//------------------------------//
// Tools: Dimensional War 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Starlight took stock of the situation as the Hyperion, and all of their allies, made their way to Planet Fastoon; an unknown enemy had appeared out of nowhere and basically killed Tachyon, said enemy stole the Dimensionator and fled with it, and now they were pretty much facing the end of the universe if their new enemy completed whatever horrible task they were trying to complete. Sure, they had managed to recover the fifth of the six lost Raritanium Cores, the most mysterious gemstones she, Sunset, and Angela had been studying until Sunset suddenly disappeared with the other four. She also mentally counted all of the soldiers they had; as in one hundred pirates, about twenty-four Jedi knights, seventeen heroes from the Heroes Association, six different starships that carried one hundred robotic Galactic Rangers apiece, two Lombaxes, one Captain Qwark, and herself... while not even counting the two mysterious friends that Red was calling in.

Despite their numbers, and all of the training that each person had received over the years, she had the feeling that none of that was going to matter when they finally reached the Witch-Queen... or Fear, as Starlight had taken to calling her after what had happened back on Planet Reepor.

"Are you certain this is even possible?" Talwyn asked, causing Starlight to snap out of her thoughts for a moment and look at what she and Angela were working on, while Talwyn watched anyway.

Starlight wasn't sure if they would even be able to get close enough to Fear before their own horrors paralyzed them where they were standing, so she was modifying the ancient Alpha Disruptor that she had picked up on Sargasso. She and Angela knew that the energy of the Cores could be harnessed in some manner, which was how Starlight was able to temporarily merge Sunset and Searing together, at the cost of releasing Hatred. From what she could tell the six Cores had a large energy reserve inside of them, one that could very well be endless considering the Cores she had used on her sister had never run out of power. She was planning on slipping the red colored Core into the energy slot of the Alpha Disruptor, so she could launch a powerful beam of energy at Fear if the situation called for it... though she had no idea if such an attack would even work.

Considering that their opponent had the Dimensionator, and was no doubt getting ready to use the weapon, she wanted to make sure that she had some sort of back up plan, just in case things went south.

"Yes, we've harnessed the power within the Cores a few times in the past, so we know its possible." Angela replied, knowing that Starlight was trying to concentrate and didn't need questions thrown at her, "The problem is whether a blast, made up of said power, will be enough to get rid of this creature... this Witch-Queen, Fear, whatever you want to call her."

That was something else that was bothering Starlight, the fact that they started calling the wraith 'Fear' and now they were letting the name slip if that had been her name all along... just like with Hatred. The wraith's voice reminded Starlight of Sunset, not because she missed her sister enough to think their enemy was her, but because the voice just sounded like a stretched out version of Sunset's voice. The same thing had happened with Ysmir, when she spoke Starlight had immediately thought of Sunset, which was starting to worry her that she was missing her sister way too much and was substituting her voice for almost everyone else.

She let out a sigh as she closed the cover she had made for the weapon, with the Core locked in place for the moment, before setting her tools aside and looked at the people around her... where Sasha and Ace were discussing strategy, Rusty Pete and Qwark were swapping stories to liven up the mood, and Ratchet was sitting near Clank, preparing themselves for what was coming.

"I've got some good new and I've got some bad news," Red commented, walking up to the table that the entire group was standing around, though those that had been talking stopped their conversations to hear what he said to say, "The good news is that my friends are more than willing to come and help us save the universe, though they'll be meeting us sometime after we land on the surface of Fastoon."

"And the bad news?" Sasha asked, though her tone indicated that she hoped that whatever bad news Red had wasn't the end of the universe, because that was something none of them needed.

"You should come see that for yourselves," Red replied, beckoning them to follow him to the bridge, though while they did so Starlight grabbed the modified weapon and stashed it with the others as she caught up to everyone.

When everyone gathered in the bridge the first thing they saw was the planet they were heading for, the wasteland planet that was known as Fastoon, but as they stared at the planet they all noticed something different. Above the planet's atmosphere rested what appeared to be a hole like portal, similar to what Searing had used to go from the Starship Phoenix and arrive on Planet Koros moments later, only this one was much larger. There was some sort of darkness that was leaking out of the portal and descending towards the planet, which had to be what Fear was calling upon for her conquest of the universe. The group also noticed that there appeared to be a light blue ring of energy surrounding the portal itself, keeping it contained and preventing it from spreading any further... though Clank and Starlight immediately recognized the little robots that were swarming around the blue ring.

"What are the Zoni doing here?" Starlight asked, though at the same time she was thankful that they had come to their rescue, because if the rift's progress was any indication Fear had already activated the Dimensionator and was in the process of damaging the universe.

"From what I can tell they sensed what was going to happen and came to aid us," Red commented, a smile appearing on his face for a few seconds, before he pointed at the jagged cracks that had already appeared on the planet below them, "and, from what I can gather, the power of the rift and the Dimensionator is slowly tearing Fastoon apart... as if the rift is trying to eat the planet."

"You know, its times like this that I wish Sunset was still here," Angela said, looking at the state of the planet below them, "She could just erase the Dimensionator with a single word and save us the trouble of having to race against the clock... but since she's not here we're going to have to be quick and efficient with our time."

"Come on, let's head down to the planet's surface and see what we're up against," Starlight commented, to which everyone headed towards the docks and climbed into their ships.

As the ships drew closer to the planet's surface, and got a better look at the damage that had been caused already, Starlight immediately noticed that it looked like smaller rifts were opening everywhere, allowing the sinister forces that Fear was calling upon to enter this world. As Aphelion flew over the plains outside the city Ratchet and Starlight had found her in, which brought back memories of the war for her, everyone noticed that large groups of creatures, some of which appearing to come out of nightmares, were marching out of the large number of rifts. They had known that Fear had been planning on using the Dimensionator, but based on what they were seeing it was almost like she was preparing for all out war with everything and anything that might oppose her.

Starlight took the moment to mentally agree with Angela, because it would be so much easier to simply obliterate Fastoon and the Dimensionator in a single go, but they had no idea what the destruction of the weapon would case... which was actually the better option at that moment. She also noticed that the plains they were heading towards connected to the main security point of the Lombax fortress, though most of the walls appeared to have fallen down thanks to the fact that the world was literally pulling itself apart.

"Prepare for a HALO jump," Zephyr called out over the communicator, to which he, Cronk, Ratchet, Starlight, Angela, Ace, and Qwark jumped out of their respective ships and descended towards the ground.

This time when they performed a HALO jump they weren't targeted by any missiles, allowing them to land on the ground without any injury, though after Talwyn landed her ship nearby she joined the rest of the group, while at the same time the rest of their forces moved across the plains and engaged their enemies. Starlight noticed that several of the creatures didn't have hands on their arms, rather they had sinister tentacle like arms, though their arms could go from squirming to hardened spikes within seconds. She couldn't describe all of the horrible creatures that were coming out of the rifts, so she focused her energy on taking out anything and everything that Fear was summoning to combat them.

As they slowly made their way across the plains, which wasn't as easy as one might assume because of the fact that larger creatures were starting to come out of the rifts, Red separated from the group he had landed with and joined the main group.

"So when are those friends of your coming?" Ace asked, though at the same time he swung his lightsaber and took off the arm of the creature that he was fighting, before having to take its head clean off to make sure that it stopped moving.

"They'll be here any minute," Red replied, glancing around them for a moment, as if he was searching for something, though that was followed by a smile appearing on his face.

A large creature, one with two heads and lobster claws for hands, made its way towards the group, but before it could close the distance two flaming holes appeared in its heads, one hole for each head, before it collapsed on the ground and crushed several of its smaller allies under its weight. Starlight glanced towards the direction the shots came from and her heart skipped a beat, because the person coming their way was actually a pony like her, though for a moment she thought it was actually Sunset. She watched as the crimson coated mare walked towards them, though all Starlight could see was a unicorn's horn that was blazing at the moment, causing her to worry that this wasn't who she thought it was.

The unicorn mare, with a mane that looked like fire, approached the group before bowing her head to them, though now that she was close to them Starlight noticed that she was wearing a robe of some kind that covered the majority of her body.

"I see we made it just in time. I am Searing Flame," the mare said, though she smiled as she looked at Starlight and Ratchet for a moment, "My sister should be joining us in a few seconds... and maybe she'll take out a dragon or two."

Starlight wondered what dragons the mare was talking about, but as she turned her head around she noticed a large reptilian creature, with wings large enough to lift it into the air and teeth sharp enough to tear apart a ship with ease, emerge from one of the larger rifts and soar through the air. She considered pulling out the Alpha Disruptor and using it to take the beast out of the air, but before she, or anyone else, could do anything Starlight spotted a flash move through the air and slam into the side of the massive creature. Whatever had hit it caused the beast to shift in the air and fly over the forces of Fear, though as the beast loosed a stream of fire at its target, and caught several of its allies on fire, another flash moved around and collided with the beast.

As Starlight watched the fight she noticed that the blur that was moving through the air was another pony like person, just like her and the Searing that stood behind her, but as she zeroed in on it she gasped as she noticed the amber coat the mare had... though that was swiftly followed by the mare blasting the dragon out of the air and dropping it one its allies, before she flew towards the group and landed beside her sister. It was then that Starlight realized that the second pony looked exactly like Sunset, except for the fact that where Sunset was an alicorn this lookalike was only a pegasus, though she was wearing a suit of light armor that covered the majority of her body... as well as a set of blades attached to her wings, ever so slightly above the feathers to avoid going any harm to herself.

"See? I told you I can take out a dragon!" the pegasus said, before noticing that Ratchet and Starlight were standing in front of them, to which she bowed her head as well, "Oh, I forgot we were meeting up with Ratchet Cross and his sister Starlight Glimmer, as well as the rest of their group. I am Sunset Glider."

Starlight stared at the two mares for a moment, shocked that their names were Searing and Sunset without the last name part, but at that instant she needed to return to the war going on.

"Dearest Sunset, you should return to the skies and take out anything that might do harm from above," Red commented, pulling out what appeared to be a wearable sash that contained several explosives on it, which Starlight assumed was how she had damaged the dragon, "We'll handle the ground forces for you."

Sunset waited patiently as Red wrapped the sash around her body before she took to the skies, to which she zeroed in on another dragon-like creature and blew it out of the sky, dropping it on their enemies and squishing them flat. Starlight glanced over at Searing for a moment, once again marveling how the new arrival sounded like Sunset, only this time she actually sounded like the demon, but decided that now wasn't the time to be questioning everything. Searing, on the other hand, ignited her magic and threw a volley of fireballs at the enemies that were five rows back from the front line, ensuring that she harmed none of their allies in the process.

Starlight let out a sigh as she opened fire on her opponents, making sure that she didn't hit any of her allies in the process, though as they continued to fight their way towards the building that Fear had to be resting in, the one all the lightning was pouring out of, she noticed that the rifts were opening even wider than they originally were when they landed. The ground to their right cracked as it separated into two halves, though between the two halves was a river of extremely hot lava that was breaking up everything around it, causing the soldiers around the lava to flee before they were consumed. Starlight summoned a set of bridges for their troops to use to get across the fracture, though while that was happening she spotted addition creatures pouring through the rifts.

"How many dark forces are there?" Angela asked, cutting another foe in half and removing its head, while their army continued to slowly advance towards their target.

"I don't know, but if we don't get any reinforcements soon we're going to fall," Ratchet replied, because while he knew they could easily get more ammunition from the weapon vendor that Red had brought for them to use, he also knew that the sinister forces Fear was calling upon were seemingly endless... and the massive rift in the sky was getting closer with every passing moment.

A few seconds later a large burst of energy surged into the back of the enemies and exploded, tearing a large number of the horrible creatures apart as some sort of humanoid creature, one with hairy arms, spiked up hair, and a monkey's tail, appeared in the air with a smile on his face. Instead of introducing himself the creature grabbed another horrifying creature and tossed it into the air, where the poor soul exploded like a firework, before landing in the mess of enemies and started tearing them apart. Starlight seemed confused at to what was happening at this point, what with the horrible creatures and the monkey like creature, but at this point she knew it was better to blame the Dimensionator for everything.

Another rift opened above the lava and a new arrival, this one appearing to be some sort of young girl with red spiked up hair, charged out of the hole and raced towards the monkey creature, to which the two of them declared war on the horrible creatures. The girl summoned lightning around her hands, in the form of blades for some reason, and charged through her targets, while the other person exploded more enemies in the same manner as before. Starlight stopped questioning everything when she saw a creature that she could only describe as Death itself appeared near another patch of enemies and swung its scythe at its targets, reaping their souls as their bodies fell to the ground.

It was almost like fate had heard that they needed allies and was sending them help, as if someone knew the danger that Fear posed to the universe with the Dimensionator in her possession... and she really stopped questioning what she was seeing when she spotted an army of ghosts, lead by a larger man that seemed to radiate power, slamming into another side of their enemy's forces and cutting down whoever was in front of them. Another man, also with some sort of energy radiating from his body, walked along side of the army, though he appeared to be wearing a suit that was half orange and half purple, while carrying a strange walking staff of some kind.

Starlight was about to question what she was seeing, even after mentally thinking that she was going to stop questioning everything, before the man stabbed an opponent in his stomach, pulled out what she assumed was the creature's entrails or something, and mentioned skipping rope with them... while blasting several of opponents with his staff and turned them all into cheese.

"I'm going to need a drink one this is all over," Starlight mumbled to herself, though before she fell behind everyone else she opened fire on another set of enemies that were coming her way, all while trying to forget the strange people that she was seeing.

With the addition of new allies, all wielding powers that reminded Starlight of the various Codex fragments they had recovered, the tide of the war slowly turned in their favor, but at the same time the larger rift in the sky was growing ever closer. Sunset dive bombed the enemies that she was near and created a hole in their line up, which Searing surrounded with her magic and created two magical walls that went straight towards the building.

"You have one shot at this," Searing shouted, causing Ratchet and Starlight to stare at her for a moment, wondering what she was up to, "My sister and I will make sure you two reach the main building and take Fear out... otherwise that rift is going to end up destroying this entire planet and everything around it."

Ratchet and Starlight, knowing that this was the only shot they had at overcoming their enemy and her plans, braced themselves as they charged forward, heading down the pathway that Searing had created. The rest of their group stayed behind, making sure that their new allies could handle the fights they were in while making sure to protect themselves from harm. As they ran Starlight noticed Sunset flying overhead, dropping what appeared to be the rest of her grenades on her enemies, blowing them up in the process, before she had to resort to using the blades on her wings to cut up the flying enemies that were chasing her. Starlight was still surprised by the sudden appearance of ponies that reminded her of both her sisters, the real Sunset and Searing, but she resolved to talk with them once this nightmare was over.

A few minutes later the two of them were standing inside the main building that the lightning was coming from, where they found that the Dimensionator was strapped to the ceiling by some contraption as it gave off the power necessary to fuel the large rift in the sky... and also found the wraith floating in the middle of the room.

"Give up Fear," Ratchet said, though at the same time he and Starlight prepared themselves, because they knew that the creature was going to attack them regardless of what they said, which was why the Alpha Disruptor was being pulled out as well, "soon our army will have beaten your army and we will have you surrounded. Hand over the Dimensionator and we can end this without any more bloodshed."

"It matters not who wins or loses this war, because I have already won!" Fear stated, turning to face the group for a moment, allowing them to see that her sword had been drawn the entire time, though she used it to beckon to the Dimensionator, "Soon the Dimensional Rift will become stable enough to swallow this entire planet... and then the rest of the stars around it... and then the entire galaxy before it violently explodes and tears this universe apart! The shock of such an explosion with pulse throughout all of creation, tearing all of the gods that have been created apart and reducing everything to nothing, allowing someone to start over from the beginning."

"That's your master plan?" Starlight asked, not believing that the wraith would go through all this effort, and incite a war no less, if she intended on obliterating all of creation instead of ruling over it, "You'll die as well."

"That is where you are wrong," Fear replied, letting out a sound that almost seemed like a laugh, though it was one that filled the group with dread, "Once this planet is swallowed by the Great Dark, and everything is consumed, I shall be safe inside this chamber, protected by the dimensional energies of the Dimensionator. When the death of the current universe is complete I shall lead the endless forces of the Great Dark across whatever new worlds appear, where I shall live as the greatest god of all time with plenty of people to rule over and obliterate if they displease me in any way. There will be no Sunset Shimmer, no Searing, no Beerus the Destroyer... there will only be Fear..."

It was at that point that Starlight decided to make her move, to which she pulled out the Alpha Disruptor, which had been charging behind her back the entire time, and loosed the charge she had been preparing into the wraith's chest. The resulting explosion sent the wraith's sword into the air, to which it slammed into the Dimensionator and knocked it loose, while at the same time knocking whatever remained of Fear into the wall behind where she had been floating seconds earlier. The ground beneath them shook in response to what Starlight had done, rather violently she thought to herself, but it didn't seem like there was any permanent damage to either herself or to her brother and Clank.

Fear, on the other hand, had been transformed into a small silver crystal, one that had a swirling mass of darkness inside it, indicating that Starlight's attempt at using the Core as a power source had trapped the wraith instead of destroying her completely.

"Ratchet, Starlight, I don't know what you did in there, but we have a problem," Red said over the communicator, though his tone indicated that he was worried about something, "the creatures that Fear summoned are being pulled back into the rifts they had used to enter our world, along with our new allies, but it gets even worse... Fastoon is being pulled into the larger rift!"

"I've already called for a retreat before we're sucked in as well," Angela added, throwing her voice into the conversation as well, "I fear that whatever our opponent was trying to do was successful..."

Ratchet, now understanding the danger that they were in, grabbed the Dimensionator and ran outside the building they had entered, to which she spotted the forces of the Great Dark being ripped from where they were standing and returning to their own dimension... along with the ground beneath their feet. As he called for Aphelion to come and pick them up, while avoiding all of the creatures that were in the air, Starlight ran back inside the building and grabbed the crystal containing Fear, before she returned to her brother's side. A few seconds later Aphelion landed near them, to which they climbed inside the ship and took off, to which they managed to get far enough away before the building they were in was ripped from Fastoon's surface and was consumed by the larger rift.

As they flew towards the Hyperion, which was currently moving away from the planet with the rest of the starships, Ratchet saw most of the smaller ships they had used to transport their soldiers departing from the planet. When they docked inside their starship the group ran to where everyone else was gathered, where they were watching the destruction of Fastoon as pieces were consumed by the rift. The moment Angela received a notice that all of their forces were off the planet, and that everyone was at least as far as the Hyperion was, Starlight noticed something flying through space for a moment. She zeroed in on the object in question and noticed that it was a flaming ball of energy that rivaled Sunset's destructive powers... which made her turn to the pegasus for a moment and found both her and her sister standing beside everyone as well.

The attack struck the planet and lava lines started appearing within a matter of seconds, indicating that something, or someone, was going to destroy Fastoon before it was completely consumed. It was like watching the end of Koros all over again, with the earth breaking under the pressure and volcanoes erupting all over the place, while at the same time the planet was being eaten by the rift. A few seconds later an explosion rocked the planet and forced everyone to cover their eyes, though when the light faded everyone found that the planet, and more importantly the rift, were gone.

Starlight stared at the empty sight in front of her and could only thing of one thing to do in a situation like this; she, the rest of her family, and their friends needed to take a break before they even attempted to understand what had just happened... and she was sure that her head was going to hurt in the end.