It had been two months since Drek's defeat, and the restoration of the damaged planets, which went off without a hitch. However, the family of heroes had to deal with a sudden surge of fans wanting to meet them to the point that Veldin had been declared off-limits to tourism just so everyone could have some peace and quiet.
While the family had wanted to live quiet, peaceful lives after defeating Drek, at least for a while, they forgot that Drek was broadcasting the destruction of Veldin live...and as a result, their work defeating Drek and restoring dozens of planets across the galaxy was also broadcast live across Solana galaxy. As a result, they were literally the big names in the news for a full month afterward.
Lumos had suggested that actually making a few public appearances would go a long way toward giving them the peace and quiet they desired. They had thus attended several parades, feasts, festivals, and conventions held in their honor. Twilight had only particularly enjoyed the conventions, as she got to meet and talk with adults who could actually understand some of the technical concepts she brought up while Ben and Rainbow had particularly enjoyed showing off for all their new adoring fans.
Finally, much to all their relief, the furor had started to die down and they were able to relax again. Twilight had immediately gone to tinker with all the new toys they'd brought back from out in the galaxy while also helping Rainbow learn more about technology. Turns out, the hot-blooded pegasus girl learned best when the things she was learning were active in front of her and fun.
Pinkie's Party Cannon proved to be a massive hit with party planners everywhere and many had come to ask her to sign autographs, which she was all too happy to accept. Fluttershy had to deal with the power that came with being a celebrity, since twelve planets were now vegetarian due to her saying she didn't eat meat, and another twenty had gone vegan as a result of her unease at the sight of a whole-cooked lamb, both at the same feast held in the heroes' honor.
Rarity had set up a little company branch of Gadgetron catered to fashion and practicality of gadgets that could be worn on people's bodies such as armor, gloves, and boots. Needless to say, sales were rising high due to her eye-catching designs.
Applejack settled back into simple farming work at the little farm she made in the backyard of Grim's Garage, letting her sisters handle all the "Techno Huey" as she called it. She was glad to help with any new gadget testing, at least.
Lastly, Pinkie had wanted Clank to reunite with his mom and had asked Twilight to help find a way to bring her from Quartu. Since she was technically an AI running a now-defunct warbot manufacturing plant, Twilight needed to study Clank's basic composition to make a body suitable for his mom.
It was challenging work, as Twilight discovered Clank's inner workings had some strange chronotron energy built in. However, those same chronotrons were residing in his mother's AI, and thus, was able to figure out a way to transfer it to her new body.
Clank's Mom, affectionately named Ema by Fluttershy, was the same size as Clank but while his main body was square, hers was slender, like a 'T', giving her an appearance reminiscent of a curvaceous woman. Her metal was a shiny black and her eyes were purple.
While Clank had primarily bonded with Ratchet as a partner, Ema seemed to hit it off quite well with Hilda, praising her mothering skills in raising the Mane 6 and happily accepting the role as 'Great-Aunt' to the six young anthro equine girls.
As for the Blarg, since Drek's defeat and banishment, Twilight and Lumos had confronted them in a truce meeting, with Twilight explaining the simpler way they could find a new home to live in. As such, the Blarg agreed to the terms and signed a peace treaty promising not to harvest any more planets. The new Blarg Chairman was a rather ambitious scientist who was studying Telepathopus brains for a wide variety of purposes...mostly to find out who was stealing his lunch from the company fridge and get revenge on them but other than that, he was harmless and even offered his help to Gadgetron.
One morning, Twilight had quite a few surprises for everyone regarding the latest exploits of her tinkering. In fact, she and Rainbow were together since the latter actually managed to help with it.
"Wow...that's impressive." Ratchet whistled.
"Isn't it though?" Twilight asked excitedly, looking up at her creation.
"Yeah! And it's especially awesome since I helped make it!" Rainbow said proudly.
The device itself was rather simple, being a simple sphere of metal image projectors. However, when combined with the signal from a Pilot's Helmet and the included database and high-end processor, it expanded outward to generate a complete holographic display of anything the user could think of, complete with a full 360-degree view of the generated image, which could be interacted with physically, by thought command, or by voice or text-based commands.
Presently, it was displaying some tweaks to Rarity's latest armor design, as she was trying to figure out how to expand it for more impact reduction without reducing maneuverability. The posh unicorn girl had been thankful her alicorn sister had allowed her to use the armor she made on Hoven as a basis for her first designs.
"This thing is amazing!" Ratchet praised, looking at the device. "With this, anyone could do what you do when you cause a device to expose all its component parts, or at least a simulation of it!"
"Except without the massive strain you experience when you do so," Clank pointed out.
"That's what I was thinking of when I made it. I wanted to be able to experiment like that without massive mental fatigue, so I figured a simulation would take much less energy than the actual thing, especially with the processor taking most of the strain of the computations." Twilight explained. "And Rainbow kept bugging me to make one for her ever since the adventure."
"Oh, don't we know it." Ben chuckled before being handed a copy by Twilight.
"I made extras for you, Papa Ratchet, and Mama!"
"Sweet!" Ratchet said happily, taking it into his hands and holding it carefully.
"You spoil us, baby." Hilda cooed
"Can it project things other than technical designs?" Ema asked curiously.
"It can project anything you can imagine," Twilight explained. "But what else would you use it for?"
"Depending on the individual, there are any number of unsavory things the capacity to generate any image you can imagine could be turned to," Clank's Mom explained.
"About 90% of it would probably be porn, though, given the statistical nature of people," Ben pointed out.
"And I'm pretty sure only 3% of it is gonna be porn focused on big fat beautiful babes like yours truly," Hilda added.
"Please refrain from using the 'P' word around you're six-year-old daughters," Ema begged.
"I must agree with Mom on this one," Clank added.
"Well, it's a good thing I never planned to put this design on the market." Twilight shivered.
"Oh! Is the idea I sent you ready yet, Twilight?" Rarity asked.
Twilight nodded. "You bet, Rarity! Check this out, guys!"
Twilight then presented a pair of footwear that looked like a fusion of the Magneboots and Grind Boots, complete with a design only Rarity could come up with for both style and practicality.
"I call them the Magnegrindboots!" Twilight explained.
Rarity puffed her chest proudly. "After studying the Magneboots and Grind Boots, I was able to come up with a design that combined their functionalities into one and had Twilight work on the mechanics."
"Not only that, but the new design will actually allow the wearers to leap off of a surface they're magnetized to without losing their orientation, as long as they maintain a straight line between the bottom of the boots and the surface they're locked onto, so people can jump over obstacles while walking up a magnetized wall!" Twilight added.
"Hoo doggy!" Applejack whistled. "You sure know how to make fashion into fine gizmos, Rarity."
"What next? Redesign the Swingshot so it can lock onto another Swingshot so we can pull ourselves up somewhere after someone else?" Pinkie asked excitedly.
Twilight shook her head. "That won't work as long as the Swingshot uses a physical cable and hook. However, I hear the next model will be using an energy cable! It's still in the very early stages of development, but when it comes out I'll see if I can manage that!"
"YEEEEES!" Pinkie cheered as she literally bounced off the walls in joy.
"That was actually quite smart of Pinkamena to ask," Ema noted. "From what you've all told me of your adventure in stopping Drek, a lot of obstacles would have been easier if the less-flight-inclined members of our little family were able to latch onto and pull themselves to others from afar."
"And how goes converting the RYNO to energy-based ammunition?" Clank asked Twilight.
"Already completed in theory," Twilight replied eagerly, calling up the design in question on her simulator. "I've already sent the design to Mr. Lumos so he can see how to produce it cost-effectively."
"He flat-out vetoed the energy collector for rearmament on commercial models, though. Apparently, that makes it too dangerous to sell, as the one thing holding someone back from marching into a world with a RYNO model and obliterating everything is the cost of the weapon and its ammunition." Rainbow added.
"I think he had the right idea. If ammunition is suddenly free..." Fluttershy shivered fearfully at the mere thought.
Much later, when Grim and both Ben and Hilda's parents had gone shopping to get food for dinner, Ben was busy sitting in his room, writing up ideas on paper.
"Benjamin?"
"Buh!" Ben gasped in surprise before turning to see Ema approaching. "What are you doing here, Mrs. Clank's Mom?"
"Please, call me Ema. And I'm curious as to what you're working on."
"Well, Ratchet's been coming up with a fancy suit for flight purposes and Clank has been helping him out on that. I just want to make...I dunno, a super badass suit that maybe Rarity could sink her teeth into."
"Are you planning for the suit to have any practical uses?"
"Oh yeah!" Ben smirked as he showed some of the ideas he wrote down. "Self-replenishing Nanotech shielding, storage space tech to store even the biggest and heaviest of guns without weighing anything, and built-in combat scanners to plan out the best courses of attack on hostiles."
"Those are all very good ideas," Ema noted. "What seems to be the problem?"
"Well, you know me; I'm not technologically inclined like Ratchet, Twilight, or even Rainbow! All I can do is come up with ideas and see if I can pitch them..."
"Whatever it is, I'm sure they will appreciate your efforts," Ema reassured. "Be sure to get ready for dinner later, okay? And don't overwork yourself."
"Yes, Mrs. Cl-I mean, Ema."
Ema let out a chuckle much like her son's, only this was more feminine in tone.
A nice little interlude chapter before we start the Going Commando Saga!
And yes, Clank's Mom is now part of the main cast. I bet no other fanfic has done that before! Her name, Ema, comes from an ancient Estonian word that means "mother" or "queen bee".