As the gang hopped out of their ship on Planet Aridia, Ratchet once again checked the Help Desk minimap.
"Alright, it looks like we've got...two civilians located in different locations, and a tower that might have something useful in it."
"Someone help me!"
Hearing the familiar voice, everyone looked to see Skidd hiding behind some rocks, obviously trying to avoid the Blarg who were no doubt patrolling Aridia looking for him.
"Hey, it's Skidd!" Rainbow excitedly said as she flew over. "Skidd! We're here to rescue you!"
"Oh man, am I glad you showed up! I've been out here all night!"
"No way, SKIDD MCMARX!" Rainbow excitedly said, her wings flapping. "Ohmigoshohmigoshohmigosh! I have seen EVERY one of your races! You pulled a Triple Nova Spin at Mach 2 at last year's Kerwan Cup!"
Skidd smiled. "Always nice to meet a fan, little dudette!"
"It's nice to meet you in person, Mr. McMarx," Twilight said as she and the rest of the Mane 6 came over. "We found your Infobot and came to help."
"Phew! What a relief! My agent and I have been running from those Blarg all night, only we ended up getting separated in the chaos and I took a gnarly fall getting out o the McMarx Sports Shack."
"Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked.
"I'll be fine, but there's no way I'll make it back to my ship with all those Sand Sharks lurking around."
"Hey, Dads! Mom! We're gonna help Skidd McMarx!" Rainbow called out to Ratchet, Ben, and Hilda. "You guys find his agent and that cool object in the tower!"
"Will do!" Ben saluted as the three and Clank headed off.
"Thanks for the save, little dudettes." Skidd smiled gratefully. "If you can help me get back to my ship, I'll give you my spare hoverboard!"
Skidd presented the hoverboard in question and Rainbow's pupils nearly encompassed her eyes in awe.
"Whoa! A real McMarx Z4000! You can't even buy them yet!"
"Ooooh! You've got a deal, mister!" Pinkie beamed.
"Well, might as well do a little pest controlling..." Applejack said as she readied her Pyrocitor.
"Oh my..." Fluttershy worriedly said. "I hope we don't cause those poor creatures so much pain..."
The Mane 6 helped guide Skidd to where his ship was, taking out any Sand Sharks that got in the way. Rarity took a moment to complain when she got some mud on her but that was brushed aside when she had to blow up a Sand Shark Pod with her Bomb Glove that was rapidly spawning more of the little beasts.
Rainbow, wanting to impress Skidd, showed off all sorts of aerial tricks and maneuvers, even pounding the Sand Sharks with her Omniwrench for good measure. Soon, they managed to make it to Skidd's ship.
"That was pretty awesome! Thanks for your help!" Skidd said as he gave the hoverboard to Rainbow. "Here's your hoverboard, as promised!"
During the time making it to the ship, Skidd had autographed the hoverboard, which Rainbow read as she was handed it over.
"'To Rainbow Dash, the awesomest little dudette I've ever hung out with on a hostile alien planet!'" The pegasus girl nearly fainted from sheer exhalation. "So...AWESOME..."
"Will you be able to get home on your own, Skidd?" Twilight asked.
"I'll be okay, but I don't think I'll be able to compete in the Blackwater City Hoverboard Competition," Skidd said, sighing. "Kind of a bummer."
"Hey, maybe I'll be able to race for you!" Rainbow suggested.
"You sure, little dudette? Don't know if they take kids your age."
"I'll be fine! I'm the awesomest flyer around and I'm sure I can ride a hoverboard just as well!"
"Okay then, I'm rooting for ya!" Skidd smiled, giving a thumbs-up.
"And afterward, I'll throw a 'We Got To Meet One Of Our Idols' party!" Pinkie beamed.
Ratchet, Clank, Ben, and Hilda had managed to climb the tower to find a Trespasser, which could help them bypass Invinco-Locks. Hilda was a little worried as she checked her holo-phone.
"You okay, babe?" Ben asked.
"Just finished sending a message to the girls to meet us at the second beacon," Hilda said before realizing something. "Wait...did you just call me 'babe'?"
"Uhhhh...M-Maybe?"
Hilda smirked, her chubby but gorgeous face beaming brightly as Ben blushed at the sight, Ratchet smirking while Clank gave off a playful chuckle.
"Mommy! Daddys! Clank!" Pinkie cheered as she bounced over, having arrived at the second beacon with the rest of the Mane 6. "We got an autograph from Skidd!"
"That's amazing, sweetie!" Hilda beamed, seeing just how happy Rainbow was in particular.
"Gah! No signal whatsoever! This downtime is killing me!"
Hearing the annoyed voice, everyone looked to see who they presumed was Skidd's agent, who was pacing back and forth while trying to get reception on his holo-phone.
"Do you need medical attention, sir?" Clank asked as he came over.
"Don't be so literal, son! The problem is I'm stranded on this backwater planet and my star client is nowhere to be found!" The Agent said.
"We just rescued Skidd!" Rainbow said. "And he gave us a spare hoverboard as thanks!"
"Oh, he's alright? That's good to hear." The agent said in relief before looking Rainbow over. "Say, you look like an athletic kid. If you can bring back the championship prize from the hoverboard races in Blackwater City, I'll make you my next star!"
Rainbow gasped. "You want ME to be the next Skidd McMarx?!"
"Yup! I'm always on the lookout for new talent. Course, I can't promote a novice, so you'll need to have at least one victory under your belt. Bring me the trophy from winning the Blackwater City Hoverboard Competition, and I'll sign you right away."
"We have no time for trivial matters, sir," Clank said but Ratchet nudged him.
"Clank, if we get coordinates to Blackwater City, it'll be because there's trouble there, likely connected to what Drek is up to. If we end up there anyway..."
Clank sighed. "A valid point."
Rainbow Dash, for her part, had outright fainted in excitement, the rest of the Mane 6 trying to fan her back to consciousness.
After reuniting Skidd and his agent, the gang took off to Planet Eudora since they had no other leads to follow, least of all coordinates to Blackwater City. Landing, they saw that the 'harvesting' of the planet's trees was well underway...and at this point, the robots had ceased collecting and now seemed to be focused on simple destruction.
"Okay, I think this time we'd better stick together."
"Alright, Daddy," Twilight said calmly, seizing a nearby harvest robot in her telekinesis and slamming it repeatedly into another until they both exploded.
"Must you be so uncouth, Twilight?" Rarity huffed as she grabbed another robot in her own telekinesis and threw it over the cliff. "Simple and efficient, that's how it should be done."
There was a nearby bolt crank and Ratchet had used his Omniwrench to attach to it and turn it around by walking in circles, lifting up a nearby bridge while Fluttershy had gone to the nearby Gadgetron Vendor to get some Agents of Doom gloves, which she had actually suggested as a weapon idea for those who needed help when in trouble.
"Say, Daddy, why does this work?" Pinkie asked. "I mean, who'd put this here, anyway?"
"Well, according to Gadgetron Help Desk, bolt cranks like this are designed to interact with things like the Omniwrench," Ratchet explained.
"But only the seven of us have Omniwrenches and Twilight made ours by duplicating yours. So why in the hay would systems be designed for interface with tools nobody has?" Applejack questioned.
Ratchet opened his mouth to answer but had none. Ben and Hilda looked at each other, just as clearly stumped as their Lombax best friend.
"Much of the construction technology available to the galaxy is based on the initial reverse engineering of Lombax tech," Clank spoke up. "Aside from those facilities which are old Lombax constructions left abandoned and adapted for later residents. The Omniwrench, obviously, is a Lombax tool, so it makes sense that various other tech is designed to interface with them."
"Huh...Neat." Rainbow said casually. "Didn't know Dad's people were famous in this galaxy."
"Then how come we haven't seen any?" Fluttershy asked.
"Shhhh! Spoilers!" Pinkie shushed, putting a hand over her pegasus sister's mouth.
After a while of exploring along the main path, they eventually came across a new weapon.
"The Suck Cannon; Apparently, it can suck up enemies and fire them as high-caliber missiles...but only if they're small enough to fit in the barrel of the Cannon." Ratchet read off the Gadgetron Uplink.
"It sounds a great deal like what Twilight generally uses her telekinesis for in combat, except...more limited." Clank pointed out.
"The name's appropriate then. This Suck Cannon really...sucks." Hilda admitted.
"I wouldn't be so sure!" Pinkie smiled as she took the Suck Cannon before pulling out several tools out of her mane. "Alright, here goes nothing!"
Everyone watched in fascination as Pinkie began taking apart and rebuilding the Suck Cannon into something larger and more robust, as well as giving it a light blue paintjob. When she was finished, she raised the new weapon into the air.
"Ta-Da!"
"What is it?" Ben asked.
"I call it...THE PARTY CANNON!"
"Party Cannon?"
"Yeah! It'll set up parties in minutes for those underprepared or whenever I'm not available! Think I can send this to Gadgetron, Twilight?"
Twilight rubbed her chin. "Well, it's not the worst idea ever. I'll see what I can do, okay!"
Pinkie beamed. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! This will revolutionize parties throughout the whole galaxy!"
"Well, at least this trip wasn't a total waste." Hilda chuckled.
Coming to the end of the looping path back to the ship, the group headed forward to a door protected by a Gadgetron Invinco-Lock, which the new Trespasser Ratchet, Hilda, and Ben got on Aridia was designed to interface with and unlock.
"Hang on a minute!" Twilight complained. "So Gadgetron makes these Invinco-Locks, which are supposed to be unbreakable except with the key the lock comes with, right?"
Clank nodded. "That is correct."
"And then they come out with the Trespasser, which is specifically designed to interface with any Invinco-lock and bypass them?"
"That is also correct."
"Then how are they still selling Invinco-Locks?"
Clank opened his mouth to answer, his hand lifted to make a point but he found himself completely stumped.
"...That is a very good question."
"Because their customers for the locks are impressionable idiots who fall for carefully designed marketing schemes?" Ratchet suggested as he finished opening the lock.
"Sounds like it makes sense to me!" Ben smirked. "Typical scammers..."
Eventually, after clearing many widely spaced platform jumps, the group encountered the Lieutenant they had seen in the original Infobot transmission. He stepped forward as though to attack, but as soon as he saw how much force was readily arrayed against him, he quickly ran for it, leaving an Infobot behind.
"Why didn't we capture him?" Rainbow asked.
"Because we don't know anything about interrogation," Ratchet pointed out. "Besides, the Infobot should provide all we need."
Everyone looked at the Infobot to see it was an infomercial made by Chairman Drek.
"Is your current occupation leaving a rotten taste in your mouth? Then you need to know about BTS; Blarg Tactical Research Station." Drek was then shown walking in. "Hi, I'm Supreme Executive Chairman Drek, and we here at BTS are seeking motivated individuals to fill positions in these exciting careers."
It then showed various scientists testing out gadgets and tools...to mixed results.
"Grindboot tester, warhead assembly technician, mutant animal husbandry, robot repairman, Suck Cannon test dummy, administrative assistant. Call BTS! Build our weapons while you build your future!"
"I'm calling BTS today!" A scientist said.
Twilight grinned. "I bet I could figure out how to make all sorts of new tools to help us fight them if we went there. Not to mention I could figure out how their tech works and find a way to combat it."
"Now you're talking, Twilight!" Ratchet smirked.
Clank frowned. "We don't really have time for side trips-"
"We don't exactly have any other leads to follow," Hilda pointed out.
"Besides, we can talk to the scientists and they might be able to tell us where to find Drek!" Pinkie added.
"Oh, very well..." Clank sighed as he collected the Infobot, downloading the coordinates for the Blar Tactical Research Station.
"And maybe we'll find coordinates to Blackwater City!" Rainbow grinned. "That way, I'll be able to test out my new hoverboard!"
"Settle down, Dashie."
Figured it'd make sense to combine Aridia and Eudora together since there's not much going on for either of them.