//------------------------------// // Chapter 29 // Story: The Siren // by McPoodle //------------------------------// Twilight’s Lab. September 1. Wednesday. The day after “Lesson Zero”. Twilight waited in her bed with her eyes closed until she heard Spike snoring, then got up quietly and went down to the basement lab, there to continue her work on freeing the siren Sonata from her stony prison. She checked a number of instruments that were attached to the statue, with wires leading to a pen recorder to graph out the results over time. Twilight looked over the absolutely straight lines with a frown. “No luck?” asked a voice from the darkness. “Luna,” Twilight declared with absolute certainty. After all, she heard that voice in her dreams more often than her own most nights. “I mean…Princess Luna?” Luna stepped into the light. She was nearly an adult now. “I think after what we have been through together, we are far beyond the need for titles.” “Yes, I suppose so,” said Twilight. “You’re doing really well with modernizing your speech.” “Thank you. I have practiced diligently. At the insistence of both Spike and you.” “Well, I thought it was an easy way to remove one possible barrier to being accepted by most ponies,” Twilight explained. She ushered the alicorn over to take a look at her readings. “You didn’t tell me in your last letter that you’d be visiting. I would have started a brew.” One of the things that Twilight worked on with Luna was ways that the two princesses differed—ways that wouldn’t unnerve other ponies. While it was well-known how much Celestia loved both making and drinking the tea of the lost kirin, Luna was fond of an equally intricate process, to brew the perfect cup of Saddle Arabian coffee. “And you didn’t say you’d made any progress, any reason for working on this problem at one o’clock in the morning. I know you are a bit nocturnal for a normal pony, but this is a bit much.” Twilight looked plaintively up at the Princess. “Have you been reading the letters I’ve been sending?” “You’ve addressed them to both of us,” Luna replied. “Yes.” Twilight nerved herself. “And…have you heard about what I did today with the ‘want it, need it’ spell?” “Yes,” Luna said, with a hint of steel in her voice. “Do I have to tell you as well why what you did to those ponies was wrong?” She looked off in the direction of Canterlot Castle. “I know that we didn’t respect the privacy rights of the lower classes in the old days, but what you did still went beyond the pale.” “I know,” Twilight said wearily. “I knew the whole time I did it, but I did it anyway. Because I dreaded losing the respect of your sister even more.” Twilight took her own turn at looking at something that was not directly visible to her: the location where Spike was sleeping above her. “I thought I might have gotten rid of my personality flaws when I made up with Siren Me.” She rolled her eyes at an unheard remark. “You know what I mean,” she muttered to her other self. “But here’s a whole new personality flaw to deal with! When will I have a shot of being as perfect as you?” Luna raised an amused eyebrow. “You do remember who you are addressing, yes?” Twilight lowered her head in embarrassment. Luna raised it again with a hoof. “And Celestia is not flawless, either—as you seem to keep forgetting.” She sighed, a smile still upon her lips. “I admire you, Twilight.” “You do?” “Yes. Because you keep on trying. In the few centuries of my life that I can remember, I recall dozens of ponies more flawed than you, none of whom even tried to dig themselves out of their personal holes. While you’ve dug out of your first two holes before the age of thirty.” Twilight shrugged, unsure how to respond. Luna then turned to the statue that was next to them. “I am also here for her. I think…I think I need to visit Sonata more often, given your lack of progress.” She gave Twilight a look to convey that she did not fault Twilight for failing to succeed after less than a year of work. “Visit Sonata? What kind of result do you think that will have?” “Twilight, do you know what it’s like to be frozen in stone?” “Yes,” said Twilight with a shudder. “I ran into a cockatrice in the Everfree. For me, a couple of hours went by in seconds. I experienced all two hours of time, compressed into that little space.” She closed her eyes as she thought back. “And…it stuck. All of those memories stuck, forming this big, tangled mess in my head.” Luna nodded. “That’s the same thing I experienced being frozen as a spare thought inside Nightmare Moon. The old me insisted that I retain that experience.” Twilight shrugged. “If you say so. I don’t remember everything and frankly, I’m thankful for that. The old you—” She stopped herself in time. “—Did some truly awful things, which the two of you decided to withhold from my ‘delicate sensibilities’,” Luna said coldly. “Well, do you blame us? I wouldn’t wish those memories on Nightmare Moon herself.” “I talked to Sonata once about what it was like to be petrified. And what she said lines up with my phantom existence within Nightmare Moon’s consciousness, and what you described: time speeding by, years going by like seconds.” She looked off into the distance. “The buildup of complete memories stacked up insanely, going far, far too fast to comprehend. And somehow, everything sticks. And then sometimes, in your dreams, something random…something horrifying…just pops into your mind. She used songs to keep everything straight.” Twilight nodded grimly. “Sounds like getting a lifetime of some other pony’s memories shoved into your head in less than a day.” Luna nodded. “Sombra told her that he had found and revived many another wicked pony who had been petrified for their crimes. Most of them were utterly insane—the way they were forced to experience time was more than their poor brains could handle. Luckily your mind was organized enough to survive a comparable experience.” “Yes, lucky me,” Twilight said acidly. She looked over at Sonata. “So, you’re saying that at some level she is seeing and hearing what we are saying right now?” Luna nodded. “I think if I keep telling her this:” She turned to Sonata, put herself squarely into her field of vision. “I forgive you, Sonata. You are not wholly responsible for what happened to me. At worst, you pushed along something that would have happened anyway without you. I forgive you, and I miss you. I want you back as my friend. I want to show you this remarkable world that Celestia made over a thousand years for me. A world that loves the dark as we do. A world that I hope can accept me for who I am, and maybe even you for who you are. Never forget that I am immortal, dear Sonata. And I will wait for you until the end of time.” She looked back over to Twilight. “And I will keep telling her that until it sticks. Even after you die. Or perhaps…you won’t.” Twilight groaned. “She told you, didn’t she? Princess Celestia told you.” She looked away in shame. “With what’s been happening to me lately, I bet she regrets telling me about that spell.” “No,” Luna said firmly. “And if she did, I would stand up for you. If you are imagining ponies more deserving of this gift than you are then they are exactly that: imaginary beings. Being an alicorn is a baptism by fire, having the lives of thousands of ponies balanced on the ends of your hooves, and knowing that your every mistake will have catastrophic consequences.” Her expression softened. “Celestia and I are letting you make your catastrophes now, when you have far less responsibility and you’re operating in what my sister tells me is ‘Equestria’s only disaster-proof town’. “As for how I know about that little spell, Celestia caught me trying to find my own way to make you immortal, and told me that, like everything else, she already had the matter in hoof.” With that, Luna placed her own larger hoof over Twilight’s small one. “Just like with Sonata, I am willing to wait,” she said. “You are the only pony in all of Creation who truly understands me.” “Because I made you, Luna. Don’t you find that bizarre?” Luna shrugged. “I myself am strange and unusual,” she said. “Besides, you don’t remember most of it, so that means I get to surprise you from time to time.” Twilight looked distinctly uncomfortable, which amused Luna to no end. “So that’s two items off of the checklist. Number three is to answer your questions about Sonata. You do have questions, don’t you? Questions that only a friend of hers could answer.” “Oh, OK!” Twilight exclaimed, sitting down. “My first question—” “Come over here, Twilight,” Luna chided. “Sonata can’t see you from over there.” “Oh…right.” She moved her cushion over so that she was beside Luna. “Perfect!” Luna exclaimed. She looked over at Sonata with a smile, which faded as she realized what the pair of them might look like to the siren. “Oh, don’t you worry, Sonata. There’s no chance that Twilight will get in the way of our friendship. My feelings for her are completely different.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Twilight said. Luna smiled archly at Twilight, in a way that made her blush without knowing why. She turned her head and raised a hoof to her mouth as she loudly cleared her throat. “Now then! My first question was regarding something I remembered…from you…about siren relations with their parents and children. Do you happen to know the circumstances of that particular conversation?” “So, you don’t remember it?” Luna asked. “I find that the things I want to remember are the things that I never remember.” “Alright,” said Luna. “It went something like this… “Did you ever know your parents?” Sonata had asked. The two of them were in Luna’s lab, working on a cure for a magical blight that was afflicting the crops in the Western Province. Luna spit out the soup she had been drinking. “Sonata!” she exclaimed. “My parents died shortly after I was born.” “So…too soon?” “Your parents, but…” Twilight began to say. “…Did you even know when your father died?” Luna leaned forward with a grin. “Wait…” Twilight said as she reviewed the words that had popped unbidden out of her mouth. “You and Celestia were only…half-sisters? Is that right?” “Yes,” said Luna. “My father was an umbrum.” “A spirit that haunts the nightmares of ponies and other sapient creatures,” said Twilight, gesturing towards a bookshelf containing the set of Luna’s monster observations. “No wonder the entry you wrote on them was so robust. Wait, so you’re half monster?” “Correct,” Luna said with a nod. For a moment her eyes changed to those of Nightmare Moon before reverting. “I think that’s why I was able to get through to Sonata so easily.” “So, um…” Twilight said cautiously. “Did that have anything to do with why you became Nightmare Moon? No offense.” “No, I understand,” said Luna calmly. “It’s a natural question under the circumstances. No, I don’t believe that I had any animosity towards ponies before I started using dark magic. The circumstances of my birth may explain the mark I got, and my nocturnal nature. But that alone doesn’t explain my descent. I refuse to give any credit to an outside source for that.” She looked down at her hooves. “I fully own up to what I did, since for most of the process I was fully in control. And I will spend multiple lifetimes to atone for my actions, if not to the descendants of my victims, then to ensure that nopony ever suffer as I did.” She looked over at Sonata. “I hope you were paying attention to that part. I very much expect you to do something similar when you get out.” “Great,” Twilight said sarcastically. “You just gave her a great reason to never unfreeze herself.” Luna shoved her playfully with her shoulder. “Quiet, you. Anyway, as I was saying… “But you have fond memories of them, right?” Sonata asked, referring to Luna’s parents. “Sure, I suppose so. Most ponies love their parents, at least a little.” “Yeah,” said Sonata, growing distant. “I get that. And the thing is, that’s kinda weird for a siren. Positive emotions are not our thing, and positive emotions towards parents, considering how we’re born…well, that never happens. But…I love my mother. Even though our relationship was…complicated.” She looked over at Luna and flashed her a fanged smile. “It’s weird for sirens, but normal for ponies. So I guess that makes me an honorary pony, right?” “What was she like?” Twilight interrupted. “And it was exclusively she, since all Sirens were female.” “You’re stepping on my line,” Luna said with a mocking frown. “Oh! Well go ahead then.” “What was she like?” Luna asked. “Unlike most sirens, I know who my mother was. She didn’t want me to know. In fact, she told the two of us that we were her sisters and lost our memories as a result of a pony’s spell, but I figured it out. Aria wouldn’t believe me, but Adagio was obviously our mother. She was much smarter than us, and had this elaborate plan that needed all three of us in order to work, so…it’s obvious, right?” “Where do you think she is now? She and your sister?” “Oh probably lording it over some defenseless realm where they don’t even know how to use magic. Knowing my mom, she’s got the whole world over there enslaved, and happy to be her slaves.” She had a look of simple happiness on her face. And once again, I was reminded how much siren morality differed from pony morality, even when the siren was as nice as you could possibly get. “Did you have any other questions?” Twilight looked up at the statue of Sonata. Tried to imagine herself as a siren. “Do you think she had any children?” Luna looked up at Sonata’s face. Tried to tune out the expression of horror and imagine her as she was in the conversation she was remembering. “Her? I can’t even imagine it. She was a child, Twilight. A nice child that gets along well with adults like you or me, but a child, nonetheless. I cannot envision her as a parent.” Twilight sighed. “Yeah. Neither can I.”