Persona: Canterlot's Dark Hour

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