Hmm, I wonder how much contact is needed. We saw Aria feed from the Green Dude when he was boinking Trixie, and she just had her hand on his shoulder. Could she feed just by being close? Does touching give directionality (so she feeds only from Tokamak, and not from Trixie)? And for that matter, can’t they feed from any intense emotion, not just sex? I’ve always wondered why Adagio just threatened Trixie’s ex, instead of immediately starting the fight, since she was looking to feed at the time.

@Shooterism
Thought so 👌

@Paaaad
@rautamiekka
Humans are falliable, that one is my bad.

@Paaaad
I don’t see why the fuck they would do that, but so be it.

@rautamiekka
Just looked through the tag history, and a staff member actually set the Questionable tag, so… Changing that back.

Not how it works.

And this ain’t how cutie mark is used, either.

Smuþie!

@Stellarator
Sounds like you’ve got everything pretty well planned for then.

I wasn’t sure if it was the semen or not that they get power from. But theoretically speaking, the semen could transfer more energy from a male host because it rests within a female body after sex, no matter which hole it goes into. Not sure if it’d make a huge difference, but it’s possible. But getting energy through orgasm, that does make sense in it’s own way because it’s a moment of pure bliss in which the mind becomes weak. And the energy would just slip right out for a Siren who’s in direct physical contact with them to absorb.

Yeah I figured it’d take very powerful magic to restore their gems. And even then I wonder if they could even be fully restored. But the question is: Is it a good idea too? Either morally speaking, or storyline speaking. Say they do get their gems repaired, but no longer create negativity when feeding. That’s all well and good. But it’s too predictable of an ending. There are some things that can’t be mended, or shouldn’t be mended. Having their gems broken is giving the Sirens a greater appreciation for life (However much life they have remaining anyway) and the fact they’ve finally settled somewhere. If their gems were repaired, they’d become conflicted as to what to do. They know that they’d forever be on the radar of at least three Alicorns, and who knows who else from the shadows. But that’d just keep them in line out of fear. Them adjusting to living the rest of their lives with minimal powers is potentially the most interesting storyline possible. There are so many MLP storylines of recovery. But they usually involve quick fixes with magic and unity. But if one were to focus on the individuals who can never make a full recovery instead, then you get three storylines in one comic where things are very relatable yet unpredictable. That scene with Adagio scaring Protein Shake has become iconic in it’s own way. It’d even make for a great running gag should that guy return.

@Stellarator
I get that it was between Sonata and Luna talking about it. I’m just curious Smoothies reaction, I’d imagine he’d think how sad she’ll be after he’s gone. Unless you have some epic plan that the ‘gems shattering’ took away their longevity.

@Gnot Even
An older episode referenced them getting meat from a Griffon restaurant they found in Canterlot. :) >>2552041 So yeah, that is the main way to get meat. It’s a bit taboo in Equestria, but enclaves of carnivore and omnivore species are able to get it, though it’s heavily regulated, and therefore a bit expensive.

My thought is that they get a lot of sustaining energy from a crowd. Enough to last a while on one good performance. So they don’t NEED to hunt anymore as long as they keep getting gigs. Though Aria and Adagio do also feed on their boys a bit. Though a lot of that is more on principle than because they need it to sustain themselves.

Sonata doesn’t feed on Smoothie, except for the one time when she needed it (Part 10 >>2602276 ) But he would let her in a second if she needed it. She just has a thing about it, since she is still afraid of Smoothie thinking of her as “a monster”. Meanwhile, Adagio would say “Well fuck yeah, I’m a monster!” and Aria is more like “Sure, whatever. Rawr.”

You’re right though; they can’t any longer do the thing of messing with the minds of lots of ponies and creating a lot of negative energy. I have considered that, if they focused, they could probably overwhelm the emotional state of a single pony up close, though it would take work, since their magic is so crippled.

Semen isn’t the thing itself, though. It’s the orgasm. A siren could just as easily feed on a mare as a stallion, as long as the experience and intensity of feeling is still there.

As far as the gems go… their gems are basically just pieces stuck together right now. Try shattering a lens and gluing it back together and see how great the optics are. For something like that, it would take magic. Very powerful magic. Beyond that…my lips are sealed. :-X

I’m trying to go for a city that is modern, but still quite old. It has been there for a very long time, so like a city like London or Paris, it has parts that are newer and parts that are very old.

Also, yay þorns!

Uh huh shattered, uh huh shattered
Love and hope and sex and dreams
Are still surviving on the street
…

That’s an interesting looking side of town, very different from the University quarter where Smoothie et al hang out. Very Victorian vibe to it.

Yay! Thorns!

@Stellarator
I imagine meat would have to come from races that eat it. The griffons being one possibility. The diamond dogs too. And since both seem to keep to themselves in Equestria, there wouldn’t be a huge demand for the import of their foods. Diamond dogs likely eat animals that they pull into the ground or find under ground. Kinda like how moles eat worms. Griffons likely eat birds and small animals they can grab off the ground like hawks. Fish is also potentially something both of those races eat. In retrospect, fish may be the easiest meat that can be found in an Equestrian market.

Oh I forgot about that. It also does seem to be the case with them in Equestria Girls as well. However they can’t seem to cause negativity anymore by sucking away all the positive emotion. So even then they can only gain a minute amount of energy from playing for crowds. The difference of getting it from sex is that they have direct physical contact. And semen itself likely contains a fair bit of life essence. Just not enough to be life threatening unless a Siren milked someone for hours on end. By playing for crowds they can only get energy based on the level of appeal from the crowd, as well as the size of the crowd. Without said appeal or numbers, sex would be their only constant because they get energy from that either way. One may even say that the consent of their sexual partner would not even matter. However with crowds of fans there has to be a mental willingness to give. And while it’ll likely give them more energy as a whole, it wouldn’t be consistent because the sizes of crowds would change. So it’s no surprise that the Sirens may want exclusive boyfriends to make sure they have a steady source of life essence.

The Sirens gems were more than cracked though. They were shattered. I’m guessing they glued them back together. But it’d be like holding together a magic crystal refractor with duct tape or super glue. Pieces would inevitably be missing. And I wonder if the Sirens were try to absorb too much energy too fast from a crowd, their gems may explode due to barely holding together. Not to mention possibly very fragile if dropped. I suppose if they took them to a jeweler to try and mend them with magic, they could be re-solidified. But the imperfections from the cracks and possible missing bits would remain in the crystalline structure. Think of magic in crystals like light in crystals. The natural refraction amplifies the power. But cracks and breaks interfere with that refraction. Warping and lessening it’s flow, as well as decreasing it’s efficiency. The gems may have even less time than the Sirens themselves, if one were to think about it. And then direct physical contact would be their only way to absorb energy left to them.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Ooh…I want to comment on some of that, but spoilers! :)

Regarding their gems and feeding, though… remember that they have no figured out that they can feed much more effectively (and ethically) by performing for a crowd…even with their cracked gems. So they are being sustained that way. Though they also do eat regular food. And they especially love meat, which is hard to get in Equestria.

@Stellarator
Sorry. I tend to make text walls without realizing it. But yeah, you’ve got a nice lore for the version of the Sirens you created. But I still wonder about their future. If they really still have the long lifespans they did before losing their gems. Those pendants were the key to their powers. And without them they may be biologically different. But they are still trapped in pony bodies, and can only siphon energy through things like sex now. And it’s only enough to feed themselves daily. I wouldn’t doubt it if they have to eat a lot more normal food now just to sustain themselves as well.

Now that I think about it. Maybe a hobby for Adagio would be to enjoy cooking? She does seem like the kind of person who enjoys the finer things in life. And if Peach knows anything about cooking, he could teach her. Adagio would also look pretty cute wearing nothing by an apron.

But either way many seem to focus too much on how long the Sirens have lived. Not how long they have left. Which even they themselves wouldn’t know. Without their magic they could actually only have normal pony lifespans left. Or in the case of EG, normal human lifespans. And it’s entirely possible someone like Luna could suspect this as she’s very intuitive. Which could be one of the reasons she’s keeping an extra close eye on them as of late. She could be studying them as much as she’s guiding them.

One piece of fan lore on the Sirens is that when they die, they become seafoam. But that’s in their original forms. Not in human or anthro forms. Meaning in their current forms they may die the same ways as normal people. We also don’t know how many other Sirens there are. For all we know, The Dazzlings could be outcasts from the rest of their race since no other Sirens seem to appear.

@SwingtownDerp
Interesting. And totally reasonable in the canon universe(es). Just not how my universe is working. :P

Though I never said my Sirens were immortal. Just very, very old. :)

But yeah, my Stellaratorverse, while inspired by canon, does have to take a lot of liberties and diverge in a lot of ways.

This world kind of blends a lot of MLP canon from the pony world and the human world. Like for example, this world’s Twilight is the Princess of Friendship in this world, not a visitor from Pony world, and stuff like that.

So here, what drew the Sirens to the school to try to take it over wasn’t Equestrian Magic, because they are already in a world with magic. Being banished here did involve making them human/anthro, and their powers were extremely nerfed here, though. What drew them to the school was the latent magic of the future Princess, and the Elements of Harmony, who were in high school at that time.

Basically, since I started with the banished Sirens AND the Princesses and kingdom, instead of the Sirens in a mundane human world with (almost) no magic, I had to put some thought into making my world make sense by itself, as its own thing.

I just haven’t gotten into all of this in the comic (yet) because I don’t want to give giant infodumps, which are generally bad writing. (Though I am guilty of that with Sonata babbling in episode 3 >>2358253 )

(BTW, you have many interesting things to say, and I like reading your comments! But it would be easier to read if you broke things into paragraphs. :) )

@Stellarator
Yes they were banished by Starswirl. But he used a different means than the magic mirror to send them to the other dimension. From the way it looks, he sent them not only through the dimensions, but also through time as they seemed to end up on Earth a thousand years later. While there is theoretical speculation that they spent a thousand years living as humans and used their pendants to stay young, their antagonistic approach to humans as well as their frequent remembering of how things used to be in Equestria imply that they haven’t been in the human world for a thousand years. The Sirens didn’t act like they were used to properly blending in until after they lost their gems. When first showed, they were hiding while wearing hoodies. If they were on Earth a thousand years, they’d know to be way more casual and inconspicuous. More likely they’ve only been on Earth just a few years. Sunset Shimmer was only on Earth about three or four years before she made her debut. Which shows how quickly and easily someone from Equestria can adapt to being human. And theoretically speaking, it’s a lot easier to send something forward in time than it is backwards. Starswirl’s portal to the unknown likely had the effect of shooting the Sirens forward in time as well. Starswirl wanted them banished completely and utterly. And he’s just the crafty old sod to think up sending the Sirens forward in time, either intentionally or instinctively. It’s entirely possible he had to create the spell he used. But no one really knew the details because soon after he and the other heroes sealed themselves for a thousand years. And by the time they were unsealed, the Sirens had already been dealt with. Twilight also pointed out that after their pendants broke, the Sirens were ordinary girls. It’s entirely possible they are mostly human now. I can’t speak for the version of the Sirens you created. But I’m pretty sure the originals were not immortal. There was nothing to imply Sirens were actually really long lived in Equestria either. People just jumped to that conclusion since they came from a thousand years in the past.

@Paaaad
I was going for Middle English, partly so it could be semi-readable, and partly because I’m at least slightly familiar with it. That doesn’t quite match the actual timeline of the English language on Earth. Realistically, Luna’s most recent language when she returned after 1000 years should have been something like old English. But I figured it’s my universe so I can fudge. :)

She calls it “Old Equestrian” because “Middle Equestrian” would have been confusing to a lot of people.

@Delly
Thanks! <3 (and it is still porn at heart, as you say, but it’s best to build it on story)

@Disembodied_Pony
Loooooore!

@Ponylooker
Sonata is smol. Aria is tol. Adagio is meed.

@khaelin04
Yeah. Touched on that a little bit in part 43 too. “Gone in mere decades”

@Anubislaughed
Thanks! :D

@SwingtownDerp
The show has them being banished by Starswirl, which puts that at least 1000 years ago. The Princesses must have ruled for a while before the Nightmare Moon incident. The show’s lore doesn’t have them ruling for very long before that, but I dislike that so am ignoring it. :)

I love these references as to how old some of the MLP charcaters really are. How the world must’ve changed over their long lives. Lovely work!

There’s no way that book is written in anything older than Middle English, right? I mean, it’s not that hard to read. Not quite as sure for Luna’s line there though- that could be full on Old English for all I know…

I’d imagine Smoothie wouldn’t care how old she was, he’d still love her. However, I’d imagine there would be a small hiccup with him realizing he’d be long gone and how much she’d miss him.

She is most smol of bodi.

Huh… The Sirens are way older than I thought. I still wonder if they’ll be so long lived without their gems though? Although another possible reason for Sonata knowing the old tongue could be that since Sirens live so long, their race may practice very old traditions and possibly even have a very ancient place where only old languages are spoken.