Song and Seal (BlazzingInferno)
Curio rolled over in bed and his eyes shot open. All the tuning forks hanging in the window were ringing, the C-sharp’s vibrant tone eclipsing that of its neighbors. Judging by the wan slivers of light sneaking through the edges of the painted-over window, it wasn’t even eight in the morning yet. Who in their right mind would be singing this early?
C-sharp let out a mighty peal, prompting Curio to reach over and silence its vibrations. The singer’s identity was largely immaterial anyway, so long as he adhered to his duty. Blankets flew off the bed, knocking over the ever-growing collection of hard cider and painkiller bottles on the nightstand. He shuffled through the dimly-lit room, extremely conscious of the glass bottles now rolling around on the floor. What would happen if he tripped on one and broke his leg?
The voice of Curio’s father, not even silenced by the grave, rang in his ears with a ferocity that no tuning fork could match. “And what if you fail one day, boy? What if you just go back to sleep instead of doing what I taught you?” Around this point his father would usually lean in close and give him a wicked grin. “Why, the whole world would end! That door the family’s been guarding for nigh-on three thousand years would just up and fly open, and some terror beyond comprehension would jump out and rip that fool head of yours clean off. Would serve you right, too!”
Another tuning fork started to hum. B-flat this time, if he wasn’t mistaken. Some pony out there was really tempting fate, and on a Monday morning no less. As soon as he was done saving the world, he’d draft another letter to the mayor. Even if government and law couldn’t safeguard the society against eldritch horrors from beyond reality, it could at least enact a noise ordinance to prevent their being summoned before breakfast.
At last he made it to the closet. He threw open the door, pushed a few blankets aside, and pulled the trap door open. At the bottom of a six-foot shaft rested a stone door nestled between the pillars of earth and timber supporting the house. The smooth stone was framed with ancient metalwork, and inlaid with carvings that time had all but erased. The door’s edges glowed green, and the nauseating feeling of dark magic made his horn ache. Over by the window, nearly all of the tuning forks were humming merrily. This was a bad one; he’d need to act quickly.
He started with a nursery rhyme, taking care to miss every note and butcher every rhyming couplet. On most days that’d be enough to pacify the door’s seal. The throbbing in his horn made it abundantly clear that today wasn’t one of those days. Pinkie Pie had probably roped the entire town into a musical number again.
The tuning forks kept humming, and so he kept singing in the most ear-grating way he could. Tens of minutes flew by, as did his memorized collection of songs. Repeating even one of them wasn’t an option; repeating a song was a kind of a pattern, a chorus even. Better ponies than him had nearly ended the world with such simple mistakes. What could he try next? Trashing the Equestrian anthem would hurt his throat too much, especially when he didn’t have a couple drinks in him. Why did this have to start so early in the morning?
His father’s voice came to him again, fittingly enough. There was nothing the world more dissonant than that old stallion’s banter.
“See, this door’s been sealed since the very beginning, since before Ponyville, since before Equestria even. And ever since then, the family’s been right here keeping it shut. See, there’s this magical seal on it, put on there by pony-knows-who. Point is, the seal feeds on all the dark magic trying to get out, and if you get—”
Curio could hear melodious singing just outside his house, and see a conga line of shadows bobbing along in the window’s meagre light. “Don’t you ponies have something quiet to do? Shut up already!”
The pain in his horn shot down the length of his spine. He glared down at the stone door and continued in his father’s screeching voice. “The seal feeds on all that dark magic, but if you let too much normal magic weaken it: bam! Apocalypse time! Now let me tell you about magic. See, spells and potions and the like aren’t nothing special. You get some ponies together singing though… singing’s this infectious little thing that can make even the strongest pony start tapping their hoof, and can even pop the magic seal off of that door. So you guard that door, boy! Keep that lyrical nonsense out of here, even if you have to board up the house. And another thing! You get yourself a mare who’ll give you a colt that can carry on the family duty, you hear? You’re not gonna shirk your duty and let the world end, are you?”
Another of his father’s diatribes was on his lips, ready to screech through his now-raw throat for the sake of all those clueless, singing lunatics outside. Thankfully, the door’s deep green glow was nearly gone. Even the tuning forks were starting to calm down.
Ten seconds later, he finally took a ragged breath. He collapsed at the closet’s edge with one hoof dangling into the abyss. Even breathing hurt, but he managed to squeak out a cry for a help, unfortunately just to his sister instead of the still-unacquired wife or kid. Staying within running-distance of that accursed door didn’t lend itself to a healthy dating life. “L-Lyra… Lyra!”
His bedroom door opened a moment later. “Curie? I was just about to bring you your breakfast. Is something wrong?”
From this perspective he saw her hooves before anything else, including the one about to land on a cider bottle. He reached to her, but barely managed to squeeze out a whisper. “W… wait!”
Why are you on the floor over th—wah!” Lyra slipped backwards and the bottle went flying, right through the bedside window. Warm sunlight flooded the room for the first time in decades, all to the tune of breaking glass. The tuning forks swung and vibrated wildly in the early morning breeze, picking up a distant song on the wind and, through their own motion, forming a beautiful harmony all their own.
He felt it in his hoof first, the one hanging in the shaft over the door. It began as a tickle, and soon felt like he’d stepped in a campfire. His pained cry echoed Lyra’s, and for a moment the sweet hum of the tuning forks provided the perfect sonic backdrop.
Crack.
Then everything went silent. Curio stared at Lyra. Lyra stared at Curio. He didn’t have a voice left, and she didn’t have any words to speak. Instead they just listened to a low groaning that shook the house to its foundation, the sound of heaven’s gate swinging shut.
Lyra’s ears drooped. “Oh… Oh dear.”
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Oops
So did curio die or an eldrich abomination that happens to be in ponyville get released or something?
Honestly, probably the biggest fault with this anthology is that so many of these leave me wanting for more.
5891345
All of that, or this is secretly an origin story for the Flim Flam Brothers
It very much feels like this is something that the Versebreakers should have been taking care of since day one of it being such a problem.
6131987
I should let 6091728 speak for himself, but this was the one story which built from the assumption of Versebreakers as a concept rather than a dedicated organization. Definitely would have helped if they'd been around to deal properly with this, though!
6131987
Um, what 6142477 said
This story grew out of the more general concept of impromptu musical numbers being a serious problem. I also just loved the idea of tuning forks being used as an early warning system.
6142477 6142601 Yeah, I get that now. I hadn't quite realized that the various stories weren't quite intended to completely fit together in the same coherent world until the comments on the story after this one (which I've read but haven't gotten around to commenting on), up until then I had been trying to fit them all together in my mind. It had been working pretty well if you squint and blur the details a little, and work from the assumption that each individual versebreaker might work a little or a lot differently depending on the nature of their own talents.
I can't help but imagine the door being thrown open and Thriller blasting out along with whatever eldritch horrors.
Or the Ghostbusters theme.
Actually now I want to see something like a HiE story where they're innocently humming a tune from some disaster movie or such, and the whole thing just spirals out of control
(cc 6142601)
7010043
I'm definitely going to have to queue that in the idea file!
Oh gods, that is the best idea.
Does Pinkie know that she has endangered Ponyville and all of Equestria several times?
8343676 (cc: 6142601)
I'm not sure whether it would be scarier if the answer were "yes" or "no."
8344411
Ah, don't worry about that big ol' meaniepants. We'll just give him a taste of the Orbital Rainbow Cannon if he gets out of there.
Besides, who thought it was a good idea to put a seal on the door that's weakened by harmony, when the vast majority of ponies embody it in the first place? Kuh-razy, Right?
⬆CC:ing author: 6142601
That's okay, Twilight and friends can defeat it in about a half an hour.
this reminds me of a silly story by Estee, where Pinkie had to beat a monster in a game, in order to save the world, every year.
(something the Cake family cooked on a holiday attracted it)
they wound up playing Magic The Gathering.
it looked like Pinkie was going to lose, BUT she cleverly started doing a strange loop-combo over and over, until DAWN, which foiled it!
7010043
oh, that reminds me of a chapter of that crazy collab story "MLP Time Loops", where Billy from "the adventures of billy and mandy" was in Equestria, and Billy started singing "This Is The Song That Never Ends"!
it persisted for YEARS!