Author's Note

Sorry about the wait folks. E3 pretty much took up a lot of time the past couple of days but I'm still here. I wanted to get a few of these chapters up to ensure you I wasn't going to abruptly give up on this story or just stop writing like I sometimes do. Anyway, I'm planning on getting back to Aftermath and probably And Ever We Fight On so this story probably won't be updated as frequently. Again reminder, this is going to be a LONG fic if you're quite familiar with Persona and other similar fics on here.

Not a Warm Welcome

Sunset found herself in a familiar room, or rather a familiar train car. She was sitting in the exact same seat as she did before and in front of her sat Igor and Moonlight. “I see you have returned,” Igor said with a slightly unsettling grin. “You seem…slightly different from the last time we spoke. It seems your power has finally awoken. Allow me to explain.

“This power is what we call Persona. It is the manifestation of your being and as such, it will protect you from harm. In time, as your power grows, so will your Persona. But there’s more to it than that…”

“As mentioned before, you have the ability known as the Wild Card,” Moonlight continued. “It means you can wield as many Personas as you wish, but of course you would be able to control one at a time. The more Personas you acquire, the stronger you become.”

“There is one other thing,” Igor said. “While fighting will make your Personas grow stronger, it is the bond that you have with others that will increase your powers exponentially.” He chuckled slightly. “In time, you will understand more. For now, it is best you return to sleep. The next time we meet, it will be by your doing. I am looking forward to see how you progress on your new journey…”

Sunset’s alarm was going off as she opened her eyes. She rubbed her eyes slightly as she turned off the alarm and sat up in her bed. The dream she had…and the events that happened yesterday didn’t seem real to her, and yet it was all there in her head. This Metaverse…Persona…how is it all connected…and why? Sunset shook her head as she got up out of bed and made her way towards the bathroom to take a shower. It was odd, she noted as she washed herself, how at one point she had practically been on fire and yet she remained unscathed from the whole incident.

As she went back to her room and got dressed, her thoughts then turned to Rainbow Dash. She was hoping the girl hadn’t told the others about what happened; not that they would believe her but it still had to be kept quiet. Before she left for school, she opened a drawer that contained a pistol, one that her father had bought for her for protection since she was technically too young to register for a firearm (Let’s see Gladmane try that little stunt on me again, she had thought at the time). She picked it up and unloaded the magazine for a few moments before sliding it back in and racking the slide, sliding a bullet into the chamber. Never hurts to be prepared…

As Sunset made her way to school, she again heard someone running up behind her and she turned, expecting Rainbow Dash but instead it was Twilight who stopped in front of her out of breath as she put her hands to her knees. “Good…I finally…caught up to you…” Twilight panted.

“I would’ve thought you had beaten me here already, is everything alright?” Sunset asked.

Twilight suddenly straightened as she finally caught her breath. “Oh no, everything is fine,” she said. “I just…thought I’d try to see you before class. Listen, I know we only met a few days ago but I appreciate you showing kindness and letting me hang out with you so…I thought I could return the favor somehow…you know since we’re kinda both new students and all.”

“As long as you promise not to mention joining the soccer team,” Sunset said with a smile.

"Huh? Oh…” Twilight giggled. “Yeah I figured that’s what was going on…but actually I was thinking of more regular clubs. I’m guessing you probably heard most of them. Anyway, maybe after school we can check out the Music Club. I only go a few times per week but mostly just to keep up on playing piano.”

Sunset chuckled. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

Twilight suddenly blushed. “W-Well I can do a lot of things…I’m not bragging of course!”

“I know…” As interested as she was, she remembered the promise she had made to Spike. “…however I might not be able to do it today. Something kind of came up…maybe tomorrow?”

“Oh…that’s fine.” Twilight looked disappointed. “Actually, I didn’t even ask if you play anything.”

“…I play guitar. Well, at least I used to before moving here.”

“There’s a guy here that plays too so…maybe that’ll give you more incentive to check it out?”

“Sounds good to me.” The two of them kept chatting as they made their way into the school.

As the morning passed, Sunset was constantly reminded in her classes that the next test (in pretty much all of her classes) would be coming up early next week. She wondered if perhaps this Saturday she could do a study group with the girls as well, if they were down with it. If not, she could always do it with Twilight.

As she entered the cafeteria, Sunset could see Rainbow Dash was deep in conversation with the girls and she suddenly had a bad feeling she knew what Rainbow was talking about. Unfortunately, her fears were confirmed as she went up to the table.

“So there we were, surrounded by monsters when suddenly BAM! Sunset was suddenly on fire and this giant bird of flames came out of here and mopped the floor with them! It was awesome!” Sunset groaned inwardly. Why the hell was she even mentioning this to them!?

“It seems kinda weird that you’d be having a dream with Sunset and a…talking dog in it?” Applejack said, looking at her oddly.

“Well…he sounds like a very nice dog,” Fluttershy said with a smile. “But I don’t like the sound of him being in such a dangerous place…”

“Speaking of which, hello darling,” Rarity said as Sunset came up. “Don’t mind Rainbow here, she’s talking about some crazy dream she had.”

“I can see that…” Sunset said, glaring at Rainbow.

“I’ve had some pretty crazy dreams in my life but this is a new one for me,” Pinkie giggled. “Mostly mine revolve around food.”

It wasn’t long before Rainbow caught Sunset’s look. “W-Well you know, it was just some…random dream that popped into my head! You know how it is!”

“Yeah…sounds pretty random,” Sunset deadpanned.

Applejack raised an eyebrow as she glanced between the two of them. “Anyway, guess next week is going to be full of testing. Think you’ll be ready for it Sunset?”

“Probably,” Sunset said. “Couldn’t hurt to get together and do a study group sometime right?”

“That’s a wonderful idea,” Rarity said. “Perhaps we could spend a little time on that while we’re together on Saturday?”

“Seriously? I’m going to be too wiped out to concentrate on studying,” Rainbow groaned.

“That’s funny, could’ve sworn you said you’d be down to hang out and play video games all day,” Applejack said with a slight smirk.

“Uh…well yeah! Video games don’t take as much a toll on the brain you know!”

“Uh huh…”

After lunch finished, Sunset waited for Rainbow outside of the cafeteria. Once she came out, Sunset wasted no time. “Just what the hell were you thinking?”

“Oh come on, like they’d even believe me,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes.

“That’s not the point, the point is we have to keep this secret, regardless if it seems believable or not.” Sunset then took a deep breath. “So we’re still on for today?”

“Well, I have practice today but considering how time works on that side it shouldn’t be an issue,” Rainbow said. “Just please don’t let it be too much work.”

“Come on, we made a promise remember?” Sunset asked.

“Alright, alright I get it you don’t have to beat me over the head for it.”

“Then we’ll meet right outside the school.”

The rest of the day occurred without much incident, although during English class Sunset had to come to Rainbow’s aid. “Alright, now that we understand contractions we can- Rainbow Dash, are you paying attention?” Ms. Cheerilee asked.

“Huh?” Rainbow had certainly not been paying attention and had been doodling inside her notebook. “Oh, yeah, I’m totally following ya.”

“Really? Then I suppose you can tell me what the correct spelling for the contraction for ‘you are’?”

“Uh…yeah it’s um…”

Sunset could’ve just let her friend get yelled at for not paying attention but decided to lend a helping hand. “You’re, with an apostrophe ‘re’,” she said casually, not looking anywhere else but her notes.

“Oh right! It’s you’re, but with the ‘re’ and…apostrophe…right?”

“That’s right,” Cheerilee said. “People commonly mistake ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ in their writing. ‘Your’ is possessive, while ‘you’re’ is a contraction of ‘you are’. Again, consider the apostrophe as what combines the two words.”

“Phew… thanks for the save Sunset,” Rainbow said.

However, the small exchange didn’t go unnoticed by their classmates. “The new girl totally just saved her butt,” one student said.

“She must be pretty smart.”

“Well yeah, she’s from Manehattan, you have to be pretty smart to get into that school.”

Sunset certainly didn’t mind the praise as a small smile crept onto her face.

Once the last bell rang, every student made their way towards their lockers and either made a beeline towards the exit or towards the gym locker rooms.Once she got her things, Sunset waited outside near the large statue near the entrance. Looking at it, she couldn’t help but wonder if the statue gave a sense of pride to the students here or…perhaps it was something else that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“It’s been two days and only now you’re looking at the statue?” Sunset looked over and saw Rainbow watching her with an amused look.

“Guess it never caught my eye til now…still it’s pretty cool. Wondercolts is kind of an odd name for a mascot though…”

“Just don’t say Shadowbolts are better, I get enough of that when we have to play Crystal Prep,” Rainbow groaned. “Anyway, we doing this or what?”

“Yeah, but not here.” Sunset looked over and motioned toward the side of the building. “I know time doesn’t work the same there but I’d rather no one saw us disappear into thin air…if that actually happens. Also, I hope you brought something you can fight with.”

“What, you mean you’re not doing all the work? …I’m kidding,” she added before Sunset could glare at her. She then pulled out a pair of fingerless gloves. “Believe it or not, I’m pretty good with my fists. Just ask half the school.”

“…I’ll take your word for it.” Luckily, Sunset had already packed her sidearm to the side of her waist. The last thing she wanted was Rainbow to scream about her having a gun. She then pulled out her phone. “Time to go pay Spike a visit then.” She clicked on the app and once again the world around them started to flicker.

In a matter of seconds, they were now back in the Metaverse in their attire from before, only this time they were close to a rather large structure that resembled a fortress of some sort. “Whoa, I don’t remember seeing that here before,” Rainbow said.

“Me neither…could that be Canterlot High?” Sunset asked.

“Sheesh, here it looks like a prison…which I guess to some is somewhat accurate.”

They waited a few moments for Spike to appear out of nowhere…but moments soon turned to minutes. “Okay, either he’s sleeping somewhere or he totally forgot we were coming,” Rainbow said.

“He should’ve been here by now…something’s wrong…” Sunset said, as she looked around Maybe it was her Persona telling her that but something was definitely off.

“If he doesn’t get here within the next thirty seconds I’m gonna-umph!” Rainbow suddenly cut off after grunting in pain.

“Hey, you-?” Sunset looked over and saw that Rainbow was surrounded by a group of impish-looking creatures that almost resembled snowmen. “What the!? Person-!” Before she could finish the word, she felt a blow to the back of her head and Sunset crashed to the ground before passing out.