Samus flew away from Bryyo a bit before she stopped the ship, letting Sweetie Belle have a good view of the planet from space, seeing for the first time strange threads of... gas? Seemingly escaping the planet at the lest and the right without visible reason.
"Too bad the planet is mostly wastelands now. I'm sure that it was beautiful back in its prime," the filly commented from the window of the cockpit. "So, one Leviathan down and one planet saved. Next up is Elysia, right?"
"Yes," Samus simply answered as she looked at her hand.
"Are you sure you are alright?"
"Let me do a body-scan first, and then I will answer you."
She didn't get the occasion however. The hologram of some mechanical thing looking like a brain appeared before her before it began to talk in a feminine, monotone voice.
Sweetie Belle assumed that it was the Aurora Unit who contacted Samus. She never heard it, but it wasn't hard to guess given the description Samus gave previously. The filly placed herself at the right of the Hunter to better focus on what the supercompurer was saying.
"Bryyo is now saved from further Phazon corruption. Thank you, Samus."
Samus gave a nod to this.
"Your next objective will be Elysia," the AU continued as the hologram shifted to show the planet in question and some information about it. "Though Ghor is stationed there, the Leviathan's Phazon contamination is still spreading."
It wasn't hard to guess why...
"The impact point is hidden deep within the storm clouds of this planet. You will not be able to reach its location." The hologram shifted back to the AU. "Instead, you may land near an automated research facility floating high above the surface, where GF Aurora Unit 217 is stationed. Unit 217 has been infected by the corruption virus and is currently offline. I have uploaded a program to your suit that will purge any traces of corruption in the AU and restore its functionality." As the AU talked, the hologram shifted to show Samus' Suit before shifting back to the AU. "Once Unit 217 has been restored, it will help us find a way to destroy the Leviathan."
Or Sweetie could simply fly through the clouds, but where would be the fun in this? Beside, the AU needed to be saved, and they needed to find Ghor.
Speaking of Ghor, the hologram shifted to show the Hunter in question as the AU began to talk about him.
"We are concerned about Ghor ever since he lost contact with us. We hope he is safe..."
"Actually!" Sweetie Belle interrupted as she jumped on Samus' lap to face the hologram as it shifted back to the AU. "Sorry. I'm Sweetie Belle. I'm helping Samus in dealing with the Leviathans and the pirates. And, well... It seems that you haven't seen what happened with Rundas. He fell victim to the corruption of the Phazon within him. Probably his Phazon overloaded like happened with Samus and he eventually wasn't able to stop it from turning him against us. But the thing is that we found him and we had to fight him, and it turned out that he became a puppet of Dark Samus who controlled him. Then, when we won the fight and almost knocked him out, he seemed to recover his senses only for Dark Samus to kill him before absorbing him. I fear that something similar happened to Ghor and... Gandrayda, was it? I don't think they are dead yet, but Dark Samus must now be using them to do whatever. And unless we find a way to get them rid of the Phazon Seed in them, they are as good as dead."
"This is very bad news that you are giving us, Sweetie Belle. We will try to find a solution. Losing Rundas is already a tragedy, we will do everything to avoid that this repeats with Ghor and Gandrayda, and also you, Samus. If this happened to Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda, this could also happen to you. This must not happen."
"You will have to hurry up. When we defeated the Guardian of the Bryyo Seed, it released a huge quantity of Phazon, some of which got absorbed by Samus. It caused a bad reaction within her, and if this repeats with the Guardian protecting the Elysian Seed, then I fear that it will be only a matter of days, if not hours, before Samus ends like the others."
Following this, the AU remained silent a few seconds before it said, "Readings confirm that Samus' Phazon level rose to 25% where it was just 10% before, and the seed seems to have grown a little. Removing the seed becomes a priority, but the mission can't be postponed. We will have to wait until the mission is over before we will be able to try to surgically remove the seed, hoping that it won't be too late by then. There may be a solution, but this is just a theory. The seeds within you, Samus, and the others coming from Dark Samus, it may be possible that killing her will destroy them and remove the corruption. It has indeed been observed that each time that we destroy a source of Phazon, then all the Phazon originating from said source eventually disappears. Phazon is like a tree, spreading into smaller and smaller branches. Cut a big branch, and all the smaller branches coming from it fall with it. Dark Samus is currently one of these big branches."
"Wait a minute. If we use that figure, then that tree must have a trunk, right? Then what if we find that trunk... and destroy it?" Samus proposed.
"Then all Phazon in the universe will disappear," Sweetie Belle concluded excitedly. "But we will need to find that source first, and it will be like searching a needle in a haystack."
"Actually, it will be possible to find the epicenter of the Leviathan attacks given enough time. While it is a possibility that this won't be the source of all Phazon in the universe, it is very probable that this is where you will find Dark Samus, and destroying it will rid us of our current Phazon problem. Many will certainly be upset at the disappearance of Phazon, including at the top of the Federation. Phazon revealed to be a great source of energy that could help the Federation reach new horizons as proven with the PED technology. But Phazon is too dangerous to remain, it has caused too much damage, so for the better of the Federation, and the galaxy, and the universe, it must disappear once and for all."
Sweetie Belle and Samus both nodded, the filly saying, "We all agree on this. Oh, one last thing. Once this is over, I would like to talk with the leader of the Federation if this is possible."
"I will transmit your demand. Good luck, you two."
The hologram disappeared.
Samus looked down at the filly still on her lap. "Why do you want to see the chairman? To integrate your people to the Federation? Wouldn't it be better to send a diplomat?"
Sweetie Belle gave Samus a knowing smile. "I have a very good relationship with many leaders of my homeworld and they trust me to make a good first impression." Her expression then turned more serious. "But no, I'm not here to make my people join the Federation. I'm more of a messenger, bearer of bad news."
"What bad news?"
"One thing at a time. I will tell everything once we have dealt with Dark Samus, the Space Pirates, and the Phazon, at the chairman's office. You should come, you will want to hear this."
"Very well," Samus said with a sigh.
From space, Elysia's colors were the same than Bryyo's orange and brown. The difference here was that where on Bryyo, the colors were the ones of the surface, the wastelands, Elysia's were the ones of the clouds that covered the surface. Elysia, indeed, had a very dense atmosphere with storm clouds that would make hurricanes look like simple downpours in comparison, all over the planet. That was why Samus couldn't hope to reach the surface just like that with her ship, it would be suicidal. Her ship, as advanced as it was, wouldn't resist long in such intense storms with winds going at several hundreds of miles per hour and lightning striking from all directions at all moments. At least, the upper atmosphere where their destination was was less intense than the part right above the surface, so they could enter it.
Upon entering the atmosphere, it didn't take long to find the Leviathan. Its size made it protrude from the clouds, and like the one of Bryyo, it had a shield, and in that mess of clouds, no doubt that finding the generators will be another story than on Bryyo. At least, the shield was keeping the clouds away from it, making it look like the Leviathan was at the eye of a storm which made it even more visible.
Not far of the Leviathan was their destination, the floating city and research center named SkyTown. Samus revealed to Sweetie Belle that SkyTown was originally built by the Chozo to research deep-space. At some point, the Chozo left, leaving behind the sapient robots they had created to maintain the station, the Elysians. Then, fifteen years ago, the Federation found the station and, after doing a treaty with the Elysians, made the station part of it, using it to do researches with the help of the Elysian. However, because of the atmosphere too harsh for the humans that comprised most of the Federation, they installed an Aurora Unit and left.
SkyTown itself was a network of floating pods. Nothing more, nothing less.
Sweetie Belle was still amazed by it.
Already, she could see supply drones flying around, transporting crates to the various areas of the station.
"You know, Samus, I went through lots of adventures and explored many areas, from grasslands to volcanoes passing by deserts, futuristic cities, and even space, but this is the first time that I will explore a city floating above clouds, even if that city is just a vast research station. It's beautiful. I can't wait to meet the Elysians. You know, I am friend with a whole people of sapient robots."
"Also made by that advanced civilization you told me about?" Samus asked as she landed her ship on a landing pad, just in front of a giant statue of the head of a Chozo that had glowing green eyes.
"Not at all. they were made by another, much less advanced civilization. Heck, the robots weren't even sapient at first. They were just maintenance robots. They developed sapience after decades of loneliness after their creators left the planet because of a nuclear winter, and even then, when I discovered them, I had to give them a new life purpose than waiting for masters that would never return while cleaning up their abandoned houses," Sweetie Belle recounted as she and Samus left the later's ship. "And now that you bring it up, I never actually encountered a sapient machine created by that advanced civilization. My ship isn't sapient. The most powerful supercomputer they ever made wasn't sapient until it absorbed the soul of its user..."
"What?"
By this point, Sweetie Belle was lost in her thoughts.
"And even the planet-sized, reality-bending, wish-granting machines, their greatest creations, weren't really sapient."
"What?!"
"Maybe that guard robot? Nah, it was very smart, like the Lor, but not sapient at all. It just guarded the city following its protocol. No, I really never encountered any actual sapient machine made by the Ancients. That's very strange, for such an advanced civilization. Maybe they never bothered? Or maybe they created sapient machines but something went wrong and they stopped, like the machines deciding to revolt?"
Samus snapped her fingers in front of Sweetie Belle. "Elysia to Sweetie Belle! Come back to us!"
This brought the filly out of her thoughts. "Oh! Sorry. You made me think of something about the Ancients that I never thought about until now."
"The Ancients... That's the name of that civilization?"
"Yep. Or that's the one we have given to them. If the Ancients had an actual name, it has been lost to time. Their civilization ended long, long, long ago. And as you may have guessed, I developed some kind of passion for them. They indirectly played a big role in my life, you see. My ship, the Lor Starcutter, is only one example."
"You talked about planet-sized, reality-bending, wish-granting machines. Were they THAT advanced?"
"Oh, you have no idea. If they had wanted, they could have conquered countless universes. I'm not joking. They could travel to other universes and they even created one with the help of a real God."
"But something went wrong..." Samus guessed. Or else, that civilization wouldn't be gone as Sweetie Belle said.
"Something pretty similar to what happened to the Bryyonians actually. A civil war between the techno clan and the magic clan. Following an incident, the techno clan began to distrust the magic clan and the God I told you about, and things went from bad to worse until war began. And the result... Well... You saw what happened to Bryyo, and it was by a civilization that had just developed space-travel. So imagine this but at the scale of a civilization that developed dimensional-travel and reality-warping machines."
Samus flinched thinking about this.
"Yeah..." continued Sweetie Belle upon seeing her reaction. "It wasn't pretty. The techno clan won, but countless worlds were destroyed, probably trillions of lives were lost, their home universe became a chaotic mess, and the God who had not intervened in the war absorbed the negativity and became a Destructor. The magic clan then came back with the then evil God for round two, and this time, there were no winners. The two clans were utterly annihilated leaving almost no survivors who dispersed into the four corners of the universe they created, and the evil God destroyed even more worlds, created abominations that spread even more suffering, and corrupted some powerful artefacts of the Ancients before he was sealed. And the amount of suffering these abominations and corrupted artefacts spread in the millennia that followed the sealing of the God..." Sweetie Belle couldn't stop some very painful memories from returning as she said that last sentence, making her stop herself in her reminiscence before she shook her head and put them back in the back of her mind. "At least, me and some friends destroyed all of them, so this is over. Well, I hope we destroyed all of them... Void would have told us if there was something left, I think."
The more Sweetie Belle revealed, the more Samus was curious to know more. The filly clearly went through a lot. The two may have more in common than the Hunter thought at first.
"Were you the victim of some of that suffering they spread?" she asked, thinking that it may help the filly to talk about it. If she wanted of course.
"Not much personally. I didn't lose any friend or family members because of them if this is what you think. The only really bad moment I went through was when one of these abominations, named Zero, invaded the world I was on and I ended up possessed by one of his minions who forced me to hurt innocents. I didn't kill anybody, thanks Void, but hurting my friends and not being able to stop myself was the worst feeling I ever experienced. And then I killed Zero. He was my first kill. I was so filled with rage against him that I just stopped thinking and I ended him without hesitation, not by heroism because it was the right thing, but by vengeance because I wanted to make him suffer after what he made me go through."
"And I will not hold it against you," Samus said after a sigh. "When I faced the one responsible of the death of my biological parents, I would lie if I say that I didn't feel some great personal satisfaction as I watched him burn following our fight. It's natural to feel that way after they caused such events. More of all since you are just a child."
Sweetie Belle nodded. "I know. It wasn't the last time that I ended up fighting someone while filled with anger. I got betrayed a couple of times, you see. I accepted that not all fights are just by duty because we aren't robots, but I still try to avoid anger and hate from totally guiding me in them. Although, I must admit, after you told me what the pirates did, I really had to stop myself from simply crushing their heads in cold blood back when we were destroying these cannons. I still killed all of them, even the ones who tried to escape, but it was more because it was better to kill them now than wait for them to return or to give them the chance to kill some innocents later. Didn't stop their death from being satisfactory."
"You did good. A good pirate is a dead pirate. A pirate behind bars is good enough too as long as they are under heavy watch."
"I agree," Sweetie Belle said with an amused smile. "Speaking of, must we expect Space Pirates here?"
"With the Unit turned off, probably. Unless the Elysians managed to fight them off, but I doubt it."
Sweetie Belle became worried at this. "I hope the pirates didn't exterminate them if that's the case. We should go."
Samus nodded.
As they approached the exit of the landing pad just under the giant statue, Aurora Unit 242 contacted Samus again and gave her the coordinates of Aurora Unit 217. However, they didn't have a map of the place yet, so they will have to find the path by themselves.
As they entered the structure, entering a corridor, they passed beside repair drones who were busy maintaining the station. Not long later, they found a Databot that, once fired at, let Samus scan a datadoc with historic information written by a dying Elysian describing how the Chozo built SkyTown 1500 years ago and why.
They then passed a blue-shielded door, one of the first of its kind, and entered a small room with a chozo statue behind some forcefields which only had a small hole big enough to let the Morph Ball pass. The statue had its arm outstretched as if to accept an offering, and its hand was just at the other side of the hole. However, many Phazon vines were present around the statue.
"Darn. Phazon is here," Sweetie Belle said.
Samus used her Morph Ball to pass the hole and land on the hand, lowering the forcefields. Entering Hypermode, she then used the Hyper Ball to destroy all the vines. This not only freed the statue so it could retract into the floor, but it also lowered the backwall, opening the way to the rest of the room. Sweetie Belle still had to destroy a couple of ornamental frames so Samus could simply use the grapple to pass the hole here and reach the exit door.
They were back outside, at the opposite side of the pod from where they landed.
They had a good view to the rest of the station from here, dozens and dozens of pods, maybe hundreds (and maybe even more if the data log was right and the station was really spanning all over the planet), floating among the clouds, as far as the eyes could see. It really was immense. And breathtaking.
A zipline rail system connected their pod to the following one, and from what they could see, also connected many other pods between each others. Samus had to use the Grapple Beam to use it, and had to fire on gates on the way to open them. Sweetie Belle flew ahead and opened the gates for her, making it easier for her to reach the end.
Inside the pod, they quickly encountered a couple of bipedal security bots called Tinbots. For some reason, the bots took them for hostiles and attacked them. Whether it was because the pirates reprogrammed them or because of the Phazon corrupting them, they weren't sure.
It didn't matter in the end. Sweetie Belle and Samus were forced to destroy them. Hopefully, they weren't part of the sapient population of SkyTown.
Following a narrow path after a jump, they reached a part at the exterior of the pod where they encountered three more Tinbots. A communication satellite could be seen from here, but was out of reach for Samus as they first needed to activate a cannon but Samus lacked the power up needed.
Following the path, they returned inside of the pod where they found a battery unit that needed repairs. It was connected to holographic projectors all around the room that displayed an image of Ghor.
A Databot was also present and, once fired at, let Samus scan a new data log that described how the Chozo created the first Elysians, called the First, and gave them self-awareness after they needed help to maintain the station.
After passing a Blue Door, they entered a curved hallway where they found more holographic projectors and repair drones as well as two piston structures that supplied energy to the pod's engines to ensure that it won't fall to the planet's surface.
If battles happened in these hallways, Sweetie Belle and Samus will have to make absolutely sure to not accidentally destroy these pistons.
They also encountered briefly a floating robot with some red cape, but it quickly disappeared before the girls could do anything.
Another Blue Door later and they were back outside, before another cannon, this one activated. Samus simply had to enter her Morph Ball mode to use it so it could fire her at the next pod. A safety shield at the targeted area caught her, ensuring that she wouldn't fall off the platform.
Sweetie belle rapidly joined her with a teleport, then flew around to keep an eye while Samus had to use a conduit to reach the next platform, a roof structure, getting a Missile Expansion on the way.
On the roof structure, they found a security lock on some module projecting down beams where they had to fire at five targets at once to unlock it. Another power up that Samus will need to find.
A simple jump to another platform let Samus reach the beginning of another zipline as well as a cannon that she couldn't use because it was blocked by metal slags that could be destroyed by something of high temperature, certainly the Plasma Beam.
So this left the zipline, and like before, doors had to be fired at to open them and let Samus pass. A bot also came and left behind dangerous energy bubbles that thankfully could be destroyed. Sweetie Belle quickly destroyed the bot for Samus before taking care of the doors, and the Hunter was able to reach the next pod without too much problems.
Inside the pod, they encountered again the floating robot with the red cape, but like before, it disappeared as they approached it. This time, however, Samus was able to scan it, revealing it to be a Steamlord. A robot that commanded and repaired the worker drones they encountered until now (including not yet encountered robots named Steambots).
It probably meant that the Steamlord was one of the self-aware robots, and its behavior made them worry. It was like it was observing them, like Rundas did before they fought him.
Also, the reason why it could disappear was simply thanks to a cloaking field, and it could generate EMP fields which was bad news for Samus and her visor system.
After the Steamlord was a laser security grid moving back and fort which Samus was able to pass thanks of the Morph Ball (getting by the way another Missile Expansion in a small alcove). Behind it was a Blue Door that led to a small room with a lift that Samus had to activate with a Hand Scanner.
After taking the lift down, the path was blocked by giant gears, forcing them to enter a conduit where they had to watch out to not be crushed by a piston. After destroying several obstruction, they exited the conduit, Sweetie Belle finding a Missile Expansion in a dead end out of reach of the Hunter.
They entered a large room full of recharge chambers for Steambots as well as a much bigger chamber in the center.
As they were about to leave the room, two metal gates slammed shut, keeping them locked.
Sweetie Belle groaned. "Here comes the trouble."
Behind them, the large chamber in the center opened and a smaller pod floated out of it. The pod then opened, releasing a Steamlord, before the other chambers opened to reveal their Steambots which were pretty much Tinbots but better armored and heavier.
And worst of all, as previously revealed by the scan of the Steamlord, if they were damaged, the Steamlord could repair them (if they were not beyond repair). And right now, the Steamlord clearly was hostile.
They did have a weakness to high temperature weapons however, and Sweetie Belle intended to use it so the Steamlord won't be able to repair them no matter what. She didn't want to face the annoyance of destroying enemies only for them to be rebuilt.
"Leave the Steambots to me. I will turn them into molten pieces of scraps while you take on the lord."
Samus nodded and pointed her cannon to the floating robot, internally feeling sorrowful at being forced to kill it. Clearly, something went wrong for the robots to turn hostile against her despite her Suit being partially made of Chozo technology. And she had the feeling that Ghor (and so, Dark Samus) was responsible of it, seeing all the projectors constantly displaying his image.
However, she barely fired at the Steamlord that he cloaked himself, turning invisible, and she had to wait for it to reveal itself. So, while keeping an eye around in case the lord reappeared, she turned to face the Steambots, only to see that they were all already melted pieces of scraps around a certain filly as she finished dusting herself off.
"Too easy. Above you Samus. Five degrees to your left."
Samus immediately faced the direction given and sent her Grapple Beam, successfully catching something invisible. She then pulled down hard and slammed the invisible thing on the ground. The Steamlord turned visible as a result as it attempted to recover, but before it could, Sweetie Belle pinned it down with her magic, letting Samus destroy it with a few charged beams. As it exploded, the Steamlord left behind an Energy Tank that Samus took.
The five smaller chambers all around the room opened, revealing in three of them valves.
Sweetie Belle looked down saddened at the remains of the Steamlord. If it really was one of the self-aware robots of Elysia...
Well, she hoped that they won't be forced to destroy too many of them. Whatever the pirates or Ghor (Dark Samus) did, it turned them into killing machines, unless it was the Phazon (but the scan would have indicated if that was the case, right?), and she hoped that something will be able to be done to turn them back to normal.
And, uh, maybe the Steamlord could be rebuilt.
Samus sighed. "Let's go."
They destroyed the three valves, opening the way to the exit of the room, and left.
A Databot was present in the next room, and Samus fired at it to reveal the log in it before scanning it. Like always, she read aloud for the filly.
""The Chozo were watchers, studying the depths of space tirelessly to quench their thirst for knowledge. From this facility they launched observation satellites, firing them into the heavens toward distant worlds. These satellites returned information that allowed them to analyze the various phenomena occurring across the cosmos. Through this process they were able to satisfy their intellectual appetite, one planet at a time. One day, a Chozo Searcher happened upon a very rare discovery. A once-thought-lost satellite delivered information on a distant world. It was incredibly far away, even by Chozo reckoning. Study of the stellar object revealed that it was, in many ways, a planet - and yet also sentient." Wait, what?!"
Sweetie Belle raised an eyebrow. "Really? A real sentient planet?"
"That's what it says. But the information collected were apparently lost before they could discover more."
"Darn," the filly mumbled. But this didn't stop her from getting excited. "I hope to learn more about this planet! I mean, a planet that is alive! You imagine? I can't wait to tell my friends about it! This will blow their minds!"
"Maybe we will find out more in other logs," Samus finished as she activated a lift with a Hand Scanner.
Sweetie Belle laughed and said to herself, "Oh! Twilight's reaction will be golden! I will have to bring a camera!"
Before taking the lift, they opened a Blue Door at the end of the hallway, only to reach a balcony outside of the pod that was a dead end. There were several floating platforms that formed a path to another pod, but they were too far for Samus to reach.
So they returned inside the pod and took the lift up. Once the lift stopped, they opened another Blue Door and reached the start of another zepline. As she used it, several machines attempted to make her fall but were easily destroyed. At the end, a cannon was present, but a safety cap with a lock system like they encountered earlier, where all the targets had to be shot at the same time, prevented its use.
From what the map said, the pod they had landed on was the one containing the chamber of Aurora Unit 217. One lift down in the following hallway later (discovering a recharge station behind a door with a White Blast Shield), not minding the wall of metal that clearly needed the Plasma Beam to be destroyed, they entered the Unit's chamber.
And discovered small pools of Phazon with vegetation growing in them dotting the hallway behind the door.
"Damn. I hope that the AU hasn't been corrupted by the Phazon," Samus said.
Their worry grew when they reached a part of the hallway that let them see the chamber of the Unit itself and saw Phazon present on the glass wall of its container.
Samus immediately scanned it.
Aurora Unit 217 offline. Phazon corruption present. Administer vaccine to repair.
She sighed in relief. "It can still be saved."
"So this is an Aurora Unit?" Sweetie Belle asked in awe upon seeing the huge floating mechanical brain-thing. She had only seen a hologram until now, and it didn't do them justice.
Before Samus could answer, she received a communication from AU 242 that revealed that AU 217's chamber was sealed off by a Kinetic Lock (as they could see) and that they needed to continue to explore SkyTown to find whatever could help them open the gate.
Once the AU finished, Samus sighed before relaying what she said to the filly who sighed too.
"It would have been too easy..."