Persona: Innocent Wish

by Trismegistus

Chapter 4: Social Link Go?

“I am thou… and thou art I,” those words echoed through Arata’s mind all night. He had only begun to realize the full significance of the events that had transpired the prior day: the lake, his wish, Nippony; all of it had felt like a dream, but it couldn’t have been. After all Blaze was there for most of it, and he seemed to remember everything the same way Arata had. He would have loved to discount everything that had happened and just move on with his life, but he knew he couldn’t.

“Why Nippony?” he whispered while softly massaging his temple. Thankfully today was the start of the weekend which gave Arata much needed time to rest. He wasn’t sure what time it was, but it felt as if he had been lying there thinking for hours. “Was that… what I really wanted? A reason to attack and…. Kill all of the ponies that bullied me… no… I couldn’t. I would never kill anypony.. I hope,” His words were not particularly reassuring. “What if that was my wish? To get revenge… No it couldn’t be … My wish had to be for a cutie mark. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

That thing, the persona, Taliesin; Arata didn’t know what it was, but he knew that he was in control of it. It responded to his will, and he somehow knew exactly what it was capable of. When it first appeared above him he felt light, as if all of the pressure he was under had been lifted out of him. Taliesin was what let Arata kill those ponies- no they weren’t ponies, not when he fought them at least. They were different. They seemed wild and hungry, as if nothing was left of them but their primal desires. And then that line rang through his head again “I am thou, and thou art I,” Arata didn’t want to admit it, but all of the evidence seemed to point to one conclusion. That “persona,” was a part of him...

Just as he was about to run through the entire situation again there was a faint knock against his door, followed by Tonic’s muffled voice. “Arata, I hope I’m not disturbing you. But I wanted to see if you were alright. You've been asleep for a while,”

Although unexpected the interruption was welcome. Tonic was giving Arata a reprieve from his own thoughts. He rolled out of bed and opened the door to meet Tonic.

“I’m fine. Thanks for checking on me. I guess the treks I’ve been doing with EWEF were more tiring than I realized,” scratching his mane Arata flashed a reassuring smile.

“Good to hear,” said tonic firmly patting Arata’s shoulder. “I just closed up the pharmacy for lunch. Merigold, Camphor, and Panacea went into Baltimare for the weekend to restock some of the medicines we’re low on. So no one’s around the shop. Anyway why don’t you come and grab a bite with me?”

Arata hadn’t noticed how hungry he actually was. Taking a break from thinking had given his stomach a chance to shout at him. “Sure, food sounds like a good idea.”

“Great! I’ll give you a chance to get cleaned up. I’ll be downstairs when you’re ready. Oh, and take your time we have a few hours until the pharmacy needs to be opened up,” with that tonic retired to the living room and waited for Arata.

After a quick bath Arata head down to meet Tonic. He didn’t want to stay alone any longer than he needed too; risking a lapse back into his thoughts.

“Good, you’re ready,” Tonic called as Arata walked down the stairs. “I take it you haven’t been by the local diner yet?”

“I haven’t really had a chance to check out anything around town actually,” Arata replied.

“Well then, let’s get you acquainted with Foalsdale.” Tonic paused and looked at the key that was now hanging from Arata’s neck. “That’s a nifty necklace, is it from Nippony?”

“Yeah it is, I just unpacked it this morning,” Arata responded as Tonic escorted him out of the house and down the street.

The walk around Foalsdale was surprisingly similar to his “jaunt” around the E.W.E.F. camp, except this time it was everypony who insisted on introducing themselves to him. The greetings ranged from casual “hellos” to elaborate explanations of who they were and what they did in Foalsdale. After one unnecessarily long introduction Arata noticed that Tonic was chuckling to himself.

“I’ve never seen everypony so excited to meet somepony new,” Tonic finally commented, watching the pony walk away. “Looks like you’re going to be the talk of the town for a while. I can’t exactly blame them, Panacea and I were just about as excited when we found out you’d be living with us.”

“I hope that I’m as exciting as they think I am,” He half laughed as he imagined what the same event would have been like in Nippony. Everpony would have been interested in their foreign guest but none of them would have showed it nearly as boldly as the ponies here. It was a refreshing change.

The pair entered the diner and patiently waited for a table. Despite its small appearance from the outside, the room was packed with tables, and had a bar in the center. Ponies filled most of the seats and a handful of waitresses tended to the tables.

“Hey there sugah, I’ll be with you in a sec,” a waitress called out to them.

“I guess we must have hit the lunch crowd,” Tonic was peering into the restaurant looking for open seats. “Are you okay with waiting Arata?”

“Oh, yeah I don’t mind.” Since they had left home, Arata had become increasingly hungry. Now that they were in the diner, and he could smell the food, he couldn’t stand much waiting.

“Sorry ‘bout that hun. Follow me,” The mare leading them seemed to be in her 40’s, and was chewing on a piece of gum. Her pink mane was tied up into a bun, and stood out next to her white coat. She also wore an apron, and glasses. “Here ya go. Would you two like anything to drink?” Arata and Tonic slid into the booth.

“I’m fine with water,” Arata answered.

“I’ll take Tonic water,” added Tonic. The waitress hurried off to get the drinks and left Arata and Tonic with their menus. “So do you get this kind of food in Nippony?”

“Not really. I mean we have places like this in the cities, but I’m from a smaller town,” Arata flipped through the menu and added “I have no idea what I should get.”

“You can’t really go wrong with the breakfast stuff here; it’s on the back of the menu,” Taking Tonic’s advice Arata flipped his menu over and made a decision just as the waitress arrived.

“Here are ya drinks, ya’ll ready to order?” she had a note pad out and looked a bit impatient.

The pair told her their orders, and she went off to the kitchen. Tonic had ordered a daffodil sandwich, and Arata was having eggs and pancakes.

“So what do you think of Foalsdale so far?” Tonic asked taking a sip of his drink.

“It’s…” Arata paused to search for the word, “accepting.”

“Really?” Tonic chuckled “What makes you say that?”

“Well,” Arata looked embarrassed, with just a hint of shame. “I’m a blank flank; and no pony treats me any differently for it.”

“Ponies treated you differently because of that?!” Tonic exclaimed. “What are they a bunch of fillies?”

“No, it’s all about honor,” Arata tried to explain. “To them it’s my fault I don’t have one. It’s because I didn’t try hard enough. Honor is important to me too, I just didn’t earn much from other ponies…”

“Still, it isn’t your fault. You get your cutie mark when the time is right. There isn’t anything you can do about it.” Tonic stated.

“I know. Sometimes I wish they felt the same way,” Arata said hanging his head slightly. Despite his best efforts he couldn’t help but wonder if everyone back home was okay, or if he had killed them in the lake.

With a guilty look on his face tonic tried to comfort Arata. “I’m sorry. That is your culture and I shouldn’t be so hard on it, just because it isn’t the way I view the world.”

“It’s okay.” Arata sighed, “I guess I’m just a bit home sick. Over the past few days I’ve been wondering if everypony back home is okay. Something could happen and because I’m so far away I would never know.”

“Well why not write them a letter?” Tonic suggested. “It might take a while to get a response back, but it’s better than worrying!”

“That’s a good idea.” Arata agreed.

“After we eat, we can head back to the pharmacy and I’ll give you a quill and some paper,” Just as tonic finished the waitress brought out their food. They ate quickly and then headed back to the pharmacy.

Upon their arrival at the pharmacy Arata was treated to a full tour. There wasn’t much out of the ordinary to be seen. The building was relatively small, and unlike their house was only one story. A counter separated the store into two parts; several neatly organized shelves filled the space in the front of the store. Most of these held day to day items everypony needs. Behind the counter locked glass cases were the various medicines that only the Poultice’s carried.

Tonic went on to explain that his job involved mixing and preparing various types of medicines from the ingredients he kept in stock. Tonic fetched the parchment and a quill for Arata and gave him instructions on how to get to the post office. He was also kind enough to give Arata money for the postage. Arata spent most of the day writing his letter. When he got back from the post office he decided to go to sleep early.

While he lay in bed his thoughts turned to Tonic. Although he hand only known him for a brief period of time, it felt like there was a faint bond forming between the them.

“Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Justice Arcana,” a soft voice called out. Before Arata could comprehend what had just happened he lapsed into dreams.