Chapter 10: The Cathedral of Wrath.
The return of the world’s greatest Thieves! Chapter 10: The Cathedral of Wrath.
Inside AJ’s Palace – small medieval village – Safe room -
After yet another ‘Show’ of the mare’s Distorted Self burning alive two dissidents in a public execution reminding them of the witch hunts that used to happen in the real world and a long, cautious round of scouting of the small village of farmers surrounding the main body of AJ’s Palace, the members of the Phantom Thieves organization had just entered and secured a lonely, dilapidated house; once closed the door all of them left out a sigh of relief since the windows themselves were obscured by the accumulated grime from the place's abandonment, this actually made sure nobody outside would see them; it also came with a Safe Room in its basement, as an added benefit.
“Okay, with a Safe Room this close we can plan accordingly our next move.” Yusuke declared while all of them sat at the same big table in the middle of the dusty room.
“Yes, and we need to come up with something good, this Distorted is not joking around.” Makoto answered with a sigh.
“That sicko keeps burning the same two people alive, ‘Joking Around’ is not in her damn vocabulary.” Ryuji countered.
“That is actually curious.” Haru said with a curious tone.
“Please enlighten us...” Ryuji asked, while also taking a bit of a distance from her, just in case.
“I don’t mean that I wish to imitate her, Skull...” Haru answered rolling her eyes.
“Uh-hu.”
“I mean that twice we saw her do that, and two times she did the exact same thing and said the exact same words, even the crowd answered the same way. As if somebody pressed the replay button in a video.” she explained.
“Now that you mention it...” Ann admitted.
“Could it be a chance?” Morgana asked.
“Admittedly, it may very well be, but what if it isn’t?” Yusuke answered.
“A mantra maybe?” Akira suggested.
“We are inside the subconscious of a pony, what we are seeing is the physical manifestation of her mind...So her Distorted Self repeating over and over the same action can be the representation of what the real AJ repeats over and over to herself in the privacy of her head.” Makoto said.
“…‘Everybody is lying, I am saving everypony with my farm.’ and ‘Everybody is lying, Conversion will save the world.’...And from there, her endless anger against the Liars.” Morgana concluded, imitating a little Distorted AJ’s mad ramblings.
“AJ just did it again: Same dialogue and same reactions.” Futaba alerted the group through their phones.
“Hn! Okay, that may very well confirm our suspicion of this being some sort of Mantra made real.” Ryuji answered with a thoughtful expression.
“That is something, anything else to add, Navi?” Akira asked.
“Yes. The entire process follows a precise schedule: every hour (Real World time) AJ comes out for her little show of punishment of the two wrongdoers, the entire process of speech plus burning takes five minutes. And I suspect that it would also be our only chance to get inside since whenever AJ reenters the Cathedral I can hear the distinct sound of something heavy sliding in place to lock those massive doors closed.” Futaba answered promptly.
“I get it, so we’ll need to sneak inside from the front door while she talks?” Ann asked.
“Yes, I can’t see broken windows anywhere, nor good enough points to try and climb the thing to try and enter from anywhere else, The good news is that with how fervent AJ gets in her talk, she will catch the eye of every Shadow present, between screams of the prisoners and her own loud voice, you should be able to sneak inside mostly-unseen...But you will need to be very careful once inside, maybe even run straight for a hiding spot to avoid eventual Shadow guards.” the Hacker instructed.
“We only need to manage this once, if we find a Safe Room in there as well, we’ll be able to come and go from here and inside the Cathedral at our leisure thanks to the tunnels and/or ventilation connecting them.” Yusuke commented.
“Well, this time we can follow our own watches instead of a wacky giant clock in a psychotic Amusement Park. It will be easier to plan this instead of following the Palace’s owner’s sense of time.” Ryuji added.
“Let’s take position then, as soon as AJ starts her little witch hunt, we will sneak inside.” Haru declared.
“Roger!” the other Phantom Thieves answered as one.
One hour later – on the rooftop of the house closest to the Cathedral -
“There she is...” Akira muttered with narrowed eyes as soon as AJ strutted out of the main giant doors of the Cathedral for a new reply of the burning.
He and the others were all waiting for the thing to start while lying belly-down on the rooftop of one of the houses, each one of them never missing a single movement of the Distorted mare.
“She left the doors open too, good! At least like that we won’t have to risk making noise opening them again.
“Sssh! She is about to start!” Makoto hissed, silencing them all.
“Brothers and Sisters! Please do come to me! I have an announcement to make!” the mare yelled with a booming voice, soon gathering every villager right under the platform she had prepared for her speech.
“Now! Now! Now!” Futaba told them in great alarm.
With barely a grunt of acknowledgment, the entire group of teens jumped down at the same time and run towards the door while sticking to the shadows of the nearby buildings, careful to not attract too much attention on themselves.
“Almost there!” Yusuke muttered.
“Shh!” Haru answered, all of them now crouching down and sticking to one of the walls of the cathedral.
“One at a time. Panther, you first.” Akira muttered, signaling the girl to go first.
“Okay.” Ann answered with a short nod as she hurriedly crawled her way towards the door.
“Liars have no place in our family!” in the meantime AJ kept arousing the crowd for the burning to come.
“Go.”
“Okay!”
“The Lies must be destroyed!”
“Fox and Mona.”
“Roger!”
“We caught two Liars in our own Family! Two traitors!”
“Booooo!”
“Go, Skull.”
“Yeah.”
“HERE THEY ARE!”
“Queen!”
“Yes!”
“LIARS! LIARS IN OUR OWN COMMUNITY!”
“Joker, hurry up!” Ann hissed.
“Hn!” the Leader of the Phantom Thieves answered as he too ran for the door, just as the fire started burning alive the two poor Shades.
When all of them finally went inside, the group had to hurriedly hide as several robed Shadows were patrolling the main area of the place; especially on the opposite end of the first, GIANT room where the cathedral altar was, right under a huge creepy statue of a decrepit woman tied to a pole with barbed wire, so skinny to almost look like a skeleton and blindfolded, although at a closer look, the Phantom Thieves saw that said ‘Woman’ was actually a mare forced to stand on her hind hooves because her front ones were forced upward and tied as well to the pole.
“What is that supposed to represent?” Haru asked in dread.
“Our Lady of The Naked Truth. That is what is written under it.” Futaba answered for her.
“AJ believes in that? That fucked-up!” Ryuji admitted.
“She is blind herself, Skull. To her this is a utopia, so that statue too must be the one of a beautiful goddess from her point of view.” Yusuke answered.
The room was indeed big, with countless archways and hundreds of highly-decorated pillars, numerous candles were bringing some light to the place, either on the various giant chandeliers forming an ordinate line cutting the room in two or on small candle holders on walls and the pillars, but compared to the thick veil of darkness and the eerie cold inside the place, those tiny lights were actually not helping at all.
(Just add a line of giant chandeliers in the middle)
“Let’s hide on the rafts.” Akira suggested while using one of the tall tapestry pieces adorning the walls to climb up to the balcony on the second level running along the room and then climb one chandelier, so to see the entire room under them and avoid the Shadows patrolling the four spiral staircases at the four corners of the room actually connecting the first floor to the second.
“Coming!” Makoto answered, she and the others joining their Leader on top of the same chandelier, this one actually so big to easily accommodate all of them sitting on top of it.
“Okay, we are in, what do we do now?” Ryuji asked, looking down from the slightly moving thing.
“Do not move too much, Skull, let’s not make it clear somebody is up here.” Haru asked.
“Don’t worry.”
“As usual we should map as much of this Palace as we can while looking for the Treasure.” Morgana said.
“This Palace is straightforward enough to resemble the cathedrals of the Real World, meaning that beside few rooms here and there, we won’t have many rooms to search, this time.” Yusuke answered.
“So?” Ann asked.
“So I fear that most of our searching will take place underground.” the artist answered.
“Why underground?” Akira asked.
“Don’t tell me...” Haru said in dread.
“Catacombs.” Makoto answered, she too talking with a tense tone.
“Noooope! I am not going grave-robbing.” Ryuji added.
“I fear we have no choice, Skull.” Morgana answered with downcast eyes.
“Let’s start with the upper floor, it looks like the one with the lesser amount of Shadows.” Yusuke suggested.
“Okay. Should we separate in two squads as usual?” Makoto asked.
“That would be better, the more ground we can cover, the sooner we will find the Treasure.” Morgana answered with a nod.
“Very well. Me, Skull, Mona and Panther will go to the right wing then.” Haru proposed.
“Fine to me, we others will take care of the left one.” Yusuke answered.
“Same here.” Makoto added, Akira just nodded in understanding.
“Get ready...NOW!” Ryuji whispered loudly, signaling them to get down as soon as the nearest Shadows moved far away enough from that chandelier for them to jump down.
Dashing in two separate direction, the two teams of Phantom Thieves managed to sneak through their respective doors without a Shadow noticing.
Team 1 - ( Ann, Ryuji, Haru and Morgana) – right wing – Library -
“Okay, this is a damn well-furnished library.” Ryuji admitted.
“There are desks equipped with feathers and quills too, like the copy room in a monastery.” Haru answered.
“Like in ‘The name of the Rose?’” Ann asked.
“Pretty much.”
“Then do not touch those books.” the blond girl said.
“Of course.”
“Let’s look for clues about the Treasure all the same.” Morgana proposed.
“Just remember to wash your hands after we are done.” Haru asked.
“Yeah, yeah...Hey...They are not copying down books here.” Ryuji said rolling his eyes, only to stop once noticed one of the books that had been left open on one of the tables.
“They are writing right above the text already there, see? The red text is the one they are adding while the black text was the original one.” Ann added.
“And what they are adding goes in direct contrast with what it is written, it’s the total opposite.” Morgana said, surprised.
“In the end though everything looks like an unreadable mess.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll tell the others.” Futaba said.
“Thank you, Navi!”
“HEY! Stop where you are!” two Shadows yelled in anger, their bodies bloating like balloons and exploding into black ichor that then compacted in two red-skinned thin creatures, each with a metallic black crescent moon as their head.
“SHIT! Two Sandman!” Ryuji hissed furious, he and the others immediately preparing for battle.
Sandman
At the same time - Team 2 – (Akira, Yusuke and Makoto) – left wing – Organ Room -
“...I get it, Thanks, Navi.” Akira answered as soon as Futaba finished relying them what the others saw.
“No problem, Joker! You others be careful, the first team is already fighting against a couple Shadows.” the Hacker answered before closing the call.
“Will they be okay?” Yusuke wondered in worry.
“Morgana is with them, and this is not the first time we do this, they’ll be okay.” Makoto answered.
“We should trust them. This way.” Akira added as he signaled the others to follow him in yet another room, this one with a door locked.
“There was just the organ here, maybe we’ll find some clue about the Treasure in that room?” the girl asked.
“I hope so, even if the room itself would be too small to contain it, compared to the other instances we met.” Yusuke answered.
“Almost done.” Akira declared while still mid-unlocking as he was ‘fighting’ against the lock on the door with several lock-picks laying broken at his feet.
Click!
Finally the lock conceded defeat and went opened, making Akira flash a small satisfied smirk before silently opening the door to a rather big room cramped in beds.
“Some sort of dormitory, there is even a shard closet with spare robes.” Yusuke commented, showing them the long row of identical hooded robes used by the Shadows patrolling the inside of the cathedral.
“There is not much here beside those beds and few trunks...Where is the Treasure then?” Makoto hissed angrily.
“...Underground?” Akira tried saying.
“I was thinking the same. I fear that in the end, we will need to look for the entrance to some catacombs.” Yusuke answered with a pained sigh.
“I don’t like this.” Makoto added.
“None of us do.” Akira conceded.
“Intruders, You should not be here...” A voice said from behind them, and even if the Shadow spoke with a calm tone, in its posture one would see only Anger, and once transformed the creature took the semblance of a feminine being with azure skin and wearing a dancer outfit.
Apsaras.
“Such a delicate presence and demeanor! I need to remind myself to dedicate to few Persona we met a painting or two, it’s a pity not everybody can witness the same exotic views we meet in our travels in the subconscious of humanity.” Yusuke admitted.
“Why, Thank you! You too are not half bad yourself!” the Shadow answered as an aura of ice mounted around its body.
“Scatter!” Makoto yelled in alarm.
“But you will look even better as an ice sculpture decorating our beautiful church! MABUFU!” the woman declared with an imperious gesture, and creating an explosion of ice in the middle middle of the trio.
“ARGH!” Akira growled as he was sent flying back from the attack, contrary to the other two Teens with him he had not reacted fast enough to dodge.
“JOKER!” Makoto yelled in worry.
“Goemon! I’ll keep this monster occupied, you go help him.” Yusuke said while summoning his Persona, having noticed the frost covering their friend’s body and his heavy shivers.
“C-Cold...”
“Yeah, I can tell. Here, drink this.” Makoto answered while using the few supplies they had brought along to try fixing him, especially to stop his body from literally turn into an ice statue.
“I can warm you up myself if you need!Zio!” the Apsaras said with a mocking tone while summoning a lightning bolt in her hand and tossing it at the two.
“EIHA!” Akira countered, enveloping one of the Shadows in a blood-chilling aura of darkness making it shriek in pain from the powerful curse attacking its entire being.
“As you can see, we are far from being helpless! Please do not believe that a lucky shot means your victory. Goemon: Giant Slice!” Yusuke added, with his Persona using the bladed-pipe it was holding to cut away one of the Shadow’s arms (although no blood came out from the stump).
“Kyaaaaaah!” shrieking in pain, the thing rapidly tried to reach for its missing arm so to reattach it.
Brooom!
An instant before its hand could actually grab it though, a bike wheel stomped down on it, making the Shadow take a step back by reflex.
“I am here too, you know?” Makoto said with a mocking smirk while revving-up her Persona Johanna handle, making its engine roar like a fierce beast.
“Oh...” the thing uttered in dread.
“FREI!” Makoto yelled as a microscopic nuclear-element explosion shoot the Shadow against the wall at high speed, embedding the thing there in a deep imprint.
“Vajra Blast!” not fully satisfied, the young woman drove her motorcycle Persona in a full-speed ramming that almost sent the Shadow all the way through the wall (Makoto also revved the bike so to push the thing just a bit deeper into the wall).
“Do you admit defeat?” Akira asked while pointing his gun at the Apsaras.
“...DIE!” having played possum long enough, the Shadow sprang to life abruptly to try a last surprise attack.
In answer Akira dropped down and rolled to the side to dodge the attack, and without even giving the Apsaras time to adjust or even turn around, summoned his Persona to cut off the monster’s other arm.
“It’s over.” Joker said.
“NEVER!” the Apsaras bellowed, turning around to feel the barrels of three guns pointed straight at its forehead, at a mere millimeter from actually touching it.
“I knew you would answer like that.” Akira said with a calm smile.
BANG!
The three guns shoot as one, and the Apsaras’ head simply went erased into tiny shreds, making the headless body run away and leave behind its cut arms that just faded away by themselves.
“What a pity to see this Palace corrupt whoever enters here, such rage is unfitting of such lovely appearances…” Yusuke admitted saddened.
“I am more surprised that they don’t actually die, but just run away to regenerate.” Akira added.
“They are basically spirits or physical manifestations of concepts and myths, there is not a body to kill or wound since ideas do not de facto bleed.” the artist countered.
“True.” their Leader admitted.
“Details aside, I think we are good now.” Makoto declared once sure the battle was really over and no other Shadow was around to join the fun.
“The fact remains that I’ll have to rectify my earlier statement; there seem to be more rooms than anticipated in this Palace. This is not just a cathedral.” Yusuke declared, showing the second door on an isolated corner of the room leading to a steep ramp of stairs.
“What do you think is up there?” Akira asked.
“Mona and the others found a similar door on their side, it may lead to either storage rooms, other libraries or just more dormitories (AJ own private quarters included). And considering we still need to find a Safe Room inside this place, we may also be able to find it up there. So unless the Treasure is hidden somewhere near the bells of this Cathedral, we won’t find much up there.” Futaba answered.
“It won’t hurt to check everywhere.” Akira answered.
Sigh! “I guess so...”
“This Palace then is both a monastery and a church then?” Makoto asked.
“It’s possible, Palaces are not bound to the customs of the Real World: this is merely what AJ sees her Farm as: a home AND the core of her beliefs fused into a singular place. Everybody has a place here if they need, hence, the beds.” Yusuke answered.
“Hello? Can you hear me?” a new voice came from their phones.
“Loud and clear, Skull.” Makoto said.
“We are upstairs, and we got good and bad news.”
“The good news first, please.” Yusuke asked.
“As for rooms, here there are mostly dormitories and storage rooms. Along a Safe Room cozy and isolated.”
“Okay. The bad news?” Akira asked.
“...There are other two ramps of stairs still to climb, bringing the number of rooms we’ll have to check to at least one hundred before actually reaching the area of the bells. And any of them could actually contain the Treasure...Mona says we’ll have to check each one of them.” Ann added.
“Oh, God...” Makoto answered with a whimper.
“Do we have any other option?” Akira asked.
“No, buddy. I fear we’ll have to do as the Cat said...” Ryuji answered with a tone of misery.
“Amazing, and we don’t have much time to actually go through each one of them with a fine comb.” Yusuke added between clenched teeth.
“The bell room first, then we’ll go downward.” Akira suggested.
“You wanna follow the ‘Theatrical Boss Fight’ Route?” Ryuji asked, chuckling.
“That usually works.” Joker answered.
“Yes, it would indubitably be the most suitable place to have a showdown with a Palace Owner, fighting between ringing bells does bring a sense of beauty after all...” Yusuke conceded, thoughtful.
“Then it’s decided, we’ll meet in the Safe Room up here and move towards the very top of the Palace; should the Treasure not be there, we’ll move downwards.” Haru declared.
“...We are all okay with that plan.” Makoto answered once seen her two companions nod.
“Same here.” Ann answered on her own side.
Three Days Later – Flying ship Phantom Thieves hideout - Days before deadline: 2 days
The group of teens, as always masked with copies of their PT masks and hoodies, were sitting around a big table in the belly of the flying ship in complete silence, all of them just showing their exasperation in their own style: either ‘Boneless Human Wreck Style’ like Ryuji or ‘Annoyed Noble Lady Style’ like Haru, depending on who you looked at.
“I get from your state that yesterday too was fruitless?” Tempest Shadow asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Is it so evident?” Ann, sitting with her forehead glued to the table surface and her arms hanging limp at her sides to touch the ground, asked in sarcasm.
“Pretty much.” Lyra answered with a weak smile.
“We looked everywhere on the upper floors, and beside learning that Miss AJ has some rather tasteful (albeit macabre) notion of furniture and décor (The ‘dancing skeletons’ engraved on the bells were a sight to behold), we could not find much.” Yusuke answered, he instead still sitting straight and properly, even if with downcast head and crossed arms.
“Not even a clue about where AJ’s Treasure could be?” Fluttershy asked while idly petting Akira’s head to try cheer him up.
“That we found. In every book we found in the top-most libraries, AJ talked about a ‘Sacred Land’ hidden where ‘Lies cannot reach’. Problem is, while the books seem to imply that this Sacred Land is a real place and not just a metaphor...We can’t actually find it.” Futaba explained.
“And this Sacred Land place hides the Treasure?” Pinkie asked while lightly poking Ann’s forehead to force her to rise her head from the table, and only getting half-hearted grumblings in answer.
“It is not in the houses around the Cathedral, nor inside the building proper. That would leave the area around it, and with acres upon acres of land to check, that would be a colossal problem.” Makoto answered.
“What about under the church? You said that the place has catacombs.” Lyra asked.
“We said that the Palace probably has catacombs, an idea we both have no way to confirm and are actually dreading.” Yusuke answered.
“Can I please know why?” Tempest asked, rolling her eyes in annoyance.
“Would you like to go grave-robbing? To go uncovering caskets or whatnot?” Ryuji shoot back, just as annoyed as she was.
“...No, to be fair, not anypony would like that.” the ‘broken horn’ Unicorn answered, grimacing.
“I-I understand how unappealing that would be...B-But let’s say that the Treasure is hidden under the cathedral, where would be the entrance then?” Fluttershy asked.
“That is actually the problem: the ground level is occupied in its entirety by the main altar and giant statue of a creepy skeletal blindfolded mare, the room is then divided in three with a series of archways creating two smaller areas at both sides, but they are still filled in seats all facing the giant altar at the opposite end. Then there are the usual religious portraits and tapestry at the walls, and then the boot for the confessions in a side alcove to give the penitent some ‘privacy’, and with Shadows patrolling the place, looking for some hidden entrance is not easy.” Yusuke explained.
“There is a small room there though...” Ryuji muttered, unsure.
“You mean that ‘office’ we saw all the way back, hidden behind the altar? We are talking about a room how big? Three meters for three meters? There is barely room for a single bookshelf and a desk in there.” Haru asked, confused.
“We found no clue in the upper floors, and this leaves only the ground floor that has only one room that is kept separated from the rest, if there is indeed an entrance to a dungeon underground, we better check there too before declaring this a lost cause.” Makoto said with a sigh.
“Do you need Spike to let you in again?” Pinkie asked.
“We can warn him, if you want.” Fluttershy added.
“Don’t worry, we need to get close to the physical manifestation of the Palace only the first time, after that we can freely enter our Target’s Palace directly from our hideout at our leisure.” Ryuji answered.
“I say we go now.” Akira proposed.
“Yes, we have not much time before our deadline expires.” Ann answered.
“Be careful, please.” Fluttershy begged as she watched all of them take out their phones.
“You others too, do not get caught by either Celestia or the human soldiers.” Haru answered.
“We have several safe landing spots, have no fear.” Tempest answered.
And said that, the ponies present watched their masked friends fade away to reach AJ’s Palace.
“Gosh, that’s kinda creepy...” Lyra admitted.
Inside AJ’s Palace – Safe Room on the 4th floor -
“...Here we are! All ready?” Morgana asked as soon as they traveled from the Safe Room in the Village to the one inside the Cathedral, and how the two were supposed to be connected was something neither of them wanted to think about.
“Yes.” Akira answered with a nod.
“And I hope this works, because otherwise we’ll be in deep trouble.” Ann added.
“If not for the threat of poisoned food being produced here, I would have said to leave AJ’s Palace aside for later so to focus on another Target.” Makoto muttered, dejected.
“Unfortunately we have not such luxury. Let’s go!” Yusuke answered while keeping the door of the Safe Room open for the others.
Twenty minutes later – Ground Floor – AJ’s ‘Office’ behind the main altar -
Click!
“Okay, this is the place, what now?” Skull asked while mounting guard at the door, holding it just a smudge open to look outside.
“What do we have here...A desk...A Bookcase...a giant window to the outside covered in thick iron bars and dirty curtains...And a carpet.” Haru listed as she studied the place.
“You forgot the giant creepy painting of people and ponies burning at the stakes behind the desk titled ‘Heretics’.” Makoto added.
“I did not forget that, I was just doing my best to ignore it.” the other girl answered.
“Gory it’s gory, that’s for sure...WAY too many details on the burning flesh.” Ryuji added, gagging once peeked towards it for a moment.
“Maybe the entrance is hidden behind that? She seems to love burning Liars alive, having a giant reproduction of it occupying an entire wall may be the right choice to hide a door to a Sacred Land where heretics can’t enter.” Yusuke tried saying.
“You and your symbolism.” Ann answered, rolling her eyes.
“Was it not the case our first time and now? Everything we saw having some hidden psychological/philosophical meaning?” the artist countered.
“...Touche.” she conceded, annoyed.
Tok! Tok! Tok!
“It does not sound empty behind it.” Makoto said once knocked randomly on the canvas.
“...No, just an ugly painting, there is nothing behind.” Haru added as she managed to raise the painting a little from the wall to look behind it.
“What now?”
“...”
“...Joker?” Yusuke asked.
“Help me.” their Leader asked back while grabbing a corner of the carpet covering the middle of the room to roll it up.
“Under that? I got it.” Fox replied with a nod, and between the two of them, the thick, heavy and ancient-looking thing went moved aside enough to show a big slab of rock cut in a perfect square shape and colored differently from the rest of the floor, actually looking fairly darker, as if a different kind of stone had been used to create it.
“We found something, finally.” Akira said with a smirk.
“Okay, this can very well be the entrance to the catacombs, but how do we open it?” Morgana answered.
“I can’t see handles.” Makoto observed.
“AJ’s coming!” Ryuji hissed in alarm from the door.
“HIDE!” Yusuke said with wide eyes.
“Where?!”
“The curtains!”
“You can’t be serious!” Haru cried-out.
“Do you have any other idea?!” Makoto hissed back in answer.
“...No...”
Once hastily hidden behind the thick curtains in the room, the Phantom Thieves watched as the Distorted Version of AJ moved aside the carpet herself to uncover the trapdoor.
“What now?” Ryuji whispered, making Ann shove her elbow as deep as she could in his side to silence him.
“Hu? I thought I heard something...”
“...” the Distorted Mare stood in silence while looking around, carefully listening to any possible noise and making the hidden Phantom Thieves sweat buckets in dread.
“...Whatever, I have no time to waste.” finally the mare conceded after having waited long enough to be satisfied of the silence surrounding her.
Once checked that the door was properly closed, she grabbed a book from the lone bookcase to swing open the entire thing like a door to reveal the entrance to a secret compartment hidden behind it, and once entered and fumbled a little with something in there producing faint clicking noises, the mare made the stone trapdoor slowly open upward by itself to access the staircase under it.
“Is time for me to purify myself once again...” the mare muttered while walking down that secret staircase.
As soon as the trapdoor closed and the library swung back in place, Akira walked out first soon followed by the other Phantom Thieves.
“Okay, we found the secret switch, what now?” Ryuji asked.
“I think we should wait for her to come out for the burning, as soon as she starts we will open that and go underground, from what we saw, this entire cathedral is just part of the ‘background’, which means that the “Real” Palace is whatever is hidden down there.” Makoto suggested.
“Going by her schedule: she stays down there for an hour and then leaves for five minutes...If the Treasure is down there, it will leave us with a very small window of time to escape.” Morgana said.
“...”
“...What?” the cat asked as soon as he noticed how everybody was looking at him with a blank expression.
“Just admit it, Mona, we’ll have to fight AJ.” Ann said with a tired sigh.
“No, because we will steal the Treasure and leave triumphantly without being seen!”
“None of us believe that, Mona. And deep inside, neither do you.” Futaba answered with an overly gentle tone.
“B-B-But! But...But we are the Phantom Thieves!” Morgana said with a whine and tearing eyes.
“If they ask, we will say that we were dashing and untouchable, okay? That we came and left without anybody noticing.” Haru answered, patting his head while showing a motherly smile.
“Promise?” the cat begged.
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll even paint you as the main hero of the whole thing. Just stop mopping around.” Ryuji added, rolling his eyes in annoyance.
“Shut up, Skull...” Morgana muttered with a low and shy voice.
When they saw AJ finally come out from underground and leave the room, Akira and the others rapidly entered and pulled out the same book from the bookcase as soon as the mare opened the main doors, thus showing them the hidden mechanism to open the trapdoor.
“...Seems pretty straightforward, we must move the tassels until they form the proper image.” Yusuke said with a thoughtful expression while moving to stand in front of the lone panel that was the only thing inside the small secret alcove.
It was a big picture carved in wood that had been separated in forty square tassels big as a human palm that had moved in a way that the original picture could not be recognized, the tassel in the lower right corner was missing, just left to the side ready to be put back in place once the others had been slid in the right position.
“For being a pony fixating on truth, hiding a secret panel behind a bookcase sounds kind of hypocrite.” Ann admitted.
“Hypocrisy seems to be built-in with a Palace, like a package deal.” Makoto answered.
“True.”
“Please be quiet, I am trying to resolve this enigma.” Yusuke chided them softly while randomly moving tassels around.
“...Move that one to the right.” Ryuji suggested with narrowed eyes.
“Not that, the other.” Akira added.
“Please.” Yusuke begged.
“I say that those two should go up in the corner.” Ann said with an adorable scrunched nose.
“I am trying to resolve this...”
“That’s the middle of the picture, not the corner.” Haru suggested.
“Do you mind?” the artist asked with a cold hiss.
“Jeez, Fox. We were just trying to help.” Morgana answered, huffing.
“This is a forty tassels sliding puzzle, is not something easy to do.” Yusuke answered.
“The final picture is a family portrait of AJ with other two ponies I am fairly certain are her older brother and younger sister. I’ll send you a step-by-step guide about how to resolve it, Fox. Just close and re-open the bookcase to reset the puzzle and then follow my solution.” Futaba said with a bored tone.
“...”
“What? Joker sent me a picture of it and asked me to resolve it.” she explained.
“Tu quoque, my Leader?” Yusuke asked with a way-too-hurt expression.
“You were taking too long...AJ will be here in two minutes.” Akira answered with a shrug.
“Okay...It makes sense.” The artist answered with a defeated tone, closing and re-opening the secret door and following the video their friend sent him on his phone.
“...I am supposed to be the Art Expert of our Team...” the young man muttered, dejected, as soon as the trapdoor opened again.
“Good Lord, now he’s depressed.” Ryuji commented, sighing.
“If it helps, Fox, I just used a program easily found online to turn the image into a similar puzzle, then went backwards from there by having it automatically generate possible combination until I found the solution and then I run it again properly.” Futaba explained.
“It doesn’t help.” he answered in childish bitterness.
“Oh, well! Sorry then!”
“Isn’t that considered ‘Cheating’?” Ann whispered.
“I don’t know.” Akira answered.
While they talked, the group descended more and more down the narrowest spiral staircase they had ever seen, claustrophobic and dark as no candles were burning, forcing them to use the torch of their phones to have enough light to see where the steps were...Then they finally arrived to the end of the staircase, and felt as if ice-cold water went thrown in the pit of their stomach.
“Jesus...” Ryuji hissed with a low voice.
Every. Single. Wall. Was covered in pony and human skulls! The floor and ceiling as well, everything was covered in bones, and there was not a single candle that has been lit, everything was dark, damp and damn silent, the only sound in fact was the cracking of bones under their feet.
“Why...Oh why this Palace could not be another outrageously-luxurious cruise or a giant casino...” Ann said with a whine while holding onto Akira’s arm with both of hers hard enough to almost cut-off his blood-flow there.
“Ugh! Ugh! I-It’s crunchy! And a couple sound wet!” Makoto added with a similar whine as she took very long steps to try and walk on the least amount of skulls possible.
“You keep talking about symbolism, so what about this mess?” Haru asked with a green face.
“I would prefer to not actually look too deep into this, if possible.” Yusuke admitted.
“Well, at least we can tell where we came from and which tunnel we already visited since we have to manually light-up every candle we meet.” Ryuji added.
“Come on, guys! We have to do this, if we don’t, our world will be gone.” Morgana said with a sigh.
The tunnels were unfortunately pony-sized, meaning that beside the entrance, the rest of the way they had to half-crawl their way forward, every now and then gagging as the smell of dust and desiccated bones that filled the entire place.
The entire place was also a giant maze, more than once forcing them to get back as the kept walking into dead-ends, each time coming face-to-face with smaller versions of the same statue of the bound skeletal mare that had been left there on small altars.
“If we meet a Shadow now, fighting it will be a pain.” Haru said.
“Be strong, the path is growing larger.” Morgana, as the only one able to walk normally due to his smaller size, answered her as the tunnels were slowly becoming larger the lower they went.
“We keep going down, I don’t like this.” Akira admitted.
“We must be getting close to...to...to...” Yusuke tried saying until words failed him as they finally walked into a giant room with a very high ceiling, that too made completely out of bones…
Pillars made of dozens of intertwining spinal cords, chandeliers of pony skulls hanging from the ceiling thanks to chains of femurs and with dozens human skulls holding a candle on top of them.
Walls entirely made of human and pony rib-cages positioned on ordinate and alternate rows to create ‘patterns’ similar to mosaic, there were two giant stairways at the opposite end of the room made of long bones creating each step, all leading to an enormous door framed by a giant rib-cage with the keystone of its archway being a dragon skull.
The only thing missing was the floor: there was none to be found, only a bottomless pit of darkness that would clearly mean death to whoever fell down, if it actually had a bottom, considering that a Palace could actually have a literal bottomless pit for somebody to fall down forever.
“How are we supposed to pass this now!?” Ann asked, cautiously leaning forward with Akira’s help from the very last step signaling the end of the tunnel they came from and the beginning of the giant pit.
“Any of you can jump good?” Futaba asked rhetorically.
“That’s a twenty meters long jump at the very least, Navi. We are not Olympic athletes.” Ryuji answered, annoyed.
“I was joking, Skull.” the hacker answered, grumbling.
“We must punish the Liars, otherwise they will destroy our paradise!” they heard the faint echo of AJ’s voice come from way behind them.
“Yes, Saint AJ!” numerous Shadows answered in chorus.
“SHIT! What now?!” Ryuji yelled with wide eyes.
“I have a plan.” Akira answered.
Two minutes later -
“If there is something that truly angers me, is Lies! I cannot stand them! I try to give people the absolute, purest Truth and they still prefer to gorge themselves in Lies! What did I do wrong?” AJ said with a tone similar to a whine, and yet enriched by a growl.
“We have faith in you, Mother of the Truthful!” the Shadows answered, their tone full of utter devotion.
Unseen by them, in a dark alcove where the light of the sparse torches did not reach, thus creating a very tiny cone of shadows, a rope had been tied to a small rock and leading down, deep inside the bottomless gorge.
“Do not move, for the love of God.” Makoto begged with a low voice while holding her eyes close tight to not look down.
“Sssssh!” Morgana hissed in answer.
At least four meters down, the Phantom Thieves were all hanging from that same rope in silence, hoping fervently to not be found as the current situation was the only solution they had to stay hidden from the rapidly approaching people.
“Of course you have faith in me! Who else can save us all?! You just have faith in me and I will guide you!” the mare answered snarling, and to the Phantom Thieves’ shock, she and the other Shadows calmly walked on the void as if there was a floor under their hooves, until they reached the other end of the room and traversed the giant door.
Clunk! The bone-made giant thing rumbled ominously as it closed.
“How did they do that?!” Ann asked, incredulous, as soon as they all climbed again to stand on solid ground.
“Maybe there is a hidden path?” Haru guessed.
“Uhm...” in answer Yusuke grabbed several handfuls of dust and bone shards and threw them in front of them, right above the hole.
“...If there was a secret path, by now some detritus would have remained floating in the air.” the artist finally said after several handfuls disappeared down the void.
“None of them have wings either, so they were not flying.” Morgana answered.
“How are we supposed to pass this?” Ann asked.
“They did it, so it stands to reason that it can be done...” Haru answered.
“...”
“You okay, buddy?” Ryuji asked, curious about Akira’s thoughtful expression.
“Are you having a brainwave?” Futaba asked.
“There is that plaque.” the guys’ Leader said, pointing at the crude plaque of rusted metal hanging above the giant bone door.
“What’s written on it?” Haru asked while squinting to try reading it from that far.
“I have a pair of binoculars with me if you need.” Morgana offered.
“Don’t mind if I do borrow those then.” Yusuke answered.
“There you go, Fox.”
“Thank you. Let’s see...Only the Blind won’t see the path to Truth, only the Believers will walk the path to Freedom.” the artist red aloud once put the thing into focus.
“I am blind alright! Because I can’t see any bloody path here!” Ryuji answered in bitter anger.
“Thing is that they apparently can see one and walk on it.” Yusuke answered.
“Then they have good eyes, because they can see stuff even if blindfolded.” Morgana commented with a suffering sigh.
“Even if...THAT’S IT! The blindfold!” Ann exclaimed.
“Uh?”
“What if we blindfold us?” the girl explained.
“So you want to see...By covering your eyes?” Haru asked, confused.
“Hey! AJ says that those two she keeps burning are ‘blind to the Truth’, and they were the only ones without blindfolds...Maybe things work on reverse here?” Ann asked, shrugging.
“I’ll try.” Akira answered.
“Here.” Morgana offered him a piece of cloth with an unsure expression.
“...Oh...” they heard him mutter in shock immediately after.
“What? It worked?” Ann asked.
“...Very.” Akira answered dryly, surprising his friends.
“Well, let’s try! Do you have enough blindfolds, Mona?” Ryuji asked.
“I don’t. I never thought that the spare parts for my clothes would have been useful like this instead of simple maintenance.” the cat admitted, sounding almost ashamed.
“There is that room we saw with the beds and the spare uniforms, we can use them to create enough blindfolds for all of us.” Makoto offered.
“We still need to wait for AJ to come out for her usual Burning of the Heretics, we can’t risk entering there and face her and who knows how many Shadows without first sending our Calling Card. So going back to the main floor and get those blindfolds is our best option at the moment.”
“Me, Skull and Milady will go then, no sense for all of us going together and risk being seen, you wait for us in one of the dead-end tunnels and we’ll bring them to you.” Yusuke offered.
“I am coming too, just in case you’ll need back-up. I am the stealthier one among all of us.” Morgana answered.
“Thank you, Mona.”
“We’ll wait for you, just be careful.” Ann asked, worried.
“Don’t worry, Lady Panther! We’ll be back soon.” Morgana answered while he and the others rapidly left the area.
Meanwhile – real world – Outside AJ’s ‘Farm’ -
“Do you think they will be okay?” Fluttershy asked, worried.
“Of course they are! They are professionals! They did this before and helped the two of us! They’ll be fine!” Pinkie answered.
“I really hope so.” Spike added, having sneaked-out to join the two mares in the parking lot near the gardens to hide between the abandoned cars and observe the place just in case.
“Hey! Isn’t that Shining Armour? And Princess Luna?” Pinkie asked, confused.
“Yeah, and they brought a lot of soldiers with them.” Spike answered, shocked by the sheer number of day and night guards accompanying the two ponies.
“Yes?” they heard one of AJ’s ‘acolytes’ ask with a bit of dread in her voice.
“Call Miss Applejack. It is time for her to open these doors so that some proper soldiers can act as guards of this place. This little game of hers has gone on long enough for my tastes, but now I am putting my hoof down: I won’t leave those Phantom Thieves have an easy target just because somepony was too stubborn and wanted to do things her way.” Luna declared with a booming voice.
“I thought we made it clear that-”
“WE. ARE. NOT. ASKING.” the moon Alicorn boomed with both her eyes and horn shining in badly-restrained power, each word exploding out of her mouth loud enough to have the walls around the farm gain cracks and rattle the bones of whoever was within earshot (Roughly a 30 meter radius in this case) as she momentarily fell-back into her old speech pattern.
“I-I-I-I’ll go call her, your Highness!” the poor mare whimpered in answer, ears pinned to her head and eyes wide while she scampered inside to call AJ so that she could answer to the Alicorn’s summon.
“...I hate doing things this way.” Shining admitted with a sigh.
“It’s for the best, Captain. The other Elements understood the seriousness of the situation, even Rarity Belle accepted begrudgingly to let soldiers protect her...Sure she asked for only stallions, but I can’t exactly blame her either. It was time Miss AJ too accepted our help, the Phantom Thieves have already sunk their claws in Miss Fluttershy and Miss Pinkamena, the Elements of Harmony cannot be gutted further, even just to protect them from who knows what absurd power those people posses.” Luna answered simply.
“They won’t put their hooves on Twilight, that’s for sure.” the stallion replied.
“Good, that’s the spirit.” the Princess answered with a proud voice.
With the spying ponies and dragon -
“Ooh, this is bad news!” Spike hissed in dread.
“You heard them, they can come and go freely from a Palace.”
“Even after it ceases to exist after stealing a Treasure?” Pinkie asked.
“Oh!” the small dragon uttered in horror, they actually never asked about that.
“W-W-We need to help them somehow!” Fluttershy answered, already hyperventilating in worry for her new friends.
“For now we need to keep mounting guard, they still have to deliver a Calling Card so for now there is no danger of them being caught, as soon as we meet again we’ll tell them about the extra guards and together we will come up with an escape plan for when they will steal AJ’s Treasure.” Pinkie answered.
“Okay.” Spike accepted with a small nod, he and Fluttershy already looking calmer than before.
With the Phantom Thieves – AJ’s Palace – Catacomb tunnels -
The group of teens were waiting while hiding in the darkness of one of the many tunnels towards the Palace’s Inner Sanctum when they heard new steps coming their way.
“Please let it be the others,” Ann begged with a hiss.
“Hey! Hey, Guys! Get out!” they heard Ryuji whisper.
“Thank God! Why it took you so long?!” Ann asked.
“We ran into a couple of Shadows and had to run away and hide. But here are the blindfolds, are you ready?” Morgana answered.
“Yes.” Akira answered himself.
“Good, let’s see how different this place gets when we have our eyes covered.” Makoto said as the group returned to the bottomless room.
“I don’t think things will change much, I think that ‘Seeing’ in this case is more of a philosophical thing, instead of literal.” Haru answered while she ans everybody else wore their blindfolds…
And the effect was instantaneous.
“HOLY SHIT!” Ryuji yelled with bulged-out eyes as the room completely transformed in front of their (Blindfolded) eyes.
“I take back my assumption.” Haru muttered with a low, awed voice.
Gone were the bones and the bottomless pit, in its place the room now looked like the entrance to a palace; every wall now was covered and finely decorated in gold leaves and gems of amber, now crystal chandeliers hanged from a ceiling decorated by a breath-taking affresco of heaven with beautiful clouds and both human and pony angels welcoming whoever entered with open arms, and more importantly, now the place had a floor: blinding-white marble with delicate brown veins forming mesmerizing patterns, even the stairways were made of gold, with melon-sized gems decorating the handrail and a giant diamond acting as keystone of the door frame.
“The total opposite.” Akira muttered.
“We are seeing what AJ sees, she has ‘blinded’ herself to Truth in order to only see the world as SHE perceives it, fully believing THIS to be the truth.” Yusuke added, looking in wonder the giant painting acting as the roof mimicking the one of churches back in the real world.
“And she is perpetually angry because people don’t want to see things the way she wants?” Ann asked, confused.
“Or maybe she is angry because she knows this is all a lie and is trying to have things become like this, only to lose her temper whenever somebody tries to burst her bubble before she is done turning Lie into Truth.” Makoto answered.
“We’ll ask her. Let’s go now.” Akira answered, taking a tentative step forward.
“JOKER! NO!” Morgana yelled in fear.
“Uh?”
“L-Let me do this first.” the cat, still a bit shaken by their friend’s daredevil moment, rapidly tied a rope around his chest.
“Skull and Fox will hold the rope, so if you fall down you won’t...You know...Die.” Morgana muttered with a shiver.
“Thank you.” the young man answered while patting his small friend’s head.
“Ready whenever you are, buddy.” Ryuji confirmed as soon as he and Yusuke grabbed the rope, even Makoto and Ann grabbed it along Haru.
“Okay.” Akira nodded as he carefully took a step forward...And both him and the others could hear his shoes produce a faint tac! Noise as he walked on the new illusory floor.
“Okay...It’s working...Somehow...” Makoto admitted, still absolutely unsure of the whole thing.
“Whatever! Let’s go before AJ comes out and sees us trying to enter!” Haru said, running forward herself just to not spend too much time walking on top of an illusion, just in case.
The other Phantom Thieves openly shared the sentiment as they all hurried towards the door while fervently shutting-up that tiny voice on the back of their brain doing its worst to remember them that technically THERE WASN’T ANY FLOOR UNDER THEIR FEET, until they heard the giant door close behind them, making them let-out a sigh of relief and remove the blindfolds.
“Okay, we are inside AJ’s Sancta Sanctorum, the Treasure must be close.” Yusuke declared as they saw the ruins of yet another, and abandoned, Garden in front of them.
“AJ’s what?”
“AJ’s most sacred room, Skull.” Makoto explained.
"Ssh! AJ is still in here! Until she comes out we can't let our guard down!" Morgana hissed.
"Right! Let's go!" Akira answered, prompting the others too to follow him deep inside the new location.
The Place was a massive cave that had been clearly artificially carved out of the pure rock of the hill the village had been built on, the entire place was occupied by a thick mass of trees surrounding an old-style farm house with right next to it a giant barn.
What the Phantom Thieves did not know was that the Heart of the Palace was indeed a perfect replica of AJ’s home back in Equestria, but just like everything inside the Palace, all was rotten and decaying; rotten fruits were hanging from dead and naked trees while the house looked dilapidated, with the paint peeling-off by itself and several holes on the walls thanks to rotten wood planks, this along every window being broken and with very scarce dirty shards of glass still precariously hanging from their frames.
Everything in there was in a state of dead stillness and the only light, albeit extremely faint, came from few blue crystals jutting-out from the rock around the entire compound in random places, no wind blew there and no Shadow made a sound, making silence there truly absolute.
“What kind of garden is this?” Ann asked.
“By the shape of the trees...This looks like an Apple Orchard, and that a small house with barn annexed.” Makoto answered.
“The Treasure must be inside that house then,” Morgana said.
“The place is swarming in Shadows, we must be careful.”
“I can see a light.” Akira said while pointing at one of the windows on the upper floor of the house.
“THERE IT IS!” Morgana said with wide eyes.
“Good, let’s get in and map the house too...We still have to think about an escape route.” Ann answered.
“We obviously can’t get out of the main door, too risky.” Haru answered.
“And there is only a path from the outside to here...How do we do this?” Makoto asked, grumbling.
“...This way...” Akira muttered, stealthily moving towards the house and then to the wall behind it, at the opposite end of the cave.
“Uh?” Morgana uttered.
“I saw something, and now I can hear water too.” Joker answered.
“Water? Here?” Ryuji asked.
“Considering how down underground you all are, either an underground river, or sewers.” Futaba answered.
“Isn’t this place a medieval village?”
“Skull, please revise your history lessons...Sewer systems existed already at the time of the Romans and before Nobunaga Oda himself was even alive, they were crude, but had the same function of the ones we have nowadays. (around 800 BC circa)” Haru answered, sighing.
“Oh, right, yes.”
“Sssh!...Here.” Akira hushed them and pointed at a small opening in the wall of the giant cave the apple farm had been built into, said hole was just a few half-rotten bricks that had come loose by themselves from a hastily-built small wall they had apparently built to patch a section of the cave wall that had caved-in.
From there they could hear the flowing of water and, unfortunately, the stench of rancid matter.
“They tried to close the hole into the wall to avoid this smell once built this place. Maybe the wall gave-in during construction.” Akira said, grimacing.
“Bleagh! The water is polluted, of course! It doesn’t matter if it’s a sewer system or not, it is still dead like everything else here. But this still confirms that there is water...But does this lead outside?” Yusuke asked.
“Only one way to discover it! We need to make the hole bigger and explore the tunnel, luckily the bricks look loose enough to try and remove a few without making too much noise.” Ryuji answered.
“We also need to see if there is a Safe Room close to here, just in case.” Ann added.
“Right...Sooo...DIBS ON LOOKING FOR THE SAFE ROOM!” Haru said immediately.
“Me too!” Makoto and Ann said at the same time.
“Fuck!” Ryuji cursed.
“I guess we’ll have to be the ones looking for an exit...We are the men here after all...” Morgana admitted with a miserable expression.
“I was checking the outside just in case and I can confirm that there is a grate of sort on the back and at the base of the hill the village has been built on that keeps spewing out dirty water, we just need to hope the source is that small river of filth you found since the hole seems big enough for you to crawl out of it.” Futaba confirmed.
“Very well. Be careful, Ann.” Akira said.
“You too, okay?” she answered.
“Yes.”
“Good, you girls alert us if you find the Safe room, we will meet there as soon as we find the exit point, once done we will plan to steal the Treasure.” Morgana declared.
“Yes!” the Phantom Thieves answered as one.
Having finally located the shapeless form of the Treasure, all that remained to do was finding a close-enough Safe Room and prepare an escape route...Even if deep inside their heart every member of the Phantom Thieves knew they will very likely be forced to face the wrath of AJ’s Distorted self in direct combat before escaping, and considering how furious the mare was by default, none of them was eager to see how angry she will get once committed what she will obviously consider the greatest of Sin against her person.
As I said already, AJ’s Palace to me is the hardest one to write, every other Palace had been very easy to plan instead.
I am sorry if this chapter was not up to the standards you expected.
My sincerest apologies.
Extra File – Date with Mister Reaper -
“CATCH THEM!” A Unicorn night guard yelled as he and his two buddies were chasing the Phantom Thieves.
“RUUUN!” Ryuji yelled as he and the others tried avoiding the colourful bullets of paralyzing magic the ponies were shooting at them.
“I told you it was a bad idea to try spy on Shining! They were in a damn military outpost, for God’s sake!” Ann bellowed.
“I know! I know! But I thought there won’t be too many guards!” Ryuji answered.
“Just run, there is an entrance to Memento near here.” Akira chastised them both.
“OKAY! But this is not over.” Ann conceded as they all dove for the entrance to the world of Subconscious.
“...”
“Where did they go?!” the Mare at the head of the trio yelled, furious, as soon as she saw the deserted entrance to the subway.
“We were right behind them, they can’t have gone far.” her pal answered.
“Don’t worry. I managed to hit the blond female with a tagging spell, we can teleport to them in a jiff.” the third mare Unicorn answered with a smug smirk.
“Ooh! That’s why I love you, Sister! Let’s go find Captain Shining, he will be happy of this!”
“Why wait? I say we capture them ourselves, like that nopony will steal our thunder!” the mare that used the spell on Ann countered.
“What the hay! May as well! Last time that foal of Storm Ruler got promoted in my place, like Tartarus I will let that happen again! Let’s go!” the leader of the trio of unicorns said after barely a second of thought.
Joining their horns at the tips, the three ponies disappeared in a flash of light to follow the Phantom Thieves wherever they were.
Inside Memento – Two minutes later -
“FLOOR IT! FLOOOOR IT!” Haru yelled with wide eyes.
“I am trying!” Akira answered as the ‘Morgana Car’ he was driving pushed its engine to its limits.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Right behind them, The Reaper was flaying his ridiculously-long guns around while shooting wildly in every direction while chasing them.
The Reaper, instead of carrying a gigantic scythe like the name suggested, wielded two long-barrel revolvers; Its face was shrouded in a blood-stained cloth sack, with only one ominous white eye to see its surroundings and two long chains across its left and right shoulders, forming a cross.
“This day keeps getting worse...” Yusuke admitted with a defeated sigh as a new bullet wheezed past them, making the transformed Morgana shriek in surprise.
“First we almost get caught by ponies, then the Reaper chases us, I wanna go home!” Ann whined, sounding extremely stressed.
“STOP WHERE YOU ARE, PHANTOM-” the three ponies yelled as soon as they appeared in front of the speeding car, forcing Akira to lean the car heavily to the side to enact a death-defying ‘Two-Wheels’ run right next to them so to not slow-down at all.
“Thieves...” the mare finished saying with a shiver, unnerved by how close the car’s tire had come to actually touch her face.
“Let’s chase them!” the other mare yelled immediately.
“Ehmm...girls?” the only stallion of the three muttered with pin-prick pupils.
“What?” both asked while turning around to look at him, and growing pale at seeing the titanic height of The Reaper towering over them.
“What’s that?” he asked with a high-pitch voice as the thing looked them up and down in great curiosity.
“...Grrrr- GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” in the end the entity decided ponies too were NOT welcomed into the land of Memento, and with a blood-curling roar it jumped the three new targets.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
“Those three reached us here!” Makoto said, she too like the others shivering at the absolute fear filling the scream of agony let out by the three ponies.
“I don’t give a fuck! It’s their fault for following us here, they reap what they sow! Now let’s get out of here!” Ryuji answered, all this while Akira still pushed the Morgana Car at top speed through the deserted tunnels of Memento.
“We will pay a visit to the Velvet Room, and ask Igor if he knows how they tracked us and how to avoid it again.” Akira proposed, simply.
“One day, Joker, you’ll tell me how you can stay always this calm...” Futaba commented.
“Okay.”
“I think it was meant as a joke, dude.” Ryuji commented.
“Oh.”
Unfortunately nobody and nopony ever saw those three unfortunate ponies ever again, and the Phantom Thieves learned to pass by the Velvet Room after each hit to make sure that they had not other Tracking Spells on them, and get them removed thanks to Igor.
End of the extra file.
The Reaper
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Now that the new chapter is out, I will give you a preview of AJ's monster form, the first to guess the right "Symbolism" behind it wins a metaphorical cookie! XD
This:
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/darksouls/images/f/f9/SotFS_LostSinner.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150430060113
Plus this:
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/capcomdatabase/images/b/b3/Lisa_Trevor.png/revision/latest?cb=20140821060900
Can you guess it? I challenge you! XD
(Mmmh! metaphorical cookies, they taste like imagination! 💓)
Yaaay. This updated! I actually forgot about this story. Mostly because I been reading a ton of other P5 fics lately, as well as the P4 anime. Anyway, great chapter once again. I truly can't wait until the calling card is sent and the boss fight after it. And now I wait.
9948159
For the Symbolism, I'm going to guess, "Defender of Lies, and Force for Truth." ?
And take your time. I've also had a bit of trouble with my own fics, one of which because creating a whole new persona is difficult, even just design wise.
For saying that you had having problems with the designing the Aj's palace, I'd say you did a wonderful job there. Keep it up at your own phase.
Dude are you sure you didn't help make the original game because this Palace is so cool and sick love the blindfold gimmick hey maybe that should go for in the boss fight you know how she could be weak in one form with the blindfold on but strong with it off.
P.s I love the Reaper part I kinda feel sorry for the three ponies but oh well
9948473
You just gave me the greatest compliment a fanfic writer can hope to ever get.
Thank you 😢😢😢😢
9948543
My man I'm just saying the truth ive played the game 100% it and know just about anything of it and you nailed the creep factor that the in game Palaces had as well as the comedy just keep this mayhem going ok
Ya know when I die and I don't see this version of the reaper, I'll be very disapointed.
9948558
Okay 🙂👍👍👍👍👍
9948585
Trust me if I die I want to at least try to fight this Reaper to show my power
9948675
Nah, all you gotta do is find a jack frost and make it t-pose in front of it
Yes, a new chapter is out. This was very well written, and well thought out. I hope the next one doesn't take 4 months to come out.
9948832
It is not my fault, I swear 😅
I...I BLAME RYUIJI
9948851
You better take responsibility for this
Be me
Be going to bed at 1 am
See new update
Binge everything
An appropriate response to this overall chapter:
"MAGNIFICENT BASTARD".
Are you sure you're not involved in any persona game making? Seriously, Atlus should hire you in their p-studio's team.
9953174
Thank you 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Hmm, I'm guessing that AJ's Shadow will involve being shackled by her lies, or something like that.
9953252
He's not wrong this is to good to just be made by a fan
GUYS, HEAD'S UP!
I AM A STORE OWNER, MEANING THAT STARTING DECEMBER I WILL LITERALLY BE DEAD TO THE WORLD!
I WILL TRY WRITING SOMETHING, BUT I CAN'T PROMISE THE NEW CHAPTER WILL BE READY BEFORE NEW YEAR'S EVE OR EVEN JANUARY.
I AM REALLY SORRY, I DO NOT WANT TO DISAPPOINT YOU, BUT I DON'T WANT TO LIE TO YOU ALL EITHER.
I love you all too much to do this 🙂🙂🙂
9967260
Don't worry, just take your time.
GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!
the new chapter is finally in the making!!!
To apologize for the long wait...A bit of spoiler 😗😗
Twilight: Lab of Lust
Dash: Metropoly of Pride
Pinkie: Theme Park of Gluttony
Fluttershy: Nursery of Envy
Rarity: Fashion Show of Vanity
Applejack: Cathedral of Wrath
Shining: Battlefield of Justice
Cadence: Temple of Fortitude
Spitfire: Air Show of Temperance
Blueblood: Gala of Prudence
Luna: Moon Base of Hope
Celestia: Castle of Charity
???: Galaxy of Faith
Wanna guess what this list is? 😏😏😏
(Nudge, nudge! Wink wink! 🤣🤣🤣)
10024524
Does that mean mementos is still the prison of Sloth
10028361
Yes, I didn't include them because I felt it was redundant to repeat it XD
Sooo... this is overdue, but over the holidays, I decided to watch the Persona 5 anime (as well as some gamer react compilations), and this story is suddenly much more vivid in my mind's eye. And I thought it was great beforehand!
Fluttershy's boss mechanics were great, and using the toys as a means of sneaking around was well incorporated.
Pinkie's entire palace and act being a series of callbacks is very true to her character, as well as a fun reference to whomever played/watched the game extensively. The bit about avoiding the boss fight never working was also a fun touch.
Aj... that isn't complete, yet, so I can't do as much detail, but that gimmick involving what is essentially two separate palace designs, and switching between the two at will, is a mechanic I wish was something that was in the original game.
My only gripes thus far are a couple of grammatical errors, and incorrect gender pronouns. (Once, near the beginning, you referred to Morgana as a she.)
Also, I think you referred to Sae as a sensei? That was also just once.
Nevertheless, I am eager to see how the thieves will get out of this one.
As it's not Pinkie, I am not expecting a spectacle... though I am curious how she will attempt to confess to as many as possible...
...Futaba might be able to help with that, actually. Is that drone still on the roof of the barn?
10028987
Hehehe! Already planned the confession 😏
There is a reason why Spike infiltrated the place 😎
As for the mistakes, the sensei one comes from a rewrite of that dialogue I forgot to remove😭
He/she was just a typo instead.
Others...I can try justify saying that my English is only "school level" since beside fanfics I never got the chance to use it in real life 😔😔😔.
(I am italian, so my English is not exceptional).
But It is still not a good excuse for those errors, and for that, I am sorry.
10029077
Dude, I have seen native English speakers make eight times more errors in a single chapter, much less an entire epic like you are writing.
Sei più che abbastanza bravo.
10029241
Grazie 🙂🙂🙂
10029602
Dude I get what your trying to write and trust me I've seen games that have WAY WORSE mistakes so all in all your not doing that bad.
P.S I hope your going to use that blind world switching on the boss fight
10029982
Yes 😏😏😏
10024524
That's their palace name right?
10038184
Bingo! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
10038364
May I guess Dash's palace based of Gotham city and Luna perhaps.....Deathstar?
That aside, ??? Palace is Galaxy? I'm still trying to imagine how that will work.
10038512
Dash is simple: overly-cartoonish super-hero theme, like Power Rangers but up to eleven
Moon Base as in Death Star.
As for the galaxy...
I took inspiration from Gurren Lagann and Calasmos from dragon quest 11 for that
10038535
......... AWESOME!!!!
Well then, have fun writing the story.
10038535
So for Luna like a big dome around the moon base right? Nice ideas I can't wait to see there messed up views of the world..... quick question is there a black hole in Luna's moon base to represent humanities destructive personality
10040624
Yes, but also...
Another mare will appear again inside that palace 😏
And...
Eclipses will play a nice Role too
10052510
Yup!
In the Japanese version her codename is Navi...
I don't know why they changed it
10029982
Can confirm I speak only english and can kill a grammar teacher with my writing.
10052726
Because Navi (the fairy) isn't very popular in the west. Also, not everyone who plays P5 would be familiar with Navi (as P5 is a PS4 game, and not everyone who uses a PS4 also plays Zelda or even knows who Navi is), so they changed it to the name of a Batman character.
Also, Oracle is a Batman character that gets information through hacking and data-gathering just like Futaba. (Both are also redheads; granted, Futaba canonically dyes her hair, but the point still stands.)
Honestly, Oracle's a more appropriate name than Navi, given that Futaba's a red-haired, glasses-wearing, support-based hacker who's saved the Thieves' asses on several occasions. (If I didn't know better, I'd say that she was inspired by Oracle in design.)