Aether: Reflections
"Why couldst thou not advance in Dark Aether further?" Luna inquired curiously as Samus and Spike took a break from the story to have a drink.
Spike shrugged. "Because the only real sure fire way to travel in Dark Aether is either to phase through walls or fly," he explained. "And my energy shields wouldn't last long enough for me to fly...at that point."
"At that point?' Twilight asked eagerly.
"Oh! Did you figure out a way to adapt to Dark Aether?" Rainbow asked eagerly.
"Indeed I did," Spike replied. "Oddly enough, thanks to the Space Pirates..."
Once out in the open again, Spike took to the air to spy out a path for Samus. "Mom, I think I've spotted a Pirate Base in the region," he stated calmly. "Quite a bit of activity, but not much in the way of defenses. It kinda looks like the Ing have been attacking them, too."
"Then there's probably a rift somewhere in their base," Samus pointed out. "Whether naturally occurring or a result of frequent Ing incursions."
"Not to mention they probably have a stash of Phazon I can raid," Spike pointed out.
Samus sighed. "Spike, even if you can eat Phazon without negative effects, I think you should avoid eating it at every opportunity. You don't want to become dependent on it-"
"I was actually thinking I could take a canister or two to Dark Aether and eat it there," Spike pointed out. "Would probably jump start an adaption to the atmosphere...especially if I shut down the shielding briefly while I eat. U-Mos taught me how to do that for a reason."
"Fair point," Samus allowed.
Before long, Samus reached the Space Pirate base. "Wow," she muttered into her comm. "You weren't kidding about it having taken a beating."
The place was in shambles. The outer wall had a massive hole in it, providing her with easy entry. There were partially damaged power stations in plain sight, and only two defense turrets that she could see. What energy based defense fields were in play looked like they'd fail at any moment, and no vehicles of any sort in sight.
It wasn't long before a Pirate spotted Samus. However, before he could sound the alarm, Spike struck from above like a thunderbolt, crushing the Pirate's skull before he could utter a sound. Unfortunately, his swift movement had brought down an unarmed Skiff carrying other Pirates, and they sounded the alarm. Other Pirates raced out to leap into the heavy defense turrets, aiming for Spike.
"Spike, watch out-" Samus called out, but her voice caught in her throat as she was given a brief demonstration of just how strong dragons were, even when not at peak efficiency.
Leaping from his first kill, Spike seized the skiff by its engines, crushing the vents with his claws and causing it to lose altitude. Bracing his hind claws against the wall of the fortress, he spun and flexed, hurling the damaged skiff into the defense turrets, taking them out. His lashing tail also caught several Space Pirates in the chest, sending them flying into the wall and discharging their weapons, which caused other docked skiffs to land on them.
"Show off," Samus grunted as other Pirates warped in. Leveling her arm cannon, she went into a strafing run, drawing fire as she raced along the ground. She managed to take one down with regular shots, sending missiles after the second. Picking up a piece of sharp edged shrapnel from the ground, she spun and hurled it, catching the third in the head with it, dropping it instantly. She rolled out of the spinning leap back to her feet, arm cannon braced as she searched for more targets.
"Now who's the show off?" Spike joked. "Looks like there's two ways in...and my flame breath can open the white energy shield on the upper door."
Samus chuckled. "You take the high road, I'll take the low road..."
"And I'll get to Scotland afore ye do!" Spike replied in a singsong voice.
Samus rolled her eyes. "You spent too much time with Anthony," Samus chided.
"Anthony?" Fluttershy asked curiously.
"A friend from my days before I became a bounty hunter," Samus explained. "When I first rejoined the Federation, I enlisted. Anthony Higgs was one of my squad mates. He was...something of a big brother to me. We kept in touch on occasion even after I became a bounty hunter." She hesitated. "He...was also the first one I contacted for advice on how to handle Spike."
"I skipped over those parts of the logs," Spike explained. "Most weren't all that interesting, and the bits that were...well, I didn't think Uncle Tony's drinking songs were entirely appropriate for an all female audience."
"He taught you his...never mind," Samus grumbled.
"Heh, sounds like my kinda guy," Rainbow stated with a wide grin. "Any chance he'll swing by?"
"Unlikely," Samus pointed out. "We're so far outside of Federation Space this world isn't even charted. It isn't even on any old Chozo starmaps."
"What if he had a written invitation?" Discord asked. "He sounds like my kind of guy, too."
Samus rolled her eyes. "Maybe," she allowed.
"So...can we get back to the story?" Pinkie asked eagerly.
Chuckling, Samus and Spike continued.
As Samus went in through the lower level, she was forced to go under the floor, since the door was sealed with a barrier that required a weapon she lacked. Once in, she saw several pirates getting ready to enter a portal to Dark Aether. The Pirates apparently had a way of opening those portals without the gates constructed by the Luminoth.
Before too many of the Pirates went through, however, Spike appeared on the upper floor and roasted them with his high intensity flame breath, leaving crispy corpses behind. The room was completely clear - and unfortunately, the portal closed - by the time Samus came up out of the grated floors.
Unfortunately, Spike's weapons fire had triggered the automatic closing of blast doors on one side of the room. After gathering intel from the Space Pirate computer logs, the pair continued to the other side to seek a way further in.
Partway around a corner, the dark figure they encountered on their very first trip to Dark Aether sealed the gates in front of them. It stayed just long enough to be recognized before floating off at a rapid gait.
Entering a control room, they were able to disable the alarms, causing the blast doors to open, locking them open in the process. Further along the path, the pair found a Metroid Power Station. Finding nothing of interest at that point, they continued onward.
At one point, the pair had to pass through a very narrow set of passages blocked by lasers. Spike was able to skrunch himself down just enough to go straight through, but he had to wait for Samus to move around the outside to shut down the lasers blocking the path. Once out, he shivered. "Not doing that again," he avowed firmly.
Shortly thereafter, they reached a Phazon processing plant...where Dark Samus was sucking up all the Phazon. Samus and Spike faced off against the dark being, all three circling like wolves.
Dark Samus was the first to attack, firing off Phazon powered projectiles. Samus did her best to avoid them, and Spike discovered that - even if he wasn't vulnerable to their radiation - the hard Phazon energy still hurt if it hit him. Also, Dark Samus seemed adept at reading his movements, and was able to dodge out of the way of his flame breath before he released it, spotting the times when he inhaled to build his flame. The way Dark Samus floated around to fight also made locking on difficult for Samus.
Spike quickly devised an alternative plan, however. Taking the pain of a few Phazon shots, he charged forward, grabbing hold of Dark Samus by her arm cannon and slamming her against a nearby empty Phazon core. As Dark Samus struggled to break free, Samus landed a few good hits with missiles and charged Power Beam shots. Spike was forced to release the figure when it unleashed a wave of Phazon energy from its entire body, but it was a viable tactic.
At that point, Samus developed an idea of her own. Spike was fast enough to keep up with Dark Samus' movements, but his shots were too obvious to hit. He was also stronger than he looked...
When Spike next passed by her in charging Dark Samus, Samus leapt onto his back, gripping the base of his neck with her armored legs. "Keep your head low," she instructed, leveling her arm cannon and locking onto Dark Samus.
The combination proved effective, as Spike could pursue Dark Samus at the figure's own rate of evasion, and react to its dodges much faster than Samus herself. By watching his eyes, Samus was able to land numerous good hits, enough to make the creature disperse into Phazon.
After the battle, Spike looked around. "...dammit!" he cursed. "That thing ate all the unprocessed Phazon! There's nothing left but scent!" He pouted as his stomach gurgled.
"It's not that funny!" Spike complained as the surrounding mares plus draconeques burst into peals of laughter. Grumbling, he stuffed a handful of gems in his mouth.
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It's kinda funny...
I'm wondering, do the others KNOW what dark samus is (Metroid prime reborn), or is she still simply a dark, mysterious figure to them?
6302116
It was explained in a between flashback scene in the crystal castle during the chapter where Dark Samus first appeared in the flashback. That was back before the chapter where Spike was in such bad shape.
6302136 You sure about that? I looked for that scene, but all I saw was an explanation of what Dark AETHER was. I didn't see a mention of Dark Samus.
6302167
Dammit! I coulda sworn I covered that already somewhere in the story...
...guess I'll just have to stick it in the start of the next chapter...*grumble grumble*
6302116 Still just a dark mysterious being.
Misspelled 'Draconequus' there at the end.
6302187 Nah, I say either leave the ponies guessing until Dark Samus round 2 or 3/4 (since they are the same fight), or have Dash or Scoots correctly guess what Dark Samus is due to their Genre Savvy-ness.
6302390
I meant more along the lines of...
Cue explanation.
Higgs & Uncle Tony's drinking songs?
Ok Pinks needs to use her wierd dimension thing to bring those guys to have a bar night with Rd, Aj, discord, and Luna.
Cool chapter and we look forward to the next.
6302514
'Uncle Tony' is Anthony Higgs.
In canon, the only member of Adam Malkovich's squad to survive the Bottleship mission of Other M.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
were not even close to it yet but I getting ready for hyper mode spike
Well, they have to have SOME use.
Might work, bit risky, but...
*Amused giggle.*
The one part of Other M that DIDN'T suck.
Oh god, those 2 together? That wouldn't end well...
Never change, Spike.
Poor Spike, I almost feel sorry for the next edible baddy, he's going to chow down on them. And Anthony needs to come to Equestria ASAP, he'll have a blast drinking with the ponies, Samus, and Spike.
To be honest, I would probably be pretty mad too.
Dark Samus attacks, Spike is worried about the leftovers.
Course.
I honestly always enjoy the first Dark Samus fight, mostly because I can tell when a missile won't be deflected.
So satisfying to see her knocked around by a missile hit.
If you don't include metroid 2 I will be very upset tatsurou.
Also, on the subject of metroid 2, have you heard about AM2R?
It stands for "another metroid 2 remake" and is quite possibly the best fanmade metroid game I've ever played, give it a look
6302521 Wonder if Pinkie will get pissed retroactively that they basically spoiled Anthony's survival, since thinking he died in battle with Ridley is a major plot point in Other M...
or
Missing another horzontal line.
Please tell me Spike's not going to end up with an eating disorder by then end of this.
i literally just made a fic by the name of Reflections and now im pissed someone else already used it
But sad is me heart until we meet again by the bonnie, bonnie banks o' loch Lomond!
8746450
Actually Dark Samus would be a Female because it is Metroid Prime.