Nexus: Shadows of the Past
Ratchet, Clank, Twilight, Cronk, and Zephyr quickly fled the caves as the Nethers attacked. This was not to say the group feared what the Nethers were capable of, far from it. Their major concern was Twilight's magical energy being in such close proximity to a rift into the Netherverse large enough that 'Mr. Eye' could see through so clearly, especially with an active Dimensionator involved. With the sheer amount of power in play in that cave, one wrong move could cause a cascading reaction of energies that could possibly destroy the entire planet. If they were really unlucky, the cascade might grow to titanic proportions to the point the Great Clock would need to contain it. And that wasn't even accounting for the possibility Orvus was observing via the Great Clock, which could mean Zoni Energy would be caught up in it as well.
Suffice to say, discretion was definitely the better part of valor at this point.
Unfortunately, the Nethers didn't seem willing to let them leave. In addition to weapons powered by Nether Energy, they could also teleport at will and had rather wicked looking blades attached to their heavy armor, making them fearsome at range or in close combat. On top of that, weapons fire seemed to have no effect whatsoever on their glowing, solid-energy flesh.
As they struggled through, they got an unexpected communication. "Mom? Dad? Sis? Blackwater said he felt two new cursed crewmates. Something happen?"
"Qwark!" Ratchet gasped in shock. "What are you doing here?"
"Investigating!" Qwark responded readily. "Between Blackwater's message and losing the signal from the prison ship you were on, I was worried. So what happened?"
"Cronk and Zephyr are presently zombie robot pirate ghosts, and proving just how different 'warbots' were in their day," Clank explained. "Also, we are currently engaged with extra-dimensional enemies known as Nethers who are proving increasingly difficult to fight."
"Really?" Qwark gasped in surprise. "Something you lot are having trouble fighting? I find that hard to believe."
"They're heavily armed and armored," Twilight explained. "And none of our weapons are doing any damage to their flesh."
"They seem to be somewhat energy based," Cronk added.
"Like the Loki?" Qwark asked, surprised. "But those couldn't function without hosts. How are these guys? And if they're all but invincible, why are they even wearing armor?"
Twilight blinked a few times, then put her hoof to her forehead. "I'm such an idiot! The Nethers can't function normally in our dimension unless they're stabilized! That's why the ones that follow Mom out of the rifts explode! The armor must be like space suits, keeping them stabilized! Vendra and Neftin probably had something similar when they were young until they'd fully acclimated to our dimension!"
"Then if we break the armor, we win?" Zephyr demanded hopefully. "We can do that!" Blurring forward, he started slicing away at the straps holding the first Nether's armor in place.
As the armor collapsed, the Nether dissipated. "It worked!" Twilight crowed joyfully. "Thanks, BBBFF! That really saved our bacon."
"Well I've got more for you!" Qwark assured them. "Aphelion and I are on our way to Zarkon as we speak! Over and out!"
Unfortunately, learning how to defeat the Nethers didn't give them as much of an advantage as they thought, as the Nethers retained their ability to phase out of normal space even while wearing their stabilizing armor, and they merely shifted tactics to focus on collapsing the cave system on top of the group. Thankfully, the cave system quickly ended, bringing the group out into open air.
As the caves sealed behind them under collapsing rubble, the group found themselves at a different sort of dead end, with a straight drop with nowhere to go. As they heard the Nethers smashing against the rockpile, Ratchet swallowed convulsively. "So...anyone have any ideas?"
"Jump!" Twilight ordered, racing off the edge and leaping without spreading her wings.
"Twilight!" Ratchet called after her, leaping out on parental instinct to catch her.
"Geronimo!" Cronk proclaimed as he leapt after, trusting to his new undead nature to preserve him even as Zephyr flew after him.
One after the other, each dropped...into Aphelion's canopy. "Got you!" Aphelion proclaimed as she sealed the canopy and shot off to another part of the planet. "So...what have we missed?"
"The Prog twins are using a jury-rigged Dimensionator to try and open the boundary between this dimension and the Netherverse," Ratchet explained quickly. "We need to make sure the real one is safe."
"Not to worry!" Qwark proclaimed proudly. "It's on display in the secure wing of the Intergalactic Museum of History. It's virtually impenetrable!"
"And on top of that, Nefarious upgraded the security just last week," Aphelion spoke up. "He considers such tech to be too dangerous to be experimented with by anyone short of Twilight, so he's surrounded the Dimensionator itself with a magical-identification field that can only be opened by Twilight's specific magical aura, and any attempt to circumvent it - such as bombardment with Nether Energy - will cause the field to collapse inward and destroy the Dimensionator."
"Then we have two directions to pursue at this point," Clank mused. "There is Planet Silox, which is apparently another area where the twins have been experimenting. Or there is the Thugs-4-Less Destructapalooza, which has an upgrade for me and may or may not be a trap specifically to lure us in."
"I think we should hit the Destructapalooza first," Twilight murmured softly. "Give Vendra and Neftin time to get out from under Mr. Eye's thumb and think about what's happened before our next encounter. It'll give Daddy more of a chance to get through to her."
All eyes slowly turned towards Twilight. "...okay, what did I miss?' Qwark mused curiously.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure Daddy thinks Vendra is cute and she has a weird villain thing for him, kinda like Nefarious has for me, and I'm hoping we can use it to get her out from under Mr. Eye's brainwashing so we can save her and her brother and she can be a new Mommy," Twilight offered reasonably.
"And here I thought I'd be done with Twilight trying to set me up after she got her own boyfriend," Ratchet grumbled softly. "Sis, set course for Planet Kragg."
"Course locked in," Aphelion offered, her voice highly amused.
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Oh Ratchet, you silly goose. NONE ESCAPE THE SPARKLE!
Pff, before she showed up here, her babysitter was Cadance. There's no escape, Ratchet.
Nice new profile pic, Tats.
I find it amusing going back and forth between this and Starlight of Solana's Qwark. Here, he's a goofball, while there he's just stupid. Every time I read one, I'm thinking of the other.
Awesome avatar, by the way.
7696938 We turn away no warrior. Welcome to the party.
Seriously Twilight is more of shipper than her foal sitter!
7696898 Didn't she show up in her crib though? as a baby? Before Cadences confirmed babysitting? or has it been to long since I've re-read this?
7696951 A fairly standard thing in the PWNY-verse is that the pony involved gets reverse aged with all their memories locked up or lost. So, yes, Twilight was raised by Cadance, whether she remembers it consciously, or not.
7696912
Wait, what? *Checks* ...huh. What do you know. How did I miss that?
Another enjoyable chapter. Great job.
I am still not used to this competent version of Dr. Nefarious.
7697325 He's competent because it's to protect Twilight, not part of one of his own schemes. Were he to attempt to use the situation to his advantage nefariously (ha), then something would almost instantly go wrong.
CALLED IT!
Silly Ratchet. Twilight's probably going to try and match you with Luna at this point.
No, wait. I meant that as a joke, but the more I consider it...
I'm calling it now! Ratchet gets hooked up with Luna through Twilight setting them up!
So many more things make sense now. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
7699209 Luna is already with Bruce. I don't think he is the sharing type when it comes to that.
7703310 True, but we've already seen Twilight not care about social norms. Do you think she won't find a way to convince him? Besides, he's a Pony now, and Luna said his instincts were that of a Pony's as well. Herding may very well be a thing in this universe.
Hmmm... something tells me at the end of this, twilight's going to do something dramatic along the lines of diving in after vendra during the end-clusterfuck, resulting in twi ending up in a pocket dimension where the biggest names in "diving feet first into hell" from across the multiverse give her very thorough remedial lessons on why you don't dive bear back.
I always think of Aphelion as F.I.L.I.S. from Red vs Blue.
Aph: "Are you trying to hook up with another girl?"
Rat: "Not by choi-"
Aph: "Should I run the tutorial program?"
Twi: "Yes. Do it. Always run it. Yes. Come on. Do it."
Qwa: "I think Twilight wants you to-"
Rat: "Alright! Alright! Run it!"
Aph: "Nobody should earn your respect; there needs to be a reason for you to disrespect a person. Not everyone is perfect. Be honest with each other and strive for a common goal. Don't just look for someone; BE SOMEONE somebody is looking for; in your case you can still be 100% yourself."
7696871 Oh Ratchet, you silly goose. NONE ESCAPE THE SPARKLE!
(skip to 3:01)
Twilight is very mommy greedy.
8184241
Yep.
8540809
8647620
Well, what did you expect? She learned from a young age that Lombax and Cazar society respect polygamous relationships and she is also from a society where herd relationships were respected even though it shifted into monogamous relationships recently, socially speaking. So, you can imagine what that could to to a pony's motherly demands.