//------------------------------//
// XII 
// Story: The Influence 
// by GMSeskii 
//------------------------------//

Twilight opened her eyes. "I hope you got something out of that." 

The entity paid her no mind, but tingled with excitement from what it heard, sparking with energies Twilight could only describe as purple waves. 

"Confusion," it said, "you all have confusion. Curious - it was meant to remove that. The purpose is not as intended... Perhaps you are correct, an exchange of information will accomplish more. You all speak of being unable to inform me of anything... And yet... Your discussions, your mere talks of Primaries, writers, universes, and abominations - that is what I requested. It comes as no surprise to me that the one I have the most questions about is the one you confuse me with - This Sweeper, G. M. Blackjack... The nature of this world in and of itself, and it's place among the apparent many, many others..."

Twilight cocked her head. "You... Want to find Blackjack?"

The entity, once again, didn't dignify her with even paying attention. "I, am not the Sweeper, the Primary, or anything of the sort. I am a being of this world, completely confined by the boundaries of the rules. I am Ine. In many ways, I am just another pawn in this game, like yourselves... The difference being I care not for the insignificants."

"Hey!" Twilight yelled.

Ine swirled around, looking at the Eye. "You know, you weren't even supposed to be here. You were supposed to be something completely different. An answer - not a pack of questions..." Ine moved back, flashing. "As a respectful gesture, I will answer your... questions as I see fit. But I will demand answers. I wish to know as much as possible about this G. M. Blackjack - and what threat it poses to my world as the Sweeper. I wish to know why this Twilight was chosen, why she was deemed the best for the role. And I wish to know of the exact process by which universes like my own are created - and how they opreate."

Twilight blinked - did this Ine really want those things? What point would they serve - Twilight had gotten a taste of it over the last few weeks, and it drove her rather crazy!

"As to your questions... I am indeed related to the other spirits you have seen, Alderan is, in fact, a being of a similar level to mine. That thing in the forest was so far beneath us it is inconsequential. You are, in fact, in the past - the past for the 'being' you are attached to. And as for you, Zen, who is like God... You are the closest - so your question. How the being arrived here... It was not my doing, I am only related to the Eye. A ritual was performed by Alderan at the order of another to bring her here, for a purpose of which I am uncertain. I do not think the reason is important - the flow of information continues regardless of the intention."

Twilight blinked - she was brought here on purpose. By that Alderan - and... someone else. Should she investigate? Could she investigate?

Ine drifted away. "You are the Influence - and you have been given a woefully inadequate tool by which to access this world. But the nature of the ritual insisted that the vessel brought forth would have been your choice - the one best suited. Why is that? I am not sure you know..."

And with that the dream ended. Twilight sat up in bed, a little sweaty, but not panicked. The sun was just barely rising, and Fluttershy was at the window, gazing out into the distance.

"...The dream creature came back. Apparently it's named... Ine." Twilight rubbed her head. "Ow..."

Fluttershy turned around. "Oh! You're awake - good. ...Did you learn anything?"

"Well... Ine really doesn't care about me, thinks I'm... beneath it. Like I'm not important and only the Influence itself is..."

"It may just have a different perspective. Plus, you don't have to listen to it," Fluttershy said.

"...I think I do. It's asking them a lot of quesitons, about how the world works, about Blackjack, about universes..." Twilight sighed. "I... Think I can handle those answers myself, but won't they be a bit... Distracting, I wonder?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "It's not something to worry about."

"It might, Fluttershy - there may be this giant Star out there by the name of Corot that could destory Celestia! Who knows what that'd do?!"

"...I don't know, Twilight. How about we just focus on trying to find our way back home first...?"

"Yeah... To the desert. Have to get out before Infinity finds us - they don't trust her either. Well... Actually Akumakira finds it confusing that we're avoiding her. Uh... Akumakira? It's because I don't know how they'll react to me moving the sun, to me being from the future, to all this mess... Diorite has already shown sucpicion, and... well I don't want to chance it." She walked over to her things, threw on the cloak, and looked at the map. "It's a few hours fly from here - the band - we'll have to prepare for it."

"I think we should to to Wound's place - have her help us get the supplies," Fluttershy said.

"Good idea... I should talk to them first though."

Fluttershy sat down. "Take your time."

Twilight took a breath and looked down at the Witch's Eye. "Well guys, here we are, preparing to set out on the next adventure. Some of you are messing with me, and some of you are trying to help. Thank you for all this trying - but, it's obvious now that Ine is not Blackjack. In fact I think... it? he? she? I... Nevermind - might actually be helpful. I don't think we can trust her - but I think she literally doesn't care about what we care about. Key, Ponygood... Both of you could stand to take a moment and think about your actions. Key, I don't mind what Ponygood told me - it hasn't happened here, and frankly, I've already got death on the mind far too much. Ponygood, you do come across as... Crass. Very crass. And well - I think some of you were having two to three conversations at once? That... Was pretty confusing at times, admittedly. I don't know if that's something you can fix or not..." She frowned. "What are upvotes?"

Fluttershy blinked. "...Voting upwards?"

"...Maybe? I don't know." Twilight shrugged. "There's a lot of weird things going on. And Twinkle? I'm going to call you Twinkle because that's the first thing you said - I had to come up with Glimmer on the spot. I was already using it, so... Yeah. It's here now. Sorry if it's confusing, but you usually call Starlight by, well, 'Starlight.' Shouldn't be too much of an issue. And Zen... Thank you for doing what you do, and being reasonable. Now..." She turned to Fluttershy. "I'm teleporting us to Wound's house. Prepare yourself."

They were gone in a flash - and appeared right inside Woudn's front door. Wound laying on top of a clockwork lizard, sleeping.

Fluttershy blinked. "...She looks tired."

"Clockwork can't be easy," Twilight said. "Hey, uh... Wound?"

Wound woke up like a spring - shooting up into the air elastically, panic in her face. "Not my eyes!"

"Uh..." Twilight said, backing up.

"Oh." Wound Dream relaxed the instant she saw them. "Just you. Okay... Sorry about that, I never get good sleep at all."

"You okay?"

"Eh, side effect of living in a house filled with off-time clockwork machines." Wound Dream shrugged. "...Why are you in my house?"

"Well..." Twilight bit her lip. "We're going to leave town, and we want to do so without Infinity chasing us down."

"Ah. I'll go find Prancey... What do you need?"

"Supplies for a journey, and... Well I think that's it, unless you can think of any other way to prepare us for the desert."

Wound Dream nodded. "Eh, won't be too hard to grab. Might even get it for free..." She walked to the front door, heading out.

"Wound?" Twilight said.

"Hmm?"

"Thanks. Really, you and Prancey have been really kind."

Wound smiled. "I try. Until then." She left the two mares from another time in her house. They spent the time listening to the tick tick ticking of clockwork. 

Twilight took out the map. "There appears to be one large city on the edge of the Bands... Acket. We should probably head there. If we can't cross... It appears there's a pair of border towns, Onyx and Uler, over here. The road into the Lost Desert goes through the Moissan city of... Chrysocholla."

"That looks pretty close to that star there - their capital right?"

"Yeah.... Heildor. I only hope the dogs will let us through their nation." She looked closer at the Moissan nation - there were a few larger cities marked, and a couple points of interest - the Pillar of Lore, the Eternal Mine, Mt Pyre - but it was a lot less detailed than the areas of Peran. The Lost Desert was even worse - besides the band, there were only two places marked - a dot called Fosis, and a big question mark towards the upper end of the map labeled Estur. "Estur..." She frowned - that sounded vaguely familiar. 

"Does that mean anything?"

"I don't know..." Twilight checked the map for other question marks - there was another on the complete opposite side of the map, in the southwest sea, labeled Frau. The name didn't sound familiar at all. "Why put a question mark on a map of the known world...?"

Prancey barreled in at that moment, dumping a pair of saddlebags on Fluttershy's back. "You have water, rations, and detailed maps of the bigger cities! Oh, and seventy yuan, just to get you started out there. Consider it payment for the powder you got me!"

Twilight blinked. "That was fast..."

"I'm a fast pony."

Wound Dream appeared in the doorway, panting. "No... Kidding..."

Prancey saluted. "Well, there you are! Off! Off into the night!"

"It's morning, Prancey," Wound said.

Prancey rolled her eyes. "Bah, doesn't matter. Get going you two!"

Twilight smiled. "It was nice to meet you. If I can.. I'll come back to visit. ...Ready Fluttershy?"

"...Sure."

Twilight lit her horn - and they teleported to the outskirts of town. Twilight glanced behind them - and saw Diorite floating above the town, looking at them. Fear shot through Twilight - his eyes were narrow, and his expression untrusting. But her fears were put to rest when he nodded, and waved them off. 

Twilight waved back with a smile on her face. She removed her cloak, spread her wings, and took to the skies, Fluttershy behind her.

There was no sign of Alderan or Infinity.


~~~


They left the plains behind quickly - the grass turned to dirt filled with various shrubs, a few of which moved on their own. They passed a few small towns overhead, a few ponies below noticing them, but not caring. A few dragons were in-flight as well, passing them by without so much as a glance. Most were the lung variety Diorite was - but there were a few interesting variations. One was simply a serpent without wings or limbs, while another had only wings. They varied extremely in size - though none approached the tremendous girth of Dragonlord Torch. 

"There!" Fluttershy said, sometime after noon. "I see the desert!"

Twilight turned her head - sure enough, a few miles ahead of them on the horizon was an intense expanse of sand. Twilight saw dune after dune in the dry field, but no structures of any kind - she could see the city of Acket though, a semicircular set of structures, fixed around the edge of the desert itself, only a few long sections stretching into the sands - like a predatory claw tearing into the skin of some sandy beast. Dozens of dragons flew over the towers of Acket, and who knew how many others walked in the streets. 

That wasn't their first stop though - they were going to check out the band.

Twilight frowned. "I can't see anything but normal desert..."

"The edge is pretty straight. That's not normal."

"Mmm..." Twilight and Fluttershy set down at the edge of the sand - only then could they see the band. From above, it just looked like another part of the sand dunes. But from the ground...

Twilight gawked. "What in the..."

The sand dunes they saw from above were resting atop of something completely different - a translucent magical forcefield that rippled with colors from blue to purple stood in front of them, several stories high. The field sparked with lights, but was otherwise substanceless, giving the sand the appearance of resting on nothing. Only, the sand wasn't resting - looking from the bottom, Twilight could see the sand particles dancing, rippling, and shifting with ever increasing energies. One sand particle interacted with a sparkling light directly - and transformed into a bolt of blue lightning that shot into the sky, spraying sand everywhere - sand that somehow didn't fall on the side of the band Fluttershy and Twilight were.

"What in..." Twilight took a few steps back. "What is this?"

Fluttershy gave her a 'don't look at me!' look.

Twilight's curiosity beat out her fear rather quickly - she inched closer to the band, looking down. The forcefield went far, far beneath the earth - the ground she was standing on had a sharp, flat edge. Far, far in the depths, she thought she could see complex circuitry, brimming with powerful magics. 

"What in Equestria is this? What could it be FOR?" She shook her head. "Bizarre..."

"Now we know why it's dangerous. Random lightning bolts of energy from the ground."

Twilight bit her lip. "I think I could deflect them... But taking you over top with me could be risky..."

"Hmm..." Fluttershy said. Her eyes went wide the moment the Witch's Eye lit up.

"Oh." Twilight took a few steps back from the band and closed her eyes. "Here we go..."