The swing-hele-carrier dropped them off near another weapons satellite, again without anything new for the group to buy. "Seems like we're ahead of the game where it comes to weapons," Twilight muttered under her breath as she glanced ahead. "Looks like a big door we need to open." As Qwark stepped up, Twilight spread a wing. "Not by kicking it down. We're trying to be discreet here."
"Aww..." Qwark pouted, much to Nefarious' amusement.
As the group approached the door, a large group of Warper Minions teleported in to attack them, but were easily destroyed by the team's melee weapons before they could do much more than beep. After that, it was a simple matter to open the door into the Security Tower, as the map data they had identified the facility they were about to enter.
"Alright," Alister spoke up. "We can fully expect this tower to be more heavily defended than the other areas we've been through."
"In other words, we can expect this place to be more fun?" Qwark translated.
"I hate when I'm on the same wavelength as you," Nefarious grumbled irritably. "It feels so insulting for some reason!"
"Does it make you feel any better knowing I think 'more heavily defended' equals 'more fun'?" Twilight asked impishly.
"Quite a bit, actually," Nefarious replied warmly. "Thanks."
"I'm trying to keep things to some degree of military precision," Alister declared angrily.
All three of his teammates looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "Why?" they all asked curiously.
"To keep us alive?" Alister countered logically.
"And why do we need military precision for that?" Nefarious queried. "We have the tech upgrades Twilight and I have crafted, some of which is indistinguishable from magic. We have Twilight's actual magic. We have Qwark's ability to somehow warp reality based on his stupidity. How, exactly, can any of those things be militarily precise? And why would they need to be?"
"Because..." Alister began, only to let his voice trail off. "I don't know," he admitted finally. "But all I've known my entire life is military precision and discipline, and that's for longer than I'd care to remember. I...don't really know how to handle this any other way." He rubbed the back of his neck as he rolled his head back. "Well, other than going completely crazy and rampaging, but I don't really want to do that."
"Then maybe you should stop trying to take the lead and let Twilight call the shots," Qwark suggested. "If anyone can teach you how to have fun with these things without military precision or rampaging, it's her."
"Now now, let's not be so hasty in dismissing the fun of a rampage," Nefarious cautioned.
"And who's to keep her from getting lost in her inventing again and forgetting the mission?" Alister asked pointedly.
"I can do that!" Qwark offered enthusiastically. "I'll just remind her about her date if she stays put for more than five minutes at a time. She's really excited about it, after all-"
"I'm gonna be late!" Twilight squealed out, rushing ahead.
"I still need to make reservations!" Nefarious wailed, charging after her waving his guns.
Alister stared after them as they blasted their way past another new Minion-type robot - this one with rocket launchers, an energy shield, and a spotlight - again before it could demonstrate its abilities. "...that is frighteningly effective," he muttered worriedly.
"Teenagers," Qwark joked.
"And Nefarious?" Alister asked.
"I was talking about emotional maturity, not chronological," Qwark countered, charging into the tower after the exuberant pair.
"And what about you, then?" Alister demanded.
"Why do you think I know what buttons to push?" Qwark called back.
The group continued the charge into the tower. Before long, they were confronted by a massive, heavily armored Minion-type robot. It stood across a chasm from them, firing heavily charged heat beams that it swept across the platform the group was standing on, forcing them to evade. It also fired heavy mortars from shoulder mounted cannons to drop on the group from above. Despite the level of firepower the group had at their disposal, the bot still took a massive amount of punishment before it went down.
"Wish I could get the specs for that thing," Twilight murmured as they crossed to the other side.
"My optics are designed for multi-vision data capture," Nefarious pointed out. "It shouldn't be too difficult to reverse engineer it from the data back at my lab...or yours, for that matter."
Twilight squeed happily as she grinned from ear to ear.
Qwark sighed softly. "Well...one thing's for sure," he muttered softly. "Whether or not things go anywhere romantically with the pair of them...they've got the makings of a wonderful friendship."
"Then why do you sound so sad?" Alister asked curiously. "From the sound of it, it'll be good for both of them."
"Oh, I agree," Qwark replied readily. "It's certainly good for both of them, and I'm hoping things go well there." As another transport platform arose to carry them deeper into the tower, he leaned close to Alister. "But I'm her BBBFF," he whispered, not wanting Twilight to overhear. "I don't want to lose that...especially not to Nefarious!"
Rolling his eyes, Alister boarded the platform with a chuckle alongside the others. One thing was certain. Even if it didn't always make sense, this mission was certainly never dull.
There there, it's ok now.
media.giphy.com/media/SHyuhBtRr8Zeo/giphy.gif
So, am I correct in assuming that this section of the story is more about Nefarious and Twilight bonding, rather than them overcoming anything remotely resembling a challenge?
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Yep, pretty much. Par for the course in these types of fics.
There are challenges, but most of them are of an emotional impact.
In fact, Twilight has suffered the worst in that department earlier in this fic. First there was all the stuff Quark did in the Going Commando arc, then there was all the crap in the Dreadzone arc.
Hell, losing Clank in the arc before this one counts too, although by this point Twilight was well-adjusted enough to handle it better.
Nefarious and Twilight have my ideal romance going on.
I love how Nefarious just put Alister in his place with logic
smart quark is scary quark
Would make slightly more sense if it would be changed to "which is indistinguishable"
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Grr...
That's what I typed...grumble grumble stupid comp...
7348021 yeah computers hate us all. happens to me in my own stories
Ba dum tish.
Nice bit of lampshading and fourth wall flexing there.
The ship just plowed through an iceberg!
"Which one?"
Nefarilight.
"Oh... My... Goodness. Avoid the ship at all costs but keep the missiles ready."
It won't work! They're sailing on land!
"That's not any ordinary ship... IT'S A TANK!!!"
Just had a thought, when this Twilight gets back, she may be able to explain Pinkie Pie!
So, six years old, then?
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WE ARE DOOMED!!
7347798 if you think about it, it's not really that surprising. With all the put downs to his so called intelligence he may have started to rebel at the idea and started believing that he could be logical/smart if he wanted to, and with his reality warping ability being based on belief it means that he will be logical when he wants to. Not just fringe logic either because with that mind set he would also be subconsciously boosting his own brain power making him smarter as well.
7347629 Twilight was ready to completely devastate an entire world just to convince a robo pirate ghost to give her a single component that she needed in that arc...how exactly is that handling it better?
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
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For a given value of better I guess.
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Everything's relative.
Qwarky is afraid of losing his LSBFF to her bad guy somewhat boyfriend.
If the romance doesn’t work out (hides the omniviewer that shows the romance working out in the latter chapters) he could be the LBBFF or the TBBFF to you. Twilight is not someone to give people up. You’ll still be her BBBFF.
Cyber cookie to whoever guesses what I mean for the two initials i wrote.