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.