The Sparkle in his Eye

by Tatsurou

4-gotten: Battle

Now that they were on more stable ground, the group was more than capable of taking out the Minion robots Spog called in to attack them now that his temper had frayed too much to care. As they made their way forward, however, Spog continued to shout at them. "Meddlesome interlopers! You cannot prevent the Master's escape! His great crusade will recommence!"

"Escape, huh?" Twilight asked curiously. "So all we have to do to stop whoever this 'Master' is is find his cage and strengthen it, since he hasn't escaped yet?"

"Or!" Nefarious spoke up eagerly. "We could let him out, obliterate him, and cannibalize the cage for science projects!"

"That works too!" Twilight confirmed.

"You...don't seem to be taking this threat seriously," Spog pointed out. "The Cragmites couldn't destroy him, and neither can you!"

"This is someone the Cragmites fought?" Alister gasped out. "...are we sure we should be fighting these guys? Maybe in some obscure way, this is someone good who just has some evil help?"

"Sounds more like a worse evil situation to me," Qwark offered. "You know, something so horrible even the Cragmites knew they were bad news? I mean, Percival was a pretty reasonable guy aside from his bouts of fanatical insanity."

Twilight shook her head in disbelief as she finished activating an elevator platform, letting them ride upwards again. "Only you could say that without sarcasm, Qwark..."

Before the elevator reached its destination, Spog appeared, grabbing hold of the open air platform. "Special delivery!" he proclaimed before laughing. Flying drones dropped creatures in capsules onto the platform. "Let me introduce you to a few of Magnus's newest residents."

As the capsules burst open, three Weevoids burst out, unfolding from their stone camouflage to attack even as Spog flew away, letting the platform continue to rise. Twilight promptly seized the Weevoids in her magical grip and tossing them off the platform. "Seriously?" she demanded in irritation. "You send creatures after people on a rising platform with no way of preventing them from being thrown off and you don't expect that to be the first tactic used? That's some seriously bad planning."

"I know!" Nefarious insisted. "You did that to me frequently, which is why I've equipped all my robot minions with mag-boots they can activate to prevent you from hurling them off a moving platform! Works especially well if I make the elevator platform spin without warning."

"Could the two of you discuss villainous etiquette and tactics later?" Alister demanded. "We have flying robots inbound-"

Well aimed shots from Qwark's blaster took out the Blocker Minions' rocket boosters before they could reach the platform, making them drop helplessly into the seeming void below. "Had," he proclaimed proudly.

"And the Gravoid Minion?" Alister added, pointing to the last enemy approaching.

"That's what the Warmongers are for," Twilight explained as she, Nefarious, and Qwark pulled theirs out. Rolling his eyes, Alister did the same.

"How are you still alive?" Spog demanded as the Gravoid Minion exploded and the elevator platform reached its destination.

"Cause we're awesome?" Twilight countered as the group stepped onto another platform, lifting them to the roof of the tower.

"I will not permit a bunch of meddlesome interlopers to wreck any more havoc on my factory!" Spog proclaimed angrily as he rose to do battle himself.

"Is this ground stable enough?" Qwark whispered to Twilight, who nodded in response. Raising his voice, Qwark called out, "Is this where you say you would have gotten away with it if not for us meddlesome interlopers and our pony?"

Spog screamed in frustration as Alister and Nefarious burst into laughter. "As the highest ranking war bot on site, I hereby declare you enemies of the Master!"

"Pretty sure we'd been making a fair point of that on our own!" Nefarious jibed.

"Prepare to do battle!" Spog proclaimed as he primed his missile launchers.

"Preparing, preparing, always preparing!" Alister japed, deciding to join in on the heckling. "Just fight already!"

With a roar of rage, Spog unleashed a barrage of rockets at the group...only for Twilight to shoot the rockets with a modified Blackstar Fission Tether, causing the rockets to turn around and slam into Spog. "How?"

"Success!" Twilight cried out. "I modified the Tether so it screws with physical projectiles friend/foe recognition, making any rockets or missiles automatically target the ones who fired them! Perfect for anything but energy projectiles!"

"Then deal with this!" Spog roared, lunging in and slamming red hot plates the size of shuttles down on the platform, trying to crush the group beneath them, only for them all to leap to the sides.

Before he could pull back, all four pulled out their Smashhammers and slammed them into his face, disorienting him and forcing him to pull back. He attempted to hit them with lasers, but was unable to target well.

"I am detecting failure in three out of ten primary systems," 'Stuart' informed Spog. "Recommend retreat immediately."

"Retreat?" Spog demanded angrily. "Never! I have them right where I want them!"

Spog attempted to barrage the group with untargeted heavy explosives, only for them to throw the bombs back with their Vac-U's, followed by launching Qwark and Nefarious to inflict heavy physical damage before riding their upgraded jetpacks back to the platform.

"I now detect failure in seven out of ten systems," 'Stuart' spoke up.

"I only need one primary system to perform my duties, Stuart!" Spog proclaimed angrily as parts of his armor started to fall away. "I will not lose a battle this close to retirement!"

Despite Spog's best efforts, his tech didn't allow him to utilize any new attack methods, and having learned to recognize and counter each one as it began, none of them could hit the group at this point. Even reusing the buzzsaws he'd used on the pipeline did no good as they moved too slowly to catch the group unawares.

"Commander, you do not look well," 'Stuart' cautioned after a time.

"Don't worry about it, Stuart," Spog murmured. "There's plenty of fight left in this old war bot!"

At that point, several heavy hits from Warmonger rockets sent Spog spiraling into the top of the tower the group stood on. Spog tried to take off again, but could barely move, and his voice came out distorted and illegible as he tried to speak.

"Sounds like your voice modulator's damaged," Twilight observed. "Nefarious and I can fix that...if you promise to tell us how to defeat Ephemeris."

After a time, Spog nodded.

Grinning from ear to ear, Twilight and Nefarious approached. "This won't hurt a bit..." they purred eagerly.

"I can't watch," Qwark whimpered, covering his eyes.

---

After a brief but exhilarating bout of technical wizardry, Spog was back to full functionality. "So...about that information?" Alister inquired as Twilight wiped the grease from her hooves.

"Only the Architect knows how to stop Ephemeris," Spog explained. "He lives beyond the lighthouse, in the forest of the blue rocks." With that said, he flew off.

"Finally!" Qwark gasped out. "A new objective! It feels like we've been going after that guy for weeks!"

"It's...been less than a day," Twilight pointed out, glancing at Qwark in some concern.

"Oh...right..."

Comments

[Starcat5]

"Finally!" Qwark gasped out. "A new objective! It feels like we've been going after that guy for weeks!"

Quark, take that lamp shade off your head...

[Dirty Bit]

Because breaking the 4th wall is necessary around this time

[SilentMech]

So Qwark is Twilight's Pinkie? You know, that actually makes sense.

[SvenFoxx]

"Finally!" Qwark gasped out. "A new objective! It feels like we've been going after that guy for weeks!"

"It's...been less than a day," Twilight pointed out, glancing at Qwark in some concern.

Dammit Qwark! Stop breaking the fourth wall! Pinkie already turned it into so much Swiss cheese, it can't take much more!

[SvenFoxx]

7376481 Aww, c'mon! Starcat5 beat me to it. *Pouts*

[Powerdrainer]

"Finally!" Qwark gasped out. "A new objective! It feels like we've been going after that guy for weeks!"

For some reason this came to mind.

static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Silly+frieza_0dc1bc_3457992.jpg

[lilflamewars]

7376576
What a strange thing to bring up. Why could you possibly have ever thought of that?

[cyberlord4444]

Is it wrong that I feel a tiny bit sorry for Spog?

[Gentle-Breeze]

7377202
No, he had BOTH Twilight and Nefarious working on him, I'd feel sorry for him too.

[RC]

Quark pulled a deadpool.

[RanmaChaos]

Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.

[KVFFour]

7377309 RC said something I don't know how to respond to! I solved it with a 1.50 cal minigun! It turned RC into Swiss cheese!

[Noctus Umbra]

Grinning from ear to ear, Twilight and Nefarious approached. "This won't hurt a bit..." they purred eagerly.

tse1.mm.bing.net/th?&id=OIP.Md7656bb9c246ac1c5e4666687cd1eddfo0&w=172&h=299&c=0&pid=1.9&rs=0&p=0&r=0

[Jake Witt]

7377438 Yes sir.

[Jake Witt]

"Finally!" Qwark gasped out. "A new objective! It feels like we've been going after that guy for weeks!"

"It's...been less than a day," Twilight pointed out, glancing at Qwark in some concern.

"Oh...right..."

I think he's growing pink hair.

[Commander Darklight]

fuck me finally caught up ........ mind you i re read the whole thing

[RC]

7377532 *grey "miss" appears above rc*
Nice try.

[GuardianofRoin]

"Prepare to do battle!" Spog proclaimed as he primed his missile launchers.
"Preparing, preparing, always preparing!" Alister japed, deciding to join in on the heckling. "Just fight already!"

"Finally!" Qwark gasped out. "A new objective! It feels like we've been going after that guy for weeks!"
"It's...been less than a day," Twilight pointed out, glancing at Qwark in some concern.
"Oh...right..."

Wow... breaking the fourth wall here lol

[KVFFour]

7379344 Oh, Undertale guy are you? *sends jets of Greek Fire at RC* Hey RC! Co͇̫͚̪̞͇̹ ̴̢͇͓͙̩m̱͍͙̕ḛ͙̪͚̖̩̙ ̧̲̫̣̫̤a̮̝̦̥̺͉̼ͅn̳̮͍͕ͅd҉̸̣̹̮ ̶̖̖͍g̢͍̬͈̝̘̲̗̦e̵̡̝͡t̸̜̗̣̙̻͜ ̴̢͇͓͙ ͙͉̘m̧̲̻̩̣͉̰͓͚͠e͈̭̙͓,̸̩͔͔͕̗̺͙̜̕

[RC]

7380154
*wills the fire around me*
descendant of hephastus. Try again.

[KVFFour]

7382180 *sends RC to another dimension, locking him in there* there.

[RC]

7383449

*builds a portal localizer to return with the conspicuous amounts of clestial bronze enchanted gold bio tech and anti plasma to get back.*
Thanks for the trip to luchiens home.

[KVFFour]

7383494 *chops RC's head off with a chainsaw*

[Tatsurou]

7383494
7383519
Please don't fill up my notifications with RP-type comments unrelated to the story.

[KVFFour]

7383494 Also, let's move to my page

[Bones_]

7383819 It seems your stories magnetize RP'ers. I wonder why.
I will never forgive myself for using "It seems" to start a sentence.

[HeartfireFirebrand]

After a brief but exhilarating bout of technical wizardry, Spog was back to full functionality. "So...about that information?" Alister inquired as Twilight wiped the grease from her hooves.

"Only the Architect knows how to stop Ephemeris," Spog explained. "He lives beyond the lighthouse, in the forest of the blue rocks." With that said, he flew off.

"Finally!" Qwark gasped out. "A new objective! It feels like we've been going after that guy for weeks!"

"It's...been less than a day," Twilight pointed out, glancing at Qwark in some concern.

"Oh...right..."

Taking this guy out took way too many chapters.

[TheArcticWolf]

Twilight shook her head in disbelief as she finished activating an elevator platform, letting them ride upwards again. "Only you could say that without sarcasm, Qwark..."

It's one of his many qwarks!

[AtTheCrimsonFckr]

7376481
Aren't you forgetting about a certain merc with the mouth.

[AtTheCrimsonFckr]

7377054
Because five minutes lasted 30 or so episodes wish I was joking.

[Orphan]

8717674
Episodes of what?

[Tempest_Flare]

8959996
DRAGON BALL Z FREIZA VS SSJ GOKU