//------------------------------//
// Chapter 46: Ghor 
// Story: Harmony of Heroes: Ultimate Multiverse Explorers 
// by Lucar 
//------------------------------//

Sweetie Belle and Samus left the chamber (or rather the hallway in front of the chamber by the door at the opposite side from where they entered. They then rapidly traversed the curved hallway (constituted of two ledges separated by a large gulf for some reason) that followed, dealing with some biological lifeforms that looked like floating metallic balls called Sky Puffers on the way, before they exited the Aurora's pod.

One cannon later and they reached another pod that was very different from the ones they traversed until now. This one was larger and was constituted of two parts (top and bottom) separated by a single circular open area that served as a crossroad between the Aurora Unit's pod and two other pods. In the center of the area was a big suit of mechanical surrounded by some repair drones, flying ones and ground ones, that tended to it. The suit's grey-green metal had a blue tint that Sweetie Belle recognized was caused by Phazon, and it had blood-red lights.

"That's Ghor's armorsuit," Samus revealed to Sweetie Belle. "It also serves as his gunship. Ghor, thanks to his cybernetic body, can merge with it and uses it to fight and traverse space."

"Mmh... So, should we, you know, destroy it before Ghor uses it to fight us?"

Samus frowned thoughtfully under her helmet before she shook her head. "We should avoid this. Without this armor, Ghor is extremely weak. Dark Samus would probably consider that Ghor has lost his usefulness and kill him."

This upsetted Sweetie Belle who had been ready to throw a big bomb into the cockpit of the armor. "Darn! You're right!" She made the bomb disappear. "And I thought I would finally get to weaken an enemy before a fight. This armor won't make saving him any easier."

"Yeah..." Samus said with a sigh.

"So, which direction should we explore first?" the filly asked then.

Before answering, Samus went to look at the two destinations that could be reached from this pod without counting where they came from. The left direction seemed to lead to the rest of the station, many pods visible beyond, while the right direction only led to a few pods. Actually, the first pod they could reach from here in this direction seemed to be the pod they couldn't reach previously from the one where they fought that Steamlord (because the path was made of floating platforms too far apart to reach with jumps).

Samus pointed in this direction.

"I think that we should start there. There's only a few pods, it should be rapid to explore."

Sweetie Belle nodded and took off before Samus used the zipline here to reach the next pod.

Contrary to the ziplines until now, this ones was really short and straightforward without any obstacle appearing, so Samus reached the pod without problem.

They entered a circular corridor. At their left upon entering, the path was blocked by debris, a hole big enough for the Morph Ball the only way to pass. Not wanting to bother with it, they door the right path, passed by a Blue Door that certainly led to that path of floating platforms, and reached a White Blast Shield guarded by four Tinbots that were easily destroyed. Beyond the White Blast Shield was another Blue Door.

Since the White blast Shield was first, they started by it. Samus destroyed it with an Ice Missile and they passed the door, exiting the pod.

They were now on a long bridge connecting the current pod to the next one they could see further in front of them. As soon as they came out of the door, a Steamlord appeared before them only to fly away before disappearing again. Not minding it, the two approached a dilapidated gate that was easily ripped off with the grapple. However, this caused the arrival of new enemies, "Dragoon" Battle Drones, which fired rockets by two and were more resilient than the robots encountered until now (excepted the Steamlord). They still were easily destroyed by ripping off their thruster controls with Sweetie's whip and Samus' grapple.

Once all drones were destroyed, before reaching a second gate, Samus remarked a hole in a pillar and found in it a Missile Expansion. While she took it, Sweetie Belle decided to go ahead and destroyed the second gate, which had for effect to weaken the next part of the bridge. They ran on it, Sweetie Belle pushing beyond the edge with her magic the Steambots that the Steamlord from earlier rebuilt on the way so they fell into the clouds below. The destruction of a third gate at the end finally made the whole section they just ran on collapse, the Steamlord escaping.

"Ah! It thought that it could make us fall with the bridge! Didn't it see my wings?" Sweetie Belle mocked.

"You could have flown, but I would have fell," Samus remarked.

"Pfff. Not at all. I would have caught you with my magic. You won't fall to your death as long as I'm around."

At this, they crossed the last part of the bridge, destroying more "Dragoon" drones on the way, and reached the pod.

Another curved room was after the Blue Door leading inside, but this one consisted of platforms suspended above a long abyss with some repair drones flying around. The Blue Door at the end led back outside. Here, a lift system was supposed to help Samus reached the next part as her Morph Ball form, but it was currently inactivated because of a lack of power. This forced them instead to take a path made of floating platforms (these one close enough to reach by jumps) before they reached a structure with Grapple Points at the bottom separated by big metal panels.

Destroying a clamp revealed an entrance to a tunnel inside the structure. Samus entered it as a ball and used bombs in slots to release the panels, opening the way for her. Back outside, she then used the grapple to reached the other side of the structure, Sweetie Belle keeping an eye and finding a Missile Expansion on the structure.

After a small bridge that could only be crossed as a ball, they then reached another floating structure, this one two circular platforms connected by a large central pillar. To reach the top platform, Samus had to enter another tunnel and climb it, having to use a steam jet on the way. While Samus climbed the structure, Sweetie Belle took care of more "Dragoon" drones that were ready to ambush the Hunter. Once on the top platform, Samus then used a Hand Scanner to move another tunnel-bridge to finally reach where the inactivated lift was supposed to take them. After dealing with a last drones, they opened the Blue Door here and returned inside the pod.

In the curved hallway behind, Samus activated a lift and fired at a Databot before scanning it.

The log was heavy in information. It explained that, in reason of a lack of sufficient supply despite the creation of smaller mechanoids to process fuel from the atmosphere, the Elysians were forced to enter a state of slumber for many centuries. In their slumber, thanks to the fuel processed by the small bots, the station was able to continue to collect data that was then sent to the hibernating Elysians as dreams. Thus, the Elysians witnessed many events in their sleep, including the Chozo finding a new planet to call home only for said home, Tallon IV, to be struck by a disaster from space that exterminated them and forced the survivors to flee and disappear into the unknown. It was the last time the Elysians ever saw their creators.

Samus explained to Sweetie Belle that she had been present on Tallon IV and personally saw that disaster. It was none other than a Leviathan that had struct the planet a few decades ago. By the same occasion, it was Samus' first contact with Phazon. By the time she had arrived, despite the Chozo having built a temple to contain it, the Phazon had spread all over the planet, exterminating and corrupting many lifeforms, the temple only taking the brunt of it. She wasn't sure how many more years it would have taken before it would have been over. Thankfully, she was able to stop this from happening and  saved Tallon IV from a terrible fate.

Strangely, there hadn't been a Core, just a Guardian that she had needed to kill to stop the Phazon. Samus suspected that the Guardian had devoured the Core which was supported by it being able to produce Phazon by itself.

"I thought a Guardian was supposed to protect the Core! Not devour it!" Sweetie Belle said.

"The Guardian in question was a creature called a Metroid. These creatures have an insatiable hunger. I wouldn't be surprised if the Metroid didn't settle for the Phazon that the Core produced and went straight to the Core itself. Still wondering how that Metroid ended up there in the first place..." Samus muttered that last part.

"Mmmh... And then you had another encounter with Phazon, right? Where you fought Dark Samus for the first time? On a planet named Aether?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Samus groaned. "Aether... It was hell. Like Tallon IV, the planet had been hit by a Leviathan some decades ago. I think that it was about the same time actually. However, Aether had a special light energy that interacted with the Phazon and caused a dimensional catastrophe that split the planet in two. So there was a 'light' dimension, ours, where the actual Aether was, and a 'dark' dimension with a dark version of Aether which was the one that the Leviathan crashed on. As a result, Phazon only spread on Dark Aether, but it didn't mean that Aether was left unscathed, especially because of creatures born on Dark Aether called Ings who could enter the 'light' dimension by possessing other creatures. Long story short, there was a war between the two versions of the planet because they shared the same limited energy and were unstable, and the Ings were winning. It wasn't helped that the atmosphere of Dark Aether, filled with Phazon, was mortal for anyone without protections originating from the 'light' dimension excepted Dark Samus, and where the Ings could enter the 'light' dimension at will, the Luminoth had to create portals to enter the 'dark' dimension."

Sweetie Belle winced. No wonder the Ings were winning with such advantages.

"At least, you were able to fix this by destroying the Leviathan, right?"

"Well... Not really. While the Leviathan was supposed to be on Dark Aether, I found no trace of it beside the crater it left behind and all the Phazon. But when I killed the Emperor Ing and removed the remaining planetary energy, all of Dark Aether was destroyed with everything still on it. The Leviathan should have disappeared too as a result, and yet, all the Phazon that the Space Pirates had collected and brought back to Aether remained. This is certainly how the Federation and the pirates were able to obtain the Phazon for their PED technology."

"Huh, that's strange. The Phazon should have disappeared along with the Leviathan, right? It's... as if Dark Aether hasn't really been destroyed but just... moved away from this dimension. So the Leviathan would still be alive, but... not here anymore."

Samus simply shrugged. "I have no idea, and frankly, I don't care. Dark Aether is gone, Aether is safe. All that matters is that Phazon somehow remained behind in the pirates' crates, and Dark Samus somehow came back to life to somehow create this whole mess with the help of the pirates."

"You know, with Dark Samus appearing for the first time on Dark Aether, maybe she somehow was the Leviathan? I mean, she can produce Phazon, and so far, only Leviathans and that Metroid Prime could do that."

"I don't think she was the Leviathan. While she could produce Phazon, on Dark Aether, she spent most of her time absorbing it, killing everyone on her way. A Leviathan doesn't absorb Phazon. Beside, this wouldn't explain how she got one of my Suits with my DNA and everything. Wait a minute..." Samus suddenly seemed to have a revelation. "Only the Leviathans and the Metr... And the Metroid took..." She facepalmed. "Oh... You have got to be fucking KIDDING me!"

"Seems like you understood something."

"You can say that. Before dying, the Metroid Prime did take one of my Suits. The Phazon Suit to be exact."

"Ooooh! So you mean that Dark Samus may be the Metroid Prime reborn thanks to the Phazon Suit?"

"This would explain why, back on Dark Aether, Dark Samus went out of her way to free the Metroids contained by the pirates. That fucking Metroid..."

"Talk about a twist... That's one heck of a way to gain a nemesis."

"I already have a nemesis, I don't need another one, and especially not a Metroid copying me of all things!"

"You already have a nemesis?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if you meet him later on. Well, the last time I saw him, he was falling to his death into the core of planet Norion before Dark Samus put me in a coma so I hope that he stayed dead this time. But I learned to not hope much with him."

"... Darn. And you think he may come back from this? Well, if this happens, then I can't wait to meet him. Don't tell me more, I want the surprise. I want to discover by myself what could survive a fall to the core of a planet."

"You are in for a treat..." Samus said with a sigh before she moved to the lift muttering, "Fucking Metroid that can't stay dead either..." while destroying some crates in the hallway to recuperate ammunition and energy.

This amused Sweetie Belle.

The lift led them to the floor below, another curved hallway with more crates and a single Blue Door. After the door was another hallway, this one leading straight to a small room with a capsule containing an upgrade on a pillar.

A scan revealed the upgrade to be the Boost Ball, just what they needed.

However, as soon as Samus approached to take it, the pillar retracted into the ground with the capsule before bars came out all around them and tapped them. The part of the floor they were trapped on then moved down, revealing to be a semi-spherical lift that led them to a much bigger room...

With a very big bipedal, dome-topped, tank-like drone with three antennas on the top and a large cannon at the bottom.

A Defense Drone, which they had to open to expose its Control Unit. Samus started by firing at the antennas, which would apparently overload its optic array and make it vulnerable. Sweetie Belle followed her example. Despite the drone firing at them with homing plasma bombs and missiles while jumping to create electric shockwaves upon landing, the antennas quickly were destroyed, exposing its optic array. Samus then used the grapple on it, making it spin erratically and causing the drones' top shell to open (like a beetle's wings), exposing the Control Unit.

they fired at it at will, and the drone reacted by jumping on a high ledge before firing homing mine balls as distraction. It didn't work, Sweetie Belle destroying the mines which let Samus fire at the unit without problem. The shell eventually closed however, and the antennas were recreated, meaning that they had to destroy them again. The whole thing was repeated until the drone was destroyed, its attempt at impairing them by emitting a deep fog near the end not working.

The pillar with the capsule containing the Boost Ball upgrade then came back out in the center of the room.

Sweetie Belle giggled. "Phiew! I hadn't had a good fight against a giant robot in a while!"

"Used to them?"

"More or less. They are rather rare, but how they go boom at the end is always worth the wait." She then scowled. "There was that time where the robot didn't explode at the end, and it was really disappointing. The fight was epic, but the lack of boom at the end totally ruined it."

Samus chuckled and shook her head. "Children..."

The Hunter then took the capsule and integrated the Boost Ball upgrade to her Suit. After that, a device called a Spinner activated for her to use the Boost Ball. This made her enter a circular tunnel in the lift that took them in the room, and continuously using the Boost Ball while in it activated it, transporting them back to the previous room.

With the Boost Ball in their possession, they just had to backtrack all the way to the chamber of AU 217. It was even easier despite the increased number of "Dragoon" drones. When they exited the pod, instead of having to use the path of floating platforms and structures like before, a tunnel simply led them back to where the still inactivated lift was.

The destroyed bridge wasn't a problem either. another Spinner activated a cannon that fired Samus all the way to the other side. In the circular corridor, they quickly went to see the fourth door that they hadn't opened and discovered that it led back outside, to a zepline, but there was a gate low on energy blocking the way. So they returned in the circular corridor and returned to the first door which was guarded by a bunch of Tinbots. After destroying all of them, they exited the pod, took the zepline back to the large pod with the circular open area (Ghors' armorsuit still being here), and then took the cannon back to the Aurora Unit's pod (well, Samus took them. Sweetie Belle just flew).

They returned to the Unit's chamber, and Samus finally used the Boost Ball to open the gate to said chamber. Opening the gate made a staircase and three terminals come out of the ground in front of the Aurora Unit. Samus climbed the stairs and put her hand on the central terminal, on a symbol of the Unit.

A robotic feminine voice then said, "The Aurora Unit is corrupted and requires repair. Opening maintenance level hatch."

And a hatch opened beside the container of the Aurora Unit, letting Samus and Sweetie Belle enter a tunnel that led to the maintenance room just under the chamber. As they entered the room, however, several Tinbots in stasis inside small chambers activated, and the girls were forced to destroy all of them so the forcefields covering said chambers could disappear and let them reach the terminal where Samus could upload the vaccine to save the Aurora Unit in one of them.

Once the vaccine was uploading, Samus received a confirmation that all corruption was gone from the Unit and she indicated it to Sweetie Belle with a thumb up, making the filly cheer in victory.

But their victory was cut short by a cybernetic being suddenly appearing from behind the central pillar made of the big cables connecting the Aurora Unit to the whole station's network.

"Ghor!" Samus shouted, recognising the being.

"This turn of event is insignificant," Ghor began, ignoring Samus' call. "I'll show you what I mean. Observe!"

As he shouted the last word, Ghor activated his plasma cannon, emitting a continuous beam of plasma that he then swept the room with, forcing Samus to duck. However, by doing this, he damaged several circuit boards that were without a doubt important. Samus and Sweetie Belle immediately retaliated, firing at the cybernetic Hunter. Just a few well placed hits sent him to the ground.

This worried the girls who prepared themselves to see Dark Samus appear to absorb Ghor.

But this didn't happen. Instead, Ghor got up with some difficulty, saying, "The network's been severed. You have no chance of destroying the Seed, unless you restore the Aurora Unit." While he talked, he opened a hatch (probably the one he used to enter) and passed it. The hatch then closed after he said the last words, with no way for Samus and Sweetie Belle to open it (at least, without the filly destroying it).

...

"You weren't kidding when you said he was very weak. I barely put anything in these beams and they were enough to send him flying. He got me worried for a moment."

"I must admit that this took me off guard too. I expected to just weaken him to the point that he would be forced to drop on his knee. Whoever built his cybernetic body should be fired."

Sweetie Belle looked around at the damaged circuit boards. "I'm not a specialist of that stuff, but I can easily guess that these things damaged is bad news."

"Yeah. We will need to repair them. Let's see the Aurora Unit."

Thanks to a piston at the end of the tunnel from which they came, they were able to return to the chamber. Once here, like before, Samus climbed the stairs and activated the terminal, allowing the Aurora Unit to talk to them in a male voice.

"What a terrible dream we were having. Thank you for purging our Phazon corruption and allowing us to awaken. There is much to do. We have communed with AU 242 on Olympus, and learned that a Leviathan impacted Elysia and began spreading corruption. We must destroy this Leviathan and stem the tide of corruption as soon as possible. We have a plan, but Ghor's attack severed key communication cables, disrupting our access to SkyTown's primary network. This prevents us from controlling SkyTown and executing our plan to destroy the Leviathan. Ghor's plasma cannon should be able to fuse together the severed cables. We must ask you to hunt him down. We know that you search to save him from his corruption, but be prepared to do what must be done if you have to. Good luck."

"Hum..." Sweetie Belle began to gain the Unit's attention as she flew to be better visible (the terminals partially hiding her). "On the way, we were attacked by Steamlords and were forced to destroy one... Do you know how to... take care of them without permanently destroying them?"

"We are grieved to learn that something happened to the Elysians for them to attack you like that. Because of the severed communication cables, we can't access the data that would let us learn of the how. Don't feel guilty for the Steamlord you had to destroy. Once the Seed is destroyed, we will see if we can repair it. As for the others, if you encounter more, you can tear out their CPU so they can be easily fixed afterward. We will upload the schematics into Samus' suit so she will know where the CPUs are and will inform you."

"Thank you," Sweetie Belle said with a final thankful bow.

So Samus received the schematics and she gave the filly a nod once it was done.

After this, they left the chamber, beginning their search of Ghor. Thinking that they will find him in the circular open area where his armorsuit had been left, they exited the pod and Samus used the cannon to fire herself at their destination. It was only to find out that not only the armorsuit was gone, but there was no trace of Ghor.

Samus then received an alert from her ship...

...

"Shit! He's trying to destroy my ship!" the Hunter shouted before she quickly turned around and used the cannon to return to the Aurora Unit's pod. They then quickly traversed the pod and entered the one where they fought the Steamlord only to be met with a problem...

There was no way to return to the top floor of the pod from here.

But Samus spotted a circular kinetic energy converter in the far wall and used her Boos Ball in it. This raised a metal device in the center of the room that made a U-shaped structure. Using the Boost Ball again and again on it made Samus gain more and more momentum until she was able to reach the place just behind the gears that had blocked the path when they first passed here. She then interacted with a control terminal here that made the gears retract, opening the way. From here, they were able to return to the lift leading back to the first entrance of the pod.

The use of the Boost Ball at the exit platform activated a cannon that fired Samus all the way back to the first pod after the one with the landing pad, gaining a lot of time. Many Tinbots and some "Dragoon" drones were present in the pod to stop them, but they were all destroyed without problem. But Samus receiving another alert from the ship warning her that it was receiving damages.

Then there was the last (or rather, the first) zipline where Samus had to deal with not only the gates blocking the way, but also with these machines attempting to make them fall and another of these drones dropping energy bubbles (that Sweetie Belle rapidly destroyed).

When they entered the pod with the landing pad, they had to deal with more "Dragoon" drones, and Samus received another alert telling her that the ship's armor damage was critical and that the integrity of the hull was compromised.

To put it simply, they needed to hurry.

Sweetie Belle said, "Buck it!" and teleported the two of them on the landing pad.

Here was Ghor, in his armor, attacking Samus' ship.

When he saw them (his head was the only part not covered by the armor), the cybernetic Hunter stopped attacking the ship and said, "Just in time." He then jumped from the ship, grabbed it, and threw it at them with a "Catch!"

Sweetie Belle caught the ship with her magic, avoiding it from taking more damage (Fuel Gel was leaking from it!). Samus then commanded it to fly away so it won't be in the crossfire.

As the ship flew away, Ghor said, "Don't you feel the power? Soon everything will be corrupted. Including you," before he laughed and activated an energy frontal shield.

He then charged at them, and they quickly moved out of the way (Samus using the Morph Ball).

Sweetie Belle wondered for a moment what to do, but it quickly became clear that they had no choice but to fight back. They were in a situation where their victory, no matter how, would certainly mean that Dark Samus will come to kill Ghor. Keeping him immobile with her magic will be no better than destroying his armor. If they didn't find a way to destroy the Seed in Ghor, it was over for him no matter what.

Hopefully, a way will appear to them during the fight...

Samus scanned Ghor and revealed that his weakness was the generator at the back. Wanting to take her time hoping that a solution will come to them, Sweetie Belle fired at it when she could with her weakest beams. Meanwhile, Ghor continued to charge at them, randomly targeting Samus and Sweetie Belle. At a moment, Samus had the idea of firing an Ice Missile on a puddle of Fuel Gel left behind by the damaged ship in Ghor's path in the middle of one of his charges, freezing the puddle and making Ghor lose control and crash into the wall. This left his generator open to fire for a long time.

The generator was eventually damaged enough, causing him to spin around and to lose his shield as the armor was stunned. This left his main CPU exposed to fire. However, Ghor didn't idle and began to attack them with everything he had, missiles, bursts of plasma, a large plasma beam, and spin attacks with his armor's claws. Eventually, the generator on the back seemingly repaired itself enough to let Ghor reactivate the frontal shield.

Come on Sweetie Belle! Think! Think! How to destroy that Seed? How to save Ghor? There must be a way! Sweetie Belle thought as she fired again at the generator while Ghor was facing Samus. I can feel the Seed! I know exactly where it is! A well placed beam could destroy it! But with him moving around like that, it's too risky! But as soon as he's immobilised, Dark Samus will come to kill him!

Ghor charged at her then, and Sweetie Belle yelled, "Raaahh!!! Damn it!" before she braced herself and put her front hooves forward, catching Ghor by the shield. to Ghor's shock, despite her small size compared to his armor, she was able to stop him after a few meters. He then tried to move away, but Sweetie Belle had then turned her hooves into claws that managed to pierce his shield so she somehow kept a hold of it. And since the shield was connected to the armor, then he couldn't move without first deactivating it. And he just couldn't make Sweetie Belle move no matter how much he tried. "Will! You! Stop! Moving! I'm trying to save yoooou!" the filly then yelled as she suddenly pulled and made the armor crash on the ground on its left side.

Sweetie Belle tried to use the occasion to carefully target the Seed within Ghor, focusing, but the cybernetic Hunter deactivated the shield and jumped away.

Only for Samus to fire at his generator and damage it enough to stun his armor.

This time, they were able to damage the CPU enough that the shield became permanently disabled.

The armor then vented out energy, vaporizing the puddles of Fuel Gel and making a small reactor drop down from the undercarriage. The faceplate was then covered before Ghor started again to use the giant plasma beam while stationary. When Samus turned into her Morph Ball to attack the reactor, Ghor attempted to use hookshot launched from the arm to grab her. Sweetie Belle caught it however, giving Samus the opening to reach and attack the reactor. This caused Ghor's faceplate to be uncovered, leaving the CPU vulnerable again.

Sweetie Belle was still holding the hookshot and immediately used it to spin the armor around, slamming it against the wall multiple times before she pulled to make the armor go up, and pulled again to this time make it crash CPU first. The armor was badly damaged as a result, losing its frontal armor, but Ghor immediately recovered before he entered Hypermode and went all out.

That was it, the last chance they had to save him.

If only Ghor wasn't merged to the armor, Sweetie Belle could have simply pulled him off after opening the cockpit!

But the armor was critically damaged now, and a few more hit at the CPU could easily make it explode with Ghor!

They had to convince Ghor to get out of it!

And for this...

Sweetie Belle charged at Ghor. The cybernetic Hunter saw this and readied his right claw to intercept her.

The next thing he knew, the whole right forearm of the armor was sliced off, and the filly was behind him, a beam sword in her hooves. By the time he turned around however, the filly was gone, and the armor dropped on the floor. When Ghor looked at the cause, he saw that the two legs were now separated from the rest.

Suddenly, a shield shaped like a fist came and violently hit the back of the armor definitively destroying the generator here. Another fist-shield came and damaged the left shoulder, destroying the missile launcher here. A third hit what remained of the left leg, and the armor suddenly had a new cut on the right side.

And a storm of fist-shields came, pounding the armor from all sides while Sweetie Belle continued to cut it. The left arm was eventually sliced off, the missile launcher of the right shoulder was destroyed, even the plasma cannon on the chest became unusable.

It came to the point where the armor was too damaged to even take its gunship form.

And yet, Sweetie Belle made sure to not hit the CPU so it won't explode.

And this worked. Ghor understood that his armor was done for and he left it, dropping on the floor. Seeing this, Sweetie Belle stopped attacking the armor and tossed it aside, making it crash one last time against the wall.

But before she could pin down Ghor to finally destroy that bucking Seed, Dark Samus in her wraith-like form appeared above him!

"Oh no, you don't!" yelled the filly, her mane and tail now on fire, before she teleported above Dark Samus and landed on her head. "I WON'T LET YOU ABSORB HIM! YOU HEAR ME?!"

She punched Dark Samus with so much force that the wraith-like entity was propelled several meters away, with Sweetie Belle still on her head. The punch was quickly followed by more of them, each one sending Dark Samus in a direction until the wraith-like entity was eventually above the clouds. Dark Samus attempted to grab her with one of her... hands(?) only for Sweetie Belle to bite it, making the dark doppelganger screech. The filly then began to pull on the 'wings', making Dark Samus lose control and almost making the both of them crash on the pod's wall, before she flew to face Dark Samus' head and blasted her with her horn.

When Dark Samus recovered, she had the horror of seeing Sweetie Belle now with her ten cannons pointed at her. The next seconds, she flew away under heavy fire, trying (and failing) to avoid hundreds of beams per seconds.

Just as Dark Samus disappeared into the clouds, Sweetie Belle surrounded her horn with her ten cannons and charged energy.

"AND! DON'T! COME! BAAACK!!!"

She fired the most powerful Ultimate Doom Laser she ever fired, easily dwarfing her body. The kind of laser that could destroy a star and still continue its path.

The clouds were blown away, leaving a huge hole in the atmosphere.

There was no trace of Dark Samus once the laser ended.

Sweetie Belle felt that she managed to escape by warping away.

She huffed and flew back to the bay, landing beside Ghor who was pinned down by Samus sitting on his back.

"She's gone. She won't try anything anytime soon," she said to the Hunter who silently stared at her. "I can now try to destroy the Seed inside Ghor."

Samus still stared silently, not moving.

...

...

Eventually, Sweetie Belle asked innocently, "What?"