Persona: Canterlot's Dark Hour

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)