Jak carefully held the controls of the latest ship Keira had designed. Based off the A-Grav Zoomers, it was larger and sleeker, designed to be able to fly great distances at high speed and altitude, a fully sealed cockpit protecting the passengers. It was even a four seater, though only three seats were currently occupied. Jak sat in the pilot's seat, Keira in the copilot's seat, and Daxter in the back seat. Keira had chosen a more durable and conservative outfit for this trip, a dark blue flight jacket and purple pants, goggles hanging around her neck when she wasn't actively flying or tinkering. The vehicle had been designed to handle the Eco storms Elder had warned them surrounded the Brink, so they could make it through without danger. However, the storms had proven stronger than expected due to the planetary Eco instability, rattling ship and passengers as they went through the clouds.
"That was close," Jak murmured worriedly as they broke through the latest batch of clouds.
"We need to find somewhere to set down now!" Keira insisted. "The storm's going to get worse before it gets better, and I don't think the shields can take much more." She quickly checked the map as she held her controls, just in case Jak needed to risk putting his own energy into the shields to keep them intact. "Looks like we should be near the Brink. The Edge of the World should be almost right below us, hopefully."
In the back seat, Daxter did his best not to throw up. "Why couldn't we have brought Shining?" he asked desperately. "He could have kept us shielded through the whole storm, and we wouldn't be weaving and flipping and tilting all over the place, and I wouldn't be on the verge of..." He clutched his mouth again. "Shoulda stayed home..."
"Shining didn't have a Quest related reason to come," Jak responded. "Only so many technicalities-"
At that moment, the ship rocked as three other fliers came too close. "Eco Pirates!" Keira called out, pointing them out.
Jak growled under his breath. Eco Pirates hunted the Frontier for travelers, preying on the helpless. "If they think we're helpless," Jak growled out, "they've got another thing coming." Reaching up, he began to pop open the canopy so he could fight outside the ship.
"Be careful, Jak!" Keira warned. "With the amount of Dark Eco in the air, it could be dangerous for you to change form! Elder said attempts might kill you!"
"I've got him covered!" Daxter called out as he threw a lever on his seat, making it slide back in the flier to rise up with the back gun. He quickly tracked the Pirate fliers, ready to shoot at need.
As Daxter shot down the fliers, however, a larger craft came out of the storm clouds, launching magnetic grapples that latched onto the small ship. Two of the pirates rode the ropes down even as Jak got to his feet on the ship.
"Terribly sorry for the inconvenience," one of the Pirates spoke up in an urbane, cultured voice. "Please allow us to relieve you of your Eco."
"Alright," Jak allowed as his eyes flashed blue. "Have some!"
Before the pirate could react, Jak blurred forward, slammed his fist into his foes gut, delivered an elbow strike to the back of his head that sent him flying across the flier into his compatriot, and drawn his Eco Blade. Sending red Eco along the blade, he quickly severed one of the grapples. "You can leave now in one piece, or fall into the Brink in pieces," Jak growled out dangerously.
The Pirate chuckled as he got to his feet. "I don't think I'll be leaving empty handed," he taunted. "Not when there's such a beautiful treasure here." He gestured playfully towards Keira.
Rage flashed in Jak's eyes, and Dark Eco raced up his blade as he charged forward, slashing out both pirates even as pain raced along his sword arm. "You keep away from her!" he snarled out, barely missing both Pirates as they leapt for grapples. Unfortunately, the Dark Eco extended beyond the blade, and grazed one of the fuel tanks, creating a massive Eco leak. "...oops..."
With the leaking Eco, the storms around them grew worse, making the Pirates withdraw, and forcing Keira to find an island to make an emergency landing on. Unfortunately, as they went down below the clouds, they saw the cascading waterfall that marked the Edge of The World...the Brink.
Keira desperately tried to steer the ship to a safe landing, and just barely managed on a spur of landing sticking up over the brink, large enough to hopefully explore and find resources on, but small enough to evade the notice of the pirates. Unfortunately, the landing was a bit bumpy.
"Ow!" a familiar voice barked out from the storage compartment, where Keira kept tools and materials to make repairs with. "Can't a guy take a nap in peace?"
Jak started in surprise, then leapt to the compartment and threw it open. "Shining?" he gasped out in surprise, staring down at his slightly dazed unicorn brother. "What are you doing here?"
"Taking a nap so I could make sure I was here to see you off since I couldn't come with," Shining groaned as he clambered out of the compartment. He paused as he glanced around, taking in the surroundings. "Uh...where is here?"
"The Brink," Jak explained.
"What?" Shining demanded, mightily offended. "You guys left without waiting to say goodbye to me?"
"We were on a schedule!" Jak replied firmly. "Time was of the essence. When no one could find you for farewells, I thought you were avoiding us because saying goodbye would be too painful when you weren't allowed to come with us!"
"You really think I wouldn't say goodbye when the fate of the world was at stake?" Shining snapped back. "Don't you see me nice!"
Keira, for her part, groaned. "So much for the Spirit Quest," she grumbled. "He wasn't cleared to come with us..."
"Actually, I think we just hit on another technicality," Daxter spoke up. "We can accept the help of any skilled adventurer we come across by chance, and since we didn't intend to bring him nor him intend to come, this counts as a chance meeting."
"Don't you think that's stretching things a bit?" Keira asked, though her voice was warm and happy.
"No more than letting me be here under the guise of 'going with the grace of the Precursors'," Daxter teased back.
"Wait..." Shining spoke up, interrupting his argument with Jak. "You mean...I get to go along with you after all?"
"Well, we certainly can't turn around and take you back," Keira pointed out, grinning ear to ear.
Shining pumped his hoof in the air with a whoop. "Yes! Gaming the system again! Up high, bro!"
"Down low, you mean?" Jak joked back as he bent over to bump clenched fist with raised hoof.
"Now let's see what we can do about fixing the ship," Keira spoke up, climbing out to get to work.
*chuckles*
Nice one, Shining
Hooray for technicalities!
And down goes one stupid hole in the lost frontier. No dark eco powers because there's too much dark eco in the air making them unstable. Good save Tat, good save. Now I'm wondering how you cover the rest.
7531369
Well, he still can't do Dark Jak. Any channeling of Dark Eco is incredibly painful for him, and actually turning into Dark Jak could kill him, just like in canon. He's just got a much higher tolerance for such things than in canon...and a way to minimize the pain by using his Eco Blades.
7531439
"Don't you see me nice" is a colloquial way to complain about someone assuming bad behavior of you.
7531444
There it's an issue of balance. With no Light Eco in the environment due to the imbalance, becoming Light Jak is impossible.
50 bits on someone (either Elder, Samos, or Damas) drugging Shining and putting him the compartment so he could go on the quest.
You know, I think that out of all the "Pwnies" (or Tat foals or whatever you like to call the output of these stories) I think Shining may by the least powerful. Except for his Dark Knight (or Shining Shadow or whatever his dark form is called) form, I think he's only about as powerful as he is in canon. Shields, telekinesis, and teleporting. Beyond that, he's got a few eco based abilities (the utility of which all depends of whether the author decides Equestria even has eco or not) and some driving and marksman skills (again, the future utility of which depend on him having access to cars and guns).
Then again, maybe Twilight and Spike's rapid ascensions to near DBZ levels of OP is coloring my perceptions a bit.
7531446
Which English speaking reign uses that colloquialism? It sure isn't the northern portion of the US Midwest (specifically Minnesota, but anywhere with our mix of Norwegian and Canadian should be applicable here), I know that much. I also suspect that it isn't from the Southern States, as I grew up on TV shows from Texas (And England). Sure, my knowledge of that reign is thus a few decades old, but still.
...and on the subject of the fic itself, why do I get the feeling that Shining is going to end up an Alicorn by the end of this?
7531462
It isn't about availability of Light Eco. Jak himself generates it in low amounts.
It's about the imbalance in the environment. Basically the Eco equivalent of the Bends.
7531465
It might. ...or it might not. I was about to start off with Rarity, but then I remembered that she had The Nightmare living in her head. Applejack is part Demon, and Pinkie Pie is Pinkie Pie. That only leaves Rainbow Dash, who requires power armor, and Fluttershy, who took a few levels in Badass without any actual power gain. Even the CMC have received an upgrade, which is a thought that should cause anyone to wet their pants.
...and I think I just nailed down why I was thinking that Shining is going to go Alicorn. He's on a Spirit Quest to awaken his Inner Power, same as Jak and Keira. Having him go Alicorn is practically written into the DNA of the narrative at this point.
7531524
Not exactly.
"The Bends" is what happens when someone surfaces from deep sea diving too quickly, and they don't take proper time to decompress. This can cause all sorts of bad results.
In Jak's case, if he tried to trigger a Light Eco transformation in an area where there is no Light Eco available, the Eco would try to escape his body all at once, possibly making him explode...or make him wish it made him explode.
The amount of unstable Dark Eco in the environment would cause the opposite effect if he tries to become Dark Jak, as all the Dark Eco around him would try to infuse him all at once, resulting in an Eco singularity.
7531658
Unfortunately, those abilities can only be used in Light Jack. The only reason he was able to use Dark Eco on his blade was because the blade became the primary channel.
7531759
The problem with partial transformation is that any transformation will result in a chain reaction.
As far as the gun staff...I dunno. I'll have to wait till I write him actually getting it.
We've finally made it to the last game. Let's see what happens, shall we? Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
7531791
Isn't that a kicker? I really hate how certain story details remain in shadow until you get to that point. Happens all to frequently in my own fics. Damn muse...
*Whap!*
Ow!
Yay for chance encounters. Wouldn't surprise me if Samos suggested Shining take his nap inside the ship and 'forgot' to tell anyone.
7531465 AJ is a nigh-invincible demon pony, with strength, speed, durability, AND regeneration on par with DANTE. And that's WITHOUT her demon weapons, which are also sentient, or her fucking THUNDERBIRD. She's not weak.
Rarity is "The Nightmare". As in, the very power of Nightmare Moon is at her disposal. The same power which canonically beat the shit out of Sunbutt until she cheated with the Elements Ex Machina. She's not weak.
Dash has powerarmor she built with the aid of one of the most brilliant minds on the planet. She blew up and entire FLEET of Skrull ships. Those on Earth AND in orbit around it. In one shot. As a teenager. Anything Tony's armor can do, Dash can almost certainly do as well. And like Tony, Dash keeps upgrading and improving and building. And then there is her pet, TANKZILLA. She's not weak.
Pinkie Pie is empowered by the entire Greek Pantheon, AND the very begins that made Equestria itself. Beings who's very existence is what causes Equestria to have the magic it does. Tirek as full power was a GIFT to Pinkie, just so she could cut loose on something. The very being that took on Magic Herself while empowered with ALL of the might of her fellow princesses, and fought her to a draw, got DESTROYED by Pinkie Pie. And we have no idea if that was even Pinkie's full power. Her Pet is Cerberus, the guardian of Tartarus. She's not weak.
Fluttershy is a BEYOND THE IMPOSSIBLE skilled assassin, armed with weapons and gear that runs on solidified magic. Literal rocks of pure magic. All of which is designed by two batshit crazy, and insanely brilliant, scientists. She took out the other Main 5, Sunbutt and Best Princess. Discord only survived by being DISCORD. She controls a gigantic chainchomp/eldritch horror. She might lack the physical might of the previous 4, but she's also the one most likely to be able to kill one of them. Probably before they even know they're a target. She's not weak.
Under what pretense would you assume that Twilight or Spike are honestly anymore OP than the others? Fluttershy MIGHT be the exception, but even she's scary good at killing her targets, leaving her able to be just as much of a threat as the others.
7533283 Spike is most likely several times stronger than AJ, physically, is nigh impossible to kill, can _EAT_ highly toxic materials, and pretty much the only thing that would be able to kill him is a shot from a plasma beam.
7535823 AJs father can be impaled dozens of times and laugh it off. He can stop blows from TITANIC foes. AJ has the same level of strength and durability. I might not like Dante, but I won't sell him short. Spike might be nearly impervious to harm, but AJ can simply shrug off any harm she suffers because of regeneration abilities that would make DEADPOOL jealous. Canonically the only thing ever shown to be able to kill a half demon like AJ & Dante was their world's equivalent of SATAN. When God's Left Hand is needed to take you out, that's rather extreme.
Well even if Shinning is only a secondary character in this, at least he is taking part.
7547673 I think Shining is on a quest to return to Hasbro since Naughty Dog didn't make "The Lost Frontier" thus bringing his new family to the safe embrace of Equestria. Here's to hoping Shining becomes the sage prince of the Crystal Empire.
7533283
Rereading this comment, I just realized something hilarious.
Going by your description of each of the Mane 6 aside from Twilight, while Rarity may be Batmare, Fluttershy's the Batman of this Justice League.
No Shining? Seems a little odd to have a pwny fic arc with no pwny.
Wait, never mind.