The Crimson Room

Now Playing - SHADOWS

You rattle your chains as you say to the horse, “Who are you?”

“You can just call me The Curator,” he says, getting off the chair and walking around the room. “I don’t really have a name, Liberty, so that’s just what I go by.”

“How do you know my name?” you demand, attempting to lunge at The Curator. The chains stop you, though.

“Oh, I know a lot of things,” the horse flaunts. “I know that you’re not from Canterlot, or even Equestria. I know that you’re a tomboy that loves baseball. I even know the name of the bartender that served you today. Mixtape, was it?”

“Shut up!” you yell at him.

Your captor trots up to your face and snarls, grabbing your mouth. “You’re going to shut your mouth while I speak, or else I’ll feed you to the strays!” he shouts. “I am not merciful! Do you understand me?” You give him an angry stare as he says, “Good.”

“Asshole…” you mutter under your breath as he continues walking around the room.

“I know a lot more than you,” The Curator continues, “but if there’s one reason why I’m here, it’s because I know something important.”

“And what’s that?” you ask.

“You have a certain gift; a potential, if I might. You carry an immense power, but power means nothing if you don’t know how to use it.”

“Yeah, so?” you spit at the horse.

“I can teach you. I can help you awaken to your potential, teach you how to use it. Of course, there’s a catch to this.” The Curator runs a hoof under your chin as he says, “You have to do what I say. No exceptions.”

You yank your head away from him. “Despite your, uh, charming attitude, I think I’ll pass. I’d rather be stuck here than be stuck with you.”

“Oh, poor little Liberty,” The Curator says, “you still don’t have any idea what happens to the people who get stuck here, do you? I’d hate for it to happen to you. It’s not often someone like you comes along.”

“Piss off,” you say to him, shooting daggers out of your eyes at him.

“Only until tomorrow night,” he replies. “For now, it’s time for you to wake up.”

The world starts to melt around you as you struggle in your chains. An intense darkness creeps towards you, threatening to take you over. The room starts to swirl as you pass out, feeling your head hit…

Wednesday <> 4/18 <> Early Morning

Now Playing - HOME

...the floor of your bedroom. You jolt your eyes open as you think about your dream and how real it felt. The cold chains on your wrists, the hard floor on your knees, the Curator touching your cheek; it all felt more than the dream it was.

The door opens to your room, and Rarity pokes her head through. “I see that you’re awake pretty early,” she says.

“Look who’s talking,” you mumble as you sit up and lean on your arm. Looking over your shoulder, you see that the clock reads 5:08 AM. “Wow, it really is early…” you think to yourself.

“I’ve been working on dresses all night, dear,” your cousin tells you. “I took a short break, but I’m up and ready to work again.”

“Don’t we have school in, like, two or three hours?” you ask, climbing your way back into bed.

“Not today. Since I run this shop, the school and I have worked out an agreement where I take a day off each week -- each Wednesday, in fact -- and I stay behind all the other days to catch up on what I missed.”

“Well, have fun…” you mumble as you flop yourself over on the bed and fall back asleep.

Wednesday <> 4/18 <> Lunchtime

Now Playing - PARADISE

As per Rarity’s request, you decide to have lunch with her friends. The only problem was that Rarity wasn’t at school, and you had no idea who her friends were. Looking around the room, you see a bunch of groups sitting together, each being their own melting pot of hobbies. However, what stood out the most was Vinyl, the girl that showed you around yesterday. Her “group” consisted of her, listening to her music, and nobody else. Her face seems expressionless with her purple shades on. “Honestly,” you think to yourself, “what kind of asshole wears sunglasses inside?” Since you can’t find Rarity’s friends, you decide to sit down with Vinyl.

You drop your tray on your tour guide’s table and sit down across from her. You wave your hands in front of her glasses and say, “Hello, Gaia to Vinyl? You there?” Vinyl doesn’t reply. You try waving your hand harder, and she takes off her headphones.

“Do you mind?” she says. “I’m trying to eat lunch here. Y’know, alone. By myself. In peace.”

You sit back in your chair and mutter, “Why do you have to be so rude?” Unfortunately, Vinyl hears you.

“I don’t have to be your friend, new kid,” she spits. “Leave me the hell alone.” She sits back in her chair and puts her headphones back on.

“Hey, I’m talking to you here!” you shout back as you lean over and try to take Vinyl’s headphones off. The moment you touch them, however, she lunges forward and pushes you to the floor, simultaneously drawing the attention of everyone in the cafeteria. The only noise that can be heard in the room is Vinyl’s blaring music.

“I’m going to tell you this once,” Vinyl growls. “Don’t touch my things. Understand?”

You get up and walk away from Vinyl as the room returns to normal. However, you can already hear the whispers in the air about you.

“What did that girl do to Vinyl?” you hear a student say.

“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure she’s a bunch of trouble,” replies another.

“What a bitch,” a guy says as you walk past him. “Vinyl doesn’t deserve that.”

You decide to ignore the rest of the whispers and make your way to your next class.

Tuesday <> 4/18 <> After School

Now Playing - A STROLL THROUGH TOWN

You can still feel your classmate’s stares as you walk home, as if they’re following you for the sole purpose of silently judging you. Sweetie Belle walks beside you, running through her day with her motor mouth.

“So then, out of nowhere,” she says, “I hear a crash, and I look up to see him on the ground right where he was sitting! It was like Button tripped while sitting down or something!” She turns to you and says, “Oh, by the way, what happened in the cafeteria today? I saw you and Vinyl fighting, and a lot of the kids were saying you started it. Did you?”

Without looking at your cousin, you say, “I didn’t start anything. Vinyl’s just being a bitch.”

“She’s alright once you get to know her, I guess.” Sweetie Belle smiles and looks behind the two of you before continuing. “She’s been over the house a couple of times. It’s really hard to get her to talk about herself, though.”

“I bet it is…” you mutter.

“Oh, and by the way,” your cousin says, “don’t let Rarity hear you use bad language. She says it’s ‘unladylike’ or whatever.”

“I don’t really care about being ladylike,” you tell her, “but whatever.”

“Neither do I, but it makes Rarity happy.” There’s a pause before Sweetie adds, “It also gets her to shut up for a bit.” You crack a smile as Sweetie hastily says, “Just don’t tell her I said that, okay? She’ll get really mad!”

“Don’t worry,” you tell her, “Your secret’s safe with me.” The two of you walk into Carousel Boutique, give a hard-working Rarity a quick hello, and split off once you reach upstairs.

The Crimson Room

Now Playing - SHADOWS

Once more, you find yourself chained to the floor in the red room with the black iron door in the corner. The Curator is nowhere to be seen at first, but he eventually pops into your view from the corner of your eye.

“So,” he taunts, “what Clopney sayings to you have for me today, huh? Or was it all a ‘tough girl’ act?”

“Can it, horse,” you say to him.

“I’ll feed you to the strays if you don’t can it yourself!” he shouts. “I’m the master and you’re the slave!”

“Who the hell does this bipolar horse think he is?” you think to yourself.

“I told you who I am,” The Curator says, glaring at you. “I’m the guy who runs this place, and I know everything that happens here, including your thoughts.” The two of you stare daggers into each other for a minute before he breaks his eye contact and says, “I’ve got something to show you. Come along.”

“There’s no way in Hell I’m going anywhere with you,” you tell him.

“Oh, Liberty, if it were that easy.” The Curator pulls black chains out of the ground and tells you, “However, it’s just like I said; I’m the master, and you’re the slave!” With the last word, he yanks on the chains hard. You fall on your face as your hands are tugged away from you. Muttering as many curses as you can muster, you get up and follow the horse out of the room and into a hallway.

“You see,” The Curator says, “you’re not the only one who’s here. The difference is that these other people aren’t as lucky as you.” He leads you along a twisting path of corridor after corridor before stopping you in front of another black iron door. “Take a look inside,” he tells you as he motions a hoof to the barred window on the door.

Inside, you see someone else chained on the ground just like you were. However, unlike your cell, there wasn’t a folding chair in front of him. You hear the person sobbing, and it’s not until you hear him speak that you recognize who it is.

“Please, someone, just let me out of here!” Mixtape shouts with a strained voice. “I want to wake up from this… this nightmare! I want to see my family again!”

“Poor soul doesn’t know what’s in store for him,” The Curator says maliciously. You watch the room as a strange black mass starts to gather in one of the corners. What happens next is forever burned into your mind.

The mass starts to rise up, forming a human shape. However, this thing is far from human: the monster oozes a black substance, and its haunting eye sockets and gaping, screaming mouth are blood red. It starts to limp over to the helpless Mixtape, who starts to scream in terror.

“What the hell is that thing!?” he shouts as the monster get closers with each sickly step. “Oh Great Goddesses, help me! Please! I’m begging you, don’t let that thing come near me!” Whatever greater beings that were listening, though, had obviously turned their backs to him. The monster reaches him, looming over his body. The black substance drips all over Mixtape, causing him to scream even louder. The goop envelops his body, leaving you and the monster to watch a black heap scream for mercy.

“I call that a Taken,” The Curator chimes in, a bored tone in his voice. “It’s what happens when people are left here too long. The screams for help attract the monsters, and they smother them in shadow. They die in the dream, they die in real life.” You look back to the cell to see that Mixtape has completely turned into a Taken. His screams of terror have been warped into a horrifying cry of what seems to be pain. He -- it now, not he -- looks at you for a moment before dissolving into the floor.

“So,” The Curator says, tossing the chains in his hoof, “are you sure you want to take your chances in here? I don’t think you have much longer.”

You look at him, then back to the cell. On one hand, you would live the rest of you life a free woman, at the cost of dying in a terrifying manner. On the other, you’ll live, but as a slave to a sociopathic, bipolar, absolutely insane horse. When you weigh out the choices in your head, living a dream life of slavery is better than dying.

It’s a hard choice, but you decide to be The Curator’s slave. You face him and say, with defeat in your voice, “Unchain me. I’ll be your… slave.” You try your hardest to lace the last word with venom, hoping there’s a slim chance that it might poison him. After all, you’re in a dream, as far as you know. Anything can happen.

“Good girl,” your now-master says. He breaks the chains connecting you to him, but not the one connecting your hands together. “First, survive the Taken. Bye-bye, now!”

“Wait, my hands!” you shout, but it’s too late; The Curator has already disappeared into nothing. “Great,” you deadpan, “now I can walk around. That’s about it. How nice.” You aren’t left alone for long, however, as the howls of the Taken start to come from down one of the halls.

Now Playing - AWAKENING

You turn around and run as fast as you can the other way, taking an immediate left turn into a large, empty room. “Wow, really putting the ‘dead’ in dead end, huh?” you think to yourself as you turn around to run out of the room.

Too late. A swarm of Taken, both in humanoid and horse form, block your exit. Panicking, you do everything you can think of to wake up; running yourself against the wall, shouting out loud, and even banging your head on the floor. You can feel the insanity fill inside of you as you come to realize that there’s no way out from death. The Curator tricked you, and now you were going to pay dearly.

As the horde closes in on you, liquid shadow already starting to cover you, your mind fills with images. Greeting Rarity at Carousel Boutique. The walk you took that night. Vinyl showing you around the school. Your first meeting with The Curator. Vinyl pushing you to the floor. The bond you and Sweetie Belle made on the way home earlier.

When the bond you made comes to mind, you feel a great power swell up inside you as a deep, booming voice speaks in your head. “I am thou, and thou art I.”

“No, it can’t end like this!” you shout as your vision starts to blur. “I can’t die here!” You scream at the top of your lungs as a single word enters your mind. With your last breath, you shout it.

“PERSONA!”

The chain holding your hands together breaks apart, and the power inside of you surges outward. You shakily stand up as the shadows are purged from your body. As you look up, you see a faceless being hovering over you, dark energy swirling in and around it. The remaining Taken step away from the spirit, seemingly afraid.

“I am Andropodon, the common slave,” it tells you in the same booming voice. “I will protect my master to the death.”

“To the death, huh?” you say in between gasps of breath. “Well, time to see what you can do. Kill them all.”

“I will do my master’s bidding,” Andropodon says. He waves his hands out in front of him, and a flurry of ice spike shoot out from under his ragged poncho. The Taken that are hit by the spikes explode into darkness, and those left begin shuffling forward. Andropodon takes one of his hands and thrusts it out, causing multiple purple runes to appear under the Taken that remain. He crushes his hand, and the Taken all crumple like paper.

“So,” you say as the room settles and Andropodon disappears, “this power… this is my Persona, huh?” You give a sigh of relief as you fall to the floor, blacking out.

Author's Note

Dear Lord, that felt like it took forever and a half to write.
So, I've got a lot of things to explain, I guess. Why is Liberty acting like an asshole sorta-kinda? What's up with Vinyl flipping shit? And what exactly is Andropodon?

Well, I can answer one of them. Andropodon is a Persona that is skilled in Bufu and Mudo skills. He is weak to Hama and Agi, and strong against Mudo.

So, next chapter when? I dunno. You guys know my schedule sucks.
Peace out.