Flash Sentry, a new student at Canterlot High School, must adjust to life in a new town and school, make new friends, battle evil creatures that threaten mankind, and solve the mystery lurking within Canterlot's social media network.
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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THE BEACH!
Time to hit that fanservice quota for the story arc.
And also racking up them social links as of the moment, I wonder if the children of Chrysalis are going to be a way to raise her link or they have their own... eh, who knows.
Now onwards! To... I don't know, raising the harem? Is it just Pinkie and Twilight or is someone else going to join somewhere?
5972034 Fluttershy doesn't have a true Persona like the rest, at least not yet. I'm currently of the thought that Eris was created by Sunset Shimmer and forced upon Fluttershy somehow so that Sunset could keep a very short leash on her and have someone to carry out, and be a scapegoat for, all her dirty deeds. Fluttershy, while she has Eris as a Persona, is pretty much at Sunset's mercy.
That's actually a very clever and sadistic plan, you conniving bitch. Force what amounts to a mind-control device on the most timid and unassuming girl in school to turn her into a complete psychopath, and when she takes the big one for you, either kill her off like you did Snips, or she is ruined for life because of what you made her do. *clap clap clap* Way to go, Sunny. I can still endear myself to this story's Shy yet. You? Not so much.
At any rate, I've been wondering the past couple days how much of Fluttershy is actually the true Fluttershy we know and love, how much is the resentful Fluttershy corrupted by Eris, and how much is Sunset controlling her.
The next few days will be interesting to watch. I do want to know, however, if you still plan on staggering the story even after Sonata's birthday, Moth. You might also have to stagger it until Dash gets her Rainbow Persona if that's soon enough.
5972034 What I forgot to say was I think, while Fluttershy may or may not have have seen Aries last year, it has never gone after her specifically. This year...
Well, AJ is dealing with the problems of being forced to grow up and mature ahead of schedule, Chrysalis is adapting to not having a huge company under her and all that implies, Pinkie, Flash, and Twilight are dusting up on skills and preparing in general for the probable fight, Cadance is probably working on a plan, Flash is strengthening his bonds, and the comments are talking about whether or not Fluttershy is being mind controlled by a knock off persona. So, things as usual.
Well, rank up for AJ and Chrysalis. So, Big Mac doesn't have any guy friends? (Besides Flash.) Huh. I find myself wondering what Chrysalis is going to be doing...
You know, I really don't think Fluttershy realizes the irony of today's horoscope. "I'm not going to help you. Here's some advice."
Meanwhile, Flash connects with several lives in various states of disarray. Chrysalis is struggling to rebuilding, while Apple Bloom and Applejack keep preparing themselves as best they can for the inevitable collapse. Hopefully, the obligatory beach episode will help the latter a little.
5972484
I am starting to not think Sunset is responsible for Eris's existence. Or if she is she is responsible in that she awakened something in Fluttershy that normally would not be awakened (although that's a general description of the power of Persona, so everyone who gets a persona in Zodiac is arguably awakened by the person who pulled them in).
Spoilered for the themes of P3 and P4, and a few events:
I'm starting to think that the persona Eris is Fluttershy's untamed shadow, instead of the tamed shadow that results in a controlled Persona. Like the shadow bosses in P4.
Personas are powered by personal strength. In all cases it involves your own inner world, and your outlook on life as a result. In P4 this was explicitly about accepting that the mask the party exposes to others in their normal life and that there is a part they might not want to admit exists about themself, and in P3 it was about them having the strength to want to continue living and progressing even after something that might make you want to give up. The party members all had something to do with those things.
I'm not 100% yet on the theme of this story, but Fluttershy is clearly struggling with her inner world, accepting who she is, and she now has an an outlook that is hostile and bitter to everyone around her, even if she normally hides it. That, at least, is not something we can blame on Sunset except that she is a contributing factor to Fluttershy's bitterness.
But, if this were true, maybe when Fluttershy was pulled into Zodiac, instead of pulling on her inner strength to defend herself she lashed out in hatred and bitterness creating a shadow Persona instead of a positive one.
5972482
It'd be the former, if anything. Looking at it now, we have every link except Priestess, and, well, you can probably guess who that is.
5972482 There aren't any Social Links left unaccounted for, so no, the bug brigade will not be social links.
5972484
I'm snickering right now at this. Bookmark this comment, this phrase is going to be VERY Hilarious In Hindsight in a few months.
As to the staggered schedule...current plans are to resume daily updates after Sonata's birthday, with the option to stagger the schedule kept open as necessary.
5972731
No Judgement?
5972731 But then again, that could be the Zodiac Investigation Team becoming some new known special name just like P3's Nyx Annihilation team and P4's Seekers of Truth
5972804
Yeah, in both P3 and P4 the party's social link changes from the Fool to the Judgement when the endgame starts and the nature of the party's goals change.
I can't tell if you meant to write come, but it's severely annoying me for some reason.
Flash not really doing guy talk kinda reminds me of me.... I'm never one for girl talk.
5972685
I like the theme you are addressing a lot. What is the main motif of this Persona
GameStory?In Persona 3, it was Death. S.E.E.S summons their Personas by simbolically accepting Death and facing it daily.
In Persona 4 (and for what I gather so far), it was Truth. The Investigation team each awoke to their Personas by becoming honest to themselves and accepting their own reality.
In Persona 5, I'd bet the main motif is Freedom. "You are a Slave. Want Emancipation?" 'Nuff said.
In Persona EG, I'd be willing to say, and on the prospect of sounding incredibly cheesy, that its main motif is Friendship. CHS is full of bullies, gossipers and in general, many ill-intentioned students and all with no little help of Sunset Shimmer, which goes in parallel with the first movie. Zodiac is filled with all the hurtful commentaries of this kids, that are practically thrown at your face.
However, these problems remain ignored when the group is among themselves, as friends. In Zodiac, each new ZIT member is taken aback by the floating texts until the rest of the team tell them to ignore them. They are supporting each other, like friends should. Most of the times a new member is added to ZIT, their Persona awakening revolves on the fact that they won't accept being walked over when their friends are willng to protect, or even DIE for them. Heck! I bet Fluttershy will reverse back up when she understands this, that she has true friends that worry about her and are willing to defend her honor and what not.
At least, that's my opinion.
5972788
Well... Aeon was kind of taken out of nowhere from the arcana's or Tarot, maybe you could pick from whatever that is from.
In fact, that always confused me, what IS the Aeon link about?
........................................
She's gonna help. Calling it now.
5972685
I'll refrain from commenting on the theories themselves, but just make a correction here:
According to Jung, a persona is the mask we express when we relate with the outside world, subconsciously or not. That's why we can wear so many of them, depending on which social context we're in at the time, and how we define our part and purpose in that context. But a shadow is the side of ourselves we repress and hide from the world, is known only to ourselves, and reject when exposed. When we "integrate a shadow" it means that we're accepting that aspect of our personality, learn from it, and allow it to be expressed into our outward personas (which is basically what the P4 cast does) so we turn it into something positive. By the same token, a trait or an entire set of traits --a persona-- that we had felt free to express socially can end up abhorrent to our outside context, so we go and hide it back into our shadow so people don't see it anymore. But we --and by extension, the characters-- can't have a "shadow persona" because they're mutually exclusive concepts. Either we show it, or we hide it.
5972943
The Aeon arcana is just what the Thoth deck calls the traditional Rider-Waite "Judgement" trump, XX of the Major Arcana and predecessor to XXI, The Universe (or The World in Rider-Waite). And like the original card, it's best summarized as "reinventing oneself", which usually comes after a major personal breakthrough.
Also, Beach Episode? I aprove
5972943
You haven't been reading the LTE version, have you? Silver Spoon is the Aeon Social Link.
5972796 Judgement is the ZITs after Fool maxes out, just like SEES in P3 and the Scoobs in P4.
5972911 Yes, it's intentional. As a native-born Southerner, I'm overly familiar with the way Southerners talk, including mangling of verb tenses as common speech.
5972943 The Aeon link is sort of a thrown-in self-discovery link. In any case, there will be NO Social Links that don't already exist or haven't been alluded to. We have ALL the Social Links established and no room for more imaginary Arcana.
5973003 I have absolutely no idea what you just said.
5972685
5972927 I think that the theme of this story is more so Survival. Think about it, the Personas awaken from the desire to live, the Hunter Shadows go after people on their birthdays. Hell the theme could even be Anonymity, as before Eris and Mephistopheles they were both anonymous, and no one can see who writes the texts.
There's also the theme of identity. People act differently online then how they do in real life, and the only reason why Fluttershy is acting like her "true" self now is because they found her in Zodiac (which I believe may actually BE Canterbook). Identity is a major plot in this story.
5972927
5973109 The theme is "fitting in" until I decide otherwise. Which could still happen. To be honest, a cohesive theme is just about the one thing that never came up in planning.
5973107
"Sunset Shimmer's #1 stalker."
......We'll see about that.
5973127 I think that works, you not planning the theme. It sort of lets the story itself build its theme. I feel that a story needs to partially tell itself, even more so with a project this big.
5973003 The Reaper is a bonus boss from Persona 3. He shows up if you spend too long in one floor of Tartarus, the game's central dungeon --if you start hearing chains rattling, it means it's time to haul ass to the next floor or teleport back to the entrance, because he's the only Shadow that specifically hunts you down wherever you are, never gives up, and odds are you will NOT be ready for him. He doesn't kill you instantly, but he has very high defenses, the second-highest HP in the game, and all high-level spells and instant-kills (and tends to get mad and spam the strongest spell in the game if you try to circumvent him). He WILL invariably kill you in one or two rounds unless you have VERY high-level Personas yourself and exploit certain status effects. He hits hard, he hits fast, and you can barely give him a papercut, so it's usually best to just run as soon as he spawns.
He serves two purposes: first, he's there to prevent you from grinding for Exp/money too long in one floor, especially in floors filled with the money-filled Gold Shadows; second, he symbolizes the inevitable approach of death in due time. Since P3 is all about Death and our relationship with it, it's thematically appropriate.
He also shows up in Persona 4 during New Game+, but he only appears in random treasure chests and you get a warning every time. He yields every character's best weapon and armor. He doesn't carry any symbolism or thematic relevance here, though, and although he's still hard, he's also significantly weaker than in P3.
In Persona Q, he's pretty much as relevant to the game's themes as he was in P3, and he's MUCH harder than in either P3 or 4. He's the FOE to end all FOEs.
5973127
Like what 5973158 said, it seems that not deciding on a main theme is actually beneficial for the story, as it can grown naturally instead of being conditioned by the writer. "Fitting in" is a good concept, but it is very specific, so maybe a related concept in a more general context would be more adecuate.
I'm still calling the main motif Friendship. Because of what I've already stated was my opinion and because... well... "Friendship is Magic"
5973107
Ah, fair enough I suppose, too bad that Scootaloo is unlikely to get a social link... I mean, she's the only one without one right? Seems kind of sad she's being left out.
And if your struggling with ideas, what about the Swords, Wands, Pendagons and Cups suits in the minor Arcana's?
5973233 I kept telling Moth to give the Chicken Arcana to Scoots, but he's as tired of chicken jokes as everyone else is :p
5973248
Oh god, it really does look like a chicken...
But seriously, there is the Minor Arcana to consider, I saw them being used in another fic before I think...
5973233 I don't recall ever saying I was struggling with ideas. Because I am not, in fact, struggling with ideas. The Social Links are set, done, no further discussion of that topic, thank you, drive through.
5973248 I'll NEVER get tired of chicken jokes! NEVER!
5973263
Well... sorry, I just figured not using the minor Arcana was a oversight you missed.
5973266 Uhh...no, it really isn't. Because the Minor Arcana are not Social Links in the Persona games. In fact, they only even show up as shuffle rewards after a battle in Persona 3. And there's a REASON for that. Will you please drop the Minor Arcana thing now? Thanks.
5973274
Alright, Alright, I didn't get the memo that you had factored out it as an option entirely.
Looks like Scootaloo is left out of the party, probably the reason that she hasn't had a conversation with Flash yet... or much of a line for that matter.
5973255 Because they are the Minor Arcanas? And can't be correlated to an individual's personal growth?
Besides. how boring would it be to have 12 characters related to a different tier of the Pentagon Arcana, which they all basically mean the same, only that in different degrees? Now multiply that by 4. You'd need to keep track of 48 different characters on the story.
Say that instead of having 48 characters for each card of the Minor Arcana you have 4; one for each suit. What card of the suit would you use? The Ace, the Kinght, the Jack, the Queen or the King? Or only the numbered cards? Use each card to represent one rank for the Social Link? Have the last four ranks be represented by the Knight, Jack, Queen and King? That wouldn't work, because in the tarot deck, those cards represent the numbers 9, 10, 11 and 12. So assigning the King to the 10th rank would be a travesty of it's meaning.
Then you'd have 12 Ranks for each of the four characters instead of the standard 10 Ranks.
There, there are 3 counter arguments against the use of the Minor Arcanas in the S.Link System:
1) They aren't important, character wise.
2) It isn't practical to make a S.Link for each of them.
3) It would involve bending a lot of rules, both from Tarot and Persona
5973314
I figured you would only use the suits, not the individual numbers I mean, come on, that would be stupid.
And Aeon was already pushing the rules of Tarot in the first place so, Persona broke that rule already, and for that matter, this is a fanfic where the protagonist somehow summoned the Velvet Room and managed to bring EVERYBODY inside it out of nowhere, I think it's safe to say we are breaking a few rules here as well in Persona.
5973059
Jungian shadows aren't what we repress and hide from the world, it's what we repress and hide from ourselves. What the conscious mind (the ego) is unwilling to accept, so it represses. By contrast, the persona is what we display to the world. It is possible to privately accept and understand our shadow (and even make an effort to integrate it into our consciousness), but not express those things publically. In fact, this is what Jung suspected would mostly happen when someone was integrating their shadow and their ego, because if they do not like that part of themselves it was unlikely they would allow it to become part of their outward appearance, even if it was unhealthy to not accept that that is a part of themself privately.
I was using the term "shadow Persona" to mean a supernatural Persona (as in the superpower) that was more heavily influenced by the unwanted subconscious (with Fluttershy this is her overt criticalness, her bitterness, and what seems to be an inferiority complex) rather than the ego. I think, of the taming of a shadow (in P4) represents the first steps on integrating the shadow into the ego, causing the shadow (the supernatural beast) to be tamed into their persona (the supernatural controlled power). And, in the case of Eris, it is not entirely tamed, and might be better described as having some control over Fluttershy instead (and literally tried to take control/merge with Fluttershy when the ZIT beat her in a fight), because Fluttershy's psychological ego has been overwhelmed by her shadow.
5973333
Bending the rules, not breaking them.
Besides, Flash pulling everybody to the VR when you can't in the games is called "narrative-gameplay dissonance", just like there isn't "Shuffle Time" in this story. And not only that, but you could actually bring the party inside the VR in the original Persona game.
Also, The Aeon Arcana tends to replace the World Arcana in some versions of the deck. Considering that the actual World/Universe Arcana is an unplayable S.Link on the games, this is as close as we can get to a World Social Link.
So there it is:
1) Mythrill isn't breaking the rules of Persona.
2) Persona didn't break the rules or Tarot.
5973352
Okay, just to say, I had no idea of Aeon's part in the tarot deck.
But you have to admit fine well that the whole party going into the Velvet room was special circumstances, unless your talking about Persona 1 and 2 which I have no idea of, otherwise this is based off of Igor's running of the place and it was even stated it was not the norm to bring extra people in with you.
Otherwise, I would have been able to duck in there when my party was dying in the games
Why does the P4 beach scene come to me at the mention of beach in a persona fanfic?
I'm kins of surprised that Flash doesn't have a dozen locks on his door now.
5973333
People other than the protagonist USED to have access to the Velvet Room. It's just when they decided to make the Wild Card a more rare power in 3 and 4 that that stopped, since no one else needed the assistance provided by Igor. Of course, lack of interference from Philamon may account for some of that.
5973050
Of course she is. I think she may actually LIKE Sonata (not in a romantic way mind). Also, Flash will find a way to melt that ice armor she has going and undo her reverse most likely.
5972927
I think Katsura Hashino said in a interview that the theme of P5 is actually "Catharsis".
5974544 What teenage boy in his right mind would want to deter cute teenage girls from wandering into his room at will?
5974558
One who got raped by one who got into the dorm? I mean, understandable for the dorm residents, but personally...
5974640
Not to mention that one snook up on his room with a knife and threatened to kill him. Though ever since the events of past sunday, both risk should have been taken care of...
Speaking of which, now that we know who is who, How come this exchange hasn't happened yet?
5974777
I'm betting questions like that will come after they managed to undo the Reversed Priestess back to it's normal state. Personally, I would also have asked "So...how exactly DO you make weapons and clothes in Zodiac?" Though I bet that once Rarity knows that secret we're gonna start seeing ZIT fight in costumes a la Persona 4: The Golden.
5974544
Catharsis is the theme?
I didn't think I could get more hyped but... there it is.
5975220
Yeah, it was said in a Famistu interview. They did a follow up after the new trailer reveal awhile back. I'll message you a key quote from it so we don't derail the comment section.
5974544
Huh, I didn't get a notification of your reply
Anyhow, Catharsis sounds interesting too. letting out the pent up emotions? I'm all for it
5975340
I edited the reply in to an existing comment so that I wouldn't just spam the comment section. The pains of catching up on the theories in there now that I have a new PC.
Yeah, It really sounds like P5 is gonna be a fun ride.
5975389
"Not at all. I'm just doing my Jenny Curran impression. Why don't you take a seat."
5974544
You have to admit that Flash suddenly gaining the ability to summon his foes into a space where they can't use their persona's and re in a confined space makes the mecanics of this story a little less stable, I mean really? I can get a few people other than the wild card having found themselves in the Velvet Room due to some reason, but you are not telling me that the mass suction setting of the place is a feature usable by anybody who has a contract to scoop themselves that others out of danger, the rules were bent here.