Ponysona 4, the Campaign.

"I hate leaving this unfinished as well... And we've got to deal with Arcana's Dungeon as well... Cause that's also an issue thanks to that little outburst form Tilt..." Zeela comments. "But... Seems everypony isn't ready to do this... And given everything, we'd be better off giving at least a full day of brake-time to recover fully..."

"Seems so." agrees Tilt, "There's some groundwork that needs to be laid, too. Come on, let's go home, Wraith can wait for another day." She turns and trots around the group, gently corralling the sleepyheads back towards the way they came from. She was ready to get back in action after a few minutes' break, but it seemed the same couldn't be said for her compatriots. "And I don't know what to tell you if you think that was an outburst, Zeela. Arcana's not on our side."

When the group starts moving in earnest, she gingerly sidles up to Daisoujou.

"She's not going to have an easy time of it, is she?" Tilt whispers, glancing meaningfully at Soul.

Endurance:

"Nopony is. Especially ponies who already admit to some of their inner demons..." Dai looks down at Alice and Shiro fighting one another childishly. "The worst.... Must have worse demons than the rest for them to be 'shadows'. The shadow is a part of the self that is repressed, twisted. Like Shiro's selfishness, your pride, Star's dependency, and Icing's sadism."

"It must be more than that - Sugar was talking about how she was scared of fading away right at the end. You were working with Kuro, did you have to work with shadows?" questions Tilt, pivoting an ear in curiosity.

Dai slightly winces. "... At... best? You could say Daisoujo and Alice, the personae, are simply tamed shadows more than personas of myself and Alice."

"I don't want to leave things unfinished either..." Melody said softly as the others debated leaving. "But...I think pushing ourselves to the point of collapse in this place would be a disaster...I think...I think some actual rest would do us good..." Truth be told, having been knocked out had been a bit of a wake-up call for her...If they'd lost...She needed to be more careful, or she could end up hurting herself even worse next time...

"..." Dai looks at Alice. "I'd rather see his inner demons before I decide myself. After all, if the puppet master simply thinks of us as toys? I'd prefer to defeat him completely... Wasn't there another pony in the velvet room?"
-----

While conversing, the party can find themselves on their way out of the televisions easily. Shiro yawns and nuzzles George and Melody's legs good by and starts trotting off for his home, Daisoujo and Alice flying off to their own.

Most of the conversation goes right over Soul's head, but she follows the party closely out of this "TV World," as they call it. She actually stays pretty quiet most of the way, nursing a thoughtful expression as she hmms to herself. When they finally exit, she just asks, "In this context, what's a reaper?"

"I assume it's some type of super-strong shadow that attacks us whenever we take too long on a floor..." Zeela guessed without any clue if she's right or not.

"Bipedal fully black-robed creature, the shadow was afraid of it so that implies some power. They use a modified scythe meant for hands over hooves." Icing notes passively, bidding his alter-ego goodbye as he stepped from the screens.

"Interesting. Something to watch out for." comments Tilt, turning to Soul and fishing out a bit with a grin. "Hey Soul! Heads or Tails?" she asks, before flipping the coin into the air.

It clatters to the ground. Tails, eliciting a melodramatic sigh and a hoof held to the forehead from Tilt. "Ayaaaaaah, looks like the bedroom's yours again tonight." she complains, not quite managing to stifle a giggle.

Grinning widely at her continually impressive luck, Soul slaps Tilt on the back(weakly) and points in a random direction. "Then lets be off to your wonderful be-err, So I can sleep in y-um, To awesome mattresses the likes of which have not been seen in a thousand years!"

Being corrected in direction as they actually start walking, she calms back down, keeping the close quarters. For warmth. It was a cold night. "I don't really need you bed though. Nice as it may may be,especially compared to Hotstick's bunks*shudder*, it's still your place. It's not like I'll be...awake to enjoy it.

"On that note, I may have finagled some booze out of you, but I fully intend on earning it all. Starting tomorrow I'm gonna start looking for work. Somepony with my credentials should get some-wait a sec. Think I could get payed for ponies printing my books wihtout my permission? Who would I talk to for that?"

"It's worth it just to see you stumble over yourself like that." teases Tilt, prodding at Soul with a hoof as she puts away the coin again, "And what do you mean you won't be awake to enjoy it? A good night's rest is just the thing to unwind after a long day, you don't need to be awake to appreciate a good bed. Besides, you won the flip, you get the bed. I'll just take out one of the spare futons."

Tilt doesn't object to the close quarters - it was definitely more comfortable at night, walking with another mare by her side. Ineighba was supposed to be safe, but she'd heard stories. Wasn't great for a little mare like herself to be out and about so late, even if she probably could wallop just about any stallion with one leg.

"I don't know if you still could - legally, you've been dead for over a thousand years, so I think all your works are public domain now. I don't know, maybe Rumour would know more. I need to ask her about an idea I've had with the shadows, anyway, and I'm sure she'd be thrilled to meet the one and only Soul Spinner. But hey, if you want to pay me back maybe I can talk my mum into letting you help out for some of my shifts. Would be nice to have somepony to talk to when business eases off." she rolls her eyes, "They're of a mind that I should learn to take over the family business, even though the SportsHorse bits are enough to pay for my entire degree and then some. Builds character, they say. Which I suppose they're right about, but it doesn't make the slow stretches any more boring."

She just kept talking in one long incredibly unbroken sentence moving from topic to topic so that no-one had a chance to interrupt; it was really quite hypnotic.:

Melody watched the two leave, chuckling a bit before she yawned, looking at the others. "I suppose we should all be heading to our own places, as well...I'll see you all later...And Icing? Glad you pulled through alright." She looked at him and nodded. They didn't exactly see eye-to-eye, she figured, but she had been worried about him. It was good to see that he'd managed to confront his other self...But she turned, beginning to trot back to her own place...She was pretty worn out now that all the adrenaline had run its course.

Letting the other mare talk her ear off is actually quite relaxing, Soul decides. The entire day had been one giant emotional roller coaster, and just letting somepony else take over the conversation, talk about the little stuff for a while, was just the ticket. She was a good listener anyway.

Zeela, didn't say a word when she departed for her own place... The Winged Zebra's body had gone on auto-pilot at this point.

George quietly took his leave and returned home. There he peeled off the damaged waistcoat he had been wearing, bandaged up his injuries, put on a jumper and flopped down on the sofa to stare at the ceiling.
I'm going to have to learn how to sew, trying to get this repaired will lead to awkward questions.

Tilt continues with the small talk the rest of the way home, and after dinner unfurls the futon a little across the room from her bed.

"Good night, Soul," she yawns, snuggling her way into the extra bedroll, "You know, we should take you to karaoke sometime. It's a lot of fun, I hear. Ah well, something else for the to-do list. Sleep tight."

With a final yawn, she closes her eyes and goes to sleep, snoring gently.

"Night, Tilt," Soul replies. She snuggles under the covers, and proceeds to stare at the cieling. She thinks about the whirlwind of a day she had. Less than 48 hours and alrady back on the job of hunting demons and protecting the innocent. New setting, new powers and new ponies, but more or less the same.

The last thought on her mind as she fell asleep was of her previous comrades. To them, she was gone. But they were the ones who were gone, lost to time and dust and a thousand years...

Icing went back to the shop.

"Yes. It was school-related. No, it was not noteworthy. Yes, I am well enough for graveyard shift."

His casual words went by, and he set out the mop and broom. Injury or not, things had to be done. Feeling sorry and licking wounds was for the weak. While it was rough work, his taking it on here meant that other students could skip this shift, so even though he could probably arrange to have some poor hist lit mare take it on, this way they got the earlier, more reasonable shifts instead. It brought a smile to his face. It was a better reason than resentment to take on this task, that was for certain. He cleaned up with a much lighter heart than he'd felt in many moons, but watched for the midnight channel just in case.

Tilt snores gently away...

And then she wakes up. Slowly, gently, she crawls out of bed, walking soundlessly to the bedroom door and pulling it open. A blast of cool spring air buffets her as she steps out into a endless field of grass, dotted with colourful flowers. The door slams shut behind her as she steps out onto the plain, naked as the day she was born and feeling the wind whip through her mane and tail.

Looking about to make sure nopony was there, she bends over slowly, biting into a particularly delectable looking stalk of peppermint. The fresh scent shoots through her nose, and within moments the plant is all but gone, leaving only a slight pang of regret. She turns her head and looks about for other ponies, and finding none, raises her head to neigh into the clear spring air. A response issues from the distance, and she turns to gallop towards her fellows.

It seems forever, but she doesn't tire, finally reaching the band, pressing her nose to each in turn before going on to start leading them towards the nice fields she'd found. She doesn't get far before a strange stallion rounds the band, and tries to corral them in a different direction. Pinning back her ears, she squeals at him - but no response. She flicks her tail in anger, and tries again, rounding in front of the stallion and squealing again. This time the stallion just nickers loudly at her.

Deciding enough was enough, she trots past the stallion, and lashes out with both hind legs...

As each of the nine little members of this tale slumber, darker things happen across town at the school. Important items mysteriously disappear, physics misbehaves and calls for help go unanswered. A singular pony is there to witness all of these, confirming rumors long told and spelling new ones into existence.

As each of the nine little members of this tale slumber, something else awakens, hungry for knowledge. That singular pony spills into the library after a rather interesting journey, and sees one last mystery before fleeing the building in terror: a wraithlike monster tearing through the stacks, an insatiable look of despair haunting it's ghostly visage.

-----

Nothing is on the midnight channel due to no rain that night.

---

The next day is a relatively calm day at school, enough that the party all have a bit more free time in the middle of the day. (Daytime period?)

Tilt wakes up bright and early in the morning with an inexplicable craving for fresh grass. Prodding her room-mate a few times, she shrugs and pulls out her sticky note pad.

Code:

You're a heavy sleeper! I'm off for my morning training, go ahead and get something for breakfast from downstairs - I'll shout you this time. I'll be back around seven, don't go anywhere. There's somepony I think you'll like to meet in my morning lecture.

Satisfied with her note, she deftly attaches it to Soul's forehead, leaving for her morning run.

Back in the world of the living, Soul groggily tosses the note aside when she's done with it. She pounds downstairs(as poundy as a mare as light as Soul is can get, anyway) and throws together some nuts and oats with milk. One thing hadn't changed during her timeskip; simple breakfasts were always the best.

Was that haycon? Oh Tartarus, yes, it was haycon.

A little more awake after breakfast, and leaving out more haycon for Tilt when she got back, Soul sits down with a notepad and paper, creating a vaguelist of things to get done.

Code:

~finish signing up for school
    !FIND OUT HOW TO GET CITIZENSHIP!
~find a job
~go to Equestrian embassy to see about 1000+ years of royalties
~try to get Tilt to lighten up
~FIND A JOB

Satisfied, she puts the notepad aside just in time to see said mare coming throught the door.