//------------------------------//
// Final Battle: Battle in Darkness 
// Story: Another Hatchling 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	With the shield in place behind them, Samus and Spike immediately leapt into the fray.  Spike took to the air, focusing on the Hunter Para-spites, keeping them from aiding their brethren on the ground as Samus dealt with them.  While Spike's combat tactics against flying opponents had not had to change much beyond the diving claw strike, the breath attack, or the lunging bite or tail strike, Samus' own combat tactics had changed drastically with the new abilities her mind dive had unlocked.

Rather than keeping her distance and blasting with superior firepower as she once had, she instead closed with large groups, using her magic based weapons and arm cannon shots to disorient and stun.  Then she locked onto the most stunned of the group she'd targeted and closed before they could recover.  Disabling her arm cannon, she plunged her hand into its body to drain it of its energy with her Predation.  Then, once she'd absorbed enough energy to leave it limp, she proceeded to use it as a bludgeon against the others in the group before combining her Grapple Beam and Charge Beam with her Predation to suck up the residual energy, Phazon, and X parasites left behind.  Admittedly, this often left her open to attacks from behind, but her enhanced sense of her surroundings from her awakened Metroid aspects allowed her to feel the attacks coming, and her favorite counter attack was to backflip over the attack, landing astride the creature's back and plunge her hand into the back of its head, using electrical energy to manipulate its neural functions to charge it into several others.

While these combined strategies didn't protect her completely from taking damage, the amount of energy she recovered from her Predation more than made up for it, not only completely refilling her energy stores and shield energy but also replenishing her ammunition.  Each charge was a careful balance of risk/reward...but with no friendlies in her combat zone, it quickly proved effective.

The Para-spites, for their part, had a hard time adapting to Samus' attack patterns, having obviously been prepped for her normal combat patterns from previous missions.  The Hunters fighting Spike, however, had more luck, as Spike's unchanged tactics left him somewhat predictable even if he was a powerhouse.  Beyond that, his armor was still limiting his strength to local levels to avoid damaging the world around him.  More and more he was forced to retreat.

But then help came from an unexpected source as a lance of violet magic tore through a Hunter Para-spite that was trying to ensnare his wings from behind.





"Twilight, what are you doing?" Anthony demanded in shock as she pulled back from a window, smoke coming off her horn from the force of her spell.

"Helping my son!" Twilight snapped back.  "I may not be able to go out there to fight with him because of the X and Ing, but I can at least fire a few shots from some of the windows to get them off his back!"

"Not a bad idea," Adam spoke up.  "If nothing else, if we can strike back, we can boost some morale.  Ridley would not have gone to such lengths to make so many afraid without reason."

"You are correct," Luna spoke up.  "Clearly, Ridley is wielding a great deal of Dark Magic, which feeds on fear and hatred.  The more afraid we are, the stronger he becomes."

"Then let's counter that fear," Adam insisted.  "Ghor, Gandrayda, I need you two to oversee positioning anyone here who can launch an energy based projectile - lasers or otherwise - to the windows of the castle.  Anyone who can't project magical energy like that, lend your strength to Shining to keep the shield strong and unidirectional.  Rundus, get anyone who can't throw energy to the roof and make enough solid projectiles for them to throw."

Celestia stepped up beside him, over her initial shock of such an invasion to take her place as leader.  "Anyone with any skills handling foals, report to Cadence to oversee tending to those we have here.  Do everything possible to keep them happy.  Get them singing if you can.  Applejack, get into the kitchen and see to it we have enough food for every civilian and defender.  If this siege becomes protracted, we're going to need to keep everyone's strength up."

"Adam," Luna spoke up.  "The X parasites...has anything other than Metroids been discovered to be lethal to them?"

"Nothing safe for use around living things," Adam admitted.  "What specifically are you looking for?"

"Environmental factors," Luna clarified.

"If an X host or mimic is exposed to temperatures in excess of 5000 degrees Celsius, the virus will also be incinerated," Adam explained.  "However, creating such temperatures is not easy.  Even heat plasma tech only hits 3000."

"Dragonlord Ember," Luna spoke up quickly.  "Can any of your dragons generate temperatures in that range with their flame breath reliably?"

"A few," Ember admitted.  "My father among them, but-"

"Put the scepter to the Map," Luna stated quickly.  "You'll be able to reach a specific dragon from here that way.  Have your father gather any dragons strong enough to do that and have them attack the rear of the marching horde with fire only, and to peel off if they start to overheat.  Make sure some find where the horde is originating from, wherever the Ing and X are merging before marching, and eliminate it.  In all likelihood, either a Phazon core or Phazon source will be there as well, and dragons of this world can consume it without harm."

"On it!" Ember confirmed immediately, not even considering for the moment that she was taking orders from ponies.

"Pinkie Pie," Celestia spoke up, "you have capabilities that do not exactly define well to understandable limits.  So I give you free reign.  Do whatever you think you can to assist without putting yourself in danger."

"Maybe Discord could help me?" Pinkie asked curiously.

"I have already done all I am physically capable of doing to aid in this situation," Discord spoke up flatly.  "As we don't have time for the explanation, I suggest you all do what you can and quiz me if we get out of this alive."

While not the hoped for response, Adam quickly saw the logic of it.  "Let's get to work then, people!" he insisted, shifting to around the table.  Once Ember had finished communicating with Torch, it shifted to show a zoomed in image of Ponyville, and all those fighting.

This was going to be rough.





Samus looked up as she noticed a sharp decrease in the number of hostiles she was facing.  The assist that had arrived from the Castle had come at a good time for her and Spike, allowing them to take down the large assaulting groups.  However, for some reason Samus now found herself facing only a few straggling groups of Para-spites, with no seemingly endless stream of backup and no Warrior Para-spites among them.  Looking to the sky, she saw that Spike was still dealing with large groups of Hunter Para-spites, and decided it would be best for her to assist him now.

Before she could act on that decision, however, a familiar blue-white blast struck the ground in front of her, and Samus looked down to find herself, once more, face to face...with herself.