The Influence

by GMBlackjack

XXIII

Author's Note:

[IMPORTING…][Mined your step! Aren't puns glorious? In all seriousness here, you're now approaching the Mountian of Knowledge, which sounds like a giant library inside a carved out mountian. And also another altar. And possibly another encounter with Orchid. Boy, some knowledge on Orchid might be very helpful right now, wouldn't it? In any case, just mind (heh) where you put your hooves. I'm guessing you don't want them exploded, even though you could just use your wings. -Giginss… …Whimpers S-sorry Twilight. D-didn’t mean to make you mad following what my dad was doing. M-My name isn’t Afizha though, Its Tarou. I... I never intended to make you explode. I j-just wanted to make you laugh. I.... I’m sorry. I-I'll just go… …Josh here - Oh boy can't say i didn't see that outburst coming, anyway I can confirm that all of that nonsense was Ponygood and Afizah and no one else, also it's nice to know that my begging was not a complete wast i did save you from a little bit more from ponygood. anyway what I was saying before was that we must of over-clocked our connection by bringing someone here that's not from your universe; their was a moment we stoped seeing you and that was when GM put in his two sense on what we were doing, at least that's what I got from what he was saying… …In case you hadn’t realized she has a broken wing. I think. Twilight this is Afizha. Sorry, I haven’t spoken to you in a while, but I have been trying to find my sister, and after checking the recording device I set up to tell me when things had changed, I'm sorry I wasn’t here to try and put a stop to the insanity you just suffered through. As for advice; Don’t you have some sort of shield spell that you could put between four and the ground. Combine that with a sweep&search spell, and you could have a way to walk through the minefield on four’s shoulders. Also hello again Tarou, Have your dreams been getting any better? I can only imagine the trauma you went through after losing your sister; Not to mention being held hostage at an old hospital, as a kid no less… …Ponygood speaking. I will keep my message short, since I feel you may still be partially upset. First, I'm sorry for getting carried away with my religious nonsense, but I was just really excited to participate in it once it was started. Seeing you blow up wasn't satisfying though; if anything, it brought me back to reality.  Second, my offers still stand. Both to educate you in Pinkie Pie, and to change my avatar from the Destroyer to any sentient spaceship. Reminder: Aphelion is a small armed spaceship, Moya is a really large bio-mechanical unarmed starship, and the Tardis can travel through time and has interior spacial compression, but there is the potential of their crew not being brought with them. Third, going to get a bit metaphysical momentarily, so be prepared for confusion. Vriska's multiverse is not the Multiverse at large. If she says there is a Tower at the center with all the Authors, that's fine and dandy, but that is HER multiverse. Another story we have takes place in a multiverse, and it contains at the center a Dark Tower, unrelated to Vriska's Tower, that prevents demons from invading as long as it stands. There is the potential of an Omniverse, which holds the sum total of every singly possible multiverse variation, but that is too much extra-versal theory for the current situation. That is all. I trust your... friends? Can they even be considered that? Will keep you safe during the input session… …This is Zen. I'm not familiar with Vriska's powers, but luck manipulation would probably have some use in preventing catastrophe here, for whatever use that is. Everyone, I think it would be best to keep our comments to a minimum, so that Twilight can get back into action as soon as possible. Time is not on her side… …This is Creek, Twilight. Um...there's a tower? I, I mean, I knew that I'm a character, but, but ah...I didn't know we could...I mean, can we influence the story if we, um, if our wr-writer no longer writes for us? Can...can you ask Vriska what happens when the cre-creator doesn't, um, when it doesn't write for you anymore? Oh, in case you get hurt from the fall, I...I *really* hope you're okay, You should already be resting your leg, you're in no shape to be adventuring after all. And if you're concussed you need to stay awake which...already isn't happening when yo-you get...information from us. Do you or Vri-iska know any healing magic? Ah, um, and if you want me to suggest names for you I, I can, but, I mean, you're supposed to pick. If somebody else chooses for you it won't, I mean, it won't mean anything to, to you. If...well, if you want to pick a new name you need to think about yourself. What do you like to do? What, what's your favourite thing? What d-do you. Um, any favourite foods or pl-places? If you li-like reading, um, I mean, could you be Library? It...I mean, I like it... If, um, most people in, in my world usually take a few months t-to decide, so don't feel rushed. Ju-just think about it, okay? I believe in you. And try not to let people's words get to you. If, if there's a group of pe-eople being loud and annoying you, I meran, you just have to put your eyes to the floor and walk past them. Which, ah, which reminds me, does...does Vriska know anthing a-about the, ah, just ask her, she doesn't think you're be-being stupid About the true walkers? I think that's what they-ey're called. They, um, they travel between worlds...maybe? Please, um, if you ge-get the time, please ask her… …Hey Twilight, Owleero here. Wasn't scared off by the outburst, I was actually expecting it to happen sooner. Also to elaborate on what I was talking about earlier, the whole below Absolute Zero thing is treated like a noodle incident, but here's what I THINK happened: Sunset provides the power with her Enhance ability, then Trixie casts an illusion designed to fool reality itself that there is a point below Absolute Zero, and then Twilight lowers the temperature to that point. And before you ask, yes, Trixie is capable of tricking reality into believing her illusions are real, hence the "illusory magic circle becomes a real magic circle" comment. No, none of the three are alicorns, just unicorns… …You can't really ignore the words of people when they're broadcast directly into your mind… …When yo-you're being confronted it...I mean, it doesn't really mat-matter if you're being talked down to or at i-in your head. It's only imposs-ossible to ignore until you force yourself to… …LeftMoss here. Try detecting where the mines might be, like with a metal detector (spell?). Not the best suggestion, but it's better than nothing… …Josh here. Vriska is light player, healing is more of a "life" player thing Creek… …Light and life magic are close to the same spectrum of magic in general that, although Vriska uses light to adjust the luck around her, it is not out of the realm of possibility that she can also cast a basic healing spell to fix a few of the minor injuries they have… …Josh here - maybe in most in places where magics is real and what not but not where Vriska from; light and life players have been shown that their powers do not over-lap. in fact it has not been proven that their powers are even magic at all or something else altogether (although some have called it magic, but that's more like "I don't understand it so I'm just going to call it magic to make it easier on me”)… …Ah, well I still think Vriska has some form of healing spell should it be required. I don't think she's using it because it either takes a while to cast or that the spell only targets herself… …well twi, there are some of us who fell in love with you, and disliked flash because he stole you from them(That's what some think others hate him because he is boring, isn't interesting enough, and bland) but Flash started to grow on many others. There have been stories focused around him. Many of the stories are interesting… …Ponygood again. Tarou asked me to say a few things to you, and I'm going to do that. First, Tarou claims the whole thing involving butt cloud gods was meant to make you laugh, and is sorry you got so upset about it. Second, Tarou asks what you think of the idea of you being part Pheonix and understanding their language. Would you do pranks with Philomena, or be more interested in learning of pheonix culture, family dynamics, etc?… …Akumakami here- Hey, Twilight? Quick question? Is Tirek immortal somehow or does Tartarus just keep its prisoners from escaping, even in death? Besides th*$^#$#&^$#*$$#$3 *Whirl* RC: SYSTEMS REBOOTING. SCANNING. INTERDEMINSIONAL TRAVEL CAPABILITY DISRUPTED. ALL OTHER SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL CURRENT LOCATION: INTERFACE BETWEEN BEYOND-FOURTH-REALM AND WOLRD OF THE EQUESTRIAN MULTIVERSE. SCANNING WORLD: DESIGNATED AS WORLD G36M95B93J. CLASSIFIED AS: PCF. ON-WORLD INTERFACE RECIEVER FOUND. SPIECEMEN: A TWILIGHT SPARKLE, ALICORN VARIATY. STATUS: CURRENTLY SUBJECTED TO FRCED TIMETRAVEL AND EXPOSER TO THOSE FROM BEYOND-THE-FOURTH-REALM. PERSONALITY THREAT LEVEL: UNDETERMINED, POSSIBLY INFLUX. GREETINGS TWILIGHT SPARKLE G36M95B93J. I AM ROBOCORD OF SCUFFED DROSS… …This is Cr-Creek, Josh, what does that mean? Pl-players? what other kinds, ah, I mean, how many play-ayers are there?… …Josh here - it is impossible to know how many players there are; there's probably infinite when you take in that this "game" is Vriskas multiverses way of making a new universe, but per session the amount of players ranges from two (although that's risky to have so few teammates), to twelve, and can only have an even amount of players; each player is assigned a class and aspect; classes include thief, rogue, heir, maid, page, knight, seer, mage, sylph, witch, bard, prince (the destroyer class), and the muse and lord, but the last two are for a two player session, and aspects include time, space, void, light, mind, heart (or self), rage, hope, doom, life, blood, and breath; anyone could have any class and aspect as long as there is no over-lap between players from there session, and that someone has the time and space aspects… …There was a way to play single-player, though. The game would punish them severely for it, but would be given the ultimate reward if they won. Also, the more players there are in a game, the more their ultimate enemy grows in strength, but so too does their ally… …yes a one player session is possible, but not only does the very nature of the game changes, but you're set up against impossible odds; you have to be the luckiest and the most ruthless person in the multiverse to get though that death trap… …nickel here, first off, am I the only one who is remembering what happened last time we went detailed and long winded when things were in the middle of something going on?... since we all know no one is going to stop anyway and either way the ultimate outcome of this particular gap is pretty much already set, to clarify what has already been stated, the aspect of light is theoretically capable of healing, there is a lot of overlap in the aspects, but its all in the class to tell how that works, thief of light cant heal anyone except possibly self, it takes not gives, so vriska has no healing abilities as far as the known rules are concerned. as for what i tried to do... its really better you just leave it alone, but i tried to access your worlds metafile, the metaphysical information storage, and see if i could get at currently unknown information about your world, but i had second thoughts on the wisdom of trying that and scrambled the log to prevent possible glitches. since the concept of a living ship keeps coming into play it may be worth looking into the cabbits of the tenchi muyo multiverse, they are an artificial species that are normally about the size of spike or smaller, but can shape shift into medium size spacecraft known to possess ludicrous combat capability and maneuverability and uses subspace to make the interior much larger than the outside. this coming from a universe where the focus household is home to five beings ranging from upper demi-god to full god, so its all a bit overpowered. oh and on the note of the one and two player sessions, they were the same session but it depended on how you considered it for what it could be called, that session was nasty and if you ever run into caliborne... i dont think he can be reformed and he is the most vulnerable component in the formation of the demon who caused everything that went wrong with the homestuck universe, i know its not in your nature, but he has to be destroyed, every other component was either indestructible or had to be destroyed for the fusion to occur. vriska being there means that its not entirely impossible for more leakage particularly since we dont know what exactly happened when the interface glitched… …I don't think we can just summon people from anywhere in the whole of existence. Characters from GM's stories are fine, since they share their creator with this one, and since we are connected using the comment section, I'm pretty sure Twilight can get our avatars. However, I'm already waiting for Twilight's confirmation to change my avatar, and what to change it to. Unless maybe you'd like to be the one doing the changing into whatever sentient ship Twilight chooses, and I can keep my Destroyer?… …granted i wouldn't mind using ryo ohki as an avatar for awhile, but at the same time we also don't know what kind of limitations there are on this kind of thing, so i just offer advice and ideas when i can mostly. incidentally it wouldn't be that hard to set up either since her home dimension is plagued by minor instabilities that have caused stranger in the past… …Hey, the altars can pull GM's avatar from the completely mind-bogglingly confusing mess of a multiverse that is Homestuck. If they can do that, they can pull someone from the relatively stable universe you are describing…. …I've already made my concerns clear about bringing someone from another universe to here ponygood don't make me repeat myself… …fair points both, i'm going to leave it up to twilight's judgement and hope i don't inadvertently supply the idea that causes the second bug as well. twilight sorry about this, the timing is less than ideal i know, but we aren't being offered a better window right now and if we don't do something constructive with it then we'll end up with a senseless mess here again… …A-are you still mad at me Twilight? I’m sorry for going along with my dad's insanity and making you angry. i want to try and make up for it though. can you ask four if he has some form of detector or shield module that can help you across?… …To the others of the influence. I think I have found a pretty good representation of the eye that bonded to Twilight. usercontent1.hubstatic.com/11972294_f520.jpg hope that doesn’t scare anyone with the thought… …I think I have something you can try to summon, though I don’t know if he will listen to you as you aren’t his trainer, try and gather Charizard. His trainer's name is Ash Ketchum, and Charizard is strong. Ash caught it while it was still a Charmander, but it evolved into a disobedient yet powerful combatant. Sending it out was risky, however, as it would sometimes just snooze and ignore commands, causing Ash to waste a slot on his team in battles against rival Ritchie and Gym Leader Blaine. However, over time, Charizard gained an appreciation for Ash and eventually began to obey his trainer, further boosting his combat prowess. Charizard was released to spend time training against fellow dragons, but Ash will still occasionally borrow its power for tough fights. Charizard's most impressive victories: 1. Defeated the legendary Ice-type Articuno. 2. Won against Gary's Blastoise. 3. Also beat Tad's Water-type Poliwrath. 4. Dominated Iris's Dragonite before the match was called off. 5. Held its own against the Legendary Entei in the third Pokemon movie. Charizard's training greatly increased its already formidable strength, and it has been seen to use more attacks than any other anime Pokémon. Win or lose (very probably win); you can count on Charizard to drastically weaken foes. if that is within the range of those altars then I would try and get him… …not being a hypocrite and trying to shutdown ideas from other universe, but at least provide some context. while its quite obvious what you are talking about to me, twilight wasn't born on a standard variant earth and wont know what any of that means. you have to at least describe what you are referring to in more universal detail, for twilight, charizard is basically a large orange creature that is essentially a dragon much like those of equestria with a few relatively minor differences, think diet mostly… …Everyone! I very highly doubt Twilight can just summon any entity from anywhere in the sum total of existence just willy nilly! WE are unable to be summoned, simply because our world is too far separated from Twilight's world, and I'm extremely confident other stories, being found IN our world, will be even more seperate. If you want Twilight to take your suggestions for characters, I strongly recommend changing your avatar to it. It worked for GM's avatar, and his status as the author should have absolutely no effect on this situation. The eye was more crystaline/metalic in nature. It could fit the evil red eye Twilight saw in her dream, though… …Twilight, I have changed my Avatar to represent Charizard so that you might be able to summon it. I’m not all that good at explaining what I look like, and the image to show what I look like is missing the tail, so I'll upload a picture of what I look like entirely to someone who honestly can explain it better. However, if you do summon me, then I won’t be able to change it again until your adventure is complete as I don’t want to risk my avatar changing if you are in a dicey situation and you need the firepower I would possess. I can use a wide variety of fire, (apparently), Dragon, (again Obviously), and Flying type moves. Though as a way not to be OP (Over Powered if you're wondering what that means) I will limit the number of moves I can use to four, for the moment. The moves I know right now will be, 1. Flamethrower. 2. Blast Burn. 3. Fly. (if that wasn't obvious enough.) 4. Dragon Claw. I won't be able to add moves once summoned, so Blackjack would have to take over on that aspect, again if I'm summoned that is. here is what i look like. pre05.deviantart.net/1a10/th/pre/f/2013/247/d/4/mega_charizard__fan_mad… …LeftMoss again, I forgot to say that I changed my avatar again... I just can't be happy with one for a good amount of time. You wont be able to summon it, due to the fact that it is about 40-50 meters tall, about 40 meters long, and 25 meters wide, due to each beam is 4 meters and each block being 1 meter. EDIT: It is also called "Extinction”…]

Twilight was vaguely aware of exploding noises as the import stopped. She was in a tree - she could see Fluttershy standing on a nearby branch, a terrified look on her face. Twilight was barely able to process this - she had the worst headache of all time. If I didn't have a concussion before I do now... She groaned, standing up - barely able to stay in the tree. She looked around - there were a dozen or so smoking craters from mine explosions on the ground nearby. She saw Four precariously standing on one foot in one of them, shaking. He had suffered dozens of explosions - enough to ding his metallic exterior and upset his balance. Vriska was nowhere to be seen.

"What... What happened?"

"I FELL. THINGS EXPLODED. THINGS KEPT EXPLODING. VRISKA GOT YOU TO THAT TREE. I STABILIZED MYSELF LIKE THIS. SHE FLEW OFF IN A RAGE."

"Why?" Twilight asked.

A dog flew through the sky with a yelp, landing in a nearby tree. "Gotcha!" Vriska shouted, coming out of nowhere and grabbing the dog by the scruff. "You have-"

"Vriska! You can't!" Fluttershy yelled.

"Already did," Vriska grunted. "If it makes you feel better I won't kill him myself. Probably. Let his fellow dogs sort that out." She shook him rapidly. "You are going to get us through these mines, or ELSE."

The dog passed out.

Vriska sighed, tossing the dog back into the tree. "Okay, sporadic luck today. Yes, found the dog. No, couldn't interrogate him. Bah."

Twilight groaned. "They suggested I use a metal detection spell... Which would work, I just don't think we can move Four across easily. His feet are just too big. You got anything?"

"I'll need to absorb someone's luck to pull that off. And..." She looked at the dog. "Don't think he has enough to be worth it."

Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief. "Good..."

Vriska scratched her chin. "...Twilight, can you carry him in your magic again? You aren't due for another 'import' for a long time, right?"

"Right... I think I have a concussion now though. Got any way to heal that?"

"Sorry, no dice."

Twilight groaned. "Don't think I should be taxing my mind like this... Not sure I have a choice though. Vriska, grab me. Four, you ready again?"

"READY."

"Good. Okay..." She lit her horn - it felt like a nail drove through her skull. But she grunted through it, lifting Four off the ground once again. They moved over the minefield for two more minutes.

Two more agonizing minutes. They eventually found their way into the mountain-forest proper, and could see a small dog town up ahead.

"Far enough," Vriska said. Twilight dropped Four at this - he hit the ground hard, but nothing exploded. Vriska smirked. "Am I good or am I good?"

"...Good..." Twilight breathed heavily, rubbing her head. Vriska set her down on the ground. Fluttershy rushed to Twilight and examined her.

"Twilight... This isn't good. This isn't good at all. Try not to fall asleep, okay? We... We need to get you treated..."

"We don't know any advanced healing spells and I'm not spending several days in a hospital, Fluttershy. We have to keep moving."

"But..."

"I know it's bad. Probably really bad. But we still have to go, we're on a timer." She looked at the dog town. "We probably shouldn't go there..."

"We might find medicine though..." Fluttershy said.

"THEY WON'T LIKE PONIES. OR GOLEMS."

"Guess that leaves it to me then," Vriska said. "They'll have no idea what I am. And I can totally just steal the medicine, easy."

"I'll go with you. Invisible. I know that spell," Twilight said. "Plus I kinda... need it."

"Good." Vriska said. "Come on then, we need to move fast."

Twilight nodded, casting invisibility on herself. It hurt. "Fluttershy, Four, head towards the mountain. We'll catch up with you later."

"Twilight... Be careful."

"I will."

Vriska un-summoned her orange robes and started walking. Twilight trotted alongside her with the three legs that worked. "I'm going to talk to the Influence now."

"Fine by me. Can't wait to hear about the insanity this time."

Twilight nodded. "Gigniss, yes, my wings are broken. And I do plan to consult the Knowledge for anything on Orchid. Tarou - it wasn't funny, and it was unthoughtful, but I do accept your apology. And I..." She paused, thinking. "...I'm not... Afizah? That entire thing you said about Tarou seemed forced. In fact.... A lot of the things you've been saying seem forced. Out of place. I'm... I'm not sure I believe what's going on. You've... You've always been weird, out there, and I... I'm sorry I just can't take what you say at face value anymore. I'm even finding myself doubting if Tarou is a distinct person from you, or just another one of your crazy facets! I mean, I trust Josh way more than I trust what you say, and he said it was JUST 'Afizah and Ponygood.' What does that mean about Tarou, huh? Did you just dream him up to try to play off my sympathy? Was the other Twilight I was talking to really a look into another universe or just your random crazyness? I.... I just... Ah my head hurts..."

"Sounds like someone's trolling you," Vriska observed.

"...Maybe. Bah. I'm getting fed up with that one in particular... Been trying to ignore him, actually, since most of what he's said is non sequiter. It's just... Hard."

"Eh, can't really help you there. It seems like you have to listen to these idiots."

"I've often wondered if I'd do better on this quest without them..."

"Pfft, you wouldn't have me then!"

"True. You have been very helpful. I think your attitude, despite its brashness, was actually needed."

"Hell yeah!"

Twilight chuckled. "Yeah. Hell 'fucking' yeah."

"Yes, that's right, say it more! Release yourself!"

"I don't even know what the word means."

"That's probably best."

Twilight shot her a look. "...Now I'm concerned."

"Get back to your internal trollers."

"Right... All of you who are suggesting possible things to summon, I'm not even going to comment on that since trying to understand seems to be a mostly pointless exercise." She rubbed her head. "Agree together on an option. I'm currently set on summoning the Mite, and Aradia eventually to close the time loop. That leaves two - one of which will be a Pinkie. I'm leaning towards Evermore Pinkie. You all need to decide, together, collectively, on the last one. Or just vote for it when the time comes. I'm not putting my cents in unless I see something really worthwhile. Also part of me thinks you don't need to change your avatars, just tell me what you want. We'll decide through democracy."

"The mysterious powers of democracy..."

Twilight shot Vriska an odd look - not that she could see it, since Twilight was invisible. "Okay... Owleero, that... was confusing. But I don't think you need to try to explain it again, it doesn't seem important. And... DLB? I think that's you talking about Flash? ...You know, a few days ago that revelation would have sent me into shock. Now it's not all that unexpected. You people..." She shook her head. "Zen, you don't have to worry about being too long winded, you're fine. I don't think you've ever upset me. Akumakami... I... I actually don't know about Tartarus. I know there's a centaur-gargoyle kingdom called Tauryl somewhere in the world, I don't think they're immortal, but... I just don't know. And... Are you okay? Uh... Robocord? Hi? Did you do something to Akumakami?"

"The answer to that is probably yes," Vriksa added.

"Yeah..." Twilight furrowed her brow. "...Ponygood? I do consider these people my friends. Fluttereshy, Infinity, Four, Vriska - all of them."

"Awwww..." Vriska chuckled.

"Yeah, well Vriska, they have a lot of questions for you and about you."

"Hit me!"

"Ponygood talks about this Omniverse thing, and that there's another tower than the one you described, the Dark Tower..."

Vriska laughed. "Pretty sure that is the same one as the one I described. Yeah... Yeah I'm pretty sure I've heard 'the Dark Tower' in many places. Never been there myself - I hear it keeps most everyone away - but it sure as heck exists. And we are not in an ominiverse, far from it. True infinity can't exist. Even that 'infinite sided die' has a finite number of things it can do. It can just do every single possible thing in existence anywhere. So tell him to shove that idea up his ass."

"You just did." Twilight shivered. "There's apparently a lot of confusion about your powers. What exactly can you do?"

"One. I am awesome."

Twilight chuckled. "That's self-evident. What else?"

"Two. I can control the minds of the weak-willed. I've gotten pretty good at it over the years, but it's difficult if I don't have experience with the race. For instance - dogs. Can't do dogs. Not those kind of dogs anyway."

"Ah."

"Three. I have my magic eight-sided dice." In her free hand eight blue eight-sided dice appeared. "They work a lot like the infinite sided die, but have a limited number of outcomes and are purely offensive."

"Good. And..."

"Four. My luck manipulation. I can steal luck from any being that has it and add it to my own. Those I steal luck from are likely to be killed by sheer chance or stumble over everything around them. When I have extra luck I can control the results on my dice and get around death easily. If I get a lot of luck I can roll eight eights and totally ruin everything for whoever's unlucky enough to be facing me."

"Yep. Figures."

"Oh, also my vision eightfold can see into things that were not meant to be seen into, but that rarely means anything. Beyond that I can stab things and fly."

Twilight nodded. "I hope that cleared some things up. They're also confused about the types of powers in your world? Classes and aspects?"

"Nobody understands classes, don't even try," Vriska muttered. "I'm a Thief, I steal things for myself. I know that. Princes destroy their aspect. Bards destroy with their aspect, etc. But it's more nuanced than that. Bards also have an air of complete randomness about them that makes them the wildcard instead of the hulking brute you would think. Knights use their aspect as a weapon, though how varies extremely. And then there's the Rogue, who can 'steal and distribute' or some fucking nonsense like that. It's best not to think too hard about it."

"And the aspects?"

"That's easier to wrap your head around, and it's makes a lot more sense. There are twelve aspects - I'm Light, the aspect of knowledge and fortune. The opposing one is Void, the aspect of nothingness and the unseen. Not bad luck, for whatever reason. Then you have Time and Space - should be self-explanatory. Hope and Rage, or as I like to call them, Shiny McHalo and Secret McKilling."

"You don't really call them that."

"Nope! But it doesn't really matter? They deal with emotions - those of raw destruction and power, and those that look towards the bright future. You could almost think of it as optimism and pessimism. Moving on we have Breath and Blood. Breath has to do with wind, freedom, and aloofness while Blood almost exclusively deals with connections between people. I think. Never really saw a Blood player become in-tune with their aspect. After that, there's Heart and Mind. Mind is all about thinking and thoughts, while Heart is about the soul and sense of self."

"I sense there's two more."

"Life and Doom. Life players could heal your concussion problem. Doom players... Well, I never say a Doom player get realized and let's just say I think that's a good thing."

Twilight pondered what someone with the power of Doom would do. She shuddered. "I agree..."

"Any other questions?"

"Creek has a few. Do you know what happens when an author stops writing for you? ...I'm actually curious about this myself."

Vriska shrugged. "Pretty sure you just get to do whatever. Orange Fuctard ended his story and I got lost. I'm still lost. That's all that happened."

"And... I don't understand this one. Do you know about True Walkers? Creek says they can travel between worlds."

"...That is such a vague term Jegus if I haven't heard that seventy thousand times already... I think she's talking about people who can travel naturally under their own power across worlds. I've met a few, but they're a really varied group. No unifying relation at all. Then there are those who use technology to travel and blah de blah de blah it's just a mess..."

"How do you travel?"

Vriska smirked. "I get lucky."

"Oh. Honestly don't know why I was expecting another answer." Twilight frowned. "Hope that helps Creek. And... Yeah. I think I've decided on a name. People don't seem that interested in it anymore, so I guess I've got all the input I'm going to get."

"Oh? What is your new name?"

"Twilence," Twilence said, smirking to herself.

~~~

New name, new mare, as they said... somewhere. Twilence was sure they said that somewhere. Even though she had a concussion, she felt herself well up inside with determination. No longer would she be the naive, foolish, simple Twilight. She was Twilence, a mare who knew where she stood in all of reality, who had a quest - who understood that things were at stake and that stories played a role in reality that no one was fully aware of. She was going to leave her fear, her pensiveness, and her panic.

She walked into the dog town behind Vriska feeling like nothing could knock her down.

The town itself had fifty or so buildings, most of them formed out of bricks, though there were a few that were made out of natural-ish crystal structures that came in a rainbow of colors. Dogs bounded around - sometimes on all fours, sometimes on two legs. They were a varied bunch - some of them were smaller than a pony while others neared the height of a minotaur. A few got around by digging, but that was mostly unnecessary here, with the exception of the mine entrance Twilence could see in the distance.

Several of the dogs looked up at Vriska in confusion when she walked in like she owned the place. "Hello there!"

The dogs blinked and looked at each other in confusion. "How can you speak dog?" One asked.

"Got hit with a translator spell LONG time ago. So long I can't remember who did it or if I had any say in the matter." She shrugged. "So, whatever, hi. I'm Vriska Serket. I'm a traveler in need of some aid and possibly healing potions."

A velvet-furred feminine dog walked up and sat on her haunches, glaring at Vriska. "It'll cost you."

"I'm sure I can pay." She took out an 8-ball from her pocket and juggled it up and down. "Show me your wares first."

"You have the eyes of a thief."

"How could you tell?" Vriska laughed. "But seriously I could really use some potions. How am I possibly going to steal from you? You all outnumber me and will be watching my every move."

"...True."

Vriska stuck out her non-broken arm. "Shake on it?"

The velvet-dog nodded. "I am Irana. Our wares are over here-"

A loud noise could suddenly be heard overhead. The dogs, Twilence, and Vriska all looked up to see a small fleet of Fosis ships pass overhead.

"Damnit," Vriska muttered.

A burst of yellow energy engulfed the ships and vaporized them in an instant.

Vriska blinked. "...Damn."

Twilence blinked. What the heck was that!?

Vriska turned to Irana. "Uh..."

"Heildor protects," was all she said in response to this. "Come."

Vriska nodded and followed. Twilence moved to follow as well - but then felt the eye start to burn in her chest.

...She made sure the invisibillity spell would last without her continually casting it. She sat down, hoping Vriska could handle herself and that nobody would bump into her.

Comments

[Sonic Rainboom Dash]

i was right about them using the crystals as a defense or weapon.

[Ponygood11]

Ponygood speaking.

Well. That happened. Who is this "Hieldor" entity, and how powerful is it to destroy a whole fleet of ships in an instant? I'm not asking you, that's just a question I would like answered at some point.

And I guess I can understand the multiverse from Vriska's point of view, but I still don't think it's entirely accurate. Remember, the Dark Tower I referenced and the Author's tower Vriska mentioned are entirely seperate things. The tree of Ygdrasil is another one of those "center of the multiverse" things, and it is the driving force behind the existence of the Time Loops. With all these and more things at the center of and running every multiverse, there exist a few possibilities: that there can only be one true central object, and every other supposedly central object is housed within it, that all these objects are secretly the same thing, but just look and act differently to different people, or that they are all valid and found separately, within a larger 'verse. Extraversal stuff is still largly unknown, though, so we can't really be sure about anything.

I have a test in mind that will prove once and for all whether we need to use our avatars to summon most extra-universal entities, but I will leave that until some other time. Mite, Evermore Pinkie, and Aradia are all in universes created by GM, so you could use him as the common thread that connects them to your universe. Since Aradia has time powers, you can summon her last, and still be able to interact with her and see her actions until then.

Surprisingly, quite a few of us aren't acting as ourselves. Keywii_Cookies is a prime example, instead acting as the Recursive Orginization including Creek, Shutter, etc. Afizah/Sonic Rainboom Dash is very intent on having an excessive amount of alternate characters, including alternate you, wierd alternate dad, Shepard, that nameless kid, and now he's added Tarou. Akuma is also pretending to be his numerous story characters, and recently pretended to be Robocord for some reason. I think Nickel is pretending to be an alternate dimensional person with access to the files of the universe, but I'm not sure. I was willing to let all of these people continue pretending, but at this point, it's just driving a wedge between us and you. I, Zen, LeftMoss, Giginss, Josh, Owleero, and DLB are all acting as ourselves, though most of us have shortened our names to be easier to pronounce, although Josh isn't using his real internet name at all, which is Wizard0209. Of course, these aren't our actual real names, since that would be dangerous to share in a place like this, but most of us have spent enough time here that these are pretty much an aspect of our very being.

Minor fact: "Fucking," or "fuck," is a slang term for sex, but is also used as an insult/stress reliever.

That's all for now.

[AkumaKami64]

REPLY FROM ROBOCORD

ACCEPTING NEW DESIGNATION OF TWILIGHT SPARKLE G36M95B93J: TWILENCE

OBSERVATION: ALTERED PERSONALITY MAY BE THE SUMMATION OF DETEROATING MENTAL HEALTH DUE TO EXPOSRE TO THOSE-BEYOND-THE-FOURTH-REALM, PHYSICAL DAMAGE TO THE BRAIN, OR PERSONAL REVELATIONS.

SUGGESTION: SUMMON A MEDIC AT NEXT OPPURUNITY

SCANNING FOR AKUMAKAMI: COMPLETE

AKUMAKAMI:: ONE-FROM-BEYOND-THE-FOURTH REALM THAT IS CONNECTED TO THE MULTIVERSE OF SCOFFED DROSS.

STATUS OF SUBJECT: SEEMINGLY UNABLE TO COMMUNICATE DUE TO INTERFERENCE CAUSE BY MY PRESSENCE, BUT OTHERWISE OPTIMAL

CONCLUSION: AKUMAKAMI ALLOWED ME TO APPEAR HERE WHEN INTERDEMINSIONAL CAPABILITIES WERE COMPROMISED

BEGINNING SELF REPAIR FUNCTIONS: UNKNOWN TIME REQUIRED.

OBSERVATION: FLUTTERSHY G36M95B93J ACTIONS INDICATE SHE IS OF THE NON-THREAT VAIRETY OF FLUTTERSHY.

CONCLUSION: TERMINATION NOT REQUIRED.

STATEMENT: OBTAIN MEDICINE. ENTITY KNOWN AS VRISKA HAS A HIGH SURVIVABLITITY WITH OR WITHOUT YOUR IMMEDIATE PRESSENCE.

[wizard0209]

Josh here - I can't think of advice at the moment, and since my concerns have fallen on deaf ears I will not push it, but I do have something to say to ponygood 8369823 you are not as safe as you like to believe; if someone really wants to find out something about you they will, no fake names are going to stop them; which is why I actually have been using my REAL name

[Ponygood11]

8369896
Yeah, you're right. Good thing I'm practically a nobody. Just some teenager living a perfectly average life, yep. No-one would have any reason to go after me specifically when there are far richer teens out there just BEGGING to have their stuff stolen. Along those lines, I suppose it's perfectly fine for me to use my real name, which is Ethan. I still prefer Ponygood on this site, though.

[Keywii_Cookies55]

Th-this is Creek. If...ah, Twilence. Um, I mean, I like that name, it, it's based on you tell-telling us to stop talking. Which is okay...AH, but you still chose the name yourself, s-so I'll c-call you Twilence now.

And please, tell Vriska thank you, for, for me, she's helped me a lot in, ah, I mean, um, th-the organiz-izati-tion a lot. We, we um, there's some people that are always. Ah! Thank you. The...the Children of the T-True Walkers are a re-religious group here, a-and they, um, they have been talking about Bla-Blackjack recently. Um...I'm a bit worried what might happen. OH! Ah, she, she also he-helped with another problem. W-we don't know what happens to characters once a story i-is done, just when it's left incomplete. It, i-it almost s-sounds like the same thing happens.

Twilence, you are not going anywhere until you heal that c-concussion, do you hear me? You'll only hurt y-yourself in the meantime. You're not to leave that spot until Vri-Vriska comes back with a healing potion. Understood?

[Ponygood11]

8369978
I claim the 500th comment! Minemineminemine...

That is all.

[DeadLyokoBrony]

DLB here, I'm starting to have a bad feeling about whats going to happen, always be one step ahead

[Sonic Rainboom Dash]

Twilight, this is Afizha. I know you are having trouble believing anything I may say as I have been questionable but I don't joke about trauma. Tarou hasn't had the best childhood. I will give you a rundown of the information I have found. Be warned though, it is somewhat long.

In a small town of Suiten, located in a remote mountain region on the island of reality and the spirit realm collide. Ghosts and paranormal occurrences appear in the real world, spreading through the town. Three high school boys, Tarō, Makoto and Masayuki, who have all had traumatic experiences in their childhood, observe the strange occurrences happening at Suiten. Together, they investigate the strange happenings by entering the spirit realm, or the Unseen World, although no human is supposed to be able to do so. The three boys are granted entrance, only to realize the key to their childhood traumas lies within this Unseen World. The local Shinto priest and his daughter, Miyako, also become involved in the occurrences.

[nickle241]

nickel here, wow we are getting bad timing with these lately, though i suspected four would be fine regardless. not much i can say for this, get yourself fixed as fast as you can, but you already had that in mind so there is not much i can say. as for pretending, its not that i'm pretending, its that i have a very large file of things I've written from an internally consistent multiverse and your world being of similar nature seeing as its at least partly writer controlled, i tend to treat your world like it exists somewhere in the same reality concept and i already play this role to a much greater extent there except that i never talk to any of them directly.
sidenote i'm sure twilight didn't need to know the definition of curse words, for some people its better to have a release without knowing what it means hence why most curse words have actually had their original intentions entirely displaced in favor of the new one.

[GamermanZendrelax]

This is Zen.

I would like to reiterate my position that we should chiefly consider the possibility of potential allies to circumvent the enemy's ability to see the future. Mite, on reflection, could conceivably just be too small to be noticed. And I can see a number of Pinkies potentially having some degree of immunity as well.

Also, since it's come up, Ponygood's elaboration on the term "fucking" is lacking—namely, that he fails to address Vriska's actual use of the term. It is used to add emphasis to a particular statement, suggesting anger or other emotional distress—and, when used as such, does not have any relation to sex. I wasn't going to say anything, but that could potentially spill out into another headache we can ill-afford.

[Ponygood11]

8370692
Ah, yes. Thank you for clearing that up.

[Ponygood11]

Ponygood again. Just as a reminder, we can hear your thoughts, in case you need to speak to us stealthily.

Also, a question. Why did you feel the need to change your name? There is no other Twilight in your world that we have to keep track of, which means referring to you as Twilight is just fine. Otherwise, we'd have to call every Twilight from every story a different name. If it's a fake name you want when talking with untrustworthy kinds, I wouldn't want to have my real and fake names sound extremely similar. In some cases, knowing something's true name gives you complete power over them. I'm not telling you it was a bad choice, I'm just expressing my concerns for your safety.

[Keywii_Cookies55]

8371952

Sometimes a name change o-or a hair, hair cut is how people express themselves...they, I mean, when they want to d-denote a new chapter in-in their lives. It's not all about s-safety.

[nickle241]

so does anyone have any ideas for the last slot that we can actually agree on? ideally something from an existing equestrian variant so as to make the transfer run smoother. i may have an idea but i need to look over the viability of it and i'd like to hear others first.

[wizard0209]

Josh here - 8372541 starlight glimmer might be a good pick for the last slot; her magical abilities could come in handy

[nickle241]

8372557
which starlight? several have come up so far.

[nickle241]

8372562
eh, i guess it doesn't matter much since even the baseline variant is crazy overpowered. on that note, i'm thinking of using a variant of starswirl, while i have a particular one from my own unpublished writing in mind it might work out with a more common variant, the problem i'm having with using this variant is that i have to figure out how to justify keeping him alive in the absence of a certain spell, though the point in time you currently exist in should allow it if barely and the benefits are that in addition to his normal power set, he is able to aid in the use of harmony magic to allow only two elements to use harmony as long as one of them is magic, as well as pulling non elementally aligned individuals in to strengthen it and no you do not need the physical elements, magic operates a little different in his source variant.(it was possible to use harmony solo with his boost, but thats what put him on magical life support in the first place, their version of the nightmare uprising)

[Ponygood11]

Everyone, I have an anouncement! I have created a group known as Influencing the Influence, where we can discuss everything we think to discuss without clogging up Twilight's precious time. Avaliable unless GM decided he WANTS us jabbering gibberish at each other here.

[Ponygood11]

8372076
8370177
8369841
In my creation of the group, I have discovered a rule stating that we shouldn't roleplay anywhere on Fimfiction. A shame, because I was quite enjoying Keywii's Orginization. If you wanted, you could just make a seperate story containing it.

EDIT: Or you could continue to roleplay as your various characters, but just be warned that consequences may or may not exist. Also, SRB and I just had a lage conversation here, but then we decided to delete it for some reason.

[Sonic Rainboom Dash]

Believe it or not but four of them are not ‘fake’ as you put it. They are merely entangled within my psyche. Each one has moments of being the 'real' me while I am stuck as a watcher in my head. It has become bad enough that my reality has been fraying ever since this stupid hole opened on the inside of the mask I wear to keep my mental health intact.
That is the actual reason I have been searching for my sister. For she is the only one who knows how to fix it seeing as she was the one who made it for me.
The others are both separate and apart of me that they both are and are not who they say they are. I have become a 'nexus,' if you will that their worlds personalities are bleeding over into me that I become them for a short time.
Twilight, I don't know if you truly are real or just a figment of my overtaxed mind, but when you find the next alter if it exists at all, then could you summon my sister to see if she can help. Please, I am losing my sanity the longer this goes on. And I'm sorry that I tend just to be a strange voice spouting useless info or just make you mad like I did last time.

[Sonic Rainboom Dash]

8371952
Believe it or not but my real name is [REDACTED]. Wait! What the?! I can’t say [REDEACTED] at all! It’s my name so why can’t I say it.
Hmm? How to get past this conundrum? Maybe this will work.
My name is @&*^)%$.
I.. I can’t even say my name anymore. S..Sonic Rainboom D..Dash?! I... I can say that, but my real name is lost to this stupid interface.

J..Just C..call me Rainboom. That's all I feel like right now.

[Sonic Rainboom Dash]

8372541
I have one. She's from the story I'm currently working on. Though I haven’t gotten to the part yet, I'm willing to let her loose in this Equestria to see how she does and find ways to bring her power in check once she returns home. My rainbow dash, Ms. Living lightning herself.
As her name implies, she can become pure electricity. Think Eneru from One Piece, and that should clue a lot of you in on what kind of electric powers.
She is still canon dash, just beefed up with those powers.
Be warned though; she hasn't had her powers long, only a week, so she is still learning how to use them.

[nickle241]

huh, offline for one night and it looks like someone blasted a hole in the feed, thats gonna be a lot of buggy stuff when twilight gets it. twilight, unless blackjack edits it out there will be large sections of broken data preceding this, its nothing to worry about, upon looking into it it has to do with an effort to collaborate that wont give you a headache like the cloud incident.