//------------------------------// // Chapter 5. Safehaven // Story: Equestrias Wild Card // by KarasAdamas //------------------------------// Somewhere in Europe Year 1611 "I hereby sentence the three of you to trial by the Swimming Test!" the Judge brought down his gavel as the villagers cheered "Judge the witches! Judge the witches!" "How did we end up like this?" the oldest of the trio thought in her mind. "How did we end up here? It began with the three of us simply seeking for a place to be accepted and be admired for our music. When we didn't get that, we used the power of the Siren Hearts to spread strife throughout Equestria and then Starswirl and those arrogant Pillars showed up and sent us to this cursed world." The trio that was being lead out of the church towards a deep river that wasn't to far away, were accused of being witches. This accusation had been brought to them because one poor kid had attempted to steal their necklaces, only to receive a magic induced shock from the accessory In this grey and sad era in human history that was known as the Witch Hunts, women were randomly accused of using the art of witchcraft. Whether it was because they possessed medical knowledge that others didn't or because they had a different opinion, people always found a way to abuse this overly paranoid era. The paranoia that had spread through out Europe and America was simply to much for logic to be considered an option, and while the church didn't hold as much power as it did in the past, it still affected most humans way of thinking, because of religion. Rowboats had already been prepared for the trial, one boat for each of the women. Accompanied by two men each, one was rowing the boat, while the other was holding the rope that was tied around the sirens in human forms, limiting their movement. The youngest had started crying and begging, the second oldest had a look of disbelief and inability to accept reality, the last and oldest of the sisters had a look of guilt. Her mind was filled with thoughts and questions like: "What did I do wrong? Where and when did I mess up?" and "Could this have been avoided?" She was losing hope, all of them were losing hope, having been transformed into humans had made it so they had lost many abilities that they possessed as sirens, most important being their ability to swim and breath under water. They knew what this trial was, they knew how unfair and illogical it was. If they swam or floated, they would be sentenced as witches and be either hanged or burned at the stake. If they sank, then they were innocent, but most of the time people that went through this trial would die by drowning before they could be pulled out of the water. The odds of surviving this trial was low, unfairly low. If they didn't drown or get executed, then they would still have to live in this grey world void of magic. Their was no way they were ever getting home, if the world they came from could even be considered a home. Forming a circle, each of the boats were above the deepest parts of the river and preparing to push the innocent women below the surface. The younger two's gazes met the oldest, hoping that their leader and older sister had a way out of this, but the moment they saw the eyes that had lost all hope and given up, they knew this was it. Closing their eyes and preparing for what was coming, the sisters were pushed and began to sink down the river. As she began to lose air and darkness was covering her vision, Adagio Dazzle found an odd sense of irony in this situation. "A siren dying by drowning," she thought to herself, "what a stupid way for it to end." As she closed her eyes and bubbles left her mouth, neither she or her sisters could see the blue flames that began to surround and consume their bodies. Velvet Room "What happened? Am I dead? Is this the afterlife?" the oldest siren thought as she was waking up. "Hmhp, this bed is really comfortable... ... ... WAIT! A BED!" As Adagio Dazzle's eyes shoot open from shock and realisation, the first thing she sees is a beautiful blue flower covered tree crown that seems to be glowing. The second is the beautiful night sky with a solar eclipse that is above a silver caged ceiling above the tree crown. It wasn't until she had shaken herself from her amazement after seeing this beautiful sight, that it finally registered in her mind that she was still alive and lying in an extremely comfortable bed. She rubbed the crust out of her eyes and sat up slighty to take in her surroundings, she's lying in a royal sized gold and blue bed with a comfortable warm blanket and plenty of gold and blue colored pillows for maximum comfort. Aria Blaze is lying to her right and Sonata Dusk is lying to her left with a slight drole in her mouth, it also just registered in her mind that they are back in their siren forms. Specifically their land-siren forms, with scales on only certain parts of their bodies and normal pony-like ears and tails instead of their normally fin-like ears and tails that they have in their water-siren forms. "Barong, Rangda, are you two ready?" a young male voice sounded from her left. Adagio turns her head towards the sound and what she sees leaves her both shocked and scared, as much as it leaves her confused and curious. She sees a young human male with blond hair, golden eyes that seems to glow, wearing a blue suit. Right next to him is a tall Alicorn with white fur skin, a flaming mane, amber eyes with dark sclera, wearing a white and golden dress. In front of both of them is a bizarre panther-like creature with large amber eyes, a green beard and purple mane. It wears a large bizarre looking crown on top of its head and its body is covered with long white fur and it possesses a silver armored tail with blue fur at the end. The second figure infront of them, looks like a red skinned floating doll-like female. Instead of having legs it has weard looking bead chains with pickaxe heads at the end of them, she has a long red and yellow cloth piece hanging from the golden demon-looking head on her waist. She has a extremely large pitch black mane that seems to cover most of her body, except for her face, chest and arms. Her eyes are completely white, she has a green bambu piece in her mouth and she wears small crescent shaped blades as ear rings. But the most uncomforable thing about her would be her incredibly long finger nails. "I am ready whenever you are, Master." the panther says with a bow. "My body is my offering to you, Master." the bizarre doll said with enthusiasm. The other two sirens wakes up because of the noise and they follow the gaze of their older sister to take in the bizarre sight. "Then without further ado," the young man begins holding a book that flips open in his hand, "I sacrifice Barong of the Emperor arcana and Rangda of the Empress arcana!" Both creatures burst in blue fire and transformed into two cards, both float into the air and spins around eachother faster and faster until they collide in a bright blue light. Where it once stood two bizarre looking creatures now stands a towering blue skinned humanoid with four arms and a emerald green third eye in its forehead. It had long dark hair tied up to a pony tail with a golden ring and golden earrings that looked like sea shells. Its neck and shoulders were covered with necklaces, several made of gold, pearls and red jewelry. Around its waist was an animal pelt that seemed to be made from a tigers fur, a green cloth was tied around the waist to keep the pelt in place and another white peace of fabric was used as a scarf. In its upper left arm it held a scimitar, in its upper right arm it spun around a small golden chakram, in its lower right arm it held a large trident and its lower left arms was devoid of an item. "I am Shiva, praised by 1000 and 116 names... You who hold my mask... For you I shall display my powers of destruction and rebirth. Let us dance together from now on..." "It will be an honor," the young human says with a bow, "from here on, I am your Master" As the human and Deva are making their vow, the alicorn take notice of the sirens curiousity and nudges for the humans attention. She gets his attention and he turns towards the sisters with a warm smile on his face as he makes his way over towards them. As he's making his way towards the bed, the dazzlings take notice that the human, alicorn and Deva are not the only ones approaching, numerous bizarre creatures are making their way towards the sirens, including: a pale skinned humanoid with silver wings, a small fairy, a living snowman, a skimpy cat-lady, a large two-headed dog, a skeleton wearing a matador uniform, a giant made of paper, a spearman wearing a scarf that covers most of his face and a white skinned woman stuck in a floating sculpture. The sirens are growing nervous along with fear and uncertainty, the blond haired human takes notice to this and quickly turns to the others. "Everyone stop!" all entities stop at the voice of their master, "If all of us approuch at once we'll only scare them, let me and Day handle this while you all make yourself known to our newly formed family member." Just as he ordered, all creatures of varying apperances turn to introduce themselves to Shiva, while the Master and alicorn continue towards the sisters. "Sorry about them, they were looking forward to your awakening," the Master said apologetically, "My name is Minato, Master of the Velvet Room." "And I'm Daybreaker, the Shadow of Celestia." Daybreaker says with a bow. The Dazzling sisters exchange glances towards eachother, trying to see what each of them are thinking of this situation. During their time in the human world, moments like this was rare, not the "being trapped in a giant bird caged with a glowing blue tree, filled with bizarre entities" but more specifically "friendly approaching people". If there is one thing they learn from the human world is that humans are selfish, greedy and easily frightened over things they don't understand. Kind humans were rare, usually they would be poor suffering families or elderly who's lost a child or two, most of them living on farms. But more than twice, even they would turn their back on them and not even hesitate to betray the sisters. Trust was something that they have never truly felt before, because when thought they had it, it would imediatelly be crushed. "What do you want with us and why would you save us?!" Aria Blaze says suddenly as she stays close to her sisters. Minato tilts his head sideways in confusion and curiosity, while Daybreaker looks enraged for how rude the siren is acting. But before Daybreaker could could voice her complaint, Minato raises his hand to silence her. For a while he just stared at the sisters, studying them. His eyes glow slightly as he inspects them, the oldest sister has an luminous orange aura with hints of yellow and red in it, giving off a royal dominating feeling. The second oldest had brilliant purple colour that gave of reflections of aquamarine like a wet surface reflecting light, giving off a feeling off wanting to protect herself and others. The youngest who looked to be the most fragile of the sisters had a pure light cerulean colour and gave off a feeling of wishing for things to be better. He continues to study the sirens, until something catches his eye, all of their auras seem to bind together to form a fourth colour, that looks to be an emerald green colour with hints of brilliant raspberry to it. But despite this mix of colour, there were also flashes of black and deep blue that gave off a feeling of being hurt, betrayed and lost. Minato's eyes stops glowing and he closes them, seeming to be deep in thought. The sisters never let their guard down and are simply waiting to see what he would do next, while Daybreaker watch from the side and wondering what was going through Minato's head. He finally opens his eyes and walks closer towards the sirens, then he gives them the most friendly and heartmelting smile he can muster. "You girls have had it rough, haven't you?~" Saying that the girls heart skipped a beat would be an understatment, the sirens had all gained a slight blush while Daybreaker had turned completely crimson as her mane flares and her wings "POMF" out erect. One can only imagine what perverted thoughts are going through her head as she grows jealous over the fact that Minato isn't directing that smile at her. "I'll prepare something for you girls to eat so we can sit down and have a proper conversation." Minato says and turns around as wisps falls down from the Moonlight Tree and begins to form an outdoor kitchen. The sisters shake themselves out of their blushes and decide to trust this "Minato" for now. They all stand up from the bed and Daybreaker goes wide eyed and tries to warn them, but Minato turns around and then quickly looks to side as he gains a slight blush. "I probably should have mentioned that your clothes were quite dirty so we decided to remove them." The Dazzling go wide eyed as they look down and see that they are all buck naked. Their faces turn crimson as they all try to cover themselfs with their arms and whatever was nearby, while they all give out feminine "KYAH"s. "I really hope that this wont be a comedic pattern for everytime I meet a woman in this world." Minato thought as he was trying hide his "excitement". "Here you go Setanta." Minato says as he hands a plate of french toast to his persona. "Thank you, Master." a deep but still young sounding voice came from the spearman. Setanta appears as as a spear wielding young man, with a bowl cut and a green scarf with copper patterns covering most of his face. He wear a silver chest plate over his white leader armour, white leather boots and white leather gloves along with it, all having square patterns silver dots at the crosses. He also has a short brown cape going down his back. As Minato finishes serving french toast, with strawberries and bananas as side dish, to the last of his Personas, he walks over to join the girls at the table. The sirens had been given some simple deep blue summer dresses to cover themselfs up, at the moment they were completely absorbed in enjoying the first proper meal they've had in years. Minato, Daybreaker and the Dazzlings sat at an outdoor table with Minato and Day sitting on two chairs at one side of the table and the sisters on a bench at the other side. The personas had also been given food and all of them are sitting around the platform, but not too far away from their master, while enjoying Minato's cooking. In complete silence everyone is simply enjoying the food that Minato had served with experties that would make Gordon Ramsay proud. Or at least, everyone except Minato, because he was deep in thought. Like before information that he wasn't certain of why he knew, had been brought forth in his mind as he analysed the sirens, and it told everything he needed to know in order to understand that they had been through a lot. He didn't specifically know what they had been through, but he did know that they were all in pain, not physically, but mentally and emotionally. The auras that they displayed showed clearly that they had potential as powerful persona users, but the corruption in the form of sorrow, pain and loss had shaped up the majority of their being. Sure it clearly showed that Adagio has a strong desire for power, Aria wants to protect her sisters with control, while Sonata simply wants things to be better. But all of those are only what's on top of the surface, it doesn't show the deeper details because it's completely covered with negativity. If this isn't taken care of soon, they'll never be able to accept themselfs and all that potential will be lost. "I need to know what they've been through, but I can't rush it like I did with Daybreaker." Minato thought. "All three of these girls are extremely hurt, if not traumatised from their past. They're clearly on edge and don't trust anyone but eachother. The hardship that they have faced together has made them inseparable from eachother, and that bond has given birth to an all new power that makes them unique even amongs persona users. It does seem like making some food was the right choise at least for now, all I can do for now is choose my next words carefully." "By Faust Minato! This is delicious!" Daybreaker squeal in delight. "Glad you all seem to like it, but it's really nothing special, it's just french toast." Minato says with a smile. "French Toast?" "It's a dish that was created in the country of France back in the 1800 back in my world. It was made as an attempt to make use of bread that had become to old and hard to eat. Back in France the dish is called "pain perdu" which means "lost bread" but in my home country of Sweden we called it "fattiga riddare" which means "poor knights". "Why did they call it poor knights?" Sonata asked curiously. "It's mostly connected to a statement that went: Even someone like a poor old man can put on a suit of armor and look like a knight. The name was given to the dish as a sort metaphor for that statement." Minato explained matter of factly. "Stop talking about the history behind a stupid dish and answer my question already!" Aria shouts as she slams her hands into the table, startling everyone near the table and putting the personas on edge. "Aria calm down, we're all sitting right here." Adagio said sternly. "How can I remain calm when we just experienced death, only to awaken inside a giant birdcage that contains a giant glowing tree that can spawn stuff from nowhere, a blond pretty boy, a pony goddess and whatever the hay those freaks are!" she screams pointing at the personas. "You think I'm calm?" Adagio mutters barely loud enough for the rest to hear. "You think I'm calm?!" Adagio screams standing and causing Aria and Sonata to back away, "I saw nothing but darkness for what felt like eternity! I thought we were dead, I thought I was responsible for getting you two killed! I thought that my mistake had gotten the only family I have left killed! How could you even think that I would be calm with thoughts like that going through my head?! And what if it happens again?!" She screamed as tears were pouring down her cheeks, she was letting out what was probably years worth of guilt and sorrow. Minato was listened carefully and was starting to put together a small picture of what might have happened, but he won't draw any conclusions yet since he didn't know the full story. He stood up and shot a glance towards a particular persona that he had summoned while the sirens were still unconscious. It had an appearance of a white skinned woman wearing white robes and a white headscarf, she was inbedded into a white marble sculpture that showed numerous animals like a prehistoric fish, a tyranosaurus, a lion, a bull and an eagle. The opening were she was inbedded was golden and there were five golden discs floating around the statue, two at the bottom right and left, one above her head and two behind her at upper right and left. Minato and the persona known as Maria approached Adagio, who was still shouting and crying, and before anyone can question what they were doing. Minato grabbed her shoulders turned her around and Maria gave her a warm comforting hug, just like a mother would do to her child. Ever since Minato summoned Maria, she's had this extremely soothing and calming aura surrounding her, the type of feeling a small child would experience when they hear their mothers heartbeat and voice. Perfect for calming down anyone who's distraught. Minato placed a hand on Adagio's shoulder, catching her attention and making her turn to meet his golden eyes. He gave her a warm smile like before and began speaking. "I can't imagine what you girls must have been through to make you this distraught. I'm not gonna act like I know how you feel, because I don't." He turned his gaze towards the other two, "but I can promise, as long as you're here and as long as I'm around." His gaze went back to Adagio. "Nothing bad will happen to you girls again, not here and not in the near future either." He finished. Adagio looked at Minato, with eyes that were red from her crying, she was trying to see any hint of malice, any hint betrayal, any hint to use them... But she found nothing. There was nothing but warmth and care in his eyes. It gave off a feeling that made it feel like his words weren't just true, they were the truth. As if he would make it a law that nothing would happen to them. Her gaze left Minato and she turned to see her sisters giving her looks of uncenrtainty with small hint of hope. She then looked towards the others around them, she was expecting at least some form of hostility towards her from the more tough looking creatures that surrounded them, but each and everyone of them were giving her and her sisters looks of worry and concern. As if they actuelly cared for them despite having just met them. She returned her gaze to Minato, looking any change in his expression, but nothing changed. He really did care for them and would make sure that they felt safe. She fell to her knees and started crying as Aria and Sonata were rushing to hug and comfort their big sister. Aria was repeating apologies and Sonata was saying everything is gonna be okay. It finally seemed like the Dazzlings have found a place that they can feel safe, perhaps even call home.