"Wh-what is this place?" Fluttershy asks nervously.

"This isn't the Velvet Room," I say slowly, looking around.

"Do not be so hasty to assume there is but one shape for the Velvet Room."

Zecora appears before us. "You go out of your way to put others first," she says gravely. "But can you face your friends when they're at their worst?"

A strange door appears beside her. Inside its gold frame, the actual door depicts the Sun Arcana card...

"Open the door if you wish, but beware. Behind it lies a soul laid bare."

I look around at my friends. Twilight frowns. Pinkie shrugs. The others are shifting awkwardly.

I take a deep breath, then step forward and touch the door.

Zecora retreats as the door opens, shedding blinding light...

Vinyl Scratch steps out. Her glasses are missing; her red eyes stare sightlessly out at us.

All the things I'll never see...

She clenches her fists.

I'll never see Tavi's smile again. I'll never see her in a swimsuit. When we make love, I'll never see her body. Sound and touch can only do so much. I can feel her, I can smell her, I can taste her, but I'll never see her again...

"Vinyl..."

I'll never see the faces of everybody partying when I spin music. I have to do everything by voice control now. How many mistakes am I gonna make? How often am I gonna screw up putting the right mix on?

Her eyes shift from their usual red to glowing gold on black.

It's not fair! Why do I have to be the one who can't see? Why can't it be somebody else? Anybody else? Everybody else! I wanna SEE, goddammit! This SUCKS!

She starts to laugh an unpleasant, unhinged laugh.

The doctors could've fixed this. I know they could have! They were just too lazy to bother! Who cares if a little girl goes blind, right? It's too much work to save a girl's sight when you've got fifty people lined up waiting to get glasses!

She looks down at her hands, which are curled into claws.

I wonder what their guts feel like...

"What...what is this?" Twilight cries.

"This is really creeping me out," Pinkie moans.

Fluttershy has a stricken look on her face. "I think...this is the rage and pain Vinyl Scratch keeps bottled up inside," she says. She looks over at Cadance. "Cadance, would you...?"

Cadance frowns, but nods. "PERSONA!"

Eros appears. //Give me a second...// Cadance gasps sharply. //Guys? This...this is a Shadow...and a really strong one!//

Vinyl laughs maniacally.

That's right! I am the Shadow, the True Self! I just wanna claw out everybody's eyes so they'll know what it feels like to be ME!

Vinyl's Shadow begins to glow an angry red, black flames engulfing her body...

//LOOK OUT!//

The false image of Vinyl stretches upward, transforming into something...nightmarish.

Her skin has turned a dark charcoal color. Her legs are full of holes and end in broad, chipped hooves. Her arms, which are also now full of holes, end in curved, oddly-jointed four-fingered claws. Her torso has transformed into a tablet with a pulsing equalizer graph on the screen. Her glasses are perched on her forehead, with a waveform graph displayed on the lenses. Her face has been replaced with a spinning CD above a creepy smile.

A pair of turntables rises out of the floor in front of her, surrounded by towers of speakers. In front of the turntables, a rounded speaker appears, its unusually deep cone strobing with blue concentric lights.

Pounding music shakes the ground. A pair of samurai-type Shadows drops from the sky, landing in front of the turntable stage. These Shadows are a deep blue color and have no helmets; instead of the usual masks, they have grim faces with deep, gruesome scars where their eyes should be.

"Everybody get ready," I say, tapping Black Butterfly on my phone and readying my axe. Around me, the girls gear up.

LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!

"PERSONA!"

Virus Wave

Sonata wastes no time; Leviathan appears, and a poisonous purple wave washes over the Shadows.

"PERSONA!" Applejack cries.

Masukukaja

Persephone appears; every member of our party blurs. My legs feel lighter.

"PERSONA!"

Tetrakarn

Fluttershy summons Echo, and a defensive wall gleams in front of us.

"BASTET!"

Mabufula

Rarity's Persona appears, scattering sharp shards of ice. The samurai Shadows dodge; Vinyl's Shadow takes damage, but doesn't seem to care.

"NIKE!"

Magarudyne

Rainbow summons her Persona, whose wind blades tear through the enemy. Once again, the samurai Shadows evade the attack, and Vinyl shows no sign of caring.

"Those two in front are dodging everything!" Fluttershy says.

"We noticed!" Rainbow retorts.

Tempest Slash

Suddenly, one of the samurai lunges forward, drawing and striking Rainbow. Fluttershy's barrier repels the attack, sending the samurai skidding back.

"EUPHORIA!"

Orgy of Death

Euphoria appears and charges into the enemy, breakdancing her way through the Shadows. Vinyl's Shadow takes damage, but both of the samurai counter with iaido. Pinkie yelps and goes down on one knee as the barrier protecting her shatters.

"PINKIE!" Twilight cries.

"I'm okay," Pinkie grunts, standing up.

//Attacking them directly is useless,// Cadance says. //They'll counter any physical attacks!//

"Great," I mutter. "So how do we kill them?"

Break Beat

Suddenly, Vinyl drops a sick bassline. The ground shakes violently, knocking most of us down. As I stagger to my feet, Rainbow and Pinkie help Fluttershy and Sonata up.

"ATHENA LOGIA!"

Ziodyne

A column of lightning stabs into Vinyl's Shadow, who twitches and grunts. She makes adjustments to her turntables, and the glowing speaker in front of her starts emitting a low, droning hum.

//Be careful! She's building up a lot of power!//

"I've got your lot of power!" I yell. "ALICE!"

"Oh god, not this again," Twilight groans.

Die for Me!

Alice skips lightly onto the scene and raises her hand, summoning a rain of card soldiers. One of the samurai Shadows explodes into nothingness, but nothing else happens.

As Alice fades away, Vinyl's Shadow laughs and slams her hand down on her turntable.

Bass Cannon

A massive pulse of sound rips out of the glowing bass cannon, picking Sonata up and throwing her clear across the vast space. We hear a sickening crunch when she lands.

//Sonata's dead! Somebody revive her!//

"Obviously!" Rarity says. "PERSONA!"

Samarecarm

Bastet appears; glowing threads weave themselves around Sonata's body, sinking into her skin. She picks herself up and rubs her head, moaning woozily, before walking back up to the rest of us.

"Okay, time to fight sound with sound!" Rainbow says. "PERSONA!"

Sonic Rainboom

Nike Invicta appears again, sliding across the ground on her knees and jamming out a power chord. A wave of prismatic sound crashes over the Shadows. The remaining samurai Shadow is able to parry it, but Vinyl's turntable takes damage. The bass cannon's pulsing lights dim.

YOU CAN'T OUT-ROCK ME!

Sound Snare

Vinyl leaps up onto her turntable and slings a keytar out of nowhere. The pulsing graphs on her glasses and torso go crazy as she cranks a knob and plays a fast sequence of notes. A wave of light shaped like a ribbon of sheet music streams out, wrapping around Rainbow and lifting her into the air. The staff snakes sinuously between Rainbow's legs and around her chest in a very suggestive manner; she cries out in panic.

"GAH! BAD TOUCH!" Pinkie yelps.

"Oh my," Fluttershy says.

"Dammit, do something!" Rainbow yells. "I really don't wanna be tentacle-raped by shitty music!"

"Ah gotcha, RD!" Applejack says. "PERSEPHONE!"

Gigantic Fist

Persephone appears and lands a vicious haymaker on Vinyl's Shadow, sending her tumbling back behind her turntable and breaking off the musical assault on Rainbow. Rainbow drops to the ground, landing on her butt with an undignified squawk.

"Dude, don't you have like, some kind of massive demon cock you can shove up this bitch?" Rainbow asks as she stands up, glaring at the Shadow.

"That'd be a big no," I say. "And even if I did, I wouldn't. She might be a Shadow, but she's still Vinyl, and Vinyl's gay."

"...that may be the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Fluttershy says, staring at me.

"Can we PLEASE be SERIOUS here?" Rarity demands. "I, for one, would like to end this battle quickly and leave this place!"

"Agreed!" Twilight says. "PERSONA!"

Maziodyne

Athena appears again and rains lightning down on Vinyl and the remaining samurai. This time, it fails to dodge; it explodes into black vapor. Vinyl's turntable starts to smoke.

YOU'RE NOT GONNA STOP THIS PARTY!

Rave

Vinyl digs her claws into the records on the turntable. The graphics on her torso change to a wildly fluctuating spectrogram. All the speakers begin to glow a bright electric blue, and strobing lasers in varying colors shoot wildly all over the place. The lasers cut through us, and all at once I feel burning, freezing, tingling, and biting pain. The others are on their knees, struggling to defend themselves.

The laser show finally dies down after several excruciating seconds. Two more of those blind samurai Shadows appear.

//Are you alright? You're all pretty badly hurt...//

Fluttershy grunts and stands up. "ECHO!"

Mediarama

Her Persona appears and sheds a healing light over all of us.

"I'm starting to get really tired of this!" Sonata whines. "LEVIATHAN!"

Tidal Wave

Leviathan appears and calls forth a crashing wave which washes over Vinyl's Shadow and the two samurai. Vinyl shudders; the spectrogram on her torso dims and the music glitches.

"I think we're winning!" Pinkie shouts exuberantly. "Don't give up! PERSONA!"

Matarukaja

Euphoria's magic infuses us all with a wave of strength. With a grin, Applejack summons Persephone.

Heat Wave

Persephone strikes the ground, which explodes upward in waves; the samurai are scattered, and Vinyl's turntables start to sputter, sparks and smoke snapping out of them. Vinyl screams in agony and thrashes around.

//You're almost there!// Cadance yells. //Don't give her a chance to recover!//

"Time to end this," I say. "ASURA!"

Megidolaon

Asura appears, eyes glowing as all six arms form seals. A column of pure, blinding light drops down from the sky, slamming into the Shadows. The speakers explode violently, and warped cracks ribbon across Vinyl's face and body.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

The pounding music dies as the DJ stage breaks down. The dying, writhing form of Vinyl's Shadow warps and collapses in on itself, the boiling blackness of its existence reforming into the shape of the golden-eyed Shadow Vinyl, wreathed in a hazy reddish-purple aura. Her head is bowed and her hands are clenched at her sides. She seems to be waiting for something...

Taking a deep breath, I step forward. "Vinyl..."

Go away. I don't need your pity...

"Who said anything about pity? Everybody who matters loves you and cares about you. That isn't pity. It's friendship."

Friendship...

"Even when you're angry or scared or depressed, your friends will always be there for you. Don't push us away."

Vinyl looks up at me. She smiles and nods, then fades away, leaving behind the Sun card, floating serenely in midair.

"What..." Rainbow pants and glares angrily at Zecora. "What...WAS that?!"

"We thought you were here to help Flash!" Twilight says.

Zecora folds her arms and regards us all calmly.

"I think..." Fluttershy says quietly, "I think I understand what just happened."

Everyone turns to Fluttershy.

"You know how...how in Zodiac, we see the worst of everybody at CHS? All the nasty things they say about everyone around them? Well, I think..." She glances over at Zecora. "I think that's what that was. It was—"

"Close, but not quite," Zecora says. "After all, The Sun bears you no spite." She strides over to us. She starts to speak, stops, then takes a deep breath, clenching her hands into fists at her side. "Within every heart lies a hidden truth. A side of yourself you choose not to accept, you choose not to face. This is true for all humans. Facing yourself, accepting your inner truth...that is the path to enlightenment of the soul. But as hard as it is for one to face one's own truth..." She sweeps her gaze over all of us. "It is much harder still to stare down the darkest part of a friend's heart. The strength to face your friends when they are at their worst and still love them, still trust them...that is the most pure strength of the human heart." She relaxes her hands, closes her eyes for a moment, then looks over us. "Your bonds of friendship will be tested, growing stronger still when hate and fear are bested."

"And she's rhyming again," Rainbow says.

Twilight blinks. "So wait..." She glances curiously at me, then back to Zecora. "We have to fight the inner demons of everyone close to Flash?"

"The Shadows you face here will be spawned from those with which our guest shares an unbreakable bond," Zecora says simply.

I get it now...

I'm going to face the Shadow of everyone whose Social Link has reached its maximum level...

Nobody else except Twilight seems to understand. "The hell's that mean?" Rainbow asks.

"It means," I say slowly, "we're gonna be doing this a lot."

"You will indeed," Zecora says. "But for now, godspeed."

The fog grows thicker, and reality slowly fades in around us...