Ponysona 4, the Campaign.

The driver takes the damage easily, not bothering with doing anything other than standing in front of the effigy, almost protective of the effigy on the ground.

Arachna and Shiro's eyes both widen as he runs over to the effigy, worried. "W-what. T-this is Tilt?!"

Spoiler:

The Tilt who was beating up the chariot grits it's teeth. "What's wrong with you, all she does is hold me back! I can't let her stop me from doing my best!"

Tilt flops her ears over her eyes, sobbing quietly. "Namo guan shi yin pusa... namo guan shi yin pusa, namo guan shi yin pusa, namo guan shi yin pusa..." she prays, begging for the intercession of the goddess of mercy.

"WAIT WHAT?!?!?!?" Zeela yells shocked to her core at this turn of events.

Melody heard what was said, and stopped...Blinked, and paused for a moment. "Wait, what!? No way, that doesn't make any sense...?" She paused, approaching the effigy, seeming confused. "But, if this is Tilt, then who have we been-...Oh...Buck...Me..." she murmured, her eyes widening...No, it couldn't be...That sucked...No, had they been so easily tricked...!? No, no, no...They came to save Tilt and Star, not help their Shadows replace them! This wasn't right! She pulled herself out of her thoughts together, looking at the effigy, narrowing her eyes as she tried to focus, paying close attention to her emotions, looking for any sign of deceit. "Okay, okay...Are you the real one, or the Shadow? How did this happen...?" she asked, more than a little shaken, and flat-out refusing to continue fighting until this was resolved...

Spoiler:

Zeela just goes into fetal posion having horrible flashbacks of that fight she had in Greendale... "Not-again-not-again-not-again-not-again..." She keeps muttering to herself as her mind fully realized what this latest revial means.

"I'm me! I don't know what a shadow is! You mean whatever the other thing said? No! I'm me, not it! It's it! I don't know what's going on! I fell asleep, and I woke up here, and there was a doppelganger and then I was back there... The smoke tied me up, and chained me into this..." she mumbles, not opening her eyes, "Whatever offense I have caused, spirits, please forgive me, I will pay it back a hundredfold!"

"Oh buck me...I didn't realize..." She swore again, looking at the other Tilt... "Oh no, then...Okay, uhm, long story short...Uhm, basically, that other you...The one we were helping by mistake...That's...Uhm, the ugliest parts of you, made manifest by some twisted magic in this place...Uhm, way I understand it, you gotta accept it, or it's just gonna keep lashing out like this...D-Do you understand that part, at least?" She looked over at Zeela, seeing how upset she was..."Zeela...!? C-Calm down, please...! We messed up bad, b-but...I think we can still salvage this..." She felt like a monster right now, though...They'd been beating the tar out of an innocent by mistake...

((I guess that's question 3, but the first two were the relevant ones.))

"No! I don't know what's going on! I just want to wake up!" she wails. She was terrified for her life, she didn't know what was going on, she didn't know why these ponies were trying to kill her, why she had to go through that again. The apparent state of panic spreading through her erstwhile attackers wasn't helping much.

"Huh.... so like.... mares.... do I squish it?" Brash says a bit confused and indicates False Tilt.

"There is NO way I'm letting you stop me, or anypony." The shadow glares and takes a runner's stance.

Zeela slowly regains herself... Then said to the Shadow "Nonono... Let's not start fighting again... Let's just talk... "

"...I'm really sorry, but until you accept that it's part of yourself, you're gonna be trapped in this nightmare...It's okay...Everypony has a part of them like this..." Melody looked up at Brash and the Shadow Tilt..."Ah...Give her a chance to deal with it...If not, then...Yeah, You'll probably need to make with the smashing..." She sighed a bit, trying to help Ping to her hooves..."It's your show...You've gotta be the one to deliver the final solo, we're just here to help...even if it took us a bit to figure out who we were helping...Sorry..." She glanced at Zeela, grateful she was calmer, at least.

Icing smiles. A genuine smile, not a storefront one. He faces not the crowd, but the sky. He clops his hooves against the ground, softly. He speaks to the air. "Kheh heh... Star, that was adeptly done. Your... carnivale has gained a fan."

A shake of his head brings his expression back to his normal melancholy before facing the Tilts. "If it helps, you are not dreaming. In dreams, pain is simulated through fear and unpleasantness, but not a sharp feeling. You are quite awake, as some of these ponies have helped show you through their accidental demonstrations." Icing never did actually assault the machine, having done no damage to anything. If he could play the pacifist card, he would.

"I still do not understand how in a world with Nightmare Moon able to eat pony souls who venture out at night alone, ponies insist on something this mundane being a dream."

Yeah, he's already jaded.

Great. About to die and I'm being talked down to by a ponce. thinks Tilt. Still, it takes her mind off the fear of death, and it helps her... focus. Focus on the words of the singer talking to her. Focus on the smell of the five ponies standing nearby - no, this definitely wasn't a dream, nopony smelt familiar at all.

She swallows her fear, and lets Melody pick her up. She gives her shadow a long look, then turns back to Melody.

"You're wrong," she tells her, softly, "she's not the ugliest part of me," Tilt pauses and gulps, "she might just be the most important part."

Balling up her resolve, she walks towards her shadow.

"I'm scared. I've always been scared. Scared that life would swerve, and end everything before I can make it to the finish. Scared that somepony with power would judge me unseemly, and close the door to our dreams. But you're me. I know you're me. You're the part of me that knows I can win, no matter what stands in my way - No, you're the part that knows we're the best, that we can win, no matter what stands in our way. You're the part that saved me, when the other... shadow attacked me." She touches the driver, still standing resolutely in front of her - defending her, even, "you were my strength when... the crash happened. You were the part of me who held on."

"I shouldn't have rejected you just because Neighpon doesn't like to hear it. I'm you. You're me. I just lost sight of that."

The shadow seems ready to fight at Tilt's second sentence, but the moment she admits it, the shadow stops with wide eyes when she says 'most important'. The shadow nods slightly, starting to smile as Tilt accepts it, and walking slowly towards her and melody. The effigy starts falling apart in clock pieces as Tilt finishes, revealing her fully to the rest of the party. The Driver turns to Tilt as the shadow stands right in front of her, and both bow to her, smiling. The shadow walks into the driver and in a burst of blue light, it turns into a large, ghostly red unicorn stallion, fire red eyes burning with determination, flames on its hooves and armor. The armor seems to have been made up of pieces of the chariot that trapped Tilt, and the hooves have small wheels on them. The unicorn stands there for a short second, smiling down at Tilt before fading into a small card holding a wheel on the face.

Tilt gained the Persona: Mars.

Spoiler:

The card disappears and everypony is filled with adrenaline and energy.

Spoiler:

Shiro hugs Tilt and starts apologizing profusely for not seeing that sooner, for not stopping them when he heard the shadow tone switch from her to the shadow...

Zeela takes a heavy sigh. "That went better then feared... Now to find and save Star..."

"Well, nice to meet you Full Tilt. In case you didn't catch it before, my name is Brash Landing." he says before turning to have his drones disassemble the giant hand. After a moment he says "Ah!" and puts one hoof to the other (in an "I just had an idea" gesture) and orders them to start using some of the parts to modify another drone. When that's finished, leaving a slightly larger than normal drone that looks transparent as if it's made of glass, he tells it, "Find Star Power." and it flies off, just passing through walls and objects as if they aren't even there.

---

Personal Project: 18
Arcane Eye Perception: 5 + 30 + 13 = 48

Melody smiled a bit, seeing the situation resolved for the moment, taking a deep breath to calm herself as well..."I'm glad that's over...Uhm, nice to meet you, I'm Charming Melody..." She nodded to Tilt, grinning a bit before looking at the others...She was pretty impressed at what Brash had done...It was amazing, how had he accomplished such a feat off the top of his head...! She'd have to ask how later...But Zeela seemed to be rattled still, and she walked over to her, lowering her voice a bit. "Hey...We all messed up there, but at least we figured out the truth before it was too late, right? I know it's small comfort, but we're here for you, okay...? Take a moment, but remember, you're not alone...Not this time...You got that?" She nudged Zeela gently in the side to try and reaffirm her point.

Zeela nods. "Yeah..." And she thinks to herself. "What would Dad do in this type of scenario? He'd try to keep on, keeping on... Yeah... So just try to be like dad... Keep that inner fire burning strong!" In her self-help thoughts her coat then starts to flare up on fire, not that she noticed such an action yet... "Yeah... Not alone... Thank's Mel..."

what just happened:

Tilt pants with relief, wriggling out from under Shiro's death grip, and rubbing the remnants of her tears out of her coat.. Finally, she smiles to the others. "It was nice to meet me too, I guess," she laughs, more from exhaustion than any humour, "but thank you. I don't know if I'd have survived if you weren't here."

"Thank you Brash, thank you Charming, thank you everypony, I'm in your debt," she still doesn't know everypony's names, but she thanks the ones she does know. She walks over to Zeela, still smouldering, and taps her on the shoulder. "I don't know your name, but thank you. You all came to rescue me, and for that, I'm grateful." she tells her, before stepping away to give her room to ignite safely.

"If this isn't a dream, what is this? What's going on?" she asks, after a moment, leaning against a wall to recentre herself.

Spoiler:

"I'm Zeela..." The Winged Zebra that was on fire said confused and totally unaware to what Full Tilt was talking about right now.

George goes up to Full tilt and starts shining a small penlight in front of her.
"If you can just follow the light please. The short version is that we came to this place to help anypony we found."

Tilt follows the light. "And what is this place? Give me the long version, the least I can do for saving me is help out."

She glances briefly at the winged zebra. "Hey... Zeela? Don't take this the wrong way, but... is being on fire a normal thing?"