//------------------------------//
// Going the wrong way down a one way path. 
// Story: Ponysona: Arcana Crusaders 
// by Phoenix Kitten 
//------------------------------//

"So...." Applebloom spoke up. "Which way do we go?"

"I say we go left." Silver Spoon nodded, pointing her sword down a path full of Shadow's. "The path with the most resistance is usually the correct one."

"I say we go right." Sunny shrugged in the direction of a mostly empty passage way. "They weren't captured,so they'd probably have fled down the path of least resistance."

Sweetie groaned at the non-sensical scribblings that passed for a road sign. "Twist...any luck finding them?"

"No, thorry Thweetie... Heliogabaluth ith trying but thith plathe ith mathive." The earthponies voice echoed around Sweetie's skull.

"Right." Sweetie sighed. "Well I hope you can track two teams at once."
There was a pause from Twist's end. "Twist?"

"What? Oh, thorry. Thcootaloo and Diamond Tiara are having a bit of trouble with a large thadow."

"Three teams then." Sweetie corrected herself. "Sorry to put more strain on you,but we hit a forked path."

"It'th okay, I'll handle it."

"If you say so, I'll tell the others to take it easy on communications unless necessary." The unicorn nodded. "Crusaders!"
The three fillies snapped to and cantered over to her. "We're splitting up. Applebloom,you take Sunny down the right path." She ordered, passing a sack of supplies to the earthpony. "Your Persona can heal and I've just given you most of the mana restoring items. Silver and I will take the healing items and head down the left path, and keep communications to Twist as low as possible, emergency situations only. Finding one or both of our targets counts."

"Got it." Applebloom nodded as she stowed the supplies in her saddlebags. "Come on Sunny, looks like clear sailin' fer us. Yee haw!" she cheered before galloping down the path, Sunny hot on her hooves.

Sweetie turned her attention to the earthpony still with her. "Ready to kick some ass?"

Silver drew her sword and smiled. "Always."





"Well... we certainly got the more fun path!" Sweetie grunted as she backflipped over a small puddle shadow, watching it get annihilated by the shell of the giant tank Shadow that had attacked the two of them. "I swear to the sun, I have no idea what I did to piss these things off."

Silver Spoon giggled as she swept her sword low and cut the legs off a large robot bringing it up to block the downstrike from the Shadow's own sword. "Maybe they like yo- whoa!" she stumbled back from the force of blocking the robots followup slash, her sword getting obliterated by the next shell from the tank's cannon.

"Need some help Silver?" Sweetie asked as she charged the tank, her tonfa's flashing into being, the aura from her horn lighting up the smoke from the explosion of the shell.

"I'm good." the earthpony replied as she sidestepped the next swing, bucking the robot's wrist and disarming it. "Khione! Bring ice to all!" She cried out as she bucked the robot's chest through her Persona card, the ice fairy stabbing her sword into the ground, causing ice pillars to erupt from under the Shadows, impaling them and knocking the robot's sword into the air.
In one motion Silver Spoon leaped up and grabbed the sword with both hooves, bringing it down to perfectly bisect the robot, landing and sheathing her new sword.

"Nice moves." Sweetie complimented from the end of the tank's twisted barrel, the machine gun off the turret hovering in her magic.

"Thanks." Silver panted slightly. "I see you got a new toy as well."

Sweetie chuckled. "This thing? No, it's half empty already, I just grabbed it cause I cut it off with my tonfa and needed something to hold off the small fry. I'll keep it until it's empty though."





Applebloom and Sunny had both slowed to a trot as they continued down the road, casually batting aside any Shadow that tried to attack them.

"Ah kinda expected them to get stronger as we continued on our way." Applebloom spoke up as she skewered a dolphin made of paper scrolls with her quarter staff.

"I'm not complaining." Sunny shrugged as she had Trumpeter incinerate a green and blue scale with an Agidyne. "They're probably all zeroing in on Sweetie and Silver Spoon right now."

"Ah wonder...do you see that Sunny?" The earthpony pointed with her free hoof towards a cross roads a little further up from them.

The pegasus followed her friends hoof, her eyes coming to rest on weird lump in the middle of the cross road. "I think I can make that shot.." she said, placing her soccer ball on the ground in front of her.

"Not yet." Applebloom held her hoof up to stop the pegasus striker and began trotting towards the lump. "If it turns hostile send it packin'."

"Alright." Sunny shrugged, resting her hoof on the ball to keep it from rolling away. "Just yell if you need any help."

As Applebloom got closer to the lump she squinted, trying to make out more details. "It looks kinda familiar..." she mumbled. "Twist, can ya hear me?"
Silence reigned for a few seconds. "Tammy?"

"Thorry Anne. I'm here, Thcootaloo and Diamond are getting thwamped over here, I've had to call back Thweetie and Thilver but they got thidetracked by more Thadowth. What do you need?" Twist's voice echoed around Applebloom's head.

"Sunny and Ah found somethin'. If ya'll can move closer to us..."

"Twist, do it. Silver and I are diverting to Applebloom and Sunny. There are a lot of Shadow's heading their way and we're going to need all hooves on deck to fight them off." Sweetie's voice suddenly sounded through the earthponies head.

"All right... We'll get moving, thee you all there." Twist said before cutting the connection.

Applebloom hardly noticed the latter half of the conversation as she stared at the lump up close. "How did this happen? She was just fine on Friday." she breathed as she looked down at the purple pony laying on the ground in front of her. "Miss Cheerilee..."
She was snapped out of her shock as the sounds of Shadows from every direction and Sunny galloping up behind her.

"Come on Applebloom, we gotta move or we're gonna be feeling like the net in a penalty shoot out."

"Hold on Sunny... we have to wait for Sweetie and the others." the earthpony spoke up as four large tank Shadow's aimed their turrets down each road and fired.
Applebloom pulled a small emerald from the bag Sweetie gave her and dropped it on the ground and stomped on it...