Twilence came to shocked at one of the things she'd just been informed of.
When she realized Orchid was looking right at her with all three eyes she almost cast the shield to grab her on instinct - but then she remembered. Don't fight her. Talk with her.
Twilence smiled. "...Hi, Orchid."
"Oh, so we are talking then?" Vriska muttered, shifting back from her orange robes to her regular appearance. "Okaythen... But if she says something I don't like I gut her. Right down the center."
Ruby lowered her claws. "I'll tell Seven Hundred to stand down then."
Orchid nodded and teleported Ruby away. She was along with Twilence, Vriska, Fluttershy, Alderan, and presumably Mite. Wherever he was.
Twilence extended her hoof nervously out to Orchid. "HI. I'm Twilence. This is Vriska, Fluttershy, and Alderan."
"I am Oracle Orchid," Orchid spoke. Her voice was certainly authoritative in sound, making Fluttershy wince slightly. "Why are you trying to stop me?"
Twilence sighed. "You stole our friend and imprisoned our ally. Ine, the spirit of the last temple."
Orchid nodded. "Regrettable, perhaps, but Ine was not contributing to society in any way, and I need them to defeat the Dark Lord. I assure you that we do not want that."
Twilence shook her head. "No, no we don't. We want him destroyed just as much as you - the world doesn't need darkness." And it's not supposed to have any. "But... surely you don't have to go about it the way you are. Kidnapping ponies, imprisoning spirits."
Orchid shook her head. "The spirits are required. As I've collected more and more of them, I've gained more information about what they need to be used for. The six must be combined to banish the Dark Lord so far he will never be able to return - if he survives in his new prison."
"Corot or Siron?"
Orchid raised an eyebrow. "...You have names for the Dark Lord?"
"Ah... We had a source," Twilence said. "I could probably tell you about it later if this goes... well. There are two possible identities for the Dark Lord - an evil Star-god from another universe, or the first demon sealed in Tartarus, Siron. We also think both will be involved somehow."
Orchid nodded slowly, closing her two normal eyes, looking deeper into her third. "...The future that far ahead is murky. I know little of the reckoning day, or even which day it is. It's in flux. It's been getting more and more in flux the more I look at you." She opened her real eyes again. "I know you hear voices from beyond and are influenced by them. It is how you are immune to my scrying. But over the times I've seen you, sometimes my certain visions have changed. You're altering what happens. I saw a distant future image of you taking the red spirit for yourself and damning the world to eternal darkness."
"...What?"
"If you took one of them, I could not use all six, and everyone would die."
Vriska nodded slowly. "She has a point."
"You agreed with the plan earlier," Fluttershy observed.
"Shush," she muttered.
"Louder," came the voice of Mite.
Orchid looked around. "Where's that coming from?"
"New member mcbuggy," Alderan grunted. "Microscopic. Currently on your horn."
Orchid blinked. "Interesting. Is he what causes that nearby glass globe to explode?"
"What?" Mite said. Then a nearby glass globe exploded. "...Apologies."
"No problem," Twilence said. "Oh, do I need to explain-"
"Downloading."
"Huh?"
"Eye."
Alderan shifted around. "He's on your Eye now, downloading the information."
"Wow. Bugger moves fast," Vriska observed.
Orchid raised a hoof. "This discourse is moot. I need Alderan there. Without him I cannot stop the Dark Lord. Either let me have him or I take him and leave."
Alderan shrieked. "I am not being damned to some tiny globe of gas!"
Fluttershy nodded. "I... I don't think I can just let you do that either, Orchid. There has to be another way-"
"There is not," Lore Thirst said, walking into the room. "The six spirits must be used in conjunction to banish the Dark Lord to the far beyond."
"H-How do you know?" Fluttershy asked. "What if there is another way...?"
"I'd love to hear it," Orchid said. "But as it is, the spirits aren't holy individuals. Alderan is bitter. Ine was distant. Proteus put nature above literally everything. Castorson was religiously manipulative. I don't know what Vester or Gamnemnon are like, but if the pattern continues..."
"No!" Fluttershy said. "Just because they're bad people doesn't mean you have to imprison them!"
Lore Thirst shrugged. "Not your decision to make. Alderan, I order you to submit to Orchid without activating any magic or defenses."
Alderan screamed at the top of his lungs at Lore Thirst.
"Please stop that."
Alderan was forced to comply with his master's wishes.
Fluttershy shivered. "This... This is wrong."
"Can you free them afterwards?" Twilence asked Orchid.
"Possibly," Orchid said.
Twilence frowned. "What about the Overseer?"
Orchid raised an eyebrow. "I do not know..."
"No," Lore Thirst said. "The Overseer does not have the necessary connection to the remnants of the ancients. The aforementioned 'Power Overwhelming.' Whatever it is that defeats the Dark Lord - or seals him away, as Orchid has seen - has to have some connection to that."
"Twi can defy prophecy and prediction though!" Fluttershy said. "She can find another way!"
Orchid nodded. "If you find another way before the reckoning comes, I will free the spirits I have collected."
Vriska narrowed her eyes in distrust. "...Why are you being so helpful now?"
"Having you as enemies is bad. Having you as allies would be preferable. I'll also return Infinity the moment you agree to assist rather than hinder."
"And my die?"
Orchid narrowed her eyes. "Will be given to you if needed. I don't trust you with it."
"I see we have some trust issues."
"Obviously."
"I'll get it back if you let me have it or not you know."
"I can see your future clearly. I am not concerned about you."
Twilence sighed. "Fine. I don't like it, but this seems to be the only choice, and I don't want to fight again. You can have him. But we are actively searching for an alternative solution."
"I may learn more when I obtain him as well," Orchid said. "Regardless..." She marched into the altar. Vriska twitched but didn't stop her. "I am Orchid, and I wish to meet with the spirit of this altar!"
Alderan swore as he was condensed into a small blue globe of energy. The three others - black, green, purple; Castorson, Proteus, Ine - floated out next to him, the four spheres shifting around in a torus pattern. Orchid smiled. "We only have two to go. Two allies, two spirits. I still do not know how soon the reckoning is, but we should get moving.
Fluttershy shivered, saying nothing. Vriska glared.
Twilence took a few steps forward. "Infinity. Now."
Infinity was teleported into the room. She was drinking a cup of orange juice. "Oh," she said. "I take it negotiations went well then?"
"...You could say that..." Vriska said.
"Sometimes," Mite added.
Twilence shook her head. "It isn't nice, but we worked out sort of a compromise. We help her, but we try to find another way. She helps us with that."
"Done!" Mite announced.
"Done with wha-" Twilence's eyes went white for a split second and she fell silent. She blinked as the color returned to her eyes. "Woah..."
"Upgrade."
"I can see that..." Twilence said, scrolling through text in front of her eyeballs instead of relying on pure memory - though she supposed it was memory, just one what was being imprinted over her eyes. Each message was seen separately, and... hold on it told her WHO was saying everything! And she could go back as far as she wanted and - Yep. Most of that was Afizah. Or Sonic Rainboom Dash... She still thought Afizah when she saw it though.
"Fixing," Mite noted. The name now said 'Afizah.'
Twilence blinked, then smiled. "Can you repair it all the way Mite?"
"Doubtful."
"Did you do anything else?"
"Augmentation."
"What do you mean by - oh." Music started playing in her own eardrums. "O... Kay so that was what that link was..."
Fluttershy perked up. "Can we hear it?"
"No."
"...Why not?"
"Speaker."
Vriska rolled her eyes. "Speak with more than one word, jegus!"
"Never."
"...Twilence, can I decapitate him?"
"He doesn't have a head," Twilence said absent mindedly, still scrolling through the links. "A helicopter? REALLY!?"
"How did he even do that?" Fluttershy asked. "Isn't the internet kinda not a thing here?"
Vriska laughed. "Girl, the internet never goes away. I never did figure out why. Think there's probably some super-internet out there somewhere or something... Just gotta access it by 'accident' or whatever." She pulled out a strange spider-like phone. "This, for instance..."
"Stop dilly-dallying," Orchid said. "We have a mission. Gamnemnon is next and it will be a long journey to the southernmost known point. Even with our ship."
"Uh, how are you getting past Heildor?" Fluttershy asked.
"Same way we did last time. Keep that random mirror up."
Infinity snickered. "You missed all the fun guys. The insufferable prick oracle had to roll that thing a dozen times. We got chickenmageddon once."
Vriska twitched. "I want it."
"Don't worry Vriska," Twilence said. "We'll work everything out eventually. To your ship then?"
"To the ship."
~~~
Lore Thirst did not come with them - he didn't even say goodbye. He just... vanished in the middle of loading onto the ship somehow. Fluttershy kept glancing at the four orbs orbiting Orchid nervously. Four was busy talking with a robot that was presumably Seven Hundred - a small red bot that looked like it was made completely out of knives.
"YOU WERE DESIGNED FOR WHAT EXACTLY?"
"Decommissioning Rogue Golems Such As Yourself If Needed." It - or rather she - said.
"Oh my fucking god you sound like Kanaya, stop talking!" Vriska shouted.
"I Will Not Comply To Your Wishes Thief."
"I will make all your fuses blow with a simple stealing of luck."
"But You May Need Me At A Later Time."
Twilence looked at Orchid. "You. You are going to free the golems of Fosis."
"Once the quest is done, Twilence."
Twilence twitched. She was finding Orchid just... difficult. Not bad or evil, just... Stubborn. Beyond stubborn. It was annoying. "Alright, I'm going to talk to the Influence now, just launch the ship already." She looked around - it looked almost exactly like the ship Four had originally taken them through the Desert on, although shinier because of the 'random mirror' sheen.
"Okay, so, first off, I'm not NEVER going to go back home, I just can't stay. It's not 'home' anymore is what I was saying, so cool your jets, all of you. I still care about my friends I'm not going to leave them in the dust. Calm down. DLB, you have some... very odd tastes in what to say. I mean... Man I wish this upgrade detected sarcasm and voice inflection, let me just say."
"Sorry," Mite said.
"...Sorry you can't, or sorry not going to?"
"Yes."
"...Yeah. Right. Anyway. I am vaguely curious why GM is goading us to create an Aradia paradox, but I think everyone's right - we shouldn't risk it. Thanks for the transcript, by the way, Nickel. And Zen, you are right, lore could be full of absolute shit."
Vriska laughed at hearing this.
"But it also might not. I think we've decided we can't take the chance here. Plus... Orchid isn't evil. Just... stubborn. Ponygood, it's fine if you can't call me Twilence. Frankly, it's just what I am now and you can do what you will. Though Afizah, treat my name with a little more disrespect than dismissal and substitution, hmm? Back to Ponygood - yeah, we did edit the Eye with Mite, I think he did that on your suggestion by the way."
"Indeed."
"Hey Mite, think you could go talk to Four-"
"KEEP THE MECHANICAL PATHOGEN AWAY FROM ME."
"No," Mite said.
Twilence gulped. "Okay then... You two should really talk at some point though."
"Perhaps."
"You're getting really fast at this," Fluttershy said.
"Practice makes perfect. Anyway, I also don't think Mite can really be crushed. By anything. Far too small. And..." She paused. "...Creek. I... I just... I'm really, really surprised to hear you say that. It - it made me stop thinking back there I just..." …A-as for killing. It...it's easier i...l..look away when it comes time to do it. it won't weigh on your conscience as much... … "...I'll... take that under advisement..."
Fluttershy looked at Twilence with concern. "...You okay?"
"I... Just... I will be. Just, thought I knew someone, is all." She turned to Infinity. "...Infinity?"
"Hrm?"
She hugged her. "...Glad to have you back."
"Oh! Uh... Okay! I - sorry after a while I forgot I was kidnapped and just started laughing at miss fussypants and dragon worshipper."
"Doesn't matter. You're my friend - I was worried."
The rumbling sound of the ship taking off filled their ears. Soon they were up in the air...
~~~
Twilence walked up to Ruby. "Ruby."
"Twilight."
"Twilence now," Twilence said without emotion.
"Okay." She didn't turn around. "Why are you here."
Twilence furrowed her brow. "I am not sure. I keep telling myself I should forgive you, but then again, I'm not sure if it'd mean anything to you."
"I serve the Oracle and nothing else."
"You sure she's that great of a pony?"
"Nobody said the Oracle needed to be a saint. Just that they will save us."
Twilence smirked. "You know, the Influence has been mulling that prophecy over a lot. They seem to think part of it could refer to a plurality of Oracles, a 'them' as it were."
"By nature, you defy the passage of prophecy and prediction, therefore you could not have been foretold in a prophecy."
Twilence opened her mouth, then shut it. Then opened it again. "There are other ways to see the future than what Orchid has."
"Oh yeah! Like me!" Aradia said, appearing from nowhere. "Hi again! ...What visit number is this for you?"
Twilence blinked. "...Two."
"Oh. Wrong one. Wait. If this is the second then - uh next time you see me tell me it's the second time, okay?"
Twilence blinked. "...Okay?"
"Yeah! I think. Need to keep my own time synched up. I mean it'd be cool to see dead me's piling up but not really what I want to do right now!"
Ruby furrowed her brow. "What are you?"
"The Handmaid. Maid of Time. You probably haven't heard of me, that was in a parallel world. Or maybe you have I don't know I'm still stumbling around like a rabbit. Gotta get my bearings..." She waved. "Bye! ...Oh wait, hold on... We're flying right?"
"Yes?" Twilence said.
"OH! So this is when-"
"ATTACK INCOMING!" Orchid yelled through the comms of the ship. "Thirteen minutes out give or take! Heildor's trying something else!"
Twilence gulped. She didn't like the sound of that. She teleported to the bridge. "What is it, exactly?"
"Brute force didn't work so he's sending some... larger crystal beings I don't think existed at all until a few hours ago." Orchid grimaced. "I've ordered reinforcements from Fosis but I'm not sure they'll get here in time to bail us out. We've changed course as well, but these things are fast..."
Infinity shrugged. "Well, you know what this means!"
Twilence looked down at her Eye. "Yep..."
It lit up in a brilliant white...