As Aphelion entered the Korthos Sector, she gave an alert to Ratchet and Twilight. "There are hostile ships approaching," she informed them. "Should I give them a chance to state their business, or can I just obliterate them?"
"Let's hear them out, shall we?" Ratchet suggested, rolling his eyes. "If only so we know what to mark down in your score card."
"Affirmative!" Aphelion agreed, much to Twilight's amusement.
The comm screen came on, revealing beings that rather closely resembled Helga, but dressed for Wagnerian Opera as best as Twilight could tell. "Well well well!" the first, garbed in golden armor, greeted warmly. "What do we have here?"
"Looks like this Lombax is lost!" the second, garbed in blue, added, her voice just as sweet as the first.
"What do you say, girls?" the third, garbed in green armor, spoke in a more masculine voice. "Should we help him find his way?"
"That'd be great!" Twilight piped up. "Which way to Planet Lumos?"
"Aww...look at that adorable tyke!" the green armored being proclaimed happily.
Twilight looked back flat eyed. "I'm 16," she grumbled petulantly.
At that point, the figures engaged in inter-ship communication, and two of the craft peeled off to go after Azimuth. "General!" Ratchet called into his communicator. "We've got hostile ships inbound."
"I see them!" Azimuth replied. "They are Valkyries-"
"Were," Aphelion corrected as she shifted to mech mode and tore the larger ship in half straight down the middle, shifting back to ship mode to shoot away, leaving the two halves to explode.
"...I'm going to just focus on losing the ones pursuing me," Azimuth replied. "Just to let you know, they work for Nefarious, so you'll likely encounter them again. I'll meet you on Planet Lumos."
"Roger!" Ratchet agreed, leaning back in his seat. "Aphelion, how far to Planet Lumos?"
"Approximately 30 minutes at cruising speed," Aphelion replied.
"I'm going to take a quick shower before we get there, then," Ratchet stated, standing up. "And you should grab a bath, Twilight. We're both getting a little ripe."
"I didn't want to say anything, Daddy," Twilight replied teasingly.
"Incoming transmission from Captain Qwark!" Aphelion interrupted.
"What is it, BBBFF?" Twilight asked quickly.
"I'm in a bit of trouble," Qwark replied. "The Agorians somehow got the idea that I was a thrill seeking warrior with a thirst for battle!"
"Did you tell them you were?" Ratchet asked chidingly as Twilight giggled.
"I was just trying to make friends!" Qwark complained. "But now they've got me in their tournament, and I don't think I can do this!"
"Qwark, you can do anything physical you put your mind to!" Twilight scolded. "Even the physically impossible. What could they possibly throw at you that you can't handle?"
"Have you seen these locker rooms?" Qwark whined. "Skrunch wouldn't even throw his poo at it, it's so unsanitary! And the drinks are tap water, and the food is army reserve K Rations from their pre-space age!"
"We'll get you out of there as soon as we can," Ratchet promised. "Just find someplace to hide until we get there."
"Message received!" Qwark replied. "Qwark out!"
"Setting course for Agorian Battleplex!" Aphelion chimed in.
"Let's wait on shower and bath till after, shall we?" Twilight suggested delicately.
"I get the feeling we'll really need it by the time we're done," Ratchet agreed.
Once in the Battleplex, Twilight and Ratchet both quickly realized that it was yet another battle tournament, much like any other they'd faced throughout their journeys. They immediately began placing bets with each other over whether or not anything in them would be at all challenging. "At least it's a bit more impressive than the others were," Twilight commented as they entered the well decorated lobby.
The pair moved up to the Gladiator entrance to compete, stopping just long enough to hit the Grummel-net vendor to acquire Groovitron Gloves, the upgrade to the Groovitron gadget, turning it into a weapon that could also level up.
The Agorian audience seemed to find the pair laughable as they entered to fight. Ratchet and Twilight exchanged grins, both looking forward to making them reconsider that opinion.
The challenges proved just as easy as the pair expected. The first two challenges involved defeating five waves of enemies in different conditions, neither of which being at all problematic for Ratchet or Twilight. The third challenge involved defeating ten Agorian enemies with their own bombs. Ratchet actually brought a beach chair in to relax on while Twilight took care of that with her telekinesis, just for the show of it. The fourth challenge involved dealing with sinking platforms; Ratchet climbed onto Twilight's back, and the pair gave new meaning to the challenge's name, "Death From Above".
The final challenge was where they found Qwark waiting for them. "There you guys are!" he proclaimed happily as he saw them. "Let's give them a real show of what the Sparkle clan can do!"
Chuckling and rolling their eyes in sync, Ratchet and Twilight nodded as they prepped their weapons.
With the three waves down, the announcers proclaimed one last challenge. "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...it's time for the War Grok!"
The War Grok turned out to be a massive four legged beast that seemed to be a cross between King Kong and a rhinoceros. Turning to the trio after callously casting aside the Agorian that had been holding its leash, it let out a roar, spraying saliva all over the place.
Twilight promptly hurled a strange cylinder into its mouth. The creature's mouth instinctively snapped shut on it, starting to chew. Not long after, it started panting happily.
"You were just hungry, weren't you?" Twilight cooed, climbing up onto the creature's back to rub it under its chin. "That better?"
The War Grok panted happily, pounding its right hind leg on the ground as Qwark joined in with rubbing its belly.
"Boo!" some of the audience members shouted. "No befriending! We want mauling!"
Twilight frowned, then attached something to the War Grok's back. The device slowly expanded until the entire War Grok was covered in Hyperflux Armor - still experimental and in testing with Grummel-Net - with all sorts of weapons and other armaments bristling over its body. "Snowball," she addressed the now heavily armored - practically giant bio-tank at this point - War Grok, "it sounds like they want you to maul them. Do you think I heard that right?" Chuckling, 'Snowball' nodded eagerly, his tongue flopping around.
The audience fell silent. "Yay, befriending!" one of them shouted desperately, and the entire audience quickly joined the cheer, much to the whole group's amusement.
As Qwark, Ratchet, and Twilight made their separate ways back to their ships - with a new Negotiator rocket launcher in tow for Twilight and Ratchet as their tournament prizes - Qwark promised to take care of Snowball until they next met.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
SPIKE HAS COMPETION!!!
I already have power armor...haven't you read Another Hatchling?
...I have...I just wanted to say that...
6886292 No, Fluttershy has competition, only she may befriend a monster that fast.
I know people are complaining that the stories that cross with video games are more like walkthroughs, but let me tell you, it's a hell of a lot easier to simply retell the events of the game(s) in question, including dungeons crawled through, than it is to create original material, and anyone who says otherwise either hasn't done video game crossovers, or are better writers than most. So, keep up the good work.
Twilight eyed Applejack's dog a moment before giving a bright smile "He's cute, but mine is cuter" she quipped as she point at her pet Wargrock. "His name is snowball" Applejacks eyes shrank to pinpricks ad she slowly and carefully began to back away from the obviously insane mare and her pet... whatever it was.
So...what did Twilight throw in its mouth, and where did she get it?
My reaction.
6886360
A super-dense nutrient capsule, complete with meat flavoring.
By the power of Friendship! I have the POWER!!!
Ponies are OP. We already knew that, but still.
6886418
Befriend. Verb. To beat the ever loving crap out of. -The Nanoha Fanbase.
Edit: For those who saw the pre-edit, it is late and I am tired.
6886498
Ahhh, the White Devil, the humanized Gundam.
6886519 She who's definition of "Befriending" others would use for "Overkill."
No idea what it does, but I'm sure it's better than this:
orcz.com/images/thumb/e/e8/Ds3_first_contact.jpg/400px-Ds3_first_contact.jpg
The Negotiator.
6886293
6886355
Snowball's still got Nothing on Chompy...
6886667 Would it be a bad idea to get Twilight, Nanoha, and Fate together to have a free for all magical sparing match?
...Is it weird that I suddenly had this mental image of Twilight raised by Nanoha from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha? Because I don't really think there would be difference...
EDIT: And I am apparently REALLY late with that joke......Dammit.
6886402 WHEN WILL NANA BE COMING BACK!?
The audience learned never to fk with friendship...
Umm... What? Did you mean Use? I'm not sure anymore.
Snowball is awesome. I can totally see Twilight introducing him to her Equestrian friends once she gets back there... only to have Fluttershy already zipping around rubbing and scratching him.
So now we have Tankzuki for Rainbow, Snowball for Twilight, Pinkie has a Cerberus, AJ has Griffon, and Fluttershy has Chompy. Rarity is the only one without a giant pet from the PWNY Mane 6. Let's see canon Spike try to pet sit these guys!!!!
6887249 rarity will have chozo spike if he is putting another hatchling into the pwnyverse
Now THAT, is how you deal with nay sayers.
Friendship is Magic :)
6886725 Only on planets you want to keep.
6887635 ah good point!
well played, Twilight!
6887372 I'm talking about pets they picked up in the universe they were raised in. And Chozo Spike already has enough girls after him, he probably won't go chasing after their dimensional counterparts.
That ending. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
This is even funnier when you consider that in the Nanoha-verse, 'Befriending' literally means 'beat the stuffing out of with high powered weaponry until they give up and become your friend'.
6887966 alright and very true
Oh, the Agorians reaction to Twilight wanting to have the War Grok maul THEM instead was just priceless...
Also, how would Cassiopeia feel towards Twilight, she being a girl of course?
~Yay, befriending!~
No! You get back in there and take that War Grok out with your RYNO!
Kill the beast! Rip its throat out!
Just end this already.
Why am I still friends with you three?! Wayne Industries have better standards than-
Oh look, it has several guns pointed at us!
Yay friendship!
You deserved that!
(I still haven't read Pinkie, RD, or AJ yet.) If the PWNY mane 6 ponies were in the crowd.
That right there probably sums up the mentality of most PWNies in the most perfect way possible: "If you can't befriend them, annihilate them."
7246709
Unless they can do what they do in the "Magical Lyrical Nanoha" series and "Befriend" their enemies by blasting them to near death.
7308867 ...That... would actually make a scary amount of sense for them to do...
7141063 you surprisingly got pinkie right
I can always hear one of the Argorians shout out "What is this, feeding time?" or "He looks delicious." at the battleplex.
Also, Ratchet's beach chair moment made me think of this:
cdn.ientry.com/sites/webpronews/article_pics/kp8te_1403213.gif
"Yay befriending!" LOL
8012059
Well I certainly ain't gonna argue with the overcharged, magical, genius Alicorn in the room. Especially with her new friend there.
8012059
Agreed LOL
7422230
Which Pinkie?
8948860
Both
SHE BEFRENDED THE GARTHOK!
She was 15 a few chapters back, when Ratchet was talking to Azimuth. If she had a birthday inbetween, then I missed it, and so did Quark!
10305649
No. Ratchet had been raising her for 15 years. Not the same thing.