Home
4/9
Early Morning
Sunny

I woke up to the light shining through the blinds. Stepping out, it looks like Junpei and Mitsuru have already left. I sigh and leave the building with nothing but my saddlebag (without my weapons) and some bits. I needed to by some stuff.

Market Place
4/9
Daytime
Sunny

As I was wandering the Market Place, I spotted the Princess talking to the mayor. Slowing down to eavesdrop on them, I only got snippets of info, but enough to get the gist.

"... Rise Kujikawa... friends... Festival?"

"... Town Hall... show..."

So Rise Kujikawa, otherwise known as Risette, and her friends (I think from that one town in the boonies... Inaba, I think) are coming to Ponyville for some festival happening. A show will occur in Town Hall to kick off said Festival. And I heard the time. Tonight at 8. I should tell the others once I get back.

Town Hall
4/9
Night
Cloudy

I got my friends to accept in the offer of going to Town Hall to see this show. Standing nearby, Shinji says "Risette coming here from Neighpon? That's a huge distance. She must have some ulterior motive."

"Good point, Shinji. Took us 3 days to actually move here from Port Island." Ken pointed out.

"Does it really matter much. Let's just enjoy the show!" Yukari says excitedly. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited, but I hid it pretty well. Well, minus the large smile on my face.

After we got our seats (and snacks), the show began.

Twilight walked onto the stage and looked onto the large crowd. "Thank you all for coming tonight! The flowers are blooming, it's a nice warm Spring evening, and we're here to kick off the Spring Bloom Festival with a large bang! Coming all the way from the small town of Inaba in Neighpon, it's Risette!"

The crowd exploded in cheers, and I joined in as loud as I can.

Hot damn. I think I'm turning bi while looking at the beautiful pink unicorn that is Risette. From top to bottom: Her brunette hair was tied up into pigtails that are curved, somewhat covering her orange headset. She has a black choker with her cutie mark, a microphone over a heart. She had a small white shirt on her that's unpopped and not completely buttoned up, showing the deep rose pink inside of the shirt. She wore a skirt of the same color as the inside of her shirt, which were connected by two black straps. She wore long black socks on her hind legs. She had smaller, white socks on her front legs. On her back hooves were some small pink shoes. Her deep brown eyes looked around with warmth.

"It's so wonderful to see so many ponies out to see me!" she excitedly shouted through her headset, which were connected to the speaker set. "So this is the beautiful town of Ponyville?" She chuckles. "Well, let's get this party started!" She nods to somepony off stage.

A nice tune started playing, but was interrupted by a record scratch.

"Here's another one." A grey pegasus walked on stage. He had silver colored mane, tail and eyes. He was a little taller than Risette. He wore a white dress shirt under a grey overcoat highlighted with yellow. He had a yellow bandanna tied to his front-right leg. Headphones were strapped around his popped collar of the overcoat. He's holding a microphone. It's hard to detect a cutie mark from here. I think his name's... Naru... something. Ponies know him for his stage name "Lotus Juice".

A more upbeat song started playing. Risette muttered something, and, from her mouth movement and her gleefully closed eyes, Lotus Juice must be her senpai.

Six more ponies walked out from backstage. (Writer, you ready? "I was born ready. My hands might die, though" Super!)

Going from stage left to stage right, an orange pegasus with an orange shirt that says "FEVER!" in white, covered by the same grey overcoat. Looking closer, it seems to have some insignia on it. I'll look closer later. His orange headset is over his ears, and his yellow bandanna is around his neck. He has unkempt brunette hair. His cutie mark's that of two kunai in an X pattern. Next is a green earth pony with a white t-shirt that says "CheerS!" in blue over a yellow circle over a red circle. It also has blue highlights. She also has a green jacket over the shirt. She has a black-and-grey checkered skirt. She also has short brunette hair. Next to her is a girl I recognize. Yukiko Amagi. I slept at her inn once. She has a plain white t-shirt with a red overcoat. There's the insignia again over a yellow bandanna. Now I recognize the symbol. It's the symbol for Yasogami High, the high school in Yasoinaba. She has the same skirt as the green girl to her left. Next is Lotus, then Risette, then a light grey dragon. He has wings, but is small and scrawny. He's definitely childish. He's wearing some form of dress shirt with a rose. He's also wearing black pants. He has a cartoony crown on his head, and he's wearing a yellow cape. His spines are sorta blond-gold-ish. Next to him is some burly grey earth pony. He has on the signature bandanna on his head, nearly covering the clearly bleached hair. The overcoat for the first two stallions is around his waste, over the dark grey shirt he's wearing. He has a skull and crossbones over a wheel for a cutie mark. Next to him (and thankfully, for the writer at least) is a blue unicorn with a black mane and tail. She's wearing a blue shirt strapped on with multiple (hopefully fake) leather straps connecting to some black pants. She has a blue detective hat on. She has a yellow tie.

That's it for introductions of the character design, now for the song.

I quickly analyzed this information, then got comfortable. Everypony but the grey pegasus and Risette started dancing along to the song.

Got me something true now
I'm not looking anymore
The times of fakin' love are through now
Sharing real connections what we're made for

A record scratch. Then Risette, suddenly, started rapping.

Come on, let go of the remote
Don't you know you're letting all the junk flood in?
I try to stop the flow,
Double-clicking on the go
But it's no use hey, I'm being consumed

Then the pegasus started to pick up the rap.

And I went with the flow,
Double trouble on the go,
Posers kept posing,
I'm opposing against these foes
Please know
I'm the roses that grew out
From the concrete jungle

(Now, just imagine the dance section of the intro to Persona 4 Dancing)

Not a day goes by without me thinking 'bout
The way the world stopped mid-motion
When you walked into my life and we connected
Like we shared the same mad potion

Couldn't help but move
The threads of fate had spun us
Into each other's lives by chance
All this energy's got us inspired now
We couldn't stop it,
Just set it free and...
Dance!

Everypony started dancing along, but stopped freeze-frame-style when the record scratched again.

We got something strong now
We're not hiding anymore
The times of phony love are gone now
Only special friends come in through (yes) our door

Lotus started rapping yet again.

Live a real life
Don't be possessed by whoever
No time to waste
Keep on moving
Whether on or off the beat,
It don't matter if you never give up
Life keeps on grooving

Embrace a heartbeat and step to it step to it
Connect with it hold it tight
Spider web to it
Told you once
Ain't nobody can hold me down

Everypony but Risette starts dancing. Risette does a little in-place dance as she sings.

Not a day goes by
Without me feeling thankful
'Bout our profound devotion
Since you walked into my life and all around me
Everything just stopped mid-motion

Like a high wire act,
No compromise with truth,
The radiant intensity we share
All this energy's got us inspired now.

Everyone slows the dancing down.

Wanna dance
Wanna share this magic bond

The orange pegasus shouts "YEAH!"

Like we shared the same mad potion

The lead Pegasus mutters something into the mike.

When you walked into my life and we connected
Like we shared a magic dance

"Take it away, Senpai!" Risette shouts. Lotus (I called it, he's her senpai) quickly raps. The backup dancers start to dance to the beat.

Straight away,
Going my way
Let the nonchalant be commandant to themselves
But we're taking over,
Making over,
The lame shame claim they make,
Game's over
Is it a spell or magic?
Imagine what happens different age different passion
What I'm asking I can't call it,
Uh!
If I ain't got my crew I won't be dancing

Risette picks it up.

So baby go for it
Feel the vibe

Back to Lotus.

Gonna touch down make this dive
It keeps me alive
The melody
The flow
The beat
The heart
Together we ride

Risette ends the song with:

All this energy's got us inspired now,
We couldn't stop it, just set it free and...
Dance!

Once the song ended, everyone clapped. It was honestly an amazing song-and-dance. The show kept going for another hour. The only thing I remember was a weird song named "Time to Make History", but I don't know why...

As I looked on, I felt a familiar sensation. I noticed that the entire crew seemed to be closer, like they had a cause to be together. I looked at them and saw a card. It was the Fool Arcana. So... this team is of the Fool? Igor did say something about the Wild Card. But if I can see that they are of an arcana, then maybe...

The show ends, and while everypony else leaves, I walk up to the stage. I quickly hid to listen in.

"Senpai, that was amazing!" Risette yells in Neighponese and hugs her senpai.

"You sure were, partner! Didn't know you could rap that fast!" the orange pegasus comments.

Yukiko picks it up with "Yeah, I don't think we've been with you on some of your shows. How do you do it?"

"I've had practice, thank's to Rise here" the grey pegasus comments. I now see his cutie mark is that of the Arcana with a "0" over it. I had to talk with him.

I jump out of my cover. "Um... Excuse me?" I quickly wince when everypo- everyone looks at me.

"Yes?" Rise asks.

I look to Lotus. "Sorry to ask but... Are you the second Wild Card Igor mentioned?" His face turned pale.

"What do you mean?" His face returned to normal, but he didn't mask his scared emotions well. It's more like he can't hide his emotions, unlike myself.

"You have the ability of switching Personas, correct?" My magic started to glow as it grabbed the hilt of the Evoker.

He sighs. Now he knows he can't escape. "Yes. I assume you are also a Persona User?"

"Yeah. Lost the ability 7 years ago."

"But the TV world didn't disappear until 5 years ago..."

I stare at him, confused.

"Mikata!" Aigis calls from behind me.

"Other Persona Users, Miss Mikata?" He asks me.

My friends catch up. "Hey, who are these ponies?" Ken asks.

"Oh, we haven't introduced ourselves, eh? Well, my name's Yu Narukami and Lotus Juice. And these are my friends. Rise Kujikawa, or as you know her as Risette, Yosuke Hanamura, Yukiko Amagi, Chie Satonaka, Kanji Tatsumi, Naoto Shirogame, and Teddie." He pointed to Risette, the orange pegasus, the red unicorn, the green earth pony, the grey earth pony, the blue unicorn, and the dragon respectively. We introduced ourselves.

"So two teams of Persona Users. But you said something about a TV world?" I ask. The others're understandably confused. "Our Shadow time comes in the Dark Hour, an hour between two days."

"We jump into a TV to be able to access our Shadow world... thing." Yu responds. "But you do have a Persona, right?"

"Yep!"

"Strange." I looked over, and saw my friends conversing with the other team. Aigis with Teddie, Ken, Shinji and Koromaru with Kanji and Yosuke, Yukari and Akihiko with Yukiko, Naoto and Chie, and Fuuka with Rise.

I yawn. "What time is it?"

"9:12" Yu responds, checking his watch.

"Well, I'm job hunting, so I'll see you. You aren't going back to Neighpon anytime soon, yeah?"

"Yeah. We'll be here until the end of the festival, which is a week from now."

"Cool. Well, see ya." My friends say goodbye to their respective partners, and we all leave. My fatigue started to kick in with full force.

"I overheard Teddie trying to hit on Aigis, and she shot her down hard!" Yukari says.

"Damn." That was the only response I had before passing out.

The Velvet Room

"Welcome to the Velvet Room."

"Hey, Igor." We're still in the train car.

"It would appear you have made friends with one of my prior guests, Yu Narukami. He has the same power as you. And now, it seems that your Dark Hour is not a single hour between days. It is a parallel dimension. This must be fun. Ah, yes. I neglected to mention my new assistant when you first came here. This is Lavenza."

A young alicorn filly in a frilly dress is next to him. Like her sisters and brother before (I remember a mare named Margret and a stallion named Theodore) her long mane and tail are silver in color and her eyes are golden. She's holding the iconic Compendium I'm used to. She bows and says "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Master of Death. I will preform the same tasks as Elizabeth had before." She must mean when I was able to control Thanatos that one time. If memory serves me right, his bio was... "The Greek god of death, he is the son of Nyx and the brother of Hypnos. He is depicted as a young man with an inverted torch and wreath or butterfly in his hands." He was OP as hell. Insta-kill skills with high accuracy and some powerful physical skills.

"Now, our time with each other is running thin. You know how to reach me and my services. Enjoy your rest."

Author's Note

At the time of writing this, I'll be gone. My Chromebook (the think I'm writing this on) will be removed. School laptop. See you July 9th! (I might start the P4 route and may add another route...)