//------------------------------//
// Tallon IV: Aftermath 
// Story: Another Hatchling 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	Samus spent the next 20 minutes describing her journey to the center of the Impact Crater, and her battle with the creature known as Metroid Prime.  However, her audience was somewhat limited.  While everyone listened politely, only Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Luna, and Twilight were truly enthralled, the first two from her description of the battle, the latter two from her descriptions of Metroid Prime.

"...and after I finished it off," Samus concluded, "it latched onto any Phazon it could get ahold of in a desperate attempt to stabilize itself.  This included the Phazon in my suit, yanking it right out of me."

"Didn't that make it hard for you to get out of the Crater?" Pinkie asked.  "I mean, you said the Phazon Suit was what let you handle the radiation from the orange Phazon, and if it stole your Phazon Suit-"

"Actually, with Metroid Prime's death, all the Phazon on Tallon IV vanished," Samus explained.  "Including the orange Phazon.  Of course, that caused the Crater to start collapsing, and I had to race my way out."

"Not exactly the first such narrow escape," Spike teased Samus.  "Nor the last."

Samus chuckled.  "Okay, yeah, I do have a tendency in my adventures to be escaping at the last minute before the whole place explodes."

"And what were you doing during that time, Spikey-Wikey?" Rarity asked, looking up at him and fluttering her eyelashes.

Spike smiled.  "Well, I was busy learning something from the Chozo Spirits..."





After Spike's wounds were all healed, one of the Spirits approached him.  You have grown much, Hatchling's Hatchling, it whispered.  Beyond what you expected.

Spike's rueful chuckle echoed in the otherwise silent temple.  "Too big," he replied.  "I won't be able to fit inside the ship like this."

Then perhaps you should be smaller? the Ghost offered.

"If it were that easy, I'd do it," Spike replied.

It is easy, the Ghost countered.  Meditate.  I will teach you.

Closing his eyes, Spike did as he was bid.  The Ghosts entered his mind as he meditated, guiding him.  Deep inside his psyche, he found a wellspring of power.  At the center of the spring, a beast rampaged, snarling and roaring, trying to tear its way out.

This is the source of your might, one of the Ghosts told him.  A dragon's fury.  The rampaging, elemental essence of the conquering predator...the primal drake.

Strip away your kindness, your gentle nature, your civilized mind, another continued, and this is what's left.  The feral core of your essence.

Your body grew faster than your mind could control, a third ghost explained.  Your mind is still racing to catch up, and the primal drake takes advantage of your weakness to try and break free.

The other ghosts approached the primal drake.  It will not be as easy as we thought, one said.  The drake is stronger than anticipated.

We can help you contain it this time, another pointed out.  To calm the beast.  But you must learn - through training, meditation, and years of effort - how to control it.

When you can... a final spirit began.  When you can, then your physical size will bend to your will.

Spike watched as the Ghosts surrounded the beast, stroking it, soothing it, causing it to withdraw sluggishly into the pool.

When Spike withdrew from his meditation, he found he was smaller.  He was now about horse sized, as opposed to between bear and elephant sized.  He was about twice as long as Samus was tall, but most of that was neck and tail.  At the shoulders, he wasn't any wider than Samus' suit pauldrons.  While he was still quite large, he was somewhat more slimly built, making him just the right size to enter the ship if he kept his wings folded flat to his back.

Right about then, Samus came up through the portal.  She blinked at the smaller Spike.  "Could you please stop changing?" she demanded in exasperation.  "Just for, like, five minutes?  I just got used to you!"





Gales of laughter greeted that part of the story.  "D-did you really say that?" Celestia gasped through her chuckles.

Samus shrugged, chuckling a bit herself.  "I don't recall if I used those exact words, but it was getting a bit frustrating.  It was like he'd change shape every time I turned around.  I was half afraid I was going to wake up on the way home to learn he'd turned into a Metroid!"

Spike chuckled a bit.  "Funny you should say that..."  He smirked at her, his eyes at the spikes on the arm of her suit.

"Spoilers, Spike," Samus countered.  "Besides, you should talk, considering what we learned at Ceres science station."

"Ceres?" Twilight asked curiously.

"It was a science station, relatively new at the time," Samus explained.  "It was where I took Spike when he was younger for checkups and the like, since he was a brand new species as far as the galaxy knew.  I made a deal with the scientists there.  In exchange for forwarding them all the information I collected from my own observations of Spike's growth and behavior and coming only to them for any check ups and letting them publish the findings, they agreed to pay for his food and housing aboard my ship."

"They regretted that deal when they realized that meant paying to refit the ship to comfortably house Mom and a fully grown dragon," Spike joked.

"At any rate," Samus continued once a few of the mares had stopped giggling, "this is where we learned something interesting.  Remember those Metroids with high Phazon concentrations Spike ate shortly before he grew his wings?"  The mares frowned in concentration, then nodded.  "Well, it turned out that had resulted in the wing metamorphosis incorporating Metroidal DNA into the portions of his genetic code that hadn't become active yet."

"Wait!" Twilight interrupted.  "You mean Spike is now...part Metroid?  The energy eating parasite/predators, scourge of the galaxies?  Those Metroids?"

Samus nodded.  "Yeah.  But he doesn't have the energy draining capacity.  Actually, the only real change was the fact that Metroids in their natural state - not under another's influence - wouldn't attack him unless provoked.  Well...that and a certain immunity that we didn't discover until later..."

"But I think that's enough story for today," Spike pointed out as he yawned.  "I need to rest.  It's getting late."  He glanced out the window, blinking as he saw the sun still high in the sky.  "At least, I thought it was getting late."

"Oops," Celestia replied, blushing.  "I lost track of time.  Let me get that."  Igniting her magic, she slowly lowered the sun beyond the horizon.

Luna chuckled at her sister's discomfiture, raising the moon to where it belonged while pretending she hadn't gotten just as lost in the story.

"More story tomorrow?" Apple Bloom asked hopefully as she yawned.

"Maybe," Spike replied.  "We'll see."





While everyone in the crystal castle made their way to their beds - whether in the castle or elsewhere - another was waking up.  The baking sun had been unkind to him for as long as it had been up, but he had lived through far worse.  He had been killed by far worse.

It took a lot to kill a dragon.  Even when one succeeded, the essence of the dragon, of its mind, remained, and a viable vessel was all it took for the dragon to live again.  This one had returned time and time again, a thirst for vengeance and a hunger for blood driving him to return endlessly.

Of course, even dragons had limits.  This one was barely alive.  Half his skeleton was visible, and he was losing blood fast.  His wings were in terrible condition.  He was missing his lower jaw.  All that was keeping him alive at this point was his hatred.  But he was in Equestria now, and there...hatred was all one needed.

Dark spirits had come in response to his hatred, infusing him with their power.  This would be the last time he rose as himself, as the power they gave him ate away at his essence.  But if he achieved his goals, it would be enough.

Three native dragons walked by, and he saw his chance.  Lunging forward, he seized the purple and brown ones by their throat.  The red one staggered back in fear as his companions screamed in agony.

The magic did its work.  Flesh and scales ripped away from the two captured dragons, they and their essence being absorbed into the wounded dragon as it used them to replenish its wasted body.

"Wha...what are you?" the red dragon demanded as he watched his companions be reduced to skeletons, and then to dust.

The once more whole and empowered dragon glared down at the red coward.  "Ridley..." he hissed, opening his mouth wide.

A scream echoed in the night.