Ponysona: Arcana Crusaders

by Phoenix Kitten

Write me an endless song.

August 11 1006 Post Nightmare Moon.

The sun was high in the sky, shining warmly over Ponyville. It's Saturday,and all the young ponies are out and about,enjoying the start of their weekend.
For the colts, this means heading out to Whitetail woods and playing Hoofball or Soccer, depending on who's turn it is to bring the ball.
For the fillies, it's a chance to hang out and trade gossip stories.
But for three fillies, cooped up in a small treehouse deep in the orchard of Sweet Apple Acres, it's time to figure out the meaning and use behind the odd comic book that appeared before them one day.

These three fillies are the Cutie mark Crusaders, two of which are the only ponies in their class for third year students that have not earned their cutie marks yet.

Applebloom Anne Apple, a young earthpony. Younger sister to Applejack and third in line to inherit Sweet Apple Acres. A master builder/repair pony who has yet to realize her true potential. Has not yet earned her cutie mark.

Scootaloo Casandra Darling, a young pegasus born with abnormaly weak wings. Lost her parents due to a house fire in Manehatten and ran all the way to Ponyville to escape her despair. Only the other Crusaders know this and have furnished the clubhouse for her to live in. She took dancing lessons while in Manehatten and was considered a master dancer. Has not yet earned her cutie mark.

Sweetiebella Marie Belle, a young unicorn who frequently travels between living with her parents and living with her older sister, Rarity. Since her parents moved to Las Neighgas she will be living with her sister in Ponyville for an indeterminate amount of time. She loves singing and composing lyrics on the spot for songs she's listening to. Her cutie mark is a songbird super imposed over a heart that she earned after singing in front of her friends at Sugarcube Corner.

"So.We know that the last two disasters in the book are the return of Nightmare Moon and the release of Discord." Sweetie Belle recounted as she drew a line between the two of the events written on the chalkboard.

"The second of which was our fault." Applebloom added.

"Your fault." Sweetie pointed at Scootaloo.

"Yours too." Scootaloo responded.

"How was it my fault?"

"You called me a dodo!"

"Because you were being really stupid that day!"

"Girls! Calm down! We ain't gonna find the meanin' behind this comic if we use it to beat each other over the heads." Applebloom shouted.

"You're right Applebloom."

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Besides. it'd get impaled on Sweetie's horn."

"Well duh." Sweetie rolled her eyes.

"ANYway." Applebloom announced. "The key difference between the events that did happen and the events that didn't is the events that didn't all have pages showin' the ponies that stopped them."

"So then. The events that weren't stopped, couldn't have been stopped because there was no ponies there who could?" Scootaloo asked.

"Exactly!" Sweetie exclaimed. "See. I knew that even with the worst grades in class you were still capable of thought."

"Ye-hey!" Scootaloo yelled.

"So then the question becomes... why do we have the book now?" Applebloom asked.

"Maybe we're the next to stop a disaster?" Scootaloo guessed.

"Maybe we're the cause of the disaster." Sweetie offered.

"Ah'd argue... but we are liable to cause either." Applebloom said sadly.

"Well... I guess we'll have to wait and see." Sweetie said as she stood up. "Anyway. I have to get going now."

"So Rarity won't get mad right?" Scootaloo asked.

"No. My sister's actually been quite relaxed these days. Twilight will get mad if I'm late back." Sweetie sighed.

"Oh right."

"Ah might want to do the same. Mah sister's actually gotten quite a bit more antsy for some reason... might have to do with Granny Smiths fadin' health." Applebloom looked down and trotted out the of the clubhouse after Sweetie.

"I'll let you girls know if anything changes with the comic!" Scootaloo yelled after them.

August 11-August 12

"Girls!I'm glad you're here!" Scootaloo yelled as Sweetie Belle and Applebloom trotted up to the clubhouse entrance the next morning. "Something happened to the comic!"

"What!?!" The two fillies shouted before racing up the ramp and through the door.

"When I woke up it was glowing white and rapidly flicking through it's pages. Then another one just grew out of the book like magic.... and not the unicorn kind!"

Sweetie trotted over and looked at the comic,which now sported a blank page after the defeat of Discord. As she stared at it, a strong suction began pulling her into the book, as she turned and tried to escape, she noticed that Applebloom and Scootaloo were also struggling to avoid being pulled in. "Uh oh."

As she uttered those words, Scootaloo lost her grip on the table leg and tumbled into Applebloom, knocking her loose from the chair she was holding onto, which caused her to fly toward the book, inadvertently kicking Sweetie in the face and knocking her out.

When Sweetie came to she found herself in a curious room. It looked to be a hotel lobby with two strange creatures as the only occupants.

"Ah Sweetiebella Marie Belle." One of the creatures addressed her. It was obviously masculine and wore a black and white tuxedo over his upper half while the clothing that adorned his lower half was something she had never seen before, even in all the time she had spent in her sisters Boutique. "I trust you are well. It is not often the Velvet Room is visited by a species other than human."

"Human?" She repeated questioningly. "Are you a human."

"More or less." the creature replied."My name is Igor and I am the proprietor of the Velvet Room. This is my assistant. Theodore."

The other human stepped forward. This one was a male as well,wearing a blue suit styled after those of hotel bellhops. "A pleasure to make your aquaintance miss Belle. It appears you are the next to be chosen to undertake a quest in search of yourself."

"Not yet she's not Theo. She still has to sign the contract." Igor smiled.

Sweetie took an involuntary step beck.Something about the humans smile gave her the creeps.

Igor produced a piece of paper from thin air and set it on the table in front of him. "There is nothing written on this contract other than the words you see. Sign it,and you'll be given the oppurtunity to do as your sister did, though on a much grander,and more secretive scale."

Sweetie looked over the piece of paper. One simple sentence took up most of the sheet.
"I choseth this fate of mine own free will." She read aloud.

"All you have to do is sign your name and the same fate that befell your sister will befall you too." Igor explained.

Sweetie just nodded and picked up the pen in her mouth, clicking it with her tongue and signed her name in the space provided.

"Excellent." Igor exclaimed. "You are now ready to begin your journey towards your true self."

Sweetie nodded again, feeling something inside her swirling about.

"When you next visit, I'll have something prepared for you.Until then,you have to wake up." Igor said before the room faded to white.

When her vision returned Sweetie found herself standing in an empty city street behind Applebloom and Scootaloo, who were calling her name.

"Sweetie Belle?!? SWEETIE BELLEEEEEEEEEEEEE?!?" Applebloom yodeled.

"I know she fell in here with us. I saw her fall in after you." Scootaloo said grumpily.

"That was before those weird creatures attacked us!" Applebloom shot back. "Which wouldn't have happened if you hadn't started poking that black ooze with a stick."

"Well how was I supposed to know it was going to rear up and attack us?"

Whatever response Applebloom had lined up was interrupted by a large group of small black creatures charging out from the shadows and taking swipes at them.

"Argh! They found us!" Scootaloo screamed.

Sweetie felt that swirling feeling inside of her again which this grew stronger and stronger before a small voice inside told her to let go from trying to contain her power.
A bright blue light shot from her horn, the bands forming a small card that floated in front of her.
She reached out her hoof to touch it, causing it to shatter the second her hoof made contact with it.

The sound of shattering glass filled the air as a bolt of blue lightning struck the ground behind Sweetie, throwing up a large cloud of dust.
When the dust settled, a large, equine shaped figure loomed behind her in the form of a set of dark gray armor with a black ethereal energy pouring through it that crackled with lightning.

With a shout Sweetie charged forward,the figure following her as she leapt in front of Applebloom and Scootaloo, bolts of blue lightning dropping onto the heads of the creatures that surrounded them and causing them to disperse into a cloud of black mist.

It's purpose done, the armored figure faded away before the city went white.

The three young fillies found themselves back in their clubhouse, the comic book lying on the floor, the empty page having filled in with an image of a blue card with a white and black mask in the middle surrounded by a sunburst.

"Sweetie! What the hay was that? Where were you? How did you summon that thing?" Scootaloo asked, a look of shock on her face. "That was so awesome!"

"Yeah. How did you do that? And where did you come from?" Applebloom asked.

"I don't know... I ended up in a weird room... signed something then got sent to you two and was able to summon that...thing." Sweetie explained.

"Hey! Check out the book!" Scootaloo cried.

Sweetie and Applebloom rushed over and peered at the book,spotting the image of the card.

As Sweetie studied it words began to appear over the card,which she started reading aloud.
"Thou art I and I am Thou. Thou hath awakened her ability to summon the Persona Nightmare."

"What are you reading Sweetie?" Scootaloo asked,a puzzled look on her face.

"You girls can't see the writing on the card?" Sweetie asked.

"What writing?" Applebloom asked as she looked at the page. "Ah don't see any writing."

"This is weird..." Sweetie said as she looked out the window. "And it's already sun down."

"What? We were in there all day?" Scootaloo yelled.

"Seems so..." Applebloom nodded. "Sweetie and I should probably get going then."

"Yeah." Sweetie nodded as she trotted towards the door. "I'm feeling really tired after that."

With that the three of them traded goodbyes and went their separate ways.

As Sweetie slept she found herself rushing across what looked like a giant chess board until she burst through a blue door.
She found herself back in the hotel lobby with Igor and Theodore.

"Welcome back miss Belle. It seems we were right about you." Igor praised her, "You possess an extremely powerful Persona. Much like the others before you. However, unlike them you seem to lack the ability that comes with it."

"What are you talking about?" Sweetie asked. "And how did I get here?"

"You are here because I summoned you." Igor stated. "I wanted to tell you that while you have an extremely powerful Persona, you lack the Wild Card ability that most of our visitors possess. So you cannot switch Persona's at will." He shook his head. "You are a most odd one. Most of our visitors find themselves aligned with the Fool arcana. But you seem to be aligned with Judgement."

"What does that mean?" Sweetie asked again,still very confused."I don't get it."

"What it means is that the Velvet rooms usual services are not for you. What we can offer you instead is way to strengthen your Persona,Nightmare." Igor explained as he produced a card."This card is called a skill card,when some Persona reach a high enough level of skill they give these to their users.The velvet room has an excess of these so we can afford to part with them...for a price of course."

"I have to pay you for them? With bits? But I'm too young to get a job." Sweetie complained.

"Well then... perhaps we could trade for certain objects that the shadows drop after combat. Bring me Rubies to trade for Agi cards, Emeralds to trade for Garu cards, Sapphires to trade for Bufu cards, Opals to trade for Zio cards and anything else can be traded in bulk for other cards." Igor smiled. "Is that a better deal."

"I guess..." Sweetie nodded.

"Wonderful. Before you go I have something to give you." Igor said as he fished an object out of his pocket. "This key will allow you access to the Velvet room whenever you need it. You just have to find the door."

Sweetie took the blue key in her mouth and nodded as her vision began to fill with white.

August 12-Augsut 13

"Sweetie? Time to get up dear! You have school today." Rarity's voice pierced through the door.

Sweetie sat up and groaned. Her head was killing her and she felt like she had run a marathon. "I don't feel well." She half yelled.

The door to her room opened,allowing her sister, her sisters cat Opalescence and her sisters marefriend Twilight Sparkle to all enter.

"How don't you feel well dear?" Her sister asked.

"My head hurts and everything is sore when I move." She groaned.

"Twilight darling?"

"On it." The lavender unicorn nodded as she bombarded the filly with diagnostic spells. "Hmmm...nothing seems to be actually wrong with her. Just a case of exhaustion."She concluded. "We should probably let her rest though."

"Alright then Sweetie. You can take the day off today." Rarity smiled caringly, closing her eyes. "But Twilight and I have to step out today to do some things. Will you be okay all by yourself?" When the only answer she got was silence she opened her eyes and saw her younger sister was fast asleep with Opalescence curled up next to her.

With a soft giggle the two older unicorns left to allow her some sleep.

Author's Note:

Just minor grammatical fixes and changing the separator image.
...I hate the word separate. The way I was taught to spell it, spellcheck constantly tells me it's wrong. Like colour and color.
Seperate/separate, colour/color. Ah vell.

Comments

[soulwinds]

I'll say this much, I'm interested. tracked

[Glassed]

Quite interesting. With the exception of a few grammar issues here and there (Mainly a lack of spaces once in a while), I don't really see anything wrong with this.
Nice idea to do a MLP/Persona crossover
I'm tracking and commenting. Rating will come with a few chapters
-Glassed

[Billy Mays]

I don't play Persona, but I'm interested.

[Azure Sandora]

The Velvet Room scenes are fun to read with the actual music in the background. This feels like a Persona story, if not a little faster than most.