Everything had come crashing down on her. She'd lost track of everything, and so quickly too it felt like. One moment she was fully there and... speaking to the Queen, giving her reports as usual. Everything was normal. Then? She... couldn't really say.
Frankly, she was conflicted. Was she already under their spell? Maybe she had been for a while. Would explain why she'd lied to Novo, and so many others. Her motive had, ultimately, been a stupid, childish vendetta against the communists, and Posada especially as their leader. She'd wanted nothing more than to tackle them, and she had bargained everything on that desire. Was that not acting on pure hate? Maybe she really was already under the spell of the sirens. Or maybe she wasn't and... was just a terrible pony, deep down.
Violet could hear doors open in the distance, their metal creaking sending rippling echoes down the long hall which she tried not to pay any mind to. She looked down, eyeing the thin plastic platter a guard had passed into her cell. There was a bowl of lettuce, a slimey, rather sticky substance which she couldn't really identify, and a fork and spoon. She sighed, seeing it. Her hunger had faded throughout the last days.
She had lost track of time. Not that she really had much reason or opportunity to do so, down here in the dungeons. For all she knew she was going to be here forever. Or maybe only until a siren was kind enough to free up a slot on her timetable to visit her. Some part of her wished they would just be done with her, and spare a bullet instead. At least have her die with thoughts and will in tact.
She heard the gentle noise of somepony approaching. Some kind of chit chat, it seemed, definitely upbeat. How cruel to do that, down here where ponies were left to rot.
The scene in the throne room had been the last time Violet saw the Queen. Sandy Breeze had taken her to the dungeon's cells first, so she had really no idea when or if the Queen was also taken in. Obviously she assumed as much but... really, the assumption was as much of a guess as anything. When thinking of reasons for sending the Queen here, there was practically no reason beyond using her as a hostage of sorts, which while probably not unrealistic was also something that they could do even with the Queen under their command.
Her tired eyes looked at the vegetables dispensed to her, and her hoof wrapped around the plastic fork and poked it into the mess of random, low-quality underwater vegetables. A taste of nothingness, of disappointment. Fitting, in a way.
She poked around some more, this time in the weird, green-ish sludge she was given to eat, though her mind continued to wander. She had lost everything in record time. Her job, her friends, among which she counted Sandy Breeze whose words had struck deep that day in the throne room, even if she knew he was under some kind of influence. Worst of all, though, she had lost her home. For all she knew, Hippogriffia as a whole was now supremely under the thumb of these sirens, whatever or whoever they were. All she really had left now was her thoughts. Her mind. Maybe she needed to treasure that? Hm. Maybe. Though she was feeling herself going mad in her cell already. That was not gonna work out.
She took a deep breath, poking the sludge 'food' harder than the other few times before, and ripping a piece out of it which stuck to the fork. She raised it up, close to her mouth and ready to give it a try, as much as she hated it, when her eyes caught something... big, and blue, standing just outside her cell, behind the bars. She lowered her fork, looked closer, and realised it wasn't a seapony at all, but some... monster, of sorts.
"W-Woah! Wh-what are you!?" cried out Violet Facade as she stumbled backwards, the fork dropping to the floor as she instinctively tried to backpaddle away from the looming creature, which effectively meant crawling on her back until she hit the wall with the back of her head with a thud. "Aurgh!"
The creature seemed to smile, then laugh at Violet's injury. How fitting. Then, however, the monster deadpanned, as if surprised by something. It looked to its left, to the jailor with whom it had arrived, and to her right, where there was nopony at all. Finally, the creature looked back at her with a sheepish smile.
"Ooooh, you mean me!" it said in a surprisingly high-pitched and casual voice. Violet was usually good at detecting when ponies lied but... could not tell if this thing did. Either it was genuinely surprised Violet had just almost had a heart attack due to its monstrous heart attack, or it was a pretty good liar.
"Well, I'm Sonata, actually! Y'know, one of the sirens and all that."
Whatever tension and surprise had cooled in those few moments immediately returned and increased by another 20% as Violet pushed herself up against the wall further, eyes fixed on the siren.
"No, no, no! Oh no, oh gods, don't!"
The siren blinked a few times, looked back at the jailor, who gave her no visible reaction, then looked back to Violet.
"Please! I don't want to-"
"Hey, uh, are you alright?"
"W-W-What?" Violet retorted with quick, short breaths, her heart beating faster than ever it felt. This was it, her final moments as a free-minded seapony.
"You don't have to scream and all that. I mean, I'm right here!" Sonata exclaimed with a smile. "Plus, it''s no biggie. I'm not here to harm you. Just to talk, really."
"You..." Violet began, but shook her head, and moved alongside her cell wall towards the nearest corner. "No... no, you're lying! You're just lying to me, messing with me! Like everypony else!"
"Huh? No, I'm for realsies. I only just got here, after all." The siren shrugged as Violet arrived in the dark corner, thick, solid walls to her left and right which she found some relative solace in leaning against.
"You already corrupted all my friends... my people... just tell me if you're here to finish the job with me, as well!" the prisoner demanded.
"Ohhh. Well, yeah, we did kinda sing and make everyone do what we want for us. But how else could we have gotten out, y'know? It's been so long!"
Violet blinked. "Just... tell me. Please."
"I just did! Hellooooo~? Anypony in there?" Sonata joked, chuckling into her right fin, though she found that her chat partner had covered her ears. Her elongated 'hello' had sounded like she was about to sing to Violet. "Oh... sorry! I guess I shouldn't do that but, like, I'm excited, you know!? I mean I've just been locked up for thousands of years and only had Adagio and Aria and then there was the-"
Sonata let herself pause, catching her breathe, and cooled down. She'd learned how to stop her endless rants like that from Aria sometime during their banishment... granted, it had taken a long time for her to be able to do it half-reliably, but it was an improvement.
She gave a nod to the jailor, who obliged her and opened the cell'S barred door. Much to the terror of the inmate inside, the blue creature came swimming inside, with the door remaining open behind her. Theoretically an escape path but... realistically she knew all this thing had to do was open its mouth and sing a few musical notes and she would probably turn about and salute her or something.
"Right, right!" Sonata continued anew with equal excitement written onto her face. "So, I'm Sonata. As I said. Hehe..." she blushed a little, then gestured towards Violet, who cowered a little at such a simple gesture, even. "And you are?"
There was no reply. Sonata blinked a few times, watching as Violet had effectively curled into the equivalent of a ball in a corner of the room. She was really confused... but realised she needed to do... something here.
"Adagio is gonna be soooo mad at me if I don't get her to talk back...." the siren quietly panicked. She took a deep breath, and... swam backwards a few paces.
"Ok... sorry, me again. I know you're scared and... well, maybe you need a second and a breather, and hey! That's fine! Just... well, I'll just wait here, aaaand you can stay there, and we can pick this up from the beginning when you're ready. Ok? Ok! Good talk!"
It admittedly took a few long seconds, which to Sonata felt like loooong seconds, but she watched as the comparatively small seapony unravelled in her corner, slowly, very slowly, rearing her head at her once again.
"What... who are you...?" Violet asked in disbelief. Why was this siren just... floating there, watching her? Waiting?
"Right, third time's the charm. I'm Sonata, one of our trio of sirens! It's nice to meet you!"
Blinking a few times in continued disbelief and weariness, Violet looked the siren up and down a few times over. This was no costume. It really was some sort of creature... so the siren part was no joke.
"I don't... I don't get it. Why are you talking to me?"
"What do you mean?" asked Sonata plainly.
"Just... everyone else you meet gets mind-controlled. Why are you here talking to me like it's the most normal thing?"
Sonata cocked her head off to the side.
"Because... it is?"
"What?"
"I mean I know we sing and entrance folks with our music. Duh!" Sonata followed up. "But I don't know why that means I can't come and talk to people?"
Violet pulled back a little, distrustful of those seemingly too innocent intentions.
"I doubt that's the full story, frankly..."
"Hmm... well, technically Adagio did tell me to come here and speak to you. But that's really about it."
"Hmph. Knew there was something else behind it..."
"Hey now, don't get the wrong idea! I mean it!" Sonata pleaded to the convict. "I don't even know why she wanted me to talk to you ironically but... I'm here now! So... heya!"
The pink-scaled seapony finally took a deep breath, and pushed herself off of the wall, coming closer to the siren that was probably twice her size but acted nothing like it.
"If you really are here to 'talk', then I have a question for you."
"Sure!" Sonata quickly and jovially replied.
"Why are you doing all this? Why are you invading my home, and making all of my people... I don't know."
Sonata nodded twice, and began to explain at her own pace. "Well, we're sirens as you know. Basically, we have the magic ability to make people do what we want using our voices through singing. Look!"
She pointed both fins to her chest where the red, shining gem was embedded. A part of her very body, it ominously glowed from time to time, clearly not an ordinary piece of jewelry.
"The reason we use that ability is because, well, we have to, kinda! Or at least that's what Adagio always told me, so that's what we do! Essentially, we feed on hate and negative emotions overall. Kinda like Windigos! You know those, still, right? They were, like, a big deal back in our days."
Violet nodded slowly. "Y-Yeah. Yeah I've heard about them but... more of a fillytale, isn't it?"
"Ooooh, nonono. Very real, actually. Or, maybe they aren't anymore.. hard to say! Anyways! What I meant to say is that like them, we feed on all that negativity you folks let out. Unfortunately there isn't usually a lot to go around since societies usually collapse when everyone hates each other or something. Meaning-"
"Meaning you use your magic to make everyone hate each other...?"
Sonata blinked, and chuckled.
"Yep! That's right! Oh, and they also blindly obey us, I guess, which is an added bonus."
"But then... why not do the same to me? I'm not angry right now, and I'm not blindly obeying. Aren't I everything you don't want out of somepony like me?"
"Hmm," the siren pondered, looking up as she pondered, a fin of hers tapping her chin. "Well, we already have your nation in that sense, so our hunger is actually sated for now, though the more creatures that obey us, the stronger our magic gets. Even so, a single seapony isn't going to make a difference. Plus, you seem nice to talk to! So why not?"
"I... thanks. I guess. But I still have so many questions..." Violet rebuffed, sighing and holding a hoof to her head.
"I know, I know," the blue-scaled siren returned, moving slowly towards Violet with an extended fin, intent on patting her on the back.
Violet, instinctively, darted backwards a small distance.
"Sorry," she apologised immediately, "but... don't. Please."
A little disappointed but also understanding of the limitations of her visit, at the moment, Sonata moved back to where she was before. "Right, right. Sorry!"
"No worries, but... I... a lot happened."
The Siren watched as the seapony planted herself on the ground, sitting on the cold ground whilst she floated mid-air in the water.
"Guess you went through a lot, huh?" Sonata asked carefully.
"You could say that..."
"You... wanna talk about it?" the blue creature poked further. "I know I'm probably reason for a lot of bad things happening in a sense but... I'm here to talk."
"Just... a lot dumb decisions on my end. That's all."
The siren produced a wide grin, and a brief chuckle. "Oh, I do a lot of dumb things myself, actually. Trust me, Adagio and Aria hate me for them, hehe."
Violet slowly nodded her head. "Yeah, well. If you do a mistake, it doesn't cost you your entire people and nation..."
Sonata cocked her head, once again, and inquired further. "What do you mean?"
"I was the head of... well, doesn't matter, I guess. An organisation meant to stop things like you. Internal security," Violet explained. "We obviously knew people were acting off, I presume because of this magic of yours, but... I put it off as something that wasn't harmful. I had my own stupid wish to bring down enemies and wasted all my time and efforts on that, instead."
"Oh... that..."
Sonata paused for a moment, pondered for the right words to express herself and continued.
"...sounds a lot like me, actually."
The seapony was the one to cock her head in confusion, this time. "I know you want to cheer me up or something but... yeah, no. I doubt that."
"I'm not kidding! I admit, I haven't caused my own people to get invaded or something like that, but I do really really bad mistakes all the time. I already told you, right? My two friends, Adagio and Aria? They hate me for that! I just can't get things right, always mess things up, and they always say I can't be allowed to handle things on my own."
There was an awkward pause, silence looming between the two different creatures. Sonata's head sank a little, her smile fading as she took in what she'd said. She did that a lot - talking before thinking, much to the dismay of Aria - but this was perhaps one of the few times she felt ready to reflect on just how often she was essentially made fun of for being the fifth wheel.
"That... does sound pretty rough to endure nonstop."
"...Yeah..."
She almost couldn't believe it but... Violet almost forgot about her own tragedy a little when she saw Sonata's happy face, which as far as she could remember had worn a smile all throughout her visit so far along with an ecstatic demeanour, had now turned into a silent whisper and a sad frown.
"Why do you..." Violet cleared her throat and started anew. "Ahem. Sorry but... I have to ask. The way they treat you sounds... awful. Why do you tag along with them like you do?"
"That's... a long story," Sonata weakly replied.
"How long is... long?"
Sonata sighed, but seemed to ponder, which wasn't really a good sign, in a way.
"I... don't actually remember, fully. It was so long ago now and... to be fair, being locked away doesn't much help, either."
Violet was too curious not to ask. "Locked away? Like, in prison?"
"Like that, kinda, but worse. Imagine being in this cell except it's totally, 100% pitch black, with no food or other kinds of sounds, and no escape. That was where I spent the last... I think Adagio said a thousand years or so, probably more. Even she doesn't know for sure, yet, but I'm glad she and Aria were with me, still."
"That doesn't sound like any prison I know," the former secret police chief countered. "I'll assume that's part of why it's a very long story?"
The siren nodded her head. "Yeeeah..."
Pondering, Violet took a deep breath, and spoke up once more.
"Well, I don't exactly have anywhere else to go now. If... you want, I'm here to listen to your tale."
The seapony heard a weak gulp from the creature she had initially described as a monster, but now found herself on almost cordial, even friendly terms with.
"You really would?"
"I admit, besides wanting to make you feel better, I'm also curious. I was hoping knowing who and what you are might put my mind at ease, a little more."
A smile returned to the ditzy siren's face.
"Right. Right! I think we can do that. Perhaps you can recount your own story, too, after. Been ages since I had this kind of storytelling with friends, you know."
Smiling also, the seapony nodded twice slowly.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that very much."