You’ll never understand why your mother insists on always taking the train when you moved. As you’re 21 now the word insisted means just that, insisted, it doesn’t mean you had to. Yet you suppose it’s fine, the poor woman’s suffered enough at this point. First your father dies and now your last remaining friend has died due to unknown causes… again. In the same week too, that has to get you some sort of record; maybe “least lucky nobleman” or “most depressing story by one who has never lived in poverty”. You’ve decided you have to be cursed or something so it’d probably be a good idea to make as few friends as possible this time. Normally you’ve lived in almost communities entirely populated with rich noblemen, magic users at that. At least Ponyvile is supposed to be a mixed farming community, maybe then it will be harder to fit in.
Why do these trains have to shake so much anyway? You thought to yourself as your luggage made even MORE noise. How many more hours of this are left, your watch says… FIVE?!? Ughh at this rate you might as well fall asleep… not a bad idea actually. You hadn’t realized how tired you were until now, in fact you could probably just close your eyes and…
♪
Is that the sound of horse hooves? As you open your eyes to this odd sound you find yourself in the oddest of locations, it looks like the inside of a stage coach covered entirely in blue velvet. Not just any stage coach mind you, but a GIANT stage coach with quite a large amount of room between you and the other… passengers? Oh you get it, you must be dreaming. “Yes as a matter of fact, you are dreaming,” Said the passenger directly in front of you. Odd, you didn’t expect him to have mind reading powers. He appeared to be a man with long flowing brown hair, brown eyes, and gigantic wings. He’s magical and winged; what a wonderful combination. Then again so did the other passengers, all three of them. One with blond hair and blue eyes, one with brown hair and blue eyes, and the last one … is that a manikin?
Before you can get a word in edgewise the brown haired, brown eyed man pushed a small sheet of paper on a table he materialized in front of him, directly in front of you. It read a convoluted series of statements that could be summarized as “I will not give up on life.” How odd, it hadn’t crossed your mind before; life wasn’t quite bad enough for that. Oh well what’s the harm. It’s just a dream after all. “That makes it even more important, as your subconscious does not lie.” You suppose that makes sense; in some sort of dream logic.
First: Thunder
Last: Nobleheart
♪
As you finish signing your name, you are awoken with a jolt. Oh, we’re here.
Thankfully no one seems to be here waiting for you, it’s better off that way… although this is going to be the first time you’ve had to carry luggage by yourself. You can use magic to lift it so really they were unnecessary to begin with. The new house is a large three story building, most of the houses here are barely two stories to begin with, so it shouldn’t be that hard to find.
As you lead your mother, your luggage, and your mother’s luggage toward the house, you end up cross the path of one pink haired girl. “GASP!” and then she disappeared.
Huh?
->What?
…
Well that was odd, it’s probably going to come to haunt you later. That just tends to be the way these things work out.
As you finally open your door to your new home, the first thing you hear when you turn on the lights is “Surprise!” Oh,
please no!
“Hi. I'm Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you. Were you surprised, were you, were you? Huh huh huh?”
How do you know where I live?
How did you get in my house?
->…
“I’ll take that as a YES! You see I never saw you before, and if I never saw you before that means you're new, 'cause I know every pony, and I mean every pony in Ponyville, and if you're new, then it meant you haven't met anyone yet, and if you haven't met anyone yet, you must not have any friends, and if you don't have any friends then you must be lonely, and that made me so sad, and I had an idea, and that's why I went *gasp*, I'll just throw a great big ginormous super-duper spectacular welcome party and invite everyone in Ponyville. See? And now you have lots and lots of friends.”
Delightful, you’ve never caused the death of an entire town before. She might have said something else but you started to drown her out as you searched frantically for somewhere quiet. You never really liked parties; you mostly just stood there and wondered what you were supposed to do. Oh good your new house has a library, WITH A DOOR!
Ah peace at last, wait why does your library have someone else in it? Oh it’s a girl, with long purple hair with a pink stripe in it. You can actually talk about books with someone! Hooray! Oh wait- not hooray, the first friend to die is always the one you spend the most time with. Ah screw it; you’re probably just paranoid anyway. You might as well introduce yourself; the most she seems to be doing is looking at what books your house already has.
->Hello there!
Uh… hi
Uhhhhhhhhhhh…
Your courage has gone up!
“OH! I was just-“You cut her off with a pained grunt, it’s migraine time again!
You’ve been getting these since about a month after you could walk. You’ve never had one quite this painful though. It feels like your brain is trying to drill out of your skull with a diamond tipped drill. Usually to make these migraines go away you have to sneak off somewhere and shoot a burst of magic, but this one’s practically forcing its way out. In fact-
You let loose a blast of magic at the floor, and the blast creates a hole in the floor about the size of a rabbit hole. You’ve made these holes before, but they were usually the size of a quarter. You feel so much better though, no more migraine! In fact you feel so much better that you could just fall asleep on the nice carpet…
Well this is a change of pace, you awake in some red realm of endless screaming, and by red realm, you mean, there’s a red fog covering everything so that it looks red. In fact the only thing that doesn’t look red is an indecipherable silhouette in the distance; a silhouette that’s getting closer at a dangerously fast speed. Just before whatever it is touches you; it stops on a dime and whispers into your ear in some mix of like three people’s voices, “Finally, you’ve found the trigger!”
End of day.
Diligence – 5 TANK
Humor – 2 Sarcastic
Courage – 3 Side kick
Expression – 0 Stick figures
Knowledge – 4 Book smart
Understanding – 1 Inoffensive
Author's Note
Alright, this is it, my first story. Now, if any of you like this I'd like to ask a favor for content. If you know the newer persona games, you'd know about the social links, I've figured out some of them, but I've only planned out two of the mane six so far. I'm having a bit of trouble and would like some suggestions. Not much: just a pony, the social link, and evidence on how they relate to that social link... wow I don't really feel right asking for content just after the first chapter.
Aria of the soul video by: Youtube user Dumdumlaw
Tues 04/08
You find yourself in your new room; at least you think it’s your new room. You have a nice new mirror, still the same blue eyes with messy gray hair. Glad to see you don’t physically appear hurt. Your mother must be worried sick about you though. You’d better check up on her.
“Woooooo! That was SO much fun! I haven’t been allowed to cut loose in years! Oh hi there thunder!” Never mind, your mother seems to have enjoyed herself last night at least. She’s wearing a lampshade and everything. You wonder if she even realized that you were unconscious for several hours. Then again, looking at the state of affairs in this room, she probably thought you were just trying to fit in. At the very least it appears that no one else seems to be passed out here. Do we even have breakfast today? You suppose you’ll have to take care of that for the both of you.
After breakfast, you decided to look for that girl you met last night, she’s probably very confused about what she saw.
Or she could just be trying to open another hole in the ground. Not bothering to check up on you at all… wait what? You open those holes accidentally, how on earth could she even know what was required to pull a spell like this off?
Thanks for checking up on me
What are you doing?
->I still didn’t catch your name.
Your courage has gone up.
“What!? Oh, it’s you. Sorry, I was just trying that spell that you showed me. Well, you didn’t exactly show me it. I’m usually able to cast spells after watching them just once. You wouldn’t happen to be able to do it again would you?”
You wouldn’t know you’ve never tried it before. You supposed it’s worth a shot anyway. You let loose another burst of magic like before, and also like before did a rather large hole appear. You guess the migraines were unnecessary.
“So it was like this, right?” and just like that she made a hole that was even bigger than yours. “Twilight Sparkle,” oh right, you asked her name. You look back at the hole she just made, wow, not only is it bigger but it’s also expanding as well. Wait what happens when her hole touches-
Before you even get to finish that thought, the two holes touch, and expand into a hole the size of a silo and both you and Twilight start falling down the – OUCH! OW, STAIRS OW OW OW OOF URK!
You awake again in a comfortable area, the sun is shining, the grass you are laying on is comfortable, there’s a peaceful waterfall that you can hear in the background, some old guy is poking you with a stick… wait what?
“Are you going to get up or do I have to keep poking you?” You oblige to the old man’s request.
->Where’s twilight?
Where am I?
Who are you?
Your understanding has been increased.
“She’s fine, it’d be impossible for her not to be. All wounds are healed here. After all you are in paradise; the Elysian fields to be exact.”
“Wait we’re not dead are we?!?!” exclaimed twilight as she appeared without a scratch on her, as neither she nor you had seemed to receive any damage from the fall that had not already healed.
“No, you’re just fine. My name is Rhadamanthus, I’m one of the people in charge of allowing souls here, and you’re not supposed to die yet. However I’m afraid the way you came in is one way. You’ll have to find another way out.” The old man, Rhadamanthus, said. “Those without the power to leave will have to search through Tartarus to find it.”
“TARTARUS! You’re going to just force us to go through the land of the eternal damned just so we can leave?”
“Well to even get to Tartarus you have to cross over both the Asphodel Meadows and the Fields of Punishment”
Twilight just stood there staring into space for a few seconds, her eyes twitching every once and in a while.
“No problem!” She said, finally regaining her composure. “We’re certain to find some way out if we just try.”
You decide it’d be best if she lead and you followed, she seemed to have some previous combat experience.
Upon entering the Asphodel Meadows, a thought struck you, namely, WHERE IS EVERYONE?!? This is supposed to be the afterlife correct? Twilight probably has the same thoughts as she looks rather uneasy, or maybe she looks that way because she’s traveling to a land of fire and brimstone with someone she only met yesterday.
Some black blob thing wearing some sort of mask appears dripping from the ceiling, er, there is no ceiling here, so it’s dripping from the sky. Twilight, realizing that this may very well be a denizen of the land of the dead, attempts to communicate with the beast. “AH! Oh, hello there… little guy. We were just wondering if you knew the way to the fields of punishment.” The creature just stared at Twilight with its cold, unblinking eyes, “I guess that’s a no then? We’ll just be on our way then.” She said as she let off a nervous chuckle. The creature screamed and took a lunge at twilight.
♪
Twilight dodged the attack and jumped away, trying to blast the creature with magic. Sadly it appeared the creature is out right immune to the attack as it passed right through the creature’s body. There has to be something that can be done! You can’t just give up here! Suddenly, a heavenly voice echoes in your mind.
“I art thou and thou art I. Never give up, for you shan’t ever be alone. Call to me and I Shall fight for you!”
You have no idea why but you suddenly felt a humongous burst of energy flow through you, and your lips can only mouth one word “Per-so-na”
You are engulfed in a blue aura as a giant maiden with a humongous staff with a pearl on the end stands proud behind you.
She immediately strikes the enemy with some sort of fire spell. The enemy was obliterated.
♪
You have obtained the facade needed to face life’s challenges, the persona Macaria!
Why a girl?
Oh well you suppose that doesn’t matter. What does matter is fight seems to have summoned more of them.
♪
“My friend, I have a gift for you” From out of nowhere, a halberd appears in your arms. “With this you should actually be able to fight; but don’t forget, I’m here to help you in any way I can. For instance, because we were able to destroy the first one so easily, we could try using fire again.”
As your persona tells you how to fight properly, you’re busy hacking and slashing through the strange blobs left and right. Before you know it, you’ve already dealt with all of them… okay so there were only three of them, but that’s not bad for someone who’s never been in a fight before. As a bonus you also got some inexplicable coins as well!
♪
“You did it! That was amazing! Uhh… what was that exactly? Actually, never mind, I can find out when we aren’t at such risk. I’ve found the way to the fields of punishment.”
You follow Twilight to said fields, which seem a lot smaller than you originally thought they would be.
There’s really not much here except a giant door, presumably to Tartarus. You’re about to step forward, but then Twilight stops you. What? It seems completely unguarded- EXCEPT FOR THAT GIANT THREE HEADED DOG FROM NOWHERE!
However twilight seems less than phased, she just uses her magic to create a giant bone and tosses it to the side. The giant dog seems to act like a regular dog and playfully catches the bone in one of its mouths. She then makes two more bones for the other heads…
Words cannot even begin to describe your feelings on what it was that you just saw, but it’s safe to say, you’re speechless.
“What? Cerberus is essentially just a giant dog, a friend of mine helped me calm it down before; and before you ask, I don’t think it’s the time or place to explain said incident right now.”
She has a point; you should probably just open the door to Tartarus.
It’s just a room… Wait it looks like a class room, what’s going on here. Twilight seems to be focused on the front of the class room, or rather who’s there.
It looks just like Twilight except she seems to be wearing some sort of dress with a giant line going down the middle of it. One side of the dress is white, and the other is black. She’s constantly teleporting herself to two different desks in-between sentences.
♪
“But if I’m immortal then everyone I’ve ever known will die before me.”
“I still have a duty to fulfill; my destiny is for the good of everyone.”
“What good is saving everyone else if they’re all going to die before me?”
“They’re not ALL going to die before me, just the ones born in the next few millennia.”
“Who’s to say the world won’t end before then?”
“All the more reason to stay alive that long to try to-“
“STOP IT!” The twilight next to you shouts at the top of her lungs.
“Oh, Hi me! This is perfect, you can be our judge! Oh wait, this is about me, I can’t make any decisions that involve myself can I? No, I can’t. I can’t certainly solve small problems on my own either, no I have to go and make problems for everyone else.”
“That’s a lie! I don’t think that! I never think that!”
“Oh but of course you do dear, after all I am you.”
“NO! HOW DARE YOU! YOU’RE NOT ME; YOU’RE NOT EVEN CLOSE TO ME!”
Then just as you had a blue aura earlier, this other twilight had and dark purple, blackish aura!
“THAT’S RIGHT, I’M NOT YOU! I’M MYSELF NOW, AND I HAVE NO NEED FOR YOU ANYMORE!”
♫
She then morphed in this giant black and white creature with many tentacles, each one of said tentacles holding a doll of some black faced individual. Instead of a line down the middle separating the two halves, there is now just empty space. Twilight, the one you came in with, is out cold.
“My friend, in addition to fire based attacks; I also have the ability to use lightning based attacks, which I highly recommend you use here.”
“WHY SHOULD YOU GET TO LIVE WITH FRIENDS? I WORKED HARD FOR WHERE I AM AND WHAT DOES IT GET ME? INSANITY AND LONELINESS!”
You blast the crazy beast with a bolt of electricity, it actually stuns the creature and allows you to make an attack with your persona directly, as Macaria bashes her opponent’s skull in with her staff, you start to feel a small amount of pain. Odd that, but no matter, you have to keep fighting. You are not letting another friend die!
Once she gets up she unleashes a burst of wind at you, for some reason this hurts you to an extreme degree and knocks you down. Then she takes the opportunity to charge up her magic. You decide to play it safe and guard her attack, not very easy to do with a halberd, but still possible. After a few more rounds of this, you get the hang of the fight and make the giant monstrosity disappear in a cloud of darkness.
♩
It turned back into the other Twilight, only now she’s completely speechless. You help Twilight up.
“I’m sorry this is completely my fault!”
Relax
->I’m not the one you should be saying sorry to
You need to face yourself
“Huh? Oh, you mean… I see.” Twilight walks over to herself. “You’re right; I can’t solve my own problems and end up dragging everyone else into them. Even when I want to I can’t make my own decisions. That’s okay though, I already know full well how important it is to accept all of myself, even the parts that I have a hard time admitting are really me.”
Twilight has accepted her flaws as a part of herself and instead of ignoring them, wants to fix them; she has obtained the persona Persephone.
♩
Twilight collapses on the floor, this looks like it took more out of her than you thought. You carry her back to the door, but it takes you straight back to the Elysian Fields. Suddenly you feel like your battle wounds have been healed. It looks like the healing properties of this area aren’t enough.
“Oh good, you have your personae, now you can both leave. You’d better hurry; the very nature of every area outside of this one has a life draining effect on all mortals who comes here.”
He didn’t have to say that twice. You summon your persona to create the flight of stairs again and climb up them while carrying the unconscious twilight up them.
You finally made it to the top! Where you promptly pass out again, not from the underworld’s draining effects, but rather from carrying a full grown woman up a flight of stairs.
♪
Oh boy here in the stage coach again, all the same people are here from before too. Specifically the same long haired man from last time, sitting directly across from you once again.
“It seems your journey has already begun, it usually takes more than one day, but it seems you have quite an ambitious friend to thank for that. To celebrate I have a gift for you.”
He hands you the *Velvet key*
“With this you can return to the land of sleep and dreams anytime you want. Believe me, it will prove most useful on your journey, more useful than you can possibly imagine right now. Farewell!”
You still don't know his name. Why do you keep forgetting to ask?
♪
End of day
Diligence – 5 TANK
Humor – 2 Sarcastic
Courage – 3 Side kick
Expression – 0 Stick figures
Knowledge – 4 Book smart
Understanding – 1 Inoffensive
Author's Note
Aria of the soul video by: Youtube user Dumdumlaw
I'll face myself battle video by: Youtube user TheEnexRebirth
Mass Destruction video by: Youtube user postiekevk
Boarderline of Madness video by: Youtube user RebornGalaxy
Awakening video by : Youtube user Rikuo86
I'll face myself: sad version video by : youtube user vergiliscoming
