Landing on Pokitaru, the trio looked around at the vast beaches, blue oceans, bright sun...despoiled by the flying ships dumping toxic waste into the oceans. "Drek's ships," Clank pointed out, identifying the logos.
"It's not enough they're ruining so many other worlds to 'build' their new one," Twilight growled. "They're also despoiling ones they have no interest in? Why couldn't they just dump their waste into a star or a black hole? That would cleanse it far more efficiently and for less than the cost of planetary reentry."
"We'll stop them," Ratchet promised. "That's all there is to it." The trio headed down the path to explore.
Part way down the path, they encountered the green skinned man in the Hawaiian shirt man they saw in the infobot. "Hey," he said eagerly, "you three are the first friendly faces I've seen in weeks." He pulled back a little hesitantly. "You are friendly, aren't you?"
"To you, yes," Twilight replied.
"To them, no," Ratchet added, gesturing at the ships dumping toxic waste.
"Well that's wonderful!" he said happily. "Down at the visitor's center, we've got a atmospheric gunship. We used to use it for tourist stunt flights, but if you know your way around the controls, you could probably use it to take out all these ships dumping waste into the waters and turning the wildlife vicious! If you can escort me to the visitor's center safely, I can give you the keys, you can use the gunship to shoot all those Blargian dumpships out of the sky, and I'll even throw our last two O2 masks in free of charge! How's that for the deal of a lifetime?"
"Say, Twilight, you teleported to the ship back on Batalia," Ratchet pointed out. "Could you teleport the four of us to the visitor's center?"
"Sorry, Daddy," Twilight apologized. "I'm only advanced enough to teleport myself safely, and even then only to a place I've been to or seen. We'll have to walk."
Ratchet shrugged. "It was worth a shot. Come on, let's go."
"We will escort you, sir," Clank assured the man. "You are safe with us."
"If you say so," he mumbled nervously.
At first, the only enemies they encountered were mutant puffer fish that bounced along in a manner not unlike the horntoads of Veldin, only slightly more durable. Ratchet and Twilight took turns slamming them into each other, Ratchet with the Power Gauntlet, Twilight with her telekinesis.
The next new enemy they encountered was a strange purple creature that launched fireballs at them with telekinetic energy. Twilight's magic fireballs proved more than a match, however, and as those were the only two types of enemies they encountered on their journey, they faced few obstacles.
"Hey," the resort manager said, "you two are pretty good!"
"Thanks!" Twilight said happily. "We do our best!"
"We have to be good if we're going to stop the Blarg," Ratchet explained.
"Hey, Dad?" Twilight spoke up. "When you shoot down the Blarg dumpships, think you could save a sample of the sludge they're dumping? I want to try something."
"What have you got in mind, little lady?" the manager asked worriedly.
"You wouldn't happen to have a sample of the sea water from before they started dumping saved, would you?" she asked.
"I think we've got one," he replied. "Why?"
"Well, if I can analyze the exact chemical and molecular nature of the unsludged water, the sludged water, and the sludge, I should be able to create a gadget to unsludge the oceans, reversing the effects of the sludge dumping on both water and wildlife."
The man stared, nearly getting bit in the ass by another blowfish. "You really think you can do that?"
"If Twilight says she can pull it off, she probably can," Ratchet spoke up, dealing with the blowfish.
"She isn't the youngest member of the Gadgetron development team in history for nothing," Clank pointed out.
The manager grinned expansively. "Tell you what, if you can pull it off and clean the oceans and fix the wildlife, all three of you can have lifetime passes to this resort once it's open again! All the amenities, food, and relaxation, free of charge!" He paused. "You'll still have to pay for souvenirs, though, aside from the O2 masks."
"Deal!" Twilight agreed.
Two skiff rides, two bridges, and countless enemies later, they reached the visitor's center. The garage was sealed shut, and there was a giant button sticking out of the ground in front of it.
"Alright," the manager said, "the jet fighter is in the garage...but I have no idea how to open this lock-"
Purple light surrounded the button lock, forcing it into the ground. The garage door opened.
"I designed that lock...as a joke," Twilight replied. "It's opened by slamming the top of it down with a certain amount of force. The original design was small, the force too easy to generate. Gadgetron scaled it up and made it viable."
"In that case, away you go!" the manager said, stepping aside.
As Ratchet and Clank walked towards the fighter, Clank voiced a question that confused him. "Why was the garage locked up in the first place?"
"Policy ever since a tourist crashed a plane."
"How come you didn't know how to open the lock?" Ratchet asked, climbing in.
"Eh, I don't trust the tourists, and the Board of Directors doesn't trust me."
Rolling her eyes at that as Ratchet and Clank prepared for takeoff, Twilight turned to the resort manager. "So where's the untainted sample?"
"Right over there in the machine shop," he gestured.
"Got it." Heading into the machine shop, she grabbed the sample. Coming back out, she scooped a sample of the water from the ocean. She then managed to capture a couple lumps of sludge as they fell from a Blarg dumpship. "Okay." She turned to the guy running the machine shop. "Excuse me, umm..."
"Name's Bob!" the man replied. "Now what exactly are ya doing with that there sample? It's the last untainted ocean water on the planet!"
"I know," Twilight replied. "That's why I'm going to use it to design an anti-contamination unit to clean the entire ocean. But I'll need some parts from your machine shop to make it once I get started, and I'll be too 'in the zone' to handle any distractions."
"And just who do ya think ya are to order me around like that?" Bob demanded.
"Twilight Sparkle, Gadgetron Research and Development, Hoverboard Champ of Blackwater City," Twilight replied. "Speaking of, we should swing by Planet Aridia to sign my agent."
Bob stared at her. Then he fell to his knees. "Take whatever ya want, just let me watch!"
Twilight tilted her head. "...Any chance you're related to Al of Al's Robo Shack?"
"Taught that idjit brother of mine everything he knows!" Bob bragged.
"I'd love to see you at work when I'm finished with this," she replied happily.
"If'n ya got a robot with ya, I'll hook it up with a thrusterpack, no charge!"
"Deal." Twilight then turned to her samples, and her eyes and horn glowed.
All three samples floated out of their containers, then burst apart to hover in bits like the Metal Detector had aboard the ship. All the bits floated, spinning as Twilight examined them with her magic at a molecular level.
After a time, bits and pieces of tech from the robo shack floated out, coming apart and assembling as they approached, taking the shape Twilight's magic and will guided them into. Losing herself to the magic, other things began being drawn in to be broken down and assembled: lampposts, one of the skiffs, parts of a bridge, and a good sized chunk of one of the dump ships that got torn off as it fell from the sky, and most of the jet fighter as Ratchet and Clank came in for a landing.
"Dude!" Ratchet said, staring in awe as the jet came apart around him.
"Astounding..." Clank breathed. "What power and control..."
Eventually, the construction was completed, and the samples restored themselves. A massive crawler tank/boat/sub with large intake and outburst valves landed in the ocean, floating on the surface.
"Awaiting control sample!" it stated.
The three samples returned to their vials. Twilight's eyes and horn ceased their glow. "D-daddy..." Twilight breathed, looking a little dizzy. "Can you stick that vial in the top receptacle?" She pointed to the vial with the clean sample. "And then I need some food..."
The resort manager rushed into the garage, yanking out a ton of dried fruit and vegetables. "These do?" he asked as Ratchet hopped on top of the construction to insert the sample.
"Sample accepted!" the vessel stated as Twilight fell into the dried produce and devoured it eagerly. The vessel dove into the water and began zooming around under the waves.
"So...that's it?" the manager asked.
Twilight took a breath after demolishing half the offered food. "It'll take a few weeks to fully purify the ocean, and it'll continue to actively purify it, using the untainted sample as a base. The wildlife will revert back to normal a few weeks later as all the toxins are leeched out of their systems." She continued eating.
"So in six weeks I can open again?" the manager asked. "I'll need to raise prices a bit to cover the losses, but that's a damn sight better than I thought I'd be just this morning!" He quickly pulled out three passes and two O2 masks. "Here you three are! Lifetime VIP passes to the resort, and the two O2 masks, as promised!"
As each of them took their passes, Twilight looked at the mask. "I'll need to modify it..." Her horn glowed. The mask came apart, then reassembled, fusing with the Pilot's Helmet. The O2 mask portion then slid back into the helmet, slid out to cover her mouth, then retracted again. "Sweet! Retractable breather mask!"
Bob then grabbed Clank. "And I promised ya a thrusterpack for this feller!" he said happily. "Watch close!"
Having finished eating, Twilight eagerly watched the installation of the Thrusterpack. "So...cool..."
Ratchet then scooped her up. "But now you need some rest." As Clank hopped to Ratchet's back, he carried Twilight to a nearby teleporter. "You can rest up on the way back to Orxon. With these masks, we can look around there for a new lead."
By the time they reached Orxon, Twilight was feeling much better, and was able to go out onto the surface with Ratchet. As they explored the surface, Ratchet shuddered. "This place is just awful," he said finally. "Say, Twi, any chance you could modify that thing you made for Pokitaru for this place?"
Twilight shrugged. "I could easily make a model with a jet function for atmospheric cleansing, but without pure samples for the control, it wouldn't really work."
"If the Blarg intend to build a new world for themselves, they probably have some means of creating the exact atmospheric mix they need," Clank pointed out. "Could you not redesign the control interface to accept a pure data programming sample?"
Twilight thought about it. "Maybe...it'd take a bit of work, but I probably could..."
"Twilight!" Ratchet gasped. "Do you realize what this means?"
"What?" Twilight asked, surprised.
"Pollution of the environment - air and oceans especially - is the biggest problem facing civilized planets across the entire galaxy!" Ratchet proclaimed excitedly. "You've made a device that can solve that problem...permanently! You could name your price for those things, and planets would pay through the nose for them!"
Twilight's eyes widened, realizing just how valuable the depolluter mechs would be if pollution really was such a huge problem. At first, the thought of the amount of profit that would bring dazzled her...until her eyes fell on a collapsed homestead on the path, decayed from pollution. She closed her eyes. "No," she said calmly.
"No?" Clank asked, confused. "You will not give Gadgetron the design?"
"No, I will," Twilight said, opening her eyes, the air around her to her sight sparkling like diamonds. "But the depolluter mechs will be sold to planetary governments at cost on the condition they are treated as part of the planetary infrastructure."
"What?" Ratchet and Clank both said together in shock.
"Do you think it's planetary governments that suffer the most from pollution?" Twilight asked. "The ones who make the policy choices that lead to pollution like this?" She gestured to the wasted planet. "No. They're all rich and can go wherever they want when the planet starts dying. It's the ordinary people who suffer, who lose everything when the planet dies." She stared firmly at the dilapidated home. "And they pay enough taxes to governments to make them fix these problems. Well now I've fixed it for them...they won't be pulling taxes sky high to do their own jobs off my work."
The diamond sparkle to the air seemed to fade, and she shook her head. "Come on, let's find us an infobot." Turning, she headed further along the path, leaving Ratchet and Clank staring after her, slackjawed in awe.
Catching sight of an infobot, Twilight approached it. As it turned to try and fly off, she seized it in her magic and dragged it down to her. Watching the message contained, they learned about the 'Planet Buster' Drek had prepared to blow a planet apart just so they could install their new planet in its orbit.
"We won't let them do that," Clank said bluntly.
"To Planet Hoven," Ratchet agreed, and the trio returned to their ship.
damn. twi is a freaking BA. i love this story
"And for my next trick, I'm going to design a device that solves Writer's Block!"
...
...
...
"I can't think of anything..."
5735176
That's just perfect!
5735163 BA?
5735254
Bad Ass
5735271 I really can't wait for the Mega Crossover.
Yeah....
Wow.
That, Well good on you Twilight, I look forward to seeing what you have planned for your next adventure, because I would love a machine like that.
Question I have is that at least for Earth, we have cycles, ups and downs that happen.
That, would that be taken into account?
What am I saying this is Twilight. Of course it would be.
Anyway, this was great, and loved this chapter.
... By the end of this, twi is going to shove more gadets into that poor pice of headgear than your average Space Marine helm, isn't she?
Story's still going strong. I love it.
Ah crap. I just realized they didn't meet the scientist guy in the underwater facility.
5735326
yeah. where they all get back together and become the Equestrian branch of the Avengers
5735391 Yep.
WORSHIP TWILIGHT SPARKLE!
FOR SHE IS THE GODDESS OF INVENTIONS AND GOOD THINGS!
5735401
I'm not sure what you mean by cycles...
But basically, the machine takes into account the appropriate state of the ocean - or atmosphere for the eventual flying model - free of man made pollutants based on the initial data input, and actively maintains that, going through the entire ocean or atmosphere seeking out said pollutants to be cleansed.
5735427
All that gets you is the Persuader, which is a 25% discount on Gadgetron products via a device not supported by Gadgetron.
Twilight is a Gadgetron employee, and already gets a 30% discount.
5735578 indeed all hail (this version of) Purple-smart
5735697 HAIL HER!
5735665 oh yeah. Still I'm sure she would have made some comments on the device or actually gotten the thing working. Story's still good either way.
5735665
I mean by,...
Well Earth goes through periods of cooling and warming. Cycles
That is what I meant.
5735726
Oh. The machine won't do anything about that.
5735733
Yeah, thought so, This is Twilight Sparkle we are talking about.
This is, she is going to show a lot of wonderful adventures I think....
I fear what will happen when she has to return home...
Oh dear, Shining Armor, I know not what he will think.
Still all things considered, this will be most fun to see what comes next.
5735163 s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/31/53/d3/3153d3ed9d08987d8c47ca837467d3a0.jpg
5735717 derpicdn.net/img/2013/5/10/321422/full.png
5735857 Her eyes are staring at my soul
That's generosity. She already has magic, now we need loyalty, laughter and honesty.
5736005 What about Kindness?
When Twilight Sparkle said
I was instantly reminded of this (although, watching the thing that it came with about 50 times in a row one day probably helped a lot!)
5735910 She used soul piercing. It's super effective!
Twilight's helmet seem like a version of the helmet Megacorp will one day give to Ratchet as part of his commando outfit. after that, the retractable breather seems standard in most games.
YOU SKIPPED THE LINE!!!
Also, with what Twilight did to the mask, that explains where Megacorp got their design.
5736005
Actually, she already got Loyalty (the lighting in her wings when she was doing the stunts on her hover board), and Honesty (tasting Apples when she raged over Qwark's betrayal.) So just Laughter and Kindness.
5736267
I took three years of High School Japanese, so I know plenty of how to phrase Japanese.
5736678
Which line did I skip this time?
5736793 "I don't trust the tourists and the Board of Directors don't trust me, so we have a bit of a problem."
5736803
Ah, that line.
Yeah, sorry bout that. Twilight's impatience made it impossible to use that one.
5736805 All it would have taken is a "Why is it locked up?" from any of the three.
5736822
I suppose it could...
Hmm...wonder where I could possibly add that in...
5736830 How about the moment they arrive at the garage. You know, like the canon.
5736830 And I just realised how bitchy I am right now, but it's 2;30 am, so I'm going to sleep.
Apologies for bitchiness.
5736837
No prob.
How's it look now?
5735857 fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/281/3/d/frau_oberst_twilight_sparkle_by_forcemation-d6pqzb5.png
5736845 Better, but I really do need to get some sleep.
the force to easy to generate
it's the last untainted ocean water
broken down and assembled: lampposts
1. Too.
2. Forgot to capitalise.
3. Err... Lamp posts are one word or two?
Twilight Sparkle, friend to the animals, planet, environment and the little guys.
She's going to have one gigantic volunteer militia in ten years. Heck, maybe five.
5736963
Lampposts can be used as one word or two.
5735845
Twilight touches on a vital issue with the way our governments work...
5736863
5736985 Alrighty, good to know now. English, why you so hard?! Or just confusing
5736200
Yeah... One has to think of how the sun and moon came up before Celestia and Luna were born. Everything has a beginning and end; nothing lasts forever. So at some point the sun and moon rose themselves *cough* natural orbit *cough*, and are gonna have to do it again when Celly and Lulu die someday.
5737553
Hearth's Warming Eve states that the unicorns raised the sun and moon before Celestia and Luna came along.
5736186
This is the first game. But the captain returns in later games.
5736228
Why?
She does not seem to remember dragons or even having an assistant. Is more likely she will try to copy Clank (She copied the Ommi wrench) then make it a few modifications so it ends as a Female Clank, or mini Clank.