Sunday, November 22, 2015

2015
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Today's Horoscope (Virgo): You should really keep your hands off things that don't belong to you.

Daytime

After breakfast, Twilight, Pinkie, Cadance, and I take Rainbow Dash up to our "secret headquarters" on the third floor.

As we squeeze into the room, Cadance frowns. "You know...there's way too many of us now...we're gonna need new arrangements before long."

"Yeah...it's getting a little crowded in here..." Pinkie agrees.

Rainbow sits down on the bed, bouncing up and down. "So, what the heck's goin' on around here?" she asks. "Yesterday was...way too freaky. Has stuff like that been happenin' all year?"

"Pretty much," I say. I look at Cadance. "Wanna start at the beginning?"

Cadance nods. "On my birthday, back in February, I was pulled into Zodiac and attacked by Aquarius. I almost didn't survive...that's when my Persona, Aphrodite, awakened."

"You've got a Persona too?" Rainbow asks.

"That's right," Cadance says. "I was the first one here to awaken to Persona. But...Aphrodite can't fight. When I'm in Zodiac, all I can do is scan...and, if I'm the only human present, I can escape whether there are Shadows around or not. That's how I got away from Aquarius."

I remember something Cadance said the day she told me all this... "You said you couldn't get a signal the first time you were in Zodiac," I say.

"That's right."

I frown. "We were able to use our phones in Zodiac yesterday. Twilight called me."

Cadance blinks. "Huh. Weird. I guess...you can only call phones that are in there with you? Or have the Zodiac app installed?"

"Maybe. Anyway...sorry to interrupt...keep going."

"Right." Cadance toys with her wedding ring. "Anyway...after that, I went into Zodiac from time to time to explore. I...saw things I wish I had never seen. There were other victims...I figured out that the Zodiac Shadows only appear when they're hunting, and they only hunt victims on their birthdays. I was able to help some victims escape, but..." She looks down. "I also saw people killed by the Shadows.

"For six months, I had to deal with this mess by myself, unable to do anything except watch..." She looks over to me. "Then Flash came to the dorm. And...on his birthday..."

"I got the same horoscope you got yesterday," I tell Rainbow. "Telling me I was gonna die. Then, that night, I was pulled into Zodiac and attacked. Cadance was there with me. We were about to die...then, my first Persona, Chiron, awakened."

"Watching Flash fight the Shadow...watching him kill one of these terrible hunters...it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," Cadance says. "I couldn't believe his power."

"And then I ended up in the hospital for three days," I say.

"Whoa, so that's why..." Rainbow says.

"After I recovered, I agreed to help Cadance explore Zodiac and fight the Shadows," I say. "At first, I didn't want anything to do with any of it, but when I thought about it...I realized I wanted to find out what was going on. I wanted to know what Zodiac is, where it came from, and why that Shadow tried to kill me. And..." I look at Twilight. "I wanted to protect people from those monsters."

"We suspected Twilight would be the next target," Cadance says. "We were right."

"I was attacked at the hospital while we were visiting you," Twilight says. "I had no idea what was going on, and I was scared out of my mind. Then Flash showed up, and..."

"I fought Libra, but it did something to me that messed up my Persona app. We would've died if Twilight hadn't awakened her Persona."

"After Flash and Cadance explained everything to me..." Twilight looks down. "I had a theory that the others in this dorm would be targeted. We planned around Pinkie being the next victim, and...she was."

"We tried to cheat Zodiac out of its victim by staying with Pinkie every minute of her birthday, right up until midnight," I say. "But at the last possible second, we were all pulled into Zodiac."

"We fought Scorpio, and we beat it," Twilight says, "but then..."

"But then that nasty girl with the skanky Persona showed up and things got ugly," Pinkie says.

"Eris," I say, clenching my fists.

"Who's Eris?" Rainbow asks.

"We don't...really know," Twilight says. "We thought she might be Sunset Shimmer, but..."

"She isn't Sunset Shimmer," I say. "I don't think so, anyway. I don't know who she is, but...I'm pretty sure Eris is not Sunset Shimmer." I frown. "I do still think she's involved in all this, though."

"Sunset Shimmer?" Rainbow asks. "Seriously?"

"We've...got a lot of reasons to suspect Sunset Shimmer is somehow connected to Zodiac," Twilight says. "Though I'll admit, most of it is circumstantial and prejudicial."

"She runs the horoscope app," I say. "That's a hell of a lot more than circumstantial."

"Wait...Sunset Shimmer runs the horoscope app?" Rainbow asks. "Then...she's the one who told me I'd die yesterday?" She scowls. "I'm gonna tear that little bitch a new—"

"No," I say. "We can't confront Sunset Shimmer directly until we have proof she's tangled up in all this. Believe me, I'd have broken her face by now otherwise."

"Flash is right," Twilight says. She frowns at me. "Except about breaking her face. Seriously, Flash...calm down, okay?"

"Okay, so Eris isn't Sunset Shimmer and you don't know who she is," Rainbow says. "But other than that, who is she?"

"She's a Persona user, like us," I say. "Except she wants to kill us all. She attacked us on Pinkie's birthday...Pinkie didn't awaken her Persona until after Eris attacked us." I look down at my lap. "Yesterday...when the three of you were fighting Sagittarius...I was on my way to help, but Eris showed up and attacked me. The reason I was so late...I had to fight my way past her."

"But you kicked her butt, right?" Pinkie asks.

"Uhh...more or less," I say. "We haven't seen the last of her." I look at the others. "Last time, Eris just used her Persona, but...this time, she meant business. She's...she's strong. Skilled. She's a real fighter. She very nearly killed me without her Persona."

Twilight gasps.

"So that ninja girl that attacked me, that was that Persona user?" Cadance asks.

I nod. "We need to be careful," I say. "Whoever she is, she's more dangerous than the Zodiac Shadows. And..." I look down. "I'm pretty sure I pissed her off..."

"Uhh...dude? If she was trying to kill you, she was already pissed off to begin with," Rainbow says. "Or, you know, psycho..."

Cadance frowns. "So, wait..." She looks at Twilight. "You and Pinkie had to fight Sagittarius? Without Flash?"

"Yeah," Pinkie says. "It was rough...even after Rainbow's Persona awakened, we were barely holding on..."

"Hey, we weren't doin' THAT bad," Rainbow says indignantly. "Even if Flash hadn't shown up, Nike woulda kicked its ass!"

"Nike..." I say. "So your Persona is Nike..."

"So hey, question," Rainbow says. "You uhh...summoned more than one Persona." She looks at me curiously. "Can I do that?"

I shake my head. "No," I say. "For some reason, I have the power to awaken and summon multiple Personas."

"You shoulda seen him the other day!" Pinkie says. "It was like, one right after another after another...oh, and then he went all RAAAAAA! and passed out." Her hair droops.

"Yeah, that's...not gonna happen again," I say. "I found out I have limits, and...I pushed my limits pretty hard yesterday, but not like I did that day..."

"As far as we know, Flash has sixteen Personas," Twilight says.

"Seventeen," I correct her. "I have one more you haven't seen yet."

Twilight stares at me. "Since when?"

"Since yesterday." Technically since Friday, but how do I even begin to explain that?

"Dude, that's so not fair!" Rainbow cries. "Are you sure the rest of us can't do that?"

"Nope! Flash is special," Pinkie says.

"We're also pretty sure that's why I was out cold for three days when the rest of you recovered almost immediately," I say.

"One thing still bothers me," Twilight says. "Why did time pass when we were in Zodiac yesterday?"

Cadance frowns. "That's never happened before," she says. "Actually...now that I think about it...I wasn't even pulled into Zodiac this time. Is it because I was unconscious?"

"Could be," Twilight says. "But I'm really worried about this time-passing thing...that should not have happened, based on what we know..."

"I wonder if it has anything to do with me ejecting Eris from Zodiac?"

Twilight and Cadance look at me. "What do you mean by 'ejecting'?" Cadance asks.

"After I incapacitated her, I smashed her phone. She disappeared."

Cadance blinks. "So...if your phone's damaged...your connection to Zodiac is broken?" She frowns. "That's interesting." She taps her chin. "Though it also makes me wonder about the night you were attacked. I got pulled into Zodiac and I didn't even have my phone on me, I was in the shower..."

Twilight's frown at that doesn't escape my notice.

"I don't think we have enough information about Zodiac to worry about any of this right now," I say. "I think...our best bet is to wait until Eris shows up again. If we can subdue her...maybe we can interrogate her. I get the impression she knows a lot more about Zodiac than we do."

"Yeah, she sure seems to," Pinkie agrees.

I look at Twilight. "So who's the next target?"

"Rarity," Twilight answers immediately. "But we've got a bit more time to get ready. Her birthday is on January 2."

"Hmm. That could be a problem if she isn't back from winter break by then," Cadance says.

"Her family's probably going to throw her a birthday party before she comes back to the dorm," Pinkie says. "We'll just have to make sure we're all invited."

"So...you really think Rarity's gonna be next?" Rainbow asks. "And...Fluttershy and Applejack, they'll...?"

"At this point, it's almost guaranteed, unless we can find a way to end all this Zodiac business before then," Twilight says. She looks at Cadance. "And...I'm not ruling out the possibility that...Aquarius will come after you again."

Cadance grimaces. "Yeah, I...considered that. At least this time, we'll be ready...right?"

"Sure we will," I say.

"You bet we will!" Rainbow says.

"So this Zodiac thing...we can go in whenever we want, right?"

"Well, yes, but..." Cadance holds up a finger. "We all need to go together, and we need to pick and choose our times to go in carefully." She frowns. "If you're asking if we can go in today, no. We're not going in today. Everybody still needs to rest from yesterday, and..." She reaches up and touches the back of her head. "Until I heal up from this, I'm...not sure I want to summon Aphrodite. Using her takes a lot out of me."

"Why don't we just spend today playing that new game you got?" Pinkie suggests. "Or breaking in that other little present," she adds with a mischevious grin.

"Gah!" Rainbow cries, a sick look on her face. "Game, definitely game!"

"Pinkie, I think we should get you spayed," Twilight says, shaking her head.

"Nooooo! Not my lady parts!" Pinkie whimpers, covering her crotch with her hands and making a sound remarkably like a whining dog.

"Actually, don't the two of you have some shopping and packing to do today?" Cadance asks me and Twilight. "Better to do it today than put it off until Tuesday night, right?"

"Oh, right!" Twilight says. "We've gotta pack for the trip up to Mom and Dad's place!" She gasps. "Oh my gosh, I've gotta get our train tickets!"

"I've already taken care of the train tickets," Cadance says. "Our train leaves at ten Wednesday morning."

"Okay, that leaves packing, and..." Twilight looks at me. "My parents like you, and I know you have some nice clothes..."

"Oh, I'll get some new clothes for the trip," I say. "I don't mind at all." I frown. "I could use some new luggage, too..."

"Great, you guys go to the mall, me an' Pinkie'll hang out here and kill zombies with monster trucks," Rainbow says.

"Hey! You should get Rarity to go shopping with you!" Pinkie says. "You wanna really impress Twilight's parents, right?"

I look at Twilight and shrug. "What do you think?"

"Hmm..." Twilight tilts her head. "Yeah, I guess...if she wants to."

We decide to look for Rarity. We find her in her room, working on a dress design.

"I'd absolutely love to go shopping with you!" Rarity says with stars in her eyes. She studies me in the way I imagine a sculptor studies a block of clay. "I don't mind saying, I relish any opportunity to work with such an attractive model..."

"We're just shopping, not...not modelling!" Twilight cries heatedly.

Rarity rushes over to her, looking her up and down. "Oh, but you MUST let me strip you down and dress you from head to toe, darling! Every inch of you needs the Rarity touch!"

"Meep," Twilight says, face burning red.

A catlike smirk crosses Rarity's face. "Besides, I daresay the two of you will appreciate a...thorough fashion makeover..."

"Meep!" Twilight repeats.

"TO THE MALL!" Rarity declares dramatically, pointing to the door.

I'm beginning to think this was a mistake...

Evening

By the time the three of us return to the dorm, Twilight and I are both exhausted and embarrassed. Rarity completely wore us out with her constant measuring and piling stacks of clothes on us.

At least I didn't jizz all over her this time.

I head up to my room, depositing several large bags of clothes and two new suitcases in the corner. I reflect that I'll still need to buy some toiletries and personal items, but I can do that tomorrow after I take Vinyl to the eye doctor.

Two days of school this week...then it's off to Twilight's parents' place for Thanksgiving.