Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana

by Blackdrag-rose

Time: Answers

It didn't take long for Alister to find the cups he used to serve tea in and start making some for everyone else to enjoy, though it did take some time to find snacks for everyone... which was when Angela messaged Talwyn, who was aboard the Starship Hyperion that was floating above the planet's surface, to bring them all something and introduce herself to Alister. Not five minutes later Talwyn landed nearby and flew over to where everyone else was waiting, to which she dropped off the various snacks and took a seat, though Alister was surprised by how large the group actually was. Ratchet assured him that there were others that would likely want to meet him as well, considering he was one of the last Lombaxes in the universe, but also made sure that Alister knew that there wouldn't be anyone else for some time.

Of course Alister was surprised when he learned that Talwyn was actually Max Apogee's daughter, to which he explained how he knew her father and described the last time they had crossed paths.

"Wait, you knew my father?" Talwyn asked, taking a seat near Ratchet and Angela, though as she did so she tried not to look at all the diagrams that were lining the walls around them.

"I met Max Apogee a year or two after you were born," Alister said, a small smile appearing on his face for a moment, "He told me about this special set of stones that he had discovered on some undiscovered planet. He said that they were six different colors and seemed to have an energy that was unlike anything he had ever felt before, to which he named them the Raritanium Cores. Shortly after the discovery the six stones were stolen and Max went out to search for them again, claiming that he had done something wrong by removing them from the planet he had discovered them on. I had a few more instances where I bumped into him, though every time I saw him he kept telling me that he was getting closer to fixing his mistake... but he never once recovered any of the six stones and died without completing his mission."

"Do... do you know where he was buried?" Talwyn asked, because she wasn't prepared for the reality that her father could potentially be dead, which was what she was being told now.

"No, I'm afraid that I have no idea where Max's final resting place is located." Alister replied, to which the entire group detected a hint of sadness in his voice, "but to answer an earlier question the creature I heard about in the stories that the Vullards told was the Wraith-Queen of Reepor. I take it you are the ones responsible for her destruction?"

"Well, I did shoot her through the chest with a weapon that was empowered by one of the Raritanium Cores," Starlight said, rubbing the back of her head for a moment, "though I only resorted to such a drastic measure because Fear was using the Dimensionator to open a rift between dimensions so she could detonate Fastoon with enough force to wipe out the entire universe. We're lucky that the only thing that was destroyed was Fastoon, otherwise we wouldn't be sitting here having any sort of conversation."

"Wait a second, I thought that destroying the planet would have erased the whole universe," Alister commented, rubbing the side of his head for a moment, already not liking what they were telling him.

"Look, we didn't destroy Fastoon." Ratchet said, to which he tapped his tablet and summoned an image that the Hyperion had captured of the planet before its end, where he played the video for Alister, "all we know is that someone fired a highly concentrated energy blast at the planet and erased it before it could be consumed by the dimensional rift."

"Impossible, no one has the ability to do something like that," Alister said, though at the same time he glanced at Starlight and Searing, as if he was wondering if their magical abilities could do something similar to what he had just seen.

"Actually, it is possible," Angela stated, though she took a moment to switch the current image with a new one, one that revealed Sunset Shimmer in her godly form and wearing her godly attire, "Alister, this is Sunset Shimmer... the God of Destruction for our universe. Her innate magical power was so strong that she could create a cataclysm by punching and cracking the air, destroy whole islands by dropping a sphere of energy on them, and could obliterate whole planets by throwing something she called a 'Sphere of Destruction' at them. She could even channel her own power through whatever weapon she happens to be carrying at the time and release a wave of destructive power that leaves scars in the surrounding environment.

We're not one hundred percent sure who launched that attack at Fastoon, and destroyed it moments later, but its highly possible that Sunset Shimmer noticed what was happening and helped us out without telling us that she was coming."

"Wait, how can there be two Sunset Shimmers?" Alister asked, telling everyone that he had forgotten the last name that the pony in front of him had told him when they had spoken moments ago.

"I'm not Sunset Shimmer," Sunset answered, shifting her gaze away from the image that was floating in front of them, "I am Sunset Glider, though the only difference in our names is what they end in... and the fact that I'm a pegasus, while their sister is, well, whatever you would call her form."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense." Alister said, before shaking his head and turning back to Ratchet and Angela, "If I heard you correctly you mentioned that the Wraith-Queen of Reepor's name was actually Fear? What's the story behind her name?"

"Her powers allowed her to induce someone's fears by shrieking at them," Starlight said, once again switching the image that was floating in the air, though this time she called up the various enemies that they had defeated in the last few weeks, "this gave her the ability to freeze people where they stood as she called their fears to the surface, while at the same time allowing her to kill someone faster. There are other strange beings like her, which most of us have fought in the last two to three weeks; War, a violent warmonger who enjoyed killing people and conquering towns and cities, Ysmir, a warrior who possessed abilities that could make her immune to damage for a short while or blast foes back like they were nothing, and Ragenarosa, a fire elemental whose rage turned out to be her downfall as she neglected to notice what was happening above her head. That's not mentioning Doubt and Despair, who we'll have to deal with later on."

"I knew that those two were strange creatures the moment they first appeared on this planet," Alister commented, shaking his head for a moment, as if he couldn't believe what they were telling him, "to think that there were more creatures like them in the universe... I can only say that we're glad to be rid of them."

Ratchet and Angela shared a look with each other, wondering if they should tell Alister about the fact that the Zoni had taken the crystals that had once been the creatures, but then decided against it. They were lucky to have beaten Fear thanks to the fact that Starlight had modified an existing weapon to use the powers of the fifth Raritanium Core, otherwise it would have been the end of everything.

"So what can you tell us about our parents?" Angela asked, causing Alister to look up for a moment, as he seemed surprised by the question, "I mean, you knew that Ratchet was Kaden's son and that I was Lorna's daughter by simply looking at us, so you should be able to tell us something about them."

"Oh, I wasn't expecting a change in the conversation so soon," Alister said, to which he took a sip of his tea and cleared his throat, before setting his eyes on Angela, "Your mother was actually one of the more respected intelligence gathers that we had back when there were more than the three of us in the universe. She claimed that she wasn't the best at her job, nor was she the worst, but she always managed to get whatever intelligence that she was sent after without leaving a trace that she was there. Frankly I think she didn't want to be in the spotlight all the time and decided to tone down the tales about her skills, but that didn't stop the higher ranking officers from saving her for the really tough missions.

I honestly have no idea who she ended up marrying before you were born, so I can't help you there, but I do know that it was before the great tragedy that befell our race."

Angela nodded and took a sip from her own cup, though thanks to her training to be a Jedi Knight she had learned how to hide some of her emotions, such as her disappointment that she couldn't figure out who her own father was, but she decided that now wasn't the time to get frustrated over the little things.

"As for Kaden... its hard to explain," Alister admitted, letting out a sigh as he turned towards Ratchet, "He was, to put it roughly, one of the great geniuses that have ever graced our people, though I'm sure that you are familiar with his work considering you found the Dimensionator. He made several advances in our technology that benefited everyone, which was why he was so highly regarded by both myself and everyone... even when he began to theorize about certain aspects of the universe that everyone else decided not to question."

"Really?" Starlight asked, as this was her area of interest, which caused Alister to raise an eyebrow for a moment before turning to one of the chests that was lining the walls.

"Yes, Kaden was the first outsider to theorize that the Great Clock even existed." Alister said, to which he gestured towards the diagrams that were on the various walls, where Starlight and the others found some sort of engineering marvel drawn on the paper, "However, 'clock' is a rather crude translation of the runes on Quantos, as they actually mean 'Keeper of Time'. According to Fongoid lore the Zoni are the guardians of time..."

"...which means that if the Zoni took Clank than he must play some part in how it functions." Starlight said, causing Alister to look back at her, as if he was surprised that she had said something and not Ratchet, before resuming his search for whatever it was that he was looking for in the chest.

"Precisely," Alister stated, confirming what Starlight had said, before his expression turned to a more positive one as he pulled out a pair of boots and turned towards Ratchet, "Your father gave me his hoverboots when he and I stayed behind as the rest of the Lombaxes departed from the universe, though his intent was for me to one day hand them over to you. Why don't you and I step outside so I can show you how to operate these things?"

Ratchet was excited about the possibility of learning something new and followed Alister outside, though as they did so Angela leaned on the rail that was outside Alister's makeshift house, watching her husband as he learned how to use the new boots. Sunset had only gone after them the moment Alister mentioned speed, though she was patiently waiting for Ratchet to get a hang of the boots before challenging both of the Lombaxes to a race. Angela already knew that it seemed odd for there to be another Lombax, when she and Ratchet had thought that it was only them and the long dead Kaden, but she was pleased that Alister was trying to get to know them.

Even though Ratchet, Alister, and Sunset were having fun she knew that it would soon come time for them to get back to business... where they needed to figure out where the Great Clock was located and make sure that neither Vorselon or Nefarious gained complete control over the powerful machine, otherwise she was sure that something bad would happen.

When the group was finished with their race, which Alister won because he was more experienced with the hoverboots than Ratchet was and knew the course better than Sunset did, Ratchet immediately asked Alister what their next move was and waited for a response... much to Alister's surprise.

"Aren't you going to suggest storming Nefarious' stronghold and taking the information we need from him?" Alister asked, looking at the rest of the group as he called on his own ship, which looked like a smaller version of Aphelion.

"No reason to," Ratchet replied, shrugging for a moment as everyone gathered outside the mining robot, as well as calling upon their own ships, "We already know, at some point in the future, we'll be storming the stronghold. You know this galaxy, and the planets, better than we do, so we'll do things your way."

"Well, we have a contact inside the Great Clock... Clank," Alister said, a smile appearing on his face as he spoke, "We'll need a way to communicate with Clank, which means that the lot of you should meet me in Axiom City on Planet Terachnos as soon as you can. With some luck we'll only be there for an hour or two and we'll be leaving with the information we need before Nefarious even knows what we're doing on the planet."

Once the group agreed that it was a good idea to meet up in Axiom City, and Starlight had acquired the exact coordinates for Planet Terachnos, Alister got into his ship and flew off the planet... to which the group did the same thing with their ships. As they did so Angela had the feeling that something was going to change when they reached their rendezvous point with Alister... though she couldn't determine whether it was a good feeling or a bad feeling.

Comments

[Ze1a7in]

Interesting...Not the answers I was expecting, but helpful none the less.
I am still amazed that neither Starlight or Ratchet have made the connection between the various "personified emotions" and what happened when Starlight tried that experiment on Sunset using only three Cores, the experiment to try and get rid of Searing/Pride? I thought Sunset explained about her emotions after that?

[Sonata Blaze]

8153604 You would have thought that they would have made the connection. I mean, each of the emotional creatures they have been dealing with speak with Sunset's voice, look sort of similar to her in some degree, and have powers that only Sunset could mimic. Frankly, I'm surprised that Starlight hasn't figured this out yet.

[Kid Buu]

8153604 And what, pray tell, are the answers that you were expecting?

[Ze1a7in]

8153750 I don't know, maybe more answers on Clank's end?

[Kid Buu]

8153769 I think that we'll have to wait for another glimpse of the Great Clock before those answers are given... which might be soon if my memory of the game is correct.

[Ze1a7in]

8153773 cool.

[Kid Buu]

8153783 Yeah, after this next planet I think the team has to jump to another sector, which is when the game shifts back to Clank. From there he should be able to ask Sigmund questions pertaining to the events that are currently going on... and I'm sure that you'll get some answers then.

[Crescent Glaive]

I don't know why.... but i feel that at somepoint we'll see our heroes and their doubles from another timeline meet and fight either against each other(for fun) or together against a very big bad enemy

[Aria Blitz]

8153604 You know, I had a thought about Hatred (the missing emotion). What is she's hanging around the Great Clock, where she's forced to watch over and protect the earth pony version of Sunset?

[Ze1a7in]

8153832 Or maybe Hatred IS the earth pony version of Sunset. It would make sense, since Sunset herself became a Pegasus, Searing became a Unicorn, and since Hatred joining with Shimmer was necessary for her to unlock her full power as the God of Destruction, it would make sense for her to become the Earth Pony aspect.

[Aria Blitz]

8153855 That does make sense. Its possible that Hatred might have had the Zoni drop off Sunset and Searing at a location that would allow them to join Ratchet and the others, where they could round up the remaining aspects without knowing exactly what they were doing.

[Adagio Shimmer]

8153769 I would have to agree with you, I was kind of hoping that this chapter was going to be one where Alister and Ratchet had their questions answered... while at the same time Clank got some of his own answered.

I also realized something; Nefarious, in canon, sends a large robot type creature to deal with the group on the next planet, but it won't show up in this one... so I wonder if a time-space anomaly will be showing up soon.

[Pinkie Glimmer]

8153604 Your right, someone should have made the connection between the new personified emotions and what had happened back when Starlight tried to merge Sunset and Searing into one body. Either Starlight forgot, or the heat of the moment is preventing her from remembering that fact.

[Lord Frieza]

I was hoping for some answers, like everyone else, but I was also hoping that one of the wraiths would return and get blown to pieces.

8153604 Excellent question. Why hasn't Starlight figured out the truth, or part of the truth, by this point?

[dvdspires]

though every time I say him he kept telling

Saw.