"How come they even had a critter like that in the first place?" Applejack demanded.
"Probably as a possible bio-weapon," Samus posited. "Pretty sure everything in there was meant to be a bio-weapon of one sort or another."
"Well, if that creature was controlling the lava, does that mean killing it made the lava tamer elsewhere?" Rainbow asked curiously.
"Indeed it did," Spike confirmed. "That allowed us to explore more of the Pyrosphere." He rolled his eyes to glare at Adam. "But before we managed to get very far at all, we got sent to Sector 2."
"I hadn't gotten a status report from my men in that Sector in a worrying amount of time," Adam replied. "You were the only ones I could contact immediately to send. Not to mention the men there were searching for survivors."
"Reasonable, if no less irritating," Samus admitted. "Even if it did give Ridley more time to regain strength."
"So what was Sector 2 like?" Twilight asked, hoping to defuse any argument or debate.
Spike shrugged. "Not sure what it was supposed to be, but an irregularity in the climate control system rendered the entire Sector frozen over, and all the creatures we encountered were adapted to the cold."
Velvet chuckled. "And thus, not to a fire breathing dragon," she teased her grandson. "Bet that made things easier."
"It certainly did, Grandma," Spike agreed. "Made a lot of it real smooth sailing. Even the larger animals went down quickly from a blast of my fire."
"Of course, then we found more augmented Zebesians," Samus grumbled. "These with reverse engineered and augmented Space Pirate battle tech. Not fun."
"Yeah," Spike grumbled. "It was like fighting Space Pirates all over again."
"You did rather well," Adam commented.
"Plenty of practice," Samus grumbled.
"And the impression wasn't helped when we found creature corpses that showed signs of Metroid predation in a super-cold segment," Spike continued. "Not a pleasant experience...especially when we later learned that it was Metroids genetically modified to stand cold."
"Given the situation, I authorized the use of Samus' Speed Booster," Adam explained. "Of the tech she had available, it had the highest versatility/signal ratio, making it the most logical choice to increase her options without putting her in excess danger from the killer android we now knew was after the whole team."
"I suppose it was helpful," Samus admitted.
"So...did you find the other troops?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously.
"Or survivors?" Apple Bloom added.
"Or the killer android?" Scootaloo squealed.
Samus and Spike fell silent. Spike was the first to speak up at long last. "Yes..."
"Unfortunately..." Samus added.
As Samus and Spike raced towards another facility deep in the snowdrifts, they skidded to a halt as they found the body of another of Adam's men. His body was severely chilled, looking to have been finished off with a freeze round. As they stared, they felt someone watching. Both of them spun towards the building, spotting a blonde haired woman in a lab coat staring at them through the window. When she caught them looking at her, she gasped and dashed away into the facility.
The pair immediately detoured into the facility, which turned out to be a materials storehouse filled with various containers. Samus moved amongst the maze of containers, following the woman as she caught sight of her. Spike made his way over the containers, ready to flank just in case this figure turned out to be the killer android that was taking out their allies.
As they got closer, the woman shouted out, "Don't come near me!"
Samus immediately stopped. This was either the killer android pretending to be a helpless scientist to lull her into a false sense of security, or one of scientists scared out of her wits. She decided that, either way, a cautious approach was warranted. She began to move forward slowly.
"I know why you're here!" the woman shouted again, anger mixed with fear.
"You're mistaken," Samus offered comfortingly. "I'm here to rescue you-"
"You're lying!" the woman shouted back. "I know the Galactic Federation wants to silence everyone who knows about our work here-YAH!"
Spike had taken the opportunity to drop down behind the woman. "Then it's a good thing we're freelance," he stated calmly. "The mission objective we were given was to secure the safety of any and all survivors."
The woman staggered backwards fearfully, but then tensed herself. "How can I trust you when your troops-"
"Are being killed off by a hunter-killer android disguised as a Federation Trooper sent along specifically because the Federation knew they couldn't flip anyone in the unit that was sent to respond to the distress signal?" Samus asked, catching up. "Yeah, I can see why you might have a problem taking our word for it."
The women staggered back worriedly.
At that moment, a large mecha - by appearance, likely designed for moving the crates around - activated and began to attack, sending one of the large crates tumbling straight towards the woman. Acting quickly, Spike grabbed her and leapt to the ceiling, taking her to a safe distance and leaving Samus to combat the mecha, and its unidentifiable pilot in what looked like the armor the Federation troops were wearing.
Samus tensed up as she saw this. Apparently, the Deleter android was making its move. Charging her arm cannon, Samus prepared for combat. "Spike!" she ordered. "Do not come to my assist! Protect the civilian!"
"Understood, Mom!" Spike replied quickly.