Twilight was bored.

Ratchet had headed out to hunt more Horned Toads and Thunder Soldiers wandering around to earn some more bolts so he could pay for the next shipment of holo-books from Gadgetron. The reason they needed more holo-books was because Twilight had already read through all those Ratchet had, including the instruction manuals. While Ratchet had tried to suggest she reread some books or even play some video games, she had thrown a hissy fit. She wanted more books. Ratchet had agreed, but had to go out and earn more bolts to pay for it.

Twilight had tried to pass the time in other ways. She'd tried playing pretend with her Captain Quark plushy, but there were only so many times she could enjoy punching out Dr. Nefarious' latest super weapon - represented by anything from pieces of fruit and vegetable to a holo-book to a chair - before she realized that playing pretend about Captain Quark was depressingly linear. Unfortunately, she couldn't find anything to pretend to be a dragon for Captain Quark to tame and ride, and beyond that it wasn't canon to his adventure stories.

She'd tried playing video games, but hadn't enjoyed herself. She couldn't manipulate the controller with her hooves, and manipulating it directly with her telekinesis took ninety percent of the challenge out, since she was able to react with her brain faster and more accurately than anyone else could react with their fingers. And Ratchet's interest in games leaned very strongly towards action and explosions, while Twilight's interests lay heavily in the story. Since she hadn't actually vocalized that to Ratchet yet, they didn't have any RPGs. And her favorites of the games they had were the multiplayers, and that was because she enjoyed playing with Ratchet.

She wasn't hungry, so she couldn't ease her boredom with stuffing her face. Her attempt at taming a Horned Toad as a pet had backfired horribly, as had her attempt to reprogram a Thunder Soldier as a butler/bodyguard. Those two had actually happened at the same time, though she denied any chance the two events were related. Even Spells of the Unicorn had lost her interest after she had mastered everything it had to offer.

In desperation, she grabbed the Gadgetron Uplink and started browsing. Maybe she'd find something on their main site that could interest her. Although she had just finished browsing everything on the site earlier that day - finishing that had led to the hissy fit - there was always the chance there was something new to look at now.

As she browsed, ignoring everything she'd already seen, she saw something interesting. It was labeled, "New Products in Testing". Curiously, she selected the hyperlink.

The screen responded. "Restricted Access: Input your password to access."

Twilight blinked in confusion. "...Please?" she asked finally.

"Password accepted."

As the screen loaded, Twilight gasped. "Wow. Daddy was right about that being the magic word!" She began scrolling through the products that were still in testing and development, marveling at the technology. However, when she reached one, she noticed something odd in the schematics. "...that can't be right..." She grabbed the help desk uplink.

"This is the Gadgetron Help Desk," the voice immediately spoke up. "How can we assist you today, valued customer?"

"Can you connect me to the work phone of Doctor Splodeya?" she asked. "Please?"

"Of course, Twilight," the voice replied. "One moment."

Twilight smiled. For some reason, the lady at the help desk had a soft spot for her, and always called her by name.

When the line came back, a heavily accented female Russian voice spoke. "This is Doctor Splodeya. What do you want?"

"Hi, I was calling about your Lightning Arc weapon," Twilight explained.

"It's still in development," she replied. "It will be ready in-"

"By any chance, is the problem in development because you keep getting a cascade failure in the proton flux chamber, resulting in the prototype exploding and releasing an EMP, which coincidentally erases any data you've managed to gather from the tests on your computers?"

There was silence for a time. "D...da. But I am thinking maybe turn it to an advantage by making it into EMP grenades, so I might still do well on employee review."

"Have you considered inverting the charge in the proton collection chamber to apply a negative charge to the protons so they repulse the connected electrons?" Twilight offered.

The voice was silent again. "That...that would stop the cascade failure issue...but then the energized protons go out back of chamber-"

"And if you feed the exhaust port back into the energizing chamber, the resulting electrical discharge will be twice as destructive, more controllable, as well as damage nearby targets instead of just what was shot. It would also increase ammo storage, and at only a 10% increase in production costs," Twilight pointed out happily.

"I...I...I..." There was the sound of someone slapping their cheeks. "That is genius! Who are you?"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle," Twilight replied.

"No, I mean are you new development team? New boss?"

"Oh, I don't work for Gadgetron," Twilight said quickly. "My Dad's a customer."

"You don't?" Dr. Splodeya asked, shocked. "Why not?"

"Well...I'm only three and a half years old."

"But...then how did you get access to the In-Development pages?"

"I said please?" Twilight offered.

After a few moments, the doctor's laugh echoed over the speaker. "Tell you what, Twilight. If you can get your parent or guardian to sign off on it, I'll grease the wheels and paperwork so you can have regular access to the in-development projects, or even submit your own. How does that sound?"

Twilight grinned widely. "Sounds like I'll never be bored again!" she said happily.

"I'll message the papers over. Get your parent or guardian's electronic signature, and then I can put your name down as a consultant on this project and send the completed design up the chain."

"Yay!" Twilight cheered happily, clapping with her forehooves. "Thank you, Dr. Splodeya!"

"Please, call me Ivanna," the doctor replied.

Twilight blinked for a bit. "Your name's...Ivanna Splodeya?"

"My mother Gonna was so pleased to marry into the family, she named all of us as jokes."

Twilight blinked. "What could her last name have been before that was so terrible?"

"Rhea. I'll send the paperwork right over. Hope to consult again Twilight."

"Okay, Ivanna!" she replied happily as the call ended. As the papers arrived electronically, she tilted her head. "Gonna...Rhea? I don't get it..."

An hour later, when Ratchet made it back, Twilight bounced over to him. "Daddy!" she said happily. "You're back!"

Ratchet kneeled down to pet her. "I was only gone two hours," he pointed out.

"It felt like forever!" she said plaintively. "Can I make things explode for a living?"

Ratchet chuckled. "If you can get that as a job, sure. And maybe sign me up."

"Sign here!" she replied, holding up the tablet with the paperwork on it.

Blinking, Ratchet looked it over. "Let's see...10% royalties on all sales of original inventions...5% on all sales of products consulted on...10% off all Gadgetron purchases...exclusive distribution...comes with Hunter's Guild License...selection of product testers..." His eyes lit up. "Hey! You can choose who they send the prototypes to to test out the inventions you make for them!"

"I pick my Daddy!" she said happily.

Ratchet grinned widely. "Well, type that in here," he directed, pointing to where it needed to be filled in. Once Twilight filled it in, he scrolled down further. "...can be renegotiated at 18 when the undersigned comes of age...standard non-compete clause...yup, looks like everything's in order." Scrolling to the bottom, he signed it. "There you go, Twilight. You're now an official Gadgetron independent technical consultant."

"Yay!" Twilight cheered, bouncing up and down. "I'm gonna make things explode! I'm gonna make things explode!"

"Actually, you're going to make things that make things explode," Ratchet pointed out. "I'm the one who gets to make things explode."

Twilight stopped, blinking in confusion. "...I get to make Daddy?"

Ratchet chuckled. "No, you get to make Daddy look awesome!"

Twilight squeed happily, bouncing into Ratchet's arms for a big hug.