Chapter Three - Bridge
Liar!
Traitor!
Adagio clapped her hands over her ears as the words exploded into her mind. The beach around her melted away, replaced by a nightmarish whirling of flashing color and formless shape. Adagio occasionally caught glimpses of hooves, or of narrowed, glowing eyes. Mostly, though, there were teeth. They came from the darkness, snapping, then drawing away bloody.
Adagio’s legs trembled. Her muscles felt too loose, as though they’d been stretched and were now larger than they ought to be. She was suddenly far too warm, and the air seemed heavy and thick. She found herself panting.
Impudent! Your frail mind cannot—
Forcing her lungs to draw air, Adagio sang out a low note. Her eyelids fluttered closed, and she tipped her head back. The sound gathered in her throat and rolled out of her open mouth and down her body in pulsing waves.
Beside her, Dazzle leaned away, baring his teeth at the display.
The song calmed Adagio’s racing heart and quivering legs. The presence in her mind felt small and weak again, and she had no need to rip and tear. Merely pushing aside the curtain would do. Adagio took a deep breath, then brushed away the mental barrier.
The beach was gone, replaced by a vast cavern. Walls slickened with moisture gleamed as they reflected the soft, phosphorescent issuing from beetles hanging from stalactites. Hippocampi, too numerous to count, flew in agitated circles below them. Several guards tried to keep the mob away from a cage hanging from the ceiling, but for each that turned back, another slipped by to thrust its muzzle into the cage. To bite, and to tear.
Somehow audible through the din, the flat sound of spattering blood drew Adagio’s attention to the cave’s floor. Below the cage, rows of sirens stood, silent and unblinking. Adagio winced when another snarling hippocampus tore into the prisoner. The new wound spurted, but serene expressions below didn’t change at all when the steaming blood fell onto the siren’s faces.
Does it please you? The words rasped across her mind like a knife over a whetstone. Does it fill you with joyful purpose to see what my kin can do? What monsters we truly are?
Adagio gasped when the creature in the cage roared and slammed against the bars. “It’s you!”
Beside her, Dazzle twitched and jerked, reacting to each bite that his caged memory suffered. He snarled at Adagio when she tried to turn away. No! With all the subtlety of a hurricane, you somehow managed to batter your way into where you do not belong. Now you must look. See them, Adagio! See their blind obedience. Their unthinking mania. You wanted proof? Well, here it is!
Adagio’s hands shook, but she forced them to remain at her sides. “Why are they doing that to you?”
Because I refused to obey. Because I dared to speak out against the way things were. Dazzle pawed at the air as if to wipe away the assembled mass below them. In your brief life, you have already deduced the truth that these fools deny: Our societies are throwing lives away. We have warred for hundreds of years because neither side is capable of winning. We are too evenly matched, and the war’s purpose has been lost to the ages. It is war without a true direction. We fight only because we have always fought.
Dazzle sat silently for a moment. Below, the guards struggled again to move the crowd away, but to Adagio, they didn’t seem to be trying all that hard. “And they did this to you because you told them that?”
Yes. That and much more. Their response was this and much more. Adagio shivered when Dazzle coughed out a grim burst of laughter. I was young then, and in my naivety, I thought that reason and logic would win the day. I failed then as you do now. I did not understand that the powerful in our societies want to continue this. It is the environment that they have grown strong in, and perhaps a new one would not be so generous. Better to throw more lives into the whirlpool than to risk personal loss. So here is your proof, creature of land. Here is the price that I paid in flesh and blood. What you witness is my final day among my kin.
Adagio nearly put her hand onto Dazzle’s shoulder, but pulled away at the last moment. She settled instead for crossing her arms. She’d been so sure that he’d been some kind of spy. Now, she didn’t know what to think. “They banished you?”
Sound familiar? Dazzle shot her another of the lopsided grins that she found so irritating.
“You know it does.”
Then I won’t have to point the parallels out to you. This is your future should you speak the truth to ears that won’t hear it. Dazzle twisted around her again. Never quite touching, but uncomfortably close. At least, it will be without my help.
Adagio felt herself scowl. “I don’t need your help. I’m stronger than you are!”
Rolling his eyes, the hippocampus sighed. But you are not stronger than the combined might of your elders, Adagio. You have power, but your thinking is too direct, as are the thoughts of all foals. Your leaders’ plans are like the tangled nets of your fisher-folk. They branch, then branch again, twisting and turning in unexpected ways. And most importantly, their thoughts are traps within traps. You cannot simply march before your elders and demand change. Dazzle motioned to the cage. They have no interest in what is different, and they will do whatever they must to silence you. The creature paused, now eye to eye with her. Tell me, did logical discussion or displays of power ever move your sire from his path? Were you ever clever enough or strong enough to change his mind?
Adagio bit her lip for a moment, then opened her mouth, but the caged memory screamed.
Dazzle pursed his lips. Take us away from here.
“How?” Adagio said, taking the opportunity to fly out of Dazzle’s coils. “How do I do it?”
The lopsided grin again. You were clever enough to break into my mind. Surely you can find the way out on your own…
Adagio glared back, her teeth tightly clenched. “Of course I can, and probably… how did you say it? ‘With the subtlety of a hurricane?’”
The hippocampus grin broadened. Improvement already. I’m so proud.
Adagio’s jaw muscle twitched.
You see it now, do you not? Why display your might when the mere threat of it will do? The girl on that cliff blazed with power, squandering it needlessly, but now she is holding back to see if that use will be necessary or not. We have a long road ahead, and you will need all of your strength.
“I never said anything about doing what you want!”
What we want, Dazzle said. The oily purr was back. I will show you the way out, and then we will talk. When you look at me, you see a serpent because you have lived among serpents. Set aside your prejudices and listen. You recognize the truth that I speak. Otherwise, you would have ordered me away long ago.
Adagio started. “I… I didn’t think of that.”
You must look past messengers, Adagio. The message is what holds importance. What I offer to you, and through you, to your entire race, is freedom. Will you hear the truth that they would not? Dazzle nodded his head toward the assemblage below. Holding her eyes with his own, he held out his hoof to her. Do you dare?
Adagio’s hand trembled as it wavered in the air between them. Then, after a deep breath, she laid her hand on the worn, chipped hoof.
And, again, the world melted away. Adagio’s breath quickened. For a moment, she was lost, but soon recognized the flat, featureless grey for what it was. She was back in the seaside fog bank.
How apropos. A blank canvas, so to speak. Dazzle drifted closer, much of his body still obscured by the mists. Here, without connection to your people or mine, we are born anew.
Tipping her head back, Adagio searched and found the lightest part of the cloud. She sensed Dazzle reaching for her, but she ignored it. Willing herself to rise, she flew up toward the sun.
Tiresome, Adagio.
“I want to be able to see.” Adagio accelerated. The fog’s touch was cold and clammy, and she was eager to be rid of it. “If you want to talk, then I guess you better follow me.” The corner of Adagio’s lip twitched up when a flicker of anger rippled through her mind.
Why do you fight this? It is what you desire.
Adagio burst from the fog, and the thousands of water droplets caught in her hair glittered in the sun. Warmth crept back into her aching bones. “It’s what you desire, not me.”
Dazzle punched through the fog beside her. Foal—
Adagio fixed him with a flat stare. “I told you not to call me that.” She formed the image of three discordant notes in her mind, and Dazzle’s consciousness shrank from the dissonance.
This is counterproductive, Adagio. We need—
“I don’t think so. In fact, I think this might be exactly what we need.” Here, in the sun, she finally felt warm again, and her head was clearing. “If you’re so good at looking into my mind, you already know all of this isn’t going to work.”
Dazzle arched an eyebrow. All of what?
“All of the stories. All the sly words and hidden meanings.” Adagio set her hands on her hips and glared at the monster. “I keep telling you, I’ve lived with that all my life. I’m tired of it! I’m not going to be like them!”
Adagio, you—
“I’m not!”
With a deep sigh, Dazzle swept his hoof down toward the clouds below him. You think that you see clearly, but you lack the proper perspective, Adagio. Many things are hidden, yet you seek to blunder directly into them… like a foal.
Adagio gathered her power and focused. “Don’t call me that!”
Waves of power blew Dazzle back several feet, but he gritted his teeth and leaned into the hammering force. Scores of golden scales tore from him to fall in a glimmering rain. Once the waves passed, he shot toward Adagio, stopping inches from her shocked face. THEN GROW UP!
The words ripped through Adagio’s head. She felt a trickle of warmth slide down from her left nostril and delicately touched it with a finger. Blood. “You… you can’t—”
You have far too much confidence in your raw ability. You would go back to our races like a tumbling boulder, but they are as water. When you struck, the resulting splash would be impressive, but water flows. It would give before and around, and when the boulder slammed into it, the water would move in behind. In an instant, the boulder would sink below the waves, and once the ripples passed, the water would again appear untouched. Dazzle snapped his jaws closed just past the tip of her nose. The waves hunger, Adagio. They feed on the land constantly. Water will always wear away the stone. Tell me true, creature of land: Do you have the power to hold back the tides?
Adagio drifted backward, away from Dazzle, but she couldn’t escape the hammering in her chest. In an instant, he had gone from sullen to savage to clever. Hand on her racing heart, she took a deep breath. “M-maybe. I don’t know. I won’t know until I try.”
Snarling, Dazzle followed. And you will fail! We— He moved his hoof back and forth between them —are the greatest hope that our people have! There are thousands like us, but they are not ready. The seeds of courage within them must be guided and nurtured. All of their lives, they’ve been forced into molds. The shapes of their minds will not be easily changed.
“That’s why I’ll show them!” Adagio clenched her fist in front of the hippocampus’s huge eye. “They’ll see that you can fight back! That they don’t have to do whatever they’re told to do.”
It will only help our opponents, Adagio!
“But—”
Let me show you.
Adagio pursed her lips, then let her hands fall to her sides with a dull thump. “Fine, but you’re wrong.”
I have never been more right, and you will see the truth of it.
Dark clouds boiled out of the air around the pair, then dissipated. Behind them, grand columns of white marble shown against the meticulously maintained green grass. Arrow-straight streets paved with interlocking grey stone cut between the residences and led up through a market district and toward a monolithic building high on a central hill.
“The Grand Forum! We’re home!” Adagio smiled despite herself, but the grin slipped a moment later. “But… but they fixed it. The side’s not broken anymore.”
It’s not fixed because it hasn’t been broken yet. Since you’ve intruded into my memories, I thought I might take us a little deeper. Dazzle tipped his head toward her, rolling an eye sideways until it locked onto hers. Your passions run deep like the fissures that run along the ocean floor, and like those cracks, roiling magma is found within. Fueled by that heat, you feel that you can ignite all that you touch. It is untrue. He held up a hoof to ward of her protest. That is not meant as an insult. All thinking beings want to believe that the strength of conviction means truth, but it is a dangerous thing for those with power. Observe.
~~~
The scuffed and bleeding siren stumbled, nearly fell to a knee, then received the whip again. Adagio winced, half-turning from the vicious blow. She was sure that he’d cry out, but when he turned to glare at the guard, she saw that the lower half of his face was bound by a metal shackle.
You believe that your voice is the greatest weapon, Adagio. Dazzle pointed to a stage set inside the Grand Forum. On it stood several bearded figures dressed in richly appointed robes. But your elders know better. Silence is where true power lies. Not their silence, of course, but yours. He flew down to the crowd lining the street. Some were booing, and several threw things at the prisoner, but most stood, heads slightly bowed and eyes staring at the street. And his. And hers. Silence born of fear.
Adagio’s hand twitched as the prisoner struggled to continue. His foot skidded sideways in a patch of his own dripping blood before he caught himself. He twisted away as the whip fell again. She found herself drifting closer, ready to lift him from the ground were he were to fall again. Frowning, she forced herself to relax. “And that’s what he did? He tried to break the silence?”
Nodding, Dazzle glided backward just ahead of the prisoner. He thought as you do. That all the people needed was a shining example. Someone to stand against and inspire. Dazzle grinned. What do you think, Adagio? Are you ready to rally to his cause?
“It’s not the same—”
It is the same thing! Dazzle threw his hooves out wide at his sides. This is what you will receive should you choose to continue along your path. Your kin will not help you. You will sing to them, but they will not join with you. They know only the songs the elders have allowed them to hear. Yours will be frightening and blasphemous. Learn from him.
Adagio set her hands on her hips. “I don’t even know who he is! He probably just made a bunch of dumb mistakes, or… or maybe he wasn’t powerful enough!”
The hippocampus’s infuriatingly superior smile widened. Your near total ignorance never fails to amuse, land-thing. It is part of the silence your leaders value. You cannot speak on matter of which you know nothing.
“I’ll show you who—”
Her jaw snapped closed when Dazzle’s hoof shot up. You are too impatient, Adagio. The truth is here for you to see. Just observe. Then we will speak on it.
The prisoner lifted a weary foot onto the shining marble stairs that led up into the Grand Forum. With each plodding step, he left a set of bloody footprints behind him, and Adagio gritted her teeth against the squealing scrape that his chains made.
When he entered into the open air amphitheater, the most highly decorated of the elders stepped forward. “We, the Grand Council, have found the accused guilty of high treason. However, in light of the accused’s noted status within our community, we are willing to extend mercy.” The elder stood at the edge of the stage, looking down his nose at the bloody prisoner. “Bravura,—” Adagio gasped, but Dazzle waved her back into silence “—we are prepared to let you live in exile. Your voice is the coin with which you will pay for this mercy. Otherwise…” The elder lifted his arms, and the jewel at this throat flared with golden light. A second later, the ranks behind him joined, and growling hippocampi erupted from them to circle overhead.
Adagio gasped again, pointing into the air about the High Councillor.
Yes, it’s me. Dazzle pulled his lip back into a snarl. I’ve only lost two Joinings in my time. You now see my other… master. The word hung in the air between them, thick with loathing. Now pay attention.
The prisoner stared up at his captors for a moment, then motioned impatiently at the metal contraption squeezing his jaw shut.
“As always, you overestimate your cleverness. No, I believe a simple nod will do.” The High Councillor crossed his arms across his chest, tucking his hands inside the voluminous sleeves of his robe. “The choice is simple. Accept our mercy and live, or perish in accordance to the laws of our people. Answer now, and we will…”
The High Councillor’s brow furrowed. The stage beneath his feet was trembling. Behind him, rows of his fellow councillors turned to each other uneasily. The surrounding crowd began to murmur as the quaking increased, and they edged away from the towering columns as dust rained down from them. The High Councillor turned in jerking bursts, trying to look everywhere at once “What—”
The low rumbling drew inwards, rising in pitch when it neared the center of the arena. As all heads turned to the prisoner, his eyes twinkled. The cage clamping his jaw closed was vibrating so rapidly that it was a blur. Rivulets of blood poured down Bravura’s neck as the metal erased layers of skin.
Adagio touched her throat lightly with the tips of her fingers. “How…”
It is the way of elders. They cannot imagine others are more clever or powerful than they. Their device would have held the greatest of them, and thus they believed it foolproof. On this day, your forbearers erred, but they are capable students, especially when the lesson furthers their own interests.
The councillors were just beginning to recover from their shock when the harness blew away from Bravura’s face. Shards of twisted shrapnel whistled through the air to embed themselves into the wooden stage.
“You dare?” The High Councillor’s jaw was firmly set, but he took two steps backward until he was in the midst of this peers. “We offer you unprecedented mercy, and you throw it back into our faces?”
“The mercy was never yours to give.” Grinning, Bravura’s eyes flared. Nearly transparent membranous wings erupted from his back and he rose. “You’ve stolen the choice from our people for too long. You’ve asked for too much.” The jewel at his throat gleamed, and a charcoal-grey hippocampus burst from it. Bravura spread his arms wide and turned in a slow circle. “This is your moment, my friends. Now is the time for you to make the changes you’ve ached for. Throw off your chains, as I’ve thrown off mine!”
Below, the crowd stirred. Here and there, eyes blazed. Others narrowed, sweeping back toward the Council. Hissing whispers traveled through the on-lookers. Feet shuffled, uncertain of their destination.
“Order has been kept for centuries before your birth, Bravura!” The High Councillor lifted his arms and the memory of Adagio’s hippocampus shot high into the air. “Hear me, my people! He would call them chains, but society is made of laws. Look well upon this! We stand united and uncowed. Before us, a madman raves, heedless of the blood he is spilling at your feet. His words tear at the very laws and customs that shield you from obliteration!”
“LIES!” Bravura’s muscles stood out in chords, and the air around him crackled with untapped energy. “Obliteration comes from your hands! Everyday, we are sent to fight in your war. Citizens, how often have you questioned our purpose? How many of you have wondered why we fight? I know you—”
“Enough!” The High Councillor pointed, and the squadron of hippocampi circling above shot forward. “Since you’ve rejected our mercy, the sentence is death.”
The grey hippocampus drew in a deep breath, then screamed. The approaching squadron scattered like leaves, tumbling out of control through the air. Below, crimson arcs of magical energy shot out from Bravura’s jewel, and with each of them, his hippocampus swelled with power.
The crowd pushed and shoved. Those in the back bulled forward to get a better view. Those in the front tried to back away. Anger and confusion rippled their way through the citizens as they argued among themselves.
“Friends, our time has come!” Bravura held his hand out to them. “Join with me, and—grmf!”
When the squad of hippocampi broke from their attack and dove for Bravura, his hippocampus dropped like a stone and wrapped itself around him. Moments later, the hippocampi fell on them, biting and tearing.
The High Councillor folded his arms back inside his sleeves. “Thus, justice is—”
The ground lurched as an explosion rocked the building. Hippocampi tumbled through the air to slam into the stage and the crowd below. On one side of the Grand Forum, a gaping hole in the wall smoked. Below it, citizens screamed and ran from the corpses of their neighbors, smashed to pieces beneath several tons of ruined marble friezes. On the stage, councillors fought to untangle themselves from the heap they’d fallen into.
In the center of it all, Bravura and his hippocampus flew back to back. Torn and bleeding, they growled, teeth bared, at the scene around them. “You see?” Bravura said through rasping gasps. “They are not all powerful. You can fight! You—”
“Hear me, citizens!” The High Councillor swept his arms left and right, and the army of hippocampi responded. In moments, they’d positioned themselves between Bravura and the dust-covered crowd. “This is what comes from the breakdown of order. Look around you! Your neighbors lay bleeding! Our buildings crumble! That is what this man would have us descend into!”
Bravura hesitated for a moment, his eyes falling to and jerking away from the carnage. “My friends, the change may be ugly, but it will be worth it! I’m sorry for your losses, but some sacrifice is—”
“You said that you wanted to stop the sacrifices!” A voice called out between fits of coughing.
“Help! My wife! Someone help!”
“My leg!”
A dazed woman in a tattered robe wandered out into the open circle beneath Bravura. Blood traced down the side of her face from a gash in her forehead. “What’s happened? Where am I?”
The High Councillor held his hands out to the murmuring crowd. “He is corrupted! You all see the truth of it now! He would destroy everything that you know!”
“No! My friends, please!” Bravura drifted to the ground and moved to the confused woman’s side. As she began to fall, he wrapped his arm around her waist. “They say that they’ve kept you safe, and all they’ve asked for in return is everything else! Your lives are not your own! You’re told what is allowed and what isn’t. Which child will go to fight and which won’t. Who can advance and who will be held back. Now is your moment! Stand with me and free yourself from—”
“Who are you? Let go of me!” Already most of the way to the ground, the woman snatched up a large chunk of jagged marble and smashed it into Bravura’s temple. “Let go of me!”
Bravura reeled away, and his screaming hippocampus dove. In a heartbeat, it snatched up the woman and tore her in two.
“Do you see?” The High Councillor pointed to the wild-eyed hippocampus. “This is the danger we face everyday! This is our enemy, and that is your neighbor in its jaws! I would have you all bear witness. Once a hero, Bravura has turned against you! He is working toward the destruction of our entire society! ’Ware the bloody teeth! They come next for you!”
“No! It’s not—”
Another stone slammed into Bravura’s jaw. “Liar!”
A second opened up the skin above his left eyebrow. “I believed in you!”
His hippocampus angled in toward the advancing mob, but a wall of opposing hippocampi rose to protect them. They crashed into each other, snarling and biting.
Bravura tried to back up as stone continued to hammer into him, but he tripped over the slashed and mangled body of the female citizen. Sprawling, he threw up arms to cover is face just before the crowd fell on him.
There, Dazzle said. I think that will do.
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Hey, enjoying manipulating the feature box?
i.4cdn.org/mlp/1440298695424.png
6349773 That's got nothing to do with me. I didn't ask for anyone to promote this.
A really interesting take on the Sirens, definitely interested to see where this goes next
6349841 Thanks! The conclusion will be out tomorrow.
6349773 It's almost like Super Trampoline is a completely different user or something. Oh wait, he is.
Well, this certainly lives up to the hype. I'm loving every moment. Looking forward to the thrilling conclusion.
6350355 I'm glad you are enjoying it. It nearly went into the scrap pile, but I talked with some people and rewatched Rainbow Rocks. It gave me confidence that I was on the right path after all, so I went forward with it.
6350645 Awwww! Look at you, little buddy! You're trying so hard.
I like this in the same way that I like a lot of AugieDog's stories: that sense of accretive worldbuilding, where the story builds up on its own terms over the course of the tale, and if you're willing to reorient your brain to it, the payoff hits. I really appreciate that neither Adagio nor Dazzle have stopped fighting their first battle yet; not assuming that she's won is a large part of what keeps Adagio a sympathetic protagonist to me.
6350645
It's called "third person limited narration". Of course, since you've spent so much time studying literary techniques, I'm sure you knew that already.
If you have nothing better to do than throw pointless nitpicks at others' prose, you need a new hobby. I recommend writing -- it's a lot more rewarding than Being Right On The Internet.
(Speaking of which, off to do some editing on one of my own stories.)
Meanwhile, Sonata is elsewhere performing her Joining to the hippocampus Dusk, and the worst she has to endure is a taco-eating contest.
6351650 Funny. I was just talking to Seether00 about that. I figured Sonata and Dusk were just playing a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors for control. However, having a hoof, Dusk can really only do rock. Sonata also keeps doing rock, thinking Dusk is going to try and fake her out. This goes on for a long, long time...
Good job rounding up the crazies, Juggy :)
Now, post the last fucking chapter so I can read the whole thing!
6353785 It'll be out later today. This is my busiest day at work, so I have a bunch of stuff I have to get out the door first. I want to read the last chapter over and make sure all the details are in place. There is still one paragraph that I'm fussing with.
Yeah, you need to round them up and execute them and their entire family, all the way down to Anastasia.
Then YOU get to be the brutal, savage dictator! Until that really crazy guy shows up and takes you out. So you gotta get him first! But there's always more of em... never safe, enemies everywhere... kill them all kill them all kill them all...
I love this sentence.