Ponysona 4, the Campaign.

"Oooookay, I'll accept this as reality on the basis of not wanting to get zapped..Hope you're okay, there...So, we waitin' on anypony else?" Melody asked, glancing around as if expecting people to just materialize out of the air. She was a little disappointed that she hadn't even gotten a smirk, but maybe this just wasn't the time or place to try and lighten the mood. Ah, well, what could one do? Especially in the wake of that painful-looking shock...Yeesh. She fell quiet, trying to figure out what was going on...This seemed a little out of her league...Though, what was a colt doing here?

"Philosophical quandaries dropped for my own safety." he relents, rubbing his muzzle and wincing. "So...introductions anypony?"

"You ok? I'm Brash Landing, the little guy is Shiro. This is ice cream, er wait, I mean Icing Sugar. Sorry about that." Brash says.

"Close enough. Shirou, Crash Landing, and Icing Sugar. Icing to friends. I guess should pain prove real and figments self-aware, there's no difference to a dream and a wake." He gives a short head-bow to the rest of them as well.

"Brash, you might want to grab that seat there. You're not as bad as the others were, but you didn't exactly dodge when those tentacles smashed into us. Same to you Shirou, while we get things sorted have a rest." That was the proper thing to do, look out for others. Ponies always had to help ponies, right? First rule of the business!
Then Icing commented how typing in "dark cyan" was a poor decision on his part, as its not a real colour on the list.
Icing looked at the two others in the room, the ones unacquainted. Perhaps some explanation would help there. "It has been a long day."

Well, better than no explanation. He pauses to consider the asking of introductions without giving your own. A lot of ponies seemed to lack even a salespony's etiquette nowadays. Made him a bit sad.

Brash shot Icing a sharp look at being called "Crash Landing" but, didn't say anything as he trotted over to a seat and flopped himself down over the top of it facing backwards (though at the rest of the group) with his forelegs dangling in the air lazily.

"I was more talking to our...I suppose host is the right term. It seems rude to gather us all here so abruptly, without even an invitation." he explained. "Still, why waste an oportunity to introduce myself. Star Power, prodigy."

George shrugs.
"I don't know, call me cold but I get the feeling that we will find out more whether we want to or not and if it includes fighting more of those things..."
He shudders.
"I'm not sure how much I'll be able to take, I mean I can't go to a psychiatrist about this."

Melody smiled, looking around at them, trying to make sure she had the right name attached to the right face..."Okay, so, Brash, Icing, Shiro, and Star...Cool. I'm Charming Melody, great to meet all of ya...Though you'll have to explain the tentacles thing...Maybe later, I'm gonna assume we weren't brought here just to get to know each other," she said, blinking as she shifted a bit. Sounded like they'd had a tussle with somepony...Or more likely something, considering ponies didn't have tendrils of any sort...Just what -had- she gotten herself into?

Brash gave a snort of laughter at Star Power calling himself a prodigy.

Doc pseudopolis wrote:George shrugs.
"I don't know, call me cold but I get the feeling that we will find out more whether we want to or not and if it includes fighting more of those things..."
He shudders.
"I'm not sure how much I'll be able to take, I mean I can't go to a psychiatrist about this."

"Well after killing an ally last time...." Zeela mutters to herself as they entered the hospital.

AFter George and Zeela take care of Redfeather, they both are drawn to a blue door and when they open it, they appear on the plane with the others.
Arcana looks around and says, "Welcome back to the Velvet Room. We all will be well acquainted with one another, so I wish that each and every one of you shall get along. As you might know, my name is Arcana and I am the proprietor of this area. My aid, Miss Marie, assists me in what this room is for."
Arcana glances at Shiro, who is sleeping and leaning on George. "This colt has awakened the power of Persona."

George looks dismayed and places his head on the wall.
"Oh Sisters above! I was hoping that was a dream."

"I knew that Giant Spider fight was only the beginning..." Zeela mutters loudly.

"Sadly, it is Miss Zeela." Arcana pulls out a deck of Tarot cards and spreads a trio onto the table in front of him. The Tower, the Devil and Death. "While this isn't necessarily an evil reading, it could result in such an event without precautions. Sir Shiro here has started on his own path to help, but all of you." Arcana glances around. "Need to face your inner demons before the Devil takes hold."

George then holds his head in his talons.
"I'll be in a padded cell before the week is out."

"Wait... You mean that, that, whatever that Spider thing was to Shiro... We're like... Um. going to have to face that ourselves too?" Zeela said wided eyed. "Oh horseapples. Why'd that crazy thought have to be right too!"

"Oooh oooh! Me first!" Brash shouts out. When he gets the inevitable odd looks he replies, "What? I bet he looks wicked awesome. And I don't want some tiny demon inside of me mucking about with my plumbing. And after I can always use another pair of hooves to help me build stuff, or at least to pass me a wrench or hydospanner."

Melody blinked twice at the news, trying to process the information, and Brash's outburst. "My inner demons, huh...? Well, I dunno what you're talking about, I'm an open book, ya know? So, I don't think I got much to worry about..." she said, trying to sound unworried about that prospect before looking at the others. "Buuuuut, it's more'n just me, obviously. I don't figure ya brought me here so I could blow it off. Not sure what I'm signing on for, but I'll help the rest of ya at least." She nodded to them, smiling a bit to show that she was sincere about that, at the least.

((Yay for her being a derpface about the danger she signed on for.))

Zeela both chuckles and facehooves... On some level she needed something like that to dispell the drama building up in the room.

"Hey, that's my card." Icing absently notes to himself, looking at the table, and pulling an arcana card from his bag, comparing the pictures, and putting it back. He shrugs to himself, not really adding much. He still was not entirely convinced this wasn't some coma-induced fever-dream and that his father would find him unconscious in a fume-filled taffy-pulling room, ready to lecture him on the important safety steps he must have missed. But whether it was or it wasn't, he convinced himself that he might as well go along with it; either it was helping as good ponies were supposed to do, or it was something to occupy his time until his brain died from lack of oxygen. Either way worked, really.

He smiles. "Well, Brash volunteered. And then Melody here. Three should be enough, right? Life lessons learned and everypony is happy. Let's hop to it!"

"I'm sorry Spider-thing? Did I tune into the middle of a movie or pick up the second book in a series? Cause I feel like my brain is just spinning it's wheels on this one." Star said, looking around for anypony that would explain.

"A shadow. A portion of the self that the somepony does not wish to be admit exists. Sir Shiro overcame it and gained the ability to tap into his Persona, the facade used to overcome life's hardships." Arcana grabs the hanged man card and tosses it at Shiro, and the image of an eight limbed human holding beads appears overhead. "You /all/ must face it and gain the ability. It is in the cards that you six will be able to defeat what is controlling the shadows and taking ponies into that realm."

Marie/Star walks in, holding a small book in her mouth. She places it down and flips it open, the Hanged Man card floating into it and an image of Shiro and the party saving him plays in the book. "The hanged man. A card of letting go, and reversal. This is such a lovely bond you've formed, flipping Shiro's fear of facing things himself to a desire to do so." Marie smiles and closes the book. "As you all go on this little excursion, you will form bonds with many ponies and non-ponies alike. Such things will strengthen you all as a group, and allow you stronger and more powerful abilities to fight shadows."

"Bonds... Forming bonds with the group... That's one thing that makes this group a lot better then last time... Forming bonds with that group was like pulling teeth... And took my greatest failure to make Theorycraft realize just how much trouble we were in..." Zeela mutters to herself thinking of her own past then asked Arcana. "Ok... So... What else can you tell us? So we're going to be running to TVs all over this place or something till we find the right one to take us within one of ourselves to fight our own shadows???"

"Wait a minute, fight? I never agreed to that. I need to focus on my studies, get a high degree that leads to a well paying job, and get a top career. I don't have time to be fighting brain spiders made out of emo." Star notes, looking rather flustered.

Well...That was impressive. Even with her talents, she couldn't do -anything- like what was hovering there...She might not have fully understood everything that was going on, but the core of it seemed to make enough sense. Apparently, these shadow things had powers they gave their owner if they could beat 'em? "Okay, so lemme make sure I got the basics down. Make friends, get powers, beat up Shadows, get more powers, beat up more, repeat until we find their boss and take 'em down? Seems easy enough!" She sat back in her seat, nodding and grinning. "I'll bug one of you guys who seems to get the details about it when we get out of...wherever here is. Sound fair? ...Oh, one question, though, if that card pertains to him, I'm guessin' we've all got one to match us, yeah?" Though, at Star's comment, she looked over, nudging him and grinning. "C'mon, lighten up a bit! How many folks do you know that can say they beat up a monster made of emo, as ya put it? I imagine you could make a fortune selling the memoirs off of that alone! Besides, if you're a prodigy, we're gonna need a smart guy to help us puzzle everything out!" Truth be told, she was just as nervous as the others...But hey, part of putting on a show was looking like nothing was wrong, or you were having a blast, even if you were absolutely terrified...