The Influence

by GMBlackjack

XXIX

Twilence came back to awareness just in time to dodge an incoming crystal hand. She leaped out of the way and dragged a bystander pony with her. "Mite! Scan the import!"

"Dragon."

"What?" She looked at Diorite. "Uh..."

"Food."

Twilence's eyes widened. "DIORITE! EAT IT!"

Diorite shrugged. "...Worth a try." He flew in, mouth wide. The crystal behemoth shot dozens of crystals - all of which missed. Twilence supposed its luck had been stolen recently. Diorite bit down on the creature's front, shattering it into dozens of pieces. Quite the lucky shot - or unlucky, if you were the behemoth. Twilence realized for the first time what Vriska's power's actually meant.

That was a very dangerous power. How do you beat someone who can literally make million to one chances happen all the time? If there was even the slightest chance they could win, they'd take it...

Good thing she was on their side.

Diorite landed among the crystals. Infinity and Orchid dug themselves out of the pile of krill at the same time. "Ow..." infinity muttered.

Prancey waved. "HI INFINITY!"

"Oh. We're back here." Infinity blinked. "What are the odds?"

"A million to one," Twilence said.

"Ah... Okay, so where's my die?"

"Pretty sure that's Vriska's die."

"Okay, so where's Vriska?"

Twilence pointed to the Bluemish Forest. "Pretty sure the others landed over there. Given the dust cloud. And the smoke."

Orchid nodded. "Yes."

Diorite raised a claw. "Care to explain what's going on before you run off?"

Twilence opened her mouth but Infinity beat her to it. "She's an alicorn from the future who is either part of a prophecy to save the world or has the power to change it however she wants and she's amazing AND this pink unicorn here is probably the Oracle and she's on a quest to save the entire world from a Dark Lord and we have some otherworldly friends and some ancient golems and-"

Diorite blinked. Twilence facehooved. "Really Infinity?"

"What? Was it a secret? Oh, right, you were hiding it from me at first... Kinda forgot about that, to be honest."

Orchid shook her head. "We do not have time to stay. The crystals of Heildor will most likely be pursuing us despite the efforts of the golems"

Twilence's eyes widened. "...Four and Seven Hundred are still on the ship aren't they."

"Yes," Orchid said. "They are alive though. Did Mite find anything interesting on that ship in the short time we were there?"

"Some," Mite offered.

"How much?"

"Little."

"Can you tell us what the eyes meant?" Twilence asked.

"No."

"Great. Uh... What was its purpose?"

"Guardian."

Twilence blinked. "...Protecting what?"

"Everything."

"...It just went to attack anything that made it to orbit didn't it?"

"Correct."

"Why?"

"Retrospect."

Orchid narrowed her eyes. "Can you just show us the file?"

"Negative."

"Why not?"

"Database."

Orchid facehooved. "Twilence, Mite is not as useful as he seems."

"Affirmative."

Twilence sighed. "He gets us a lot of information. Come, let's go find the others."

Prancey whined. "Oh Twilence, why can't you stay a while?"

"We'll come back for supplies Prancey, don't worry."

Orchid raised an eyebrow. "We will? We need to get to the Ice Shelf-"

"We can spend some time here Orchid. Calm yourself-"

"How about you spend your time here and I go get the others?" Orchid asked - though Twilence sensed it wasn't really a request.

Twilence nodded in acceptance and Orchid teleported away. Twilence smiled. "Hi Prancey! Been a while!"

"Oh yes it has! Hey Wound, come over here!"

Wound walked up and smiled. "Nice to see you again, glad your adventure went well. I take it from Infinity's spiel over there you know what you're doing now...?"

"Yeah," Twilence said. "...Sorry for keeping all that a secret. In retrospect, I don't think it mattered much."

"Why'd you change your name, by the way?"

Twilence smiled sadly. "Came across some information that I'm far from the only Twilight out there. I wanted to choose my name variation rather than have it slapped onto me."

"Ah, the voices?"

"You bet it's the voices!" Infinity chirped. "The Influence, they are!"

Prancey clapped her hooves. "Oh goodie! Epic quest right?"

"Yep!" Twilence smiled. "On the way to the Ice Shelf. I hear we'll have to face some ice monsters."

Prancey nodded. "Yep! Maybe you'll find out what happened to Lei camp!"

"Huh?"

"It's a biiig mystery - there was a settlement the council ordered created at the tip of the ice shelf and then it just stopped all contact and all ships that went to find it vanished!"

Twilence would have found this thought terrifying a few days ago. Now it just brought a smile to her face. "...Something interesting down there then. Good."

"Don't you have some Influential voices to talk to Twilence?" Prancey asked suddenly.

"Oh right. Excuse me." She gave no thought to the fact that the entire town might be watching - she didn't really care at this point. She also realized she had completely forgotten she had a cloak. She guessed she was done hiding. "452 sounds like a lot, but it probably isn't, is it Ponygood? Yeah, space is beautiful. Very beautiful. And unfortunately Mite did not get much information on the ship - either that or he can't communicate it with us."

"Insulted."

"Noted. None of those links works - to me it's only things that appear in-box. I don't have to 'click' anything, it's just there as I scroll through. I guess I need to tell the videos to start though... Regardless. Afizah, those pictures are... Interesting, but I fail to see how they apply. I mean... Yeah, it's another version of me, and the story's probably cool, but... Well, I can't very well read it can I? And... would I want to?" Now there was a question she didn't know the answer to. "As for the image of the planet, uh, sorta. More clouds, and the landmasses were different. Candle, Key, stop freaking out, okay? I mean - maybe, everything can just calm down a bit. I... I really am not something to stress that much over. Used to think I was, but really, either you're looking into another world or I'm just a story to you. Either way, I don't think I should be affecting your world as much as I think I am. Why am I such a big deal anyway? It can't just be because I'm able to be talked to - there has to be something more than that."

Infinity blinked. "Wow. Smart."

"And Wolfe, I guess I could play the music in the background. Mite's already made a playlist. Probably will, though I'm not sure if you'll hear it." She turned some music on with low volume and smiled. "Nice."

"Can't hear it," Wound said.

"I know. Anyway... Yeah. Anything about Creek has to come from Creek. Nothing else will be right. And Candle? If you believe my world is real then magic is very real. Zen, yeah, those colored eyes mean something. I think they do represent what you suggested. I'm just not sure why. And last, but certainly not least, Criterian! Welcome to this fun mess. I hope you enjoy your stay!"

She looked up. The entire town was staring at her. She rolled her eyes. "Either I'm crazy or not, you can all decide for yourselves."

Orchid appeared again, Ruby, Fluttershy, and Vriska behind her. Vriska leaped into the pile of krill. "WHERE IS THE DIE WHERE IS IT WHERE IS IT..."

Fluttershy looked at her sadly, but quickly looked away.

Ruby shrugged. "She lost the infinite sided die. She's freaking out about it."

"It is a powerful artifact but we do not have time," Orchid said. "We need to move south, ASAP."

"Why?" Twilence muttered. "Can't I enjoy some company?"

Diorite glared at Orchid. "She knows the Heildor warriors might come after their fallen companion. Come to this town. Attack us. She wants you out before you realize this."

Twilence blinked. "...What."

Orchid shook her head. "We do not have time to defend one town from our pursuers."

"We don't have time!?" Twilence shouted. "These people will need our help-"

"And the Dark Lord is fast approaching. We have two altars left to find and I feel that he is coming soon!"

"Do you have an exact time yet?"

"No."

"We can afford to wait!"

Aradia appeared on top of a nearby house. "Uh..."

"This is your second time seeing us," Twilence said without thinking.

"...Okay that's a weird response but I'm not going to question it..."

"Come back when you can tell us the arrival time of the Dark Lord," Orchid said.

Aradia shrugged. "Well alright then." She vanished in a puff of red gears - and appeared again. Her robes were charred, her hair frazzled, her horns scratched, and she was bleeding from several places. "Three days from now, during the moonless sky."

"...The night sky is never moonless," Orchid muttered.

Twilence shook her head. "Luna can move it to the day side of the planet if she wants, though she doesn't do so very often."

"Regardless, Twilence, we have three days. We have no supersonic ships or golems with us now - they are being stopped by a war with Heildor forces. We don't have time to stay here."

Aradia coughed. "She is right."

Twilence turned to look at Aradia. "...What do I choose here?"

Aradia laughed. "Do you want to make a paradox? Your Influence is not causally related to this universe! I've had to bend over backwards just to keep myself from experiencing paradoxes! Including that earlier moment where I told you to tell me when the second time I met you was. That wasn't true first time around." She started coughing. "Also, brute forcing the Dark Lord... nooooot going to work."

Vriska stopped her search for a moment. "Yeah, right, I can totally take him-"

"You died in three seconds," Aradia said matter of factly. "Heroic death. Hopefully, my saying that will get Twilence here to change that, somehow - actually it has to since it's impossible for you to die in a true alpha timeline, at least not yet."

Vriska blinked. "...What? I mean that's cool to know and all, but that's pretty ominous..."

"I don't pretend to understand ka, just make some educated guesses."

"Mother of - that stupid Tower! Why does it always come back to the stupid Tower!?"

Aradia shrugged.

Orchid raised a hoof. "Can we get a move on yet? Seriously. We have three days. The sun is setting on today so we basically have two days and three nights. We need to move it."

"But..." Twilence looked at the many people of Pebbleton. "...Diorite can you...?"

"I just got lucky," Diorite said. "I wouldn't want to take my chances on another one."

Twilence gulped. "What if I stay behind?"

"We need you to collect allies," Orchid said. "At the very lest Aradia so we don't ruin time completely."

Aradia gulped. "Yeah, that would be a bad idea. Not bringing me here. I'd have to... Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to say anything about that." She coughed. "Wow... Ow..."

Fluttershy walked up to her. "You okay?"

"No, pretty sure the dark magic is eating at me. Yeah. I'm going to have to go for now, find something to heal me. See you around." Then she was gone.

Vriska returned to digging through krill. "If I can find that die..."

Orchid glared at Twilence. "We need to go. Now."

Twilence big her lip. "I... I think we shou-"

And then the Eye glowed.

Comments

[DeadLyokoBrony]

I think we should find the die. The die could help you in the long term. Also we shouldn't rush things Orch.

[wizard0209]

i'm sorry twi but they're right we can't wast time we have to go... also on the note of affecting our world, well maybe not you specifically, but the main twi and her friends have changed our world quite a bit, i wouldn't say how, but i can assure you it's a lot better off then before. twi we've watched you go from a shut-in with no friends to the princess of friendship; we care about you, every you! we don't care if you think you're just a drop in the bucket of the different twis; your opinion matters to us; don't ever forget that...

[Sonic Rainboom Dash]

Twilight, what Aradia said about the moonless night might be in relation to when nightmare moon shows up. Plus since you said you were in the southern hemisphere of the planet then I think sombra is the dark Lord the prophecy predicted. And twilight I know you said that you changed your name so that it would differentiate you from other universes, but a name is not what defines you. It's what you DO that does.
Now onto the bigger problem. I think defending the town is a good idea, but it's not without consequences. On the other hoof, leaving has the same problems. A Catch 22 if you will. I have a possible solution for that predicament, but it's risky. If you can get any of the crystal entities to follow you out of the town when they show up, lead them to an ambush spot after looking for Vriska's infinite sided die.

[Ponygood11]

I don't know exactly what an alpha timeline is, but I think it has something to do with the heroes winning. And, besides, your world still exists a thousand years into the future, which means you were somehow able to defeat the Dark Lord, right? I want to think that it's true, but with the knowledge that paradoxes can exist, I'm not so sure. But if it is true, then that means whatever you do now will ultimately lead to your success, so you CAN take a moment to defend Pebbleton.

In regards to the Eye... well, I'm starting to think it isn't a complete and unrestricted connection to the Internet. We can still share images and videos with you, which is an improvement from the past, but it could be improved further. I'm sure Mite did all it can do at the moment, though, so you'll have to find a qualified ancient tech workshop to do anything more, if they even exist.

Yes, I'm also sure we should find the die. But Orchid being the mare that she is, she might end up thinking that it's too much of a disadvantage to keep you around and either attack you or run away. If she shows signs of considering either of those options,or just crosses the threshold of tolerable bitchiness, I'd recommend just preemptively putting her and Ruby to sleep, and maybe figuring out a way to remove the spirits from Orchid. Especially since there's a potential that her power is lying to her, and that she's just playing right into the Dark Lord's grasp by devoutly following the prophecy. I mean, finding a mysterious ability in some cave that tells you to go and defeat this great evil seems a little suspicious, doesn't it?

I have a theory about how this whole story interaction rthing works. I think that, from our perspective, we are not actually talking to you, and just talking to GM's representation of you. But, since this story exists, I believe that somewhere in the multiverse is a universe in which you actually do exist, and you are talking to a representaion of us. Or there could be a very unlikely chance that somehow, GM is being Influenced by alternate universes to actually put us in contact with you, but that's really unlikely.

[wizard0209]

8406956 the alpha timeline as I've come to understand it is the timeline that assures that universe and multiverse continues to exist and only outside forces and glitches in the space time continuum and truly change it; anything else will create a doomed timeline where everything goes honorably wrong, and i think we count as both an outside force and a glitch in the space time continuum, so do with that as you will

[Keywii_Cookies55]

Twilence, it's Creek again. I'm sorry for how I acted, what you said wasn't meant to hurt me and running away to cry about it doesn't help anybody. My job is to make sure you're provided with helpful guidance on top of keeping track of you. And I didn't do either of those things when I had my break down. I'm going to keep my microphone off for now, it's just been causing problems.

I want you to know that if you want me to, I can talk about my past, and even if I don't want to, and if it hurts, I will if you ask, because I want to be helpful for you. As for why you're such a big deal, I'm not allowed to talk about how the technology works, but my company has known how to observe other worlds for a long time, and same with the people who know how to access other worlds that aren't working for the Recursive Organization. But you are the first one we've ever been able to interact with. You are special, even if you don't think so.

So now to help you. Would it be possible to warn everyone in Pebbleton about the incoming attack? If they know and are ready, then they can protect themselves and you won't have to stay. I know you want to help them, and normally I'd want you to stay and help defend the town, but if the prophecy is meant for three days from now, defending Pebbleton means you might not be ready for his attack, and then all of Equestria loses. I'm sorry.

Can you use a quick spell to easily locate Vriska's die? I don't know how hard that'd be but it's be faster then searching for it through all the krill.

And Mite? Thank you for helping Twilience, you've been a big help. If there's anything we can do to help you, please ask us.

[Ponygood11]

8407039
Creek! You aren't stuttering nearly as much now! I don't know what happened, but I'm proud of you!

Though, uh... you might want to apologize to Candle, if you haven't already. You locking yourself in the bathroom made her have to hold it in for an uncomfortable amount of time.

[Keywii_Cookies55]

8407064

Well, I mean, I still stutter, Ponygood, but I'm typing right now instead of talking. I could type my stutter in if you want? But I don't know why you would want that...I'm sorry, I can try. It will just seem unnatural...I guess.

And Candle said it wasn't a problem that I locked myself in the bathroom. She's really friendly, and I regret that we haven't really talked before now.

[Ponygood11]

8407130
Oh. I didn't know you were typing. You don't have to type your stutter in, I just said what I said on the assumption that you were still using a microphone.

[Twilight Connor]

Criterian here. Thanks! I'm happy to attempt to help. I don't know if I actually can, but as a quick note, if you plan on staying where you are for a visit of sorts, you really do need to find the infinite sided die, no matter what Orchid said. If the dark lord got their hands/hooves/other appendages on it, that could spell doom. Be cautious.

[nickle241]

oh great... now we are getting into the concept of alpha timelines... those are the only point of stability in the whole homestuck multiverse and they are highly unreliable, in short its the "true" timeline, but which one is alpha can shift at the slightest tweak, thats aradia's job to lead into a strong surviving alpha, where as all others are doomed, this doesn't meant you lose, but it does meant the timeline is in some fashion doomed, but what that means isn't fully explored since some doomed timelines achieved fairly successful natural ends regardless. as for the limitations of the interface, i half expected that, it would be too easy if that worked. make the choices you think are right, so far you have done fairly well even when we haven't.

[Ponygood11]

Well, whatever an Alpha timeline is, I think you can nearly garuntee if it is such if there are viewers. Think of it this way: the book you get off the library shelves is the alpha timeline, and all the infinite other slightly varied books that don't exist are not alpha timelines. Because of this, I am very confident we are seeing the alpha of this universe.

[nickle241]

8407436
the problem is that is no guarantee because alpha can be reassigned easily just by altering events and technically the baseline equestria would be the original alpha and may still be. but its like i said, this doesn't necessarily mean anything will go wrong at any point, it more seems to mean that it is destined to end sooner than the alpha would, but again there is no indication of what that would imply seeing as in homestuck this was a concept that was always talked about but never fully looked into with the exception of time players who tended to be rather mysterious about it for the sake of stability. but what is known is that being the alpha seems to allow for a greater degree of resilience against time anomalies.

[wizard0209]

oh! i just had an idea; why not get Diorite to evacuate the town; if they find no one there then they might just assume that it's a ghost town, and leave. i don't know how long they would need to be gone for, but at least it's better than the alternative

[GamermanZendrelax]

Wizard's suggestion seems like the best option, but it raises the question of where they would have to evacuate to. They would know the local area best, and so would be better suited to answering that question, but it's worth considering.

As for Heildor, I have a sinking feeling that it will be sending more of its agents after you. It's a better use of your time to go after the altars for now, but it's something you'll need to deal with further down the line.

I'm torn on the die. It's an incredibly powerful and useful artifact, but you might just not have the time to search for it. Could you possibly find it with your magic somehow? That's pretty far outside of my wheelhouse, but it seems plausible from where I am.

[Ponygood11]

And let's not forget that the die could be used by the enemy if it isn't found by you. I'm not sure what to do about it, but I trust you'll make the best decision.

[wizard0209]

8411805 i wouldn't be to concerned the die falling into the wrong hands; it's true that it can be insanely helpful, but it is far more likely to be completely useless or backfire really badly; it only helped before because of Vriskas luck powers or Orchid foresaw the outcome or both... fun fact about Vriskas dice she normally uses; the chances of getting all eights and become a "god" as she puts it, is actually 1 in 16,777,216, and she can do it on command if she has enough luck, let that sink in

[Ponygood11]

8411938
Well, if she can do that, then why does she let herself get crap roles? Her ability to control the outcome of the dice would have been useful against that crystal sniper.

[wizard0209]

8411945 can't say for sure, but it could be she was running low on luck

[GMBlackjack]

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