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.