What a pain this had become, and so quickly, too.
Aria was the only one among the three of them that was initially concerned about the formation of some semblance of organised resistance against their rule, whereas Adagio kept insisting these mortals would fall over like dominoes and Sonata... well, she failed to grasp the severity of it, as usual.
The purple siren was usually keeping to herself wherever possible. She had meant to study the new technologies and ways of the world they found themselves in, and see how their magic could exploit them. Adagio thought she was an idiot for bothering with mortals like that, but she knew that it was vital. There was a lot to gain from learning from their new subjects, but also much to fear. She was a siren, yes, but as much as she would never admit it, she was not without fear. The fear of being banished yet again, or worse, killed outright, was omnipresent these days. Never again did she want to go back, and never again would she knowingly subject herself or the others to that thousand year torture, not if she had any say in preventing it.
That's why the resistance bothered her so much. As much as she understood Adagio's claim that they were 'just mortals' and not any serious threat... things were different now. The world was, overall. Even still, there was much for her to study and learn, but even now she understood that such a limited group could wreak havoc and cause them a lot of harm. And havoc they did cause.
A blown up railway here, stolen weapons deliveries there, and plenty of posters all around Aris instigating revolt against them. Sabotage was their bread and butter, but even so they were proving dangerously resolute, opening fire on police and military forces hastily dispatched to fetch the traitors.
Due to her insistence that the resistance was such a big threat, Aria was made to deal with the resistance personally on the insistence of Adagio, as uninsightful as ever. Sometimes she thought that the stubbornness of her elder partner would be the certain nail in their coffin as a group... but there was little time to dwell on that, right now. She could and would grumble and bark back at her, but they had to act and tackle this together. Which is why this arrangement was obviously problematic with only her in charge whilst Adagio kept plotting some intricate attack plan to seize revengea abroad and Sonata gathered intelligence from prisoners and locals. She'd repeatedly asked to be allowed to, that she was 'good at talking to creatures', and Aria had acquiesced, primarily to get some peace of mind and focus on her own issues.
Her vaguely fish-like form's shadow loomed over a city map of Howlington which was pinned against the wall. Street names ran along their designated roads, while notable establishments or locations were pointed out by name, such as parks, schools and police stations.
She raised her right fin, holding three separate red pushpins in it, and stuck one of them into the map, right through the word 'Canterford Main Station'. She lowered her fin again, scanning the map at large. There were now dozens of these pins spread across the area. Areas where the resistance might strike. Black pins, too, for the few areas already struck in the past.
She didn't feel much if any remorse for the locations hit by these fools. The Police, the cargo workers and all. She didn't care about them much. Adagio was right when she said mortals were a tool to be used by them, though she was obviously wrong in how she was intending to utilise them, not understanding the full extent of their utility.
No, what was beginning to concern her was her magic. The sirens came here to feed off of the population through its strife and anger, which their spell helped facilitate. However, directly commanding their subjects to followe orders was... intensive, to say the last, on their magical powers. A sort of laissez-faire was the norm, where those under the command of them were left to their own devices and lived their regular lives freely, with the difference that they wouldn't disobey any orders, and that they hated everycreature else, minus the sirens of course. That way, they afforded minimal magic for keeping control, but gained the most. That was how they fed, how their powers increased.
Hence why this was rapidly becoming problematic. This micromanagement, this increased level of direct control... it was starting to show its consequences on her magical powers. The gem within her chest, her source of power, did not glow as bright and often as it did a week ago, when first they seized this land for themselves. It was being drained. Effectively, this meant Aria was now on a timed counter, and if she ever ran out of magic entirely... well. The Hippogriffs that wake up would probably have a word or two to say to her face.
That could not happen. But she was doubtful of ever being able to tackle this alone. Even with a whole nation supposedly under her command, finding rats was still finding rats, which was exceedingly difficult.
Adagio had made a good point, though. Sure they usually relied on their magic purely out of convenience and ease... but it wasn't as though they weren't capable of natural manipulation, either. And with so many splintered elements within that group of wanna-be revolutionaries, that was probably not all too difficult to do. A shove here, a planted rumor there, and voila.
She turned her back to the map, and pondered her options. If these Hippogriffs really wanted to battle, she would gladly accept their challenge. On her own terms.
Skystar let out a sigh of relief as she lowered herself onto her seat. They had recently discreetly moved out of the home they were given refuge in, both to not endanger the owner there, and because they needed someplace more remote. This warehouse had the benefit of being bigger, too.
"Hey Skystar!" Silverstream called out as she entered her make-shift office of a sorts. It was little more than a simple dinner table and wooden chairs, really, but she had needed someplace remote and quiet among all these creatures. Someplace to think. As much as she was an outgoing individual, she didn't quite work like that in situations like... this, as it turned out.
"Silverstream! What's up?" she called back with a smile as her friend moved up towards her desk, standing due to the absence of chairs and leaving the door half-way open.
"Any word from Blue Frost and the others yet? They were meant to get here, like, a while ago, right?" Rather than worried, the Hippogriff teen seemed to simply be curious. Even she knew now that delays were all too normal in this situation. Sometimes it was best to risk a delay rather than risk being found out while on the move.
"Nothing yet. Guess they were held up on the rail south of here," the princess responded, before her smile widened. "Oh! By the way, great work with that raid on the warehouse yesterday. I was told to thank you by the doctor downstairs. A lot of medical supplies were in those crates which he really, really needed. Probably already helped save a life or two."
"Doctor Woozy said that?" Silverstream returned happily. "Haha! Well I guess I won't say no to praise, ehehe..."
Skystar chuckled as her friend blushed and scratched her face awkwardly. That chuckle faded when she heard someone running down the hall towards the door behind Silverstream, and consequently burst through the already open door.
"Skystar?" Posada called out loudly, seeming to orient herself for a split second before finding Skystar on her chair. "Skystar! You gotta see this!"
Skystar gave the red-feathered hippogriff a questioning look, but already the communist partisan was scurrying back out of her office, again. The princess looked at Silverstream, who looked at her also, and they both made a dash for the door, following wherever Posada had run off to.
The two friends found themselves in the 'common room', which was a very generous way of describing a dirty but large storage room where empty crates were used as chairs and benches. There was a dartboard on the wall, two buckballs in the corner, and most importantly right now, a civilian-grade radio posted up on one of the crates in the center of the room. Plenty of Hippogriffs were seen huddling around it, listening keenly.
"Come. Listen to this crap," Posada told them, waving for them to get closer.
"What's wrong?" Skystar asked back, quietly as she walked up to her ally.
"Just listen."
She turned to face the radio as somegriff appeared to adjust the volume, turning it up a tad. A male voice began to sound from the small device.
"Earlier today, authorities managed to intercept a large group of terrorists west of the city of Canterford. According to the local police chief, all members were part of the recently proclaimed resistance terrorist group, and highly armed and dangerous."
The voice spoke monotonously, as if he felt nothing. Skystar wasn't surprised, he was probably made to say those things by the sirens directly. A dictate he couldn't disobey. Wasn't the first time they were called terrorists either.
"Special Forces of the Police arrived to tackle the threat after gunshots were heard in a remote village. As investigations quickly showed, it appeared as though the terrorists had broken into several homes there while fully armed. Police have so far come out to confirm 5 civilians as confirmed deceased, with another 12 in hospital, possibly in critical condition. One 6 year-old hippogriff boy was also confirmed to be among the deceased victims, as well as their mother."
Skystar could already tell Posada was furious just by hearing her faint growling.
"Following investigative efforts, it was revealed that all the attackers of this particular group once belonged to the Socialist Party of Aris, and are likely to have been under the command of Posada, who herself is one of the leading figures of this grotesque rebellion. We-"
The voice cut out as a green-feathered Hippogriff rose and turned it off.
"I fucking knew it!"
Crack Lightning pushed himself through two rebel fighters to get to Skystar and Posada. Pointing at the red hippogriff, he continued.
"Fucking knew you scum couldn't be trusted!" He looked over to Skystar. "I told you!"
"Crack, I think-"
"Oh, shut up," Posada interrupted the princess, retorting in an equally hostile tone. "Are you really stupid enough to believe this? To believe them?" She gestured towards the radio briefly, then pointed at Crack. "Wow, Crack Lightning acting stupid? Colour me surprised!"
"Watch your fucking tongue or I'll cut it straight out!" Crack barked.
"Whose side are you on? Ours, or theirs? Because you're the one buying all this stupid propaganda of theirs!"
"Oh yeah? Do you really expect me to buy that?" Crack answered, nodding his head slightly. "Do you have any idea what they did years ago in Stalliongrad? What the reds are doing in Brodfeld to people that don't approve of them?"
Posada's frown deepend as she was poked in her chest over and over by Crack's talons.
"You're the most blind creature in the land if you earnestly think your petty, stupid, destructive ideology is as innocent as you claim it is! It's in your fucking blood to kill innocent creatures. Do you hear me? You assholes do this crap for a living! It's the bread and butter of your thought process!"
Crack's eyes widened as Posada shoved him backwards at least 6 paces, nearly stumbling and falling.
"Posada! Crack!" Skystar called out, intent on moving in on both of them to keep them apart, but Silverstream held her back at the last moment. There was an almost murderous glare on Posada's face, now.
"I won't stand here and be lectured on morality by a fascist!" she answered him. "Your kind are the real parasites of any society, and maybe we should be dealing with you folks first before anything else! I can't imagine a society like in Wingbardy over here, where only violence matters and all conscience and logic is cast aside. Your regressive, destructive ideas end here!"
"Stop it! Both of you!" the princess insisted one last time.
"I'm not going to be called a parasite by the true vermin in the room! You're going to be the downfall of all of us!"
Skystar closed her eyes as Crack gritted his teeth and began to charge at his opponent, right claw outstretched for a swipe. She didn't want to witness this.
Skystar looked down at the two scarred, bruised bodies of Posada and Crack. Both of them had definitely delivered and received punches and scratches, until the eventual K.O. but at least no guns were involved. Everycreature had survived.
She frowned and sighed, still. This was worrying, but... sadly, not entirely unexpected. She knew these two were on bad terms for reasons that were obvious. Their agreement to cooperate was loose at best, and both sides had begun accusing the other of being apart of the resistance only to bolster their own ideology, and that - upon victory - they would proclaim a government of their own that suited their ideals. Skystar was part of neither side, and had with her her own camp of 'followers'. Those once loyal to her mother, and those generally satisfied with the old government, or just Hippogriffs that didn't want any part in the partisan politics of Far-Right and Far-Left. She was the moderate in the room, and in a sense the scale which had to balance out the other two sides in this struggle. The sirens were already a huge enemy as is... but here she was, feeling like her own friends and allies were becoming foes, also, always bickering and fighting.
The Radio broadcast had been propaganda, obviously. She knew that it was, though it is true that Posada's team west of Canterford, meant to scout for rural train lines to sabotage, had not returned, and was over 3 days due, now. The sirens must have caught them and used the opportunity to prop up some delusional scenario. She was ashamed that it had worked.
She turned about and marched out of the infirmary in the cellar of the warehouse holdout. Silverstream already waited at the door, and began to walk with her back upstairs.
"So... where are we going, again?" Violet Facade asked as she swam alongside her new, blue friend.
"Aria said she wanted to see you! Apparently she heard of your time at AyyHayy... the...." Sonata stopped trying as her friend chuckled.
"The Anti-Harmony Activities Committee?" the purple seapony corrected.
"That's what I said! Buuut let's just call it Anti-Harmony thing, ok?"
"Works for me." Violet looked down at the metal cuffs holding her hooves in place. She felt... good, and free, in a way, moving along with Sonata. But she really wasn't. And who even knew what was coming now, with her 'friend' Aria and all. Would it be another surprise like with Sonata? Perhaps. She could only hope, because she didn't know what was so interesting about her that kept the siren next to her from turning her into an obedient thrall.
They arrived at a purple and white door. Violet knew it as Skystar's bedroom which... it probably wasn't, anymore. Sonata gave the door a somewhat hefty trio of knocks.
"Ariaaa~! We're hereee~!" she called out to her friend on the other side.
The door opened a few seconds later, revealing a purple siren with an annoyed frown on her face. Violet felt a bit tense, looking at her.
"Took you long enough. Come on, I don't have all day."
She gestured inside. Sonata led the increasingly timid seapony, as Aria shut the door behind them. Swimming back towards a desk close to her majestic bed, she picked up what looked to be a rather ordinary clipboard with plenty of papers on it. The siren flipped through it ceaselessly as Sonata and Violet shot curious looks at her, and one another.
"Aria? What's the issue? Isn't this normally when you tell us about some big plan of yours?"
Violet didn't say anything but... Sonata had a point. That's sort of what she had been expecting, given everything that had happened.
"What's the issue?" Aria returned, looking up from her papers in hand. "Why, Sonata, I'm just happy to see you and called you here to shake fins and have a good time, because everything is great."
Sonata gasped, and Violet saw her eyes sparkle. She raised both her chained hooves and meant to speak up, telling her quietly to not engage, but Sonata was faster.
"For realsies!? Because, like, I told Violet here that you probably had something big planned and like, needed help with it, y'know?"
Aria deadpanned, her monotonous glare returning as it drilled into Sonata and cut out her gleeful joy of the moment.
"Sonata, do you ever... think?" Aria wondered. Sonata seemed to genuinely ponder, but Aria waved dismissively. "Do not answer that. Anyways."
She looked back at the clipboard, and again looked at paper after paper, skimming contents briefly.
"The issue is pretty clear. Adagio thinks the newly formed resistance isn't an issue, so she's told me to deal with it. Like all things that Adagio refuses to do, though, it's actually relevant and important, though."
"Ohhh, got it!" Sonata nodded. "But where does that put us two?"
"Hm?" Aria wondered. "Well, I need the backup. More importantly, I need extra eyes and ears. You'll be helping me a little bit with the tinier chores and duties that I'm too busy to handle, Sonata. As for that one," she added, looking briefly at Violet, "she's the ex-chief of some secret police or the like, right? So I'm gonna put her to good use."
"But Adagio already said I should stay here and talk to the prisoners. Something about information gathering?" Sonata seemed to shrug at not fully understanding the sense of her own task.
Aria, for her part, rolled her eyes, and sighed.
"Adagio just wanted to get rid of you for the moment, Sonata," the purple siren revealed monotonously. "I can't blame her. She wanted you away from danger so that you couldn't break or harm anything while we got things in order. Which means my instructions are far more relevant since they actually need you to make yourself useful. For once."
"Ahah... right," the blue siren chuckled, seeming to be a little embarassed. Violet, on the other hand, seemed a little upset at how her new friend was addressed and handled.
"Are you sure you should be treating her that way?" she spoke back to the siren. Aria paused, eyes darting towards the pink seapony floating next to her ally. She blinked, remaining silent for but a few seconds.
"Sonata, did... you not sing to her?"
"Nope!" was the fast and ready reply.
"Are you stupid?"
"Uuuuh-"
"Don't answer that. Whatever." Aria shook her head, and lowered her clipboard. She reached for the gem in her chest with her right fin, and closed her eyes as the gem shone through her fin little by little, as if powering up.
"S-Sonata, what is she doing?" Violet quickly asked, panic mounting.
"Uhhh..." Sonata muttered. "Aria, what are you doing?"
"What does it look like? You obviously messed up - as expected - so I'm doing your job for you."
For a second, Sonata seemed relieved. "Ohhh, phew, that's- wait!" she called out. "Don't sing to her, she'll-"
"Be one of our thralls? Yes, that's the point, Sonata. Have you forgotten you're a siren again?"
Sonata panicked also, now, as her stubborn friend's monotony seemed to shine through once again. With nothing else on her mind at that second, she did the only thing she could think of.
Aria opened her mouth to sing, and just as the first note attempted to escape, a blue fin was slapped around her snout, intent on keeping her from talking, let alone singing. The purple siren was naturally livid with her friend's actions, and shook her head, and finally used her own limbs to push Sonata off.
"Sonata! Will you stop being a hurdle in everything we do for once?" Aria complained.
"You didn't listen to me, so I had to!" was the defence of the younger siren. By this point, Violet had moved to hide half her body behind Sonata. She'd long clocked on that Sonata was an odd one out... not the norm for how these sirens acted.
"I didn't listen to you because it made no sense, Sonata! Like always!" Aria clenched her fins into impromptu fists and boiled with anger. "Grrraaa! When will you finally come to terms with this? We're not mortals, Sonata! We're not their friends, and we're not meant to be living as they do!"
Sonata remained steadfast, not moving from where she floated.
"We're meant to rule them. The magic we have is a gift and you're painfully wasting and disregarding it. I thought Adagio had drilled that into your head by now as much as my own, but I guess your head is still as empty as ever."
"We don't always need magic to make people follow us, though!" Sonata insisted. "I didn't need my magic to have Violet trust me and explain her story to me, after all."
"Sonata's been trying to comfort and be nice to me," Violet added, to support her friend's own statement. "I know it doesn't mean a lot but-"
"No." Aria interrupted, refusing to hear this nonsense out fully. "Sonata, this is absolutely not negotiable or arguable. These are rules more ancient than any of us are. Rules written by nature itself. More importantly, I'll tell Adagio if you don't do as I say, and she'll be an even bigger pain than me."
"A-Aria! Come on!" Sonata pleaded.
"I said no. I will not be arguing this nonsense. You need to get your head in order, and stop with this pontless friendship stuff. That's for ponies, not us."
"But..." Sonata pondered, quietly giving out, "we're... friends, right?"
Aria sighed, and rolled her eyes, dodging the question.
"Just do as I tell you."
"Sonata?" Violet said, resting both of her cuffed hooves on the blue siren's body. "I... I don't want you getting into trouble."
"Violet, what-"
"Look, I already screwed up... really, really bad. I don't need to tell you that twice. If this is my punishment then... I'm fine with that. I deserve it."
"No, no, no, no, no, wait wait, that's not-" Sonata quickly gave out.
"Sonata, it's fine," the seapony interrupted again. "Really."
Sonata blinked at her mortal friend, then looked over to Aria who seemed to be incredibly bored and unentertained by the whole charade put up before her.
"You... are you really, really sure?"
"Yeah. After everything that's happened... this was kinda what I expected anyway. I don't think I want you getting into trouble over something that I've felt was inevitable to some degree anyway."
Sonata remained petrified for a moment, before nodding once, slowly.
"Right. Alright."
The siren looked over to her purple partner, then.
"Do you mind if I do it?"
"If it lets me move ahead with my plans any sooner? Do it."
Sonata lifted herself upwards, to where Violet now had to look up 70 degrees to look her in the eyes. She knew what was coming, and felt like she should somehow prepare herself. Her mind was gonna be tortured in some way, her independence as an individual would fleet, and she'd probably start hating everyone and everything, too. A miserable existence, if even she was conscious enough to find it miserable.
Yet, she remained where she was, eyeing her newest and perhaps last friend as she prepared to sing her a song that would change her world forever. She remembered everything one last time. Her time in Griffonia, her promotion to Chief of the AHAC, everything surrounding the siren's cult and her time in prison, including with Sonata. She remembered her family, all her friends, neighbours, even those people she didn't like very much. A faint smile came across her face. Maybe she wasn't so alone after all. Maybe she hadn't always done such big mistakes. Perhaps, one day, somepony would forgive her for letting this all happen, and maybe she could forgive herself, too.
She felt her eyes forced shut as a melody began to engulf her. Heavenly and harmonic, sung in such a familiar and friendly voice. She felt as she began to lose herself, gradually, in song. Every note felt as though it caressed her mind. She finally felt peace of mind, for the first time in a long time.