//------------------------------//
// A Hint Of Gloom 
// Story: A Touch Of Evil 
// by Masterweaver 
//------------------------------//

	"Ugh," Aria moaned as she drooped over one of the couches. "Who in the world could be knocking this late in the night?"

"Probably another evangelist," Adagio sighed, gathering her bathrobe as she took her own seat on the other. "'Have you heard the word of Megan?' 'Why yes, I have. The pope told us all how Zacherle would forgive us for out sins after we slaughtered some arabs, but that was nine centuries ago. Anything new?'"

Sonata held up a finger, leaning on the aquarium as she gently swayed. "I reeeeeeally don't think that's what they believe anymore."

"I really don't think that's what they ever believed," Aria replied.

"And I really don't think I want to listen to one of their stupid sermons again," Adagio pointed out. "Let's just wait until they leave."

The three of them sat in the living room, listening to the knocking on their front door. Aria grabbed a book from the table, reading up on subharmonics. Sonata occasionally stuck her fingers into the aquarium, twiddling with the fish. Adagio just leaned back into the couch. And the knocking... continued.

Knock knock.

Knock-knock-knock.

Knock knock knock-knock-knock. Knock knock.

...

Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-

"GRAH!" Adagio stood up, tightening her belt and storming around the instruments. "FINE! WE'RE HERE! I'M COMING! Hold your damn--"

She opened the door.

"--horses."

"Hi, I just want to--"

Adagio slammed the door shut, locking it for good measure, stamped back to her couch, and threw herself facedown on it.

Aria rolled her eyes. "Mature. Real mature, Dags."

"Mi mm mnt," the yellow girl grumbled into the cushion, "monin tm meal miff mrr mmite mmw."

"Fair enough," she conceded.

Sonata pulled her hand out of the water. "Well if you two won't deal with her, I will."

"You do know who that is, right?" Aria deadpanned. "You recognized the voice?"

"Yeah, I know." Sonata somehow managed to stumble through the instrument collection. "But Flash was pretty nice, maybe she'll be too." She unlocked the front door and opened it with a wide grin. "Bacon-hair! It's good to see you!"

Sunset Shimmer crossed her arms. "Bacon-hair?"

"Yeah, you know. The stripey meat ribbons. They look like your hair!" The blue girl giggled.

Sunset's eyes briefly darted down before returning to Sonata's face. "Um... why are you wearing a bathrobe?"

"We just finished dinner."

"That opens up so many avenues of questioning I don't want to go down." She unfolded her arms, sniffing warily. "Are... are you drunk?"

"Uh... I don't know." Sonata leaned back and peered over her shoulder. "Hey Aria?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we get drunk without our gems?"

"We could get drunk with our gems. Pretty sure we could get drunk without."

Sonata turned back to the door and shrugged. "I guess we're drunk." She giggled again.

"...right." Sunset held up a hand. "Obviously this is a bad time. I'll come back later--"

"What? You just got here!" Without a second thought, Sonata grabbed her arm and dragged her inside, shutting the door behind her. "Come in, grab a stool--the couches are taken, but you can sit next to any instrument you can play!"

Aria rolled her eyes. "Well, this ought to be fun..."

Sunset negotiated the various artifacts with careful steps. "Wow. You guys have a lot of rare instruments--is that a Hang? I thought they stopped making those!"

"They did," Sonata singsonged. "But we got one. Cause we're rich."

"Yeah, I... kinda figured." She carefully sat on a stool next to a sitar.

"Wait a minute." Aria pushed herself up to her side. "How the hell did you find us, anyway?"

"Flash told me." Sunset glanced away, putting a hand over her eyes. "Well, called me."

Sonata frowned. "Did he say anything about... what he did here?"

"Uh, he said he talked to you and... that there are some things I shouldn't bring up. Ever."

The blue girl grinned, jabbing her finger at Adagio. "I told you. I told you he was nice. He's a good boy."

"Hm's n mmncomk."

"I dunno about that. Have you seen what he wears?"

Aria glanced at Sunset's averted gaze. "What are you doing?"

"I... uh..." she blushed. "Your bathrobe's open."

"So? I don't have anything you don't."

"Yes, but..." She lowered her hand and huffed. "You're naked!"

The purple girl lidded her eyes. "And you're a pony. What, did they start wearing clothes in Equestria while we were gone or something?"

"No--yes--formal--this isn't Equestria!" Sunset finally pointed out. "We're humans! We wear clothes!"

"My parents were nudists," Aria explained simply.

"Your parents were sirens!"

"Seaponies, actually, I'm the first siren in the family."

"Right..." Sunset rubbed her forehead. "You know what, never mind." She forced the blush off her face. "You're probably wondering why I came to visit."

"Not really. We're the big bad fish ladies. You want to make sure we're not planning anything." Aria spread her arms. "This is it. This is us."

"Well it's not just us," Sonata pointed out, skipping over to the aquarium. "We have the fish too! There's Accuratezza and Encore and Incalzando and Omaggio and Unisono and..."

Sunset's eyes drifted from the aquarium to Aria. "How many fish do you have?"

"Twenty."

"....has she named all of them?!"

"Yep."

"...and Quintal and Variazioni and Ridicolosamente and Pizzicato and Zartheit!" Sonata sighed wistfully. "Zartheit was such a cutie. Is! Is such a cutie! Because he is a fish, and fish are cute! That's what I meant!" She giggled, swaying on her feet.

"....you know what?" Sunset declared. "If I keep asking questions, I don't think I'll stop. So I'll just get down to business: princess Twilight Sparkle wishes to extend a diplomatic invitation to all three of you to visit her castle in Equestria."

That got a response out of all of them. Sonata leaned over the back of the couch, eyes widening. Aria actually sat up, gauging her with her eyes. And Adagio grabbed a throw pillow, pushing it down over her head.

"What, exactly, brought this on?" Aria inquired cautiously.

"Well, I don't know how in tune with the news you are, but during the Friendship Games there was this whole... thing with magic and alternate universes and the local Twilight Sparkle. So afterwards, when Princess Twilight met Science Twilight--that's what we're calling her--the two of them decided to cross-reference all this world's legends of magic with Equestrian history, and that kind of led to Princess Twilight funding a lot of archaeological expeditions--"

"Double-meeting." Sonata grinned, nodding eagerly. "That's always exciting. Did you know our doubles were privateers? I mean, it was over a thousand years ago but still--!"

"Word to the wise," Aria intoned. "You ever meet your double, sleep with them at least once. You won't get a lasting relationship, but the experience is incredible."

Sunset Shimmer snorted. "Yeah, I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Anyway, my point is that one of the expeditions Twilight funded, they recovered relics from some old town called Thadal Lapillus--"

Adagio groaned into the cushion.

"So you have heard about it. Twilight mentioned some of the symbols looked kind of like those projected forms you had at the Battle of the Bands." Sunset shrugged. "She just wants the opinion of somebody who was there, is all."

The yellow siren turned her head just enough to see the others. Aria rose an eyebrow and shrugged; Sonata's grin was so big, it almost hid the tears in her eyes.

"...Fine. We'll be ready tomorrow afternoon, we'll meet you by the statue." She glared at Sunset. "Now, get OUT."

Sunset stood up, nodding to them each in turn. "Thank you for your time." With some maneuvering through the instruments, she was at the door and out a moment later.

"All that time we spent looking for a way through," Aria deadpanned, "and some princess goes and drops the answer in front of us."

"Thadal Lapillus," Sonata repeated. "Wow. Who'd have ever thought we'd hear about that place again?"

Adagio sighed. "I could have gone my whole life without remembering that damned town."





"Krillrest. Silverscale town. Coralopolis!" Adagio slammed her hoof on the rock that she was using as a table. "They're breaking us apart!"

"It's a smart strategy," Aria noted, adjusting her finbags as she floated over the map. "Cutting us off from other cities. Wouldn't have worked before the kelpies, but..."

She trailed off, glancing awkwardly at the other two sirens. Sonata glanced away, folding her legs in tightly. Adagio didn't even look at her, focusing even more intently on the pebbles and lone calico scallop seashell atop the kelpscroll. Around them, various small groups of seaponies huddled together, conversing in hushed tones.

"...Maybe we shouldn't have let Omaggio try to go after Coloratura," she grumbled. "If he'd have been here, Zartheit might not have--"

"I didn't want to force him to choose between his wife and his sister," Sonata murmured. "That's why I told him to go. The blood of the sacrament is thicker than the gel of the egg."

"Yeah... I know if my mom had given a fin about me, I wouldn't even be here--"

"Enough ifs," Adagio growled. "The Charp are pushing us to shore. We need a plan." She lashed her tail--and winced in pain.

"Adagio..." Sonata swam closer. "Please, calm down. You know what the medics said, you can't put too much strain on--"

"I'm fine. Focus on the problem we have now, Sonata."

Aria looked at the refugees around them. "Obviously we can't stay here. A Charp attack is bad enough in a town, but out in the open... we've got to get these seaponies to safety." She sighed, looking down at the map and pointing at a group of pebbles. "Only problem is, I can't see how. This Charp line is dividing us from the closest delta, and we can't go this way--they'd overrun us."

"Um." Sonata tapped the map. "There's... there's a drylander outpost here. A port town, I think, they call it Thadal Lapillus."

Adagio rose an eyefin. "Really."

"Yes. I mean, that's what some of the refugees say."

"And why would that matter to us?" Aria asked flatly. "Drylanders don't speak wavetongue. We couldn't even talk to them."

"Well, maybe they'll help us anyway. After all, the refugees had to hear the name from somewhere. Maybe some of them are friends or something." Sonata traced her hoof across the kelpscroll. "There's a bit of overland trek, but we could make it to this river here if they carried us in... buckets, I guess. We can swim to this lake from there--"

"A lake?" Aria snorted. "Without the grain of salt?"

"Charp can't survive in freshwater. And the Kelpies... well, they'd have to swim upriver. It's a lot easier to guard against them if they can only come from one direction."

Adagio gave the map a long look.

"...we're really considering this." She turned to the other two. "We're really considering asking the seaponies to leave the sea."

Aria sighed. "I don't like it either. Being carried in buckets sounds like a horrible experience." She shrugged. "But, all things considered, I don't think we're going to come up with a better idea."

Adagio looked down at the map. The pain in her tail had dulled, but it still sent jolts every now and again. Her hoof reached for the shell, and her eyes darted toward the gap in the line of pebbles...

...and with a deep breath, she moved the shell to the shoreline. "Alright. Tell the refugees to pack up and be ready for an unusual trip. We swim in ten." The kelp scroll was rolled up and placed in her finbags. "Waves be with us."

"I don't know if there are waves on the drylands," Aria pointed out.

"The drylanders have to drink," Sonata replied. "And where there's water, there will always be waves."





"You know," Sonata contemplated as she looked herself over, "this is the first time I can remember having four legs. I mean, seaponies only had two, and humans have the arms, but that doesn't really count."

Aria held up a hoof. "Yeah, speaking of which--why the hell are we earth ponies?"

"Well, after my travels back and forth through the mirror, I grew very interested in the transformation modulation incorporated into the process, so I took some time to study the spellforms integrated into the arch structure. It turns out that the discus on the top actually serves as a secondary functional array, focused on analysis of genetic templates from the cross-realty thaumic bridge, and the mirror actually utilizes that data in its quantum integration process--"

"Hey Princess?" Aria interrupted. "Could you pretend we spend a thousand years outside the contact of any magical scholars? That'd be great, thanks."

Twilight Sparkle huffed. "The tiny mirror on top of the big one saw earth ponies, so it told the big mirror to turn you into earth ponies when you came through."

"Now wasn't that easier to say?"

"It kind of glosses over all of the pertinent details--"

"Oh hey," Sonata chirped, "I have a mooshri shreperii!"

The princess blinked. "A what?"

"This thing." She pointed at the image of a jagged eighth note over a heart on her flank. "Never learned the dryland words for it, so we just called them mooshri shreperii."

Twilight ruffled her wings. "We call those cutie marks."

"Whoa, seriously? So I have a cutie patootie?"

"What--? No--well, I mean I'm sure it's very attractive to ponies who swing that way, but--"

Adagio stepped forward, rolling her eyes. "Okay, okay. Enough exploring our new bodies for now, we can continue with that tonight."

"You know, I never thought I'd say this, but thank you Adagio--"

The yellow mare halted her speech with a single glower. "Look, princess, I'm not here to help you. I've been looking for... something, and your little artifact show is the biggest lead I've got in a long time. So why don't you just take me to wherever it is you've got the Thadal Lapillus junk set up, and we'll get this over with."

The alicorn opened her mouth to reply, but her eyes darted to the large scar blotting out one of Adagio's cutie marks.

"If... you don't mind my asking, how did--?"

"Actually I do mind you asking." Adagio flipped her mane. "The artifacts?"

Twilight gave her a long, silent look. 

Then she sighed. "...Right this way, then." She turned away with a frown, trotting out and leading them down a series of crystalline hallways. "Now, the archaeologists have organized their finds into groups; household assemblages, artistic artifacts, small tools, large tools, surviving writings, and pictures of things they couldn't bring in for analysis. I've labeled things that I think might be of interest to you, but I recognize that my judgement might not be entirely accurate, so you'll be allowed to examine all the objects. Please don't handle them, they're all very delicate, and remember to tell me what you can about them so I can write it all down."

Aria snorted. "Any other commandments, your highness?"

The princess gave her a flat look. "Those are the rules. I didn't make them, I just expect you to follow them. You are my guests, after all; anything you do here reflects on me." She stopped and opened a door that looked identical to all the others they had passed. "Alright, here we are."

Sonata peered into the room. "Whoa. Lotsa old broken things... Hey, who's she?"

"What?" Twilight followed her gaze to a pony quietly perusing the tables. "Oh. That's one of AJ's old friends, she used to be a singer but she and her manager had a... falling out. I'm letting her stay in the palace while she finds a new one." She tilted her head. "I don't know what she's doing here, though..." She turned to the three with an apologetic roll of her eyes. "I have to go tell her the rules too. You just... start looking around, I guess."

She trotted toward the blue mare, shaking her head and leaving the three guests to their own devices.

Aria gave Adagio a sideways glance. "Well. We're back. Never thought we'd get here this way, but here we are. Now what?"

"...you remember the map shell?"

"The purple-orange one?" Sonata nodded. "You left it with that, uh, one kid. Darnit, I can't even remember her name..."

"Doesn't really matter. Spread out, look for anything that mentions it. We find the shell..."

Her breath hitched just for a moment. Then her eyes narrowed.

"...we find the seaponies."





"YOU! WAVETOSSED! IDIOT!"

Adagio dragged her strange new spiderhooves down the smooth stone surface, clawing at it in an ineffectual rage.

"WE WERE SAVING THE CARAVAN FROM THAT GIANT LAND OTTERRAY! IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW WE WERE DOING IT! AND IT'S NOT DARK MAGIC, IT'S KIND OF A REDDISH GLOWING THING!"

Aria looked up from the rock she sat on. "You know he can't hear you, right?" She shivered at a passing breeze, clutching the strange brown fabric of her dress around her back leg-bends.

"AND WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO DESCEND FROM YOUR HIGH AND MIGHTY MOUNTAIN AND JUDGE US?! YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE?! YOU'RE SOME STUCK UP SORCERER WEARING BELLS JUST TO DEAFEN HIS OWN THOUGHTS!"

Sonata looked up as the gray sky rumbled, pushing her own strange new phalanges together. She put them down atop her back legs, looking at her leader with a sigh. "...I wish I knew what to say..."

"YOUR FACE HAIR WAS AWFUL! AND YOUR SILLY LITTLE CAPE WAS AWFUL! AND YOUR STUPID PONY MAGIC WAS JUST... JUST... just...."

Adagio stopped her ranting and clawing, just leaning into the stone with a heaving chest. The glow from the gem she wore slowly started to fade; she slumped, drained, and let herself slide to the ground.

"...my eyes." She brought a spiderhoof up to her face. "My vision's going blurry... oh hippocampus. My eyes, they're--they're spilling water!"

"It's called fletu," Sonata explained distantly. "That's what the drylanders call it, it happens when they're... sad."

"We're not drylanders," Aria pointed out.  She looked down at herself. "I don't know what we are. I don't know if there's even anything like us back... home..."

The water dripped off Adagio's face, and she scrabbled at the dirt in a desperate attempt to retrieve it. "No. No, don't... I can't... I can't stop, I can't stop, the water, the water..."

Aria sighed, gently pushing herself off the rock and falling to the grass. She crawled over to Adagio, using her spider hooves to wave Sonata over before wrapping them around her sister-of-war. It wasn't long before the other siren joined in the clumsy hug.

"The water," Adagio repeated, her strange phalanges clenching. "We... we're out of the water. Oh hippocampus. Oh waves." She bowed her head, a shuddering breath escaping. "We're out of the water. I'm leaking water. Are... are we going to dry out?"

"...maybe." Sonata nuzzled closer. "But... If I had to dry out with anyone, I'm glad that it was to be you two."

"Yeah, what she said. We did what we could, Adagio." Aria rested her chin on her shoulder. "Antiphon... Antiphon would be proud."

Slowly, Adagio rose her spiderhooves to the others'. "...It's... it's been an honor girls. No matter what happens, no matter.... what ends up taking us down... I just want you to know--"

The sky rumbled again... and an odd sound began to surround them, as though a thousand pebbles were hitting a thousand others. For a moment, that was certainly what they believed; they could feel the tiny impacts on their long, flowing headmanes.

Aria held a spiderhoof out cautiously. Her eyes widened. "...It's... it's water. It's water from the sky! I thought only pegasi could do that!"

"Where there is water..." Sonata mimicked her, a small grin on her face. "There will be waves. Waves are with us. They're still with us!"

Adagio's vision finally cleared. She looked at the moisture pooling in her companion's new appendages. She looked down at the steadily wetting rocks. And she held her own spiderhooves up, for a moment.

"...girls."

Aria and Sonata focused on her.

"...I don't know what we are," she began. "Or where. I... I don't know what we're going to face in this... place."

A grim smile grew on her face. She reached up, carefully grasping the gem on her neck with two of her new phalanges.

"But... we've still got a few stunts on our fins. We've got some magic, even if it isn't a lot. And more than that, we've got each other. And we've faced a lot worse together." She looked at Aria, then Sonata. "This isn't the end. We might have been tossed out of our world, but we're not going to stay out. We're going to find a way back. We're going to find the seaponies again. And... we're going to make absolutely sure they're safe. Because we're sirens, and that means we'll do anything to get what we want."

She narrowed her eyes. "So, are you ready to seriously screw up some pony's stupid little spell?"

Aria snorted, but she couldn't stop a small smirk from growing. "Whatever you say... captain."

"YEAH!" Sonata cheered. "SIRENS FOREVER!" She giggled, pulling her wet headmane out of her eyes.

Adagio chuckled, shaking her head. Then she turned back to the stone surface. "No matter how long it takes... the waves will always be with us."





The three mares sat around the golden table, picking at the waffles in front of them.

"...It could have just... you know, disintegrated," Sonata offered. "It was only a seashell, after all. This stuff happens."

"Or maybe they lost track of the thing," Aria added. "Or maybe they didn't really consider it important to remember."

Adagio let out a long, slow breath. "It wasn't just the seashell. There's... there's art of seaponies coming up to shore, but not out of the water. There's no real image of us, of sirens. I would have thought, maybe one of them left a record of the caravan, or... something."

"Well, we were in a pretty big hurry," Sonata pointed out. "Maybe they just forgot."

Aria frowned. "...that's... something, actually. I didn't want to mention it, but some of the scratches on those things..."

Her eyes moved toward the scar on Adagio's flank.

"...they looked kind of familiar."

Sonata flinched. "Yeah... it's possible that the Charp could have survived on land long enough to, uh, chase the ponies out."

"What if's and maybe's." Adagio slid her fork down. "Possibly's and might have beens. Coulda shoulda woulda--I wanted something concrete! But look at where we are. No clues, no hints, nothing. We're just..."

She slumped into her seat, 

"We're lost. Completely... lost."

The other two looked at her, then at each other. Aria rose an eyebrow, flicking her head toward the yellow pony; Sonata shook her head, shrugging helplessly. Aria rolled her eyes and gave her a pointed look. Sonata lowered her head, letting out a breath as she looked softly up.

"Hmmm hm-hmm, hmmm-hmmm hm-hmm..."

All three of them perked their ears at the sound. All three of them shared a look of pure shock. All three of them turned to the door, watching the mare Sonata had pointed out enter carrying a plate of crackers.

"Hmmm hmhm hmm hmmhmhmmm, hmmm hmmmm hm hmmhmmm... hm hmmmm hmm hm hmmm, hmhmmm, hmmmhmm hmmhmm hm-hm-hm--Oh!"

The mare shook herself out of a daze, giving them a small smile. "You're Twilight's, uh, study guests right? I saw you earlier. I just came in here to... well." She gestured at the plate, sitting down at an unused chair. "You don't mind, do you?"

"...No." Adagio shook her head. "Not at all."

"Thank you. Sorry about poking around that room with the things, I was... well, I've kind of hit a dead spot in my agent search, so I just wanted to poke around."

"Twilight mentioned you were a singer," Adagio agreed politely. "Would we have heard of you?"

"Well, I was the top on the charts, before I kicked Svengallop." She rubbed at her mane. "But of course, then I was wearing a ridiculous amount of makeup, I probably look completely different... I'm Coloratura. Well, Rara to my friends."

"Coloratura?" Sonata perked up. "I had a sister-in-law named Coloratura... once." She sagged into her chair. "But that was very long ago."

Coloratura looked at her warily. "...um. Okay?"

Aria cleared her throat. "Yeah, Sonata can get emotional sometimes. Don't worry about it. What I want to know is where did you hear the seapony anthem?"

"What? Oh, that tune I was humming when I came in?" The mare shrugged. "It's just something people from my town would sing. I mean, I've never heard it called the seapony anthem, just the seapony song."

"Really?" Adagio pressed. "Do tell."

"It's kind of a silly thing. 'Call upon the seaponies when you're in distress, if you're e'er in need ponies simply signal S.O.S...." She rolled a hoof. "Kinda grew out of a local legend. See, my town is by a lake, and apparently there are seaponies living there or something. Shoo be doo, right?"

"Shoo shoo be doo," Adagio replied.

Coloratura blinked. "Yeah, that's... that's the first verse. I never understood that, I mean the rest of the song is in Equestrian, what's with the random words at the front?"

"It's... from an older language," Adagio explained. "'Shoo be doo, shoo shoo be doo.' Oh deep heart, oh deepest of hearts. At least, that's the literal translation, but it kind of loses a lot of its meaning."

The mare peered at her. "...how do you know that?"

Adagio grinned. "Let's just say... I know a lot about seaponies."