//------------------------------// // First Conflict // Story: Metroid V: Exile // by The Philosopher King //------------------------------// No pony in Ponyville was expecting the strange purple object floating into the town square, in the direction of the castle. Adam was struggling, but managed to land the ship without hurting a single pony. The hatch on top of the ship opens with a pressurized hiss, and Samus jumps out of the craft in a somersault onto the ground. As she touches the ground, the locals start to peer out a bit from their hiding positions, watching this strange creature. Some thought it was a monster; some had the truth, and others ideals. Whatever it is, it walks in a passive manner towards the crystalline tree before entering. “I’m surprised the locals didn’t try to shoot my craft out of the sky.” she says as she enters, seeing Twilight towards the center of the room. Something, however, seems… off. “Hello there,” ‘she’ says. “... Wait a minute.” says Samus, activating her X-Ray visor. Instead of the bone structure of an Alicorn, she saw what appeared to be a hard exoskeleton, with holes towards the hooves, and obvious marks on the ears and horn. The wings appeared insectoid, and also seemed riddled with holes. “You are not Twilight, much less what they refer to as a ‘pony.’” “Wha-” the imposter says, before taking an arm cannon to the face. The disguise appears to flicker before revealing a black creature, with green wings, and obviously bared fangs. “HOW DARE YOU MEDDLE IN OUR AFFAIRS!!!” she shouts. “EVERYTHING WAS GOING SMOOTH BEFORE YOU-” but then she became trapped in a block of ice. As this imposter had been talking, Samus simply charged her ice beam. “I find talk cheap,” she says, scanning it and ignoring the new entry until after its carapace had shattered completely. The body falls limp to the floor, and a black crown rolls off towards a corner of the room. The entry read: [Recorded to Logbook] [Morphology: Changeling, Designation: Queen] [Analysis indicates weak exoskeleton, mostly likely brought on by a previous conflict. Changelings are insectoid creatures brought about from extreme mutation from what appears to be a combination of beta ray, gamma ray, and x-ray radiation. As result from the mutation from their hive located underground near radioactive ore deposit, tumors are common amongst the runts of the species. Common traits to all changelings include an uncanny ability to transform into a perfect copy of a previously seen target, except for bone structure. All have a black carapace easily penetrated by missiles, and all can manipulate “magic” energy. Most will act like mindless animals now that they lack a commanding queen; however, they will continue to operate on their last assignment given to them by said Queen.] [Samus, this is Adam. The engineer is outside and has equipped me with a transmitter. I saw the last bit of the fight through your visor. Go find the real “Twilight” and the ones they call “Spike” and “Apple Bloom.” Any objections, lady?] [Yes] [No] Samus marks the “no” option. [Good. From what I can assume, it was a planned ambush with hostages probably being kept upstairs. She didn’t suspect you, but any forces upstairs will from the commotion you caused. Bring them back alive, Samus.] “Alright, here we go again…” says Samus, knowing that there was going to be problems with this. She raises her gun into the passive position and proceeds to walk up stairs. She activates her X-Ray visor, seeing that there were two guard changelings, and three holding down what she assumes is the real Twilight, Spike, and a filly. But the one holding the filly looked ready to… In the words of the Spy, “One shudders to imagine what inhumane thoughts lie behind that mask... what dreams of chronic and sustained cruelty?” Samus almost dry heaves at what she thought it would do, but she had seen worse. Nothing more disturbing, but worse. “Show’s over,” she says, cracking the door down with a single missile. “Samus!” shouts Twilight, and Spike tries to says something but is gagged by a piece of cloth. The filly, revealed as Apple Bloom, is screaming like crazy, and her captor drops her. “I have seen some fucked up shit in my time,” says Samus, “but you.” She points at the Changeling with her non-gunned hand. “take the cake, eat it, and then shit on what remains of it.” She fires a round of two missiles, both of which make their marks on the guard Changelings. “Shoot, and the other two die!” shouts the one gripping Spike. “...” “I couldn’t hear ya,” he says. “How about ‘no.’” She launches a Super missile in between the one that talked and the one gripping Twilight. She then grabs the one that had once had a grip on Apple Bloom. “In all my travels, not once have I witnessed something as disturbing as a cross-species pedophile. You, are on a whole new level of scum. You’re below Ridley, who killed my parents before my own f*cking eyes. That has genuinely disturbed me. And that takes a LOT!” She fires a charged Annihilator beam combo, the Sonic Boom. The Changeling screams in agony before being torn apart to pieces. “Are you three alright?” She says, gripping a limp changeling head. The two ponies and the small dragon were speechless. “Well?” “Y-Yes.” says Twilight. “What about you,” she says, exiting her Power Suit and pointing towards the filly. “Ah-Ah’m okay.” she says. “Did that bastard do anything to you?” she asks with a dead serious look in her eyes. “No. Ya got here just in time,” she says. “Thank god.” says Samus, starting to walk out the door of the room. Samus, walking down the stairs, sees the two sole remnants of the Queen she had fought; a somewhat unharmed head, still coated in a bit of ice, and a small black crown. She picks up the head and places the crown on it. The two ponies and dragon are shocked at the vulgar sight, but Twilight notices something. “That’s not Chrysalis.” “Who?” asks Samus. “The Changeling Queen. This one’s younger, and doesn’t have the same features…” “Great, another species I have to lead to extinction.” says Samus. “But hey, I finally got my first intact enemy head.” Bounty hunters had a code, that if what they were sent to kill had a head, and when it died the head was still intact, the head would be sent in a box to their employer, along with any details of the situation. “Do you have a box, paper, a pen, and a ‘fragile’ label?” “Why would you need that?” asks Twilight. “Because I have to send this,” she says holding up her enemy’s head. “To my employer.” “Why would you do that?!?!” asks Twilight and Spike, as during this moment Twilight had been removing the cloth from around his mouth. “Because of an old rule I never got to follow as a bounty hunter, either because my foe lacked a head, or because the only safe way to deal with it was to blast its head off. So do you have any of those things I mentioned?” “I’ll go check the basement.” says Spike, still in a bit of shock. “Tha-thank you, Miss Aran.” says the little filly. “It was not a problem.” she replies. Earlier, in the morning at Sweet Apple Acres… Engineer, Applejack, and Apple Bloom  were walking towards what was the Apple family home. However, something barely audible rustled in the trees. “Did y’all hear that?” asks Engineer. “What?” asks Applejack. “Gimme a minute,” he says, pressing a button on his goggles. U-Mos had helped Engineer install a small visor system in his welding goggles, giving him an Echo Visor, a Thermal Visor, and an X-Ray visor. He activated the X-Ray visor and noticed a strange pony shape in the tree. But it looked malformed and similar to an arthropod. He wastes no time and shoots his shotgun into the tree’s leaves. A cry can be heard within, prompting Engineer to shoot a second shot into the foliage. A black pony-like creature falls out of the tree with a thud. “What in tarnation???” asks Applejack. seeing the Changeling on the ground. “X-Ray Visor, I can- Uh!” he sees that the pony he thought was Applejack was also a changeling. “I’m out of here!” the creature hissed as it undid its disguise. It magically grabs Apple Bloom and gallops away from the Texan. “DANG DAG NABBIT!!!” he shouts, trying to shoot it with his shotgun. But it had gotten too far away for it to be of any use. “The one friend I had made here just got kidnapped!” He knew he couldn’t keep up with the thing; he saw it flying in the distance towards the town. He did the only two things he could think of; he took a Pomson 6000 out of his SpyTech bag and shot up in the air three times, even though the sun was high up and obviously blocked the signal he was making to his comrades. Sniper would make a similar signal by firing three arrows in the air, and Medic three crossbow bolts, but neither came. The only other thing he could think of was to go to the nearby house and warn the ponies inside. “I need some doggone help!” he shouts, as practically breaks the door down. Behind the door was the real Applejack, staring at the creature. “Miss, we don’t have much time, and your sister just got kidnapped! There’s no time to explain!” he says. He practically grabs her by the neck and drags her outside. “Who the hay are you two?” she asks. “As I already said Miss, I ‘ave no time to- wait, two?” he asks. “Right behind you, Laborer.” Behind Engineer is a man in a reddish-brown suit, with a red balaclava and matching fedora. He was wearing a fanciful pair of loafers and his suit was marked with epaulettes and a fanciful tie. “SPY!!!” he shouts at the top of his lungs, giving his comrade a tight hug. It had been over fifty years since the two had last seen each other; and the two, despite what many would believe, were the best of friends. “Easy now, you might get blood on my suit,” he says. obviously being half-choked to death. “Where have you been this entire time?” he asked. “Simple: I was doing what I do best, hiding. I followed the three of you to Aether, and jumped aboard Samus’ ship. I hid in the woods when we go here, surviving off nothing but apples and my tiny teeth dinners.” Engineer forgot about how Spy had all his teeth replace with tiny storage containers made from titanium. “Also there are two home distillation systems and an unconscious RED Demoman on her ship locked inside the largest steel box you guys brought here. Still confused on why a third of the boxes contained musical instruments.” “Demo’s here too???” “He was on Aether to try out brew made from native fruits and Sap Sacs. I simply gagged him while he was drunk.” “Umm, sorry to interrupt yer reunions,” says Applejack, “But didn’t you say something about mah sister?” “She’s been kidnapped by some weird-ass black creature, also Ah’m Engie, he’s Spy, and we need to get moving!” he exclaims. The three run towards the town, and watch as the Changeling flies into the crystal tree, and watch as Samus’ ship lands in front of it. Engineer knew his domain when it came to this kind of thing; Samus generally worked alone. As a result, he knew the best thing for him to do was adjust that ship of hers so he could contact her without disturbing her mission. “Yer sister’s now in good hands.” he says. “Whaddya mean?” she asks indignantly. “I mean the Hunter’s in there. She will beat the living bejezus out of that thing.” “Wha-” she says, before Spy cuts her off. “Just let her do her job. I shall sneak in and make sure everything is fine.” He activates his cloaking watch and walks in behind Samus.