"Yo," Valey greeted, lifting a wing in lazy salute as she strolled up to the plaza bench where Maple and Starlight sat, doing nothing and enjoying the breeze.
"Had a nice talk with Amber?" Maple asked, staring out between the hospital and Percival's mansion at the river and townscape beyond.
"Yeah, we had some stuff to talk about. I, uhh... might need to call a team meeting tonight, once Sparky's here with the ship." Valey fidgeted with her hat, then flopped down alongside them. "Or maybe not. I'll worry about that later. Just you two here?"
Maple nodded, Starlight tiredly napping against her side. "Wallace and Morena are doing whatever they do during the day, and Gerardo and Slipstream went off to 'fight evil' and find another quest to do from that job board. I don't know where Jamjars is. But Gerardo seemed pretty riled up hearing about the windigo, so I guess this is his way of blowing off steam. Slipstream, I think she just enjoys spending time with him."
"Mmph." Valey nodded. "Yeah, they're hanging out a lot. I wonder if they're thinking about becoming an item."
"I'm sure they're not." Maple firmly shook her head. "Gerardo's far too oblivious, and more importantly it's against Garsheeva's law in the empire for different species to be in a relationship. Slipstream worked as a travel agent; she knows that. But it doesn't stop her from following him around."
Valey's look turned dour. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Mehhh..." She stretched unhappily. "I guess nowhere's truly perfect. Bananas, I gotta find some other batponies to hit on now, and not ugly ones like Chauncey. There was that one with the yellow mane I ran into back in Stormhoof, but I don't remember her name..."
"Hmm," Maple chuckled. "Well, I suppose it's a good sign that's what you're thinking about so soon after meeting that thing in the hospital. I'm still more than a little rattled. My brain keeps going in circles about what we could do or say to figure out if Puddles is still in there somewhere, but I keep running into the problem of how to stop it from messing with my head instead. I've never had the best judgement when I'm shocked or upset..."
"You thought about that too, huh?" Valey raised an eyebrow. "Yeah... there's gotta be some way to get something out of that thing, but Amber basically made me promise I wouldn't talk to it. Probably a good idea, too."
"I'm definitely not out here because I'm ready to charge in the moment I have an idea," Maple sighed, patting the bench with her free forehoof and inviting Valey to scoot closer. "Enjoy the weather with us. Talk about nice things. Even if there's something bad underground, it's still pleasant out here. This is supposed to be a vacation, after all."
"Don't mind if I do," Valey belched. "Nice things nice things nice things. You know... randomly changing the subject, here, but it's weird. They say batponies flirting with non-batponies is a no-go, right? Those principal sisters are totally trying as hard as they can to make half the population hot for them... so why do they dress up like me? Fake fangs and slitted eye contacts and stuff. That stuff's supposed to be illegal, and it's like they're intentionally promoting or confusing it. I don't get it."
"It's never made a lot of sense to us either. But Chauncey says roll with it, and it's some fine rolling!"
Valey jumped in surprise. "Buh!?" Scrambling upright, she beheld Sirena leaning with her forelegs folded on the back of their bench, swaying her hips in time with the ditty she was humming under her breath. "Wow, you're sneaky."
Sirena was wearing her bat accessories, but her shoulders and barrel were bare, showing off her magenta coat for the whole world to see. "Hi there!" she greeted. "Talking about me, were you?"
"...How long were you listening?" Maple asked, blinking worriedly.
Sirena shrugged. "Long enough to hear someone's frustrated by their romantic pickings in the Empire." She waggled her eyebrows. "If you're looking for other sarosians, your best bets are either to go around at night, or look low down in high-up places. Chauncey and Percival love hiring them for their own staffs as a show of inclusivity, so maybe office workers in the administration building or maids in the mansion. As for why we dress this way, it was part of our thing while we worked in Varsidel, Chauncey insisted we keep it when he brought us to the Empire, and now we have a merchandising deal and make some sweet money selling them as toys and fashion products elsewhere in Izvaldi. They're a big hit!"
"Shouldn't you be in school right now?" Starlight mumbled, drowsily flicking her ears.
"Heeheeheeheeheeheehee..." Sirena burst out laughing, and nearly tipped over. "Hearing that from a filly..." She wiped her brow. "I tell that to foals nearly every day. And... no! It's a holiday today. We always schedule concerts when there's no school the next day so no one stays up too late and sleeps through class."
"A holiday?" Maple blinked in interest. "What's being celebrated?"
"Giovanni Goldfeather's birthday." Sirena nodded. "If you've been playing hooky on your history classes, he was a sphinx from sixty years ago who's famous for his greed, ambition, and luck so supernatural that many thought he was cursed. He only ruled for three years before his death, and in that time became the wealthiest lord in the history of the Empire... but that's a story you get for showing up to class. So, what did you think of the show last night?"
She eagerly leaned in, wearing a broad, sharp smile enhanced by the fake fangs that was impossible to disappoint. Fortunately, Maple didn't need to bluff. "I've never felt anything like it before," she gushed, sitting straight backwards to meet Sirena's eyes. "I felt the song inside of my head, and could sing in tune with everyone else! I don't... It's not really what I usually think of myself as doing, but I had a lot of fun. Thank you for doing it."
"Heh heh." Sirena winked. "I'll be sure to tell Melia. She'll be glad to hear it. Honestly, we were a little afraid it wouldn't work at all..." She made a face. "Our magic only works when we're singing together, and it gets stronger the more ponies are singing along. After all those contest concerts, we were sort of afraid all our own fans would be too stubborn to sing along with the other and we wouldn't be able to get the spark going. But it turned out all right, just for you!"
Valey raised an eyebrow. "You know, that reminds me... What was it that happened at your last concert, or something? I keep hearing bits and pieces about what's been going on with you two, and I feel like there's something fishy but have never gotten a straight answer on what it is. This isn't something we should be concerned about, is it?"
"Oh..." Sirena looked slightly annoyed. "That. How much have you heard?"
Valey shrugged. "Somebody said something about contests?"
Sighing, Sirena nodded. "Contest concerts. Chauncey would pick two things for us to write solos about, and we would each perform ours to try to convince the audience that ours was better. They were always frustrating because we can only use our magic when singing together, and we like seeing the crowds like they were last night. But the numbers showed that the contests were drawing in bigger audiences and keeping people engaged between shows, and we technically made twice as much music even though we didn't get to write it together. It also drove merchandise sales, so we made a lot of money. But it got stressful, there was more and more pressure to do more of them and sing about heated topics..."
"It sucked all the fun out," Maple finished sympathetically. "I'm sorry."
Sirena wasn't done. "The first big disaster came several months back, when Chauncey said we should sing about Percival versus his father. Percival's grandfather is technically still the ruling lord, but his father is dead, and the less said about him, the better. I had to sing about him. Usually, neither of us got more than around fifty-five percent of the vote, since our fans were pretty split. That time, I got seven percent, and Melia's numbers didn't even change. We just had a lower turnout. We both felt horrible about it afterward, her because she beat me in an unfair contest and me because I had to write a song about how great that griffon was. We were also mostly even in how many we had won before that, but after, I never won a single one."
Valey grimaced. "You should've just stopped. That's not a cool thing to lose a friend over."
Starlight snorted darkly.
"I know," Sirena said, "and we wanted to, but there was still a lot for us riding on it. Besides, our fans enjoyed them, and we've always sung to please others. There was a last straw, though, and it was several months after that, when Chauncey asked us to sing about ourselves. Me versus her, straight and simple. I already told you who won, and she was already feeling bad for beating me so many times in a row after I had essentially been sabotaged, and... we turned in our letters of resignation on the same day. It wasn't worth it." She shook her head. "Of course, we renegotiated some things, and we're back as the principals and the Firefly Sisters under the conditions that we never do another one of those contest concerts, but it's still been tough. We're both mad at Chauncey, even though we know he was only trying to help us become more popular and succeed. We're also both determined not to let this get in the way of our friendship with each other, but it still feels like we've been driven so far apart... That's why I made that locket you got back; to remind her that we're equals in my eyes no matter what the numbers say."
Maple drooped in mourning, and Starlight sat stewing beside her. "That's not very cool," Valey remarked. "I mean, that all that happened to you. Ouch. Sorry, not the best at throwing pity parties, but is there anything we can do?"
Sirena wiped away a tear of remembrance. "Trust me, you've done plenty already, getting that locket back and enjoying our concert. We're talking about it and moving things in the right direction, so it'll get better. Just remember us if anything like this ever happens to you, okay?"
Valey winked. "You gotcha."
"Welp! I'm going to wander around over that way and make sure nothing too interesting is happening elsewhere without me." Sirena got up and turned around with a flourish, long twin tails bouncing in the air behind her bow-tied mane. "If you see Melia, say hi! She'd totally appreciate it!"
"We'll do that," Maple promised, getting to her own hooves as well and bumping the sleepy Starlight up onto her back. "Hmmm... Now I feel like getting up and doing something, too."
Valey shrugged. "Wanna check out that big mansion? We didn't really get to see it yesterday, and I'll bet you a cinnamon roll the chefs there are a lot more friendly than Sir Chops-a-Lot in Stormhoof."
"You just want to see if there are any batponies on the staff," Maple giggled, pointing a hoof at Valey's scrunched face. "What would Amber think?"
"Hey!" Valey held a defensive hoof to her chest. "For your information, Amber told me to have fun and enjoy myself, and checking out a tip like this is exactly what I plan on doing. Good to know you're still bright and chipper and hearing a sob story right after the encounter with that windigo doesn't keep you down, though."
Maple paused. "That wasn't a sob story," she insisted, stopping to make sure Valey heard. "It sounds like they went through some hard times, but stuck together and came out alive and recovering on the other end. I think that's a happy story, and it's something I can relate to."
"Heh." Valey shook her head, leading the way to Percival's mansion. "Sometimes, I feel like I've got you all figured out, and then I go and be wrong about something like that. You're interesting, Ironflanks. Come on, let's go hunt some donuts."