"So I take it your Ice Beam and Spike's Ice Breath saw a lot of use in the Pyrosphere?" Twilight asked curiously.
"It certainly did," Samus confirmed, glad to be past the more awkward topics from before. "Nearly every monster we encountered went down quickly under concentrated Ice based attacks."
"The only problem was that they exploded, rather than froze most times," Spike grumbled. "Didn't get much to eat as we went through." He rolled his eyes at the knowing chuckles.
"Anything interesting happen while you were there?" Luna asked curiously.
"Well...not until the Floor Observation Room..." Samus began.
As Samus and Spike entered the large Observation Room, latent instincts caused both to dive to either side as a large, armored creature that somewhat resembled a beetle skittered across the floor towards them, nearly running them over. As they came to a stop, it stood up on heavily armored legs and extended large metal pincers on arms before turning to fight the pair.
Its preferred method of fighting was to dash around flat against the ground, where its metal body deflected all beam and missile weapons, while launching smaller versions of itself that lacked its defensive capabilities at the attacking pair. While these smaller versions were easy to destroy, they also moved fast and exploded if they got too close.
After destroying enough of the smaller ones, the larger one tried a different tack, extending its pincers and head on a long neck to aim his attack. The fleshy neck was more vulnerable than the metal body, allowing Samus and Spike to attack and inflict damage. Spike tried flipping it onto its back at one point, but not only was the underside armored but that allowed it to bring blades and clawed legs into the fray if Spike or Samus stayed too close, and it was easily able to flip itself back over.
Admittedly, there was a weak point in the center of its underbelly, a spot that glowed red when it charged energy for an assault. Eventually, the pair managed to develop a strategy to take it down. Spike tackled the creature to the wall, holding its legs and pincers at bay and snapping at the angry head. Samus then ducked in as it tried to charge energy to break free, blasting away at the weak point. It managed to break free, but it was staggered. Samus then lunged in, grabbed hold of the head...and pulled out what turned out to be a worm that had been controlling an armored battle body. The worm lunged for her, but Spike seized it and dug in, tearing away at the flesh with claws and teeth as he devoured it.
Samus stood back to let him finish his meal. "So how is it?" she asked as he licked his lips.
"Tastes kinda like a hot dog," Spike replied. "Or maybe an undercooked sausage."
"If it tasted undercooked, why didn't you roast it with your flame breath?" Pinkie asked curiously, startling a few laughs.
"Too hungry," Spike countered, startling more laughter.
Rolling her eyes, Samus continued the tale. "Not far beyond that, the Pyrosphere actually had an artificial volcano."
Twilight's eyes widened. "That's fascinating!" she gasped eagerly. "How did they manage it?"
"No clue," Samus, Spike, Adam, and Anthony responded in unison, making Twilight pout.
"I have a few ideas how they could have managed such a feat," Ghor offered. "Once we have reached the end of the story of this mission, I will happily share those ideas with you."
Twilight grinned eagerly.
Chuckling indulgently, Spike took up the tale. "Of course, the volcano made things interesting since we had to go towards it, while dodging the lava bombs it launched. "Once we were past that, we encountered a few more enhanced Zebesians. The Diffusion/Ice Beam combination created a rather interesting effect, since it froze over their blasters, making them much easier to take down."
"Still miss that beam mod," Samus grumbled to herself.
"I'm sorry we weren't able to properly correct the coding," Ghor offered apologetically. "We were a trifle pressed for time at that point, and it was the most complicated beam."
"Not your fault, Ghor," Samus hastened to assure him. "What you did was more than enough."
"Ummm...?" Shining voiced in confusion.
"Something from the next mission," Adam explained. "We'll get to that."
"Besides," Spike continued, "what happened next was really fun!"
As Spike and Samus dropped down into the volcanic crater's interior, the magma level slowly began to rise towards them. Samus quickly looked around, seeing a winding path around the crater interior leading upwards, which would involve a lot of carefully timed jumps, ducks, bobbing, and weaving all while racing at top speed to outrun the rising lava.
She then considered her alternative, riding her winged dragon son up to the top on the sweetest thermal ever.
She took a few moments to carefully consider which would be more fun before leaping onto Spike's back as he spread his wings.
Twilight could only roll her eyes as Rainbow, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie, and Luna burst into laughter before exchanging hoof bumps with Samus. "Of course that was the deciding factor..." she grumbled.
"What else would be?" Samus asked before getting back into the tale.
With Samus on his back, Spike shot up through the volcano, briefly dodging a massive red tendril that tried to sweep him out of the air. The pair blasted out the top of the mountain like a cannon, shortly followed by a flood of magma. As the caldera overflowed, a massive red creature erupted out of the magma. It had a long, thin neck with tendrils waving out the sides, a massive pair of tentacles ending in malformed hands, and a glowing red spot on its neck. Its head was rather simplistic, with only a few fins and a tooth filled maw as distinguishing features.
It would likely have proved a serious challenge had they attacked it from the ground. So Spike attacked it from the air, freezing the neck so Samus could snipe the frozen section with missiles. Its only ranged attack involved hurling chunks of lava at them, which Spike was easily able to evade. Once it took enough damage, the glowing point faded. With no other weak point readily available, Spike started dive bombing the head, digging into the crown with claws before pulling away and letting Samus hit the open wound with charged blasts. A few of those runs, and the creature began exploding, its structure strained to the breaking point.
With its destruction, the magma level lowered.
"Apparently, the creature was controlling the volcano somehow," Samus explained. "With it destroyed, the place became much safer to navigate."