Twilence was still staring at the tremendous beast of ice that surrounded them.
Vriska smirked. "You know how I said I was having trouble absorbing luck without killing things?" She put a finger to her seven-pupiled eye. "I don't think that's going to be an issue here."
A stream of light shot from the ice creature towards Vriska's eye, absorbing all the luck. All of it. The beast moved forward and shattered in every imaginable place, falling over them as a bunch of sleet. Vriska laughed. "That's how you do it!"
Orchid frowned. "That didn't do it."
"Oh come one what do you see future miss?"
"That." Orchid pointed at a white light flowing through the icy shards and points. From the wreckage of the ice behemoth, a new one grew before their eyes, pulsing with white energy, sucking the moisture from the snow to increase itself. Spires of ice shot out of the ground near Vriska - missing her every time due to her currently high levels of luck. She laughed.
Ruby belched fire, but the growing ice seemed immune to it. The ice itself beginning to take the form of creatures - things with faces, claws, petals, or other symbols of life, despite them being nothing more than ice sculptures. It was like watching art be created. Dangerous art.
Orchid brought out the orb of Castorson and sent out a gravitational wave, shattering many of the creatures - but the shattering was always undone by the healing white light.
Infinity stated the obvious. "This isn't working!"
"Unhackable!" Mite lamented.
"Retreat!" Twilence shouted. "Orchid, can you help me perform a tactical teleport?"
Orchid took out the Sphere of Ine and nodded. The two lit their horns, combining their magic to teleport everyone to the far distance. They could see the nest of ice monsters writhing in the distance, glowing with white energy. The moment they noticed their prey was gone, the white energies stopped - but the ice monsters remained. A few of the flowers started flying in their direction, but a few quick magic bolts from Infinity of all ponies took care of them.
Twilence let out a breath. "Okay. We're-" she caught herself. She looked around. "...Probably not safe."
Fluttershy pointed. "Hey, what's that in the distance?"
The party turned to look at a particularly large mound of snow towering above them - and buildings at the foot of it closest to the sea. There was notably no snow at all in the town. No signs of life from this far away, but it looked... warm.
This was probably the lost settlement of Lei Camp.
Twilence decided to confer with the Influence as they approached. "Josh, that's an interesting idea about the 'choice' there. Makes me wonder if there's a branching path we could have taken on this adventure that would have turned it into something completely different. What if I had stayed in Pebbleton? Would the story have become reacting to Orchid's antics and their effects on the rest of the world? Or what if I went right to Peran and the Observer helped me get back to Equestria, would I have changed history? Or been instrumental in the events of Nightmare Moon? It seems... It feels like this story had many branching paths."
"You don't know the half of it," Aradia said, walking alongside her.
Vriska blinked. "Man, you sure know when to show up."
"Wandering existence for thousands of years will sharpen your skills, as you know."
Vriska laughed. "Indeed."
Twilence looked at Aradia. "...What do you mean by me not knowing?"
"I'm able to see many timelines branching from this point, and many others. Your Influence ensures nothing is written in stone, that there is an influx, so I have to keep adjusting. At this point, there are several ways the timeline could be expected to go, though there are some certainties. Of which I will not tell you."
"You already told me I have to survive," Vriska said.
"That's more a consequence of you being you than anything else."
"...Do I have to survive?" Twilence asked.
Aradia grinned eerily. "That depends on your definition of survival!"
"That's not creepy at all."
Aradia giggled. "Well, you haven't got to the pivotal point yet, so I don't think I can say much. Though I can say the pivotal point is after you summon me. You're going to find me annoying. I think. You can easily mess with my own past and then I'll have to reconcile it somehow..." She shrugged, then vanished.
Orchid blinked. "...Who does she think she is, acting like she's the guardian and protector of all time?"
Twilence shrugged. "I don't know."
"She's the Maid of Time," Vriska said. "Her job is to literally heal time itself wherever she can."
Orchid didn't like this answer, huffing. Twilence returned to the Influence. "Afixzah, I already deduced that about Pinkie, a long time ago. The way she acts - her knowing makes sense. Also hi Pinkie, not sure if you're real or not, but I suppose what the heck, might as well say hi. Ponygood, we have Murphy's Law here. Pretty sure it actually goes 'anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.' Pretty sure that's not exactly what's happening here, but I get the idea. Creek, what's the problem with only being 1000 years in the past? In the present day Equestria doesn't even know the location of every major landmass in the world! We... Don't do a lot of exploring. For all we know Peran still exists in the present time. Ponygood, yeah Four and Seven Hundred are still in space. Don't think we really have a way to get them right now... But we'll try. The Starshell sounds like an okay idea - and it would be a way to get to them I suppose, assuming the red ship doesn't try to kill us again. It'd also keep us from having to carry everyone everywhere... Great, now I have four options. Starshell, Sunset, Pinkie, and Aradia. Wolfe... Just... Right... Okay..."
And then she saw the pointless conversation.
She gave out a loud sigh and closed the influence. "That's enough of that." They were approaching Lei Camp now, nearing the edge of the snow. She stuck her foot out past the snow - and felt warm. Not quite hot, but definitely enough to keep snow melted. She scanned around - the pavement was enchanted with warming magics, possibly draconic in nature. Dragons liked it warm most of the time so this made sense, they'd remove the snow.
The buildings were made of brown bricks enchanted the same way, arranged in a setup much like Pebbleton, except without the farms. There was notably not a soul in sight - no dragons, no ponies, not even any bones.
"Huh," she said. "Odd."
"Not the altar," Orchid said.
"We don't know exactly where the altar is," Fluttershy reminded everyone. "Maybe we can find clues here?"
Infinity walked in one house without a door, finding a bookshelf lined in books. She began to leaf through them. "...Atlases."
Twilence looked over Infinity's shoulder - the maps here were more detailed than the ones she had but didn't show that much more area. Those that showed the entire globe notably had the parts of the globe that weren't around Peran whited out.
Infinity took out a large atlas with a red eye symbol on it. She blinked. "Authored by the Overseer!? Well. This is probably beyond valuable."
Orchid raised an eyebrow. "Anything peculiar?"
"It has the magic lands on it, and Estur. And hey look, Frau!" Infinity pointed at a strange ring-shaped island. "Time Tunnels... We could probably get there in a few hours from where we are..."
"Pressed for time, remember?" Orchid said. "Tomorrow night is the moonless night."
"Right..." Infinity looked the atlas over for anything more helpful. "Yeah, it says the Death Sea is aptly named since the waters seem to be poisoned, making bodies decay in unnatural ways..." She shivered. "Yeesh. no wonder nobody goes to Frau."
"Anything besides atlases in here?" Vriska asked.
"Not that I can see. You should probably go check another house-"
Vriska accidentally pressed a particular brick in a wall, making it shift. She looked at it - and grinned when she realized she'd found a secret. She pulled the brick out, revealing the inside. A small leather bound journal. She picked it up and flipped to a random page:
June 5: I don't know what to say anymore. The path to the ancient cavern is no longer welcoming to us. The journey seems more and more difficult each time we attempt it. And yet, we cannot stop going - the rewards are far too great. Seeing the glory within is just too much. We cannot stop going - it is our one light in this gods-forsaken place. At this point it no longer matters if we understand the relic, only that we can see it.
June 7: We encountered a small demonic creature made of ice that was easily dispatched. G told us not to worry.
June 10: We received a shipment from Peran - the Overseer sent a personal note, saying something was clouding his sight in this particular part of the world, which concerned him. We quickly wrote a letter back and told him not to worry. It occurred to me about an hour ago that we didn't mention the relic. Oh well, we'll tell him next time. Maybe he can send over more to study the glorious device.
June 15: The ice demons are getting bigger - nothing R can't handle, but at this rate, it'll take a small squad to make the trek. The trek that now seems larger than it has any right to be. G assures us the path hasn't changed shape, that it would be impossible. But I swear we're walking circles around the mound before we get to the cavern and that it takes longer every time. N claims it's just because we're entering winter. I doubt it.
June 19: R was killed on the way back from the altar. An ice creature pierced his eyes and went right to his brain. It then just... left. Like it's work was done. G lamented the horrid ice demons - they existed only to kill in the most brutal ways they could manage. They were nature's sadists. I don't know what to believe anymore. But I know we must keep going to the great relic. Every time we go, we receive new clarity about the universe.
June 24: There was no shipment today. It was supposed to come. It was probably just caught up in a storm or something, it'll be here in a few days.
June 26: Driftwood started drifting through the sea, the make of a Peran ship. Ice shards were found buried in it.
June 29: Some of the ponies left in the night with our only boat. Pieces of driftwood drifted back this afternoon, covered in blood. The ice demons don't want us leaving. The Council will send an iron ship for us eventually, I know it.
June 30: N has declared no more expeditions to the altar after the last few deaths. I know this makes sense but... I can't help but be angry with him. G assures me N is making the right call - the ice demons are apparently worse than they've ever been - but I still don't care.
July 2: G informed me that N's son was planning more expeditions and that we'd be able to go to the altar again. He informed me that he was feeling the need to go back as well, it was just too good to pass up.
July 4: N was killed today by his own son. Good.
July 7: Ponies die every day. Small price to pay for enlightenment.
July 10: The wreckage of an iron ship drifts onto the shore. I don't care.
July 14: I must be one of the great ones, because the icy demons never face me. Maybe they think me worthy. G seems to think so.
July: N's son threw himself into the sea today. Weak.
Why do I even write in this journal anymore? What's the point? Why bother with records? Everything I need is here and soon there will be no need for records at all. What even is the date? Who cares. All I know is I am leading the next expedition. I'm taking some of the warmth bricks. I don't think this weak town can offer me anything else.
Vriska blinked. "Well, we seem to have stumbled onto a horror story."
"Wonderful," Twilence said. She turned to everyone. "Well, the altar's nearby, inside some cavern in that giant snow mound."
"And it drove everyone insane!" Infinity blurted.
"Your point?" Orchid said. "We still need to go to it."
"Definitely," Mite added.
"I don't see a path though..." Infinity said, glancing outside. "All snow."
And then a white mist appeared outside, in the streets. "Oh my! I... I did not expect anyone back! The ice demons have never let this place be - the madness affects them as well."
Twilence blinked. "...Gamnemnon, by chance?"
"Oh! You know who I am? Wondrous! I... I wish I could be more inviting but you should probably leave, this place is horrendous and drives madness..."
"We need to get to your altar," Orchid said.
"Oh! Are you the Oracle?"
"Yes," Orchid and Twilence said. Twilence smirked.
"...Interesting. I take it you already have some of my siblings?"
Orchid hesitated, then produced Ine.
"Wonderful! Then all is going as planned. I guess I shall take you to the altar to offer myself - such things are important."
Orchid cocked her head. "None of the others have been willing."
"None of the others have the slightest smidgen of intelligence. I see you're wearing my invention, winged-unicorn."
"Twilence," Twilence said. "You... Invented this?"
"Everyone claims it was a team effort but I was the genius behind everything. The Hole. The Time Tunnels. The Apocrypha."
"The Apocrypha?"
"You've heard of the Time Tunnels but not the Apocrypha? Man, history does weird things. The Apocrypha is a device that erases things from existence so it was as if they never existed. Naturally, we don't know if there's ever been a successful test, but we're relatively certain it works. Logistically, anyway."
"...That sounds terrible," Fluttershy said.
"Oh, it is. Threw it into the sun before the civilization fell. It was just a proof of concept." He looked at them. "I'm afraid I can't teleport you anywhere, I'm a spirit of mind. But I do know the path into the mound."
"Won't that be treacherous?" Fluttershy asked.
"It could be. But I believe we don't have to look for the right entrance - you can all just bore right in!" Gamnemnon chuckled heartily. "So, prepare yourselves for the Altar!"
"Vote time," Twilence said. "Who we grabbing? It's between Aradia, Pinkie, Sunset, and the Starshell. Some possible issues about Evermore Pinkie have been brought up, so I think I'll just bring regular Pinkie in. I suppose you can also vote for a Starlight."
"Starshell," Orchid said. "Speed is of the essence."
"I agree," Ruby said.
Fluttershy cocked her head. "Pinkie."
"Sunset," the Mite said.
Infinity shrugged. "I'll go with... Pinkie. I'm curious."
Vriska frowned. "Well, I was thinking Aradia, but now... Hrm... I think we need another fiery chick on board that isn't insufferable. Sunset."
Twilence rolled her eyes. "Welp, three-way tie. Very helpful. Guess we're not bringing Aradia in this time. We'll see what the Influence says as well. Gamnemnon? Lead the way."
"The mound's right there. Just dig straight in until you get to an icy cavernous hallway," Gamnemnon offered.
Orchid produced the Orb of Castorson and bored a hole into the snow, ice, and rock.
And then the Influence called.