Done by a Single Night

I'm gonna try to release at least ONE of my WIP oneshots soon...

Also, took out actual cards for same reason as taking out extra Personas. Just too much stuff, you know?

I also did it so that you guys can't predict who is a link, and who represents what. Because then you can probably predict stuff if you're familiar with Tarot.

Also, I was just staring at the wall when I realized that almost every sad shipfic I ever read was based off of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Have I discovered a new kind of hero's journey?(Whatever a story archetype is called) I do not know. I probably just ruined my chances of releasing that sadfic, which, looking back on, surprisingly had the same frame, too. Dayum.

There was a deep fog, and I was wandering through it like a blundering fool.

The mists cleared, the walls disappeared, and the tiny bit of motor control that wasn't smashed to bits was recaptured.

Shadow RD stood, looking out of the window, in my form.

"You came back," she said, still with Moonbow's voice.

"You certainly didn't," I said. "You were dead!"

"Me? I never was dead. And I never was alive."

"What?"

"What I said is true: I am you, and you are me."

"But, you are Moonbow!"

She laughed, the kind of laugh that isn't exactly evil or happy either, just one that is like 'my henchmen just got sic'd on you.' It was scary. "I am you. I just... am represented by the dead one you most miss."

"...okay... so um... why am I here?"

"I don't know. You can be here for whatever reason you'd like. If you want, you can leave right now."

"Err... well I'm here already, so umm... what do you want to do?"

"You can't ask for information. You can only ask for answers."

"What?"

"I... deal in knowledge. Knowledge you already have, yes, but knowledge nonetheless."

"...I don't get it."

"You don't have to get it. But you will in time... aside from that, you're here for a reason."

"Yes?"

"Soon, you will find the path... soon..."

A glowing square appeared on the ground, and my vision turned into inky blackness.

"Goodbye," she said sleepily.

"Good morning Fluttershy."

"Oh, hello Rainbow... Did you sleep well?"

"Not reall- why am I in your house?"

I looked around. This certainly wasn't my lodging.

"Well I uh, saw you were um, on the floor outside my house and I um, thought I could bring you in... you aren't mad at me, right?"

"Of course I'm not! Thanks pal!" I pat her on the back, and she flinched. "Well, I better get back to my lodgings to rest up, as storms are scheduled for tomorrow."

"Oh, before you leave, can you um, help me get stuff at the supermarket first?"

I pondered it. This would mean less napping. "Shoot, why not."

We flew together down the dirt road. What I never got is why pegasi built so many roads if we could fly. I mean, Cloudsdale became practically known for its roads. There's sayings about it. Its one of their known accomplishments. But everyone was up in the clouds so really what was the point of putting roads down below. I mean still, even if they do connect clouds, we can fly, and its really stupid to-

I bumped into Fluttershy and fell on my face like a pro. "Um, we're here Rainbow," she said, seeing my most certainly planned-out amazing dance move.

"Ah, yes. I knew that."

I felt really tired for some reason, I couldn't remember... Something about something happening sometime yesterday. Amazing deduction. Right.

"Um, well, thanks for the help."

"You're welcome. I didn't know walking was so helpful! If only I could get paid lots for that..."

Speaking of money, I saw Diamond Tiara's father walk her to the schoolhouse. What's his name again...

"But c'mon Filthy, I don't want to go to school!" Ah, that.

"Diamond Tiara, I am your father, and you will adress me as such. And you have to go to school."

"But why?"

"You have to learn things."

"But I don't wanna go to school!"

"Too. Bad." Damn, that's rough. But yeah, he has a point. Well more like three.

"Now Applebloom, ya'll better git goin'." a familiar earth pony said. "Oh, hey Rainbow."

"Sup AJ. What are you doing here."

"Whaddaya think... Ah'm doing..."

"Oh. Right. So err, anything new happening in school?"

"Not much. Well, kind of."

I swirled my hooves around in a motion I intended to mean 'please explain' but ended up looking more like 'help me shovel snow into my intestines'.

"Ya want me to... help shovel snow inta yer intestines?"

"Yes. I mean, no. Please explain."

"So, ya motioned fer me tah shovel snow inta yer intestines, and thus the only thing anypony woulda thought was that you'd want them ta-"

"No, I mean, what you are doing here."

"Whaddaya think... Ah'm do-"

"Just explain!"

"Well t'be ter'bly honest Rainbow, Ah think its pretty dern obvi-"

"Ex. Plain."

"So uh, there's a big play comin' up. They scheduled it fer two weeks from now. Ah think the sign to yer left woulda toldja..."

I looked to my left. 'SCHOOL PLAY IN TWO WEEKS'. Okay...

"So anyways, mah sister got chosen t'direct it. An' this is good, as she's no use around tha farm anyways, an' she thinks she can get her cutie mark."

"Ah. So, what's the play about?"

"Ya see, this is the problem... she has no frickin ideas. She has technicians, and she's set up the stage an' everything, but she doesn't have no story."

"Hmm. Well that's a problem."

"Wait, Ah know! Maybe you can help her!"

"...no I can't, AJ, and you know it."

"Yeah, Ah know, Ah jus' wanted t'say that. Well... guess Ah need t'keep looking."

"Wait, maybe I can help!" Oh no no, what are you doing Rainbow, this is not good, this is not-

"Really?"

Don't say it don't say it don't say it "Yeah! It'll be fine!" Too late...

"Thanks RD!" She pounded me on the back with her hoof. "But... t'be honest, what ideas do ya have?"

"I have no clue..."

I went down to that weird stage thing that the school somehow was allowed to use. I saw a table with papers and an unfinished glass of chocolate milk on it.

"Applebloom! Applebloom!"

"Yes?" A certain yellow filly responded, coming out of the curtains.

"Your sister sent me to help. And of course that will not happen. But I'll try."

"Ah. Thanks! So... how do ya wanna start?"

"Well, to start a story, first we need... a setting."

"An how are we gonna do that?"

"TWIIIIILIIIIIIGHT!!!"

I swear I saw the tree shake.

"You only need to knock once, Rainbow." Ahaha, she knew it was me without opening the- oh yeah she heard my voice. Right.

She opened the door. "Oh, hello Applebloom. What brings you two here?"

"Ah'm directing the school play!" she said proudly.

"Oh. Good for you!"

"Yeah, but Ah have no idea what to do."

"Oh. Not good for you! I'll see what I can do."

"You mean what I can do," I said smugly.

"What?"

"Brace fer impact," Applebloom said.

I drew back and ran into the library's side.

When the dust cleared, Twilight got up angrily. "What the hay was that for?!"

"Ah found it," she yelled.

"Ya see, my plan was that we mess up your library, and the first book we find not on the shelf is the time period we use."

"...while I do not agree with your methods, I suppose that is an adequate way of acquiring a theme. But a better way would possibly be, I don't know... Asking your damn librarian?!"

"Woah, woah, tone down the language for the filly!" Yes, I get to mortify Twi some more! Twi some more!

Applebloom set her book down on a table and opened it. I leaned over.

"Magical Renaissance? Seems a bit difficult to do a play with..."

"Yeah... I don't exactly think people will stay awake," Twilight said. You know its bad when Twilight thinks something in history isn't exciting.

"Naw, Ah think Ah can pull this off."

"...Well, try your best."

"So, what's next on the list?" I asked Applebloom.

I pulled out the dartboard, and nailed its center onto the wheel. "Are you sure this will work," I asked, looking up at the intricate contraption Applebloom built.

"Ah'm positive."

"...okay then..." I put on my flight goggles and ran on the treadmill. The dartboard began to spin really fast, just a blur of color.

Applebloom put on her blindfold and threw a single dart. I stopped running.

On the board, the dart had landed on the space marked 'mystery'. So we're doing a Magical Renaissance Mystery. Yeah, this will definitely work. Yep. What problems are you talking about, fine sir?

"Err... I uh..."

"This is good, this is good! We jus need a main character now!"

Please don't mess this up please please please!!!

"Hmm... well AJ told me 'bout how one of Celestia's scribes once-"

Oh no...

About three hours later, when Applebloom said we were finished, the frame looked something like this:

ROBOTS FIGHTING POLITICIANS DURING MAGICAL RENAISSANCE WHILE HUNTING A MYSTERY SOLVING CHEF.

I have no idea how this will work. But that doesn't concern me anymore. I had to take Applebloom back to school. Apparently in preperation for the play, every monday she gets to do whatever while everypony else at the school prepares to do whatever.

When we came up to AJ's house, Applebloom proudly displayed her work. She took one look at the paper, recoiled like it was on fire, and looked at me oddly. I made a hoof gesture I wanted to mean 'I-have-no-bucking-clue' but ended up looking more like 'I-broke-my-shoulders-because-of-a-rogue-raccoon'.

"You... broke your shoulder-"

"No! I mean," I leaned in to whisper. "This was not my idea. I think you should kind of ask her to change it."

"Oh, wow, Ah wonder where ya'll found that amazing idear?"

"Hey, c'mon! I at least tried to help."

She sighed in defeat. "Ah guess I'll help her. Well, bye."

I was woken by the sound of thunder. It was about eleven thirty. Well, I don't feel like taking another nap. Must be that five hour difference from those other ones...

Okay, so looking for that tree they told me about.

Well, that was extremely obvious. Only apple tree with three colored fruit.

I have no freaking idea how, but I climbed three steps and then slipped, and managed to fall into Twilight's secret room thing. I guess I'm destined to damage her property. Must be fate.

Fluttershy said every other day, or something like that. And apparently that was true, as they were there.

"Sup all."

"Hello Dash," Twilight said. She was looking at yet another weird metal box.

"What's that device for?"

"We're investigating some rather strange thunderstorms."

"Oh, like the ones you know... I built by hoof?"

"The ones over Everfree, stupid!"

"Hey, it wasn't that obvious..."

"Well, when there's a problem, we fix it. Lets go."

As we were walking over, I really thought about why the hell we had to fix this for everyone else.

"Um, why are we doing this?"

"Because its mysterious?" Twilight suggested.

"No, I mean like... ALL of this. We can sleep through all of this, why not? What's your reason for fighting?"

Twilight stopped walking, and stared off into the distance. Which was mostly composed of trees. "You want the short version? Well, when I was admitted into Celestia's school, my parents were really happy. And their proudness never ran out. By the next year, in anniversary, they threw a big party. Like, a really big one. And well... I don't exactly remember what happened next, but all I know is that I woke up in my bedroom, and the world around me was fire. Just... all fire.

"Right when I thought the flames were going to consume me, a pony seemed to come from nowhere. Now I know that he actually indeed did. He was a Persona-user, just like us. He saved me, and when I turned to thank him, he was gone. But in the dirt, he left a single evoker and a note -

"'Serve the justice of our nation.'

"My parents didn't survive. But I didn't need them."

After walking some more, we eventually came to Everfree. I saw a red bolt of lightning fall down, then a black one and finally a golden one. This all happened within about five seconds, so I could see what they meant by weird. Well, even if it was over the span of say, eight hours, that'd still be unusual.

"So, Fluttershy... you still haven't told me your reason for fighting."

She retreated behind the silky shield that is her hair. "Oh, I'd rather not talk about it..."

Knowing her, and my experiences with her in school, I shouldn't press further. That would generally not be a smart thing to do. Unless I wanted to slip on piles of tears down the mountain to my immaculate doom.

We kept following the strange fulgs, trying to find the site of them. Right when we thought we got there, a really big lightning strike came down. Guess we're here.

In front of us was the Castle I've been visiting for the last two days.

"We should probably go inside," Twi said. "The lightning isn't very safe..."

And that we did.

The room looked the same.

"Well um... I think the lightning is uh, telling us to um, go here..." Fluttershy mumbled. "[size=7]I'm scared...[/size]"

What was that thing that Shadow RD told me about? A trap door...

I walked over to the big pedestal with the orbs. Somehow, I could sense where the trap door was.

"What are you doing?"

Its here somewhere... I brushed my hoof around, and almost as if being dusted off, a glowing square revealed itself. It pulsed blue, and for a second, it flashed some runes, then disappeared. The door faded along with it, turning to mist.

"A- are you sure this is a good idea?" Twilight asked.

"Yes. Positive."

"Eep! I'm still scared..."

We went down the trapdoor, step by step. Twilight had given me a sachel with random stuff in it, and among them was not a candle. Every four seconds we had to yell "AHI!" over and over. In retrospect, it was pretty funny.

"You know, you could actually just say fire. Its the idea, not the word that counts. its just that the word 'fire' has been used so much its been tainted. Fire's been used to mean much more than fire, and there's like comical drawings of fire, and stuff. My theory is that if we could-"

"Twi, can you um, stop setting my tail on fire?" Ah. I wondered why we had so much continuous light. Maybe we should give Fluttershy a haircut, then we could make a bunch of candles. Nah, bad idea.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Lemme try that," I said. "Fire fire fire! Fire- buck. Fire! Buckfire!"

Not nearly as effective. It seems to always light Fluttershy's tail on fire, too. Obvious problems.

We walked in silence for a few more minutes. Well, not silence. Not close to that. It was more like walking in fire. I mean, "Fire!".

"Are we there yet?"

"No. I think not."

"Ahi. Why is this of our concern?"

"Why not."

"Can we take a break?"

"No."

"Fire. I mean, ahi. Sorry Fluttershy... can we at least start saying something instead of fi- ahi?"

"Do you know anything else to do?"

"Hmm... fulg."

"What is that supposed to me-"

CRACKLE!

A bolt of lightning flew out from somewhere behind us and whizzed by, illuminating the cave with it, like a firefly. A really big one. That looks like lightning. Okay not really like a firefly.

The bolt kept going for about fourty-five seconds until it hit a wall, somewhere out there.

"...this is gonna be a long walk."

We got to the wall. And realized we had to turn left and go down a few stairs again.

"Celestia da-"

"Fulg! Ahi! Ramen! Damnit, no ramen." I was seriously getting hungry. I guess it is easier to make ramen by hoof then by magic.

"Oh, I um, just in case, I uh, brought some snacks," Fluttershy mumbled.

"What?! And you didn't tell us?"

"Sorry... please don't be mad, I was just thinking, we could-"

"Don't apologize! Hoof it over!"

We have... "Rectangles!" I shouted.

"Rainbow, they're just chocolate bars."

"Shadup! They're rectangles! Magic rectangles!"

These rectangles... amazing!

"Err, I just bought these from the store-"

"But they're still rectangles! Aahahahah!"

I may or may not be getting drunk visually off of the rectangles. Even though visibility is at like zero.

We continued walking, me not unwrapping the amazing gift.

"How long have we been walking?"

"I think like, two hou- wait, what?"

"What's wrong?"

"The weapons are still in activated state... so we are still in the Dark Hour."

"Dark Two Hours."

"That doesn't have the same ring to it."

"No, no it doesn't..."

"Maybe uh, this structure um, continues Dark Hour past one hour?" Fluttershy suggested.

"Hmm… Iunno."

We just kept walking, walking, walking. We kept turning and going down, deeper and deeper, until we hit a dead end.

Twilight was furious. "What? That's it?! We have to go all the way back now and-"

I stepped forward involuntarily. Just like the trapdoor, I brushed the wall, and a door began to form. It was a shade of gray, and was very old-looking. Not physically, but in design. I opened it.

Behind it was… a normal city. We'd come out of one of those old telephone booths. Ponies were just living there like anywhere else. They were eating, walking, talking with their friends… everything was usual. But there were a few things odd.

First off, everything was shades of gray. Second, everything was old. The clothes, the buildings, the styles… everything. Third, nopony had a cutie mark. And finally… nopony gave a damn.

They didn't notice the three strange non-gray mares come out of the telephone booth together. They didn't see we had notably dangerous weapons. And they didn't see that there was an army coming down the street.

A colt walked by us and accidentally brushed my shoulder. "Terribly sorry m'lady." It can't be that they can't see us…

"Well… this is… interesting," I said, taking it all in.

A gray sun above us blazed. "Err, yeah…"

We turned around to go into the booth, but it was walked. Through the frosty glass I could see some random mare with a particularly nice-looking hat chattering on the phone about something.

"Well, we're screwed!"

"Hmm… well, we need to leave. Must be a red herring," Twi said. "Just a spacial anomaly. Made tons of those back in magic class. Let's just find out where we are and leave."

We walked down to a cafe, where the gray colts could read their gray newspapers with their gray coffee. "Um, Mr. Barista, could you uh, tell us where we are? We are um, travelers from… Erikstajisticlan…."

He raised an eyebrow but said nothing about the wondrous country. "Welcome to Engo. Everyone is happy here. Censuses are done every friday. Last check: population 16,386." He continued spitting out facts like a machine, hit gaze into nothing not averting. "Our main agricultural exports include but are not limited to-"

"We get it. Umm, thanks. So, is Engo a country or a city."

He looked genuinely puzzled. "What is a city? Well, we live in Engo. Engo is a large country."

"How big?"

"Umm… I don't know. Six, seven maybe."

"Seven what?"

"Maybe nine…"

We just decided to walk off and find somepony else. There was another colt outside, selling newspapers. He looked about Sweetie Belle's age.

"Hey, um, mister, terribly sorry for uh, bothering you, but uh," Just get to the point Fluttershy!

"Extra! Extra! Engo captures Erikstajisticlan!" The colt yelled. Is that an actual country? Awkward…

"Oh, terribly sorry for disturbing you," Fluttershy said as she slinked away.

"Now hold on!" he said. "Sorry, have to yell that every ten- Extra! Extra! Engo captures Erikstajisticlan!" Now that's dedication. "So, what were you asking?"

"Oh, we are um, travelers from uh, Everfree, and," don't tell him that! "We were wondering, uh, what day is it today?"

"Hm? The day? I don't really know…"

"Doesn't it say on the newspapers?" Twi asked.

He picked one up and turned it over. "I don't know, I don't read these…" That seemed a bit odd. Even I read them, which is saying quite a lot. "Hmm… can't find any sort of date."

"Well, is there a date referenced in an article?"

"No. None, in fact."

We thanked him for the trouble, and left.

"Well, we haven't found any good resources yet."

I unwrapped my not gray candy bar.

"We don't know where to go. Lets just wait for the mare in the booth to finish, and we're home free."

We walked back to the booth, and on the way there, the colt suddenly had an entirely new stack of papers.

"Extra extra! Engo captures Everfree!"

AN: Sorry for the delays. Will release oneshot soon. Probably. You probably shouldn't be able to understand what this all means. Its gonna be hard. But itll make sense in time.

The name Engo is one of many. i got this one from a random letter generator. It was originally spelled Engoe though.