Persona MLP: The Nightmare Hour

by Ninestempest

The Storm

* * * Tues 4/16 Late Evening * * *

* * 9 Days until FM * *

Once I get Spike to calm down, I take a moment to explain everything that’s happened to me so far in the Nightmare Hour. I recall my journey through the city, encountering my Shadow, as well as what it told me. As I recalled the accusations the shadow made about my motives for moving to Ponyville, I saw small sparks of anger in Spike’s eyes, but they dissipated when I explained how I accepted my Shadow. I then went over my next few hours of being lost again, and then finally finding my way back home.

“Is that it?” Spike asks as soon as I finish the story.

I nod. “That’s everything that happened that night… and everything I was planning to tell Twilight.” I sigh. “But that’ll have to wait.”

“But… if she’s kidnapped, then—”

“You are sure she was kidnapped, right?”

Spike’s eyes go wide as he bites his lip. “I… I guess I’m not. I didn’t see her get kidnapped. But she never runs off like this! Not without a note, or a reason, or something! Even if it was in the middle of the night, she’d tell me….” He gulps. “B-besides, I’ve asked all our friends. None of them have seen her, and definitely not last night.”

I sigh. “Okay. Well, then… I’ll have to investigate the Nightmare Hour.”

“Does that mean you’ll have to go out tonight?” he asks, still frightened.

I nod. “Yeah. But I’ll be going alone.”

“What are you talking about?” Spike says, angry at me yet again. “Twilight is—”

“In danger, and you coming along would only make it worse.” I glance over to the clock. “Besides, unless you can walk around during the Nightmare Hour, you can’t actually help.”

“B-but… I know her better than anypony. If what you said about that Shadow was true, then she’ll need me there!”

“Spike, I—”

He points a finger accusingly at me. “It was you! You kidnapped her!”

My eyebrows narrow. “Don’t be absurd. I did not kidnap Twilight.”

“You told her about the Nightmare Hour so she’d get all excited, and go out alone! You knew she’d go out to investigate, and that’s when you got her!”

“Spike, wait!”

He turns and makes his way towards the door. “You better bring her back, or I’m gonna tell somepony!” With that, he slams the door.

I take a deep breath. He’s just a kid that’s worried out of his mind. This has probably never happened to him before. Heck, it’s never happened to anypony here….

Regardless, it’s gonna be hard to get into the Nightmare Hour if the police are monitoring me. If he tells somepony, the police will probably eventually find out as well. I have to move as fast as possible anyway; if Twilight’s trapped like I was, she only has a few days before her life becomes endangered.

That means that I’ll have to investigate tonight. I have to take every chance I get, or who knows what’ll happen.

* * * Tues 4/16 Midnight * * *

* * 9 Days until FM * *

I sat in my living room, reading through a mystery novel to pass the time until the hour came.

I adjust the glasses on my face, the same ones that gave me sight through the darkness of that mysterious city also give me comfort as I wait for the time to come. I look up, and see that only one minute remains. I take a deep breath and get up from my seat, making my way towards my front door. This will be the first time I’ve been awake this late since my return, and if I can’t experience the Nightmare Hour, then… no, I can’t think about that. I just have to focus on finding Twilight Sparkle.

It feels like it’s been long enough. I swing open my door and step outside to check if it’s happened… if time has stopped yet again.

Wait a second. I look straight across the street, and I notice something shining through the night. I see a flash of red… no, two flashes. Something about them is strange though. They almost feel like eyes, looking straight through my body and soul despite the bleak night.

Then it happens. The Nightmare Hour takes hold. The transformation is sudden but not instant. It’s like a wave of magic falling over the entire town, as everything in the sky turns from a plain, black darkness into shades of blue, as if a painter used one spectrum of color to create the scene. It takes over the clouds, the houses and trees, and lastly the ground. Time has stopped, and the pale blue glow returns.

I look back up towards where I saw the flashes of red. Nothing is there, even as I approach and look for whatever their source was. It must have been my imagination, but I can’t even begin to think of what caused that. If it was another pony, then it must have been the killer. Who else would have access to the Nightmare Hour but them?

Man, I really do look guilty.

I sigh and make my way towards the center of town, hoping for something to point me in a direction, any direction at all. How would I even go about finding Twilight?

I stop and take a deep breath. Just think for a moment. If you assume Twilight was taken like you were, then she’s probably in that fake city. So how did you get out of that fake city? You touched a glowing door that you only saw after you beat your Shadow. That certainly narrows things down. So where was that door? Where did you come back to Ponyville?

Before I can even focus, I hear a twig snap. I spin around towards the direction of the sound and only see a small figure dart down an alley between some stores. I make a beeline for the alley, calling out to them. “Hey, wait!”

I stop at the entrance. There aren’t many places like this in Ponyville, with most houses given considerable room for yards and such, but some exist near and around the center of town. I take a few steps into the cobblestone alley and hear shuffling straight ahead of me. This time, I also notice a purple streak turning the corner. “Spike, is that you?” I call as I run to the other end. I turn the corner and find myself walking towards the fountain near the center of town. There’s nopony, or dragon, in sight. “Was that my imagination?” I sigh and turn only to see Spike staring straight at me from around the corner of a store. He yelps and dashes away, and I chase after him.

I turn the corner at full speed and barely notice the glowing door before I collide with it, then hit the cold ground. I get to my hooves when I realize I can’t see anything. Great, the darkness is back. I feel around my nose for my glasses, and they aren’t there. Did I drop them? When did I do that?!

I start feeling around for them with my hooves when I hear a voice. This time it isn’t in my head, and is just coming from beside me. “What are you doing?”

The voice is Spike’s, to be sure. He seems abnormally calm for someone that was just running away from me. “I should be asking you that question. Why are you running away from me?”

“‘Cause you were chasing me! There’s nopony else out here, and I suddenly saw you, and I thought I’d keep an eye on you, make sure you don’t do anything bad.”

I feel my heart race as I feel around for my glasses. “Fine, but how are you aware of the Nightmare Hour?”

“I… I don’t know,” responds Spike’s disembodied voice. Despite hearing him clearly, I can’t tell where it’s coming from. “I was wide awake at Rarity’s when I realized that everything I heard from Twilight was happening. Time stopped and stuff. That’s when I went out to find you.”

“And how exactly would you have stopped me if you found me doing something?” I ask.

“I… uhm… well, I have a pretty mean fire breath.” The darkness recedes as a green spout of fire shoots out before my face. I can see Spike standing just to my right. His fire helps reveal the glasses at his feet, which I quickly grab up with my magic before Spike’s fire stops.

The first thing I notice is the area around us. It isn’t some strange and false Canterlot, but it more closely resembles Ponyville. Vines crawl up the side of every building in sight, and windows have either been broken or boarded up. The streets are completely unkempt, grass growing between every rock and nearly half of the stones missing. Some roofs even appear to have holes in them, the wood apparently rotted out.

“What is this place?” I ask.

“I don’t know, didn’t you bring me here?” Spike says.

I sigh. “No, I was chasing you here when you went through one of those glowing, blue doors. Didn’t you see it?”

“I just turned a corner, and suddenly it got really dark, and then you just magically appeared behind me. I kinda remember something glowing, but I didn’t see it very well.”

I sigh again. “Whatever. Look, I don’t care if you think I’m the one kidnapping ponies. If you’re there, you’re just putting yourself in danger. You should be heading back to Rarity’s.” I pick him up in my levitation and start moving him towards the glowing door several feet behind us.

“W-wait! I just wanted to apologize!” I stop him mid-flight and he lets out a breath of relief. “Look… when I left, I went to Rarity’s and told her what happened. She was fine with everything I told her—even that you were apparently kidnapped—until I told her what I said to you. She said that it was wrong of me to accuse you without any actual evidence, especially when you might be the only one that could help us find Twilight.”

I raise an eyebrow. “She simply believed everything you said?”

“I’m not sure. After she thought about it a little, she said that I should go to bed, and that she’d be heading to tell the police she was missing.”

I nod. “Well, as long as she avoids telling them that I’m trying to rescue her, everything should be fine. But,” I start moving him through the air again, “you still need to get back and go to bed. Not only is it late, but like I keep telling you, it’s too dangerous. The pony doing this is smart and probably strong. They could hurt you.”

“I know that!” Spike yells out, “but I just can’t sit by and do nothing while Twilight’s in danger. Please.” Spike folds his hands together. “Please, you gotta let me come with, at least for tonight. You just gotta!”

Spike’s eyes turn pleading as he looks up to me, and I let out a sigh. “Fine. But if something goes wrong, I want you to run. Run back here and run through this door. It should take you back to Ponyville instantly.”

He nods. “I promise.”

With that, I turn and start walking down the street, eyes scanning every surface for something of a hint or clue. Anything that might help me find Twilight Sparkle.

* * * Unknown * * *

After what feels like well over an hour, it’s clear the search won’t be turning up anything tonight.

The darkness, while still easy to ignore, is present: just at the edges of my vision, at the ends of alleys or corridors or paths. Yet it’s not an issue for Spike at all. From everything he’s told me, the whole place is actually really well lit. To him, it feels like nighttime through the lens of a full moon, but even brighter. The sky is dark and shadows are long and dark, but there’s more than enough light to see around us. It makes me wonder… is this darkness something that only affects ponies?

Regardless, wherever we are, it isn’t just Ponyville covered in a strange, time stopping magic or magical darkness. It’s clearly a different plane, or dimension, or something. When we first arrived here, our surroundings were certainly much like Ponyville’s town square, even if it was decrepit and abandoned. But as we walked, we would find ourselves walking through grassy plains, a forest, and then suddenly appear back in town. It’s like someone has taken a map of Ponyville and the miles of landscape surrounding it, cut them into squares, and rearranged them randomly.

And then, of course, we ended up getting lost. I find myself breathing quickly when I realize that it’s been over an hour. But what does that equate to in Ponyville? If we leave, will the Nightmare Hour just be ending? Will it be the Nightmare Hour of the following night?

My thoughts are interrupted by Spike. “What’s with you?”

I close my eyes and take a deep. “Sorry, I just… I don’t know how to get back to the door we came through. And I don’t think it’s any use looking for her tonight.”

“But—”

“Spike, I know you’re worried, but it’s clear this place doesn’t really make a lot of sense. We don’t know enough about it right now, so we should get back to Ponyville and get some rest. We didn’t find anything dangerous, so I’ll let you come again tomorrow night if you want, all right?”

“Fiiiine,” he says with a huff. “But we need to get back to the door, right?” I nod, and without a thought, he pulls out a scroll.

“Where did you even pull that—” Without listening to me, he spits fire out over it, burning it to a crisp, though instead of just falling to the ground in a heap, the paper burns upwards, into the fire. The fire then starts sailing through the air, back in the direction we came. He turns back to me and waves for me to follow him as he starts walking after it. I pick my jaw up from off the ground and follow him.

“Pretty neat, huh?” I look over to Spike as he gives me a confident glance. “Dragon fire is pretty neat. Twilight uses it to send letters to Princess Celestia instantly all the time. All I have to know is where I’m sending it, and it kinda just goes by itself.” Spike puffs out his chest. “It’s a pretty useful ability, isn’t it?”

I nod, glancing up at the fire as we jog after it. “So you made the fire… go back to the store we were outside before?”

“Yup!”

“I see….”

After just a few minutes, we arrive. With the fire leading us straight back, the route was a lot quicker than our exploration had been earlier. I usher Spike through the door and follow just behind him, ready to leave this strange world for something far more familiar.

We arrive in Ponyville, just as we left it. The Nightmare Hour appears to be in effect, despite clearly being in that world for over an hour. We take a few steps forward when suddenly, the blue glow starts to fade, falling from every surface we can see as if it were a waterfall along every wall or tree or cloud. It seeps into the ground, and Ponyville returns to normal. We hear the breeze as it sails past our ears and through the trees, and we hear the quiet ambience of insects and such that live on through the night.

“Wow…” Spike says as his turning gaze takes in our surroundings. “I’ve never seen magic like that.”

I nod, somewhat dumbfounded by the change. It was like a curtain unveiling, and seeing it happen before my eyes was unnerving, to say the least. I take a step towards my home when I feel Spike pull me back. “Hey… Cornerstone?”

His voice is quiet, and something in his eyes spells out his worry. “Are you all right?”

“I-I’m fine, but…” he gulps. “We are gonna find Twilight, right?”

I nod, and bring a hoof to my chest. “I promise. We’ll find her and bring her back safely. Now come on, let me take you back to Rarity’s.”

With a single nod from Spike we head off down the road, hopefully to a good night’s sleep.

* * * Wed 4/17 Nightmare Hour * * *

* * 8 Days until FM * *

I make sure that the Nightmare Hour is upon me as I open my front door. After all, it’s pretty suspicious to walk through Ponyville while carrying a weapon.

I spent the day in constantly shifting moods, moving fluidly between brainstorming how to best go about rescuing Twilight and being worried for her safety. If she’s in that city like I was, then it may take some doing to find her… that is, unless my idea works. Then everything should be fine. And on top of that, maybe she hasn’t found her Shadow yet. If she can avoid that, then she’ll be fine. A bit drained and exhausted, but she should be fine.

I took a few detours during the day, the first being a visit to Rarity. While she wasn’t pleased to see me, she did hear me out, and seemed to take what I said to heart, promising not to make any mention of me if the police were to ask any more questions. She didn’t like that it had to be Spike and I saving Twilight by ourselves, but she knew that there wasn’t anything she could do, except hope that Twilight maybe wasn’t in that other world.

My second departure from my schedule led me to the Ponyville Metalworks shop, hoping to find something that would aid me as I ventured into the Nightmare Hour. While it may seem odd to visit such a place during a time like this, my purchase was not very suspicious: I bought a shield. For some reason, the idea of using a shield in battle appealed to me much more than using a sword again, and what easier shield to accomplish this with than a simple buckler? With my telepathy, controlling it how I want should be a simple task.

Now, once again in the Nightmare Hour, I walk through town with my shield secured tightly against my back, a belt running over my chest to keep it secure. It’s rather easy to wield with my magic; it feels as easy to wield as that sword I used in that city. I briefly wonder if it’s still back there, on the ground where I left it.

I notice Spike waving to me from a spot close to the door. I guess he’s ready to go save Twilight. I just hope that I’m ready.

Once I’m within talking distance, he raises an eyebrow. “A shield?”

I blink. “What’s wrong with a shield?”

“Uh, how about ‘how am I going to hurt something with a shield?’”

I bring up a hoof and look at it, as if it held my persona before me. “I can summon my Persona to fight for me, so the shield is just a matter of protection.”

“Well, I guess you’d know more about that than me.” Spike turns to the door. “We ready?”

I motion to its spot, and he darts off, vanishing through the door. I sigh and head on through myself. Instantly I’m in this place, whatever the heck it is.

Once we identify that this is the same place we entered the previous night, Spike pulls out a scroll. “So, what’s the point of this?”

“I wanted to test something. You said that you didn’t need to know exactly where something was to send your fire to it, right?” Spike nods. “How about you send that scroll to Twilight, and we follow it again?”

Realization lights up Spike’s eyes. “That’s a great idea!” Without a second thought he pulls up a scroll and blows fire over it, sending the stream of smoke and green darting into the air. Spike points and yells, “After that scroll!” Nodding, I pick him up in my levitation and place him on my back, chasing after the scroll at a full gallop.

A few minutes drag on into what feels like an hour, and we stop as the scroll passes through a window into a building that I’ve never seen before.

We are greeted with a castle similar in style to that of Canterlot’s architecture. Narrow, spiraling towers and turrets sprouting up in the oddest of places, all made of a shimmering white stone that shines even in this dark place. The roofing is purple, though it is all laid down in layers of different shades, getting gradually darker to an almost midnight blue color. Before us is a giant violet door, closed with no obvious ways of opening it. Spike hops off my back and walks up to the door to knock on it.

“So she’s in here?” I ask.

Spike nods. “It’s gotta be. My fire’s never gone to the wrong place before.”

“Well, let’s go inside.” I approach the door and put my two front against it, ready to push.

“How the heck are you going to do that? These giant doors are probably locked!”

Ignoring him, I push on the doors and watch as they give a few inches, then start to move without any of my effort. I back away as they slowly drag along the floor as they open inwards, revealing the castle interior. They’re just like those other doors in the city, then. They open as soon as I start to apply pressure.

“Whoa… this place is crazy. Huge doors opening by themselves… and now this,” Spike says as he walks past me. I look inside, only to be greeted by a scene that doesn’t fit the exterior of the building in the slightest.

The first thing I notice is that everything seems to be made of wood or metal. Wooden plank platforms make up the walkways, while the walls and ceiling look like strange mixtures of wood or metal. Planks of wood set beside plates of steel, with wiring exposed in some corners. There’s a gap from the wooden platform to a lower floor, which is nearly completely covered in wires or tubing of various colors and widths, all coming out from beneath the door and following the hallway. Along the ceiling hangs long fluorescent lights, flickering on occasion.

I feel a shortness of breath as I try to think. “What… what is this place?”

I hear Spike gulp beside me. “You know, this kinda looks like Twilight’s basement.”

“It does?” I ask. “What’s it like?”

“It’s just one room, and it’s made of wood like the rest of the library, but there’s a few machines there and lots of wires connecting everything. The only difference here is all the metal… there isn’t really anything like it in the library.”

I nod. “Well, maybe we’ll figure out more about it if we search this place. Come on,” I say as I trot forward into the castle’s strange interior. Spike follows some distance behind me, hesitation in every step.

The path through this amalgamation of wood and metal twists and turns, though it consists entirely of direct paths without any doors or rooms. The wires follow along the ground beneath us, though they bring no indication of us being any closer to our destination.

It’s after what feels like a good twenty or so minutes when I notice something lurking around a corner ahead of us. I hold out a hoof and Spike stops, still apprehensive after all this time. I lift my shield with my magic, readying it in front of me.

I take a few steps forward when they jump around the corner. Or rather, they slide around the corner. There are only two black puddles along the ground, slithering towards me. I step back as they stop in front of me, and my eyes widen as I see a form rising out of the puddles, seemingly draining them as they rise. Each body takes the shape of a ball, with purple and white stripes across their entire form. Each one then turns to show a mouth with an incredibly long tongue, probably about three times the length of the sphere itself. Without warning, they charge at me.

Without thinking, I charge at them as well. Shield still held in my mental grip, I lower it suddenly and swing it upwards into one of the creatures. It falls to the ground, tongue limp and body unmoving. I then slam the shield’s rounded front end into it. This apparently is enough to defeat it, as its body starts to fade into a black mist, much like the darkness that fills this world. Before I can react, the other sphere wraps its tongue around my face.

As soon as it touches my fur, a shocking kind of pain permeates my skin, not unlike wrapping a scalding hot towel around my neck. I struggle to attack it with the shield, but I can’t tell where my shield is in respect to the creature, and if I swung too wildly, I might hurt myself.

I try to pry it off with my hooves, but it doesn’t seem to be effective. I start smashing the top of the creature with the shield, mustering whatever concentration I have left into my magic, but it isn’t effective. I decide to take a risk and slam the shield directly onto the tongue of the creature. Apparently it works, as it lets go of me, though my neck is stinging something awful. Something I didn’t realize was that its tongue had to be paralyzing me somehow, as I find myself catching my breath as I retake my stance, even though its tongue wasn’t tightly wrapped around me.

Once I’ve recovered, I run forward to slam the creature with my shield, but it evades it easily. It charges me and I jump aside, nearly falling off the wooden platform. I take another swipe at it, but it falls just under my swing. I guess it learned enough from when I took out its buddy… what the heck do I do now?

Thou art I… and I am thou.

A voice echoes in my head, a sensation I’m far too comfortable with by now. Its presence prompts me to raise a hoof, holding it upwards just in front of me. That’s when I see that card again… the same card I saw when I defeated my Shadow.

“Persona…” I say aloud. Somehow, just looking at the blue card before me tells me how to summon my Persona. I raise my shield above my head, and slam it down towards the ground, and right through the card. It shatters like glass, and the form of my Persona comes forth.

He’s a model of a pony, rather than a living one. His head, like the Shadow’s was, is two faced, both faces on opposite sides, but the expressions are different. One is calm, an unreadable neutral mask with closed eyes, while the other is a cheerful smile. The pony itself isn’t made of flesh, though it moves like it is, but it’s made of a fine, polished wood. It has a blonde mane and wears a toga wrapped around most of its body. It floats before me, suspended perfectly in the air without anything like wings to keep it there. As I look up at it, I feel more knowledge entering my mind without explanation. Suddenly I know how to command it, what attacks it knows, what type of damage they are, though none of it makes any sense to me. Then I realize that one of these is magic, and it looks like something that my Shadow attacked me with.

I decide to try it out. If I’m not able to get close to the creature, then something long range should work. I point forward and yell “Janus!”

On my cue, Janus spins around and throws his hooves up into the air, causing a small lightning bolt to come down on the creature, throwing it limply to the ground. I figure it’s too hurt to move, so I charge forward and slam my shield upwards into it, sending it flying into the far wall. It hits the wall, and starts to fade into black mist as it falls, not even getting to the floor before it’s gone.

“Whoa,” says Spike as he walks up to me, eyes wide. “That was awesome! First, you were like wham! Then bam! And then you summoned your Persona, and zap!”

I watch as Spike wildly gesticulates with every word, as if replaying the scene again. “Yeah… I guess it was kind of cool.” I look down the path again. “We need to keep looking for Twilight, come on.” I secure my shield against my back, and just like that, Janus vanishes into thin air. It doesn’t concern me though, as I can feel his presence still, despite not seeing him. He isn’t invisible… I just know he’s with me. I begin walking, and I feel Spike jump onto my back, prompting me to dash onwards into the halls of what feels like the long, winding hallway to nowhere.

* * * Unknown * * *

It’s around a half an hour before we find something besides more winding hallways. We didn’t find any more enemies to fight, which made travel smooth, but not very exciting.

This door feels different than the ones I saw here or in that false Canterlot. It has handles, and is about my size for once. It’s… well, a regular wooden door. I feel Spike hop off of my back and walk up to the door, tapping it with a claw lightly. “This… this is the same door to Twilight’s basement.”

“There must be some reason it’s here, so let’s go.” I reach out and open the door with a hoof, both of us heading into the next room together.

Bright lights immediately blind me, as if several spotlights were shining right into my face. I shield my eyes with a hoof. “Twilight?” I call out.

It’s about a moment before she replies, “Cornerstone! What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to rescue you!”

“Oh, you are? Uhm… can it wait a bit?”

“What?!”

After a few moments, it feels like the light is dimming, or at least my eyes are adjusting. I lower my hoof and look up to see Twilight before me in some kind of laboratory. “There’s actually quite a few useful things here that could help me with some experiments I couldn’t perform at home.”

“Yes… let her stay.”

I look past Twilight to the source of the second voice. That’s when my breath stops, as if the air in the room just ran out. There’s another Twilight behind her… this one is different though, as it seems to have yellow, glowing eyes, though everything else is the same. Same fur, same mane, same wings and horn. The same pony almost exactly.

It’s Twilight’s Shadow.

Comments

[JXWheeler]

Uh... I thought he did not take a sword with him? Might want to re-write the part about accidentaly stabbing himself.