//------------------------------//
// III 
// Story: The Influence 
// by GMBlackjack 
//------------------------------//

Twilight regained control of herself after she had already hit the ground. She groaned, shaking her head and standing up, trying to clear her head from the influx of information, but being prevented from thinking clearly by the pain in her wing. She opened it, pain shooting through her side. She let out a soft yell. "That's a bad sprain..." Least it isn't broken.

She looked down at the eye. "You did this, you know."

There was no response, it just continued to stare forward. 

"I'm going to have to watch you... You all? I don't know anymore. How many of you are there in there?" She tapped it. "Hello? Hellooooo?" 

After ten seconds of silence, Twilight sighed. Apparently they couldn't just talk whenever they wanted - or just chose not to. The first made the most sense, admittedly, because they all talked more or less at once. Though it was really annoying - and dangerous - how she stopped moving when the voice - voices - spoke to her. Not to mention she couldn't identify which voice was which - some wanted to help her, some apparently didn't, and others made no sense. She was fairly sure that one talking about fish fingers and custard was the one talking about the pumpkin pie from before... She supposed she could reason that the voices could eat, or at least knew what food was, and since they were talking about fish they probably had meat as part of their diet.

Though that was assuming they were all the same kind of thing. For all she knew they were some council of various races, dragons, ponies, griffons, and otherwise. It was all so confusing.

"Perhaps you could explain yourselves a little better next time?" she asked. "Like, I know you can hear me, and see what I see, so tell me who and what you are? Please?" Silence. "Celestia, I feel like I'm talking to myself."

She gulped - going over what they had said in her head. She didn't see any white square, but she did think she saw the stars out of the corner of her eye again. Were they dangerous? If the voices were wrong about the square, maybe they were wrong about the lights... But could she risk it? What about that witch - or witches - who would show her how she died? Was she destined to die? Darkness protecting her... A heart of some kind... A strange poem about a scholar's tree and being set free.... 

She shook her head, looking down at the eye. "Okay, seriously, what do you mean? You seem to spout a bunch of contradictory and indecisive things, some suggest that I'm the 'chosen one'  or whatever, and others seem to not care whatsoever. What is your deal? Half of you want me to go to the forest, half of you wants me to go to the town, and the other half speaks in vague non sequitur! Why? Why does it matter? You obviously don't know as much as you claim to know, since you keep saying things that blatantly aren't true! I don't see any white square! You messed up the position of the lake! I... I don't know!" She sat down, looking to the sky. "I have no idea..."

Her stomach rumbled. She found herself looking at the tall grass all around her - most of it taller than her. She took a deep breath, thinking for a moment, before opening her mouth and leaning towards the grass. She stopped before she bit down. "Wait. Why am I eating grass? There's a town right over there I don't need to forage! Unless... Unless the town really is untrustworthy..." She shook her head. "No, I can't just go with whatever you all say. You've been wrong before." She stood up, testing her wing to see if she could fly - determining that it would be a bad idea to do so. 

She stood on her hind legs for a moment, locating the town in the distance. She glanced over to the forest, admittedly curious about it. The trees were a dark dark green, and there were huge blue flowering plants visible from where she was. Twilight resolved to check it out later, if an opportunity presented itself - it did look interesting, and felt vaguely like the Everfree. But right now, she was hungry, and she was not going to eat the grass like some homeless pony. 

...Was she homeless now?

No, she'd find a way back home. She just needed to find out where she was. Somehow. She really didn't know how to do that, but she was sure she'd come up with something. She had a long walk ahead of her. 


~~~


Twilight was becoming concerned - she'd been walking for a few hours and the artifact hadn't lit up to say anything. Were they unable to talk? Did they not want to? Was something keeping them? Were they fighting?

"There's no way you can know, Twilight, stop it," she said to herself. "Just get to town. Find out where you are. Then..." She gulped. In all her time walking through the tall grass, she really hadn't come up with much of a plan. It all depended on what the town was like. She hoped the citizens were nice - didn't even have to be ponies, just be nice. 

She hadn't seen much in her journey - nothing but grass, grass, grass, and more grass as she walked through it. She had seen a few bugs - but no large animals, and definitely no giant seven-eyed sharks. How had that thing even survived in that lake? There was no way it could be supported by the limited ecosystem... She would have loved to go back, if she were able. But she was not. 

Twilight's thoughts were interrupted as she came to the edge of the clearing. She poked her head through a wall of grass, getting a closer view of the town. The houses were simple for the most part, though the roofs were all red and pointed. There were a few fields dotted here and there growing rice and other crops, all tended by ponies of all three races. Many of the farming earth ponies wore strange, pointed hats that resembled flattened cones that did an amazing job at keeping the sun out of their eyes. The place wasn't as bright as Ponyville, but most of the ponies were smiling, and that said something. 

Then one citizen caught her eye - a long, green dragon, snakelike in appearance, was sleeping in the center of town. It was unlike any dragon she had ever seen - no wings whatsoever, and a kind of wispy mane surrounded its neck. The ponies didn't seem to care about its presence, but Twilight still felt nervous looking at it. 

"Oh don't worry, that's just Diorite, he won't hurt you unless you try to hurt us." A chipper voice said to Twilight's left. 

Twilight receded into the grass, looking out with just her muzzle and eyes. She saw a white pegasus mare standing nearby, a warm smile on her face. Her mane was pink and done up in a ponytail, a single stripe of blue running through it. "Oh don't be scared! We don't bite! Hi! I'm Prancey! Who're you?"

"I..." Twilight felt a warmness in her chest. Why now? "Uh... hold on a sec-"

Her mind was flooded once more...