Persona: Canterlot's Dark Hour

Chapters

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

Chapter One

6th of April

The blue-maned stallion stepped off of the train with his headphones planted firmly on his head blasting music into his ears. He sighed openly, he had been on a long trip to get here but he’d made it. He had arrived in Canterlot.

He walked slowly out of the train station where there were a few ponies dotted around but it was too late for there to be many still awake. The clock on his m-pony-3 player read 23:58. He continued walking for a little under two minutes and then he noticed a strange green light covering everything. He looked at the floor and noticed that where rain water had once been there were now pools of a deep red liquid which strongly resembled blood.

It was then that he realised the music in his headphones had stopped, the lights on the street had also gone out and nopony was around. But for some reason there were a bunch of coffin-like objects littering the streets. He had never been awake this late before but somehow he knew this wasn’t a normal thing to happen.

He decided to continue on to the dorm he had been told to go to, this was too much for him to figure out by himself. Making his way through the streets he noticed the distinct lack of ponies. Even homeless ones. He could have just blamed the time of night they were in but even then there were usually a few ponies who worked the night shift out and about.

He found the building he was looking for and upon not seeing anything he could ring or knock on to allow him in he just walked directly through the front door. Upon entering he saw that no one was awake. Not surprising. This was a highschool dorm after all.

“Hello,” he heard from behind him. He turned around and noticed a stallion, a Pegasus like himself, stood behind the counter. “you’re quite late aren’t you? You don’t want to get caught out this late at night.” The strange Pegasus was of a pale white coloured coat and had a pitch black mane; oddly enough he had no cutie mark He smiled and gestured down with his eyes. The stallion looked down and noticed a sheet of paper on a clip board “It’s a contract. Don’t worry, all it says is that you’ll take responsibility for your actions. Y’know, the usual stuff.”

He handed the stallion a quill. It was hard to believe that with the advancement of so much technology that they were still using old feathers to write with. The stallion took the quill and wrote his name on the contract. Mist Twister.

The mysterious Pegasus took the contract “Nopony can escape time. It delivers us all to the same end. You can’t plug your ears and cover your eyes,” The contract suddenly vanished from his hooves “and so it begins.” With that a strange darkness covered the stallion and when it cleared away again he was gone!

Mist Twister stood there baffled before he was interrupted from his thoughts “Who’s there!?” the voice came from his far left. He turned to see a pink mare with a brown mane and what appears to be a bow as a cutie mark. She appeared to be wearing a choker with a heart on it… and she was holding a gun.

Ten Minutes Earlier

Sugar Petal held the gun in her hooves with the barrel planted directly against her head. She was nervous but she had to learn to do it eventually. It felt like suicide and the image didn’t help with that but she knew it wasn’t going to kill her.

She was still afraid though. Her sweat began dripping onto the floor of the mare’s bathroom and the puddle was growing with each passing second. It had to be done. If she was going to be of any use to anypony then she was going to have to do it.

Just as she was finding the will to try again she heard the front door of the dorm open and close. That was odd. Everypony was already inside weren’t they?

She waited a few minutes before standing up and finding the courage to go outside and look. Could it be one of them? If it was then she would have no choice but to do it. She exited the bathroom and called out “Who’s there!?”

Upon looking she saw a pale yellow Pegasus stallion with a dark blue mane, it covered his eye on the right side. His cutie mark showed a shield of some sort. What could that represent?

It didn’t matter. The point was that he was here and he shouldn’t be so he was either one of them or he was an intruder of some other intent. Sugar raised the gun towards him and was about to pull the tri…

The lights of the dorm snapped on, shocking Mist out of his calm stance. Despite the gun he had remained incredibly calm throughout the situation and even made the observation that she was rather pretty. The mare turned her head and visibly calmed down. Mist looked past her and saw quite a beautiful mare with a long red mane and a white coat, her cutie mark was of a fencing sword.

Thinking on it he found it quite odd that both of them had some kind of weapon as a cutie mark but then again his was a shield so he pretty much completed the pattern.

The new mare stepped forwards, she was wearing a saddle bag and upon closer inspection he could see that she had a gun strapped to it. It was just one weird thing after another tonight.

“I didn’t think you’d arrive so late.” She said. “My name is Moonlight Shimmer. I am one of the students who lives in this dorm.”

The brunette mare looked confused “Who’s he?” she asked.

“He is a transfer student. It was a last minute decision to assign him here. Don’t worry, he’ll eventually be moved to a room in the boys’ dorm.”

The other mare looked a little worried no “Is it okay for him to be here?”

“We’ll see.” Moonlight replied. Mist couldn’t help but think she was hinting at something. “Anyway I think introductions are in order. Sugar this is Mist Twister. Mist this is Sugar Petal.”

“…Hey.” She said cautiously.

Mist decided to ignore the guns, thinking it better not to ask. “It’s nice to meet you.” He greeted softly.

The softness of his voice took both of the mare aback. It was clear that he didn’t talk that much, then again judging from the file Moonlight had been given on him she wasn’t surprised.

Mist noticed that they both had red bands on their forelegs. The band had the word SEES printed on it. Was this some sort of club dorm?

“It’s nice to meet you too.” Sugar finally said back.

Moonlight spoke up “Well since you arrived so late I’m assuming you’ll be needing some rest. We’ve moved all of your things to a room at the end of the hallway on the second floor.”

“I’ll show you,” Sugar said “just follow me.” She had a warm smile on her face which was odd considering the circumstances of their meeting. She was probably just being friendly.

They walked up the stairs to the second floor where Sugar took a right and Mist followed, they then walked all the way to the end of the hallway and stopped outside a room on the right side. It wasn’t a very eye-catching hallway, it had a green carpet with an assortment of white rectangles on it and a grey wall.

“This should be pretty easy to remember huh? Since its right at the end of the hall.” She said enthusiastically. “Oh but don’t lose your key or you’ll never here the end of it. So, any questions?”

“What’s that contract for?” Mist asked. He was curious about that.

“What contract?” Sugar didn’t appear to know what he was talking about. A thought occurred to her “Hey, can I ask you something?” He simply nodded. “On the way here from the station was everything… okay?”

He wanted to mention the strange things outside but thought he was probably hallucinating from the lack of sleep. He had signed a non-existent contract after all. “Yeah.”

“Never mind then.” She said dismissively. “Goodnight.” She then walked away and back down the stairs.

Mist used his key and entered his new bedroom. They had indeed brought all of his stuff here from his old dorm. They had also been considerate enough to make the bed for him which was good since he didn’t have the energy to do it himself. He removed his m-pony-3 player, put it on the counter next to the bed and lay down. He fell asleep almost instantly.

Chapter Two

7th of April

Knocking on the door roused Mist from his slumber. It had been a nice sleep while it had lasted but he assume he had to go to school now.

“Hey! It’s Sugar,” came a shout through the door “are you awake?”

Reluctantly he pulled himself out of bed and made for the door. He opened it and was greeted by the sight of the pink mare on the other side.

“Good morning,” she beamed “did you sleep okay?” The only response she got was a brief nod from him. “Moonlight asked me to take you to school. It’s getting late so are you ready to go?”

Mist walked over to the bedside table and put on his m-pony-3 player. He turned back around to face her “Yeah, I’m ready.”

“Then let’s go!” she said. She seemed a little too excited to be showing the new guy around so he was guessing that they didn’t get many new arrivals around here. With that they left for the school.

The metal train made a racket on the outside but inside the passengers could barely hear it. Sugar was smiling but Mist just stood there with a look of indifference on his face, he had been through this routine before. Many times.

“So, that’s it.” Sugar said beside him, snapping him out of his daze. “See? There it is.” A building had come into view.

They walked towards the gates of the school, Sugar was greeted by numerous other mares along the way but other than that nopony came to speak to them. They arrived at the gates and saw a white, stone building that looked like it used to be a temple of some sort. It was big compared to other schools he had been to but Mist wasn’t planning on getting used to the view. He would get moved out again at the beginning of the next year.

That still didn’t stop Sugar from being enthusiastic though “Here we are. Welcome to Canterlot Highschool! Hope you like it.” She was absolutely beaming.

They walked into the school building where there were tons of students milling around. At the front were the lockers but past that was all sorts of stuff that all the other schools had.

“You should go and see your homeroom teacher first.” Sugar told him “The faculty office is down that corridor on the left. Do you have any questions before I go?” Mist thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Hey, about last night. Don’t tell anyone what you saw. Okay?” He knew what she was talking about and he was glad he wasn’t crazy, he nodded in response. “Okay. See ya later!” With that she left Mist to his own devices.

He went towards a bulletin board that the other students appeared to be crowding around, he had deduced that this is where the class assignments were shown. He looked up and down the board but couldn’t find his name, he looked again and saw it on a tiny label underneath the roster for Class F.

Mist walked back to where Sugar had told him the faculty office was, also in the corridor were the nurses office and oddly enough the library. He found the faculty office and entered. Inside was a light brown Earth Pony mare with a matching mane and a book for a cutie mark.

“Oh, so I take it you’re the new transfer student?” she said it as more of a statement than a question. “I was actually just about to read your file. Wow, you’ve lived in a lot of different places. About ten years ago your parents…” she stopped and let out a gasp, she clearly hadn’t read this yet. “I’m so sorry! I’ve been too busy to read this beforehand. I’m Autumn Blossom, I teach composition. Welcome to our school.”

“Nice to meet you.” Mist said politely.

“You’re enthusiastic aren’t you? I’m assuming you’ve seen the classroom assignments. You’re in 2F, that’s my class. First we need to head to the auditorium. The beginning of year assembly will be starting soon. Follow me.”

The old stallion who was the principle stood in front of the microphone in the auditorium giving his speech. “As you begin this new school year I’d like each of you to remember the proverb ‘if a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing well’. When applied to student life this means…” he continued to speak.

Mist was distracted by a student behind him “Psst, hey. You came to school with Sugar Petal this morning right? Do you know if she has a boyfriend?”

“I don’t know.” Mist replied honestly. He didn’t want to talk to this guy, he didn’t like speaking and he definitely didn’t like stupid questions.

“I see. I thought you might know but… I guess not. So how well do you know her?”

“I hear talking!” one of the teachers called out “I believe it’s somepony in Miss Blossom’s class!”

“Be quiet,” she said from the end of the row “you’re going to get me in trouble!”

And with that everypony else started talking.

The bell rang to signify the end of school and Mist was approached by a dark green stallion with a black goatee and an equally black baseball cap. His cutie mark was that of a clown face. This should be an interesting conversation.

“’sup dude?” He said in a laid back voice “How’s it going?”

“Who are you?” Mist asked, slightly agitated.

“Me? I’m Brawny Spirit, nice to meet ya. I transferred here back in eighth grade so I know what it’s like being the new kid. So I stopped to say hey, see what a nice guy I am?” he said with a laugh.

Sugar Petal approached them both from the other side of the classroom where she had been conversing with some of her friends. Brawny reacted positively to her presence “Hey it’s Sugar Petal! I didn’t think we’d be in the same class again.”

She sighed openly “At it again huh? I swear you’ll pester anypony if you have even the slightest inkling that they’ll listen. Do you ever stop to think that you might be bothering somepony?”

“But I was just being friendly!”

“If you say so.” She turned to Mist “Anyway, it looks like we’ll be in the same homeroom.”

“Yeah, I know.” He replied simply.

“Funny huh?”

“Um helloooo,” Brawny wined “are you forgetting that I’m in this class too? By the way, I heard that you two came to school together this morning. What’s up with that? C’mon give me the dirt.”

“What are you talking about?” she sounded slightly offended “We live in the same dorm, there’s nothing going on okay? Why are ponies even talking about it? Now you’ve got me worried.” She leaned closer to Mist and whispered “Hey, you didn’t say anything to anyone about… ‘you know what’ did you?” He shook his head “Good. But seriously, don’t say anything about last night alright?”

Brawny’s eyes widened, he had heard every word “L-last night?”

Sugar jumped out of her skin when she realised what he was getting at “Don’t get the wrong idea! Listen, I just met him yesterday and there’s absolutely nothing between us. Geez. I’ve gotta go and do something for the archery team but you’d better not start any bucking rumours.” She turned and walked out of the classroom, leaving Mist with Brawny.

Brawny sighed “Nopony takes rumours seriously anyway. She is so paranoid. But hey, it’s your first day here and ponies are already talking about you. Believe it or not she’s actually pretty popular, you are the man!”

Mist simply grunted, there was no point in arguing with this colt. Brawny had insisted on accompanying him home so they walked to the train station together. The gentle spring sunlight was warm and there were many different ponies as they passed, one was in particular was being swooned by mares and looked quite agitated. The track team ran past while on practice. The first Tuesday of school had gone quite well.

He parted ways with Brawny who it had turned out could be amusing when he wasn’t wasting time on mindless speculation and returned to the dorm where he signed in and upon the insistence of Moonlight that he needed rest went upstairs.

Moonlight sat on the couch downstairs with a book in her hooves. The new arrival was certainly and interesting one and he had been awake at that time but one question remained. Does he have the potential?

A red stallion with a grey mane and a dumbbell cutie mark approached her from the stairs, he had a confident air about him and it was almost as if he thought he was the safest pony in the world. “I’m going out for a bit.” Lightning Strength said. Moonlight looked up from her book with a hum “Didn’t you see the newspaper? There’s a lot going on.”

“I know,” Moonlight replied “ponies who had no problems before are suddenly developing acute cases of Apathy Syndrome. It’s been in the news quite often lately, they say it’s due to stress but…”

“Yeah, it has to be them.” His voice suddenly turned to one of contempt “Otherwise it’s not worth my time.”

“You have a one-track mind, will you be alright on your own?” Moonlight was concerned about his constant trips to that place “The Chaircolt will be staying for the next few days but after that I can…”

“Don’t worry. I’m just getting a little practice in.” Lightning Strength walked off.

Moonlight sighed “This isn’t a game, Lightning.” But he was already out the door by the time she finished.

Chapter Three

8th of April

Mist walked towards the school on his own today, it seemed that even though they lived in the same building and were technically friends they still felt the need to do everything separately from him. As he trotted on he heard two mares next to him speaking. “Hey, did you hear the rumour?”

“The one about the bathroom?”

“No! I mean the story about the first-year student. Not only did she stop attending school but apparently she just sits staring at the walls all day, mumbling ‘it’s coming’ to herself. Isn’t that creepy?”

“Huh. How about that.” She seemed sceptical.

“Wha… you don’t believe me!?” The bell for the beginning of school rang before they had a chance to finish their conversation.

Nothing too eventful happened during school on that day. Mist had to bail Brawny out of a situation when he wasn’t listening to the teacher in class but other than that it was all pretty boring. On a side note, it appears that even helping your friends in class was enough to gain popularity in this place. What a piece of work.

On the way home he passed through one of the many market districts of Canterlot and saw many strange ponies. An elderly couple appeared to be opening a bookstore, a fat teenage stallion was sat alone on a bench and an athletic looking stallion ran past making clopping sounds on the pavement as he went.

Upon entering the dorm Mist noticed a middle-aged stallion with a light brown coat and chocolate brown mane styled in a mullet speaking to Sugar. He had some sort of clownfish as a cutie mark which made Mist wonder if maybe his talent was telling bad jokes.

Sugar turned around upon hearing the door.

“Oh, here he is.” She said cheerfully.

The stallion turned his gaze “Ah. So this is our new guest!” he sounded more enthusiastic than she had been. “Good evening. My name is Bad Pun, I am the chaircolt of the board at your school. And yes, I know my name makes you not want to take me seriously but I take my job very seriously. That’s why I don’t like introducing myself, the name gives ponies the wrong impression.”

Mist nodded, walked over and took a seat on the couch next to Sugar while Bad Pun remained in the armchair. “I do apologies about the confusion regarding your lodgings, but it may take a while longer for us to get you your proper room assignment. Is there anything you’d like to ask?”

Mist considered asking about what he saw the other night but considering his promise to Sugar he decided against it and simply shook his head. “Then I hope you have a successful school year. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” He got up from his seat and began walking towards the door before stopping and turning towards Mist “You should get to bed early, y’know what they say ‘the early bird catches the bookworm’.” Bad Pun chuckled “Please forgive the bad joke.” He then turned but instead of exiting through the door as expected he walked towards the stairs.

Sugar scoffed “You’ll get used to the crap jokes.” Mist, seeing nothing else to do went upstairs and to bed.

On the fourth floor Moonlight and Sugar sat at a console in front of a large screen. On the screen was the sleeping form of Mist Twister in his bed. Bad Pun walked in through the door “So, how’s he doing?” he asked the two mares.

“He went to bed a little while ago,” Moonlight informed him “he’s asleep now. Mister Chaircolt, do you think he’s…”

“Well let’s wait and see for now. The Dark Hour is approaching.” After a few seconds the clock struck midnight and the smallest hand stopped dead in its tracks. They could see on the monitor that the moonlight pouring into Mist’s bedroom was now a green colour.

A stallion was on his cell phone on a bench outside. There were others there listening to music on the radio and drinking cider, the music stopped and many began to go home. The mare on the radio started speaking “Thank you for listening to our broadcasts today, on the tone the time will be twelve o’ clock a.m.” Beeping sounded on the radio and after the fifth one the stallion closed his eyes and yawned.

When he opened his eyes he was greeted by the sight of the green moon. Confused, he turned around and came to face several coffin-like objects where the other ponies used to be. He began panicking and turning around frantically only to discover a black goo-like substance slowly making its way towards him.

He stood, not knowing what it was. Something began to ooze from his eyes and when he reached up a hoof to wipe it he saw more of the gooey substance. It began coming from his eyes, nose and mouth and it hurt. It hurt a lot. The burning pain was almost too much for him to take as whatever supernatural entity was hurting him got into his mind and damaged it to the point where the stallion no longer cared about anything. He wasn’t even aware of the world around him.

The three at the monitor continued to stare at the sleeping form of Mist Twister, he had not become a coffin as many others during the Dark Hour do. “As you can see, he’s retained his pony form.”

“Then he must be…” Sugar muttered.

“The only question that remains is whether or not he has the potential. Although, he must. If he didn’t then they would have preyed on him by now. We should continue to monitor him for a few more days.”

“Yes sir.” Moonlight said.

“I feel kinda bad though, spying on him like this.” Sugar added.

Mist awoke in a room, it had a completely blue floor and was seemingly moving downwards at a fast speed. In the center of the room he could see a bipedal being in a chair, it was sat upright in a black suit and was holding a cane with an eagle head on the handle. It had an unusually large and pointy nose and its eyes were bloodshot. Beside it stood a bright blue mare with blonde hair and a blue hat, her eyes were surprisingly blank looking. Her cutie mark was some sort of tarot card. She also happened to be a Unicorn.

The biped spoke in a voice easily identified as male but it had a sinister twist to it “Welcome to the Velvet Room my dear young colt. My name is Igor, I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This is Elizabeth, she is a resident here like myself.” Igor and Elizabeth, what odd names.

“Pleased to meet you.” The mare called Elizabeth said in a flat yet somehow pleased sounding tone.

“This place exists between dreams and reality, mind and matter. It’s been years since we’ve had a guest.” Igor produced a sheet of paper in front of him… it was the contract! “Only those who have signed the contract can enter this place. Henceforth you shall now be welcome in the Velvet Room, you will learn to hone your unique ability and you will require my help to do so. I only ask one thing in return, that you abide by your contract and assume all responsibility for the choices you make.”

“I understand.” Mist said, he was surprised to find that this situation did very little to faze him.

“Hold onto this.” A blue glow appeared around Mist’s neck and suddenly there was a key hanging there, it was the same shade of blue as the room. “’Till we meet again.” Mist began to regain consciousness.

Bonus: Mist Twister's Charm has increased!

Chapter Four

9th of April

Mist Twister awoke early in the morning, he felt like he’d had a strange dream but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it had been.

On his way into school he was stopped by Brawny who was in a conversational mood as always. “Hey man, today is the perfect day!” he said happily. “The sky is blue, we’re young. What more could you ask for!?”

Mist was confused by this sudden outburst of life philosophies “I think you need some rest.” He advised.

Brawny scoffed “Dude, I’m not sick! Forget the old Brawny, this is the real me! You should cheer up too, after all you have me for a friend.” He failed to see that that was part of the problem. Regardless, they walked through the school gates and started the day together.

Over the course of the day Mist had felt drowsy due to the boringness of the lessons he was taking part in. He managed to stay awake and managed to improve his knowledge throughout the day.

After the school day ended he decided to head home with Brawny again since apparently neither of the other two really wanted to make him feel welcome. Moonlight was understandable but Sugar had appeared so welcoming that she not at least helping him to adjust seemed a little off. The station was bustling with students on their way home which luckily meant that most of Brawny’s rambling was cut off by the crowd.

The Dark Hour

Once again the girls were spying on Mist at the orders of Bad Pun who once again walked into the console room and asked “How is he?”

“The same as last night.” Moonlight informed him.

Bad Pun hummed “Very interesting. Even those who have the potential tend to be unstable at first, things like memory loss and disorientation. But this subject is rather unique, he isn’t experiencing any of the common symptoms.”

Sugar felt uneasy “But… we’re treating him like a guinea pig.”

Bad Pun smiled at her “I understand your concern but it is imperative that we recruit new members into SEES. Anyway, I heard he was your classmate. Wouldn’t you be more comfortable working with someone in the same grade?”

“Yeah, I guess. But still…”

The console made a beeping noise. Moonlight put her muzzle next to the microphone. “Command room. Is that you Lightning?”

His voice came loud and clear through the speakers “You’re not gonna believe this. This thing is bucking huge! Unfortunately I don’t have time to talk, this thing is chasing me. I wanted to let you guys know, I’m almost there!”

Everypony’s eyes widened “Does that mean he’s bringing that thing here!?” Sugar yelled.

Moonlight quickly got up out of her seat “Mr. Chaircolt! Let’s suspend our observations for now, we’ll prepare for battle.”

“R-right. Be careful.” He stuttered. He wasn’t used to combat situations.

They all rushed down the stairs just in time to see a bleeding but not to badly wounded Lightning Strength stagger through the door and close it behind him. “Lightning!” Moonlight cried as she ran over to him.

“I’m alright.” He said, barely taking notice of his own blood. “Get ready to be surprised, it’ll be here any second.”

“It’s one of them, Lightning?” Bad Pun asked in a panic.

“Yes, but not an ordinary one.” There was a crash from outside and the entire dorm building appeared to shake beneath their feet.

“What the…” Sugar started “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” she was panicking now. She had never been in an actual battle situation before.

Moonlight took control “Mr. Chaircolt go to the command room! Sugar, you go upstairs and wake him up. Then escape out the back.”

“But, what about you two?”

“We’ll stop it here.” She looked down at lightning with some contempt “You led it to us so I’m afraid you’ll have to fight.”

He looked pretty pissed off at that “Like I had a choice!” he shouted at her.

Sugar made her way up the stairs and to the end of the hall where Mist Twister’s bedroom was. He had heard shouting from downstairs and was awake anyway when she came banging on his door. “Wake up!” she shouted through his door “Sorry, I’m coming in!” The door opened to reveal the pink mare on the other side. Mist wondered how the tartarus she got a key to his room.

“I don’t have time to explain. We have to get out of here now!” Mist noticed that she had her gun strapped to her saddle bags along with what looked like some sort of sword.

Deciding it was better not to ask he simply said “Okay.” and allowed her to lead the way to wherever they were going. The room appeared to shake around them and Sugar began panicking even more.

“Hurry! We’ll go downstairs and leave through the back door!” She took the sword from her saddle bag in her mouth and walked over to him, he took it in his own mouth but didn’t know what he’d need it for “You should take this just in case.”

They ran down the stairs and made it to the back door by the kitchen before the voice of Moonlight began emanating from Sugar’s saddle bags “Sugar, do you read me?”

“Yes, I hear you.” Sugar replied.

“Be careful, there’s more than one hostile. The one we’re fighting isn’t the one Lightning saw!”

“What!?” Just then a loud bang rang from outside the back door, the bangs continued and it soon became apparent that something was trying to get in. For the first time in years Mist found himself becoming afraid.

Seeing no other ways out of this they both ran up the stairs, Sugar freaking out the entire way. On the third floor they heard a loud crashing sound and the sound of things breaking downstairs, whatever was after them had just broken into the dorm and was making its way up the stairs!

Taking the initiative they ran up to the fourth floor where Sugar knew they had access to the roof. Upon exiting onto the roof they assumed they were safe behind the metal door and Sugar sighed in relief “I think we’re safe for now.” She breathed heavily. They heard a scraping, gooey sound coming from the far side of the roof “What the…”

They turned around to notice a hand made of black goo gripping onto the building’s edge, then another and another. At least ten hands had found their way onto the edge of the dorms roof. The hands made a motion similar to one would when climbing and up rose a blue mask-like face which was held up by yet another black hand. This creature produced four more hands, each holding blades and began to approach the two scared ponies. Sugar felt the need to give a brief explanation on the creature “Those monsters… we call them Shadows!” She removed the gun from her saddle bags and brought it up to her head, she was now breathing even more heavily. After a few terrifying seconds the trigger was pulled but instead of her dying there appeared to be several bits of green wind narrowly missing the creature. It continued approaching and the same thing happened once again, this time the Shadow threw a blade directly at the gun and it was knocked to the ground along with Sugar. The gun landed at Mist Twister’s hooves.

The Shadow approached the dazed form of Sugar on the floor and seeing no other alternative Mist picked the gun up in his hooves. He heard the voice of the mysterious stallion with the contract in his head “Go on.” It urged.

Mist looked at the gun. The idea he had as of what to do with it was crazy yet not overly so after seeing what he had just seen. He slowly pushed the barrel to his head and breathed deeply, he felt a strange calm flush over him. The word escaped his mouth without him even knowing what it meant yet it was oddly familiar to him, as if he had heard it before “Per… so… na.” He pulled the trigger of the gun.

A bright blue magical energy began to flow out of his head and around him, his eyes glowed the same blue colour. Sugar gazed up at him from the ground, having snapped out of her daze and was astounded. How did he already know he could do that?

Mist heard a new voice in his head “Thou art I. And I am thou. From the sea of thy soul I cometh. I am Orpheus, master of strings.” The blue energy around him had flown up and formed the shape of a bipedal being which was white as a sheet all over with a red scarf and a black face, its hair style was that of Mist’s and it appeared to have a large harp on its back. Its eyes were glowing white and it began roaring.

Mist suddenly let out a cry of pain and an arm ripped out of Orpheus’ neck and tore his head away. Orpheus was then ripped apart from the inside by a creature that was like nothing anypony had ever seen. It had the head of some sort of metallic bird and was wearing some sort of cloak. What really stood out though were the eight coffins that were seemingly attached to its back as wings. It was armed with an enormously long and thick sword.

This creature wasted no time in leaping at the Shadow and mercilessly holding it down while crushing its numerous appendages beneath it. The new creature then used its free arm to savagely slice the Shadow’s mask face in half, ending the creature’s life as it turned to barely even ashes on the floor.

In the blink of an eye this creature disappeared and Orpheus reappeared where it once stood. Orpheus then became nothing but blue energy as it reentered the mind of Mist Twister whose eyes went back to their normal colour. “Is it over?” Sugar hesitantly asked as she was still on the floor.

There were more sludgy sounds as they noticed two more of the Shadows approaching, these two significantly smaller than the last and with the blue masks attached to them. Mist wasted no time in charging towards them to protect his incapacitated friend. He pointed the gun at his head once again and this time Orpheus appeared significantly quicker and bashed one of the Shadows with his huge harp, the creature turned to dust upon being struck and Orpheus vanished.

The other shadow saw this as an opportunity and rushed forwards, hitting Mist with its goopy hands. It knocked Mist off his hooves but he still had the gun in reach. He summoned Orpheus once again, he hit the Shadow with the harp and the Shadow was no more. Mist felt a surge of energy inside. He then felt dizzy and after swaying for a few moments passed out on the roof of the dorm.

Bonus: Mist Twister's Academics have increased

New Persona: Orpheus

Level Up: Orpheus has learned Agi

Chapter Five

The Velvet Room

Mist Twister came to… or so he thought, in the Velvet Room. He was greeted by the sight of the biped Igor and his assistant Elizabeth. He figured that meant he was passed out or something since he’d only been here in his dreams before.

“It’s so nice to see you again.” Igor said, he never lost that smile. “You became unconscious after awakening your power. Don’t worry, there’s nothing for you to worry about. By the way, I see that it was Orpheus that heeded your calling. That is called a Persona, it is a manifestation of a pony’s psyche.”

Mist Twister raised an eyebrow, what the heck was this guy rabbiting on about? Igor chuckled as if reading his mind “It may take some time to fully comprehend. These Personas are facets of a pony’s personality that surfaces when put under external stimuli. Try to think of it as a mask that allows you to face the hardships of life. Even with that said, your power is still quite weak.”

Mist wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be offensive or not so he just assumed it was and reacted as such “What do you mean weak?” he asked.

“When you use the Persona ability you must channel the strength of your heart and the heart is strengthened through your bonds with others.” Oh great, that would mean he would have to interact with even more ponies. This week just gets better and better. “The stronger the bond, the more powerful Personas fueled by that bond become. But now, time for you to wake up. But I promise you that next time we meet you will come here of your own accord. For now, farewell.”

17th of April

Mist’s eyes fluttered open, he could feel a bed beneath him so he could tell that they’d had the decency to take care of him while he was out. He felt the presence of somepony beside him. Turning his head he noticed that Sugar Petal was sat on a chair besides his bed which as it turns out wasn’t his usual one.

She seemed surprised at first “You’re awake!” she near yelled. She appeared to compose herself before speaking again “How do you feel?”

He actually felt pretty refreshed but he needed to ask his own questions first “Where am I?”

She sighed and was clearly agitated “How much sleep do you bucking need? It’s been a whole week! I was so worried about you, and oh yeah this is the Canterlot General Hospital. The doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with you and he said you were just exhausted but considering how long you were out I doubt that guy is too good at his job.” She looked down at her hooves in shame “I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything. Even though I was supposed to protect you… it was you who ended up saving me. But your power, it’s amazing.”

“What were those things?” Mist asked, his list of questions wasn’t long but this one absolutely had to be answered.

“You mean the Shadows? They’re what we’re fighting against, and the power you used is called a Persona. We’ll explain everything later and for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.” She got up and walked towards his bed, avoiding eye contact. “I just wanted to say that… we’re kinda the same.”

“What do you mean?” Mist took on a softer tone as he could see that this was clearly a delicate subject.

“My dad died in a lab explosion when I was a filly and me and mom don’t exactly get along nowadays. You’re all alone too, right?” although she already knew the answer. “To be honest, I already know all about you. But I didn’t think it was fair so I wanted to tell you some of the stuff I’ve been hiding. It was about ten years ago.”

This struck Mist as a little too coincidental, his parents died the exact same year. Was there some kind of connection?

“Nobody knows what really happened,” Sugar continued “He was working in a lab run by Shimmer .Co so I figured that if I stuck around long enough I would find something out. That’s why I’m attending Canterlot High, and why I was there when you passed out. I panicked and was completely useless, it was my first time fighting the Shadows too. I’m sorry, this wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t such a coward.”

Mist felt an emotion he was unfamiliar with, pity. He felt sorry for her because she blamed herself for something that was completely out of her control, not to mention after hearing about her father he couldn’t help but feel some form of connection with her. “It’s not your fault.” He told her. It was odd for him to speak this much during an conversation.

She smiled at him “Thanks,” There was genuine warmth in the smile “and thanks for listening, I’ve been dying to tell somepony that story for years. Okay, I’ll get going now and tell everypony you’ve woken up. Be a good patient okay? Goodbye.” Leaving it at that she walked out of the hospital, leaving Mist once again on his own.

18th of April

Mist Twister walked into school after his week of sleeping in hospital and was immediately greeted at the gates by Sugar. She seemed remarkably pleased to see him again despite the fact that she knew he had woken up. “Mornin’” she said in her usual cheery manner “you seem to be doing pretty well.”

“Yeah, I’m alright.” Mist replied, stoic faced.

“That’s good. Sorry to bug you after you only just got out of hospital but Bad Pun wants to talk to you after school. Come to the fourth floor of the dorm and don’t you forget.”

They turned and proceeded to walk into the school together.

If there is anything that Mist learned that day it was that his history teacher was painfully bad at his job. He was obsessed with a time period of warriors and basically skipped out on all of the stuff about the old days of Equestria and just asked Brawny a question on it even though he had taught none of it. Mist helped with that situation though.

After school Mist went directly back to the dorm to discuss whatever the heck they were going to be talking about. It was about this point that Mist realised how… unique the residents of Canterlot were as he passed many a strange pony in his trot home. Upon entering the dorm he noticed that there was no one in the lounge and figured that they were already up on the fourth floor.

He reached the top floor of the dorm and found Sugar waiting for him outside of the big double doors. “Oh, you’re here. Come on in.”

She led him through the double doors into a room full of stuff. Big stuff. There was a huge console with a lot of buttons on it below a screen which he could only assume linked up to some sort of security system. Basically it was a load of complicated shit that he didn’t understand.

There was a table in the centre of the room surrounded by an arm-chair, a sofa and three cushion-like stools. In the armchair sat Bad Pun, on the sofa was Moonlight Shimmer and sat on one of the three stools was Lightning Strength. “Ah, there you are.” Bad Pun smiled “Please have a seat, there is much to discuss.”

Mist Twister took the stool on the far end of the table away from everypony else and Sugar joined Moonlight on the sofa.

“Oh, may I introduce you to Lightning Strength.”

“How ya doing?” Lightning asked with a small smile.

“Okay,” the Chaircolt began “let me start off by asking you this… would you believe me if I said a day consists of more than twenty-four hours?”

Mist Twister raised an eyebrow “Run that by me again.”

Moonlight chuckled “I’m not surprised by your reaction. But you’ve already experienced this first-hand. Remember the night you came here? You must have noticed, the street lights went out, noting was working, there were coffins everywhere. That’s the Dark Hour, a time period that exists between one day and the next.”

“How can a time period be hidden?” Mist wasn’t sure how to react to most of this.

“I suppose it’s more like something ponies aren’t aware of but it does exist. It will happen tonight and every night to come.”

“And the most interesting part,” Lightning wore an excited smirk “you saw those creatures. We call them Shadows. They appear during the Dark Hour and attack anypony who isn’t in a coffin. It’s our job to kill them, sounds exciting huh?”

Admittedly yes it did sound exciting. Apparently Moonlight didn’t share this opinion “Lightning, why are you always like that? You just got hurt the other day!”

Bad Pun was quick to shoot her down “Now now, he does his work well.” He turned his attention back to Mist Twister “In short we’re the Specialised Extracurricular Execution Squad. Or SEES for short. This group is officially listed as a school club but in reality we fight the Shadows. Moonlight is the leader and I’m the club advisor.”

“A Shadow feeds on the mind of its prey,” Moonlight randomly jumped into the conversation “the victim becomes a living corpse. They’re responsible for most of the incidents on the news, if not all of them.”

There were so many questions running through Mist Twister’s mind that it was unbelievable, one stuck out though. “How do you fight them?”

Bad Pun smiled “There are some who can function within the Dark Hour. Some even awaken to a power that allows them to fight the Shadows. We call this power Persona, you used it the other night. The Shadows can only be defeated by Persona-users.” Mist Twister nodded slowly to indicate his understanding.

Moonlight rose from the sofa and approached the table where a silver briefcase lay waiting “We would like you to join us.” She opened the case to reveal a red SEES foreleg band and one of the guns they had used earlier. “We’ve prepared an Evoker for you, would you lend us your strength?”

Would he? Would Mist Twister take up arms and fight demonic creatures that could turn him into a real-life zompony at a moment’s notice? Would he do this to save ponies from suffering at the hands of the Shadows at the risk of his own life? Hell yes he would.

“I’m in.”

Sugar seemed the most pleased with this. She let out a sigh of relief “I was afraid you’d say no.” she stated “Welcome aboard.”

Everypony seemed happy with his decision. The moment was ruined when Mist gained a headache.

SMASH

Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Fool arcana…

The Dark Hour

“Hi, how are you?” a familiar soft voice awoke Mist from his slumber. He opened his eyes to find the mysterious stallion from before stood before him. The mysterious stallion chuckled, Mist was just confused.

“How did you get in here?” Mist asked his uninvited guest.

“I’m always with you.” If there was one word for that, it was creepy. “Soon the end will come. I remembered so I thought I should tell you. But to be honest I can’t tell you much about it yet. It looks like you’ve awakened to your power, and an unusual power it is. A power that takes many forms but is bound by none. It may prove to be your salvation depending on where you end up.” The mysterious stallion vanished and reappeared on the other side of the bed “Do you remember when we first met? I expect you to honour your commitment. I’ll be watching you, even if you forget about me. Okay then, see you later.” The mysterious stallion vanished, once again leaving Mist Twister alone in his room.

Bonus: Mist Twister's Charm has increased!

New Social Link: SEES(Fool)