Sweetie rolled over before teleporting a few feet into the air. She landed heavily with a loud klong sound as she bounced off the giant vehicle.
She was barely able to keep herself awake as she flung her tonfa into the armor plating on the turret,using her magic to hang on for dear life.
"Girlth... I hate to put a ruth on thingth but Thweetie ith barely conthiouth right now." Twist reported as the rest of the group covered Applebloom and Cheerilee.
"I got her!" Diamond called out. "Silver,can you handle two at once?"
"No problem." Silver smirked as she drew her new sword.
The pink earthpony nodded and galloped away from her section, snatching up the turret gun that had been left near Applebloom with her mouth as she went.
She exchanged nods with Scootaloo as she barreled down the pegasi's pathway spraying tiny shards of ice from the Shadow weapon in her hooves, scoring a lucky hit on one of the vehicular Shadows outside the intersection and causing it to collapse in on itself in a puff of black mist.
The spent weapon clattered to the ground and disappeared in it's own puff of mist as Diamond pulled her great sword from her back and charged the nearest Shadow with a battle cry, her charge matched by Lakshmi as she shoulder charged through her Persona card, the platinum skinned sylph with wings of crystal and a dress comprised of interlocking amethysts letting the light refract off the facets of her dress and wings to create blasts of white lighting that killed any Shadow foolish enough to get close.
"She is.... scary strong." Scootaloo blinked. "Stronger than Applebloom even."
"Ah highly doubt that." the yellow earthpony deadpanned.
Sunny watched impassively as she kept her side clear of Shadows.
---
Sweetie was vaguely aware of falling to the ground as the Shadow she was hooked to exploded into mist before a pink pony shaped blur moved into her vision.
She thought she could hear something but it felt like her ears were full of cotton, she tried to sit up but it felt like she was underwater and her muscles ached.
"-eyes open Swee-" She heard the blur say. "-loo, do-"
It was getting harder for her to hear and see, but she managed to spot the Shadow aim it's cannon at her and the blur.
With a supreme effort she sat up and pushed the blur away before she heard a muffled whump and was vaguely aware that she had started flying through the air shortly after, though the impact with the wall shook all the cotton from her head and ears.
She suddenly became acutely aware of the fact she couldn't feel... much of anything on the left side of her body aside from a roaring sensation of pain.
She managed to guide her gaze to her unresponsive left half and noticed that both her foreleg and hindleg were missing, bloody stumps connected to her shoulder and flank where her legs used to be.
She supposed that given the case she should have been screaming and writhing in pain, but really... all she could do was laugh.
It was wet and interspersed with fits of hacking and coughing but she was laughing, at least up until she started coughing up blood, prompting her to just slump against the wall and watch her friends slowly get overwhelmed by the influx of Shadows.
Her vision slowly began to turn black as she watched Sunny get skewered by a dancer and Scootaloo get electrocuted by a large mare sat atop a floating pyramid.
By the time Applebloom got gibbed by a pair of dice suicide bombing her, her vision was barely a line.
Her last sight before she breathed her last was a beaten and bloody Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon getting flayed by a whirlwind conjured by a small scale.
---
"Hey... wake up." A sharp voice rang through Sweetie's ears. It was like someone had carved a dagger out of ice and was poking her ears with it. "Well... I guess wake up is the wrong term. How about you open your eyes."
It took a monumental effort, but she managed to do just that, and after everything stopped being bright lights and blurs she noticed she was on what looked like a road, tinted with blue lights and coated in an endless fog, in the distance she could just make out a pair of red lights that seemed to be getting further away every second.
"Where..." She started before the voice cut her off.
"Hey. Turn around, it's rude not to look at the person talking to you." When the young unicorn did she noticed a human girl had been standing behind her.
The girl was wearing what looked to her like a sleeveless shirt with a black tie over the top, her neck adorned with a red choker that had a gold lock pendant attached to it.
A blue cap that she could only describe as belonging to a papercolt sat on her raven black hair, a gold pin with a large V engraved on the front of it sitting just above the brim.
Her arms where wrapped in long fingerless gloves covered in red and black stripes that stopped just before her shoulders, her right arm clutching the strap of a blue shoulder bag with a golden circle clasp.
Try as she might though, Sweetie couldn't see through the fog to get a good look at the girls lower half, though her silver eyes looked both annoyed and disinterested.
"That's better. Hey. Names Marie. I guess I'm like your personal Record Keeper or something." The girl said, a hint of boredom in her voice.
"Record Keeper? Where am I?" the unicorn managed to finish her questions this time.
Marie shrugged slightly. "Beats me. The nose just told me to wait here for someone to come by and then send her on her way. Though if you're anything like me, you just came from a bad universe."
"A bad universe?" Sweetie cocked her head.
The girl nodded. "Yeah, like me." She made some grand gesture with her arms. "The nose says that there are all these universes out there that hold different versions of all of us. Some of us succeed, others, like you and me, fail."
"Oh.." Sweetie sagged, her ears drooping as she remembered what happened. "I got me and my friends killed..."
Marie just nodded impassively. "Yeah, you got your shit pushed in pretty good alright." she said, which earned her a glare from the filly.
"But, like everyone else who failed, you get a second chance, and it just so happens there's an opening in another universe for a displaced soul like you."
"What?" Sweetie blinked.
"Another you lost her soul to a Mudoon from a Shadow, so her body is just empty. I can send you to take over her body and resume where she left off." Marie explained. "There will be a few differences in this universe though, but it comes with a little bonus."
"What sort of bonus?" The unicorn asked.
"Well.. I can only do it once a week, and it doesn't roll over, but..." Marie began. "If you die in that universe, in that body, and you've stood in a circle of blue butterflies that you find in odd places, like your room or your hideout, then I can reset time to that point and give you a second chance. But like I said, once a week only and they don't stack. If you want more chances, better hope you have some revival items or one of your friends knows a revival skill."
"I...see... I guess it'll make more sense once I've seen it." Sweetie nodded slowly. "But... alright."
"Cool." the girl nodded, a small smile flickering across her face for a fraction of a second as she rummaged around her bag and pulled a Persona card from it's depths, which she then placed on the ground. "Alright, stand on this."
Sweetie did as she was told and the card expanded, the Gemini mask flashed as she felt her magic contort somewhat.
"And there, you should be able to use the Persona the other you had now as well, I think you'll find it a lot easier to use anyway." Marie explained. "See you later I guess. I'll be in the Velvet Room with the professor and his assistant if you need to talk to me again."
Sweetie blinked as the whole world turned white....
---
"Hey... She's awake!" A voice called out as Sweetie opened her eyes again. As she sat up she noticed her friends, and a few more surrounding her.
"How long was I out?" She asked as she slowly got to her hooves.
"Only about theven minuteth." Another voice, one that was undeniably Twist spoke up.
"Incoming Crusaders!" Diamond Tiara's voice rang out as everypony readied their weapons.
Sweetie smirked as she rolled her shoulders and flared her magic. 'not gonna let my friends down again. I'm here, I'm alive and I'm..' "In command! Crusaders! Standard formation! Silver Spoon, Applebloom, Scootaloo, with me! Diamond Tiara, you're in charge of Sunny, Dewey and Icing!"
Everyone stared at her in shock as a pair of tonfa made of magic appeared on her forelegs.
The white unicorn noticed another short sword on the ground where she had been laying. With nary a thought she picked it up with her magic and levitated it to Silver Spoon. "Twice the swords, twice the fun." She smiled as everypony glanced at her horn and her flank, noting her newly appeared Cutie Mark.
"Sweetie, somethin's a bit different about ya... but we'll discuss that later." Applebloom smiled. "You heard the filly Crusaders! Let's kick some flank!"
Sweetie watched as Diamonds group surrounded a group of Shadows and started fighting.
"We aren't gonna let Diamond Tiara's group beat us are we girls?" She smirked.
"No way!" Scootaloo yelled out.
"Ah don't think so." Applebloom agreed.
"Nuh uh!" Silver Spoon echoed.
"That's what I thought. Now.... let's go all out!" Sweetie cheered as she lead her group into a headlong charge.
