Chapter 21: Decomissioning the Lab of Lust!
Chapter 21: Decommissioning the Lab of Lust.
Resistance Militia Floating Island -
With the arrival of Zenkichi, the Phantom Thief Wolf, the group of Thieves was once again reunited, and now Joker and the others were bringing up to speed both him and Sophia about the current situation.
“So! With Twilight we would have ideally every Element of Harmony on our side. That’s kind of good to hear.” Zenkichi said, studying the big folder Futaba and both Makoto and her sister built about the Phantom Thieves’ mission for him.
“Pretty much. We also need to stress the fact that Twilight is technically the last ‘Easy Target’ of the list. Once stolen her Heart, the remaining targets will have fully-established and completely developed Palaces.” Yusuke added.
“...”
“...Hn!...That is actually fascinating, seeing the development stages of a Palace. Not too different from what I saw with you when I joined the group the first time.” Zenkichi said.
“We believe the Elements of Harmony themselves managed to slow-down the formation of the Palaces inside Twilight and her friends. They are absolute Pure Positive Feelings/Energy. We believe they took longer than others to form a Palace due to Corruption and Distortion having to first overcome that extra layer of protection around their hearts.” Morgana said.
“Uhm, although these Palaces sound similar to the Prisons I saw with you. You say they are different things?” Zenkichi muttered.
“The major difference is that a Palace is just about its owner, not everybody around them. Not that directly at least, it’s a more personal Inner Universe. They rule the place, they are not prisoners in a golden cage.” Makoto answered.
“...”
“Energy readings are very similar though! It confirms that Konoe was creating the Prisons on the base of the Palaces, as we suspected!” Sophia said from Akira’s phone.
“Yep!” Futaba confirmed, nodding.
“…”
“That is that. Now we have to worry about the Treasure.” Ann said.
“True.” Akira answered.
“Eff Yeah! We finally know how to steal it!” Ryuji said.
“Ya just know that ya need to slide into a chute to an incinerator, then?” AJ answered.
“Exactly. Then it’s a mad dash through the two elevators to ground level and then us running fast towards the exit.” Haru answered.
“So somethin’ that will never happen?” Dash asked.
“I heard their stories, so yes, I am starting to think that it will remain just a dream.” Rarity answered, sighing.
“...Ngh…”
“Come on, ask.” Akira said with a kind smile.
“HOW COME YOU ARE THE PHANTOM THIEVES?! WHY MY FATHER IS ONE!? WHY YOU DIDN’T TELL ME?! SINCE WHEN YOU ARE RECRUITING!?...Oh, God I showed you my YouTube channel, why you never told me...It’s so embarrassing.” Akane yelled, then crumpled on herself in a tight ball of shame.
“Aww, come here!” Ann said, squealing and hugging the girl tight.
“So adorable.” Haru added, adding herself to the hug to pet the girl.
“Come on! It wasn’t that Cringe!...Maybe just a bit, but in a cute way!” Ryuji said, laughing.
“Augh…”
“Back on track, guys. We don’t have much time!” Akira said, clearing his throat.
“Ah! Right!” The girls yelled as one.
“Celestia needs Twilight, as the only one able to create the Conversion Serum in big quantities, and after your attack on that convoy, she will be antsy to cover for all the doses she lost.” Yusuke said.
“We needed to stop that delivery, it was the biggest one to date.” Tempest admitted with a contrite expression.
“It’s okay, we are used to work with strict deadlines.” Morgana answered, and as always one of the Phantom Thieves that could actually understand him translated the cat’s Meows for the others.
“We’ll need to organize Twilight’s recovery after her Treasure gets stolen, this if we actually manage to deliver her a Calling Card.” Ann said.
“Sending her one is feasible, she keeps updating her journals on her computer and she’s still connected to the internet, so adding one there is no issue. Problem is that as soon as we send one to everybody else the guards right above her head will rush down, get her and take her to Celestia...That will probably tie her up and close her somewhere, or even chain her to her person at all times.” Futaba answered.
“Oh! Oh! Oh! I have an idea!” Ryuji said, smirking.
“What is it? Let’s hear!” Morgana said, rolling his eyes.
“We play dirty!” Skull answered, chuckling.
“...Eh?” Everybody, and everypony, else answered in absolute confusion.
“Hohoho! You never thought about it? Awesome! So this is how it feels to be the smart one! Feels Effing Great!” He said.
“GET TO THE BLOODY POINT!” Both Haru and Rarity yelled at the same time with the same “””””””””””””Elegant”””””””””””””” composure.
“Jeez! Let me enjoy the moment! Whatever. Here’s my idea…” Ryuji, rolling his eyes, started explaining his plan to the others.
The Next day – Hospital Underground Area – Twilight’s Lab -
Nothing was going according to plan! And Twilight hated having no clue about how to fix that! Especially with Princess Celestia insisting she returned to the Alicorn’s castle and manage Potion Production personally.
“I have so many experiments to run still! Those dreams of an Immortality Operation I keep having can’t be a fluke! I know my subconscious is trying to tell me something! I just need to understand what is it!...I really don’t want to cut open anypony...But from what I saw in Humanity’s past, they were kind of right: if you want to see how something works, you need to open them up.”
PING!
“Uh?” It was then that her computer made a strange sound that caught her attention.
“Who does this thing have now?” She muttered, confused.
And in answer, a video started playing full screen by itself, and unknown to her, the Calling Card’s own effect made sure Twilight’s Distorted-Self forced her to watch.
To Twilight Sparkle, the Selfishbringer of Misery tearing apart everybody around her to satisfy her endless hunt for Perfection and control!
A soulless machine masquerading as a pony that instead threw away its Heart to chase her Twisted Delusions as an All-Knowing.
You are the Corrupted Element of Harmony who relishes in the destruction of Humanity to satisfy her bottomless Lust for Knowledge.
We have decided to make you confess all your crimes with your own mouth.
We will remind you that True Friends are not found in books or labs.
And we will take your Distorted Desires without fail.
From,
The Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
“I… I… No!… I!” Twilight was in shock, babbling incoherently with wide eyes.
Inside her instead, Shadow Twilight was demolishing one of her labs in blind fury, screeching and roaring like an insane beast.
“Phantom Thieves! You think you can just barge in my laboratory and not only disrupt my work, but even stealing the one thing I still can’t unravel and dissect?! Come if you dare! I will tar you apart and let you join my experiments!” The Monster Mare yelled.
Inside Twilight’s Palace – Hidden Lab – Room of the Treasure -
The Group of teens had just let the incinerator run for few minutes to make sure the chute was free and both starting and arrival point were empty and big enough for them all to slide down of, and tried to tell themselves they were burning simple garbage… Not humans or pony remains.
Then was the ride of Shadow Twilight’s secret lifts to enter the secret lab with the test tube holding inside the Palace Treasure now holding physical form thanks to the Calling Card.
“There it is.” Zenkichi said with a sigh.
“Readings confirms that being the center of the Palace, it’s the Treasure! :D” Sophia said with a smiley emojy appearing on the glass panel of her Phantom Thief mask.
“This time it became a plushie.” Ann said.
“That should be Smarty Pants! It is Twilight’s fillyhood plushie!” Rarity confirmed with a gasp.
“A worn-out plush toy, usually used as a way to represent childhood innocence.” Yusuke muttered, thoughtful.
“And usually a kid’s first Best Friend.” Ryuji added, sighing.
“I remember I had a doll I took everywhere, Miss Taki. I talked with her, played with her. She was my best friend as a kid.” Haru answered, sighing at the memories.
“This must be her Heart crying for help?” Akira asked.
“The symbol of real Friendship and its values, before Distortion and Corruption made a mockery of it into possessiveness and desire of turning her friends immortal so that they will never leave her.” Morgana answered.
“Poor girl. Come on, let’s take it out and help her snap out of her madness.” Makoto said, grabbing the plushie and pocketing it.
“Everything is going to be alright! :)” Sophia promised to the small toy with a side smile.
“Let’s go.” Akira said, hurrying towards the exit.
“Coming!” Ryuji answered, and as one the group followed.
“…”
“I don’t like this silence.” Yusuke admitted after a few minutes of them running.
“… There is nobody around.” Zenkichi answered.
In fact, the only noise heard were their footsteps, the Phantom Thieves were seemingly the only people in the Palace, a deep and creepy silence that made the dimly-lit, automated and blood-drenched corridors feel even more creepy, if possible.
“Twilight must be waiting for us.” Morgana said with narrowed eyes.
“A trap?” Rarity asked, gasping.
“She is scary smart, listening to you and her other friends, so I guess she is waiting for us to get to a part of the Palace big enough for her to get enough room to fight us.” Makoto answered.
“Very likely! !!!” Sophia answered with three giant exclamation marks getting projected on her Mask.
“Would be surprised if Twilight hasn’t prepared several plans just for this occasion, true.” The mare admitted.
“Then she will find us ready.” Zenkichi said.
“Yes.” Akira added, nodding.
When they finally reached the giant elevator, the thing slowly started making it’s way upward when it stopped abruptly and flashing red lights flashed on and off for few seconds.
“We stopped.” Yusuke said between clenched teeth.
“She is coming.” Akira said, and at his words his friends huddle a bit closer together to watch each other’s back.
“Twilight! We just want to help!” Rarity yelled.
“Not helping, Jewel!” Makoto muttered.
WRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!
In answered two giant circular saw-blades burst through the floor and rapidly moved towards the Phantom Thieves to scatter to avoid being cut to pieces.
“AGH! Okay, it either worked or Twilight has a very good timing!” Ryuji said.
“Not funny, Skull!” Rarity answered.
CRASH!
As soon as the saws stopped a giant humanoid exoskeleton bursts through the floor to stand up and look at the Phantom Thieves; it was a towering two-meters-tall iron robot covered in rust and with two giant circular saw-blades in place of hands, it also lacked a head, but had a big glass sphere on its belly filled in green liquid with a brain floating inside of it.
“Found you, Thieves!” Light shone in the robot’s bulging glassbelly whenever the brain talked.
“Twilight! What have you done to yourself?!” Rarity said in abject horror.
“Just a couple upgrades, nothing much! I wanted to welcome you all properly!” The Brain said with a mocking tone.
“You disrespected even the purity of your own flesh!” Yusuke answered in disgust-fueled anger.
“Purity? AH! A body is just an ensemble of flesh, tendons, bones and fat! Organs mechanically doing a job that a machine can do better! The real Us is only the brain!” Twilight answered.
“And what about your Heart, dumbass?!” Ryuji asked, scoffing.
“My Heart? That mere pump? it’s job is all about making blood flow! But, I am curious about the sense of longing others say come from it, and that thing you stole from me will be the key! I don’t know how you made it become tangible, but I don’t care! As a thank you for resolving my issues about being unable to dissect it, I’ll make your death fast!… Although, I can’t promise it will be painless! YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” The ma brain answered with a bot of deranged laughter.
“Then try it, Psycho!” Ryuji snapped back in answer.
“Come get dissected!” Shadow Twilight yelled in psychotic glee as she slammed the circular saws on the ground and made them spin at high speed like wheels and using them to sprint forward to assault the Thieves.
“Scatter!” Makoto yelled, rolling aside and delivering a devastating punch with her spiked gauntlets, but to her surprise she didn’t damage the exoskeleton, making her entire arm shock heavily and get overcome by shivers for a bit.
“Something’s strange.” Akira muttered with narrowed eyes.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
“Okay! Bastard’s tough!” Ryuji growled in annoyance as his bullets and Ann’s bounced off from Shadow Twilight’s armor’s back.
“Goemon!” Yusuke summoned his Persona.
Skrieeeeeee!
“UGH!” Both his sword and his Persona’s bladed pipe met Shadow Twilight’s circular saws mid-swing generating a thick shower of sparks.
“I’ll cut you open and discover the secrets of how a Heart works!” S. Twilight said, giggling deranged.
“How a Heart works? Preposterous for your to declare that! You cast you away and pretend to study how it works?!” He answered, sneering, and rolling away before the saws could cut him in two.
Clang!
“You all fill your mouth in philosophic nonsense! Sometimes we want clear answers! Not useless drivel out of a fortune cookie! And I will be the one to finally give those answers!” She answered, struggling to get back to her feet after the saws got stuck in the floor.
“NOT ON THE BLOOD OF INNOCENTS!” Zenkichi yelled in answer and sticking the tip of his wide sword in the folds of S. Twilight’s Exoskeleton’s armor to try pierce through.
“You all want answers! You all want solutions! But don’t want to work for it! And whoever works to get those answers, you demonize them! I am working to discover every last secret remaining unanswered, you all just don’t want to admit you want you know too!” The mad mare answered with a crazed roar, breaking free and assaulting Zenichi as soon as the man stumbled on the floor from being buckled off.
“Whoa!”
“WOLF!” Haru yelled in horror at seeing the two circular saws about to shred him.
“Milady: Mapsio!” Haru summoned her Persona and assaulted S. Twilight with a wide-area Mental attack, and the effect was instantaneous.
“KYAAAAAAAH!” A blood-curling scream of agony echoed in the area while the robot started wildly waving the saws ‘Blindly’ while screaming more and more.
“Okay! I think we can say she is weak to Psi attacks!” Makoto sai, awed by the strong reaction.
“Kind of makes sense since she is an exposed brain inside a robot! Now give her Hell!” Futaba answered, sending a fast round of Healing and buffing skills to the entire group.
“Can do! :D” Sophia answered, bombarding the howling robot in ‘Bless Element’ attacks.
“YAAAAAH! I’ll tear you apart! I’ll vivisect you! I’ll nail you to a table and watch you bleed to death!” S. Twilight roared, now with the saws started spinning so fast fire enveloped them.
“Over here!” Akira said, standing precariously on the ledge of the giant elevator.
“JOKER!” The others yelled in worry.
“You! You are the Leader! I’ll tear you apart first!” The Mad Mare bellowed, using again the saws as wheels to charge forward at high speed.
“JEWEL, CATCH ME! NOIR, PSI!” Akira ordered, running toward Twilight while shooting his gun at the glass dome, covering it in only faint cracks since it was apparently reinforced.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Ann shrieked.
“Mapsio!” Haru in the meantime repeated her attack, making Shadow Twilight shreik again in agony and rush forward without control.
Akira jumped high and used the back of S. Twilight’s exoskeleton as a springboard to avoid the attack, although it still caused both to start falling down the elevator shaft, only with a magic aura to envelop Akira’s body to stop his fall.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” And leaving Shadow Twilight fall down alone and rapidly disappear from view into the thick darkness under them, the far, far away soft sound of something breaking told them how absurdly long the fall actually was before the Mare’s exoskeleton actually touched ground.
“ARE YOU EFFING INSANE?!” Ryuji, helping pulling Akira back on the elevator, shrieked with wide eyes.
“He is still in my Magic field…” Rarity muttered.
“It’s a matter of him feeling his friend in his grasp, it assures him Joker is alive! :)” Sophia answered with a smiling emoji flashing on her mask’s screen.
“Don’t! Don’t! Don’t ever do that again!” Ann begged with a loud scream while poking his chest hard.
“Okay.” He answered.
“Seriously, Joker. You are trying to ill me here.” Makoto said with a loud sigh.
“I trusted him not to die. I would have resurrected and killed him myself otherwise!” Haru said with a sweet smile.
“Precisely,” Akira answered, pointing at her and looking unfazed by her words.
“Honestly, you are my beloved friend, I am still not ready to write a beautiful and tear-jerking eulogy for your funeral, so please, wait before causing your own demise.” Yusuke said with a very dramatic sigh.
“A BIT LESS CREEPY SHIT, PLEASE!” Ryuji said with a shriek while still checking if Akira was okay.
“I am okay, though.”
“Fool.” Futaba said with a voice that made it clear she was also pouting.
“What’s important is that you are safe, Joker… Now please stop trying to give me white hair!” Zenkichi said with an overly-dramatic whine.
“Ehm… Is Twilight dead?” Rarity asked.
“...Oh!” The others said in dread.
“Shit! I forgot about that! Dude, you threw her down an elevator shaft!” Ryuji said in horror.
“And she took a full two minutes before touching ground!” Makoto added, shocked.
“It isn’t over.” Akira answered, looking at the darkness under the elevator with narrowed eyes.
“True, the Palace is still standing.” Morgana confirmed.
“Eh?”
Clop! Clop! Clop!
A slow clapping of hooves echoed around them as Twilight’s body came into view, still smiling but with her eyes looking dull and lifeless.
“Her original body!” Rarity yelled in horror.
“So Twilight body and brain can act independently?” Yusuke said, shocked.
“Not really.” Shadow Twilight said as he brain floated upward surrounded in a purple aura of magic, resurfacing from the long fall without a scratch.
“I saw your body spying on us.” Akira said, having noticed the brainless body hiding above them in an alcove thanks to the updated Thief Sight Igor gifted him.
“Was that another experiment to you?” Morgana asked.
“Indeed! And it showed me that my little “Vivisecter” Battle suit still needs some key updates!” S. Twilight brain said, opening the skull of her body so to re-enter her head and then closing her scalp with a loud squelch.
“I went really close at dying, but luckily I had took precautions against high falls too! Another proof of my genius!” Twilight answered, now finally using her mouth to talk once regained her body.
“What now then, Genius?” Ann asked with a mocking tone.
“Now? Now that I got enough data for the next version of my battle suit, I will make true to my promise and slaughter you all!” The Mad Scientist answered, recalling the Treasure to her in a flash of magic.
“NO!” Rarity yelled.
“This is mine, Thieves! Another reason to be mad at...UGH!” Shadow Twilight’s new taunt stopped abruptly as soon as she physically touched the Treasure.
“Oh no! Here it comes!” Ryuji yelled with wide eyes.
“What is happenin-GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Twilight yelled in agony as her body started swelling, and in her blinding pain she once again fell own the elevator shaft.
“Ho-oh…” Zenkichi whimpered in worry.
“It starts now!” Futaba yelled.
“Get ready!” Akira ordered-
THUMP! THUMP!
Two disembodied giant robot hands grabbed the sides of the elevator, and at the same time a giant mask of a laughing face floated up to tower over the Phantom Thieves, slowly spinning in place to show the mask of a sobbing sad face behind it.
Tubes then uprooted themselves from the walls to connect the giant two-faced head to the walls, and red energy started flowing through the tubes and inside the transformed Mare’s head, the same eerie red energy lighted-up the masks eyes making them shine.
“A Mockery of the Comedy and Tragedy masks, I wonder if they represent the duality of Twilight’s madness.” Yusuke said between clenched teeth.
“What have you done to me?!” The Sad Mask said with a howl of despair when the spinning brought it forward to face the Thieves.
“I will disassemble you! YAHAHAHAHAHA!” Soon followed by Grinning Mask when it was its turn to be in front.
“Just you try!” Zankichi said.
“I just wanted to make my friends immortal! Waaah! What’s wrong about wanting to be always together!” Sad Mask howled in despair, and from its eye holes two giant streams of water went shot at the Phantom Thieves.
“That’s pressurized water! Evade!” Futaba screamed in panic.
Fwoooosh!
The group scattered just in time to avoid the attack, and watched with wide eyes as the two giant streams of water cut two deep trenches on the metal floor.
“HOLY CRAP!” Ryuji yelled.
“Pressurized water, it can be used to cut even the hardest material, be careful or it will tear us apart!” Makoto warned the others.
“Ahhhh! Get here!” Mad Mask was now in front, and it sent both hands forward to grab Haru and Ann.
“Captain Kidd!” Ryuji yelled, guiding his Persona to slam against the floating right hand while he himself tackled Haru down to the ground.
“Panther!” Akira and Morgana echoed, Joker by pushing Ann out of harm’s way while Morgana and Zorro attacked the hand.
“Sophie! Together! Kouga!” Rarity said while summoning her Persona.
“Okay! Kouga!” Sophia answered, summoning her own Persona Pandora.
“Zorro! Magarula!” At the same time, Morgana added his own Wind Element attack to the consecutive explosion of pure light raining on the left hand.
“Kyaaaa!” Mad Mask shrieked in pain and anger as both hands went pushed back.
“Waaaah! Why must you hurt me! Why do you hate me!? I just want to learn everything!” Sad Mask returned, and this time the mouth opened and energy mounted inside of it.
“Wide area attack!” Futaba warned them.
“Defensive stance!” Yusuke yelled.
“Waaaaah! (Sorrowful Lament)” a rain of blood-red lasers bombarded the entire elevator, wounding the Phantom Thieves heavily and making the platform fall down of few feet.
“Ugh! This thing won’t last!” Makoto hissed in pain.
“If that psycho destroys it we will fall down!” Ann added, holding her side with a grimace.
“Healers!” Futaba said, adding her own healing skills.
“On it!” Morgana and Akira answered, switching into the role of the group’s healers.
“We are making next to zero damages, we need to find a target to focus on!” Zenkichi said between clenched teeth.
“The hands are not a good target, that leaves her faces or those tubes.” Yusuke answered.
“Although those masks look sturdy!” Rarity admitted, worried.
“Then we’ll break them!” Makoto answered.
“Well said!” Zenkichi answered.
"We’ll do it together! Panther, go for the sad face! Mona, keep us healed!" he shouted, the sound of rushing water drowning his voice momentarily.
Panther, agile and graceful, lunged at the weeping face with her whip, accompanied by her Persona’s fire attacks.
“Waaaaah! Why! Why can’t I learn the secrets of Immortality to keep my friends alive forever! I don’t want to lose them!” The sad face winced and screamed as the fire attacks and whip lashes struck home, causing it to recoil in agony and big chunks of its metal body to fly everywhere either broken or half molten.
Meanwhile, Mona kept acting as the group's support, channeling his Persona to cast protective and healing skills, and even physically shielding his friends from the onslaught of watery projectiles.
"Hang in there, everyone! We've got this!" The cat said with a loud and reassuring voice.
Across the battlefield, the malevolent grin of the Boss's Madly smiling face twisted with glee.
“YAHAHAHAHA! BURN! I WANT TO STUDY THE HEAT PRODUCED BY THE BURNING CORPSES OF DIRTY THIEVES!” The Mad Mask declared, then it opened its mouth, and a searing burst of fire erupted forth.
Skull, caught by surprise, tried summoning his Persona to use it as an improvised shield to try mitigate the damages even just a tiny bit.
“SKULL!” The other yelled in horror.
"Skull, brace yourself! Noir! The laughing face!" Queen yelled while taking the young man in the back lines and closer to Morgana to get his dose of healing.
“I am on it!” Noir answered, and with rapid and calculated movements, she darted towards the laughing face while avoiding the various giant blobs of burning plasma the Mad Mask spat at her.
“Stay still, I’ll fix you up in a jiff.” Morgana said, piling-up healing skills and items nonstop.
“Sorry, that thing vomiting an effing sea of fire was unexpected.” Ryuji muttered with an ashamed voice.
“No need to apologize, Skull.” Morgana answered, chuckling.
“What’s important is that you are still alive.” Makoto added, and Ryuji answered with a chuckle, glad to have his friends by his side even in such terrible situation.
Meanwhile, Haru and her Persona Milady kept assaulting the Mad Mask, with the support of Akira and the others, until, with a swift and precise strike, Akira, Yusuke and Rarity managed to pin down one of Shadow Rarity’s hands down for her to use as a platform to jump on the Mad Smiling Mask when the transformed Mare pulled it free, she then grabbed onto one of the empty eye socket of the metallic thing and plunged her grenade launcher inside the mask’s mouth just as fire started again to mount inside its maw.
“LAUGH AT THIS!” Haru yelled, unloading every grenade she had inside the thing, making a long series of explosions echo dully from deep inside the monster’s giant head and eliciting a pained howl at each new explosion.
“Kyah!”
“Noir!” Yusuke yelled, catching Haru in his arms after the giant floating head shook the girl off by briefly spinning in place at high speed.
“Ooof! Thank you, Inari! I think I know how to hurt it!” Haru said, smiling in satisfation.
“Oh really?! Do tell becaaAAAAAAAH!” Zankichi shrieked as a back-handed slap of one of S. Twilight’s giant hands sent him flying.
“Oh! Careful, Wolf! Don’t get bitc-”
“I forbid you from finishing that sentence!” Zankichi interrupted Sophia’s ‘Suggestion’ with a disappointed and high-pitched scream.
“I am open to suggestion, Noir!” Akira admitted, and the team was once again forced to scatter, dodging the colossal fists that threatened to slam them into oblivion as the Furious Mad Mask threw a tantrum and starting slamming both on the elevator over and over to try squash them nonstop.
"Guys, those hands are predictable!” In the middle of that chaos, Futaba demonstrated once again her prodigious intelligence and analyzed the strangerhythm of the punches and found an actual pattern behind the seemingly-random tantrum.
“They are?!” Ryuji asked, surprised.
“Yes, there is a method to madness! Follow my lead and I will tell you how to get to the masks!" she shouted.
“Through a rain of punches?!” Ann shrieked with wide eyes.
“Imagine it as a very intense round of any rhythm game!”
“WITH MY LIFE ON THE LINE?!” She asked.
“Precisely.”
“I… I… FINE! But if I die I will sue!” Ann conceded with a frustrated scream.
“Glad to see you all are ready to do this.” Akira answered, smiling proud.
“Good! Here’s how we’ll do it: the mask themselves act as an armor of sort, but if we shot through the mouths we can reach the Squishy Insides. Those tubes too seem to take care of powering the giant head since I detect the most energy to come from those. We need to attack Twilight from those three points: The Masks’ mouths and detach or destroy the tubes.” Futaba explained.
“Me, Jewel and Wolf will break the tubes!” Sophia said, ever cheerful.
“Good enough for me! I am ready for some giant face rodeo!” Zenkichi said, nodding.
“Everything for my friend!” Rarity declared.
“Smiling Face?” Akira asked to Ann and Skull.
“Sure!” The other two answered.
“Then we will take care of the Sad Mask.” Yusuke answered, and behind him Haru and Makoto nodded along.
“Then I will take care of Healing, and help Wolf and Sophie if they need.” Morgana added.
“We have a plan then. Guide us, Navi!” Akira said.
“Sure! Follow my lead!” Futaba answered.
With Futaba's guidance, the Phantom Thieves managed to anticipate the movements of the giant hands, putting their lives on the line to dodge the mad slams of Shadow Twilight’s giant fists.
“Quick, Quick, Slow… Quick, Quick, Slow…”
“INARI, SHUT UP! It’s distracting! KYAH!” Makoto shrieked in panic when she felt one of the giant fists came cashing down at an inch from her back.
“Sorry!” Yusuke answered, chuckling nervously before rolling forward to avoid a grabbing attempt.
“There she is! LET’S GO!” Ryuji yelled, and once in range, the Thieves split in three groups and jumped the mare.
“LET GO OF MEEEE!” Shadow Twilight yelled in two voices, one mad with fury and the other insane in sorrow.
“Sorry! But it’s for your own good! Cendrillon!” Rarity answered, and together with Sophia and Zenkichi they assaulted the tubes connecting Shadow Twilight’s giant floating head connected to the walls.
“I don’t like this!” Ann said, shoving her arm elbow-deep inside the Mask’s eye socket and unloading the gun’s entire clip.
“As long as it hurts her I don’t care!” Haru answered, doing the same inside the eye sockets of her own target.
Every Phantom Thief was using their weapon to hold onto Twilight’s face with one hand so to freely use their guns to shoot inside the mask.
“Hold on tight!” Ann, with her whip tying her hand to one of the stumps left behind by the tubes detaching.
“STOP HURTING MEEE!” Finally Twilight had enough, and instead of trying to try shake them off, she guided her hands to swat the Thieves away.
“HANDS!” Haru yelled with wide eyes.
“JOHANNA!” Makoto summoned her Persona.
“GOEMON!” Yusuke echoed right after.
BANG!
The two Persona and the two flying hands collided mid-air, with the hands flying back, pushed away by the Personas’ skills.
“The tubes are almost gone!” Zenkichi said once every tube on top of Shadow Twilight’s head started leaking viscous black and release wild sparks of electricity.
“Can you tear them off?” Morgana, assaulting the hands directly as a disctraction.
“I AM TRYING!” Sophia answered with a strained scream, she had tied her yo-yo’s rope around one of the giant tubes and was desperately pulling.
“SAME!” Rarity, pulling on another with magic, said the same.
“I have a plan.” Akira said.
“NO! I don’t like your plans!” Ann admitted, scared.
“I won’t die.”
“But you always go close at dying! That’s why I don’t like them!” She answered.
Akira gave a small chuckle and jumped, shooting Shadow Twilight’s flying left hand with the grappling hook to swing himself upwards and on top of it.
“LET GO!” Mad Face roared, vomiting a sea of fire towards him.
“NOW!” Jumping down, Akira used his body weight to pull on the hand with the grappling hook rope to make the big thing spin and used the hand as a shield, making Twilight engulf her own hand in flames.
“KYAAAAAAH!” The Monster Mare shrieked in horror, dropping the hand that started falling down lifeless.
“MONA! TOGETHER!”
“OKAY!”
“ZORRO!/ARSENE!”Both summoned their Persona and attacked the burning hand as hard as they could, sending it falling towards the tubes on top of S. Twilight’s head.
“OH, CRAAAAP!” Zenkichi yelled with wide eyes, grabbing Rarity under his right arm and grabbing the back Sophia’s suit with his left hand to drag them down.
CRAAAAASH!
The three Phantom Thieves managed to jump down the head an instant before the flaming hand slammed against the tubes, tearing them to pieces and making the oil and other chemicals in them start burning.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Shadow Twilight started howling in pain from both Masks’ mouths.
“It worked,” Akira said, pleased with himself.
“Warn us next time!” Makoto and Ann said with a shriek.
“It was hard to explain I wanted her to cover her hand in fire to slap her with, I wasn’t even sure she would have stopped controlling it.” He answered.
“… I hate that it makes kind of sense, but still, next time I want a warning, one coming with enough time for me to process it!” Zenkichi answered.
“Noted.”
“Har-Har-Har! Kids these days, no respect.” The poor man answered in bitter sarcasm at the cheeking answer, making the others chuckle.
“DAMN YOUUUUU!” Shadow Twilight howled in fury, so angry now she looked unfazed by the flames covering her completely.
“Oh! She mad!” Ryuji said, smirking.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
“Oh no… I think this time it’s not a good thing…” Futaba said in dread when Shadow Twilight’s power rising spiked instead of dropping, all the while deep cracks started appearing on the masks.
“What is happening?!” Rarity asked, horrified.
“Second phase, I fear… To use a videogame term.” Zenkichi answered, gulping.
“Oh, no…” Ann muttered in answer.
“GET READY!” Morgana yelled with wide eyes when Twilight released an indescribable scream of monstrous rage.
“I’LL KILL YOU!”
In the eerie red light of the alarms blaring everywhere in the laboratory Shadow Twilight began to undergo a horrifying transformation while releasing a chilling, otherworldly wail after another.
The massive floating head loomed over them while thrashing violently and slamming against the walls, screaming in pain over and over;its two faces beyond the masks howling in pain and screaming insults and obscenities, and the more Shadow Twilight slammed her floating giant head against the walls, the more cracks appeared on the masks covering her two faces, until with an ominous cracking sound the masks on the twin faces began to splinter and crumble into pieces.
CRACK!
Bolts and rivets shot off from Shadow Twilight’s monster body, and big splinters of her masks started falling down or remaining stuck in the walls, slowly revealing the grotesque features hidden beneath.
“What… The crap is that…” Ryuji muttered with a green face.
On the front face, the Mad One, the skin had been surgically peeled back, revealing a tangle of veins pulsating in sickly hues of crimson and violet; the eyes, once concealed, were nothing more than empty sockets filled with writhing maggots and metal cables still crackling in electricity, while the mouth was fixed on an eternal snarl full of sharp, jagged fangs.
Simultaneously, the mask on the back shattered, revealing the horrific sight of the Sad Face’s skin melting away like wax, exposing a raw, fleshy cavity where a second set of eyeswere forced open by crude suture sewing, eyes now cold and unfeeling, that stared into the abyss while crying nonstop tears of putrid black water leaving thick stream marks on the ruined face’s cheeks.
As the masks broken down further, the monstrous head began to tremble and convulse, then it let out an otherworldly scream that reverberated through the room, like a guttural cry of agony.
“JESUS!” Makoto looked away, gagging in disgust.
“The true face of Twilight’s madness. Self-destruction in the name of Science guided by anger and sadness. What a sad, terrifying sight.” Yusuke commented with a sorrowful tone.
Now the two faces started to squiggle as if something was moving wildly right under their flesh, then they started to merge: flesh melting and conjoining into a grotesque, pulsating mass… Until the transformation reached its horrific climax.
“GET DOWN!” Akira yelled, throwing himself on the floor soon followed by his friends that did the same with just a split-second difference.
When the twin faces merged completely into a grotesque, quivering misshapen ball of pulsating flesh with veins and arteries still pulsing with life; it briefly hovered menacingly over them, exuding a stench of decay, for just a couple seconds it then stood still, before the mass exploded like a water balloon splattering blood everywhere in a grotesque rain.
BOOOM!
“WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!” Ann yelled with a hysteric scream as now a giant floating brain covered in pulsating black veins hovered over them.
The transformation was gruesome, as the grotesque creature completed its metamorphosis and summoned again the two hands at its sides and a giant single eye opened right on the front of the brain’s mass.
“Phase 2, guys! Keep it together! We still haven’t won!” Zenkichi tried saying, swallowing hard to reign his bile at the disgusting sight.
The new form of Shadow Twilight answered by releasing a cacophonous scream that reverberated through the Palace, causing the Phantom Thieves to clutch their ears in agony as a long chain of acid-green 1 and 0 appeared around the brain.
01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01110101 01101100 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110011 01110000 01100001 01101001 01110010 00101110 00100000 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100101 01110011 01100011 01100001 01110000 01100101 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01110101 01110010 01101110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110111 00100000 01010100 01100101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01010011 01110101 01100010 01101010 01100101 01100011 01110100 01110011 00101110
"What... What is that thing saying?" Joker exclaimed, his voice strained.
Oracle quickly analyzed the situation and deciphered a message in the air around the monstrous brain.
"It's speaking in binary code!" she exclaimed.
“Awesome! And?” Ryuji asked with an annoyed scream.
"It's saying, 'I am the culmination of despair. You cannot escape. I will turn you into my new Test Subjects.'"
“She is welcomed to try!” Makoto answered.
“You okay, Jewel?” Morgana asked, concerned.
“I… I am! That is not Twilight! My friend would NEVER get to this point! Never! That is a mockery of Twilight just like my Shadow version was a bad copy of me! And I will help you destroy it to free my friend!” Rarity answered with eyes ablaze in determination.
“Well said!” Haru and Ann said together.
With newfound determination, the Phantom Thieves faced the horrifying brain; it floated ominously, with the binary code surrounding it like an aura that then expanded and latched onto the floating hands to tie them to the brain, and forming a very simplistic and translucent giant humanoid body made of 1 and 0 numbers.
“The battle had taken a nightmarish turn, but we must remain resolute.” Yusuke said, pointing at the giant brain encased in a body of binary code with his sword.
"You took the words right outta my mouth, buddy! Let's finish this!" Ryuji answered, smirking and moving his arm around.
"Skull, Noir, you are the only ones still with bullets, target its weak point! We will cover you and distract her." Akira ordered while charging forward.
“Which weak point?”
“What about her giant brain that formed the body in the first place?!” Morgana answered with a tone dripping in sarcasm while rolling his eyes.
“Jeez! Just making sure!” Ryuji answered, chuckling.
While the others targeted the hands and semi-solid body with their melee weapons and Persona Skills, Skull and Noir moved in unison, striking at the pulsating mass of the brain with precision with a hail of bullets and every Gun Element attack Haru’s Milady could dish-out.
01000100 01101001 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 01101100 01100101 01100100 01100111 01100101 00100001
“Eh?” Zenkichi, parrying the grabbing attempt of Twilight’s giant hand, uttered.
“She says ‘Die in the name of Knowledge!’. She really hates us!” Sophia, attacking that same hand with her yo-yo and tearing away big chunks of its metal, answered with a jovial tone.
“Oh, dear! I wasn’t aware she hated us! I thought she wanted to give me a very extreme head pat!” He answered in sarcasm, chuckling, and making Sophia giggle amused.
“Eat some lead! I heard it’s good for psychotic evil brains!” Ryuji yelled in the meantime, shooting Shadow Twilight’s Brain Form nonstop with his combat shotgun and pelting it in Lightning attacks.
“MAZIO!” And following that skill attack, Shadow Twilight released a statics-riddled scream of agony.
“Oh! Lightning works too! I wonder if... MAPSIO!” Haru said, trying again the Psi Skills of her Persona, and making so much damage all at once the Binary-made Body of Twilight briefly blinked off and causing the brain to convulse and emit agonized screams in the form of dissonant, electronic screeches and static noises.
“OF COURSE! Back in the days one of the methods used to ‘Heal’ Madness was through Electroconvulsive Therapy! That’s why Lightning attacks are more effective! Just like using Psi attacks work on her by adding even more pressure on Twilight’s warped Sanit-”
“NOT NOW!” The other Phantom Thieves, Rarity comprised, yelled in chorus to interrupt Yusuke’s exposition fit.”
“… Truly, you others are against learning new things.” The poor Artist muttered in dismay while whacking away at the giant hand trying to poke him to death.
Showing a great deal of multitasking skills, Morgana kept switching roles on the fly and use his Persona to both attack Twilight and heal and protect his friends, countering the brain's attempts to corrupt their minds with its own Psi Element attacks.
"She is preparing something big! Some kind of AOE super Psi attack!" Futaba alerted them in panic, already working tirelessly to detected vulnerabilities in the brain's next move.
“Should I get worried?” Rarity asked.
“Unless you like the idea of Twilight turning you all Brain Dead, maybe you should stop her!” She answered.
“That sounds convincing! How do we do that!?” Ann asked.
"What Twilight is trying to accomplish is such a giant thing that she needs a lot of power and time to prepare it, There will be weak points in its programming! Hit them when it exposes them!"
“For people that know nothing of computers?!” Ryuji, Haru and Yusuke asked in chorus.
“The binary code will soon converge on the giant body chest. Hit and destroy that cyber-pustule whenever the binary code on Twilight’s chest becomes thicker!”
“Oh! I can do that!” They answered.
The battle against the monstrous brain raged on, a clash of technology and supernatural abilities. With each strike and spell, the binary code around the brain flickered and glitched, revealing moments of vulnerability.
The Phantom Thieves exploited these openings, slowly but surely chipping away at the brain's formidable defenses.
As the battle reached its climax, the Palace itself seemed to quake, mirroring the intensity of the confrontation. The Thieves pressed on, their resolve unwavering, determined to overcome the embodiment of despair and claim victory.
“!!!” Whenever a new metallic shriek of static noises erupted from the brain, a new pustule of condensed binary code formed on a random part of Shadow Twilight’s holographic humanoid body.
“Right hand side! Under the ribs area!” Futaba instructed.
“On it! Mazio!” Akira answered, bombarding the big lump of ethereal numbers in lightning attacks from one of the Personas he could call upon.
With a sickening Squelch sound the pustule would break causing Twilight to shriek again, this time in pain.
“Okay! She is hurt when those are broken! Good to know!” Futaba said, elated.
“Good to know!” Ryuji, from on top of Twilight’s brain, answered with smirk.
“SKULL! HOW?!” Makoto yelled.
“Climbed the Effing thing while she was distracted!” He answered, smirking and shoving the head of his sledgehammer deep inside Twilight’s brain while twisting it around in splashes of viscous black blood mixed with oil.
“HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” And of course the giant of binary code immediately started thrashing violently to try shock the Thief off.
“SHIIIT! STAY STILL, DAMNIT!” Ryujy answered with a scream of his own while hanging limp and holding onto the brain only thanks to his hammer being stuck deep inside the monster mare’s brain.
“STOP TRYING TO SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS THAT THING AND COME DOWN!” Zenkichi yelled, desperately attacking the left hand to stop Twilight from using it to grab Ryuji.
“Wha?” The other teens asked, confused.
“I’ll explain the reference later! Now help him!” He answered.
“Going!” Akira yelled, using the grappling hook to latch on one of the walls and swing upward towards his friend.
“PUSTULES!” Futaba yelled in panic as now at least six of those lumps appeared on Twilight’s shoulders, all pointing towards the swinging Akira and Ryuji.
“HANDS!” Haru yelled in equal panic as the two metal hands as well flew towards them.
“SKULL!” Makoto yelled in absolute panic.
“JOKER!” Ann and Sophia echoed right after her.
“My hand!” Akira said, swinging right next to Ryuji with his hand stretched out.
“SHIIIIIIIT!” Ryuji managed to dislodge his sledgehammer and jump towards Akira a split second before the pustules broke and several giant acid-green lasers rained on them.
“RYAAAAAAAAH! (Brain-Break!)” Shadow Twilight roared in anger.
FOOOOOM!
“TOO CLOSE! TOO CLOSE!” Ryuji, hanging from Akira’s hand shrieked with bulged-out eyes as the lasers avoided them by a mer inch thanks to Joker’s wild swinging.
“HOLD ON!” Akira answered, looking in horror as the two hands were instead about to grab them.
“STAY AWAY!” Two voices roared in bestial fury.
BOOM!
The right hand folded on itself when Makoto’s fist, encased in the blue flames of the Nuclear Element of Johanna’s powers, slammed onto its palm with the strength of a meteor, digging a very deep crater into it and shooting the hand against the wall where it remained stuck.
“Wow!” Ryuji muttered in awe.
“DON’T WOW ME! I’LL PUNCH YOU LIKE THAT WHEN WE ARE DONE HERE FOR THAT STUNT OF YOURS!” Makoto bellowed.
“… Still wow.” He muttered, making her chuckle despite her anger.
“Makouga!” Both Rarity and Sophia in the meantime blasted the other hand with the combined power of their Persona, momentarily engulfing the flying thing in a blinding explosion of light before the thing finally fell down limp.
“Both hands are incapacitated but are self-healing quick! Hurry and attack the brain before it forms more pustules or recalls them!” Futaba said, pumping the Phantom Thieves in all the buffs she and her Persona could call upon.
“Bring me closer to her!” Haru said.
“Okay!” Yusuke and Ann answered.
“We’ll open a path.” Akira added once he and Ryuji landed close to them.
“God, that was close!” Ryuji admitted with a sigh of relief.
“IT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO SOMETHING STUPID!” Makoto answered, grabbing the collar of his Phantom Thief uniform to shake him wildly.
“B-B-B-BUT I-I-I-IT WO-WO-WORKED!” He answered, stuttering heavily due to the wild shaking.
“NOT AT THE COST OF YOUR LIFE!” She roared back.
“Focus!” Morgana ordered as the giant humanoid body of binary code surrounding Twilight’s brain blinked on and off at a rapid pace.
“She is at her limit! A last push!” Akira said.
“OKAY!” The other Thieves answered as one, and the group assaulted the brain as a single unit.
“01000100 01001001 01000101 01000101 01000101 01000101 00100001 (Dieeeeeee!)”
The Brain recalled and compressed the aura of 1 and 0 and then shot it forward towards the Phantom Thieves in hundreds of tentacles with a sharp point glinting like actual blades.
“CUT A PATH FOR NOIR!” Morgana yelled, with his Persona Zorro swinging his sword just like the cat’s own in a blurry of motion to cut away every tentacle they both could reach.
“ARSENE!” Akira yelled, and just as his own knife shredded tentacles by the dozen, so did the Persona’s sharp wings in a flurry of black feathers.
“GOOOO!” Zenkichi and Rarity yelled, they two chopping down the tentacles trying to skewer Haru, with the Unicorn turning her own rapier into a blender by spinning it with her magic as fast as she could.
“JOHANNA!/CARMEN!” Both Makoto and Ann instead used their powers to burn every tentacle they could reach.
“WHY WON’T YOU DIEEE?!” Finally actual words escaped Shadow Twilight as her single giant eye in front of the floating brain turned more bloodshot the more tentacles went destroyed, as a testament of the immense damage she was taking.
“SHUT UP AND EAT THIS! MILADY: MAPSYO!” Haru answered by throwing her battle axe right at the eye splitting it in two, kicking it deeper inside the brain’s flesh and then unleashing her Persona’s current stronger Psy Attack at point-blank distance.
“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” The brain shrieked in agony while the binary numbers aura exploded outwards and faded-away, and with a loud wet slap the brain crash-landed on the elevator unmoving besides few faint jiggling jitters.
“IT’S STAGGERED! ALL-OUT ATTACK, NOW!” Futaba yelled.
“All together!” Akira ordered.
“PERSONA!” The Phantom Thieves yelled as one, summoning their powers and attacking Shadow Twilight in a single, high-speed flurry of attacks that actually pushed the brain off the elevator platform.
“AAAAAAAAAH!” The Brain yelled in agony as it fell, exploding into a blob of ruptured jelly-like grey matter once hit the bottom.
“…” The Thieves cautiously peeked over the edge of the thing to the darkness below.
“…”
“… Please tell me the effing thing doesn’t have a Phase 3 or I swear I will scream.” Ryuji asked with a small voice.
“…”
“… Well, the Palace is not collapsing, so she is still alive.” Morgana said.
… Hick!
Finally a very faint sound reached them, a whimper of sadness.
“I think we won. I can’t get any more readings from Twilight, she has returned to normal.” Futaba said, exiting her Persona and standing next to her friends.
“Oh, finally!” Zenkichi said with an exaggerated sigh of relief.
“Let’s find her.” Akira said, relaxing a bit.
“I’ll pull down the elevator enough to bring us close to her without squishing her under it! :D ” Sophia said, already fiddling with the controls.
“Yes, please.” Rarity answered, sighing in relief.
A slow descend later and the Thieves could jump down the platform and reach under it to recover Twilight, now back into pony form, and bring her on the thing with them, restarting the slow ascension of the thing until it reached the top floor.
“I just… I just wanted to keep my friends close to me forever! To help Humanity and Ponies coexist…” Shadow Twilight said, crying softly in shame.
“Oh, Twilight.” Rarity said, hugging the Distorted version of her friend tightly.
“I am an Alicorn, I will watch the other girls grow old before me and die! I can’t stand it!” Shadow Twilight said, hugging Rarity and wailing in sorrow.
“They may die in body, but in your Heart they will live forever.” Yusuke offered, gently stroking her head.
“But… But…”
“Twilight, everypony grows old and dies at some point. Life is short, but that’s what makes it beautiful, because it pushes you to make sure every instant counts, it makes you appreciate it and fill it in good memories.” Rarity said, taking away the Shadow’s tears with a handkerchief held-up by her Magic.
“But it will hurt!” Shadow Twilight answered, hiccuping.
“Yes, it will. But once day it will stop hurting and only the good memories will remain,” She answered.
“But I will never see my friends anymore!”
“You will be always able to see them, silly.” Rarity said, kissing her forehead.
“How?”
“You tell me, how hard can you close your eyes?” Rarity answered with a sweet smile.
“Will they wait for me at least? Or will they forget about me?” Shadow Twilight asked with a small voice.
“Twilight, your friends will wait for you to rejoin them in Heaven even for tens of thousands of year, I am sure of it. Friendship is the hardest thing to break, yes?”
SNIFF! “Yes it is… Denser than Osmium.” Shadow Twilight answered with a weak smile, finally free of the taint of Distortion.
“… I’ll take that as a good thing,” Rarity answered after a short silence of confusion, making both mares chuckled.
GRUUUUUMBLE!
As soon as Shadow Twilight’s body started breaking into small lights, the Palace gave a shudder and started breaking down.
“OH CRAP! ALREADY?!” Zenkichi yelled in horror.
“We’ll never get out in time!” Ann added, horrified.
“There is an escape pod! Use it to leave quick! It may be cramped, but it will take you out!” Shadow Twilight said, throwing the Treasure at Akira and a key card to Makoto.
“You build an escape pod in here?!” Morgana asked.
“It’s an underground laboratory that goes underground for miles! Of course I added one to escape fast if things go very wrong! Have you seen how slow those elevators are?!” Shadow Twilight answered.
“… You know what? Touche!” Morgana conceded.
“I’ll sign a path for you to reach it! Tell my friends I am sorry!” Shadow Twilight said, then her body broke into specks of light that formed a line towards said secret escape pod.
“Once out of here, you’ll apologize yourself, let’s go!” Akira yelled, already running away following the light.
“No need to tell me twice, Buddy!” Ryuji answered, he and the other Thieves following their Leader towards their salvation from the rapidly collapsing Palace.
While they were escaping, though, from the deepest depths of the Palace, a formless shadow wailed in agony.
“NOOOO! NOT THIS ONE TOO! MY BODY! MY PLAAANS! DAMN YOUUUUU!”
The ghostly shadow yelled in agony as it was slowly dying together with the Palace, then a giant slab of concrete detached from a wall slammed on it, dispersing its body into tiny wisps, and when the Palace finished dying, the figure as well died with it.
Real World -
When the Guards tore down the door to Twilight personal lab, they found it empty and filled in dust, signaling that the thing had been abandoned for days.
“...How?!” Shining Armor yelled in disbelief.
“She just got her Calling Card, where is she?!” One of the guards asked with wide eyes.
“People of Earth! Everypony from Equestria… I am sorry.” Right in that moment Twilight’s face appeared on the monitor of her computer to deliver her admission and apology thanks to her Change of Heart.
“HOW?! GOSHDARNIT!” Shining yelled in fury, demolishing computer and lab in a flare of uncontrolled Magic.
With the Phantom Thieves – Secret Floating Island -
“Delivering the Calling Card to Twilight first and then wait two days before delivering it to the masses… So simple and yet so effective.” Yusuke commented.
“At least it gave Twilight enough time to record her message and then reach us to the extraction point before sending it out.” Lyra answered, sighing.
“But it’s not what a Phantom Thief does…” Morgana said with a sad and whiny meow.
“Just this time, we could not risk doing it like we usually do.” Akira answered, petting him.
“Fiiiiine!” Morgana answered with a long sigh.
“How’s she?” Ann asked.
“Finishing apologizing to her friends,” Yusuke answered.
“Dude, it’s been four hours. She is still apologizing?” Ryuji asked, shocked.
“Pain and shame can cut you deep, my friend. Let’s let her open her Heart and fulfill her sense of guilt, her friends are doing that, so so can we.” He answered.
“Pinkie seems to be very open to hug Twilight nonstop until she recovers.” Haru added.
“That’s some pure Friendship,” Makoto admitted touched.
“I can hug you too if you want.” Akira said with a straight face.
“Har-Har, buddy. Very fun!” Ryuji answered, rolling his eyes. “But thanks” He then said.
“Hn!” Akira answered, smiling and offering him his bent arm so that the two best friends could “cross arms”.
“Oh, drop it with the Manly Friendship!” Ann said shaking her head.
Akira and Ryuji just smirked and kissed Ann’s cheek, making her face burn dark red.
“JERKS!” She answered, flaying her arms wildly and making the others laugh.
“Phantom Thieves…?” Twilight asked them with a low voice.
“Yes?” Zenkichi asked.
“Rarity told me what you are doing… I wish to help you!” She said.
“Help us?” Akira said, curious.
“Yes! I think I can come up with a way for us others to follow you into those Palaces and act as extra set of eyes! Sure we wouldn’t be able to interact with things or move too far from Rarity as she will act as an anchor to let us follow you, but I am certain that a modified Astral Projection Spell with a bit of Illusory-”
“In terms we can follow?” Ryuji interrupted her while going cross-eyed.
“Ah! Yes! I mean to say that we may be able to see and hear things inside the Palaces thanks to a spell, to help you navigate any new Palace.” Twilight said, simplifying it.
“Are you sure?” Makoto asked.
“Your friend Sophia told us the next targets on your list, like Cadence, my brother Shining and Spitfire; we know those ponies personally, so between us and Rarity will help you! Palaces are based around the Owner’s mind and desires, yes? Maybe we can help!” Twilight said.
“We’re getting bored of just staying here. We are used to be the ones kicking plots and taking names… Please? It’s boring!” Dash begged.
“We-We can help!” Fluttershy added.
“Equestria is our home! We are just as much victims as Humans are!” AJ said.
“We didn’t say you could not join.” Ann answered, chuckling.
“We can accept any help we can get.” Makoto added.
“Just remember to use our Code-names and Rarity’s when we are inside the Palaces, to maintain our anonymity.” Akira said.
“Of course!” The other Elements of Harmony answered in chorus.
“I will also make sure to better hide this island, now that I am gone Princess Celestia will seriously start combing everywhere to find me. Whatever is controlling her is now probably furious.” Twilight said, tense.
“No doubts about it, without you Conversion has slowed down to a crawl, recovering you will be their maximum priority.” Storm Shadow answered.
“And we can use it, Celestia’s fixation for recovering you can potentially blind her from our attacking the other Targets. Now that every Element of Harmony has been freed, they have no idea who our next target will be.” Zenkichi said.
“Who is our next target?” Ryuji asked.
“In our list Cadence and Shining Armor are put on the same level, under them there is Spitfire.” Makoto answered.
“We need to choose carefully then.” Akira answered.
“I’ll help you plan! I am good at that!” Twilight answered immediately, even too eager to gain redemption for her Corrupted Self’s sins.
“We’ll count on you, girls.” Ann said with a friendly smile.
Meanwhile – With Celestia -
Roars and shrieks, screams and flashes of Magic shook the entire royal palace as Celestia went overcome by mind-numbing rage, making her destroy everything around her, even the windows exploded to dust, even her own throne went thrown outside, smashing through the doors and almost splattering the two poor guards standing outside making them scamper away in fear.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE LOST TWILIGHT?!” She demanded.
“It seems like the Phantom Thieves first got to her, THEN notified us. This will slow-down our production of Conversion Potion immensely since we cannot test each batch as fast as she does.” One of the Pony scientist answered with a trembling voice full of fear.
“THOSE DAMN THIEVES!” Another chunk of wall went blasted to pieces with a flare of super-hot Magic from Celestia’s horn.
“The soldiers can’t find her, and she destroyed everything in her Lab before leaving. We lost every note about the Potion, we can at best produce only the common one now, unless we find Miss Twilight, we will need to restart from zero to develop every variant like the Rain one or the Gas one. It will probably take us months!” The poor Stallion said, sweating profusely.
“MONTHS!? TWILIGHT MADE THEM IN JUST DAYS!”
“We… We are not Miss Twilight, your Highness…”
“AAAAAAAAARGH!” The roar of mad fury physically blew away the poor scientist and launched him through one of the few walls still standing as if it was made of paper.
“TELL SHINING ARMOR TO FIND MY ELEMENTS OF HARMONY! I WANT THEM BACK HERE NOW!” She ordered.
“Yes, Your Highness!” The soldiers waiting for orders answered, rapidly leaving the room in an ordinate manner to fulfill their orders.
“Have somebody hunt down the Phantom Thieves too! Send out the world, everypony must help finding the Elements of Harmony and the Phantom Thieves! Whoever finds them will get whatever they want in exchange, but if they are helping them they will be petrified and smashed to pieces!” Celestia yelled.
“Yes, your Highness!” the guards answered.
“… It was a mistake believe that a Palace could kill those pests, I guess that I will have to up the difficulty if I really want to get rid of them.” Celestia’s eyes turned red and a deep voice left her mouth, followed by static noises and a faint robotic undertone.
The shadow inside Celestia’s Heart writhed and twisted, angrily mashing their teeth in frustration at their powerlessness in stopping the Phantom Thieves with its own hands…
But that didn’t mean they could not influence the other Palaces they were connected to to make things more difficult for them…
End of the chapter.
I am very sorry for this long wait, but besides Life, my own Health has not been helping, and not only on a physical level.
All my thanks to my friend Drako that has been of great help in finding the strength of writing this chapter, he really has the patience of a saint.
Thank you, Bud!
And thank you all as well for sticking with my story and still enjoying it no matter its many, many, many, many, many, many, many flaws.
I’ll see you all around the net.
… Hopefully it won’t take me this long to update again.
Sorry.
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But not impossible to beat. You will REGRET messing with the human race, you bitch!!!! 😈
KO awesome chapter, the Elements of Harmony are finally together and they are going to help the Phantom Thieves of f Hearts to get three other ponies who are involved. And Celestia is looking very dark for a bright sun.
were you inspired by andross from star fox when you came up with the twilight brain thing cause i really like that also when you mentioned targets next you said spitfire, shining armor and cadance but what about blueblood isn't he also a target
What do you mean flaws I don't see any though you admitting that you see some flaws in your writing is the framework of a great author maybe someone who once finishing this fanfiction will be able to write an actual full length book I look forward to your current and next adventure in the hopes of seeing something amazing
Got some nice Iron man vibes from Celestias rant to the scientist.
Will patiently wait to see who's next...
Well, glad we're done with this nutso Palace. Onto the next one!! Hopefully it'll be less psycho horror that Twilight's.
11706625
He is a target too, yes.
I simply forgot to add him to the dialogue.
As for the next target, it will be Spitfire, I just added the Thieves being undecided as a way to make things sound a bit more natural. 🙂
11706768
Yep! That's the scene! XD I love that movie.
That was a good chapter! Now all the Elements of Harmony are free, and we’re heading into “mid-game” territory now!
And take your time with the next chapter, you’re writing an incredible story, and that takes a lot of time and effort to put into. Your health is important, so don’t forget to take care of that!
11706832
okay and did you take inspiration from andross when coming up with the twilight brain thing
11706908
Yes
At last, we have reached the endgame... this shall prove quite interesting...
I'm so invested in this story. It's such a unique concept in opposed to the usual TCB stories we get. I can't wait till the next chapter!
Good chapter. I look forward to see what comes next.
By the way, you have a "Shadow Rarity" where I believe you meant to have "Shadow Twilight".
Celestia is starting to go insane
. I hope the Phantom Thieves changes her heart and make her atone for her crimes
In a cave! With a box of scraps!
Obligatory Iron Man reference, I'm not apologizing
Welcome back!
11708605
Thank you ❤️
11706932
Endgame? Hahhahahqhahqhahahhahahahahhaahhahahahahhah
11712283
Awesome, thanks for the clarification! Now I ask will there be an arc where the Phantom Thieves try and save Discord. Because you did say his statue showed betrayal on his face which tells me Celestia or someone lied when they told Fluttershy he went evil again?
I stand by my claim Discord will be an excellent Confidant\S-link to the Phantom Thieves!
Also based on what i've read and knowledge of P5R i have after beating it. We won't be done even after the Phantom Thieves save Celestia, they will also have to fight the Darkness that corrupted our Pony Heroes and Royalty to truly end the invasion\Conversion.
11712572
All correct!
But Discord won't be freed before way close to the last few chapters.
11712713
Oh ok and yay i so happy that Discord will become a Confidant\S-link
Having finally gotten around to reading this chapter I have a few things to say and do…
1. Take your time, your real life health and well being come first.
2.Lightly boops the author on the head This is fun regardless of its flaws, nothing is perfect, and that’s that.
3. Go out, see friends, touch grass with your shoes, then have your buddies hug you.
4. And the final thing. Leaves a plate of my buddies homemade Brownies and a few of his homemade cookies
11728317
Thank you ❤️❤️❤️
Especially for the kind words.
Well, after several years of putting this on the backlog, holding it off and taking a long break of MLP fics for some time, I finally caught up with the story thus far! As for my thoughts on this story so far, I'd like to say that I had a fun time with it. The story kept me intrigued on where it was going, the descriptions for AJ and Twilight's palaces admittedly unnerved me a little when I first read them and I did like the banter and interactions between the PTs themselves. However, as much as I liked this story, I had many gripes with it. But I won't go through all of them to save some space, so here are a couple of issues that I would like to share, which include, but not limited to;
1. The errors.
And that's from this chapter. There's tons of other ones I noticed from previous chapters which have still yet to be fixed, and I mean A LOT. I understand it's probably because these chapters are very long, and there's quite a few of them at this point. I'm just a bit surprised that you never fixed up some of the errors you made previously and have been pointed out by other commenters, maybe you could've even fixed a few errors pointed out by them to help you get back into the swing of things once you recovered to help build more motivation to complete this chapter, if the A/N at the end have anything to say.
2. Weird dialogue moments
I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like some of the dialogue said by some of these characters feel like they don't belong to this character. For example:
I feel like this is something that Ann would say, rather than Haru. And stuff like this happen throughout the rest of the story. I get it's an AU, so it's probably a given, especially with Ryuji saying 'fuck' a lot more in this story than in the games, but these are still technically the same characters we know and love, moments like these kinda break the immersion a little.
Well, it's my opinion, so you are free to do with my thoughts however you want. Aside from those gripes, I had a fun time with this story and I look forward to see what comes next.
Hey man as I always say I'm always here to help dude hehe you helped me with my slow as balls Story and I help you...and to everyone else here thanks for supporting my friend and I'm proud of how this is going
11742772
🥰❤️🥰
I have to say this has become my most favorite conversion bureau story.
This is so far the only conversion bureau story i've read and the second persona story i've read and i gotta so this story is ABSOLUTELY FANTABULOUS!!
Judging from previous chapters, I'm assuming either Spitfire or Bluebood is the next target on the Phantom Thieves' list.
finally I've had time to really dig into the story and honestly, despite this being the only conversion bureau story, this is also my favorite story in general involving the Phantom Thieves, I hope you feel better soon and remember to pace yourself, you're in the mid game now so we can't give up yet
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
11734307
There is already Erebus in Persona lore, it's the grand manifestation of humanity's grief and negative emotion. I won't spoil you ending of Persona 3 (considering that you can play Reload instead of original game now, without any headaches) but it's very important to story and also is immortal.