I had intended to write my thoughts and memories on the sirens as a study on the character of monsters pretending to be friends. Ironically, it is the betrayal of a friend-turned-monster that has made me return to writing.
I have made mistakes in my life. Horrible mistakes that will haunt me until I die. And perhaps even after.
The Pillars of Harmony were supposed to be protectors of peace and, yes, harmony. We are the strongest, the most kind, the smartest, the wisest of all, if legend is to be beloved. But, as much as we have had our moments, the truth is we have also been victims of plots and lies that make me question the validity of such assessments to our character.
I write this as we prepare to fight the Pony of Shadows, I must first face the possibility of my death and that of the others. And in doing so, I wish to at least clear the names of those we hurt. For you see, the Pony of Shadows was once a normal pony, a follower of ours named Stygian, who wanted to join our ranks.
Although he wasn't ready then—and proved as much by stealing our artifacts later on—he did join us in many adventures and many events in our lives. And he was in fact, the one that officially got us together... through manipulation.
Pinkie Pie frowned. "Well... that doesn't sound nice! Friends shouldn't try to manipulate their friends!"
"And yet, ponies do this all the time," Moon Dancer muttered. "Anyway, let's continue reading."
Stygian came from a fishing village, a small town of little consequence to the world save for one thing: the three legendary sirens would visit it occasionally, and that was in fact how I met not only them, but Stygian in the first place.
He had befriended all of them to a certain extent, so when I came looking for information about them, he was eager to please and quickly arranged a meeting through the siren Sonata Dusk, who had known him since he was a small colt.
I was indeed quite pleased by this. The sirens were legends of times gone long past. I had looked into their history and had only managed to find fragments of stories written about them in hieroglyphs, or passed down through oral tradition. These ancient beings, seemingly as old as the world itself, were shrouded in mystery and folklore, and being able to talk to them was an incredible opportunity. One I did not miss a chance to take.
"Hold on just a minute," Applejack interrupted. "Y'all mean to tell us that the sirens were not evil monsters?"
"From what we saw, and what Starswirl had written it certainly seemed that way..." Fluttershy said softly.
"I'm afraid there's more to it than we had imagined," Rarity said, glancing at Moon Dancer.
This took place years before the Pillars of Harmony united to fight against our former friends. The stories, even my other journals mention our prideful fight against the sirens, but what I don't mention, to my shame... is that after Stygian stole our artifacts, I also found out that he had manufactured the attack on the town.
The sirens were destructive, vicious even. They fed from the negative energies of the ponies they were attacking. But that was not their nature. In our haste to fight them, in my shameful blind trust of ponies—of Stygian—over those that were no longer ponies, I never thought to question why they had attacked.
Were their actions appropriate? I don't believe so. They were hurting others and had to be stopped. However, I failed to seek understanding of what had prompted these legendary creatures to lash out. I never suspected that Stygian had betrayed and hurt them, turned them from the path they had stayed in for Millenia with forbidden magic into voracious creatures addicted to these negative energies.
I have many theories on why they were particularly vulnerable to such spells, but that must wait for another day. For now, as time grows ever shorter, allow me to talk about the friends I betrayed, starting with their leader: the Siren Adagio.
Legends abound in the ancient lands of Trotvenia of a unicorn named Pevka, who had the most beautiful voice ever heard. Translations from the time speak of how she would woo the gods themselves with her songs, and that her soul was as beautiful as her voice and that the stars shone brighter every night when she sang for the world to heal.
Adagio laughed long and hard when I mentioned this to her, shortly after meeting for the first time, although she was aware of her fame as a singer, even when she was a pony. Out of all the sirens, Adagio had the most enchanting voice, and I witnessed her singing bring about a night of peace for the opposing armies of Abyssinia when they fought along the coast of Aithiopos several decades back.
Even then, she informed me that the gods never stopped what they were doing—if there were any gods around—when she was singing, but she wouldn't have been surprised since she was, in her own words, phenomenal. Before she became a siren, however, she was not aware of any particular interest in her, since fate and legend only really took notice of her when the dread king, Ritem emerged into the lands she called home and she took action.
Ritem is rumored to have been a member of the kobold race, and if legend is to be believed, he was a gifted natural sorcerer and tinkerer who loved music and sound in all its potential forms. However, as Adagio tells the story, he found that kobolds did not have innate magic within their souls that could resonate with Equestria's Harmony and each other, making them incapable of ever achieving a Heartsong.
Embittered by this, Ritem devoted decades of his life delving deeper and deeper into sound magic, until he somehow breached past the limitations of all known magic in that area and opened up the forbidden aspects of it. Notes, echoes, whispers, songs, words and even the sound of heartbeats became twisted by his desires and he became obsessed with quieting the sounds, all of them, for if he could not have heartsongs, nothing else would.
Sound and vibration are underestimated, as just about anything in the universe has a sound. It is said that entire villages went mad at the absolute silence of the world around them, and as his power grew, so did the silence itself, slowly killing every rustle, echo, whisper… anything until nothing remained. Even Ritem was affected by this, as he became Silence itself.
Knowing that her village, family and friends were next if his power continued, Pevka used a powerful spell to trap her essence, all sounds within her into a gem. For her sacrifice, Equestria forged that gem into a Siren Gem, which granted her additional powers and reinforced her will.
Adagio doesn't talk much about her travels to reach Ritem… she says within the first few hours of complete sound deprivation, she was already experiencing horrors in her mind, as her spell was not immediate, nor was the transformation into a Siren Gem sudden either. At first she could hear nothing, then she could hear her heart, and the blood in her brain, rushing sounds and slowly they faded until there was nothing.
The world outside had sound until she had stepped into the lands controlled by Ritem and for weeks she had traversed what can only be described as a desert of silence until she found the former kobold.
I admit, I do not understand the method in which she defeated the mad sorcerer, or whatever it was by then. She said she sang a heartsong to him, but how can that be done without sound? It will be a mystery forever, for even she cannot even imagine doing something like that again. She said once, that she liked to remember the desperate face of the kobold sorcerer as it slowly eased away into peace, carried beyond by a heartsong that no one ever heard.
That is her last memory of that time, as everything collapsed around them with a sudden influx of sound and cacophony that accompanied the destruction of Ritem's sanctum. After the darkness took her, she simply felt time pass her by until one day she was reborn as a siren.