Personas of Harmony

by EricStarstorm

Bonus: Blooper Reel

Author's Note:

While I think about what to put in the next chapter, have some bonus content.

This was a bad idea.

By all appearances, there was absolutely nothing special about the book that was currently the object of Spike's attention. Its cover was pure white--even brighter than Rarity's coat, if that were at all possible. There was no title on its spine, and...it looked much newer than the other books in the library.

Spike knew he should just report back to Twilight on his lack of findings, but there was something about this book that stopped him from tearing his eyes away. He walked towards it hesitantly, as if it would jump out of the shelf and attack him. It wasn't long before he was within arm's reach of the book. He carefully drew his clawed hand closer to it, finding himself too curious to take it back. He grabbed the book and tried to pull it out. It was much heavier than it looked, but if Spike was strong enough to lift a mountain of luggage, he was certainly strong enough for this. He carefully inspected both covers, but still found no title or author name.

"Okay, this is getting a little bit creepy. Just...what is this thing?" Spike asked himself. The little dragon couldn't stand it any longer. He grabbed the front cover with one hand and lifted it from the first page. "...Cupcakes?"

"Spike?" Twilight's voice called as she walked in. "Are you okay in here?"

Spike lay on the floor as if he had been punched in the gut. The book he was reading was little more than a pile of ashes and charred scraps of paper. The dragon himself was twitching, his eyes wide and his irises the size of pinpricks.

"Spike...why is this book burned up?"

"NEVER AGAIN."

---

Had a bystander entered Twilight's home that morning, they would have thought that Twilight was painting her kitchen yellow. Twilight and Spike had lost count of how many eggs Pinkie had inexplicably taken out of a bag or pocket that they couldn't see only to smash them with reckless abandon. Twilight knew after that morning why Pinkie usually handled the register at the bakery.

"Huh?" Pinkie suddenly asked. Twilight and Spike, who had started to space out a little bit, both turned towards Pinkie.

"Everything okay there?" Spike asked, his eyebrow raising.

Pinkie turned around, holding an egg in her hoof. "This one smells kinda funny...like somepony left it out for too long."

"...Pinkie, for the love of the gods, do NOT break that egg."

"Okie dokie loki!" Pinkie sang. She was about to get back to work, but her sudden movements caused the egg to fall out of her grasp.

"AAH!" Twilight exclaimed. She frantically tried to grab the egg with her magic, but to no avail--it smashed against the floor. She and Spike covered their noses and braced themselves, but to their surprise, there was no smell permeating the air. Instead, when they looked at the pile of eggshell on the ground, they saw a baby chicken.

"Aaaaw!" Pinkie cooed as she picked up the tiny chick in both front hooves. "He's so cute! This is gonna make a GREAT birthday present for Fluttershy!"

"...I'm not sure if you should go take a bath or if you should go to the store more often, but do that next time."

---

"Well, can Aurora do anything else?" Rarity asked. "Surely we haven't seen everything."

"Oh! Yeah, watch this!"

Aurora flew back over to Pinkie. She grabbed the heart that was on her head and pulled at it, eventually removing it with a comical pop. She put it over Pinkie's eye, and it turned translucent, allowing her to see through it.

"What's that supposed to do?" Fluttershy asked.

There was silence in response. As time passed, Pinkie's smile turned into a look of intense concentration.

"...Pinkie Pie?" Rainbow asked, almost nervously.

Another smile spread across Pinkie's face as she lifted the heart from her eye. "Ohmygoshyouguys! I can get Space Invaders on this thing!"

Rarity cleared her throat. "Well, at least she can support us when we--"

"Did you say SPACE INVADERS?!" Spike demanded as he ran up to Pinkie.

"Uh-huh! I got a pretty high score!" Pinkie replied, nodding vigorously.

Spike ripped the heart out of Aurora's hands and practically slammed it over his own eye. He let out a fierce battle cry, not even pausing to take a breath, for what seemed to be an eternity.

"...I think this meeting might not have been such a good idea," Twilight said.

---

"We can't get close to this thing, or it'll take us down in a second," Twilight said. "We have to fight from a distance."

"Got it!" Rainbow said with a nod.

The Shadow ran towards Merlin this time, but Peregrine flapped her wings, blowing it back with a gust of wind. Jack of Clubs surrounded it with ice, and Merlin raised his hands into the air, striking it with lightning from above. The Shadow fell over and landed on its back, unable to move.

Rarity looked over to Twilight. "Now is our chance! We must strike!"

In lieu of a response, Twilight nodded and grinned. Rainbow smiled as well, somehow knowing what was about to happen.

"Good answer!"

For a brief moment, the image of the three ponies' determined smiles passed through Twilight's mind's eye. When that faded, they galloped over to the Shadow and began to beat it relentlessly. They pounded it with their hooves, blasted it with magic, and buffeted it with wings. This seemed to go on for a while before an explosion of dust appeared where the Shadow was, appearing in a shape not unlike that of a skull. The cloud suddenly disappeared, and the Shadow exploded in red mist.

"...Why did we do that again?" Rainbow asked. "I mean...we coulda just had our Personas do that...or just finish it off with another lightning blast or something..."

For a long while, Rainbow's question went unanswered as an awkward silence settled over the group. It seemed as though Twilight and Rarity would say something on more than one occasion, but they never did. Twilight ended up breaking the silence, but not for a while. "Let's...just go and find Fluttershy, all right?"

---

A sound like shattering glass drew everyone's attention. They all looked up to find that Stonewall had summoned herself. Spike smiled in giddy anticipation while Twilight and Applejack watched in awe as Stonewall was cocooned in blue light. When it faded, her torso was even bigger and no longer T-shaped, and was reinforced with steel plates. At the bottom was a metal skirt of some kind. Instead of her shoulders being extensions of her torso, she now had enormous shoulder guards in the shape of trapezoids that had castle battlements on top. Her hands were now robotic and had nearly quadrupled in size, nearly rivaling the size of her host. Her head was now much like a tiny castle tower with a gaping hole in the front, through which nothing could be seen. Her entire body appeared to be made of reinforced steel as opposed to stone bricks. After a sufficient time had passed, she turned into a Strength card and faded into the air.

"...Stronghold."

"Congratulations, AJ!" Spike exclaimed. "I bet that feels awesome!"

Applejack laughed softly for a moment. "And to think...all Ah needed to do to make this happen was to actually have a lick of common sense. Ah must look like a pretty silly pony right about now."

Twilight was silent. Thoughts were rushing through her head at breakneck speeds, so fast that not even Twilight's hardworking brain could grasp them before they were gone. Something about that last phrase had given Twilight pause. She didn't know what it was about it, but it simply wouldn't leave her be.

"...Twilight?" Spike said eventually. He and Applejack were staring at her, their eyebrows raised.

"...knocking over gates and falling into trenches..."

Applejack and Spike exchanged a confused glance. Spike waved a hand in front of Twilight's face, but she didn't respond.

"Welp, she's out fer a while," Applejack said matter-of-factly. "Wanna go get some cider?"

"...I...I do..."

Applejack and Spike turned around and walked into the barn. Twilight didn't even notice them leave--she was still entranced by that last phrase. She just stood there, her eyes glazed over, long after the sun went down.

---

"I've been waiting for you," Igor said cordially. The light faded quickly to reveal the Velvet Room before Twilight. "It seems the events that I foresaw during our first meeting have all come to pass. Acquiring your Persona was the second part of the change."

Twilight decided to get straight to the point. "Igor, I have some questions for you."

"Then by all means, ask what you like. But your answers may not be so easily found."

"That world I went to today. What is it?"

"It is a world in which Shadows congregate."

"Shadows?"

"When someone dies, their subconscious thoughts--the ones they hide from others--take on a physical form. A Shadow can take numerous..."

Igor's voice trailed off suddenly. Twilight waited a moment, waiting for him to continue. It wasn't until a hint of a mirthful smile appeared on Margaret's lips that Twilight realized this wasn't supposed to happen.

Igor cleared his throat. "When someone dies, their subcon--" He stopped again. "Their subconscious..."

Margaret was barely holding back laughter by this point. Twilight, on the other hand, looked concerned. "Igor...?"

Igor cleared his throat. "Sorry...I simply tripped over my line." Igor reached under the table, and the sounds of sliding paper could be heard from underneath. Margaret had to cover her mouth with both hands to keep from laughing at this point.

"...Igor, do you need anything?" Twilight asked.

Igor raised his hand. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Now, let's try this again..."

A few more seconds passed in silence. Margaret was practically burying her face in the couch.

"Ahem...when someone--"

Suddenly, Margaret couldn't hold it in anymore. She burst out laughing and fell off of the couch.

"Okay, okay, stop the cameras!"

Comments

[shinigamisparda]

Well, this was unexpected. And hilarious!

[EricStarstorm]

5163854 Let me just start by expressing how grateful I am that you went so in-depth on this comment. You really went all-out here! Sometimes it concerns me when I don't get any criticisms on my writing, because I KNOW I'm not perfect. If a writer thinks they're perfect, that's a problem. Now, let me address your points.

A lot of your criticisms can be explained with a simple "It'll come up later." I know this seems like a lame excuse--and believe me, you'd be right to think so. It's much more noticeable when a story has frequent updates instead of all coming out at once, but some stories frequently drop little things on you and then they come back later in much greater force. It can be seen as a bit of a black mark on an updating story, and that's not entirely without merit. Sure, these stories are supposed to read like books, but they come out a little at a time, and these foreshadowing and world-building things can just seem like pointless add-ins until the chapters explaining why they were necessary come out. (Also, if it turns out they DON'T come up later, then I'll just go ahead and say I screwed up on that one--no excuse there.)

As for exposition...to be honest, a lot of that is just because I don't think there will be a better way to explain this specific thing at another time. I'll admit that it's a problem, and one that I've acknowledged on more than one occasion when I read through my past work. I tend to enjoy infodumps, but that certainly doesn't make them good. I try to do it in moderation most of the time.

Now for the characters. For their Shadows, you're definitely right about them, but I wasn't sure how else to convey how Applejack felt about her situation (and given that she was the one I gave the most thought, I'm not sure what that says about me). As for Rarity's, Spike is the most prominent example of how Rarity takes advantage of her wiles, so even though Rarity feels bad about it in general, Spike is the first victim to come to mind. It's not a perfect explanation, but I thought it acceptable. For the characters as a whole, I'll just come right out and say it--writing for and creating well-developed, strong, and realistic characters like these ponies (not sure if Pinkie falls under that last one) has never been my strong suit. I do like to think I'm getting better, though.

I can't think of a proper way to close this comment, so I'll just do so by thanking you again for your time and attention. I can only hope that you'll stick around for when some of these plot holes are filled in.

[Aliucon]

5166133 Ah, don't worry, I'd definitely be following this to the end regardless. Perhaps my comment was way too focused on criticizing, but really, take most of what I said more like reminders or pointers to what questions a reader might be having at this point of the story, instead of anything more serious.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I trust you enough as a writer that I thought you'd address some of these loose ends anyway, but I just felt like, as long as I was going to write something to say this was a pretty good story anyway, I could add other thoughts of mine into it.

In hindsight, I might have gotten carried away. But oh well. I'll fix this or just post again when the fic actually ends, then. Until then, I'll just be silently observing. Good luck there!

[New Dawn]

....

*Dawn.EXE has overheated from hilarity, restart?*

[seeker of truth n]

I think my favorite part of this was space invaders with spike. RAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH