The door creaked open, pushed by two ponies, not one. One of them wasn't even a pony, gauging from the fishtail they had for a bottom. Cherry squinted a little bit. "A pisces pony? What's she doing here?"

Starlight raised a brow at this. "Pisces?"

The siren laid eyes on Cherry, a grin spreading across her face as Rainbow stood there passively a moment before speaking, "I did it."

She turned a little towards her mind-controlled minion. "Yes, yes you did. Now, hmm, go back to to--"

With a sudden combined roar of different animals, Fluttershy's reinforcements came barreling in from behind. The largest of them, a bear, grabbed her from the side in a terrific tackle to the ground. Angel bounced up with the others and hopped up, landing foot-first on the side of Rainbow's face in a brutal kick that shook her out of her funk.

"Wha?"

Spike scratched behind his head a little. "Did we just get... saved?"

"Get off me, stupid animal!" The siren thrashed in the bear's grip. "Let go!"

Cherry advanced towards the sudden crowd at the door. "Excuse me, who are you?"

With a sudden pull, the siren popped out of the bear's grip, grunting with frustration. "I'm the pony that's bringing you home."

Cherry blinked owlishly. "What?"

"Did I stutter?" The siren raised a brow. "Your mother paid a hefty sum of husks to have you dragged home the moment you vanished during the night. I had to follow you, which wasn't hard." She gestured a hoof down at Cherry's metallic hooves. "You made a pretty nice trail the entire way, to say nothing of all the noise and fuss when you hit land. No, tracking you was the easy part."

Cherry suddenly broke into a warm smile. "Aw, that was really nice of mom, but I'm not in danger."

Starlight nodded as she moved up beside Cherry. "Besides the danger you created, she's been an honored guest."

The siren shrugged a little. "Look, if she just came along with the ponies I sent, instead of running away, we could have all avoided a whole lot of hassle. Ah, the name's Sand Surprise, and you are Cerulean, I assume? I don't think many other sea ponies are out of the water."

Fluttershy came trotting up from the direction of the bridge. "Is everything alright?" The bear shrugged.

Rainbow shook her head, casting out the webs before she realized who she was standing next to. "Alright, big and fishy! I'm gonna take you down!"

Spike waved a claw quickly. "Easy there, Dash. I think we're cool."

Cherry grinned at Sand. "Are we cool?"

Sand put her hooves on her hips. "I was paid to bring you back to your mother, so that's where you're going."

Fluttershy thanked her animal friends for their timely intervention before joining the conversation. "Um, hello, Miss..."

"Surprise, Sand Surprise."

"Ah, yes, Miss Surprise. Cherry doesn't want to go with you. Can we do..." She rolled a hoof a little. "Something else?"

Starlight pulled out the few shells she had gotten from Cherry. "How about we trade these for you to bring a message back to her mother?"

Sand blinked with surprise and leaned in. "Huh, first time I saw a land pony with some of these, let alone knowing what they're for." She snatched them from Starlight's extended hoof. "Not much, but it's on my way home anyway. What do you want me to tell her?"

"Stop right there!" Twilight was charging at the castle, Applejack beside her and Muffins flying overhead, all three looking ready to come to the rescue that was no longer required.

Rainbow held up a hoof towards them. "Hey, it's alright. Rainbow Dash is on the case."

Twilight stalled, blinking in confusion with the others.

Cherry gestured at Sand. "This is Sand Surprise. She was sent by my mother to bring me home."

Applejack mosied up towards the group. "Ah, alright? So why all the mind control alon' the way there? T'aint neighborly any t' have us trussed up like that fer so long."

Twilight raised a brow. "Is there a time limit?"

Sand shook her head. "Relax. I'm a siren, this is how we solve problems. This was a problem, and I solved it. She wasn't going to be hurt."

Fluttershy frowned at Sand. "That's not a good answer, and not very nice at all. You scared poor Cherry half to death. I thought you were here to protect and guide her?" She didn't mention that she was also terrified of the events of the last day or so. "That is not how we deal with problems." She was glaring at Sand, staring her down like any other ornery beast, whether she could speak or not changed nothing. "Now you apologize to her and no more controlling ponies. If you want something, you ask for it."

Sand blinked slowly at the yellow pegasus before glancing around at the others. "Ah..." She stopped at Cherry. "Look, sorry, alright? I don't normally do land missions, but that's where you went, so that's where I went, and I kinda improvised. I owed it to your mom."

Cherry tilted her head. "Did she pay that much?"

Sand blushed a little. "Y... no. She's saved my fins a few times way back in the day. I wanted to do her a solid in return. Look, you sure you don't want to come home?"

Twilight gave a little smile. "Okay, Sand is it? It's very nice that you wanted to do a favor for Cherry's mom, but she's alright. Would you like to see the room we've arranged for her? She's an honored guest, a diplomat from the sea people."

Sand waved off the statement. "You said something like that before, but she's a filly for the waves' sake. She doesn't have any say, so how is she going to be diplomat of anything but herself?"

Cherry took a little step forward. "I can share stories of home, and they can show me more wondrous things of The Dry. They've been really nice to me, even when things got scary, they were there."

Starlight nodded. "We wouldn't let Cherry be hurt."

Spike gestured broadly to everyone. "Friends protect friends, and we're all friends."

Sand blinked at that. "Even me?"

Applejack hiked a brow. "If ya promise to never mind-control the town again, we can talk."

Twilight was a bit more forgiving from the outset, placing a hoof on Applejack's shoulder. "Easy. Sand was concerned about her friend's daughter. That's very noble, even if she went about it... interestingly..."

Starlight flashed a nervous smile. "It's alright... I've been there."

"There?" Sand met her gaze.

"The whole, you know, brainwashing ponies thing to get what you want?"

Sand leaned in towards the nervous Starlight. "You're a siren? You hide it well, land pony."

Applejack snorted softly. "She did it, without even a fish tail. A whole town of ponies."

Sand whistled softly. "For how long?"

Starlight shrunk a little bit. "Years?"

Sand barked out with a sudden fit of laughter. "Oh wow! You're good! I couldn't even keep them in line for much longer than a day. Years?" She spread her hooves. "I can't even imagine that."

Starlight put a hoof behind her head. "Well, I'm not doing it again. I'm... better now."

Twilight moved up beside Starlight and threw a leg over her, squeezing. "And now she has real friends, which is a lot better than brainwashed minions any day."

Sand nodded a little. "I'll bear that in mind, but... forgive me, being a siren is kind of what I was born to be. Influencing others is what I do when I'm around ponies."

Fluttershy pointed at Cherry. "You decided on your own to put your talents to work helping a friend. You can decide to do other things, to help ponies."

Applejack nodded in agreement with that. "Th' way ah see it, ya may have caused a lot of mischief, but ya did it fer the right reasons at least. Ah kin respect that, goin' the distance fer a friend."

Sand smiled at the compliments. "Alright, enough squishy stuff, let's see this 'room' you've made up for Cerulean, and it better be good."

The entire party set out from the castle then, hiking along the trail from the castle to the town proper. Spirits were high, and fear was low. The trail between the castle and the town was fairly safe and cleared. While an attack was possible, it was far less likely, and they had numbers on their side.

Starlight put a hoof to her rumbling belly. "I am so looking forward to getting a nibble to eat once we get back to town."

Cherry glanced back at the castle, already lost to the forest. "Shoulda ate that big thing. I bet it woulda been tasty."

While Sand had been gone, the ponies of Ponyville had regained their senses, but that didn't stop the returning party from running into an angry mob of torch and pitchfork wielders. It was just that they were directed at Sand instead of at her behest. "There she is!" called out Mayor Mare. "Capture her!"

Muffins suddenly landed between the two. "Wait! I'm still a little confused, but I heard what they said and I think she's safe." She held out a hoof at either side, as if holding the two groups from getting to one another instead of just being a wall-eyed roadblock. "Her name is Sand Surprise."

Bon Bon raised a brow. "She lives up to the 'surprise' part."

Mayor Mare locked eyes with Twilight. "Princess..." She paled suddenly. "Princess! Please forgive me!" She threw herself at Twilight's hooves. "I was being controlled. Please don't have me thrown into a dungeon forever!"

Twilight shook her head slowly. "If everypony would kindly put away their torches and sharp things, we can move on. Nopony's in trouble. It was all a big misunderstanding."

Mayor Mare sat up. "Controlling the entire town, a misunderstanding?" She looked towards Starlight, then onwards, but the unspoken accusation had been stated.

Starlight colored darkly and squirmed in place while Applejack advanced. "Look, everypony. She was just trying to guard a little'un." She gestured at Cherry. "Cherry here is a filly of her friend. Now, she is sorry for what she did, right?"

Sand internally sighed before forcing a big smile. "I won't mind-control the ponies of this town ever again, promise."

With the matter largely resolved, ponies began scattering around, getting back to what they had to do. Twilight led the way for her friends, new and old, back towards her castle. "This is hardly how I expected to spend the day, but we did learn something for it. So, sea ponies and sirens are aware of one another? Even friends? That's wonderful!"

Author's Notes:

And things calm down. We could leave it here, lessons learned, or...

We can get back to exploring The Dry.

What say you?