While the rest of Ponyville was distracted by the fair, Town Hall was left empty and quiet. Even the large gathering room was vacant, though that was by design today. With the exhibitions happening outside, Town Hall was now the perfect neutral ground for conversation. Court was busy admiring some of the decor, while Elizabeth stood in the center of the tall chamber, impatiently tapping a hoof against the floor while they waited for the other two participants of their secret meeting. Court had sent a carrier to deliver the message to Sunny Skies half an hour ago when they had secured the premises, but whether or not they would show up was questionable. However, soon enough, the doors creaked open for just a moment before quickly clicking shut. Sunny Skies and Scrawl entered in, Sunny looking stone faced yet calm, while Scrawl just looked bemused at the proceedings. Court Drama rejoined Elizabeth and gave the friendliest smile he could to the newcomers.

"Glad you two accepted my invitation for a chat," he said, even as Sunny lifted the invitation in question and read from it.

"Dear Princess Celestia," was as far as she got before she looked up with a dubious glare at Court Drama. "Let's just start there, I don't know what gave you the impression I could deliver this to Princess Celestia, as I'm here for Princess Twilight. If you wish, I could summon her instead, would that be preferable?"

Court laughed nervously. "No, it's definitely Princess Celestia and Discord I wanted to speak to. And I have reason to believe the two of you are them."

"Oh? And what, pray tell, would lead you to that conclusion?"

"Your Majesty, I'm not here to dance around the issue." Court grimaced, not in annoyance, but concern that this wasn't going to be an easy conversation. "If you want me to explain myself, I'd be happy to cast off all disguises and answer all questions, but I've a distinct impression you are in a position where trust isn't going to be given lightly." Sunny didn't speak, merely waited for Court to continue. Sighing, Court Drama proceeded. "My associate, Gust Strong-Wind, has a rather peculiar ability as a pegasus. He can see when an individual has a certain something about them, something that hasn't been seen in Equestria for a thousand years. At least, until we came along."

"So your pegasus saw something in me that shouldn't be there," Sunny said. "And that makes you think I'm Princess Celestia."

"Not just that," Court explained. He nodded over to Elizabeth, who took the opportunity to wave pleasantly to Sunny. "Elizabeth here is also blessed with peculiar powers. She can see through people and know them better than they might know themselves. She's been following you, your pupil Twilight Sparkle, her friends, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Wayfarer. She's been chomping at the bit to tell you your fortunes and refers to you in particular as 'The Sun.' Both her and Gust have confirmed to me that you are indeed Princess Celestia, and that you and your entourage are wielders of a long lost power known as Persona."

Sighing, Celestia finally dropped her disguise, with Discord following suit. The two of them closed the distance between themselves and Court, towering over both him and Elizabeth. "Very well, you've caught me, so now I'll just continue onto the next bit of your letter." Levitating the message back in front of her, she started to read again. "We are aware of your current campaign against the Shadows and wish to provide aid. We realize that this might generate some degree of mistrust and we are willing to provide evidence that we are on your side if you will hear us out. Please come to Town Hall at three PM ets. ets." Celestia rolled the note back up and looked down at Court. "If you know about the Shadows and Personas, then I can only guess that the two of you are Persona users as well."

"Yes," Court Drama nodded. "As well as Gust, Hourglass, Vivid Dreams, and a few other members of our Caravan."

"The members of TAROT?"

Court nodded again. "The Tactical Arcana Response and Obliteration Troup. We've been protecting Equestria from the Shadows for ten years now."

That caught Celestia off guard, her eyes went wide with surprise. "Ten years? That's not possible! Surely I would have noticed if this was happening by now. The earthquakes, the disappearance of my subjects, Persona users active again!"

"Yes, well, we have been doing a good job keeping it all a secret from Equestria as a whole, it hasn't been easy, but we've done our best."

Celestia's eyes narrowed, it was as if she were trying to glare a hole through Court's head now. "The last Persona Users I knew, before Twilight and her friends, tried to destroy all of Equestria. They were friends and family, and I did whatever I had to do to stop them regardless of how much it hurt. So I ask you, right now, why I should trust you? Especially now that you reveal that this has been going on for a decade and you've been hiding it from me."

"That is actually my doing," Elizabeth said as she stepped forward. "I am Elizabeth, I am the Teller of Fortunes and the Traveler of Journeys."

"Wait," Celstia said, eyeing up Elizabeth's dress, her boots, and her hawkish yellow eyes. "That outfit, I've seen something like it before. Do you know of ponies by the name Agero and Agatha?"

Elizabeth pursed her lips in thought, humming to herself before providing an answer. "Those names are not familiar to me, but if they wore garments similar to my own, then I might hazard a guess that they are like me and not of this world."

"Not from... I'm sorry, I don't understand."

"Perhaps we should start from the beginning then," Court Drama suggested. "Elizabeth has taught us many things about the way this world works. Many things she's said still confuse myself and my fellow members of TAROT, but maybe you can understand it better than us. Elizabeth, if you would regale us with your story?"

"It would be my pleasure," Elizabeth began.

"I come from a place between Dream and Reality, Mind and Matter, as my former master would describe it. It is a place that exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time, so long as there are people to be connected to it. The collective unconscious, or to be more specific, I come from the Velvet Room. It is there that my master and his creations, including myself, would help cultivate the power of the Wild Card with contract holders. There have been many contract holders, innumerable even. One of them, I became quite attached to, and when he went away, I set out to find him, abandoning my duties as a Velvet Room attendant. I have been on many a journey ever since, each journey ending in an answer, but never the answer I was searching for.

"Ten years ago, of your time, I happened to stumble on this most wondrous world of yours! The flow of the collective unconscious was strong here, as if it were resonating with thousands of minds, millions even. I believed that such a strong core of spirit would be a good place to start my next journey. When I arrived, I ingratiated myself with the Bohemians of the Caravan. It wasn't that difficult, they loved my fortune telling skills and adored my eccentric storytelling.

"We'd stopped in a valley not far out of Manehatten. The Caravan had planned to stop there for it's usual bounds of gaiety, and to restock out coffers. But one of the children strayed too far off the beaten path and fell into a vast cave system. A number of individuales, myself and Mr. Court Drama included, went looking for the child and descended into the cave. There, I was most surprised to find shadows snooping about. I'd thought they were only tied to one world, but it seems that they've infested many worlds in fact! So I took the lead and dispatched them post haste with my Personas, saving the child and returning to the safety of the Caravan."

Court Drama took up the narrative from here, his face solom. "When Elizabeth explained the Shadows to us, many felt the need to inform you and the guards as soon as possible. However, as she said, Elizabeth advised against it."

"The Shadows are attention seekers as it were," Elizabeth said with a chuckle. "I told Court and the others that the more minds that were aware of the Shadows, the more power they could accumulate. If the ponies of Equestria started hearing voices in the back of their head, they might just chalk it up to everyday anxiety and and worry. But if they knew about the Shadows and their effect on people, everyone would panic at every little stray thought that went through their head, and the misery would just make the Shadow's that much stronger."

"So Elizabeth and I," Court continued. "And a number of members of the Caravan, took it upon ourselves to try and eradicate the Shadows and discover their reason for existing in our world. We set up shop in Manehatten, Elizabeth gave us the designs for devices that allowed us to summon our own Personas, and for the last 10 years we've been to every corner of Equestria in our mission. Since then, we managed to recover some lost tomes that detail the time period before the fall of Luna a thousand years ago, and the identities of the original Arcana, as well as their mortal enemy: The Beast."

"A rather plain and uninspired name if you ask me," Elizabeth said. "I would have called it 'The Great Misery' or 'The Biggest Most Awful Most Tragic event in Equestrian History."

Celestia did not immediately respond, she seemed to enter a sort of meditative trance as she considered what she might do next.

"I guess you were right to try and hide the nature of our work Celestia," Discord said. "Maybe letting Shining Armor, his garishly coloured Wife and all those guards in on the big secret wasn't the smartest idea?"

"The Beast suffered a great blow during the Summer Sun Celebration," Celestia shot back. "I'm not so ignorant as to believe the danger on that front is over, but I do believe our attention should be on the ponies who have accelerated it's return in the first place. The Cloaked Ponies." She turned to look at Court Drama and Elizabeth. "Do you heard of an individual who refers to themselves as 'The Hunger'?"

Elizabeth seemed to go pale for a moment before she pulled out a thick book and started to hoof through it. "I've known only one person whose Arcana was 'The Hunger.' But he cannot be here, it is impossible for a mortal such as he to pass from one world to the next. Did this individual give any other name?"

"No," Celestia said. "Only that they've gone by many names before, none of which we would know."

That did not help Elizabeth's expression.

"Elizabeth?" Court said, putting a hoof to her shoulder. "What is it?"

"There are many entities who claim to have many names," Elizabeth explained, closing her book with a sigh. "None of them very pleasant. Until I know for sure what is pushing these events forward, I could not give you even an inkling of what they could be."

"Well," Court said, looking to Celestia. "I imagine you have many other questions about our efforts over the last ten years, but that is the long and short of it. Would you be willing to trust us enough to join forces?"

"I still have no idea who you are," Celestia said. "I have only your word that you have Equestria's best interests at heart. What if you are in league with the cloaked ponies?
What would I do then?"

"Unfortunately, we have nothing other than our word that we are not your enemies. Why else would we ask you to come here so we could make ourselves plain? We seek to protect Equestria just as you do, and we have the means to do so!"

"...Show me. Show me, as the old phrase goes, the means to overcome life's hardships."

Court sighed, then reached into his pocket to pull out a small device that he then attached like a collar around his neck. On either side was a blue sphere radiating weird energies that Celestia couldn't identify. Elizabeth stepped a bit away and Discord joined her. Court's collar began to buzz and humm with a combination of electrical and magical energies. The air in the hall began to move cyclically around him, he glanced up at the windows with some concern before looking at Celestia.

"Be glad there's some daylight out, otherwise the light show might attract some attention." With a sharp intake of breath, Court then shouted out "ENOCH!!"

Magic exploded out of the collar around Court's neck, accompanied by a loud cracking noise that Celestia worried would carry outside. The familiar energies of a Persona Summoning swirled around the two of them, until a tall figure in white with winged greaves and bracers arrose. A chain was attached to the Persona's neck, flailing around in the gust of energy. On its back were another set of wings, but they were neither feathered nor made to look like bat wings. They were shaped like hoops that had a few spiked points jutting out of the opposite side from where they connected to its body. The figure, Enoch, gave a bow to Celestia, then quickly vanished back into the whirlwind of magic, which dissipated just as quickly. Court seemed completely unaffected by whatever effort he must have put into that brief summoning.

Celestia started to pace after a moment, muttering thoughts to herself. None of the other three thought to interrupt her, though Discord did smirk and summon an egg timer. He wound up the device then handed it to Elizabeth, who took it in her hooves with curiosity and watched as the timer ran down. When it finally dinged, Celestia turned around.

"I have an idea." She then realized what Discord had done and rolled her eyes. "Court, you are to have your Persona users report to me and Shining Armor tomorrow afternoon. You will be invited into the castle, with us as your escorts, to the place where the Shadows lurk. You will show us how you deal with them, and then I will place each of you in the protective custody of the Royal Guard. You will not be allowed to return to the Caravan until after the night of the 8th."

"Ah," Court nodded in understanding. "Then you recognize the significance of that night, and why we've chosen to come now of all times?"

"What?" Celestia said with confusion. Court Drama seemed just as confused.

"You... you do realize that the 8th is a New Moon? And that Shadows are at their strongest then? Because of the lack of yours and Luna's protective lights?"

It was quiet enough that one might be able to hear the world's smallest pin drop. The horror on Celestia's face was almost comical if the situation wasn't so bad. She was only thinking about the coronation of Twilight's castle, and how much she wanted that night go go well. But now she was acutely aware that she had inadvertently planned such a momentous occasion in possibly the single most dangerous time she could have done so. Every un-princess like swear word her mother had ever told her never to utter was now desperately trying to escape her mouth.