Twilence became aware of herself. She was being dragged across the ground by a dog. Sorry Creek, so much for not moving. She flipped up - she was still invisible so this freaked the dog out - and teleported the dog on top of a nearby building. He looked horribly confused by this turn of events, howling in confusion. The other dogs of the town turned to look at him - which was luckily not at Twilence herself.
Twilence let out a sigh of relief - and then held her head. The throbbing pain... That spell probably hadn't been a good idea... She felt her awareness slipping away - but she didn't pass out. She remained upright but muddy, diluted. Her vision was fuzzy and sounds were deafened.
Definitely a concussion. A bad one at that. It was likely the Influence's imports were only making it worse. She really needed... What exactly? Medicine. Medicine, right. Robocord was right - her mental health was deteriorating. Though that was pretty obvious, right? Just...
...She wanted to shake her head but found her body wasn't listening to her brain anymore. That wasn't good. But she didn't feel any panic - just a mild 'oh' feeling. It occurred to Twilence that this should be horrifying, it just wasn't. This was also far more drastic than a concussion should be. She managed to look down at the Eye. "All... your fault." She swatted at it, missing. She groaned.
Something exploded. Instinctually, Twilence looked up. Vriska was flying out of the building she was led into, orange robes and wings unfurled. Her other arm was working - she must have found some sort of medicine - but she had a look of minor concern on her face. Dogs erupted from the building, most of them tripping over their own paws from a lack of luck, but Irana stood tall.
She had a sniper rifle in her hands and was aiming right at Vriska. She fired, clipping through one of Vriska's wings. Her flight became unstable. "Little help Twi!?" She blurted, summoning her dice and throwing them to the ground.
Twilence didn't move - and Vriska couldn't see her because she was invisible. The dice landed on mostly low number values, throwing a key lime pie into Irana's face. She flicked it off with a simple motion of her paw, aiming the sniper rifle again.
Vriska drew her sword and swooped out of the way of the rifle bullet - her luck was extremely high even if Irana's wasn't lowered for some reason. She dove at Irana, ready to skewer her with her sword.
The sword made contact with Irana all right.
It broke on contact.
"...What the actual fuck."
Irana roared, revealing the area Vriska had struck to not be made of flesh at all - but a strange yellow crystal. Vriska leaped backward to avoid the claw directed at her face. "Okay, wasn't expecting that..."
Irana glared. "You threaten. You will be irradicated."
"Hey, I just stole some stuff, what's with the disproportionate retribution - Twi where the hell are you?"
Twilence made no move beyond a slight swivel of her ears, barely conscious enough to know that it was daytime.
Vriska swore some alien word and summoned her dice again. She threw rolled them again, this time getting a much more favorable result. A scythe came out of nowhere and cut off Irana's head.
"Yeah!" Vriska whooped. "That'll teach you to mess with the mindfang!"
Irana lifted the sniper rifle again and aimed. Her neck was not bleeding - instead, Vriska just saw yellow crystal. "What even are you?"
"A servant," the loose head said. The sniper rifle went off. To Vriska's immense surprise, it actually hit her square in the stomach. She rolled head over heels backwards from the impact, her luck apparently having failed her.
It actually hadn't, for she rolled right into Twilence.
Vriska gasped. "There you are..."
Twilence made a "hnnng" noise.
"Crud," Vriska muttered, clutching her chest and the cobalt blood that was pouring out of it. "Well... Here's to hoping these things can be absorbed through the skin." She raised two potions she had pocketed into the air and smashed them together, dousing the two of them in magical juices. Vriska's wound healed quickly with one.
Twilence's head cleared - and she could feel the pain of her wing resetting itself. "AUGGGGGH!" She lashed out with her magic - canceling the invisibility spell and flaring her wings instinctually. This made them hurt more - but it was no longer broken.
Irana lowered the sniper rifle as if to look at Twilence, even though the dog had no head.
Twilence grinned. "Sorry about that. I think... I think the Influence aggravated the concussion."
"All is forgiven as long as you help me disintegrate this bitch!"
Twilence nodded. Without a second thought she sent a beam of purple energy at Irana, engulfing her. All her skin burnt off - revealing a pure yellow crystal structure inside. Even the gun was made out of the yellow crystal.
Twilence blinked. "...Well this is odd."
Vriska summoned her dice again. "No, really?"
Irana raised the gun. Vriska was having none of that - she flew over to her, dodging the bullet again. She kicked the gun out of Irana's hands, embedding it in the dirt. She stomped on it a few more times for good measure. Irana lashed out with a clawed shiny fist, but Vriska just dodged back.
Twilence encased Irana in ice with a spell. "Vriska now!"
"Oh yes!" She summoned her dice and rolled them again - getting a very high result, producing a proton cannon that fired, vaporizing every atom in Irana's yellow crystal body. And the house behind her. And several trees behind that.
Twilence blinked. "You have a large variety in those dice."
"You bet I do. From summoning an ant to the power of gods. They're awesome."
Twilence looked around at the many dogs still tripping over their own paws. "Yeah. We'll be going now. Sorry about the house."
A dog barked in anger. "You've doomed yourselves!"
"How so?"
"Heildor will know the servant was destroyed! You are now fugitives!"
Vriska shrugged. "What else is new?"
Twilence approached the dog. "...What is Heildor?"
"The center of us. The defender."
"Care to elaborate?"
"Heildor will kill you. And possibly us for failing."
Twilence blinked. "...Fail how?"
"You were with that golem, I'm sure of it."
Twilence turned to Vriska. "I think he's telling the truth..."
Vriska facepalmed. "Twilence, these dogs do not want our help. Stop thinking about it."
"But..."
"No buts. And I wouldn't tell Fluttershy about the danger to them either. She'd get... demand-ey about helping them anyway."
Twilence nodded. "You're right."
"Obviously," the dog said. "...We would like it if you stayed. Make it easier to dispatch you." He growled.
Twilence shook her head. "Vriska... Let's go."
~~~
They met up with Four and Fluttershy a few hours later, landing on his shoulders.
"Oh!" Fluttershy grinned. "You both are all better! I was so worried..."
Twilence nodded. "Yeah... It wasn't easy. The dogs don't like us."
"There was this golden-crystal-dog-thing that tried to kill us with a sniper rifle! But it couldn't stand to the likes of us!" Vriska put a fist in the air and laughed.
"Oh... you took care of it. I... Understand," Fluttershy sighed.
Vriska shook her head. "You need to stop being so wishy-washy goody-two-shoes. It makes it worse for the rest of us. We're in a country where everything wants to kill us. Trust me, we had to deal with an entire town of dogs."
Fluttershy shook her head. "It just... Feels wrong."
"Fluttershy, I've had to kill before on this quest," Twilence said. "You know it."
"Twilight... I just..."
Twilence shook her head. "I'm Twilence now Fluttershy."
"Oh. Okay... I'll... Just call you Twi." She shook her head. "Things are just happening way too fast..."
"No kidding." Twilence stretched her wings and yawned. "...I'm going to talk to the Influence now, so... Yeah. Four, keep on going."
"AFFIRMATIVE. MOUNTAIN OF KNOWLEDGE IN SIGHT. ETA - TOMORROW."
"I... Well I guess that's good since Orchid's ships keep getting shot out of the sky." She took in a breath. "Okay... Ponygood. Uh... Yeah Vriska Ponygood is convinced your Tower and the Dark Tower he read about are separate."
"I doubt it, but isn't he the idiot?" Vriska asked.
"...Er..."
"That's all I need to know. Pay him no mind."
"Well, hard to do that. Ponygood, you are offering a way to 'prove' the whole avatar-otherworld business. How? And..." She sighed. "That list of people pretending is shocking and confusing to me. It sure doesn't feel like Creek is pretending, but it really does feel like Afizah is. Even with the current messages. Afizah I... I just can't trust you or what you say, I'm sorry. I'm not sure how you can win my trust back either. I mean - you want me to bring your sister in? Wasn't she the crazy one trying to destroy my mind? Or was Eris just you pretending as well? I- Gah!" She shook her head. "Okay, moving on to something else."
"That seems wise," Fluttershy noted.
"No kidding... Vriska, they told me what that F word meant."
"Told you you'd be better off not knowing," Vriska said.
"Yeeeeeeah..." Twilence blushed slightly. "No offense Zen, but I don't think I'll ever be able to see the word in the same way again."
Vriska laughed. Twilence shrugged. "DLB, I try to be a step ahead, but I really don't know what that means half the time... Robocord, I'm not sure what to make of you. You talk about Fluttershy as if there was a chance she might need to be terminated, and Akuma - well can I just talk to Akumakami again? Creek, are there any details you can give me about your situation? It sounds... dangerous, from the way you're describing it. What is your corporation's relation to Blackjack anyway? I was never really clear on that. Nickel... A lot of what you say is confusing and goes over my head, I admit. But is there really nothing to worry about in that glitch? It felt... odd to me. I'm starting to think those of you who claim to know what the 'greater reality' is like really have no idea."
"You should all be more like me," Vriska said. "Never claim to really know what's going on."
"Well, I don't think they can really do that. I mean... They just admitted to being teenagers - some of them at least. I... I honestly am not surprised by that. It explains so much. A little horrifying, though, actually. How many worlds have teenagers at the helm? Is this one of them?"
"TROUBLING," Four said.
"And as for why I changed my name..." Twilence sighed. "You all refer to the other Twilight's as 'Twi-Twi' or 'Sparky' or something, and I decided I wanted to declare what I was compared to other Twilights. I wanted a choice in the matter. So I became Twilence - the Twilight Influence. The fact that it sounds like silence is just a secondary thought - I really don't want you all to shut up. Though perhaps some of you..." She shook her head. "Nevermind, that train of thought goes nowhere good. And... Think that's it for today."
Vriska nodded. "Good. Now we can be bored again on top of this giant mech."
Her boredom was cured instantly when seven velvet-skinned dogs that looked exactly like Irana stepped out of the trees, firing various guns in their direction. Twilence raised a magical shield around herself, Vriska, and Fluttershy.
Four took care of the 'servants'. His two fists launched off with rocket-propelled power, shattering two into dozens of pieces. Rifles, machine guns, and pistols unleashed on his impressive girth - doing absolutely nothing to his ancient body. He kicked, punched, and pounded the rest into the ground quickly.
Fluttershy's jaw was hanging open. Vriska whistled. "Impressive."
"IT WAS ADEQUATE. THIER BODIES WERE HARDER THAN EXPECTED. THERE WILL BE MORE."
Twilence grimaced. "Well... Not looking forward to that. Let's keep moving."
"AFFIRMATIVE."
~~~
It was that night when Twilence finally realized why she had felt uneasy in this mountain forest - it was normal. There was almost no magic here at all - just trees and rocks. The dog towns were extremely rare - she had only seen two in the distance the entire journey, even when she'd flown high into the air.
She was in ordinary, mundane, wilderness.
That was a little freaky, to say the least. She'd been in nothing but weird, outlandish scenery this entire adventure. She pulled out their map, looking at Moissan. They were crossing it near the north - parallel with the capital at this point, which was conspicuously named Heildor. The Mountain they were heading for - the huge one in the distance - was off the map, outside the edge of Moissan territory. She supposed that meant they were leaving the area, and things would be... well, regular wilderness that nopony had explored.
If they kept going north they might end up in Equestria. Who knew, maybe these mountains were connected to the dragon lands? She was sure she remembered someone saying savage dragons lived in the northern mountains... And given the dragons she knew, she found it easy to believe that they were savage in the past. She frowned, rolling over, trying to get comfortable.
Four looked at her - he didn't require sleep, so he was standing watch. He didn't say anything for fear of waking the others. He just nodded in Twilence's direction.
Twilence sighed. She closed her eyes and tried to force herself to sleep...
...It seemed to work. She was pretty sure she was dreaming now - the moon was there.
And so was that red eye.
Watching her.
She shivered.
"Are you the dark lord?" She asked.
There was no response. The eye didn't even move. It might as well have been a static image.
Twilence glared at it. "Whatever you are... You're not going to get what you want. I don't know if you're the Dark Lord, but you are evil. And I can't let that be. I'll stop you. Whatever you plan is."
The there was laughter.
And then the Influence's Eye activated.