Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Don't chase after any rabbits today.

Morning

Despite how late an evening we had and how much sugar we all consumed at the party, everybody's up by nine this morning. At breakfast, Twilight clears her throat.

"We need to train today," she says, looking around the table.

"Yeah, we really do," Rainbow says. "A little workout against some Shadows is just the thing after all the crap we've all eaten this weekend."

"Ugh...tell me about it," Rarity says, patting her stomach. "I just know I've gained a whole dress size."

Shining Armor frowns. "So you're...seriously going to..."

Cadance pats his arm. "We have to," she says gently. "We have to be ready."

"We do this all the time," Sonata says raspily. "It'll be *cough* fine, just like—"

Fluttershy puts a hand on her arm. "Don't strain yourself," she says.

Sonata nods meekly and drinks some juice.

I frown. "Well I have a new Persona to try out, but...I'm a little wary of using a Persona Sunset Shimmer hasn't seen yet. After...after what happened last week..."

"ANOTHER new one?!" Rainbow cries. "Dude, what the hell?!"

"So...what are the rest of us supposed to do?" Sweetie Belle asks worriedly. "Just sit around twiddling our thumbs and waiting for you all to just reappear?"

"Unless something unexpected happens, you'll never be aware we were gone," Rarity says patiently.

"Right, like we didn't notice everybody disappearing and reappearing someplace else all those times?" Sweetie Belle retorts.

Cadance clears her throat. "I think," she says deliberately, "since it's Memorial Day, it'd be lovely for us to have a picnic lunch in the park." She looks around the table. "After breakfast, those of us who are training today should get changed and meet up outside, and we'll go to the park." She looks at Shining Armor. "And around one or so this afternoon, you should take the other girls with you and go to SubLime and pick up sandwiches, chips, and drinks for everybody. Pack a couple of picnic blankets and some paper plates and bring it all to the park. When you get to there, text me and I'll let you know where we are."

"How will I know you're done training?" Shining Armor asks.

"Because I'll call you when we're done," Cadance says.

"We'll finish way before noon," Rainbow says. "And no time's gonna pass for you while we're training."

"But we'll probably be exhausted," I say. "We usually are after a long training session. By the time we're done, none of us are going to want to move for a while."

"We'll go in your car and my SUV," Cadance says. "You and the girls take the other SUV to run around and pick up lunch."

Shining Armor frowns. "Well...alright," he says. He digs his keys out of his pocket and tosses them to me.

"So what's this new Persona?" Pinkie asks.

"Well..." I pull out my phone and open my Persona app, sliding the Death Arcana onto the screen and pulling up the new Persona.

I blink.

I stare.

"Uhh."

I quickly close the Persona app and put my phone away.

Everybody stares at me curiously.

I cough and cover my mouth with my napkin. "No comment."

Rainbow smirks. "Knowing you, it's a massive dick."

"RAINBOW!" Twilight snaps, throwing a wadded-up napkin at her.

Ho-boy...

Summoning this one is going to be embarrassing.

After breakfast, we all get ready, then head over to the park. Shining Armor is fretting over Cadance and Twilight and taking it in turns to remind us all to be careful and threaten us to keep his family safe, as well as pleading with us to not do this.

By the time we're on the road, Twilight is cross.

Zodiac

As everybody gears up, Cadance summons Eros.

//Hmm. That's strange...//

"What is it?" Twilight asks.

//I'm detecting some very unusual Shadows. I've never seen Shadows like these before.//

Rainbow groans. "Great. More of Sunset Shimmer's bullshit."

//I...don't think she has anything to do with these,// Cadance says. //They don't really seem to be her style. In any case, there's a lot of them, and they're coming this way, and...be careful! They're no pushovers!//

Just then, a ring of Shadows springs up out of the ground, surrounding us. Like Cadance said, these are unlike anything we've ever fought before:

"What...the...?" Rainbow says, staring.

"Wow. Those are awfully...bright for Shadows," Pinkie says.

"Fluttershy?" Twilight asks. "Anything you want to share here?"

"Yeah," Fluttershy says. "They're really goofy-looking."

"Don't they look rather like the card soldiers from that old children's book?" Rarity says.

"Now that you mention it," Twilight says. "Except—"

Deathbound

One of the Card Soldiers swings its jewel-tipped mace at us, mowing down Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie.

//BE CAREFUL!//

"PERSONA!" Rarity calls.

Mediarama

Bastet appears and heals Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie; we help them to their feet.

"ECHO!" Fluttershy shouts, tapping her phone.

Tetrakarn

Her Persona appears, and a barrier forms between us and the Shadows.

"PERSONA!" Sonata cries, tapping her phone.

Suddenly, everything smells like damp salt...

A massive sea serpent, riding a crashing etheral wave, appears above Sonata. Far above, barely visible, is a tiny, glowing winged mermaid.

Sonata's jaw drops as she stares up at the serpent. "Wh-what...?"

"WHOA," Rainbow says, a similarly slack-jawed stare on her face.

"Ooh, Sonata's got a new Persona!" Pinkie laughs. "We've gotta throw a new Persona party!"

Tidal Wave

Sonata's sea-serpent Persona rears and roars, then dives into the ground. A purple wave crashes out from the point of impact, sweeping over the Shadows, knocking most of them over. The ones that remain standing become visibly agitated; the jewels on their maces glow a furious red.

//That attack did a lot of damage!// Cadance says. //Be careful, some of the Shadows are enraged now!//

"So am I!" Rainbow says. "PERSONA!"

Sonic Rainboom

Nike appears and unleashes a shockwave that knocks the rest of the Card Soldiers down.

"My turn!" I consider using my newest Persona, then hesitate and summon... "MAGUS!"

Maragidyne

Magus raises his hand and unleashes searing waves of fire which engulf the Shadows. Several of them stand up; they charge and try to attack, but Fluttershy's barrier turns their own attacks against them, and they shred into wisps of Shadow.

"ATHENA LOGIA!"

Maziodyne

Athena appears and rains a lightning storm down on the remaining Shadows, destroying them.

//There's more coming!//

A second wave of Card Soldiers appears. We defeat them easily, but they're followed immediately by a third wave, then a fourth. Each successive wave grows stronger and takes longer to wipe out. The incessant battling is starting to wear us down...

For thirty minutes, we're swarmed by Card Soldiers. Rarity collapses after the seventh wave. Rainbow Dash has to be resurrected twice.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Twilight says as she unleashes another storm of lightning into the Shadow swarm.

//There's even more of them on the way! Look out!//

They want to play with me...

I can only stare in disbelief as dozens of Card Soldiers appear. The girls are falling back into a defensive posture; everyone looks worn out.

"There's...there's no way we can fight this many," Rainbow says.

"We need to get out of here," Fluttershy says.

"We can't! We're trapped!" Pinkie cries.

I feel a throbbing in my head. I look down at my phone; the Death Arcana has appeared on my Persona app and is flashing insistently.

In desperation, I slap my hand down on the screen. "PERSONA!"

Everything grinds to a halt as a little blue-eyed girl with long blond hair in a blue dress over a century out of date skips into view.

"...what," Rainbow Dash says flatly.

I can feel the girls' eyes on me. I cringe.

The little girl curtsies, then raises a hand, pointing at the sky.

Die for Me!

Hundreds of card soldiers, looking far more like the storybook versions than the Shadows we've been fighting, rain down from the sky, armed with swords and spears. A wave of sheer, numbing darkness spreads out from the little girl as the falling soldiers obliterate the Shadow swarm in a matter of seconds.

The little girl giggles, then vanishes.

//They've...they've stopped,// Cadance says. //I'm...I'm not detecting any more Shadows.//

Everybody stares at me.

"Dude," Rainbow says. "What the fuck?"

"Flashie? Why is there a little blond girl skipping around in your head?" Pinkie asks.

Fluttershy walks up to me and pats me on the shoulder, shaking her head. "You have issues. You know that, right?"

//Uhh, guys? I'm picking up the Reaper...//

Just as Cadance says this, I hear the faint rattling of chains in the distance.

"Let's get out of here," I say.

Daytime

Once we exit Zodiac, we find a place to sit around and rest. Cadance goes off to the vending machines to buy us all something cold to drink. I'm forced to endure a lot of teasing about my newest Persona as we rest up and wait for Shining Armor and the girls. They arrive at a quarter past one, spreading out a large picnic with thirty sandwiches, a couple dozen bags of chips, and a cooler of sodas in ice, as well as several packages of cookies. We waste no time in demolishing the picnic, then spend the rest of the afternoon lazing around in the park, enjoying the warm sunshine and fragrant spring air.

As the sun dips lower in the sky and the last of the ice in the cooler starts to melt into ice water, the drinks long since gone, we all pick ourselves up and start cleaning up the remains of our picnic so we can go home.

Evening

After we've cleaned up our mess and headed back to the park exit, Twilight follows me to Shining Armor's car, which I'm driving home.

"I need to talk to you alone," she says. "I told the others to ride with Cadance and my brother back to the dorm."

"Alright."

Once we're in the car and have pulled out behind the others, Twilight begins, "I think I just figured something out."

"Oh?"

Twilight seems to be organizing her thoughts. "Today, Sonata's Persona changed." She looks at me. "Today, you had a new Persona."

"Yeah?"

"And...and I've noticed that you break out these really strong new Personas at the same time we all get new Personas." She frowns, then adds, "I mean, it doesn't always match up, but sometimes it does, and...I don't think it's a coincidence." She pauses. "I asked...I asked Cadance something I should've thought to ask a long time ago."

I stop behind the SUVs at a red light. "What's that?"

"I remembered something from a while back, and..." Twilight pauses. "All this Persona stuff, I remember there being some link to Tarot." She tugs her hair nervously. "Cadance can scan the Arcana of Personas. Sonata's Persona is connected to the Death Arcana, and...and that Alice Persona you summoned today is also Death." She looks at me. "That's not a coincidence, is it?"

I sigh. "No. It's not." I signal for an upcoming left turn. "Please don't ask me to explain it. I'm...not really sure how to explain it, or whether it would even make sense."

"Does it have anything to do with that Velvet Room place?"

"Yes."

"Alright. That's...that's all I wanted to know." Twilight pauses, then adds, "Which Persona did you get...when Athena changed?"

"Merlin." I sigh, then add, "Look...all I can tell you is that the Personas I'm able to summon depend on friendship. The closer I am to the people around me, the stronger my Personas get."

"Because it gives you a stronger will to protect the people you care about?"

I blink. "Actually...yeah, that's pretty much exactly right."

"Okay. Thanks, that's...that's all I really wanted to know. It was just bugging me."

After we get back to the dorm, I call my parents and chat for a little while, then do some last-minute reviewing of my exam prep notes.

Final exams begin tomorrow and last until Friday...