"Before we get to the Olympus," Luna cut in, "I was wondering if perchance we might explore Spike's battle declaration at the end of the fight with Ridley?" She gave Spike a direct look. "You claim you don't know where it came from...but I recognize its nature. Whereas ponies have heartsong - a spontaneous melody that can express a deep feeling from the heart, often causing many others around them to spontaneously sing along-"
"Wait, you mean Equestria is the land of spontaneous musicals?" Samus interrupted.
Fluttershy gasped, stunned. "You...you mean you don't have heartsong? But...but then how do you know you belong within a community, welcomed despite your differences, if your heart doesn't resonate with the hearts of others for the music that comes from within? You poor thing..."
Samus stared at Fluttershy for a time before deciding to not explore the idea any further. "You were saying, Princess?"
"Yes," Luna continued. "At any rate, where ponies have heartsong, the dragons of our world have something similar they dub heartfire, which takes shape in battle declarations that spring forth from the fire in their core without bothering to consult the brain. From the sound of it, that is what happened there." She looked carefully at Spike. "Proclaiming yourself warrior, distancing yourself from the beastial nature of Ridley, proclaiming you are not like him. Hatchling is the Chozo term for Samus, and how they referred to you as well, so that proclaims your kinship with Samus. Proclaiming yourself Chozo needs no explanation, as you declared your allegiance to their ways and morals. But...why proclaim yourself a child?"
Spike glanced away, shooting a soft smile at Twilight. "I didn't understand at the time...but whenever I tried to make sense of it as I fell into slumber, I'd always have the some dream...a vague recollection of a warm hug, and a motherly voice telling me I was her baby dragon."
Twilight blushed in pleasure as she glanced away. Luna smirked smugly at the sight.
"It turned out the Federation's plan was...rather straight forward," Ghor spoke up, directing the talk back to the story. "Use the Leviathan orbiting the Pirate Homeworld to open a wormhole to Phaaze. Send the entire fleet to bombard the living Phazon planet and the Pirate Fleet surrounding it, while Samus and Spike went in to take down Dark Samus and the stolen Aurora Unit. It was hoped this would cause a cascade failure that resulted in the planet's destruction, as the Aurora Unit was known to be connected directly to the planet's control core. When the plan was explained to all of us, I expressed...dissatisfaction."
"Foolishness," Ghor stated bluntly as Admiral Dane finished the briefing.
All heads turned to him. "...excuse me?" Dane demanded. "Do you have a problem with the plan?"
"Several," Ghor replied calmly. "First, the Pirate Fleet surrounding Phaaze will be constantly drawing power from it, meaning you will be dealing with ships in Hypermode. Your fleet will barely make a dent in the defensive formation, let alone in the planet. Second, while Samus would be able to maneuver past the defensive fleet to make planetfall in a best case scenario, the Phazon radiation in the area can be calculated as being three times as intense as the orange Phazon Samus encountered in Tallon IV's Impact Crater. Not only would this be instantly lethal to Spike, it would overload Samus' PED, causing an explosive growth of her Phazon infection. Even if she didn't immediately become completely corrupted, it would be a race against time and her own body to find Dark Samus and the Aurora Unit and destroy both, when they could conceivably heal themselves from the planet around them, while just walking on the surface would push Samus towards total corruption."
While Samus recognized all the hazards Ghor was pointing out, she was ready to make the attempt - without Spike - in order to preserve the galaxy against the threat of Phazon.
"We know the plan has problems," Dane barked out. "But unless you have a better one-"
"I do," Ghor countered.
Silence fell once again. "Well, don't leave us in suspense," Gandrayda chided. "Let's hear it."
"The first step is for Spike to eat the core of the Leviathin in orbit around the Pirate Homeworld," Ghor explained. "As Spike's ability absorption is based in situational requirements, this should enable him to open his own spatial rifts. Since the Leviathan is already programmed with Phaaze's coordinates, he will be able to open a rift gate right there, using the structure of the Leviathan as an amplifier. I've already run simulations based on the data collected on Spike's growth so far to confirm this will work."
"And then what?" Dane demanded. "How do you intend to use that as a way to destroy Phaaze?"
Ghor turned, ignoring the Admiral. "Gandrayda, I assume from the way you were able to absorb Spike's flame energy into your body that you would be able to enter a pure energy state and infuse him?"
Gandrayda swallowed, plainly shocked. "Well...yeah, I could, but-"
"Doing so will amplify Spike's energy abilities to immense proportions," Ghor interrupted. "Combine that with the amplification of the Leviathan, and a full powered Fazite blast should cause a cataclysmic chain reaction that will utterly destroy Phaaze. Based on my calculations, the Federation's plan has a 15% chance of success, with a 60% chance of death for all involved. My plan, on the other hand, has a 84% chance of success, no chance of death, and failure will allow us to implement the Admiral's plan as backup...especially if we use the technology available to upgrade the Leviathan's energy generation and amplification properties."
"Once Dane got his ego under control," Rundus added, "that's the plan we went with."
"He's a good Admiral," Samus pointed out. "It only took him two minutes to calm down and agree to the better plan."