As the four ponies got closer to the castle, Twilight was the one to notice something off about it. “Wait a second…” She said getting a closer look. “Something’s not right here.”
“Like what?” Yosuke asked getting out his Kunai.
“Well for starters, it’s a lot darker here and it looks like nopony is around.”
“Well there is definitely something in here.” Teddie said. “I’m sensing multiple shadows in this castle.”
“S-Shadows?” Twilight asked with a look of fear.
“It’s probably what you heard back there. They can get pretty dangerous when peo-.. uh.. ponies investigate their world. But if the fog lifts here, then the shadows go bear-serk!” Teddie exclaimed.
“It’s best that you stay close to us.” Narukami said taking out his El Caliente sword. Teddie pulling out his weapon as well.
“Uh.. ok seriously, what are those things?” Twilight asked. “You seriously brought weapons with you?”
“Well yeah,” Yosuke started. “Can’t really come into this world empty handed.” Twilight then froze and sort of gave Yosuke a skeptical look. “What?”
“Nothing… it’s nothing.” Twilight said. “Let’s go inside.” They nodded and went into the castle door. Everything was different from the original castle. “What the… it’s like a giant maze in here!” Twilight exclaimed looking around. Suddenly, sounds could be heard from inside. “What was that!?”
“Shadows…” Teddie said in a serious tone.
Twilight was waiting behind them as nervous as ever. When suddenly, she slowly turned her head to see a dark figure with what looked like a mask, crawling on the floor behind her. “Sweet Celestia!!” she screamed running away. She was about to run out of the castle… until…
“Persona!” she heard the three of them exclaim. Not too long after, she saw figures appear above the three ponies. Twilight stared at the figures in awe unable to speak another word. The shadows then started to take form and took the forms of Slipping Hableries.
“Izanagi!” Yu exclaimed as his persona unleashed ziodyne on one of the Slipping Hableries.
“Persona!” Yosuke exclaimed as his persona unleashed Garudyne on another shadow.
“Bear-Sona!” Teddie exclaimed as his persona finished off the final shadow with Bufudyne.
The battle wasn't over yet, as more shadows lunged themselves forward to attack the three. But just as one of them was about to attack Twilight, Narukami got in the way and slashed the shadow with his sword in his mouth. Eventually, all of the shadows were defeated, and easily at that.
“What the hay was that!?!” Twilight exclaimed. “What were those things that came out of you!?” Twilight placed her hoof on her head feeling really confused.
“Why can’t I find the answers?? Why won’t my friends help me??” A distorted version of Twilight’s voice echoed.
“What the…!?” Twilight said turning her head to see another Twilight, except with glowing yellow eyes.
“Truth is, friends don’t do crap for me. The only reason I left Canterlot for that crappy village in the first place was because I was ordered to by Celestia. Friendship isn’t important to me. Not as much as my studies.”
“What…?” Twilight said feeling offended. “What are you talking about?”
“Come on Twilight, I thought you were smarter than that. I’m you after all so I should know.” The shadow said with a smirk.
“Me?? Are you crazy?? You’re nothing like me!” Twilight exclaimed. “My friends are more important to me than anything else in the world!”
“Your studies is the reason why you never made any friends in the first place.”
“Shut up! That’s not true!”
“And the only reason you made friends in the first place, besides your brother, was so that Celestia didn’t have to get off her lazy flank and use the elements herself!”
“STOP IT! I told you to stop!!”
“Gosh Twilight, why are you panicking so much? I thought I was just making all that stuff up… Or maybe that really is what you’re thinking!” Shadow Twilight grinned deviously. “Why is that? Because I’m you!”
“I said shut up!!” Twilight snapped angrily. “I would never EVER think that way about my friends or Princess Celestia! You… You’re not…”
“Twilight! Don’t!!” Yosuke exclaimed.
“You’re not me!!” Twilight exclaimed. Shadow Twilight then started laughing maniacally slowly changing her shape into a larger more horse looking shadow flying above them. Twilight just looked up at the shadow of herself in complete horror, until finally passing out from shock.
“I am a shadow… the true self…” Shadow Twilight said. “I’ll be the one to show you just how useless friendship can be!”
“Teddie! Get Twilight to safety!” Yosuke exclaimed. “Narukami and I can handle this.”
“Right!” Teddie nodded and picked Twilight up getting a safe distance away from her shadow self.
“You really think that you can beat me!? I’ve studied magic since I was a filly!” Shadow Twilight exclaimed using her magic to levitate both Narukami and Yosuke.
“H-hey! what the hell!?” Yosuke exclaimed being raised in the air.
Shadow Twilight simply slammed the two of them against the castle walls, letting them drop to the ground.
“ugh... “ Yosuke groaned quickly getting to his feet. “Persona!” he exclaimed as his persona cast Rakunda to weaken the shadow’s defense, and Tarukaja to increase Narukami’s power.
Narukami then switched personas from Izanagi to Black Frost. Unleashing Agidyne on Shadow Twilight. But it didn’t seem to do much effect.
Shadow Twilight simply laughed at Narukami. “Are you that stupid? Trying to use attacks like that?? I’m magic!” Shadow Twilight levitated them both again, this time unleashing Maziodyne on both Yosuke and Yu, and hurling them to the ground.
“Damn it…” Yosuke groaned. “This Shadow is freaking tough…”
“We can’t give up now!” Narukami slowly got back up ready to fight. Yu then ran up to shadow Twilight and simply struck her with his blade, seeming to cause more damage. “We have to use physical attacks! Magic won’t work on her at all!” Yosuke nodded and ran up to Shadow Twilight with his kunai.
“You think I’m going to just let you hit me again!?” Shadow Twilight used her magic to push Yosuke back, unleashing an attack new to both Yu and Yosuke. Magidyne.
“Arg!” Yosuke yelled out. “What the heck was that!?”
Shadow Twilight didn’t waist any time and used Agidyne on Narukami, which only seemed to help him considering his current persona was still Black Frost. Yu then focused using power charge to gain extra strength, and unleash another physical attack with his sword.
“Nice one partner!” Yosuke exclaimed giving Yu a thumbs up quickly getting back into the focus of the battle at hand. They both then noticed Shadow Twilight’s horn glowing brightly. Within seconds, she released a surge of magic on both Narukami and Yosuke.
Twilight slowly opened her eyes to see what was going on. She saw both Yosuke and Yu struggling to get back up from that last attack. “S-stop…” Twilight barely let out, slowly getting on her hooves.
Shadow Twilight looked toward the real Twilight, in disgust. “I’ve had just about enough of you!” Shadow Twilight exclaimed, targeting Twilight.
“You were right ok!?”
“Huh??” Shadow Twilight paused.
“You were right about everything about me…” Twilight hung her head down. “And about everything…” The shadow started to reform back to its original form, but stayed silent. “I did care more about my studies at first… I did focus on my studies more than my friendship…”
Yu slowly got back up with the remaining energy he had left. “It’s alright Twilight… we understand.” he groaned.
“Yeah... “ Yosuke continued getting up as well. “We all have a different side of us that’s hard to face. Too difficult to accept. And your shadow is one of them.”
Twilight stopped and looked back at her shadow. “I’m sorry that I was trying to push you away… I knew it was the truth.. that all of it was the truth…” Tears could be seen starting to form in her eyes. “But I was too ashamed that somepony like me could ever think that. So I tried to block it out… I tried to block you out…” Tears dripped on the floor. “But I know it was wrong of me… because you are me… and nothing in this world can change that.”
Shadow Twilight simply nodded and changed its form. It was an angelic like alicorn. Twilight looked up at it until it disappeared and its card floated down to her. “What is this…?”
“It’s your persona.” Yu said with a smile.
“My Persona?” She asked.
“Yeah” Yosuke continued. “A persona is what takes form after you face yourself. It protects you in this world.”
“Protect’s me…” Twilight suddenly collapsed on to the floor feeling unstable.
“Twilight!” Teddie exclaimed helping her back up.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine…” Twilight smiled at Teddie. “Just a little tired.”
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Yosuke said helping her as well. “Twilight isn’t used to the atmosphere in this world.”
After some walking, they end up back in the open field. “You think that this world is the reason why that pony died?... Because of her other self?”
“It is possible... “ Teddie nodded. “She must’ve been wandering around in this world alone, and there was no one who could protect her from her shadow’s power.”
Twilight sighed. “If only I had known about this sooner… I could’ve taken the proper precautions and prevented her death!”
“You can’t blame yourself Twilight, you had no idea that the midnight channel even existed.” Yosuke said trying to comfort her. “But come on, let’s hurry back.”
--------------------------------------------------
Back at the theater, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence were all trying everything they could to open the portal into the other world, but with no success. “Twilight… please…” Cadence said pressing against the screen on the verge of tears. But those tears stopped when four ponies both came flying out of the screen and pushed Cadence to the ground. “Ugh…”
“Huh?...” Twilight said looking around. “The movie theater…”
“T-Twilight!!” Cadence exclaimed wrapping her arms around her sister-in-law. “Oh my goodness, I was so worried about you!”
“Yeah, we were able to get her out of there safely…” Yosuke smiled, immediately getting levitated and pinned against the wall by cadence. “H-hey!”
“Explain yourself! What was that, and where did you take Twilight!?”
“Hey, it’s not our fault that she bumped into us!”
“Why didn’t you just bring her back!? You were in there for so long that I got worried sick!” Cadence yelled out in tears. “She’s my sister for ponies sake!”
“Look I’m sorry ok!?”
“Cadence, stop.” Twilight said sternly. “I was the one who went in with them. They didn’t force me to go.”
“But Twilight--”
“Because of them, we might have a lead on what killed Carrot Top.” Cadence froze slowly lowering Yosuke to the ground. “Now, I’m not entirely sure who is doing it, or if it was even an accident or not, but it looks like ponies that go through that screen end up being killed by their other selves.”
“Their other selves? What does that mean?” Celestia asked stepping forward. Twilight then explained everything that occurred in that world during their visit. After explaining everything, the princesses looked like it was too hard to believe. But after seeing Twilight and three other ponies go through a portal in a theater screen, they were pretty much ready to believe anything at this point. “A Persona… I don’t think I have heard of such a thing before.”
“I’ll gladly get into more detail about what they are, but for now I need to have a word with these three…” Twilight said as her horn glowed and teleported Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie into her castle.
“Huh? What are we doing back here?” Yosuke asked.
“Who are you really?” Twilight asked sitting in her throne.
“Huh?”
“I was thinking back in that world. It was a small detail but it did get me thinking.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You aren’t from Equestria, are you?” The three of them froze and had wide eyes. “Am I right?”
“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking--”
“Back in that world, you told me you don’t travel to that world empty handed.”
“Yeah?...” Yosuke said then finally realized what she was getting at. “Oh crap!”
“How did you know?” Narukami asked.
“Because, you aren’t the first human beings that I’ve met in my time.” Twilight said standing back up. “I’m willing to keep this a secret between me and my friends so that this doesn’t cause an addition to the panic Ponville already has. In fact if anypony found out, they’d probably signal you out as the culprits behind Carrot Top’s death. But I need to be really sure that you aren’t the culprits.”
“And how do we convince you that we’re not?”
“For starters, what is your reasoning for being here in the first place?”
“Well…” Yosuke started. “Back in our world, the same thing happened to the people in our town. People that would appeared on the midnight channel usually meant that person was gonna be the next victim. If the image was too fuzzy to make out at all, it meant that the person was still in the human world. But if it was clear, it usually meant that it was too late, and that person was already in the tv world.”
“I have to say though, it’s strange… wouldn’t the shadow just kill the host immediately?”
“Well not exactly. You see for us in our world, we had a limited time to save people.”
“How would you know if it was too late…?” Twilight asked slowly taking a sip of water.
“If its foggy in the morning.” Teddie said, as Twilight quickly spat out her water. “If it gets foggy here, then the fog lifts in the other world. And that’s when the shadows get crazy.”
“Now that you mention it… it was foggy this morning when the body was found.” She thought to herself for a moment. “We’ll need to get more information about this, but for now I’m focused on you three.” she cleared her throat. “Are there others with you as well?” Yosuke groaned and nodded. “Where are they right now?”
“Hey! You got somethin’ to say to me!?” a loud but familiar voice could be heard from outside.
“Oh crap..” Yosuke said looking out the window. The others joined him seeing Naoto and Kanji, Kanji yelling at a white unicorn with gems for a cutie mark.
“How in Equestria could ANYPONY be okay with such a grotesque fashion!? I think you have more rings on you than an average mare!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Uh… mare?”
“Female pony…” Naoto said blushing.
“Female po-- wait are you calling me a chick!?” Kanji yelled out getting angrier.
“This could get bad.” Narukami said.
“Yeah we should hurry down before he hurts somebody.” Yosuke said as the four of them ran down.
“Listen you snooty little--”
“Kanji!” Yosuke exclaimed. “Jesus Christ what the hell set you off?”
“This unicorn was suggesting that Kanji dressed like a female pony.” Naoto sighed. “I suppose he could use less rings thought.”
Yosuke quickly started laughing his ass off. “Well he does make cute stuffed animals!”
“I told you that those were KNITTED!” Kanji exclaimed.
“Stop!!” Twilight exclaimed. “Look, if you keep this up, you’re only going to draw more attention to you. All of you, inside my castle.”
“Castle?” he asked turning to Twilight following her, along with Naoto and Rarity.
Rarity started going a bit quicker in pace. “Excuse me darling.”
“Yes Rarity?” Twilight responded.
“Not that I don’t think they look good on you, but when did you even start wearing glasses like those?”
Twilight stopped and quickly took them back off. “I didn’t even notice I was still wearing them… Teddie gave them to me so I could see better.”
“See better?” Rarity asked. “But I thought You always had good eyesight.”
“Wait, you said Teddie gave you those glasses?” Naoto asked. “You mean to say that you already were…”
Yu nodded. “Yeah, we found the entrance to the shadow world.”
“I’m sorry… did you say shadow world?” Rarity asked looking at Yosuke.
Twilight nodded. “Yeah. It’s where Carrot Top was killed.”
“What did you say!?” Rarity exclaimed. “How can you be so sure about this??”
“Because, I was almost killed…” Twilight continued walking as Rarity froze in shock.
“Whoa, you mean you already faced your shadow?” Kanji asked.
“Yeah,” Yosuke nodded. “I have to say though, her shadow was tough. If she didn’t step in to confront her shadow, I don’t think we would’ve been able to get out of there alive…”
“Damn it, then why the hell didn’t you try to find us before charging in there!?” Kanji exclaimed as they soon walked back into the throne room.
“It was kind of my fault…” Twilight admitted. “When I saw Yu stick his hoof into the theater screen like that, I sort of panicked and pushed him into the portal with me following.” She smiled at Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie. “I really have to thank you properly… if it weren’t for you, I don’t think I would’ve survived on my own.” She looked at Rarity and sighed starting to explain everything that happened to her, Kanji, and Naoto. Rarity just kept the look of shock and confusion on her face. “Which led me to make this decision…” she turned back to Yu. “I’ve decided to come along with you and help you in the T.V. world.”
Yu nodded. “We’d be happy to let you join us.” he said putting his glasses away.
Twilight smiled looking back at her pair. “Just having these makes me feel certain that it’s all official. And I promise, I won’t let any of you down.”
“huh…?” Twilight turned back to her friend who was in tears. “Rarity what--”
“You think I want you to risk your life again!?” Rarity screamed. “Do you have any idea what would have happened to us if you died in there!?” She choked in mid tears. “We would never have been able to forgive ourselves if we weren’t able to protect you!” she exclaimed holding her hoof to her own chest. “This is nothing like what we dealt with in the past. I don’t even think that the elements of harmony would be able to save you in that world!”
“Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed catching her friend off guard. “Listen, I know that you’re afraid of my well being… but I just have to do this.”
“Why do you feel like you have to risk your life like this!?”
“Because I’m not going to just let innocent ponies die!” Twilight snapped. “I failed to protect somepony today… I won’t let that happen again…”
Rarity sighed. “Then… at least let me come along with you.”
“Huh?”
“When ever you go into that world, I want to go with you.”
Twilight thought to herself before she answered. She sighed and nodded. “Alright, but just be careful please…”
“Alright!” Teddie exclaimed. “And as for Twilight, I’d like to officially welcome you to the group with the biggest bear hug I can give!” Teddie exclaimed hugging Twilight tight enough to rival Pinkie Pie.