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.