Sunday, April 17, 2016
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Working together, good friends can accomplish anything.
Daytime
It's well past ten in the morning by the time everybody is up.
"Ah don't know about the rest o' y'all, but..." Applejack yawns. "Ah'm plum tuckered." She frowns at the clock. "Shoot...Ah do wanna go by an' see Papa today, though..."
"Umm...Applejack?" Apple Bloom asks nervously. "Is...is it okay if...if Ah don't go with ya t' th' nursin' home today?"
Applejack blinks at her. Her eyes soften and she smiles sadly. "Yeah," she says. "Ah think Papa'll understand."
Sweetie Belle tugs on Apple Bloom's sleeve. "Hey. Let's go see that movie you wanted to see. You know the one."
Apple Bloom smiles gratefully at her. "Ah thought you didn't wanna—"
"Eh, it might be good. And we can go for pizza after!"
Apple Bloom turns to Applejack. "Is...is it okay?"
Applejack nods and smiles. She reaches into her pocket, pulls out her wallet, counts out about fifty bucks, and hands it to her sister. "Y'all go on an' have fun now," she says.
"Thanks!" Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle waste no time in going upstairs to get changed and get their stuff together; within five minutes, they're out the front door in twin blurs.
Applejack shakes her head and chuckles. "Poor li'l sis," she says. She sighs. "Well...Ah'd best git on over t' Papa. See y'all later." She leaves.
The rest of us look around at each other awkwardly. "So...Friday, huh?" Rainbow says.
"I really hope we're wrong and she isn't the next victim," Twilight says. "She's...she's been through so much already..."
"So far, you've only been wrong once," I say with a sigh. "And besides..." I worry at the carpet with the toe of my shoe. "I can think of a good reason Sunset Shimmer would target Applejack." I look at Fluttershy.
Fluttershy grimaces and nods. "Either Applejack won't be the target and Sunset will get off on killing some random person when we weren't looking, or she'll have some kind of trap set for us and use Applejack as the bait."
"Yeah, pretty sure she's gonna do that last thing," Rainbow mutters.
"Whatever happens...we'll face it together," Twilight says. "Just like we stuck by Flash yesterday when his parents tried to take him away..."
"We're quite fortunate Flash didn't have to leave us," Rarity says. "Without him, we'd be in quite dire straits with all this Zodiac business." She blinks. "Oh, and I'd miss him terribly, of course. You're ever such a dear friend." She smiles and bats her eyelashes at me.
"Yeah, there's all kinds of reasons to be thankful Flash didn't have to leave," Pinkie says.
I look around at all my friends and smile. "No matter what happens from here on out...we'll face it together. All of us."
The girls all cheer in agreement.
The Zodiac Investigation Team Social Link of the Fool Arcana has reached rank 9!
Your power to create Personas of the Fool Arcana has grown!
Cadance's stomach growls. "Let's go get something to eat, then we can go train."
We pile into the SUV and go to Hinny's. From there, we drive to the nearest parking garage and enter Zodiac.
Zodiac
That green text is still there, and it's still pretty disturbing...
We spend almost four hours training, facing stronger Shadows than we've ever dealt with before. While I don't awaken any new Personas during today's training, I do grow more proficient with the most powerful set of Personas I have, and using them becomes less taxing for me.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are adjusting well to their new Personas. Everyone else is growing more confident and decisive.
The girls still haven't done anything about their bizarre mix of battle costumes, though...
After four hours, Cadance calls a halt, and we leave Zodiac.
Evening
After returning to the dorm, we spend the rest of the day relaxing. The next five days are going to be tense...
Rarity decides to attempt to make country fried steak for dinner. It actually turns out pretty good. Not as good as Granny Smith's, but Applejack seems to enjoy it, and so does everyone else.
After dinner, I call my parents to see how things are going, then read until bedtime.
