MLP X Persona: Odyssey

by Phoenixacezero

Recovery and Debt

DIsclaimer. I do not own the rights to MLP FIm, Persona or Shin Megami Tensei. MLP FiM belong to Hasbro and Persona and SMT belong to Atlus.

Stacks of books and papers covered the floor, chalkboards , and the humming of machines echoing in my ears . It was a song and dance I was all too familiar with. As long as I have known Twilight, whenever she comes across a discovery, she becomes mesmerized like a moth near a flame, lost in her own curiosity.

“Spike,” Twilight asked me “Can you have Perseus help me move this stack of books over there?”

I calmly nodded “Sure.”

I sent him over to the table and carefully picked them up. The stack was composed of a few books Princess Celestia sent us over about Persona and stories about users, along with some complex books about psychology. Out of pure curiosity and boredom, I read one of the stories while Twilight was out. The one I grabbed was a story about a human named Ren Ayamia and the Phantom Thieves of Heart as they entered another world and stole the desire from the heart of their target. While I was reading it, I daydreamed about being one of them and changing the hearts of criminals such as Monty. He is similar to Phantom Thieves’ target if not a palace ruler. Stealing his heart would be good.

Perseus carefully set the stack down “Thanks, Spike,” Twilight set up some targets in front of me, apart from each other. She grabbed a piece of chalk and drew a line right at my feet , “Okay, Try hitting the target without crossing the line.”
“Alright,” I replied. My persona flew to my side and pointed at one of the targets , “ Bufu!”

The spell flew from his fingertips and hit the bullseye closest to me and it became encased in ice. I casted the spell, managed to hit the 2nd and the 3rd, but it barely managed to reach 4th and couldn’t travel further before exploding.

She wrote down the results and set up some new targets. Each one made of a material“Alright Spike. Next let's test out how sharp Perseus’s khopesh is.”

“Sure thing, Twilight. I have one question” I looked at her “What’s a khopesh?”
Twilight Sparkle points at Perseus sword “It is the name of the weapon Perseus uses. It was originally a tool that was used in the South of Equestria as a way to harvest crops, but later used as a weapon for war.”
“Huh,” Perseus replied “So that’s what this thing is called.”
“Any more questions.” Twilight asked. We calmly shook our heads, “Arlight, then go.”

Perseus zoomed toward the targets and started cutting them. As he did, It felt everything. The weight of the sword as he swung it, the strength poured into every strike and impact as the blade collided with the targets. It was as if I was wielding it in my own two claws.

“Interesting. Spike, come over here and see this,” I walked over toward to her and looked at the graphs, “When you cast Bufu, you use up a bit of your magic energy, however when you used your kospepsh, you use of physical stamina as if you were holding it.”

“That would explain why I lost so quickly,” We looked behind us and standing there under the entrance to the library was Princess Celestia and Flare Tyson, “I wasted most of my time crossing blades with Perseus.”

“Flare, Princess Celestia.”

“Princess Twilight,” Flare bows “Spike.”
“Flare, how are you doing?.”
“ We’re doing fine.”
Twilight tilted her head, “Don’t you mean “I’m doing fine.”
Flare shook his no “No. I meant we.”

A familiar light formed around him and Aristodemus flew fourth from him. “Aristodemus…huh?” I gazed upon the titan and noticed that he was different from before. His skin was now onyx, his armour and his weapons were now bronze dipped in crimson, and their flames were now a burning orange. “He looks different.”
“Different?” Twilight Sparkle scanned the hulking golem, “What did it look like when you first saw it.”
“Well, when I first saw him he was mostly white and blue and not black and red.”
“Yeah. I think this is what he originally supposed to look like.”
“Originally…wait how did he change from that to what colors when I first met?”
I gave them a description of what Flare’s Persona looked like when I first saw it and how it
“It sounds like you battled a reversed Persona.”
I looked at Celestia in confusion, “Reversed Persona?”
She nodded “A Reverse Persona happens when the user has difficulty or rejects an aspect or message of their Persona and accepts the aspect of its reverse meaning of their arcana.”

(“Reverse meaning of their arcana…”)I looked at Flare and recalled what he said that , (does that mean Flare wanted to…I mean he was pushed back into a corner by Monty.)
“As a result fighting Reverse Persona tends to be dangerous as the users are not in the best mindset and will lash out if your not careful,” A familiar voice snapped out of my train of thoughts before I completely drifted into a dark place, “With that said, this brings to why I’m also here. I would like you,Flare, Twilight, and the other Bearers of Harmony to train alongside the guards.”

Everypony stared at her like an idle cat reacting to a door opening, “Princess Celestia. Wait, did you say train with the guards.”
Celestia nodded “ As it stands, none of the guards or any other ponies have any training or information on handling Persona users and you two are still getting familiar with yours. I’m hoping that if you all train together from times to time,”
“Both groups will be prepared in handling any situation involving Persona ” Flare replied. Celestia nodded. He calmly shrugged, “If that's the case, I’ll join in. After all, I don't want to get hogtied again.” He looked at me
“I’ll go to,” Twilight levitated a notepad. “I want to lend my friends a fighting hoof and we need to gather as much information as would be helpful.
I didn’t need a minute to think about it. If there are other “If it can help, then I’ll join in.”
“Very well. The training spot will be at the Castle training ground, beginning at 10 AM in five days. Now if you excuse me, I have to go check up on a little project.”
“I best be going before my boss blows a hole in the wall.” As he walked past me, he calmly said to me, “Meet me at Sugar Cube Corner tomorrow at noon.”

Sugar Cube Corner was busy today. Everypony was lined up inside of the tasty looking house to get their hooves on treats to satisfy their sweet tooth.

I was waiting to arrive. I decided to order a slice of pound cake and read more about the Phantom Thieves story.

(“Man, These guys' Persona sound so cool. Maybe I should read their story when I have the chance. Question is which one should I read first. Arsene’s stories… maybe Captain Kidd’s pirate adventure…Carmen…Goemon...or maybe…”)
“Spike?”
A familiar voice broke my concentration. I looked up from my book and felt my heart skip a beat. “Rarity, what are you doing here?”
“I was invited by Flare.”
“Same here,” I responded, “Rarity, did Flare tell you why he wanted us to come here?”
Rarity shook her head, “No. He just told me to come here. I’m guessing he also told you the same thing.”
“And I'm also in the dark, but-” I said, “We’ll find out soon enough when he gets here.”
The door swung open and stand there was a tired Flare
We were caught off guard by his words. Rarity spoke what was on our mind“Excuse me Flare, but what are you apologizing for?”
“For what happened that night in the forest.”
“There is no need to apologize again. Besides, considering the situation, I would probably do something similar .”

“True, but still I have to pay you back for what you did for me that day. If it weren’t for you two, who knows what I would have done.”
“...you're not going to stop bothering us till we say yes?” Rarity replied. Flare nodded his, “Okay…hmm. How about you help me and Spike gather gems. An extra hoof would be useful.”
“Okay. ” He shifted his gaze toward me, “What about you Spike? What do you want?”

I felt myself slip into deep thought. I didn’t help Flare because I wanted a reward. I helped him because I felt bad for him for what he went through. Still it would be rude to turn it down. I thought about for a bit then

“Can you teach me how to box?”
He raised an eyebrow “May I ask why you want to learn to box especially considering you have a Persona and fire. ”
“I want to learn to fight. I mean yeah I have Perseus, but what if I get into a situation where I can’t use Perseus or my fire. I want to defend myself and anypony else if that happens.”
“...Very well. I’ll teach you, but I’m not just gonna teach you how to box,” I was surprised by what he said, “Boxing has its weaknesses and not everypony going to follow Queensbury rules. I’ll teach you to box, but that will just be a basis. The end goal for this training is going to be how to street fight. It's not going to be easy, but if you're willing to put up with hard stuff, I’ll teach you.”
“...Okay.”
“Then we have a deal. We’ll start first thing tomorrow afternoon. Here-” He wrote down something on to a piece of paper and handed it to me, "Meet me at my place

I feel a faint bond forming with Flare Tyson.

“Now that's out of the way," He got up from his seat "I best grab some grub before the line gets any longer.”

We spent the rest of our lunchtime eating pastries and talking about our jobs before leaving.

To be continued

Author's Note:

Short chapter. This was going to be longer with a two day for the meeting but went with five days to explore the characters.
Also Flare's Persona is back in action and back to it original state.