Persona X: Shadows of the Everfree

by Fossil-Dragon-Messiah

Shadow World

Twilight wentwent downstairs in silence, unable to shake the thought's of her bizarre dream from her head. What in the hay was that dream about? She asked herself. Why would I be thinking of humans? I haven't talked with Sunset in at least three weeks... Maybe I should check in on her later.

The young alicorn found herself in her castle's dining hall where Spike was placing two large plates of waffles on the table and removing a box from it. "Breakfast's ready." The wyrm called to Twilight. She offered Spike a gentle smile and sat down at her spot, taking a fork and knife up with her magic.

As she was about to dig in, Spike asked, "Hey, Twi? Are feeling alright?"

Twilight put down her silverware and turned to her assistant. "What do you mean, Spike?"

"I dunno. You just seem kinda out of it today. Did you not sleep well or something?" Spike inquired.

"Well I did have a weird dream, but I slept fine for the most part... I think you're just imagining things, Spike." Twilight said as she began eating. "Anyway, you should start eating. You don't wanna watch the eclipse on an empty stomach, do you?"

Spike laughed and sat down at his plate. "I guess you're right. Speaking of which, when did you say the eclipse was gonna happen?"

"Around noon." Twilight answered with a mouthful of waffles. "We got plenty of time. Don't you worry."

Spike nodded and began to consume his own breakfast.

The rest of the morning was relatively uneventful. Twilight took inventory of the eclipse glasses she would pass out to the spectators and Spike helped make sure the castle was spic and span.

At around 10:30, the two left the castle and headed towards Fluttershy's cottage, which was situated so it would just so happen to be in the area where the eclipse would be most visible.

With the glasses in tow, Twilight and Spike arrived at the little cottage at the edge of the Everfree forest. Twilight's friends were not the only ones to arrive early. Among the crowd gathered was the Hooves family, Derpy making small talk with her sister in law, Rose, Dinky playing with an extremely patient lizard, while Amethyst and Time Turner were laying down a picnic blanket. Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were playing while Big Macintosh watched over them. Lyra and Bon Bon were kissing behind a bush where they thought nopony could see them. Vinyl Scratch was bobbing her head to some music blasting from her headphones while Octavia sat beside her, reading some novel Twilight couldn't see the title of.

Scanning the crowd for her friends, Twilight saw a cyan hoof beckon over. Moving towards the waving hoof, Twilight and Spike found Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Rarity lying on a red and black checkered picnic blanket. "Heya Twi," Applejack greeted with a big smile. "Glad ya could make it."

"Please, Applejack." Dash said, rolling her magenta eyes. "As if Twilight would miss something like the first total solar eclipse in Ponyville in over three hundred years."

"Ooh! Ooh! Can ya believe it, Twilight?" Pinkie shrieked. "It's gonna be like night during the middle of the day." The enigmatic pony was bouncing up and down with excitement as usual.

Rarity smiled. "Oh, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity! I should make something to commemorate this when I get back." Rarity looked back at Twilight and saw the box she was carrying in her magic. "Twilight, dear, What is in that box?"

Twilight placed the box down in front of her and Spike opened it up, pulling out a pair of eclipse glasses. "These are eclipse glasses. I'm gonna hand them out to everypony in about an hour." Twilight explained.

"What do we need glasses for?" Dash asked.

Applejack smirked and leaded over to the prismatic mare. "If ya'll wanna go blind starin' at the sun, be mah guest."

"The sun's gonna be blocked out by the moon, ya idiot." Dash retorted. "It'll be dark enough to look at."

"Actually," Twilight began, "even during eclipses, it's dangerous to look at the sun."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and took a pair of glasses from the box. "Fine... Whatever." Slowly, the cyan pegasus placed the glasses on her snout, letting the tinted lenses cover up her magenta eyes.

"Ooh! Can I have a pair, Twilight?" Pinkie asked exuberantly.

"Of course you can, Pinkie," Twilight said with a smile as she handed her energetic friend a pair.

Pinkie put on the glasses and started giggling uncontrollably. "I look just like Arnold Schwarzeneigher from Exterminator!" She squealed.

One by one, Twilight gave her other friends their glasses when Fluttershy approached the group. Her mane was disheveled and it looked like she had just been through one of those intense cardio-workouts Dash was going on about. "H-hey everypony... H-how are you...?" She panted.

Twilight eyed her buttery friend up and down. "Fluttershy are you feeling okay?" She asked in a concerned manner. "You look kinda frazzled..."

"Don't worry about me, Twilight." Fluttershy said with a weak smile. "I just had to help a little argument between some of my wasps and bees."

Concerned, Twilight asked the buttery Pegasus, "Did you get stung? Do you need anything?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "No, thank you Twilight. I just need to lay down for a few minutes. A the bees caught a few wasps trying to steal some honey and a fight nearly broke out." Fluttershy explained. "I managed to break them up after a few hours..."

"A few hours?!" Rarity cried. "Fluttershy dear, when did you wake up?"

"Five..."

Pinkie burst up in front of Fluttershy's face. "FIVE?!?!" She shrieked. "Fluttershy. You should know that a pony needs her rest! Especially for a party like this!"

"Oh, Pinkie. I'm fine!" Fluttershy assured. "Besides, I normally wake up around that time anyway."

Applejack nodded her head. "Same here. Ah gotta wake up early and git everything ready. Feed the critters, ready the plow, make breakfast. That kinda thing."

Fluttershy smiled warmly at her farmer friend and turned to Twilight. "I just wanted to make sure everything was perfect for today. Nopony would want something as silly as a little argument between my animal friends to ruin this once in a lifetime opportunity."

"Well, thank you, Fluttershy." Rarity said with a gentle grin. "That was most considerate of you."

The buttery Pegasus nodded with a content smile before plopping down on the picnic blanket, exhausted. "Would you girls please wake me when the eclipse starts? I-I man that is... if you... Ya know... remember?"

Pinkie Pie bent down to her tired friend's face, and nodded exuberantly. "Don't ya worry, Fluttershy! There's no way in Tartarus we're gonna let you sleep through this!"

With those words, Fluttershy was out like a light. Snoring cutely as she gained some much needed rest.

About an hour passed, and, true to her word, Twilight, with some help from Spike, began distributing eclipse glasses to all spectators present. Once everypony had received their glasses, Twilight and Spike donned their own and went back to their friends picnic blanket, Where Pinkie Pie was violently shaking Fluttershy awake. Twilight handed Fluttershy and the rest her friends their glasses and sat down, eagerly anticipating what was to come.

From that point forward, everypony watched with bated breath. Time seemed to move in slow motion as everypony waited for the black orb to appear in the sky and block out the sun.

After about five minutes of waiting, the moon finally became visible. Twilight stared in awe as it slowly crept towards the sun. Seemingly inch by inch, the two celestial orbs came closer and closer together, until finally the moon just barely began to overlap the sun.

Everypony's attention was focused on the two spheres, slowly fitting together like puzzle pieces.

After seemingly an eternity of waiting, the moon finally completely blocked out the sun, forming just a tiny ring of light around the edge of the black orb.

Twilight was in a state of utter rapture. Everything about what she was witnessing was completely and utterly majestic. The two most prominent celestial bodies coming together in unison to create such a wonderful phenomenon, and here Twilight was; standing as an observer to the whole event.

Suddenly, the dark tint in Twilight's glasses became impossible to see through. As the young mare was about to take off her glasses, she heard a scream from right next to her. Hurrying, Twilight threw off the lenses and looked to her side.

What she saw was incomprehensible.

Aside from her self, Spike, and the rest of her friends, everypony who had gathered to watch the eclipse had disappeared. In their places were giant coffins.

Rainbow Dash took a step back as Fluttershy whimpered in fear. Applejack and Rarity looked around them in awe as their surroundings began to warp. The sky gave off an eerie green glow, the trees became warped and crooked, and puddles of what appeared to be blood began to well up at random points on the ground. "WHAT KIND OF MESSED UP TARTARUS IS THIS?!?!" Dash screamed.

Spike hugged at Twilight's legged as he quivered in fear. "T-Twilight, What's going on?"

Twilight shook her head. "I... I have no idea..." She whimpered. "T-this is... unnatural... This doesn't make any sense!"

"Silly Twilight!" Pinkie cried, brightening the mood (If only slightly. "Isn't it obvious?"

Everypony stared at Pinkie as she began a long winded explanation. "Obviously, Lauren Faust the Almighty is displeased with her children and has decided to bring the end of planet Terrasteed!"

An awkward silence hung in the air. Everypony just stared at Pinkie with the most "What the buck is wrong with you" faces they could muster. "Joking!" Pinkie cried. "C'mon, girl's. You all know I'm atheist! I have no clue what the Tartarus is happening. Hehehe."

Before anypony could say anything, a loud shriek was heard not to far into the forest. From the direction of the cry, something emerged from the thicket. Or rather, a lot of things.

Some of them appeared to be giant orbs with mouths while others were black puddles of some viscous fluid wearing masks, slowly crawling towards the ponies (and dragon) with gooey arms.

"What in the name of Celestia's mane are those things!?" Applejack cried out as Fluttershy backed up, shaking in fear.

Twilight didn't answer but instead tried to blast at the monsters with her magic, but for some inexplicable reason, all she could do was lift up a small rock nearby. "What the?"

Fluttershy tried to fly away, but just like Twilight and her magic, she seemed barely able to get off the ground.

Something was robbing the ponies of there abilities. Applejack wasn't as strong as she should have been, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were unable to fly, and the most magic Twilight and Rarity could do was lift small objects.

Suddenly a larger monster burst from the trees, but something was off about this one. It was to... Streamlined compared to the others. It was some sort of black humanoid robot wielding a giant golden lightning bolt and with a human skeleton painted on the front. The robot swung it's lightning bolt at the smaller monsters, smashing them and turning them into some kind of blackish red mist.

Then, a group of creatures emerged from behind the robot. There were fifteen in all. One was obviously a dog, while one appeared to be some kind of cartoonish bear, but the other thirteen only Twilight and Spike were familiar with.

"Twilight!" Spike cried. "Are those...?"

"Humans."

One of the humans stepped forth. He was a tall muscular male with bleached hair. "Take-Mikazuchi," He cried. "Maziodyne!"

The black robot raised the lightning bolt above it's head and giant pillars of electricity rained down on a good chunk of the monsters.

A crimson haired woman stepped forward and pulled a gun from her waist. "I summon thee! Artimesi-AGH!"

A blast of flame knocked the woman forward. She dropped the gun which landed right at Twilight's hooves. The woman crawled onto her elbows. Her eyes widened as they fell upon Twilight, who was lifting up the gun.

"Mitsuru!" A silver haired boy in a red vest cried.

Twilight raised the cold gun to her face as the crimson haired woman stared in awe. Turning the weapon to the side, Twilight found four simple letters carved into it. S.E.E.S.

On pure instinct, Twilight pressed the metal barrel again against her forehead, just below the base of her horn and muttered three simple syllables, all the while keeping a mad smile on her face.

"Per...So...Na..."

Suddenly, the lavender alicorn used her magic and pulled back on the trigger, forcing a sound that she likened to shattering glass resonated as a massive blue fog erupted from the ground behind her.

In this dense fog, a silhouette appeared and a voice almost identical to Twilight's resonated.

"Thou art I... And I am thou... From the sea of thy soul, I cometh... I am Hecate... Queen of the arcane."

The fog cleared, revealing the figure that once hid in it. It was humanoid, a metallic lavender body with a head almost the exact same as Twilight's when she visited the human world, the only difference being it's eyes were a single shade of emerald. Attached to it's hips and shoulders were thin metal bars with hinges on the ends. Resting on these hinges were four cloth covered cylinders. Its feet were some kind of combination of hooves and high heel shoes. On the back of it's hands were five pointed, inverted stars, and resting in each hand was a bayoneted musket. A design of a crossroad formed where the creatures breasts would be and below that was Twilight's cutie mark. A massive black cape blew behind the entity's back.

Still grinning madly, Twilight stuck her hoof towards the crowd of monsters and shouted, "MARAGIDYNE!"

Hecate leveled her muskets at the monsters and pulled the triggers. Suddenly, bursts of flames began to engulf some of the monsters. Twilight turned around and saw her friends staring in awe at her.

Before she could say anything, one of the mouth monsters latched onto Hecate's neck. Twilight yelled in pain. It felt like the monster was actually on her. "GET OFFA ME!" She cried as Hecate savagely tore the orb from her and stuck her musket's bayonet into it, causing the monster to explode in a shower of black goop.

"Izanagi!" One of the humans cried. A grey haired male stuck his palm out as a card materialized above it. The boy clenched his fist, shattering the card. A humanoid figure wearing a strange mask and holding a weapon that appeared to be a cross between a spear and a sword collected the crimson haired woman in its arms and flew back to the group of humans. All the while, Hecate was slaughtering the monsters without mercy.

Twilight turned to her friends once again. This time her eyes widened as she saw blue cards materialize in front of all them except Spike and Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy held her hoof out to the the card in front of her, shut her eyes and screamed, "Hestia!" The buttery pony clenched her hoof, shattering the card. Behind her a human female with long pink hair, wearing a dress made of flames appeared.

Applejack bucked her card, shouting, "Demeter!" the creature that she summoned was also female. It had long blond hair and wore an amber silk dress. On its head rested a crown of wheat and in its hand was a golden scythe.

Rarity sliced her card with her horn. "Calypso!" She cried as yet another human female appeared. This one was almost exactly like the human version of Rarity, wearing a long white dress with a slit that went up to its mid-thigh. Calypso brandished a staff with an ivory white unicorn horn on the tip.

"Tiresias!" Pinkie shrieked. This time, the human that appeared was male. It wore an armored plate on it's chest and a cloth over its eyes and had two jagged daggers in his grip.

Twilight grinned as all the summoned human-esque creatures rushed at the monsters, eviscerating each and every one. Hestia would increase everypony's strength, Calypso attacked with giant blocks of ice, Tiresias shot blasts of lightning from his daggers and Demeter hacked away with her scythe.

Dash and Spike stared in awe as one by one the crowd of monsters thinned until none were left. Evidently so did the humans who had appeared earlier. Well, they were probably tending to the injured woman and had no time to gawk.

Finally, Hecate stuck her bayonets into the last monster. As it disintegrated, Tiresias, Calypso, Demeter, Hestia and Hecate all disappeared in a flash of blue.

Twilight felt her knees wobble. She couldn't stand anymore. Whatever she just did had utterly exhausted her. Slowly, the young mare felt her grip on consciousness fade, until Twilight completely blacked out.

Author's Note:

Okay a few clarifications.

First off: Marie isn't going to be appearing in this story as I absolutely can't stand her.

2: Just assume guns are canon in this Equestria

Comments

[Burning Wick]

Hrmmm... I feel like this is a bit rushed....
First off. I can understand Twilight doing mimicking The P3 hero's first summon with the mad smile... I just expected a bit more... well confused result as she was doing it... Kinda like a "What the buck am I doing?" deal.
Second, for some reason I am very upset that the rest (minus Dash and Spike) also can summon off the bat... maybe its because in the games it takes a while for the party to fully come together...
Third, while you did say that this after AU... why is Akihiko still in a school uniform? Plus, shouldn't Labrys be with the group?
In my honest opinion i feel like this is more like an addition to Persona Q than after AU. But meh Im just being a pain, sorry if I offended ya.

Also keep this up! I still want to see where this goes.

[Fossil-Dragon-Messiah]

5932928 Everything will be explained don't you worry

[SoulboundAlchemist]

Well done! Now explain what the P3 and P4 casts are doing in the Everfree Forest.

[New Dawn]

I'm guessing Naoto is gonna be in this if all of the two casts are in this?

Naoto is my favorite so excuse me if I get excited.

*Faint fangirling is heard*