Persona EG LTE | Mythril Moth Creations

Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Your journey may lead to a place you were not expecting.

Afternoon

Airports are the same no matter where you go. They're noisy, they're crowded, and there are people who are either suspicious of you or want to screw you out of your money.

There are also scenes of happy reunions all over the place. Family, friends, lovers...people are hugging, laughing, and crying no matter where you look.

I don't have anybody to hug, laugh, or cry with me.

After what feels like hours, my suitcase, my laptop bag, and my guitar case show up on the baggage carousel. I didn't bring much with me to Canterlot. My parents gave me an expense account to buy what I'll need for the next year.

As I head for the airport's main entrance, I see a pair of slender pink hands holding a sign over the heads of the crowd. The sign says "Flash Sentry".

Well, it's nice to know I won't have to pay for a cab or something. Not that I even know exactly where I'm supposed to go.

As I approach, the shifting sea of bodies gives me brief glimpses of the beautiful woman who's waiting for me. The word 'knockout' doesn't begin to describe her. She's tall, slender, and graceful, wearing tan slacks, white flats, and a cream-colored tank top. Her skin is a light pearl pink, and her long, wavy hair is layered in bands of deep lavender, rose pink, and cream. Her warm amethyst eyes sparkle from a beautiful face.

She's also wearing a wedding ring. Oh well. She looks like she's in her twenties, and I'm only sixteen. Well, turning sixteen next week.

I walk up to her and introduce myself. She smiles. "Hello, Flash. My name is Cadance. I'm here to take you to the dorm."

Cadance offers to help me carry my bags, but I refuse. Even so, she takes my laptop bag from me; I decide not to argue the point, as I'm tired from the long plane trip. Once we're out the doors and the noise has died down a bit, Cadance starts talking. "So how was your trip?"

"Long and boring," I say. "I tried to read, but I ended up falling asleep on the plane."

That's right...

I fell asleep on the plane...

And I had a dream...

A blue door is flying right at me. As I'm about to slam right into it, it opens. Behind the door is a vast round room. The walls are covered with bookshelves, crammed full of tomes of all colors, shapes, and sizes. In the middle of this room is a low black table, with a curved sofa on each side. On the side farthest from me sits a man...at least, I think he's a man. He's small, roundish, and ugly, with bulging eyes, thin, graying hair, and a long, hooked nose. He wears a black suit, and his white-gloved hands are steepled beneath his chin. He looks up at me and grins a crooked, secretive grin.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room." He gestures at the couch in front of me. "Please, sit down."

I sit. The man waves his hand and a piece of paper appears on the table, along with an expensive-looking fountain pen. "How did you do that?" I ask. "Who are you? How did I get here?"

The hook-nosed man chuckles; the sound sends shivers running down my spine. "Right now, you are dreaming. But this is no ordinary dream...the Velvet Room is very much a real place, and...well, that's not important right now. My name is Igor." Igor gestures to the piece of paper. "If you would please...sign your name on this contract."

"Contract? What...?"

"It merely states that you accept responsibility for the choices you make...that you will face the consequences of your own actions."

I'm confused, but as this is a dream, I pick up the pen and sign my name to the contract. It promptly vanishes and is replaced by a deck of cards.

"Excellent," Igor says. He waves his hands, and the cards spread out in a row on the table. "Please...draw one card and lay it face-up on the table."

For some reason, I feel nervous. I reach out, draw one card, and lay it upon the table...

"Ahh...now this is interesting," Igor says, leaning forward. "The card you have chosen is The Fool. This card represents you." He must sense my indignation, because he chuckles. "No, it's not what you're thinking. The Fool Arcana represents the beginning of a journey. It simply means that...you have unbridled potential. You are a traveler, facing an open road, ignorant of your destination. Along the journey, you will attain wisdom. And, if you are very fortunate, you will forge bonds with others you meet upon that road. These bonds will help strengthen you and prepare you for the hardships of life."

Igor waves a hand over the cards, and all except The Fool vanish. "Now, we have very little time, for you are about to awaken. I will summon you again soon...oh! Forgive me, I have not introduced my assistant." He gestures to his left...there's someone sitting there who wasn't there before! It's a woman...she seems young and old at the same time. I can't determine her age. Her skin is dark and unlined, she wears a crisply-pressed blue uniform with a high collar and no sleeves, and a long braid of white hair with black streaks trails down her shoulder from beneath a small blue cap. She regards me with a neutral expression and nods once. "This is Zecora. You will find her services invaluable in the very near future." Igor smiles secretively. "Farewell until we meet again..."

"Flash? Are you alright?"

Cadance is looking at me worriedly. I realize that I stopped walking in the middle of the parking lot. "Sorry," I say. "Just...a little jet-lagged, I guess."

Cadance frowns, but doesn't press the issue. "Well, anyway..." She digs her keys out of her pocket and presses a button on her keychain remote. A nearby SUV's lights blink twice, and the back opens. "I'm the manager of the dorm you'll be staying in," she says. "I'm also the school nurse." I put my guitar and suitcase in the back of the SUV, and Cadance sets my laptop bag beside them before closing the back door. We climb into the front, and soon we're on our way out of the airport parking lot. "I should warn you about something before we get to the dorm," she says.

"Oh?"

"It's, well..." She signals to turn onto the main road. "You see, all the dorms except one are full. The dorm you were originally going to be assigned to burned down in July. It's caused a major problem for the school."

"Burned down? Really?"

"Faulty wiring," Cadance says. "Anyway...the boys' dorms filled up pretty fast, as most of the boarding students are boys, and we don't have co-ed dorms, so..."

This is going somewhere either very scary or very sweet. "Don't tell me...they put me in a girls' dorm?"

"That's right," Cadance says. As we coast to a stop at a red light, she favors me with a stern glare. "Don't even think about trying to take advantage of the situation," she warns me. "You do and you're out on your butt."

"Yes ma'am." I pause. "So...do you live at the dorm? With your...husband?"

"Adjoined housing," Cadance replies. "Shining Armor and I have our own little apartment, separate from the main dorm but still on the property. He teaches P.E., by the way."

"Cool."

It's starting to get late. "There are six girls living in the dorm," Cadance says. "They're all in the same year as you."

"That's weird," I mutter.

"It's a funny coincidence, I agree," Cadance says. She smiles. "Maybe one of them will be your girlfriend!" She winks at me, then returns her attention to the road. "But behave yourself. Seriously."

"I'm not that kind of guy," I say, looking out the window.

I can't help but stare in wonder.

We're passing in front of a gargantuan school building with a giant statue of a horse in the front courtyard. "Is that...?"

"Yep, that's Canterlot High," Cadance says. "We're almost to the dorm."

The sun's beginning to set. A few minutes after we pass the Canterlot High campus, we pull up in front of a modest three-story building. "Here it is," Cadance says as she parks the SUV and kills the engine. "Your new home."

Evening

We walk through the front doors into a cozy, well-furnished lounge. There are comfortable-looking chairs, a big sofa, a coffee table, a bookshelf with an assortment of books, and a large flatscreen television which is mounted in the corner. The television is currently on and tuned to the news, where a perky weather girl is giving the forecast for the rest of the weekend.

A girl is sitting in a recliner in the lounge. She has pale lavender skin and long, straight, shiny violet hair with a thin stripe of hot pink that starts just above her left eye and runs the length of her hair. Her razor-straight bangs hang to just above her eyebrows. She's wearing red shorts and a white T-shirt, and idly rocking her bare feet back and forth on the footrest of the recliner. Her deep purple eyes are focused on the book she's reading.

I won't lie: she's incredibly cute.

"Well, here we are, Applewood Dorm," Cadance says. "Your room's on the third floor, at the end of the hall on the right." She calls out to the girl. "Twilight! Could you come here a second?"

The girl puts a bookmark in her book and puts down the footrest on the recliner, tosses her book onto the coffee table, and stands up. Stretching, she walks over to join us. "Sure, Cadance! What's u—" She stares at me, doing a double take. "Gah!" she cries. "What're you doing in the girls' dorm?!"

"Twilight," Cadance says in that tone you use when you're telling somebody something you know they aren't going to like, "this is Flash Sentry. He's going to be living here."

Twilight takes a step back, eyes wide in shock. "What?! No! No no no..." She shakes her head repeatedly. "You can't—he can't stay here! This is a girls' dorm! For girls! There are girls here!"

"Twilight," Cadance sighs in a suffering tone, "you know what the housing situation is like after the Golden Oak Dorm burned down. Everything else is full up. This is the only dorm left with open rooms."

"But...!" Twilight protests feebly. She looks at me, then tugs down on the hem of her shirt, shuffling her feet awkwardly and blushing.

Damn, she's cute!

"Hey, would you calm down?" I say. "I promise I'll behave myself." I set down my suitcase and hold out my hand. "Flash Sentry."

She looks up at me, then down at my hand, uncertainty on her face. Finally, she reaches out and takes my hand. "I'm Twilight Sparkle," she says.

I shake her hand once, firmly, then let it go. "Pleased to meet you," I say. "I hope we can be friends." I pick up my suitcase again, fighting back a yawn.

"You must be exhausted," Cadance says. "Come on, I'll show you to your room." As we climb the stairs, I feel Twilight's eyes on my back.

"Twilight's my sister-in-law," Cadance says. "You'll have to excuse her, she's...not really very social. I don't even think she has any real friends other than me and Shining Armor."

"Really? That sucks."

"Yeah. I'm hoping maybe she'll make friends with the other girls here."

My room—my home for the next year—is small, empty and yet cramped at the same time. There's a closet, a bed, a desk and chair, a small bookcase, and a small utility cart with a mini-fridge and a cheap microwave oven. Above the bed, a set of shelves is mounted on the wall; there's a bulletin board on the wall over the desk with a calendar pinned to it, and a small flatscreen television mounted over the bookcase.

"Well...I'll let you get some rest," Cadance says. "We'll go over the house rules tomorrow." She sets my laptop bag down by the desk, then leaves, closing the door behind her.

I'm too exhausted to unpack now. I put my suitcase down next to the closet, lay my guitar down next to my laptop, kick my shoes into the corner, and flop down on the bed.