Orchid was still boring a hole into the mound when Twilence came back. She scrolled quickly through the comments to collect votes - facehooving. "...I think I have some drama to deal with. Regardless, Pinkie won. I think I'm grabbing Evermore Pinkie, since it was already stated that GM worked on that and it should be fine. If it's not... Well, Aradia'll stop us, right?"
Vriska shrugged. "Probably."
"Regardless, keep drilling Orchid, gotta deal with stuff. Creek, guess you weren't here at the start - we already asked those questions to the locals. They had no idea where Equestria was. I don't know if they think the movement of the Sun and Moon is even unnatural in any way."
Infinity shook her head. "We didn't - until you showed up. It was almost like clockwork."
"The sisters are good at their job." Don't trust Gamnemnon. Twilence realized this was probably good advice - he was here amongst a tragedy. He seemed amiable enough, so the villagers had probably been aware of him, and yet he hadn't stopped it or succumbed to it-
Hold on one sec.
What if he was the G in that journal?
...He sure sounded affected in those pages if that were the case...
And he was right here. How was she going to let the others know to watch themselves without - ah, right!
"So, G, I know the Time Tunnels can be used to go through time - can they be used to go to other places as well?" Twilence said, sure to emphasize the G.
"The long-range teleporters do exist there, but I doubt any 'receiver' pads exist elsewhere. That being said you could just go back in time to give yourselves an edge."
Twilence wasn't sure if anyone picked up on what she said. She hoped it was at least a few. "Thanks, G." She would have suggested Vriska go search the town but she didn't want Gamnemnon figuring out what was in the journal. Did he already know? Did it matter?
...And she supposed that was all the Influence had to say besides the votes.
That is, besides Afizah and Ponygood.
She sighed. "Okay. Afizah? Ponygood? Neither of you is handling this particularly well. Afizah, it's rather evident that you aren't showing us Pinkie. The Pinkie I know would take more stock in what Ponygood was saying and... well honestly, probably would have run off crying right now, get mad, or just respect his wishes. Pinkie isn't really a reasonable type who's concerned with proof or other such things - she just is. That being said, you could be an alternate universe... But... You seem inconsistent. It's like you're a character in a book I'm reading and you aren't believable. Which has been the case with most of Afizah's 'characters', which is why I've doubted them. I mean... Sorry, Afizah, I guess that insults your writing ability, doesn't it? I know how horrible that is, I don't mean it that way, I assure you. And seeing as how Creek and Key are just 'windows' through Keywii Cookie or something, I guess that may just be the way it is. So... There's not really a real answer from my position. If you are Pinkie, you still aren't handling it well or being considerate, which is what grates against me."
She continued. "Ponygood... You're right, it's annoying, and you're probably right on your general points. No need to get so venomous and angry about it - I mean, that was pretty brutal. Lots of you have all 'role-played' at one point or another, maybe not you specifically, but several. Most of those may have been Afizah, but there were others. Akumakami - where is he anyway haven't heard from him in a while - and probably a few others. My issue with it was I wasn't sure if it was a real window or not - still not, though leaning towards not with Afizah. Some of them seemed more real than others. His other me, the Shepard. My point is that even though you seem right it doesn't mean you should get all angry. I got angry at your antics before - and I apologized. You may have been straining me, and you were at fault, but I didn't need to be so livid. I think I just needed to let out some steam. So... Make up you two, okay?"
There was silence. Orchid had finished drilling.
Fluttershy smiled. "Princess of Friendship."
Vriska nodded. "I can see why. The title is unbelievably cheezy bug Gog-damn, I only heard half of it and that made me want to hug something."
Ruby frowned. "Let us continue on."
They entered the tunnel Orchid had carved - and slid down the icy surface in a manner of seconds. It was a wild ride - Twilence managed to spin herself around in the slide and let out a gleeful laugh. Who cared if they were going into danger, this was fun. She hadn't had some pure, innocent fun in a while. She reveled in it.
"Laughter," Mite deadpanned.
"Oh shush."
They arrived in a tremendously large football-field sized cavern made almost entirely of ice. There were four flat pathways of ice that led to the center, one of which they were standing on. There were no railings, but the bridges were wide enough that Twilience wasn't immediately afraid of falling to the icy spikes below, though the icy spikes above concerned her. The place glistened with an unseen light source and the altar was suspended above the center of the cavern.
"Do you mind summoning your 'ally' first?" Gamnemnon asked. "I would like to be present for that."
"No problem," Orchid said, gesturing for Twilence to go. Twilence shrugged - she didn't see any harm. She scrambled across the slippery ground until she arrived on the solid ground of the altar. She smiled, stepping into the center. "Evermore Pinkie."
The altar predictably lit∆•£ªª¥¬˙ ´∑•√ø˙¢ø†...
~~~
Hello again.
You've done something interesting here. You've broken a rule.
Nobody can leave the Evermore Recursions. But you're reaching into it from the outside. Breaking the universal quarantine in place. Opening up a can of worms.
Not to mention how good Evermore Pinkie is at her powers. I say you've chosen well. But unintended consequences are a thing.
That said, had you chosen someone else, be rest assured: what happens next would have been much, much worse.
~~~
∑•ª¨ˆ√∑•ºinkie gasped. "THRACKERZOD! I'M LEAVING!"
The tall, regal unicorn-demon looked at the bouncing pink pony with suspicious eyes. "What...?"
"Leaving the Recursions! I'll be gone in a few seconds! Be sure to tell everyone it's possible! ...Though far as I know it requires outside influence..."
Thrackerzod wasted no time - she shoved a frying pan into Pinkie's hooves and spoke something in the eldritch tongue.
Pinkie grinned. "Nice." She waved goodbye.
~~~
Pinkie appeared in the center of the altar with a frying pan in her hooves. She grinned. "Hi Twilence! Sorry about this!" She tackled Twilence to the ground just in time to dodge an incoming ice spike.
Twilence glared. "It's not safe in here!"
"No... Kidding..." Ruby gagged.
Twilence turned - she saw a spire of ice held in Ruby's hands, stopping it from getting to Orchid. But it still pierced through Ruby's chest, drawing bright red dragon blood. Ruby was slowly bleeding and freezing over at the same time.
Twilence ran to her. "Ruby! Hang on-"
And then the dragon exploded as the ice surged with a white glow, driving more spires in all directions.
Twilence turned to look at Gamnemnon. "No..."
"Oh YES!" He laughed, moving the ice towards Orchid. "I MADE THIS ALL HAPPEN! ISN'T THAT GREAT!?"
"No!" Orchid yelled, closing her two real eyes and using her sight to dodge the incoming ice shards - she was having some difficulty as they surrounded her. The ceiling and floor themselves began to push with white energy, shrinking to crush all of them.
"DID YOU REALLY THINK I WAS GOING TO JUST LET YOU TAKE ME? NO. No..." He laughed. "I say let the world burn. Who gives a rip. I just wanted to see the curious expression of hope vanish from your eyes... I couldn't play the long game like I did with the village, which ruins some of the fun, but really, still satisfying. All of you are going to die here at my hand. Creatures from other worlds, a microscopic machine, a hero, and a defiler of destiny. How perfect is this?"
Orchid ran for the altar - but a wall of ice surrounded it. "Oh no, not letting that happen. And you can forget about teleporting. Or even using magic!"
Vriska pointed at him and drained as much luck as she could manage. "You're gonna die now."
Gamnemnon laughed. "I am a spirit of nothing but mental fortitude! There's nothing you have that can possibly do anything to me, even if I were extremely unlucky-"
He got hit with the frying pan Pinkie was holding. His white sparks stopped moving instantly. "N....N..."
Pinkie threw Orchid through the ice wall into the altar. "DO IT FAST HE'S ABOUT TO DIE."
Orchid nodded. "I WISH TO SPEAK WITH THE SPIRIT OF THIS ALTAR!"
Gamnemnon was condensed into a white sphere and given to Orchid in a single instant. The ice walls stopped glowing white - but they kept moving on their own.
"Huh. Felt for sure that'd work," Pinkie said.
Infinity narrowly dodged another ice tentacle. "How are we going to get out of this?"
Pinkie shrugged. "Well, if you didn't have me, I wouldn't know. Seeing as you do have me, well..." She made a count. "One, two, three, four... I can only take four. Uh..."
Vriska grinned. "I can't die in the 'alpha timeline,' Leave me. I'll find a way out."
"Okay good. Come on guys let's go!"
"Vriska," Mite said, leaving the Influence and hopping onto Vriska.
Vriska smirked. "Guess he likes me."
Pinkie shook her head. "No more time let's GOOOOOOOOOO!"
And then they were gone in a shower of confetti.
~~~
Pinkie, Orchid, Twilence, Infinity, and Fluttershy appeared in a field of wheat in a puff of confetti. Pinkie smiled. "Well, we're safe!"
Orchid blinked. "...Where are we?"
"Another world," Twilence answered. "...Somewhere else in the multiverse."
Orchid took out the five Spirits - testing Gamnemnon. Her eyes widened. "...He's the spirit of mind all right, I'm calculating the digits to some number relating to circles now..."
"Pi," both Pinkie and Twilence said at the same time. Pinkie giggled.
"Learning anything new?" Infinity asked.
"A lot. Still sorting through it... The last spirit, Vester, is going to be a nightmare to obtain..."
"How so?"
"Neither Vester nor the Palace altar has been seen in centuries. Not for lack of looking for it.
"Great..."
"Guys..." Fluttershy said. "How... How can you all be so relaxed!?"
"What are you-"
"RUBY JUST BLEW UP! HER BLOOD IS ON MY FACE! WHAT DO YOU THINK IS UP!?!?!?"
Pinkie instantly lost the smile. "Oh... Oh no... I..." Tears started flowing into her eyes. "I... I..."
Twilence gulped. "I... Fluttershy, we-"
"She's dead!" Fluttershy shrieked. "So very dead!"
Orchid raised a hoof. "I am aware, but she sacrificed herself protecting us, a noble-"
"She sacrificed herself to protect you. More of us would have been skewered if Pinkie hadn't been there with that frying pan!"
Twilence glanced at the frying pan. Something about it unnerved her.
Good eye.
She was just going to ignore those words it put in her mind. Yep. No way a frying pan could talk. She focused back on Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, this is a dangerous world we're in. I don't think we can get through it without loss-"
"You going to be so neutral about it if something cuts off my head!?"
"Fluttershy..." Twilence shook her head. "You know that's not true..."
"Yeah, I don't. Which is why nobody caring bothers me!" Tears flowed down her face. "She exploded, Twi. She exploded. Someone else might explode. Vriska might not have made it out..."
Pinkie shook her head. "She's fine."
"How do you know?"
Pinkie pointed at the Influence. "Mine works properly. Though not as well as the one Twilence has is supposed to."
"So she was right, you could hear voices."
"Oh no. Well, yes. I can just see beyond, what things are happening, where things are going to end up. And when to pull off a joke!" She sniffed. "Now is obviously not the time for that..." The wind swept through her mane. "Well..."
Fluttershy looked at her closely. "...You aren't the Pinkie I know."
"...Yeah. Sorry. I had to change on my adventure too. I had to adapt to another set of - oh no. They don't have a Pinkie anymore. I mean I think there's human Pinkie but I'm not sure and Diane is..." She put her hoof to her head. "...They're going to be so sad and I can't go back without getting trapped!"
Everyone fell silent.
Orchid coughed. "It occurs to me that we have a lot of emotional baggage to get through, but also a quest. Pinkie, can you take us back to our world so we may continue?"
"Cooldown is 4-5 hours. We're here for a while."
Twilence frowned. "Great. We... We also need to decide if we're going to the Time Tunnels or Altars first..."
"We may not be able to activate the Time Tunnels," Orchid said. "And then we'd just lose time."
"But if we could, we'd be able to mess with time itself!"
"Pretty sure Aradia has that covered," Infinity said. "We'll just get her and ask her for a favor or something."
"To get that die..."
Fluttershy looked at Twilence. "Twi, can I talk to you for a moment? In... private?"
Twilence looked around. "I mean, yes, but where's private?"
Pinkie Pie produced a large curtain and drew it between them. "There you go! Privacy curtain! Everypony plug your ears!"
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. "Guess... that works."
"What's up?" Twilence said, concern on her face.
Fluttershy sighed. "A... A lot of things. Ruby... But that can be talked about in the open... Just..." She reached into her mane. "I... I have something you need to see."
Twilence raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
She produced the infinite sided die.
"...Oh." Twilence deadpanned.
"I... I found it and took it. I... I don't think Vriska should have it. She's too dangerous. Too violent. I don't think she's a bad person but... She's a dangerous person."
Twilence wasn't sure what to make of this.
The Eye lit up the moment she thought that. Fluttershy sighed, putting the die back in her mane. "It's activating everypony!"
Pinkie tore the curtain down. "OOOOOOOOH! I wanna be here for this one!"
~~~
[IMPORTING...]
Vriska felt like she was being watched. She frowned, picking up her dice that had burned a hole just the right size for her in the ice. She was standing in the sun of the ice shelf, the wind chilling her.
How the heck was she supposed to know where or when the others would show up again?
"Unknown."
"Can you read my mind?"
"Body."
"...Body language?"
"Yes."
"You really work hard to keep up this one-word thing, don't you?"
"Affirmative."
"Hmm. So. Well then. Probably should go wander around until Aradia or someone else shows up then... Where do you think we should go?"
"Capital."
"I like that idea." She changed into her orange robes and flapped her wings towards the Capital of Peran...