The Masks We Wear

by the7Saviors

Chilling is my business... and business ain't so good. - Disc 2

The walk to our next destination didn't take too long, thankfully. In fact, we met Rainbow Dash - or Rainbow Dash met me - practically right outside the town hall.

"So who's up next again?" I asked, Spike.

All I got in response was a dreamy sigh.

Twilight and I both looked towards Spike in confusion and saw him staring at the dossier with hearts in his eyes.

...No, seriously. There were literally tiny pink cartoon hearts where his pupils were supposed to be.

I stared at him for a minute before leaning towards Twilight. "Is uh... is that, like, a normal thing that happens here?" I asked, both confused and slightly creeped out.

Twilight just rolled her eyes and yanked the scroll out of Spike's claws with her magic. She read over it before glancing at town hall.

"According to the dossier, we're supposed to check in with a mare named Rarity on how the decorations at town hall are coming along."

"Alright," I replied, eyeing the tall cylindrical building, "that doesn't sound too bad."

Before long, we had reached the town hall and Twilight and Spike entered first with me taking up the rear. Stepping inside, I could see most of the decorations were already in place. Baby blue streamers covered the walls and balconies and there were several banners depicting the sun and moon. In the middle of it all, putting up the last of the streamers was a snow white unicorn mare with an extremely curly violet mane and tail.

"There she is," Spike whispered in awe, "my beautiful ivory goddess."

Twilight and I groaned and started heading over to the mare when Spike quickly spoke up again.

"No wait!" he cried in a panic, "I'm not ready! Twi, How do I look? Is everything good? Are my spines straight? Do I have anything in my teeth?"

"Whoa, Spike chill," I said raising a placating hand, "just put a lid on the googly eyes and let Twilight do the talking for now, alright?"

Spike huffed but didn't say anything as Twilight trotted up to Rarity.

"Excuse me, are you Rarity?" she began, but the white mare cut her off with a dismissive wave of her hoof as she continued to adjust the decorations.

"No... no, that's not right either..."

"Um... hello?" Twilight tried again.

"Oh nononono, that simply won't do!"

"Excuse me, I-"

"Give me a moment, darling," she said in a posh, cultured tone, "I'll be right with you. I'm 'in the zone', as it were."

Wait, don't tell she's another noble, I thought in dismay, was she commissioned from Canterlot or something?

Twilight gave a grunt of frustration and was about to try again when I put my hand on her side, "Here, let me try."

I casually walked over to one of the streamers and made a show of examining it critically. I glanced at the mare out of the corner of my eye and saw that she was getting closer to where I was standing, eyes still on the rest of the decorations.

Once she was close enough I spoke in the most posh voice I could muster.

"You know," I began, sweeping my gaze over the entire room, "I think these decorations are missing something."

"Oh, I couldn't agree more, darling," the mare replied, too engrossed in her work to actually bother looking at me, "I just can't quite find that... that... flair I'm looking for. That oomph, you know?"

"Oh, I know what you mean," I responded, nodding in understanding, "my mother is an interior designer. There were often times when she would spend hours at her desk, sketching away only to toss several of her designs in the trash in aggravation. Tell me, Miss..."

"Rarity, darling."

"Rarity," I repeated, giving Twilight a significant look over my shoulder, "have you not considered adding something to make the streamers and banners shine? I find the current design rather bland."

"Make them shine..." she muttered to herself, furrowing her brows in thought.

I looked over and gave Twilight a cheeky grin, to which she responded with a hoof to the face. Spike just looked surly.

"That's it!" Rarity suddenly cried. Her horn glowed light blue and that same glow enveloped a nearby bucket full of glitter. she took the glitter in her magic and spread it evenly over every streamer and banner in the room.

"Oh, that's perfect!" she exclaimed, "a little sparkle always does the trick. I really must thank yooouuuwahaHA!"

She had finally decided to actually face me and flipped out, just like I was expecting.

"Hey, what are you - ow, my arms! If you gimme a second I could just - OW! Jeezus lady, take it easy!"

What I wasn't expecting, was for her to practically rip my coat off of my body with her magic so she could eyeball it.

"Fuck, man," I muttered, rubbing a sore shoulder, "coulda just asked. Damn near tore my arms off..."

"Oh, my! this coat is simply fabulous! I've never seen it's like before! What an exotic fiber, and..." she halted her rambling and looked at me quizzically, "darling, is this real fur?"

Oh, right, I guess slaughtering animals for their fur wouldn't fly in a place like this. Thankfully...

"Nah," I answered, waving my hand, "it's faux fur - completely synthetic."

"Ah, that makes sense," she nodded, "normally, it would cost a fortune to import donated fur. Not many designers in Equestria are willing to put up the bits."

Oh... well I guess there's also that.

As I watched her turn my coat this way and that, I remembered something important.

"Hey, be careful with that, I haven't taken my phone out of the-"

She flipped the coat over and my phone slipped out of the pocket.

For a heart pounding second, I thought I was gonna be out a phone, but apparently Twilight was just as worried about my phone as I was, because a magenta colored aura caught the phone just before it hit the ground. I breathed an audible sigh of relief.

"Nice save, Twi," I said appreciatively.

"Of course," she replied, looking over the phone in her magic, "there's no way I'm going to let this thing break until I find out how it works."

"Yeah... thanks, Twilight," I deadpanned, "you're a real pal."

She gave a noncommittal grunt and I just shook my head, turning back to Rarity.

"Hey, I'm glad you're into the coat and all, but we actually came here on business," I said, trying to get back on track.

"Hm?" she responded, eyes still fixed on the coat, "what was that, darling?"

I rolled my eyes, walked over, and snagged the coat out of the air, causing Rarity to blink in surprise and look over at me.

"We're here to check on the decorations for the Summer Sun Celebration," I said, putting my coat back on, "my name's Terrence by the way. Terrence Thurston."

"Oh!" she replied after a moment of staring, "I'm terribly sorry, dear. I've been an awful host," she cleared her throat and held out a hoof, "my name is Rarity, Ponyville's premiere fashion designer and seamstress. I'm also the owner of the Carousel Boutique, where we are chic, unique and manifique!"

Okay so, not a noble. Just speaks like one.

"Alright that's... cool," I replied returning the hoofshake, then I gestured over to Twilight, "this here is-"

"Hey! It's doing something!" Twilight exclaimed ecstatically.

Seriously, Twilight?

I looked back over to Rarity with an apologetic smile, "gimme a second."

"Wait, what are these numbers? Some sort of code - HEY!"

I had walked over to where Twilight was poking at the lock screen with a hoof and promptly snatched the phone out of her grip. I reconnected the phone to the headphones still hanging around my neck and shoved it in my coat pocket, giving Twilight a flat look to match her look of indignation.

"Later, Twilight," I promised in a low voice, then I gestured to Rarity, "why don't you introduce yourself, Twi?"

She glared at me for a few more seconds, then huffed and turned towards the white mare - putting on her friendliest, fakest smile.

"Hello Miss Rarity," she greeted with false cheer, "my name is Twilight Sparkle-" she turned her head towards the baby dragon her back "-and this my assistant... Spike," she finished flatly. The drake in question was staring at Rarity openly with a dumb grin on his face. When he finally noticed all the attention he was getting, he flinched and looked away awkwardly, face all kinds of red.

"Uh... h-hey there," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head and looking anywhere but Rarity.

Rarity, for her part, just tittered, covering her mouth with a hoof.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," she said with a gracious smile.

Aaaaand there's the dopey grin. I thought. looking at Spike with a smirk.

She turned back to me with a look of curiosity, "So, Mister... Thurston, was it?"

"Just Terry or Terrence is fine."

"Terrence, then," she amended, "where exactly do you hail from? I've never seen a..."

"Human," Twilight chimed in.

"Human, such as yourself."

Here we go again

"I'm from an, as of yet, undiscovered land far outside of Equestria," I responded easily.

"Oh, my," she responded, eyes practically glowing with interest, "how mysterious! Tell me, where is your homeland? What's it called?"

"Now, now Miss Rarity," I replied, bringing out my fake posh accent, "a gentleman has to have some secrets now, wouldn't you agree?" I asked with a wink.

For a moment her mouth just flapped wordlessly and I had to bite down a laugh. I even got a snicker out of Twilight.

Sounds like something she'd say, so why not flip the script?

"I suppose that's true, yes," she reluctantly agreed with an adorable pout. She cleared her throat and looked between each of us, "So, you were all here to check on the décor, yes?"

"That's correct," Twilight confirmed, looking around the room, "So far everything looks to be in order. She brought out a quill from her saddlebags and checked something off on her list, "the Princess should be pleased with these arrangements."

"The Princess?" Rarity asked, tilting her head questioningly. Her eyes widened in realization and she got right in Twilight's face making her take a step back, "wait, you're doing this on behalf of Princess Celestia?"

"Yes," Twilight responded warily, "she sent us here from Canterlot to oversee the events for the celebration."

"You've been to Canterlot?" Rarity practically squeed.

"Um, I... live in Canterlot."

"Oh, darling I'm so envious!" she gushed, "the glamour, the sophistication! Oh, I've always wanted to go there!" she started pushing Twilight and Spike out the door of the town hall, "Come now, to the boutique! You simply must tell me all about it."

"Wait, no - but we still have to-" Twilight tried to protest, but Rarity wasn't having any of it.

"Maybe I can even whip up a little something to match that beautiful lavender coat," she continued. She looked back at me over her shoulder expectantly, "are you coming, darling?"

"Nah," I responded with a shake of my head, "we still have another event to check up on, so I'm gonna go ahead."

"Hey! Don't leave me with-"

"Suit yourself, dear," Rarity responded, ignoring Twilight's complaints and pushing her through the door, "remind me to ask you more about your attire later!" she called back.

"Will do," I responded, waving lazily.

Once the door had closed behind them, I stretched and cracked my neck with a sigh.

"What a ridiculous town," I mused aloud. I took one last look around the inside of the town hall before turning to leave.

I stopped dead when I heard the sound of a door quietly closing shut behind me. At the same time that happened I felt a familiarly cold shiver run down my spine.

What the fuck? Again? Here?

I quickly spun around towards the source of the noise, but there wasn't even a door in that direction. In fact the only door in the entire room was the front one.

For a moment, I just stared at where I thought the sound had been coming from with a slight frown.

...Nope, I'm out.

With that, I turned back to the front door and walked out into the late afternoon sunlight.

---

I hadn't taken even five steps outside before I realized I had no idea where to go.

And Twilight has the dossier... dammit.

To make matters worse, I didn't see Twilight or Spike anywhere. Somehow they had managed to disappear entirely in the few minutes I had lingered in the town hall. I took a look around my surroundings for a moment before shrugging and heading off in a random direction.

Eh, I'm sure they'll find me.

As I continued to walk, I tried to remember what I had seen from the dossier Celestia had given us.

If I remember correctly, the last event had something to do with music... but who was the pony in charge again?

I took some time to appreciate how peaceful everything was as I walked through a small glade, hands in my pockets and just kind of spacing out. The only real sounds around me were the soft flow of a river somewhere nearby and the musical chirp of the birds in the area.

Wait a minute...

My face scrunched up in confusion.

One of those birds sounds... off.

I looked around, trying to find the off key avian and spotted a small group of birds singing in a tree. That wasn't too weird to see - birds did that all the time.

What was weird, was the butter yellow pegasus conducting them.

Well that's... new.

Intrigued, I slowly made my way over just as the yellow mare was confronting the offending bird about its crappy singing. After a few tries, the bird was singing as well as the rest of them while the pegasus continued to conduct. I waited a few more minutes for the 'concert' to end and walked towards the mare.

"Oh, you all did wonderfully today," the yellow pegasus cooed to the birds, "I'm sure the Princess will be thrilled to hear you sing tonight."

Isolated, soft spoken, talks to animals, gives off a strong bashful vibe... and apparently in charge of the music for the celebration.

I didn't really want to bug the no-doubt shy pony - and normally I wouldn't have - but she seemed to be the one I was looking for.

A choir of birds for the celebration's music though?

Shaking my head, I carefully walked next to the mare, trying to make sure she knew I was there without startling her.

Once she noticed I was there she 'eep'd' and backed away quickly, making the birds take off in surprise.

"Hey, it's cool," I said bending down and raising my hands to look as non threatening as possible, "I'm not gonna hurt you, I just wanna talk if that's okay."

She didn't run, but she also didn't say anything either. About the only thing she did do was peek at me from behind her somewhat ridiculously long pink mane - eyes full of nervousness and... curiosity?

I could use that...

"So..." I began carefully, "I bet you haven't seen anything like me, right?"

She pawed the ground with a hoof and gave noncommittal squeak.

Okay, this isn't working, new plan.

Putting on my kindest smile, I sat down cross-legged on the ground.

"You know," I said conversationally, "my people aren't too different from you ponies. We fear what we don't understand just like you do right now."

She still didn't say anything, but I could tell I had her attention.

"So, here's what I'm gonna do," I gestured to myself, "I'll talk a bit about me, and all you have to do is listen, does that sound good?"

I really wasn't keen on talking to her like she was four, but it seemed to work, because she gave a slight nod of approval.

"Excellent," I exclaimed, "now then, my name's Terrence Thurston - Terry for short. I'm what you a call a human - a relatively unknown race that lives far from Equestria..."

And I proceeded to rehash everything I had already said countless times before. It wasn't too bad this time around. She seemed to come out of her shell a little more as I continued to explain what I could about me and humans in general - leaving out the unpleasant parts obviously.

"Fascinating," she whispered after about half an hour of me talking. I was getting a little tired of the one sided conversation, but I eventually managed to get her to say something.

It was only one word, but I was gonna call it a victory anyway.

"Yeah," I responded, "we have our flaws, but humans aren't too bad."

I think now's a good time to get back on track.

"I know I said you didn't have to talk at all, but can I at least know your name?"

Her eyes widened and she blushed a bit. "Oh, dear, I'm so sorry," she backed up and crouch in on herself looking to the ground, "my name's... Fluttershy."

It was quiet, but I was sitting close enough to just barely pick it up.

"Well it's nice to meet you Fluttershy," I said with a smile, "I'm sorry to bug you, but from what I overheard it seems like you were the one in charge of the music for the Summer Sun Celebration, is that right?"

She gave a tiny nod.

"That's good to hear," I continued, "you see, me and a couple of friends of mine were sent from Cante-"

"TERRY! TERRY, CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

The sudden shout from nearby made me jump - again - and poor Fluttershy nearly ran for the hills when Twilight suddenly burst through the shrubbery along with Spike walking by her side.

"TER - oh, there you are!" she said glaring me, "I've been looking everywhere for you! I can't believe you just left me with-"

"Twilight," I hissed nodding towards the cowering ball of fur hiding in a nearby bush, "you're scaring our composer for the Summer Sun Celebration."

"You found her?" she asked. looking at the bush in confusion. She looked back to me and I nodded.

"Yeah, her name's Fluttershy and she definitely lives up to her namesake, so be gentle when you talk to her."

She nodded and slowly trotted towards the bush with Spike.

"Hello? Fluttershy?" she asked softly.

Fluttershy peaked an eye out from her hiding place and let out an audible gasp.

"A baby dragon!"

"Wha - oof!"

I watched with more than a little amusement as Twilight was sent flying into some shrubbery, knocked aside by Fluttershy in her eagerness to interact with the purple drake.

"I've never seen a baby dragon up close before, how adorable!" she cooed.

"Well, well, well," Spike said, looking over to a still recovering Twilight smugly.

I chuckled and, tuning out Fluttershy and Spike, walked over to where Twilight was trying to pull herself out of the bush.

"Need some help?" I asked, holding out a hand with an amused grin.

She groaned in annoyance and held out her hoof, allowing me to grab it and pull her up.

"can we please finish this inspection?" she groused, "I'm getting tired and we still need to make our own preparations for the celebration."

"Wait, what?" I asked, raising an eyebrow, "what do we need to do?"

She looked over to where Spike was still talking at Fluttershy animatedly before looking back to me with a worried expression.

"It's nothing official," she said shaking her head, "but I want to get some research done on anything relating to any kind of dark force that could potentially threaten Equestria. I wanted to see if I could find some kind of bestiary of evil creatures or a book of prophecies foretelling a great darkness."

I continued to look at her with my eyebrow raised, until something suddenly dawned on me.

"You think that darkness thing is gonna happen tonight?"

"I don't know for sure, but I have a bad feeling based on what I heard from the voice," she said with a frown, "I just want to be prepared in case the threat does show up tonight."

Huh... that actually does make sense. The voice in my head did say something similar to the voice in Twilight's head.

That thought led to another and I looked over to Twilight to voice my question.

"Hey, Twilight," I asked.

"Hmm?"

"Earlier, after you left town hall, did you... feel this weird chill down your spine?"

She raised a hoof to her chin in thought for a moment before slowly nodding.

"Yeah, I did, but I just assumed it was the thought of Rarity trying to make me wear a corset."

Okay, gonna ignore that one.

"Well, I was still in the town hall for a bit after you guys left and just before I left I heard a door clicking shut from behind me, right before I felt that chill."

"Behind you?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"I was facing the entrance and that was the only door in the room," I clarified.

"Ah," she responded, "well that is... strange, but we can't really do anything about it right now."

I thought about it for a second before nodding, "Yeah, guess that's true. Might as well start with what we can do."

"Exactly," she replied with a smile.

By some unspoken agreement, Twilight and I made our way back over to where Spike and Fluttershy were.

"C'mon you little chatterbox, it's time to go," Twilight decreed, magically lifting Spike onto her back without breaking stride.

"But I wasn't finished telling her about-"

"Don't care, we're leaving." Twilight interjected, trotting at a brisk pace.

Fluttershy looked as if she wanted to follow but couldn't make up her mind, shifting from one hoof to another nervously. Twilight looked back at her briefly and groaned again.

"You can talk to Spike along the way, but we're not stopping so keep up."

The yellow pegasus smiled brightly and flew after Twilight. Once she had caught up, she and Spike resumed their conversation with gusto while Twilight just grimaced in annoyance.

I briefly glanced back at the town hall before running back to Twilight.

We'll figure that bit of weirdness out later.

---

"...and that's pretty much everything that happened up to right now."

"Twiliiiight," I whined, "make him stooop."

"I think he's done, Terry," she replied wearily.

"Hey, she was the one who wanted to know!" Spike defended.

"And you were more than happy to oblige," I retorted.

"Oh dear," Fluttershy added shrinking back slightly, "I-I didn't mean to take up so much of your time, it was all just so... fascinating."

"Don't worry about it," I said, waving her concerns away, "you were just curious, nothing wrong with that. Seriously though," I turned to Twilight with a questioning gaze, "where are we even headed right now?"

Twilight's face brightened considerably at the question and she turned to answer me with a wide smile.

"According to what Princess Celestia told me before we left, we're going to be staying at the Golden Oaks Library until the celebration starts."

"We're staying... in a library." I responded with a flat look.

"I know! Isn't it exciting?" she replied eagerly, completely ignoring my lack of enthusiasm and utter confusion, "I didn't even know live-in libraries existed before Celestia told me about this one!"

Oh, that explains it. Must have a bedroom hidden away somewhere. But wait...

"Wasn't your tower a live-in library?"

Twilight shook her head, "That was just a tower modified for my personal use. The Princess let me use it since it was vacant and I decided to turn it into a library. My actual bedroom was in the castle."

"Ah," I said, nodding in understanding.

"Uh, hey guys?" Spike asked poking Twilight in the head to her attention.

"What's up?" I responded while Twilight just gave him an annoyed look.

"Where did Fluttershy go?"

"What?" Twilight asked in confusion, "weren't you just talking... to... her?" she trailed off as she looked behind her and saw that she had indeed vanished.

"I was focused on your conversation," Spike explained, "when I went to ask Fluttershy what she knew about the library, she was gone."

We all glanced around trying to spot the shy mare, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Okay, what is up with the ponies in this town, man? They ain't right.

"We'll worry about that later," Twilight said distractedly, "there's the library!"

She ran the rest of the way to a big ass tree with... windows and a door?

Dude, what? What is this, the Hundred Acre Wood?

"Come on, Terry!" Twilight yelled from up ahead.

I sighed and ran over to where Twilight was waiting next to the door.

Once I had caught up, she, opened the door and stepped inside - Spike on her back and me following right behind.

The door shut behind us and we found ourselves bathed in complete darkness.

"Well, shit," I sighed, "I think now would be a good time to mention that I don't do too well in the dark, guys."

"What, don't tell me you're scared?" I heard Spike ask mockingly.

"Nope, just can't see too well."

"Terry," Twilight added flatly, "none of us can see too well right now." I could practically feel her deadpan stare.

"Well, you make a good - and obvious - point, but that's not exactly what I was talk-"

"SURPRISE!!!"

To my own immense satisfaction, I didn't jump this time - though I did stumble back a bit in shock as the lights suddenly flared to life in the room. I stood there trying to rub the spots out of my eyes for a moment. When I opened my eyes again, I had to take another moment to comprehend the ridiculous amount of colors around me.

I turned towards where I thought Twilight was, only to find a face full of pink instead.

"SURPRISE!"

"Gah!" I backed up a couple of steps and got a better look at my... assailant, for lack of a better word.

God dammit, it's that pink nightmare!

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie!" she said waving enthusiastically, "I threw this surprise party for you and your friends because I hadn't seen you in Ponyville before, and I know everypony Ponyville. I figured since I had never seen any of you - especially you - I thought I'd throw a 'welcome-to-Ponyville' party here in the library! Although in your case it might double as a 'welcome-to-Equestria' party because I'm preeeety sure you're not from around here, and by here I mean Equestria, not Ponyville. Although Ponyville is in Equestria, so I guess I do mean Ponyville!"

She giggled.

Not a single breath was taken the entire time she was talking. Not one.

"Okay... Pinkie... that's great and all, but-"

"Were you surprised? Were you? Huh, huh, huh?"

"Yes, yes, yes already! Where's-"

"Have a cupcake!"

She promptly shoved what I assumed was a cupcake into my mouth and pronked off to who knows where.

I stood there for a second, mouth full of cupcake and very confused. Eventually I just shrugged and ate the rest of the sugary treat.

When in doubt, just go with it, I thought as I walked further into the heart of the party to look for Twilight and Spike.

As I made my way through the crowd of ponies, I could see many of them chatting, laughing, dancing, or playing cliche looking party games.

At least, the ones that weren't openly staring at me and whispering.

I did take some solace in the fact that the majority of gawkers seemed more intrigued and curious than scared.

Some friendly waving and a few greetings here and there seemed to placate the onlookers and I waded through the mass of moving fur until I got to the table of refreshments where I finally found a moody Twilight being talked at by a bouncing Pinkie Pie. I didn't see Spike anywhere.

When Pinkie saw me, she bounce right into my face with a slight frown that I already found uncharacteristic in the few minutes I had known her.

"Did you guys see Fluttershy on your way here?" she asked me worriedly.

"Yeah," I responded in an unsure tone, "she was walking with us on the way here, but she just up and vanished before we made it."

"Oh, okay."

Pinkie looked away for a second before looking back to me with her happy smile back in place.

"I'm sure she just wanted to make it here at her own pace. Maybe she's already here and I missed her!"

With that she bounced away into the crowd - presumably to look for Fluttershy.

I looked at where she had disappeared to with my own frown.

I think Twilight might not have been to far off the mark with her bad feeling. Speaking of Twilight...

I walked the rest of the way over to where Twilight was.

"So... Pinkie..." I prompted casually as I stood next to her and examined the refreshments on display.

"She's a menace," Twilight replied grumpily as she poured herself a glass of...

"Uh... Twilight?" I asked in bemusement, "why are you pouring hot sauce into that cup?"

She stopped pouring abruptly and looked at the bottle. After a second she growled and slammed the bottle back onto the tabletop, tossing the plastic cup and it's contents into the nearby trash bin with her magic.

"Whoa, easy there, Twi," I said as I reached for a plate and a few glazed doughnuts, "I know you're pissed about all the delays, but we're just gonna have to wait it out. We've still got a few hours left before the celebration, so in the mean time we might as well enjoy it."

"That's just it, though!" she cried in exasperation, "we don't know when this darkness is going to strike! It could be now, during the celebration, or anytime after that!" she slammed a hoof down on the table in aggravation, "and because of this stupid party, we're wasting valuable time that could be spent trying to find a way to stop it!"

I placed a reassuring hand on her back and my eyes widened slightly.

She's shivering... damn, I didn't realize the pressure was getting to her that bad.

I started to feel a bit guilty for not realizing just how worried she really was about the imminent threat looming over us.

Well, shit. So much for looking after her, I thought with a sigh, I've been taking it easy while Twilight's been fretting her ass off about whatever's gonna happen.

"Hey."

"Just go away, Terry," she muttered unhappily, "go enjoy your party while it lasts-"

"You do realize that just because there's a party going on, doesn't mean you can't do research, right?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked, turning to look at me in confusion, "there's no way we can-"

"Twilight," I interrupted again, giving her a flat look, "this is a library. Not only that, it's a live-in library. Think about what that means."

She blinked and looked around the room - her gaze passing over the many bookshelves and the staircase leading to what was likely the bedroom. It took her a minute, but by the dawning realization and growing smile on her face, I figured she had gotten what I meant. She looked back at me and I grinned.

"Well, should we get started?" I asked, pointing a thumb over to the bookshelves.

She shook her head before giving me a quick hug and rushing over to the nearest shelf, dodging party-goers along the way.

I smiled and looked around for Spike. I spotted him over near the back of the room, playing some kind of pony version of pin the tail on the donkey.

"Hey, Spike!" I called as I walked over to him. I was able to catch his attention before the other ponies started spinning him around. He raised the blindfold from one of his eyes to look at me and I beckoned him over. After a few words with the other players, he waddled over to me.

"What's going on, Terry? Where's Twi at?" he asked curiously.

"Me and Twilght are gonna do some research about the darkness, away from everyone," I replied pointing over to where Twilight was scanning the books on the shelves, "I wanted to see if you wanted to help."

"She doing research now?" he asked incredulously, "but there's a party going on! We got plenty of time for that. She should have some fun while we're here."

"That's what I thought at first," I said nodding with a serious frown, "but, Spike, she's really freaking out over this whole unknown darkness situation, and I don't blame her. I didn't stop to think about how serious this actually is, so I decided to help her out."

Spike grimaced, his head lowered, "Well... when you put it that way..." he muttered.

"She also thinks some shit might go down tonight," I continued, "and I'm starting to feel the same way honestly. So the sooner we can figure something out, the better."

He didn't say anything for a few seconds, seemingly lost in thought. After some time he looked up at me and nodded with determination in his eyes.

"You're right, Terrence," he stated, "what kind of number one assistant would I be if I left her to do this on her own?"

Well I mean, she wouldn't have been on her own, but it's the thought that counts I guess.

"Let's go help Twi figure this out," he said, heading towards the bookshelves.

"Right behind ya," I responded as I headed towards the refreshment table.

Spike raised an eyebrow and I shrugged.

"I'm taking the doughnuts with me, those things look good."

Author's Note:

I could have ended this chapter one of two ways, the second way would've resulted in a cliffhanger. I decided not to go that route for a couple of reasons.

One reason being that I'm not too fond of cliffhangers as it is, and the other - more important - reason, is that I'm going to be putting this story on a short-ish hiatus for reasons I've already talked about in my blog posts (If you haven't read it yet I recommend checking it out).

Story won't die, I just need a bit of time to bring things together in a more coherent way story-wise.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to more in the future!

Comments

[The REAL Mister Pkmn]

This is pretty crazy so far. Hope it keeps up after the hiatus is over.

[the7Saviors]

8679932
It will. Just need to get my thoughts in order. I have another story to work on in the meantime thankfully.

[Azure5555]

DONUTS!!

[PickleRickInAPickle]

Whelp. I don't have anything better to do during this hiatus so...
Interesting choice having the velvet room be a tavern when that place is shaped not only by who signs the contract and enters, but also by the journey they will take:

Persona 3's elevator velvet room not only representing the player's journey going up Tartarus, but also his ascension into heaven.
Persona 4's limo velvet room could be seen representing how the player was constantly moving toward a goal that they didn't know all too much about (the truth hidden in the fog with the car stopping when the character is told to reflect on what's happened before moving forward).
Persona 5's jail cell velvet room acting as the player has been wrongly convicted and seen as a criminal by most of his fellow students until he frees himself, moving beyond his past thanks to the bonds made that have helped him grow.

A tavern is meant to be a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages, be served food, and in most cases, where travelers receive lodging. So currently this place probably represents Twilight's future stay in Ponyville and Thurston's general stay in Equestria, possibly added with the idea that they will receive aid that will end up costing them.

And that is just speculation from over 24,000 words that, well, feel like the prologue since I still have no real grasp on where this story will go or which Persona game it takes the most inspiration from. (A lengthy but necessary prologue? This really is a Persona work. HA!)

But I'm definitely enjoying what has been put out so far, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the story that comes out once the details come together. 👍

[the7Saviors]

8891486
Wow, thanks for the acknowledgement.

Honestly I myself wasn't sure where I was specifically going with the story at the end here. I realized too late that that the type of story I wanted to write here doesn't lend itself well to my own style of writing and I ended up hitting a wall I have yet to break through -- hence the extended hiatus. I was honestly trying to decide whether I wanted to continue the story or not and the extended lack of feedback until now wasn't really helping my decision.

But then here are you are out of the blue showing interest and commenting on the story. If someone is showing interest even after all this time, then I can't very well cancel the story outright. I've started several stories since this one and I don't know when I'll return to the story, but I will come back to it eventually.

Sorry if it's not what you wanted to hear, but I'm still trying to get my crap together
even with my current stories. Oh, and for the record, I was trying to go for mainly a Persona 2 type of feel combined with some elements from the other Persona games and some of MegaTen games I've played. It was more or less gonna be a bit of a mishmash of MegaTen.

[PickleRickInAPickle]

8891636
Eh, don't worry about it. I don't have a single public story to my name, I get where you're coming from. I'd gladly have you go with that method than just throwing chapters in to see what sticks.

And thanks for the clarification on it being more about Persona 2/ MegaTen. I don't have any experience playing either but I'm still excited for the characters that I'll recognize and what situations will come up in your story.

And if/when this story comes out of hiatus, I'll welcome it like an old friend (if that makes sense).

[ThePonyWriterThing]

I hope this story will continue because it's pretty intresting so far.