Persona: Innocent Wish

by Trismegistus

Chapter 19: Broken Compass

“Arata!” The radio next to his bed hissed. It was the night of Summer Wrap-up and everypony had gone home exhausted form a night of partying and celebration. “Arata, wake up!”

Arata slowly cracked his eyes and picked up the radio, too tired to realize what was going on. “I’m awake, what’s going on,” he groaned.

“Some pony’s fallen into the lake!” as Arata began to wake up he realized the voice coming over the radio was that of Blaze not Vox.

“Bl- Blaze, what happened to Vox?” He asked leaping out of bed and gathering his supplies.

“She already headed to the lake after waking me up. Grab Camphor and run over as fast as you can,” The static of the radio clicked off and Arata tried his best to quietly reach Camphor.

He quietly crossed the hall and opened Camphor’s door, to his surprise Camphor was already awake pouring a green liquid into a set of small glass globes.

“Somepony’s in the lake. We need to go,” Arata whispered.

Camphor nodded sliding the globes into the saddlebag on the floor next to him. “Rigiiiht-ohhh,” as he exited the room he blew out his lantern.

The pair quietly exited the house and then broke out into a gallop towards the lake.

Not a word was spoken until the lake came into view. Through the first crack in the trees Arata could see Vox and Blaze waiting by the edge, both prepared to enter.

“There they are,” Arata panted to Camphor breaking the silence.

The clearing was bathed in the soft moonlight, and the surface of the lake danced and glittered despite being perfectly still.

“I didn’t make it in time,” Vox sighed. “We need to hurry.”

Not stopping to catch his breath Arata leapt forward into the lake.

Taking a second to react Camphor leapt in next, followed by Vox and Blaze.

Arata landed on his hooves and scanned the area. Sure enough there was an open door, this time the frame was made of a cloud. The fog that usually filled the area seemed more dense than usual. When Arata turned around to face the Velvet Room door, only a faint outline was visible.

Camphor landed with a loud thud and picked himself up.

“Wooaahh, you, like, can’t see a thing in here,” Camphor was looking in the direction of the Velvet Room and this only furthered Arata’s belief that he was the only one who could see it.

Blaze and Vox soon joined Arata and Camphor both landing safely.

“Ready?” Arata asked, taking a deep breath.

“Yeah,” Vox answered.

“Of course,” followed Blaze.

“Riiight onn,” Camphor nodded.

“Then let’s go save who ever’s in there!” Arata ran through the door prepared to face whatever was on the other side.

Once he had stepped through Arata felt the familiar feeling of air pushing against him. He quickly realized that the door had dropped him somewhere in the air, and him along with the rest of the team would be hitting the ground shortly.

“Taliesin!” Arata shouted for his Persona which heeded his call, quickly grabbing him, and the rest of his team from the air and placing them safely in a clearing.

The area they were in resembled the Hayseed swamps, except it seemed much denser. Mangled trees surrounded the team as well as thick, thorn covered vines. The ground was covered in dark green water reaching up to Arata’s knees, with some bugs floating on the surface.

“Thank Celestia Personas can fly,” Vox let out a sigh of relief as her horn lit up. “I can’t tell if there’s any pony near us. There are a lot of minds in the way.”

“What do you mean ‘Lots of minds’” Blaze asked brushing a spider off of his shoulder.

“I mean that there are a lot of other things here. I can’t tell if they’re Shadows or not.” She responded carefully eyeing the water for any bugs that may be near her.

The ground under the team started to tremble. At first it was sot and no pony noticed, but as their conversation continued it grew increasingly violent.

“An earth quake!” Arata shouted. Around them the trees began to shift position moving in every direction. Everpony darted in different directions moving out of the way of the trees until suddenly the moving and trembling stopped.

“Everypony okay?” Shouted Blaze.

“I’m fine,” Arata shouted. From the sound of it Blaze wasn’t far off.

“Me too,” Vox answered, Making her way through the new clusters of trees to find Blaze and Arata.

“Onodrim!” Although Camphor’s call was faint but the rest of the team caught it and ran to find him.

As the three worked their way through the twisted trees they heard the sounds of fighting. Breaking through the tree line they found Camphor engaged in combat with five Shadows. Three were floating orbs with grotesque tongues, and the other two resembled tanks and were unleashing a torrent of flames at Camphor. As the flames cleared Camphor stood with visible bruises and scars but he appeared to be in no pain at all; around him was a faint golden glow was being projected by his Persona which blended in with the surrounding trees.

The tanks let out another blast and Camphor called out to his Persona again, “Sukakaja!” Instead of the golden aura Camphor glowed green and effortless dodged the attacks that were shot at him.

Finally coming into range Blaze, Vox, and Arata let out their Personas and began to attack the Shadows. Morgana flew toward the three orbs that were circling around Camphor, simultaneously freezing all three with a blast of ice.

Taliesin traced a rune with his quill and a blast of wind burst out from one of the tanks knocking it over. Man at Arms galloped into the second tank striking it with his lance, although the target seemed to resist the attack.

The tank let out another attack at Camphor, this time he was struck by the fire, but his Persona quickly followed surrounding him with another golden aura instantly healing his wounds.

While the three orbs were frozen Vox wasted no time drawing her pistol and shattering each one with a well-placed shot.

Taliesin traced another rune into the air as a larger blast of wind erupted and destroyed the tank.

Blaze held his attack, instead Man at Arms held up its lance increasing the strength of every pony around him.

Taliesin let out one more burst of wind flipping the final tank over.

“Arata, lets hit this one as a team!” Blaze shouted.

“Right!” Arata answered.

The trio charged in, and unleashed everything they had on the final Shadow. Camphor who stayed out of the melee, used his Persona to further increase the speed of everypony else. Within seconds the Shadow was defeated and the team regrouped.

“Thanks for the back up guuuyyss,” Camphor smiled dipping his mane into the water around his knees to rinse it off.

“I’m glad we got here in time. It looked like you were having a tough time fighting those Shadows off.” Arata dismissed Taliesin as he spoke.

“Oh no man, I wasn’t fighting them at all. See I don’t really like violence, but Onodrim can heal me faster than they can hurt me.” Camphor replied looking to his perosna.

“Just make sure you don’t get too separated from us next time okay?” Vox added.

“Yeaahhhh mann.” Camphor smiled at Vox and dismissed his Persona.

“Can you get a sense of where they are now Vox?” Arata asked. Looking around the swamp they were standing in.

“No, there are still minds everywhere,” Vox turned and walked towards the trees. “I think the trees are Shadows too. They don’t have as strong of a presence but it’s the only thing that can explain the sheer amount of minds that are around us.”

“I guess we should test out that theory then,” A card appeared in front of Arata, “Cerberus!” A large three headed dog appeared before Arata and shot a bust of flames into the tree line.

The trees resisted the fire and nothing happened.

“Well that idea’s out.” Arata sighed dismissing his Persona. “We need to hurry and find out who’s in here. They could die any second if we don’t act fast enough.”

“Well for now we know their alive. We would have been kicked out of the lake if they weren’t.” Blaze said. “As long as we’re still here we still have a chance to save them.”

“Well then which way should we head?” Arata asked. “There’s no telling how big this place really is.”

Blaze stopped to consider the options they had. “I think we should split up.”

“What? Vox was caught off guard by his suggestion. “You can’t be serious, what if we get attacked by Shadows again?”

“One of us will go with Camphor the other will go with Arata.” Blaze responded. “Arata can use multiple Personas and it seems like the list gets bigger every time we come in here, I’m sure that he has one with healing potential. It may not be as strong as Camphor’s but we can make do with it.”

“No,” Arata interjected, “Our strength comes from us working as a team, if we split up there’s no telling if we’ll be able to face what we find. Especially if we find whoever is in here. And besides I’m not even sure If I have a Persona with healing abilities.”

“Right, every Shadow we’ve fought so far that’s been tied to somepony, except Camphor’s, has taken everything we had to keep it at bay. And if Arata isn’t sure that he can heal its safer not to split up.” Vox added.

“Arata, hoooow do you summon different Personas?” Camphor asked.

“Sometimes when I’m in a situation where I need to do something I can’t, I’ll hear a voice calling to me, and when I answer the call it’s a new Persona.” Arata tried his best to explain the phenomena that he mostly experienced subconsciously. “I don’t really know if I can just summon a healing Persona until I need it in combat.”

Blaze stopped to consider the situation once more. “I guess you’re right. We should stick together. Vox, which direction has the most minds?”

“That way,” She said pointing north.

“Then let’s head that way.” Blaze concluded.

Arata Camphor and Vox agreed and the team trudged north through the swamp. Other than changing patterns in the trees that surrounded them there was almost nothing to distinguish the part of the swamp they were in from the rest of it. With every step the team took the fatigue each member felt grew stronger and stronger. The surge of adrenaline they experienced from the first attack had faded, and now the lack of sleep was catching up to them.

“How long do you think we’ve been in here?” Arata yawned, while he took in the scenery. The sky above them had turned black and stars were sometimes visible through the dense canopy.

“It feels like hours, honestly I’ve never stopped to consider how time passes while we’re in the lake.” Vox sighed.

“I’m not sure either,” Blaze admitted.

“Loookksss like we may need to come upppp with a stoorryy about where we were if aaannyy ponnyy asks.” Camphor said.

“Sadly we’ve gotten pretty good at that,” Arata replied. “We can worry about it when we’re out of here.” The group kept walking not giving up on finding the trapped pony.

After three miles of hiking the earth began to tremble again. Just as before the trees shifted position again. This time the team was ready and managed to keep together through the shifts. Immediately after the shift Shadows crawled out of the trees and began to attack the team.

Arata and Blaze were able to finish off most of the Shadows quickly with Voxs dispatching the four that were able to slip past them. The team could feel Camphor’s magic at work, all of their reaction times were heightened and dodging became effortless. The team regrouped after the fight dismissing their Personas.

“Everypony alright?” Arata asked.

“Yeah those Shadows didn’t even touch us.” Vox said excitedly, followed by a deep yawn. The sun had long since set and it and the fatigue everypony felt was impossible to ignore. “But I’m not sure how much further I can walk tonight.”

“Yeeeaahhh mannn mee tooo. I’mmmm wippppeeeddd,” Camphor sat down in the mire and dropped his pack. The knee high water was unpleasant for every pony and walking was becoming increasingly difficult.

“We can’t just sleep in this water,” Blaze added.

“Well, what a bout in the trees?” Arata asked.

“That could work if we can get up there,” Blaze looked up into the canopy and found a suitable bunch of branches. “There” he pointed “That should work.”

“Talisein!” Arata’s Persona appeared and lifted each of the team into trees.

“We should be woken up by the tremors or shifting trees if there is anything to worry about.” Blaze said finding a safe spot to lie down. “I think whoever is in here may be on the move. It’s the only reason I can think of for the shifting trees.”

“What do you mean?” Arata asked.

“I’m assuming that there is a reason the trees shift when they do. It doesn’t seem to be related to what we are doing so I have to assume that it’s tied to whoever else is in here. It also explains why they aren’t constantly shifting around us. Assuming the pony is moving the shifts must be either leading or following them.” Blaze concluded.

“If that’s right than we need to pay more attention next time the trees move.” Arata added.

“Right, but we might as well rest until that happens,” Blaze closed his eyes and went to sleep. It appeared that Camphor and Vox had already fallen asleep during the brief conversation.

Arata propped himself against the trunk of the tree and closed his eyes.

…

“Hello Arata, it has been some time since we last spoke.” Igor’s familiar greeting was a bit of a surprise for Arata, albeit a welcome one. “I see that you have established a genuine bond with Penzance. This is no small feat and I congratulate you for it. May I see the coin he gave you?”

Arata reached for the coin pouch that he was now wearing and removed Penzance’s bit.

“It may not seem the case, but this coin contains immense power. Using that I can help you to fuse the most powerful Persona of the Hierophant Arcana, Kohryu.”

A tarot spread appeared before Igor and with the swipe oh his hand they combined into one card.

“I hope this power proves helpful with the task that lies ahead.”

…

Arata was abruptly woken as the earth began to shake again. The sun was just starting to rise and the bits of sky that were visible through the canopy had a soft orange glow. Arata noticed something flying by high overhead in his brief glimpse up.

“Blaze you were right,” He shouted over the rumble, “Somepony is flying above us!”

“Arata, your Persona is the best at carrying ponies, go after them quickly!” Blaze shouted as he used his Persona to descend down to the ground, “We’ll fight off the Shadows down here.”

Wasting no time Arata called for Taliesin and jumped into his Persona’s arms, and flew towards the pegasus.

“Hey! Stop flying! I’m here to help you!” Arata shouted as he closed in to the pony.

The pony ignored his calls and continued to fly on. As he got closer he could make out Compass Rose’s familiar form. She appeared to be frantically scribbling onto a piece of paper secured to her neck.

“Compass Rose! It’s Arata stop flying!” She appeared to ignore his call again. Finally being in range to act Taliesin thrust out his free had and halted the dazed pony.

Compass Rose screamed, dropping her quill. She frantically shook her head before turning to Arata. “I can’t finish my map..” She whispered too quietly for Arata to hear.

“Wha-” Arata began.

“I can’t finish my map!” she shouted her eyes widening, under her disheveled mane, her eyes were bloodshot and had formed heavy bags. Arata shifted his gaze to the ground below and watched as the forest below constantly shifted and changed. “It needs to be perfect! But it can’t be!” She screamed slamming her hooves into Taliesin.

Arata ordered his Persona to lower them to the ground, and Taliesin obeyed the order. Once they landed Compass Rose attempted to take to the sky once more, but Arata managed to grab hold and keep her down.

Arata put his hooves on her shoulders and stared into deadened gaze, “Compass Rose, none of this is real. You need to get a grip of yourself!”

“A-arata,” Compass Rose blinked rapidly and began to take in her environment, and the water that she was sitting in, “Where am I?”

“I don’t know. We’ve been here for more than a day now,” Arata replied. Through the dull noise of the bog Arata could hear a call in the distance. “I hear the others, we might not need to walk after all.”

“Thank Celestia you found her,” Vox exclaimed as she slipped through the trees. “Are you okay Rose?”

“I think so,” While she answered Blaze and Camphor joined.

“What happened to you?” Vox asked.

“I was trying to make a map but it-” She stopped mid-sentence and her eyes widened. “It- it- kept changing. It knew what it was trying to make, but it kept changing…”

“Compass Rose!” Blaze shouted as she trialed off. Before he could take any further action the ground began to shake more violently than it had before, and trees slowly melted into the stagnant water.

“What in harmony…” Vox gasped.

“No, no, no, it keeps changing…” Compass Roses muttered to herself.

Arata felt something moving around his hooves and looked down to see the black ooze the trees had become slithering past him. The trees surrounding them were quickly disappearing, and what had started as a dense bog was turning into a bare pool of water.

Just in front of the team the slime was beginning to reform piece by piece it gained mass as more of the forest converged into it. The creature was jet black. Moss and vines clung to its skin giving it a dark green shade to mask its true color. As it grew two legs and hulking arms formed each one resembling a tree trunk wrapped in vines. Slowly a face tore its way from the creatures chest but instead of staying in place it began to warp and twist around the creatures body, never ceasing its movement.

The fully formed creature was easily the size of a full grown dragon and the bog was completely void of trees.

“Blaze! see if you can snap her out of this,” Arata commanded, “Vox and I will try to keep this thing back with magic!”

“Right,” Blaze quickly picked up Compass Rose, who was muttering to herself and shivering, with his unicorn magic and moved away from the creature as fast as he could.

Meanwhile Arata and Vox wasted no time summoning their Personas and letting out a torrent of ice and wind at the creature. All the Shadow had to do was raise its arm to negate the attack.

Before calling for his Persona Camphor tossed Arata one of the vials that he had made. Arata caught it and, without question, drank what was inside. Arata felt his spirit being restored and with that his Persona’s attacks became more powerful.

“Nothing seems to be working,” Vox sighed after their next volley of attacks.

“We can probably let out one or two more attacks before it gets to us!” Arata shouted dismissing Taliesin and switching to Hua Po. Vox took this time to clear her mind for the next attack.

Camphor focused his Persona’s efforts on increasing their speed hoping that it would allow them to find a weakness in their enemy.

The Shadows lumbering steps shook the ground as it moved closer and closer to the team. Morgana conjured a titanic ice block around the Shadows legs, but with no effort it broke free. Hua Po shot out several torrents of fire that still bounced off of the Shadows surface.

“I hope Blaze is having more luck than we are,” Arata readied his machete, he didn’t expect to use it, but it never hurt to be prepared.

“Me too,” Vox drew her pistol in turn.

“Guuuyysss, maybe we should move out of its path….” Camphor added starting to run to the right, Arata and Vox followed still trying in vain to damage the Shadow.

…

“Compass Rose!” Blaze could see the Shadow getting closer with every word he spoke, “There isn’t time for this. I need you to get ahold of yourself. You’re the only one who can beat that thing!”

She stared at the approaching Shadow was briefly transfixed on its shifting face. Seeing this Blaze decided to try something different.

“I’m going to apologize in advance for this,” he said as his horn lit up. Blaze reached out with his mind and attempted to talk to Compass Rose telepathically.

Compass Rose’s thoughts were cluttered even to Blaze’s unskilled telepathy. Besides her own thoughts there was another presence in her mind. Blaze attempted to push further into her thoughts and make contact with her. He finally reached her conscious thoughts and could feel a faint reply from Compass Rose. Blaze started to feel the malevolent force in her mind shifting towards his thoughts. Using what little Vox had taught him he fought off the incursion and reached out one final time to pull Compass Roses thoughts to the forefront of her mind.

Compass Rose screamed snapping to full alertness, “Wh—what happened to me…. Blaze? Where am I?”

“You’re safe now, try to breathe,” Be comforted her, it appeared whatever had been in her mind was expelled.

“What happened to me?” She asked standing on her feet.

“You fell into the lake that we’ve been exploring; there’s more to it, but I can’t explain all of that now.” Blaze responded. “All that matters right now, is that that thing is coming for us and you are the only pony who can beat it.”

“Celestia, what is it?” She asked in horror.

“It is your doubt, fear, and despair.” Blaze turned, summoned his Persona, and walked to join Arata and Vox in the fight.

“Wait! Blaze!” she shouted. “Damn it to the moon! What was that supposed to mean.” She sank back into the water and watched in the distance as the team tried to tackle the Shadow.

‘Its face,’ she thought, ‘it’s always changing…. Just like the trees.’ The memories of the past day slowly returned to Compass Rose. ‘No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t finish my map, it was never perfect. Blaze was right, that was my fear… I never have known how to find a balance in things.’

“Well” She was speaking out loud now, “Looks like it’s time to face my fear.”

A card appeared in front of her and shattered.

“Lady in Waiting!”

…

The team kept throwing everything they had at the Shadow, but nothing was hurting it. Thanks to Camphor they were able to keep fighting no matter how many times they were hit or how tired they became.

“Why did you just leave her there?” Vox shouted between blasts of ice.

“Because,” Blaze grunted as his Persona was hit by one of the arms, “She needs to deal with this on her own.”

“You’re attacks won’t work,” Compass Rose called out, her voice somehow amplified.

Everypony disengaged and looked into the sky. Compass Rose was floating in a glass bubble that was being carried by a giant raven.

“I can find its weakness,” She announced. The raven let out a loud caw, and a visor appeared in front of Compass Rose’s eyes.

A faint glow surrounded the Shadow, and slowly it faded except for one small patch on its chest.

“Focus your attacks there,” Rose advised. “And please try to relax.”

The team felt their energy charging and they began to unleash a torrent of potent attacks. The Shadow immediately recoiled in pain and a hole opened up in its chest.

“I’ve got this!” Arata shouted dismissing Taliesin and sprinting towards the Shadow. A card appeared in front of him and leaping forward he shattered it with a punch.

“Kohryu!”

A golden dragon emerged from the card following Arata’s fist and barreled toward the Shadow. The Persona weaved its way through the hole in the Shadows chest and wrapped itself around the Shadow. As it tightened the air began to smell of ozone and a blast of lightning engulfed the Persona and the Shadow.

As the blinding light of the flash cleared, Arata’s Persona had vanished and the Shadow had collapsed onto its back.

“Now’s your chance!” Compass Rose shouted, “Let me share my power with you.”

Arata took the cue and rushed in at the Shadow.

“Let’s hit it with everything we’ve got!” Vox shouted running in.

“Right!” Blaze shouted following the lead.

“Righteouussssssss,” Although he didn’t join the melee camphor shared his power with the group as well.

Every strike that the trio made cleaved into the Shadow, this was the most powerful they had ever been, and each one could feel it.

After mere moments the Shadow was completely destroyed and it bubbled into black tar and turned into a door.

Compass Rose landed and joined the team.

“See, I told you she’d come through,” Blaze smiled.

“You guys ready to go?” Asked Arata.

“Yeah,” Compass Rose sighed, “I don’t know how much more of this I can handle.” She walked to the door and pushed it open and stepped through.

…

Arata was the last one to surface, Compass Rose, Camphor, and Vox had already pulled themselves onto the shore and Blaze was still swimming over. By the look of the sky it was early morning, although it was still unclear how long the team had been inside the lake.

Once the team had gathered on the shore Blaze began the debriefing.

“Before I answer all of the questions I’m sure you have I need to ask you a few things, okay?” Blaze walked over to his saddlebag that was still sitting on the shore and retrieved a quill and paper.

Compass Rose nodded and sat down, “What would you like to know?”

“What drew you to the lake? Do you remember?” Blaze opened the notepad and prepared to write.

“It’s all a bit hazy. I had just gotten back to camp from the festival, and I was sleeping I think. Then, I’m not sure if it was a dream or not, a pony made of mist came to me and it led me here…. The next thing I remember is Blaze waking me up before we fought that thing.”

“Noted, thank you. Vox, Arata, Camphor, I think I’m starting to see the patterns here. Camphor fell into the lake about a month after Autumn Tail, and Compass Rose fell in a month after that. I think it’s safe at this point to assume we have a month until somepony else falls in.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Arata agreed. “Hey that means we can take that trip after all” Arata half-heartedly smiled.

Now, we can answer any questions you have before we head back.” Blaze assured her.

“What just happened to me and what was that about Autumn Tail?” She asked bluntly.

Arata and Blaze took turns explaining the lake, their past experiences, and what little they knew up to this point. They also explained Persona’s and the true power that Compass Rose had just unlocked.

Compass Rose was shocked by both the Autumn Tail incident and the cover up that followed. Between Arata and Vox most of her concerns were put to rest, and they emphasized the importance of the mission at hoof.

“So Rose,” Vox took the stage after Arata and Blaze finished. “Are you going to help us save any pony that falls in there?”

“I can’t say that I agree with every choice you’ve made this far, but if my power can help save somepony then I’m in.”

Arata felt that his bond with the Fool Arcana had increased as the team gained a new member and more experience.