12. Consolidation
[Back at the Castle of Friendship…]
The cool, rain-soaked air entered his nostrils when he took a deep breath, chilling his chest in such a way that further calmed him. Upon exhaling, Viridian sighed out blissfully, and then opened his eyes to the north, where Samus’ ship had disappeared in the clouds several hours earlier. The continued, torrential pummeling of the lush fields and the town ruins the Chozo could see further veiled the view towards the mountain on which Canterlot rested.
He squinted, and though the crystal awning-esque doorway that led out into one of the few towers high above the castle kept him nice and dry, it still didn’t keep the subtlest tinges of nervousness from his core. Even with his arms folded and crossed behind his back, his chest puffed out, and his head held high as he loomed over the landscape below…
…he still watched. And waited.
Samus would undoubtedly survive.
His duty to her and to the Chozo would be fulfilled.
Nevertheless, even his steely resolve and ages of training and discipline could not keep at bay the fringes of worry for the Hunter and her companions. After all, to him, she was as Chozo as any of the warriors he had trained and sent off.
And he always worried about all of them. Every single one.
A tiny bit of movement and noise from whence he came drew his attention back over his shoulder. His inquisitive look morphed into a familiar smirk at finding Spike joining him on the pseudo-balcony of sorts.
“Thought I might find you here,” said the drake, who then took his place right next to Viridian.
An onlooker would still note the considerable size difference between the middle-aged Chozo Warrior and the already quite tall dragon.
“Ah, Spike!” he greeted, beckoning him all the while. “Perhaps I might’ve found a rather… preferred spot of your Castle. I certainly hope you don’t mind,” he smirked.
And then followed up with: “And that look on your face tells me you have something on your mind, young one.”
He watched as Spike smirked knowingly. Ever since Viridian was graciously taken in by Spike and Twilight, the young drake had always cautiously approached him with various questions about him, the Chozo’s existence, or history of the planet that he had been only modestly privy to. Twilight had similar, and many more orders of magnitude of questions of the same variety.
Spike occasionally surprised him though.
“Heh I don’t mind at all! And well, yes I… do have something on my mind,” said the drake, glancing up at Viridian, and the Chozo noticed the anxiousness—pure shyness in his face.
Viridian turned to face him fully, arms still crossed comfortably behind his back. He invited Spike’s thoughts with a soft smile.
“Very well! And what intrigues you today?”
“I…” Spike paused for a moment, and pursed his lips to marshal his thoughts. “Samus isn’t gonna be here a lot of the time when she’s out trying to find all the girls… hell, you might not be if she ever wants you to go with her and Twilight. I… I wanna be able to better defend our home if it ever comes to it.
“I don’t wanna be… useless in this fight.”
Viridian cocked an eyebrow.
“Useless?” he questioned, shaking his head in some disbelief.
“Spike, I can assure you that you’re far from useless. From what I’ve been able to see, you’ve been Twilight’s anchor for a decade and a half… and likely longer. You’ve kept her grounded, alive, and sane. Call me old-fashioned but I believe this is quite the way away from ‘useless,’ wouldn’t you agree?”
Spike smiled a bit, and Viridian knew he was getting through to him. Regardless though, the drake had other words to add:
“Ever since Samus got here, she’s been doing the heavy lifting. Twilight’s also putting her own life in danger, as she always has with the rest of the girls.”
Viridian countered:
“Samus does what she does—in the way she does—because there is no one else who can. She is, in essence, a specialist. Surely you can understand that not everyone is suited to be a soldier… as not everyone is meant to be a farmer, nor a cook, nor sometimes, even a close friend and confidant,” said Viridian, and he punctuated his last words with a friendly pat on Spike’s shoulder.
He could see his features warming somewhat, even as his breath fogged up in front of his snout.
“Heh… that’s true. But I’d feel a little more competent if I was able to…” Spike shook his head.
“Bah, ponyfeathers I’ll just come out and ask it. You were a trainer, right? Of warriors?” he asked.
Viridian had an idea where this was going, but was more than happy to indulge him, regardless.
“The more ‘correct’ answer would be the overseer of all the training, equipping, and teaching of the warrior class of Tribe Viridus of the Chozo Empire. The short answer, however… is ‘yes.’”
“Could you teach me how to fight? Like you and Samus?” asked Spike.
Viridian stared at him for a few, silent moments as he let the sound of the falling rain around them make up the temporary void of conversation.
He considered his words carefully after studying the drake’s features for a moment—he could practically peer through those wide eyes and pick at the anxiousness with his hands. It was anxiousness for the health and well-being of his dearest friends, and dare he say, family… but in no way could he discern any wavering in the meaning of the words of his request, themselves.
He crossed his arms under his chest, and finally mustered:
“What you ask, specifically, is quite honestly not at all possible. Myself—Samus especially—have trained a literal lifetime to be where we are presently. To do battle in a Chozo manner is not merely just a fighting style, like a martial art.”
Viridian gestured out into the rainy expanse with an open palm.
“It is literally a way of life. A complete change in attitude and outlook toward your world and the universe at large would be necessary. The physical training is only a mere part of a much larger, mental tuning,” he noted, then shook his head lightly.
Though his explanation—in his opinion—was sufficient, Spike’s look only hardened in determination. Viridian felt that the drake wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer, per se.
He then drew his previous gesture toward the drake himself, and much-more understandingly added:
“However… if you’re more concerned with the ‘the fight,’ what you ask is not entirely unwarranted, nor is it impossible. While I cannot train you to fight like a Chozo Warrior per se… perhaps we can find better use for these armored scales and broad build of yours to be more at home in physical confrontation. Would this suffice, young one?”
Spike’s eyes lit up, and his smile sprouted.
“Yes! I totally understand what you said before… but really, if push comes to shove… I wanna make sure I can put myself between Twilight and the enemy. Tempest even, if need be.”
Viridian halfway cocked his head and leveled some caution.
“You speak humbly and nobly. But I must warn you … this will be no easy task, even when not considering would-be mental and fortitudinous changes to your spirit. Are you truly sure you’re prepared for what’s to come? What it would truly mean to put yourself in mortal danger?”
Not even a moment’s hesitation, nor a blink was forthcoming:
“Yes, Viridian. I am. Anything for Twilight and the girls. In whatever way I can help us more, I wanna be there for it.”
Viridian offered up a single, deep nod and an admiring smile… though he wasn’t sure if that was just his own admiration for Spike’s selflessness that was making him smile. A tingle of excitement and nostalgia played at the fringes of his spirit deep within his core… of a calling that he had always adored.
“So be it. Then in light of the circumstances, your training must begin immediately.”
It was now Spike’s turn to be surprised.
“Wait… you serious?”
Viridian pressed his fingertips together in front of him as he glided towards the threshold back into the castle. An extra pep in his step was barely perceptible as he turned on his heels to face back towards the stunned dragon.
“Quite so, Spike! We’re going to ensure you’re in the greatest shape and readiness for when Samus inevitably needs a partner for refresher training I was thinking of presenting to her… and I feel there’s much you two could learn from each other in that case.
He cocked a joking eyebrow.
“Unless… of course… you’re having second thoughts?”
Spike dismissed that outright and joined him in step… even if Viridian could see a visible hesitation at the thought of merely sparring with Samus.
“Hell no. I’m ready for this.”
“Hah! We shall see about that.”
[Back in Canterlot Castle…]
“Don’t keep me waiting~.”
And with a final, malevolent giggle, Tempest’s form evaporated right into the fogginess of the room, as if she were never there in the first place.
The seismic activity ceased, but Samus already had immediate questions:
“Okay… uhhh, what was she on about?” she asked.
But no one could give her a proper answer before the three ponies all gasped—a bright, aqua-blue shield had suddenly erected itself over the remnants of the Throne Room door.
Simultaneously, Samus’ motion tracker lit up with contacts.
“Ahhh hell…”
Then came the screams… the anguished, deafening screams that were much different to the Storm Beasts. The hellish screams sounded like people being tortured within an inch of their life, and carried a distinct ‘magical’ accent and rasp to them.
She drew her cannon over their surroundings, thrusting her hand out as the ponies coalesced around her, all looking for a source of the nightmarish sounds.
“Okay now I think it’s time to get in!” Samus announced.
“YUP! Come on!” Twilight parroted the order, and all the ponies digitized themselves into Samus one by one.
“Looks like we’ve got a fight on our hands.”
“Right… but we got what we came for. I don’t think we should stay here much longer!”
“Agreed. Let’s make this quick.”
Samus held her battle stance firmly, but took a few steps back towards the ‘relative’ safety of the rear of the throne room, if only to put some distance between her and the mass of contacts her motion tracker was displaying. She flicked her eyes back and forth from her motion tracker to the ceiling, which was still eclipsed somewhat by the dankness of their surroundings. Her eyes blinked faster to keep her eyes keen, honed, and much more moisturized for the battle to come.
All the while, she peered around for an escape.
She couldn’t shake the feeling deep in the pits of her core… but something about this coming fight was warning her to be extra vigilant. An uncharacteristic nervousness tugged at the fringes of her mind like a deep cold would nip at one’s exposed skin. The goosebumps were noticeable… even encased in her Suit.
Samus shook it off as best she could. There was really only one way to find out.
At that moment, the Hunter caught sight of the first enemy to enter the fray, breaking visibly through the fog as she noticed its inchoate, gelatinous-like mass on one of the throne room pillars. It seemed to be roughly the size of a pony in overall size.
Twilight noticed it too, and was kind enough to point out two more that Samus hadn’t fixated on via an HUD ping:
“There!”
Samus steeled her aim on her first target, her systems able to lock on appropriately, but she held her fire… for now. Merely observing the new arrivals, another, much more apparent scream of damnation and dismemberment sounded as her target began taking a much more coherent form:
Out of the navy-blue, semi-transparent mass of something came the nightmarishly distorted head of a pony… and then out came a hoof—a clawed hoof. And then another… and more identifiable features of an equine native of this planet began to form until it became a horrendously terrible mockery of what Samus knew to be a pony.
Black, soulless, endlessly deep eyes seemed to reflect the ambient light as it caught sight of Samus, and began ‘crawling’ down the throne room pillar. Tar-like tears—what Samus assumed were tears—streamed down its semi-transparent, bony cheeks. The others followed suit, and even more than Twilight had pointed out.
They all moved—crawled, spasmed, and twitched—like they had been grievously, mortally wounded. Seemingly paralyzed from the barely-coherent shape of their waist down, they dragged their bodies almost teasingly slowly towards the floor below.
The screaming became a cacophonous choir of demonic crying that further sent shivers up Samus’ spine, as memories of her encounters with Chozo Ghosts on Tallon IV remained fresh in her mind. She took another step back, but as she was prepared to ready her Scan Visor, the other girls had something to say as they all began voicing their words of utter disgust and horror:
“WHAT IS THAT, DARLING?!”
“OH MY CELESTIA… WHAT IS…”
“I DON’T KNOW—OH MY G—”
“Can you all PLEASE SHUT THE FUCK UP?! I’M TRYING TO…”
Samus was about to continue her tirade in a bid for silence as she continued her slow retreat, when Twilight came back suddenly with:
“Wait… those can’t be…”
The alicorn gasped, but in a manner more perplexed than truly afraid like she was moments prior.
“Wha—SOMNIA?! In the waking world?! H-How!?”
With the first step to identification complete, Samus retreated further back until she felt it would be unsafe to back herself up too close against the thrones themselves. With her cannon outstretched, by now she felt she put sufficient distance between her and the ‘Somnia…’ which continued spawning from the fog like steam from boiling water.
She got her grip on the situation and asked the appropriate questions:
“Worry about it later, Twi. You know how to kill these things? Can we even kill ‘em?”
“I… I don’t know! They’re literally dream entities. This is Luna’s domain!”
“Got it! I’ll take it from here!”
Samus prepped her Scan Visor, locked onto the Somnium that was closest to reaching the floor and scanned:
[Scanning…]
[Scan Complete]
[Creature: Somnium. Spectral, dream-walking entity and life form.]
[As Princess Luna patrols her domain of dreams, she does her duty of vanquishing as many nightmares of her subjects as she’s able. The cause of these nightmares are the manifestations of the fears—real or imagined—of the ponies themselves, which coalesce into the dream entities known as Somnia.
With Princess Luna now indisposed, many Somnia have been able to filter into the waking world in various locations where fear and despair have reigned supreme at the time of the Crisis. A Somnium will attempt to latch onto its victims to attack their mind, their dreams, and their fears directly. Once paralyzed in horror-induced insanity, the Somnium will shred its victim with its grotesque, taloned hooves.
Much like Chozo Ghosts, Somnia are immune to most elemental damage, with the difference that your Power Beam will likewise not faze them. As they are dream beings created from magic, they can only be destroyed with magic. Magically enhanced melee strikes and Beam Weapon attacks are necessary.]
“Good enough for me!” Samus declared as she dismissed her Scan Visor.
And at that moment, the first Somnium dropped to the floor, bellowing a challenge to her through the black void of its now-open mouth, and jagged, hazy teeth. Just to test the waters herself, Samus offered up a quick burst of her Power Beam… and just as her systems had mentioned, each of the three rounds phased right through the dream entity like bullets flying through a cloud.
The Somnium appeared to take that challenge, screamed something hellish, and launched itself into the air—straight at Samus via unknown means. It’s unnaturally clawed hooves led its charge.
Suddenly wide-eyed at its sheer speed, Samus didn’t have time to arm a Pulse missile, and instead relied on instinct to flare her magic via her hand. With some quick thought in constructing a simple spell, she thrust her hand forward, and a magical shockwave rippled outward straight in front of her, thrusting the Somnium away.
Her attention being focused on the first one that dared attack her allowed a second Somnium to get in closer, and latch itself to her leg with its spindly, clawed hoof. It bellowed out an anguished, malevolent cry up at her, but Samus was quick once more with her armored fist alight in magic. Like a lavender, transparent, doubly-armored fist, Samus threw her weight behind a downward pound to pummel the dream entity into the ground.
Samus smirked when her fist met ‘firmness’ and a crunch in her strike as she sought to punch straight through her enemy. The Somnium wailed out in hellish agony—mouth having grotesquely folded back on itself—as it fizzled away and disappeared for good…
…though Samus was suddenly privy to more and more contacts lighting up her motion tracker. Moreover, she watched as a horde of Somnia were not only crawling like zombies down the Throne Room pillars, but were seemingly spawning out of the ground-level fog like demons from hell.
Their screams were deafening to the point of sonic overload. Combined with frightened, desperate commentary from the girls, and Twilight telling the others to shut up, Samus could barely hear herself think right now.
And such a brief window of distraction—much like with the rest of her illustrious career—cost her dearly.
While Samus was able to fire off a few Pulse Missiles at a group of Somnia that attacked her piecemeal, one she had not noticed latched onto her thigh… and before she could react appropriately, it suddenly slithered around her back, over her head, and down to her visor… where Samus came literally face-to-face with the equine dream monstrosity.
Retreating where she could, Samus moved with a magically ignited hand to extricate the Somnium from her face… but didn’t react quick enough before it bellowed another, feral roar right into her face, shrouding the view through her visor in an abyssal void of blackness.
At an instant, Samus blinked and noticed things were not as they were. Her eyes focused not on a dank throne room on the planet of Equis… but the hellish remains of a human colony destroyed and set ablaze. All her senses suddenly shifted as well, and Samus was overtaken by familiar sounds, and the smell…
…the smell of burning buildings, trees, and even worse, charred and roasted flesh. And it wasn’t that these senses in and of themselves were familiar—she had arrived at human colonies too late after the Pirates had sacked them…
…but a few key details on the ground made these senses feel much closer to home.
A sudden, horrific, intimately familiar, reptilian shriek behind her drew her attention, and Samus pivoted on her feet. Her eyes widened at the sight of Ridley’s draconic form towering and looming over her, ready to strike out at her with his talons. Not questioning what she was seeing in the moment, Samus relied on pure instinct, pulling back and raising her cannon to engage him…
And yet, Samus only saw her bare arm and hand enter her field of view. Even more than that, her arm was much smaller. A lightning-quick once over of her form revealed the rest of her much, much younger body.
“SAMUS! NO!”
Her vision was immediately taken up by the sight of her mother throwing herself between her and Ridley, just as the Pirate Commander struck. Samus watched as Ridley’s talons sliced right through Virginia, completely obliterating and killing her instantly… so vividly, as if she had traveled back in time.
And though she couldn’t feel it, Samus could hear herself screaming, wailing murderously as she watched her mother die again, with her hot tears streaming down her already burning face.
A calm voice suddenly broke through the ether that Samus instantly recognized:
“Samus… focus!”
At that moment, the Hunter gasped, and she was yanked back into the reality of the present.
The previous sensory overload of the end of her childhood on K-2L abruptly ceased, replaced with those that she had become familiar with. Finding herself exactly where she had been a mere a second after the Somnium had attacked her face, Samus finished what she started.
She magically gripped the dream creature and—with a snarl—smashed it into the ground.
She could’ve sworn she heard and felt the crunching of bones as the Somnium shrilly cried out before fizzling out of existence. Building off of that, Samus channeled even more magic through her, and thrust a literal wall of magic outward in a wide arc. Her area counter instantly gave her more breathing room as all the Somnia in a few-foot radius of her were suddenly swept away and hurled backward like debris in a powerful storm.
So strong was the shockwave she generated that it actually ended up shredding more than a few of her enemies.
Stoically, Samus said:
“Thanks, Twi.”
“Anytime, Samus.”
Samus’ eyes dazzled in luminous lavender from under her visor all the while, and though she regained her previous footing and assumed her battle stance, the disorientation from the Somnium’s attack was… extreme. She still felt the extremities of her body trembling slightly, and her mind had yet to process just how vivid the hallucination was. She had had many dreams of that night… but none so realistic as that.
Incapacitated? Not in the slightest.
Unsettled? Entirely.
Nevertheless, with the extra breathing room and clarity of mind once more, Samus placed her hand atop her cannon and began a systematic advance. With each step, she sent off more and more pulse missiles with a resounding, magical crack of cannon fire. With the aid of her systems and supreme marksmanship, each one found their mark on any Somnia that entered her pre-determined ‘combat space’ of prioritizing targets. Any that broke through her defensive line, Samus was there to deal with them up close and personally with a powerful slug of her armored, magically-enhanced fist.
Twilight helped too, silently placing appropriate pings on her HUD to any enemies that spawned just outside Samus’ peripheral vision, but also took care to make sure that she wasn’t cluttering her vision.
Another Somnia broke through the torrent of missiles she sent forth, and sailed towards her Visor screaming like a soul of the damned. Samus intercepted it midair with her fist, obliterating it and ‘splattering’ its ethereal remains all over her visor… remains which merely fizzled away and melded back into the fogginess around her.
And with the much-more afforded breathing room at the tail-end of her counteroffensive, Samus allowed the more rational part of her mind to pull back into the forefront as she continued to pick off any more enemies.
Her missile ammunition counter was slowly but surely depleting itself.
“We need to get outta here, Twilight—I don’t have the ammo to hold off Luna’s entire army of literal dreams.”
“Yep! I’ve been trying to think and work on it while you fight…”
“Respectfully… please think faster!” Samus urged as another of her computer-guided missiles found its mark.
And that’s when she, only for the second time, noticed the aqua-blue magical barrier sealing them inside the throne room.
“Wait a minute…” Samus cut Twilight off before the alicorn could respond with direness in her snark.
“Can’t I punch through that barrier with Pulse Missiles? Or a magic fist? Anything magic?” she asked, flaring her fist in response to more Somnia that were ‘seeping’ out of the ground to square off with her.
The horrific chorus of tortured ponies never ceased all the while.
Twilight shouted her answer over the commotion:
“No! That barrier’s made of arcane Lunar Magic. Without Luna here I’d need weeks to break it, even on my own!”
Samus shot two more out of the air that attempted to lunge at her… as well as one more Somnium that managed to break through to latch onto her leg. She wasn’t falling for that a second time. Even so, more and more Somnia were spawning out of literal thin air faster than she could vanquish them…
…and her magical endurance, not to mention her ammunition supply, still did not become infinite after the last couple of minutes.
Samus’ tone brooked zero argument as to their situation, and despite the occasional whimpers and gasps from Fluttershy and Rarity, they did well to keep as quiet as possible through her and Twilight’s exchanges:
“That’s a great story, Twi… but we still need an exit. Now.”
“I know! I know! But… oh this is bad, but we really don’t have any other option.”
“What is it?”
“Crash course in Flash Teleportation! I just hope your suit does the heavy lifting again…”
Samus was able to process her suggestion for a couple seconds to fend off another Somnium that charged her, screaming. There were no routes up and out of the room that she could identify, and even if there was salvation beyond the hazy veil… Samus didn’t exactly want to pass through said veil that was actively spawning her enemy.
There really was only one answer to Twilight’s suggestion:
“It’s the best we’ve got. Guide me—what do I do?”
Twilight’s instructions, though necessarily curt, were halfway familiar:
“Center yourself…”
Samus didn’t get the chance at first when she had to continue her work, needing to cede some ground to the horde of Somnia trickling in from the cracks in the stone floor.
“Center yourself. Imagine—feel—yourself as if you’re walking through the magical realm to your destination. The closer it is, the easier. Visualize as best you can! The more direct your line of travel, the better!”
As good as it’s gonna get!
Samus bounded backward as another group of Somnia descended upon her, and under no circumstance was she gonna let them touch her this time. Heels over head, she gracefully landed on her feet, flared her hand in fiery magic, and loosed another ripple in the magical realm. Like a single, destructive tsunami wave, the wall of magic was successful in thrusting her enemy back, clearing her personal space and shredding the Somnia that had dared ventured too close…
…though at a cost. Samus could already feel the makings of a headache deep within her mind. The kind of headache that couldn’t be remedied with an intravenous painkiller injection.
Nevertheless, the Hunter cleared her head as best she could and channeled the same state of mind she had become more and more in-tune with… more than she had normally, through her training. All the while, she selected Rarity’s Element within the ‘Elemental Matrix’ on her HUD.
All the wailing and screeching around her… the horrors of those howls that tore at her humanoid, visceral, ancestral fear of the dark and unknown had been muzzled, muffled…
…and then, silenced.
The calm, sensory blackout had returned to her mind, and despite her best judgment, nor any exhortation from Twilight, she closed her light-flared eyes on her own accord. She trusted Twilight to call to her if the situation in the waking world changed drastically in the next few seconds.
As she found herself within the depths of her own senses, knee-deep in the magical realm, Samus began visualizing the picture of her surroundings. She manifested a simple framework of her positioning, and what helped her along was the similar manifestation of the bright, pulsing, arcane magical barrier that kept her holed up in the Throne Room.
And within her simulated environment, Samus took her first, tentative steps forward, walking straight through the magical realm. Each step she took seemed to echo multiple times off the edges of her sound-muddled mind, and in what fractional bit of time that seemed to pass, she felt her feet carry her further….
…and further until she walked straight through the barrier as if it was merely a mirage, finding herself on the other side.
At that moment, Samus felt as if someone—or something—was physically ‘grabbing’ her mind. Being pulled from her trance-like state, she instantly found herself yanked forward from her previous position in the Throne Room. In a literal flash of bright, lavender magic, she found herself propelled. A fleeting moment later as the flash had dissipated, Samus gasped as she felt the familiar feeling of de—and re—materializing almost identically to how she felt on Aether.
Nevertheless, finding her footing once more, she stumbled… incredibly disoriented. Even so, she realized her surroundings had changed at the same instant, and found herself on the other side of the barrier. The Somnia therein had all turned to face her from beyond the veil.
Samus’ eyes widened through her deep breathing. She had done it successfully—or at least mostly, considering she couldn’t discern any part of her that was missing or had been left back in the throne room. Maybe she was getting better at this.
Her heavy breathing continued nonetheless.
“Heh… whoa…”
Twilight seemed just as surprised as her:
“I uhh… Y-You got it! Celestia, you got it, Samus oh my gosh!”
The others were also quick to offer their surprised praise:
“O-On your first try, Samus!” Fluttershy stated.
“Oh my! Darling!” exclaimed Rarity.
The howls of the damned cut through any attempt to revel in and process what she had just accomplished. The Somnia began to filter and seep through the walls like smoke through the cracks… out of the throne room in which they had attempted to trap her, they would clearly not give up their prey so easily.
Samus took a few steps back as she witnessed the pony-like heads reform grotesquely through the cracks and seams of the stone walls, only to shriek in a cacophonous chorus so goddamn loud that might as well have shaken the foundations of Canterlot.
Time to go!
Samus did not feel the need to add any more commentary to their situation, instead opting to turn on her heels and sprint down the hall, plotting her way back to the entrance foyer all the while.
The Somnia still trailed her regardless, and Samus was getting more adept at blocking out some of the actual terrified screams of Rarity and Fluttershy. She couldn’t exactly blame them though, as the sight of the dream entities manifesting on the ceiling and walls as Samus passed by, was not something one would forget.
The Hunter still kept her focus pinpoint on one objective: They needed to leave. The Castle and Canterlot, immediately.
Skidding on her boots, Samus hung a sharp right turn into another hall that Twilight had marked right on time, and continued sprinting forward. She bounded over the familiar corpses of the Space Pirates that were slain by those mysterious ‘spectral entities’ that were now presently hunting her down. It would be a cold day in hell before she met the same fate, though, as Samus resolutely jumped forward, bounded off the side wall, and launched herself at an angle into the foyer.
Channeling her acrobatic acuity, Samus then bounded off the side of a crumbling pillar—which sent the unmaintained support structure falling apart—and finally dropped to the ground in morph-ball form for the extra aerodynamic boost out the Castle doors.
Only once she was bathed in the light of Canterlot through the rainy, overcast veil above did she return to her standing form, sprinting the rest of the way across the bridge. The rain swept over her visor, and her hot, fast breathing had begun to fog up the internals of her HUD before her environmental controllers took effect.
At that point, Samus realized that she wasn’t being tailed anymore.
She dropped into a slide, skidding on her leg and sending a few sparks flying as she ceased movement in a hunkered, almost-prone position with her cannon aimed straight back at the castle doors through the light rain haze over the bridge.
No more noise. No more shrieks nor howls. Not even a sighting, as if the Somnia weren’t even there, having vanished like the literal ghastly figures they were. But as Samus had figured based on her scan data and what Twilight had managed to tell her, she had a hunch they wouldn’t follow her: they were bound to the Castle by whatever ‘Arcane Magic’ Luna was able to conjure.
But based on her scan data, that didn’t mean she couldn’t possibly find them elsewhere.
With Rarity now in tow, they were relatively safe… for now.
Samus slowed her breathing, and listened to the rain just fall on her armor in gentle rhythm of metallic ‘tinks,’ all while Twilight finally muttered:
“Are… are they gone? Did they follow?”
Samus shook her head, keeping her tone low all the same as she continued to eye the still-imposing, ominous entrance to the castle.
“I don’t think so… nothing on Motion Tracker, my ship’s detected nothing on radar, and I can’t see shit. I think we’re in the clear.”
Everyone’s relief was palpable.
“Whew!” Twilight exclaimed. “Great fighting and maneuvering as always, Samus. We really couldn’t do this without you… thank you again.”
Fluttershy seemed extra giddy.
“Oh I can’t wait to give you a big hug, Samus!”
Rarity added onto that note:
“Quite! Is it too early to properly thank you now, Samus?”
Twilight giggled while the Hunter rolled her eyes.
“Let’s wait until we get back to Ponyville, girls,” replied Samus… and that’s when she also understood that the word ‘girls’ had easily rolled off her tongue.
Nothing about it felt wrong to say in the slightest… and a half-second of emotionless processing gave way into a simple, lopsided smirk and an internal shrug. She got back to her feet all the while.
Tea or coffee back at the Ponyville Castle sounds amazing right now…
…wait…
…sound.
Samus suddenly noticed that other than the rain striking her armor and the occasional rapport of thunder in the clouds, absolutely nothing sounded. It was quiet.
And for a ruined city that was previously rife with gunfire and battle? Much, much too quiet.
Samus went stiff again, dropping back into battle stance as Twilight appeared to catch on at the same time:
“Wait… are the Space Pirates still here?!”
Their thoughts were interrupted—and answered—when four teleportation spells exploded around Samus: two directly in front of her, and two behind on the bridge from whence she came. The city had suddenly come alive as four Storm Beast unicorns emerged from the magical realm with feral screeches… with countless dozens more echoing off the ghastly ruins from deeper within Canterlot.
Samus reacted immediately, and unleashed a salvo of quick Power Beam rounds straight into the head and chest of the right-most unicorn in front of her… and then threw herself into a steadfast advance against the second unicorn with two Pulse Missiles. Her first foe had dropped limply to the rainy stone beneath it before it could even react.
The second one couldn’t stem the tide of the magically enhanced ammunition, and its attempt at erecting a shield to defend itself was token at best—Samus’ shots pierced straight through, and made short, bloody work of the bodily integrity of the second Storm Beast unicorn.
Just as she had hoped, a path was cleared the way she had arrived… and she literally jumped at the opening. A quick glance backward greeted her with a rather horrifying sight: the other two Storm Beasts that had sought to ambush her had been overrun—and were in the process of being sliced up by—Somnia, who still held reign over the bridge.
Sprinting back down the street whence she came, Samus was greeted by a sudden, magical roadblock when four more Unicorns teleported into existence right into her path… along with several Earth Pony variants having lined the low tops of the buildings flanking her path. Their screams rang out with Tempest’s own fury seeming to echo off their howls for bloodlust and battle.
Samus computed her response on the spot. She hadn’t been sprinting fast, nor long enough to engage her Speed Booster to plow right through the sudden, organic barrier. It would in no way be expedient to their departure to have a fight in the middle of a now-busy Canterlot street. She didn’t even know for sure if the Space Pirates had truly been cleared out, either.
Twilight was a bit concerned at the lack of Samus’ immediate reaction… as well as the fact that she was still running them towards the enemy. Especially so as magical fire erupted around her, with Samus taking a couple hits to her shielding as a result.
“Samus… SAMUS?! What’re you—”
Samus answered with Rarity’s Element still diligently selected in the matrix, and ‘simply’ flash teleported right behind the roadblock. What was different this time was exiting the magical realm in Morph Ball form, and laying a trio of bombs behind her to help cover their escape.
She felt a sudden pulsing deep within her head, once more. It left as soon as she had finished the teleport, and reminded her of the consistent, low-level headache she was sporting—nothing debilitating but it wasn’t exactly comfortable. She could worry about it later.
Upon their detonation and employing the boost mechanism to propel her fast away for extra measure, Samus phased back into her standing form. She rode the literal wake of her Boost Ball energy to send her straight into an even faster sprint, diligently following the urban jungle path that had been mapped out by her journey to infiltrate the city.
Samus continued to tune out the trio of voices in her head, only isolating Twilight’s if she absolutely needed to… though the impacts of magical bursts and spells barely missing her took up the majority of her peripheral sense. The fire and echoing yells around her ceased when she hung a hard right, taking her off Main Street and into the previous alleyways that she had traversed to avoid this kind of attention in the first place.
The straightaway allowed her to cycle her legs as fast as her Suit would allow them, ready to engage the speed booster to speed up this process… though her Map’s choice in path didn’t hide her from the enemies around her: her motion tracker continued to light up red as she still held visible contact of Storm Beasts jeering or firing down at her from the rooftops.
Three of them dared to try and jump down onto her, but at that moment her Speed Booster was primed, and she engaged it without prejudice.
One of the unicorns missed her entirely, and attempted to use its magic to hold Samus in place, though the attempt was swept aside by the raw kinetic and potential energy swelling within her.
The other two Earth Ponies that dared stand in her way weren’t so lucky, and she tore straight through them, like a transport craft through unfortunate wildlife in its path.
The startled, horrified screeches of everyone in her head at the sight of bloody, chunky remains on her visor being hastily burned away by the Booster Engine were sheer indication of its raw power.
With the Booster Engine also doing most of the work in cycling her legs, Samus was able to take the smallest of breaks to catch her breath. Such relief was short-lived, however, when her bright, incomprehensibly fast form just made it to the periphery of the Plaza where she once had to hide from passing a Storm Beast pack. Her systems were quick to dispel any notion of an easy exit:
[Warning!]
[Space Pirate IFFs detected en route to Canterlot. Pirate reinforcements inbound.]
Samus’ glare alone could probably shatter the inside of her visor.
“Are you shitting me right now…!?”
Samus disengaged her Speed Booster and skidded to another wet stop, stooping low to a knee and Shying Away to contemplate her options.
[Camouflage Active]
Twilight, who had been diligently monitoring the developments, offered up her rapidfire thoughts amongst the incessant, countless demonic cries of the legions of Storm Beasts searching for her throughout the city:
“Samus, there’s no point in being stealthy now. With the Pirates on their way, we need to get you specifically outta here!”
Samus brought up her map, and kept an estimated arrival time for when the Pirates would be on top of her: a few minutes at best.
“What do you suggest? Straight line from here to my ship is literally Main Street again, and out the blocked front gates. Shit’ll be swarming with ‘em either way.”
Samus could hear the shrug in Twilight’s voice.
“It’s not really elegant or the most ideal… but I don’t think there’s another better option that puts a premium on time!”
Samus knew she was right. With that, it looked like it would be a slugfest of an exfiltration, to her.
“Fair enough! Let’s go!”
Samus steeled herself, and as expected, the moment she dropped the Active Camouflage and her magical signature returned, every Storm Beast within a short radius of her began screaming bloody murder. Right on cue, as Samus made to start sprinting back towards Main Street, she was greeted with a quartet of unicorns with their horns all conspicuously lit… but not taking shots at her nor casting any notable spells despite being in perfect range to do so.
Samus got the answer to her implicit question before she could even break the encirclement by way of an ominous, crackling, crumbling rumble. Twilight shrilly alerted with an aggressive ping to her HUD:
“WATCH OUT, SAMUS!”
The Hunter noticed it at the exact same time: an entire several-story building—decrepit and derelict through consistent rain, non-upkeep, and time—was being brought down right on top of her.
Eyes wide, Samus dove wide in any attempt to evade the massive collapse of an entire goddamn edifice onto her. It wasn’t enough—it wouldn’t be enough, and so in a split moment of thinking, Samus engaged another Flash Teleport, doing her best to visualize placing herself well-out of range of the collapse.
She felt her thoughts flicker for the briefest of moments though… and that was all it took for the spell to misfire. Instead of finding herself merely beyond the range of the deliberate demolition, Samus found herself staring up at a swirling gray sky with rain falling upon her visor… and then feeling her stomach filter up into her esophagus when gravity willed her down from said sky, where she landed squarely on her back not more than a second later…
…on top of one of the many surrounding buildings.
Oh fuck—
“Misfire! You still need to keep extra focus, even if your Suit is doing the heavy lifting!” Twilight cautioned.
Samus silenced an earth pony Storm Beast right next to her—that seemed just as surprised as her teleportation misfire—with two Power Beam rounds to its chest. From there, she thrust herself back to her feet, shrugged off the sudden, acute bout of vertigo and disorientation, and uttered a familiar word to Twilight’s teachings:
“Right…”
She shook her head, noting how it was beginning to actually throb painfully, but nevertheless, she couldn’t stay on this roof. All attention was still completely on her, and a quick glance over the side of the building revealed a literal horde of Storm Beasts jeering up at her like a murderous mob. She could see the glow of horns being lit, and she had no desire to find out if they were going to bring this building down too, with her on top of it.
Samus glanced around, and the vantage point she now held gave her an excellent view of her progress thus far… and even more than that, eyeing southward, she could see the city’s perimeter wall in the near distance. Putting together a quick plan of action as she noted the Space Pirate’s approach, she figured she’d have more than enough time to do some roof-hopping with the help of a couple more Flash Teleports.
She leapt off the roof, finding her landing spot just in the middle of a slightly smaller, angled-roof of the next building with the extra boost from her Space Jump. All this served to do was draw more magical fire in her direction.
A sudden teleportation spell went off next to her—a Storm Beast Unicorn introduced itself to her intimately. Samus was long gone by then, courtesy of her own Flash Teleport.
Three consecutive such spells took her over three buildings that ran parallel to Main Street, and put her in prime position to roof-hop the remainder of the way to the Perimeter Wall. The veil of the torrential rain had dissipated entirely as she drew nearer and nearer to the literal, final hurdle to temporary safety.
Even as she drew closer though, the throbbing in her head became more and more pronounced. It didn’t just hurt anymore… it didn’t just feel like every capillary in her brain was stretching well-beyond its integrity.
She was beginning to hear the throbbing as well. As her breathing also took prominence in her head, the run and gun battle that she was waging—along with her hopping, space jumping, somersaulting, and teleporting from roof-to-roof—was beginning to muffle the ambience around her.
She knew it well… the audial distortion of firing off a few too many super missiles in quick succession, or standing next to Federation artillery guns for too long as they fired continuously.
Yet her mind remained steadfast in her current objective: get out of Canterlot. She even ignored Twilight’s rather impassioned words that were flowing over her ears… if she could even hear them clearly to act on them:
“Sam…
“…drawing… much magic!
“…down … gonna… self!”
Samus was practically ignoring enemies in her path, teleporting away each time to buy herself the extra milliseconds needed to escape the view of the incoming Space Pirate reinforcements. In Samus’ unexpectedly hyperventilating situation, Twilight could bitch at her all she wanted once they made it back to her ship.
She would’ve at least gotten them out alive… and still under the radar.
But as Samus used the roof of the closest building as a springboard for her final hurdle over the perimeter wall from whence she arrived… only then did Samus truly understand that she couldn’t ignore the problem forever.
Her neck stiffened mid-air as she initiated one final teleportation spell.
Only then, with the last bit of brain bandwidth that didn’t split her skull, did Samus extrapolate what Twilight was warning her of all this time.
After she had rematerialized, completed a full somersault over the wall and escaped the last grasps of the pursuing Storm Beasts, she properly felt her feet impact the rainy, muddy entrance road beneath her. Unlike any of the even worse jumps she had made, she felt the impact shoot up her legs, her spine, and then seem to swell her brain past the carrying capacity of her skull.
She felt her blood suddenly rush to her head as if she had stood up too quickly. Her vision went partially staticy.
Then, the deepest, sharpest pain within her head that she had ever felt suddenly lashed out at all her senses.
Samus screamed agonizingly.
All three of her ‘passengers’ cried out in unison:
“SAMUS!”
She caught a glimpse of her eyes flaring brightly in the reflection from behind her visor before her legs went limp. That sudden weakness and general numbness quickly spread to the rest of her body for a fraction of a second.
It was all that was needed.
Like a suddenly unstrung puppet mid-stride, Samus collapsed front-first onto the muddy ground just outside Canterlot’s entrance… still very much in the open despite the continued battering of the torrential rainfall.
Samus knew she didn’t black out for very long… her vision began clearing up—revealing a muddy, blurry, half-veiled view from inside her visor—while Twilight’s loud, pleading exhortations were still ongoing. Hell, despite the sudden, crippling weakness that had entered her body, she had come-to mid-word, and Samus could slowly feel her strength returning to her body.
She hadn’t the slightest as to what happened… yet the urgency in her mind was further pushing blood flow back to her limbs at a rapid pace. Nothing hurt to move, per se… but it had been a good, long while since Samus had pushed herself so hard that she not only collapsed, but felt like each of her limbs weighed as much as a Federation warship hull.
On top of… whatever the hell that was. She could worry about it later.
Samus groaned, and as she began regaining her bearings and slowly working up the strength to stand up again, Twilight’s words were blaring in her ears as clearly as her Suit’s System voice.
“Samus! Come on, filly… get up! Please! We need you to get up! The Pirates are gonna be right on top of us! Come on… Samus… you’re so close!”
“Y-Yeah… I’m here… fuck…”
“Samus! Are you alright?!”
“Debatable…”
“Oh thank Celestia! You were drawing way too much magic at one time for your endurance ability. I’m checking you over when we get back home… but now would be a very good time to leave!”
Samus braced her torso on her armored hand… then got to a single knee… and as her mental clarity and weakness rapidly began to retreat, she stood up on that one supporting leg and was finally able to stand up. She shook her head clear of any remaining mental haze—which only agitated her still-splitting headache—and did a quick once over of her body to find everything where it should’ve been.
And just like that, her physical weakness disappeared entirely. She launched into a full, if uneasy sprint back into the forested, overgrown entrance to the train tunnel. Even with this, she could tell that, in fact, her overzealousness with magic per Twilight had left some deep fatigue in her mind.
Samus lessened her jog as she entered into the train tunnel… and right then she could hear the gravelly rapport of Pirate Troop Carriers screaming overhead and heading deeper into Canterlot, proper. Samus didn’t wait to take the opening once the full wave of enemy ships passed over… and she eased her ship out of the tunnel before letting it drop off the side of the mountain to lose as much altitude as possible.
From there, Twilight silently plotted a course back to the Castle of Friendship, where Samus could effectively use the terrain and clouds for cover. As safe as they all were now, nopony spoke much. Everyone wordlessly felt that any celebration was best saved for when they all touched down safely in the Castle courtyard.
Samus was appreciative of the silence.
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OOOOOOH!
Really nice chapter. Good job.
By the omnissiah, it's glorious.
And my main drake Ridley makin' a short but noice appearance.
Damn! Samus pushed herself so hard she touched base with arcane burnout! That's a migraine that will not go away with a pair of Excedrine capsules…
Well that was a close call. Magical exhaustion sure is no joke especially in a life threatening situation.
Those Somnia however, with how they attack your psyche before physically attacking you, reminds me of the kind of enemies you encounter in Eternal Darkness.
Also that little intro between Viridus and Spike was sweet.
I think you meant Fluttershy.
11399225
Thanks for that! Fixed!
This is kinda what I was expecting when I saw that Samus was gonna have the Mane Six talking in her head.
Take notes, Other M!
Oooof, that got really dangerous really quick. That magical burnout was nearly the end.
Guessing you wanted to outdo the Umbrum in terms of spectral equines.
mlpforums.com/uploads/monthly_03_2016/post-27206-0-81413900-1459260764.jpg
Awesome chapter!
11399711
I'm a bit unfamiliar with Other M, is it because this was all mental while mental-Twilight's able to snap Samus out of it in time?
This was THE COOLEST
Halo has corrupted me I read this as Cortana's voice, now would be a very good time to leave!”
Think you meant "even at full power" or something similar.
Well that certainly feels like a video game escape sequence, for sure.
Oh good, they're fighting not cooperating.
-subway scene from Invincible intensifies-
I am loving this, the only downside I have with this story is that theres no next button yet lol top notch, as always Flammenwerfer!
Wondering if this takes place before or after Dread.
Cause if it's after, things may be awkward.
11420980
Before. It follows the official timeline. Corruption, Metroid II, Super Metroid, Other M, Fusion, then Dread will not have happened yet
11420991
Ah, that makes sense. Thank you comrade.
Damn, now I wanna see a post-Dread Samus in a story. Because DAMN was she strong in that game. No spoilers though.