or four thousand years old. Clearly, death wasn’t something they needed to worry about.
But that had been because of their nature as sirens. Their pendants, assigned to each siren at birth, kept them living. The pendants kept them healthy and allowed them to gain the energy they needed to keep going. The gems helped them eat. With the jewels’ absence, eating was borderline impossible, survival turned into a waiting game, and death became eminent. So here the trio sat, in silence and each other’s company, waiting for their final hour to end.
“Dagi, I don’t want to die yet,” Sonata murmured softly as she laid her head down on the table. It was the first thing any of them had said in several minutes. It wasn’t the first time Sonata was expressing her feelings on their predicament, but the further they spiraled, the more afraid she became.
Adagio’s heart sank at the light innocence in her sister’s voice. She gingerly patted the blue hair and fought down a well of guilt. They had argued over who was at fault for the ordeal the day after the Battle. After much screaming, Aria and Adagio had nearly come to blows before Sonata broke in and finished the fight for them.
“It doesn’t matter whose fault it is!” she had screamed. “We all chose this path and we’re all going to die because of it!”
That had allowed the situation to fully crash on the sisters. They had all tenderly touched the hollows of their throats where their gems once were, like they were currently doing. Feeling the skin rise to meet their fingertips as they fought to breathe properly, the sisters couldn’t stop the pang of loss at the emptiness.
“When we get reincarnated, I’m going to kill those rainbow freaks,” Aria snarled lowly.
Adagio shook her head sadly. “We’re in a different world, Aria. There’s no guarantee siren reincarnation will work. It didn’t for… them…”
They grew quiet, thinking of the sisters they had lost long ago to the Purge of their kind. They had been too small to know what was going on then, but with time, they understood and had grown bitter at becoming the last of their kind. Their rage at knowing why they were alone had solidified in their maturity and had been the prime reason their jewels only absorbed negative energy. Not that any of that mattered now. Equestria would be completely free of a siren problem soon. The last of them were about to take the species to the grave.
The trio lapsed into silence once more. Sonata’s breathing frequently broke into staccato beats and Aria leaned forward to help her get it back on track again. Adagio handed the violette napkins to wipe her cold sweat with whenever she finished helping Sonata. There was nothing the other two could do for Adagio, though. Her head felt ready to implode and only her constant rubbing eased a portion of the pain. It was only a matter of time now.
Footsteps came closer and the sirens glanced up slightly in confusion. They were at the back of the restaurant. They had chosen the area that would keep them away from the crowds so they didn’t bother anyone in their last moments. Who could be coming in this direction when there were plenty of other open seats near the doors?
A familiar voice spoke up nearby and the sirens resisted the urge to groan. The last thing they needed was one of their enemies finding them like this. At least if they were going to die, they would rather do it naturally rather than at the hands of those who put them in this position in the first place. Unfortunately, fate was in an unforgiving mood tonight as the voice only drew closer.
“Yeah, I’ll meet you after school tomorrow,” Sunset Shimmer murmured as she said a quick farewell to Applejack and hung up her phone. As she was storing it into her bag, she bumped into a table and heard an aggravated groan. Turning quickly to apologize, Sunset paused and cocked her head.
“Adagio?” she asked slowly, taking in the three sisters. “Aria? Sonata?”
“In the flesh,” Adagio huffed softly. For however much longer…
“I can’t believe I’ve found you,” Sunset said excitedly. “I’ve been looking for you three since the end of the Battle. I wanted to check how you were doing. Y-you ran off before I could talk to you. By the time we got off the hill, you were long gone.”
Sonata opened an eyelid and rasped, “Thanks for the worry, I guess…”
“We’re not interested in that whole ‘friendship is magic’ thing, though,” Aria grumbled, accepting another napkin from Adagio. “So if you’re here to ‘convert’ us or whatever, you can leave now.”
Sunset stared at the three women in confusion. It had only been a few days since the Battle of the Bands, but the sirens looked much worse for wear than they had then. Their usually-vibrant hair was limp and dull, and their complexions looked unhealthily gray. Their eyes housed large bags underneath and their voices sounded beyond exhausted. While these indicators were usually a sign of some sort of sickness, nothing else seemed to be physically wrong. They just looked like sleep-deprived teens.
Despite that, Sunset Shimmer could feel something… wrong coming off the trio. Their lackluster expressions and labored breathing told a different tale than what their appearances were giving off. Sonata’s chest fought to rise and fall, and Aria was sweating more than normal for… anybody. She and Adagio oozed fatigue and Adagio’s eyes had lost all the mischievous light they once had. The sirens looked… broken.
Her staring didn’t go unnoticed and Aria glared up at her. Mustering up the strength, she snapped, “Can we help you?”
Sunset blinked at her for a moment and bit her lip. “What’s happened to you three?” she asked quietly. “Something’s not right…”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Aria growled hoarsely, fighting to keep the menace in her voice. “We’re dying, you moron.”
“Dying?” Sunset repeated in dawning horror. No one could go from perfectly healthy to dying in just a few days unless something drastic had happened to them. “Wait… y-you mean… your pendants didn’t just give you power, they kept you healthy?”
“Without the ability to feed on emotional energy, we will starve to death,” Adagio explained wearily. “Human food prolongs our lives, but even that won’t stave off the hunger much longer. We will end up wasting away.”
This made Sunset swallow thickly. She and her friends hadn’t even thought about the implications of what the jewels breaking could have meant beyond stopping the sirens from hypnotizing people. Once again, not thinking about the effects of her actions on others had caused someone to get hurt.
“I-I’m sorry,” she breathed, wringing her hands anxiously.
Aria scoffed and lowered her head to the table like Sonata. “Just leave us alone,” she grunted as she closed her eyes tiredly. Please… just go away…
“We understand your compassion,” Adagio sighed to the standing woman. “But we would prefer our enemy not see us at the point of our demise.”
Sunset bit her lip again and slowly nodded, deciding to honor the request. Reaching into her pocket, she laid a small box beside Adagio’s hand. “I-I got this the day after the Battle,” she murmured forlornly to the lead siren. “When we first met, I noticed your nervous tic, so I bought this to help you.” Sunset turned away but paused and whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
As she strode away, Adagio stared at the box curiously. “Let’s open it,” Sonata prompted, drawing a faint nod from Aria.
“Can’t hurt at this point,” the violette agreed.
Cautiously, Adagio opened the small red box and gasped at finding a shining, purple, octafaceted gem nestled in the yellow fabric. Shaking fingers lifted the little jewel that was just smaller than her palm. Sonata and Aria watched curiously as Adagio gently clipped the gem to her neckpiece. Suddenly, a jolt shook through the trio and identical gems appeared on Aria and Sonata’s neckpieces.
With the jewels came a sudden boost of energy. The sisters felt their fatigue melt away, though the hunger was still present. “We… we can feed again,” Adagio breathed, her usual smirk slowly spreading over her lips.
“B-but we can’t sing,” Aria pointed out even as she gently rubbed the new gem on her neck. “How are we going to get the energy we need?”
“It doesn’t matter,” her leader stated softly. “We’ll figure that out, but I want to know why that ordinary gem gave us a new burst of power.” Looking at the exit, she rubbed her gem speculatively. “I think we should watch Sunset Shimmer a bit more closely.”
Her sisters nodded and the three of them stood, stretching and cracking their joints. Their bodies slowly started restoring themselves now that the sirens could feed again. Sonata took a few deep breaths to test her lungs. Aria cleaned up the last of her sweat and tossed all of the napkins into the nearby trash. Adagio took a moment to breathe as her headache receded. They were going to be okay.
Hips swaying, Adagio led her sisters from the restaurant and out into the clear night. There wasn’t a breeze, but the air was moderately warm. Amethyst eyes turned up to the moon, followed by violet and magenta. The three sirens took in their second chance with their usual smirks and set off in the direction of their home.