After Celestia and Luna had taken a quick glance through the entries regarding Samus' handling of Spike's infancy - and cooed and squeed the appropriate amount - those around the table settled down for waffles and stories. "So, Spike said he was just about to tell you about our mission to Tallon IV?" Samus spoke up.
"That's what he said," Twilight replied. "Though, given how small he was, I'm a bit surprised you took him onto a dangerous planet."
"I hadn't intended to," Samus growled. "I told him to stay in the ship!" She turned to glower playfully at Spike, who managed to look sheepish.
"I was bored!" he complained. "And hungry! And I couldn't open the ration packs!"
There were titters of laughter around the table. "Go on, then," Celestia urged. "Tell us the story."
"Well," Samus began, "it started out with investigating a distress beacon from an unidentified frigate orbiting the planet. It turned out to be Space Pirate-"
"Space Pirate?" Twilight and Rainbow both asked eagerly, Twilight in nervousness and Rainbow in fannish eagerness.
Luna chuckled. "Daring Do's tomb raiding no longer enough for your active imagination, Rainbow?" she teased.
Samus chuckled. "The Space Pirates are the scourge of the galaxy," she explained. "They used their vast numbers, genetic engineering of their own numbers into weapons, and vast weapons technology to steal anything and everything they wanted from those who could not defend themselves."
The mares around the table all gasped. Celestia glanced nervously towards the sky. Luna, however, frowned. "You speak of them in the past tense," she pointed out.
Spike scratched the back of his head nervously. "Well we kinda...sorta...accidentally...exterminated them. Rather thoroughly."
A pin was heard dropping from Twilight's writing desk in the following silence, bouncing on the crystal floor. "How do you 'accidentally' exterminate a race?" Twilight finally demanded.
"Destroying their biological super computer on their last planetary hide away, not knowing that triggered the planetary self-destruct systems," Spike explained.
"Spoi~lers!" Pinkie complained. "Stop jumping ahead in the story!"
Samus chuckled as everypony rolled her eyes. "Alright," she said. "Well, there's not much to talk about for while I was on the frigate. Since I had to go EVA, Spike couldn't come with."
"I should hope not!" Celestia asserted. "Even a dragon can't breathe in space."
"Well, I couldn't back then," Spike admitted.
All pony eyes turned to him with varying expressions from shock to disbelief...to irritation.
"Spoilers!" Pinkie hissed.
Samus chuckled. "Anyway, the only thing of note from my time on the frigate while it was in space was what the Pirates were doing on Tallon IV. Apparently, there a substance they'd termed 'Phazon' that was on Tallon IV as a result of a meteorite impact. It was a powerful mutagen, as well as being a high-energy mineral, and initial results from their tests suggested it was the key to them achieving the supremacy in the galaxy they desired."
"I take it you weren't about to let them manage that if you could prevent it?" Rainbow asked eagerly, already into the narrative.
"Definitely not," Samus confirmed. "Especially since Tallon IV was a Chozo world. Unfortunately, on the way out, I encountered Ridley in his newer manifestation." Tapping her logbook tablet, she called up the image.
"Th...that's a dragon," Twilight stammered. "But like none I've ever seen."
"He was a Space Pirate general," Spike explained. "And a repetitive thorn in our sides."
"Repetitive?" Rarity asked, curious.
"Among other sciences of questionable morality, the Space Pirates experimented heavily with cloning," Samus explained. "Between the two of us, we've killed Ridley...four and two-half times."
"Two half?" Twilight asked. "Shouldn't that just be five?"
"Two separate battles that we aren't entirely sure qualify as actually fighting Ridley," Spike explained. "But yeah, Ridley was a real pain in the tail. I'm still not entirely sure we've seen the last of him."
"But you said you killed all the Pirates," Applejack pointed out uneasily. "How else could he come back?"
"That's what we said back on the Bottle-"
"Spoilers!" Pinkie snapped, interrupting Samus.
Samus chuckled. "Alright. Anyway, when Ridley came after me on the frigate, I...took some suit damage. Most of the equipment upgrades I'd managed to collect ceased to function."
"Get used to that," Spike commented. "That happens to Mom a lot."
Samus glowered at him for a while. "Anyway," she finally grated, "after that, my first goal was to find ways to rearm myself on the planets surface, so once we landed, I engaged my ship's cloak and scanners."
"Your ship cloaks?" Twilight asked eagerly. "How does it work?"
"No idea," Samus replied. "The Chozo trained me as a warrior, not an engineer. I do know from scanning Pirate logs that it shields the ship from detection by anything except organic visual confirmation."
"Meaning they can't see it with anything except the naked eye?" Pinkie clarified.
Samus nodded. "Exactly. At any rate, my sensors picked up quite a few potential upgrades I could pick up in an area of Chozo Ruins. Some really basic stuff. A new missile launcher, a replacement Morph Ball, a few others. I decided I'd swing pick those up before coming back to check on Spike. I told him to wait in the ship till I'd scouted around and came back."
"And he didn't," Twilight sighed.
"I tried!" Spike complained. "She was gone forever!"
"I checked the ship logs," Samus pointed out. "It wasn't five minutes after I'd left when you'd opened the hatch."
Spike groaned. As all eyes turned to him, he sighed. "Alright. Well, when I couldn't sit still any longer, I left the ship..."
Spike clambered out of the ship to take a look at his surroundings. It seemed like he was in a tropical forest of some sort. Blue sky, green grass, strange creatures. Had he been older, he might have appreciated it more. However, he was still a very small child and was driven more by his belly than by his brain. As such, he looked around for something to eat.
First he tried the grass. Unfortunately, it all either tasted bad or tried to eat him back-
"Carnivorous grass?" Twilight asked in shock.
"Tangle weed," Samus explained, showing the logbook entry. "One of many reasons I told Spike to stay in the ship."
Spike rolled his eyes. "As I was saying..."
-the creatures were either bigger or faster than him, or stayed out of reach. The only thing that seemed even remotely in his range of edibles was a large sac that seemed filled with syrup or honey behind one of the blue doors that opened to his fire breath. However, when he tried to take a bite, it exploded, blasting him back against the opposite stone wall.
Samus stared at him. "You never mentioned trying to eat a Sap Sac," she pointed out.
Spike looked away, embarrassed. "Didn't want to worry you, since I didn't take much damage anyway..."
"Except for an explosion of flavor in your mouth?" Pinkie asked eagerly.
Spike chuckled. "Well, it was flavorful..."
After that unsuccessful attempt at filling his belly, he continued to wander, staying close to the ship. Eventually, one path led him to a wide lake. At the near shore, he saw two Space Pirates with jetpacks doing something with two large canisters filled with a glowing blue and white liquid. As he approached, the Pirates left, apparently answering some sort of call, so he continued up to the canisters. He noticed the top was open on one of them.
Clambering up on the other, he saw that the liquid inside flowed despite a total absence of motion. Taking a sniff, his mouth began to water. It looked like liquid sapphires, one of his favorite gemstones. Bending precariously, he stuck his hand in the liquid to scoop up a taste.
Spike paused in the story as he saw seven pairs of pony eyes looking at him disapprovingly. "What?" he asked.
"Really?" Twilight asked. "You encounter an unknown chemical being gathered by enemy troops on an unknown world...and your first thought is to stick your hand in it to see if it tastes good?"
"I was four!" Spike complained. "What did you expect?" Seven facehooves greeted this statement as Samus shook her head ruefully.
"What's wrong with what he did?" Pinkie asked. "Sounds alright to me! How do you know if it'll taste good without tasting it?" More facehooves greeted this statement.
Spike chuckled. "At any rate..."
Raising his hand to his mouth, Spike gingerly licked the liquid. He found it tasted a great deal like Sapphires, but spicier. It was delicious. He quickly licked his hand clean before scooping another handful into his mouth, eager to fill his belly with the delicious liquid. As he ate, his perch became uncomfortable, and eventually he shifted back to the ground. When the canister was half empty, he could no longer reach far enough to scoop out more, so he lifted the canister to pour the remainder into his mouth.
Before any reached his lips, however, he paused as he realized a rather significant incongruity. "Didn't the canister used to be bigger than me?" he wondered aloud.
Blinking, he realized that a lot of things around him were smaller than they had been. He quickly realized what had happened. "Did...did I just hit a growth spurt?" Setting the canister down, he measured himself against it. He was quickly able to determine that he now stood upright at about elbow height on Samus in her power suit. "There's...there's no way I should have grown this fast," he muttered. "This can't be natural." He glanced into the canister. "Maybe...it's this stuff?"
Making a decision, he picked up the canisters. "I'm probably going to get in trouble over this, but I need to tell Mom what happened so we can figure out what this stuff is." As he started to walk, the open canister sloshed, and he paused. "Hmm...I probably shouldn't risk spilling any," he decided. "Who knows what it might do." He set the canisters down. "...well, the full canister is probably enough for Mom to get answers..." He glanced at the half empty canister. "And I am still kinda hungry..."
At this point, even Pinkie facehooved.