Twilence came to. She blinked - she didn't have anything swimming around in her head. She just knew there was new information she could access - an update. "How long was I out?"
"A second maybe?" Infinity said.
"Well, that's good."
"Welcome," Mite said.
"Anything useful?" Infinity asked.
"Let me see..." Twilence started scrolling through the comments. "...Mite, can you put an image on that screen over there?"
Mite complied, putting an image of a blue crystal behemoth onscreen. Orchid raised an eyebrow. "...Why?"
"Afizah wants to know if that's what it looks like. What's coming."
"More or less, their shapes vary slightly. And they're yellow."
The image turned yellow. "Corrected," Mite announced.
Twilence shrugged. "Yeah. Still going through. Yes I can see the video. Not in the mood to listen to that right now nor do I have the time. Uh... Nickel. You can have an unusual schedule if you can't talk I won't mind. In fact I've come to expect it from you. As for talking to Heildor... I'll try, if I can."
"That's insane," Orchid said.
Vriska smirked. "All the more reason to try it."
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. "...Don't you usually go for the violent resolution?"
"Now come on Flutters, don't you know me? I'm the crazy bitch!"
"...Can't argue with that, I guess..."
"Zen has a good idea," Twilence said, lighting her horn. She cast a shield spell around the ship they were in - nowhere near large enough to surround Canterlot, but still big enough for their purposes. "Is this going to help?"
Orchid closed her two real eyes. "Maybe. I have not yet seen the outcome of the encounter. They seem to be seeking to capture us rather than kill us, so there's that."
Twilence nodded. "Anyway, I had no intentions of ignoring everything Lore Thirst said, just realizing he could be wrong. And... Mite, is there anything else I can do with this Eye?"
"See."
"See what?"
"Views."
Twilence narrowed her eyes. "That doesn't make any sense... What are you talking about?"
"Allies."
Twilence glanced at Fluttershy. Fluttershy shrugged. "Guess you'll just have to figure that out later."
"I suppose so. Regardless, Ponygood, I don't think the crystal beings are technological in any way. And your links aren't working. I can see the images and video, but whatever else you were linking is hidden to me. ...I'll watch those videos later Wolfe... Ponygood the forum doesn't work either, sorry, can't see it... Josh... Yeah, you have a good point about Creek, I shouldn't judge. It just... surprised me, came out of left field is all. I'll have to ask her about it - unless she doesn't want to talk of course, in which case I'll just have to be fine with that. DLB... I don't have time to liste-" She paused. She sat down. "...That sounds nice"
"Library."
"Hm?" Twilence asked.
"Anytime."
"...You're making a music library."
"Yes."
"...That's amazing," Vriska said.
"Definitely."
Orchid raised an eyebrow. "Listening to music instead of continuing on?"
"Inefficient," Seven Hundred said.
Twilence shook her head again. "Right, right... DLB, you say you don't know what to say. I think I can help with that - the most normal thing to say here is to suggest what I do next. These inputs seemed to be positioned before or during dramatic events - probably specifically so you can give me advice on big decisions. Just talking to me is fine as well, though. And Cree-" Twilence paled. "Creek what happened- oh. Wait so if Keywii said that Creek shut off the mic somewhere else does that mean he's writing for her right this very now? What does that even mean? I-" She shook her head. "Sorry. Not going there. There's no answers down that rabbit hole. Creek, I'm sorry, you just surprised me. You really don't have to talk if you don't want. Just come back, okay? And... Candle. I will have a good day."
Vriska broke out into laughter. Twilence snickered along with her.
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't sound like nice laughter."
"Isn't," Mite confirmed.
Fluttershy sighed. "We're changing..."
Twilence sighed and nodded. "Yeah. We are. But... But mainly me. Anyway, Vriska, you said Seven Hundred sounded like Kanaya?"
"That robot pronounces everything with extreme care and precision and it annoys me," Vriska stated.
"Apparently on the story for them, it was written in her 'quirk', whatever that is."
Vriska's eyes widened. "Do I speak in eights? Is every b an eight? That'd be awesome."
"I dunno. I doubt it though, I think they'd have commented on that. And... That's everything this import."
Orchid frowned. "A surprising lack of information."
"I got us a shield didn't I?"
"You should have been able to think of that on your own."
Twilence twitched. "I'm just using what 'tools' I have at my disposal."
"No matter. They'll be here in a couple minutes."
"PREPARING BATTLE STATIONS," Four announced.
"That won't work," Orchid said. "They'll capture us if we continue on our current path. Our reinforcements won't arrive until a few minutes after we've been taken away."
"How do you know?" Twilence asked.
"The Eye shows me what the future holds. Unless you somehow manage to do something to change it, which I'm beginning to doubt you can. The shield has already been factored into account, it will fall."
Twilence frowned - she needed to think. She needed to be the one to come up with something here, something that would change the future...
"How high can this thing fly?"
"I Do Not Know Of An Upper Limit," Seven Hundred said.
Twilence smirked. "Do we know how high they can fly?"
"No," Mite said.
Twilence turned to Orchid. "Worth a shot?"
Orchid nodded slowly. "I cannot see the result of this action... You truly are powerful and mysterious."
"Thanks. Seven Hundred, take us up."
The ship they were in suddenly pointed straight upwards and let out an extremely powerful burst of blue fire out of its engines, launching itself higher and higher into the air. The clouds were soon far below them. The inertial dampeners that usually kept the passengers from feeling the intense forces of motion the ship experienced were unable to compensate for the powerful energies experienced when fighting directly against gravity. All the passengers that weren't machines felt themselves pressed violently into a nearby wall. And still, the ship rose. The sky began to darken and the horizon began to curve beneath them.
Twilence stared intently at the screens displaying the world beneath them - despite her discomfort and being pressed against a wall, she was still in awe. She could see everything rushing into her view. There was the Desert, that tall area with golden buildings must have been the city of Heildor. There was a bluish-green forest - the Bluemist Forest. She saw a heavily urbanized peninsula and one that was covered in ice. She saw an archipelago between them - and she also saw a strange, circular cloud formation to the west of the icy peninsula... ...Probably Frau. The Time Tunnels.
Then they went higher still. The sky darkened further - seeming to collapse in a blue band along the edges of her vision. She saw the sparkling lands of magic north of the Lost Desert, and the mountain range that extended far, far beyond Moissan.
She had no idea how much time had passed, she was too enthralled in what was going on.
Then she saw it. At the edge of the mountain range, touching the sea just at the edge of her vision, a landmark she recognized.
The primary volcano of the Dragonlands.
She laughed. They were in the southern hemisphere a quarter turn of the planet west of Equestria. Or, she supposed they were above that now. She looked at the rest of the planet she could see. At the moment it was a tremendous blue ball that dominated most of her vision - but she could see it's spherical nature from this high up.
"KEEP THAT SHIELD UP!" Four bellowed. "IT IS ALL THAT IS LETTING US KEEP ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE! THIS SHIP IS NOT RATED FOR VACUUM TRAVEL!"
Twilence snapped out of her stupor and focused back on the shield. "That would have been nice to know beforehand!"
"THEY ARE ALSO STILL CHASING US."
Twilence gawked. "How? How can they get this high?"
"MAGIC, I PRESUME. I ALSO SUSPECT THEY DO NOT REQUIRE AIR TO SURVIVE."
Orchid nodded. "Well... Do we have any advantages out here?"
"NO. IT IS POSSIBLY WORSE UP HERE THAN IT WOULD HAVE BEEN OTHERWISE."
"Dangnabbit."
"Was that two words?" Vriska perked up.
"No."
"Now is not the time..." Twilence muttered. "We've got to do something..."
Orchid shook her head, lifting out the orbs of Ine and Alderan. "It's not looking like we can. I still see us getting captured. I..." Her eyes all widened. "Hold on a second, what is that?"
Twilence looked at a screen - there was something red, sharp, and obviously artificial rushing towards them at impossibly fast speeds - orbiting Equis. They didn't have time to respond - they just got to see it.
Then it hit them.
The shield never stood a chance at something fast enough to orbit the entire world a few dozen times a day.
A giant red spike shot through the room they were currently standing in, dividing it in two, sheering Four's left arm clean off. Everyone screamed as the sudden change in velocity tossed them to the other wall. Twilence used her magic to make sure nobody broke anything.
"Atmosphere Venting!" Seven Hundred yelled. Everyone felt air rushing out of the room near where the spike had impaled them. This was only accelerated when a yellow-crystal claw poked its way through the nearby wall, resulting in enough airflow to tear Twilence off her feet. She scrambled - unable to resist the explosive decompression. The yellow claw released, and she was shot out of the hole into the void. She didn't feel cold like she had expected - if anything the rays of the sun felt too hot. She did, however, feel like her insides were ready to burst, that she couldn't breathe, that her eyes were boiling away...
She couldn't hear anything. She saw the crystal creature reaching for her...
...and in a flash of pink, she was in some kind of red hallway lined with unusual glyphs she didn't recognize. Everyone was there - except Four and Seven Hundred. She couldn't see Mite. "Mite? Four?"
"Here," Mite said.
"Where's Four?" Twilence blurted.
"Outside. In space," Orchid said. "He'll be fine, he doesn't need air. What I want to know is why I didn't see this place coming..."
"...Well it's obviously some kind of satellite in orbit around the planet," Vriska observed.
Infinity raised a hoof. "Uh... Hey. The chances of a random orbiting satellite crashing into us? Almost zero. Like, really, there's a lot of space up here and as big as that red thing was it really isn't going to hit us by chance."
Twilence furrowed her brow. "It targeted us? But why?"
"Security," Mite said.
Twilence looked around. "You can get into the systems?"
"Yes."
"What have you found?"
"I-"
Orchid's eyes widened. "Four and Seven Hundred are losing we need to-"
The yellow crystal behemoth crashed through a nearby wall - that covered itself in a forcefield before any air could be lost. It really did look like the picture Afizah had sent - except yellow. It reached for them, firing a few dozen crystals.
Twilence shot a laser at it, but the light refracted inside. Orchid backed up. "It's got anti-magic on it!"
Vriska stepped forward. "Allow me..." She took out her dice - and before she could roll them the crystal behemoth grabbed her by the hand. "Fuck you!"
She was punched with impressive force through a nearby wall, revealing a room covered in screens, maps of the planet, and trajectories. Three colored eyes were on the center screen - red, pink, and purple. Twilence blinked - what did that mea-
She was punched across the room, slumping onto the floor.
"DICE! NOW!" Vriska yelled to Orchid. Orchid closed her eyes and looked into the pathways of the future - and nodded. She summoned the infinite sided die and tossed it to Vriska. She grabbed it with ease - and stole the crystal behemoth's luck.
"You are in for it now bucko!" She tossed the thing to the ground - and it lit up.
Krill started appearing from nowhere around them. Metric tons of krill surrounding them on all sides in an uncomfortable manner. All of them - Mite and the crystal behemoth included - were surrounded in the krill, unable to move.
Well this is great... Twilence thought...
Then the krill all teleported at once. Twilence knew they were outside the red ship. Twilence also knew they were falling, and falling fast.
Twilence gulped. Well this was going to be a rough ride...
~~~
A ball of krill fell from Low Equis Orbit into the atmosphere, burning up the outer layers with alarming rapidity. Anypony looking from below would see a giant ball of fire and swear they smelled something fishy. There just happened to be alot of ponies looking from below.
The ponies of Pebbleton.
They saw the krill meteor split in two suddenly - half heading for the Bluemish Forest, the other half heading for the outskirts of town. An entire field of tall grass was decimated by the impact.
The town gathered around the impact site - some of the inner krill were still alive, while others were burnt. Prancey ate one of the ones that was cooked to perfection, finding it delectable. Diorite approached the pile cautiously.
Twilence poked her head out of the pile of krill, gasping for breath. "AAAAA.... Oh. We're fine."
Diorite raised an eyebrow. "...This is most unusual, Twilight."
"It's Twilence now. And... Yeah, it's a long story. But I think we're safe now!"
And then the crystal behemoth erupted out of the pile of krill, obviously very upset. Twilence paled. Crap.
And then the Eye lit up...