//------------------------------// // Dazzling Dreams (Adagio Dazzle) // Story: Siren's Call // by Thornwing //------------------------------// Ahhh ahhh ahhh, ahhh ahhh… The magic eked out, barely enough left to turn a few heads. I felt the heat draining from the gems pressed tight to my chest. My wings were gone, nearly one hundred percent pony again, but still, I journeyed on. I’d gotten this far, and I couldn’t afford to stop now. A little tune kept us marching west, toward the mountains. The pulse of the magic beat in time with my heart, and I could feel the energy flowing though me, controlling the mare plodding down the path with myself safely hidden inside her wagon. I had spent way too much of what little I had left on making it through the portal and securing my escape from the castle. The Warden went down without too much trouble, but Aria’s betrayal still left a sour taste in my mouth. Why did she have to join their side? Couldn’t she see how close we were? Couldn’t she taste victory just a chorus away? I didn’t have time to explain things to Sonata; it would have taken an hour, or more. We had to act fast, but at least I got through, no real thanks to their diversions. With the portal open, and nothing to prevent us from crossing over, I jumped at the chance the second I realized it was there. Trying to sleep on that lumpy couch in the teacher’s lounge left me tossing and turning most of the night, and luckily I caught sight of the early morning exchange at the portal in time to act. I expected much more resistance from both the Guardian system and the ponies who should have been guarding the portal. To my surprise, all I found was a small dragon and the pony version of the school principal blocking my path to freedom. Regardless, I took care of them and flew to safely before they could summon reinforcements. I wasn’t in a state where I could sustain a prolonged flight, nor did I wish to chance being captured again. Siren magic carried me most of the way to my destination, but my wings started to give out, and I needed another option to carry me the rest of the way. That plan took hold the moment I saw the young mare traveling the road below with the covered wagon. Without my wings, I was vulnerable. I still had my voice, but nowhere near the mobility. Four legs might have been fine for walking, but I needed to fly in order to scale the mountain. For that, I had to recharge my magic. I had hoped there was a town nearby where I could stir up some trouble. Ponies weren’t as easy to feed on as human constructs, but I could always fall back on some old tricks, and by the look of the supplies in the wagon, I had a good idea about how I could make that happen. Fortune, or fate set me on this simple unicorn slave. She seemed like the type that could put on a bad show even without much help from me. All we needed was an audience and a little time to sit back and feed. All afternoon she rode, my command driving her on. I let her stop for a drink a few times; wouldn’t want to ruin my setup by pushing her over the edge. I needed her to perform if and when we ever found a suitable venue. There wasn’t much in the way of anything that stood out except the occasional traveler we had passed in the past couple of hours. We needed a city, or town, somewhere I could really draw in a crowd and stock up on magical energy. It felt like the old days, planning for my next meal, waiting in anticipation to drink in the energy and feel the power rushing through me. No longer confined to a frail and helpless form, locked away in a cage and left to suffer, this was my time to shine. I would make them all pay for what they did to me. I would teach them the cost of turning me down, stealing my freedom, my dreams. I knew what it meant to break somepony’s heart, they had done it to me. I knew how to take it back, make it better than it ever was before. I had been given a gift, and I planned on sharing it. Soon, everypony would know what it felt like to offer up their heart and be rejected. With every squeak of the wheels and every bump in the road, I came nearer to making my dreams a reality for all. The path wound through the countryside, over hills and streams until we came to a fork in the road. The mare stopped in front of the signpost, waiting for my instruction. To the left read Los Pegasus; to the right, Rainbow Falls. I’d never heard of either one. Nothing looked familiar after a millennium and a half locked away in a magical prison. “Which town is closer,” I asked. The blue mare replied, “Trixie believes Rainbow Falls is closer, but she was on her way to Los Pegasus. The Great and Powerful Trixie has a show to perform there.” The magic wouldn’t hold for long. I needed a place to recharge. “Take a right. We’ll have you perform sooner rather than later.” I sent out a few more bars of song to wrap up her mind and set her on the right path. “Trixie shall perform in Rainbow Falls tonight.” She picked up her step and turned the wagon toward the hills. I sat back and wrapped myself in her cloak, the cold settling in with the afternoon breeze. Her curious way that she referred to herself made me laugh, not much different than Sonata back in the good old days. It had been quite a long time since then, and I’d almost forgotten how it used to be. The hooves brought back the reminder of home and family, not that any of that mattered at the moment. Nothing mattered, except restoring my magic—and revenge. We rode up the path and climbed the hills into the lower mountain range. A village, carved into the mountain itself, presented a possible chance to make good on my plans. The local crowd looked like they were in the mood for some dinner theater, and I put my little pony to work on setting up her act. Slipping out of her cloak and quietly exiting the wagon, I settled in beside one of the shops with a good view of the stage. My old pony form let me blend in with the growing crowd without arousing any suspicion. I gazed up at the mountain peaks above, a song in my heart swelling up the longer I stared. I felt the magic calling to me, stronger than ever before. I had to be close. Only a little while yet, and I would have the energy I needed to climb to the top and secure my victory. Still, I had to be careful. One wrong move without my stronger magic to assist, and I could fall. I pushed back the hunger, just a little while longer. The villagers gathered once they saw the magic act coming together, eager to catch a glimpse of the show. I lay in wait, my gems prepared to capture all the backlash from the upcoming orchestrated failure. I licked my lips with anticipation for the coming feast. In a bit of anti-climactic smoke, barely rising above her tail, Trixie pranced onto the makeshift stage. “The Great and Powerful Trixie shall amaze you with her one-of-a-kind display. Gather round and witness for yourselves, the magic that drove off an ursa major, a raging manticore, and a bugbear all in one afternoon. Feast your eyes upon the greatness that is Trixie!” A spark shot out of her horn, not enough to create a full firework display, but enough to turn a few heads. I sat back and watched, not really needing to do anything right away. Things were just starting to warm up. “For the first trick, Trixie needs a volunteer. You there, in the front, come up and lay down your coin purse.” “Me?” said a stallion that looked like he’d seen a few fights in his day. He turned his head to both sides and eventually came up when no pony else made a move. Laying a sack of bits on Trixie’s stand, he stepped back a single step. “I better get that back, or there won’t be anything ‘great’ or ‘powerful’ left after I get done with you.” His menacing growl didn’t even phase Trixie. “No worries. Trixie shall do the impossible and double your bits, right before your eyes.” Trixie lit her horn and focused what little concentration I allowed her. Her magic flared around the sack. Smoke, followed by flame, engulfed it completely. The sack burned away leaving a pile of blackened bits and ash sitting on the table. “Oops..” The stallion roared, “My sack! What have you done? You’re going to pay for that, you fool!” “Uhh, don’t worry…” Trixie stood there, shaking like a leaf. “It’s all part of the act. By the end of the show, you’ll have your sack restored and your bits doubled, Trixie promises. Do we have another volunteer?” The stallion collected his bits, and a good amount of ash, and stormed off the stage. Clearly unhappy, it seemed his anger would hold until after the show. The prospect of receiving double his bits had something to do with the tempering of his threat, no doubt. It might have also had something to do with the energy I was siphoning off of him the whole time. Trixie’s act was worse than I thought. In the course of twenty minutes, she’d removed the color from a mare’s tail, drenched a couple of colts, torched a nearby storefront, and nearly taken somepony’s head off with another failed attempt at a firework. I couldn’t complain, the energy being fed into my gemstones tasted wonderful. By feeding off the negative energy of the crowd, I helped drain away the tension and rage allowing her show to continue. If not for me, she would have been run out of town in less than half the time she’d been out there. The flow of magic continued, not as strong as I had hoped given the shattered stones hanging from my neck, but plenty for now. The warm glow returned midway through the eighth stunt. Without the original source restoring their fractured power, I couldn’t expect to gather much more energy without risking their fragile state. I had enough to get me up the mountain, and it was time to cut Trixie loose. “Hey there, what are you doing?” an official looking stallion said, waving a small club at me like he planned on using it for something other than rolling out pizza dough. He caught me in the act, but he was about to get more show than he bargained for. My fangs flared, my wings popped. Scales rolled down my spine and covered my back. I sprang from the shadows and roared through the crowd. Everypony scattered. It felt good to be back in part-siren form, my forked tongue sifting out the notes as I sang. I missed my tail, but the magic could only take my transformation so far without being fully restored. Still, I looked the part, and it did the trick. I belted out a high note, shattering the glass all around. Trixie stared at me, not sure of what to do. I laughed, toying with the crowd now running away, trying to find shelter from my attack. I looked rather menacing, if not completely transformed. Trixie lit her stub of a horn once again, a small orange spark leaping out toward me. I couldn’t waste any more time, or magic so I took to the sky, not even looking back as I shot up the mountain, a singular destination high on the peak awaiting my arrival. The pathetic town of Rainbow Falls disappeared in the mist as I rose past the clouds. I would be back to take care of them later. The cold air ran chill through my bones as I flew up the mountain, my scales doing little to fend off the cold. I cursed the light flurry of snow that swirled around the peak and down the long draw through the pass. My wings were the first part to succumb to the cold, iced over soon after I reached the higher atmosphere and barely able to flap. Once again, the magic it took to maintain a portion of my proper form quickly depleted my reserves, and I fully reverted to pony as soon as I found a safe place to set down. The path ahead lay covered in snow and ice. Giant crags jutted out along the way, randomly marking the narrow slice of road leading over the mountain pass. With my destination nearly in sight, I took to my hooves and marched forward, taking care not to punch through a snow drift or slip and fall off a ledge. The wind whistling through my ears beckoned me onward to the top. My fur coat gave me some respite from the cold, much more than my siren scales afforded. Each breath I took felt like fire in my lungs, burning with the cold, sapping heat from my core. Hiking in the shadow of the mountains, the sun fell away much earlier than it might have otherwise. In the failing light of day, I kept moving up the mountain, my desire and dreams driving me on with a small, non-consolation thought nagging at the back of my mind, I wished I had kept that silly mare’s cloak. Reaching the summit, tears of joy froze around my eye sockets. Tucked away to the side of the path, I found my destination, the entrance to a cave that had been calling out to me from the moment I set hoof in this world. I knew the place the instant I saw it. Starswirl may have told us about how something or other had happened here long ago that set ponykind on a path toward tribal unification and cooperative rule, but I knew it held much more than that. This cave held the source of my magic, the frozen heart of a former coltfriend, a just reward for all the pain he had caused me. I galloped up the path as fast as my hooves could carry me, along with the snow and ice they had built up during my hike. As I neared the cave entrance, my breath caught in my throat—something was there. A flickering light from inside indicated that somepony had taken up shelter or residence within. This did not bode well—for them. My rage came to a boil throwing off the ice clinging to my mane, tail and coat; this was my domain and nopony else had a claim to its magic. I called forth my siren form, changing as much as I could bring my waning power to bear. Bursting through the entrance, I screamed, “Get out, intruder!” My voice echoed through the cave, shaking the ice encrusted walls and startling the lone occupant. Hunched over a fire and warming a small, speckled stone in the flame, a large, furry beast turned and grinned at me, flashing a few rows of shiny teeth before tossing the rock in his mouth and biting down hard with a sickening crunch. He swallowed and roared, angered to life by my pronouncement. I could tell he wasn’t leaving without a fight. I yelled, my magic infused voice toppling the beast in a note. He tumbled over the fire, extinguishing the flames in his shaggy white fur as he fell. The cave fell into a graying dark, the only light coming from the dying rays of the setting sun barely carrying past the entrance. I darted to the rear of the cave, the natural acoustics of the space amplifying my attack. I sung out again, battering the already stunned beast with another blast. I scored a direct hit, knocking what little fight remained in him aside. His toothy grin disappeared. He looked up at me with pleading eyes, crumpled in the corner of the cave, coddling a paw. I glared down at him with a confident smile. “Get out, now!” I opened my mouth and took in a deep breath, ready to sing the final note to finish him off. Quickly, he rose to his feet, mostly dodged my trailing attack, and sprinted from the cave, yelping and howling in retreat. No sooner had he fled, I sank to my hooves, the magic in me nearly spent. I misjudged how much energy I had left after my flight, and the fight took almost everything that remained. My heart thumped in my chest, heaving out the beat, slowing swiftly with the growing cold. I reached out toward the rear cave wall, a sheet of ice crusted with glittering snow crystals. Brushing aside the frost, my hoof met frozen rock, nothing but stone and ice where I expected something else, something much more familiar. The cold soaked through my fur, tail and mane ineffective in fending it off. With fire put out, and the cave quickly venting what little warmth remained, I clung to the only source of heat I had, the gems in the pouch around my neck. The warm glow fed my comfort as I held them tight to my chest. Eyes closing, the cave sunk into the blackness of night as the sun finally set and the light from the entrance faded, leaving me alone in the dark.