//------------------------------// // Corruption: City in the Clouds // Story: Another Hatchling // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// "So...destroying the Leviathan's core erased all the Phazon it had created?" Twilight asked. "How does that work?" "To be perfectly honest, I have no idea," Samus replied. "I'm just glad it does." "Don't think too hard about it, Twi," Rainbow cautioned with a shrug. "Probably some meta-whatever that would fry your brain." "So, after that, we were sent to planet Elysia," Spike began. "Elysium?" Celestia asked, shocked. "The Paradise Fields?" "No," Ghor corrected. "Elysia. A gas giant with a solid planet buried deep within its storms, a most unusual planetary configuration. There is a city in the clouds built by the Chozo, and - until the Phazon - had been maintained by a race of sapient robots of Chozo design. I had...attempted to work with them to purge the Leviathan, but..." He looked away. "I, too, had fallen victim to the Corruption of the Phazon inside me." "Until Spike saved you," Discord intuited. "Precisely," Ghor agreed. "Elysia was...quite the beautiful place," Samus began. As the ship cut through the outermost storms of the planet Elysia, Samus and Spike stared out at the pale brown clouds that swirled in eddies and currents, as though the planet's oceans had been relocated to the sky. Down below, they could see the Leviathan Seed in a hole in the sea of clouds, its presence pushing the storms back, a Pirate shield already surrounding it. The city itself, when they saw it, was an elegant thing of delicate spires, elegant domes, glowing spheres, and sprawling structures, all colored to either blend with the clouds or stand out against them. The yellow lightning beneath each structure danced in a flicker of light, holding the metal creations aloft upon the soft clouds that swirled beneath them, both taming and drawing power from the gaseous firmament. The ship came in for landing facing a large carving of a Chozo, its face bearing a welcoming expression as it looked upon the new arrivals. For a moment, Samus thought it might come alive. Spike stretched his wings as he stepped off the ship, feeling how the gasses of the planet felt against the delicate membrane. Finding that the thicker gasses were actually easier to fly through than air - they supported his weight in the air much more efficiently, almost like swimming - he leapt into the skies to fly about the city, mapping a path for Samus and locating anything that might be a problem. Samus was concerned at first, especially with how aggressively the Pirates had been targeting Spike, but then she spotted Spike diving into a cloud bank just before a Pirate transport swung by, vanishing completely only to reappear behind the Transport and destroy it before any signal could be released. "At that point, I was this close to transferring the Aurora antibody program to Spike and letting him handle Elysia without me," Samus stated, holding her thumb and forefinger millimeters apart. "What stopped you?" Twilight gasped out as she joined the others in laughter. "My suit couldn't handle the program," Spike replied easily, causing more laughter. "At any rate, while Spike handled the outside of the city, I explored inside the buildings," Samus continued. "It made for pretty effective teamwork, especially when it came to some of the mechanical enemies that Spike could target from outside. Surprisingly enough, they were all vulnerable to high heat weaponry." "Yeah, Spike pretty much dominated that world, didn't he?" Rainbow joked. Samus chuckled. "I think the best part of that mission for me was the zip lines," she admitted. "They were the primary means of getting about in the sky city. I just hooked my grapple beam to it and rode along to the other end through spins, loops, and the occasional obstacle I had to shoot my way through. Spike would always follow the path exactly just below me, in case I got disconnected from the line." She stroked Spike's neck. "It was the closest we've ever come to flying together, instead of me riding him..." Rainbow grinned widely as she stretched. "Yeah...nothing quite like flying..." Reaching over, she pulled Scootaloo out of the air for a hug. Since being shown how to fly on her own wings, she'd spent nearly every waking moment in the air...not that Rainbow could begrudge her that. "While that was all fun," Spike agreed, "what wasn't fun was the fact that I wasn't able to help against the first major opponent. The area Mom faced off against the Steamlord in was only accessible via Morph Ball tunnels." He grumbled a bit as he glanced away. "Stupid narrow tunnels..." "The Steamlord wasn't that hard," Samus soothed. Seeing curious glances, she explained. "The Steamlord was a floating robot with a cloaking device. It repaired damaged Steambots I had to face off against. The fight was more frustratingly long than difficult." She chuckled, then frowned. "But...when I found the Aurora Unit..." Samus stared through the glass wall at the floating organic supercomputer, its still form disturbingly quiet. The capsule it was contained in was covered in Phazon-based fungal growths, as though the Aurora Unit itself was slowly becoming infected with Phazon. Samus began to wonder if the virus it had been infected with might not share some sort of similarity to Phazon's virulent nature. The Aurora Unit from the Olympus informed her the the chamber was sealed with a kinetic lock, and that something within Skytown would likely help her unlock it. "Skytown?" Apple Bloom asked. "The name of the facility," Samus explained. "This is where you get your Boost Ball back, isn't it?" Sweetie Belle asked. Samus chuckled. "Yup, that's what happened next. Though on the way, I spotted Ghor's battle armor...with no Ghor in it. Seeing that was...worrisome." "Because you were concerned about what I might be up to?" Ghor asked. "More I was worried what would happen to you if you were corrupted and Spike found you without it," Samus replied, startling laughs from several listeners.