Another Hatchling

by Tatsurou


Aether: Arrival

"Now, don't think we're going to go through the whole rest of our adventures in a single sitting like we have been," Samus pointed out. "That's years worth of events. Even just focusing on the significant points, that's at least a week's worth of story telling...unless we're going to forget to change the date again." She glanced towards Celestia with a sardonic smirk.

Celestia managed to avoid looking too abashed. "Well, short of an emergency - in which case the present Captain of Canterlot's Guard knows where we are - we are taking the week for personal business, so we can remain that long."

"Ah'm gonna need to break a few times to go back and check on things at the farm," Applejack pointed out. "Apple Bloom and I have chores to do."

"And I have a business to run," Rarity added.

"These three are lucky it's Spring Break," Rainbow added, gesturing to the Crusaders. "But the rest of us still have things to do. It won't be all in one go."

"No matter how much we want to," Twilight promised.

Spike chuckled. "Well, Aether was a rather...interesting adventure." He rubbed his shoulder nervously.

Noticing this, Samus rested her hand on his. "It's okay, Spike," she reassured him. "Neither of us saw that coming."

"Eh?" Luna inquired. "What is it you are speaking of?"

"We'll get to that," Samus replied. "But let's just say...sometimes certain details are too easily overlooked. But Aether was...grim..."


Samus guided her ship towards the planet of Aether, going over the mission parameters as she went. A Federation squad had last been in contact in the area, and had vanished without a trace after reporting an attempt to land. The mission was to determine what had happened to the Federation Troopers, and provide what assistance she could assuming they were still alive. She didn't want to admit that the only reason she'd taken the contract was because Aether, like Tallon IV, was a 20g planet, and she desperately wanted to find a world where Spike would feel comfortable leaving the ship again. She couldn't blame him for not wanting to go out when he could accidentally destroy an entire housing block, but he needed to move around.

As she set the flight path, she gazed out the viewport at the planet below, noticing how strange its atmosphere was. The clouds seemed to be in a constant state of flux between pale white and dark purple, and there were signs of heavy electromagnetic storms. "Well, that would explain why there's no communication," she concluded. "Hard to get anything out through those storms."

"Then how are we going to get in?" Spike asked, raising his head to glance out. "And how will we get back out when we're done?"

Samus smiled under her helmet, to relieved to hear Spike actually take interest in things again to care about little things like personal danger and the possibility of being permanently trapped planetside. "We'll figure that out once we're down there," she replied eagerly. "Hang on!" She then gunned the engine, driving the ship down into the atmosphere at speeds that were somewhat above safety limits.


Samus paused as she noticed all the ponies staring at her. "What?" she asked.

"Ain't that...kinda dangerous?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Little bit," Samus replied. "But I was just that desperate to cheer Spike up. With how disconsolate he'd been, I'd have flown loop-de-loops around a black hole if it put a smile back on his face." She stopped as she realized that less than half her audience seemed to know what she was talking about. "At any rate, the storms did prove rather problematic, as the ship took a rather heavy discharge on the way down."

"Which amongst other things, damaged the computer, causing you to lose the stored data on some of your upgrades," Spike pointed out. "Leaving you without your beam weapons except Power and Charge, since you said you were going to select which to bring based on the environment we found."

"Which you pointed out to me when we first landed too," Samus pointed out. "Did you really have to raise it again?"

Spike thought for a time. "Yes, yes I did."

Samus shook her head with a groan. "At any rate, I was left with my Power Beam, Charge Beam, Morph Ball, Morph Ball Bombs, Power Bombs, Boost Ball, Space Jump Boots, and Grapple Beam."

"Pretty diverse arsenal," Twilight pointed out.

"For as long as it lasted," Spike muttered, chuckling as Pinkie waved her sign at him again.

"At any rate," Samus continued, "once we'd landed and taken stock, we moved out. We couldn't stay with the ship until the auto-repair functions had made the cabin bearable - too much smoke and sparks - so we both continued onward." She chuckled. "I admit, I was actually glad it prevented Spike from claiming he was going to stay back with the ship to protect it. I knew exploring a new world would help cheer him up..." Her voice trailed off, and she sighed. "Of course, that was before I realized how...rough...the first part of our mission would be."

Luna shivered. "I take it the Federation Troops didn't make it?" she asked.

Samus sighed. "By the time we were called in, they were all already dead..."


As they explored the underground area they'd crashed into, Samus and Spike discovered a large door which required a translation program to interface with and unlock, as they lacked that program, they had to take a different path deeper underground, which led them to where the Federation troops had been based.

Down below, they came to a few obstacles that were somewhat difficult for Spike to get around in the existing tunnels. However, he discovered that his sharp claws were ideal for digging, and the dirt walls were relatively soft and easy for him to dig through, letting him make his own paths to keep up with Samus.

It wasn't long before they discovered the first of the Trooper bodies, hanging from webbing and being fed on by Splinters, large insect-like creatures with white bodies and thin legs. Samus was glad to see Spike back to himself, as he paid no attention to the bodies - they were apparently too long dead and too well preserved to disturb him - and snatched up a Splinter for a taste. "...a little too moist," he allowed. "Like underdone chicken. Don't think I like it."

"Then don't eat them," Samus pointed out, continuing onward.

As Samus found Troopers whose datapacs were intact, she gathered more of the story. Tracking Space Pirates, assault by a Splinter hive, killing the hive...and then being attacked and overwhelmed by other hives.

After activating a Morph Ball Bomb switch, however, Samus and Spike were both caught off guard as several of the corpses surrounding them stood up.

"What the fuck?" Spike demanded in fear. "Mom, what's going on?"

Samus quickly scanned the moving bodies. "The corpses are being infused by some sort of unknown bio-matter, puppetting the bodies."

"You mean they're zombies?" Spike asked.

"...close enough," Samus replied. "You can fight them the same way-"

Samus received a quick demonstration of how effective the breath of a half terrified dragon was on zombies, or at least zombie equivalents.


Several of those gathered chuckled, though Discord laughed aloud. "Need to make me some zombies for Nightmare Night," he joked. He promptly wilted under Fluttershy's glare.

Samus rolled her eyes. "At any rate, things went on like that as we continued to explore...until..."


After clearing through a few more possessed troopers, the pair found their way to a mist filled chamber, just in time to see a dark silhouette that looked remarkably like Samus open and pass through some sort of portal. Curiously, the pair approached...only to be sucked through themselves.

On the other side, the skies were dark purple, sparking with pink lightning. The air - save in a bubble around them - was filled with a purple miasma. Inside the bubble with them was a white crystal atop what looked like a staff, projecting the protective field. Atop cliffs that surrounded them, several creatures that seemed to be made of solidified black ooze with glowing red eye/faces watched them, roaring occasionally in hunger. Before them, the dark figure they'd seen before was drawing Phazon into itself from where it was visible against a rock surface. As Samus moved to stand up, the dark figure fired a shot of Phazon just over her shoulder pauldron, plainly a warning shot.

Spike, meanwhile, remained perfectly still, husbanding his fire for a blast more intense than normal. He felt like he was surrounded by predators, all eager to take a bite out of him. However, he wasn't about to back down.

Samus saw that the figure was like a dark reflection of herself, somewhat reminiscent of her Phazon Suit back on Tallon IV, but completely black and with a different shaped blue visor. The shoulder pauldrons also bulged with Phazon. When she stood up, the figure shot the crystal behind Samus, and the field began to collapse inward. The dark figure withdrew as the dark creatures from above began to converge on them.

Samus and Spike backed up towards the portal, but as the field collapsed, Spike winced, squeezing his mouth shut tight and keeping his eyes shut. The atmosphere began eating away at his very flesh, and rapidly drained Samus' shield integrity.

With the field fully collapsed, the creatures lunged at them both. Those that attacked Samus tore chunks off of her armor, while those who attacked Spike tried to bite him as well.

Spike let off one blast of flame to push the creatures back, but as the air invaded his mouth, his defiant roar became a scream of pain. Grabbing hold of Samus, he leapt through the portal.

Back where they had been before, Spike began to cough up blood laced with black ooze, holes in his scales as though he had been splashed across much of his body with acid. His wing membrane also had rather large holes burned in it, and his claws showed pitting.

Samus herself wasn't doing much better. She'd lost a lot of shield energy in that brief moment, and the creatures had managed to strip her of her Grapple Beam, her Boost Ball, her Power Bombs, her regular Bombs, her Space Jump thrusters, and her Missile Launcher. Staggering to her feet, she made her way to Spike to check on him.

Once he caught his breath, Spike expressed both their opinions on the situation. "The fuck was that?"