Twilence came to shocked at one of the things she'd just been informed of.
When she realized Orchid was looking right at her with all three eyes she almost cast the shield to grab her on instinct - but then she remembered. Don't fight her. Talk with her.
Twilence smiled. "...Hi, Orchid."
"Oh, so we are talking then?" Vriska muttered, shifting back from her orange robes to her regular appearance. "Okaythen... But if she says something I don't like I gut her. Right down the center."
Ruby lowered her claws. "I'll tell Seven Hundred to stand down then."
Orchid nodded and teleported Ruby away. She was along with Twilence, Vriska, Fluttershy, Alderan, and presumably Mite. Wherever he was.
Twilence extended her hoof nervously out to Orchid. "HI. I'm Twilence. This is Vriska, Fluttershy, and Alderan."
"I am Oracle Orchid," Orchid spoke. Her voice was certainly authoritative in sound, making Fluttershy wince slightly. "Why are you trying to stop me?"
Twilence sighed. "You stole our friend and imprisoned our ally. Ine, the spirit of the last temple."
Orchid nodded. "Regrettable, perhaps, but Ine was not contributing to society in any way, and I need them to defeat the Dark Lord. I assure you that we do not want that."
Twilence shook her head. "No, no we don't. We want him destroyed just as much as you - the world doesn't need darkness." And it's not supposed to have any. "But... surely you don't have to go about it the way you are. Kidnapping ponies, imprisoning spirits."
Orchid shook her head. "The spirits are required. As I've collected more and more of them, I've gained more information about what they need to be used for. The six must be combined to banish the Dark Lord so far he will never be able to return - if he survives in his new prison."
"Corot or Siron?"
Orchid raised an eyebrow. "...You have names for the Dark Lord?"
"Ah... We had a source," Twilence said. "I could probably tell you about it later if this goes... well. There are two possible identities for the Dark Lord - an evil Star-god from another universe, or the first demon sealed in Tartarus, Siron. We also think both will be involved somehow."
Orchid nodded slowly, closing her two normal eyes, looking deeper into her third. "...The future that far ahead is murky. I know little of the reckoning day, or even which day it is. It's in flux. It's been getting more and more in flux the more I look at you." She opened her real eyes again. "I know you hear voices from beyond and are influenced by them. It is how you are immune to my scrying. But over the times I've seen you, sometimes my certain visions have changed. You're altering what happens. I saw a distant future image of you taking the red spirit for yourself and damning the world to eternal darkness."
"...What?"
"If you took one of them, I could not use all six, and everyone would die."
Vriska nodded slowly. "She has a point."
"You agreed with the plan earlier," Fluttershy observed.
"Shush," she muttered.
"Louder," came the voice of Mite.
Orchid looked around. "Where's that coming from?"
"New member mcbuggy," Alderan grunted. "Microscopic. Currently on your horn."
Orchid blinked. "Interesting. Is he what causes that nearby glass globe to explode?"
"What?" Mite said. Then a nearby glass globe exploded. "...Apologies."
"No problem," Twilence said. "Oh, do I need to explain-"
"Downloading."
"Huh?"
"Eye."
Alderan shifted around. "He's on your Eye now, downloading the information."
"Wow. Bugger moves fast," Vriska observed.
Orchid raised a hoof. "This discourse is moot. I need Alderan there. Without him I cannot stop the Dark Lord. Either let me have him or I take him and leave."
Alderan shrieked. "I am not being damned to some tiny globe of gas!"
Fluttershy nodded. "I... I don't think I can just let you do that either, Orchid. There has to be another way-"
"There is not," Lore Thirst said, walking into the room. "The six spirits must be used in conjunction to banish the Dark Lord to the far beyond."
"H-How do you know?" Fluttershy asked. "What if there is another way...?"
"I'd love to hear it," Orchid said. "But as it is, the spirits aren't holy individuals. Alderan is bitter. Ine was distant. Proteus put nature above literally everything. Castorson was religiously manipulative. I don't know what Vester or Gamnemnon are like, but if the pattern continues..."
"No!" Fluttershy said. "Just because they're bad people doesn't mean you have to imprison them!"
Lore Thirst shrugged. "Not your decision to make. Alderan, I order you to submit to Orchid without activating any magic or defenses."
Alderan screamed at the top of his lungs at Lore Thirst.
"Please stop that."
Alderan was forced to comply with his master's wishes.
Fluttershy shivered. "This... This is wrong."
"Can you free them afterwards?" Twilence asked Orchid.
"Possibly," Orchid said.
Twilence frowned. "What about the Overseer?"
Orchid raised an eyebrow. "I do not know..."
"No," Lore Thirst said. "The Overseer does not have the necessary connection to the remnants of the ancients. The aforementioned 'Power Overwhelming.' Whatever it is that defeats the Dark Lord - or seals him away, as Orchid has seen - has to have some connection to that."
"Twi can defy prophecy and prediction though!" Fluttershy said. "She can find another way!"
Orchid nodded. "If you find another way before the reckoning comes, I will free the spirits I have collected."
Vriska narrowed her eyes in distrust. "...Why are you being so helpful now?"
"Having you as enemies is bad. Having you as allies would be preferable. I'll also return Infinity the moment you agree to assist rather than hinder."
"And my die?"
Orchid narrowed her eyes. "Will be given to you if needed. I don't trust you with it."
"I see we have some trust issues."
"Obviously."
"I'll get it back if you let me have it or not you know."
"I can see your future clearly. I am not concerned about you."
Twilence sighed. "Fine. I don't like it, but this seems to be the only choice, and I don't want to fight again. You can have him. But we are actively searching for an alternative solution."
"I may learn more when I obtain him as well," Orchid said. "Regardless..." She marched into the altar. Vriska twitched but didn't stop her. "I am Orchid, and I wish to meet with the spirit of this altar!"
Alderan swore as he was condensed into a small blue globe of energy. The three others - black, green, purple; Castorson, Proteus, Ine - floated out next to him, the four spheres shifting around in a torus pattern. Orchid smiled. "We only have two to go. Two allies, two spirits. I still do not know how soon the reckoning is, but we should get moving.
Fluttershy shivered, saying nothing. Vriska glared.
Twilence took a few steps forward. "Infinity. Now."
Infinity was teleported into the room. She was drinking a cup of orange juice. "Oh," she said. "I take it negotiations went well then?"
"...You could say that..." Vriska said.
"Sometimes," Mite added.
Twilence shook her head. "It isn't nice, but we worked out sort of a compromise. We help her, but we try to find another way. She helps us with that."
"Done!" Mite announced.
"Done with wha-" Twilence's eyes went white for a split second and she fell silent. She blinked as the color returned to her eyes. "Woah..."
"Upgrade."
"I can see that..." Twilence said, scrolling through text in front of her eyeballs instead of relying on pure memory - though she supposed it was memory, just one what was being imprinted over her eyes. Each message was seen separately, and... hold on it told her WHO was saying everything! And she could go back as far as she wanted and - Yep. Most of that was Afizah. Or Sonic Rainboom Dash... She still thought Afizah when she saw it though.
"Fixing," Mite noted. The name now said 'Afizah.'
Twilence blinked, then smiled. "Can you repair it all the way Mite?"
"Doubtful."
"Did you do anything else?"
"Augmentation."
"What do you mean by - oh." Music started playing in her own eardrums. "O... Kay so that was what that link was..."
Fluttershy perked up. "Can we hear it?"
"No."
"...Why not?"
"Speaker."
Vriska rolled her eyes. "Speak with more than one word, jegus!"
"Never."
"...Twilence, can I decapitate him?"
"He doesn't have a head," Twilence said absent mindedly, still scrolling through the links. "A helicopter? REALLY!?"
"How did he even do that?" Fluttershy asked. "Isn't the internet kinda not a thing here?"
Vriska laughed. "Girl, the internet never goes away. I never did figure out why. Think there's probably some super-internet out there somewhere or something... Just gotta access it by 'accident' or whatever." She pulled out a strange spider-like phone. "This, for instance..."
"Stop dilly-dallying," Orchid said. "We have a mission. Gamnemnon is next and it will be a long journey to the southernmost known point. Even with our ship."
"Uh, how are you getting past Heildor?" Fluttershy asked.
"Same way we did last time. Keep that random mirror up."
Infinity snickered. "You missed all the fun guys. The insufferable prick oracle had to roll that thing a dozen times. We got chickenmageddon once."
Vriska twitched. "I want it."
"Don't worry Vriska," Twilence said. "We'll work everything out eventually. To your ship then?"
"To the ship."
~~~
Lore Thirst did not come with them - he didn't even say goodbye. He just... vanished in the middle of loading onto the ship somehow. Fluttershy kept glancing at the four orbs orbiting Orchid nervously. Four was busy talking with a robot that was presumably Seven Hundred - a small red bot that looked like it was made completely out of knives.
"YOU WERE DESIGNED FOR WHAT EXACTLY?"
"Decommissioning Rogue Golems Such As Yourself If Needed." It - or rather she - said.
"Oh my fucking god you sound like Kanaya, stop talking!" Vriska shouted.
"I Will Not Comply To Your Wishes Thief."
"I will make all your fuses blow with a simple stealing of luck."
"But You May Need Me At A Later Time."
Twilence looked at Orchid. "You. You are going to free the golems of Fosis."
"Once the quest is done, Twilence."
Twilence twitched. She was finding Orchid just... difficult. Not bad or evil, just... Stubborn. Beyond stubborn. It was annoying. "Alright, I'm going to talk to the Influence now, just launch the ship already." She looked around - it looked almost exactly like the ship Four had originally taken them through the Desert on, although shinier because of the 'random mirror' sheen.
"Okay, so, first off, I'm not NEVER going to go back home, I just can't stay. It's not 'home' anymore is what I was saying, so cool your jets, all of you. I still care about my friends I'm not going to leave them in the dust. Calm down. DLB, you have some... very odd tastes in what to say. I mean... Man I wish this upgrade detected sarcasm and voice inflection, let me just say."
"Sorry," Mite said.
"...Sorry you can't, or sorry not going to?"
"Yes."
"...Yeah. Right. Anyway. I am vaguely curious why GM is goading us to create an Aradia paradox, but I think everyone's right - we shouldn't risk it. Thanks for the transcript, by the way, Nickel. And Zen, you are right, lore could be full of absolute shit."
Vriska laughed at hearing this.
"But it also might not. I think we've decided we can't take the chance here. Plus... Orchid isn't evil. Just... stubborn. Ponygood, it's fine if you can't call me Twilence. Frankly, it's just what I am now and you can do what you will. Though Afizah, treat my name with a little more disrespect than dismissal and substitution, hmm? Back to Ponygood - yeah, we did edit the Eye with Mite, I think he did that on your suggestion by the way."
"Indeed."
"Hey Mite, think you could go talk to Four-"
"KEEP THE MECHANICAL PATHOGEN AWAY FROM ME."
"No," Mite said.
Twilence gulped. "Okay then... You two should really talk at some point though."
"Perhaps."
"You're getting really fast at this," Fluttershy said.
"Practice makes perfect. Anyway, I also don't think Mite can really be crushed. By anything. Far too small. And..." She paused. "...Creek. I... I just... I'm really, really surprised to hear you say that. It - it made me stop thinking back there I just..." …A-as for killing. It...it's easier i...l..look away when it comes time to do it. it won't weigh on your conscience as much... … "...I'll... take that under advisement..."
Fluttershy looked at Twilence with concern. "...You okay?"
"I... Just... I will be. Just, thought I knew someone, is all." She turned to Infinity. "...Infinity?"
"Hrm?"
She hugged her. "...Glad to have you back."
"Oh! Uh... Okay! I - sorry after a while I forgot I was kidnapped and just started laughing at miss fussypants and dragon worshipper."
"Doesn't matter. You're my friend - I was worried."
The rumbling sound of the ship taking off filled their ears. Soon they were up in the air...
~~~
Twilence walked up to Ruby. "Ruby."
"Twilight."
"Twilence now," Twilence said without emotion.
"Okay." She didn't turn around. "Why are you here."
Twilence furrowed her brow. "I am not sure. I keep telling myself I should forgive you, but then again, I'm not sure if it'd mean anything to you."
"I serve the Oracle and nothing else."
"You sure she's that great of a pony?"
"Nobody said the Oracle needed to be a saint. Just that they will save us."
Twilence smirked. "You know, the Influence has been mulling that prophecy over a lot. They seem to think part of it could refer to a plurality of Oracles, a 'them' as it were."
"By nature, you defy the passage of prophecy and prediction, therefore you could not have been foretold in a prophecy."
Twilence opened her mouth, then shut it. Then opened it again. "There are other ways to see the future than what Orchid has."
"Oh yeah! Like me!" Aradia said, appearing from nowhere. "Hi again! ...What visit number is this for you?"
Twilence blinked. "...Two."
"Oh. Wrong one. Wait. If this is the second then - uh next time you see me tell me it's the second time, okay?"
Twilence blinked. "...Okay?"
"Yeah! I think. Need to keep my own time synched up. I mean it'd be cool to see dead me's piling up but not really what I want to do right now!"
Ruby furrowed her brow. "What are you?"
"The Handmaid. Maid of Time. You probably haven't heard of me, that was in a parallel world. Or maybe you have I don't know I'm still stumbling around like a rabbit. Gotta get my bearings..." She waved. "Bye! ...Oh wait, hold on... We're flying right?"
"Yes?" Twilence said.
"OH! So this is when-"
"ATTACK INCOMING!" Orchid yelled through the comms of the ship. "Thirteen minutes out give or take! Heildor's trying something else!"
Twilence gulped. She didn't like the sound of that. She teleported to the bridge. "What is it, exactly?"
"Brute force didn't work so he's sending some... larger crystal beings I don't think existed at all until a few hours ago." Orchid grimaced. "I've ordered reinforcements from Fosis but I'm not sure they'll get here in time to bail us out. We've changed course as well, but these things are fast..."
Infinity shrugged. "Well, you know what this means!"
Twilence looked down at her Eye. "Yep..."
It lit up in a brilliant white...
Hi, twilight. Glad to see that you can finally read what we say. And access the links and see pic we post now.
Before the attack gets to where you are if it hasn’t already, could you ask orchid if these are the monsters the Heliodor is sending after you?
darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Dark-Souls/Img0058.jpg
also, i can now show you what I look like.
t06.deviantart.net/j4YVq7KzEX2w7OXVpiMDNKEh2aw=/300x200/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre05/1a10/th/pre/f/2013/247/d/4/mega_charizard__fan_made__by_supersonicgx-d6i9g2y.png
And finally, remember the song Eris sang to torment you a while back? Well believe it or not it is also very inspirational for this group of people.
Here is the link now that you can access it.
nickel here, good to hear that the interface has cleaned up, i wasn't expecting anything that impressive this soon out of mite, no offense. the prophecy may actually be able to account for us and you since it most likely was writer given rather than being sourced from internal methods, but thats just a theory and we may get to play screw destiny the whole way there, though i doubt it. heildor is really something interesting, i'll admit i don't have anything quite like it in my works so i don't know what to make of it as i have no existing comparisons, but at some point you may want to try get on its good side, though just a thought, of the ones i've encountered information on most animate or sapient or otherwise information handling crystal has something resembling electrical pathways even the magic ones, though those tend to be closer to runes, so mite may be able to do something, no guarantees though. but yeah, the internet does seem to be everywhere as long as you have a correctly attuned receiver, i had to account for and make use of that ages ago. i'm still in an unstable access window and its looking like it will cut me off fairly soon, a few days for me, but in your case time seems to move slower on your end, to clarify there is no acting to this, i have a very undesirable real world schedule right now.
This is Zen.
It seems to me that Orchid and Ruby are leaving moral and ethical considerations until after the existential threat is defeated. I've always had difficulty with such questions—and I've only ever had to deal with hypothetical scenarios.
And I wasn't saying that we should disregard Lore Thrift, only that we should take what he says with a pinch of salt. Even if he's not deliberately lying, the potential of his biases or arrogance clouding his judgment need to be taken into account.
As to the current situation: are you feeling up to a shield spell? Like the one Shining Armor put up around Canterlot, I mean? It's the best option I can personally think of.
COOL! Thanks Mite! I absolutely love your character! I guess we don't have to say which of us are speaking anymore, which is pretty cool. And if you can access image links, can you access video links, too? Also, can you go into the Eye at will, instead of having to wait for the next input session? Obviously, the input sessions still have to exist, since GM can't make a live interaction with you up to the end of your adventure, but can you do more than just that? In fact, are you able to speak to us DURING the input session? You'd have to speak through GM, and him speaking as you would count as roleplaying in comments, which is against the rules... eeeeeh, I dunno. Either way, I would definitely recommend taking some time to learn just how you can use the Eye.
Now, I have a bit of an idea how to deal with the crystal beings. If they have any sort of electrical mechanisms in them, Mite should be able to get in and either shut them down or turn them on their bretheren. Or you could just focus your magic into high-tailing it out of there, either way works.
In response to Ruby's statement about Twilence's status as Oracle: Orchid has the ability to predict the future, and Twilence disrupts the future... almost like opposites, or two sides to a coin, or yin-yang... eh, just speculation.
Infinity, glad to see you're with us again. If you have any questions about anything, and Twilight's eye acts as an unrestricted connection to the Internet, you should be able to ask Twilence, and she can look up relevant information. I will provide the link to a good browser here: (LINK)
Well, I'm not going to say much more this comment, but I did want to take this opportunity to share some Internet links with you. In the future, I plan on sharing videos, images, informative pages, and whatever else comes to mind. In fact, here's a little music I picked for the occasion:
You should be able to set it to loop endlessly until stopped, if you want.
Also, if you want any of GM's stories, I can provide a link to the list right here: (LINK) My question is just to what extent you can use your Eye, and whether it counts as a full access to the Internet, or an unknown limited amount. Let's find out together!
That's all for now.
guys, idea. we have our forum set up to take some of the load off twilight, but if the eye is able to act as a browser of sorts what happens if we give her the link?
8396040
Aaalrighty then. (LINK)
This means we don't ever actually need to comment anymore, if we can just give the information to Twilence on the forum. Still, let's not abandon the comment section here until we get definite answers as to what Twilence can and cannot do.
8396060
i was mostly thinking theoretically anyway, we still don't know enough of what mite's upgrade did yet, but i can't wait to find out. besides, i'm pretty sure she is stuck seeing this stuff where as anything elsewhere would be pure option. actually... how meta can we get, if its possible to get at the forum then what to stop her from getting at this... wow this just got complicated.
well i'm glad you defused the situation with Orchid, and i think i speak for everyone when i say i'm glad we don't we have to say who's talking every time now; that got old fast, also twi go easy on creek; you really don't know what the situation was with that; what if whoever was trying to kill her or her son first? i'm just saying sometimes it's do or die out here
Nice, now I can not say my name butglad to see that you can read what we say. I don't trust the orchide but you know the saying the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Also here a song for you
https://m.if you can access it. I say weird things because I don't know what to say Twi
I'm sorry I'm so sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm s-so sorry I'm..I-I-I...s-so-sorr-so-sorry...
...
...
...
drp
...
eeeeeeeeh-snf..snf, snf...IIIII-i miss you I-*CLICK*
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Creek? Creek, what are you doing? Are you alright? Hello? Creek, are you there? Creek!
8396170
Creek, Creek, CREEK!!!!!!!
Okay, so Keywii confirmed on the forum that Creek was just crying and turning off the microphone, as opposed to clicking a gun. Good thing, too, because I would have lost absolutely all of my respect for Creek if she had commited suicide.
Still, Creek, I am honestly concerned about you. Did something happen in the past? Well, I forgive you, whatever it was. I'm sure you had a good reason. Just, ah, don't berate yourself for doing it. In fact, look on the bright side: whatever your prefered afterlife is, it has got to be better than boring ol' mortality, right?
Hey everyone, this is Candle, you've never met me, but I'm another Operator around here, Creek is taking a break right now. I don't know what you did to her, but she is bawling her eyes out. And normally I stay out of the drama around here, but she locked herself in the women's bathroom meaning I can't get in there and holding it in really sucks. And I just kind of want to go home, because my shift ended like an hour ago. So when she's back just apologize for whatever it was you did, and we can all move on with our lives, all happy and not about to burst and life moves on and we're all good. Okay? Okay, thank you! Have a good day!
Just reread this chapter and noticed something odd; when Vriska said seven hundred sounds like Kanaya (one of her troll friends if you don't already know) I took a closer look at what seven hundred was saying, and it's written in Kanayas writing quirk; for whatever reason it is customary for a troll take on consistent writing flaw; Kanayas is simple (which is probably why I missed it last time) the first leader of every word is capitalized. Maybe talk to Vriska about this when you're in relative safety?
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