//------------------------------// // Size: Kalidon // Story: The Sparkle in his Eye // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// As the group landed on Kalidon, Qwark hopped off the outside of the ship and made his own way to a port to get a ship of his own, to meet up with the parents he had discovered. Twilight pretended not to notice as she faced the Kalidon facility with Ratchet and Clank. "This does not seem right," Clank murmured. "It has been too easy." "Says the one who gets the free ride," Ratchet countered playfully, rolling his eyes. "I mean that if the Technomites want to stay hidden," Clank corrected, "they are making it awfully easy for us to find them." "That's assuming they want to stay hidden," Twilight pointed out. "It could be that, up till now, being hidden wasn't a choice, but a necessity due to nature or situation, and we've stumbled upon them as that's changing." Clank shrugged. "A valid point," he allowed. "There appears to be two paths ahead of us. Should we split up?" Twilight shivered at the mere suggestion. "Let's stick together," Ratchet suggested. "We'll take the shorter path first." At the end of the very short path, they found a purple haired being with yellowish skin and pointed ears working on what looked like a sky board, the successors to the old glide boards. "Tweaking the old engine?" Ratchet asked. The man spun around, hiding the board somewhat behind his body. "Why? What've you heard? Who are you? What're you doing here? Did the committee send you?" All the questions spilled out too fast to understand. "Ooh!" Twilight gasped eagerly as she stared at the board. "That's the new Z-XXX-TS model with total customization options, so no two boards will ever be the same! I only just got my advance model last month for testing! I didn't know they were already on the market!" The man chuckled. "You sure know your boards, little lady." "I should!" Twilight pointed out. "I designed the initial prototype this series is based on. Eiken even insisted on naming this series after me." The man gasped. "Oh gosh, you're Twilight Sparkle! Glide Board champ, child genius inventor, and galactic superhero!" Twilight chuckled, blushing and rubbing the back of her head. "Yup, that's me. What's your name?" "Phasta Thinyu," the cheetah-like racer responded, making both Ratchet and Clank groan. "Say...any chance I could get a race against you?" Twilight's grin widened. "Sure thing, Phasta! What are the stakes?" "I've got this weird gadget I found here," Phasta replied. "Never seen anything like it before. Pretty sure it ain't Gadgetron or Megacorp work. Might even be Technomite!" Ratchet rolled his eyes, but Twilight's eyes glittered eagerly at the idea of a new piece of tech. "Alright," she replied. "If you win, I'll sign your Skyboard." "Deal!" Phasta agreed eagerly. The major difference between Skyboarding and Glide Boarding was the tracks. While Glide Boarding followed the standard track with occasional extra paths, Skyboarding tended to be much more sprawling and had a major difference in regard to the rules: if a racer and the board were capable of making a track deviation without the use of illegal modifications, then it was a legal maneuver. Where Glide Boarding was primarily 2-dimensional racing with a bit of up and down as the track dictated, Skyboarding was a truly 3-D race. And Twilight had customized her Skyboard to take advantage of that. It was much smaller than the standard Skyboard, to take into account her smaller frame. As a result, it had less power to its engines. On the other hand - or hoof, as some put, much to Twilight's frustration - it had a much easier time gaining altitude than the larger Skyboards due to the reduced weight, as well as maintaining that height with its booster jets for a much lower cost of fuel. As a result, Twilight's strategy for Skyboarding often involved gaining a massive altitude boost near the start of the race, and spending the rest in a near continuous dive, then using her wings and body weight to maneuver once she was moving at incredibly high speed. As a result, Twilight was able to blow past Phasta and the other two participants in the race, easily claiming first place. "Woo!" Twilight cheered as she spun around on her Skyboard. "That was great! Still got it!" "Didn't really think I could beat you," Phasta said as he pulled up, tossing her the gadget he'd wagered. "Pity I won't get that autograph..." Twilight passed the gadget to Clank for identification, then turned to Phasta. "About that...since I had so much fun...check your Skyboard." Turning, she then led the way away with Ratchet and Clank. Confused, Phasta took a look at the bottom of his Skyboard. Keep on racing, Faster than Phasta, Twilight Sparkle Phasta let out a whoop of joy. With the Shrink Ray in hand, the trio continued further into Kalidon. The factory building in the distance was locked shut. "This is a Grind Lock," Clank explained. "In order to unlock it, we will need to use the Shrink Ray to infiltrate the lock itself, grind around its inner workings to disable the security, and make it out the other side in one piece." "That sounds fun," Ratchet said happily, picking up the Shrink Ray. "Sounds oddly specific to our skill set and resources," Twilight murmured. "What if the person who owns the grindlock doesn't own Grindboots or a Shrink Ray?" "Then they don't buy the Grindlock?" Ratchet suggested. Unable to find a fault in the logic but still feeling a sense of incongruity, Twilight nodded in acceptance. With the Grindlock open, the trio entered the factory, which seemed to be primarily about manufacturing the robots that had kidnapped Luna. Partway through the factory, they dealt with an elevator trap that dropped out from underneath them, forcing them to fight wave after wave of robots, including light bulb sentry spheres that tried to catch them in their light beams before zapping them. At the bottom, they leapt off, letting the platform fall and crash. Throwing a nearby switch caused ooze to seep back up through the tube with various platforms rising for them to leap up. The entire thing almost seemed designed like an obstacle course with the trio's skill set in mind. Something about that thought caught Twilight's attention, but she dismissed it, too focused on saving Luna. She didn't know how much she'd regret that. After clearing a few segments filled with attack bots and another Grindlock, the trio found themselves at a spherical room with limited magnetized tracks around the room. "Hey, I have an idea!" Ratchet said quickly. "Twilight, do you think you can fly to the exit?" "Uhh...sure," Twilight allowed, taking to the air. "But what about-" Ratchet pulled out his swingshot and locked onto hers, dragging himself in bursts of unidirectional magnetic force after her as she flew. "Clever," Clank complimented as they continued onward. After a long conveyor belt, a large, purple, gorilla like creature rose up on a platform surrounded by bottomless pits. As it leapt into the air to attack them, Twilight used a little bit of telekinetic force to flip it over them and into the pits. Opening a sealed door beyond the arena, they found Luna waiting for them. "Wow! Thankth you guyth! You are tho heroic!" "We should leave before any more robots show up," Twilight pointed out. "But I haven't had a chance to tell my friends about your heroic deeds!" Luna complained, her voice sounding subtly different. Twilight froze in shock, and Ratchet looked nervous. "Uh...you mean your 'friendth', right?" he asked hopefully. "Ratchet!" Clank snapped. "That is very insen-" "She's faking!" Twilight snapped out. "It's a trap!" As she spoke, Luna pulled out a small device and zapped all three of them with a highly charged Tesla burst, draining their nanotech and rendering them unconscious. "It seems you're the real brains of the outfit after all, Twilight," Luna purred as more robots closed in. "Good to know..."