Father
By Craine
It had been nearly a week.
Six days, seventeen hours, fifty-three minutes, and thirty-eight seconds. Counting the time didn’t make it any more bearable for Adagio Dazzle. For that matter, neither did sitting in the living room, staring at her shattered pendant. Did that stop her from doing just that?
No. And, evidently, it didn’t stop her fellow sirens, Sonata Dusk and Aria Blaze, either.
The shattered pendant glowed red again, like it had been that entire week, spilling a bloody-red light onto the apartment walls. Adagio’s ears caved at the organic beat that followed. Again. At least, while she was packing, she could drown out the sound, if not the light.
The eldest siren gave short glances to her sisters. Sonata, with her pink boots removed, sitting on the floor, hugging her knees tight. Aria, scowling tiredly at the pendant, her hands tucked between her cris-crossed legs.
Adagio stared at her own fists pressed down on her bare thighs.
The crystalites glowed again, and the three women shifted.
“It’s getting worse,” Sonata mumbled from behind her knees. “He’s… he’s getting worried.”
Aria scoffed. “‘Worried.’ Right.”
Adagio lifted her stare to the pendant again, all but shuddering at the eyes that lifted to her.
“Maybe I should just…” Adagio was actually afraid to finish that sentence.
Aria scoffed again and rolled her eyes. “Maybe if you stopped hesitating.”
Adagio whipped a glare at her. “Maybe if you quit stopping me.”
“Maybe if you actually finished packing. Not like we can take anything with us.”
“It’s called decency! Look it up!””
Aria opened her mouth with a breath and a raised index finger. She stopped and offered a guilty frown. Adagio adopted the look. Sonata just sat there, hugging her knees even tighter.
“Sorry…” Adagio mumbled.
Aria tucked her hand back between her legs. “Yeah…”
A phone rang beside the youngest siren. Sonata whipped her head to the glittered, blue device and reached for it. She saw the name on the screen and stopped. With a slight frown of her own, Sonata returned to hugging her knees.
“Are you ever gonna answer that?” Aria asked.
“Mm-mm.”
Adagio raised a brow, and Sonata tried to hide further behind her knees. The eldest siren tightened her fists, pressing harder on her thighs. She reached for the pendant.
“No!” Aria shouted, slapping a firm grip on Adagio’s wrist. “Not yet!”
“When, Aria?!” Adagio shouted back. “If not now, then when?!”
The purple siren released her older sister and held a fist to her own forehead. “I don’t know, okay?!” Her fist fell to her lap. “Just… just not now.”
“He’s been calling us all week,” Sonata muttered from behind her knees. The older sirens turned to her, a little surprised. “If we don’t answer, he’ll come looking for us. And if he finds out we’ve been avoiding him…” She started shaking.
Adagio stared down at her thighs again. “I can’t believe I’m saying this―”
“Oh, please don’t say it,” Aria said with a frown.
“―but Sonata’s right.”
Aria hung her head with slumped shoulders. “The universe has gone to Hell.”
“We failed him, Aria. And one way or another, he’s going to figure that out,” Adagio said.
Aria brought both palms to her face and leaned on her ankles. “I know.”
Adagio took a softer tone. “Then why are you so afra―”
“I am not afraid!”
The pendant glowed again, and they all shivered. Adagio glanced at it again, then back at Aria, who kept her face buried in her palms.
“This is all your fault,” Aria muttered.
Adagio couldn’t look at her anymore. “I know.”
The purple siren’s hands fell to her lap, and she shot up to her feet. “Whatever…” She skulked from the living room and turned into the hallway. “You two do what you want…”
A slammed door was her only parting gift.
Adagio’s stare lingered on the shattered pendant a while longer. A quiet sob broke her reverie, and she looked up at a trembling, crying Sonata.
“Stop it,” Adagio ordered with a frown. The quiet sobs continued. “Sonata…”
The blue siren sniffed and tended to her tears, but more tears fell with every wipe. She held her sobs, but shook even harder than before. Adagio’s heart sank, and she couldn’t help but crawl forward, over the pendant.
The moment Adagio settled next to her younger sister, a pony-tailed head burrowed against her shoulder.
“What if he doesn’t give us another chance?” Sonata whispered through her shudders. “What if he doesn’t forgive us this time?”
Sonata’s phone rang again, and she frowned through her tears. Adagio reached for the blue device and read the screen―fifteen missed calls from Pinkie Pie. Her brow furrowed in pity.
“Sonata―”
“I don’t wanna talk to her…” Sonata hissed. “She had no right to yell at me. It's my choice to go to school, or hang out, or whatever. Not hers."
Adagio brushed a finger along those blue bangs. "You know that's not why she yelled..."
Sonata closed her eyes. "Doesn't matter. All she did was make this easier.”
The pendant glowed again. The phone stopped ringing.
Adagio lifted her arm, letting Sonata’s head rest on her chest. She held the shaking blue girl, eyes glued to the pendant.
“I can talk to him… if you don’t want to,” Sonata said.
“No, you can’t.”
Sonata didn’t argue with that. The pendant glowed again, bright that time, its pulse louder. Adagio swallowed dryly and reached for the pendant. A blue hand fell over her arm.
“Please, Dagi,” Sonata whispered. “Please don’t tell him about our friends?”
Adagio wrapped both arms around the frightened girl. “I won’t. I promise.”
The eldest sister held Sonata a moment longer, then released her. She lay on the carpet, her head resting on Sonata’s lap. The blue woman nodded solemnly. Adagio turned her head to the jewel. As though diving into cold water, she inhaled deeply, reached out and took it.
All faded to black.
Adagio was swimming.
It was strange, though; the sensation―as familiar and welcome as breathing―felt alien to her. Perhaps the unending darkness around her was responsible. Or perhaps the distant waves of blue and violet dancing across the horizon.
Or perhaps she just wasn’t used to being in her old body.
She stared sadly at her yellow, cloven hooves, then down over her scaly, finned tail. She narrowed her eyes and sighed, watching barely-visible bubbles ascend to an unseen surface. A yellow light shined in the dark, and she swam to it.
For minutes she swam, wondering how she could possibly keep her promise to Sonata. All thoughts left her when she arrived before a tall mountain, curved and sharp. She swam further and passed the mountain.
She descended along the curved superstructure, stopping only when she reached the bed of this dark ocean.
There she waited, staring up at the yellow light that guided her there.
The mountain behind her moved, and Adagio suppressed her yelp. Her stomach caved as the ocean bed lifted toward the light, taking the mountain with it. Four other mountains came into light. They surrounded the siren, all curled in her direction.
She trembled, rested on her curled arms, and wrapped her scaly tail around herself.
The yellow light brightened, almost blinding the siren. Then there were two. Staring at her. Blinking at her. Dwarfing her. She gulped and bowed her head respectfully. The voice that followed made her ribs cave from sheer pressure. She hid her labored breaths.
“You are alone, Adagio? Where are your sisters?”
Adagio lifted her eyes to meet the gargantuan lights above. “We… have something of a complication.”
The lights narrow. “Are they alive?”
Adagio’s eyes widened. “Y-yes, of course. I’d never let anything happen to them.”
“Indeed,” the voice agreed. “That is why I trusted you with their safety. And with your task. Which brings up another important question…” Adagio trembled harder and huddled more behind her tail. “Where are my Equestrians?”
Adagio tried and failed several times to speak.
“Have I not given you the tools to succeed?” The voice asked. “Have I not allowed you the time?”
Adagio’s eyes fell from the light. “Y-yes. Yes you have, but―”
“Why, then, do you come to me alone with empty hooves?”
“I...I―”
“Look at me, whelp.”
Adagio obeyed.
“Now… I gave you those pendants to circumvent the side effects of those magically barren bodies in which they trapped you. What could have possibly stopped you from restoring your power and returning to Equestria?”
The siren gulped again. “We… we were overwhelmed. We came so close. We had the powers in our grasp, and so much more just waiting to be taken, but…”
“Speak.”
Adagio’s dorsal fins raised in terror. “The Elements of Harmony defeated us in battle.” She brought her hooves to her mouth.
The five mountains shifted and bent around her, and tiny bubbles rose from her eyes.
“Please don’t be angry―”
“The Elements of Harmony? Used by humans?!”
Adagio nearly swam away, but fear locked her fins solid.
“How is this possible?”
The siren gulped for the third time that day. “There was an Equestrian with them. And another―a princess.”
The giant lights grew. “They gave humans magic…” Adagio said nothing. “Have you not sung your song? Have you not turned the tide?”
Now came the hard part.
“Our pendants… The ones you gave us…” Adagio was quite sick of gulping by then. “They’ve been shattered.”
The yellow lights narrowed, and the mountains curled and grumbled.
“They’ve rendered us voiceless.”
A powerful growl echoed through the dark waters.
“Our powers are lost to us―”
“Enough!”
Adagio flinched like a scolded child, her ears folding back.
“I entrusted you, my eldest, most capable offspring, to enslave Equestria, and you return to me with nothing but excuses?”
“But I tried―”
“And what of these humans? They interfere with forces they cannot possibly understand! For what purpose?!”
“Please don’t be angry with them! They only did what they thought was right!”
The yellow lights flashed even brighter, and Adagio turned away.
“They robbed you of your ability―your birthright! They condemned you to die on a magically barren wasteland! Why do you defend them?!”
Adagio lifted her eyes back to the blinding yellow light. “BECAUSE THEY’RE OUR FRIENDS!”
By the time she realized what she’d done, the ocean bed was rising toward the already-unbearable lights. An enormous reptilian snout, gridded with metallic fangs, emerged from the darkness.
“Is that right…”
Adagio could only shake her head. “No, I didn’t mean―”
"How long?" he asked. Adagio blinked. "How long have they fed you their lies? How long have your pendants been destroyed?"
"J-just a few months."
The yellow lights narrowed. "And when were you going to tell me?"
Adagio could only gibber. A jet steam of bubbles left the giant's nostrils and pelted a gasping siren.
“Friends. Have you forgotten who gave you life? Have you forgotten your duty to me? To your home?”
Adagio just shook.
“If these friends make you forget your heritage―if they poison your mind with lies and complacency…”
“Please!” Adagio cried. “We deserve punishment! Not them―”
“I will kill them all.”
Adagio choked on her tongue.
“These humans you’ve adopted… They will perish.”
“But, you can’t!” The siren whined.
“And when their land crumbles, when magma consumes them, when their sky is eaten, you and your sisters will be condemned to the Great Sleep. Until I say otherwise. This exchange is over.”
Adagio began sobbing. “Don’t do this…”
Loud rocky grumbles erupted around the siren, and the shadows cut through the yellow light.
“Father…” Adagio whispered. “Please spare them?”
The mountainous digits closed down around her, but she did not swim away. She stared back up into those ageless yellow eyes with nothing but fear and respect. Before his fist closed around her, he whispered back.
“No.”
Adagio twitched to life, her lungs hacking water. Her eyes shot open as she turned aside, coughing and sputtering more water. A gentle palm patted her back until every drop of water left her lungs.
Adagio slowly rose to sit on her knees. Cold sweat cascaded down her face, her shaky hand rubbing the back of her neck.
She turned right and saw Aria trying to look disinterested. She turned left and saw a frightened Sonata. Adagio almost immediately turned away.
“Dagi?” Sonata peeped, shaking like a leave. “What did he say?”
Adagio saw the phone her youngest sister had been avoiding. She lunged forward on her hands and knees, and grabbed it. She settled back on her knees and stared long at Sonata.
She shoved the phone into Sonata’s chest. Blue hands cupped around the phone, her eyes wide and confused.
“Call her,” Adagio said, her voice strong. Sonata tilted her head. “Just… just do it.”
She slipped that time, her voice wavering. Sonata started shaking again, and she frowned through fresh oncoming tears.
“You told him…” That wasn’t a question.
Adagio tried and failed several times to speak. She watched tears fall on that phone, hands squeezing and shaking, more quiet sobs wracking her chest.
"You told him. And now he's going to kill them, isn't he?" Adagio couldn't look at her. "Isn't he?!”
Adagio reached out. Sonata slapped her hand away.
“No! Get away from me,” she hissed.
Against her better judgment, Adagio actually tried to get angry at her younger sister. She failed spectacularly. She blinked her own tears away, shot to her feet, and marched past a stunned Aria.
Adagio tried to ignore Aria rising to her own feet. She failed at that too.
“Hey,” Aria called. Adagio stopped mid-stride. “Is that true? Is he really coming?”
No. Adagio refused to cry. But if she stayed their any longer, she’d could add ‘never cry’ to her growing list of failures.
“We should finish packing…” Adagio whispered, if only to hide the tremors in her voice.
Adagio retreated to her room, shut the door, leaned back against it, and slid to her bottom. She pressed her hands hard against her ears. She hoped, if she pressed hard enough, she could've drowned out Sonata’s loud sobs.
She failed that too.
I'm sorry but... that description? I can only picture that giant lizard's face contorting into something that looks like.... this: i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/007/423/untitle.JPG
please continue...
Oh, yikes. Here's hoping the Humane Six can pull their Rainbow Power out in time to stop Dadzilla. I mean, it's the Rainbow Power. You don't win against that stuff. Probably. I hope.
So... is their father Dagon?
Holy shit! that dad is fucked up. But to his he's helping his kids. If look at at it from his pov he thinks what he is doing is right, and I like that. Keep going!
Hmm, I'm pretty sure humans would win. I think Dadzilla would just end up getting killed after about a day from a single nuke, and even if he tried treating humans like worthwhile opponents, they could just track his enormous heat signature, carbon dioxide output, gravitational distortions, etc. and nuke him as much as they wanted.
Ah, military technology is so much fun...
Excelent! Nice work, i've gust gotten another story for my favorite box! keep it up!
Their father sounds soo scary
One word to there friends, run.
6134318
I think he is Leviathan, the Great Serpent.
6134615 ... do you even unknown level of magic?
6137239
Heh, looks like I said something controversial.
Seriously though, human military technology is a work of art. Watching that monster destroy humans with its cartoonish powers and a complete lack of tactics would be like watching someone paint a crappy advertisement over the original Mona Lisa.
Besides, I'm more curious about how the characters would act if that monster lost. It's more fun to watch someone fall because they underestimated their opponents than to watch someone always win even when they don't put in any effort.
6137333
Well uh... we know what humans are capable of. We have no idea what this thing is capable of, and it's from a fictional land where hatred can power living ice ages, and chaos spirits can warp reality with a thought. So just saying
is kinda silly. Especially since he knows what he's capable of and, since he clearly knows about humans I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say he also knows what they're capable of.
6137345
Knowing what humans are does not equal knowing what we're capable of. For all we know, he could know of humans only through the Sirens. Besides, humans don't even know what humans are capable of: the origin of the Turing machine and its use in war was kept as a national secret for decades.
And that doesn't change the fact that watching magic that works by someone's whim destroy technology with centuries of research behind it feels like watching something sacred get destroyed.
6137393
Isn't magic sorta synonymous with science in MLP? So you're saying that someone who'd developed their own -science- on their own, possibly with their own centuries of research behind it, destroying someone else's -science- with centuries of research behind it... is like watching something sacred -sacred! I can't wrap my head around that - being destroyed.
I'm having a really, REALLY hard time wrapping my head around even a single part of that.
6137471
Ah, that's the core of our disagreement.
Magic is not synonymous with science. Twilight Sparkle, a mare who's cutie mark is of magic and who represents the element of magic, is terrible at science, as shown in her failure to perform a double blind test and refuting consistent results in Feeling Pinkie Keen. She also assumes things about the elements that aren't true, as shown in Rainbow Rocks, and her friendship reports are unscientific, even though they're reports on her latest assignment on magic. Further, species without sapience, like the wendigos, are able to use magic, which implies that magic is not necessarily something that is taught over generations.
There is work by old magicians like Star Swirl, but it's locked up in a guarded wing of Canterlot's library, even though the research is possibly thousands of years old, and the citizens of Ponyville didn't know about him even though he was supposed to be famous until Twilight came to Ponyville. If anything, there's a lack of communication that would slow science and technology. Still, all unicorns, regardless of education, seem to be able to perform basic spells.
Since everything in Equestria can use magic, I think it would be closer to a fundamental force or something derived from one, like the strong and weak nuclear forces, or electromagnetism.
Plus, MLP really isn't defined well, which is the opposite of science: Rainbow Dash flies far below mach one when looking at the frames, though the writers say she went mach one; shining's shield would only take a small explosion or two before breaking, gravity is inconsistent, spells and talents seem to show up at the exact right moment without any prior explanation, etc.
6137568
It has rules, it follows rules, and those rules can be researched and taught.
I chalk that up to first-season-itis.
Well pretty much everything about the elements is assumption simply because they're so rarely in action, let's be honest.
A small town doesn't know much about history, especially since much of that history had to survive Discord. Color me unsurprised.
Then it is scie - you know what, let's just leave the nitpicking semantics where they belong. My headcanon actually is that it's a fundamental interaction.
Back up. 'MLP isn't well defined, therefor magic isn't science'. You see the problem there, right?
That's an animation error. Like this.
And you know that because of how easily the changelings broke it... after he'd been mind-controlled by Chrysalis. You see the problem here too, right?
Hmm if only there were some plausible explana -
6137612
Simply stating something does not make it true.
You're still conveniently ignoring facts to support your opinion. In this case, you're ignoring the a fifth of the show, and the part that many people will be introduced to and watch first if they want to catch up.
If Twilight was truly studying them scientifically and not using them as weapons, they would be in action a lot more.
The mysterious box in season four was treated much better, with diagrams in Twilight's house showing it wasn't forgotten, but Discord was able to figure out what to do before Twilight did.
Where in the show did it state that Discord came after Star Swirl? I didn't think the timeline was defined that well.
Besides, Twilight knew that history. And No one else knew about a famous historical figure in the entire town? I doubt you'll find many towns on earth where nobody knows the more influential historical figures of their nation.
This is actually a pretty important distinction. Science is not lightning. Saying that science is equal to lighting would show that you have a very flawed understanding of science.
That is not what I'm saying or implying at all. I said, "MLP really isn't defined well, which is the opposite of science". That means MLP itself is unscientific, not that magic isn't science. However, you shouldn't expect something unscientific to hold a proper representation of science.
Rainbow Dash flying below mach one is not an animation error. Mach one would be nearly impossible to animate correctly as it would require a lot of careful calculations to keep her at the right speed relative to everything else, which takes more effort than it's worth. And that's just one of the inconsistencies that makes over analyzing the show a wasteful endeavor.
I did an analysis of this a while ago. Bombs would be able to destroy his shields even after I accounted for his shield being about a hundred times stronger than it was against the changelings.
Magic being a fundamental force does not explain away the inconsistencies and lack of buildup to a spell. That'd be like saying the fact that electromagnetism exists explains lightning; using electromagnetism, you'd have to be able to explain what electromagnetism is and derive lightning from it.
What do you know about science and technology?
6137754 6137612
Kay, see, I'm gonna have to stop you riiiiight there. Now, I'm flattered that this concept sparked such a well of differing opinions, but I'd very much appreciate if you two took this in a private chat. When this continues, all will be revealed, and you can go for mythroat at whatever you don't like, savvy?
Craine...
6137780
Okie dokie.
Heh heh heh...
6137754
She studied magic for a good portion of her life.
The writers are only human. But okay, conveniently ignoring facts, then I guess Mr. Cyclops is canon.
Yes, but she is using them as weapons. Let me try to make an analogy... Okay, let's say you invent the nuke. It's a weapon, but you want to test it out, so you do it on a safe place repeatedly until you firmly and scientifically understand it.
Then the world ends, and ten thousand years later the rebuilding human race stumbles across nukes. They have no idea how they work. All they know is that when they do some things with the control pad, a lot of stuff blows up. They could try to test it out repeatedly in a controlled environment... but they also have no fucking idea how it works, so they decide it's better to use them as a last resort than tinker with them and possibly kill themselves.
Starswirl predates Clover. Clover predates Equestria. Equestria predates sisters' reign. Discord predates sisters' reign but follows Equestria. Granted you also have Starswirl with Tirek, who comes during the sisters' reign, which really muddles everything. In which case it's safe to say I erred and confused my headcanon with canon. Even so, Equestria completely forgot that one of their rulers at one point tried to end all life on the planet, so there's apparently some... history retention issues there.
So I'm guessing that Twilight educated each and every pony who helped set up the Starswirl fair in S4?
Well... duh. It's literature, an art form. That's about as unscientific as you can get.
Where'd you get those numbers?
Well there's the thing, we don't know enough about magic. We'd have to break the fourth wall and climb into MLP to be able to derive dream-premonitions and cutie marks and whatnot from magic. Either that or have someone on Hasbro release a very, VERY thorough MLP book...
Not as much as I'd like, but enough to be going for an Astrophysics degree.
Also we're cluttering this story, so please PM any response.
6137780 D'oh! Posted comment before I saw this.
6137820
Dude, Craine doesn't want us arguing in his comment anymore. If you want to continue this, PM me or something.
Edit: ah, nevermind, you got it.
Wow, that's a terrifying concept. Very atmospheric, bro.
Neat fuckin' O.
Continue on, my Author friend.
Just gonna point out that the correct term is 'whelp'.
Ohohoho, this is good. I'm going to enjoy this.
Wait a second... That conversation she had with her dad...
You're good.
Ho-okay. Terrifying.