Chapter 113 – We're Not Friends

"So?" Tusks said, catching everyone's attention again, "You all know your assignments?" he asked.

"Yes, Coach!" he got his team to respond together with Pinkie Pie jumping into the air in excitement.

"Good, now let's get to work. We've got a race to {snort} win." he said, and his entire team cheered with excitement and pride, right before everyone basically ran into the garage while the conference call ended.

"Hold up, Rainbow Dash." Ssalikka said, getting only the pegasus to stop, "I get that we need to work together on this. To keep not just your world, but mine and the whole system safe from whatever demand Kkelmar or Kklesstic have in mind, but I wanted you to know something." Rainbow Dash turned to the screen, ears up and listening, "This doesn't make us friends."

"But it does make us Rivals!" Rainbow jabbed back in her own words, "See you on the race track."

Ssalikka watched as the pony walked away, confident in her own words as she disappeared from view. "How'd she do that?" the Sunik girl asked, only to have Honor appear back on the call and type.

"It is because she is special." his words spelled, "She and her confident nature are what will unify this system. Those ponies have the purest concept of living that I or anyone has ever seen."

"Hey, you didn't say 'anypony'." she said with a sly smile.

"Typing makes it easier to find and correct little things like that." he wrote, "Though I could continue the trend in this format if you like."

Her smile faltered into a playful frown, "Please don't." was all she said, and she could see his shoulders shake in his laughter. "Thank you." she said solemnly, "I almost thought I was alone when Kkelmar revealed his brutality. I'll keep him from winning, but I'm not going to just roll over."

"I too expect your best during the race." he said, "Perhaps in the heat of the race, the two of us can become friends, or even satisfy that one on one. I have yet to fulfill that challenge." He smiled a soft yet cheeky smile, and the screen turned blank, her call officially ended.

"Yeah, maybe." she said to herself.

"Oh my Egas…" she heard from behind her. She turned to find her coach standing there by himself with his mouth open, "You like him!"

"SH…" she began and felt her cheeks turn red, "…shut it!"

Back in Tusk's garage, the team of ponies and aliens continued their work, Blade secretly stepping on drones as he discovered them, hiding them behind accidents and happenstance so the Emperor's Chosen wouldn't become suspicious of him. A well-aimed part falling or being tossed onto it, his hoof unknowingly stepping on one, every time he saw one, he'd come up with some clever way of dealing with it. 'He'll get suspicious in time, but hopefully, I'm able to take out as many drones as I can first.' he thought to himself before placing his right front hoof to his chin, 'Although, I suppose we could use the parts for something.'

"Hey, Blade?" he heard Writch call out. The call got his attention, his unwavering scowl turning to the Treeopon up on the racer, "I just got some info about the possible race tracks we might use. I was gonna readjust the Rainbow Trail Mk. 3 for all the possibilities. Wanna help?"

Blade walked up to her, flapping his wings to meet her at the top, "What do we got?" he asked.

"Some of the tracks go underwater, so I was hoping to refit the Mark 3 with headlights and a pressure seal." she explained.

The pegasus shifted his eyes back and forth, spying a few more drones along the walls, 'This information would have been better off a secret, but nothing I can do now.' he thought to himself and focused on Writch, "We were planning on making it space worthy anyway, would it be a problem if we make it switch from deep sea to deep space by inverting the pressure cabin sensor?"

"I got one better for ya." she said and brought up a set of schematics from her data stick, "What if we separate the chamber in such a way that a vacuum and pressure buildup can be separate from the cockpit?"

"Keeping the ship's pilot seat and inner workings safe from the atmosphere of whatever we want." he finished, "But it's going to reduce the amount of space the cockpit has to work with."

"With the way our Star Drive is designed, I think we'll be fine." she said with confidence.

"The oxygen tank we were planning on using needs to be bigger." he mentioned as he looked the ship over.

"Remember that big ship we got the B-336 from?" she suddenly asked, catching his attention, "Well, turns out Applejack and Twiggs pulled the life support system from it, we could retrofit it for the Mark 3."

"Why didn't they tell us about this?" he asked.

"It was originally for a deal back on Bacromus, but the buyer tried to stiff Pinkie and Piks for half the agreed amount." Writch told him. Blade winced at the thought, "Yeah I know, they were gentle but they ruined any business he could ever perform."

"So they didn't attack him…they attacked his business." he said as he tried to think what they could have done.

"Yeah, the guy will have a hard time recovering." she chuckled.

"Knowing Pinkie Pie, I feel sorry for him, but it gives me an idea of how to use them." he said.

"Care to share?" she asked after he hadn't said anything for a few seconds.

"Not yet, I'm still ironing out the details." he said, mostly to keep the drones from hearing him, "I'll let you know when I get to that point, shouldn't take too long." He then turned his sords inward, 'I'm not getting rid of them fast enough.' he thought to himself, 'I'm gonna need help, but how…' he then scanned the garage for a plan, his eyes landing on Image as he did, '…of course.' he finally admitted, 'Even I should learn from Image's friendship lesson, and Image is probably the best way to warn the rest of the team.' With that, he focused on contacting the Meltackian.

"Because of your conduct, we've had to explain more rumors to the Emperor." Kkeltiss growled as the three Chosen chatted on the coms. Kkeltiss and Lesstar both glared at the bruit as he sat there on his throne, a lax position, and a bloodthirsty grin on his face.

"Oh, they're not all rumors, per say." Kkelmar said with a grin.

"Oh, we know." Lesstar groaned, "You're massacre of the Hylop tribe was a terrible bother to suppress."

"You were never told to kill anyone." Kkeltiss said.

"I KILL FOR OUR FUTURE!" Kkelmar said suddenly, lifting himself from his seat.

"You kill when we tell you to." the sickly Treasure Keeper corrected calmly and started coughing for a short while, "You were made the Law Keeper by the two of us, and we can just as easily strip you of your power and toss you out into the midday sun." His coughing only worsened after this.

"Do not step out of your lane again." Lesstar added, "With our drones dwindling we're losing our advantage. Having you turn an entire planet against us because you can't be patient will not be tolerated. Understood?"

Kkelmar growled his displeasure, "Understood." he moaned in anger. The moment the screen went black, he fell back into his throne, slouched, and groaned.

"You shouldn't sit like that." a voice called from his console, "Bad posture will lead to a weak back."

"What do you want, Kklesstic?" the Sunik man asked.

The Sunik scientist appeared on the screen, a grin on his face and an air of confidence to his disposition, "Just wanted to know how the meeting with the other Chosen went."

"I'm assuming that you hacked into the feed several hours ago, so you know how it went." Kkelmar said, "So you know I'm not in the mood for small talk, what do you want?"

"How about a deal?" Kklesstic asked tauntingly.

"What kind of deal?" the Law Keeper asked.

"One that helps you get revenge on that Hok-Sai." the sly Sunik said in response, "All that I ask is that you help me get even with that pony, Twilight Sparkle."

"I'm listening…" Kkelmar said as his malicious smile returned.