XCOM: Ranger

by Wanderer D

Chapter 257 - Intermission Pt. 5: Aria

"So the sirens were betrayed?" Pinkie Pie gasped. "And after Adagio did so much to save ponykind?"

"The way I see it, darling, betrayal hardly excuses the things they did thereafter," Rarity said, grimacing. "Could there had been more to it? A single betrayal shouldn't have caused them to act as they did enough to attack everypony and then move on to become evil monsters in another world."

"Ah agree... there has to be more to it," Applejack muttered. "Ah can't believe somepony with the willpower and character to do what Adagio did would turn around like that on account of a single thing."

Moon Dancer sighed. "Do you want me to continue reading?"

The others grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

Of the three, Aria has always been the most cautious to befriend and speak of her past, even more so unwilling to speak of her magic, which is frustrating, as it involved one of my personal passion-projects: Time Spells. But her cautionary tale helped cement my own constraints and limitations on what I would or would not be willing to do for this kind of magic.

Aria was the eldest in pony years when she started on the path to become a siren. A pegasus mother of two, living in the far, mountainous regions of the north east, Sivil was a Witch of sorts, able to somehow channel her inner magic in ways that do not match our understanding of the subject of magic. Perhaps it resembled the potion making of Earth Ponies and other hornless creatures, but however it was that she controlled her power, she was exceptionally famous across the lands for that.

Unlike the other two, she however was not a young adult, ready to search for adventure. Her work had ensured she had the recognition, peace and resources to live a comfortable life with her Earth Pony husband and two foals.

Aria has told me about the many times they spent working the fields at the foot of the mountain range where they lived, about making a particular kind of alcohol made from fermenting honey, of teaching her daughter about potions and charms, while her husband taught her son to fight and gather.

Not that there was need for violence, however, as times were peaceful. This was centuries after Ritem and more so after Tonameyotl and Camazotz. Those ancient monsters were already legends in her time… but not the last ones.

In a near kingdom, tragedy was about to take place. A unicorn by the name of Murthod, known across the land for his adventures and power, sought to bend time to his will. To this day nopony knows why he would seek that, as even Aria was not privy to his reasoning.

However, she witnessed the horrors of his power, unfortunately first-hoof. By her own admission, she had no idea of what was coming. Whatever magics Earth Ponies and Pegasi of the past used, they did not forewarn them of the upcoming tragedy.

One day, Sivil went out to the forest to hunt down ingredients for potions and spells. She returned home, expecting to see her foals run out to greet her, but her land had gone through changes… her home was destroyed, and looking like hundreds of years had passed. Walls were destroyed, overgrown plants dried out. She ran inside, and found the dead and desiccated bodies of three ponies inside.

Confused, she raced down to the nearby town and found half of it floating as if stopped in time, part of it moved normally, another was… dead. She witnessed how a unicorn ran into one of the dead areas, crying for their family, only to drop halfway in, with everything on the front half of their body becoming old, frail, dead, decayed and finally dust, while the parts outside remained those of a young pony.

It took her seeing that to realize what had happened at her home, and what was happening right there. Her loss nearly broke her, and she talked of a long period of time where she almost starved to death because of what had happened. Were it not for other local survivors, she would have simply… died of grief.

Eventually word of Murthod's madness reached them, and Sivil realized he was responsible.

It was with some hesitation that Aria confessed to me that she sought him out not for the noble cause of saving others, or for the benefit of the land, or because of a sense of duty.

It was revenge.

She said so to me without cringing, without hiding the pain the memories brought back. The siren remained proud as she spoke of using her innate understanding of what time magic had to do with essence and soul and spirit and harmony to forge out of sheer willpower an eternal gem to house her soul within.

For, if she had no soul, she had nothing that Murthod could focus on. She was invisible to him. Outside of his comprehension. Even if her body failed or was consumed in a flash of time magic, her eternal gem would regenerate her. She had no emotions, nothing but her single objective to bring him down.

I cannot imagine a more terrifying enemy than somepony… if she even qualified at the time… who would simply not stop—no matter how much or how little time passed—in their search for you and to simply undo your existence.

At last she confronted Murthod, where he had become a being without a body, but just a soul trapped in time. Oddly enough… that resonated with her eternal gem, and she recognized then that his madness was that of pain and loss and being lost.

She thought him malicious… and he was, before he had used the time magic to change everything and become a victim of his own machinations. Eaons and seconds had passed for Murthod in an instant the moment his magic had tapped into the well of time. Past, Present, Future… all instantly, all at the same time. His mind had been gone in that moment, forever lost, and he had served only as a catalyst henceforth.

He had taken so much from her… and he would never know. She had trapped her soul away forever to seek revenge… and he would never know. She was a being out of time, out of reality, trapped for the sake of stopping a monster that had destroyed itself.

She used her body to dismember the threads of past, present and future from Murthod, her body aging in seconds into dust, only to return in minutes to a cellular level that took years to come back to her present form, only to return again, and then to become dust and then to be…

Even writing this, the mental fortitude of this siren staggers my comprehension, and it has changed my perspective on time magic. No longer will I pursue the path I had intended to study… my understanding of time magic will be passed on, but with the warnings of the true dangers of what could possibly happen… and with the secrets to Murthod buried in my memory, and that of Sivil—or rather Aria—alone.

Comments

[Black--Soul]

Another great chapter ♡
Thanks for the effort of making it.

In time... everyone is undone. A second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year decade, century, millenia... time eventually get to all of us or others.

Edit:
Your story is listed as featured currently, congratulations. 👍

[Black--Soul]

This part:

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She used her body to dismember the threads of past, present and future from Murthod, her body aging in seconds into dust, only to return in minutes to a cellular level that took years to come back to her present form, only to return again, and then to become dust and then to be…

Even writing this, the mental fortitude of this siren staggers my comprehension, and it has changed my perspective on time magic.

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Reminds me of this story:

[Reese]

Caught up, and some interesting developments here; thanks for writing. :)

[Black_Knight]

So Aria could control Time. Is this why Sunset, after vanquishing her and took her gem, ended up in a parallel past for a day?

[FanOfMostEverything]

Damn it, Urza!

A haunting tale, and an important reminder that causality is not a toy. The question of what could corrupt such an overwhelming will makes me think there was far more at work than Star Swirl realized.