Chapter 4. Arcanas (edited)
"Minato?" Daybreaker asked with a testing hint of excitement in her voice.
"Yeah Day?" I answered curious.
"Oh nothing, just wanted to test something." she answered with a giggle.
"Ooookay." I answered unsure.
Daybreaker has really opened up to me and we've gotten much closer... A little too close maybe. Right now, me and her are relaxing in a newly formed sofa I created, it's in the same place as the last one and looks almost identical. I'm currently looking through the Le Grimoire, looking over the amount of skills that I can place on my Persona. Let me just say that there's a lot to work with here. Daybreaker is leaning towards me, her chest pressing against my right shoulder. Is she doing that on purpose or is she just oblivious?
From what I've learned from her about Celestia's past and childhood, it seems at this point in time neither her nor Celestia has had anypony they consider a friend, or at least someone they consider a true friend.
The idea of having someone that she can rely on or having someone be there for her seems to really make her happy.
"Minato?" Daybreaker said once again.
"What's up Day?"
"*giggle* Oh nothing." She answered with a sly tone.
Okay, now it's starting to get creepy. But I guess I can't be too mad at her, she's probably still not over about what happened to her sister.
She seems to really like the nickname I gave her. Is this girl really the darker half of Celestia?
"Hey Minato," she suddenly asked with a clear change in tone, "I've been wondering about something? Earlier when you explained to me what a Persona is you also mention something called a Arcana. What exactly is that?"
"Hmmm, I'll try," I answer while thinking what to say, "An Arcana is... a card that represents a person but also part of a journey that is the growth of a person. Specifically the Arcanas that allow us to summon Personas are the Major Arcanas of the traditional Tarot Card deck."
I reach into my pocket and pull out the Tarot Cards I brought with me to the convention. I start shuffling through the cards and bring out the 22 major Arcanas and put them on the coffe table that is in front of the sofa.
"In total there are 78 cards in a Tarot deck, but the major arcanas are what determines an individuals Persona. They are numbered as 0 - 21 and are, in order: the Fool, Magician, Priestess, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers, Chariot, Justice, Hermit, Fortune, Strength, Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, Devil, Tower, Star, Moon, Sun, Judgement and the World."
As I read them all out, the cards are enveloped in a blue aura and each card glows brighter when I say their name. I then open the Le Grimoire and Seven additional cards float out from the book in a blue aura.
"There are however more than these Arcanas, but they are not in the original Tarot deck and share the same number as some of the other cards. They are: the Jester, Councillor, Apostle, Hunger, Aeon, Universe, Faith and Hope. The Jester shares the number 0 with the Fool, the Councillor the number 1 with the Magician, the Apostle the number 5 with the Hierophant, Hunger the number 11 with Strength, Aeon the number 20 with Judgement, the Universe the number 21 with the World and lastly Faith and Hope are without numbers.
All the cards starts to float and place themselves in order on the table, from top left to bottom right, with Faith and Hope being last because they don't have a number. I reach out with my right hand and pick up the Empress Arcana in order to show it to Daybreaker.
"Your Arcana is the Empress, it represents mothers, prosperity, creativity, sexuality, abundance, fertility, protection and comfort. The Arcanas don't have to be 100% accurate, they usually represent the most outstanding part about an individual, whether or not it is something that the individual shows or keeps hidden from the outside world doesn't matter. The Persona that is born from the Arcana usually shares the name with a historical, mythological or folklore entity that best fit in with the Arcana. Your Persona Durga, is based on the Hindu goddess of motherhood and battle, which I think fits you perfectly with the ferocity and strength you show in combat, as well as the gentle and loving side you're showing right now."
She blushes at my last comment, but the curiosity in her face doesn't seem to leave. She still has something that she's hiding.
"Then what is your Arcana?" she asked.
Like before, information that I'm not sure of why I knew enter my head and I reach out with my left hand towards the table. Three cards floats from the table and stay floating above my hand. My right hand then opens up and one of the cards float from my left hand to the right.
"As the bearer of the Wild Card, I can not only wield more than one Persona, but my Arcana can also change as I grow in power. At first my Arcana was the Fool, it represents innocence, divine inspiration, madness, freedom, spontaneity, inexperience, chaos and creativity. It mostly symbolised my oblivious and grey world view, as well as my inability to find true joy in what I do."
The Fool Arcana returned to my left hand and changed place with the Death Arcana.
"When reality finally decided to catch up to me, I was put in a situation of unavoidable doom, which made me change into the Death Arcana. This card is without a doubt the most misunderstood one out of all the Arcanas. While it is associated with foreboding and doom, the Death Arcana also symbolizes metamorphosis and deep change, regeneration and cycles. In other words, it not only represented my fate, but also that something big was waiting for me in the future."
A vision flashed before me, showing me a tall dark figure wearing a dark midnight blue dress cloak, white long sleeved gloves and silver helmet with a lower jaw attached, giving the appearance of a gaping mouth. The figure was covered in chains, kneeling down as if it was sealed away and surrounded by eight small coffins, similar to the ones Messiah has. It also had a sheathed sword attached to it's left hip.
The figure raised its head and stared at me with its hollow eyes, as we where surrounded by darkness. The figure didn't say anything nor did it try to move, but it felt like I recieved a message despite the fact that no words were spoken.
"Soon my old friend, soon." I say to figure.
It lowers its head and goes back to its long slumber. I'm not sure how to explain it, but it felt like I've known him for a long time. Even longer than Messiah.
"Minato?" Daybreaker says worried, "Are you okay?"
Reality returns to me and I see Daybreaker facing me with clear worry in her eyes. I shake my head and answer.
"Yeah I'm fine," I say with a sigh, "just some old and unpleasant memories."
I return my gaze to the cards and the Death Arcana swaps places with the Judgement Arcana.
"My current Arcana is Judgement, it is associated with realizing one's calling, gaining a deep understanding of life and a feeling of acceptance and absolution. It also represents a balance between light and darkness. It manifested when I came to accept my fate and invite whatever change was waiting for me, as well as my will to escape from the old world and change myself. It is the Arcana that Messiah was born from."
Messiah and the others walk up to us with clear interest over my explaination.
"The term messiah is prominent within many of the world's religions. A messiah is regarded as a savior of mortals, who would bring them salvation near the end of days, although opinions between who the term messiah refers to differs between religions."
All the cards float up and return to the Le Grimoire and the book closes itself. I pick up the Tarot cards and put them back into my left chest pocket. I pick up the book and start to flip through it.
"Do you wanna see when I summon a new Persona?" I asked Daybreaker.
"Sure, I'm actuelly curious to see how it works." she answers with an intrested tone.
I start to flip through the book and search for any low level Persona. The reason I'm still sticking with low level ones is because I wanna get a clear understanding on how it works before I start going after the high leveled ones.
"Do you guy's have any suggestions or wishes?" I turn my gaze towards the others.
"Can you make it a female one?" Dahlia asked,"I would like to have a girlfriend to talk to."
"He-Oh-Oh!" Jack Frost exclaims with a raised hand, "Make it someone who's fun to play with, ho!"
A female who's fun to play with... Ah yes of course!
"Come forth!" I commanded, "Nekomata!"
Wisps from the tree started to fall and spin around, forming a small blue tornade. The tornade lights up in blue flames and takes the form of a slender feminine figure, her entire body was covered in skin tight black fabric with a snow white fur coat on covering her upper body and arms. Her hands have sharp claws and she has a white cat like tail. She has a black face mask covering her mouth and nose, the mask an opening for the mouth and has white lines on it, looking like cat whiskers. Her hair was a light brown and goes down to her shoulders and she has two big cat like ears instead of human ones. Her eyes were a golden amber like colour, looking like the eyes of a cat.
She goes down on all four and crawls towards me like a cat, she looks at me with clear curiousity.
"Are you Nekomata's soul mate, meow?" she ask with a head tilt.
"Well, uhhh." was all I could muster because I was not ready for that question.
"Hmmm," she analysis me with deep interest, "*gasp* We have the same eyes, meow!!"
"Oof!" I say as Nekomata pounces on me.
I'm laying on my back with Nekomata sitting on top of my stomach. Her legs to my side and both her hands on my chest. She stares down at me with a huge grin on her face.
"I like you, mew! Teehee! I'll be your Purrsona!" she says as she's snuggling up to and purrs loudly.
Both her and I are covered in a blue glow and the book that is now laying to my right on the floor flips open, showing Nekomata's card.
"Well, that was easy." I say as pet the overgrown kitty.
"Hey! That tickles!" I chuckle as Nekomata starts liking my left cheek.
A sudden feeling of danger accompanied with an increase in temperature makes itself present. I tilt my head and look up to see Daybreaker looking really mad with her mane flaring. Dahlia is next to her on her left, sparking with Electicity and looking equally mad. I look behind them and see Messiah and Jack Frost hiding behind the sofa and shaking in fear.
Oh no, not this cliché.
"Day, calm down." I say with a shaky voice, "She's just being friendly."
Durga spawns behind Daybreaker with all ten of her arms blazing with fire.
"I regret nothing!" I shout before I'm overpowered by the sound of Fire and Lightning.
Thank the Lord for Resist and Oratorio! Durga hits hard!
Not only does she have a unique skill called Thunder Inferno, that deals severe Fire damage and has a medium chance to Shock the opponent. But she has a trait called Solar Tyrant, which increases the damage of her magic based attacks by 50%. Basically it's her own version of Satanael's trait Pagan Allure. She also absorbs Fire, she immune to Nuke and Bless, resists Curse and is weak to Ice. Over all, she's a pretty solid Persona that fits Daybreaker perfectly.
Currently I'm sitting on the couch suffering from both severe burn damage and slowly recovering from being paralyzed by the Shock ailment. Jack Frost is being carried by Messiah, who's standing behind me, and holds his cold hand on me to help with the burn while Messiah uses Oratorio. Since I currently have no Persona that can remove Ailments, all I can really do is slowly let the Shock ailment heal itself.
"I'm sorry..." I hear the saddened voice of Daybreaker, "I went to far, it wasn't your fault."
"I'm sorry too, master." Dahlia says, feeling equally guilty.
Despite the fact that my entire body is paralyzed, I can still talk just fine. With some effort of course.
"Don't worry," I say with a voice like a disappointed parent, "I'm not mad, just be careful next time. You're both much stronger than you realise and could very easily hurt someone. Now give me a hug."
They both smile and approach to hug me, only to pull back from a sudden feeling of shocking pain and they both let out a feminine "Yeowch!"
"First lesson about Status Ailments, the Shock ailment is contagious." I say with a smirk as both of them are now also suffering from the Shock ailment, but not on the same level as me, they can still move with some effort.
After we all manage to recover from the "Shocking" situation and everyone finished introducing themselves to Nekomata, we decided to chill in the sofa and look at the current situation in Equestria.
I'm sitting in the middle of the couch, with Day to my right hugging Jack Frost like a plush as he's sitting in her lap, Nekomata on my left, Dahlia on my lap and Messiah standing behind the sofa.
"Let's see how Equestria has recovered from their recent Shadow attack." I say as I click on the controller in my hand.
The screen turns on and shows an overworld view of Equestria, beautiful land scapes with mountains, field and forests. You could see multiple villages, both that seem to have been recently built and some still under construction. Surrounding the villages where big walls made from logs, most likely to keep out the Shadows. Lastly in the distant you could see Canterlot mountain and its kingdom close to completion and... no sign of any recent Shadow attacks?
"Hey Day, is it possible for Equestria to recover this fast from a large scale invasion?" I ask with slight worry in my tone.
"No," she answered showing clear confusion over what she's seeing, "there's no way Celestia and the rest of Equestria could possibly recover this fast from that invasion. More than that, the construction of Canterlot Castle is almost done, it was suppose to be at least six months or so before it was finished."
"But what does all this mean, mew?" Nekomata asked.
I stop and think for a second before, "Hey Dahlia?" I ask and Dahlia looks up to me, "How long has it been since Day arrived here?"
"Hmmm, if my internal clock is correct along with the time she was asleep," Dahlia says with deep concentration, "around 4 days."
"IT'S ALREADY BEEN FOUR DAYS!!!" I shout in complete shock scaring the ones around me.
This can't be good, on one hand this means that I won't be stuck in here for as long as I first thought. On the other hand this means I have less time than I thought to learn about my powers and master them. Almost a week has already gone by and I have barely scatched the surface of the Le Grimoire. What have I been doing?
I need to run several test like: How does buffs work? How do debuffs work? How do ailments work? How do weaknesses work? How do critical hits work? How do I fuse Personas? How do I give them new skills? How do I give them different traits? How much difference does a Personas stats make and can I increase them even if the Persona is already max leveled?
"Let's see," I place my hand to my chin and scratch it as I think, "if 4 days is equal to 6 months out there, that would mean that the amount of time we will be spending in here is..."
Everyone stares at me with anticipation, waiting for me to reveal the result that my amazing brain has calculated.
"I have no idea!"
Or not. Math was never my strong suit.
Everyone grunts in dissapointment before Daybreaker shakes her head and says.
"So I guess that means we won't be stuck in here for as long as we first thought. That's good right."
"Yeah, but it also means that we have less time to both learn and master all of our new powers." I explain, "Even then, we're still going to be stuck in here for at least a couple or so years, so it's not like we're running out of time."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Day says as she scratches her head. "We should probably get the hang of it as soon as possible just to be safe."
"Right you are my dear," I say with a snap of my fingers, "so let's get to training."
It has been some time since we last checked on Equestria and the amount of Personas I've summoned have increased as well. I've pretty much given up on counting how much time has actuelly past and I'm just not gonna think about it.
When it came to giving a Persona a new skill, you just had to place the card that represented the skill on top of the card that represented the Persona. Skills take the appearance of Skill Cards that have an icon on them that shows the Element or Catagory that the skill within the card represent.
When it came to changing traits, I had to summon a Persona that had the trait I wanted and then sacrifice the Persona as energy for the other Persona. At first I was pretty worried about this but it seems like even if a Persona is sacrificed, the contract I had with the Persona can't be broken, so I can just summon them again if I need to.
I also discovered during that time that I can expand the flower field as well as change it. The area of the Velvet Room has gotten some new additions, the most obvious being the Roman-like pillars placed around in the flower field so that they surround the platform and the large pond that I added within the flower field. I always liked water and having a pond gives a feeling of peace and tranquility. The pond has a smaller version of the Moonlight Tree in the middle of the lake, Day and I decided that the tree needed a name and that's what we came up with. Day seems to really like the name.
Four of my new Personas have decided to make the pond their territory, those being the Four Mitamas. The Mitamas all look like curved, comma-shaped beads, each one being a different colour and pointing in a different direction.
Saki Mitama is Yellow and has an expression that gives off a feeling of happiness and love,
Ara Mitama is red and has an expression that gives off a feeling of frustration and bravery, 
Kusi Mitama is a dark grey colour and has an expression that gives off wonder and wisdom, 
lastly is Nigi Mitama who's light blue and has a expression that gives off a feeling of peace.
Each of the Mitamas are just floating around above the water, spinning and chasing eachother.
There is a small open area on the field big enough for a large blanket to be laid out right next to the pond. Currently I'm sitting on the blanket reading through the book with Nekomata resting her head on my lap and Orthrus laying down to my left.
Orthrus is a Persona I summoned recently and he's a good boy. He looks like a large two headed dog with golden brown fur, a cerulean coloured lion-like mane and a purple snake-like tail.
Over by the platform I can hear Daybreaker training with two of my other Personas, those being Matador and Shiki-Ouji. Matador wears a green spanish matador uniform with golden markings, his head is just a white human skull with a green montera hat on it. In his right hand he has a red cape and in his left a curved tuck sword.
Shiki-Ouji looks like a large horned red and white humanoid made up of origami paper, he has a star on the center of his forehead and the left side of his front is covered with ancient Japanese.
Despite the fact that Day and Durga have gotten a lot stronger, Matador and Shiki-Ouji are no joke. They are easily among the strongest lower mid-tier Personas with Matadors insane speed and swift attacks and Shiki-Oujis near indestructable body and hard hitting physical and Psy elemental attacks.
As I'm relaxing and just taking in the feeling of perfect balance in my surroundings, Orthrus suddenly stands up and starts growling at the pond.
"What's wrong boy?" I ask the big dog as Nekomata is starting to wake up.
"Master! Master!" I hear a bunch of voices shout from the lake.
I turn my head towards the lake and see the Mitamas floating above a part of the lake that's bubbling and giving off light.
"There is something coming out of the pond!" Ara Mitama shouts in panic.
Orthrus starts barking and growling at the bubbles and Nekomata gets on all four and hisses. I'm starting to get a bad feeling.
The light that's being released from the lake glows brighter and suddenly, the water of the pond erupts and throws out three figures out of the lake. The free figures are flying through the air, coming straight towards me and impacts with a loud "OOOFF!"
I really need to learn how to dodge.
I come back to the waking world with my entire body aching with pain, as well as a sudden feeling of Dejá Vu. I look to what's lying on top of me this time and see three beautiful girls, that look oddly familiar.
The one in the middle lying on top of me, has pale apple green skin with light brilliant golden scales covering some parts of her. Her hair is Luminous vivid orange with brilliant yellow streaks, her hair is also incredibly poofy.
The one to my right has pale, light grayish fuchsia colour skin with light violet scales. Her hair is purple with light brilliant aquamarine streaks, her hair is also tide up in twin tails.
The third one lying to my left has archtic bluish white skin with light cerulean scales. Her hair is light archtic blue with moderate persian blue stripes. Her hair is up in a pony tail.
All three of them are covered with dirt and torn apart clothing, looking like they haven't been cleaned up in months.
"Why is it that people can get in here in every way except the door?" I asked no one in particular.
New chapter everyone! Hope you enjoy. Do not be afraid of leaving a comment and tell me what you think. If you have any suggestions, please tell me. I'm open for changes, thank you.
PS. If someone would like to try and figure out exactly how long Minato will be in the Velvet Room, please tell me.
Here are some links: Arcana, Traits, Nekomata, Mitama, Orthrus, Matador, Shiki-Ouji.
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That is my question
So far, your story is good. Not too fast and still enjoyable. I thought Matador would have his signature move El Capote and Andalusia, he's really a pain in SMT series. And the way you color the text makes it easier to know which one is which.
I think Minato would be in velvet room for around 200 days?
Also, Minato. This is THE velvet room, a safehaven for every lost soul, you should expect random people or in this case ponies to enter in every way possible except the door.
Can't wait to see more of this story!
The Dazzlings officially enter The Velvet Room.
I always consider Adagio part of The Tower Arcana.
Sonata part of The Lovers Arcana.
And Aria part of The Emperor Arcana.
But these are just my suggestions.
10635395
Those are some good suggestions, but I have already made plans with them considering a particular trio of Personas. The Arcanas might not match, but I think you'll like what I did.
But, I'm still planning out the chapter and I'm still working on what other Personas the main 6/7 will have.
Thank you for explaining more about the arcana for us in the story! I think it helped me understand a bit more even if it was a little complicated. Also, great chapter! I laughed a little at the jealousy part.
10635819
Glad to hear!
I felt like some sort of explaination was necessary.
And yeah, Arcanas are complicated and sometime don't make 100% sense.
I wonder if minato is going to make an assistant like how igor made lavenza.
10647844
OMG!
You just unintentionally solved one of my biggest problems I had with certain characters.
Thank you!
When the next chapter releases
10692119
Currently a bit busy with college, but I should have time later this week if not next week to start wrighting again.
Yeeeeeees
If 4 days equals 6 months that means a there are 8 days to a year. 8x500=4000/365=10.96 rounded. So it would be about 11 years in the velvet room if my math is correct.
10635395
Chrysalis is more of a Tower Arcana than Adagio, none of her schemes ever went right for her.
10726935
You got a point.
But for me I think Chrysalis is more of a Devil Arcana, because of her obsession for conquest and abuse. (In the way you look at how she treats her own kind.)
But that just me.
10726665
It's been so long since I've done math and I couldn't figure it out. 
This will help with my planning for the story.
Thank you
10733556
Not a problem I saw a math problem and solved it. Besides math was one of my strong points... Writing not so much.
Wish I had my own Velvet Room, too.
10733556
10753874
But why?
Absolutely beautiful.
10753883
Because they're all trapped them out one place for now
so how is the next chapter coming along
10759238
Writing it as we speak.
Currently I'm not sure how often I'll get opportunities to write, I'm probably gonna make future chapters longer. That way it won't take forever for the story to move forward and it won't feel underwhelming for those that are waiting for new chapters. I also went back to previous chapters and did some editing, fixing spelling and grammer errors, I also figured out how to add pictures to the chapters so people can see what the personas actuelly look like.
Alright
The time acceleration (because it definitely isn't dilation) is 45.625. So 4 days in the velvet room is roughly equal to 6 months.
A: You forgot to make an artificial one, which they could use.
B: It doesn't exist right now.
C: In order to get into the velvet room they (the ones that come into said room) have to use a entrance near you.
D: Comedy, entertainment, and all other sorts or shenanigans.
E: You have really bad luck, or good luck depending on how you look at it.
If 1 day in the velvet room is equal to 45 days outside, then 45 years outside would be 1 year in there, and after some calculations the 500 years would pass in 11 years and 40 days when in the velvet room.