//------------------------------// // XLIII // Story: The Influence // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// Twilence took a few minutes to sort out her thoughts. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Listen closely." Everyone stood at rapt attention. "We're going to do all of the above. Ponygood suggested doing both, I suggest we do more. Vriska, go around the city and collect the luck of the inhabitants. There should be plenty to get it high enough to 'ascend' to your 8-8 form. And then you're going to use this." Twilence teleported the infinite-sided die away from Fluttershy so Vriska wouldn't know who had it before. Vriska's eyes widened. "Yes. Hell fucking yes. I could take Orchid right to the altar with that... And any number of other things..." "It's time to make you extremely overpowered," Twilence smirked. "Orchid, you will go with her on that, because you need to." "...Not sure when we made you in charge of everything, but I get it." "That will probably take care of the Council member Vester's inside of, and allow Orchid to complete the prophecy. After you all finish that you'll head to the Time Tunnels to unlock whatever's found there. Pinkie, you're going to go with the army so you can relay what the Influence says to them, if they need it. Okay?" "Okie!" "Rarity, do you mind going with her?" "Not at all. It'll hardly be my first war," Rarity bowed. "Mite, you can go with Vriska and Orchid, see if you can figure out technology and stuff. I know my Eye can't be improved further with that device, but you may as well check it out if you see it." "Affirmative." "Aradia, you and I are going to use time shenanigans to meet with all the Council members. We'll meet up with Orchid after." Aradia nodded. "Gotcha. I'll split my timeline so I can go help the war as well." "Fluttershy, you're with us. And... Infinity... Where's Infinity?" Pinkie pointed out into a nearby hallway. Infinity was staring at a window. Not out of it, at it. Twilence teleported to her. "Infinity? You okay?" "I'm not important, am I? Just some... side character who wasn't even supposed to join." Twilence blinked. "That's... Actually right, I think. But just because it is it doesn't mean you aren't important." Infinity sighed. "I'm the most expendable. It's obvious. There's going to be something that happens and KA-CHAM I'm going to be dead. It's going to happen..." Twilence knew that someone was going to die. She didn't know if it was Infinity, or if it'd be more than one person, but someone was going to die. The best possible ending was gone. "Infinity, we can't go second guessing ourselves like this. We have to move on, taking pride in what we are, be it hero, oracle, sidekick, or whatever. There are many who think you are the self-insert of GM, by the way." "...I'm fully aware an author doesn't want to make his own character too important to the world. At least if he was me. It'd be too... 'cheaty'." Twilence smiled. "You're a good pony, Infinity. You should go with Vriska to the catacombs." "All right." Twilence tapped the Eye. "I'll be able to see what you're all doing with this. I can change the 'point of view', I just haven't seen a need to yet. I should be able to now." She turned back to the group. "Everyone know what they're doing?" Everyone nodded. "Well let's get to it! Aradia, freeze time for me. I need some time to snoop around the stories..." Aradia obliged and Twilence read. She found Creek's story first - she really hoped Creek wasn't going to get stuck for too long. The longer she wasn't here, the worse things could get. Twilence was also just worried in general. Was Creek going to break from all the strain? Twilence tried to send her a message directly - copying the link to the SotS forum she couldn't read - and felt like... Did it go through? She wasn't sure. She focused and tried to send messages to the other members of the recursive organization she knew... She had no idea if it worked or not. She sighed. She moved onto other stories, looking for little details. There was going to be one detail, one fact, one thing they were all forgetting. She knew she wasn't going to be the one to find it, the Influence had to be the ones to remember it if it was going to be remembered, but maybe there'd be something to jog their memory here. She found stories of Siron, Corot, Spirits, Islands, Time, Futures... Something in there. Something in there... It wasn't the Moonless night. That was tonight. Everyone had remembered that. What else... "Aradia..." "Yes, Twilence?" "What were the trials supposed to be?" "...Lore Thirst was supposed to drag you away from your position, make you think he was on your side, take you through a 'dungeon' he'd set up, and then 'reward' you by upgrading your Eye. We would have intervened before he finished, but it ended up being in the catacombs because of Siron-Vriska. She warned him about our plans and screwed everything up." She looked into the distance. "Apparently it now needs to happen since future-me didn't stop it." Twilence nodded. "I guess so... Resume time. Let's go talk to the Overseer..." While they moved, she shifted her focus... ~~~ Vriska ran into another casino, smirking, and absorbing the luck of the customers. "And now all of you will consistently lose!" "What a jerk thing to say!" A random customer said. "I know, right?" Vriska giggled. Orchid sighed. "How many of these do we need to go through?" "Probably a dozen more. Every one has one good gambling master in it, so they have big boosts." She twisted her wrists. "I have to be confident enough that I can roll straight 8s, remember? S' gonna take a while." Infinity shrugged, rolling some dice in a game against five other gamblers. She won everything with that one roll. "Am I lucky or..." "Yeah, the rest of them just have crap luck. To the next one!" Orchid teleported them to casino after casino like a factory assembly line. This was going to be so fun! ~~~ Rarity looked at the assembling armies. "...Where are your champions?" Lazuli blinked. "Excuse me?" "Champions. Superpowered individuals a cut above the rest that lead the charge and are the core of a good army. I mean, Pinkie and I qualify, but where are your excellents?" Lazuli frowned. "The army is formed of volunteers. We don't recruit." "...This bodes well." Rarity frowned, counting the forces. "While dragons are formidable, are you sure this is enough of a force? I do not know our enemy, but, well, I expect it'll be a difficult campaign." Lazuli smirked. "You know what you're talking about, aren't you?" "I led a war on a mad demon bent on destroying multiple universes. Or I was part of leading it." She shrugged. "It... was an experience." Pinkie shrugged. "Guess we're the champions though." Aradia appeared. "Okay, split my own timeline, now there's two of me. Pretty sure this universe doesn't operate on 'doomed timeline' logic, but frankly even if that's true I'm more likely to die now anyway because of reasons. But shenanigans are always fun." Pinkie nodded. "Well... Sweeping army of dragons and ponies! LET'S GO!" ~~~ Twilence, Fluttershy, and Aradia had wrapped up their interviews with Durian and Lazuli - Twilence was sure they not only weren't all that important, but they weren't Vester. She was pretty sure the Overseer wasn't either, but she did have some questions for him. "Hey Overseer! You have time for some questions." "No I don- Oh. You've stopped time. I see." Aradia waved and smiled. "What do you request of me?" Twilence smiled. "We... Want to know about your ship. I mean, I was confused when I was up there, but didn't it turn to shrimp?" "That was only part of it. The ship is far too large to be turned into all shrimp at once. Unless that infinite sided die has no limit on it." "Ah. Right..." Twilence frowned. "...Hey, wait a minute." She remembered a detail. Not the detail, but a detail. "I kept seeing your eye while I was sleeping, in my dreams. And yet it seems like you've never looked at me directly before. But I knew I was being watched..." The Overseer was silent for a moment. "...That is... concerning. I know not what it means." He glanced around, checking to make sure no-one else was watching in the time-stop. "Have you found out who Vester is controlling yet?" "Ah, you saw that. No. The Influence is placing its money on Gilead. But I haven't ruled out Evanesence yet. Pretty sure it's not Durian or Lazuli." "How can you be sure about Lazuli?" "Paralyzing fear of blood," Fluttershy said. "...Ah. Curious." "Anyway, off to Evanescence," Twilence said. "Thank you for your time." "Likewise." Later, that is to say, three minutes in the past, they met up with Evanescence. Evanescence put on a fake smile. "Hello, what can I do for you?" "You can answer a few questions. Mainly, I'm curious why exactly you have beef with Orchid." Evanescence bristled. "Surely you're aware of her tendencies by now." "I've been working with her. She's changing." "After she's done with this, if she gets to take the glory, she will do it publicly. And it will go to her head. And she is the last pony the people need to be a leader." "Ah. So if we were to, say, try to go to the altar anyway..." "I really don't care if you try it. Steps have been made to ensure Peran gets the glory, not Orchid. Do what you will, we'll say it was our army that did it." "Propaganda!" Aradia said. "Dastardly." "Normal," Evanesence said. "Now please end this stupid time distortion so I can get back to work." Aradia obliged. Ten minutes in the future, they paused time around Gilead. He glared at them. "I was training soldiers." "You can wait for that," Twilence said. "We've got some questions. You're old enough to remember the era of chaos. What was it like?" "Horrible, messy, and a big joke that nobody was laughing at." Twilence nodded. "Of course, I understand that. Do you know Discord gets released in the future? About a thousand years from now. He's sealed away again, but is let out again - it's a complicated mess that doesn't matter all that much. But the point is I know what the chaos world is like. I lived through one." "You want empathy points?" "No. I want you to realize that such a world could come about again." She shrugged. "We're still going ahead with the altar plan. We just don't trust an army and brute force to work." Gilead's gaze visibly hardened on all his heads. "...How are you going to get in the catacombs without Vester?" "A lot of luck. Vriska, to be precise. She's gathering enough luck to maximize her power. We'll get to the altar eventually." "...Where is Vriska right now?" Twilence smirked. Ah, there it is. "Why do you want to know?" "So I may... assist her." Fluttershy rolled her eyes. "Okay, yep, it's him." Aradia made the finger guns gesture and winked at Gilead. "Gotcha Vester!" Gilead roared as loud as could be. "HOW IN-" "Future Vriska tipped us of." He attacked - then Aradia froze him in time. "Yeah, he's not that strong. How's Vriska doing by the way?" ~~~ Vriska rolled her fluorite octet - and got straight 8s. "Woop! Gaming the system!" Her blue armor came to her and she became extremely overpowered. Infinity smirked. "Cool." Orchid groaned. "Can we just get this over with?" "Yes." Mite said. Vriska held the infinite-sided die in her hand and threw it to the ground. The altar itself was teleported aboveground, no longer even IN the catacombs. Vriska laughed. "Ah, so awesome." Orchid leaped onto the altar and called for Vester. In an instant, the red orb completed the set, all six spinning around her in an awe-inspiring aura. Blood appeared from nowhere, coating her for a split second and vanishing. And she understood everything. She bit her lip. "...What is it?" Infinity asked. "...Nothing important. Yet." She sighed. "I've just... learned more. Come on, to the Time Tunnels. I know what we need to do." ~~~ Gilead was now free of Vester. Gilead was now brain-dead. The Overseer appeared behind them. "Well... Looks like we'll be needing a new council member after this is over..." "No kidding," Twilence said. "...You still going through with the war?" "The vote is still tied. Yes, we are." Twilence nodded. "To the Time Tunnels then. Fluttershy? Aradia?" Aradia froze time. "Let's make the long journey!" It was eternally late afternoon as they flew across the sea towards the rest of the group. "So..." Fluttershy said. "Tonight's the night." "Yep." "We still forgot something" "Yep..." "It's going to be important?" Twilence sighed. "It won't be long until it's relevant, I know that. Not long at all..." She gulped. "Let's just... Meet up with everyone and get to the Time Tunnels. Okay?" ~~~ The inverted mountain was a cone-shaped pit in the ground. Pinkie, Rarity, Aradia, and Evanescence were there at the bottom. The bottom was unnaturally flat and sparkly. It made everyone feel uneasy. Evanescence took in a deep breath and lit her horn. "Here goes..." The flat in the ground suddenly vanished, leaving a hole. Pinkie went in first, coming out the other side realizing gravity was inverted. What had been the ceiling was now the floor. "Huh... Cool!" Rarity, Aradia, and Evanescence came in after. Slowly, the army started pouring in through the opening. Tartarus was dark. Really, really dark. Faint lights could be seen in the distance, eerily illuminating tremendous towers of rock in the distance. There were no visible walls, or 'ceiling.' Everything was dark, dangerous, and desolate. Evanescence pulled out a map. "The Overseer has marked out a path that will lead us directly to Siron's section. The guardians of Tartarus shouldn't cause us much trouble - they know who's supposed to be here and who's not - but we still must be on our feet. Not all that is sealed down here will be locked away in chains." Rarity nodded, casting a regen spell on as many as she could manage. ~~~ They were a group now. Twilence, Fluttershy, Infinity, Vriska, Orchid, and Mite. Aradia was there as well, but she was hanging back, making sure time moved at a crawl. The sun would be setting in only a couple hours. They had passed Troisha and the Ice shelf long ago - now they were heading towards the Time Tunnels. Which were stuck behind a permanent storm-cloud. "Going through that while time-frozen could prove to be impossible," Aradia said. Twilence encased everyone in protective magic shield. Orchid did as well. They all floated through the air while Aradia unpaused time. The stormclouds over the Time Tunnels swirled, shifting, altering, adjusting, freaking out in the most impossible ways. Twilence gulped. "This is going to be a rough ride." Vriska held up the infinite sided die. "Want me to have a go?" "Do you still have enough luck to be certain it'll work?" "Nope." "Then no. We'll do this the right way." Twilecne took a breath - and calculated a long-range teleport. "Here goes..." They appeared on the other side of the storm. It was still far, far too windy here. Twilence's magic bubble burst from a random airborne rock, leaving only Orchid's. "You could have warned us to expect turbulence!" Infinity muttered. "Sorry!" Twilence called, looking around frantically. It was hard to see in this wind - so much wind. So many things were flying around and obscuring her vision, and she had to keep nudging them out of the way of the rapidly approaching debris... Wait. She sensed magic. She threw the bubble downward. It hit ground - but stayed intact. They were on a tiny island surrounded by wind with a single cave opening right in front of them. She rolled them into it like they were hamsters in a ball. Then she sealed up the entrance to keep the wind out. "Okay! Here we are. Let's... do this!" Orchid walked forward - there was a large open space, a meeting hall, composed of ancient metal coursing with magitech energies, much like the ones in the desert. At the end was a door with six softly glowing nodes. "As soon as I put these in Starlight is going to show up." "So? We can take her!" Vriska said. "Maybe. But I'll have lost the powers bestowed upon me by the spirits. And she will try to gain partial control over the Tunnels. She succeeds in the future I currently see. I'm hoping Twilence can change that." "...How exactly will she try to do it?" Orchid frowned. "I will put the spirits in and a scanner will check everyone in the room and give them 'control passes.' She will appear in that moment and try to be recognized as a worthy controller. It'd be hard to stop that from happening so I'd suggest trying to kill her." Fluttershy gasped. "But... She just wants her home back!" "I hope your Influence can find a way to save her. But we can't have her gaining control." She glanced at Twilence. "Got it?" "Got it." "Also, I'm sorry." Twilence narrowed her eyes. "What are you about to do that I won't like?" Orchid laughed bitterly. "You won't like a lot of things that are coming. I can see the future pretty clearly now. There are a few specific branching paths. But... No, now is not the time. I will take full blame afterward. You've taught me that much, at least." And then Twilence received the endings. [POSSIBLE ENDINGS] Bittersweet Warmonger Steam Rebuilder Forgotten Adrift Coward Earned Tattletale Supernova Predetermined Insanity Grimdark LOST ENDINGS: Dethroned "Okay Influence... You can talk to both me and Pinkie, capitalize on it."