//------------------------------// // Corruption: Execution // Story: Another Hatchling // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// "So everything went according to plan, then?" Shining Armor asked. "Pretty sure that's a first in military history." His statement brought a chuckle from several around the table. "More or less," Spike replied. "In addition to letting me create the rifts as expected, consuming the Leviathan Core also granted me the ability to breathe in space." "How does that even work, anyway?" Twilight demanded angrily. "Breathing requires oxygen, and even as evolved as you've become, dragons need it as much as ponies, or any other race! How do you get oxygen from a vacuum?" "Molecular conversion," Samus explained. "He developed an organ alongside his lungs that uses the ambient energy of stellar radiation - anything from stardust to solar flares or ship engine residue - to convert carbon-dioxide into oxygen, while the carbon left over is redirected to the flame sacs to burn for excess energy, to replenish what is used in the process." Twilight's eyes lit up in eagerness. "Fascinating..." She turned towards Spike, her horn lighting up as she subconsciously gripped her tools from her lab in her magic. "Science later, Twilight," Spike scolded. "Story now." Twilight chuckled ruefully as she blushed, the tools going back where they were. "So once Ghor, Rundus, and the Federation engineers finished improving the Leviathan for the big plan," Gandrayda explained, "Spike and I boarded to head off for the final battle..." Spike sat calmly in the chamber in the center of the Leviathan battleship, cords both technological and organic hooked up to his claws, wings, tail, and face. It had been difficult figuring out how to properly hook him up in the core chamber so that the amplification systems would work properly, and it wasn't exactly comfortable, but they'd finally confirmed it was all condition green. "You ready, Gandrayda?" Spike asked. "As ready as I can be," Gandrayda replied, pacing back and forth, wringing her hands. "So...the merging with you...when's that supposed to take place?" "After we come out the other side of the wormhole," Spike explained. "That way we have the maximum amount of energy available for the final Fazite blast. So you'd best do anything you need to do to get prepared now, before I open the wormhole." "Right," Gandrayda replied nervously, taking a few breaths to calm herself. She spent a few minutes just staring at Spike...before closing her eyes. "Alright...I'm ready." "And here we go." Closing his eyes, Spike focused his energy through the Leviathan, opening the wormhole. As they exited the wormhole, they saw the amassed fleet of the Space Pirates under Dark Samus' control surrounding the living Phazon planet. All were armed to the teeth, and the planet itself looked ready to defend itself. "This could get ugly far before it gets pretty," Gandrayda pointed out. "Except without any Federation ships with us, they think we're one of them," Spike countered. "You ready?" "...yeah," Gandrayda replied, closing her eyes. "Watch closely." Turning, Spike watched carefully as Gandrayda arched her back, letting her arms hang limp, her head laying back against her neck. Her physical form began to blur and fade, leaving behind only bright pink and green energy in a rough humanoid shape. The cloud of energy slowly floated forward...and into him. It was like nothing Spike had ever experienced before. It wasn't just the sheer amount of energy thrumming through his body. He could feel Gandrayda's heart beat, the thrum of her thoughts, the pulse of her very life, all alongside his own as they slowly synchronized. His eyes glowed as he took a deep breath. The blast of Fazite released by the Leviathan was enormous, larger than the Leviathan itself. It lanced through three Pirate flagships before impacting with the planet itself, drilling down into the core. And the planet slowly unfolded, awakened to anger as it took on the shape of a massive Phazon behemoth, ready to tear us apart. Feeling the energy inside me, I released it all. The Leviathan amplified my ability to control my size, and I expanded into immensity until I faced off against Phaaze as a planet sized dragon- "That did not happen," Gandrayda interrupted, shooting Spike a playful glare. "I was there too, remember?" Spike glanced away with a pout. "...would've been awesome..." he grumbled. "Can we hear the end of that fight anyway?" Scootaloo asked hopefully. "What next? Hurling galaxies as shurikens?" Rainbow added. "That'd make an awesome secret ending to the game." Chuckling, Ghor reached into his armor and pulled out a box of discs labeled 'TTGL'. He slid it across to the pair. "I'll provide you a means of watching these later," he promised. "So what did happen?" Luna asked curiously. "In reality, I mean." "Planet blew up," Gandrayda replied bluntly. "All Phazon vanished. Shockwave took out the Pirate fleet and the Leviathan. Spike had to make his own way back through the wormhole..." She smirked a bit at Spike. "With me inside him." Spike blushed as he looked away. "I wish you wouldn't put it like that," he grumbled. "How else should I put it?" Gandrayda demanded, her temper flaring a bit. "Nothing else seems to get through to you how significant it was." "Significant?" Spike shouted angrily, lunging to his feet. "This is getting good!" Pinkie whispered, stuffing a hoofful of popcorn into her mouth, Discord mirroring her actions. "You didn't think it had no meaning, did you?" Gandrayda yelled, shooting to her own feet. "Is that really how you think of me?" "Why are you putting it in that sort of context?" Spike roared back, his tail lashing. "What other context is there?" Gandrayda screamed out. "You have no idea how big something like that is-" "I was six!" Spike roared out at the top of his lungs, bringing his clenched claws down on the table hard enough Twilight was afraid it would crack. "...and now it's creepy," Pinkie whimpered, her mane starting to flatten. "So was I!" Gandrayda wailed, her own fists slamming onto the table. "...and now it's freaky," Discord commented, his body bursting into blue flames for no apparent reason. Everyone turned to stare at Gandrayda. Rundus was the first to speak. "...what? But..." He gestured awkwardly to Gandrayda, trying to express something without words. "Physically, my people don't age, once our base forms are shaped," Gandrayda explained. "Once we develop enough to take on our base form, we're able to move about beyond our homeworld, or anywhere within it. Most don't leave. I was...a prodigy. I wasn't even a year old when my base form took shape, and my mastery of the energy based abilities my race possesses was leagues ahead of even some of our elders. But...I was still a child, and despite my talents was treated like one." She glanced up at the table. "Can you imagine that? It..." She struggled for words. "It'd be like knowing how to calculate advance thaumaturgical waveforms in your head and explain them completely, but no one letting you do anything but sit with the other kindergartners still learning how to brush their teeth," Twilight murmured. Gandrayda nodded. "Yeah...like that. Since I couldn't stand it, I left...but outside the homeworld, in the mostly human Federation..." She glanced towards Samus. "Well, I look like this. What do you think happened?" "Young and innocent?" Samus asked. "Nobody cared what was in your head then either, just that your body was desirable." "Exactly," Gandrayda confirmed. "So, just so I'd be taken seriously...I crafted a persona to use. A mask to wear...and I based it on someone I'd learned about, someone I could truly look up to." She smiled softly at her fellow Hunter. "You, Samus." "Me?" "Yes. A strong woman, taking no nonsense from anyone, unafraid to do whatever it took...but the soft side of a loving mother?" Gandrayda chuckled softly. "Who could be better? I...idol worshiped you, Samus. It's why, when we were finally going to meet for the first time, I took on your form." Her smile was rueful. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all." "And then I laughed," Spike said slowly, beginning to realize. "And shot you the thumbs up." Gandrayda nodded slowly. "Yes. You were the adopted son of my idol...and you offered friendship. I wanted to get to know you, so I left you that bento. And you liked it...and after I saw you fight, I saw you as an equal as a Hunter, and a possible friend. And..." She glanced away. "After Dark Samus shot us, when I awoke, you were there, making sure I was okay. Helping me through adjusting to what had happened. And...with the way you laughed and joked, and showed such worry for Samus...I saw the childish side of you. I...knew you couldn't have been much older than I. "And when you saved me..." She shivered, a strange look in her eyes. "You gave me some of your own energy, energy that is still a part of me. I...don't know what it could mean for you, but amongst my people, such an act is-" The word that came out next was not Galactic Standard, and more a harmony of notes than actual words. "...it doesn't translate. But...it's the same thing for merging with you like I did. It..." "Your language doesn't have a word for 'holy', does it?" Cadence asked calmly. Gandrayda blinked. "...no, not really. But it doesn't fit-" "That's why you can't translate that word," Cadence continued. "I can...see it in you. The word you're looking for...is sacred." Gandrayda thought about it for a time. "Yes...that sounds about right..." "And you wanted to explain that to Spike," Cadence continued, stepping forward to lay one wing over Gandrayda's shoulders, the other over Spike's arm as he came closer. "But you didn't know how. You couldn't find the words...and you fell back on the aggressive attitude you'd built for yourself, the mask you didn't know how to take off anymore...and the closest words you could find, however wrong they were." Gandrayda could only nod as she sobbed into her crossed arms against the table. "I just...wanted to connect with you, Spike...to tell you...how much it all meant to me..." Silently, Spike nudged Cadence aside. Wrapping his wing around Gandrayda, he held her close, watching her with soft, compassionate eyes. "Do...do you know what it's like...to forever try to find a place to belong...and people to belong with...only to always be left feeling you're the odd one out, not quite fitting in anywhere?" she sobbed. "...all too well," Spike replied softly. "In both my lives..." At this point, Samus was rather unsurprised to see all the ponies pile around Gandrayda and Spike for a group hug. And given what she'd just heard of Gandrayda's past, it was unsurprising that the energy being responded eagerly to the comfort. After a time, she chuckled ruefully. "Over a decade of effort maintaining the image of a tough as nails Hunter down the drain," she groaned softly. "Not if we don't let it!" Pinkie piped up. "We'll all just promise not to tell." She spun on Rundus and Ghor. "Won't we fellas?" "As a favor to Spike," Rundus replied instantly, watching the pair. "...agreed," Ghor added after a few moments. "Then repeat after me!" Lifting a hoof, Pinkie demonstrated the motions, echoed around the table. "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" After sharing a chuckle and letting the tension defuse a bit, Samus spoke up. "I wish I'd known about all this back on the Olympus," Samus told Gandrayda. "I'd have been happy to adopt you." Gandrayda thought about that for a time, then shook her head. "Nah. As nice as that would have been..." She sent Spike a flirtatious smirk. "This big guy's way too cute for me to see him as a brother." Whereas before Spike would have cringed away from such behavior...knowing what he did now, Spike managed to smirk back.