//------------------------------// // Mending Fences (Sunset Shimmer) // Story: Siren's Call // by Thornwing //------------------------------// Come on Shimmer, gotta focus. I stared down at the page that should have been full of math homework but instead looked more like a surreal art project invading from the margins. It’s not like I wanted to fail my class, but plans for the weekend drew my mind away to the awesome party Pinkie Pie would be hosting tomorrow night. How could I possibly focus on trigonometry when every shape I drew kept morphing into a balloon or slice of cake? Having friends sure was nice, but it really put a damper on my studies. Background noise from the stereo filled in the gaps between commercials on the TV. The extra distraction probably wasn’t helping my concentration. I could try and make some kind of excuse that the dog ate my homework, except Spike went back to Equestria for the second time over a week ago. Also, fortunately and unfortunately, I lived with the Principal and more recently her sister the Vice Principal—I still can’t believe that foreign exchange student story actually worked. It’s like I was supposed to be here or something. It sure wasn’t the same as living in Canterlot Castle, but their house had everything I needed—and it was free. Even so, studying under Celestia sure was easier back when I was a pony. Dinner break. Gotta stop for gas. I tossed the math book aside, flicked off the TV, and walked over to the kitchen. The sisters had gone out to eat, and I was on my own tonight. Nothing really sounded good though. It was nights like tonight where a sampler of local grasses might have hit the spot, but this human body had an unpleasant way of disagreeing with my former equine diet. A little fruit—maybe some toast—I wasn’t in a position where I could be all that picky. Vegetable lasagna! Yes! I thought we’d cleaned up the last of that days ago. Thank goodness there was a slice hiding in the back of the fridge. I checked it for mold and gave it a sniff. That’s another thing I missed—my sense of smell was terrible these days. I could barely tell the difference between fresh and boiled cabbage, let alone a leftover slice of lasagna that’s still good to eat versus one that went bad more than a month ago. I brushed the thought aside given the rumble in my belly. I was as hungry as a horse, and I wasn’t going to let even a slightly questionable lasagna go to waste. The microwave took a few seconds to zap my dinner into shape. That’s something I’d never be able to live without should I ever think about going home. Although, I’m sure if I put my mind to it, I could always piece together some kind of magic oven. I wonder how well hay reheats? Not that it mattered; this was my new home. The time ticked down to zero and out popped my piping hot dish. Staring at the plate, I couldn’t help but facepalm when the knock came from the front door. Too bad the stereo was on, or else I could have pretended that no one was home. “Always at dinner. If it’s not the phone, it’s the door. Why can’t people interrupt homework time instead?” I tossed the plate back in the oven and went to go see how quickly I could dismiss whoever wanted to visit this late at night. It was probably someone wanting to see one or both of the sisters, so I had a pretty good chance of making it back to my food before it would need another zap. On the other hand, it might be one of my friends. Not that I didn’t love them all to pieces, but the personal time I had going tonight was something I needed more than clingy friends. Unless, of course, they could help me with math; then I would be okay with a visit. I opened the door. It took a moment to process what I was seeing. “Oh, no,” I said, trying to shut the door as quickly as I could. How stupid of me to open up without checking the peephole first. Now her dumb foot was stuck in the jamb. “Let me in, Shimmer. I just want to talk.” I held the door in a losing battle against the wedge of her foot. “No way, Aria. I don’t want anything to do with the Dazzlings ever again.” “Hear me out, Sunset. It’s not what you think. I need your help.” I grunted and heaved my entire weight against the door. It wasn’t much leverage, and I certainly wasn’t going anywhere with the giant boot rock in the way. “Move your foot and get lost, Aria. I don’t want any trouble tonight.” “I’m dying.” I rolled to the side and flung the door open. “You’re what?!” “More or less.” Aria Blaze strutted past heading straight for the good chair in the living room. “It’s not like I can actually die here in this cage, right? So, what’s for dinner? Swamp-water stew?” I shook my head and slammed the front door shut. The former siren clearly owned round one. This match was going the distance, however. I stormed after her, mentally prepared to physically toss her out on her tail if it came to that. She was about my size, and I was pretty sure I could take her down if I had to. Rounding the couch, I laid right in. “Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna aren’t here. You can come back later or make an appointment. Right now, I think you need to leave.” I really needed to work on my delivery. It was all so much easier when I had no idea what it meant to be a friend. Darn magic of friendship getting in the way of trying to throw someone out. “Why would I want to talk to them?” Aria gave me one of her signature smirks, but other than that looked a little unsure of herself. The way she sat on her hands without crossing her legs or her arms like she usually did caught me a little off-guard. She didn’t seem to be playing her normal game. “Don’t tell me you came over to talk to me.” I gave her the stare. “It’s not like we’re friends or anything. Why don’t you go bother your gal pals, Adagio or Sonata?” “I can’t talk to them,” Aria pleaded with her wide eyes quickly breaking down her tough girl facade. “We broke up.” The tears were a nice touch. Really sold the whole look. “Heh. I guess you want me to feel sorry for you then?” I folded my arms and glared at the intruder. “That is, of course, if you aren’t just lying to me again.” Aria slouched forward with her elbows on her knees, staring at the floor. “Look, I’m sorry that I lied to you. You weren’t going to let me in, and I had no other choice. You’re the only one that can help.” She raised her head and looked at me straight on. “Just hear me out, okay?” “Fine.” I plopped down on the couch and crossed my legs and arms assuming a full defensive posture. The roll of my eyes probably wasn’t necessary, but I did that too. “Tell me why you’re here so I can get back to my dinner and hopefully finish my homework sometime tonight.” “Homework…” Aria giggled. Given the current situation, I couldn’t help but wonder why. Was this the part where she would fess up to lying again or were things about to get super weird? I almost wanted to feel sorry for her, but I couldn’t quite get past the recent battle we fought. I still had a lot to learn about being a good friend and Twilight was a whole lot better at forgiveness than me. Having a former magic demon sitting in the next chair, one minute on the verge of tears, and the next giggling like a lunatic, didn’t sit right with the old self-preservation instincts. It wasn’t that long ago that I found myself in her shoes. The irony wasn’t wasted on me. Still, there were a lot of ways in which this wouldn’t end well for one or both of us. “What’s so funny?” I asked with a flip of my hair. “Just you.” Aria flopped back in her chair. “Here I thought you were smart and knew what you were doing. I guess I was wrong.” “I’m not going to sit here and take your insults.” Standing up, I pointed toward the door. “You can leave right now for all I care, little miss Aria Blaze.” “Little, hah!” Aria just shook her head. “Sunset, how old do you think I am?” “I have no idea. Seventeen? Eighteen?” The game was starting to annoy me even before it started. The longer we played, the more I knew I wasn’t getting back to homework anytime soon. “I don’t see what that has to do with anything.” “Humor me.” Aria’s smirk was back. “At least tell me how old you are—or more precisely, how old do you think you are?” “I’ll be eighteen next month. And I still don’t see how it matters.” At this point I was just going to buy some time until the sisters got back. They could deal with the ex-siren, and I could get back to my homework. “And how long have you been here?” Aria continued with her questions. “And by ‘here’ I mean, Canterlot High.” “About four years,” I replied as politely as I could through gritted teeth. “I am a senior, after all.” Aria took a deep breath and focused right in on me. “I doubt you’ll believe what I have to say, Sunset Shimmer, but what if I told you I have been here for almost six hundred and forty years, not to mention the over nineteen-thousand lunar cycles by Equestrian reckoning?” Aria’s evil grin looked slightly less menacing given her skewed pony tails. “Nice try, Aria.” I sat back down, quick to dismiss the crazy. “If I didn’t already know you were a siren, I’d be laughing right now.” Aria leapt to her feet and lunged forward. “Don’t you ever call me that again! I’m a pony—same as you!” She stopped just an inch away as my reflexes yanked me back into the seat-back cushion, and my hands shot up to guard my face. “O—kay?” I peeked over my hands and set my feet back on the floor as Aria disengaged. “Whatever you say, Aria.” I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. Adrenaline shot through my veins as my body’s delayed reaction ran its course. Flight or fight, and somehow I chose flight. The real question now sat out in the open: how did she know I was a pony? And why did she think she was one too? Wasn’t she a siren turned human by the magic of the portal? Aria grabbed my math textbook and flung it across the room. The binding snapped as it hit the wall leaving a dent in the wood panel. “You’re living in your own worst nightmare, pony girl, and you’re too dumb to even realize it. Adagio was right; I am screwed.” “Settle down, Aria, or I’m calling the cops!” This was getting out of hand. If I could trust that either of the sisters actually had their cell phones on them or that either of them were charged, I would be making that call right now. As it was, I could already see Luna’s phone sitting in the key basket on the counter. Help could be minutes away, or hours. “You think I care about the cops? You think any of this even matters?” Aria shouted as she slammed herself back in her chair and buried her head between her curled up legs. “This whole place is a prison! Why is that so hard to see?” I took a hard look at the broken girl sobbing though tortured gasps of air supporting her whiny moan. She looked an awful lot like me a few months ago—I wasn’t too stubborn to admit it. Maybe Twilight had taught me something. Maybe it was my turn to pay it forward. In any case, I knew one thing for certain: Aria needed a friend. “Aria,” I said in the most calm and steady voice I could manage, “how can I help?” She lifted her head and reined in the tears. A rabid raccoon would seem less threatening than she did just a moment ago with her heavy mascara and eye shadow streaking down her face. The poor little girl that sat in front of me seemed barely a shell of my former enemy. The magic of friendship strikes again. “Can we start over?” she asked. Aria was alone and came to me for help. I wasn’t doing her any favors by fighting an honest request. All that mattered was finding out if she was being honest or not. I may have had my doubts, but her disheveled look bordering on desperation warranted delay in judgment until I had a better picture of her situation. “Alright,” I said, finally relenting, “with a few conditions. No more lies and no more crazy. I want straight talk and answers.” “Done and done,” she shot back without a moments hesitation. “But first things first. I haven’t eaten in forever, and that smell is driving me nuts. If I’m going to have to keep it together, I need to eat. What have you got for dinner?” So much for earning my trust. She barged into the house, nearly took off my head, and then practically demanded dinner. Smooth, real smooth. A con artist if I ever saw one. Still, it looked like she truly hadn’t eaten in forever, so what did I have to lose? “I don’t know,” I replied, shrugging my shoulders. That silly little grin of hers looked even more silly now. Like a pet anxiously awaiting a meal, she hung over the back of the chair and followed me with her eyes as I made my way toward the kitchen. “My food was ready to eat when you barged in, but I guess you can take a look in the fridge and help yourself to whatever you like. I don’t think the sisters will mind.” “I’ll just have whatever you’re having.” She hopped off the chair and followed me in. “Unless you’re having meat. In that case, I’ll have a salad.” I laughed. Some habits were hard to break, and I knew that feeling all too well. “You must be a pony after all. Come on, let’s see what we can find.” I opened the fridge, and we both sat in awe of the view of something so full, and yet, so empty. Half the stuff was old enough to have spawned a new colony of intelligent life. The rest was a barely edible byproduct of the most evil form of potential nutrition available—soy. She dug right in, and I happened to find an apple that wasn’t completely rotten plus some grape juice to help wash it down. Feeling a bit weird with an actual meal all to myself, I offered her a bit of my lasagna as well. We sat opposite one another, and I stared across the table watching her devour the meal. Once the last bite of food left her plate, she leaned back and met my gaze. We hadn’t exchanged two words in the time it took to clear our plates. “Sunset, why are you here?” she asked. “What do you mean?” I replied after swallowing the last bite from my own plate. “I mean, what did you do back in Equestria to get sent here?” I still wasn’t quite sure what she meant, but I tried to answer the best that I could. “Nobody sent me. I came here on my own. I figured out how the mirror worked and came through the portal to get away from my old life.” She just sat there. I could tell she was holding something back. “At least, that’s what happened the first time.” “The… first time?” She stuck a finger in each ear and cleared them out giving the impression that she hadn’t heard me right. “Do you mean you’ve been back home since you first set hoof through the gate?” “Well, yeah. Once.” I put down my fork and took a long drink. It didn’t seem like something to get all worked up over. “Just last fall, around the time of the Fall Formal, I went back as part of my ‘Master Plan’. Things sort of didn’t work out the way I had planned though.” It wasn’t one of my brighter moments. “I’ve been thinking about going back to visit after I take care of finals, but—” She jumped to her feet and circled around the table. “So you know how to control the portal? We need to go back! Could you open it right now?” I crossed my arms and gave her the look. “Of course, but that’s not going to happen without talking to the Princess first.” “How do you do that, and how long would it take?” The crazy started to slip back into Aria’s look. I wasn’t sure that I could trust her intentions, but I still held all the cards. She wasn’t going anywhere for now. I still needed answers about why she wanted to go back. “I can send a message whenever I want, but before I do, I want to know more about you—and why you’re so eager to get back to Equestria.” Aria took a slow walk back around the table and took her seat. She closed her eyes and cupped her hands out in front like she was getting ready to pray. “Sunset, I want to die.” Shocked? No. Stunned? Bewildered? I didn’t know what to make of her comment. “Why would you say something like that? Didn’t you promise no more lies or crazy talk?” I was trying to have a nice chat with a crazy person. I should have expected this. “It’s not a lie, and it’s not crazy.” She calmly stood up and started walking back to the living room. “Can we go find someplace more comfy to talk? This might take a while to explain.” I dumped the dishes in the sink and followed her out to the couch. Passing the phone, I debated calling Celestia again. Maybe Aria was suicidal? I wasn’t sure if she had any triggers other than being called a siren, but I didn’t want to push her away if she had a death wish. It looked like she was open to talking to me alone and bringing in someone else could set her off. I needed to understand what was going through her head, so I passed over the chance to make the call. I slipped into the chair across from the couch, trying to keep things as casual as I could. “So, Aria, why do you want to go back to Equestria?” “Let me explain.” She bit her lip and stared at the floor. “I’m not lying, and I’m not crazy. What I said was the truth. I want to go back to Equestria so I can die. Believe me, if you ever live to be sixteen-hundred and twenty-five years old, you’ll want to die too. Especially when almost all of that time was spent locked up in a cage. I can’t take it anymore. I just want it to end.” I smoothed out my skirt and tried to stay focused without losing my cool. “I guess when you put it like that, it makes a little more sense.” I lied. It didn’t. “So, why do you need to go back to Equestria—to die?” Aria jerked up to face me. “Because, pony girl, you can’t die here in Starswirl’s prison.” “Wait, what do you mean?” I moved a little forward, interest piqued. That name rung a bell. “How is that possible, and why do you keep referring to this place as a prison?” “I’ll try and keep it simple. You just try and understand, okay?” She grabbed both her pony tails and pulled, clearly frustrated. “This entire world is one big prison.” I stopped for a moment to let that thought sink in. The wheels started turning in my head. The pieces still had trouble fitting together. “Come again? How is this place a prison?” “Let me spell it out for you since you clearly haven’t caught on. You’re an inmate in the most elaborate prisoner reformation system ever concocted by pony magic. Starswirl built this place to ‘help’ prisoners he deemed ‘worthy of reform’. All the others got sent to Tartarus. Although, it seems he forgot about us at some point along the way.” Well, here we were. Back to crazy talk. “I don’t get it. There’s hundreds of people here. Are you saying we’re all inmates in some gigantic magic prison? Frankly, I find that a bit hard to believe.” “Look around, Shimmer. The truth is right there if you open your eyes to see it. You’re a smart pony, figure it out.” “Sorry, Aria. I’m going to need a little more proof if you want me to believe your story. And by the way, how do you know I’m a pony?” “Isn’t it obvious?” She smiled once again. That smile spoke volumes, mostly sarcastic or demeaning, and I didn’t like it one bit. “You’re one of the only people here with the ability to use magic. Only someone with ties to the real world can carry that talent.” I threw my arms in the air, frustration getting the better of me. “So, is that it? You’re here to try and steal my magic? Sorry to tell you this, but I’m not a unicorn any more. The closest thing I have to magic in this world is what you saw back on that stage. Good luck using the magic of friendship to get you home.” Aria sat back and casually flipped the end of one of her tails. “I think you missed the point, Shimmer. I’m not here to steal your magic. I’m here to ask for your help in getting back home. That’s it. Honestly, if you didn’t know so much about the portal, I wouldn’t be here wasting my time with you. If you really do have a way out, I want in on that, and you should want it too. We don’t have much time before the reset.” I folded my arms and shook my head. “Let me get this straight. We’re supposed to be trapped in some kind of prison, but you want me to open the door so you can go home and die? That doesn’t make any sense.” “It would if you’d open your eyes to the truth,” Aria said, straight-faced. “There’s a story to tell, if you’re willing to listen.” “I’m all ears.” I settled in and got comfortable. “Tell me how any of that makes sense, and I’ll see about opening the portal. Fair warning, this story better be good.” Aria took a deep breath and settled back into her seat as well. “Listen up, because I’m only going through this once. I used to be a pony like everypony else. That was a long time ago, a little over sixteen hundred years by Equestrian reckoning. After my friends and I were cursed, we became something else, something that the other ponies wanted to keep locked away. When we were captured and tossed through the portal, the old wizard gave us a few instructions laying out the basics of what he hoped we’d accomplish with this little game of his. At first, we blew them off. Now that we’ve lost our magic, it matters, a lot.” “So it matters that you lost your magic?” I asked. “I wasn’t finished.” She rolled her eyes and folded her arms. “I’m trying to explain, and you’re just interrupting.” “Whatever.” I crossed my legs and sank back in my seat. “Get to the point already.” “The point is, Sunset, we’re trapped in a temporal bubble, a construct of magic built on another plane of existence. Nobody grows old here; nobody dies.” “Well that’s a lie,” I said with a smirk. “I know for a fact that I’ve grown up—I have pictures to prove it. Same with my friends.” She slapped a palm to her forehead. “I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about us. We’re the inmates—they’re part of the system. Let’s try and focus on the time paradox, shall we? Think back over four years ago—you probably think that’s when you were back in Equestria. You’re wrong. One school year here is like thirty moons back home. Every four years in this world, that clock resets. Just so we’re clear, that’s ten years of home time for each cycle, if you do the math. When the clock runs out, we revert back to how we arrived, and the rest of the system simply restarts. We’re supposed to learn some kind of lesson, rehabilitation if you want to use that term. If we don’t make any progress according to Starswirl’s rules, we go back to the beginning. In less than a month, you won’t remember your friends, and they won’t remember you. You’ll be a freshman again, and they’ll be moving on.” “Okay, now we’re back to the crazy talk.” I stood up. “First you say I’m stupid. Then you attack me. Now you’re bringing my friends into it? I’m done with this. You need to leave.” I pointed to the door. “Fine.” Aria got up as well. “If you think I’m crazy, then answer this: If everyone here is just a mirror of a pony back home, why haven’t you ever met your human double?” I sat back down. A lot of what she was saying sounded ridiculous, but that was a good question. Why didn’t I have a double? Why hadn’t I met her? I didn’t know how to answer that one. “You can’t answer that, can you? You’ve never met your double.” I ran my fingers through my hair searching for an answer. “This whole world is fake, Sunset Shimmer. Everyone here is just a reflection of a real pony from back home—none of them are real. When you stepped through the portal, you effectively became your mirror image. You can’t die, you won’t age past the four year cycle, and unless you know a way out, you’re stuck here forever in the living nightmare of endless high school hell.” Something was starting to click. I didn’t want to believe what she was saying, but somehow it was starting to make sense. “It’s part of the magic.” Aria ventured a smile, one that didn’t seem fake this time around. “Kind of like these prison uniforms—ever wonder why you’re always wearing the same clothes every day?” “That does seem kind of strange…” I picked at the edge of my skirt, the same one I’d been wearing for as far back as I could remember. “I just thought it was part of the local culture. As a pony, I never gave it a second thought being naked all the time.” “Ever wonder why no one ever questions you being a student? Why a bunch of random kids show up to school every day, and it’s never the same? The only thing that stays constant is the principal, and even that changed if you go back far enough. The original school master was Starswirl himself. Celestia and Luna came along right after he disappeared. For the longest time, Luna wasn’t even here, and now she decides to come back? What changed? Tell me that doesn’t raise any questions, or maybe you just don’t remember?” “I… I remember a little,” I said. I thought back over the years. Luna’s return meant that the prophesy had come to pass. In fact, she was the reason I decided to go back to Equestria in the first place. But, that didn’t make any sense. It should have taken over seventy years before that happened. There had to be a new princess by Celestia’s side which meant that there was magic that was meant for me. I had to take back what was rightfully mine. I never even questioned it. “Look at me, Sunset. I’m just like you. I’m a prisoner in a make believe world, stuck in the body of a high school girl for the past sixteen-hundred plus years. You said it yourself—you think you’re an eighteen-year-old pony. Take another look. I’ve seen you before, off and on for the past couple cycles. You’re much older than you think, at least fifty if I had to take a guess. I’ve used my magic to protect my mind through each and every reset, but you weren’t as lucky. Now that my magic is gone, we have to escape before the next cycle begins. Otherwise, we go back to the beginning and start all over on our eternal journey toward ‘reformation’.” “That…makes total sense,” I said, exhaling along with my dwindling disbelief. “Why didn’t I see it before?” Somehow, I couldn’t say how exactly, I actually believed her. “I’ve done my time, Sunset. I want to go home and live out the rest of my life in peace. No games. I just want to grow old and die.” Aria stared down at her hands. “I sorta miss my hooves as well.” I chuckled. “It may sound silly, but I kinda miss my tail.” “So, it’s settled then? You know a way out of here, and you’re going to help me get home?” She looked at me with a set of pleading eyes. How could I say no? “I can’t promise anything, Aria.” I got up and started walking toward the hallway. “I’ll be right back. I just need to get something from my room.” “Can I come with you?” She stood up as well. “Sure, if you promise to behave,” I replied, waving her on in a ‘follow me’ gesture. My journal sat undisturbed right where I left it. Occasionally it would glow and buzz indicating that I had a message waiting from my friend, Twilight. With Aria right on my tail, I walked over to my nightstand and scooped it up. I also pulled a pen from the drawer before settling up on my bed. “So what’s the plan?” Aria asked as she plopped herself down at my vanity. “You got some kind of magic key to unlock the portal?” “No, but I have a friend that does.” Maybe this was wrong, and I shouldn’t drag Twilight into it. Still, if Aria was right, I was just as much a prisoner here as she was. “Before I ask her to open the portal, though, I want to be absolutely certain that you are telling the truth. How do I know I can trust you?” “You can’t.” Aria got up and crossed over to the bed where she sat down next to me. “I got real good at telling lies and making ponies believe anything I wanted. Of course, the magic was a big part of that.” She held a hand up to the broken necklace chain around her neck. “Without my magic, I can’t make you believe a word I say. You just have to trust me.” Now I was confused. Was she telling the truth? Did she have enough magic left to make me believe some part of her story? The whole perception that I was having this struggle in my head suggested I was thinking for myself. Twilight was only a few strokes away. Maybe she could help? The only way to know for sure was to let this play out and see where it led. “Alright,” I said shaking my head out of the clouds. “I’ll write a message to Princess Twilight. If she believes your story, she can open the portal and we can go home.” I stopped right there. If Aria was right, then I needed to ask one more thing before I brought in the Princess. I wouldn’t have thought to ask her before, but the idea of writing a letter to my friend jarred the thought loose. “Aria?” I asked. “What about Adagio and Sonata?” “What about them?” Aria’s cocky reply caught me off-guard. “Sonata’s too scared to go home and Adagio knows she can’t take over Equestria, so she’s settled on trying to take over the prison instead. They’re both morons.” “That’s not really fair to your friends if we leave them here, is it?” The moral quandary could be debated, but given my recent brush with the power of friendship, I wanted to lean toward saving them too. Aria grunted and folded her arms across her chest. “They aren’t my friends, so what does it matter?” I shook my head. “What do you mean, ‘they aren’t your friends’? Haven’t you been together, like, forever?” “Yeah, but we aren’t friends. The only thing that kept us together was the magic.” Aria fumbled with the strand around her neck. “We used to be friends back when we were ponies, but the siren spell changed all of that.” I set the book back down on the side away from Aria and laid the pen on top. “Okay, if you want to earn my trust, I need to hear the whole story. What happened with the magic? Tell me everything.” “There isn’t a whole lot to tell, honestly.” Aria dipped her chin looking down at the shattered jewel clutch that used to be the focus of her power. “We were just three young fillies with raging hormones—same as everypony else. We had our eyes on a few colts, but they never seemed to be interested in hooking up with us. That’s when we made our big mistake.” “How old were you, and how big a mistake are we talking about here?” I didn’t like where this was going. “It’s not like that, trust me,” Aria scoffed. “We were just a trio of messed up earth ponies looking to score a date. Our big mistake was getting involved with magic.” “Okay, well, that’s a relief.” Granted, magic could be a pretty tricky subject as well. “I’m just glad were aren’t talking something super crazy, like, umm... whatever. I totally understand magic—I used to be a unicorn.” “Yeah… You don’t understand anything about this magic though.” Aria hopped down off the bed and began to pace across the floor. “He said it would solve all our problems. He told us we could have anything we wanted. All we had to do was let the siren’s call take over.” “Didn’t that sound too good to be true?” I asked. “I mean, why would you trust somepony who said magic could solve all your problems?” “We were young. We were stupid.” Aria stopped her circular dance. “Did I mention that we were earth ponies?” She resumed her pace. “What did we know about magic? For all we knew, horns and wings and whatever shiny crystals he gave us would solve all our problems in the blink of an eye. Like I said, it was the biggest mistake of my life. I’ve been paying for it ever since.” “So what happened next?” I tried to get the conversation back on track. “You know the rest. I became a siren—a creature of magic that uses her voice to make everypony else do whatever she wants—enemy to all and friend to none. I did some pretty awful stuff back then, and then I got locked up in here. The door closed, the key got tossed, and the rest is history.” When she finished with her dramatic performance, she flopped down on the bed face first. “So, what if we got you back to Equestria? Wouldn’t you just go back to being a siren?” Aria rolled over and pulled her arms up over her head. “Look, Shimmer, I’ll say this one more time. I’m not a siren, I’m a pony. The magic that turned me into that flying monster was destroyed with my jewel. I don’t have any magic left, and I never will again. You can be sure of that.” I had heard enough. “Alright, I’ll write the letter, and we can see what Twilight says.” I picked up the pen and opened the book to a fresh page. “Let me make it clear, however—either we all go home, or none of us leaves.” “Whatever. I don’t care what you do with the others, I just want to go home.” Aria slid off the bed and crumbled to her knees. “Stick me in the deepest dungeon you can find for all I care.” Falling forward, she landed on her wrists. “I want my hooves, and I want my tail, and I want to die an old fuchsia mare.” She hung her head with her hair falling around her face. Crumpling up into a little ball on the floor, the once-powerful siren pony let it all go. I set the pen to the paper and began writing: Dear Princess Twilight, I’ve decided to come home, and I’m bringing some friends with me. I need you to open the portal. You probably have a lot of questions, but there’s no need to worry. Meet me at the statue, and I’ll explain everything. Your friend, Sunset Shimmer P.S. Don’t tell Celestia.