//------------------------------//
// Cadenza 
// Story: Secondo 
// by Lil Penpusher 
//------------------------------//

One by one, they had all fallen before them. For all of Aria's talk of this being a dangerous new world, they found that the mortals roaming it were still just as gullible and vulnerable as ever. 

The sirens had gathered on the balcony of the royal palace on Mount Aris, and from there, they overlooked not just the capital below, but also much of the realm far below. They all smiled, be it out of accomplishment or because they were now one step closer to their ultimate goal. They knew that everycreature they could see was theirs to command now, as it should be. It was one pivotal step closer to a world as it should be: ruled by sirens, bowing deep before their musical brilliance and serving them as the one and only rulers of all creaturekind. 

And yet, though they had accomplished much, that particular vision was still but a distant pipe dream. The road to victory was littered with threats both known and unknown, with possible betrayals and surprised, and it certainly would be contested by the pathetic militaries of the mortal realms of the three great continents. Equus, Griffonia, Zebrica. They were all theirs to rule... in due time.

For now, they savoured the moment together. A rare moment in which all three of them looked on to a common goal, where they didn't fight and bother one another as they so often did. Their banishment so long ago, and those many, many years of imprisonment had fanned hatred and lust for revenge, but in doing so also revitalised their bond... as odd of a bond as it was. They all knew they needed one another, and although they weren't the most compatible most of the time, they saw eye-to-eye often enough to remember that they each brought their own skills to their unordinary trio.

Sonata, the free-minded and friendly, if not scatterbrained and ditzy young one among the group.
Aria, the calculating and rational siren, though she often tended to overthink projects and situations the three were in.
Adagio, the somewhat self-elected and yet relatively undisputed leader of the trio. Manipulative and charismatic to a punch, though thin-skinned in arguments and often tending to overestimate her and her companions' strength.

Together, the three of them had feasted so many years ago, until their rule was interrupted and cut short by that Wizard and his friends. Now, though, they were back again, and they have become smarter and stronger than ever. With a thousand years of careful consideration and reflection, they intended to make sure that they would never again face such a horrid, unjust fate. Never again would they allow for it to happen. No, this time they would be the ones holding all the cards. It would be the ponies and their pretty little 'heroes' at their mercy, not the other way around.

They all looked at one another and gave each other a nod. The resistance was broken, its members captured and enthralled like anypony else, or had scattered into the wind. The letter was actually rather entertaining, as it would prove to be the first practical use for the beacons of magic that Sonata had helped develop. Among the few creatures bestowed this 'honour' for now, due to limited materials, was of course the princess herself.

Sonata still felt bad, to a degree. She couldn't lie to herself about that. The princess had appealed to her and the girls specifically for mercy, which, if it had come from somepony that was actually innocent, she may have considered. Yet, even as good-willed and innocent as she always tended to be, to the frustration of Adagio who had been trying to discipline it out of her, Sonata did not want mercy for Skystar. 

The young siren was all for second chances, but was the princess not the one who had organised a whole bunch of ponies to group up in an attempt to overthrow them and, quite possibly, kill them? All these past weeks, Sonata had witnessed the girls dealing with the laborious task of rooting out her group, and yet she had asked her for mercy? 

Sonata was kind but... not blind, and not stupid as much as Aria insisted on that at times. The sirens were ultimately a force for good, and it was ponies like the three before her that day who had caused so much carnage for everycreature. Nopony benefited from an ultimately failed resistance, all it had done was make everyone miserable and live in fear. Of course, if she were to have said this out loud, Adagio and Aria would have likely reminded her that this was 'the point' and a positive, and yet, that wasn't entirely true, and even the older two knew as much.

She saw it everywhere she looked, especially from where they were then, so high up, looking down upon their realm. Everypony who knew what a siren was knew only half the tale. The sirens were a magical, ancient race that used their magical song to entrance and enthrall others. Simultaneously, their spell created discord among the affected creatures, which is what sirens ultimately sustained themselves off of. As they fed, their magic was bolstered, and as their magic was bolstered, they grew bolder and enthralled more subjects, leading to more negativity and food.

That was what everypony was always told. That they were the malevolent creatures risen from the oceans to wreak havoc. What nopony told anyone was that villages under the spell of any siren were obviously not suddenly popped out of existence. Society had to continue... somehow, and despite all the anger ponies felt, they would always have jobs and duties to fulfill to earn their daily bread and make a living for themselves and family. And although it was true that the sirens generally made socialising awkward and tense, if not unbearable, it actually was a... unique sort of society in of itself. A closed circle, where everypony was, in a way, tended and cared for. Depending on the siren in charge, anyway.

Sonata recalled, still, when Adagio had begun teaching her about this so very long ago. It was Adagio's way to use her thralls as disposable minions to advance her goals with, little more. When it was her turn to attack a village and enthrall its inhabitants, Adagio frequently lectured and reprimanded her about her techniques. Rather than disregarding her mortal subjects as worthless, she was caring for them in an almost tenderly fashion. She was still keeping them under her spell, of course, and hate was as rampant as it was in any other siren-controlled society, but she had looked to ensure that all her subjects were healthy, fed and given at least basic accomodations. When Adagio asked for her reasoning for such extensive, seemingly pointless efforts, she told her as such:

"Well, dead ponies can't give us magic, right? So I keep them healthy enough to walk and talk, fed enough to not starve, and give them a roof and bed so that they don't die out in the open."

Much of that statement came to define Sonata's outlook on not just life, but how she treated other creatures, under her spell or not. Unlike Adagio and Aria, she was actually a proponent that not everycreature had to necessarily be enthralled to be loyal, not to mention that they would probably need a handful of free-minded individuals to run key institutions. When they weren't controlled directly by the sirens upon given an order, thralled subjects were, for better or worse, left to their own devices and retained free will. However due to the obvious... complications, that nopony wanted to work together very much anymore, it would make many things hard to accomplish. Science, Healthcare, education and more. All of these were real issues - Aria had taught her about those recently! - and they needed to be addressed in a manner that wasn't Adagio's usual 'it's not important right now' manner. 

It was almost funny to Sonata, actually. They were always slighted and ascribed to be vile villains, or even demons, intent on ruling all through tyrannical use of magic. And while, yes, they did indeed want to rule all through magical means, their rule was surprisingly benevolent and unnoticeably in day-to-day life for most subjects. Aria had even argued, at one point, that certain races were pretty much unaffected by the mind-altering effects of their spell which made them inexplicably angry at others. Griffons, for example, were a prime example of a race already culturally devoted to greed, and though there were movements to shed that cloak, it only seemed to underline the theory that life was not as apocalyptic under the three as many would slander and make it out to be. If you already hated your neighbours and coworkers before their arrival, would anything really, realistically change? And if the sirens never had need to command you directly, which a minority ever would be, then was it not just the equivalent of ordinary, day-to-day life? With perhaps added bonuses of healthcare and more if the young siren had her?

Maybe. 

Sonata couldn't imagine it fully, truth be told. She was comparatively inexperienced to the other two, and even then, she was always the one holding all the cards over her subjects, and never a subject herself. And yet, with the resistance in mind especially, she wanted to strive towards a better tomorrow. A better siren society, which would benefit all. One that could reasonably disspell villainous slander, would care for its citizens and protect them, and would in turn allow for a bigger and healthier magical harvest than they could imagine right now.

Alas, that project was mostly still a pipe dream as of yet. The resistance had really done a number on their magical reserves, and although they had won out, it would take some valuable weeks, if not months, for them to regain their full strength once again. She was eagerly hoping to pitch her ideas to her partners in the meantime, but knew that there were big projects for all three of them already lining the walls, not to mention that both Adagio and Aria probably had pet projects of their own in mind for running this place. She reeeally wanted to get her ideas across, and yet... as with most things in the siren group when it boiled down to a tie, it would likely boil down to a compromise, or Adagio pushing her idea through with brute force.

And indeed, though the resistance to their new rule was all but eliminated now, they still had much to do and even more things to learn. That was, primarily, what was on Aria's mind, and had been since their takeover... if not for that stupid resistance distracting her. At the very least the mortals rising against them helped prove to Adagio, in some small part, that mortal technologies were indeed dangerous and to be studied and understood.

Aria was all too aware that things had radically changed, and was still a little bit amazed at how Sonata seemed to accept things so readily, while Adagio didn't seem to acknowledge the new reality at all. She was... somewhere in the middle. Her greatest desire was still revenge, as was the desire of all three of them, but her greatest fear was to be banished another time, or worse. Never again, she had promised herself. Never another prison sentence. She would work to prevent it, something that she felt was primarily done by studying what the world would throw at them.

Planes, tanks, rifles, factories, warships, television, the list went on and on and on. A dreary prospect and task for most, she assumed, but not for her, not in this situation. She actually found herself inspired and drawn to her studies, and therefore hated any interruptions of them by whomsoever dared. Mortals were beneath them, that much she agreed upon with Adagio, but they weren't useless, and they certainly were able to endure a lot of things by pushing the envelope of science ever further onwards.

Her monotonous frown would betray it, but deep down Aria shared at least parts of Sonata's rhetoric regarding their subjects. A firm but fair rule, to ensure that their magic would remain at a stable supply and not suddenly plummet due to uncontrolled fires, disease outbreaks, uncontrolled violence and murder or other scenarios that inevitably culled the population. Of course, Aria's ideals were a little less... idealistic and friendly than Sonata's. She supported a healthy base of subjects not because of some equal exchange of 'services', with sirens taking magic from the thralls and the subjects utilising public services and more. No, she needed a capable, healthy and orderly society so that, when times required it, or when the three of them desired it, there would be an army, a navy, an air force, and all the necessary public services beyond to keep the state running. 

The resistance had already proven vividly that the direct micromanagement of their underlings was... exhausting, in the magical sense. It's why they had taken in Moonfeather as a de-facto governor, under the title of Siren Constant, to run the civilian governance of things in their name and under their overwatch. Yet, if the resistance was rough on them, then a full-out war would become even more of an issue. 

Yes. Yes, they needed to adapt. There was quite literally no other way in Aria's mind. They needed an army, a chain-of-command where only the most capable of strategic and tactical minds were under their direct control, so that they could wrangle the troops for them. But to accomplish that would require training, reorganisation and institutionalising a modern officer corps. Hippogriffia had already had one, luckily, but that didn't necessarily mean the ponies previously employed in it were... any good for them. Nepotism was so often a deep-running trend for mortal realms.

She almost felt as though the real challenge would not be establishing all these things, though, but rather to convince her partners of their importance. And by partners, she meant partner, singular. Adagio was all too often blocking her ideas on the pretext that she was 'dwelling on what if scenarios' and 'fearing futures that would never come'. And true, they wouldn't come... if they prepared as Aria called for. 

And yet, change was slow to be pushed past her supposed superior. The idea of not directly commandeering everycreature, the idea of basic divisions of labour and authority through chains of command... all of these things were foreign for Adagio, and in stark contrast to her ideals of absolute superiority over the mortals. But they were necessary changes. And frankly, the more they conquered, the more this would prove its worth, with local rulers and governors overseeing and managing the newly conquered states in their absence, while being a source of magic - and troops - all the same. 

Yes. Aria nodded in her mind. They had the music, but they needed these mortals all the same. To govern, to administer and tend the lands they ruled, and to fight and if necessary die for them. Only if that was true could their ultimate dream, their final act of vengeance, be realised. 

Adagio looked to her left, and eyed Aria. For a moment she witnessed a confident smirk on her face, but that was quickly swapped out for her usual monotonous frown when Aria realised she was under watch.

Adagio then looked to her right, where Sonata was already looking back at her. A warm smile awaited her from her young follower.

And then, Adagio looked out ahead again, and the others did also, and they took in their realm once more as the sun began to set before their very eyes, the bright sunlight of the day flickering and converting into a gentle orange shade. Even the fierce and often mean leader of the sirens couldn't help but smile, then.

There was a long road ahead of them, still. A lot of trials and tribulations, and probably one mortal mob after another throwing themselves at them to try and oppose them. Perhaps they would even come to battle with the pillars, princesses and elements of harmony. Perhaps.

She raised both of her fins, and surprised both of her partners as she pulled them close into what was perhaps the closest the sirens had gotten to a group hug in forever. Aria blushed, embarassed and confused more than anything, but Sonata gladly accepted the gesture. 

These two had their uses. And in the end, it was the three of them against the world. A world full of dangers and enemies, but no matter what the obstacle might be, they would persist through it. Adagio knew it. Counted on it.

They would have their revenge. They would right a great wrong committed countless years ago, and maybe then, at last, she could rest easy knowing it was done.

But for now, she was complacent with having Aria and Sonata by her side, and a realm to rule over. From here, their ambitions could be molded from abstract into reality, and they could aspire for greater and greater things until the deed was done. No matter if the world defied them, cursed them, assaulted their bastions. They would weather each and every storm, no matter the cost if that is what it took to get what they so desperately needed to accomplish.

And they would do it side-by-side. Together. This time, it was personal.