Ponysona: The Game of Fate

Chapters

June 23rd, Prologue (1)
June 24th, Prologue (2)
June 26th, June 27th
June 25th, Ponyville Special Shadow Ops

June 23rd, Prologue (1)

June 23rd, 2012

A purple, unicorn mare awoke in a dark, blue room, it resembled a mansion’s foyer, she got up and looked around, a bizarre creature sat at a sofa in front of her, with a mint green mare beside it. The creature seemed to have the head of a goat, a serpentine body with a red, scaly tail and different limbs, a reptilian leg, an equine leg, a lion’s paw and an avian talon.

“Greetings, Twilight Sparkle, you’re finally here, and not a single moment too soon or late,” The creature said.

“What the hell is going on?” The mare, apparently named Twilight Sparkle, asked.

“Oh, how rude of me, my name is Discord, and this place is known as the Velvet Room,” The creature explained, “This is a place in between time and space, dreams and reality, mind and matter,” Discord continued.

“Alright then, and who is your assistant?” Twilight asked.

“This here is Lyra, she helps me with attending my guests,” Discord replied, “Changing the subject, do you know anything about tarot?” He questioned.

“Not really, I know all of the cards, sorta,” Twilight answered.

“Well then, shall we play for a moment or two?” Discord offered, a deck of 22 cards appeared from thin air before him and safely dropped onto the table below, Discord shuffled the cards and drew a set of 6 cards before laying them out in a pentagon. He flipped one of the cards, the one at the top of the shape, it was The High Priestess.

“What does this mean?” Twilight asked.

“This card symbolizes knowledge, intuition, the growth of one’s mind and body,” Discord explained, “Essentially, you shall grow as a person as time passes, you shall learn new things and generally grow stronger,” He added. Discord drew another card, this time it was the Judgment card.

“What about that one?” Twilight was curious, as she was before.

“Judgment symbolizes the departure between the past and future, as you grow, you shall reap what you have sown, no matter the consequences, and you shall move on,” Discord explained, he drew one last card, The Tower, “I see, The Tower says that if no pieces seem to fit, destiny shall set them apart and you shall be able to see new paths, maybe a new beginning,” He explained the final card.

“Wow, this is something, anything else?” Twilight asked once more.

“I’m afraid we are out of time for tonight’s meeting,” Discord announced.

“Do not feel bad, we shall meet again soon,” Lyra said, “Until then, farewell, Ms. Twilight”

Twilight woke up on a golden chariot being pulled by armored pegasi, a small green and purple dragon tugged at her ear to wake her up, Twilight calmly lifted up her head and began to talk to her dragon friend.

“Spike, I just had a really weird dream,” Twilight began, “I was in a freaky blue mansion with a monster called Discord and he apparently read my future with some weird cards or whatever,” She explained.

“Must’ve been a good dream, you were out for almost the entire trip down to Ponyville,” The baby dragon, named Spike, said.

“Not really, it felt extremely real, like it wasn’t even a dream,” Twilight said.

“We’re almost there, ma’am,” One of the winged stallions carrying the chariot said, Twilight looked down from the vehicle and saw the beautiful and peaceful town of Ponyville for the first time, she thought it would be a great new home and was thankful that the princesses allowed her to move there from the big, fancy Canterlot. The pegasi landed by the local train station and Twilight, alongside her companion, Spike, stepped out of it and walked around, they were supposed to meet someone that would show them the way to their new home in Ponyville, but there seemed to be nobody around.

“we were meant to meet somepony at the station, but I can’t see anyone who could be helpful,” Twilight said, losing a bit of hope, but a beige mare with a gray mane and glasses walked up to her and began to talk to Twilight.

“Hello, I presume you are Twilight Sparkle, am I correct?” The mare asked.

“Yep, that’s me, and this here is my friend, Spike,” Twilight answered.

“Oh, good!” The mare said, “I am the mayor of this town, Celestia told me to find you at the station today so I could show you around and get you to your new home,” She continued.

“Alright, can you just get us home? I just want to unpack and have a quick nap, I can walk around town on my own, if that’s fine with you,” Twilight said.

“It’s fine, just follow me,” The mayor said, Twilight and Spike went after her, trotting through the streets of Ponyville.

“What do you mean ‘have a nap’? You slept for two hours in the chariot!” Spike angrily whispered at Twilight.

“Yeah, I may have lied, but I do want to unpack our stuff soon,” Twilight whispered back.

The three of them walked for a while until they got to a a tree with a sign sticking out of it with a book drawn on it, it must’ve been a library.

“This is where you’ll be staying,” The mayor said, “It’s not the best house around, but it’ll have to do,” She added.

“This is fine, sleeping in a library could be great, if I wake up in the middle of the night with nothing to do, I can just pick up a book and read through it,” Twilight happily replied, “What do you think, Spike?”

“Yeah, it sounds nice, I’m with it as long as it’s equally nice inside,” Spike said.

“Well then, I guess I’ll leave you two alone now, if you need my help, I’ll most likely be at the town hall,” The mayor said. Twilight and Spike got into their new home and set up all their stuff, the top floor of the library already had a set of beds, a large one for Twilight and a small one for Spike, they spent their day setting up all their belongings and they eventually went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Twilight woke up to Spike’s snoring, she could see that the moonlight going into her window was oddly purple, she got up and heads outside, not bothering to wake up Spike. As she steps outside, she comes across a few other ponies heading towards something, she looks in the direction they’re heading towards and sees a massive tower at the center of Ponyville, she decides to go there as well.

“I have no clue what’s happening, nor do I really like it,” Twilight talked to herself as she headed into the tower, she walked inside and it was extremely dark, she was attacked by something, that scratched her hoof, she was then knocked out.

“AAGH!” Twilight screamed as she woke up safely the next day, she was not in the darkness or dead or anything, she was back in her bed at the library, Spike quickly got up and got ready to defend Twilight, but nothing was there.

“Geez, Twi, why did you scream like that?” Spike asked.

“I think I had a nightmare,” Twilight said, “I walked outside and followed some ponies into a huge dark tower and something killed me in there, I think,” She talked about her dream.

“You’ve just been having weird dream after weird dream, haven’t you?” Spike condescendingly asked.

“It just happened twice so far, shut up!” Twilight got angry at Spike, for no good reason. They headed outside and Twilight felt something on her hoof, a burning sensation, she tried to shrug it off for a while, but couldn’t, she raised her hoof and looked down at it, a set of numbers were seemingly ticking down, the highest being at ‘364’, presumably meaning ‘days’, the numbers resembled burn marks on her skin.

“Twilight, are you okay? Why’d you stop?” Spike asked, looking back at the horrified Twilight looking at her own hoof.

“Spike, can’t you see this?” Twilight asked back, panicking.

“See what? You’re just pointing at your hoof and there’s nothing there,” Spike replied, getting slightly worried.

“So, you can’t see this eerie clock on my coat?” Twilight asked, looking around a bit.

“No, what are you even talking about?” Spike responded. He continued to walk forward, leaving Twilight to be confused on her own, she looked at the ponies around her, at their hooves, all of them had the same type of clock burned into their coat, but all of them had different times, some said ‘350’ or other, lower numbers, followed by the rest, meaning they must’ve had the marks for longer.

Twilight tried to shrug all that off and catch back up to Spike, she did it and they continued to walk around the town, they got to a large house decorated to look like a cake of sorts, they walked inside and were greeted by an energetic pink mare with a curly mane.

“Hi there, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you two around,” The pink mare said, “Are you new in town? I have a whole bunch of songs to greet new ponies here!” She continued, almost completely losing her breath. Twilight saw that the pink mare had the marks too, so she must’ve also been in the tower before.

“Um, we would rather not hear many songs right now, who are you anyway?” Twilight said.

“Pinkie Pie’s the name, partyin’s my game!” Pinkie enthusiastically replied, “So, if you’re not in the mood for songs, what baked goods may I hook you up with?” She said, resting her head on her hoof over the counter.

“Can we just have a pair of chocolate muffins to go?” Spike ordered.

“Oki doki, new friends!” Pinkie said, skipping back into the kitchen of the building and coming back a moment later with a tray containing two chocolate muffins, as they had ordered, “Here you go, since you’re new friends and costumers, I’m sure I can get away with giving you your first items for free, but you’ll be paying the next time, and the time after that, and after that, and so on,” Pinkie joked, putting the muffins in their own bags, one for Spike and the other for Twilight.

“Alright, bye Ms. Pinkie,” Twilight said.

“Wait! Can you at least give me your names?” Pinkie shouted.

“Sure, I’m Twilight Sparkle, and this little dragon is Spike,” Twilight introduced herself and her baby dragon buddy.

“Alright, than-” Pinkie stopped for a second, noticing that Twilight also had the clock markings on her hoof, “Uh, thanks!” Pinkie finished her sentence and headed back into the kitchen, as Twilight and Spike headed out of the building.

That night, Twilight went to sleep, despite worrying about the meaning of the clock or how it got there or how Spike couldn’t see it. As she fell asleep, she soon woke up back in the Velvet Room, where Discord and Lyra were having tea.

“So, you have returned, just as I expected,” Lyra began, “What business do you have with us tonight, Ms. Sparkle?” She asked.

“Well, I got this weird burn on my hoof, it sorta looks like a bunch of numbers,” Twilight said.

“I see, so you’ve entered the tower of Amenti,” Discord deduced.

“I don’t know what that is, sadly,” Twilight replied, “But I assume you mean the big purple tower at the center of Ponyville that I went into last night,” She said.

“Indeed, it seems that the Tower card in our last meeting was more than just symbolic,” Discord said, laughing for a second, “By entering Amenti, you have signed your soul to the Game of Fate,” He said.

“What?” Twilight was confused.

“In this game, you have one year to explore the tower, if you die in there, you shall be forgotten forever, if you run out of time, something shall happen and you will die anyways,” Discord explained.

“So I’ll die in one year? What is going on, why is all this happening?!” Twilight questioned.

“If we were to explain everything, there would be no fun in actually exploring the tower and finding out more,” Lyra explained.

“Yes, as you go into the tower at night, you may find out you have a special power, one that all players of the Game of Fate have to defend themselves in Amenti,” Discord added to what his assistant said.

“Alright then, can I get going?” Twilight asked, trying to seem like she was in a hurry.

“Yes, you may awaken now, we hope to see you one more time soon,” Discord responded and Twilight woke up back in the real world, she looked at her clock markings and they now said ‘363’, meaning she had one less day to try and explore Amenti.

Author's Note

So, a new story begins, and a new, long session of regret comes with it.
This prologue is to start setting everything up, the Velvet Room, the Tartarus/Dark Hour of the story, the titular Game of Fate, which has nothing to do with fate, it's just a cool af name.
Next chapter, I'll hopefully throw in a few characters and possibly finally have the Personas, and after that, we'll have the social stuff.
I hope you're enjoying this story so far, if you're not, I cannot blame you.

June 24th, Prologue (2)

June 24th, 2012

Twilight got up from bed and headed outside, she rushed to find a local bank to try and get some money from her account, but she ended up bumping into a blue pegasus with a multi-colored mane.

“Oh gosh, I’m sorry, I should watch where I’m going,” Twilight said.

“No, it’s fine,” The pegasus replied.

“I’ll get going now…” Twilight said, lowering her head in shame.

“No need to feel down, how about we meet later?” The blue mare said, “My name’s Rainbow Dash, by the way,” She introduced herself.

“Okay, when and where do we meet up?” Twilight wondered.

“Let’s go to Sugar Cube Corner around evening, it’s the bakery, café place,” Rainbow Dash suggested, Twilight nodded and they headed in their own ways. Twilight arrived at the bank and asked the unicorn cashier to check for an account under her name, ‘Twilight Sparkle’

“Yes, we have an account registered from Canterlot, how much would you like to withdraw from your… 7400 bits?” The cashier lady asked.

“I think I’ll go with just 100 bits,” Twilight responded, the cashier went in the back and got a bag filled with 100 coins to hand to Twilight, the purple unicorn picked up the bag and took it home. Twilight spent some time with Spike at home, they read some books together and headed out by a lake to chat together.

An hour or so later, Spike headed back home and Twilight went down to Sugar Cube Corner to meet with Rainbow Dash. Arriving there, Twilight sat down at a table, where Rainbow soon showed up and sat with her, and Pinkie Pie later joined them.

“Dash, you never said anything about Pinkie joining us,” Twilight mentioned.

“You need all the help you need when you go into that tower at night,” Rainbow said.

“That tower? You mean Amenti?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, so it has a name?” Pinkie asked, “A weird name, but it still counts, I guess,” She said.

“How do you know what it’s called?” Dash questioned Twilight.

“A freaky guy in a dream told me about this game and the creepy burn clocks and all that,” Twilight said, but she was met with vacant stares from the two other mares, “Don’t ask, just try to roll with it for now,” She insisted. The three had some random conversations, unrelated to Amenti and their mission.

“Well, anyways, it’s almost pitch black outside, we should get prepped for the long night exploring ‘Amenti’ that’s ahead of us,” Rainbow Dash said, she got a set of long cases from the corner of the main room of Sugar Cube Corner, she opened the cases, one contained a short sword, another had an ax and the last had a baseball bat, Rainbow handed the bat to Twilight, who held it in her mouth. Midnight grew closer, and the three of them stepped outside of Sugar Cube Corner to see what happened at exactly the turn of the days.

“My clock stopped,” Twilight commented.

“Everyone’s clock stops at this time, for one hidden hour, every day, the clocks stop and ponies are able to go into the tower,” Rainbow explained, “And time doesn’t pass as long as you’re inside of it, so we can dungeon crawl and collect stuff until we get tired,” She excitedly added.

“This is gonna be so fun!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“It’s a full moon night, look up, Twi,” Rainbow said, Twilight did as she was told and stared upwards at the massive, purple moon above them, it must’ve been much closer to the planet than any other night, but she hadn’t looked, so there was no way to be sure.

“Wow,” Twilight had only one word to describe this and how she was feeling, they arrived at the massive tower of Amenti, Twilight was almost scared to go anywhere near it, but she had to, so the three mares headed into the rippling black and purple portal that was the entrance to Amenti.

Inside, it was very dark, the floor felt cold under Twilight’s hooves, she looked down and it seemed to be covered in a thin layer of water, it also reflected the portal behind them and nothing else.

“What do you say you lead the way, Twilie?” Pinkie asked, Twilight didn’t know how to feel, she was completely new to all of this and she was going to lead these two through this dangerous dungeon? In the end, Twilight had to refuse, so Rainbow Dash went ahead while Pinkie and Twilight followed.

As the three of them explored the first floor, Rainbow swore she could hear something a few floors above, being the courageous and outrageous type, she wanted to get up there quickly to see what monster awaited them. They came across a small black blob with red eyes blocking their path, Rainbow sneaked up to it and slashed at it, enraging the creature, it transformed into a mess of limbs with a blue mask with a surprised look.

“Oh no, we have to run!” Twilight panicked at the sight of the monster.

“It’s okay, it’s just a low level Shadow, we can take it,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Yeah!” Pinkie shouted, “Get ‘em, Meret!” She exclaimed, a bipedal being in golden, lion-like armor appeared behind Pinkie and seemingly cast a flame unto the monster, setting it ablaze and making it run into a wall.

“Persona!” Rainbow Dash said before another bipedal creature, this time cyan with robotic features and red stripes, appeared behind her to slash at the beast with a battle ax, the ‘Shadow’ disappeared into red smoke, it left behind a red and golden treasure chest. Twilight did the honors of opening it to see what was inside, it was a bag of 40 bits.

“That’s kinda disappointing,” Rainbow mentioned, “I expected a potion or two, but okay,” She added. The three of them made it through a few floors, fighting more enemies along the way and continuously hearing the noises in the floors above.

They reached a floor that seemed to be a long corridor with pillars on the sides and windows on one side, but the windows just lead out to brick walls rather than some big landscape, the path seemed to be blocked by a big, black wall.

“What’s this? Should I touch it?” Twilight asked herself.

“It might be a big ass Shadow, you shouldn’t just poke it, whack it with the bat,” Rainbow suggested. Twilight got her baseball bat ready and swung at the massive wall in their path, a pillar of red, beady eyes formed at the center of the wall and it transformed in a cloud of red smoke, it became a huge mess of limbs and heads, all with red eyes, at the top of the creature was a purple, angry mask held over its large, red, glowing eye.

“Oh Celestia, I think I messed up!” Twilight shouted, trying to back away from the monster that had just formed, but it opened up its massive mouth to try and eat her, but Rainbow Dash’s Persona stopped it with an ax to the face, the beast crawled along the walls and ceiling to get to Dash and Pinkie, the ones who were provoking it with attacks.

“Uh oh,” Pinkie said in horror, she and Dash had never fought a Shadow like this, so they were at a loss of what to do in this situation, they tried to fight it off, but the Shadow was way too strong for just the two of them. Seeing her new friends in pain in front of her made Twilight very sad and angry all at once, she had even less clue of what she could do, hope seemed lost…

“You, out there, Ms. Twilight Sparkle,” Said a voice in Twilight’s mind.

“Who’s in there?” Twilight asked herself.

“Oh great, now Twilight is talking to herself, I think she lost it,” Rainbow commented, “I knew it was an awful idea to bring her along, she has no fighting experience at all!” She shouted.

“Don’t you want to save your friends? Don’t you want to be useful to this team?” The mysterious voice continued.

“Yes, I’d love to do those,” Twilight said, something in her snapped and she felt an immense headache and stumbled around the corridor, Rainbow and Pinkie could only stare in confusion.

“Then let us forge a contract,” The voice said, “I am thou, thou art I, I arise from the depths of your soul to fulfill your desires, you wish for wisdom, knowledge and most of all: Safety for your friends and family!” The voice said,

“Yes!” Twilight shouted in response.

“Then say my name!” The voice ordered.

“Come to me, Seshat!” Twilight yelled, a blast of energy came from her and almost blew everyone around her away or to pieces. A beautiful creature in purple and pink armor appeared, its body was covered in flowers and other patterns, its mask slid open to reveal its face, completely unlike any pony’s face, the being raised a long and sharp spear and pointed it at the monster attacking Twilight’s friends.

“Very well, your wishes are my commands,” The being, named ‘Seshat’ said. Twilight and the monster then began to fight, Twilight ordered Seshat to stab at the beast before her, the monster took light damage, it then fought back by whacking at Twilight with it’s own mask. Twilight cast a fire spell and damaged the massive Shadow, it fought back by smashing itself into Twilight, doing a lot of damage. Rainbow Dash got up and joined Twilight in the battle, she used her Persona’s battle ax to slash at the Shadow, Pinkie then got in on the battle and used an ice spell, completely freezing the monster and allowing Twilight to slice it in two for the final blow.

Twilight’s vision grew blurry as the Shadow was destroyed, she then fainted on the spot and she was dragged out of Amenti by Rainbow and Pinkie.

Twilight awoke in the Velvet Room, where Discord helped her get up and greeted her.

“Hello dear, you are back already?” Discord sarcastically asked, “Well, jokes aside, I was very much expecting you tonight, as this was the night you awakened your Persona,” He said.

“Per- What now?” Twilight asked.

“A Persona is a manifestation of your inner self and your desires, it’s a power that awakens to anyone who becomes a player in the Game of Fate,” Lyra explained, “Your current Persona is named Seshat, and it is of the Fool arcana,”

“Thank you, Lyra,” Discord said, “Having a Persona is nothing unique, what is unique is your ability to possess more than just one at any given time,” He explained.

“So, what does all that mean?”

“It means that you may now use our help to create new Personas and use more and more in battle, all with their own abilities, strengths and weaknesses,” Discord explained, “As you grow closer to certain people in your life, the Personas you may created shall be stronger, these connections are known as Social Links, but you will learn more about all this later on,” He said.

“Why not explain it all now?” Twilight asked.

“As we said in your first visit, there’s no fun in finding out everything at once,” Lyra said, “Also, we’re out of time,” She added.

“It would seem that’s true, but do not fret, you may return here at any night, of your own accord, course, you’ll surely know the way in when you see it,” Discord said.

“Well, goodbye, I guess,” Twilight said as her vision blurred and she got back to the real world.

The next day, Twilight woke up with a serious headache, though not as bad as the one she had when Seshat awakened, she looked at her hoof and, sure enough, it now marked ‘362’

Author's Note

Stuff got interesting, maybe possibly.
As promised, this chapter started the dungeon crawly, action stuff, and Twilight got her Persona. Now is a good time to mention that the Personas in this story are based on Egyptian deities, and, if you haven't noticed, this story takes heavy inspiration from Persona 3 above all else, with a bit of the other games in there as well (The Persona 5 awakening style thing, for example)
I hope to make this story weekly, but if I'm too impatient to make it weekly or way too patient to make it at all... I don't know, something something "I might kill myself," something something, "edgy quote goes here"
If you are or are not enjoying the story so far, really doesn't matter, leave a comment letting me know what you think, but if all you want to say is: "Poop", "kys bich XD" or something else along those lines... Comment anyway, who cares.
UPDATE: I noticed that I never explained how Rainbow got Twilight's name, as she never introduced herself and Rainbow calls her by name when telling her to look at the moon. I hate myself sometimes. Let's just say that, off-screen, Pinkie gave Rainbow Twi's name, or some other dumb excuse like that.

June 26th, June 27th

June 26th, 2012

Twilight got up from her bed and woke up Spike, much to his dismay, she got her bag of bits and got him to follow her to the nearest market place. The traversed the town and reached a plaza with various carts with different fruits, apples, oranges, lemons, if one could think of a fruit, someone was selling it there. Twilight went up to a cart run by an orange mare, her mane was yellow and tied up and she wore a hat.

“Howdy, how may I help ya two today?” The mare asked with a rather thick accent.

“We’d like a few apples,” Twilight requested, “How many can we have for 50 bits?” She asked.

“Each of these apples is 2 bits, so…” The orange mare said and thought for a second, “That’ll be 25 apples,” She said.

“I think that’s a bit too much, how about 10 for 20 bits?” Twilight changed her mind.

“Sure, sugar cube, comin’ right up” The mare said, she reached under the cart and got a paper bag to put the 10 apples into.

“Thank you very much, Miss…” Twilight paused to get the mare’s name.

“The name’s Applejack,” She said.

“Well, thanks, Ms. Applejack,” Twilight finally finished her sentence and handed the mare the 20 bits before taking the paper bag with the apples and heading off. On the way, Twilight and Spike almost tripped over a line of small animals, such a rabbits, tortoises and a few ducks, a yellow mare with a long pink mane and tail called out for the animals and almost bumped into Twilight on her way towards them.

“I’m sorry, miss, I need to get my animals back,” The mare said before continuing after the animals, Twilight looked down for a second and caught a glimpse of the clock on the yellow mare’s hoof, but could not really tell how many days were marked there. Twilight told Spike to take the apples back home while she headed to Sugar Cube Corner, Pinkie was there, resting at a table.

“Oh, hi there, Twilight!” Pinkie said, getting off her seat and trotting over to Twilight, “Do you want anything? I’m kind of on break right now,” She mentioned.

“Well, if you’re on break, maybe we could have some fun, go out and talk and such,” Twilight suggested.

“Wait, so you want to hang out? What if we get back too late and I can’t take the ponies’ orders and the place loses money and we go bankrupt and then-”

“Pinkie, stop, I just want to go somewhere with you, we can come back anytime,” Twilight said.

“Okay then!” Pinkie quickly changed from extremely worried to her usual extremely happy self, the two of them headed out into Ponyville and spent some time at a diner downtown. While they were there, Pinkie decided to start some conversation.

“So, what’ve you been doing between our super special missions?” Pinkie asked.

“You know, just staying at home and sleeping, mostly,” Twilight replied, “We’ve been doing this for two days and I’ve barely been here longer than that, maybe wait a while before asking something like that?”

“Oh, it’s fine, I thought you’d be practicing magic or reading and stuff like that,” Pinkie said.

“Oh, I’ve been doing that too,” Twilight said, “But my reading sessions have been taking longer because I either fall asleep from the previous night exploring Amenti or have to go there again,” Twilight joked, Pinkie giggled in response for a second.

“You know, I thought you’d be a bit of a scaredy cat or too much of a bookworm, but you’re actually really cool and nice,” Pinkie complimented Twilight. Twilight felt a slight headache and heard Seshat’s voice again.

“I am thou, thou art I,” It said, “You have established the Social Link of the Temperance Arcana, and have been blessed with the power to create stronger Temperance Personas” The voice added.

“Are you okay, Twilie?” Pinkie asked.

“Yep, just fine, stuff like this has been happening for a while now, I’ll hear some weird voice in my head and get a headache, that’s what happened when I freaked out in the tower a few days ago and got my Persona,” Twilight explained in response.

“Oh, anyways,” Pinkie said, she and Twilight continued to talk for a while and, when they finished their meals, they headed outside, Pinkie had to go back to her job and Twilight had nothing better to do, so she went to her house and read some books. She tucked Spike in and went to bed herself, not bothering with meeting up with the others that night.

June 27th, 2012

Twilight woke up the next day, not bothering to check her clock, she got off of bed and headed outside, she tripped on a white bunny and both of them fell on the ground, the yellow mare from the previous day showed up going after the rabbit, but she stopped to help Twilight up.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry for bothering you with my animal problems two days in a row,” The yellow mare quietly apologized.

“It’s fine, can I help you with this?” Twilight offered to help the mare.

“I guess you could, we have to go catch Angel,” The mare replied, presumably talking about the white rabbit she was chasing down. The two of them followed the rabbit across Ponyville and almost lost it at the market place, but it stopped near Applejack’s cart, Twilight shouted at her to pick up the bunny and she did it, Applejack grabbed the rabbit by the ears and gave it to Twilight.

“Thanks for catching my little bunny, miss,” The mare said.

“Applejack is my acquaintance, I knew she could be of help,” Twilight told her companion, “Oh, I never got your name,” She remembered.

“Oh, it’s, uh, Fluttershy,” The mare said, her voice getting quieter when she mentioned her name.

“What now?” Twilight asked.

“Fluttershy, that’s my name,” Fluttershy said, Twilight understood her this time.

“Well, you’re welcome for my help, Fluttershy,” Twilight said.

“Thank you, in that case,” Fluttershy replied, she wanted to head off to her home, but Twilight stopped her with a loud ‘Wait’.

“Do you know anything about the tower that appears around midnight?” Twilight questioned Fluttershy.

“The tower that appears around midnight?” Fluttershy asked herself, “Oh, the big one that I entered and got this clock thing on me?” She said.

“Exactly,” Twilight said, “I wanted to know if you wanted to join my little group, we go in there every once in a while,” She asked.

“Well, I guess I’ll think about it,” Fluttershy said, heading back home. Twilight, with nothing better to do, asked Applejack if she wanted to let Twilight take care of the apple cart for a moment.

“I could use a break, thanks,” Applejack said. She headed back to her farm and Twilight took over the apple cart, she took care of orders and transactions for the day, Applejack came back about 2 hours later and thanked Twilight for her help.

Night fell and Twilight headed to Sugar Cube Corner to see if the others were there, they were, Twilight greeted the team and sat down with them.

“So, Twilight, do you want to head to Amenti tonight?” Time Turner asked her.

“Sure, could be fun,” Twilight said.

“Alright, we’ll head off at around midnight,” Time said. They headed outside a while later and their clocks stopped, the massive tower of Amenti appeared from the ground underneath the town hall, they tried to go inside but Twilight caught sight of a blue door with an odd light coming throw from the other side of it.

“Twilight, what are you looking at?” Rainbow asked.

“Can’t you guys see this door right here?” Twilight asked back.

“What are you talking about, silly?” Pinkie was also confused. Twilight ignored them and opened the door, the light shined out completely and she headed inside, at the other side of the door was the Velvet Room, Discord and Lyra sat at the other end of the room.

“Why, hello, Twilight,” Lyra greeted her, “For once, I didn’t expect you to show up now,” She joked.

“Yes, I believe you have found the door out in the real world, am I correct?” Discord asked.

“Yep, I sure did,” Twilight replied.

“Well, now you know where you may find us at any night you want,” Discord said, “Anyways, if you have any business with us right now, go ahead, if not, you know exactly where the exit is,” He added.

“Well, goodbye for now,” Twilight said, she waved at Discord and Lyra and they waved back before she got back out of the Velvet Room.

“Twi, where did you go?” Time Turner asked.

“I went through this door that apparently nopony else can see and ended up in this room that I always saw in my dreams,” Twilight replied, “Don’t ask,” She requested.

“Well, okay then,” Time Turner said, “The rest of the group is ready to go into the tower, are you?” He asked.

“Yep,” Twilight cheerfully responded.

“Then lead the way,” Time said. Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie and Rose headed into the tower, they climbed and fought their way back to the second block of Amenti. They made it a few floors past where they had stopped after beating the knight Shadow. They continued to fight different Shadows until they got a message from Time Turner.

“Girls, something big is up ahead, must be a Guardian,” He told them.

“We’ve fought Guardians before, we’ll be just fine,” Rainbow said.

“Yeah, I sure do hope so,” Roseluck sarcastically replied. The got to the next floor and it was shrouded in a dense, black fog.

“Persona!” Twilight shouted, Seshat appeared and spun its spear around like a fan, blowing the fog away before being called back. The fog revealed several red dots, showing that it was a massive Shadow, it condensed into a single being in a white cloak with a blue, surprised mask and a large scythe.

“I sure told you a Guardian was nearby,” Time Turner said.

“Shut the hell up!” Rose shouted at him. She summoned Bastet and attacked the Shadow with an ice spell, but it had little to no effect.

“If you need me to try and analyze the Shadow, I could do it for you,” Time Turner told the four mares.

“Okay, do it now!” Rainbow said, barely dodging the monster’s attacks. An odd floating being with no legs and a temporal motif appeared in the room and floated around the Guardian, shining a green beam at it.

“Okay, this is a Vengeful Fog, a powerful Guardian Shadow, it is weak to wind spells,” Time Turner finished the analysis of the large foe.

“Crap, does anyone’s Persona know something wind related?” Roseluck asked. Twilight felt something within herself, and spoke up without really thinking.

“Sir Lancelot, awaken!” Twilight shouted, the knight Persona she got appeared behind her and swung its lance, firing gusts of wind at the Vengeful Fog, it was almost defeated, Rainbow Dash’s Persona, Shu, used a fire spell and heavily damaged the Guardian.

“Twilight, I’m not sure how you did that, but try it again!” Pinkie said.

“Okay,” Twilight said, she concentrated and shouted once more, “Seshat, attack!” She said, and her initial Persona was summoned and it finished off the Vengeful Fog with its spear.

“Wow,” Roseluck said, “I’m honestly impressed right now, how did you do that?”

“I don’t know, but this guy in my dreams told me about this ability I have to use multiple Personas,” Twilight said, “Guess he was right after all,” She added. The group decided to go back out of the tower for the night, they met back up with Time Turner and Ditzy and they headed their own ways.

Author's Note

As you have seen, I'll start doing some chapters with multiple days, because if each chapter was a day, some of them would be under my personal quota of 1000 words and the story would end at about 300 chapters, and that would not be very good. I have another tactic to avoid having way too many chapters, which you shall see soon enough.
Anyways, the chapter itself, this is the second instance of an original Guardian Shadow, the first being the first masked thing back in the second chapter, which I've decided to call the "Weeping Mask", a bit of unused stuff: There would've been a dream sequence with Discord explaining the full moon Arcana Shadows to Twilight, but it was pointless. Almost as pointless as the Velvet Room sequence that got into the final version.
Blah blah blah, like and comment, blah blah blah, dislike it if you want to, blah blah blah, see you next chapter.

June 25th, Ponyville Special Shadow Ops

June 25th, 2012

Someone knocked at Twilight’s door, she reluctantly got up to see who it was, almost tripping over Spike’s tail on the way to the staircase. She opened the door and it was Rainbow Dash, smiling at Twilight, but the latter just looked like she hadn’t even slept that night.

“Hey,” Rainbow began, “I was gonna try to show you more of the town today, but you look really tired, so…” She said.

“No, it’s fine, I’d love to see some more of good old Ponyville, especially after the craziness I’ve seen in the past few days,” Twilight replied with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“Look, Twilie, I know it might take a while to get used to the insane stuff going on in this town, but you’ll have to live with it if you’re gonna stick around,” Rainbow Dash explained, “You just have to accept what’s happening and move on.”

“Move on?” Twilight asked, angrily, “How should I move on if this might be my last year anywhere?!” She began to rant, but Spike got down there and tugged on her tail to get her attention.

“Twilight, calm down, she just wanted to take you to see the town, nothing much,” Spike said.

“…” Twilight silently stared down at Spike for a moment, “Fine, I’ll go with her, maybe a walk or a snack will solve this,” She spoke, Dash then stepped away and Twilight followed her, they headed to Sugar Cube Corner to have something to eat, Pinkie Pie joined them and they talked during their lunch break.

“So, how are my two best buddies doing today?” Pinkie asked.

“Horrible,” Said Twilight.

“Okay,” Said Rainbow.

“Why is that, Twi?” Pinkie was curious to know why Twilight wasn’t in a good mood.

“I think the trip into Amenti took everything right outta me, I just want to rest right now,” Twilight replied, “As much fun as it was to find all that stuff and fight, or at least, watch you two fight those monsters, I don’t think I want to go there again soon,” She said.

“But here’s a crazy hypo… Hippo… What’s the word?” Pinkie stumbled on her words.

“Hypothesis,” Twilight and Rainbow said in unison.

“Yeah, here’s a crazy one of those,” Pinkie started, “Maybe if we keep going in there while we can, we can find out about whatever mysteries are going on in town, because what if the clocks mean something really evil or really creepy? We have to go in there to find out what’s happening,” She said.

“Well, fair point, we did get these marks when we went into the tower for the first time, and it also gave us our Personas,” Rainbow pointed out, “Maybe you should get a bit of sleep for today and meet us again back here,” She added.

A light brown stallion trotted up to the three mares, he wore a green tie and had his darker mane combed back slightly, he began to talk to the three of them, “Hey, I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation, you said you were traveling into Amenti at night?” He asked.

“Yeah, but…” Twilight tried to speak up but was interrupted.

“Say no more, the name’s Time Turner, I lead an investigation team who also do nightly expeditions into that tower, we call ourselves the Ponyville Special Shadow Ops, PSSO for short, PSO for even shorter, heh,” He introduced himself, he proceeded to request the three mares to join him and his, rather small, team at another table.

“Hi there, new girls!” A gray, blonde mare greeted them happily, looking up from her deck of cards.

“Girls, these are Ditzy Hooves, Rose and, well, you already know me,” Time Turner said.

“Nice to meet you three, I’m Rainbow Dash, this is Pinkie Pie, and my extremely tired purple friend is Twilight Sparkle,” Dash greeted them all back. A tan mare with red hair looked up at them, she must’ve been Rose.

“Time, I thought you said we didn’t need more members and we were fine with just the three of us,” Rose said.

“Well, we could use all the members we have at our disposal, if more ponies cared for their lives, maybe we’d have the entire town on our side,” Time Turner said, on the verge of shouting at Rose, “Oh, about that ‘cared for their lives’ thing…”

“I was just about to ask,” Rainbow said.

“These clocks are counting down for a reason, we’ve been doing research on these things, Amenti and the Shadows for a few weeks now and we already have loads of information,” Time Turner said, “Something in the tower created the Shadows and these clocks to latch them onto innocent ponies who could play their game, if your clock reaches 0, you are dead,” He explained, Pinkie and Rainbow responded with a surprised gasp, while Twilight seemed like she could not care less.

“So, what do we do about that?” Rainbow asked.

“Another thing we found out is that stronger Shadows appear on full moon nights, which means that we have to be well prepared for one of those,” Time Turner dodged the question.

“Okay, I think we fought one of these stronger Shadows before, but, back to my question, what do we do about the death clocks?” Rainbow became impatient.

“Oh yeah, it’s simple, we just have to make it to the top of the tower within 300 days and defeat the master of the Shadows and of Amenti, if we do it in that time limit, none of us dies and Ponyville, possibly all of Equestria, is saved,” Time Turner explained, Rainbow nodded as a signal that she understood it.

“I knew it, we have to go into the tower to find out what’s going on,” Pinkie said.

“Yeah, let’s meet here around 11 PM, we can eat and talk then go straight to Amenti,” Time Turner suggested, “Does that sound good?” He asked, the three mares nodded in agreement. Something flashed in Twilight’s mind, she could hear Seshat’s voice.

“I am thou, thou art I,” The voice began, “You have successfully established the Social Link of The Fool Arcana,” It continued, “You have been blessed with the power to create stronger Fool Personas.”

“Twilight are you okay?” Rainbow said, waving her hoof over Twilight’s face.

“Yeah, I’m fine, why?” Twilight asked.

“You looked like you blanked out for a second there,” Dash said, “Well, if you say you’re fine now, alright, now go back home and rest while you can,” She told Twilight and the unicorn mare obeyed, she headed back home to rest.

Later that day, Twilight got up and headed out to do her own stuff, night fell and she headed to Sugar Cube Corner, at about 11 PM, the rest of the group showed up and joined Twilight at a table in the corner of the building, all of them bringing their own cases, presumably containing weapons.

“I see you got here early,” Time Turner commented.

“Yep, got some rest, went around town, now I’m here,” Twilight responded.

“Well, what are we eating before we head off?” Ditzy asked.

“I’ll get us some nice chocolate cake, a slice for everyone,” Pinkie suggested. She went into the kitchen and cut a slice for each of the members of PSO, she went back and placed a piece for each of them and they all ate. It was midnight and the clocks froze in place, marking ‘362’. They looked out of the window to see the tower of Amenti forming from the ground, they then walked outside and headed towards Amenti.

Arriving at the entrance, Time, Ditzy and Rose stayed back while Twilight, Rainbow and Pinkie almost walked right in.

“Aren’t you gonna follow us?” Twilight asked them.

“I suppose one of us should go with you three,” Time Turner said, “I vote for Roseluck,” He said.

“Why me?” Rose asked.

“Ditzy doesn’t have her Persona yet and somepony has to stay behind to do the scanning and info thing,” Time told her.

“Oh well, I guess a more experienced pony should be the one leading the group through this dangerous tower,” Rose responded.

“It’s only really dangerous during full moons, otherwise, it’s relatively safe,” Time Turner corrected her.

“Ugh, okay, dad,” Rose joked before heading into Amenti with the other three, she mumbled something about getting ‘Mr. Smart’ out of the team soon, which Twilight and Rainbow ignored, while Pinkie just skipped and hopped ahead, without a care in the world. Along the corridors of Amenti, the group fought off various Shadows, but Rose kept it to just her spiked baseball bat.

“Say, Rose, do you have a Persona too?” Twilight asked as they went up a flight of stairs.

“Well, duh, of course I do, the only one in the group who doesn’t at the moment is Ditzy,” Rose replied.

“Then why not show it in the next battle?” Twilight requested.

“Look: A power like this is like your butt,” Rose began her odd comparison, “Do you just greet everyone by flashing them your ass? I doubt it, I only use my Persona if a normal weapon won’t cut it,” She explained.

Twilight could only stare at Rose in confusion and slight disgust, the latter then continued forward and the group made it to another flight of stairs on the next floor.

“Listen, the next few floors seem to be unexplored, we never made it that far up there…” Time Turner told the group, telepathically, “Anyways, there are stronger Shadows up there in the next block of the tower,” He added.

“Alright, maybe little Ms. Twilight will get her wish granted soon enough,” Rose sighed, going up the stairs with the rest of the group and reaching the hallway where Twilight and co. fought the massive, masked Shadow. They crossed the corridor and made it to the next staircase, they went up and reached the second block of Amenti. The walls and floor looked like something one would see in a large, fancy mansion, the group fought through more Shadows until they reached a very large room, almost like a foyer or lobby, they took some steps forward and triggered a large Shadow to appear, it transformed into a masked knight with a lance riding on a ghostly, cloaked horse.

“Watch out, that’s a powerful Emperor Shadow right there!” Time Turner told the group.

“So, you wanted to see my Persona, didn’t you, Twilight Sparkle?” Rose looked at Twilight with a taunting smirk on her face, “Well, I’m no genie, but consider your wish granted,” She said.

“Oh gosh, this better be good,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Persona! Attack, Bastet!” Roseluck shouted, she was covered in a blue aura and a large black lion or tiger formed over her, it roared and revealed a serpent in place of its tongue, “Agidyne!” She yelled out once more, the knight took intense fire damage, but did not fall yet.

“Seshat, stab that thing!” Twilight ordered, her Persona appeared over her and attacked the knight with its spear. The knight counterattacked by dashing into the group with its large lance, but it hit the wall and was disoriented just long enough for Twilight to stab it through the head and destroy it. As the Shadow disappeared, a small card floated down from it and stopped in front of Twilight, it seemed to have the picture of a righteous knight on a mighty, white steed, Twilight hit the card with her hoof and heard a voice in her mind, this time, a more masculine one.

“I am Sir Lancelot, I exist to do the most righteous of deeds and protect the weak and innocent,” The voice said, “Now, I am welcomed into the depths of your soul,” It finished.

Twilight smirked and continued with the group up through the floor of the newly opened block of Amenti, but she and her friends got tired after a while, they got too tired to really proceed through the dungeon, so they had to stop their exploration for that night, Twilight and the group got back out of Amenti and headed their separate ways.

Twilight woke up safely the next day and, to no surprise, the clock was showing ‘362’.

Author's Note

Well, I made myself write a butt comparison, how mature of me, not really at all...
Anyways, time for another quick explanation: The Tartarus rip-off of the story, Amenti, is named after the underworld in Egyptian mythology, or at least, one of the names for it, "Duat" wasn't really catching on for me.
As always, if you're enjoying the story, leave a like and a nice comment, if you're not, I can't blame or control you. I mean, if you did like it, I couldn't control you either... Whatever, do what you want.