//------------------------------// // M: Mother and Child // Story: Another Hatchling // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Eventually, Rainbow Dash was the first to speak up. "That...was...awesome!" she squealed out, breaking the stunned silence. "I had no idea you could fight like that!" "Neither did I," Samus murmured, completely stunned. "I...did I really do all that, Spike?" "You did," Spike confirmed. "It was...amazing. Though...I don't really understand my reaction. I mean, you'd fought to protect me plenty of times before..." "I do," Fluttershy replied quietly. As all eyes turned to her, she ducked her head behind her mane. "Well...I think I do anyway..." "Go on," Adam encouraged. "Well...not many reptile species keep their young in the nest after they hatch," she explained softly. "And those that do...the female won't re-enter her mating cycle as long as she's tending her young, no matter how long that is. So, umm, some males, well..." Her voice trailed off. "Will kill the infants to make the mother reenter her mating cycle," Adam offered. "Though that's more a trait I'm familiar with in wild mammals, especially big cats." Fluttershy nodded. "Well, the reason I bring up reptiles is that, when it happens with them and the mother reptile catches the male at it, well...she becomes especially vicious. With the big cats, driving the male off is enough. With reptiles, though...the mother won't let the attacking male escape. She'll drag him straight back to the nest and tear him apart, limb from limb - if they have limbs - right in front of the nestlings. In Equestria, this most commonly happens with cockatrices, as a rival male trying to kill the young is the only threat that a female cockatrice won't use her petrification gaze on...and the first thing she'll do is rip the male's eyes out and feed them to her young, before continuing to rip the offending male apart." She relaxed as she continued her lecture on the violent and terrifying behavior of the land's wild animals. "This generally results in an even stronger bond between mother and nestlings. Isn't nature fascinating?" "So...you're suggesting that might be part of instinctive dragon behavior?" Anthony asked. "And Spike's instincts saw Ridley as the enemy male trying to-" "Let's not finish that sentence so that I never have those mental images, thank you very much," Samus interrupted quickly. "I'll well admit to being open-minded when it comes to interspecies relationships - Spike, Gandrayda, Rarity, and whoever else springs to mind - but leave Ridley out of that equation, especially when it comes to me!" Discord burst into raucous laughter. "Oh, if you only could see the things that I see!" he teased, rolling his eyes briefly into the 34th etheric dimension. "I'm pretty sure we're all glad for the sake of our sanity that we can't," Cadence offered dryly. "Now where's the fun in being sane?" Discord teased. "We get more story, for one thing!" Pinkie suggested. As several gathered chuckled, Discord conjured more popcorn for everyone as all eyes turned back to Samus and Spike. Nodding, Samus continued. Samus carefully read the readouts of her suit until everything came up 'Condition Green'. The only things of concern were the Gravity Suit, Space Jump, and Screw Attack functionalities, which were currently undergoing internal repairs due to the overload. Once her Arm Cannon gave her the all clear, she rematerialized it. "Alright, let's go," she ordered Spike. "But...but what about Uncle Tony?" he asked worriedly. Samus winced. She'd been so caught up in the moment, she'd forgotten Anthony had been there. "Did you see where he went?" she asked. "N-no," Spike offered sadly. "I...I saw him get hit by Ridley's tail, but then I lost track of him..." Samus frowned under her face plate. "...then he either landed in the lava below - in which case we've already done the only thing we could for him by killing Ridley - or he didn't, in which case he's fine somewhere." She put her hand to her helmet for her communicator. "Adam, do you have a readout on Anthony's bio scans?" When there was no response, she tweaked her systems to boost the signal. "Adam? Are you there?" Spike swallowed nervously. "So...no sign of Anthony...and no sign of Adam?" "The Deleter might have gone after Adam once it realized he was coordinating us," Samus postulated. "Or...it might have gone after Adam because...it already got everyone else..." Spike swallowed. "Then..." "Then whether Anthony or Adam are alive or not, our priority has to be to track down and neutralize the Deleter Android," Samus stated firmly. "...how's your wing?" "Already healed," Spike replied, flexing his wing. "I...ate the one you tore off Ridley." Samus hesitated. "I'm...not sure how to feel about that..." "It's not like we're even the same species of dragon!" Spike countered petulantly. "And if it isn't cannibalism, meat is meat!" Samus thought about that for a time. "...want the rest of him?" she offered, turning towards the body...only to see how much damage she'd actually done. "Err...never mind, I guess there isn't that much there." Wow, she thought silently to herself. I...really lost it there, didn't I? She shivered, afraid of what this showed she was truly capable of when she stopped holding anything back. "Did you have to crush the skull?" Spike whined. "The brain's one of the tastiest parts!" Rolling her eyes, Samus playfully smacked the back of Spike's head with her armored hand before latching onto a grapple point to swing through the hole Ridley had blasted in the wall. "Without Adam's guidance, we had to plot our own course beyond that point," Samus continued. "So we fell back on our old skills, exploring any new area we could access with the abilities I had at my disposal. Super Missiles allowed us to access quite a bit right at first, but we quickly decided to leave Sector 3. When we got out of the elevator, however, we spotted someone in Federation Trooper armor taking the elevator to Sector One. Since we couldn't identify them, we went after them...on the assumption it was the Deleter."