Heir to a Silenced Blood

by Rock Slide

the passing of twelve hours.

Dragon Lord Ember was irritated. She had gone to bed exhausted, looking forward to a good long rest. But she had woken up after only a few hours, the clock on the wall listing it as roughly three in the morning.

If that wasn’t bad enough, she was now wrestling with a piercing headache. Burying her head in the pillows, she tossed and turned, but she could not get comfortable at all, the headache unrelenting.

Her frustration boiling over, she grabbed her pillow and tossed it into the air in front of her, aiming her mouth so she could incinerate it. She opened her jaw to unleash the fire but stopped short at the pain in her skull vanished in less than a second.

“Hello?”

Ember blinked. She could have sworn she just heard someone speak.

“Hello? Can you hear me?”

Now she had definitely heard someone. She sat up and scanned the room. Not a soul in sight.

“Please say something, please!”

Ember spun around, unable to locate the origin of the voice. “Who are you?” She said to the empty room. She heard crying, and a voice now thick with tears answered her.

“I’m Splendid”

“Wait wait wait.” Ember put a claw to her head, and closed her eyes, not comprehending what was going on. “Do you mean Splendid as in the one everyone is searching for?”

“Yeah. Me, Sunny and Solar.”

Ember dropped down on her bed. ‘How in Tartarus is this happening’, She thought to herself.

“I don’t know.”

Ember gasped, and started coughing. ’You can hear my thoughts?’

“Yes?”

She clasped her claws over her face and blew out a sigh. ’And I thought meeting Pinkie Pie was the weirdest thing I’d ever experience.’ She heard a giggle from Splendid. ’We’ll worry about the how later; do you know where you are?’

“No.” Ember rolled her eyes, cursing her luck. “But the stones look the same as the castle.” Sitting bolt upright, Ember knew that was probably the best lead they had.

’I’m going to go tell your parents. Do you think you can keep this up?’

“What?” The voice came through so much quieter this time, almost a whisper.

’Splendid can you hear me?’ All she got back was an inaudible murmur. And then, what felt like a presence, left her head. Whatever the link, it seemed to have gone, but Ember had a mission. She ran to her door, threw it open, and bolted down the corridor.

---

Splendid jolted awake, her horn throbbing from how violently the mare had forced the suppression ring back on.

“What were you doing?!” The mare towered over her prone form.

“What?” she croaked, her mouth dry and her brain hazy.

“What magic were you casting in your sleep?”

Splendid’s mind caught up with her, and she remembered everything. Her eyes shot wide, before she reigned her expression in, and answered truthfully. “I don’t know.”

The mare furrowed her brows for a few seconds before she accepted the answer. “It doesn’t matter anyway, this room is warded against every type of known magic. The bastard was thorough to his credit.” The mare walked back to the other side of the room and re-erected the barrier. “Go back to sleep.”

Splendid took a drink of water from the bedside and did as was asked.

---

Ember burst into the war room to find a very peculiar sight. In the middle of the largest seat, Prince Blueblood sat upright, unmoving. Sleeping around him, and up against him was four mares, each sleeping with a serene look. Had anypony from the media witnessed this moment, the scandal would have hit the Six am paper in a few hours.

As it was, Ember just took one look at the clearly uncomfortable stallion sandwiched in the middle and burst out laughing harder than she had in awhile. Hitting the floor, she started to roll around, her laughter loud enough that Bluebloods ‘harem’, as she would come to call this memory, began to stir.

Sunset was the first to wake properly, her brain short-circuiting when she saw a dragon rolling around on the floor.

“Huh?” was all she could muster.

Soon the other three mares joined her in consciousness, staring at their new living rug. When Ember finally regained some composure, she coughed a bit and stood up.

“I’m sorry, but it looked so much like BB here had his own harem,” She laughed again, still unable to get the image from her head. Adagio, Sunset, Twilight and Celestia all went varying shades of red, which only caused Ember to keep going.

Blueblood had spent the last few minutes trying to get his body to work, blood having been cut off from his limbs, not that he’d ever call any of them heavy to their face. Free to move around, he walked over to ember and placed a hoof on her shoulder.

“As funny as this is, and however good a tale this will make for the future, what brings you here now, at this hour?”

The smile drained from Embers expression, the mirth leaving her made her visibly deflate.

“I come bearing news. I have spoken to Splendid…”

“WHAT?” Embers ears rang for a moment, and she was unable to tell who out of the five had been the loudest. Once the ringing stopped, she noticed the looks she was getting, and put her claws up defensively.

“Calm down - no, I haven’t actually seen her,” the looks around the room grew skeptical, “But she has spoken to me.”

“What in tartarus do you mean by that?” Adagio moved closer, but Sunset held her back. For the first time, Ember realised that Adagio was not a pony like the others, and her eyes widened slightly.'
“So the stories were true. You’re a Siren, aren’t you?”

“I don’t see what that has to do with any…” Sunset burst out, before being interrupted.

“That has everything to do with it!” Ember growled. Five confused faces greeted her. “Do you know nothing of your heritage?” She turned to the princesses in the room. “Do neither of you?” Everypony present shook their head.

Ember took a breath, held it for a second, then let it out. “The short version is that you, Adagio, are a Siren. And Sirens can trace their ancestry back to the intercoupling of three races; Ponies, the now extinct Sea Ponies, and Dragons.”

“Which means?” Blueblood asked.

“Splendid contains that make up too. And she was made using one of the most powerful bloodlines in Pony history. That’s a potent mix.”

“And what does this have to do with the current situation?” Celestia inquired, both her and Twilight’s faces showing their love of learning.

Ember turned to Sunset and Adagio. “My father taught me stories of past heroes, who had great gifts. I believe your daughter has the gift of dragon whispering.”

Ember had expected a more animated response and opposed to five blank looks.

“She spoke directly into my mind, and we held a conversation.” Ember deadpanned.

A chorus of acknowledgement was heard before Sunset spoke. “Cool.”

Celestia coughed. “What did she tell you, Ember?”

“She said she didn’t know where she was, but the stones looked just like the ones this castle is made of.”

‘CRACK’

Five sets of eyes jumped to look at Twilight, her head buried in the table she had just head-butted. Groaning, Twilight removed her head, and the table collapsed. She kept her head down.

“Celestia; we checked the wards around the castle didn’t we, to see who had entered or exited around the time frame?

“Of course, we did. Why?” Celestia cocked an eyebrow.

“What if they never left?”

Blueblood had chosen the wrong moment to get a drink, a piece of art on the wall now ruined.

Celestia’s horn lit and a red light on the wall began flashing, the silent alarm having been triggered.

---

Twelve hours had passed since her letter had been taken to the Princess, but nothing had happened yet. From the few scouting runs she had made, it didn’t look as if anything was going to happen.

She had threatened their children, something she was sure would make them grant her demands. But it hadn’t. A chilling thought entered her mind - what if they don’t? Would she really be willing to harm three foals, just to spite Blueblood? What he had done to her was evil, but would she have to become evil to get even?

Well Kept shook those thoughts from her mind and slinked her way back to the secret tunnel.

Comments

[Rock Slide]

7502984 that is so true :D