//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Siren // by McPoodle //------------------------------// She came from an age of Monsters, but she is the most fearsome of them all. Her power comes not from claw or fang, but from the power of her voice. With that voice she has sewn chaos and toppled empires. She has met wizards, kings and conquerors, and has bested all of them. She can never die. She is…The Siren. The Friendship Express, Southwest Line, between Canterlot and Ponyville. July 13 of the Year One of the Post-Reconciliation Era (PRE). Twenty-two days after the events from the episode “Friendship Is Magic”, two days after “Bridle Gossip”, and a week before the events of “Feeling Pinkie Keen”. Tuesday. In her dreams, the unicorn named Blueberry Frosting imagined that she was something else…dreamed that she was a being with huge, majestic wings that could soar over the countryside. A being completely above the cares and worries of being a pony. In recent years these dreams were what kept the idle rich pony going. She would book tickets on the Ponyville Express, over and over again. Not to see Ponyville—there was nothing worthwhile in that village for her. No, it was so she could descend the Canterhorn, could peer out of the window in a state between wakefulness and sleep. So could fantasize soaring for real. Being her true self…for real. The train was making its way down the Canterhorn from Canterlot. As it rounded the bend, Lemon Peel turned her head to take in the view. “Hmm!” she exclaimed in her Bittish accent. “That is quite a view! You don’t see a sight like that back home.” “Mm,” Lipstick Vanity said absently, her head buried in the fashion magazine. “I’ve been told it’s quite remarkable.” “It would help if you looked at it, Dear,” Upper Crust said, tapping her withers with a hoof. Lipstick raised her head, a bored expression on her face. That shifted into muted wonder as she took in the full panoply of Equestria in Summer, as seen from far above. “Ooo!” she exclaimed thoughtfully, before turning her attention to her hooves. “I wonder what color boots would best complement that?” Lemon Peel was a pale-yellow earth pony with a voluminous brighter yellow mane and tail. The mane was medium length and curled up around her shoulders. She had sky blue eyes, faint orange eyeshadow and an abstract cutie mark in various yellow tones of concentric circles, each with a squared-off corner pointing at her head. She would tell other ponies that it was supposed to be a lemon in cross section (complete with peel), but only modern artists tended to agree with her. She was wearing a blue pullover with a red stripe down the front and sheer white hose over her rear legs. She was taking up a seat of the train, facing out the window. Lipstick Vanity sat on the seat behind her in a similar pose, with a low green glass divider between them. She was a bluish-gray unicorn with striking mulberry eyes, slightly-less striking dark purple eyeshadow and a definitely-more-subdued straight purplish-gray mane. Her cutie mark was a white flower bud. She was wearing a dark red vest. Upper Crust was in the aisle, leaning over both of their shoulders. She was a grayish-yellow unicorn with dark blue eyes and cyan eyeshadow, her wavy mane and tail having alternating colors of grayish indigo and light gray. She was wearing a white polo shirt with a pink sweater tied around her neck like a cape that mostly covered her cutie mark of three green dollar signs. (Dollars were the currency of the minotaurs, trade with which being the source of her family fortune.) She was also wearing matching pink earrings and a spring green bead necklace. She had been sitting on the seat across the aisle from the other two. Seeing the others talking, Blueberry Frosting roused herself to see if she could get in on the conversation. She was a cornflower blue unicorn mare with disturbingly bright cerise eyes, no eyeshadow, and a fluffy mane in two shades of purple. She had a cupcake topped with her namesake for a cutie mark and a purple jacket with wide lapels and a daisy in the buttonhole. She noticed that Lemon was gathering her bags. “Wait, are you leaving us, Mrs. Peel?” “I’m afraid so,” Peel said, her eyes on her bags. “As I said at the start of the trip, I have some relatives in Ponyville who will let my son and I stay with them. The prices in Canterlot are simply too steep for me.” “You’re staying in Ponyville?!” Blueberry exclaimed. “That place is a dump!” Lipstick and Upper Crust both nodded their heads in agreement. “Oh it can’t be that bad,” Peel said lightly. “After all, didn’t a group of Ponyville ponies save Princess Luna from the Curse of Nightmare Moon less than a moon ago?” “Not really,” Lipstick said contemptuously. “But Princess Celestia told the newspapers—” Peel began. “Celestia told the papers what she had to, Mrs. Peel,” Upper Crust explained. Peel gasped at the casual way the other mare had just addressed the Princess. “Everypony knows that it was really her personal student—and Canterlot resident—Twilight Sparkle that did all the work. Those Ponyvillians just carried her equipment.” “And probably dropped them a bunch,” Blueberry joked. “Ponyville ponies are so stupid!” Peel frowned. “Do you have an eyewitness report? Mare Trotting Monthly would love an exclusive story.” “Well…no,” Upper Crust admitted. “But there’s no way that a bunch of backwater mud ponies could possibly pull something like that off using their elementary school educations! Err…no offense on that ‘mud pony’ remark, Mrs. Peel.” Peel glanced up at her non-existent horn. “None taken,” she said without emotion. “Hay!” Blueberry exclaimed. (And yes, she absolutely didn’t say “Hey”.) “You should stay with Lipstick and I! That way you can go shopping with us in Los Pegasus today, and we can swap out your Trottingham fashions for real Equestrian fashions! We’ve got a room open back in Canterlot, don’t we, Lips?” Lipstick raised an eyebrow, silently waiting for her roommate to realize the problem with that proposal. Peel shook her head. “You’d have to make room for not only myself, but my young son when he arrives. As well as, well…conjugal time with my husband when work allows.” “Oh,” Blueberry said simply. “How young is your son?” “Six.” “Oh. We don’t get along well with children.” “At all,” Lipstick added coldly. Upper Crust rolled her eyes at Blueberry’s stupidity. Blueberry’s eyes suddenly lit up. “But what about—” She wasn’t able to complete that sentence, because the train chose that moment to suddenly grind to a halt, throwing Lipstick over the barrier and into Peel, Peel to the ground, and Blueberry and Upper Crust to roll all the way down the aisle and into the connecting door. “What happened?” Peel asked from under the other mare. After extricating herself, she tried to see what the problem was from the window, but only saw the same view of the valley below. The opposite window only showed the side of the mountain. She and the other ponies composed themselves and waited for some kind of announcement. Eventually, there was one, although it wasn’t addressed at them: “Could all engineers please assist with removing an obstruction at the front of the train?” A few seconds later three burly earth pony stallions came through the door behind them, walked down the aisle at a brisk pace, and disappeared through the forward door. Any ponies in the aisles quickly jumped into their assigned seats before they could be trampled. “Hmph!” Upper Crust exclaimed. “How rude!” “What do you suppose is blocking the train?” Peel asked. Without waiting for an answer, she walked down the aisle and tried to open the door. “Oh, you can forget about that,” Upper Crust said with a smirk as she approached. “The doors on this train are not only locked but magic-resistant, so only authorized ponies can use them.” Peel looked calmly over her shoulder. “I don’t see a sign to that effect,” she noted. She made a motion of looking for said non-existent sign, only to do a double-take on discovering a “MARE WANTED” sign posted right next to the door—she needed to be sure it wasn’t for her. “That doesn’t count,” she said lightly, hoping nopony noticed her reaction to the sign that was there. “Therefore, if I do manage to open this door, I can’t get in trouble.” More trouble, she added to herself. Upper Crust stopped next to Lemon Peel and looked over her shoulder. “Oh, you’ll never—” Click! Push! Shove! “—Oh. You did.” Peel stepped through the door and down a step to the ground between the train car and the side of the mountain. She was soon joined by most of the other ponies in the car. Together they crept forward until they could spy on the engineers and conductor, who were scratching their heads as they looked at the boulder that had crashed into the tracks. Actually, the boulder wasn’t the problem—that was rolled down the side of the mountain without a fuss. What was a problem was the damage the impact had made on the tracks, severing and twisting them far too much to be driven over. This was no longer a problem that had an earth pony solution, unless that earth pony happened to be carrying smelting equipment on his or her strong back. And worse, the sound of another train could be heard approaching behind them. This problem looked to be something that might affect dozens or even hundreds of ponies if not addressed immediately. As the bystanders watched, the conductor and ticket agent consulted together. After a few seconds, the ticket agent produced a large golden whistle, one the other ponies had never seen before. Blowing on it created no sound but did produce a cloud of orange magic that raced up the mountain, seemingly right for the palace, backlit by the rising sun. One of the pegasi pointed a hoof at the palace. “It’s the Princess!” he exclaimed. There was a gasp from the other eagle-eyed pegasi, but it wasn’t long before everypony could clearly see that Princess Celestia herself was flying straight for them. The crowd shuffled nervously and backed up a bit. Lemon Peel took the opportunity to back herself all the way to the rear of the crowd. Her three Canterlot friends, confused, followed her. Before those friends had a chance to question her, Princess Celestia dropped down for a heavy—and impressive—landing. “What appears to be the trouble, gentlestallions?” she asked. The ticket master quickly bowed, pulling his cap down with a hoof as he did so. “Sorry to bother you, Your Royal Highness, but the track here is in need of repair.” “I see,” the Princess said with a gentle smile. “If you all would give me a little space…” “Oh, of course, Your Highness!” one of the engineers exclaimed. The other stallions then quickly withdrew until they were at the front of the crowd of passengers. ~ ~ ~ As a new arrival to Equestria, Lemon Peel found that she had to overcome a number of false beliefs about how the country worked, one of which was the reason why she was at the back of this crowd. The one about no crime existing in Equestria, because Princess Celestia could at any moment read the mind of any pony in Equestria she wanted, scanning them for evil thoughts. That wanted poster she had seen had disproven that story—not that she would have even stepped hoof in Equestria if she had truly believed in it, but better to be safe than sorry, as they always say. In any case, the fact that the poster had mentioned that the criminal in question had committed one of her train robberies from Canterlot Station itself… Peel began moving forward through the crowd, hoping to have the opportunity to see the remarkable Solar Princess of Equestria up close and personal. Unfortunately for her, the view was completely blocked by the group of burly engineers. All she could see was a glow the color of the sun coming from Celestia’s presumed location, which grew and grew, before suddenly exploding outward. Peel gasped, staggering to the ground, one hoof to her heart. For one panicked moment she looked herself over, then sighed with relief. ~ ~ ~ The Princess looked over her work with a critical eye, making sure that the repaired tracks were strong enough to stand up to the weight of multiple trains. “Well if that is all…?” “It is, Your Highness,” said the conductor, averting his eyes. The crew of the train had returned to their previous places after the repair spell’s glow had faded. The passengers were all bowing. Celestia pursed her lips slightly at the unwanted adoration. “I’d best return to my duties then.” She looked over at the observing crowd. “I hope you all have a pleasant trip!” she exclaimed. She then immediately launched herself into the sky and flew back to the palace. At that moment Upper Crust had finished pushing her way through the crowd. “Princess Celestia!” she quickly exclaimed into the sky. “On behalf of my fellow Canterlot passengers, may I…” She sighed, seeing that the Princess clearly hadn’t heard her. “Horseapples,” she muttered under her breath—yet another attempt at brown-nosing averted. She stalked back into the crowd, which parted to make way. “What was that about?” she asked Peel as she helped her to her hooves. “Oh, I’m somewhat sensitive to unicorn magic,” Peel said sheepishly. “All aboard!” the conductor cried out, signaling the others to re-board the train. As she climbed back into the train car, Lemon Peel cast one last look at the distant figure of Princess Celestia—the most-powerful pony in all of Equestria. She might not be all seeing or all knowing, but the sheer magnitude of that blast… She found herself feeling equal amounts of awe…and fear. The amount of magic that had been summoned by the Princess to repair that track had been significantly more than the amount that she had actually used in casting the spell. The excess—the explosion of magic that had floored the only individual present who could see it—drifted in the air for a bit, before congealing into a pony-sized ball of concentrated energy that rolled down the mountain. It rolled invisibly all the way down and then continued rolling through the streets of Ponyville, passing through building after building without any ponies noticing. As it traveled it pulled in little bits of stray magic that had been generated by all of the other ponies in Ponyville: larger amounts from unicorns, but pegasi and earth ponies contributed as well. As it traveled it very slowly increased its speed, pulled by a mysterious force. It entered the Everfree Forest about two hours after Princess Celestia’s initial spell had been cast. The blob of invisible magical energy slowed after entering the forest, contracting and concentrating as it wandered erratically for another hour. Finally, it settled on one random Everfree denizen: a lowly tarantula. The blob contracted and contracted, glowing a faint red as it entered the body of the spider. The tarantula convulsed, twitching her legs in pain. Slowly at first, the magic it had absorbed caused her to grow, bigger and bigger. The delicate creature bloated out, screaming once the magic had given her the ability to scream. Her animal mind was re-wired by the magic, and her eight black eyes flashed over to red. The now transformed gigantic spider turned until the buildings of Ponyville were visible in her sights. With a bellow of rage, she raced out of the forest, with one single-minded goal: Destroy Ponyville and every pony within it.