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

Ine sparked softly. "I just attempted to wake Twilight up. It did not work. She's here until she finds reason to awake."

"Great..." Twilight muttered, shaking her head. "So..."

"I wish it to be known that I believe calling for the Avatar of Blackjack is a good idea. It is what I'd choose. And it sounds like, if the system fails, this 'Vriska' could be an asset, despite not being Blackjack."

"Noted. I want that Starlight who can control time though..."

"Why not put it to a vote?"

Twilight nodded slowly. "...That's a good idea."

"Regardless, you all had questions. The fall of my people was caused by Discord's reign of chaos. We tried to fight back against him directly. He cursed us for it. We are now naught but spirits."

"Oh, I'm so sorry..."

"As for the Dragon, it is simply one of the roaming dragon bandits of the desert. This particular one appears to have studied shadow magic, which while not pleasant, does not mean alignment with a dark force. Though it could. And as for the Sun and Moon..."

"Oh, I know this one!" Twilight said. "The Sun and Moon orbit the world of Equis in an orbit along the outer shell of Equis' magical field. They cannot be moved closer or further away, and are defined by how magics influence the magical field. Celestia and Luna are unable to use telekinesis to move the Sun and Moon physically, they just take a shortcut."

"There's more to it than that," Ine added. "The Sun is an artificial construct, barely any larger than the Moon itself. The Moon actually is nested slightly closer to the planet than the Sun, which allows for eclipses. No, we did not create the Sun, it's been there since prehistory."

"Yeah, and Luna doesn't really control the Stars. They just exist up there. Watching..."

"Stars are indeed powerful beings."

"...Have you actually talked to any?" Twilight wondered aloud.

"A scant few, and only for a couple seconds or sentences. They care little about discourse. But they certainly do exist."

Twilight felt something in the back of her head - a pain. "...I have a headache..."

"That means you're probably waking up. See you soon."


~~~


Twilight awoke with a groan. She was on the ceiling of the ship, a good clue that they were currently upside-down. The golems didn't care about this - they stood on what was once the floor without a problem. Fluttershy was next to Twilight, shivering in fear. Infinity and Ruby were nowhere to be seen, and Four was missing as well. 

"Where are they?" Twilight asked.

Fluttershy looked at Twilight. "Oh thank goodness you're okay... They're out there. Fighting."

Twilight looked at one of the screens again - and was impressed by what she saw. Four drove his fist into the dragon's skull, Ruby impaled the serpent in the chest, and Infinity shot a laser right in the thing's eye. She whooped from her position on Four. "YEAH! BULLSEYE!"

The dark serpent apparently decided this wasn't worth it - vanishing in a puff of darkness.

"RIGHTING," Pilot announced, the ship flipping unceremoniously back to the right orientation, dumping Fluttershy and Twilight on the floor. 

"...Well that was easy to deal with..." Twilight said. 

"CRAFT HAS SUSTAINED SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. STILL OPERABLE. WILL NEED REPAIRS UPON RETURN," Seventeen announced. "ARRIVAL AT ESTUR IN T-MINUS EIGHT HOURS." 

The side of the craft opened, ejecting large amounts of air. Four was able to drag Ruby and Infinity in without much difficulty, the door closing swiftly behind them. "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED." 

"Boo-yeah! That was awesome! AWWWWESOME!" Infinity whooped. "Hi Twilight! Have a nice nap!"

"Yeah... Good job you guys. I talked with Ine again... Their civilization was destroyed by Discord."

Fluttershy sighed. "Not... all that surprising."

"Anyway... I'm going to convene with them agian and we're going to talk about who to bring to us after that. I'll be narrowing down the options in my head."

Infinity blinked. "Is it just me, or is it weird how we just 'go with the flow' with these things now?"

"This is the new normal..." Twilight chuckled, shaking her head. "Anyway, you all keep changing your avatars. That's a... bit annoying, frankly, so the idea of images of you is kinda out the window. Yay. Regardless, the dragon's been taken care of... Though it might be back... Regardless, you don't need to worry anymore. Yes, I know I was a bit hasty with M and the golems, but it turned out okay, don't you think?"

"Creek, thank you for all those stories. But you don't need to hide anything from me - Pinkie obviously died in that story, right? That's... Terrible, but that happens sometimes..."

Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth. "Oh, my..."

"Now... Those stories certainly are helpful, and it gives me more knowledge of what I want to choose, and what to talk about. Thank you. I do want information on those two 'unknown' projects when you get time, and perhaps more about the alternate versions of my friends in particular. I don't think I want another version of myself or Fluttershy here, for the sake of not being crazy, but the others could be important. Maybe tell me more about those group projects as well."

"Akumakami, uh... six and eight. And that does in fact sound like something I'd do. I have often wondered what being in the guard would be like..." She took a breath. "All right... Everypony - and dragon, and golem - we need to choose who we bring. I'm not going to make this decision alone. I'm taking votes - from all of you as well as the influence. I am... Selecting the ones we're going to choose from."

"No hurry," Fluttershy said. "We've got several hours."

"I am sure your wisdom will show itself," Ruby said. 

Twilight nodded. "I've... Narrowed it down to ten options. My vote is for the Starlight who has control over Time, so we can use it to get home and work around the possibility of not being able to find or use the Time Tunnels. Ine votes for summoning the 'avatar / self-insert of G. M. Blackjack.' We'll either get a voice to the one responsible for this mess, or a demon-girl known as Vriska who... Apparently has some serious issues but powers relating to luck and mental powers."

"She holding the infinity symbol?" Infinity asked.

"Yes."

"My vote goes there as well."

"Noted," Twilight said. "There are ten others I think to choose. Mite seems to be a popular choice, a small robot who can hack machines. We'll need him if we want to summon any other creatures, like Ponygood's current avatar. There's also a battle-hardened Rainbow Dash from that Sombra timeline I visited, who's apparently really good. There's a version of Rarity called the Inspector from a dark world, who apparently acts as a leader - or at least that's what was implied."

Fluttershy blinked. "Implied?"

"Well, the real leader is a version of you, but we don't want to have two Fluttershy's running around do we?"

"Good point."

Twilight continued. "There's always the choice of just asking for Celestia from our world, but there was also another suggestion, a Celestia of Chaos, a sort of Celestia mixed with Discord."

"...The world is not ready," Ruby said. 

"Mhm. Another popular choice among the Influence appears to be Nyx. A... filly form of Nightmare Moon that is also my daughter for some reason and who has a very protective mindset..."

"Red flag alert," Infinity said. "That'll cause family drama to happen and you know it."

"Still an option. We also have a version of Rainbow who has extreme power over... space I think, from the same world as that time Starlight - and a version of Pinkie who is also an 'Evermore' who can travel between dimensions. Which could be useful."

Fluttershy nodded slowly. Ruby spoke up first. "If you want the wielder of time to appear, I vote for her as well."

"Keep in mind, we can always get other ponies at the other altars," Twilight said. 

Fluttershy shrugged. "I think... The Mite. He sounds helpful."

"I OBJECT TO THE MITE," Four said. "I SUGGEST THE DIMENSIONAL PINKIE."

Twilight nodded. "So... Two votes for Blackjack, two votes for Time Starlight, one vote for the Mite, and one for Evermore Pinkie. I'll compile votes from the Influence later. If there's still a tie, I tiebreak."

"But... But..." Infinity grabbed her mane. "Aren't you at least a little curious about Blackjack? My cutie mark?"

"Yes, and I'm pretty sure we'll do that at one of the altars. We have FIVE more. We can even delay getting Starlight - maybe someone else with time powers will be more useful. Who knows? After all... it may be better for the 'story' if we get her near the end... Still not changing my vote though."

Fluttershy shook her head. "This is already getting confusing..."

"DO I GET A VOTE?" Seventeen asked.

"Four spoke for you," Twilight said. This made Infinity chuckle for some reason.

"UNDERSTOOD."

Twilight sat down. "Well... Now we wait."


~~~


"Is that... Estur?" Ruby asked.

"NO," Four said, "THAT IS THE EDGE."

The sun had set just half an hour ago, the darkness of night beginning to set in. In the distance, they could see powerful magic lights - strands, dots, and geometric shapes of bright varying colors floated amidst a seemingly endless supply of magical energy. It seemed to go on forever - and it certainly went up higher than their ship currently was. 

"What... is it?" Twilight asked.

"THE NORTHERN EDGE OF ALL MAPS. NOTHING CAN PASS. IT IS PURE MAGIC MANIFEST. IT HAS EXISTED SINCE PREHISTORY."

"...Does it exist north of the mountains as well?"

"NO, JUST NORTH OF THE DESERT."

"Well, at least there's still some way up... Do you know anything about this... Edge? At all?"

"NO. IT EXISTS AND WE AVOID IT."

"Infinity?"

Infinity shook her head. "I didn't even know this existed! Our maps don't go this far! All we have around here is a big fat question mark for the legendary Ancient city of Estur! Which is over there." She pointed at the ground. Much closer than the Edge in the distance was an ornate spire sticking out of a giant sand dune. The spire was a mile wide at the base and presumably got larger beneath the sands. It had flashing lights - there was a big purple arrow pointing towards an entrance. 

"...Well, Ine did say she lived here..." Twilight said.

"LANDING," Pilot said, directing the craft closer to the spire. As they got closer, they could see the many thousands upon thousands of windows within the spire, most dark. There were thousands of spirits wandering around - all small, like the one Twilight had seen in the Bluemish Forest. They wandered aimlessly - walking, floating, having no reason to even acknowledge their un-life. There was a small ship landed at the base of the spire, surrounded by the spirits. Presumably, it was the one the pink unicorn had taken. 

"She beat us here," Infinity observed.

"She does not have the blessing of the Inhabitant Ine," Ruby said. 

Pilot took the ship into the opened landing bay, descending into a large round room in which there were several other ships. Though they were of a similar make, they were much smaller, designed for Elemental rather than golem use. The bay doors closed behind them. 

Twilight, Fluttershy, Infnity, Ruby, and Four walked out of their ship, towards a large flashing purple door. They found themselves in an elevator - and then they went DOWN. Twilight got vertigo from how fast they were descending into the spire - far, far below the sand itself. They were going miles beneath the surface... 

Then the elevator shaft opened up, revealing an expansive subterranean city. The interior shape was like that of a tangled knot - the walls met with the ceilings and floors in an odd torus shape, and literally every surface imaginable was covered in buildings. There were thousands of 'roads' for ships, though almost none were being used, and the few that were seemed automated. Twilight saw plenty of the spirits moving around, drifting through the sky - one even passed through the elevator shaft, sending a chill down everyone's spine.

Infinity was gawking. "My...  My gosh. It's all still here. All still OPERABLE. This... My gosh if anypony with any knowledge got in here they'd have the entire might of the Ancients at their disposal..."

"That might be the point," Twilight said. She thought she caught Alderan out of the corner of her eye again, but she wasn't sure. She shook her head - she needed to talk to him, but he didn't make it easy. He was responsible for bringing her here in some way or other... 

They finally reached the very, very bottom of Estur. The elevator opened, and Twilight grinned.

There it was. The altar. The claw-like structure jutting out of the ground, glowing with energy, inviting her. It looked... natural here, amongst shiny Ancient machines and screens. There were, surprisingly, no spirits here whatsoever, merely a soft purple glow...

"...Ine?" Twilight said.

The altar itself sparked purple, and Ine manifested in front of it. "Hello."

"...This is Ine then, huh?" Infinity said. "Interesting."

Four dropped to a knee in subservience. Ruby followed suit. "It is an honor."

Fluttershy just waved. "Hello, Ine! Nice to finally meet you!"

Ine paid them no mind, looking only at Twilight. "The altar is ready to accept you. Do you know you are going to choose?"

"We need to wait for the Influence to throw their hats into the ring. Which..." She looked at the Eye as it started to glow. "Would be right about now..."

She sat down in a meditative state, closed her eyes, and smiled. 

It was time to make a decision.