Chapter 19: The Scientist of Depravity! Horror beyond Reason, Science beyond Insanity!
Twilight’s Palace – Entrance Hall
The Hospital-Themed Palace was eerily silent, the only noise was the creaking of wheels, specifically of the wheels of the roller-blades worn by the Shadows dressed like nurses that were tirelessly patrolling the corridors.
Everywhere one looked there was filth littering the floor, not just yellowed pieces of paper, but empty blood sacks and catheters as well, abandoned wheelchairs and temporary beds succumbing to rust and falling apart, tiles that had long since detached from the walls and crashed to pieces on the floor and much more, there was such a thick layer of dust everywhere, even those pieces of tiles could not be discerned from the floor proper. The rotten wooden doors to the various rooms as well more often than not were absent or just hanging precariously from a single hinge and ready to collapse on the floor.
The air was practically saturated in the stench of old blood, disinfectant, ammonia and various other chemicals, so much each breath made one’s nose burn as if corrosive.
As one of the Shadow Nurses rolled past an empty room in complete silence, from behind a duo of rusted beds resting on their sides Makoto’s head peeked out for an instant to make sure the coast was clear.
“Another close call. This place is abandoned, but the Shadows are aplenty.” she admitted, grimacing.
“We need to go deeper inside, this place develops downward into underground floors instead of up towards the sky, it’s a true underground complex.” Yusuke answered.
“Do you think it has to do with some kind of symbolism or it’s just a matter of security?” Ann asked, her voice coming as a whisper from Makoto’s phone.
“I would like to have an answer, but with Palaces the difference is never that cut and dry,” Yusuke answered.
“Why Nurses with roller-blades?” Akira asked.
“For the same reason they all talk with Twilight’s voice...I don’t know.” Makoto answered.
“Twilight needs help fast, I can’t believe Corruption and Distortion turned her Heart into this horrible thing!” Rarity said.
“Believe it or not, this is not the worst Palace we have seen,” Haru answered, sighing.
“We are moving towards the elevators, you?” Morgana asked.
“We’re coming, we’re coming.” Ryuji answered.
Beside the ample main room, two long corridors moved in opposite directions leading to a long series of rooms, with the double doors once probably stopping unauthorized people from entering left open and covered in rust, in the middle of the hall there was a giant statue of Celestia made in pure gold that doubled as a fountain, although the water that poured out of the mare’s back to mimic her wings was a putrid-looking black, giving the impression the statue itself cried black tears from the few drops falling on the thing’s eyes.
At the opposite side from the entrance, right next to a big desk, there was a wide metallic door with a faded ‘Elevator’ plaque hanging on top of it slanted on a side; once sure no other nurse Shadows were around, the Phantom Thieves moved stealthily towards that lone big metallic door.
“We are all here, good.” Yusuke said in relief once everybody regrouped.
“From the lack of any real threat, I can only guess the bulk of Twilight’s defenses will be on the lower floors. You ready?” Morgana answered.
“I believe we all are. Call the thing, Fox.” Makoto answered once sure everybody nodded.
“Immediately.” Yusuke answered, pushing the lone button next to the door.
Trrororororororororororororo!...Clang!
“Jeez, this place needs some maintenance.” Ryuji said with a grimace, the elevator had reached them on the notes of sharp and loud clanging notes of badly kept cogs and wires that made the teens’ skin crawl.
“I can’t believe somebody as meticulous as Twilight can turn into such a being of degradation.” Haru added, saddened.
“Not really.” Rarity admitted while they all boarded the thing.
“Uh?”
“It is often Claws (Spike) that keeps things around Twilight clean as she works, she tends to ignore everything around her if the research she is going through grabs her full attention. I guess this Palace brought it to extreme levels, meaning that the area closest to the Treasure will be in pristine conditions while all the rest is left to rust.” the mare said.
“Hn, makes kind of sense.” Ryuji admitted.
“...There is only one button.” Akira commented dryly.
“What do you mean?” Ann asked, confused.
“All the others are busted, we can only go to sub-level 3. To go lower we’ll need another elevator.” the PT Leader answered, pointing at the dozen broken or missing buttons on the panel and at the only one lighted up.
“...Of course, God forbid we can go straight to the Treasure…” Makoto muttered, grumbling.
“Better than nothing, let’s go.” Morgana answered.
“Okay.”
Sub Level 3 -
When the doors finally opened, Ann and Rarity promptly threw-up on the floor out of sheer disgust, and the others looked very close at imitating them.
The smell of death was overpowering, along the spots of dried-up blood now acting as actual paint on the wall creating patterns of reddish-brown splashes, along the walls of the main corridor they saw beds covered by a dark-red sludge vaguely pony or human shaped slowly dripping on the floor.
“Rotten corpses...Ngh...Several parts are missing.” Yusuke informed them, face ashen and voice broken by gags of revulsion.
“S-Spare me the details, dude. I beg you.” Ryuji whispered, he was steadfastly looking straight down on the floor, the lesser evil of the scene.
Each step they took produced a wet schlop-schlop! noise due to the puddles of rotten matter being semi-solid in nature, enough to feel like their shoes were getting glued to the floor, Akira had started carrying Rarity on his back as soon as he noticed, so to at least spare her the feeling of walking there barefoot. Morgana instead was floating in the air thanks to the Unicorn’s Magic lifting him up.
“Much appreciated, Jewel.”
“Think nothing of it, Mona. I must thank you, Joker. I-I don’t want to think what it would have felt walking on that...” Rarity muttered with a small voice filled in gratefulness.
“It’s okay, you don’t have shoes, somebody had to carry you.” he answered.
“God, feels like walking on glue…” Ryuji gagged.
“No details, Skull! Please!” Haru begged, eyes closed shut and relying on Yusuke to walk forward.
“That way, there is some sort of lab that looks clean, with part of the corridor having collapsed, we can pass through that to move around the debris.” Futaba, she too forced to follow the group inside on foot instead of her Persona, suggested.
“Yes please, before I vomit again…” Ann’s answer came as strained, something that had the others hurry to enter from the only clean door in the entire hellish corridor, even if with how caked were the walls in gore, the Phantom Thieves could not tell if there were other doors beside that one.
Lab -
The sterile-clean room was the complete opposite of the nightmare corridor outside, everything was clean and proper, with tables littered in dusty notes, microscopes still with their dishes on and every wall covered in shelves filled in glass containers of yellowed liquid, and floating in there, organs and body parts of either Human or Pony origins. In the most horrid case, there were also jars big enough to have entire severed pony heads floating in there.
“...T-T-Those heads are blinking!” Rarity shrieked.
“Yes, I noticed.” Morgana answered, sighing.
“They are looking at me, Mona! They blink!” the mare said.
“Yes, Jewel, that is normal for a Palace.”
“There are severed Pony Heads half rotten and looking at me from inside glass jars, Mona! That is not normal!”
“Just ignore them, Jewel.” Makoto said with a detached tone.
“What do you...Oh…” it was then that Rarity noticed how her fellow Phantom Thieves were all looking straight ahead towards the door, not even sparing a glance everywhere else.
"At least I am not the only one weirded-out by this whole situation!" the mare thought in relief.
“This way, the door leads to a hall of sort.” Akira said, and opening the doors for the other to walk through.
What they saw was a small hall room with four doors, one made of glass leading to the laboratory they just exited, two leading to two different operating rooms and another, giant and covered in locks, stopping them from going deeper into the complex; curiously metallic tubes connected the two operating rooms after disappearing up to the ceiling, although why that was the case was a mystery since there was a complete lack of light in the area, beside the faint one coming from the lab and the two operating rooms.
“Well, unless when can lockpick all those locks, I say we will be forced to first give a look to those operating rooms,” Yusuke suggested with a thoughtful expression.
“There are no keyholes in there, Inari. The way to unlock them must be another.” Futaba answered.
“Operating rooms it is then...Effing Perfect.” Ryuji said, groaning.
“Left or right?” Akira asked.
“Does it actually matter, Joker?” Morgana answered, sighing.
“…” the Leader of the Phantom Thieves merely shrugged.
“Let’s start with the left one then,” Haru answered...And nobody moved.
“…”
“…”
“...You go, Skull.” Makoto said while pushing her boyfriend forward.
“W-W-Why me?!”
“Please?” she begged, already at wits end since weak against horror-movie-like settings.
“Is she okay?” Rarity asked with a whisper.
“Queen doesn’t do well with abandoned labs, especially the ones that look haunted.” Ann answered.
“Oooh!”
“F-Fine! I’ll go!...Dude come with me…” Ryuji finally said, and then stealing a glance at Akira.
“Bring Inari with you.”
“Actually, as a Leader, you should be the one leading.” Yusuke answered.
“...Traitors.” Joker answered while walking forward, and dragging Ryuji behind himself by the guy’s arm once noticed how he did not start walking as well.
“I was going to walk! I just had an itch in my old leg wound! Honest!”
“Sure.” Akira answered, clearly not believing him at all.
“Go with them, Mona! You are our Healer!” Futaba said.
“ME?!”
“Please? Do it for me!” Ann said with a cutesy voice.
“Do it for me!...That is a low blow, Lady Panther…” the cat muttered while joining the other two.
The three Thieves slowly neared the double doors and stood glues to the side wall, Ryuji and Morgana on the right, Akira on the left.
“Ready?” Joker asked.
“Yeah,” the other two answered while clutching their weapons even too tightly, especially Ryuji that looked ready to start blasting everything in sight with his shotgun.
“On three. One...Two...Three!” Akira said, and on three he kicked the door open and-
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
And watched in dismay as his brave friend and cat companion started immediately firing their guns wildly everywhere in the room while shrieking at a high pitch.
“…”
“…”
“You done?” Akira asked with a very soft groan.
“A-Hem! It is obviously Skull’s fault, he startled me.” Morgana, face completely red, answered with a fake cough to try regain some semblance of composure.
“Bullcrap! You started screaming way before me!” Ryuji hissed in answer.
“That is so not true! You lost control! Not me! I am a professional!”
“Professional my ass!”
“Hey.”
“...Sorry, Joker.” both muttered with downcast eyes.
“I am not angry, just disappointed.” Akira admitted.
“Come on, dude! Don’t be so harsh!” Ryuji said with a dispirited expression.
“I can’t help it, you two still missed the only Shadow in the room,” Akira answered while pointing at the tall Shadow dressed like a surgeon standing right next to the wall the two reduced into Swiss cheese, their wild spray of bullets had apparently missed the thing entirely of barely an inch.
“Oh…” both uttered in surprise.
“Are they okay?” the Shadow asked.
“They will be.” Akira answered.
“Good, now, I believe it’s time for us to fight. I do have three operating tables with your names written on it! Doctor Twilight will love to vivisect you!” The Shadow declared right before its body bloated and exploded into black ichor from which a tall humanoid creature with a black apron, armed with a big hammer and a set of pliers and standing on a single leg emerged.
“COME! Let me tear you apart for my Master to study!” the thing ordered with a roar and pointing at them with the heavy hammer in its hand.
“An Ippon Datara? Please, leave it to me! He will be weak to my Ice attacks!” Yusuke said while joining the fight.
“WHERE WERE YOU BEFORE NOW!?” Ryuji yelled.
“Watching your back.”
“BULLSHIT!”
“Focus!” Akira answered while jumping the Shadow to cross his knife with the thing’s hammer.
“Let me take the lead, Joker! Come, Goemon!” the fox-masked Thief asked while summoning his Persona.
“All yours,” Akira answered, rolling away to avoid getting in the crossfire.
“Don’t run away, coward!” the Shadow hissed.
“I am your opponent now! Bufu!” Yusuke answered, and the ice javelin created by Goemon shoot forward at insane speed to pierce the monster’s shoulder.
“ARGH!” the Shadow hissed in pain at the attack drilling a hole in its shoulder.
“YOU BLASTED INTRUDER! I WILL CRACK YOUR SKULL OPEN!”
“Goemon! Do not betray me now...MABUFU!” Once sure the Shadow was focused only on him, Yusuke used a wide area ice attack on the hopping Shadow to freeze it solid even just for a moment.
“Incoming! Captain Kidd!” Ryuji came right after, his own sledgehammer and the boat rode by his Persona impacting with the frozen Shadow hard enough to send it flying back.
“ARGH!You fools have to chance against the Doctor! Sledgehammer!” the Ippon Datara roared once returned to stand, and with a mighty jump of its single leg it was already upon Yusuke with the sledgehammer in its hand high above its head for a downward slam.
BANG!
“Agk!” Yusuke gurgled in surprise as he barely dodged the attack, and yet watched in horror as the hammer came crashing down on one of the bodies on the beds without a care, even when at the impact a thick burst of blood sprayed-out to turn the cloud covering the corpse's head completely red.
“We’ll collect your organs and put them under culture! We will cut off your limbs and use them to create more workers! We will cut you open! We will experiment on every inch of your body!” the Ippon-Datara roared while swinging around madly its sledgehammer.
“Be quiet.” Akira countered, summoning a Jack Frost to assault the Shadown in Ice attacks that made it shriek in agony.
“Over heeere! Captain Kidd! Zio!” not to be left behind, Ryuji’s own Persona launched a thick lightning spear at the Shadow, making it topple down on the floor.
“LET’S GO!” once seen the thing on the ground, Morgana gave the green light for an All-out Attack of the four.
“ARGH!...Why...Are you...Opposing Doctor Twilight?” The Ippon-Datara hissed with a weak voice.
“Because she is treating everybody as Test Subjects and following the orders of a Megalomaniac, of course we are going to stop her!” Morgana answered.
“Don’t you dare insult the Doctor! Sledgehammer!” the Shadow roared in defiance, and trying once again to use its hammer to crush the Phantom Thieves’ skull open.
“I admire your loyalty, too bad it is reserved to a soulless monster! Goemon! Bufuia!” Yusuke answered with an honest praise, but then followed-up with his Persona summoning a quartet of giant ice javelins that pierced the Shadow in the chest and then burst to pieces, launching it on the ground once again.
“Hold up.” It was the that Akira moved closer to point his gun at the Shadow’s forehead.
“You...What do you want?” the Shadow spat.
“Either an object or you joining us.” he answered.
“You got guts, boy! Why should I follow you when I was having it great with Doctor Twilight? I got all the people I want to crack open!”
“...Follow us and I will let you fight often.” Akira tried offering.
“...Often?” the Shadow repeated, leaning closer.
“All the Shadows you want to hammer down.”
“Oh! Hell yeah! I am all for it!...WAIT! I remember! I am not a Shadow, I am a Ippon-Datara!That’s it! I’ll join you, my hammer will turn your enemies into beautiful nails, Haha!” the Ippon-Datara declared with a smug voice before its body broke into sparks of light and entered Akira’s mask.
“Okay, he actually joined us, that not too bad.” Ann admitted with an elated sigh once seen the battle being over.
“Happy to see you others join as well, cowards!” Ryuji answered, harrumphing.
“We lost our cool for a bit, but we are back now. Don’t sweat it.” Panther answered, waving him off.
“So? What do we have?” Haru asked.
“A dozen beds, all occupied by ponies.” Akira answered once checked under the yellowed white cloths covering the still ponies lying on the beds.
In the ample room there were a dozen similar beds, all covered by cloths adorned by a hole in the middle from which a tube connected the ponies to a system of similar tubes covering the ceiling in its entirety and then converging outside in the main room where they disappeared upward towards the ceiling. Only the silhouette drawn by the cloth clinging to the bodies helped recognize the ones filling the beds as ponies.
“What kind of operating room is this?” Rarity asked while looking at the flickering lights above them and at the spiderweb of tubes.
“...One where Twilight has removed ponies’ Hearts.” Akira said with a tense tone once peeked under one of the cloths.
“...What?” Makoto asked with a very small voice and a whimper.
“Their chest has been opened and their heart removed, she then shoved that tube in its place.” Akira answered, and even he had to become slightly green on his face at that.
“What?!” Rarity shrieked.
“All of them...Such brutality.” Yusuke confirmed after taking a glance under another cloth and then looking away right after.
“This is not the work of a surgeon, even butchers are more delicate.” Ryuji confirmed from the bed he too checked, he gave a gag and dropped the cloth before he could puke at the horrid spectacle.
“Why doing such a thing?” Haru asked with tears already wetting her cheeks.
“Twilight would never do this! NEVER! What has happened to her!?” Rarity demanded, she too was bawling her eyes out.
“There is a chance that the Entity behind all of this asked her to run these experiments, and if we are lucky this might uncover some secrets.” Morgana answered while holding a big tape recorder above his head.
“An Audio log?” Ann asked.
“Very likely.” the cat answered, putting the thing on the ground in the middle of the group.
“Let’s hear it.” Akira said.
“Yes...You ready?” Morgana asked, and getting a shaken nod from the other Phantom Thieves.
“Okay.”
Audio Log 22. Fifth Day of Experimentation.
“It’s Twilight’s voice!” Rarity gasped in shock.
Hearts. It all hangs on Hearts and their Content…
I don’t talk about the veins or the blood either, but on a more Spiritual Level.
SPLOTCH! CRUSH! RIIIIP!
“Oh, God…” Makoto groaned in disgust as the wet noise of Twilight forcing open the rib-cage of her latest test subject with zero mercy echoed in the room.
“What the hell is she doing?” Ryuji muttered, pale as a sheet.
“Don’t...Don’t make me think about it...please…” she begged.
At the end of the day, a Heart is nothing but a complex pump moving blood through the circulatory system...Just like a Brain is nothing but a spongy mass of fat controlling and releasing electric signals, and interpreting similar signals coming from the rest of the body…
SPLAT!
“URGH!” Haru once again emptied her stomach at hearing Twilight bash something open with a wet sound that all of them fervently tried to not recognize as a skull.
Then WHY a Heart and a Brain make us...Us?
If you take out a heart and shove a pump in its place, the Pony or Human still live.
If your switch their organs around, or their limbs, they are still the same Subjects they were at the beginning.
“My God...Her depravity truly knows no bounds…” Yusuke muttered in shocked horror.
“That’s not Twilight...That’s not my friend Twilight…” Rarity sobbed in despair.
Switching brain around does make some change though...But if half the original brain remains an is sewed together with a different half, then comes conflict…
What is Us then? Where does the Soul reside?
“Funny how somebody without a soul pretends to study one.” Makoto hissed in contempt.
“She is in dire need of help before this twisted monstrosity starts affecting the real Twilight too.” Yusuke admitted, grimacing.
“You are treating her as a separate entity?” Rarity said.
“Yeah! Normally we don’t, but this situation is so effed-up we understand that this shit is not forming naturally...So we kind of treat the Shadows we meet in these Palaces like a different pony. Or at least we started doing this after AJ’s Palace.” Ryuji answered with a shrug.
“Oh…”
“Sssh! I think we are finally getting to the good part!” Morgana silenced them.
...Of course this doesn’t mean that this Research they commissioned me was not fruitful for me as well!
While studying “Souls” and “Personality” I also advanced my own studies! The content of a Heart is something that has always fascinated me! Ever since I got access to the Elements of Harmony and saw their effect on the so-called ‘Wicked’.
The Positive that erases the Negative...So against standard, so beautifully against mathematics…
Then I met the Phantom Thieves.
“UH?!”
Their power over Hearts opens the door to many questions, just like Conversion did!
How much of US is actually contained inside the Heart? Is it where the Soul is?
That is why I started removing Hearts, I needed to know how much a Heart influences us!
I heard the Phantom Thieves also targets Desires, I found videos of Calling Cards where they declare their wish to steal them…
Desires…Desires...
Is it what they work on? What they steal from they targets to make them confess?
Is Conversion a similar power? Manipulating or erasing Desires? Is that why New-Foals become so Empty?
They either say ‘Steal your Heart’ or ‘Steal the Desires’...Are they two different things?
Content and container?
I need to learn more...Tomorrow I will move to the next step and operate on myself…
“…” when the recording finally came to an end there was a stricken silence inside the room, nobody actually knew what to say. Until Ryuji decided to break that silence.
“What’s that shit about operating on herself?!” he asked.
“The last of a long series of wrongs we just heard,” Haru answered, still looking jittery from her puking fit.
“To say the least. Okay, we need to analyze this room, there must be a way for us to unlock that door.” Futaba answered.
“Look everywhere.” Akira said while starting looking inside every cabinet in the room.
“Okay!” the others answered.
“The beds are connected to cables leading to a control panel,” Yusuke said once followed every cable connected to the bed back to a corner of the room.
“What kind of control panel?” Futaba asked while nearing him.
“These look like dials controlling pressure. Is it for the bed?” he answered.
“Urgh! No, those are for the ponies, the cables are connected to the pump that psycho shoved in place of their Hearts! Cough!” Ryuji answered once stolen a look again under the cloth covering the ponies on the beds, and coughing in disgust at the stench.
“If this panel controls blood pumps, then where does that blood go?” Futaba asked aloud.
“...We need to check the other room.” Akira said after a long silence.
“Do we have to?” Makoto asked with a tone of defeat, it was clear she did not want to stay in that Palace.
“Be strong, Queen! We are together in this!” Ann answered.
“Right! Let’s go…The sooner we do this, the better.” the woman replied.
“Leave everything as it is, once checked the other room we will see if we need to turn anything on,” Akira said.
“Okay!” Futaba answered.
What they found in the adjacent room, beside another Ippon Datara waiting to fight them, was the same dozen bed, this time though occupied by humans, and the girls were understandably against the idea of entering, but pushed through to not leave their friends alone.
“So we have ponies on a side, and humans on the other, all victims Twilight operated on to remove their hearts to study them.” Makoto declared once found the same control panel managing the pumps inside every human’s chest.
“I guess this is meant to represent Twilight’s interest in discovering if there are intrinsic differences between a Human heart and a Pony heart, twisted as it may be while inside a Palace.” Yusuke guessed, humming.
“The fact remains that discovering where that blood goes is probably what we need to unlock that door,” Futaba answered.
“There is a computer controlling the two systems of tubes, should we try that?” Rarity suggested.
“Leave it to me!” the Hacker answered, taking a near chair and sitting in front of the monitor of the control panel.
“…”
“...So?” Ann asked once seen their friend look at the screen with her eyebrows up to her hairline.
“...I don’t understand a word of what is in there.” Futaba admitted, fingers still hovering unmoving over the keyboard.
“What? Since when? You are the group’s Effing Hacker!” Ryuji yelled in shock.
“I am a Hacker that works in English! Not gibberish! There isn’t a single letter I recognize in there!” Futaba roared back in answer.
“Gibberish?” Akira asked while studying the monitor.
“Yeah! See? That’s not a Language I know! And I know plenty!” Futaba said with a whine.
“...That’s Equestrian.” Rarity said while rising a hoof.
“UH?!” the other Thieves answered.
“But you people speak English!” Ann said.
“Or Japanese, thanks to some Magic mumbo-jumbo you others can use.” Ryuji added.
“Well, yes, surprisingly our Equestrian and your English sound eerily similar, but have you actually saw our writing to make a comparison?” Rarity asked.
“No?” Akira asked.
“Nope!” Ryuji answered.
“Never saw any of that,” Yusuke admitted.
“I heard my sister talk about coded messages the Army intercepted, but I guess those were written in code using their original alphabet too,” Makoto answered, sighing.
“Maybe they used our own Alphabet for their propaganda pamphlets to make it easier for us to read, hence why we never saw a real Equestrian text.” Haru said.
“So we need Jewel to hack that computer? Or to help Navi do that?” Yusuke asked.
“Inari, Hacking is a complex matter, I can’t teach it to her in a matter of minutes! It is also about speed so she can’t translate for me on the fly either!” Futaba answered with a distraught groan.
“And I guess asking you to learn Equestrian is out of the question too?” Ann asked.
“Nyeeeeeeh!...I am smart, but I can’t learn an entire new Language in an instant…” Futaba answered, deflating in defeat.
“We barely found a secret room before the elevators...We are one single safe room in...And we already hit a roadblock…” Morgana muttered with a low meowing of despair.
“If this was the real world I could have tried writing a program that translates Equestrian to Human English, but that doesn’t mean it could actually work well with coding either, but since I can’t bring here with me a laptop, that is a moot point to begin with.” Futaba muttered with her head lolling back and forth boneless.
“Let’s get back to the base, we will secure something out.” Makoto suggested.
“Yeah, we will try asking for help to the others too.” Haru answered.
“…”
“Dude?” Ryuji asked once seen their friend and Leader’s thoughtful expression.
“...I have an idea.” Akira finally answered while walking out, back towards the Safe Room to leave the Palace.
“An idea?” Rarity asked.
“Don’t know,” Ann answered, helpless.
Real World – Flying Ship Phantom Thieves HQ -
Once returned, and debriefed their pony friends of the situation, and sadly discovering that unless a Pony had a Cutie Mark about Hacking finding help will be next to impossible, they all watched Akira pace around the ship while checking the contact in his phone.
“Who is he looking for?” Fluttershy asked.
“He didn’t say,” Yusuke answered, sighing.
“He mentioned it being an old friend, nothing more.” Ryuji added.
“Silent Characters are a pain in the flank! And he is a Real Life one!” Dash answered, grumbling.
“It is endearing...Except times like this where it isn’t,” Ann answered, sighing.
“Ah-ha.” amusingly, Akira’s small hum of victory sounded extremely monotonous, but by the mischievous glint his friends saw flash in his eyes, they all knew he heard them and did it just to annoy them.
“Hardy-har-har!” AJ replied, rolling her eyes.
“...Helllloooooooo! Glad to see you alive! Or, well, HEAR you alive! How are you?” the female voice that came from the phone once put on speaker made the Phantom Thieves jump in shock.
“NO EFFING WAY! YOU GOT HER NUMBER?!” Ryuji shrieked with bulged-out eyes.
“Just in case.”
“Oh! I am on speaker! And the others are there too! HIIII! I heard you are back on business so I was actually waiting your call!” the woman answered, still cheerful.
“OH-OH-OH! Joker is on the line!? HI JOKER!” a second voice was heard from the call.
“SOPHIE!” the Teens yelled as one, and one could almost physically see the happiness they all shared at hearing that second voice.
“You were waiting?” Akira asked.
“Uh-hu! Ever since the first Calling Card was delivered I IMMEDIATELY started upgrading Sophia to help you! I planned to send her to help, but finding you was surprisingly hard, you are hiding well! Is it because of Oracle?”
“It’s Navi, Ichinose.” Futaba said, annoyed.
“Navi, Oracle. Does it really make a difference?” Kuon answered, amused.
“Depends on the localization,” Pinkie answered, cheekily.
“Not now, Pinkie.” Rarity answered with a groan.
“We have been hiding, yes. What do you mean with Upgrading Sophie?” Akira asked.
“Sophie? AH YES! You said to use Code names only in your message! Yes, you see, as a way to apologize to her, I improved a bit her code using what I learned from EMMA’s bout of God-Complex, her computing ability is now WAAAAAAAY higher than before! Same going for fighting power!” Ichinose said in pride, with Sophie’s giggle echoing in the background.
“I can help my friends even better now!” the girl added.
“...But?” Akira asked with an ice-cold tone.
“Aww! Don’t be like that! I learned my lesson! I changed nothing of her! She is still the Sophie she was when we parted ways, I just upgraded some minor things to round the edges, I swear on my life!”
“...Okay.”
“Thank you for the vote of confidence! So? What did you need to ask?” Ichinose asked.
“Can Sophie learn an entire new Language? In a matter of minutes?” Akira asked.
“Minutes? I can do it in seconds, Joker! Do you want me to?” Sophie asked.
“If possible. Do you also know how to hack into a computer?”
“I can teach her no problem, just five minutes and she will become a Pro!” the scientist answered, proudly.
“Then please do so, we need to hack two computers inside a Palace, but they are coded in Equestrian, it sounds and works similar to English, but it’s written in another Alphabet.” Akira explained.
“Amazing! A different alphabet and Language that evolves to become similar enough to one of ours to be still usable between our two races, that’s so fascinating! Give me ten minutes to find enough data in Equestrian to extrapolate their language and Sophie will be ready, then I will send her to you!” Ichinose answered,
“She can do that?” AJ whispered.
“She can, she is super smart like me...So this is what it feels like to have a machine steal your job…” Futaba muttered, dejected.
“I am not stealing your job, Navi! I am your friend, we can do this together!” Sophie answered immediately and with a distraught tone.
“Okay, that makes me feel better.” the girl replied.
“We have a safe haven our friends are building in an island offshore, some ponies are also helping us keeping them safe, we can send them to collect you if you want,” Haru offered.
“OH! Please do, I am veeery scared lately, that barrier is getting super close to where I am hiding, so a new safe hideout would be very appreciated to avoid death by disintegration,” Ichinose answered, still sounding amused and happy.
“This is the part where the smile drops and you start panicking, Ichinose.” Makoto said, sighing.
“Oh...I need to work a bit more on this…” the woman admitted, finally sounding a bit more somber.
“She is learning to express her emotions after an entire life of people convincing her she didn’t have any,” Ryuji explained with a whisper.
“Oooh!” the ponies whispered in chorus.
“I am Tempest, tell us where you are and we will send somepony to take you to our small island.” Tempest said.
“Thank youuu! Just a moment to update Sophie and I will be ready, I will send the coordinates to Joker’s phone in the meantime! Ta-ta!” Ichinose answered, closing the call right after.
“She is very strange,” AJ admitted.
“But a great friend, Sophie will help us with the computers,” Akira said.
“She must be very smart to learn a Language in a matter of minutes,” Spike said.
“She is an artificial intelligence, she can do that!” Futaba answered, smirking.
“And Humanity’s Companion.” Akira added with a small smile.
“An Artificial Intelligence?” Fluttershy asked.
“Basically an artificially-created human being, she was only a machine before knowing us, after a long adventure she learned what a Human Heart was and unlocked a Persona once discovered her own path. She is now literally as much human as we others.” Ann explained.
“She developed her own Heart and soul, she is now her own person, not a doll anymore.” Makoto added.
“...Twilight will freak out once she knows her,” Dash said.
“I know I did!” Futaba answered, laughing.
“And her Shadow will hate Sophie’s guts,” Ryuji said in dismay.
“Uh?”
“Sophie, an artificial human, learned what a Heart was and created, or discovered, her own. That Psycho in the Palace is so desperate to learn what a Heart is she is carving ponies and humans by the dozen and doing who knows what other shit and she can’t discover a thing. She will HATE Sophie for learning whatever secret bullshit she is looking for and can’t get her hooves on instead,” the blond punk explained.
“Oh...Oh Shit…” surprisingly, it was Haru of all people to mutter that.
“We will keep Sophie safe, don’t worry.” Rarity answered.
“Good, let’s organize Ichinose’s recovery then we will go to the Palace again.” Joker suggested.
“I will start immediately,” Tempest answered with a nod.
Meanwhile – Human side of the Barrier – Sapporo -
A car was speeding through the empty streets while being chased by Pegasus soldiers, the engine roaring like a beast as the driver pushed it to the limits and then some, uncaring of how many street rules he was breaking, with his life and the life of his daughter on the line, he just didn’t give a crap about those, especially on a deserted road.
“Dad!” the girl in the back seat said in fear.
“It’s okay, Akane! Dad will protect you! I did it once, and I will do it again! Always!” the officer answered with fierce eyes worthy of a true Papa Wolf.
“Stop! In the name of Celestia!” an Earth Pony tried jumping in front of the car to stop him.
“MOOOOOOOVE!” the guy’s answer was not slowing down, but roaring like a beast and pushing on the accelerator for all that was worth and ramming the stallion full speed, he did not spare the flying pony behind him a glance as he took a daring turn on a side street.
“Is...Is he dead?” the kid, Akane, asked with a trembling voice.
“...He is getting up, Earth Ponies are the though guys of their group, he will be out of the fight for a while, but he will live.” he answered once briefly seen the guy he ran over get up…
He did not mention the pony falling back down on the floor because the impact destroyed the stallion’s front legs, little Akane didn’t need to imagine the scarring scene.
“Calling Cards...Calling Cards...They are back for real and they are again making a difference...Where did I put that number...Goddamnit why changing phones always means trouble?!” the man hissed while fishing his phone from a pocket.
“Dad?”
“I am calling a friend...Or a friend’s friend since I lost the former’s number.” the man answered, dialing a secondary number and actually whooping in happiness once heard the woman on the other side pick-up.
“Nijima-san?”
“Holy! You are alive too?!”
“Yeah, me and Akane, even if barely. I had to escape our place before the Barrier covered it and we are being chased by those damn ponies!” he answered.
“Where are you now?”
“Sapporo, been hiding here for a while, but even this place is compromised now! Even Akane’s own grandparents tried Converting her by force once so I can’t go to them either!”
“I see. I have a contact between a group of ponies that are actually fighting against Conversion, send me your coordinates, I will see if they can collect you two and take you to us, we have a safe haven still far from the Barrier.”
“THANK GOD! I’ll do it immediately! Also, do you have Kurusu’s number? I had to change phone and I lost few contacts,” he said with an overly-elated tone.
“You’ll join them!? Okay, I will send you the number immediately, you be careful.”
“So you know, eh? Not surprised. Don’t worry, I will be careful and protect Akane, promise.” he answered, closing the call.
“Dad? What is happening? Why you need Akira-san’s number?” Akane asked.
“EH! There is a tiiiiny little secret dad did not tell you, but it’s a surprise, you will totally freak-out! I know I did!” he answered, finally returning to smile.
Later that day – Twilight’s Palace Safe Room -
Having met the strange scientist and got Sophie downloaded again inside Akira’s Phone, under the confused looks of the ponies, the Phantom Thieves once again entered Twilight’s Palace.
“How can somepony help you from the phone?” Rarity asked once they finished fading into being inside the hellish abandoned hospital.
“I am not inside Joker’s phone all the time! I have a body in the Metaverse!” the new group member answered.
“GOOD HEAVENS!” the poor mare shrieked in fear at the sudden appearance.
“SOPHIEEEEEEEE!” Ann and Haru tried glomping the red-haired AI as soon as they saw her, but the girl merely avoided the double hug in a surprising show of agility.
“As I said the first time we met, no Fluffing: I am not a doll or a pet. Thank you!” the girl said with a cheerful smile...While hugging Akira to get her head patted by him.
“WHY HE CAN DO THAT THEEEEEEN?!” Ann asked with a long whine.
“Joker was my first friend and the one that helped me the most to learn what a Heart is and in developing mine. And as the Leader of the Phantom Thieves, I can concede him some fluffing from time to time.” Sophie answered, nonplussed.
“Thank you for the concession,” Akira answered, still patting the short girl’s head.
Pat! Pat! FLUUUUF!
“NGH!” the girls of the group were obviously not jealous of the preferential treatment. Not at all. Absolutely.
“Eh! So salty!” Ryuji said, smirking.
“Indeed being a Leader has its perks,” Yusuke added, smiling mischievously as well.
“SHUDDUP!” the girls of the group, Rarity comprised, yelled as one.
“We are wasting time, let’s go!” It was Morgana’s words to recall things back to business, making the Thieves nod and follow him to the Elevator to descend once again.
“I have memorized your real name, what is your Phantom Thief Codename, though?” Sophie asked, curious.
“I go as Jewel when in a Palace, Sophie.” Rarity answered.
“Jewel. Okay, I memorized it!”
“Here comes the hell corridor…” Ryuji warned them with a grimace.
“R-R-Right! Ready!” Ann replied while immediately latching to Akira’s arm and closing her eyes tight.
Ding! Even the sound of the doors opening was distorted and creepy, but of course the horrible stench and state of that corridor was still enough o gain the Phantom Thieves undivided attention even after seeing it once already.
“Here we ar-”
BOOOOOOOM!
It was sudden, but a loud explosion could be faintly heard coming from deep underground, several floors under their feet, but the Phantom Thieves still felt the entire Palace shock as alarms started blaring left and right, along a recording of Twilight’s voice relying the same message over and over.
Containment Breach! All personnel be advised!
The Fears Have escaped containment!
This is not a Simulation!
Containment Breach! All personnel be advised!
“Containment?” Akira asked aloud.
“Fears?” Rarity added.
“What the EFF?!” Ryuji, eloquently, summarized.
“Something altered Twilight’s cognition deep enough the Palace has been thrown in shambles! What happened?!” Morgana asked with wide eyes.
“A traumatic event?” Sophie asked, she was the only one not showing any reaction to the entire thing.
“A very big one, the entire Palace is still shaking.” Makoto answered, nervous.
“What can have happened to shake Twilight so much?” Haru asked.
Real World – Secret Lab in the hospital’s lowest floor - With Twilight -
The explosion the Phantom Thieves heard and felt as not a mere metaphor of what Twilight was feeling, but an apt description of the intense feeling of fear that had flooded the mare’s psyche as soon as she got delivered a catastrophic news from a soldier.
“An entire train...AN ENTIRE TRAIN GONE!” the sleep-deprived mare shrieked in horror while pacing back and forth in her lab, alone.
While she was the one responsible for the Conversion Serum’s creation, the bulk of the production was still located in Equestria as an added security measure, or that was the idea since neither she or Celestia believed they would have had enemies on pony’s soil against the Conversion of Humanity into ponykind.
That turned-out to be wishful thinking as Twilight had just been informed that the biggest load of Conversion Formula they ever produced, having finally perfected the thing in a manner that permitted them to produce it in bulk, had just went up in smoke as the giant train that was supposed to transport it from the lab in Equestria to the floating Island housing Celestia’s castle in the human world had been intercepted even before it could leave their home planet.
And had she known that it was a combined effort of her ‘Friends’ Zecora, BigMacintosh and HER OWN FATHER that caused the train to derail and the entire cargo to burn to a crisp, the mad-scientist ‘Princess of Friendship’ would have snapped for real, and maybe used the culprits for the foulest experiments she was still unwilling to perform. For now.
As it stood though, for now her biggest issue was the obvious, and in her mind justified, anger Celestia will almost certainly unleash on her for the disaster that befell on the delivery Twilight herself planned for, a deep-rooted fear of failure that had forcefully resurrected Twilight’s insecurities she had barely managed to bury deep in her subconscious, and that the mixture of Corruption and Distortion possessing her that was more than eager to push those fears back out to the front of her mind.
“Oh nonononono! This can’t be happening! This is propaganda! Lies! We can’t have lost several thousand doses of Potion! This will push back our schedule of weeks! Conversion is supposed to happen faster, not slower! But how?! Shining gave me his most trusted soldiers! I studied the entire track to find the perfect window of time where delivery would have bee missed by those Naysayers! Even the track was guarded!...THE BRIDGE! The train was supposed to pass on a suspended bridge and I had no pegasi to put there so it was the only unguarded point! How could I not think of that?! I am a failure! A failure! A failure!” the mare yelled to herself with wide, bloodshot eyes while working herself in a downward spiral of worry and anger, the first two emotions she had actually felt in a long time after moving to her new lab.
She was feeling it again!
The Fear of Failure!
The Fear of Judgment!
And the biggest of them all, her Fear of Abandonment once everybody will know how useless she was in truth...
And deep inside her Heart, the Palace reacted to her change of Perception.
Inside the Palace -
Having finally returned to the two horrid operating rooms, the Phantom Thieves were relieved to hear the sirens of that strange alarm stop ringing along the recording of Twilight’s voice stop being broadcast over and over, everything was once again under a blanked of oppressive and sinister silence.
“It stopped. Maybe they fixed everything?” Ann asked.
“Unlikely, I believe Twilight would have issued a message about the situation having been dealt with, otherwise.” Yusuke answered.
“We will keep our eyes open then. How are things going, Navi?” Morgana answered.
“We should be able to hack it! Even if written in Equestrian, it still follows our “rules” about programming. I guess that even if Twilight’s cognition means her original alphabet is used, she is still subconsciously tied to OUR OWN rules of programming. What about you, Sophie?”
“Hacking is going smoothly! The terminals are actually connected so I can interact with both at the same time from this one, I am now unlocking everything and taking control of the pumping system!” the AI Girl answered while her fingers flew on the keyboard under Futaba’s watchful eyes and supervision.
Prororororororororororo!
Once the last command was issued, the pumps of both operating rooms started working at the same time at an alternate rhythm, and with it, the lights in the main room outside too went turned on.
Ba-dump...Ba-dump...Ba-dump…
What soon followed thought was a loud and sinister heartbeat coming from right outside the operating room.
“What is happening now?” Makoto asked in dread.
“It sounds like a heartbeat! A loud one!” Haru answered.
“We better go check,” Ryuji suggested.
“Indeed, we may be forced to fight our way through that door now that we did unlock it.” Yusuke added.
What the Phantom Thieves found once run in front of the chained door was a giant heart dangling from the ceiling, and no matter the chains nailed and tied haphazardly around it, the thing kept beating normally thanks from the blood coming from the two operating rooms now acting as a closed circuit thanks to the giant, half-rotten organ, one big enough four people could hardly wrap their arms around it.
“WHAT IS THAT?!” Makoto asked with a shriek.
“By the shape, that is a horse heart. By the data I acquired from the computers, Twilight’s, to be precise.” Sophie answered, still unfazed.
“THAT IS TWILIGHT’S HEART?!” Rarity bellowed in horror.
“What Twilight sees it as,” Morgana answered.
“So she treats her heart as a mere pump?” Yusuke asked.
Tlack!
“Uhn?” Akira muttered, curious.
Tlack! Tlack! Tlack! Tlack!…
One after another, the various locks slowly started opening by themselves, letting the chains fall on on the floor one after another.
“Everything seems to be part of Twilight’s Experiments. She is studying Hearts and used her own as well. She removed it and used it as a lock to stop intruders from accessing her underground laboratory.” Sophie explained.
“Of course, only she can access those terminals normally to gain access through the door, so that and using her own heart as a lock must feel like the best security system,” Futaba answered.
“Or maybe this is just another metaphor.” Yusuke suggested.
“How many times we heard how secrets are hidden deep into our hearts? The real us, our real fears, desires and dreams. All hidden where nobody can see them: behind the Lock of our Heart. I guess this is literal inside a Palace, but the feeling remain,”
“...You know? I finally get the appeal of having a certified Artist in our group.” Ryuji admitted, smirking, just as the last lock finally went undone.
“Ah! You mean that up until now you harbored doubts?!” Yusuke asked with a hurtful expression.
“Nah! Of course not! I am glad to have a friend to face this with!”
“Oh, thank you! The feeling is-”
“I am just awed whenever your fixation actually is useful inside Palaces too!”
“Mine is not a fixation! I am a lover of fine arts!”
“Enough arguing, kids. We have a Treasure to find.” Morgana said while rolling his eyes, and luckily stopping the two from arguing.
When the final lock fell, the doors slowly opened by themselves, creaking and whining thanks to the hinges being completely covered in rust.
“What’s important is that we can now access Twilight’s actual laboratory, and this means her Treasure is actually getting closer!” Haru declared.
When they were about to pass through the door, a massive Shadow in riot gear and actually carrying an over-sized RPG appeared in front of them.
“Intruders! I won’t let you break into Doctor Twilight’s secret lab! I will destroy you!” the Shadow roared.
“Bring it, Asshole!” Ryuji answered.
“You will peri-GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” the Shadow’s answer went cut short when a shapeless blob of white wax-like goo former a spear and pierced its chest, and under the horrified eyes of the Phantom Thieves a tall, barely humanoid mass of white goo shredded it to pieces.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!” Makoto yelled.
The thing was now looking at them with four read beady eyes barely surfacing from under the melted wax-like goo the thing was entirely made of, and whatever that thing was, it was now looking straight at the Thieves while opening a dripping hole acting as a mouth.
“You are a disappointment…” the thing gurgled-out, slithering towards the Phantom Thieves and creating tentacles on its back to force the door open enough for it to pass through.
“You. Are. A FAILUUUUURE!” the monster then gave a deafening roar and actually pulled both wings of the door off their hinges to throw them away in a fit of rage.
“It wants to fight,” Akira said with clenched teeth.
“And we’ll make it happy!” Morgana answered.
“You fail at everything! You do nothing right! And for this, you will dieee!” The strange Monster howled in insane fury, now with each tentacle on its slug-like body hardening on the tips to form extremely sharp hooks and spearheads.
“Its power the real deal, it won't be easy! Get ready!” Futaba warned them just as they all took position.
The fight against Twilight’s Fear of Failure was about to begin!
I will close it here for now, a bit of cliffhanger.
Just because, to be evil.
As you saw, the reason why I took so long to update was not just a moment of lack of ideas, but also because I finally got around to play Persona 5 Strikers, and as a good Bro of mine can testify down in the comments, I loved it enough I decided to Update the story and add elements from Strikers too.
Next update should HOPEFULLY not take this long, but with Real Life bitching about my free time, one can never know for certain, and for that, I apologize.
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when I saw there was listing to rivers in the desert
KO awesome chapter, glad to see some familiar faces as Sophie joined the Phantom Thieves to help them get deep into Twilight’s mind and find out the cause of her downfall to darkness.
I liked that ending.
You took the idea i sent you and changed it to represent the lab half of of the palace.
I was not expecting the change and you pulled it off perfectly.
And pulling off the Strikers reference was clever.
You've earned 10 out of 10 returned desires here.
11194915
Thank you🙂
11194916
No?
At best I had somebody beta read it to fix few kinks
This was great! And yay Sophie and Wolf! Now Akane can meet the PT too! At least, one of them.
11195145
All of them XD
I know exactly what the game is now. Just from this pic.
Dark Deception
And as always this is getting good the fear of Failure we all have a tiny bit of that and again your welcome bro for helping and you for helping me
LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
This chapter was AWESOME! Can’t wait for the next!
11195152
Is the next chapter almost ready by now?
Have you heard about the Persona games being released on Switch?
11258116
navi is her codename in the jp version.
I see what you did there
11539462
😏😏😏😏