The Influence

by GMBlackjack


IX

Twilight took a deep breath, shoved what the Influence had said away into the recesses of her mind for later, and opened her eyes.

Infinity was staring right at her. "Where did you go?"

"It's not important-" Wound began.

"It is very important. Very very very. Never seen something like that before. What does that eye thing do? Where'd you find it? What-"

Fluttershy coughed. "I think Twilight needs some space right now. I'm sure she'll come talk to you in a minute, answer all the questions she wants."

Infinity frowned. "I don't think so, all you mysterious types have the chance of just vanishing the moment I turn my back! The two-headed dragon? Gone! The speaking spirit? Gone! The Oracle? High tailed it out of here! I am not letting something else go-"

Prancey threw some of the sleep powder on Infinity. Her eyes rolled back into her skull and she fell to the ground, snoring louder than a pig.

Twilight blinked. "...Well, thanks."

"Dooooon't mention it!" Prancey said. "So, you wanna go back to your rooooooom?"

"Yeah... Fluttershy and I need to talk. We just got out of the forest, after all." She gulped, glancing at Fluttershy. Not real? No... no that's absurd, they were right, it was absurd.

Prancey dragged them to the inn and threw them inside. "Have fun you two!" She winked and left.

Page looked up at the two of them a second later. "...Prancey still paying your rent?"

"I assume so," Twilight said.

"Fair enough. No food or drink though. Just the room. Not taking any chances with her."

Fluttershy nodded. "It's okay, we just need a place to talk in private for a moment. Thank you for your hospitality."

Page shrugged. "I rarely get complimented for that."

Fluttershy frowned. She got the feeling that wasn't a 'thank you.' "Er... Okay."

They returned to Twilight's room, and Twilight promptly rammed her face into a pillow and yelled out her bent up frustration.

"Oh dear, what is it this time?"

"About seventeen different things!" Twilight said, grabbing her head. We've got some new voices, some voices that may or may not be from another universe, and Shutter, Ponygood, Zen, and Akumakami have all gotten into some kind of fight about what's going on..." She sighed. "And all of them seem very concerned and serious - and they disagree..." She sat down on the bed.

"...Walk through it with me, okay?"

"...Okay. Some of them wanted to talk to you, guess I could get that out of the way... They want you to protect me, and not to be so timid, I think. And they want to know if you know anything about Discord being related to dragons...?"

"Oh no, he's not. Well, not really. He's..." Fluttershy bit her lip. "He doesn't want to talk about it, or have it known, but I think he'd understand if I told you he's a combination of all races of Equis." She frowned. "...He's probably trying to find me right now. ...He should have shown up unless something was blocking him..."

"I tried to contact him earlier, something was stopping him. Some of them thought it was us being in the past, but your being here removes that option..."

"...Does it?" Fluttershy asked.

"I mean... ...Oh... ...Space-time... That hub could reach across space and time! That's why I messed up when I tried to call you - I was misunderstanding what it was fundamentally! It tried to tell me..." She opened the window to her room. "Hey Diorite!"

The dragon lifted his head, looking into the room. "...Yes?"

"How long ago was Discord's reign?"

"Several centuries. Why?"

Twilight gulped. He might be suspicious of us. "Just... checking to make sure everything's fine." She shut the window. "...We ARE in the past..."

Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth. "That's dangerous right? Didn't you and Starlight..."

"Nearly ruin everything? Yes. Yes, we did..." Twilight bit her lip. This is bad. Over a thousand years in the past, and we're not even in Equestria, and there are others talking to me, they won't stop arguing, and some being claiming to be my father who clearly isn't..."

"Twilight, calm! Try breathing in and out, slowly. Deep breaths." Fluttershy was trying to calm Twilight - but in truth, she was starting to hyperventilate herself.

Twilight took in a deep breath, and let it out. "Okay... Okay... I don't know what to do, but that's okay. We have all the time in the world, literally. We can figure it out. Right now... I need to deal with something. Shutter is claiming that you don't exist and that nothing besides me exist. The others are claiming that he's just lying, and pretending to be someone else, like Afizah. And they are claiming that Afizah is the one pretending to be other me - but, there was something else... Afizah might just be opening a portal to another universe so they can talk to me. Shutter may not be in the same place as most the others, who seem to be talking to me directly from some site where I'm a story somewhere. Shutter sees me as through a screen. Maybe he's beeing flooded through to me by the name that Ponygood is seeing, that... "Keywii Cookies." Just like Akumakami and Blackjack are primaries, maybe he's another primary, choosing not to interact directly, but pipe something he has control of vision over to me?"

Fluttershy blinked. "...I... I'm sorry I'm having a hard time taking this in. Are you saying all this time you thought they were lying, they weren't, they were just showing... other people?"

"I don't know, maybe? The thing is, even if that is true, I don't trust Shutter, and neither do any of the others..." Twilight blinked. "You know what, it's rude to talk about Shutter behind his back. Shutter? I know you'll hear this. I'm finding it hard to trust you - or Key. You both claim to be on my side, you both claim to be employees who have a job, who have seen many 'Props' like myself taken by primaries and 'toyed' with. You seem to suggest that it's part of your job to help us through this and get us through the story to a... well you've never spelled it out, but it could be a 'good ending' or 'no ending' or whatever. Neither of you are doing that job well. Part of that job would be getting me to trust you - even by being deceptive and manipulative. You haven't been that. Key's been a total freak out temper-tantrum bomb, and you're holding an arrogant superior attitude. Even if that is how you really feel about me, for the sake of your job, you should hide it! I mean..." she sighed. "I don't think you're really the people you say you are. And if you are, I feel really, really sorry for the other 'props' you've been 'helping.' You aren't helping. All you do is make more chaos and get me to distrust you. Even if you do want to just treat me like a thing - which you may have the right to, I don't know - you don't want me to know that. I..." She looked at Fluttershy. "...Am I being harsh?"

"A little. Hey, Shutter, let me try. He can hear me right?"

"Pretty sure."

Fluttershy cleared her throat and directed her gaze at the Witch's eye. "So... I'm not going to pretend to be as smart as Twilight or have known this as long. But... You know, it sounds like you aren't being nice. I think... I think if you want her to trust her and work with you, you need to respect her. I think that's what Twilight's asking for, some respect. And not just from you Shutter, from all of you, primaries, writers, other worlds... She wants some respect. I know that some of you have been doing great at that, but others... You're hurting her. You're making her alienate you. I don't think you want that, and neither does she."

Twilight blinked. "That's... I didn't realize that..."

"Sometimes you need another pair of eyes," Fluttershy smiled. "You taught me that."

"...Yeah..." Twilight looked out the window again. "...So much is happening. I keep getting told everything about reality, the fate of the universe, and other big things. Yet all I've done is get teleported to the past, go to a town, go to a forest, and then go back to town. Nothing... nothing much has happened."

"Maybe that's good. Maybe you need time to adjust, figure out how to handle this."

"...Maybe." She sat down on the floor. "Fluttershy, I'm going to go through the rest of the stuff now. Okay?"

"Okay. I'll be here."

Twilight closed her eyes, thinking. She thanked Nickel, Zen, and Akumakami for being the voices of reason, the ones who kept her sane. They were right. It didn't really matter, did it? They all perceived her differently - as a story, as a feed, as another Witch's Eye - it didn't matter in the end. There was some kind of connection between them and her, and that's all that mattered. They were as real to her as she was to them. There was no evidence in either direction.

There was no proof of Key's and Shutter's claims either, but she decided she needed to let Shutter speak before making any more harsh accusations. She didn't trust him, at all, but she at least wanted to see what he'd say. Even if the others were telling her not to listen... Shutting someone out was not her way. He needed a chance.

She was on the southern side of the globe. Which meant Equestria - or past Equestria - was north. Wait- how did she even know she was on Equis? The sun.... The sun felt right. And she remembered that the stars looked correct last night as well, all the constellations were still there. So, she could head north, brave the dragons or the desert - perhaps find more of this 'ancient magitech' in the desert, and find past Equestria - or head south to the center of Peran civilization and talk to the leaders there to ask for help. But why would the dragons and ponies at Chalak help her? Would they even know how? And what about Equestria - what if she ruined the timeline?

...No, I didn't see the video... And welcome Giginss, thank you for your kind words.

"Fluttershy?"

"Hrm?"

"If... if this Blackjack, this primary, created the world around us, and you, well then..."

"...Twilight?"

"What if they created me as well?"

Fluttershy frowned. "...Does it really matter?"

"Not... As much as you might think, but it's important to consider it as a possibility..." She began to pace - what now, what was she supposed to do now... She almost wanted to wait for the Influence to call again, but she couldn't let her life be more defined by the voices...

"...Fluttershy, there is this... Lake, in the middle of a field of grass, that you can supposedly only find once in your life. I started there. But you haven't been there yet. Do you think...?"

Fluttershy smiled. "I'm willing to try!"

Twilight nodded, folding up her cloak. She opened the window and spread her wings, flying out into the air, Fluttershy close behind her. They soared over the grass to the spot Twilight remembered she had started.

Twilight took a big, long breath of the fresh air. "This... This is nice."

"Oh yes, the animals are enjoying it as well. See those birds? They're playing."

Twilight blinked, glancing at the dozen red birds in the air. "...Looks like fighting."

"It's the same thing to them, a lot of the time. Don't worry about it. Now, where is-"

And then Fluttershy was gone. Twilight stopped flying instantly - the buttery yellow pegasus had just vanished. "Fluttershy?!" Twilight yelled. "Fluttershy!?"

She saw some sparks fly out of the corner of her eye. She lit her horn, grabbing ahold of everything to her left with as much force as she could muster. She pulled the thing forth.

It was a being made of stars, different from the one she had encountered in the forest. Bigger, larger, and without a defined shape. It was blue and shivered as if it was made of lightning.

"What are you!? What have you done with Fluttershy!?"

The thing didn't speak - it just shrieked at her, sparkling stars at her from every side - and running away. She shot at it with a laser, but it shifted around it - and vanished into the ground.

Twilight tore up the ground with her telekinesis, dragging a square meter of earth upwards, the star creature revealed once again. Twilight summoned a magic bubble around it and brought it back to her. "What. Are. You!?"

The creature struggled, threatening to burst the bubble. Twilight knew she couldn't contain it - so she dug into its mind. She demanded it answer the question.

"Alderan." It spoke. It shattered the bubble with one final push and fled once more.

She would have attacked again - but the Eye decided it was time for another Import.

"No! No Fluttershy needs me-!"