//------------------------------//
// 5 Bad Magic 
// Story: A Hearth's Warming to Remember 
// by Bronyxy 
//------------------------------//

As they continued to circle in the night sky, the friends in the chariot started to grow cold. Worse, Rarity was doubting herself; after all, this entire operation was only happening because of what she had overheard and reported. It had been a noisy carriage, and in fact she hadn’t heard that much herself; she had mostly convinced herself that what little she had heard reinforced what Sweetie Belle had told her. In her mind, it was all starting to unravel, and she felt a horrible pit opening up in her stomach. Could Luna trust her anymore if she had made yet another faux pas in such a short time? Was she becoming too much of a liability?

“I’m a liability!” she suddenly cried, burying her tearful muzzle in a rather surprised Pinkie Pie next to her.
“No you’re not, silly” replied the party planner, “You’re Rarity! The cold must really be getting to you.”
“Um, Rarity” chipped in Applejack, “Is there somethin’ you’re tryin’ to tell us?”
“I’m a failure!” she wailed pathetically, rubbing her muzzle in Pinkie’s chest.
“Oooh, stop it!” she giggled, “That tickles!”

Rarity withdrew her mascara streaked face from Pinkie Pie and turned to face Applejack, leaving Pinkie to try and rub off the surplus makeup that had become an abstract tattoo on her chest. She dabbed at it, but it only smudged worse, so she lifted her head back and looked at it from different angles, like admiring a work of art before sitting back, happy with the result.

“It’s just” began Rarity between sobs, “What if I’m wrong about this whole sirens thing?”
“Well, I don’t believe we can afford to take the chance if they’re half as bad as Twilight says” reassured the farmer, “Besides, didn’t Sweetie Belle note down their spooky song and sing it right back to Twilight? Now, ain’t no way she could have known that, is there? I’m stickin’ right by you Rarity.”

“Oh Applejack!” cried the seamstress, throwing herself into Applejack this time and sobbing into her chest. The farmer cringed at the prospect of having a matching mascara tattoo to Pinkie’s, but patted her friend’s head with as gentle of a “there, there” as she could muster, feeling Rarity’s forelegs squeeze her tighter.
“Oooh!” exclaimed Pinkie, “I wonder what pattern you’re going to get?”
Applejack shot her an exasperated look, but Pinkie proudly displayed her chest, starting a game of tic tac toe on what passed for a rough 3 by 3 grid.

“There!” shouted Luna, her shrill cry piercing the night, before she peeled away from the formation and headed away at full speed. All eyes strained to see where the Princess of the Night was heading, but her eyesight was so attuned to the darkness that she had an immediate advantage over everypony else. The convoy surrounding the Royal chariot changed course and headed after the sharp-eyed Princess, Rarity perking up at the thought she may not be a liability after all.

In truth, Luna was being guided not so much by what she could see on the physical plane, but a disturbance on the ethereal plane, the place that accommodated the dream realm that she patrolled. A magical imbalance had opened up coincident with the search begun by the Thestrals, and she was not prepared to accept these two events as unconnected.

The wingbeats resounded with the effort now being put behind them, no longer a relaxed rhythm designed to optimise long endurance cruising, but reflecting an urgency that from one pony alone would have been impressive, but when it came from everypony around, became an experience that wasn’t so much heard, but actually felt.

“Get into the chariot!” ordered the lead charioteer as Fluttershy fought to keep up with the others.
“Are you sure …?” she replied tentatively, “I mean, all the extra weight and everything …”
“Leave that to us!” came the gruff reply, “We’ve got to get you to where your friends need you!”
“Oh … OK …” whispered the primrose pegasus.

Pinkie witnessed the conversation in front of her and then watched as Fluttershy all but stopped flying, suddenly making her a whole lot slower than the chariot. Pinkie watched intrigued as the primrose flank suddenly seemed to speed up towards her as the chariot moved to pick her up and she slid over to one side, measuring an exact distance with a steel tape she just happened to have materialised from nowhere. Rarity chose the exact moment to look forward, the merest instant before Fluttershy hit the back of the seat next to her and let out a shriek of surprise to see her vision filled with primrose, throwing herself into Applejack’s lap to avoid collision with Fluttershy’s flank.

Next instant there was a thump and the trio of friends suddenly found themselves to be a quartet as a rather dazed animal lover landed between them.
“Oh, hello ...” she whispered apologetically.
While Rarity stared on horrorstruck from Applejack’s lap, Pinkie extended the steel tape once more to measure the distance between her and Fluttershy, then nodded and beamed happily before making it vanish back to the place where it had first come from.

By now, even the most untrained eyes could see there was a faint red glow up ahead that seemed to be pulsing with an unearthly energy. Fluttershy chose her moment to be brave and instantly regretted her decision as she peered forward tentatively and realised that was to be their destination.
“Oh, I don’t think I like this very much” she whimpered, recoiling at the prospect and screwing her eyes firmly shut.
“Maybe not, Sugar Cube” said Applejack with determination, “But even the Elements of Harmony ain’t goin’ to save the day if your kindness ain’t up there with us.”

The light grew brighter as they approached and suddenly they began to make out the forms of ponies fighting each other on the ground, more and more of them, in fact enough to make up the numbers of the two units of Night Guard despatched to protect the Thestral trackers.
“Flee!” shouted Luna at the head of the pony armada, but just then they were assaulted by the same ten note refrain that Rarity now clearly recalled having heard in the carriage and which Twilight knew all too well.

The Night Guard covered their ears and screamed, but the sound would not stop burrowing into their heads. The charioteers shook their heads frantically trying to stop the sirens’ song affecting them and dove down hard to make an emergency landing, impacting rather than landing on the clearest ground they could find, driven by the knowledge that the only chance for them and for the whole of Equestria was that their precious cargo was safe.

The Night Guard fell from the air, even Luna and Celestia were unable to defend themselves and began to succumb, but yet the Element Bearers remained unaffected. Rainbow Dash and Twilight looked at each other and quickly headed for the ground too, so as not to become obvious targets for who or whatever was at the centre of the malevolent magic. They joined up with their four friends by the chariot and stood shocked to see good natured rivalries spilling over into arguments and fights among the Night Guard all around them. 

It was now clear that it had to be sirens behind these events, as based on Twilight’s previous experience, she could see that their modus operandi was just the same; sow disagreement and grow strong on the negative emotions. Given the number of ponies that the magic was working on, it was clear that the sirens would not be far off full strength by now and whatever their ultimate aim, was close to being realised.

“OK girls” instructed Twilight, “All hold hooves.”
They stood in a circle, holding hooves and concentrating on their Elements.
“Friendship is Magic!” called out Twilight, waiting for the surge of energy to pulse through her and vanquish the sirens and their malevolent brand of magic. Indeed, all of them stood resolutely awaiting the magical culmination of the unification of the Elements of Harmony, but the sirens’ song continued unabated.

One by one, they opened their eyes to see that nothing had changed.
“Er, Twilight” enquired Applejack, “Wasn’t that supposed to do somethin’?”
“It should have!” cried Twilight in frustration, “Why didn’t it work?”
“Tell me, darling” enquired Rarity, “How exactly did you beat them in the other world?”
“We sang …” recalled Twilight, “We sang! Of course, the only way to defeat the sirens is with their own magic – we have to sing!”
“But we don’t know any songs” said Applejack.
“I do” stated Rarity,” I’m a regular with the Pony Tones and we sing lots of songs.”
“Yes, but does anypony else know them?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I know some of them” confirmed Fluttershy.
“I don’t think just the two of you is going to be enough” said Twilight, “We’ve all got to sing together – as friends!”
“Wait a minute” interjected Rarity, ”It’s almost Hearth’s Warming Eve! We all sing carols don’t we?”
“But which is the right one?” asked Rainbow.
“It doesn’t matter” said Twilight, “As long as we all sing it together!”
“I know a good one” suggested Rarity, “The one we sang at the end of the play we put on at Canterlot about the founding of Equestria a few years back!”
There were nods and murmurs of approval all round, then Rarity began acapella.

“The fire of friendship lives in our hearts 
As long as it burns, we cannot drift apart …”

As she sang, her Element began to glow and as the others joined in, their Elements glowed too.

“Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few 
Laughter and singing will see us through
We are a circle of pony friends 
A circle of friends we'll be to the very end.”

A multicoloured band of light formed like a fast moving ribbon around them as they sang, and the more they sang, the wider the circle grew. When the feuding ponies caught by the sirens’ spell were covered by the expanding circle, they found themselves freed from the curse, and as they recovered they joined in too, strengthening the power that was building to challenge the evil magic.

Eventually, the circle grew so strong and so wide that it completely surrounded all of the ponies and once the last of them had recovered and was singing, the spinning ribbon of magic that formed the circle split into two streams which rose high into the sky, circling around each other before reuniting at the top and diving straight down to a focused point in the forest.

Immediately, the Night Guard took to the air and followed where the bolt of magic had struck the ground. The Element Bearers also flew in to see what had happened, three grateful Bat Ponies carrying in those who did not have wings of their own.

On a small rocky outcrop projecting up from the forest, three unicorns lay where they had fallen, all gasping for breath.

Twilight landed next to them and the sand coloured one stirred, painfully lifting her head up and brushing away her brown mane to see more clearly who had beaten her.

Their eyes met.

Not for the first time.

“Twilight Sparkle” she groaned wearily, “Why do you always have to spoil my plans?”
“Adagio Dazzle!” gasped Twilight in surprise, “How did you get here?”
“If I tell you, will you let me go?”
“Not a chance!”

Celestia and Luna arrived, landing on the rocky outcrop next to the Element Bearers and the defeated sirens.
“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, I should like you to meet Adagio Dazzle and presumably Sonata Dusk and Aria Blaze; the three sirens banished by Star Swirl the Bearded a thousand years ago and more recently by my Canterlot High friends and myself.”
“Adagio Dazzle is it?” confirmed Celestia pointedly, “I didn’t expect to see you in Equestria again.”
“It was easy” came another voice, “We just went through the portal …”
“Shut it!” growled Adagio.
“What did I say?” asked a light blue unicorn, trying groggily to regain her balance and failing “It’s what we did, right?”
“You didn’t have to tell them that, you idiot!” snarled Adagio.

“Twilight” remarked Celestia, continuing to stare imperiously down at the sand coloured pony who was clearly the sirens’ leader, “I think it’s time you reviewed security on the Crystal Mirror. I, meanwhile, have three new playmates to send down to Cerberus.”
With that, her horn glowed and the three sirens in their deceptively harmless pony form were surrounded by a ball of yellow magic that shot away like a shooting star, straight down to a cage waiting in Tartarus.

Luna looked at Rarity proudly, even though her makeup had run and smudged all across her face, but right at that moment, she was the most beautiful sight in the whole of Equestria.
“I think, Sister” said Luna, “That this victory would not have been possible without the courage and quick thinking of our six friends here.”
“And one in particular for having had the foresight to bring it to our attention” concurred Celestia with a mischievous smile, adding under her breath, “Well, go on then!”
Everypony tactfully converged around Twilight, asking her about the sirens when she had faced them in the human world, giving the two lovers an opportunity to share a precious moment uninterrupted.

All around, the sound of Hearth’s Warming carols continued, very much as when the three tribes had first come together to defeat the Windigos and agreed to bury their differences at the founding of Equestria.

Rarity briefly considered her actions in having reported her suspicions about the sirens and how even up to a short while ago it had made her feel like a liability, not worthy of her marefriend’s love. Now, fully vindicated, she stared confidently up into her sparkling teal eyes, no longer with anything she felt she had to apologise for. For her part, Luna had never lost faith in her marefriend and knew she never would. Her thoughts drifted as she allowed herself to become consumed by the warm glow of the lovelight in Rarity’s deep blue eyes and leaned slowly forward, closing her eyes so she could feel the tender surprise of meeting her marefriend’s lips.

As soon as Rarity felt the delicate touch of Luna’s lips on hers, she felt any last reservations crumble and reached forward with her forelegs, drawing her lover close; two ponies in love, being serenaded by carols and silhouetted against the full moon.