Vendra stared around in awe at the inside of Aphelion's canopy as the ship flew through space. "This is...how did you do all this?" she gasped in shock. "Dimensional weft space...folded time...an artificial Ether Spring? And the matter synthesis tech...where did you even get all this?"
"Magical energy combined with the time force of over 100,000 Zoni," Twilight explained softly. "Applied to a machine designed with an Artificial Soul program that let her react to things like an organic while she was on death's door inside a temporal freeze anomaly. We're still figuring out everything she's capable of-"
"Are those trans-metal shift sequencers?" Vendra gasped eagerly, rushing to the edge of the cockpit to examine some circuitry. "It is! This ship can transform?"
"You know, I did notice that," Neftin spoke up softly. "I just didn't really understand the significance. I'm good with analyzing an existing device and making a copy or repairing the original...but Vendra's the one who can look at something theoretical and put it together."
"If you think that's impressive, wait until you see what's deeper in!" Twilight was telling Vendra. "I managed to install an Obsidian Eye in her communications array!"
"You're kidding!" Vendra gasped out as she rushed after Twilight to see what she was talking about.
"Guess we're in a similar boat, then," Ratchet told Neftin. "Each of us struggling to take care of - and keep up with - someone whose mind works at levels we can't begin to comprehend."
"At least they're having fun-" Neftin's voice died as he stared at their destination as Aphelion turned to a landing vector, moving slow to give a great view. "I...I thought you said we were going to your place!" he gasped out.
"This is where we live when there's no hero work that needs doing," Ratchet confirmed. "Great way to find out about it quickly. Besides, I need to introduce you to the rest of the family."
Neftin struggled to get his voice. Finally, he turned towards the folded space areas of Aphelion's interior. "Vendra!" he bellowed. "You have to see this!"
"I'm busy!" Vendra shouted back angrily. "I doubt anything out there can top what's in here!"
"I think you'll reconsider when you see where we'll be living for our 'parole'!" Neftin called back out.
"What's so cool about a house?" Vendra grumbled as she finally turned to come back to the front.
"Well, we live with my grandparents," Twilight pointed out with a wide grin. Her grin only widened as Vendra went completely limp, staring with wide, amazed eyes at her first panoramic view...of the Great Clock. Noticing something, she handed a small cup to Vendra. "Sound proofed," she explained.
Vendra quickly snatched the cup and stuffed it over her mouth to contain her excited squee.
"I know, right?" Twilight squealed eagerly. "I still haven't learned all this place's secrets! We're going to have so much fun here!"
"And you get to meet the rest of the family," Ratchet added, guiding Aphelion into the dock.
As the canopy opened, Orvus floated up. "Come along, Neftin. It's time for you to start your community service."
Neftin stood up, looking somewhere between stupefied and exultant. "You...you mean..."
"For at least four hours of every day until you've completed your sentence, you're going to be working for me repairing the systems of the Great Clock damaged by your actions in freeing the Nethers," Orvus explained. "This will include any Nether energy specific tech Twilight and Vendra come up with together while studying the Clock's systems."
Neftin practically fell out of Aphelion. "I...I have so many questions..."
"If it's beyond 'where do I put this' or 'what charge do I use here' type of questions, you have to save them until you've completed your 2000 hours," Orvus stated bluntly. He then let off the family chuckle. "But if you impress me with your diligence, I just might have room for another apprentice. Recent events have nailed home the necessity for redundancy when it comes to power at the top...a chain of command, as it were." Seeing Neftin's eagerness, Orvus quickly put up a hand. "No more than 12 hours a day, mind you. I insist you get your proper rest and relaxation, not to mention food. And I don't care how efficient your cybernetic augmentations make you, you're still going to take proper care of yourself."
"Is...is this your strategy for reforming super villains?" Vendra asked in shock. "Drown them in everything they've ever wanted or dreamed of?"
"It works," Nefarious pointed out as he walked up beside Orvus. "Well, at least to the extent that 'reforming' is necessary."
Ratchet performed a stunned double take. "What's he doing here?" he demanded angrily of Orvus. "After what he did last time-"
"In exchange for 'Pinkie Promising' Twilight that I would make no future attempts at trying to take control of or use the Great Clock beyond what Orvus - or whoever currently held his position - approved of, I was allowed to come learn from Orvus about everything except time manipulation," Nefarious explained. "Besides, not only does Twilight want to work on those 'warbot' upgrades for me, I need to put my several psychology and psychiatry degrees to use somehow now that I've perfected the Biobliterator-roboticization process."
Vendra blinked, stunned. "Y...you're my court appointed therapist?"
"I could even prescribe medication if I thought you needed it, if your physiology could accept it," Nefarious replied with a wide grin. "Of course, there's also this paperwork I need to fill out with you both. Twilight's idea." Pulling out the datapad, he scrolled through several pages. "So did you both want to stay Progs? Cause I think 'the Nefarious Twins' has a more menacing ring to it."
Vendra fell out of the air and onto her rump, staring up in shock as Neftin rushed to her side. "W...wha...?"
"The core of the emotional problems that opened the door for Mr. Eye and created this damage was the two of you having no family but each other," Nefarious explained softly. "And at Twilight's suggestion - which I agree with - the first step to helping you recover...is to give you that family, as best as can be."
Neftin's gentle tears joined Vendra's sobs as everyone present gathered for a group hug.
Damn you Tats
troll.me/images/lost/you-made-me-cry-your-dead-thumb.jpg
D'AWWWWW I HAVE BEEN SMILING FOR 3 YEARS
And one again that gif on your profile page is proved right...
[We are family intensifies]
*ducks from feels coming at me at high speeds* Ha! You missed! *Gets hit with more feels in back of the head* Oh come on Tats! When are you going to stop hitting me with the feels?! Keep up the good work though.
7776338 cdn.meme.am/cache/instances/folder73/23837073.jpg
Idea for next arc...Twilight, while experimenting on a device that could take her to equestria, she end up being sent to the Ratchet and Clank 2016 world. Dont know how you would do it, but would be interesting seeing her relive a altered version of her first adventure, trying to use her knowledge of the future to help out, and end up messing things up. Just a thought.
7776505 that actually sounds like a good idea!
though she might be even more OP this time.
I think another galactic 'villain' said it best:
DAAAAAWWWWW!!!!!!
Now, when will Ratchet and his harem start the work on giving Twilight siblings???? I want to see Flurry Heart giggling with at least three cousins at some point!!!!
D'AWWW INTENSIFIES!!! Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
And now Twilight is her own grandmother.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay, more mind-breaking shenanigans.
I'm pretty sure that looking at their family tree is like looking at a Klein vase.
My hart dam you hart strings
7776669 *hnnnngggg.....*
Welp, Twilight's family tree is officially crazier than the Joestars and the plotline of Kingdom Hearts!
7776665 you can't make causality your bitch without some temporal side effects
So...Twilight thinks Vendra would make another decent member of Ratchet's harem, but her boyfriend is adopting her as well...
You have created a mother-daughter moebius strip. Impressive.
7776665 You neglected to factor in that the same would apply to Vendra. The two of them would become an INFINITE REPETITION.
Oh! Oh! IDEA!
Twilight abuses a causal loophole in a "go ask your mother" situation in the future by asking the mother who is also her daughter! I can't give a full alt script for it, but I bet everyone would laugh at Ratchet having to make a rule for that.
Wait. So Nefarious is going to adopt them, and Vendra is likely going to join Ratchet's harem. If Twilight and Nefarious wind up together, that would mean that Vendra would become Twilight's mother AND her daughter. It's not becoming your own grandma (I think), but it's certainly in the same ballpark.
7777186
Actually, since your mother's mother is your maternal grandmother, that would make them each their own Grandma.
In fact, the song "I'm my own Grandpa" talks of how a young man married a widow...only for his father to marry the widow's daughter. This is a very similar situation.
7777085 Pinkie's gonna have a field day with this.
7776505
7776520
And at the end of that story arc, she reconstructs the device which had send her to this alternate version; building it in a small, one person (pony) ship. But something else goes wrong this time as well, resulting her to turn back into a baby, and crash land through the roof of a certain Lombax's garage/home, restarting the cycle. And thus, the end is merely the beginning of this fic as everything starts anew.
"Vendra, Neftin... You're adopted."
"Yay!"
7777880 not sure if that would be a good idea, as his stories usually have a definite end, not a looping effect.
7778091 Meh, I was merely throwing out my random thought after reading those guys comments. But no matter how this fic will end, I know it will be good. It has to, seeing the absolute brilliance of this fic as a whole.
7777433 Now, just remember one thing. The recursive grandmother effect applies generationally. They are each their own grandmother, and great-great-grandmother, and great-great-great-great-grandmother...
I think even PINKIE would have issues dealing with that...mostly concerning just how it means infinite parties for a new generation every second.
7778294 I'm not sure that Pinkie's mind is limited to three dimensional thinking. Pinkie's promises have worth in the past and in a different universe at the same time (extra-dimensional beings feel unsettled when invoking one), and it is proven that she can spontaneously appear at the site of the promise-making and dissapear without a trace (the only reason that she hasn't appeared in this universe is because nobody has any idea who she is). This would mean that they (and, albeit theoretically, she) can pierce the dimensional barrier, and that time holds no meaning to them; so by that logic, they should work at any point on any timeline in an infinite amount of universes. Does infinity even mean anything to Pinkie?
I finally figured out Twilight's endgame.
Have every hyper-intelligent being in the known universe be part of her family, then start a mafia organization.
Quark got in cuz he breaks reality.
Also:
"Although I can't say that I've gotten everything I've ever wanted. Quark is still alive, even if my desire to have his roboticized head on a plate has waned slightly as of late--"
"Awwwww, thanks, buddy! I love you too!" Quark went in for a hug.
The moment he started to close his arms around Nefarious, spikes suddenly emerged from him, pointing in every direction. Quark recoiled with a squeal that would have sounded pathetic coming from a ten year old girl. "Youch! Bro, why? I thought you loved me!"
"I honestly have absolutely no idea what I have ever said or done that would make you think that, Quark."
Seeing the spikes emerge from Nefarious brought a distasteful thought to Twilight's head, which she voiced in the sweetest possible tone. "You weren't thinking of ever using those things to keep me away, were you, 'Fairy--" Nefarious's eye twitched at the nickname "--dearest?"
Nefarious replied in an equally saccharine fashion. "Of course not. I would never dream of using these to prevent your loving embrace, Sparky--" Twilight's eye twitched "--dearest."
"Good, 'Fairy, because if you ever did that, I'd have to cut off every extendable protrusion from your body."
"Oh, but Sparky, wouldn't that be just as much punishment for you as well? After all I know how much you enjoy my p--"
"OKAY! As your father, I neither need, nor want to hear the rest of this conversation! Catch up after you finish with each other! Come on Clank!" Ratchet snatched up his robotic companion and marched out of the room, with the rest in tow, though Quark wore a thoughtful expression as he exited.
"So we're finally alone, 'Fairy."
"Indeed we are, Sparky. What do you want to do first?"
Oh, I can think of a few--"
"OH! I get it!" Quark's voice echoed from down the hallway. "You said finish with each other because they are actually going to have se--"
"QUARK! I Don't CARE if I'm your father, I WILL flush you out the nearest airlock if you say ONE MORE WORD!"
--------
Making up random character interactions is hard, sometimes! How do you do this stuff so regularly, Tats? I can't even remember if I've repeated a joke, and I've only written 4 or 5 of these.
7779096
You may say it's hard, but it's also hilarious! Well done.
Their tears are not delicious. This is a great moment.
Waaaait, if twilight marries nefarious, nefarious adopts the twins, and Vendra gets with Ratchet, wouldn't that mean that her mum is her daughter?
7779096 You broke me.
7815865 Nefarious adopting the twins is a backup plan, in case Rachet and Vendra don't click as a couple.
7848110 I... love that idea.
That last part:
media1.giphy.com/media/eL9SM2ZXbTmZa/200_s.gif
...For some reason I'm crying... oh wait, that's my eyes trying to lubricate themselves, moving on then
And now Twilight is her own grandmother