//------------------------------//
// Sing, Ponies, Sing 
// Story: The Olden World 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

A single, pure, high note pierced the night, held for seconds on end. Every spotlight converged, and in the stage's center was a lone figure of magenta and black, mouth open as she faced the crowd. With seemingly infinite breath, Sirena kept her pitch, and the crowd was instantly stilled by the magically-amplified power of her voice.

Then she was joined by another, Melia's voice drifting in from somewhere unseen. The second sister set the tempo, beginning a melody within Sirena's note, though the pink sister still led. Her pace was slow, tone remorseful, and Starlight barely noticed that she didn't recognize any of the words being used.

Sirena continued, breaking off into a melody of her own, eyes turned skyward. Magenta light clung to her horn as she raised her head, singing to the sky, and the crowd was silent beneath the moonlight. Starlight felt her fur rise; she didn't need to know the words to feel the loneliness in the song, and it forced her to fight off memories of a town at the foot of the mountains where she had spent so very long living without her best friend. And Melia had been missing when they returned the pendant, too...

With the faintest motion of fabric, the curtains at the stage back shivered, and Melia appeared, black and silver and gray and lime green. Her tail was limp, neck to the floor, and she slunk forward with reluctance, weaving from side to side and looking for a way out. Sirena's mouth went silent, and her sister took her place, singing to the floor of sorrow and regret. Once or twice, her horn sparked, but never came alight. More words Starlight couldn't and didn't need to understand flowed across her ears, and Sirena answered with sorrow of her own, mixed with reassurance in the same notes. But the two didn't sing over each other at the same time.

Her voice coaxed Melia forward, the retrieved locket glinting silver on her chest where it belonged. They began to exchange words more frequently, each contributing their own melody that seemed to bounce off each other like a key not fully inserted into its lock. Sirena held her ground, Melia advanced, and just when it looked like Melia would lose her nerve and slink away, Sirena left her spotlight and ran. They met by the curtain, a hoof was taken, and their voices finally merged, singing as one with different words as two halves of the same song. A spark flew as two horns clicked, and Melia's came alight, the same pale green as her coat. Hope wove its way as a rainbow thread through the song as the tempo increased and the sisters' voices grew richer, fuller, more in tune. As one, they turned to face the crowd, walking side by side to share a single spotlight.

Starlight couldn't think in words. The music felt like a hoof of emotion pressing against her chest, leaving her the only options of feeling it wholeheartedly or shutting it out altogether. But as the song built, overwhelmingly about hope for the future, she gave in, leaning into it even as a pressure built like a wind about to arrive... and then the sisters stepped closer, and their cutie marks touched.

For a split second, Starlight wasn't sure if her vision had worked or not. It felt like her consciousness had just skipped a beat, though the music was whole and uninterrupted in her ears. The thought of magic edged its way through the side of her song-filled mind, and she realized the sisters' auras had swapped: Melia's horn glowed with Sirena's magenta, and the other as well. Before she could process that either, a sound that was new and yet familiar filled her ears.

The crowd was singing. More and more voices were joining Sirena and Melia's song by the second, but rather than the discordant roar of hundreds of voices in legion, they were in better tune than a practiced choir. Words Starlight couldn't understand and knew weren't the crowd's language either flowed past her as clear as the night sky, and when she noticed Maple beside her had joined in as well, she discovered that somehow, inexplicably, she knew the song too.

It was a song written just for that night, that she could never have heard before and in a language she didn't know existed, but it was like there was a faint light deep within her that was putting the sounds and the melody in her head as they came, and all she had to do was open her mouth to join in. The analytical side of her brain fought back, telling her that there were implications to whatever was happening that she needed to think about and understand, but her heart quashed it, because the song was about good things and she could think and analyze later.

Starlight sang. She had never tried it before, knew nothing about whether her voice would work for it and had no practice, but the song guided her from down on the stage, and she joined the melody drifting toward the rising moon. Time didn't matter, and the world had no place in her focus, but she was perfectly aware of the ponies around her, realizing how much Maple and Slipstream were enjoying themselves and noticing even Chauncey was humming along in contentment.

On the stage, Melia and Sirena danced, twirling and catching each other and wandering dangerously close to the edge of the stage, but they never parted for more than a second, snapping back like they were drawn together by invisible string. Despite the crowd's accompaniment, both of their voices hovered above everything else, and Starlight's eyes widened as she noticed they weren't even singing the same thing: the sisters were the leads, and everyone else on the field was backing them up with an alternate, secondary piece. But it was still the same song, and as it reached a crescendo she almost felt the weight of gravity a little less on her hooves.

More magical fireworks rose, and the sisters jumped, circling around and around each other with their forehooves matched together. Then they sank together in a standing embrace, and with a final spark, their cutie marks twinkled and their horns went dim, and the song quieted in Starlight's head as the last notes drifted away in the breeze.

"Thank you, everyone!" Sirena announced, horn lighting with her own color again and voice back in a tongue Starlight knew. "It's been so long since we got to do a concert like this, and we really hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did! Yeah!"

"We're hoping this can be a new direction we take ourselves in as the Firefly Sisters," Melia added, touching the locket around her neck with a hoof and offering a hopeful, vulnerable smile. "The contest concerts have been difficult for both of us, and we'd like to add more real duos into our performances. Music draws everyone together, and it's important that we remind ourselves of that from time to time!"

"Stressful contests? Ugh, tell me about it," Sirena muttered, scuffing the stage with a hoof and earning a discontented mutter from the crowd. "The important thing is, after everything, we're still best friends!"

"And we hope that goes for you and everyone you've known over the years we've been performing," Melia finished, bowing in time with her sister. "Until next time... Firefly out!"

Both of them retreated through the curtain, leaving the crowd murmuring in their wake. Starlight was still feeling the song's thrill leaving her body when Maple forcefully scooped her up, nuzzling her and holding her tight. "That was incredible!" Maple squealed, voice cracking in a rare show of overt joy.

"It was certainly a unique experience," Gerardo remarked, smoothing his headcrest and looking at Chauncey. "Their brands have the effect of allowing their audience to sing along, I take it? I would certainly call that showing a success, even if I can't say I understood a word of it."

Chauncey stared back at him and gave a hooked smile. "Their singing was in Sarosian, and I can assure you they'll say the important part was whatever you understood it to mean. As for their brands, in layperson's terms, that's precisely correct, and perhaps you can understand how we have more than just sound to record at these events now. As to whether it was a success, time will tell, but we certainly saw the best part."

"So that's how that worked," Maple murmured, putting Starlight down. "I've never felt anything quite like that before, like I was a part of something so big and right there."

Slipstream smiled and shrugged. "You felt like it was that big of a deal? I enjoyed it, but you make it sound like something supernatural. It felt to me like something I'd sing along to for fun."

Maple looked slightly taken aback. "There was more to it than that..."

Chauncey pursed his lips, looking intrigued, but shook his head and didn't comment. "Tell them you enjoyed it sometime. I'm sure they would appreciate it greatly."

As Gerardo began to narrate in Slipstream's defense and Valey leaned against a wall with her eyes closed, Starlight noticed Jamjars on the floor, twitching. "Are you all right?" she asked, not sure whether it was smart to be concerned.

"No. I am not all right," Jamjars whispered back, face scrunched in the most ridiculous expression of frustration, excitement, rage and strained composure Starlight had ever seen. "I just got to listen to the Firefly Sisters hold a concert, and they performed one. Single. Song." She bored into Starlight's eyes so intensely they both became rooted in place. "One song! Do you know how that makes me feel?" Her eyes both twitched, completely out of sync. "But I also got to sing along, and that was eeeeeeeeeeEEEEE...!"

"That's how they usually go," Chauncey chuckled. "One duo, or two solos. My granddaughters' jobs aren't free, so they can't just spend all their time sitting around and writing more. Now, my scientists and I have some data to process, so you'll want to run along unless you enjoy feeling very confused. Pleasant dreams, now."

Slipstream surveyed the equipment as they left, nodding. "Probably right... I bet Shinespark would enjoy this, though."

"Your other friend?" Chauncey was following them. "A scientist too, is she? Send her along some time. Enjoy it, perhaps she would."





The flight back to the Sky Goat was short and chilly, accompanied by Wallace and Morena through the windy night sky. Starlight kept her mouth closed, and Wallace carried the banter, his and Morena's voices the only ones that could overpower the wind. Aboard the ship, they were pointed to the quarters they had held for the voyage there, and after some mutual praise for the concert and promises to hang out the following day, their hosts retired for the night.

Slipstream yawned, leaving for her room first, shortly followed by Gerardo. "Starlight?" Maple asked, stretching against a doorframe. "Feel like calling this a night?"

"Soon," Starlight answered, not at all tired after the concert's burst of energy and full of unanswered questions about just what it was she had felt, as well as the purpose of the song in general. "I need to think. I'll be on the deck. You don't need to stay up for me."

"Okay," Maple yawned. "Because I sure am tired. Something about that singing... mmm..." She closed her eyes and turned around. "It reminded me of being in the crystal palace in Ironridge. I think I'm going to sleep soundly tonight, so whenever you come to bed, I'll be waiting."

Starlight nodded, and then she was alone on the deck. Night air moved around her, the blowing of the wind and the creaking of the ship's timbers the only sounds that met her ears. For several long breaths, she thought about nothing at all, just standing and allowing the day to be washed from her senses.

"Pssst... Starlight!"

"Huh?" Starlight blinked, turning to see Jamjars standing proud without her wig, a confident grin hanging beneath her slanted bang. "What are you doing still up?"

"The same thing as you," Jamjars replied, nodding toward the bridge that still connected the ship to the docking tower. "Someone's obviously up to something in this place, so we're going to sneak around and figure out what it is."