> Another Hatchling
>  by Tatsurou
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Home Again
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The golden ship slowly arced into the unexplored sector of space, the light of the orbiting sun glinting off its armored exterior as it streaked towards the single planet in the system.  The pilot gazed at the unusual planetary configuration.  One planet, orbited by a sun and moon.  She had never seen anything like it.  Then again, considering her passenger, he would have to come from somewhere unlike anywhere else in the universe.  "This is the place?" she asked.

The purple head snaked up beside her.  "Yes, Mom," he said softly.  "In my vision quest, Gray Voice was very specific.  These are the coordinates of my home world...at the moment."

"At the moment?" Samus asked, confused.

"Take a look at the readings," Spike pointed out.  "The planet is moving through the cosmos on its own, taking its sun and moon with it."

Samus examined the scanners, seeing what her draconic son had spotted.  "You're right," she replied.  "I wonder where it's headed?"

Spike chuckled to himself.  "I doubt even I'll be around to see that at the rate it's travelling," he replied.  "But this is where my egg came from.  Took a while to get here, though.  Gray Voice said the one from my dreams would be waiting for me."

Samus nodded.  "Setting landing coordinates," she stated, plotting the course.  "Calculating reentry vectors."

As the ship entered the atmosphere, Spike gazed out the window, wondering what it would be like to be home again after all this time.  "What's the gravity like?" Spike asked.

Samus glanced at the readouts.  "According to scans, about .8 Gs.  You're going to have to keep the armor on."

Spike sighed, scratching at the gold-edged white plate over his head.  "Had a feeling that would be the case," he muttered.

"We're going to land in that forest outside that small settlement," Samus explained.  "I'll stay in the ship right at first.  If you're normal for this world, odds are I'm not.  And since I'm not detecting any industrialization at all, they probably don't have space flight, meaning they probably aren't used to visitors from outer space.  Gimme a ring when the locals are ready for me."

Spike smiled.  "I will, Mom."

As the ship landed, Samus pulled out a datapack.  "Here.  I've kept a log of everything since I got your egg.  If they want your story, it might help fill in the blanks, especially from back before you started talking."

Spike smiled, slipping the datapack into his chest plate.  "That should help."

"Scanners have picked up a few large wild animals in the forest, some possibly hostile."  Samus then grinned at the drake beside her.  "Not that you'll have a problem with them."

Chuckling, Spike hugged the bounty hunter.  "Be back soon, Mom," he promised before leaving the ship.





Spike left the forest carefully, uncertain what sort of reception he would get on entering town.  He had spotted from the forest that most of the houses weren't exactly sized for a creature his size.  He had spotted small equines - he found himself calling them 'ponies', though he didn't know why - going back and forth, but they were maybe a third his size at the largest.  However, he knew the one he was looking for was one of these 'ponies', and he would have to meet these ponies to find her.

And so, taking a deep breath to steady himself and praying to Gray Voice and the other ancestral spirits that there wouldn't be a language barrier, he stepped out of the forest.  The sunlight glinted off the white and gold armor plates on his forehead between his horns, on his back between his wings, on the front of his neck, on his chest, on the upper portion of each leg, the open clawed gauntlets and greaves, and the length of his tail.  The spiked blades on the spade tip also caught the light.  He hoped he wasn't too frightening to these creatures.

As he passed by a small cottage, a yellow pony with a pink mane and tail and wings on her back took one look at him, screamed in fear, let out a bleat that sounded like a goat, and fell flat on her back.

Spike groaned, burying his face in his claws.  "So much for first impressions," he grunted.  "I never expected anyone to be so shy..."  Something stirred in his head.  "Wait...Flutter...Shy?"

The pony blinked, rolling away from the 'big scary dragon' and back to her hooves, her eyes wide.  The way he knew her name and how familiar his voice was...  "...Spike?" she gasped softly.

Spike smiled softly.  "I...I know you-Ooomph!"

Fluttershy had dashed across to tackle him in a tight hug.  "Oh Spike, you're back!  Ever since that spell of Twilight's went wrong and you disappeared in that quantum vortex, we were all so afraid we'd never see you again!  We've missed you so much!"  She pulled back.  "It...it is you, isn't it?"

Spike chuckled, scratching the back of his head.  "Yes, I'm certain it is me now.  Memories are coming back from dreams...and Gray Voice did say that time itself had unwoven from my journey..."

"Gray Voice?" Fluttershy asked in confusion.

Spike chuckled.  "It's a long story, and I'd rather just tell it once.  And...there's someone I need to find...lavender with wings and horn..."

Fluttershy gasped.  "Oh, Twilight!  You really need to go see Twilight right away!  She's been so worried about you!  You've been missing for a whole month!"  She pushed Spike towards a massive crystal castle.  "She's in the castle over there.  You go see her right away.  I'll gather everypony else and let them all know you're back!"  She then gave Spike one last hug around his neck.  "Oh Spike...welcome home!"  With that, she flapped off into the town.

Spike stared after her, rather flummoxed.  "Twilight..." he muttered, tasting the name.  "Yes...that's her...I need to see her..."  He began moving towards the castle at a steady gait.

As he passed through the town, many ponies waved to him happily.  Apparently, word had spread fast, and everyone was happy to see him.  However, he would have to talk to them later.  Reaching the castle, he pushed the massive doors open.  "Twilight?" he called out.  "Twilight?"

There was a resounding crash from nearby.  "Spike?" an agonized voice called out.

Spike ran towards the voice, and he heard rapid hoofsteps rushing to meet him.  Within moments, a lavender pony with wings and horn - the one from his dreams - crashed into him, wrapping forelegs and feathered wings around as much of his neck as she could hold.  For his part, he wrapped one leg around her in a gentle embrace.  He felt her tears on his neck, and he knew tears of his own were wetting her mane.

He was home.





When the both of them finally calmed down, Twilight stepped back from Spike.  "Spike...what happened to you?" she asked in surprise.  "You...you got swallowed by that quantum vortex a month ago, and...and..."

"Only a month ago?" Spike asked, surprised.  "It's been years for me."

"Years?" Twilight asked as her eyes popped open wider.  "Well, I guess you have grown a great deal...but where have you been?  And what's with this armor?"

Spike chuckled.  "It's a long story, Twilight.  I think I'll wait until the others get here.  I bumped into Fluttershy on the way here, and she said she'd gather everyone-"

"Spike's back!  Spike's back!  Spike's back!  Spike's back!  Spike's back!  Spike's back!  Spike's back!  Spike's back-"  Pinkie Pie's excitable squeals were cut off as her rocket propelled hug ended with her landing between Spike's wings heavily.  She blinked for a time.  "-is huge!" she finished.

"What in tarnation do ya mean by that, Pinkie-whoa nelly!"  Applejack reared back as she saw Spike.  "What have ya been eating this past month?"

"Damn, Spike!" Rainbow Dash added as she flew circles around his spread wings.  "Look who's grown up and gone airborne!"

"What's everypony saying about dear little Spikey-Wahahahai!"  Rarity's question was cut off by her reaction to Spike's sheer size.  "You...you're ginormous!"

Spike chuckled.  "Yeah, I guess I don't need to be this big, huh?"  He closed his eyes to concentrate.

"What do you-"  Twilight's voice stopped as they all watched.

Right before their eyes, Spike started to shrink in on himself.  His overall body shape remained the same, but he went from being the size of Princess Celestia to being about the size of Big Macintosh.  His proportions remained the same, but he was now at eye level with all those around him.  His armor shrunk with him, although his musculature became - if anything - even more defined.

"...woof," Rarity muttered under her breath.

"...woof," Fluttershy agreed, blushing.

"Woof!" Pinkie proclaimed for no apparent reason other than because other ponies were doing it.  "Are we being doggies now?"

Spike chuckled.  "I'm glad I'm not as intimidating like this," he admitted.  "Took a while to master that trick."

"That's mighty impressive!" Applejack praised.  "But where ya been all this time?"

"Yeah!" Rainbow agreed.  "I mean, that armor makes you look like some kind of comic book space warrior!  What's up with that?"

Chuckling, Spike pulled the datapack from his chest compartment, its size unchanged.  "Girls...it's a long story..."

"I'll get the snacks!" Pinkie shouted, dashing off to the kitchen.
> Spike Log: Zero Entry
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Pinkie Pie set out all the refreshments, Twilight leaned over towards the datapack.  "What's that?" she asked curiously.

Spike smiled.  "It's a book, basically," he explained.  "Except one that can hold an immense amount of information, and made out of metal instead of paper."

Twilight's eyes widened.  "Fascinating," she whispered, her hooves reaching towards it.

Spike chuckled.  "I know you want to take it apart and see how it works, but I think the information on it might be of more interest to you."  Smiling, he turned it on.

The display immediately lit up with words.



Entry 00
This isn't the first entry I made for this Log of Spike's growth and development.  I only added this entry when I realized Spike had a homeworld to go back to, and friends and family awaiting his return.  This entry is an introduction, both for Spike and those he will show this to.
My name is Samus Aran, intergalactic bounty hunter, trouble shooter...and mother.  This last was something I never thought I would ever experience...but my Chozo guardians and family had plans for me.
Most of these entries will be combination of text and video files.  Spike, you'll know how to access all of these as you go through the entries, so I leave it up to you to determine what - and how - you share with those you know here.
But here is the story of how you came to be in my care.

During my first mission as a Bounty Hunter - when I returned to Zebes, the world I grew up on, to do battle with the Space Pirates - my ship was shot down and I lost access to my Power Suit, the primary weapon in my arsenal.  However, in a Chozo Temple, I found another suit - more advanced than my original - waiting for me.  The Chozo had read the future, and left gifts for me where they knew I would go.  But they'd left something else for me here.
Old Bird himself - the Chozo Elder who raised and cared for me after I was orphaned, the one who was the closest thing to a father I had after that fateful day - appeared to me in spirit, with a message.  I record that message here indelibly.

"Hatchling, you have come far...and we see that you will go much farther still...but you have turned your back on life to wield death.  This is our doing.  We foresaw that the universe would need you as its champion, and so forged you to become that champion.  For the sake of all, we took that choice from you.  We can only beg your forgiveness.
"This is not our only sin against you.  When we gave you life with our blood, we took something precious from you...a joy you will now never know.  Another unforgivable sin.  And now we ask more of you than we have any right to...we ask another favor of you, and offer a boon in return.
"The streams of time unraveled, and through the hole this egg came to us, between the lands of spirit and flesh.  We ask that you tend to this egg, and the hatchling that will come forth from it.
"Forgive us, our Hatchling.  For the sake of the universe, we did great wrong to you in your hour of pain, and presented it to you as a gift.  We carry this sin against our own to eternity..."

I didn't understand what he meant with this message for some time.  But I do now.  Spike, when next you speak to Gray Voice and Old Bird - or any of the Elder Spirits - tell them I do forgive them.  I never blamed them for what they did.  It is the fate I chose.
And having you with me made it...fun.



Spike stared at the entry for a time, tears beading his eyes.  He blinked them away, and gave a loud sniffle.

"So...this Samus is, like, your Mom now?" Pinkie asked curiously.

Spike chuckled.  "Yeah," Spike replied.  "She raised me from the egg after I hatched aboard her ship."  Seeing Twilight flinch slightly, he spread a wing over to hug her.  "Of course, I know she's not the only one to have done so."

Twilight smiled at that.

"...she wound up sterile after the Chozo combined their genetics with hers so she could survive on their world, didn't she?" Fluttershy asked.

Spike's eyes went wide.  "How'd you put that together?" he asked in shock, resulting in gasps of surprise from everypony else.

Fluttershy lowered her eyes.  "What they said about giving her life with their blood...that meant amplifying her with their nature for their environment.  Crossbreeds rarely produce fertile offspring without magical intervention of one sort or another.  I should know; I work with animals regularly after all.  That poor liger...he'll never be a papa..."

Spike nodded.  "Yeah, that's basically it.  Mom discovered that after her first physical upon her return to the federation."

Rarity let out a little whimper of sympathy.  "To never have children of her own..."

Sighing, Spike keyed up the next entry.



Entry01
I've made it to a ship, and am back in space.  The egg Old Bird gave me is still intact.  Whatever creature is inside must be sturdy.  It handled the energy-matter conversions of Speed Booster, Morph Ball, and Screw Attack without taking damage, and vital signs are still strong within the egg.



Included with an entry was a picture of Spike's egg, purple with darker purple spots, resting on a white pillow in a straw basket.

"But when I asked about you when we first met, you said you hatched from a purple and green egg!" Fluttershy pointed out to Spike.

Spike shrugged.  "Maybe it was green last time around," he offered uncertainly.

"It wasn't," Twilight replied.  "It was exactly as it appears in this picture."

"Huh," Spike pondered.  "Wonder why I said green back then?"

"What was that Speed Booster thing she was talking about?" Rainbow asked eagerly.

"It's one of the many upgrades Mom's Power Suit can get," Spike replied.  "It allows her to accelerate on the ground to a high enough speed that her body shifts partially into an energy state, allowing her to plow through many obstacles.  When the energy is stored, it also allows her to propel herself in any direction at high speeds in that half-energy state in a technique called the Shinespark."

"So...awesome!" Rainbow said eagerly, causing several giggles around the table.

Chuckling, Spike keyed up the next entry.



Entry02a
I've got my new ship now.  Took a while to get it to match the specs of my original Chozo ship.  Good thing the Chozo had the foresight to include the specs in my new Power Suit's data banks.  Also today, the egg hatched.



A video file was attached.





Samus watched nervously as cracks spread over the egg.  She was in her Zero Suit at the moment, which was durable enough for most situations, but she was on guard, ready to shift into her Power Suit at a moment's notice if necessary.  While the Chozo had said the egg was a gift, they'd also implied that time travel was involved, and she wasn't about to take chances, especially with how durable the creature had proven to be while still in the egg.

The egg then cracked open, falling to pieces around its occupant.  Samus saw before her a small purple reptile with large green eyes, rounded green spines down its spine, green frills at its cheek, a green underbelly, and a spade tipped tail.  It looked up at her, blinking its eyes for a time, then smiled.  Grabbing its tail in its foreclaws, it pulled it between its hind legs and stuck the spade tip in its mouth, sucking on it like a pacifier.

Samus stared at the creature for a time, but eventually couldn't suppress a goofy grin.  It was just so cute!





"Awww!" five mares said, cooing at the video.

"I'd forgotten how adorable you were when you were that small!" Twilight squealed.

"So!  Stinking!  Cute!" Pinkie gasped out.

"Look at those adorable little chubby cheeks!" Rarity cooed.

Spike groaned, burying his face in his claws.  He knew he had no one to blame but himself for playing that video file.  What else could it have been?
> Spike Log: Entry 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once the mares finished cooing over the first baby video file, Spike cleared his throat.  "Alright, I think that's enough," he scolded.  "Can we move on now?  At this rate we'll be here all week."

Twilight gasped.  "There's that much?" she asked, shocked.

"About 18 years worth," Spike replied.  "I'll try to focus on the highlights, but there's a lot to cover, after all."  Noticing Twilight's eyes sparkling, he swallowed nervously.  "What?"

"18 years worth of extra-planetary knowledge and experience!" Twilight squealed.  "There's so much for me to learn!"

As the other mares, giggled, Spike rolled his eyes.  "Well, let's keep going.  The first major highlight will be when I can start filling you in on what I actually remember."  As they all nodded, he pulled up the next entry.



Entry02b
I have no idea what this creature is.  It doesn't exist in my database, nor in the creature logs the Chozo provided me with when I first left Zebes.  I don't even know what he eats.  I only know he's a he because I was able to scan the XY chromosome pair of his genetic code.  Thank goodness at least a portion of his genetic structure uses the same basic four enzymes as humans, Chozo, and most of the other sapient species of the Galaxy.
Old Bird, I don't know what you were thinking putting this creature in my care, but the least you could have done is provide some care instructions.



As they read the entry, Twilight chuckled.  "I remember how I was the first time I had care of you all by myself," Twilight reminisced.  "I was just as panicked, and searching for a book on how to care for a baby dragon."

"How old were you at the time?" Spike asked.

"Eight," Twilight replied.  "It was shortly after I got my Cutie Mark."

Spike smiled softly.  While normally he would mind interruptions in story telling, each time Twilight brought up a memory of their time together, he remembered those moments afresh.  It was the same with when the others talked about their time with him.  Their presence and words were unlocking the memories of his prior life.  "Mom was 20 at the time," Spike explained.

Twilight's eyes popped.  "Twenty and still panicking?" she asked, shocked.

"Oh, panic is a perfectly normal reaction for first time mothers," Fluttershy pointed out.

Chuckling, Spike loaded the next entry up.



Entry02c
I finally figured out what the little guy eats.  Right first he refused literally everything I offered him.  In desperation, I threw a pair of clip on sapphire earrings and fragments of his own shell at him.  The earrings had been a gift from an unwanted admirer, after it got revealed that the most badass bounty hunter to ever fly the solar system was a woman.  (The look on the general's faces when I disengaged my power suit to collect my bounty was priceless.)
The little guy immediately tried to dig the sapphires out of their setting with claw and teeth, trying to get one and the piece of his shell into his mouth.  While I have no idea why he would eat gems, deep scans indicated his shell fragments had a unique enzyme in them that - when consumed - jump started his digestive tract.  As a result, his first meal was a mixture of powdered gemstones and shell fragments.  Shortly after, I discovered he could in fact, eat things other than gemstones, which is lucky.  Keeping a supply of gems on board - even uncut stones or ore - would be both costly and necessitate a much bigger ship's cabin.



The connected video file played.





Samus sighed as she finally finished powdering the gems and shell fragments.  While the gems had been easy enough to reduce to a powder - her ship's part assembler was easily programmed to do it for her - the shell fragments proved more difficult.  The ship's systems proved ineffective.  Her beam weapons had no effect on the shell.  Even missiles and super missiles failed to even scuff the outer shell.

"Whatever race you come from," she muttered at the curious infant, "they knew what they were doing when they evolved this as your egg.  But how did you break out?"

Eventually, she discovered that the combination of an ordinary stone pressed against the shell plus a bit of the infant's saliva caused the shell to break down into a powder.  As a result, the meal was produced with an ordinary mortar and pestle.  And I told Old Bird I'd never have a use for this thing when he insisted I make it and take it with me, she grumbled to herself.  Wherever he is now, I'm sure he's chuckling knowingly at me.  He did that a lot.

Once the powder mix was prepared, the young reptile eagerly devoured it a spoonful at a time as Samus fed him.  She was rather pleased to see that he waited patiently between mouthfuls rather than whining demandingly as most infants did in her experience.  "You're quite the well behaved child once your needs are being seen to, huh?" she asked as he sloshed the next mouthful around in his mouth in an imitation of chewing before swallowing.  "Never thought I'd come across a species that was instinctively well mannered."

Once the meal was finished, she turned to put the mortar and pestle away, only to hear a wet splut.  "What the?"

Turning around, she discovered that the little guy had belly flopped into a small chocolate cake and was proceeding to eat his way out.  Groaning, she buried her face in her palm.





Pinkie Pie was laughing uproariously as the video came to an end.  "The Cake Twins do that every birthday!" she shrieked in hilarity.  "I always wanted to try it!"

"Then we know what we're doing for your next birthday," Rainbow joked through her own chortles.

Fluttershy cooed to herself as she watched Spike's infant mannerisms.

"Instinctively well mannered?" Rarity asked, surprised.  "Well, not based on the other dragons we've met.  But still, it certainly fits you, Spikey-Wikey."

Spike smiled as he scratched the back of his head.  While the nickname was a bit embarrassing for an adult, each time she said it he remembered more of their times together when she called him that.  He was beginning to remember why he found himself blushing just to look at her, though the face shield on his armor hid that.

"You did that with me, too!" Twilight added, giggling.  "When we threw you your first birthday party, you climbed right out of the high chair and dive bombed into the cake before eating your way out of it!  it was so adorable...and so messy!"

Spike smiled widely as the memory of that event came back to him.  Waiting for everyone to calm down, he then keyed in the next entry.



Entry02d
Bathing him is quite the chore.  Not that he doesn't like it, far from it.  But he makes a huge mess.
He seems to exhibit more canine behaviors than anything else.  Chewing on things, chasing a ball and catching it in his mouth, enjoying having his belly rubbed...
For lack of any other basis to choose a name, I'm going to call him Spike, since he acts so much like a dog.



A few giggles heralded the beginning of the next video clip.





Samus lifted her hand as another wave of water leapt from the sink in the ship's galley.  It wasn't very large, but neither was Spike at this point, and it made an ideal bath for him.  Samus herself used the sonic shower when she wanted to get clean - not only was it faster, but it conserved water, which was always a consideration for a single occupancy space ship - but it wasn't rated as safe for any being under 50 pounds.  As Spike only weighed 8, she'd have to wait awhile before he could use it.

She hoped she didn't lose too much water from bathing him constantly.  Perhaps she could teach him to keep himself clean.  Either that, or she'd need to stockpile a lot more water reserves for her ship.  But at least he seemed to enjoy it.

The small rubber ball the ship's parts assembly had created as a bath toy to keep Spike entertained bounced off her head, and she caught it in one hand.  Spike giggled up at her.  Frowning, she threw the ball back at him, and he leapt to catch it in his mouth.

Rolling her eyes, Samus returned to scrubbing the recalcitrant reptile.  At least his scales didn't stain easily.





Twilight burst into laughter.  "I never thought about it like that...but you did kind of act like a dog before you started talking, Spike!  Maybe that's why you turned into a dog when we went through the portal into the human world."

Applejack snorted.  "Spike turns into a dog there?" she asked in shock, chuckling.

"Gonna be a pretty big puppy now!" Pinkie pointed out.

Spike groaned as he remembered that.  "Talk about embarrassing..."  He smirked.  "But somehow, I don't think I'll turn into a dog now."

Twilight smirked up at him.  "Want to go through and check?  The portal still works."

Spike shrugged.  "Sure.  Why not?"





As Twilight stepped through the portal after Spike, her jaw dropped.  He was most definitely not a dog.

Standing before her was a tall, lithe, well muscled, purple and green skinned warrior in white plate armor that covered him only partially, and was backed up by a loincloth.  She felt like she was staring at a cross between Tarzan and Conan the Barbarian, to go by the characters she'd seen in this world's fiction.

"Hey Twilight," Sunset called as she walked up.  "We weren't expecting you to visit so soon!"  Her eyes widened as she caught sight of Twilight's companion.  "Is that your coltfriend?  Flash is going to be jealous."

"Hey Sunset," Spike said easily, waving.

Sunset's eyes widened further.  "S-Spike?" she asked in shock.  When Spike nodded, she let out a quiet, "Woof," before fainting dead away.

Twilight promptly facepalmed.
> Spike Log: Entry 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After returning through the mirror portal - on the run from numerous young ladies who pursued Spike like a pack of wild dogs (Sonata Dusk's metaphor, since they were all saying Woof) - Spike sighed in relief as he returned to the table where the others were waiting.

"So, did you still turn into a dog?" Rainbow asked.

"No," Spike replied.  "But I think I turned every female on the other side into one."  At the blank expressions directed his way, he sighed.  "They were all saying 'woof'...even Celestia and Luna's alternates."

Everyone gasped in surprise.  "Even my alternate?" Pinkie asked.

"Well...yeah," Spike admitted.  "Except she and that Sonata Dusk girl were saying it because everyone else was."

Rainbow snickered.  "Good luck in town later, Casanova."

Spike tilted his head in confusion.  "Huh?"

Rarity waved her hoof, dismissing the issue.  "We'll talk about that later, Spikey-Wikey.  For now, how about a bit more of your story?"

Smiling, Spike flipped through to the next major entry.  "Most of these are more of the same, just daily or weekly mentions of how things are going with me.  A few video files, but we can watch those later.  Ah, here we go."



Entry212
Today, Spike breathed fire.
I don't know what brought it on, or why only now after so long.  However, in the middle of feeding him, he belched up a plume of green flame.  He found it hilarious.  I found it worrisome.
I know what he is now.  He's a baby dragon.  A dragon like Ridley.
I don't know if he's the same species or not.  Either way, the Chozo trusted him to my care.  I'll have to do my best to take care of him...and to make sure he doesn't become a monster like Ridley.



The girls were silent for a time.  "Ridley?" Twilight finally asked.

"An...old enemy of Mom's," Spike replied.  "I'd...rather not talk about him."  He idly flexed his wings, somewhat restless.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Pinkie reached over and swept through the entries to the next one with a tagged video file.  "Say, the date here's nearly four years later than the date on the first entry...and about 9 years before the date on Entry zero."

Spike nodded.  "Yeah.  This is...six months before the first time I went on a mission with Mom," he replied, calling up the log.



Final Entry
Spike spoke today.
...I now understand Old Bird's words when he gave me Spike's egg...



That was all the text in the entry, but there was a tagged video.





Samus lifted Spike up from her logbook, where he'd been browsing through the entries of the creatures she encountered on Zebes, and during her time serving under Adam Malkovich as part of his unit, before she quit the Galactic Federation and went freelance.  He seemed mostly to enjoy looking at the pictures, though occasionally she found him tracing lines with his fingers.  "Come on, Spike," she said softly.  "Time for you to go to bed.  If I let you stay up reading, you'll be cranky tomorrow, and I don't have any more clothes I can afford to lose to fire from your stray flames."

Spike let out his petulant complaint noise, somewhere between a growl and a whimper followed by blowing a raspberry.  However, his struggle was token at best.  He was used to Samus getting her way.  She was a lot stronger than she looked, and his body was only just beginning to adjust to the 10Gs Samus kept her ship at for comfort.  It wasn't as high as the gravity of Zebes, but it was higher than what the Federation ships kept their gravity at.  Spike had adjusted well, but he wasn't yet nearly as strong as Samus.

Smiling, Samus carried him to the pile of gold and silver that had once been place settings for all the various jewelry she'd received over her lifetime that she had no interest in keeping.  She had given Spike the gemstones as treats, and the metal was now Spike's favorite bed.  Samus had placed it all in a large basket for him to sleep on.





"Wait!" Twilight said as she paused the video.  "How did that big pile not trigger your hoarding instincts and Greed Growth?"

Spike chuckled.  "It did when she first started giving it to me," he explained.  "But by then she'd learned just how durable I was even at that age.  The minute I tried to swipe something to add to my hoard without permission, she picked me up, threw me into the wall, stuck her finger in my face, and said 'No' very firmly.  I didn't try to hoard without permission ever again."

"Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy whimpered.  "Were you alright?"

Spike laughed aloud.  "The wall took more damage than I did.  Literally.  She had to stop by a space port to get the dent evened out.  I didn't even have a bruise."

Twilight chuckled.  "Well, dragons are an incredibly durable race.  It takes a lot to even faze one, let alone hurt them."

Smiling, Spike restarted the video.





Samus set Spike down in amongst the metal, and he snuggled in, wrapping himself up in the gold like a blanket.  "Goodnight Spike," she said softly.  "Sleep well."

"Nai, Mama!" Spike replied, smiling up at her.

Samus' eyes went wide.  Tears beaded at the corners of her eyes.  She struggled to blink them away, but they wouldn't stop.  Bending over, she pulled Spike into a tight embrace, holding him against her.





Several Daws greeted the end of that video.  Fluttershy cooed happily, while Applejack and Rarity smiled happily.  Rainbow glanced over, obviously hiding whatever tender emotions the moment brought out in her.

Twilight, however, looked thoughtful...and somewhat sad.

Pinkie suddenly spoke up.  "Samus seems like a really great lady!" she said happily.  "Will we ever get to meet her?"

Spike smiled.  "Well, if we can arrange her getting through town without causing a ruckus-"

A window shattered as an orange sphere was propelled through it, slamming into the wall before dropping to the floor.  The sphere groaned.  "I don't like hoofball..."

"Mom?" Spike asked in surprise.

The sphere unfurled, revealing the Power Suited warrior.



"Hey Spike," Samus replied, leaning against the wall.  "You found her?"

Spike nodded.  "Mom, this is Twilight Sparkle, my Mother."  He beckoned Twilight forward.  As Twilight stepped up to his side, he smiled up at Samus.  "Twilight, this is Samus Aran, my Mother."

Twilight smiled.  "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Aran."

Samus knelt down to be closer to Twilight's level.  "Nice to finally meet the one who's been in Spike's dreams for so long.  Forgive me for not removing my armor just yet, but I'm still adjusting to the low gravity of this world.  Right now, my suit's keeping me from accidentally breaking something or someone."  She rubbed the back of Spike's head.  "Spike's armor serves much the same purpose."

Pinkie's eyes widened.  "Just how strong is Spike now?"

"This world is 0.8Gs," Samus explained.  "Spike's physiology is adapted to be able to function normally at up to 40Gs."

Rainbow spat out her drink.  "But that's 50 times normal gravity here!" she shouted.  "I don't even hit that with most of my stunts, except the Rainboom!"  She stared at Spike in awe.  "If he can fly in an environment like that...what's he like in the air here?"

Samus chuckled.  "Go flying with him and see.  He's pretty good in the air."

"Then we're gonna race, Spike!" Rainbow said challengingly.  "I wanna see what you can do!"

Spike chuckled.  "You're on, Dash."

Twilight chuckled.  "You'll stick around, won't you?" she asked Samus.

Samus shrugged.  "Sure."  She spotted the datapac.  "How far did you get?" she asked Spike.

"I was about to tell them about Tallon IV," he replied.

"Good thing I'm here for that part," Samus replied.

"So how come ya came flying through that window?" Applejack asked.

Samus chuckled, self-consciously rubbing the back of her head.  "I was worried about Spike, since he hadn't gotten in contact with me.  I was using Morph Ball to get through the town without drawing attention...and an orange Pegasus challenged a yellow pony with a red mane to see how hard she could kick me."

Applejack facehoofed.  "Apple Bloom..."
> Talk of the Town
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Spike and Rainbow stepped out to prepare for their race, Twilight stepped up to Samus.  "I...I suppose I should make more formal introductions," she pointed out.  "First contact and all."

"Please don't," Samus replied.  "Spike's my son, just as he's yours.  That makes us family.  Please don't make it awkward by letting our being from different planets get in the way."

Applejack chuckled.  "I like the way ya think, Miss Samus," she said.  She doffed her hat.  "Name's Applejack.  Ah run Sweet Apple Acres, the family farm.  Spike's a dear friend o' the family."

"Just Samus," the armored bounty hunter replied.  "I don't put much stock in formality."

"Well, my name is Rarity," Rarity introduced herself.  "I run the local fashion boutique.  And I must say, your armor...it's quite delightful.  However did you get it to look so smashing?"  She reached out to touch one of the spikes on the arm.

"Don't touch," Samus said quickly, pulling back.  "Those are...actually a part of me."

Fluttershy gasped.  "Oh my goodness!  How did that happen?"

Before Samus could speak, Pinkie bounced up.  "No spoilers!" she shouted out.  "I wanna hear the story in order!"

That brought scattered laughs from everyone.  "I think you have a valid point," Samus agreed.  "It wouldn't be good to give you details out of order.  It would just confuse things.  Don't worry, you'll hear about it in time."

"Well, I know you said you can't take your armor off until you adjust to the lower gravity," Twilight pointed out.  "But is there anything we can do to help you get comfortable?  Maybe a chair sized to your dimensions, or-"

"Actually," Samus interrupted, "since I can't eat with my armor on, anyway..."  Walking over to a nearby wall decoration, she removed a large spherical crystal from It's place in a claw like setting, curled into Morph Ball, and bounced into the setting.  "This is actually quite comfy," she said calmly.  "Feels a lot like resting in the hands of a Chozo Statue..."

"...more spoilers?" Twilight asked.

"Not really," Samus replied.  "The Chozo were a race of bird like space travelers.  They knew more about the universe than nearly any other species in the cosmos."

"Were?" Pinkie asked curiously.

"After they'd reached a certain point in development, a large portion discarded their physical bodies, and now explore the spirit plane and others," Samus explained.  "However, on every world they had a presence, they left behind statues - carvings of stone, machine, and spirit - that carry their legacy and watch over the worlds, their anchors to this dimension.  Curled up in Morph Ball in the hands of a Chozo Statue..."  She sighed nostalgically.  "It's like getting a hug from Old Bird or one of my other caretakers."

Flapping up to the decoration, Fluttershy hugged Samus.

"...this is pretty nice too," Samus murmured.

"So...can the Chozo spirits eat when they manifest?" Pinkie asked.  "Do they like cupcakes?"

Samus was silent for a time.  "Honestly, I have no idea," she replied at last as Fluttershy lifted her down to be held in her wing.  "Next time I meet with one, I'll ask-"

"Never mind, they do!" Pinkie said happily.

Samus froze.  "Wait, what?"





After a time of racing across the sky, Rainbow Dash pulled back to where Spike was trailing behind her.  "Come on, Spike!" she complained.  "Samus said you were awesome in the air!  This can't be the best you can do!  I'm not even pushing myself and I'm leaving you in my dust."

Spike grinned as he flapped steadily through the air after Rainbow.  "This is as fast as I can go without disengaging my armor," he explained.  "And I won't do that except in a combat situation, and only then if I have to to keep others safe."

"Aw, come on!" Rainbow complained.

"I have my reasons, Rainbow," Spike countered firmly.

Rainbow harrumphed, crossing her forelegs.  "They'd better be good ones," she grumbled.

"Besides, I'm more an endurance and power flyer than a speed one," Spike explained.

"Really?" Rainbow asked.  "You think you can outlast me?"

Spike smirked.  "Easily."

"We'll see!" Rainbow grinned, powering on.





As the sun started to lower over the horizon, Rainbow's wings started to ache.  Before long, she knew she would have to rest on a cloud...or the ground, as they were over the Badlands to the southeast of Appleoosa, and there wasn't a cloud in sight.

Spike, on the other hand, continued his steady sky eating pace, his wings flapping regularly without any sign of tiring.  "You can take a break if you want, Rainbow," Spike pointed out.  "You're still the fastest in Equestria.  You never claimed to be a marathoner."

Rainbow gasped for breath as her wings started to give out.  She pulled to a halt and hovered.  "Guess you're right," she admitted.  "But I still wanna see what you mean by a power flyer."

Spike glanced around, then pointed.  "See that hill?" he asked.

Rainbow looked where he was pointing.  "Actually, I think that's more of a plat-"

Spike dove.

Rainbow's eyes popped as she saw him shoot towards the ground like a bolt of lightning, wings folded tight to his side as he aimed for a spot almost directly in front of the plateau.  At seemingly the last possible moment, he flared his wings and turned his dive into forward momentum, smashing straight through the plateau without slowing, causing the rock formation to collapse into rubble behind him as he swooped back up into the air, flapping his wings steadily as he started to lose momentum as he returned to the air.

Rainbow's jaw hung low.  "Dude..."

Spike smirked.  "That's a power flyer," he said smugly.

Rainbow managed to get her jaw up.  "L-let's find somewhere to relax for a bit," she commented.  "I could use a drink, and I need to rest my wings before we head back to Ponyville."

Green lights played over the eyeshield of Spike's face plate as he scanned their surroundings.  "There's a river pretty close by that way," he points out.  "Some gem deposits further down the river so I can have a snack, too.  Come on."  He turned to lead the way.

"How do you know that?" Rainbow asked.  "You been here before?"

Spike tapped the face plate.  "Sensors in the helm," he explained.  "Pretty effective ones, too."

Shrugging, Rainbow followed.

Eventually, they arrived at the river Spike had detected and spiraled in for landing.  "Take a drink," Spike said calmly.  "I'm gonna dig up some of those gems."  He dove into the river and swam downstream.

Shrugging, Rainbow bent over the river for a drink.  The water was cool and clear, and quite refreshing.

"Well, well, well," a familiar voice spoke up, causing her to sit up in surprise and a little fear.  Spinning around, she caught sight of a face she hoped she'd never see again.  "What have we here?  One of those namby pamby ponies!"

"G-Garble!" Rainbow snap, fear warring with anger.  "Back off!  You don't know who you're messing with!"

"Oh, I think we do," Garble hissed as his purple and brown cronies stepped up on either side.  "A weak little pony on our turf again...only this time, she's got no unicorn to teleport her to safety."

Rainbow backed up, flapping her wings to prepare for flight, but winced as her right wing spasmed, the muscles overworked.

Garble smirked as he stepped forward.  "Whatsa matter?" he asked cruelly.  He brought his foot down on her left wing.  "Too worn out to fly?"

Rainbow winced, then cried out in pain as a pop informed her that her wing had just been dislocated.  Cruel laughter from her tormentors greeted her pained cries.

"Back off."  That voice was Spike's, but it wasn't how Rainbow remembered it, either from before he went missing or since he came back.  There was none of the playfulness or kind nature that characterized the young dragon.  Only pure, unadulterated malice.

Garble turned, stepping off Rainbow's wing.  "Oh look, it's the wannabe dragon all grown up in pony armor!"  He and his cronies laughed.  "Need your pony armor to feel tough?  Well..."  He leaned over Spike menacingly.  "Whatcha gonna do if I don-hurk!"

Rainbow's eyes popped.  She could have sworn she saw an imprint of Spike's fist expand through Garble's back like in those action anime Scootaloo liked so much.  Garble toppled over, coughing up blood as Spike drew his fist back.  "Last warning," he said, his voice more menacing than before.  "Next time, I use my claws."

Garble growled as he pushed himself to all fours.  "Get him!" he barked as he lunged for Spike.  His cohorts backed him.

"Shi'cho-kra!(1)" Spike barked.  His armor dimmed, and a hum Rainbow wasn't even aware she was hearing ceased.  Spike vanished before her eyes.

"What the-?" Garble began, only to be cut off by a tail to the face that embedded him in the side of a nearby plateau.

His two cronies turned to go to him, only to be caught around their throats by two purple foreclaws.  Spike looked them right in the eyes, fury burning green in his own, the snarl on his face transforming a normal gentle drake into a visage of death.  He then shot up into the air, an energy contrail trailing behind him as he shot all the way into the outer atmosphere of the planet in seconds.  As soon as he saw the dragons in his grip starting to lose their breath, he growled deep in his throat before diving.  Three seconds later, he slammed the two dragons into Garble just as the red dragon started to get to his claws again.  The force of the impact drove all three dragons ten feet into the ground, leaving a crater around them like a meteorite impact.

Spike flipped back, landing on all fours.  Opening his mouth, a stream of green that was too focused and intense to be called flame anymore erupted, searing all three dragons and melting a tunnel through the plateau behind them, fusing the rock beneath into magma for hundreds of feet past.

Had they been anything other than dragons, Garble and his cronies would have been reduced to ash.  As it was, none of them had any fight left.

Spike leaned down over them.  "Come near my ponies again, and I'll have you for lunch!"  He then lunged forward, snapping his jaws together millimeters from Garble's nose.

Garble and his cronies fled, alternately yelping like whipped dogs and crying like fillies.

Having watched all this, Rainbow could only find one way to react.  "...woof."

Sighing, Spike walked back over to Rainbow.  "And now you know why I don't disengage my armor unless necessary," he explained, standing over her as he leaned in with his long neck to examine her dislocated wing.

The speed of her heartbeat after what just happened, the strength of his musk after his exertion, the fact that he wasn't even breathing hard, and the heat from his body so close all combined to leave Rainbow speechless.  It was only sheer force of will that kept her from swooning like the mares in Rarity's trashy romance novels.

Opening his mouth, Spike extended his hot tongue and wrapped it around the base of Rainbow's dislocated wing.

Rainbow's face turned bright red as her breath became rapid.  She couldn't find words or even noises to make.  Then she heard a soft click.  Turning, she saw Spike withdrawing his tongue, and saw that her wing had been reset in its socket.

"Take it easy on your wings," Spike said softly, gently - almost daintily - lifting Rainbow to his back.  "I'll get us back to Ponyville in a half hour or so.  Just hold on tight to the back plate."

Rainbow nodded, gripping it tightly.

As Spike took to the air, the energy contrail once more trailing behind him, he smiled softly.  "Say Rainbow...think we can keep this a secret?  I don't think we need to worry the others about Garble and his ilk, since I dealt with them."

Rainbow chuckled.  "That's for sure."

"Besides..."  Spike gulped.  "I'd rather not face Mom's wrath for releasing my limiters before my body adapted to the new world."

Rainbow smiled.  "Sure Spike.  It'll be our little secret."  Leaning in, she nuzzled the spine closest to her face.

Spike blinked, a little confused by Rainbow's behavior.









(1) A Luminoth word.  Roughly translates to "Unseal".
> Night Terrors
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	By the time Spike brought Rainbow back to Ponyville, it was already quite late and the sun was well down.  Everypony decided to spend the night at the castle, as they were all eager to hear more of Spike's story.  They also accepted Rainbow's assertion that she overstrained her wings trying to keep up with Spike in an endurance flight.  She happily endured the teasing from Applejack over her competitive zeal.

As everyone curled up for the night, most slept easily, happily seeing Spike still himself, just more so.  For one, however, sleep was greatly troubled.





Twilight smiled happily as she walked down the path in the Everfree Forest, little Spike at her side as he balanced the basket of things she was gathering on his head, his chubby cheeks puffing with breath as he pushed himself to keep up with her.  She laughed at his antics, leaning in to nuzzle him.  "You know, you can ride on my back if it'd make it easier," she teased.

"No need!" he replied breathlessly.  "I'm good!  I can handle myself!  You don't have to worry so much!"  He flashed her a thumbs up.

Chuckling, she continued down the path.  Seeing something in the undergrowth, she leaned over to investigate it, only to hear something tumble to the ground.  Turning, she saw the basket on its side, its contents spilled, and no sign of Spike.  "Spike?" she called out worriedly.  "Spike!"  She spun, searching for any clue where he might have gone, but found no sign.

Desperately, she spun back to what she'd been investigating, only to see a large beast raise out of the ground and charge.  Screaming, she ran for it.  "Spike!" she called out, fear and worry thick in her voice.  "Where are you?"

Something purple and green struck from the air like lightning, knocking the creature pursuing her end over end into a tree.  Spike, his wings spread wide and the sunlight glinting off his armor, landed beside her.  "You okay, Twilight?" he asked, looking her over.

"Spike?" she asked, shocked.  "I...I'm okay, but-"

"That's good," Spike replied easily.  "You can make your own way out, right?"

"My own way?" she asked, confused and afraid.

"Spike!"

Turning, Twilight saw Samus, her eyeshield concealing her face, beckoning.  "Hurry up, Spike!" she called, her voice gentle and kind, yet somehow menacing to Twilight.  "We've got a mission to complete!"

"Coming, Mom!" Spike called out, and Twilight wilted internally at his words.  He turned back to her.  "See you later."  He turned to leave.

"Spike, wait!" Twilight called out.  "What if it's dangerous?  What if you get hurt?  What if-"

"You don't have to worry, Twilight," Spike replied easily.  "I'm not a baby anymore.  I can take care of myself.  I don't need you looking after me anymore.

"I don't need you anymore."

Twilight fell back, stunned and hurt by his words.  "S-spike..." she called out weakly, tears in her eyes as he raced out of sight with Samus.  Turning, she saw the overturned basket.

The unusual gemstones she had collected now contained images inside.  Spike as an infant, sucking his tail as he looked up adoringly at her.  Feeding him his first meal of gemstones powdered with egg shell.  Teaching him not to chew on ponies' tails.  One stuck out to her most painfully.

"Mama!" Spike said happily.

Young Twilight chuckled.  "That's not how you say Twilight, silly."  She leaned in to nuzzle him as she continued to teach him to say her name.

The gems crumbled and dissolved as the creature that had pursued her - now a monstrous serpent - slithered over them, crushing the discarded memories callously as it wrapped itself around her.  Twilight didn't resist, tears falling from her eyes.  "Spike..." she cried, waiting for the end as the pressure from the serpent's coils became overpowering.

A bright blue light flooded the forest, and the coils relaxed around her, letting her free her head and wings.  "What has brought such a vision to your nightly dreams, dear Twilight Sparkle, to drag me forcefully in?" Luna asked curiously, coming in to land gently beside the now limp serpent.

"Princess Luna?" Twilight asked, shocked.  "Then...I'm dreaming?"

"Indeed," Luna replied, walking up to Twilight.  "Pray tell, what has you so distressed?"

Twilight sighed sadly.  "Well, Spike's finally back-"

"Huzzah!" Luna proclaimed.  "That is most wondrous news!  For the entire month your dreams have been filled with nightmare visions of what fate may have befallen him, but now he is safe home and all is well!"  She noticed Twilight's haunted expression.  "All is...not well?"

Twilight sniffled a bit.  "He's...different.  Somehow, the spell that went wrong sent him through time and space so that...he's been raised from hatching for the past 18 or so years by someone else...someone else he now calls Mom."

Luna blinked.  "I...see.  But he's returned to you, has he not?"

"And brought her with him," Twilight replied.  "And she's nice.  She's an adventurer, a member of a new species - a cross species, at that - and she has so much she could share with us.  ...I can't hate her, or blame her.  This would be so much easier if I could."

Luna stared at Twilight for a time, lost in thought.  Then she took a glance at something just out of sight, then smirked.  "Indeed.  She does sound a most wondrous mother figure for Spike.  Certainly better equipped than you to handle the maturation of such a powerful creature as a dragon.  Why, what possible reason could Spike have to seek you out if he has her?"

Twilight wilted in on herself.  "I know what you mean-"

"What possible reason," Luna interrupted.  "Perhaps, before allowing yourself to sink in despair, you should ask yourself...if his life out there was so wonderful, why did he come back here?  Why did he return to you?  And perhaps...why have the slack coils of your dream beast not vanished?"

"Eh?" Twilight asked in confusion, glancing down at the coils...noticing for the first time that they were purple and green.





As her eyes started to open, she found herself staring at purple and green scales coiled comfortingly around her, supporting her in a perfect sleep position.  Her eyes trailed up the coils until they reached the base of Spike's tail, trailing up his entire body.

He was huge now.  Bigger than Samus, bigger than Celestia.  As big as the Chozo Statues Samus had shown them pictures of.  He squatted with his back against a wall, his wings mantled around his lap where Twilight was curled up.  His claws were cupped, and a familiar orange sphere was braced in them.  "It looks like both my mothers needed comfort tonight," he whispered softly.

Twilight looked up at him.  "You...you're so grown up now," she said softly.  "You...you don't need me anymore..."  Her eyes beaded with her tears.

Snaking his head forward slowly on his long neck, Spike planted a gentle kiss on her cheek.  "But you still need me," he said softly, comfortingly.  Pulling his head back, he began to sing.

The song wasn't in any language Twilight knew, but the sense of comfort, of family, of closeness the words carried permeated through any language barrier, as though the message of the song were more psychic than vocal.  Smiling softly, Twilight slowly drifted back to sleep, far more comfortably than before.





Applejack had been heading to the bathroom for a glass of water to settle her stomach, having eaten something that hadn't agreed with her during dinner.  Passing by Twilight's room, she had noticed the door ajar and peeked in to see what was wrong.  She had witnessed Spike giving his comfort and promise to Twilight, easing Twilight's anguish.  Hearing the soft lullaby and seeing Twilight slip back into slumber, only one thought found its way into her mind.

He'll make a great father someday...

"...woof," forced its way out of her mouth.  Blushing brightly in embarrassment, she rushed off back to bed, not noticing Pinkie standing nearby, her head tilted curiously.
> The Running Gag
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The nobles of Canterlot were rather shocked - and to a certain degree offended - when Celestia announced shortly after raising the sun the next morning that Day Court would be cancelled for the foreseeable future.  The moment the announcement had spread, Prince Blueblood had rushed to his aunt's side to demand explanation.  "Princess Celestia, you can't be serious!" he proclaimed as the Princess of the Day joined her sister in a sky chariot, guards from both their divisions charged to pull them to Ponyville before the sun was fully visible in the sky above that lovely town.  "What possible reason could you have for cancelling Day Court without explanation?"

"It's personal, Blueblood," Celestia scolded.  "I don't have to explain beyond that."

"But...but what am I supposed to tell the nobles?" Blueblood begged, desperate to - if not make Celestia see reason - then to get a rational explanation out of her.

Celestia, however, was having none of it.  She had worried nearly as much over Spike's absence as Twilight and her friends had.  She was quite fond of the young dragon, and - knowing how long dragons tended to live in comparison to ponies - had been counting rather heavily on Spike's friendship to fill the void for her when mortality eventually claimed their shared friends.  Now that Luna had informed her that he had returned, nothing was going to stand in the way of checking in on him, and sharing her former students joy in the reunion.  As such, she glowered down at Blueblood and stated quite coldly, "Tell them to stick it," before slamming the door of the chariot in his face.  The guards immediately took to the sky, dragging the chariot after them on the way to Ponyville.

Luna let out a low whistle of surprise.  "I ne'er thought to see this side of you again, dear sister," she murmured appreciatively.  "Tis good to see that eons of politicking have not completely robbed you of your spine in personal matters."

"Oh hush, Lula," Celestia countered, her face stern.  However, she wasn't able to maintain it, and before long burst into giggles.  "I've been wanting to do something like that for so long!"

"Then it was well overdue," Luna assured her, smiling.

Celestia sighed in relief.  "Now then...you were saying something about Spike being different?  I'm afraid I didn't quite catch it all."

Luna nodded.  "Well, I am unsure I understand it all myself...but apparently, he was displaced in time as well as space, and lifespan as well.  He found his way to somewhere else in reality where he was raised to maturity by an alien being.  I...didn't quite catch it all."

Celestia, much to Luna's surprise, groaned in frustration.  "Oh great, one of those..."

"Tia?  Thou art familiar with such things?"  While Luna had mostly left Olde speech behind, she slipped into it on occasion due to excitement, stress, exhaustion, or a desire to be cute.

"In concept only," Celestia groaned.  "A unicorn of Ponyville - a Miss Lyra Heartstrings - is a rather large fan of the 'My Little Human' franchise, and after Twilight went to the human alternate world and discovered they had a show called 'My Little Pony', she started getting a little too excited about the parallels."

"Oh dear," Luna murmured.  "What happened?"

"She wrote a fanfic called My Little Dashie where Rainbow Dash wound up being raised in the human world by someone who knew about our world through a TV show manifestation," Celestia explained.  "It became so popular, I was asked to pen my thoughts on the subject."  Celestia fell silent.

"Sister?  What did you say?" Luna asked worriedly.

"I found the science of the magic involved a tad unrealistic, but other than that, the only thing that stood out to me was how I was characterized in the final chapter, when Twilight, her friends, and I arrived to bring Rainbow home."  Celestia groaned.  "I haven't heard the end of that story since..."

"I see," Luna replied.  "Well, Spike did not return alone.  The one who raised him returned with him."

"So not only do I need to embrace Spike warmly to welcome him home, I also have to balance familial welcome with diplomatic behavior for first contact with an alien species?" Celestia asked in disbelief.  "You certainly know how to drop unpleasant surprises, Luna."

"Fear not," Luna hastened to reassure her.  "From what I understand, the new parental figure is a warrior woman with little patience for such diplomatic formalities.  We should instead use the diplomatic approach we used back when we first took the throne."

Celestia smirked.  "Oh, so I should challenge her to a hoof wrestle and a drinking contest?"

Luna chuckled.  "From what I saw in Twilight's dreams, she lacks hooves, but I believe she will appreciate casual familiarity over formal diplomacy.  She is kin to Spike.  Spike is kin to Twilight.  As a Princess, Twilight is kin to us.  We should simply treat her as a family member we have not met yet."

Celestia smiled softly.  "I suppose that would be more comfortable all around."

"Besides," Luna pointed out wickedly, "I intend to challenge her to the drinking contest."

"Oh, you!" Celestia chuckled, giving her sister a playful nudge and an affectionate nuzzle, which were eagerly returned.  "So, what does this say for how different Spike is?"

Luna smiled mysteriously.  "I would rather keep that as a surprise, dear sister.  I want to see your face on first sight.  However, all I will say...he is most definitely not a baby dragon anymore..."

"Goodness!" Celestia replied, her eyes widening as the chariot landed before the Crystal Tree Castle.  "I wonder how Twilight is handling that."

"Better than last night, with luck," Luna replied as they disembarked the chariot and entered the Castle through the open doors.

The two Princesses found the six friends, Spike, and an armored stranger gathered around the breakfast table, though their eyes were drawn immediately to Pinkie Pie standing over Twilight with a strange light in her eye.  "Say woof, Twilight!" she shouted.

"W-what?" Twilight asked in shock.

"Not what, woof!" Pinkie corrected.  "Everyone else has already said it!  Fluttershy, Rarity, and I said it when he first showed up!  Sunset and the entire school said it through the mirror!  Rainbow said it during their flying competition-"

"Now wait a minute!" Rainbow complained.

"And Applejack said it when you were sleeping in Spike's coils!" Pinkie finished.

Applejack blushed brightly, pulling her hat down over her head as many of the other mares turned to stare.

Celestia, meanwhile, was distracted by the mention of 'coils', and turned her eyes to Spike.  She found him, but if not for his color scheme and kind eyes, she would not have recognized him.  He was the same size as her now - maybe a little taller - and definitely more well fleshed out.  Between the way his muscles rippled under his scales, the way his scales shone only slightly less brightly than his armor, and the wisdom and experience visible in his eyes and battle scarred face...

"...woof," she whispered.

"Woof, indeed," Luna agreed, licking her lips.

"See?  See?" Pinkie Pie demanded.  "Even the Princesses said it!  Say woof, Twilight!  Say it!"

"B-but he's my son!" Twilight complained.

"What's that got to do with being doggies?" Pinkie demanded angrily.

Celestia, Luna, Rainbow Dash, and Samus all burst into laughter at that statement.

"What'd I say?" Pinkie demanded as Celestia and Luna took places made for them at the table.  Spike, meanwhile, began serving a heaping breakfast of his famous dragon waffles.  Celestia chose not to question how he still knew how to make them.  She settled instead for enjoying them.
> Tallon IV: Kids Will Be Kids
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After Celestia and Luna had taken a quick glance through the entries regarding Samus' handling of Spike's infancy - and cooed and squeed the appropriate amount - those around the table settled down for waffles and stories.  "So, Spike said he was just about to tell you about our mission to Tallon IV?" Samus spoke up.

"That's what he said," Twilight replied.  "Though, given how small he was, I'm a bit surprised you took him onto a dangerous planet."

"I hadn't intended to," Samus growled.  "I told him to stay in the ship!"  She turned to glower playfully at Spike, who managed to look sheepish.

"I was bored!" he complained.  "And hungry!  And I couldn't open the ration packs!"

There were titters of laughter around the table.  "Go on, then," Celestia urged.  "Tell us the story."

"Well," Samus began, "it started out with investigating a distress beacon from an unidentified frigate orbiting the planet.  It turned out to be Space Pirate-"

"Space Pirate?" Twilight and Rainbow both asked eagerly, Twilight in nervousness and Rainbow in fannish eagerness.

Luna chuckled.  "Daring Do's tomb raiding no longer enough for your active imagination, Rainbow?" she teased.

Samus chuckled.  "The Space Pirates are the scourge of the galaxy," she explained.  "They used their vast numbers, genetic engineering of their own numbers into weapons, and vast weapons technology to steal anything and everything they wanted from those who could not defend themselves."

The mares around the table all gasped.  Celestia glanced nervously towards the sky.  Luna, however, frowned.  "You speak of them in the past tense," she pointed out.

Spike scratched the back of his head nervously.  "Well we kinda...sorta...accidentally...exterminated them.  Rather thoroughly."

A pin was heard dropping from Twilight's writing desk in the following silence, bouncing on the crystal floor.  "How do you 'accidentally' exterminate a race?" Twilight finally demanded.

"Destroying their biological super computer on their last planetary hide away, not knowing that triggered the planetary self-destruct systems," Spike explained.

"Spoi~lers!" Pinkie complained.  "Stop jumping ahead in the story!"

Samus chuckled as everypony rolled her eyes.  "Alright," she said.  "Well, there's not much to talk about for while I was on the frigate.  Since I had to go EVA, Spike couldn't come with."

"I should hope not!" Celestia asserted.  "Even a dragon can't breathe in space."

"Well, I couldn't back then," Spike admitted.

All pony eyes turned to him with varying expressions from shock to disbelief...to irritation.

"Spoilers!" Pinkie hissed.

Samus chuckled.  "Anyway, the only thing of note from my time on the frigate while it was in space was what the Pirates were doing on Tallon IV.  Apparently, there a substance they'd termed 'Phazon' that was on Tallon IV as a result of a meteorite impact.  It was a powerful mutagen, as well as being a high-energy mineral, and initial results from their tests suggested it was the key to them achieving the supremacy in the galaxy they desired."

"I take it you weren't about to let them manage that if you could prevent it?" Rainbow asked eagerly, already into the narrative.

"Definitely not," Samus confirmed.  "Especially since Tallon IV was a Chozo world.  Unfortunately, on the way out, I encountered Ridley in his newer manifestation."  Tapping her logbook tablet, she called up the image.



"Th...that's a dragon," Twilight stammered.  "But like none I've ever seen."

"He was a Space Pirate general," Spike explained.  "And a repetitive thorn in our sides."

"Repetitive?" Rarity asked, curious.

"Among other sciences of questionable morality, the Space Pirates experimented heavily with cloning," Samus explained.  "Between the two of us, we've killed Ridley...four and two-half times."

"Two half?" Twilight asked.  "Shouldn't that just be five?"

"Two separate battles that we aren't entirely sure qualify as actually fighting Ridley," Spike explained.  "But yeah, Ridley was a real pain in the tail.  I'm still not entirely sure we've seen the last of him."

"But you said you killed all the Pirates," Applejack pointed out uneasily.  "How else could he come back?"

"That's what we said back on the Bottle-"

"Spoilers!" Pinkie snapped, interrupting Samus.

Samus chuckled.  "Alright.  Anyway, when Ridley came after me on the frigate, I...took some suit damage.  Most of the equipment upgrades I'd managed to collect ceased to function."

"Get used to that," Spike commented.  "That happens to Mom a lot."

Samus glowered at him for a while.  "Anyway," she finally grated, "after that, my first goal was to find ways to rearm myself on the planets surface, so once we landed, I engaged my ship's cloak and scanners."

"Your ship cloaks?" Twilight asked eagerly.  "How does it work?"

"No idea," Samus replied.  "The Chozo trained me as a warrior, not an engineer.  I do know from scanning Pirate logs that it shields the ship from detection by anything except organic visual confirmation."

"Meaning they can't see it with anything except the naked eye?" Pinkie clarified.

Samus nodded.  "Exactly.  At any rate, my sensors picked up quite a few potential upgrades I could pick up in an area of Chozo Ruins.  Some really basic stuff.  A new missile launcher, a replacement Morph Ball, a few others.  I decided I'd swing pick those up before coming back to check on Spike.  I told him to wait in the ship till I'd scouted around and came back."

"And he didn't," Twilight sighed.

"I tried!" Spike complained.  "She was gone forever!"

"I checked the ship logs," Samus pointed out.  "It wasn't five minutes after I'd left when you'd opened the hatch."

Spike groaned.  As all eyes turned to him, he sighed.  "Alright.  Well, when I couldn't sit still any longer, I left the ship..."





Spike clambered out of the ship to take a look at his surroundings.  It seemed like he was in a tropical forest of some sort.  Blue sky, green grass, strange creatures.  Had he been older, he might have appreciated it more.  However, he was still a very small child and was driven more by his belly than by his brain.  As such, he looked around for something to eat.

First he tried the grass.  Unfortunately, it all either tasted bad or tried to eat him back-





"Carnivorous grass?" Twilight asked in shock.

"Tangle weed," Samus explained, showing the logbook entry.  "One of many reasons I told Spike to stay in the ship."

Spike rolled his eyes.  "As I was saying..."





-the creatures were either bigger or faster than him, or stayed out of reach.  The only thing that seemed even remotely in his range of edibles was a large sac that seemed filled with syrup or honey behind one of the blue doors that opened to his fire breath.  However, when he tried to take a bite, it exploded, blasting him back against the opposite stone wall.





Samus stared at him.  "You never mentioned trying to eat a Sap Sac," she pointed out.

Spike looked away, embarrassed.  "Didn't want to worry you, since I didn't take much damage anyway..."

"Except for an explosion of flavor in your mouth?" Pinkie asked eagerly.

Spike chuckled.  "Well, it was flavorful..."





After that unsuccessful attempt at filling his belly, he continued to wander, staying close to the ship.  Eventually, one path led him to a wide lake.  At the near shore, he saw two Space Pirates with jetpacks doing something with two large canisters filled with a glowing blue and white liquid.  As he approached, the Pirates left, apparently answering some sort of call, so he continued up to the canisters.  He noticed the top was open on one of them.

Clambering up on the other, he saw that the liquid inside flowed despite a total absence of motion.  Taking a sniff, his mouth began to water.  It looked like liquid sapphires, one of his favorite gemstones.  Bending precariously, he stuck his hand in the liquid to scoop up a taste.





Spike paused in the story as he saw seven pairs of pony eyes looking at him disapprovingly.  "What?" he asked.

"Really?" Twilight asked.  "You encounter an unknown chemical being gathered by enemy troops on an unknown world...and your first thought is to stick your hand in it to see if it tastes good?"

"I was four!" Spike complained.  "What did you expect?"  Seven facehooves greeted this statement as Samus shook her head ruefully.

"What's wrong with what he did?" Pinkie asked.  "Sounds alright to me!  How do you know if it'll taste good without tasting it?"  More facehooves greeted this statement.

Spike chuckled.  "At any rate..."





Raising his hand to his mouth, Spike gingerly licked the liquid.  He found it tasted a great deal like Sapphires, but spicier.  It was delicious.  He quickly licked his hand clean before scooping another handful into his mouth, eager to fill his belly with the delicious liquid.  As he ate, his perch became uncomfortable, and eventually he shifted back to the ground.  When the canister was half empty, he could no longer reach far enough to scoop out more, so he lifted the canister to pour the remainder into his mouth.

Before any reached his lips, however, he paused as he realized a rather significant incongruity.  "Didn't the canister used to be bigger than me?" he wondered aloud.

Blinking, he realized that a lot of things around him were smaller than they had been.  He quickly realized what had happened.  "Did...did I just hit a growth spurt?"  Setting the canister down, he measured himself against it.  He was quickly able to determine that he now stood upright at about elbow height on Samus in her power suit.  "There's...there's no way I should have grown this fast," he muttered.  "This can't be natural."  He glanced into the canister.  "Maybe...it's this stuff?"

Making a decision, he picked up the canisters.  "I'm probably going to get in trouble over this, but I need to tell Mom what happened so we can figure out what this stuff is."  As he started to walk, the open canister sloshed, and he paused.  "Hmm...I probably shouldn't risk spilling any," he decided.  "Who knows what it might do."  He set the canisters down.  "...well, the full canister is probably enough for Mom to get answers..."  He glanced at the half empty canister.  "And I am still kinda hungry..."





At this point, even Pinkie facehooved.
> Tallon IV: Convenient
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"As you can imagine," Samus explained once everypony removed their hooves from their faces, "I was in for a rather unpleasant surprise when I returned from the Chozo Ruins."

"I can imagine," Twilight groaned, shaking her head at Spike.

"I was four!" Spike said defensively.

Samus chuckled.  "At any rate..."





After having reacquired her missile launcher and Morph Ball, Samus returned to the Tallon Overworld region.  While she could have continued onward through the Chozo Ruins area for more tech pickups, she wanted to check on Spike before continuing, to make sure he was doing alright.

As she returned to the ship, however, she found that the hatch had been opened.  Spike had left the ship.  "Spike?" she called out worriedly.  Instead of a response, however, she heard heavy footsteps.

Cautiously, she ducked behind the ship, priming her arm cannon.  From what she could see, a dark colored figure somewhat smaller than her was carrying a glowing canister.  Her scan visor revealed that the canister was filled with Phazon, but she wasn't able to get a lock on the figure carrying it.

Pirate, she thought to herself.  Don't know why it's transporting the material by hand like that, but if it gets close enough to see the ship, it's dead.  I'm not taking risks with Spike's safety.  The instant the figure started to step into the bowl of land the ship was in, she leapt over the ship, her cannon braced, a missile ready to fire.

"Whoa!  Mom, chill!  It's me!"

Samus jerked her arm up, the missile she'd already fired shooting over Spike's head to slam into a blast shield nearby, opening a path her map suggested led to a Chozo Temple.  "Spike!" she demanded.  "You scared me half to death there!  I nearly shot you with a missile!  I told you not to leave the ship!  And how did you get so big?"  She glanced over Spike.  When she'd left, he barely came up to her knees out of her power suit.  Now, he cleared her elbows in it, and was long and lanky, but looked leanly muscled.  The fact that the Phazon canister he was carrying weighed more than he did suggested his frail appearance belied his true strength.  "And why are you carrying a Pirate canister of Phazon?"

"Phazon?" Spike asked.  "What's that?"

"The high energy mineral mutagen the Pirates were experimenting with on the frigate," Samus explained.  "I told you about it on the way down."

"Oh," Spike replied.  "Sorry, I...kinda zoned out."  He chuckled nervously.  "Does...that mean I don't get to eat this canister, too?"

Samus stared.  "...too?  Spike, did you eat Phazon?"

Spike stared up at her, seeing her rage.  "...no?" he offered.

Sighing, Samus triggered her Scan Visor for a deep scan of Spike's physiology.

Scan Complete
Subject Spike has apparently gone through an accelerated growth.  Approximate physical age is that of an early adolescent.  No signs of growth strain or deterioration, as is normally present in Phazon growth spurts, according to Pirate Data.  Also, no signs of Phazon veining corruption as present normally when a subject has undergone accelerated evolution as a result of Phazon exposure.  Results inconclusive.  Recommend consultation with Chozo Spirits.

Well, I was going to do that anyway, Samus grumbled in her thoughts as she disengaged her visor.  "Well, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with you beyond a growth spurt."

"So...does that mean I get to-"

"No," Samus snapped.  "You don't get to eat the other canister of Phazon until we consult with a Chozo spirit about why Phazon effects you this way."

Spike pouted.  "Alright.  ...when can we do that?"

She pointed up to where the blast shield had been destroyed by her missile.  "There's supposed to be a Chozo Temple up there, according to scans.  Unfortunately, without my Space Jump, I can't get-"

Her words were cut off as Spike rushed over to the stone wall and dug his claws in, beginning to climb right up the side.  "You coming?" he called.

Samus blinked, staring at him in shock.  However, she thought quickly.  "Spike, how firm's your grip?  Do you think I could use you as a stepping stone to clear a gap?"

Spike jerked his claws back and forth in the stone.  "I think so," he said.  "As long as you jump off quickly."

Nodding, Samus pointed to a space between two stone outcrops.  "Climb to over there," she instructed.  "I'll meet you there!"

With their plan of action made, the two made their way up.  Samus' plan worked like a charm, and she was able to use Spike to clear the gap without putting undue stress on the young dragon.  The pair then made their way into the Chozo Temple.

Once inside, Samus discovered from Chozo Lore inscribed on the walls and a Pirate Data hologram that the Temple was built over the site of a meteor impact, and the meteor was the source of the Phazon.  The seal itself was locked with 12 keys.  On approaching the center of the Temple, Samus acquired the first key...and discovered that the Artifacts that were the keys were, in fact, the physical manifestations of the 12 Elder spirits who had managed to avoid being driven mad by the Phazon infection.

On understanding this, Samus turned to Spike.  "We're going to meditate here," she explained.  "We'll try to communicate with the Chozo Spirit resting in the Artifact of Truth."

Nodding, Spike followed her directives to go into the lotus position, breathing deeply and calmly as Samus instructed.

The world faded away from their senses, and a spirit appeared before them.

Hatchling, the spirit spoke in their minds, I cannot remain long.  Every moment spent outside the shell crafted to preserve me and seal the crater risks my corruption by the great poison.  Ask quickly.

Samus nodded.  "Spike, the draconic child entrusted to my care, consumed Phazon, the Great Poison.  However, it seems to effect him very differently from other creatures influenced by it.  I...hoped you could explain it.

Ah, the other Hatchling, the spirit replied.  It turned its attention to Spike.  His lifeblood pulses with an energy unfamiliar to the Chozo, but similar to our own abilities.  His digestion converts all he consumes into that energy, to be absorbed and utilized by his systems.  ...his body possesses the natural ability to rewrite large sections of its own DNA to adapt to its environment, if provided enough energy.  This is a natural process for his species.

"I've never heard of any species that could do something like that!" Samus commented.

We here on this world have not either, the spirit replied.  However, our comrades beyond seek the answers you need.

"Umm..." Spike began.  "I'm not sure if I understood...but are you saying the reason Phazon doesn't effect me is because my digestive process overrides its mutagenic effect?"

No, the spirit replied.  Your physiology is designed to mutate naturally, experiencing drastic changes in size, shape, and abilities as you live.  The Phazon is absorbed completely, enhancing that natural process and providing a great deal more energy than any other food you can consume.  For all other creatures, Phazon is a terrible poison.  But for your people...it is but another food, one far more potent than any other...





"So Phazon is a super food for Equestrian dragons?" Pinkie asked in surprise.

"It was a surprise to me to hear that, too," Samus replied.  "The spirit also explained that Spike's maturation process also wasn't tied to time.  All it really took for him to reach maturity was to get enough energy stores  to grow.  Emotionally, he was still a child, but physically he would be an adult as soon as he ate enough."

"Fascinating!" Twilight said eagerly, taking notes.

"Is that why Spike was always compulsively stuffin' his face?" Applejack asked.

"Basically," Samus replied.  "His body knew it was ready to grow, but he wasn't able to get enough energy from the food he ate to do so."

"Except during Greed Growth," Rainbow muttered.  Twilight glanced away nervously

"That's actually part of the 'self mutation' part the Spirit told us," Samus pointed out.  "His genetic code responds to physical and emotional triggers to change his physical shape and abilities based on need."  She chuckled as Twilight continued to take notes.  "You know, I do have all this in the data file I've kept on Spike back in my ship."

Twilight's eyes lit up.  "Can I see?" she begged eagerly.

"No spoilers!" Pinkie proclaimed angrily.

Samus couldn't help but laugh.  "Later.  For now, let's continue the story.  Obviously, though, this made Spike an ideal assistant in exploring an environment corrupted by Phazon..."





As they left the Temple, Spike was vibrating in eagerness.  "You mean I get to go with you?" he asked, his voice disbelieving.

Samus nodded.  "If you can metabolize Phazon like that without side effects, that'll make you ideally suited to helping out here.  Phazon isn't exactly healthy for me, after all."  She leapt down to the ship.  "Just let me record these details."  Going into the ship, she recorded the data regarding Spike, dragons, and Phazon in her log book.

When she came out of the ship, she saw that Spike now was eye level with her on two legs, and the Phazon canister was empty.  When he saw her stare, Spike contrived to look guilty and rebellious.  "But...but you said it was okay for me to eat it!  The Chozo Spirit said so, too!"

Groaning, Samus lowered her face into her hand.  "Oh, Spike..."





Twilight couldn't help but chuckle, remembering all the times she'd reacted exactly that way to something Spike had done.
> Tallon IV: A Study of Dragon Growth, part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So how much did Spike change from drinking the other canister of Phazon?" Pinkie asked.

"Not that much," Samus replied.  "His claws and teeth got sharper, his muscles a bit more defined, and he got a bit bigger.  Maybe an inch or two.  Apparently, his body didn't feel the need to grow any further than that at the time."

"So he has some sort of subconscious control of how much he grew?" Twilight asked, fascinated.

"Had," Spike corrected.  "It became conscious by the time we left Tallon IV."

"Why so soon?" Rarity asked, curious.

"Wouldn't have fit in the ship, otherwise," Spike joked.

"Does anyone care about spoilers but me?" Pinkie demanded.

"Verily," Luna agreed.  "Can we please cut down on these side talks giving away advanced details?"

Samus chuckled.  "Alright.  Anyway, after that I took Spike back to the Chozo Ruins area..."





As Samus entered the Chozo Ruins once more, she noticed Spike staring around the place in awe.  It took her a few moments to realize why.  As much as she'd told him about the Chozo in bedtime stories, the ship and her Power Suit were the only Chozo crafting he'd ever seen, and the ship was technically second hand, as it had been made in a Federation outpost.  Now he was witnessing the ruins left behind, and struggling to imagine the splendor of it before it had decayed.  She smiled softly, as she didn't have to imagine, and idly wondered what his mind was conjuring for him.

A few burrowing Beetles leapt up to attack them, about twice the size Spike had been before drinking Phazon.  Samus readied her arm cannon to fight, but found herself staring as Spike lunged in.  Apparently, Phazon was full of energy but not very filling post growth spurts.  At least, that's what she interpreted Spike's sudden and vicious mouth-first attack upon them, tearing them to pieces and devouring them.





Samus glanced around at the shocked expressions on the face of every mare present, save Fluttershy.  "What?" Samus asked.  "What'd you think those fangs were for?"

"Fruit juice?" Fluttershy offered quietly.

Samus wasn't sure if it was meant as a joke or not, but it caused quite a few titters around the table.  Smiling, Samus continued the tale.





After Spike had devoured the Beetles, Samus led the way up around to another path.  On the way, they encountered some War Wasps.  While the spines that they fired were damaging to both of them, they had no more luck penetrating dragon scales than Chozo alloys.  It did, however, make him angry, and the Wasps were too big to escape his claws easily.

"Mm, crunchy," he said after he was finished.





Everypony was staring at Spike again.  "What?" he asked.  "They were!"

"Certain types of insects are treated as delicacies in some of the further flung countries," Luna pointed out.  "At least, they were long ago."

"Still are," Celestia admitted.  "I've never developed the taste for them, personally."

"Is there anything you didn't eat on your journey?" Rarity asked, a trifle nauseously.

Spike shrugged.  "When things try to kill you and you're a growing dragon, the instinctive response is eat them," he explained.  "Couldn't stand the taste of Space Pirates, though."

As Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie gagged, Samus continued her story.





As they continued onward, there was a brief problem with a mostly blocked passage.  Samus was able to get under it by shifting into Morph Ball, but Spike seemed to be stuck.  "Any ideas?" Samus asked.

Spike looked at it for a time.  "...I think I've got one," he said softly.

After a time, Spike's spade tail stuck out the end of the passage.  "Pull," he said.

Grabbing it, Samus pulled.  Spike slipped easily through the passage, as his body was easily able to fit through the narrow passage as long as he didn't move too much.

"Next time," he grumbled, "I'm burning my way through."  He snorted angrily, his green fire shooting out, hotter than when he was smaller.

As they moved further, they passed through a chamber where the water in the floor and the fountain had turned to acid from all the toxins the mutated plants were releasing.  Curiously, Spike reached towards it, but pulled back as a drop splashed onto him and started to burn.  "Ouch!" Spike hissed.

Samus quickly pulled him away.  "Did you seriously think you'd be immune to acid?" she demanded.

"...maybe?" he offered lamely.

Samus rolled her eyes.  "Be more careful," she instructed.

As they went further, Samus made notes on what Spike enjoyed eating.  Shriekbats were a special treat for him, as they were difficult to catch in his mouth without them exploding.  If he managed, however, he reveled in the taste, describing it as an especially spicy curry.  Reaper vines were more difficult to take a bite out of, but he found them deliciously fruity.  He avoided blast caps, however, as he found their explosive spores unpleasant.

Before long, Samus was able to reacquire her Charge Beam.  A few Oculus - eyeball shaped creatures in the walls firing laser beams - came after them, but Spike's fist was able to do enough damage to destroy them, as was Samus' charged shots.  After that, they left the chamber.

They quickly made their way back to a Communications Port to remotely hook up with the ship.





"Communications Port?" Twilight asked curiously.

"They're remote transceivers that use the ship code I carry with me to lock onto my ship and transmit data back and forth," Samus explained.  "It lets me record any collected logbook and map data, as well as access my ship's scanners for clues where to go next.  It also replenishes my armor's energy for structural integrity."

"Like a save point?" Pinkie asked eagerly.

"Basically," Spike replied, as Samus hadn't actually played any video games.

"It also helps me in keeping a record of my journeys," Samus replied.  "Marking good stopping points.  Which is why I'd now like to break for lunch."  Reaching up, she disengaged her helmet.  "I've adjusted enough to planetary gravity that I can at least remove my helmet, and I'd like to give the food here a try."

"I'll get right on it, sugarcube!" Applejack said happily.  "We can have more story time after lunch!"  With that, she headed for the kitchen and got to cooking.
> Tallon IV: A Study in Dragon Growth, part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After a quick vegetarian lunch - none of the ponies ate meat, and Samus couldn't eat the gems that Twilight had in storage for Spike that he hadn't eaten before going missing - Samus sat back in her chair, putting her helmet back on.  "That was delicious," she said softly.  "I haven't tasted vegetables so crisp, cheese so delicate, or bread so soft since I was living with the Chozo."

Luna smiled softly.  "Based on what I've been able to determine, the Chozo were an agrarian society, much as we are, whereas most of the Federation is industrialized, like the minotaurs.  I imagine one of the greatest problems the Federation encounters is environmental pollutants contaminating produce and other food sources?"

"Not to mention causing sickness," Samus agreed.  "But this entire planet scans as being free of any pollutants.  How do the minotaurs manage that?"

Celestia chuckled.  "They don't," she replied simply.  "Minotaurs provide most of the industrialized products the world uses.  The griffons have the best foundries, where raw materials are broken down into the ores and alloys needed for the minotaurs' manufacturing.  The various canine races do most of the mining, providing both gems and ores for the other races."  She levitated her tea cup and took a sip.  "Many believe the reason Equestria has such a significant role in political realms is my control of the sun, and my sister's control of the moon.  They are mistaken.  It is the Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns who provide the true political power.  Twilight, perhaps you can explain?"

Twilight nodded.  "Earth Pony magic is bonded to the land itself.  While not all Earth Ponies are farmers or work the land, Earth Pony farm goods are orders of magnitude more fruitful, flavorful, and resistant to natural disasters than produce from any other farm.  Pegasi are able to control the weather inside Equestria's borders, but outside they use their abilities to leech pollutants out of the air and water, while Earth Ponies do the same for the land.  And unicorn magic possesses spells that can convert the pollutants back into viable resources."

Samus blinked.  "So...ponies have political power from recycling?"

"Once, shortly after the tribes united," Luna explained, "the other races attempted to make war on the fledgling Equestria.  Those unicorns not focused on controlling the sun and moon worked with the other races to create a boundary that separated Equestria from the rest of the planet, ecologically.  Within a month, the dragons - who had stayed out of the conflict - were the only race not suffering from plague, famine, or excessive pollution."  She sipped her tea.  "There hasn't been a single war between nations since."

"It's not something talked about much," Celestia explained as many of the faces around the table were slackjawed.  "The strategy was Clover's, and at Smart Cookie's suggestion, ponies did not beat the other races over the head with what it meant.  As soon as peace overtures arrived from all involved, the barrier came down, and ponies returned to cleaning the planet as if nothing had ever happened.  Before the week was out, the status quo had been restored.  Many races are...unhappy...with how much political power this gives ponies, but they know we're necessary."

"Dragon physiology makes pollutants a non-concern, however," Luna pointed out.  "They can adapt to just about any environment, and thrive in ones that are lethal to most other races.  Most dragons also consider ponies weak, as we lack any standing army beside the defensive ones, such as the Royal Guards."

Samus chuckled softly.  "Your government controls the planet as an economic superpower," she joked.  "The other countries need the services you provide, and that keeps the planet stable."

"Basically," Celestia replied.  "And we don't flaunt it, which keeps bad feelings down."

"But enough about our planet," Luna countered.  "Tell us more about your adventure on Tallon IV."  She looked nearly as eager for the story as Rainbow and Twilight.

Samus chuckled.  "Alright.  There isn't actually that much more to tell in the Chozo Ruins.  Some of the morph ball tunnels I had to go through were too small for Spike, so I had to face the incinerator drone without him.  Which is a pity, as his flame breath would have been useful against the barbed war wasps."

"...didn't get to taste them, either, since we never encountered them again," Spike pouted, making several of the mares giggle.

"That got me back my Morph Ball bombs," Samus explained.  "One of my most useful additional pieces of equipment.  The next thing of interest didn't occur until we got to the Sunchamber at the peak of the Chozo Ruins.  I went up through some morph ball tunnels, while Spike climbed the walls.  When we got there..."





Samus stared up at the massive red flower as it writhed in the center of the sun chamber.  Spike stared down from above, as he'd been forced to climb walls to get there.  Samus had mentioned dragons had wings, and he was really looking forward to getting his.  As the bloom writhed, it unfolded, massive thorns erupting from the ground to seal the path Samus had taken into the Sunchamber.  Reflecting mirrors flipped to shine sunlight directly onto the open bloom, and a worm like creature with massive blade arms rose from the bloom's center, roaring as it spewed the venom that had poisoned the waters of the Chozo Ruins and corrupted the plant life.

"What is that thing?" Spike demanded in disgust and a little fear.

Samus raised her hand to her visor, scanning the creature.  "It's a Flaahgra," she explained.





"Flaahgra?" Twilight asked curiously.

Tapping a console on the wrist of her power armor, she called up the image her logbook had recorded.



"Eeyugh!" Rarity spat, backing away from the image.  "Spike, please tell me you didn't try to eat that!"

"Is...is that a plant or an animal?" Applejack asked in confusion.

"I think it's a plant," Fluttershy replied.  "Possibly with an animal symbiosis."

"How big is that compared to, say, us?" Pinkie asked.

"About the size of Town Hall, maybe a little smaller," Spike replied, making Twilight's jaw drop.

"So how'd you fight that thing?" Rainbow demanded.

Spike chuckled.  "Well..."





"It's a mutant plant!" she called out.  "It's the source of the toxins, but it needs continuous sunlight to survive at this point in its Phazon accelerated development.  If we can knock the mirrors out of alignment so it isn't getting direct sunlight, I can attack its nerve center with my bombs.  But first we need to stun it, and-"

Spike promptly spat a fireball at the Flaahgra, igniting its uper body and causing it to flail about.  He then raced along the stone upper rim of the Sunchamber, using his tail to knock the mirror out of alignment.

The Flaahgra's worm body fell over without the sunlight, and the spiked vines protecting the base withdrew from the tunnels under the plant.  Samus quickly delivered a morph ball bomb to its nervous system at the end of one of the tunnels.  The worm withdrew to heal, only to come out stronger than before as more mirrors angled to give it direct sunlight.

Spike and Samus repeated this strategy four times; Spike setting the beast on fire and knocking the mirrors out of alignemnt, and Samus setting a bomb at its base.  With the last explosion, the worm body dissolved and collapsed into the flower.  It slowly died as it burned down, its toxins fading as new plant life burst free of its influence.

With the plant dead, clean water burst forth, overwhelming the toxins as it flowed to fill the whole Ruins.  It would take some time for the environment to recover, but they had taken the first step.

At the opposite exit from where Samus had come in, a new upgrade awaited her.  Acquiring it, her Varia Suit was restored in a rather flashy light show.

"Are suit upgrades always like that?" Spike asked as he uncovered his eyes.

"In my experience," Samus admitted.

As she started to make her way to the door, Spike stopped her.  "Mom...something's here..."

"What?" Samus asked, turning.

"It...it feels like the spirit in the artifact," he said.  "But...I feel...madness."





"Wait, what?" Twilight demanded.

"Dragons do have heightened magical sensitivity as compared to other species," Luna pointed out.  "While unexpected, it's conceivable Spike could sense the presence of spirits."

"That's what it was," Samus agreed.  "And not just spirits.  He could also sense the Chozo Artifacts.  That proved especially helpful for me before I got ahold of a visor upgrade that let me detect the Chozo Ghosts that had been driven mad by Phazon.  He was able to tell me where to aim.  And against three Chozo Ghosts that were attacking all at once, knowing where to aim before they phased back in was a huge tactical advantage, especially as I only had my Charge Beam to damage them.  My normal missiles were useless."

"Was it the battle that drew them?" Celestia asked.

"No," Samus replied.  "As best as I was able to tell from what happened, they attacked because Spike sensed their presence."

"Well, we did beat them," Spike pointed out.  "Managed to get another of the 12 artifacts, too.  The Artifact of Wild."

Pinkie giggled and snorted.  "Fits you in this, Spike!"

Samus chuckled.  "After that, we went down into Magmoor Caverns.  The Varia Suit allowed me to handle the intense heat, and it didn't seem a problem at all for Spike."

"Yeah," Twilight replied, "dragons tend to ignore temperatures and the weather."

"You have no idea," Samus replied.





As they entered the first cavern filled with magma, Samus cautioned Spike.  "Be careful here," she said as she leapt across the platforms to the other side.  "Acid was easy to heal from, but I doubt magma would be as easy to recover from."

Spike nodded as he followed.  "Right, I'll be-"

At that moment, a gout of flame erupted from the wall, impacting him.  It didn't actually cause any damage, but the unexpected blast pushed him off the platform and into the lava.

"Spike!" Samus yelled out in fear, leaping back towards the platform, ready to leap into the magma to pull him back onto the platform.

Spike's head popped up out of the lava.  His expression showed no signs of pain, merely confusion.  "Huh...this is kinda nice," he said as he began to swim around.

Samus leaned back against the wall as she drew on all her Chozo training to bring her heartrate back to normal.





The ponies around the table struggled to stifle their giggles.  "Well, how was I supposed to know dragons were immune to lava?" she demanded.  "Ridley certainly wasn't the first time I fought him, even if he liked being around it."

At that, the giggles burst into laughter.  "Sorry, Samus!" Twilight managed to say as she wiped her eyes.  "It's just..."

"It does show good mothering instincts that you were ready to leap into the magma to save him," Celestia pointed out.  "I imagine your power suit would have allowed you to survive for a certain amount of time?"

"It would have," Samus replied.  "Not too long, but long enough to get him back on the platform...hopefully."

"It is not your actions we find humorous," Luna promised.  "It is just...imagining your face when Spike popped up out of the lava like he was in a swimming pool..."  Luna could hold the laughter back no longer.

Samus sighed.  "I admit, in hindsight, it is pretty funny..."

Spike patted her shoulder reassuringly.
> Tallon IV: Overgrown
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So," Twilight spoke up after everypony got their laughter under control, "after your scare with Spike falling into the magma, how'd things go in the caverns?"

"Pretty well," Samus admitted.  "While many of the passages above the lava between chambers were too small for Spike, the magma connected between chambers through much larger tubes that Spike could traverse easily.  We spent most of this trip through the caverns seeing what creatures in there Spike could eat."

Applejack chuckled.  "Growing foals always have a huge appetite," she pointed out.  "Guess dragons do, too."

"They do," Twilight groaned.  "He was always trying to eat everything in sight back up in Canterlot.  You have no idea how hard it was to teach him that books weren't food."

Several of the mares chuckled.  Spike blushed as he remembered that, then smirked as more of the memory came back.  "Didn't help when you still chewed on the book corners in your sleep if you fell asleep in bed reading."

Twilight's cheeks burned as nearly everyone else laughed.  "I was young!" she whimpered defensively.

Celestia chuckled indulgently.  "Twilight, you were 12."

Twilight grumbled as she hid her blushing face in her hooves.  "So," she continued once she got her blushing - and everyone else got their laughter - under control, "what all did he try to eat?"

Samus smiled.  "Well, he tried to eat a Grizby - a small armored scavenger - but its armored carapace was built to handle the superheated temperatures of the volcanic chambers it lived in.  Spike simply wasn't strong enough to break through it."

"I hurt a tooth trying," Spike grumbled, leading to more titters.

"Then there were the Burrowers," Samus explained.  "Small insects like Beetles that stayed underground, leaping up out of their tunnels to spit some of its digestive acid at potential prey."

"Or get eaten," Spike added.  "A bit tangy.  Felt the need to eat something sweet after a couple of those."

"Then there were the Magmoors the caverns had been named for," Samus continued.  "Fire breathing lava serpents."

"A bit spicy for my tastes," Spike explained, "but tasty enough."

"Although you should have known better than to eat the Puffers," Samus scolded.  "Seriously, a fleshy, gas filled balloon expelling green gas as it floats around in a volcanic chamber strikes you as something good to take a bite out of?"

"Well, it did until the first one exploded in my mouth," Spike complained.  "Didn't taste very good, either.  Left me with a very bad smelling breath, too."

"Until you breathed fire again," Samus corrected.  "Which caught the gas trail of the other Puffers, causing them to explode internally."

"Sounds like some pretty awesome fireworks," Rainbow pointed out with a chuckle.

"But why did breathing fire clear his breath?" Rarity asked.

"Sterilization," Samus explained.  "Dragon fire is hot enough to kill anything lingering in the mouth, including the plaque and germs that cause bad breath.  From what I've been told, all that's left is a smokey aftertaste."

Everypony turned to stare at Samus and Spike.  "Just...who told you that?" Rarity asked archly, her eyes straying towards Spike.

"Pretty sure that falls under spoilers," Samus pointed out.  "We'll get there after the next planet."  She chuckled internally as she watched Spike sweat under Rarity's jealous gaze.

"So what next then?" Pinkie Pie asked happily.

Samus shrugged.  "Nothing else of real interest in Magmoor Caverns, except when Spike climbed a wall to get to the Warrior Shrine to pick up another Chozo Artifact; Strength this time.  After that, we headed to the Phendrana Drifts."

"What's that?" Fluttershy asked eagerly.

"A snow filled region," Spike replied.  "It was...incredible..."





As Samus led the way out of the icy tunnel, she stared around at the white landscape as snow gently fell.  She smiled under her mask as the snow crunched beneath her armored boots.  Of all the various environments she had been in, she was most fond of snow.  It was so quiet and peaceful.  Even after a vicious battle for survival, the snow quickly blanketed the world and covered the signs, restoring peace.  It was quite calming.

After a time, she noticed she didn't hear Spike's footsteps following hers.  Confused, she turned behind her to check on him, and found him frozen at the edge of the ice tunnel, staring out at the snow like he'd never seen it before.  With a laugh, she realized he hadn't.  "It's just snow," Samus called out to him.  "Like ice, only soft and gentle."  Scooping up a handful, she lobbed it his way.

He leapt out of the way of the shower of powder.  "What the?" he demanded in confusion, turning to poke at the snow.  Slipping, he landed on his back in the snow.  He wriggled around for a while before getting to his claws, scooting away.

"Never saw a snow angel with a tail before," Samus pointed out, staring at the imprint left in the snow.

"Snow angel?" Spike asked in confusion.

"Something people make when they go to play in the snow," Samus explained.  "They lay on their back and wave their arms and legs around.  Apparently, the resulting imprint is supposed to resemble an angel."

Spike stared at the imprint for a while.  "Can...you teach me?" he asked finally.

"Teach you what?" Samus asked, confused.

"How to play in the snow?" Spike begged.

Samus turned to face him.  He was looking up at her hopefully, his ear frills hanging downward, his eyes wide and pleading.  She sighed.  "Spike, we can't just stop here and play in the snow.  We need to work on collecting the rest of the artifacts, driving off the pirates, and attacking the source of the Phazon.  We can't just stop and...play in the...snow..."  Her voice was trailing off because Spike's eyes had begun to water, and his lip was quivering.  After a time, she finally sighed.  "Alright, fine!" she relented.  "There aren't any hostiles right here, anyway."  She disengaged her arm cannon.

As frustrated as she was with the delay, the joy in his eyes when she relented quickly washed away her pique.  The look of consternation on his face when she beaned him with a snowball helped, too.

The two of them spent a great deal of time playing.  First, Samus taught Spike how to make a snowman, rolling the large balls of snow and using rocks blackened with Spike's flame for buttons, eyes, and a smile.  She couldn't take him sledding without a sled or a hill, but she taught him to make a proper snow angel and a snow ball.

They spent at least another hour snow ball fighting.  Samus' snowballs flew firm and true, catching Spike off guard with every impact.  However, with the bulkiness of her power suit, she could only make one at a time.  While Spike's snowballs were less well shaped, he was able to use all four sets of claws to shape and throw them.

Just wait until I get my ice beam back, Samus growled, imagining longingly the shock on Spike's face when a slight reconfiguration of the Ice Beam would allow her to pelt him with snow balls from her arm cannon.  At that point, however, her eyes widened as Spike sent a large amount of snow straight at her from his spade tail.





"Nice one, Spike!" Rainbow said eagerly.  "Next winter-"

"Dibs on having Spike on my team for the snowball war!" Pinkie interrupted.

"Dammit, Pinkie!" Rainbow snapped.

Spike and Samus both laughed at their antics, fondly remembering that innocent pleasure.
> Tallon IV: Apex
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So after you played in the snow for a while," Twilight asked, "what next?"

Samus smiled.  "Well, that trip to the Drifts, we didn't encounter that many new animals or threats...except the Sheegoths and their babies."

"Babies?" Fluttershy asked eagerly.  "Oh, they sound so adorable!  They-"

Samus interrupted by displaying an image of said creature - a blue, ice covered beast that was all teeth and muscle, big enough to eat a pony in a single bite - on her logbook screen.



Fluttershy wilted a bit.  "Umm...I'm sure their mothers love them?" she offered somewhat pathetically.

"We had to face quite a few of those on our way through the wastes," Samus explained.

"You...you didn't kill babies...did you?" Fluttershy whimpered.

Samus chuckled at how quickly Fluttershy's sympathies could swing.  "We didn't have to.  See, at that point, Spike stood just a little taller than them..."





Samus' first encounter with a Baby Sheegoth went how any first encounter with a creature usually did for her.  First, she scanned it for information as soon as she got into range, checked to see if Spike could eat it - given it was nearly his size, she decided the answer was probably no - and then seeing if there was some way they could get around it without disturbing it from its snowy bed.

Unfortunately, it awoke as soon as they approached, shaking the snow from its body along with its companion nearby.  Both then roared, exhaling super-cold gases.

Spike stomped his clawed toes in response, snorting fire from his nose.  He then let out an even louder roar, right in the face of the Baby Sheegoths.

The two creatures of snow and ice took one look at the angry beast of flame and scales and decided they had business elsewhere, where the prey was more plentiful and less likely to bite back.





Pinkie giggled and snorted at that.  "Yeah, dragon breath is pretty bad, isn't it?"  That got a laugh from several of those around the table.

Samus chuckled.  "One of the advantages of traveling with a prime developing specimen of an apex predator," she explained.  "At any rate..."





Spike and Samus continued through the only path currently available to Samus through the snowy region, with Spike eating his way along.  The Ice Burrowers - Burrowers much like those in Magmoor Caverns, but adapted to the sub zero conditions of Phendrana - tried to leap out to attack, but only managed to leap into Spike's mouth.  "Much sweeter than the ones in Magmoor," he commented after eating one.  "...almost too sweet.  They'd taste pretty good together, I think."

There was also a bit of Phazon visible out of the snow here and there, which Spike went after like a ravenous wolf.  Samus didn't complain about it.  Not only did it make it less likely she'd step in it and take damage, it caused no harm to Spike, was arguably good for him, and they were there to get rid of the stuff, after all.

After eating up a good amount of Phazon, however, Spike took a tumble into some deep, cold water when attempting to eat a Flickerbat, a nearly invisible scavenger bird that Spike was only able to track by smell.  Samus leaned over the ledge to where he had landed.  "You okay, Spike?" she called out.

Spike shook himself a bit in the water, then held still for a time.  Samus could see something going on with Spike's scales on his neck, so she opened her scan visor to investigate.



Scans indicate that the consumed Phazon has energized Spike enough to trigger another augmentation.  The aquatic environment has acted as a trigger for this augmentation, and the scales of the neck can now lift to reveal newly developed gills.  While Spike lacks webbing between fingers or toes for better force in swimming, the spade of the tail is developing for much greater propulsion.  Neural activity indicates that new pathways for controlling both gill scales and tail for aquatic activity are developing, placing the rest of the brain into quasi-stasis while the alterations take place.







"Wait!" Twilight interrupted.  "Spike has gills now?"

Smiling, Spike angled his neck so they could see the whole arch.  Small scales all along the neck flipped upward, exposing his gills, before closing back up in a ripple.  "Environmental adaptions generally went that way," Spike explained.  "If I had enough energy in my system and fell into a new environment, my body went into temporary stasis as the changes occurred on my body and in my brain.  Rather restful, actually.  I always came out of those refreshed."

"How many more times did that happen?" Twilight asked eagerly.

As Spike opened his mouth to answer, Pinkie whacked them both upside the head with a sign that read Spoilers.

Laughing, Samus returned to the story.





Once Spike had climbed his way back up after getting his new gills, the pair continued onward.  Other Baby Sheegoths confronted them briefly, but one snort of flame from Spike was able to convince them to go elsewhere.  A brief detour was indicated on Samus' map, which enabled her to acquire a boost function for her Morph Ball.  This would enable her to use various half-pipe structures scattered about the environment to access new areas...as long as Spike didn't damage the half pipe with his claws.

Heading back out of the Drifts, however, a massive shadow passed over them, a shadow with wings.  Looking up, Spike got his first sight of Ridley.  Inside, his teachings from Samus about choosing his battles warred with an instinctive urge to challenge this other dragon.  He wanted so badly to meet this beast in combat...even though he knew that, at this point, he'd be torn asunder.

Samus's hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his focus.  "You okay?" she asked.

He examined himself internally, and eventually nodded.  "Yeah...I'm okay."

Nodding, Samus led the way out of the drifts.





The pair detoured back to the Tallon Overworld.  On the way to the ship, Samus followed the clues her ship's sensors was sending her map, detouring via a half-pipe up to another chamber over her Landing Site, where she reacquired her Space Jump Boots.  They took a brief stop at the ship to download Samus' findings, upload any new scan information to her suit map, and for a more in depth analysis of the influence Phazon had had on Spike's development.  Finding still no signs of corruption or atrophy as a result of unnatural growth, they continued on their journey.

Returning to Phendrana, they explored other paths made available by Samus' space Jump boots and Spike's wall climbing abilities.  They encountered two new creatures on this path.  First was the Ice Parasite, similar to the Parasite creatures Samus had encountered on the Pirate Frigate, but adapted to the frozen regions.  After eating one, Spike commented, "Rather bland, and not very filling...like unsalted crackers."

The second was Ice Shriekbats, similar to the dive bombing Shriekbats of other regions, which also conveniently dive bombed into Spike's waiting jaws.  It was rather amusing to Samus how effective 'sit back and say Ah' was as a hunting stratagem on this planet.  "Salty and sweet," Spike commented after eating one, "like a strange flavor of ice cream."

They managed to avoid fighting Baby Sheegoths for a time, since they were all scared of Spike's flames.  However, when they entered a large courtyard inside a snowy temple, the infants were more belligerent.  In order to discourage them, Spike was actually forced to breathe fire on them, which caused them to flee in pain and fear.

Unfortunately, this drew the adult Sheegoth, which smashed its way in through the wall.  Its proportions were the same as the Baby Sheegoths...but its mouth was big enough to eat Samus or Spike in a single mouthful, and instead of an ice shell on its back it had massive ice crystals which were charged with energy.  Samus' scans indicated those crystals would draw energy based weaponry into them when charged.



Unfortunately, Spike's instincts were strong.  When the Sheegoth roared its challenge, Spike snorted flame and roared back.  The Sheegoth didn't back off, so Spike charged.  In response, the Sheegoth opened its mouth wide and chomped down, eating the young dragon in a single bite.

"Spike!" Samus screamed out in fear and anger.  She leveled her arm cannon at the Sheegoth.  "Give me back my son, you son of a-"

Her shout was cut off by a loud, crunching snap, followed by the Sheegoth jerking convulsively. Its eyes rolled up in its head as it spasmed, its crystals sparking randomly.  After a time, it fell over on its side, its mouth hanging open.

Within the open mouth, Samus saw Spike happily scarfing away.  "Spike?" she asked.

Spike stuck his head out, plainly none the worse for wear, bits of bone falling from his head spines as gray semi-solid dripped from his mouth.  "This gray stuff is delicious!" he said happily.  "What's it called?"  He scooped another handful out of the Sheegoth's skull and stuffed it in his mouth.

"...that's the brain," Samus replied, torn between frustration with Spike for being so blase about nearly being eaten and relief that he was alright.

"The...brain?" Spike asked nervously.

"Yup," Samus replied as she picked up the Wave Beam upgrade she had come this way for.

"I'm eating the brain...and liking it..." Spike breathed.  His eyes then widened.  "Does this mean I'm...a zombie?"

There was a metallic clang as Samus' armored palm met her helmet.





"It's not that funny!" Spike complained as the entire table burst into laughter.
> Tallon IV: Nomnoms
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once everyone stopped laughing, Twilight managed to get herself under control.  "So what happened next?" she asked curiously.  "I have a feeling we've a long way to go."

Samus nodded.  "Five more missions beyond this one, which isn't even half over."

Applejack's eyes widened.  "We're gonna be here for a while..."

"Then we'd best keep going," Spike replied, before continuing the tale.





With the Wave Beam acquired, the pair continued to explore the Phendrana Drifts, seeking out paths made available by the weapon and Samus' Space Jump Boots.  On the way, Spike got his first taste of Scarabs - small beetles that traveled in swarms, detonating themselves to protect the rest of the swarm - which he said, "Taste exactly like a potato chip," before proceeding to eat the entire swarm.

Reaching a wide open area with several Boost Switches - spinning switches that had to be activated by the Boost Ball - Morph Ball slots, and low levels of water, Samus sighed.  "I've got some puzzles to solve."

"Alternatively, I could carry you up," Spike suggested.

"How?"

Smirking, Spike gripped the snow covered wall and ascended with his claws, arching his tail so the spade tip formed a cradle.

Samus chuckled.  "Good thinking," she replied, entering Morph Ball.  Hopping into the cradle, she let him carry them up to the upper level.  On the way up, he managed to eat a Flickerbat that came too close.  He wound up spitting it out.  "Ick!  Tastes like cold medicine."

Once on the upper level, they entered a door shielded against all but the electrical energy of the Wave Beam, entering a Space Pirate research facility.  Right inside the door, they came under attack by a Space Pirate - a Shadow Pirate to be exact, one equipped with a stealth field - which Spike promptly tried to eat.

He just as promptly spit it out.  "Eeyuck!" he complained.  "Tastes like those candies with all the artificial colors and sweeteners you wouldn't let me eat!  Disgusting!  It's like a mouthful of chemicals!"

"Then don't eat them," Samus offered as she stared at the headless corpse and the half chewed head.

"That's for sure," Spike growled, rubbing his slowly lengthening muzzle.

Curious, Samus scanned him again.



Spike has reached another stage of his growth.  His muzzle is lengthening into a pointed beak for greater biting power and to act as a pointed weapon to stab enemies with.  Claws are also lengthening, both for combat and more efficient climbing.



Interesting, Samus mused to herself, continuing further inward.

Seeing plenty of Phazon in sealed canisters along the walls being processed for energy, Spike demonstrated the penetrative power of his new beak as he washed the taste of the Pirate from his mouth.  Chuckling, Samus let him drink his fill before continuing onward.

In the next chamber, they encountered some normal Space Pirates without the stealth tech.  Spike, ever game, gave these a try as well, only to find the taste unchanged.  He cleansed his mouth this time with his fire breath, torching the attacking pirates.

Scanning various display screens, Samus was able to determine that this facility served two purposes for the Pirates.  The first was as a research facility to study Phazon and its possible uses.  The second was as a Metroid power station.





"Metroid?" Fluttershy asked.

"Power station?" Twilight added.

Samus scanned through her log book, finally revealing an image that resembled a green jellyfish with red nodes inside of it, and claw like fangs instead of tendrils.



"Metroids are a predatory race that feed by draining the life force from other creatures," Samus explained.  "The exact feeding method is unknown, but once they latch onto you, there's little you can do to break free.  They were...designed to be super predators."

"Designed?" Rainbow inquired.

"By the Chozo."

Everypony gasped.  "Why?" Luna demanded.  "Why would the Chozo do such a thing?"

Samus pointed to Pinkie's sign.

"...I see," Luna replied, rather put out.

"At any rate, while the Metroid energy metabolism process isn't completely understood, it can be taken advantage of," Samus continued, turning to face Twilight.  "The Space Pirates trapped Metroids in capsules and continuously fed and drained them, using them as an easily replenishable power source."

"H...how horrible," Fluttershy whimpered.

Samus was silent for a time, her arm stroking the spikes on the arm of her power suit.  "...yeah..." she agreed softly.

Fluttershy's eyes widened in shock and realization.

"Moving on," Spike said quickly.  "After Samus downloaded the map of the facility from a Map Station, we explored around for a while.  Found a few upgrades for Samus and another Chozo Artifact."

"Oh?" Pinkie asked eagerly.

"Yes," Samus replied.  "In an Astrodome - a holographic planetarium for storing and displaying astronomical data - I reacquired my Super Missile as a Charge Combo - a combination of charging a Beam Weapon and missile attack - and scan data for other planets of interest to the space pirates."

"Afterwards, we went up to the Control Tower," Spike explained.  "I felt the presence of another Chozo Artifact - Elder - and climbed over the wall to retrieve it before we continued onward."

"It was past there that we first encountered a Metroid..." Samus explained.





As they entered the new lab, they saw a Metroid contained inside a glass stasis chamber.  However, the chamber shattered as it smashed against the glass, and promptly charge - mouth first - straight at Spike.

"Spike, watch out!" Samus shouted, charging her power beam to prepare for a Super Missile.

Spike raised his head, staring right at the Metroid as it rushed him.

The Metroid wrapped around his beak, and Samus saw his jaws open as the tip entered the gelatinous interior.  Spike's jaws then snapped closed on the nucleus, instantly killing the Metroid and letting him slurp it up.  He licked his lips and grinned widely.  "Blueberry jelly!" he said happily.  "These are delicious!  Do they always charge like that?"

Completely stumped, Samus nodded.

Spike grinned widely.  "Wonderful!"





The ponies stared at Samus and Spike.  "...really?" Applejack asked.  "Ya were building up those Metroids like they were a huge threat, the worst thing ya ever faced...and Spike beats 'em just by biting first?"

Samus could only shrug helplessly.
> Tallon IV: Survival of the Fittest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"I have to agree with Applejack," Twilight pointed out.  "With everything you've said about Metroids, I find it hard to believe that they could be dealt with so easily.  It just...doesn't make sense."

Samus nodded.  "While I understand what you mean, let me explain a few things."  As everypony turned to her, Samus tapped a few commands on her power suit, displaying two very different images of Metroids side by side in a mid-air hologram.  The hologram itself made Twilight gasp, eyes alight with questions.  "Everything I've told you about Metroids up till this point has been regarding the Zebesian/SR388 variant, the original strain of Metroids.  However, Metroids are in a continuous state of evolution, constantly adapting to their environments...much like the dragons of this world, it seems.  Even in its own lifespan, a Metroid will go through multiple stages of growth that drastically alter the way it interacts with the world."

"Like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly?" Fluttershy asked.

"Very similar," Samus replied, "but even more extreme.  At any rate, the Zebesian Metroids latch onto their prey with their outer pincers, while the inner pincers do the actual draining of energy.  The Tallon variant I just described Spike eating, however, evolved differently.  The four pincers latch onto the prey to anchor, while a mouth between them does the actual draining.  This evolution is because most of the creatures of Tallon IV have a very strong external carapace, or some other defense that prevents the Metroid's pincers from digging into their flesh.  The mouth contains numerous rows of microscopic teeth that grind away at the flesh of the victim until an opening presents itself to drain, and the energy thus drained is drawn directly into the Metroid's nucleus.  Of course, this does also present a weakness...but it's not as glaring a one as you might think."

Using her hand, she rotated the hologram of the Tallon Metroid to display the mouth.  "Because of the size and shape of the Metroid's mouth, you have to have the right shape weapon to inflict damage to its inside.  In the manner described, the beak shaped mouth has to be long enough to reach inside the Metroid, but still short enough that the Metroid would target the face for attack.  Space Pirate beaks are too short, while Ridley's crocodile shaped jaw is much too long.

"Not only that, but the opening to do such a thing is incredibly small...literally a split second."  The hologram now included a representation of Spike's muzzle/beak at the time of the story.  "An instant too early, and the Metroid has enough time to react and veer away...and Metroids learn quickly.  Once a Metroid has escaped such a counter attack, they won't leave themselves open to it a second time."  The hologram illustrated her point.  "An instant too late, and the pressure of the Metroid's mouth around the jaw prevents it from opening.  Either way, the assault fails, and leaves the one attempting it vulnerable."

Rainbow took a closer look at the hologram.  "But once its latched on, couldn't Spike just snort some fire into its nucleus?  I mean, his nostrils are inside its mouth."

Samus nodded.  "That's exactly what he did when that happened, leaving the Metroid a cooked pile of goo."

"They don't taste good cooked," Spike muttered.

Samus nodded.  "When he first tried it, he spat it out, claiming it 'tasted like Sweetie Belle's toast', before spending a half hour trying to get the taste out of his mouth."  Noticing the gasps around the table, she shrugged.  "Yeah, that was my first real clue he had memories of a past life before I'd hatched him.  Unfortunately, by the time we had a quiet moment to talk about it, the recollection had faded...and nothing I said was going to get him to eat a cooked Metroid again to get the recollection back."

"Understandably so," Rarity pointed out, struggling not to gag.  "While my sister is an absolute dear, is quite adorable, and has quite the wonderful singing voice...her cooking skills are, well, how shall I put this?"

"Optimistically awful?" Rainbow suggested.

"She couldn't toss a salad without setting it on fire and trying to put it out in the jug of drinking water...which somehow sets the jug on fire but not the water," Applejack stated.

Samus blinked for a time.  "...wow," she stated bluntly.  "No wonder he didn't want another taste.  ...but still...toast?"

"Her 'toast' is a bowl of black, bubbling ooze that I at first mistook for a failed attempt at applesauce," Rarity pointed out.

"Moving right along!" Samus hastened, not wanting to think about a pony whose cooking skills were so bad she'd probably be declared a bio-weapon.  "Any other questions regarding Spike and the Metroids?"

"If it's so difficult to manage that attack," Rainbow demanded, "how'd he manage it so perfectly?"

"Beginner's luck," Samus replied firmly.  "After I acquired the Thermal Visor from deeper inside the facility, a power outage occurred that resulted in numerous Metroids breaking free of containment.  Spike then got plenty of chances for practice, resulting in numerous opportunities to make the attempt and get all three possible results."

"The key was to watch the flexing tendons connecting from the nucleus to the mouth," Spike explained.  "I had to open my mouth ever so slightly the instant I saw them starting to flex.  And it only really worked if I was facing a single Metroid at a time.  If several converged on me at once - and in their natural environment, Metroids are pack hunters - I'd get attacked from sides or back while trying to eat one."

"That's the real thing that makes Metroids so dangerous," Samus explained.  "One on one, anyone with the proper equipment - a high level concussion weapon with lock-on function like my Super Missile, or a cryogenic effect like my ice beam - could beat them easily.  But Metroids hunt in packs, and large packs at that."

Several of the ponies shuddered at the mental image of a swarm of Metroids in pursuit of them, floating through the air in defiance of natural law as they hunted them.

"Thank you for that, Samus," Luna muttered drolly.  "Patrolling nightmares has been so dull that I desperately needed a new vision of horror to be confronted with on my nightly patrols of the dreamscape."

Samus chuckled.  "Sorry about that.  But Metroids break very easily when frozen.  That should help."

"Indeed," Luna agreed.  "That will be most helpful."

Fluttershy was scratching her chin.  "What's wrong, Fluttershy?" Samus asked.

Fluttershy let out a quiet 'Meep!'  "Oh, it's nothing, really..."

Samus remained silent, watching her.

"Well, it's just..." Fluttershy began.  "Well...up till now, everything you'd told us so far made Spike out to be this...unstoppable juggernaut, able to handle just about anything thrown at him.  And...I liked that, since I know how gentle Spike really is, and how loyal he is to those he cares about.  It felt...nice, knowing that nothing would be able to touch me if I was with him.  But now...well..."

Samus chuckled.  "I get what you mean.  And I'm sorry if I've misled you about Spike.  At present day, Spike's strong enough that - with his limiters off - there's very little that would prove a serious challenge to him."  And I pray that those things that would never show up, she thought silently.  "But when he was younger, he was far from that tough.  It's just that most of what we faced at first was something he could handle easily.  Thardus, however..."

"Thardus?" several of the mares asked curiously.

Samus smiled.  "Well, it happened like this..."





After a long path - with Spike taking detours around the morph ball tunnels he was now too big to fit through - the pair entered a wide, circular chamber with a pile of boulders in the center.  As they started to approach, however, Spike started to growl.  "What's wrong?" Samus asked, raising her arm cannon.

"There's...something here..." Spike growled, his eyes locking on the pile of boulders.

Right before their eyes, the pile of boulders began to levitate, flying together to form a roughly humanoid rock monster.  Samus' scans revealed that it was a creature called Thardus, made of living stone and Phazon.  Switching to her Thermal Visor, Samus was able to discover that parts of the creature were weaker, structurally, than others, and she locked onto those one by one.

Spike attempted to fight Thardus, but his claws and teeth weren't able to do enough damage to the rock covering to reach the Phazon inside, and his fire breath flowed right off it without damage...except when it hit the structurally weak portion by chance, but even then the damage was minimal, mostly just heating the rock.  Admittedly, when the heated rock made contact with the snow covered ground, it began to crack.

When the outer shell on one of the boulders broke off, revealing the Phazon underneath, Spike tried to take a bite out of it, only to be blasted backward by the energy charge running through the Phazon.  After that, Spike decided to focus on what he could do well here...drawing Thardus attention to give Samus room to lock on and destroy it.

After a long struggle, Samus had managed to destroy enough of the Phazon holding Thardus together that it fell apart.  Once that had happened, her suit gave her a status update.



Magnetic linkage of Phazon charged stones analyzed.  Magnetic properties incorporated into Morph Ball module.
Spider Ball capacity unlocked.  Morph Ball can now magnetically attach to magnetic rail tracks.



Seeing several magnetic rail tracks scattered around, Samus shrugged.  "That's convenient," she muttered to herself.

Spike shook himself off, a little banged up but otherwise alright.  "I hope we get back to Magmoor soon," he muttered.  "I really wanna soak these bruises away in the lava..."





Samus smiled softly.  "Spike wasn't always overpowering in battles, but he was always trying his best."  Reaching over, she gently stroked a neck ridge.  "Lucky for him, Magmoor did turn out to be our very next stop..."
> Intermission: You Can Fly
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So what did you have to do back in Magmoor?" Rarity asked curiously.  "Other than let Spike have a lava bath, I mean?"

Samus chuckled.  "Well, we-"

At that moment, the door crashed open and three bundles of chaotic energy and the best of intentions burst through, nearly knocking over the Map Table in their exuberance.

"We heard Spike's back!" Apple Bloom said eagerly.

"Where is he?" Sweetie Belle demanded.  "We want to take him Crusading again!"

"Have you seen Spike, Mister Dragon?" Scootaloo asked Spike.  "He looks a lot like you, but a lot smaller, and he doesn't wear armor."  She blinked for a bit.  "Are you his long lost big brother or something?"

Spike couldn't help but chuckle as the others giggled.  "Yes, I have seen Spike," he said innocently.  "Quite recently, in fact."

"Really?" all three Crusaders demanded eagerly, rushing up to him.  "Where?"

Laughing, Spike replied, "When I looked in the mirror this morning."

While Apple Bloom's eyes widened in realization, Sweetie gasped in horror.  "What's Spike doing in the mirror?" she demanded in fear.  "Did he get trapped in there when a Kyoma got out, and is now running around free while Spike is unable to escape?  We need to catch that demon and force it back in the mirror to set him free before it's too late!"

Scootaloo, who had looked confused before Sweetie started talking, started shaking in terror.  W-w-w-w-we're going d-d-demon hunting?" she stammered.

"Girls?" Apple Bloom interrupted.  "I'm pretty sure he meant his own reflection."

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both stared at her in shock, Sweetie with surprise and Scootaloo in relief.  "T-this is Spike?" Sweetie asked in shock.

"So...no demons?" Scootaloo asked worriedly.

Spike turned to Luna.  "Do demons taste good?" he asked.

"If you encounter one, feel free to take a bite and find out," Luna offered.

"If they try to hurt anyone I care about, I'll do just that," Spike replied firmly.  He then glanced down at the young fillies.  "Sorry about teasing you like that, girls."

They all stared up at him in awe.  "Is...is that really you, Spike?" Apple Bloom asked.

Spike nodded.  "It is.  I just...grew up a bit."

"How'd you get so big?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"By eating healthy," he replied.  At a judgmental cough from Twilight, he bristled.  "What?  You've been listening!  Phazon is healthy for dragons!"

"How'd you get those wings?" Scootaloo breathed in amazement...and a dash of envy as her own small wings buzzed.

Spike smiled as he stretched them.  "They came in as I grew," he replied.  Seeing the way Scootaloo's eyes locked onto them, he grinned.  "Would you three like a ride?"

All three fillies gasped happily.  They then leapt into the air, high hoofing and shouting, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DRAGON RIDERS, WOOF!"

"Excuse me?" Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all demanded as Pinkie giggled loudly.

"I mean, Yay?" all three Crusaders corrected simultaneously.

Spike shook his head ruefully.  "Come on you three," he said, turning his back and spreading his wings.  "Hop on."

Grinning widely, all three fillies clambered onto him, each of them grabbing a back spine.

"But...story!" Pinkie whined.

"I can tell you more while they're flying," Samus explained.  "Nothing really big happened for a while.  Just a few more power ups..."

As Samus continued to speak, Spike raced outside and leapt into the air, flapping strongly past the clouds.

"Yah-hooooooo!" Scootaloo shouted eagerly, buzzing her wings as she stretched to catch as much air as she could.

"This is amazing!" Apple Bloom cried out, glancing all around at how the land looked from so high up.

"Stop the ride!  I wanna get off!" Sweetie Belle squeaked out as she hid behind the ridge she'd grabbed hold of.

Chuckling, Spike leveled out to a gentler flight.  "Better, Sweetie?" he asked.

Sweetie slowly uncurled herself.  "Well...I suppose..."  She began to relax.  Then she made the mistake of looking down.  She promptly hid underneath Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo glanced down eagerly.  "Wish I could fly this high..." she breathed enviously.

"We could try," Spike offered.

"What do you mean?" Scootaloo demanded, both other fillies turning to look at him.

"We're high enough up," Spike explained.  "If I were to throw you forward to give you enough impetus for flight, I could easily get under you if you started to drop without even straining.  Want to give it a try?"

Grinning eagerly, Scootaloo scrambled into Spike's clawed hand, despite Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle's worried looks.  "Let's go for it!" she shouted eagerly.

Grinning, Spike pulled back his hand and threw her forward, going into a slight dive to build up enough speed to keep up with her, staying just a little below and behind her.

Scootaloo buzzed her wings as fast as she could, but despite her best efforts she started to drop.  She struggled, angling herself just as Rainbow had showed her, keeping her body as horizontal as possible for best aerodynamics, her forelegs stretched out before her with her hind legs pointing straight out behind.  Regardless, she began losing altitude rapidly.

Spike activated the scan function of his visor, locking onto Scootaloo as rapid streams of data raced across the screen.  A few images of vectors appeared.  "Scoot!" Spike called out.  "Pull your forelegs to your chest!  Lift your head up, and swing your hind legs forward into a landing position.  Now!"

While the words of advice seemed counter intuitive to everything she'd been taught, the tone brooked no opposition.  Scootaloo immediately altered her position until she was nearly vertical, just about in the position she stood on her scooter at rest in.  Much to her surprise, her descent slowed rapidly until her flight leveled out.  Her forward momentum also decreased rapidly, but she was maintaining altitude.

She stared as a cloud nearby passed to one side of her, her altitude remaining constant without straining against her body as she flew past it.  "I...I'm flying?" she squeaked out, shocked.  "H-how?"

Spike flew up besides her as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle started cheering.  Holding up his armored claw, he activated a holo-projector in his gauntlet.  It showed a pegasus flapping her wings normally, lines of force coming back and downward from her wings.  "When a pegasus flaps their wings normally, the force generated goes down and behind them, providing lift."  Another image appeared, this time of Scootaloo flapping her wings while horizontal.  However, the line of fore from her wings went back and up.  "This is where the force of your wing flaps was going, which is why flapping your wings gives you so much thrust on your scooter.

"Now, the options there for you and flying were either retraining you to angle the force differently, meaning you wouldn't be able to ride your scooter anymore...or..."  The holographic image of Scootaloo rotated until it was in the same position Scootaloo was in now.  The line of force rotated with the image until it was pointed back and down.  "Reorient," Spike finished simply.

Scootaloo gasped.  "You mean...all I needed to fly was...point my wings differently?"

Spike nodded.  "Your wing thrust is about 75 degrees off from where it's supposed to be, due to you flapping your wings differently than most pegasi.  It's just how your wings are built."  He grinned widely.  "Reorienting, however, your wings are already more than powerful enough for you to fly.  You just need to learn the right angles.  Once they know the right question to answer there, Twilight and Rainbow should easily be able to figure it all out.  You won't be as fast in the air as you are on the ground, but you'll be more than powerful enough to do all sorts of stunts if you're careful."

As Scootaloo began squealing happily, Sweetie Belle turned to Spike.  "How'd you figure it out so quickly?" she asked.

Grinning, he tapped his visor.  "The scanners here were able to analyze the directions of force that were operating regarding Scootaloo's flight," he explained.  "After that, it was just basic visualization and simple mathematics."

"I gotta go show Rainbow!" Scootaloo shouted eagerly, lowering her head to reangle herself for a dive.

"Hang on there!" Spike shouted out, diving after her.

As she approached the ground, however, Scootaloo easily swung back to the right angle for level flight as she buzzed forward.  "Rainbow!" she called as she buzzed through the Crystal Tree Library Castle, nearly clipping Rainbow on the head with her hind hooves.  "Rainbow, look!  I'm flying!  I'm flying!"
> Tallon IV: Changing Troubles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After the party celebrating Scootaloo's first flight, continuing the story was delayed to the following morning.  Over breakfast, Samus once more picked up the tale.





Samus and Spike made their way along a new path through Magmoor Caverns, made available by Samus' Wave Beam.  Samus took the above lava path, dropping stalactites into the lava for platforms to jump across, along with a magnetic rail leading above a massive lava pool.  Spike took the in lava path, dodging dropping stalactites and soaking in the massive lava pool to ease the injuries he received fighting Thardus.

This led them back into familiar territory, leading them back towards the Chozo Ruins.  Spike acted as a platform for Samus to cross the lava pits that were too wide for her to get across with just her Space Jump.  Spike's senses directed Samus to shattering a pillar in another lava chamber with a Super Missile to acquire the Artifact of Nature.

As they made their way through the Chozo Ruins, however, Samus noticed that Spike was beginning to get a bit sluggish.  "You alright?" she asked him.

"Huh-wha?" he responded before shaking his head.  "Yeah, I'm okay..."  He shook himself out.  "I'll be fine..."

Samus frowned.  "Soon as we can, we're finding someplace you can rest.  You're still growing, after all."  She glanced over him for a time.  "Quite rapidly, at that."

Spike nodded helplessly, shrugging his shoulders.

When Samus's scans led her to the Tower of Light for a new pickup, she told Spike to stay down below while she climbed up.  While she went above to collect the Wavebuster Charge Combo for Wave Beam, Spike decided to take a swim, finding his way to the hiding place of the Artifact of Lifegiver.

As they reached the Hall of the Elders, however, Spike's listlessness became even more pronounced.  Before Samus could even react, Spike keeled over, falling from the skylight he had entered the chamber from and landing heavily, practically at the feet of the Chozo Statue.

"Spike!" Samus cried out, rushing to his side.  She briefly disengaged her power suit to put her fingers to the side of his neck, where she'd felt for his pulse before.  She could still feel it, but it was barely there, only 20 bpm, incredibly low for him.  Not only that, his scales felt soft, flimsy.

Donning her power suit once more, she immediately performed a deep scan on him.



Spike's vital signs have reduced below normal level of a growth stasis.  However, they remain stable.  High energy reaction inside his frame indicates a high level metamorphosis is about to occur.  Structural integrity of Spike's scales has dropped 75%.  Increased vulnerability to damage.
Alert: high energy reaction can be detected at great distance.  High probability of detection by Space Pirates and other threats.



"Fuck!" Samus growled as she braced herself for combat.  She had two beam weapons, a reduced missile supply, and only her Varia Suit, and she was about to be under assault by Space Pirates and who knew what else.

Unfortunately, an answer to that came all too soon as several mad Chozo Ghosts rose to attack, apparently drawn by the energy reaction inside Spike.  Samus quickly switched to her Power Beam, charging up for Super Missiles.  While this would eat away her missile supply quickly, she hoped she'd be able to destroy the ghosts fast enough that she could replenish her missiles from the missile station above.

It was not a pleasant battle.  She couldn't afford to dodge out of the way of the Ghosts' attacks, because she was the only thing keeping those blasts from hitting Spike.  It took longer - and she took more damage - than she had hoped, and she had to check both Spike's status and her sonar before she could head for the Missile Station.

Spike seemed to have grown quite a bit since he fell over, which explained the softening of his scales.  They needed to stretch and make room for new scales as he grew before they could resume normal hardness.  However, this only presented a larger target for when the Space Pirates got there.



Energy reaction analyzed.  Unknown time frame until Spike awakens.

Alert: Space Pirate incoming.  ETA, 60 seconds.



Cursing, Samus leapt up as fast as she could to the Missile Station, replenishing her missiles.  She wished she had time to find some energy to replenish her shields with, but she only had ten seconds to get back to Spike's side before the first Space Pirates showed up.

Just as she reached Spike's side, the first aeropirates came in through the skylight, priming their weapons.  Thankfully, the entry was narrow, and she was able to take out each one as it entered with a single Super Missile.

When Shadow Pirates dropped in cloaked, she quickly switched to her Thermal Visor, using her Wave Beam to take them out as fast as she could, disabling them at the same time in an attempt to prevent them contacting their reinforcements.

This went on for quite some time as she began to run low on missiles.  Towards the end, however, three pirate types she didn't recognize dropped in.  All three were armored in black, with different colors of energy glowing in the cracks.  One was yellow, one was purple, one was red.  As they landed heavily, their armor systems taking time to energize, Samus managed to scan each one.



Power Trooper
The Power Trooper is a Space Pirate that's armed with Power Beam technology.  Space Pirates have reverse-engineered several weapons, including the Power Beam.  A flaw in the design makes these Pirates vulnerable only to their own Beam weapon system.  These weapons are inferior to Chozo-designed originals, but still quite potent.



Okay, that's not so bad, she thought to herself.  A couple Super Missiles ought to finish him off.



Wave Trooper
A Space Pirate armed with Wave Beam technology.  Space Pirates have reverse-engineered several weapons, including the Wave Beam.  A flaw in the design makes these Pirates vulnerable only to their own Beam weapon system.  These weapons are inferior to Chozo-designed originals, but still quite potent.



Well, I should have enough missiles left to finish him off with a Wavebuster blast, Samus thought, worry beginning to creep into her thoughts.  She turned to the last one.



Plasma Trooper
The Plasma Trooper is a Space Pirate that's armed with Plasma Beam technology.  Space Pirates have reverse-engineered several weapons, including the Plasma Beam.  A flaw in the design makes these Pirates vulnerable only to their own Beam weapon system.  These weapons are inferior to Chozo-designed originals, but still quite potent.



...fuck...

Samus was able to take out the Power Trooper rather quickly, but the Wave Trooper depleted her missiles completely.  At that point, however, the Plasma Trooper was active and advancing.  Grimly, Samus lowered her hand to her hip.  She knew her beam weapons were useless at this point - a few shots of power beam and wave beam had already bounced off the Plasma Trooper's armor - and she was out of missiles.  She did have a plas-knife at her hip that might penetrate the armor, but she doubted it.  However, if it was what it took...

Seeing the trooper reach up to its head, she realized it was about to report in.  She lunged forward, the knife leaping into her hand.  Maybe if she got it in the eye-

A plasma blast sent her rocketing across the floor to impact heavily against the wall.



Alert: Armor shielding at 20%.  Energy reserves spent.  Retreat highly recommended.



At that moment, the Plasma Trooper raised its weapon towards the Chozo Statue.

"Get away from my son!" Samus roared, lunging forward.

At that moment, a blast of green focused into a tight beam punched right through the Plasma Trooper, melting its entire body to slag.

Samus stumbled, falling to her knees.  A large purple claw caught her arm as she stumbled.  She turned, her gaze following up his arm.

Spike now stood as tall as any Chozo if he stood erect, although the current alignment of his knees pointed towards walking on all fours.  His musculature was quite thick, and every inch of his body rippled under the scales, which now shone like diamonds.  His muzzle had lengthened slightly, coming to a sharper point, now prominently a beak.  Razor sharp teeth were visible curling over his lips here and there from inside his muzzle.  His tail was a cord of muscle as thick as her waist, and his spines along his back were now much sharper, glinting at the tips.  His eyes seemed at first to stare right through her, before locking onto her, the gaze of a predator.

She shivered inside.  Suddenly, in that gaze, Spike looked a lot more like Ridley.

And then his gaze softened.  "Are you alright, Mom?" he asked softly, his voice now much deeper.

Her scan visor kicked in.



Subject Spike has completed the metamorphosis.  Measuring proportion of his body against his head, claws, and tail, he appears to now be a physically mature adult for his species.  Further growth is unlikely to include physical expansion.  While the full increase of abilities is unknown, flame breath can now be focused into an intense stream mirroring the Plasma Beam.  This likely can be used to break heat coded force fields.



Samus managed to get to her feet, steadying herself a bit against Spike.  "I am now that you're up and about," she replied.  Managing to get herself under control, she smacked him upside the head with her arm cannon.  "Lazybones!"

Spike chuckled, rubbing the back of his head where she'd hit him, though not in pain.





Around the table in the Crystal Castle, several mares and three fillies began to breath again.  Rainbow Dash was the first to speak.  "That was...awesome!"

Samus laughed at her reaction.  "In hindsight, perhaps.  But at the time, I was pretty pissed.  First he scares me half to death, then I nearly fight to the death to keep him safe while he naps...and the next thing he did was yawn at me!  If I hadn't been out of missiles, I'd have fed him one, just to prove a point."  Seeing shocked stares, she scoffed.  "He'd already handled eating explosive enemies without damage to his mouth.  A missile to the inside of his upper jaw wouldn't have fazed him very much."

Spike chuckled.  "I wonder how missiles taste?"

Smirking, Samus leveled her arm cannon at him.  "Care to taste?" she offered.

"Pass," Spike replied laughing, holding his hands up as though warding her away.

Samus chuckled.  "Well, after that, we were able to retrieve what we'd come there to find...the Artifact of World and Ice Beam functionality."  She shivered.  "I'm just glad an Ice Trooper didn't show up before Spike woke up.  That would have been bad."

"From what I can interpret based on the other Trooper enemies," Luna inferred, "I can well imagine."
> Tallon IV: The Gravity of the Situation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once everyone had calmed down from the intensity of the previous story segment - and older sisters and older sister figures had calmed and comforted the youngsters - Celestia turned to Samus.  "So what happened after that?" she asked.

"Well," Samus continued, "after that, I was able to go to one of the chambers behind the Hall and acquire my Ice Beam, one of my more useful beam weapons.  Afterwards, my map indicated somewhere new to explore via an elevator to the Tallon Overworld..."





Following a path around a great many tree roots, the pair came out atop a high cliff above where Spike had found his first meal of Phazon.  The Pirate Frigate that Samus had explored in orbit had crashed there, and most of it was underwater.  They made their way back to the ship after dealing with a few aeropirates, though Spike now had to sit outside as he was a bit big for the interior as he was.  Samus made a mental note to figure out a solution to that.  She certainly wasn't going to leave him behind.

While Samus was inside the ship, Spike decided to meditate as she had taught him.  He tried to apply logic to the problem.  If he had grown this fast, logic seemed to dictate to him that he should be able to shrink as well.  He was probably on the wrong track, but it was worth a try to attempt.  Remembering how it had felt to grow, he focused his mind on that sensation, trying to reverse it.

He hadn't made any progress by the time Samus came back out of the ship.  "We need to get back to the Phendrana Drifts," Samus stated.  "Scans indicate unusual gravity fluctuations there.  In all likelihood, it's a Chozo Gravity Suit upgrade, which will let me handle water easier."

"Let's go," Spike agreed, standing back up.





Returning to the Drifts via the elevator behind Thardus' former lair, Samus and Spike made their way to another section of the drifts.  Following separate paths, they began exploring a large underground section.  The only new enemy was the Hunter Metroid, which actually proved to be even easier to deal with for Spike than the standard Tallon variant.  A quick side step as it lashed out with its energy draining tentacle and a quick snap, and Spike's jaw closed on the tentacle itself.  As only the teeth at the end of the tendril drained energy, this left the Hunter Metroid completely helpless as Spike dragged it towards him before eating it in a single bite, tearing it apart with his teeth.  "Strawberry!" he said happily, licking his lips.

Underwater, they encountered another new hostile called a Jetzap...which proved inedible to Spike, as his teeth couldn't get through the tough hide, even after its two halves were forcefully severed in the center of the electrical current that kept them connected.

When they reached the chamber where Samus had detected the gravimetric anomalies, she clung to Spike's side as he swam through the massive underground lake.  He was built for water far better than she was in her Power Suit without the Gravity Suit function.  Thankfully, Spike was able to quickly find the upgrade, and once it had been applied to the suit, Samus was able to leap through the water as easily as she did in the air.

Surfacing, Spike posed a question.  "So now we're headed back to the sunken frigate?" he asked.

"Yes," Samus replied.

"Can we take a detour on the way back?" Spike asked.  "I...feel another artifact."

Nodding, Samus let Spike lead the way.





Once more in the Chozo Ice Temple, Spike used his high intensity flame to melt the ice on a Chozo statue, allowing Samus to activate it with her Morph Ball.  She then entered the chamber opened beneath it the same way to acquire the Artifact of Sun.





The pair explored the crashed frigate carefully, maneuvering through the underwater sections in their own ways.  It wasn't certain which of them was more suited to water.  While Spike's swimming was faster and less confined by needing a flat surface to push off or land on, the water negated the flame breath that was his primary weapon, and he wasn't able to swing his claws well for striking.  He was forced to fall back on ramming and biting, which had limited usefulness, especially against aquapirates with their hydropacks that let them fly underwater.

As they explored, Samus discovered that the easiest way to deal with the aquapirates was to freeze them with a shot of ice beam - unlike the aeropirates, aquapirates couldn't dodge sideways as fast - and then shatter them with a missile.





"That's actually one of the most useful techniques I've developed for fighting in my exploration," Samus explained to her intent audience.  "Freeze an enemy, then shatter it.  With smaller enemies, I've yet to find a freezable enemy that doesn't shatter with a single missile shot."

"And she doesn't even need missiles when we're out of water," Spike explained.  "Once I got big enough, a single punch did the trick."

Spike's bravado got a chuckle from the gathered mares.  "So why'd you have to explore the frigate?" Pinkie asked.  "Doesn't sound like you missed anything from when it was in orbit."

Samus nodded.  "I didn't.  But...the frigate blocked a path to where we did need to go."

"Into the heart of Space Pirate territory on Tallon IV," Spike added.

"The Phazon Mines," they chorused together.

The gathered audience was dead silent...except for one.

"Ooh," Pinkie giggled.  "Nice suspense!"
> Tallon IV: Enemy Territory
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After Pinkie's comment, no one spoke.  It was plain to both Samus and Spike that everyone gathered around the table was eager to hear the rest of the story.  The heavy silence was interrupted only by the sound of crunching coming from above the table.  Glancing upward, Discord could be seen floating in midair, munching on some popcorn.

"Oh, don't stop on my account!" he said eagerly.  "This story is riveting!"  As he spoke, he rolled over to show where small metal bolts seemed to be holding the various different pieces of his anatomy together for some obscure reason.

"Discord!" Fluttershy said, her voice close to a scold.  "What is that you're eating?"

"Umm...it's just popcorn," he said nervously.

"And did you bring enough for everyone?" she asked sternly.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Discord snapped his fingers.  Everyone around the table found a bag of popcorn sized to their appetite in their hooves, hands, or claws.  "Indeed I did!"

"This almost feels like we're getting ready for a movie!" Scootaloo pointed out.

Samus chuckled.  "Well, hopefully the rest of the story will be as good..."





As the pair entered the Phazon Mines, they discovered the area lived up to its name.  Phazon ore was visible, sparking along the stones beyond the metal walkway that led to the Mine Entrance.  Past the tunnel, the entrance to the Mines opened up in a massive open air courtyard.  Various paths outward were visible, along with a large magnetic winch, obviously for lifting various objects around the area.

As they continued onward, Spike's bulk began to work against him.  While he was able to take quite a few hits, the narrow corridors they passed through for the most part left him little room to maneuver, making him an easy target for both turrets and pirates.  Thankfully, his high intensity flame breath was able to tear through the armor of most turrets and overheat them, and the Pirates hesitated on first sight of him every single time.  Given he locked them with the same predatory gaze he had given her when he first woke up at this stage, Samus privately thought this was because it took a few moments for the Pirates to realize No, this wasn't Ridley bearing down on them.

Spike also had difficulty dealing with the Wave Troopers that seemed to infest the halls where they were least expected.  Their armor resisted both Spike's flames and his physical attacks, short of managing to get a grip on them with both claws and fangs and tearing them apart.  Unfortunately, the confined corridors worked for the pirates and against Spike in this regard, as they were able to evade him for the most part.  Samus was grateful that Spike was so durable at this point, but he was starting to take some serious damage.

Thankfully, many of the narrow corridors passed over pools of Phazon.  A bit of a struggle with a grate here or there, and Spike was able to lower his head into the pool and drink up.  The Phazon was rapidly metabolized to restore his energy and repair the damage he had taken.  Samus breathed a sigh of relief at each sight of Phazon, as it was an opportunity for Spike to recover.

When they reached the larger chambers, both of them were relieved.  For Spike, it was an area large enough for him to move around in.  For Samus, it was an opportunity to collect some Space Pirate Data to get more information on what they would likely be facing...not to mention a chance to walk around without tripping over Spike's tail.  And while the Wave Troopers - and the occasional Ice Trooper - they encountered were just as durable, Spike found that another way to inflict heavy damage to them was to grab hold of one, climb as high as he could, and then hurl them at the ground with all his might.  Few got back up after such a trip, especially if he aimed for a control console or similar narrow obstacle.

The other advantage to large, vertical chambers when they came across them was that Spike was able to scale the walls with Samus clinging to a shoulder spike, making for a great deal of increased mobility.

After a time of exploration, however, they came to a large chamber containing a massive stasis pod which must have been malfunctioning, as the creature inside burst out of it to attack them.  Samus' scan visor revealed it to be an Elite Pirate, a Phazon infused giant double her height, heavily muscled and heavily armed, with a large missile launcher on its back.



As it roared its challenge, Spike reared to his hind legs and roared back, slamming his fists together.  The Elite Pirate responded to the challenge, and charged.  Spike met its charge halfway, holding it at bay as the two beasts wrestled for dominance.

The two were evenly matched physically, but the Elite Pirate took advantage of its arsenal, firing missiles at Spike from the launcher on its back.  Spike roared in pain after the first volley, then released a blast of his flames to melt the launcher to slag, causing it to explode against the Elite Pirate's back, weakening it enough for Spike to start pushing it back.

The sheer magnitude of the struggle had frozen Samus temporarily.  While she was no stranger to fighting massively powerful beasts, witnessing two such creatures clashing was a new one for her, and left her breathless as she watched.  However, the moment the struggle turned so the Elite Pirate had its back to her, she snapped out of it and took advantage of the situation, firing charged Wave Beam shots at its joints.  With the paralyzing effect of the electrical discharge, the Elite Pirate stumbled, allowing Spike to force it to its knees before slamming it heavily into the ground, nearby force fields, and the walls.  Before long, the Elite Pirate went down hard, the force fields overloaded from having the Pirate slammed into it repeatedly.

"You alright there, Spike?" Samus asked after the fight.  "You took a few heavy hits there."

Spike shrugged, rotating his shoulders and massaging some scorch marks where he'd been hit.  "I'll live," he replied, shaking himself off.  An eager gleam lit his eyes.  "That was intense!"

Samus stared at him for a time.  "...you really enjoyed that, didn't you?"

"Hell yeah!" Spike said eagerly, only to wince as he received an arm cannon to the back of his head.  "Ow!"

"Language!" Samus snapped.  "What have I told you about swearing?"

Spike lowered his head, his expression becoming sheepish and good natured.  "Sorry."





"Do you really have a problem with swearing?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Fuck no," Samus replied easily, startling laughter from several of the ponies.  "When used properly, they can be great stress relievers.  It was just the easiest thing I could scold him for to snap him out of the battle frenzy state.  That was the last thing we needed there."

Spike nodded.  "Yeah...me in a battle frenzy is not pretty."

Rainbow started to say something, but Spike locked eyes with her and shook his head gently.  Her eyes widened in response...and her wings snapped open.

"Woof!" Pinkie shouted in Rainbow's ear for no apparent reason, making the cyan pegasus jump.

Once everyone stopped laughing at that, Celestia turned to Samus.  "I presume such a battle drew attention?"

Samus nodded.  "It did..."





Several Ice Troopers swarmed into the battle site.  As Samus prepped her Ice Beam, Spike grabbed hold of a nearby Phazon processing pipe and tore it open, splashing raw Phazon over the Pirates.  Since neither they nor their armor could handle raw Phazon, they soon dropped dead.  Spike then gave Samus a lift over the Phazon, taking a brief break to drink some to replenish his strength.

Not long after, after a fight with a cloaked sentry bot, Samus was able to acquire a new Morph Ball weapon...the Power Bomb.





Samus smiled at everyone gathered.  "One of my most powerful and useful upgrades," she said softly.

"And the one you have the hardest time finding every time you need it," Spike teased, getting an arm cannon upside the head in response.
> Tallon IV: Final Growth
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So how come the Power Bomb's so useful?" Twilight asked eagerly.

Samus smirked.  "It releases a massive, high heat explosion that tears through most known armor types.  Almost anything caught in the explosion is incinerated.  The damage even ignores most specific damage type defenses.  It also destroys many materials that block paths, including some that can be destroyed in no other way."  She shook her head.  "The only thing holding it back from being a go to weapon for any time is that I can only generate a very small amount at any given time.  I was able to tweak the balance of my systems to carry and generate more during my later adventures, but back on Tallon IV and the missions soon after, I was lucky to carry 10."

Twilight nodded in understanding, then paused.  Rainbow was taking notes.  "Rainbow?  Why are you taking notes?"

"Are you kidding?" Rainbow demanded eagerly.  "This story is awesome!  It would make a great video game!"

Discord and Pinkie both laughed, reaching out to knock on a wall that - to everyone else's perspective - wasn't there.

"What was that all about?" Samus asked.

"Nothing important," Pinkie replied.  "So what happened next?"

Samus stared at her for a time, then shrugged.  Despite Discord's strange appearance, Pinkie was the one who seemed strangest to her.  "Well, after that, we had to backtrack a bit..."





On the way back from acquiring the Power Bombs, Samus and Spike encountered another Elite Pirate.  The fight was much easier this time, as both Spike and Samus knew a few things to speed it up.  As soon as Spike clashed bodily with the Elite, he destroyed the missle launcher with his plasma breath.  Once he had the Elite grappled, Samus shed her awe induced paralysis much faster and raced up Spike's back.  Leaping off his shoulders, she landed on the Elite's back and delivered a Super Missile right to the back of its head.

The creature roared in pain and frustration, throwing its head back to knock Samus off.  As this exposed its neck, Spike lunged in, bit down, and tore away.  The beast fell, gurgling as it bled out blue, its blood glowing with the Phazon it had been infused with.  Spike promptly spat out the mouthful.  "Disgusting!" he complained.

Behind a door blocked by a pile of Bendezium alloy which Samus had to clear with a Power Bomb, they found a map station that allowed Samus to download a full map of the Phazon Mines.  This included a few details that she was certain would help them locate anything else they needed to find.

Clearing another Bendezium blockade at the top of a tall chamber that Spike helped her climb to the top of, Samus reacquired her Grapple Beam.





"Another one of my more useful upgrades," Samus explained.  "Although it's normally easier to reacquire when I lose it.  It has a number of uses, though the primary one is letting me lock onto various Grapple Points with the right magnetic properties in order to swing to new locations."

"Like this?" Pinkie called out, swinging from Discord's tail as he swung from the tree root chandelier, clutching the center of it very carefully.

"Discord, get down from there!" Twilight shouted, a bit of panic in her voice.

Once some semblance of order was restored, Samus answered Pinkie's question.  "Yes, like that," she explained.  "It also opened up the chance to backtrack to several areas I couldn't get into before, which enabled us to pick up several other upgrades for me, along with a couple artifacts we weren't able to get earlier."

"In the peak of the Tallon Overworld, we were able to pick up Mom's X-Ray Visor," Spike explained, "which, amongst other things, let her see through objects and track the Chozo Ghosts when they were fazed out."

"Of course, Chozo Ghosts aren't the only enemies that have cloaks the X-Ray Visor could penetrate," Samus pointed out.  "Though in the same chamber, we were able to pick up the Artifact of Chozo."

"After that was a detour to Magmoor Caverns so Mom could find her Plasma Beam," Spike concluded.  "One of her more powerful beam weapons."

"It would have taken me a lot longer without Spike," Samus explained.  "If I'd had to follow the Spider Ball tracks to the room the Plasma Beam was in, it would have taken forever.  Instead, I just hitched a ride on Spike's back as he scaled straight up the wall."

"Something tells me Spike's been very useful that way for you," Rainbow chuckled.

Samus nodded.  "Indeed."  Reaching over, she scratched behind one of Spike's ears, and he leaned into the caress.  "At any rate, after another brief detour to Phendrana to pick up the Artifact of Spirit, we made our way back to the Phazon Mines."





The narrow pathways proved difficult to maneuver again, but they encountered far fewer enemies on this trip.  This was not to say there were fewer Space Pirates, but those they encountered seemed content to remain where they were at their posts, pretending not to see Samus and Spike as they passed by.  It might have had something to do with the loud grumbling from Spike's belly, or possibly the overall irritable expression on his face, and the way he approached obstacles by smashing them rather than going around them.  Either way, they were both glad to get back to larger chambers after a brief stop to collect the Flamethrower Charge Combo for the Plasma Beam, which resembled Spike's standard fire breath, but red instead of green.

Not long after, they paused in the Elite Research.  Spike's eyes locked on a massive stasis chamber with a heavily mutated Elite Pirate inside.  "What's wrong, Spike?" Samus asked worriedly.  She was half afraid he was eager for a fight with the beast inside.

"There's an Artifact," he whispered.  "That thing inside there...is draining energy from a Chozo Artifact."

Samus scanned the capsule, seeing it was constructed with Bendezium ore.  "Then we'll just have to kill him and get it," she pointed out, dropping a Power Bomb.

As the capsule shattered, the massive creature staggered out.  As its body bulged with Phazon, Samus grew concerned.  It had shrugged off the blast of the Power Bomb like it was nothing.



Spike moved to clash with the beast, but the Phazon Elite instead smashed its fists into the ground, releasing a massive energy shockwave that knocked Spike off his feet.  As he fell backwards, he lashed out with his tail, managing to knock the creature off its feet.  Both scrambled back to their feet rapidly, and Spike released his intense flame stream at the same time Samus released a charged plasma blast.

After the first barrage, it raised its hand, a device in its palm absorbing the energy blasts.  As it stalked forward to advance, Spike lunged, still blasting his breath, then stopped exhaling just in time to latch onto the Elite's wrist, holding its arm down so it couldn't use its energy capture device.  The beast roared, delivering energy charged punches to Spike's head, neck, and back with its other hand.  Samus took the chance to get behind it and unload several Super Missiles into its head, back, and joints, trying to take it down before it did too much damage to Spike.

Before long, the beast went down, and Spike staggered back, a bit bruised and battered.  "Spike?" Samus called, rushing to his side.

"I'll be okay," he groaned.  "I'll...be okay.  Just...a little dizzy...a little achy."  Truthfully, he was a lot worse off than he was letting on, but he didn't want to worry her.  Beyond that, a deep ache was starting in his bones and along his back, unrelated to his injuries.  "I just...need some clean Phazon or something to recharge..."

As the Artifact rose up, Samus nodded.  "We'll find something soon," she promised, collecting the Artifact of Warrior.

As they progressed towards the strong Phazon readings Samus had detected on the map, another Elite Pirate burst out of cold storage to attack them.  Despite Spike's weakened state, they were able to handle it the same way they'd handled the previous one, their teamwork becoming even smoother as they got used to each others capabilities.

"I wonder if you'll grow wings someday," Samus mused.

"Eh?" Spike asked.  "Why?"

Samus chuckled.  "I just think it would be amazing to sit on your shoulders and blast away at the Pirates in an aerial bombardment as you flew over them," she explained, somewhat dreamily as she visualized it.

Spike laughed.  "Yeah, that would be amazing," he replied, the vision seizing him as well.

Shortly thereafter, their path took them through the Metroid Quarantine areas.  As those areas had a great deal of Phazon scattered around, Spike was able to reenergize, and snacking on a few Metroids that foolishly charged him helped him ease the ache in his bones and back somewhat.





"We didn't know it at the time," Samus explained, "but those Metroids had an unusually high concentration of Phazon in their systems from feeding on it in their Quarantine.  It had some...unusual effects for later."

"How so?" Fluttershy asked curiously.

"Well," Spike began, "high concentrations of Phazon tended to have an effect on how I developed.  The...exact nature of the effects didn't become apparent until much later...not until we checked my physiology after we left Tallon IV."

"At any rate..." Samus continued.





Before too long, Spike and Samus made it to the Elite Quarters.  At the center of the massive chamber was a gigantic stasis chamber containing an Elite Pirate that stood nearly twice Spike's height.  From all the data Samus had collected from Pirate computers, she knew as it burst its way out that this could only be the Omega Pirate.



She swallowed.  "This is going to be tough," she murmured to herself.

The beast fought more or less the same as the Elite Pirates had, except on a much larger scale.  As it was too big for Spike to clash with, the pair took separate paths of attack.  Since the phazon buildups on its arms and legs seemed to be the vulnerable points, Samus targeted the legs while Spike climbed walls to target the arms.  One Power Bomb planted close to the legs caused both leg buildups to shatter, making the beast rear back.  Spike focused his Plasma Beam like breath in intense streams on the arm build ups, managing to shatter one before the Omega Pirate turned to face him.  When the Omega used the energy collector to counter Spike's flame breath, Samus took the last buildup out with a Super Missile.

With all four build ups destroyed, the beast reared back for a time, then discarded the majority of its physical body, revealing a pure Phazon internal construct as it teleported away.

Plasma Troopers dropped down to act as a defense for it, but Samus and Spike were able to take them out quickly.  Switching to X-Ray Visor, Samus was able to track it as it reappeared in a large pool of Phazon.  Spike was able to sense its presence in the same way he could the Chozo Ghosts.  The two of them opened fire, causing the beast to take further harm before teleporting away again.

This pattern continued as the Omega Pirate attempted to evade them to repair itself.  Plasma Troopers that appeared were quickly dealt with using beam weapons, while others Spike seized and hurled into the Phazon pools, killing them instantly.

Before too long, the Omega Pirate had taken all the damage it could, and staggered, defeated.  Samus panted for breath as she stared up at the gargantuan form, not doing much better herself.  As a result, she was unable to move fast enough to escape the beast falling on her as it dissolved into a massive pool of Phazon.

"Mom!" Spike shouted in fear, racing forward as fast as he could to try and dig her out.  Unfortunately, he wasn't in much better condition, so he wasn't able to run very fast.  By the time he reached it, it exploded, revealing Samus, her Power Suit altered.

It was now pitch black with red lines of circuitry visible here and there, her visor crimson instead of the usual green.  She stood slowly.  "...I'm alright," she replied softly, checking her suit's status update.



Phazon Suit acquired.
Varia Suit has been infused with pure Phazon.  This corruption prevents damage from Phazon radiation.



"It seems like I've gained something of a bonus," Samus explained as she turned back to Spike.  Right at that moment, Spike fell over.  "Spike!" she called out, rushing to his side, her and her suit reenergized from the upgrade.

"So...tired..." Spike groaned out.  "Feel...funny..."

A quick scan told Samus what was happening.  "Spike, you're going through another metamorphosis, like when you grew to this size.  That's going to cause a massive energy surge that'll draw every Pirate on the planet here!  We need to get you somewhere more defensible before you lose consciousness."

"The...Phazon pool..." he murmured, groggily pushing himself to his feet.

Samus set herself under his shoulder, helping him to one of the large pools of Phazon in the Elite Quarters.  Once there, he dove in, burrowing himself into the half liquid energy ore.

Samus waited for the energy reaction...but didn't detect anything.  Using her scan visor, she discovered that the Phazon concealed the signature of the energy reaction.  There was nothing to indicate to anyone that there was anything unusual about the pool...except for Samus standing there.





"So I did the only thing I could," Samus replied.  "I reached in to hide a communicator inside his ear so he could reach me when he woke up...and left.  The longer I remained, the more danger I put him in.  My map showed there were several large open areas nearby, and he'd have an easy time following me."  She rubbed her arm.  "Didn't make me worry any less, though..."
> Tallon IV: Final Battles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"You just...left him there?" Twilight asked in shock.

"I didn't exactly have a choice," Samus replied.  "I couldn't move him without his help, and he was perfectly safe.  Nothing could have gotten to him in there except the Elite Pirates, and there weren't any of them left according to the data I'd acquired.  Any other type of pirate would have disintegrated trying to get in, as would any of the various types of Metroids.  The only way anything could hurt him in there is if they brought in their machines, and there wasn't enough Phazon in the pit to warrant that...unless something drew their attention.  I was last seen in there, so if I wasn't soon seen elsewhere, the pirates would be investigating.  The best way to keep him safe was to draw a great deal of attention to myself elsewhere."

"So you went out and blasted everything in sight?" Rainbow asked eagerly.

"Almost everything," Samus replied.  "I needed to be sure reports of my movements got back.  I made sure a few Pirates - very few - made it to safety to report.  On my way, I was also able to pick up the last Chozo Artifact, the Artifact of Newborn.  After that, I knew it was time to head back to the Impact Crater to undo the seal.  On the way back, I stopped at my ship to rearm, record information...and to see if there was any sort of jury rigging I could do to load Spike onboard at his current size.  Unfortunately, I didn't find anything."

"Oh!  Oh!" Pinkie gasped, bouncing up and down.  "Is this where Spike learned how to change his size?"

"Weren't you the one going on about Spoilers earlier?" Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I was?" Pinkie gasped.  "But this isn't really a spoiler.  He obviously made it off planet somehow..."

Samus chuckled.  "Well, not quite yet.  But I did pick up some unusual energy back at the Phazon Mines.  I assumed it was Spike, so I sent him a signal to meet me back at the Impact Crater.  He didn't respond, but I did get a signal back that he'd received the message."

"How come you didn't respond?" Fluttershy asked Spike curiously.

Spike smiled nostalgically as he spread his wings gently.  The look on his face made Rainbow chuckle knowingly.  "Well..." Spike began.





Spike slowly climbed out of the pool of Phazon as he awoke.  A Space Pirate walking by took one look at him, bowed low, and began babbling in their native tongue.  Spike didn't understand a word, and the noise was giving him a headache.  He snarled and glowered at the Pirate.  It immediately fell silent and fled.

Spike blinked a bit at that.  That wasn't how the Pirates normally behaved around him.  Normally, they'd be trying to attack him.  What had changed?  Shrugging the thought aside, he shook the stray Phazon from his body and looked upward.  He could tell the sky was just beyond the rock.  The sky...he wanted it.

Inhaling, he drew a great deal of Phazon into his maw, mixing it with his dragon fire.  When he exhaled, the blast of blue-green-white heat tore the rock apart, leaving a clear path to the sky.  At some level, he knew that would draw attention, but he didn't care.

The communicator in his ear beeped, and he heard Samus telling him to meet him at the Impact Crater.  Reaching up, he pressed the button on the communicator to send the 'Message Received' signal.  He didn't want to talk just now.  He didn't want to taint the moment.

His eyes locked on the sky, he spread his new wings, and leapt.





"Aw, yeah!" Rainbow said happily, pumping her fist.  "First flight.  You never forget that moment."

"Yeah..." Scootaloo breathed, hovering in lazy circles around Rainbow's head, still reveling in her own recently gained flight.  Chuckling, Rainbow caught her by her tail and pulled her into a hug.

Spike chuckled.  "Yeah...it was amazing.  I'm not sure how long I flew.  I just...knew how to do it, and I had to.  I had to get in the air.  It was...calling me."

"About a half hour," Samus pointed out.

"Eh?" Spike asked.

"That's how long you were in the air before you showed up in the nick of time at the Impact Crater," Samus explained.  "Knowing that the 'Signal Received' message was just before you leapt into the air told me exactly how long that first flight was."

"Pretty good time for first flight," Rainbow pointed out.  "Why'd you stop?  Wings got tired?"

Spike chuckled.  "Let Mom tell you...you're going to love it."

As everyone turned to face Samus, she grinned, leaning forward.  "It all started as I reached the Impact Crater..."





As Samus returned to the seal of the Impact Crater, the Artifacts resonated, embedding themselves in the 12 statues built to hold them.  Their energies poured into the central spire, releasing a massive spear of light into the sky as the path to the Phazon meteorite was unsealed...the path to the prison of the Great Worm, the one the Pirates called Metroid Prime.

Before Samus could enter the portal, however, a loud roar was heard, and Meta Ridley swept the top off the central spire with his wing, causing it to explode, resealing the gate.

As he came back around for another attack with energy bombs, however, a bolt of purple and green from the sky slammed into him like the wrath of a god, knocking him so far off his flight path that his bombs hit the Phazon Mines.





"Yee-haw!" Apple Bloom shouted out, startling everyone who had been listening with such rapt attention.  "Go get 'im, Spike!  Show that naughty varmit what-for!"

"Apple Bloom!" Applejack scolded.  "We're trying to listen!"

"Besides," Discord added, "with Spike, it's bound to be all the way up to what-seven!"  He pointed playfully to each of Spike's claws, wings, and his tail in succession.

Samus chuckled.  "Actually, most of the rest of that fight is better told from Spike's perspective.  There was something going on up there I didn't quite catch."

Spike grinned.  "Okay, I'll take it from there."  He glanced towards the Crusaders.  "But no interruptions!"

They nodded earnestly, and Spike continued.





Ridley recovered quickly from the impact, though surprised that the double hind-claw strike had buckled his armor on his side.  Still, a classic avian assault.  He rounded on his foe, and his eyes widened.

He was facing another dragon, masters of the sky and flame.  Unlike himself, this one wore no armor and carried no weapons save those that nature had given him.

"What?" Ridley demanded.  "Why does one dragon interfere with another?"

Spike hovered there, maintaining position.  "Leave my Mother alone," Spike stated bluntly, his eyes glowing with rage.

"What?" Ridley roared, exhaling a blast of flame that Spike side slipped to evade.  "A dragon allows a human to assert such dominance?  You debase yourself and our mighty race by kowtowing to that mongrel?"

Ridley didn't see the strike coming.  One moment, Spike was facing him in the air.  The next, Spike had lost altitude, and Ridley was clutching his beak and spitting teeth from an unexpected tail strike.  "Don't talk about my Mother like that," Spike growled, flames on his breath.

With a snarl, Ridley lunged forward.

The battle was not entirely in Spike's favor.  He was young and well trained, and had strong instincts.  He also had incredibly durable scales.  However, this was his first aerial battle, and he did not fully understand three-dimensional combat.  Ridley was not quite as young, and the heavy tinkering he'd undergone - along with all the tech fused to his body - made it harder for him to recover from damage taken.  However, he was a veteran combatant with years of experience under his wings, even if this was the first time he'd ever fought another dragon.  The metal armor he wore was also tough enough to deflect Spike's claws, for the most part.

After several high speed exchanges of flame, claw swipes, and tail strikes, Ridley managed to get above Spike and dove in, digging his claws into the younger dragons back.  Spike roared in pain as the metal clad claws dragged across his flesh, ripping his scales apart.  "Foolish whelp!" Ridley barked.  "You know not your own weaknesses!"  Ridley dug away, trying to get to the flight tendons that allowed the wings to flap.  If those were cut, Spike would fall to his death.

However, Spike carried one advantage both from his blood, his many growth spurts from ingested Phazon, and his training with Samus.  He was nothing if not adaptable.  Reaching up, he grabbed Ridley's crocodile-like beak in one claw and squeezed it shut.  "And you talk too much," Spike growled, yanking him off his back.

Ridley struggled, dragging all four sets of claws and his tail along Spike's body, leaving deep gashes above and below the wings that wept blood.  Once he'd flipped Ridley over, however, Spike reached out with his other claw, grabbed Ridley's metal clad wing bone, and yanked it out of the socket.  Ridley tried to roar in pain, but his jaw was still held fast.

"Can't fly," Spike growled deep in his throat.  When Ridley's tail lashed his face over his left eye, he grabbed the offending appendage near the base with his free hand.  "Can die!" he barked, planting his hind claws in the small of Ridley's back and stretching with all his might.

The crunch of metal, a sickening snap, and the tearing of flesh told the tale as Ridley was torn in half.  Youth and primal rage had conquered experience and technology.  Spike let off a roar of triumph...and slowly fell from the sky.

Samus raced up to his side, worried for him, but he managed to stabilize himself just before he crashed, landing heavily but safely amongst the monoliths of the Seal.  "Spike, are you alright?" Samus asked worriedly.

Spike nodded.  "I'm okay," he mumbled, taking internal stock of his injuries.  Five broken ribs, deep gouges along both sides and the small of his back, strained wing muscles, slight tearing to the left flight tendon, and blood was still pouring into his left eye from the deep gash there.  He could also feel a bit dizzy from the loss of blood.  "I'll live," he corrected.  "I mean...once I get into the impact crater, I can just chug some Phazon, right?"

Samus sighed.  "Ridley broke the seal," she explained.  "I don't know if we can-"

Her words were cut off as the gateway opened itself, the blue light and spectral flame showing the way.

"Guess they fixed it," Spike pointed out, nodding to the 12 Chozo Spirits he could see within the monoliths, bowing respectfully to them.

The pair entered the portal, and vanished into the Impact Crater.

As soon as they arrived in a flash of purple, however, Spike suddenly started screaming in pain.

"Spike!" Samus called out, shocked, rushing to his side.  Her scan visor quickly gave her answers.



The orange Phazon of the Impact Crater is of much higher concentrations than the normal blue Phazon.  It's radiation is proportionately more intense.  Spike's physiology cannot cope with the intensity of the radiation.  As contact with orange Phazon will overload the protections of the Phazon Suit, its mere presence is enough to cause harm to Spike, possibly lethal if exposure is prolonged.



Before her eyes, blue light and ethereal flame sucked him away.  "Spike!" she called out.

Hatchling... a voice echoed in her mind.

Samus fell silent.

Your Hatchling cannot survive inside the Impact Crater...he cannot face the Great Worm alongside you this time.  We have drawn him back to safety.  We will see to his injuries and cleanse the harm of the Great Poison from his brief trip below...he will be well.  Face the Great Worm free of concern...

Sighing, Samus nodded.  She recognized the voices of the Chozo Spirits.  In point of fact, this was the one from the Artifact of Truth, the one who had explained how Spike could handle blue Phazon without harm.  Steeling herself and pushing her concern for Spike from her mind, she proceeded into the crater.





Everyone stared in silence.  "You...you were okay, right Spike?" Twilight asked worriedly.

Spike nodded.  "More or less," he replied.  Turning side on, he shifted his armor slightly with a mental command.  Everypony gasped as scars exactly where the battle wounds he described became visible.  "The radiation caused an infection of the wounds.  As a result, they never completely healed.  The scars from my first battle will always remain."  As the armor shifted back into position, he lifted his visor, revealing the one over his left eye, jagged and raised.  "The Chozo spirit were able to complete the healing, and could have excised the scars...but I didn't want them to.  They told me I had the instincts and the heart of a Warrior of the Chozo...that I did my Mother's adopted people proud."

He lowered the visor back into place.  "So I keep the scars...reminders that I'm not invincible, no matter how strong I've become."

"A very noble sentiment, Spike," Luna murmured.  "And one quite rare in our world's modern day."

Samus smiled, stroking Spike's neck gently.  "He made me proud, too."
> Tallon IV: Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Samus spent the next 20 minutes describing her journey to the center of the Impact Crater, and her battle with the creature known as Metroid Prime.  However, her audience was somewhat limited.  While everyone listened politely, only Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Luna, and Twilight were truly enthralled, the first two from her description of the battle, the latter two from her descriptions of Metroid Prime.

"...and after I finished it off," Samus concluded, "it latched onto any Phazon it could get ahold of in a desperate attempt to stabilize itself.  This included the Phazon in my suit, yanking it right out of me."

"Didn't that make it hard for you to get out of the Crater?" Pinkie asked.  "I mean, you said the Phazon Suit was what let you handle the radiation from the orange Phazon, and if it stole your Phazon Suit-"

"Actually, with Metroid Prime's death, all the Phazon on Tallon IV vanished," Samus explained.  "Including the orange Phazon.  Of course, that caused the Crater to start collapsing, and I had to race my way out."

"Not exactly the first such narrow escape," Spike teased Samus.  "Nor the last."

Samus chuckled.  "Okay, yeah, I do have a tendency in my adventures to be escaping at the last minute before the whole place explodes."

"And what were you doing during that time, Spikey-Wikey?" Rarity asked, looking up at him and fluttering her eyelashes.

Spike smiled.  "Well, I was busy learning something from the Chozo Spirits..."





After Spike's wounds were all healed, one of the Spirits approached him.  You have grown much, Hatchling's Hatchling, it whispered.  Beyond what you expected.

Spike's rueful chuckle echoed in the otherwise silent temple.  "Too big," he replied.  "I won't be able to fit inside the ship like this."

Then perhaps you should be smaller? the Ghost offered.

"If it were that easy, I'd do it," Spike replied.

It is easy, the Ghost countered.  Meditate.  I will teach you.

Closing his eyes, Spike did as he was bid.  The Ghosts entered his mind as he meditated, guiding him.  Deep inside his psyche, he found a wellspring of power.  At the center of the spring, a beast rampaged, snarling and roaring, trying to tear its way out.

This is the source of your might, one of the Ghosts told him.  A dragon's fury.  The rampaging, elemental essence of the conquering predator...the primal drake.

Strip away your kindness, your gentle nature, your civilized mind, another continued, and this is what's left.  The feral core of your essence.

Your body grew faster than your mind could control, a third ghost explained.  Your mind is still racing to catch up, and the primal drake takes advantage of your weakness to try and break free.

The other ghosts approached the primal drake.  It will not be as easy as we thought, one said.  The drake is stronger than anticipated.

We can help you contain it this time, another pointed out.  To calm the beast.  But you must learn - through training, meditation, and years of effort - how to control it.

When you can... a final spirit began.  When you can, then your physical size will bend to your will.

Spike watched as the Ghosts surrounded the beast, stroking it, soothing it, causing it to withdraw sluggishly into the pool.

When Spike withdrew from his meditation, he found he was smaller.  He was now about horse sized, as opposed to between bear and elephant sized.  He was about twice as long as Samus was tall, but most of that was neck and tail.  At the shoulders, he wasn't any wider than Samus' suit pauldrons.  While he was still quite large, he was somewhat more slimly built, making him just the right size to enter the ship if he kept his wings folded flat to his back.

Right about then, Samus came up through the portal.  She blinked at the smaller Spike.  "Could you please stop changing?" she demanded in exasperation.  "Just for, like, five minutes?  I just got used to you!"





Gales of laughter greeted that part of the story.  "D-did you really say that?" Celestia gasped through her chuckles.

Samus shrugged, chuckling a bit herself.  "I don't recall if I used those exact words, but it was getting a bit frustrating.  It was like he'd change shape every time I turned around.  I was half afraid I was going to wake up on the way home to learn he'd turned into a Metroid!"

Spike chuckled a bit.  "Funny you should say that..."  He smirked at her, his eyes at the spikes on the arm of her suit.

"Spoilers, Spike," Samus countered.  "Besides, you should talk, considering what we learned at Ceres science station."

"Ceres?" Twilight asked curiously.

"It was a science station, relatively new at the time," Samus explained.  "It was where I took Spike when he was younger for checkups and the like, since he was a brand new species as far as the galaxy knew.  I made a deal with the scientists there.  In exchange for forwarding them all the information I collected from my own observations of Spike's growth and behavior and coming only to them for any check ups and letting them publish the findings, they agreed to pay for his food and housing aboard my ship."

"They regretted that deal when they realized that meant paying to refit the ship to comfortably house Mom and a fully grown dragon," Spike joked.

"At any rate," Samus continued once a few of the mares had stopped giggling, "this is where we learned something interesting.  Remember those Metroids with high Phazon concentrations Spike ate shortly before he grew his wings?"  The mares frowned in concentration, then nodded.  "Well, it turned out that had resulted in the wing metamorphosis incorporating Metroidal DNA into the portions of his genetic code that hadn't become active yet."

"Wait!" Twilight interrupted.  "You mean Spike is now...part Metroid?  The energy eating parasite/predators, scourge of the galaxies?  Those Metroids?"

Samus nodded.  "Yeah.  But he doesn't have the energy draining capacity.  Actually, the only real change was the fact that Metroids in their natural state - not under another's influence - wouldn't attack him unless provoked.  Well...that and a certain immunity that we didn't discover until later..."

"But I think that's enough story for today," Spike pointed out as he yawned.  "I need to rest.  It's getting late."  He glanced out the window, blinking as he saw the sun still high in the sky.  "At least, I thought it was getting late."

"Oops," Celestia replied, blushing.  "I lost track of time.  Let me get that."  Igniting her magic, she slowly lowered the sun beyond the horizon.

Luna chuckled at her sister's discomfiture, raising the moon to where it belonged while pretending she hadn't gotten just as lost in the story.

"More story tomorrow?" Apple Bloom asked hopefully as she yawned.

"Maybe," Spike replied.  "We'll see."





While everyone in the crystal castle made their way to their beds - whether in the castle or elsewhere - another was waking up.  The baking sun had been unkind to him for as long as it had been up, but he had lived through far worse.  He had been killed by far worse.

It took a lot to kill a dragon.  Even when one succeeded, the essence of the dragon, of its mind, remained, and a viable vessel was all it took for the dragon to live again.  This one had returned time and time again, a thirst for vengeance and a hunger for blood driving him to return endlessly.

Of course, even dragons had limits.  This one was barely alive.  Half his skeleton was visible, and he was losing blood fast.  His wings were in terrible condition.  He was missing his lower jaw.  All that was keeping him alive at this point was his hatred.  But he was in Equestria now, and there...hatred was all one needed.

Dark spirits had come in response to his hatred, infusing him with their power.  This would be the last time he rose as himself, as the power they gave him ate away at his essence.  But if he achieved his goals, it would be enough.

Three native dragons walked by, and he saw his chance.  Lunging forward, he seized the purple and brown ones by their throat.  The red one staggered back in fear as his companions screamed in agony.

The magic did its work.  Flesh and scales ripped away from the two captured dragons, they and their essence being absorbed into the wounded dragon as it used them to replenish its wasted body.

"Wha...what are you?" the red dragon demanded as he watched his companions be reduced to skeletons, and then to dust.

The once more whole and empowered dragon glared down at the red coward.  "Ridley..." he hissed, opening his mouth wide.

A scream echoed in the night.
> Interlude - Power Consumes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The following morning, everyone gathered around the table for breakfast, and Twilight decided to raise a question that had been bothering her.  "Spike," she asked, "is it really so important for you to keep your armor on?  You mentioned it keeps your strength in check, but surely you have some natural adaptions for it, right?  Can't you control your strength on your own?"

Spike lowered his head, his eyes on his plate.  "...no..." he replied morosely.

Seeing this, Samus sighed, stroking his head.  "Spike, that was a long time ago, and no one was hurt.  And those buildings were scheduled for demolition anyway..."  She noticed everyone staring at her.  "...what?"

Eventually, it was Rainbow who spoke up.  "...buildings?"

Samus sighed.  "Yeah...it was after his checkup at Ceres and getting the ship retrofitted, both for extra living space for him and for a new entrance that he didn't have to squeeze through.  We decided to head to a more civilized planet for some R&R.  Packed a picnic lunch, even brought a frisbee along so we could play catch.  Would have been a perfect relaxing day in the park...except for one detail I overlooked."

"What's that?" Twilight asked nervously, knowing from experience how badly one missed detail could skew things.

"Spike had adapted to the 20Gs of Tallon IV," Samus explained.  "Since I'm used to that as well from growing up on Zebes, I keep my ship at that gravity, too.  Ceres is variable Gs, depending on what's being done in a given lab, and they kept Spike and I in a lab mirroring Tallon IV conditions while they studied how he'd grown.  The planet I'd chosen for our recreation...was 1G."

Everyone winced in sympathy as Samus began recounting events.





Samus walked along happily in her Zero Suit, watching as Spike raced along the ground, investigating the healthy trees and flowers, at one point even ducking his head into a lake to taste the water.  The other people in the park were nervous about his presence at first, but his enthusiastic greetings and overall happy attitude soon had him relaxing...although Samus had to laugh when one of the kids referred to him as 'dragon-puppy'.





Samus paused in her retelling to let the ponies' laughter and Spike's embarrassment subside.  She was glad their laughter at this event didn't bother him.





After a time, Samus found a spot she liked and laid out the large blanket for them both to sit on while they ate.  At first the day passed without incident.  Spike curled up on the blanket to enjoy the sandwiches and fried chicken Samus had brought along, snapping up all the bones himself since the minerals were good for him, easily digestible, and the fragments had no danger of getting lodged in his throat.  She was also looking forward to how he reacted to the cheesecake she'd brought along for dessert...but first, she wanted them both to get some exercise, so she pulled out the frisbee.

Spike and Samus passed the frisbee back and forth a few times, racing across the grass to catch it as they came down.  Given how far they were throwing it, it wasn't long before they had drawn an audience, one that proved especially appreciative as Samus performed a particularly acrobatic flip to catch one of Spike's throws that went a little too high.

Then Samus threw hers a bit too high.

"I've got it!" Spike shouted, racing after it.  He leapt into the air to catch the frisbee...only to lauch several dozen feet in the air and forwards at high speeds.  He overshot the frisbee and was rapidly approaching a group of derelict buildings near the park.  He tried to turn his body so he could spread his wings - the wind at his back left too much air resistance to spread his wings that way - but he didn't turn fast enough.

Samus winced as Spike crashed into the first building.  She closed her eyes as he came out that one to crash into the second.  She covered her face when she heard the third building fall into several others.  She turned away when the gas main exploded.

When she finally raised her eyes, Spike was walking towards her, head low, frisbee in his mouth, and the entire block of former industrial buildings was a towering inferno.





Everyone stared slackjawed as Samus finished retelling the accidental chaos Spike had caused.  "...what's he like when he's trying to break stuff?" Discord asked in awe.

"Discord!" Fluttershy snapped.  Turning to Spike, she stepped forward and rubbed his shoulder comfortingly.  "There, there, Spike...it's alright.  You didn't mean to..."

"And, well, they were all meant for demolition anyway, right?" Applejack asked.

"Those buildings were," Spike replied.  "But the next block over - which I could have just as easily smashed into - was residential."

"That...doesn't sound like good building planning," Twilight pointed out.

"The buildings were going to be demolished to be replaced with more residential," Samus pointed out.

"Ah."

Spike sighed sadly.  "But...that wasn't the worst of it..."





Spike glanced back over his shoulder, seeing the destruction he'd accidentally wrought.  Turning forwards, the frisbee melting in his mouth from the fire, he saw all the people staring at him, their eyes filled with awed fear.

He knew what they saw in him.  He could read it far too easily.  It was the first thing he'd thought when he'd first seen Ridley.

Monster...

He tried to face up to that gaze as long as he could, but eventually he turned and fled, racing back to the ship, diving into the new entrance and curling up in his corner, huddled and shivering as he hid from what he feared he had become.





Samus was caught off guard as every pony present leapt over the table to pile onto Spike in a massive, comforting hug.  She could plainly hear each of them telling him how he wasn't a monster, how he was a good dragon, and various other comforting words as they nuzzled and embraced him.  "Umm..."

"Yeah, this sort of thing happens a lot here," Discord commented.  "Equestria's a very huggy place.  You get used to it."

Samus shrugged.  "I suppose I'll have to."  She smiled over at Spike being assaulted with comfort.  "At least this is better than him hiding out in the ship and refusing to come out until our next mission."

"Next mission?" Rainbow asked eagerly as all eyes once more turned to her.

"More stories?" Scootaloo asked eagerly.

Samus' laughed easily.  "Alright...the next mission was to the planet Aether..."
> Aether: Arrival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Now, don't think we're going to go through the whole rest of our adventures in a single sitting like we have been," Samus pointed out.  "That's years worth of events.  Even just focusing on the significant points, that's at least a week's worth of story telling...unless we're going to forget to change the date again."  She glanced towards Celestia with a sardonic smirk.

Celestia managed to avoid looking too abashed.  "Well, short of an emergency - in which case the present Captain of Canterlot's Guard knows where we are - we are taking the week for personal business, so we can remain that long."

"Ah'm gonna need to break a few times to go back and check on things at the farm," Applejack pointed out.  "Apple Bloom and I have chores to do."

"And I have a business to run," Rarity added.

"These three are lucky it's Spring Break," Rainbow added, gesturing to the Crusaders.  "But the rest of us still have things to do.  It won't be all in one go."

"No matter how much we want to," Twilight promised.

Spike chuckled.  "Well, Aether was a rather...interesting adventure."  He rubbed his shoulder nervously.

Noticing this, Samus rested her hand on his.  "It's okay, Spike," she reassured him.  "Neither of us saw that coming."

"Eh?" Luna inquired.  "What is it you are speaking of?"

"We'll get to that," Samus replied.  "But let's just say...sometimes certain details are too easily overlooked.  But Aether was...grim..."





Samus guided her ship towards the planet of Aether, going over the mission parameters as she went.  A Federation squad had last been in contact in the area, and had vanished without a trace after reporting an attempt to land.  The mission was to determine what had happened to the Federation Troopers, and provide what assistance she could assuming they were still alive.  She didn't want to admit that the only reason she'd taken the contract was because Aether, like Tallon IV, was a 20g planet, and she desperately wanted to find a world where Spike would feel comfortable leaving the ship again.  She couldn't blame him for not wanting to go out when he could accidentally destroy an entire housing block, but he needed to move around.

As she set the flight path, she gazed out the viewport at the planet below, noticing how strange its atmosphere was.  The clouds seemed to be in a constant state of flux between pale white and dark purple, and there were signs of heavy electromagnetic storms.  "Well, that would explain why there's no communication," she concluded.  "Hard to get anything out through those storms."

"Then how are we going to get in?" Spike asked, raising his head to glance out.  "And how will we get back out when we're done?"

Samus smiled under her helmet, to relieved to hear Spike actually take interest in things again to care about little things like personal danger and the possibility of being permanently trapped planetside.  "We'll figure that out once we're down there," she replied eagerly.  "Hang on!"  She then gunned the engine, driving the ship down into the atmosphere at speeds that were somewhat above safety limits.





Samus paused as she noticed all the ponies staring at her.  "What?" she asked.

"Ain't that...kinda dangerous?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Little bit," Samus replied.  "But I was just that desperate to cheer Spike up.  With how disconsolate he'd been, I'd have flown loop-de-loops around a black hole if it put a smile back on his face."  She stopped as she realized that less than half her audience seemed to know what she was talking about.  "At any rate, the storms did prove rather problematic, as the ship took a rather heavy discharge on the way down."

"Which amongst other things, damaged the computer, causing you to lose the stored data on some of your upgrades," Spike pointed out.  "Leaving you without your beam weapons except Power and Charge, since you said you were going to select which to bring based on the environment we found."

"Which you pointed out to me when we first landed too," Samus pointed out.  "Did you really have to raise it again?"

Spike thought for a time.  "Yes, yes I did."

Samus shook her head with a groan.  "At any rate, I was left with my Power Beam, Charge Beam, Morph Ball, Morph Ball Bombs, Power Bombs, Boost Ball, Space Jump Boots, and Grapple Beam."

"Pretty diverse arsenal," Twilight pointed out.

"For as long as it lasted," Spike muttered, chuckling as Pinkie waved her sign at him again.

"At any rate," Samus continued, "once we'd landed and taken stock, we moved out.  We couldn't stay with the ship until the auto-repair functions had made the cabin bearable - too much smoke and sparks - so we both continued onward."  She chuckled.  "I admit, I was actually glad it prevented Spike from claiming he was going to stay back with the ship to protect it.  I knew exploring a new world would help cheer him up..."  Her voice trailed off, and she sighed.  "Of course, that was before I realized how...rough...the first part of our mission would be."

Luna shivered.  "I take it the Federation Troops didn't make it?" she asked.

Samus sighed.  "By the time we were called in, they were all already dead..."





As they explored the underground area they'd crashed into, Samus and Spike discovered a large door which required a translation program to interface with and unlock, as they lacked that program, they had to take a different path deeper underground, which led them to where the Federation troops had been based.

Down below, they came to a few obstacles that were somewhat difficult for Spike to get around in the existing tunnels.  However, he discovered that his sharp claws were ideal for digging, and the dirt walls were relatively soft and easy for him to dig through, letting him make his own paths to keep up with Samus.

It wasn't long before they discovered the first of the Trooper bodies, hanging from webbing and being fed on by Splinters, large insect-like creatures with white bodies and thin legs.  Samus was glad to see Spike back to himself, as he paid no attention to the bodies - they were apparently too long dead and too well preserved to disturb him - and snatched up a Splinter for a taste.  "...a little too moist," he allowed.  "Like underdone chicken.  Don't think I like it."

"Then don't eat them," Samus pointed out, continuing onward.

As Samus found Troopers whose datapacs were intact, she gathered more of the story.  Tracking Space Pirates, assault by a Splinter hive, killing the hive...and then being attacked and overwhelmed by other hives.

After activating a Morph Ball Bomb switch, however, Samus and Spike were both caught off guard as several of the corpses surrounding them stood up.

"What the fuck?" Spike demanded in fear.  "Mom, what's going on?"

Samus quickly scanned the moving bodies.  "The corpses are being infused by some sort of unknown bio-matter, puppetting the bodies."

"You mean they're zombies?" Spike asked.

"...close enough," Samus replied.  "You can fight them the same way-"

Samus received a quick demonstration of how effective the breath of a half terrified dragon was on zombies, or at least zombie equivalents.





Several of those gathered chuckled, though Discord laughed aloud.  "Need to make me some zombies for Nightmare Night," he joked.  He promptly wilted under Fluttershy's glare.

Samus rolled her eyes.  "At any rate, things went on like that as we continued to explore...until..."





After clearing through a few more possessed troopers, the pair found their way to a mist filled chamber, just in time to see a dark silhouette that looked remarkably like Samus open and pass through some sort of portal.  Curiously, the pair approached...only to be sucked through themselves.

On the other side, the skies were dark purple, sparking with pink lightning.  The air - save in a bubble around them - was filled with a purple miasma.  Inside the bubble with them was a white crystal atop what looked like a staff, projecting the protective field.  Atop cliffs that surrounded them, several creatures that seemed to be made of solidified black ooze with glowing red eye/faces watched them, roaring occasionally in hunger.  Before them, the dark figure they'd seen before was drawing Phazon into itself from where it was visible against a rock surface.  As Samus moved to stand up, the dark figure fired a shot of Phazon just over her shoulder pauldron, plainly a warning shot.

Spike, meanwhile, remained perfectly still, husbanding his fire for a blast more intense than normal.  He felt like he was surrounded by predators, all eager to take a bite out of him.  However, he wasn't about to back down.

Samus saw that the figure was like a dark reflection of herself, somewhat reminiscent of her Phazon Suit back on Tallon IV, but completely black and with a different shaped blue visor.  The shoulder pauldrons also bulged with Phazon.  When she stood up, the figure shot the crystal behind Samus, and the field began to collapse inward.  The dark figure withdrew as the dark creatures from above began to converge on them.

Samus and Spike backed up towards the portal, but as the field collapsed, Spike winced, squeezing his mouth shut tight and keeping his eyes shut.  The atmosphere began eating away at his very flesh, and rapidly drained Samus' shield integrity.

With the field fully collapsed, the creatures lunged at them both.  Those that attacked Samus tore chunks off of her armor, while those who attacked Spike tried to bite him as well.

Spike let off one blast of flame to push the creatures back, but as the air invaded his mouth, his defiant roar became a scream of pain.  Grabbing hold of Samus, he leapt through the portal.

Back where they had been before, Spike began to cough up blood laced with black ooze, holes in his scales as though he had been splashed across much of his body with acid.  His wing membrane also had rather large holes burned in it, and his claws showed pitting.

Samus herself wasn't doing much better.  She'd lost a lot of shield energy in that brief moment, and the creatures had managed to strip her of her Grapple Beam, her Boost Ball, her Power Bombs, her regular Bombs, her Space Jump thrusters, and her Missile Launcher.  Staggering to her feet, she made her way to Spike to check on him.

Once he caught his breath, Spike expressed both their opinions on the situation.  "The fuck was that?"
> Aether: Honor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The ponies were all staring at Samus and Spike in shock after hearing their description of events.  "W...what was that?" Twilight finally demanded.

"From the sound of it, it was a dimensional rift of some sort," Discord explained.  "A naturally occuring version of those mirror portals you and Sunbutt are so fond of."  He cackled briefly as both Twilight and Celestia looked away.  "Though from the sound of this one, it connected to a dimension that was inimical to life as we know it.  Anything adapted to our dimension would probably die a slow, painful death just from being in that dimension, and vice versa."

"More or less," Samus confirmed.  "The Ing native to that world - Dark Aether - couldn't manifest physically in Aether without possessing a host of some sort, and without proper shielding, even the air of Dark Aether was lethal to us.  Spike was barely functional after that brief jaunt, and the slightest brush against any of the open sores left by his exposure to Dark Aether's atmosphere caused him intense pain and nausea."

"It's why draconic adaption is a double edged sword," Spike explained.  "Given enough internal energy, a dragon can adapt to any environment...if the adaption process doesn't kill them.  Unfortunately, the amount of energy a lot of those adaptions require lends heavy weight to the latter being the actual outcome."

"Except when Phazon's involved?" Rainbow asked.

"Yeah," Spike chuckled.  "Except with Phazon."

"Of course, we didn't figure all that out right away," Samus explained.  "At that point, my priority was finding any sort of base, Federation or otherwise, and raiding any medical supplies they had to bandage Spike..."





Moving forward, Samus was relieved to find a remote upload point shortly afterwards.  It was easy enough to uplink it to her ship, and use it to restore her suit's energy.  Much to her frustration, however, it could do nothing for Spike's injuries.  His groans of pain terrified her.  Before his growth spurts on Tallon IV, she had thought of him as one she needed to protect, but otherwise rather tough.  After his growth spurts, she saw the mighty beast inside, easily capable of taking care of itself in most situations.  Even when he'd knocked over the buildings, that was just him not knowing his own strength.  But to see him like this, struggling just to keep breathing and keep his eyes open, she felt like she was tearing herself apart every time a speck of dust found its way into one of his sores.

Taking an elevator, Samus found that they were just down the passageway from the door requiring a new translator program, beyond another door requiring the same.  She growled in frustration at the ship being so close but so far.  There were more than enough medical supplies on board ship for Spike to dress up as a mummy dragon for Halloween five times over!  Turning, she carefully led Spike along the other path, thankfully into the open air where he was in less danger of dirt getting into his injuries.

At first, Samus thought she might have Spike eat either some of the Splinters - despite the bad taste - or a Green Kralee she spotted, but even the attempt to swallow something caused Spike to hack it up, along with more black tinted blood.  Apparently, breathing in the air on the other side of the rift had done a great deal of damage to his throat, and possibly his lungs and who knew what else.  

Seeing a Temple off in the distance, Samus decided to make that their destination.  It was either a Temple of a native species, or of Chozo origin.  Either way, it was likely to have some sort of tech she could cannibalize.  If it was native, her Chozo computer could find a way to make use of it.  If it was Chozo, they'd probably left her a Heal Beam specifically for the damage Spike would take in that other world.





"Heal Beam?" Celestia asked in her most deadpan voice.  "Seriously?"

"I wouldn't have put it past them," Samus replied bluntly.  "It certainly wouldn't be the strangest or most obscure Chozo upgrade I've ever found."

"Would probably be great in the video game adaption for co-op campaigns," Rainbow muttered, still taking her 'video game adventure' notes from the story, once more causing Pinkie and Discord to giggle.

"You, um...you did find a way to heal Spike, didn't you?" Fluttershy asked worriedly.

Samus stared at the yellow pony for a time, then turned to look at Spike, who smirked sheepishly.  Fluttershy blushed, hiding in her mane.  "At any rate..." Samus went on.





Continuing onward carefully, Samus found a control panel for a satellite distress beacon.  She attempted to activate it, both to get word of what happened to the Troopers to the Federation, and in the hopes that backup might bring some medicine for Spike.  Unfortunately, the signal couldn't get through the atmospheric conditions, and she was forced to continue on towards the Temple, hope pushing her steps.

As she continued to lead the way, she actually witnessed the possession of various things by the creatures from the other side of the rift, as black ooze flowed into the Trooper corpses, and black smog was absorbed into the Splinters, in both cases amplifying combat capabilities and changing other details.

It was shortly before her first witnessing of the possession of the Splinters - converting them into Dark Splinters - that she found the remnants of the G.F.S. Tyr and final proof that the Troopers she was sent to help were all dead.  Much to her chagrin, there was nothing left in the ship itself worth salvaging, save a replacement missile launcher and map data for the region.  Thankfully, the bulk of it did make a good place for Spike to hide in while she took out the Dark Splinters that attacked.





"Question!" Pinkie Pie called out.

"Yes?" Samus asked, a little perturbed by the untimely interruption.

"How come the Federation Troopers and Space Pirates function so well on 20G planets like Aether?" she asked.  "You seemed to be indicating that only you and Spike were adapted to high gravity worlds like that."

"The standard Trooper armor includes gravitational dampening circuitry," Samus explained.  "It doesn't do much for acrobatics, but it allows them to function on high gravity worlds normally without suffering organ or musculature compression.  And the Pirates use a lot of stolen technology, including Chozo, and many of their planetary bases are high gravity worlds.  Their home world is actually 40Gs, which drastically reduces the maneuverability of ships and troops, which added another layer of protection for them on top of its location being top secret, and having a state of the art anti-air defense grid."

"You blow the whole place to Tartarus, don't you?" Luna asked insightfully.

Samus held up Pinkie's 'Spoilers' sign, making the pink pony giggle, before continuing her tale.





Further progress towards the Temple resulted in Samus collecting the last of the Trooper logbooks, the first sighting of a native in the form of a Luminoth corpse, and further signs of the deterioration of Spike's health.  She prayed to the Chozo Spirits that something would be left that she could use to heal Spike.  She couldn't lose him...she couldn't.

Partway into the Temple, a security field activated, trapping Samus in a circular area along with several Splinters which soon became possessed.  She was actually glad Spike was outside the field.  He didn't even have the energy now to try and break through.

When the largest cocoon up above burst open and the Alpha Splinter broke free, she braced herself for the fight.  She was rather unsurprised when it, too, became possessed by a dark fog.  However, she was too experienced - and too determined - to be slowed for long.  Despite taking some bad damage, she had it down and dusted within a couple minutes.

After the defeat of the Dark Alpha Splinter, a glowing white sphere was released.  It rapidly bonded with Samus' power suit, though the tech couldn't be analyzed right away.  Still, it caused no problems with her suit, and the pathway up into the main part of the Temple opened.  Shrugging her shoulders, she beckoned Spike to follow her up.  When he struggled to comply, she moved to help him.

Reaching the center of the Temple up above, she saw a massive energy storage unit suspended from the open ceiling, hanging over some sort of control device beneath that stood taller than her and wider than Spike was long.  Before she could take in much more beyond that - besides the construction seeming both ancient in style and brand new - her attention was captured by a living Luminoth.

His body was somewhat insectoid in appearance, slightly reminiscent in shape of a wingless dragonfly with only four limbs.  His body was a mix of brown and red, with white fur on his chest, and antenna like ears waving atop his head.  His limbs were quite thin, and from a purely visual perspective he seemed frail.  However, Samus could feel the immense energy abilities the figure possessed, even before she saw him float as though it were nothing.



"Do not be afraid," he said in Chozo, though his sentence structure was more formal than Samus was used to, and his accent was slightly strong.  "I am U-Mos, Sentinel of the Luminoth.  Though I would wish to tell you the grim tale of my world's fate, we both have more immediate concerns.  Your companion is dying of Dark Aether poisoning.  I must work fast if I am to save him, and I will need your help."

"If you can save my son, I'll do anything," Samus replied fervently, also in Chozo, though her speech was somewhat stilted.

Nodding, U-Mos beckoned her close as he floated to Spike's side, white-yellow light pouring from his hands and into the wounds.





"Mom...you didn't," Spike breathed in shock.

"I meant every word, Spike," she replied simply, her voice completely serious.

Everyone glanced back and forth between Samus and Spike.  "Umm...are we missing something?" Twilight asked.

"The literal translation of what she said in Chozo is, 'For this, I give you my life'," Spike explained.  "She literally offered up her life in exchange for my own."

"As I said," Samus repeated as the others gasped in shock, "I meant every word."

Twilight looked up at Samus in awe.  She'd seen Samus' softer side in the videos Spike had shown them, and had known she was a wise and brave warrior.  But seeing her dedication like this - how readily she offered her own life in exchange for Spike's...

Noticing Pinkie staring at her, Twilight determinedly bit her lip before anything embarrassing could escape.

"So..." Luna began.  "What did U-Mos ask of you in exchange for saving Spike?"

Samus chuckled.  "He actually claimed there was no debt owed, that if he could save one more life from the ravages of the Ing, it was an act worth doing for its own sake.  When I insisted, he said I could pay him back by saving his world."

"Like we weren't going to do that anyway," Spike countered, rolling his eyes.
> Aether: Armor
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So U-Mos healed Spike?" Twilight asked when everyone regained their composure.

"Not just healed," Samus replied.  "He did a lot more for us than that."





As U-Mos approached Spike's weakened form, he gathered energy that seemed to be made of pure light.  According to Samus' scan visor, it seemed to be the same type of energy as was stored in the massive collector above the Energy Controller that dominated the center of the Temple.  Coming to the first hole in Spike's side, U-Mos plunged the energy into the wound burned in by Dark Aether's atmosphere.

A sizzling noise shocked Samus, and Spike roared in pain.  "You're hurting him!"

"I must burn the poison from the wound," U-Mos replied.  "If I do not, it will drive deeper and deeper, and eventually claim his life.  I have treated such wounds many times.  It will be painful, but he will survive.  Please, calm him as I do so.  If he becomes too pain maddened and attacks me, I will be forced to defend myself."  There was no hostility in the statement or his voice, merely calm certainty and absolute confidence.  Samus found herself reminded of how Old Bird and Gray Voice talked to her back in training whenever she got too unruly.

Almost instinctively as a response to that tone, she went to Spike's side.  Disengaging her armor, she reached up and held his face in both hands, drawing him down to look her in the eye.  "I know it hurts," she whispered, "but it's a healing pain.  It will help you get better."

Spike stared into her eyes for a time, then slowly calmed.  He visibly flinched every time the energy surged into his wounds, but he no longer writhed.  After a time, all the external wounds were dealt with, and U-Mos approached Spike's face.  Opening Spike's mouth, he sent a flow of the energy into his mouth, throat, and lungs, purging the Dark Aether toxin at last.

"His condition is stable," U-Mos explained.  "It will still be at least an hour before he recovers fully.  In that time, I will tell you of our world's tragedy...and prepare you for the adventure to save us, the journey you've chosen to take."





"So...what did happen to Aether?" Luna inquired.

"A Phazon meteorite," Samus explained.  "They tried to redirect it using the planetary energy they'd gathered to sustain the planet, but it didn't do any good.  When the meteorite hit...the planet was drastically altered, and a dark echo of Aether appeared in another dimension, containing half of Aether's planetary energy.  The Ing that came as well were overwhelming the Luminoth...so they tried to end the war that had begun by reclaiming the missing planetary energy.  They even created a device specifically to do just that."

"Which the Ing somehow got a hold of and turned against them, but was that strange glowy sphere you absorbed after defeating the Dark Alpha Splinter?" Rainbow guessed.

"So now you had to journey to Dark Aether, unlock the Dark Temples with keys scattered across the planet, reclaim the planetary energy from the massive Ing Guardians protecting them, and then escape before the world collapsed?" Scootaloo added eagerly.

Samus stared at them both.  "...basically."

"You two have played too many video games," Spike scolded, setting mare and filly to giggling.

"But how would Spike get to-"  Fluttershy cut herself off with a gasp.  "The armor!" she whispered, pointing to the armor plates covering a good portion of Spike's form.

Grinning, Samus continued her tale.





As U-Mos finished telling the story of Aether's fate, Spike had recovered enough to stand.  "I'm not going to be much help, am I?" he asked.  "Until I've managed to adapt to Dark Aether's environment - which is unlikely - I'll be more a liability than an asset in that world."

"I did say I would prepare you," U-Mos explained.  "With what little energy is left to wield, I cannot do much...but I can do something for you."  Gathering energy from the storage unit above, he shaped it before hurling it forward to Spike.

Spike stared in surprise at the white and gold armor that appeared over him.  "Whoa..."  He flexed himself a bit, but blinked.  "I...feel a little weaker."

"The armor puts limits on your abilities relative to your environment," U-Mos explained.  "In addition, it uses the power it is containing to project an energy field to protect you from environmental effects.  It can recharge when exposed to the energy of Light Crystals, which are scattered throughout Dark Aether.  While the protection is limited, it should last you long enough to get from crystal to crystal, oasis to oasis left behind by our soldiers who struggled to save us.  Perhaps in time you will adapt to Dark Aether as we could not, and the protection will not need to be as strong."

Spike smiled, gazing from one wing to another.  The holes that had still been there after the healing were now sealed, and they were surrounded by a faint field of white light.

Seeing Spike doing better now, Samus smiled and nodded to U-Mos, donning her armor again.  "We'll do it," she said firmly.

U-Mos smiled, and raised his hand.  To Samus' surprise, data fed into her translator program on her scan visor.  "I have updated your translator," U-Mos explained.  "You can now access Violet holograms.  I have also updated your map with the location of another of our temples, where you may find things of use."

When Spike opened his mouth to complain, U-Mos interrupted.  "I do not give you all you would need to access all of Aether and Dark Aether because some areas of Dark Aether are safer to explore than others, and some areas of Aether will be more hostile to you.  The areas available to you now are those of the lowest risk, in the hopes you may find equipment left behind by our soldiers that can aid you in your quest."

Spike closed his mouth.  "Oh..."

Samus chuckled.  "Alright.  We'll start with the Agon Wastes, then."

"Return to me when you have restored energy to a Temple," U-Mos explained.  "I will aid you as I can...though what I can do is limited.  I must guard the slumber of those of my people who survive, and manage what little energy is left to hold the planet together."

"Understood," Samus replied.  "This is hardly the least prepared I've ever gone into a mission on.  I've got my power suit, I've got Spike, and I know where I'm going...I'm ready for anything."





"Bravado, much?" Luna asked archly.

"On Zebes, I went up against the full force of the Space Pirates for a time armed with just a stun pistol," Samus countered.  "Compared to that, this was still a walk in the park."

"At that point..." Spike mumbled, remembering what was yet to come.
> Aether: Exploration
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Celestia glanced back and forth between Spike and Samus.  "Somehow I get the feeling that...something rather untoward happens during this journey."

Samus was silent for a time.  "Yeah.  Something...rough happened.  Towards the end, though."

"The Agon Wastes were actually rather enjoyable for me," Spike pointed out.  "See, it was all desert and open skies."  His eyes got somewhat dreamy.  "The intense heat from the sky hitting the sand..."

"The thermals..." Rainbow breathed in awe.  Scootaloo's wings buzzed just from the thought of riding them.

Grinning, Spike began to explain.





Stepping out into the Agon Wastes, Samus and Spike discovered that it lived up to the name.  All sand and rock, high heat, and nearly all the biological life forms were either insectoid or sand diggers, long worms that burrowed through the sand.

Spike's first reaction upon reaching the wide open area that was the first hub of the desert area was to spread his wings wide.  Grinning widely, he flapped into the air.  "I'll scout out the path!" he called back to Samus.

"Keep me posted!" Samus called back.

"Will do," Spike replied over comms.

Samus chuckled.  "Forgot you have a comm unit now," she joked.

With Spike in the air above, a quick path was easily plotted to the Agon Temple, their next destination.  "Say, Mom?" Spike asked over the comms.  "Couldn't I carry you?  It'd be faster."

"No," Samus insisted.  "You're still not fully recovered.  Not only that, until you adjust to the armor, you're functioning at less than peak efficiency.  What if we encounter a Pirate aerial vehicle while you're focusing on not dropping me?"

"...guess you're right..." Spike replied.  "It just...it feels bad that I'm so maneuverable here, when you've lost most of your tech."

"I'll get it back," Samus promised.

As they continued, Spike sent a warning.  "Watch out," he pointed out.  "Pirate presence in the next area.  Want me to provide aerial support?"

"Only if you can do it without getting in range of their attacks," Samus countered.  "I don't want you taking too many hits just yet."

"Got it," Spike replied.

Spike's solution was surprisingly straightforward.  For a dragon, medium sized rocks were quite light.  When dropped from a great height, they were quite devastating to whatever they landed on, and Spike was good at plotting intercept courses for his rock bombs.





"You...hit them with rocks?" Discord asked, nonplussed.

"What can I say?" Spike replied with a shrug.  "I was all out of razors and hot oil.(1)"

As Discord and Pinkie giggled, everyone else looked confused.  Samus buried her face in her hands as she continued the story.





After defeating the Pirates, Samus continued onward, along with spotter updates from Spike.

"You're approaching an area that looks a lot like an arena," he pointed out.  "...ten to one something big's going to attack you there."

"No bet," Samus replied.  "Help if you can safely."

As Samus entered the open air arena-like area, she was sealed in.  An Alpha Sandigger - a much larger version of the sand worm like creatures she'd been dealing with before - came out of the sand to attack her.  After she'd fought it off for a time, an Ing came out of a rift in its gaseous form and possessed it.

"Mom!" Spike called out.  "That Ing's got your Morph Ball Bombs!"

"Then we'll just have to take it back!" Samus pointed out, prepping her arm cannon.

Samus focused on shooting the two heads of the worm like Bomb Guardian, trying to keep it towards the middle of the arena.  Every so often, however, Spike would dive down, seize the worm in his claws, and drop it to slam into the side of the arena as he swooped back into the air.

With the multi-pronged attack, it wasn't long before the beast was slain, and Samus reclaimed her Morph Ball Bombs, which let her escape the arena.

The Bombs also allowed Samus to interface with the seal on the Temple, allowing her and Spike access to the entrance.  Within, an automated holographic message played for them.

A hologram of a nearby dead Luminoth spoke to them.  "Welcome.  I am I-Sha, Sentinel of the Agon Temple.  This message survives my death, as guidance for one who would fight the Ing.  A portal to Dark Aether lies nearby.  With it, you can travel to this land's shadow.  You must locate a Dark Temple, a twisted mockery of this sacred place.  Inside, you will find the Energy Controller that you seek."

The hologram conjured an image of three keys.  "The temple door is held fast by three locks.  The keys for the locks are hidden throughout that dark land."

The hologram had more information for them, but it was all things they already knew from U-Mos.  At the end, the hologram gave Samus and Spike's visors the capacity to interact with Amber holograms.  They were then instructed to bring the energy from the Dark Temple back to the Light Temple immediately upon recovery.

It didn't take the pair long to find the portal in question, or to dispose of the Pirates that attacked them when they entered.  This time, Spike used his flame breath in diving runs, since he was limited in how high he could get within the chamber.  This proved especially difficult when the Pirates became possessed by Ing, becoming Dark Pirates.  However, it turned out that Spike's flame breath had similar properties to the Light Energy the Luminoth had designed to battle the Ing, and was exceptionally effective.(2)

It took a bit of work to reactivate the portal device.  Once it was active, however, Samus and Spike approached it.

"...time to see just how effective this armor is," Spike commented worriedly.

"Indeed," Samus agreed, just as worried.

"...well, if it's not effective enough, I can still help on this side," Spike commented.  "I'm sure things will work out."

"...yeah..." Samus agreed.

The pair dove through the portal.

...

Once back in Dark Aether, Spike discovered that the energy shields of the armor were effective protection against the atmosphere itself, although they drained his energy quickly.  Unfortunately, it wasn't very effective at protecting his mouth, so he had to keep his mask up, racing from safe zone to safe zone, using only his claws and tail to fight.

It wasn't long before they encountered another Ing possessing some of Samus' tech, this time the Jump Guardian, possessing her Space Jump Boots.  To Spike's surprise, within a 'Safe Zone', he was still able to use his flame breath, which made defeating the Ing go quite fast, letting Samus recover her missing gear.

Finding no other safe path to explore from there in Dark Aether, the pair returned through the portal.








(1) I wanted to link the clip I was referencing from the episode of "Batman: The Animated Series" I was referencing (from the episode Trial), but I couldn't find it.
(2) This is in reference to how similar the Light Beam and the Plasma Beam of Prime functioned relative to each other.
> 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.
> Aether: Adaptions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why did you call that creature 'Dark Samus'?" Twilight asked once everyone had stopped laughing.  "I mean, I know it looked a lot like you-"

"Because it was basically Metroid Prime wearing my Phazon Suit," Samus interrupted, causing several of the mares to gasp.  "When it pulled the Phazon corruption out of my power suit, it also got a sample of my DNA.  So when it recreated itself somehow in Phazon elsewhere, it did so in my image, along with abilities based on my own."

"Not a pleasant sight," Spike pointed out.  "Especially since it just wouldn't stay dead."

The mares shuddered at the sound of this, though the fillies and draconequus looked all the more eager for details.  Seeing their faces, Samus chuckled.  "Alright," she replied.  "At any rate..."





Once Samus had comforted Spike for not being able to get any Phazon to help him adapt to Dark Aether, the pair continued their exploration of the base.  Not far down a new path, Samus found a new beam weapon system.  The Dark Beam was a weapon designed by the Luminoth to use the Ing's own energy against them.  However, according to the specs, the Luminoth had never figured out how to create a dark energy generator small enough to fit in a hand held weapon.  As a result, the Dark Beam relied on an ammunition system, and replenishing ammo by absorbing dark energy from the environment, or collecting Dark Ammo from storage containers.  Samus' own power suit was unable to fully analyze the Dark Energy the weapon was based on, and as such could not use its own energy generators - which fueled the Power Beam and other Chozo tech - to supplement it.

As many of the various devices scattered around used Dark Energy to activate, this proved most useful for Samus.  Unfortunately, beam cannon based weapons were not compatible with Spike's armor, as his only beam weapon was his breath.  However, given just how powerful his breath was, Spike was content to rely on that and his melee combat abilities.

Returning back to the entrance chamber of the Space Pirate base, Samus discovered that the portal to Dark Aether the Pirates had been using could be energized with Dark Energy.  Firing the Dark Beam at the rift, the portal opened, letting the pair through to the shadowy world.

...

On the other side of the portal, Spike and Samus found themselves in a wide open chamber.  One of the keys to the Dark Agon Temple - a red oval gem surrounded by two rotating black rings - was in plain sight.  Nearby was a small amount of Phazon, not enough for Spike to easily consume, especially as it was outside any safe zone.

Nearby was also a glowing sphere of light.  Samus' scans revealed it to be a beacon, Luminoth tech that, when activated, created a temporary safe zone.  It was apparently designed after the war had strained Luminoth resources, and the Crystals that made the permanent Safe Zones could no longer be built.

Manipulating some Luminoth tech platforms, Samus and Spike were able to continue onward through the area.  In the next chamber, there was a large puddle of Phazon...and two full canisters.

"Mom...I have an idea," Spike said carefully.  "If it doesn't work, I'm going to need you to pull me back into the Safe Zone here as fast as you can."

"Keep your tail in range, then," Samus replied.  "No Grapple Beam, remember?"

Nodding, Spike grabbed the two canisters and hurled them against the large pool of Phazon on the floor and wall opposite, charging after them.  As the Phazon erupted and he entered the field of the explosion, Spike disengaged his suit's energy shields.

Samus flinched as she heard him roar in pain and the sizzle of Dark Aether's atmosphere on his scales...but both noises quickly faded.  When she could see clearly again, all the Phazon was gone, and Spike had changed.

The change wasn't as drastic as most of the ones he'd gone through.  His scales had changed to much darker shades of purple and green - contrasting much more vividly against the white and gold of his armor - and his teeth were a brighter white.  The white of his sclera had turned red, and the slitting of his pupils had become more pronounced.  The spines along his back were also slightly sharper.  "Spike?" she asked as his armor reactivated the energy shields.

"I'm okay," he replied.  "But...my energy's dropping a lot slower now."

Curious, Samus scanned Spike.



Adult Spike - Dark Mode
By absorbing Phazon mixed with Dark Aether's atmosphere, Spike has created a partial adaption to Dark Aether's atmosphere.  It appears Spike can shift back and forth between this mode and his normal state.  This adaption has reduced the energy drain on his shielding by 90%.  His high stamina allows him to function at the equivalent energy levels of your suit with maximum energy levels.(1)



Samus disengaged her scan.  "Well, that's going to be helpful," she murmured as they headed for the next chamber.  The explosion of Phazon had also killed the Warrior Ing that had been in the chamber with them, so they went unmolested.

As the path further on led to a narrow passage, the pair were forced to split up, Samus continuing forward and Spike trying to loop back around from the other side.





"Splitting up?" Rainbow asked worriedly.  "In a world of shadows, darkness, and poison filled with monsters made of living shadow, the whole thing looking straight out of a horror movie...and you split up?"

Samus and Spike glanced at each other.  "Well...when you put it that way..." Spike began.

"Sounds even more fun!" Samus replied eagerly.

Twilight chuckled.  "Something tells me you'd greet a zombie apocolypse as a fun challenge full of free targets."

Spike glanced towards Samus.  "So...does BSL count as that?"

Samus shrugged.  "Close enough."

"BSL?" Luna inquired.

"Our last mission before coming here," Samus explained.  "We won't say anymore, so put the sign down, Pinkie."

Pinkie giggled as she lowered her 'Spoilers' sign.





After a time, Samus found another Luminoth beam weapon system, this one designed to use Light Energy.  The generator issue the Dark Beam had was also present with the Light Beam, and her suit could no more generate Light Energy than Dark, so she was still forced to rely on ammunition.  However, she did discover that the use of one type of ammo to destroy an enemy would cause it to release energy of the other type, which her Arm Cannon could absorb to convert into ammunition.

Seeing that the chamber was open air, Samus figured Spike had taken the opportunity to explore from the sky, so she decided to go back to the chamber of the portal back to Aether to wait for him.

However, by the time she got to that chamber, she found Spike waiting for her where she had seen the Key before.  "Done exploring already?" she asked.

"It's a lot easier to explore this world flying," he replied.  "Much of Dark Agon is open air, although the Temple Grounds and Dark Temple are sealed by the Keys.  Speaking of..."  Opening a compartment in the chest plate of his armor, he set out three Keys - two red, one pale green - along with several expansions for Samus' Power Suit.  "Picked up some stuff for you while I was flying...but this key looks different."

Collecting all the pickups, Samus blinked.  "This one is a...Sky Temple Key," Samus explained.  "Apparently, it's one of nine to open the path to the Energy Controller in the central area of Dark Aether, equivalent to the Great Temple in Aether where U-Mos stands guard."

Spike blinked.  "Huh.  No wonder it was contained inside an Ing.  Speaking of, found out eating the Ing replenishes me like this nearly as efficiently as Phazon...though they don't taste very good."

Samus shrugged.  "Then don't eat too many of them," she instructed.  "If they don't taste good, they probably aren't good for you."





"They weren't," Spike murmured to the listening audience.

Everyone was silent for a time.  "Spike?" Samus asked.

"...I'll explain later..."









(1) This means that Spike's normal stamina is equivalent to Samus with all Energy Tanks.  Also, the damage reduction from the atmosphere for Spike in 'Dark Mode' is equivalent to Samus with the Dark Suit.
> Aether: Amorbis
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Spike?" Twilight asked worriedly.  "Is...is everything alright?"

Spike shrugged his shoulders.  "It's fine," he replied.  "I'd...rather not think about it just now."

"Then don't," Rarity spoke up quickly, nuzzling his shoulder.  "Would you rather take a break from the story now?"

"No," he replied quickly.  "I...I want to finish it.  I'd...rather get through to the end of Aether before we stop again, if we can."

"Well, your aerial reconnaissance in both worlds did make it one of our faster missions," Samus pointed out.  "We could probably manage it before sundown."

"Especially if Sunbutt gets so enthralled in the story she loses all track of time again," Discord teased.

Celestia blew a raspberry at the mischievous spirit, though she did make a mental check of her connection to the sun against the clock on the wall, just to be sure.

Chuckling, Samus continued the tale.





Returning to Aether through the nearby portal, the pair made their way back out of the Pirate Base, which was now much emptier.  However, they did encounter a few Metroids that had broken free due to the damage they had caused.  Thankfully, Samus' new Dark Beam - with enough shots - caused the same chilling effect that her Ice Beam used to.  Spike preferred to use his flame breath, as it was able to catch several Metroids in a single sweep before he ran out of breath.  Besides, he no longer had a need to eat everything in sight, though he did occasionally eat a nearby attacking creature to replenish his energy.(1)

Once outside the Pirate Base, the pair made their way back to the other primary portal to Dark Aether in Agon.  Passing through, they made their way to the one part of Dark Agon that Spike wasn't able to explore on his first flight there, the Dark Temple itself.

Once there, a side passage granted Samus access to the last Temple Key.  Bringing the three keys to the gate, they opened the path to the Dark version of the arena where Samus had reacquired her Morph Ball Bombs.  The area was one massive sand pit, with three Luminoth Crystals and three Beacons scattered around the outside at equal spacing, surrounding a massive black sphere with similarly colored...things wrapped around it.

Once Samus and Spike entered the sandpit, however, things quickly changed.  The things curled around the sphere turned out to be giant, greyish worms with three eyes and a massive mouth, and they seemed to be attached to the sphere.  Samus quickly scanned the creatures as they began to move, identifying them as Amorbis.  Her scans revealed the best way to fight them was to break their shells when they leapt out of the ground to attack her, and that they apparently drew energy from the sphere.

When she relayed that information to Spike, he took to the air.  At first, he tried attacking the sphere directly with his breath, claws, and mass, but this proved fruitless.  Also, it drew the attention of the Amorbis, making them attack him.  Thankfully, his breath was exceptionally effective against the Amorbis themselves, shattering their protective shells as he swept their long bodies with his intense beam.

Once it lost its shell, the first Amorbis attached itself to the sphere, becoming charged with Dark Energy.  A strange helm protrusion covered its head, which included focus points for dark energy based projectiles.  Samus did her best to dodge, while Spike stayed airborne, using his flame breath to break the helm.

After the helm broke, the Amorbis reared back in pain before going vertical, attempting to suck up enough matter to fix itself.  Getting an idea, Samus went into Morph Ball and allowed herself to be sucked in.  Planting several bombs inside the creature's mouth was enough to make it flail, spitting her back out and cracking the sphere.

Repeating this process a few times with all three Amorbis - and evading the Dark Energy lasers they unleashed when two or more of them were attached to the sphere - brought the creatures low.  The creatures dissolved into dust, and the sphere - taxed beyond its structural integrity - exploded in a flash of light.  Left behind was what Samus easily recognized as a suit upgrade for her, though it didn't show the usual signs of Chozo construction.  It more closely resembled what she'd seen of Luminoth tech...especially as it was generating a Safe Zone.  Samus purposefully walked forward and acquired it.

As the Luminoth tech fused with her Chozo Power Suit, the Safe Zone vanished...and she stood changed.   Her suit was now a dark brown with grey plates, red glowing dots scattered across the suit.  Her shoulder pauldrons were now flat circles, and her visor shield was a bright orange.

Her HUD gave her a status update.



Dark Suit Acquired.
This Luminoth tech power suit adaption has drastically reduced the amount of damage you take from Dark Aether's atmosphere, providing protection roughly equivalent to Spike's Dark Mode.  Defensive shielding has also increased in effectiveness.



"Well that's helpful," Samus commented dryly.  She and Spike then made their way to the Dark Aether Temple.

As it turned out, draining the energy into the Energy Transfer Module was quite straightforward, involving little more than Samus jamming her arm cannon into an appropriately shaped receptacle.  As a bonus, doing so also fully replenished her energy reserves.  Also, the storms above Dark Agon grew slightly worse.

Returning to Agon Temple, the pair found that restoring the energy was just as straightforward.  Apparently, the Luminoth tech was designed to take care of most of it on its own.  With the energy restored to the Energy Controller, it began to broadcast energy across Agon, calming the storms and beginning the process of revitalizing the landscape.  A beam of energy shot out from the Controller, connecting it to the one in the Grand Temple.

With their work in Agon done, the pair left the region to return to the Grand Temple and consult with U-Mos.









(1) I know some people have been complaining about the 'running gag' of Spike eating everything in sight...but it was supposed to be a parallel to Samus collecting energy and weapon pickups in the games.  So, if you played the game on 'Spike Mode', you would replenish health and ammo by eating creatures.
> Aether: Debriefing 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Samus and Spike each paused to take a drink while the listeners marveled at the description of the fight against Amorbis and the recovery of the energy.  Discord was the first to speak up.  "What would have happened if you tried to leave a region while the energy was still in the transfer module?"

"No idea," Samus replied.  "Didn't try it."

"Amorbis sounds fascinating," Twilight breathed.  "From the sound of it, it was a creature native to Dark Aether, but not an Ing.  It sounds like a fascinating ecosystem..."

"Pity it gets blown up then, huh?" Rainbow asked.

"What?" Pinkie demanded.  "How do you know the story ahead of time?  That's my schtick!"

Rainbow smirked.  "Weren't you listening, Pinkie?  The Luminoth's plan was to take all the planetary energy back, because without it Dark Aether would cease to exist.  Samus isn't possessed by an Ing, so that means she succeeded in that mission, so Dark Aether went boom."

"I guess that's not much of a spoiler," Spike admitted.

"Verily," Luna agreed.  "Besides, the story of how is still quite enthralling, even if we know where 'tis going."

Taking the hint with a chuckle, Samus continued the tale.





Once back in Temple Grounds, Spike once more took to the air.  "Gonna see what else I can find for you," he replied.  "Might find something useful, especially if I duck between Light Aether and Dark Aether."

"How are you going to open Dark Aether portals?" Samus asked.  "You don't have a Dark Beam.  Not only that, I don't think your fire breath is close enough to Light Energy to activate the portals back."

Spike smirked.  "I did a deep scan on my Dark Mode," he explained.  "While I can't weaponize it, I generate Dark Energy when I enter Dark Mode, and Light Energy when I change back.  It won't damage any enemies, but it will be enough to activate portals back and forth if I've got a claw against the rift as I shift."

Samus managed a smile.  "Alright.  Have fun, and be careful."

As Samus reached the Great Temple, Spike caught up to her.  "Found quite a bit," he stated.  "Took a brief check back in Agon to see if we missed anything."  Opening the front compartment of his armor plate, he poured out numerous expansions - including a Beam Ammo expansion - and two charge combos for her arm cannon.  They were the Sunburst and Darkburst, for the Light and Dark Beam respectively, both of which creating a slow moving burst of highly charged elemental energy.

"Very nice," Samus mused as she equipped everything to her suit.  "Lets go see U-Mos."

Back at the Great Temple energy controller, U-Mos was quite pleased to see them.  "I thank you both for restoring energy to the Agon Temple," he said softly, speaking slightly accented Galactic Standard for Spike's benefit, since he wasn't as fluent in Chozo as Samus was.  "Your valor honors the Luminoth...those who have passed, and those who await a world safe to awaken in.  And it seems you have gathered some of our warriors' equipment, which has aided you in your quest."  He turned to Spike.  "And you, young dragon, have found a way to adapt to Dark Aether most excellently.  The adaptability of dragons is always a marvel."

Samus nodded her head.  "It's only the beginning, U-Mos," she replied.  "I intend to repay my debt.  I won't rest until Aether is safe, and the Ing are no more."

Spike chuckled.  "This is certainly going to be a fun journey," he added.

"Be on guard," U-Mos warned.  "The Ing do not suffer defeat lightly, and they will seek revenge against you.  And young dragon...guard your emotions, especially those of the beast inside you.  The darker your thoughts, the more easily the Ing can slip past your defenses.  Your mind is strong, strong enough to fight off such possession...but do not be reckless."

Spike frowned, lowering his eyes.  Samus turned towards him in concern, but U-Mos continued his speech.

"With the energy gone from the desert region, they will increase their efforts in other lands," U-Mos explained.  "From what I have detected, they are actively moving to reinforce the Torvus region.  I believe it would be to your advantage to go there next, whilst their forces are still in disarray."  U-Mos then turned to Spike.  "The swamplands of Torvus in Aether are treacherous, and will hinder your mother's progress.  You are already adapted for aquatic movement.  Support each other as best you both can.  But beware the Dark Waters of the shadow world...your armor will provide no protection against it, and you are not adapted to that world enough to survive it."

Spike nodded in understanding.  "I'll be careful," Spike promised.  "I don't intend to die here after Mom promised so much to keep me alive."

U-Mos nodded acknowledgement.  "Seek the Temple of Torvus.  More knowledge awaits you there."  He then raised his arms ceremonially.  "May the Light of Aether serve you well."

Nodding acknowledgement to his words, Samus and Spike headed for Torvus Bog.

Once out of the Grand Temple, Spike smiled.  "I've already plotted out the path to the Torvus Bog transport," he pointed out.  "Follow my lead."  He promptly took to the air.

While Spike's aerial path was straightforward, Samus was forced to duck back and forth between Aether and Dark Aether a few times through conveniently placed rifts.  Spike took care of the possessed pirates that lined part of the path: an aerial blast of flame breath took them down in a single hit once they were possessed.

With that, the pair entered Torvus Bog.
> Aether: Exploring Torvus
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So what was this Torvus Bog like?" Discord asked.  "From the sound of it, it would be full of all sorts of interesting creatures..."

"Really?" Fluttershy gasped eagerly.  "What were they like?  Were they cute and fuzzy?  Oh!  Or were they covered with defensive spikes with a huge grin of razor sharp teeth?"

"And based on Spike's past behavior, how did they taste?" Pinkie asked eagerly, making Fluttershy whimper.

Spike managed a chuckle.  "To be fair, the only creatures in the bog I managed to eat were the high end predators that were trying to eat me," he explained.  "Most of the rest exploded if they took too much damage."

"Didn't stop ya on the Puffers," Applejack joked.

Spike rolled his eyes.  "These were mobile plantforms.  In fact, most of the enemies we faced were mobile plants, carnivorous or just spreading their seeds."

"Then why did you have to-"

"They were trying to plant those seeds in us, Fluttershy," Samus pointed out.

On that note, Samus and Spike continued their retelling.





The first thing the pair discovered upon entering Torvus Bog was just how wet it was.  It was understandable that a place called a bog would be rather swamp-like, but the pools of water tended towards being just deep enough to bog Samus down while being too shallow for Spike to swim freely in.  All in all, very frustrating to slog through for both of them.

After making it to the first area open enough for Spike to do so, he took flight, exploring the entire area of the swamp from above.  Rather than keep moving, Samus decided to wait for his return.  She didn't have to wait long.  In addition to giving her several missile and shield energy expansions he had found, he also gave her several expansions that would allow her to carry more Power Bombs...just as soon as she recovered the capacity to use them.

The first few new enemies they encountered were plant based: Shredders, large seed pods that flew towards them and burst to scatter seeds; and Shriekers, flying plant predators that used hyper-sonic waves to both cloak themselves and attack from range.  Thankfully, as plants, both were exceptionally vulnerable to Spike's flame breath.

They each made their own way further into the Bog at various points - Spike flying over, while Samus went under, various obstacles - until they reached another wide open area.  At that point, they came across a new hostile animal: a predator called a Grenchler.

Grenchlers had a low slung, bipedal body with thickly muscled legs, a short body, a heavily armored face with a wide mouth and horn, and a thick tail connected to a shell on its back.  While normally this wouldn't prove much of a threat, three things made them quite frustrating to Samus.  First, they were amphibious, able to swim in the water as easily as run on land, giving them a distinct advantage.  Second, they could fire bolts of electricity from their horns.  And finally, they never hunted in groups smaller than two.

Their only real weak point was the shell on its back, which revealed a nerve cluster when broken.  This provided the primary strategy Samus and Spike used when dealing with the Grenchlers.  Parting, the pair moved to the far sides of the chamber, forcing the Grenchlers to focus on one or the other of them.  Each of them then locked onto whichever Grenchler had its back to them, destroying the shells.  As the Granchlers instinctively spun to face any new attack, Samus and Spike could switch to each others targets easily and keep up a near continuous stream of fire.

One of the Grenchlers, however, Spike took down one on one, ripping the armor off its upper body and diving in with his teeth, predator vs predator.  Samus chuckled when she saw it.  "So how does it taste?" she asked, noticing him eating eagerly to replenish his strength.

He smiled up at her.  "A bit like crocodile...with a dash of swordfish and a touch of frog," he replied.  "Rather tasty."





"Really?" Rainbow asked.  "You fed him crocodile and swordfish?  From what I learned from griffons, those are pretty high end meats.  Or is it different out in space?"

"No, they're pretty high end even in space," Samus replied.  "At least, if you're getting the real stuff.  That was from when I was trying to coax him out of the ship after our...rather abortive picnic."

Several of the mares - Twilight, Celestia, and Fluttershy especially - ah'd in understanding, nodding their agreement with the approach.  Each had their own experience of using a preferred foodstuff to coax a recalcitrant youngster into something they didn't want to do.  Twilight had lost count of the number of times she'd encouraged Spike with the promise of a particular gem.  Fluttershy had dealt with Angel in much the same way...to some extent.  And Celestia had done so more times than she could count...though the most recent fond memory of such things had involved a particular book rather than a particular food.

Samus smiled, glad to see she didn't need to explain further.  The less Spike was reminded of that, the better, as far as she was concerned.  "At any rate...after that, we had to step into Dark Torvus for a bit..."

"And Spike promptly went upgrade hunting?" Scootaloo piped up.

Spike chuckled.  "Yup."





Once in Dark Aether, Samus decided to stay by the Portal and the safe zone it generated while she waited for Spike to return.  Doing so meant it was less likely the local wildlife, the Ing, or anything else would notice her presence.  While she waited, she scanned about, checking to see if there was anything threatening.  Discovering that it was mostly quiet, she made a quick run to trigger a Bomb Slot to rotate a bridge - which also rotated the same bridge in Aether - before rushing back to the portal.

Spike returned around that time, with all the above-ground map data of Dark Torvus, the location of the Dark Temple, and several upgrades for Samus, including a Beam Ammo expansion.

Back in Aether, they were attacked by Pirate Commandos possessed by Hunter Ing.  In addition to the heavy artillery and armor of the commandos - EMP grenades, high energy projectiles, and hand held shield generators - these Dark Commandos also retained the Hunter Ing's ability to faze out of regular space, making them difficult to track, much as the Chozo Ghosts had been.  They could also fire concentrated bursts of Dark Energy, which clung to Samus and Spike to deal caustic damage.  Thankfully, much like with the Chozo Ghosts, Spike's predatory instincts allowed him to sense the danger they possessed, allowing both himself and Samus to lock onto the Commando's new location as they were fazing in, which prevented them from getting in as many sneak attacks as they might have.

Unfortunately, they attacked in pairs, and Spike's instincts only alerted him to whichever was closest and ready to attack.  Both Spike and Samus took a few hits, but overall the battle wasn't as difficult as it could have been.

Shortly thereafter, they entered the Torvus Temple Grounds.  Numerous Pirates showed up to attack them on skiffs, as well as some Aeropirates.  Unfortunately for the Pirates, they all went down quickly.  With them down, the shields blocking an elevator dropped, giving Samus access to the Super Missile Charge Combo.

With that complete, the pair made their way through to the Torvus Temple.
> Interlude: Pirate Logs
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Samus and Spike paused in their story to take a drink, Twilight was the first to speak up.  "Before you continue, I was wondering something."  Once she had Samus' attention, she continued.  "You mentioned gathering data from Space Pirate computer logs.  What sort of things did that data cover?"

Samus shrugged.  "Any number of things.  The progress of various objectives, rules and regulations regarding a specific activity, the behavior of their higher ups, observations of wildlife...  Most commonly, anything considered a threat to the Space Pirate mission."

"I bet that means there were a lot about you, weren't there?" Rainbow asked with a chuckle.

Samus shrugged.  "I did manage to be quite a threat, I admit."

"Did they talk about Spike as well?" Rarity asked curiously.

"Nearly as much as me, actually," Samus replied.

"Can...can we read them?" Twilight asked eagerly.

Smiling, Samus tapped out a sequence on the data pad Spike had brought with him.  "I've got them all in chronological order here, though the Pirate dating system doesn't really make very much sense.  But I was able to put them in some sort of order based on content."

Everyone present crowded around the data pad to look at the entries.



	An unusual creature has been spotted on Tallon IV.  All signs point to it not being native.  However, we did not bring it with us.  It appears to be a predator based on its behavior, as it was witnessed in several locations attempting to eat things, generally with negative results for the creature.  However, it took no damage from biting a Sap Sac and being blasted across a cave, despite the Sac being larger than it.

While at first merely a curiosity, the creature stumbled across two Phazon canisters.  It was witnessed devouring the contents of one, growing rapidly as it did so.  Unlike every other creature exposed to the material - including our own soldiers - it showed no negative side effects of mutation.  As best our scientists are able to determine from second hand accounts, the Phazon acted as a growth accelerator, enhancing natural development.

All Pirates are to keep an eye out for this creature.  If it can be tamed, it will be an excellent addition to our forces.  If it can be cloned, our Phazon research will possibly create an army of unstoppable killing machines, depending on how far Phazon can make the creature grow.



"Unstoppable killing machines?" Twilight despaired, looking up at Spike worriedly.

"Well, if you take away everything that makes him such a nice guy, I'd say that's pretty accurate for how he is now," Rainbow pointed out, deciding - for whatever reason - to sit on Spike's head.

"He's certainly impressive, isn't he?" Rarity agreed, fluttering her eyelashes at Spike.  The dragon blushed, scratching at his chin, not entirely sure how to respond.

"But...but Spike's not a monster like that!" Twilight whimpered.

"Course he ain't, Twi," Applejack pointed out.  "It's like Rainbow said.  Physically, Spike is pretty close to unstoppable by our standards now, and he would'na let nothin' stop him if'n his friends and family were in danger."  She chuckled.  "Ah shudder ta imagine what he'd do ta anything that tried ta hurt any o' us now, just rememberin' how protective he used to get when he was a wee lil' guy."

Rainbow Dash glanced away, blushing a bit, glad she already had her wings extended to balance on Spike's head.

"The Space Pirates don't think of other creatures as creatures," Samus explained.  "They see all that lives as resources, tools, or obstacles...even their own numbers.  For the Space Pirates, referring to something as an unstoppable killing machine is the highest compliment their mindset can give."

"Those poor crawdad people..." Fluttershy whimpered softly.

Discord stared at her.  "You...you actually feel sorry for these Space Pirates?"

"It's not their fault their lives are so bleak that all they know is conquest," Fluttershy pointed out.  "Not on an individual basis, anyway.  If they had a leader that respected friendship and individuality, maybe they wouldn't have turned out so bad..."

As many stared at Fluttershy in disbelief, Celestia smirked at Luna and Discord.  "And that's why I picked her to rehabilitate Discord," she pointed out smugly.

As Luna blew a raspberry at her sister, Discord chuckled.  "Because she would see and find the good in even someone like me?" he asked.  "Touche, Princess.  Touche."  He tousled Fluttershy's mane affectionately, making her giggle.  He then stared in consternation as her mane landed naturally in its perfect arrangement as it always was, making Rarity turn a little green with envy.

"Next entry!" Pinkie called out eagerly, as she and the CMC were the only ones still gathered around the data pad.



	The reptilian creature shows remarkable adaptive capabilities.  It has been seen to breathe fire, climb walls, swim faster than an Aqua Trooper's hydropack, and break our hardest metals in its bare hands.  Magma gives the creature no harm, and it consumes everything in its path.

Scientists have determined that it is a nymph form of a creature similar to Lord Ridley.  However, given the capabilities it has shown so far, and the amount of Phazon and other things it consumes to build and maintain its strength, projections indicate that it will surpass Lord Ridley's current abilities by a wide margin once it reaches adulthood.

Once this was reported to Space Pirate High Command, the directive came down.  This data is not to reach Lord Ridley.  The subject is to be captured if possible, to be trained to serve the Space Pirate Empire.  If this is successful, Lord Ridley may prove obsolete.



"Wait!" Spike snapped out, hearing that part.  "They...they wanted to replace Ridley with me?"

"Apparently," Samus replied.  "Something tells me Ridley would have been very unhappy when he heard about that."

"Maybe that's why he was so aggressive with me back on Zebes when we went there the second time," Spike mused thoughtfully.

Giggling, Pinkie brought up the next entry.



	The creature serves the Hunter!

The creature began putting out a massive amount of energy, drawing our troops from all across the planet to investigate.  When they arrived, they found the creature in a comatose state as it underwent metamorphosis, an ideal time to capture and contain it.  However, when our troops moved in, the Hunter stood in their way and attacked with intense ferocity.  Always before when attacked by such large amounts of forces, the Hunter would focus on a mobile strategy, evading fire while firing back.  This time, however, she remained steadfast between our troops and the creature.

Realizing this, we seized on the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: eliminate the Hunter and acquire the creature.  We sent in our newest troops, who utilized reverse engineered weapons that the Hunter had used against us.  The Hunter's equipment was limited, and the Plasma Trooper should have been able to finish her off...

The Plasma Trooper's log was recovered.  The creature awoke and slew the Trooper, and then obeyed the Hunter's directives.  With the creature at her side, the Hunter's threat has now exceeded SSS level.  Directive to capture the creature remains, however.



Scootaloo whistled in appreciation.  "They were certainly scared of you two," she stated, beaming up at Samus and Spike.

"With good reason!" Spike preened.

Sweetie Belle eagerly called up the next entry.



	Lord Ridley has fallen!

Projections have proven accurate.  Once the creature gained wings and the ability to fly, it engaged Lord Ridley in the air.  While they seemed evenly matched, the other dragon eventually proved the mightier.

Lord Ridley was recovered, and has demanded many augmentations to make himself superior in midair combat for next time he faces the dragon.  These augmentations will take some time to complete.



"Well, they certainly have a one track mind," Apple Bloom pointed out.

"Say Scootaloo, did you ever check to see if you got a flying Cutie Mark?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Gasping, Scootaloo spun in the air to check her flank.  "...nuts," she pouted, staring at her still blank flank.

"No Dragon Riding Cutie Marks for us, either," Sweetie Belle pouted, checking her own and Apple Bloom's flanks.

Several of the mares giggled at their antics.  Luna reached forward and called up the last Pirate Log entry on Spike.



	The Hunter's Dragon is not invincible.  It has been seen to take serious harm from acid, high intensity Phazon radiation, and the atmosphere of the dark shadow of Aether.  Investigation is underway as to why these particular hazards threaten the creature, and - should we be able to capture it - how they might be used to tame it, and then circumvented once we have a cloned army of it.



"Yes," Samus told the Crusaders as she closed the data pad.  "The Space Pirates have a very one track mind..."
> Aether: Power in Torvus
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After a time of discussion of the logbook entries, Spike and Samus were convinced to continue their story.

"Well, you can probably guess how things went in the Torvus Temple," Samus began.

"Holographic message from dead Torvus Sentinel," Rainbow Dash guessed.

"Lecture about the dangers of Torvus and Dark Torvus," Scootaloo added.

"New translator patch to let you access paths blocked by the next color of holograms," Twilight offered.  At Rainbow and Scootaloo's surprised looks, she shrugged.  "What?  I play video games sometimes, too."

"Warnings that most of the Temple was underwater due to the ravages of the war?" Celestia asked, smirking at Twilight.

"Discussion of new Ing types you hadn't encountered, how many of the creatures of Aether had been brought to Dark Aether while possessed, making them even more dangerous, and about how water on Dark Aether would be especially dangerous, to the point that you were warned to not even touch it?" Luna concluded.  At the stares the others gave her, she stuck her tongue out at Rainbow and Scootaloo.

Samus blinked in shock.  "...I was being facetious about you guessing...but apparently you can," she replied.  "That's...pretty much exactly what happened.  In that case, we might as well cut straight to where we went from there..."  Despite Spike's laughter, Samus began her tale anew.





Opening new paths with the translator program, Samus and Spike began exploring more of Torvus.  When they encountered a Grenchler in an enclosed tunnel, Samus at first worried that it would prove difficult to surround it.  However, the enclosed space proved more problematic for the Grenchler, as it was unable to avoid Spike's charge.  Pinned to a wall, it was only so much meat to the hungry dragon.

In a wide open chamber, they came across three canisters of Phazon left under a tall tree, its roots branching to three points around where the Phazon was sitting, with the tree itself directly above it.

"Well if that isn't an obvious trap for me," Spike grumbled.

"How so?" Samus asked calmly.  She saw it too, but she wanted to see how Spike's tactical mind had developed.

"Completely open chamber, so I can be attacked from any direction," Spike explained.  "The three roots provide perfect cover for attacking Pirates to shoot at me from.  The tree itself would prevent me from taking off.  And to top it all off, the high walls all around us provide perfect points to attack from."

Samus nodded proudly.  "Very good.  Excellent analysis of the situation.  Now, what are you going to do about it?"

"Walk right into it," Spike replied.

"...what?"

"I'm going to walk right into it like I'm a big dumb animal," Spike explained.  "Since I'm expecting them, I'll catch them off guard."

"And do you have any idea what you'll end up fighting?  What force they'll bring to bear?  Or how much?" Samus demanded.

"Won't matter," Spike replied as he walked right in, looking right at the Phazon canisters, letting himself drool for added effect.  He paused over the Phazon canisters, drooling as he reared up as though ready to chow down.

Samus was caught off guard as a dozen Space Pirate Commandos - fully armed and armored, ready to take on a dragon - charged down from their cover up above, surrounding Spike and ready to take him down fast and hard.  She leveled her arm cannon, but knew she wouldn't stand a chance against this many this focused.

Before she could even blink, Spike exhaled a blast of flame straight into the three canisters, causing them to explode.  The explosion ripped through the Commandos' armor, incinerating them.  Spike stood in the center of the blast zone as the light faded, unscathed.

"My body absorbs the Phazon energy released when Phazon under pressure, like in canisters, explodes," Spike explained.  He then grinned widely.  "Theirs don't."

Samus smirked under her helmet, flashing Spike a thumbs up.





The gathered audience applauded their appreciation of the tactic.  "Excellently planned and executed, Spike," Luna called out.  "Huzzah!"

Spike chuckled.  "Well, that was a nice victory.  Pity the next part didn't go as well."

"Oh?" Celestia asked curiously.

"After that we went into Dark Aether...and Mom went up against the Boost Guardian."

"Only Samus?" Twilight asked.  "Why didn't you help?"

"I couldn't," Spike explained.  "The area she fought it in was a confined space, the only entry a passage too narrow for me.  Even when I found it outside, I couldn't get in.  It was too sturdy for me to break through."

"Wait, that was you?" Samus asked in surprise.  "Thanks.  It made the fight a whole lot easier."

"How do you mean?" Spike asked.

Samus grinned.  "Well..."





This trip through Dark Aether had been a pain for Samus.  Not only were the Hunter Ing even harder to kill than the Dark Pirate Commandos - even knowing where they were at all times didn't help locking on, especially when they tended to faze out when she looked at them funny - Dark Aether's water proved intensely damaging just to touch.  And then the only readily available path had forced Spike to withdraw and catch up by air due to a morph ball tunnel with pockets of Dark Water in the ground around it, keeping Spike from just digging his way through the soft earth.

And to top it off was the Boost Guardian.  While at first it just seemed like a stronger Warrior Ing, similar to the Jump Guardian, it soon proved how different it was when it started using the stolen technology in ball form.  Not only did the ball form make it a much harder target to hit, it deflected all damage while boosting - which it did constantly - and she was only able to break it out of ball form by placing bombs that would go off right as it came out of a boost but before it started a new one.

By the time her HUD showed it was half dead, her suit energy was almost fully depleted.  Even with all the extra ammo and energy Spike had gathered for her, she was almost beaten.  She'd gotten a bit too used to always having Spike at her back.  She made a mental note to incorporate one on one combat practice between her and Spike so she could regain her edge.

Assuming I survive this, she thought silently as the Ing charged up another Boost.

Right at that moment, the entire structure of the battle chamber shook, and several lower sections of the roof cracked off and fell.  Samus swerved in shock, staring at what had happened.  Several chunks fell around the Guardian, causing it to lose its boost momentum.  Several more chunks fell when the chamber shook again, causing the entire floor of the room to become uneven with broken rock.

The Guardian attempted to boost again, but it lost all momentum over the uneven ground, leaving it wide open to a barrage of Light Beam shots.  It wasn't long at all before it fell, and Samus was able to reacquire her Boost Ball.





"Your shaking the chamber by slamming into it from above saved my bacon there, Spike," Samus explained.

Spike chuckled.  "Heh, guess we're a good team even when we don't know it."

Everyone around smiled, seeing how supportive of each other the pair were...though Twilight's smile was just a bit sad.
> Aether: Torvus Temple
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So after besting the Boost Guardian," Samus continued, "we went to explore the one other area of Torvus opened by the new translator program...the underground - and underwater - sections of Torvus Temple."

"Bet Spike was a huge help with that, given his swimming abilities," Rainbow pointed out.

"Indeed he was," Samus replied.  "Managed to make quite a bit go smoother."





In the lower sections of the Temple, the water filled most of the area they needed to explore, making movement exceptionally difficult for Samus.  Spike, on the other hand, was finally able to swim freely, making him especially effective both in maneuvering and in battle with Blogg - large eel like swimmers, heavily armored, with ram shaped heads and the ability to fire sonic bursts.  Spike's strategy was to wrap himself around the Blogg, grab its face, yank its mouth open, and then use what he could of his flame breath to superheat the water in the Blogg's mouth, cooking its interior flesh, before ripping it apart and eating it.  He stated that the Blogg had a mild taste, like various white fish.

There were also three switches that would open a lower level of the Temple, but Samus was only able to reach one to activate it, as none of them could be activated from the center of the underwater segment, and she was only able to reach one directly with her limited aquatic movement.  Looking at her map, she began to plot a course involving her taking the one path she could reach with her limited movement and looping around to the two switches from the doors that opened onto their platforms.  While she did that, Spike swam around the chamber and activated the other two switches, causing the central platform to raise up, opening a gate for them into the lower depths of the Temple.

The path deeper into the Temple led down the outside of two large cylinders, and Samus was able to scan an Alpha Blogg - a much larger version of the Blogg - through the screens separating the center of the cylinder and the outside path.  Noticing a portal out of reach for Samus without water maneuverability, Spike swam up and went through it, collecting the last of the Torvus Temple Keys, having collected the other two during his first aerial survey of Dark Torvus.  As the other two paths of the Dark Torvus side of the portal were sealed and could only be opened with Power Bombs, he went back through to rejoin Samus.

In the innermost chamber of the Temple, Samus found the Gravity Boost, an airpack attached to the back of her suit that enabled her to move through the water as easily as on ground, as well as letting her glide through the water for a distance after her second jump.  On the way back out, however, the Alpha Blogg burst into the chamber and attacked.

Spike and Samus worked as a team in the water.  While Spike couldn't attack directly like he had on the Bloggs due to how big the Alpha was, he was able to draw attention, keeping it distracted long enough for Samus to get a good shot angle to slam its sensitive mouth tissues with Super Missiles.  Five Super Missiles later, the Alpha Blogg was dead.

After that, the path back up into the Temple became available...but Spike paused, glancing elsewhere in the chamber.  "What's up, Spike?" Samus asked.

"There's a portal up there," he murmured.

Following his gaze, Samus examined the indicated area.  "...can't get up there until I recover the Spider Ball," she pointed out.

"I can," Spike indicated, swimming upward.  "I'll be right back."  With that, he went through the portal.

About 20 minutes later, Spike returned.  "Got something for you!" Spike said happily.  Opening the chest compartment of his armor, he handed Samus her suit's Power Bomb Generator.  "The Power Bomb Guardian was on the other side.  I dealt with it."

"Nicely done," Samus commented, equipping the tech.  She then noticed something else fall out of his compartment.  "And this?"

Spike looked away.  "...Seeker Missile upgrade," he murmured.  "Found it when I overflew the Temple Grounds."

"And you didn't give it to me because...?" Samus led.

"...I was hoping I could somehow equip it to my armor so I could have missiles too," he murmured shamefacedly.

Chuckling, Samus equipped the Seeker Missiles.  "We'll look into that for you when we finish up here on Aether, alright?"  Turning, she led the way back upward.





"Hang on a minute!" Scootaloo called out.  "What about Spike's fight with the Power Bomb Guardian?  I wanna know how that went!"

Nods around the table indicated she wasn't the only one.  Chuckling, Spike scratched the back of his head.  "Alright.  Let me tell you how it went.  See, the Power Bomb Guardian was a Ing possessed Dark Aether Sporb, a plant based creature that could launch various projectiles.  In this case, Power Bombs.  My scans indicated that the exterior of the creature was impervious to everything except heavy kinetic damage.  Now, there was a heavy weight above it that, if dropped, would have crushed it, but I had a better idea.  See, my scans indicated that its base - against the platform - wasn't so indestructible..."





Spike raced up the wall and across the ceiling, getting into position where he could attack.  As the Guardian launched one of its Power Bombs, he acted.  He knew the explosive could tear through his armor and scales easily, so he had to act quick.  Grabbing hold of the projectile midair, he forced it between the creature's base and the platform before kicking back into the air.  Flipping around, he fired off an intense blast of flame, setting off the bomb.  The explosion lifted the giant Sporb up, exposing its base.  Spike's continuous blast of flame scorched the Guardian to cinders from the bottom up.





"Dude!" Rainbow shouted excitedly.  "That was awesome!"

"That's really how ya beat it?" Apple Bloom asked in awe.

Spike smiled widely...perhaps just a bit too widely as his mind turned back.





	"Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!"

Spike raced around the chamber in terror, the Guardian launching Power Bombs to try and destroy him.  He managed to keep just ahead of the bombs as he raced along floor, walls, and ceiling, desperate to escape death.

Over the course of the next 20 minutes, the Power Bombs launched after him happened to land in the four Bomb Slots scattered around the room, resulting in the central weight crushing the Guardian.

Staring at what had happened, Spike buffed his claws against his chest plate.  "...maybe I shouldn't tell anyone exactly how I won here..."





"Yes, Apple Bloom," Spike finally replied.  "That's exactly how I beat that Guardian."
> Aether: Dark Torvus Temple
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Spike made a point of not meeting Applejack's eyes as he continued telling the story.  The way she kept smirking at him after he told the story of how he bested the Power Bomb Guardian made him uneasy, and he kept feeling like if he met her gaze too long he'd be forced to confess what really happened.  While he wasn't ashamed of how he'd behaved - Power Bombs were deadly, after all - the worshipful gazes the Crusaders and Rainbow had been giving him after that tale felt nice, and he didn't want to lose that.

"After that, we decided to explore the rest of the Dark Torvus Temple area," Spike explained.  "While we did have all the keys we needed to access the path to the Energy Controller..."

"My scans indicated more of my missing tech, and we didn't want to leave without it," Samus finished.  "And the Guardian...well, let's just say I'd have been in major trouble if I hadn't had Spike with me..."





Exploring the Temple, Samus and Spike found a new path back into Dark Torvus, where they encountered some Ing possessed Grenchlers.  While they were even tougher than normal, they retained the same weaknesses...although the Ing possession made the Dark Grenchlers smart enough to try and keep their backs to the wall while fighting with their electrical discharges.  Unfortunately for them, Spike found that going over the ceiling and attacking them from above worked quite well for damaging the shell on their back ends, and the Ing could not override the instinctive spin to face the new threat, leaving Samus free to shoot them.

After checking the other exits to the room, the pair split up, taking two separate paths to the room where Samus had picked up the Guardian.  Samus went around the outside circle of the Temple chambers, and Spike went direct through the middle.  The plan was to come at the Guardian from two directions...but both paths went through the center of the Temple anyway.

Finally, they came across the Grapple Guardian, a Darkling Alpha Grenchler that had enhanced its electrical discharge with the energies of the Grapple Beam.  It patrolled a large dynamo area, with two safe zones generated, one at either end of the room.

Samus couldn't help but grin.  Had she been alone, she would have been forced to dance around from one area to the other, conserving energy while trying to wear it down, hoping it would latch itself to the dynamos to hold it in place.  While not necessarily difficult, it would have been frustrating.

With Spike at her side, however, they had a much easier time.  Positioning themselves in either safe zone, they each continued to take pot shots at the back shell or the eye, whichever weak point was towards them.  Unable to meet the two pronged attack, and with the rage of the bestial mind too much for the Ing to control, the beast went down quickly, and Samus was able to reacquire her Grapple Beam.





"You two make quite a team in combat, don't you?" Celestia observed.

"We know each other quite well," Samus replied casually, "so we can work off each other pretty easily.  That, and most of the monsters we come up against aren't good at multi-pronged defense."

Luna chuckled.  "Remembering old times, Tia?" she asked archly.

"And you don't like remembering them?" Celestia teased back.

"I do not deny it," Luna replied aloofly.  "However, unlike thee, dear sister, our royal plot still fits in our old battle armor.  Perhaps a tad less cake for thee?"

"Oh hush, you," Celestia scolded as Luna smirked, Twilight looked embarrassed, Rarity looked scandalized, and everyone else present - Discord included - laughed with varying degrees of merriment.

"At any rate," Samus continued with a smile once the laughter had died down, "with the grapple beam once more in hand, we were ready to take on the Guardian of Dark Torvus Temple...the Chykka.  And boy, was that fight complicated..."





Samus and Spike stood on the central platform as the three keys embedded themselves in their respective locks.  They both glanced around nervously as the chamber began to fill with dark water, but the platform they stood on rose above the water, connecting to a much larger circular platform, big enough for them both to move around on as it floated on a sea of dark water, covered in a safe zone generated by three Luminoth Crystals.  A large cocoon was affixed to one wall.

Using her Seeker Missile, Samus locked onto the supports holding the cocoon out of the water and eradicated them, dumping the cocoon.  When the two halves floated up out of the water, she and Spike braced themselves for combat.  Neither of them expected the giant whale-like larva that leapt out of the water to attack them.

Scans indicated that the Chykka Larva was vulnerable in its mouth and underbelly, and the pair worked to take it down.  Samus focused on attacking its mouth when it went after her on the platform, while Spike took to the air.  When it leapt into the air to attack Spike, he dove, rolled over in the air, and let loose with his flame breath, scorching its belly.

It wasn't long before the Chykka larva sunk beneath the waters.  However, that wasn't the end.  As the central platform split into three smaller, less stable ones that floated away from each other, creating three smaller safe zones, the dark water receded to reveal a new cocoon.  When it burst open, the Chykka arose in its adult form, now looking like a giant dragonfly/mosquito hybrid somewhat larger than Spike.  Spike, of course, decided to attack it from the air.

Unfortunately for the Chykka, it was its first time fighting an aerial opponent.  It wasn't Spike's.  Spike quickly flew around the Chykka several times in tight circles until it got disoriented trying to track him.  Once it was dizzy, he lunged in on its back, tearing its wings out by the roots with his claws and making it crash down on one of the platforms.  A combined assault of flames, claws, teeth, and blasts from Samus left the Chykka in pieces.

Samus was rather surprised to find a piece of Luminoth tech inside the Chykka's stomach.  The Dark Vizor would prove invaluable in dealing with enemies and obstacles that were slightly outside the real world, a rather common occurrence on Aether.





"And after that, we went to get the energy from the Dark Torvus Energy Controller-"

"So what did the Chykka taste like?" Pinkie demanded, interrupting Samus.

Chuckling, Spike replied, "Crunchy and tart."

"And then you did the same thing you did with the energy from the Dark Agon Controller?" Rainbow asked.

Samus nodded.  "Yup.  And after that, we headed back to talk with U-Mos again..."
> Aether: To the Sanctuary
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So...if I understood what you were talking about earlier right," Twilight began, "there's only one more major area of Aether you haven't told us about yet, right?"

"That's right," Samus agreed.  "The last area we needed to retrieve all the planetary energy for was the Sanctuary Fortress region.  U-Mos had quite a bit to say about that..."





Returning to the Grand Temple, Samus and Spike saw that energy now streamed between it and Torvus Temple, showing their progress in that regard.  U-Mos was staring up at it in awe.  "The Temple of Torvus glows with energy once more," he marveled.  "Only one temple remains without the Light of Aether."  Turning to face Samus and Spike, he began to explain.  "You must travel to our fortress, high in the cliffs."  He showed a holographic image of the area in question.  "You should seek knowledge within the temple itself before attempting to invade the Ing Hive, the shadowy reflection of our Sanctuary."

"Sounds like a plan," Spike agreed.

"What will we have to face in there?" Samus asked.

U-Mos sighed as he called up an image of a quadrapedal mech unit.  "The Fortress is guarded by machines of our creation.  Once, they were our allies...but the Ing now command them.  They will attack you on sight."

"That'll be interesting," Spike murmured.

"Pretty sure machines aren't edible, even for you," Samus teased.

"Which means I'll need to be careful about how many hits I take," Spike pointed out.  "I won't be able to restore myself by eating, like I have elsewhere."

"Do not lose hope," U-Mos encouraged.  "Our goal draws ever closer.  May the Light of Aether be your guide."

Nodding, Spike and Samus turned, making their way to the Sanctuary Fortress.

The Fortress itself was as astounding as the image had made it out to be.  The full extent of Luminoth tech was on display, showing just how advanced the civilization really was.  The entire place was automated, tending to itself without any observation.  And the actual Fortress was suspended atop a massive rock pillar, connected to the rest of the mountains only by a narrow bridge.

However, there was one thing Spike noticed right off the bat.  The majority of the Fortress was internally contained.  There was very little of it open to the air, which would make maneuvering for him somewhat difficult.

Halfway across the bridge, the pair were attacked by several Pirate Commandos.  While Samus focused on charging across the bridge to get a better attack angle, Spike leapt off it, taking to the air for combat.  The two pronged attack proved too much for the pirates, who were too used to being able to outnumber and surround their targets, not being surrounded themselves.

Once those were dealt with, the interior of the Fortress proved even more impressive than the outside, especially the sheer size of the power generators and energy control systems.  The sheer scale was beyond anything they'd ever seen in the Federation, and easily on par with what Samus knew the Chozo had been capable of...though the Chozo tended to prefer to use multiple smaller power stations rather than a single massive one.

Spike was forced to detour through open areas of the Fortress for most of their explorations, as there were quite a few narrow tunnels too small for him.  However, they were able to meet up at the entrance to the Sanctuary Temple grounds, where they discovered that the Ing, in addition to remotely controlling the various mecha that the Luminoth had built, could actually possess them.  While this made them more dangerous and lethal in combat, the added vulnerability to light and heat resulted in the smaller possessed mechas becoming so much slag before Spike's flame breath.

Within the Temple itself, they found the recorded message of the Temple's last Sentinel.

"Hear the words of O-Lir, last Sentinel of the Fortress Temple.  May they serve you well.  This used to be a great Fortress, a safe haven for our people during the war.  It also holds portals to the Ing Hive, the heart of their dark tribe."

"And that's safe how?" Spike murmured under his breath.

"Hush," Samus scolded.

The message continued.  "During the war, I built a number of mechanical sentinels to join me in battle.  They were made to fight the Ing, and fight them they did...for a time.  One by one, the Ing corrupted them.  Now they attack with no mercy.  Many went to Dark Aether with their Ing Masters."





"Calling it now!" Rainbow called out.  "Hive Guardian's a giant robot!"

"Do you mind?" Samus demanded.  "We were in the midst of relating a noble warrior's last words."

"Kill bad guys, save us all, sorry I screwed up big time," Rainbow summarized.  "How close am I?"

"No reason to be disrespectful of the legacy of someone who gave their life for their people and world, Rainbow," Spike chided gently.

Rainbow's ears went flat against her skull.  "Sorry..."

"At any rate..." Samus continued.





The message continued.  "Expect them when you are in the Hive.  The Ing like to use them as guards."





Spike watched as Rainbow mightily resisted the urge to say anything else.

"How come ya didn't encounter them anywhere else, then?" Applejack asked.  "Ah mean, if they're so tough, why not use 'em in Agon or Torvus?"

"They probably weren't hermetically sealed," Twilight pointed out.  "Computer circuitry is exceptionally delicate.  Without proper protection, a single mote of dust can fry an entire machine if it gets in the wrong part."

Spike scratched his chin thoughtfully.  "That's probably why we only saw the Darkling Mechs in interior portions of the Ing Hive..."

Nodding, Samus continued relating the message.





"The Ing will protect their home with great ferocity.  In all our battles, the Hive has never fallen."

The message then updated Samus and Spike's translator modules so they could access the last color of hologram interfaces.

"If only I could join you...redeem my fallen honor in battle.  But, my time has passed.  Good Luck.  May the Light of Aether show you the way."

With the message over, Spike and Samus turned to explore the Temple, to find a way to attack the Hive's core.
> Aether: Ghosts and Guardians
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So how did exploring the Sanctuary Fortress go?" Twilight asked eagerly.  "From the way you described it, it sounds just fascinating!"  She rubbed her forehooves together in delight.

Samus managed a chuckle.  "Hope you're not expecting too much in the way of technical descriptions, Twilight," she stated.  "Most of what I learned about Luminoth technology on Aether was how to break it when it's trying to kill me."

"Same here," Spike added, wincing at Twilight's disappointed expression.  "Sorry."

"So let's hear about the explosions, then!" Pinkie called out eagerly.

"Not many of those at first either," Samus pointed out.  "Our first stop after the Temple was the Spider Guardian, which I had to fight alone in Morph Ball tunnels.  Thankfully, it was relatively easy, and the Spider Ball is always useful."

"And you came back with a Sky Temple Key this time," Spike pointed out.  "Bringing our total of them to five.  One from Agon, one from there, and three from the central area."

"After that, we continued to explore the Fortress, taking paths we couldn't before," Samus explained.  "Thankfully, Spike was able to find a few ways to get around the narrow tunnel paths I had to take."

"Though that really came to a head when we made our way to where sensors showed a Phazon concentration," Spike explained.  "As it turned out...someone we'd fought before wasn't quite dead..."





As Spike and Samus entered a passageway, they saw Dark Samus blast a group of Dark Pirates to bits before lunging towards several canisters of Phazon, draining energy out of them.  Spike, hungry and angry at the sight of food being taken from him, smashed the glass between them before forcing his way through.  Samus wasn't sure whether she or Dark Samus was more surprised at how much rage and hunger could amplify Spike's physical strength, as the glass had taken Dark Samus' Phazon shot barrage without a scratch, and scans had shown even Power Bombs wouldn't have broken it in its former condition.

Dark Samus withdrew quickly, but there wasn't much Phazon left for Spike to eat.  In a rage, Spike pursued, with Samus following along close behind, using Morph Ball to get through the hole Spike had opened up.

When Samus caught up, it was just in time to see Spike smack Dark Samus aside with his tail to get at the Phazon it had been drawing off of the wall, before he began to eat eagerly.  In retaliation, Dark Samus smashed a control panel, raising walls to cut Spike off from the Phazon while also activating the massive elevator platform they were all on.  Spike snarled in rage as he lunged after Dark Samus.

While Dark Samus had a great deal more to its arsenal this time, the fight actually proved easier than last time.  Not only was the smaller environment - with pillars Dark Samus couldn't smash through - harder for it to maneuver and easier for Spike and Samus to maneuver in, the lessons they learned with the Grenchlers proved useful, as they each took turns attacking from opposite sides.  Samus focused on locking on and using Super Missiles, while Spike stuck to melee attacks with claws, fists, tail, and fangs.  As every punch, slash, swipe, or bite hit with the force of a super missile given his rage, this proved very effective, especially as Spike was able to take Dark Samus' dodging into account with follow up strikes.

Once they reached the top of the elevator, Dark Samus had a slightly larger area to work with, and started using a Phazon charged Boost Ball function to try and smash into them both.  While Samus was able to dodge easily, Spike grabbed Dark Samus in both claws, trapping it in ball form, before proceeding to smash it into the ground repeatedly, blast it with flames, smack it repeatedly with his tail, tear into it with his teeth, slam it into the walls a few times, and then smash it repeatedly against the outside energy fields until they broke and then hurled it out into the distance.

Seeing Dark Samus dissolve into Phazon, Samus wasn't sure if it had taken enough damage to need to repair elsewhere, or if it had just decided to try again when Spike wasn't hungry.





Spike was rather surprised when a massive pile of food appeared in front of him in a flash of white, purple, blue, and gold.  "Umm...what?" he asked.

"It's all your favorites," Twilight spoke up.  "At least, they were your favorites..."

"And quite a few treats from the royal kitchens," Celestia added.

"And some of the cider that's been aging in our cellars," Luna pointed out, indicating the barrel.

"We just don't want you going hungry in the middle of the story," Discord concluded, pulling at his neck and whistling innocently.

Samus couldn't help but laugh.  "Don't worry.  Spike's got much better self control now.  Just don't try to take his food while he's eating."

Rainbow quickly jerked her hoof away from the barrel of cider, turning away and whistling innocently.

This time it was Spike's turn to laugh.  "Girls, this pile's bigger than I am!  No way I can eat all of it.  Come on and take a share."

Since it had been a while since the last meal for everyone, they all happily took up his offer.

As they all ate, Samus continued telling what had happened.  "After that, we were both able to get to Dark Aether.  Spike took the time to do an overfly to map out the outside and grab anything useful."

"I found a Sky Temple Key, several upgrades, and two Hive Keys," Spike explained.  "One of them would have been unreachable for me, since it was on a platform completely contained by a forcefield, but I discovered the platform itself was vulnerable to a combination of focused flames and punching...especially since I was still hungry."  His statement brought several chuckles.

"As for the rest..." Samus began.  "That can wait until tomorrow.  Looks like the sun and moon are actually following their proper schedules this time."  This brought a rueful sigh from Celestia and a raspberry from Luna.  "For now, let's eat."

"And drink?" Rainbow asked hopefully, gazing eagerly at the barrel.

Smirking, Spike cracked the barrel open and grabbed several mugs, to cheers from several members of the audience.
> Aether: Safe and Sound
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The following morning, shortly after Celestia raised the sun, the group gathered once again around the large table, breakfast piled high.  Spike had made waffles, and the scent of them had drawn most of the group to the table before they were even all the way awake.  Pinkie, for example, was still snoring even as she ate her way through the first waffle, mumbling about how Spike's waffles were, "Almost as yummy as Spike's frosting...creamy creamy frosting..."  Spike made a mental note to bake a cake sometime soon.

Once everyone was more awake - coffee made with dragon fire was much tastier than the ordinary kind, in Samus' opinion...unless that was just the much higher quality coffee beans grown in Equestria - Samus decided to start the storytelling over breakfast.  "I'm going to try to finish telling you about our mission on Aether today," she began.  "There's not that much more to tell-"

"Four more chapters..." Pinkie mumbled sleepily.

Seeing the others shrug, Samus decided to let it go with a roll of her eyes.  "At any rate, once Spike got back with everything he'd gathered, we returned to Aether, allowing me to collect a new upgrade: the Echo Visor.  It let me see things like a sonar system, as well as interface with sound based security systems."

"This allowed Mom to explore quite a bit more of both Sanctuary Fortress and Hive Fortress," Spike explained.  "And since these new paths were large enough for me to follow, I was able to help her up to areas where she couldn't reach normally, allowing more direct routes(1)."

"At least until we got to one of my most useful upgrades ever," Samus explained.  "The Screw Attack."





Once in the Sanctuary Vault, Samus and Spike glanced around, looking for the best way to approach unlocking it to get the tech that was plainly visible...one that would prove most useful for Samus.  There were four platforms scattered around the vault with Spinners, which Samus would have to rotate in order to get the locks into position to be opened.  However, there was no way for her to reach them by jumping...on Aether.

Examination of map data Spike had provided indicated that there was a path available via transferring back and forth between Aether and Dark Aether, and Samus was on the verge of taking that approach...until Spike picked her up and flew her over to one of the platforms, and she realized just how linearly she had been thinking.

With the locks in position, Spike flew Samus back to the center platform, allowing her to trigger the lock mechanism to open the Vault...letting her acquire the Screw Attack.

The Aether variant of this upgrade was far more limited than the Zebes variant she recalled, which - with the Zebes variant Space Jump - allowed her to jump infinitely in a whirling cyclone of destructive energies.  This variant only allowed her five destructive leaps through the air before the energies ran out.  Then again, this was a Luminoth reverse engineering of Chozo tech, so it was understandable if it was somewhat limited by comparison.





Samus paused, noticing several of the ponies staring at her.  "...what?" she asked.

"Can we see it?" Scootaloo asked eagerly.

"That 'Screw Attack'?" Rainbow added.

"Please?" Pinkie pleaded petulantly.

Rolling her eyes, Samus glanced at Spike, only to see him smirking.  "Alright," she relented, "but keep your distance everyone.  I've yet to find a substance that doesn't crumble somewhat under the energies of the Screw Attack...and organic substances might as well be tissue paper."

Stepping back from the table, she put her helmet back on before leaping into the air in a somersault.  Energy immediately began to arc around her, causing her to flash with a rainbow spectrum of light, bouncing up and down in midair as her flips were accompanied by an oscillating shriek of the very air being torn apart by her movements.

Curious, Twilight extended her quill towards Samus, only to leap back with a yelp as the top half of the quill disintegrated and her fur stood on end from the outer edge of the energy aura.

Samus landed easily, dispelling the energy.  "I told you to keep your dis..."  Her voice trailed off as she started to snicker.  With Twilight's coat standing on end, she looked quite fluffy...to the point her wings were no longer visible.

"Ha ha," Twilight snarked as everyone else burst into giggles, chuckles, or guffaws, as was their wont.  She started to struggle to get her fur under control, only to be caught off guard as Spike slunk over to beside her and started to groom her rather effectively with his claws.

"Just relax, Twilight," he said softly.  "I've got this."

As Spike helped Twilight relax and look normal again, Samus continued.  "After that, I had to do a bit of backtracking to get two of the Hive Temple Keys that were in interior segments which Spike couldn't access...and after that, we confronted the Hive Guardian."

"A giant robot based off the mechas we'd been fighting throughout the Fortress...Quadraxis."





Samus and Spike stared upwards in awe as the massive mechanical monstrosity began to move, several Ing having visibly infused its circuits as it activated.  It stood on four massive legs with only a large, bulbous head at the top, which wasn't all that intimidating in appearance...except for the fact that Samus and Spike barely came up to its ankles.

It moved about slowly, relative to Samus and Spike, but the missile salvos, blasts of charged sonic blasts, and shockwaves when it stomped its feet would take their toll rapidly if they hit.  Beyond that, there were no safe zones for the pair to take a breather in and replenish their energy with.

Samus attempted to slow the behemoth down with charged shots and missiles, but it was difficult locking onto a point that was vulnerable at any given time.  Spike's own attempts with flame breath deflected off its armor, and he wasn't able to hit it hard enough to break through the armor.

Without warning, the behemoth brought its feet together and began to spin, creating a tornado that dragged both of them towards the center.  Caught off guard, only Samus was able to brace herself, since Spike had been about to unleash an aerial attack.  Unfortunately, he was dragged in, his wing dislocated as he was pulled through the spin.  His bellow of pain spurred Samus to attack much more ferociously.

Watching the machine work, Samus noticed that the armor wasn't as heavy on the feet and at the joints.  She began to formulate a plan.

"I've got it!" Spike called out, his armor having reshaped around the dislocated wing to hold it in place until it could be seen to.  "I know how we can beat it!"

"Right!" Samus agreed.  "If we aim for the joints-"

"We just have to hit it really, really hard!" Spike barked out, charging forward.





Everyone turned to stare at Spike with a raised eyebrow.

Spike managed to look sheepish.  "Well it worked!" he pointed out defensively.

"Seriously?" Rainbow asked Samus, her voice torn between excitement and disbelief.

Smirking, Samus continued telling of the battle.





Charging forward, Spike clung to one of the legs at chinks in the armor with his claws and began to climb.  Quadraxis attempted to shake him off frequently, but he clung doggedly, eventually managing to climb all the way up to the head unit.

There, an electrical shield caused him problems, but dragons are incredibly durable.  Clenching his teeth, he kept climbing through the pain until he could use his tail and hind claws to brace himself on the head.  Lacing his front claws together in a double fist, he lifted them high and brought them down hard.

The entire machine staggered from the impact, and a cracking sound could be heard.  Spike repeated the maneuver several more times, Samus backing him up with carefully aimed Super Missiles.  Before long, the casing of the head unit of Quadraxis shattered, revealing two points of sensitive circuitry.

Drawing one hand back, Spike plunged claws first into one of those points, tearing circuitry out as Quadraxis staggered and fell.  The movement dislodged him, causing Spike to fall to the ground, forced to tuck and roll for safety.  The head unit, presumably for greater maneuverability while it self repaired, disengaged from the rest of the body.

"Damn," Spike snarled, looking up.  "Can't get high enough now..."

Samus, however, noticed something in her scan visor.  The level of data being processed by the head unit meant that the entire surface revealed by the broken casing was magnetized...and the remaining weak point looked a lot like a morph ball bomb slot.  "Throw me!" she commanded, going into Morph Ball mode.

Taking the order, Spike hurled Samus at the floating head.  She attached to its surface with Spider Ball, moved into the slot, and detonated a Power Bomb.

The head unit, damaged beyond repair, crashed into the main body, causing both to explode.





Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, and Pinkie Pie all cheered the battle's conclusion.  Several of the others were applauding as well.

"I want one..." Luna muttered.

"Which?" Celestia asked teasingly.  "The giant battle robot, or the warrior capable of taking it down?"

"Yes," Luna replied simply.(2)

"Quadraxis left behind the Annihilator Beam," Samus continued, "a beam that used both light and dark ammo...and had all sorts of useful functions..."








(1) Yes, Spike did just let Samus skip the Sanctuary Fortress Miniboss.
(2) This part is a reference to a scene from Metroid: Equis, a story by my good friend Flammenwerfer.  Those who've read it probably know the scene being referenced.
> Aether: Fall Unto Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Useful functions?" Twilight asked eagerly.  "What sort?"

"Other than being totally badass!" Rainbow pointed out.

As Samus opened her mouth to explain, Luna spoke up.  "Perchance did it interact with sonic based security systems alongside the Echo Visor?"

Samus stared at Luna.  "How could you possibly know that?"

"The design of the Echo Visor indicated that some systems would be designed to interact with it," Luna explained logically.  "This would also imply the use of some sort of sound based weapon for energizing Echo Switches, or something similar.  Since none of your weapons possessed such a trait, it could logically be presumed that the Annihilator Beam possessed those traits, as - based on what you said of how short the remainder of the story is - you didn't have time to gain yet another beam."

Spike chuckled as Samus stared, perplexed.  "Nicely interpreted, Luna."

"Oh!  Oh!" Scootaloo called out, bouncing up and down.  "Did the mix of light and dark energies supercharge the Luminoth Crystals and Beacons turning them into Ing Traps?"

Samus decided not to question how the gamers were able to figure out so much of how her adventures worked.  Apparently, they would make an excellent video game.  "Yes, yes it did."

"Umm...what about Spike's wing?" Fluttershy asked worriedly.

"Mom relocated it as soon as Quadraxis was down for the count," Spike pointed out.  "Hurt like hell, but was good as new after that."

"And then ya took the Ing Hive energy back to the Sanctuary Energy Controller?" Applejack asked.

Samus nodded.  "And after that, we returned to U-Mos to find out what to do next..."





As they returned to the Grand Temple, they found U-Mos staring up at the Energy collected above while spinning energy of some sort between his hands.  "The Light of Aether shines from all three Temples once more," he stated in a mix of awe and determination.  "And yet, Dark Aether remains.  One Energy Controller still shines in the darkness, sustaining the world."

"The Sky Temple," Samus and Spike said together.

"Indeed," U-Mos confirmed.  "The dark shadow of this hallowed place.  It holds the last of our planet's energy...and is guarded by the most powerful of the Ing.  Towards the end of our war, before the Ing seized the Energy Transfer Module, we sent ten of our greatest warriors into the depths of the Dark World to recover them.  We know one was placed successfully in its lock, forever opening the path...but of the other nine-"

"We've got six of them," Spike pointed out.  "Rather easy to find most of them from the air."

"And I found one rather easily," Samus added.

U-Mos stared at them both in awe.  "Truly, you are a blessing to our world and our people," he breathed.  "However, the Ing have surely guarded the remaining three more jealously.  Finding them will be perilous, but..."

He turned towards the Energy Controller.  "...I offer you, Samus, this blessed suit of armor, energized by the Light of Aether itself.  Its power will help you reach these final keys...and guard you against any force the Dark World might turn against you!"  With these words, he hurled the energy he was weaving into the energy stored above the Controller.

The energy flared and blasted downward into the Energy Controller...which parted in three sections, drawing apart to the corners of the Temple Chamber.  At the center was the spinning disc and runic symbol Samus recognized as a Suit upgrade.  Stepping forward, she allowed her suit to incorporate it.  The Light of Aether surged into her in a blinding flare.

When the light faded, her suit had changed.  Now closer in shape to her Varia Suit, the entire thing was a smooth white, with orange light shining through at various points, including her visor.  The Light Suit was truly a perfect fusion of Chozo and Luminoth technology.





Samus smiled as she used her logbook to call up an image of the Light Suit, letting her audience - and, apparently, especially Rarity - marvel at the design.  She had already pulled out a sketchbook and quills and started sketching a new clothing line based off of it.

"After that," Samus continued, "Spike and I spent some time hunting the remaining keys...and picking up a few more upgrades for me, including the Charge Combo for the Annihilator Beam...the Sonic Boom."  She ignored Luna's chuckle.  "As it turned out, the remaining keys were hidden in places that required the Light Suit's light-based teleportation system - which let me ride along any beam of compatible light - or were inside Dark Water or behind an Ingstorm cloud - microscopic Ing that could eat away at any material, except the Light Suit."

"And while my armor did give me the ability to ride light, as we discovered," Spike continued, "it did not provide me with protection from Dark Water or Ingstorms."

"At any rate," Samus concluded, "Spike took the high road to the Sky Temple entrance, while I took the low road.  With the keys placed..."





As the nine keys settled into their places in the lock, the lock itself sunk into the ground, forever open.  A beam of light connected the Sky Temple to the lock, giving a pathway for Samus and Spike to enter.  Together, they rode the light to the final confrontation.

They came up through the Temple's Energy Controller, and could see the final collection of planetary energy above them.  However, a writhing mass of black tentacles pulled the sphere into the shadows of the roof of the chamber.  The pair pursued, following a roundabout path to the upper chamber of the Temple.

There, in a chamber edged in Phazon, the Emperor Ing barred their way, absorbing the last of the planetary energy into itself to prevent them from obtaining it.  It took on the shape of a massive sphere with an indented face from which numerous tentacles writhed, the entire thing resting on another mass of wriggling tendrils.

Spike and Samus quickly teamed up, targeting the tentacles that struck out at them.  Samus utilized the auto-homing function of the Annihilator Beam, while Spike raced along the ceiling for an alternative angle for his flame blasts.  When all the tentacles were struck down, the flesh peeled back to reveal an energy based biomass surrounded by a partial shield.  Samus tried to follow the shield around to shoot at the central mass through the gap.  Spike, however, shot the mass straight through the open top of the shield.

With the last shot fired, the flesh reappeared, rolling over so the indented portion sank down over the writhing mass, forming a hard cocoon.  The lower levels of the room filled with gas that ate through even the Light Suit.  However, the cocoon itself was magnetic, and had visible weak points.

Spike satisfied himself with sniping at the smaller Ing that swarmed, trying to knock Samus off the cocoon as she left bombs and Power Bombs at the weak points.  Eventually, the cocoon shattered, explosively, revealing the final stage of the Emperor Ing.

In appearance, it was a massive Warrior Ing, with six heavily armored legs and a massive body, a swirling vortex of energy inside its mouth the only vulnerable point as it charged around to attack.  Only when the Core was Light or Dark would it take damage from the opposite.





"Why not just keep its mouth closed, then?" Rainbow asked in confusion.

"Ventilation," Twilight guessed.  "In all likelihood, if it didn't have proper cross ventilation over that much energy, it would melt its flesh away."

"Honestly, I have no idea," Samus replied.  "All I know is that it didn't, which was good for us."





For the most part, one Super Missile impact to the core was enough to cause an elemental shift.  Samus found a Darkburst Charge Combo was especially effective against the Emperor Ing when it was Light, while Spike was able to get massive barrages with his flame breath when it was dark.

Eventually, the Emperor Ing fell and exploded, the planetary energy left behind.





"Sweet!" Scootaloo cheered, zooming in celebratory circles around Spike and Samus' heads.  "And then it's just a smooth escape with the planetary energy, right?"

Samus and Spike both looked at each other.  "No," Samus replied.

"Not quite," Spike agreed.





As Samus absorbed the energy into the Transfer Module - replenishing her ammo and energy in the process - Spike let out an enraged bellow of pain as he fell from the ceiling.  "Spike!" Samus called out.

He writhed around on the ground, clutching his head and roaring in pain as his body started to expand.  At first Samus couldn't tell what was happening.  However, as her suit alerted her to the fact that the planet would explode in 20 minutes due to the removal of the energy, she saw the fragments of the Emperor Ing converging on Spike, infusing him as his coloration turned darker still.  "Spike!" she shouted as his eyes turned red.
> Aether: Addicted to Bloodlust
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everyone listening stared in shock.  "What?" Twilight gasped out finally.  "Spike was...possessed by the Emperor Ing?"

"Yeah," Spike sighed, looking away.  "I was..."

Samus put her hand on his shoulder.  "Spike, for the last time, it wasn't your fault-"

"Yes it was!" Spike barked out.  "Every time I ate an Ing, they tried to possess me, and I was barely able to fight it off each time...and when the Emperor Ing infused itself into me, the residuals from all previous Ing I'd eaten surged out to meet him, overwhelming me!  If I hadn't been eating everything in sight, I would have been able to fight off the Emperor Ing, and we wouldn't have had to fight!  None of that would have happened!"

Samus was silent for a time, at a loss for words as everyone stared.

"You had no way of knowing that, young warrior," Luna spoke up.  "You couldn't have known that the corruptive darkness you consumed would be cumulative.  And even if not, this Emperor Ing was a powerful, ruthless being...much like the inner dragon you could just barely control at that time.  For all you know, he would have overwhelmed you even without the aid of his soldiers remnants in your systems."

"And if you'd resisted him longer, Samus might not have had time to beat you and get you both out of Dark Aether before the planet went boom!" Pinkie Pie pointed out.  "She said the planet was gonna blow in 20 minutes.  That's not a lot of time to fight a super powered giant dark dragon and get to an escape portal."

"That's a valid point," Samus indicated.  "Even with the Ing you'd eaten, it took two minutes for the Emperor to fully transform and control you, and ten minutes to fight you."

Spike listened to their words - and the hugs the other ponies had started giving him - and managed a smile.  "Logic doesn't make the guilt go away," he pointed out.

"Preach it," Luna and Discord both muttered under their breaths, getting surprise hugs from Celestia and Fluttershy respectively.

"So...we know you won and saved him, since he's here," Scootaloo pointed out.  "So how'd you do it?"

Chuckling, Samus picked up her mug for some more juice to wet her mouth.  "Well..."





Samus staggered backward as Spike's body transformed, expanding until it was even bigger than it had been when he'd fought Ridley back on Tallon IV.  His scales darkened from purple to black, and the green of his underbelly turned as red as his eyes had become.  Spikes sprouted along his back, arms, legs, and tail.  The armor darkened as well, mimicking his color scheme as it grew with him.

As he rose up, Samus quickly scanned what he had become.



Recording to Logbook
Dark Spike
Spike has become possessed by the Emperor Ing, which has put him through a Darkling transformation.  His draconic nature is now unleashed full force, making him an extreme threat.  Capable of firing intense blasts of flame and darkness from his mouth.  His claws are now sharp enough to punch through ship hull plating, and his strength exceeds any capacity to accurately measure.

His body generates an aura of dark energy 30x as intense as that of Dark Aether's atmosphere, extending one foot around his body.  This aura will rapidly eat through the Light Suit's defensive energy fields, and then the alloy of the armor itself.  Avoid direct contact if at all possible.

No vulnerable points detected.  Dark Spike is able to reenergize himself from the Phazon in the area and the atmosphere of Dark Aether...or by consuming one of the lesser Ing that will come at his summons.

Deep scans indicate that, while the possession is complete, the residue of the Emperor Ing is not fully anchored in Dark Spike.  Theoretically, a strong enough burst of Light Energy could potentially force the Emperor Ing to evacuate its host, freeing Spike from his control.



Then that's a plan, Samus thought silently, leaping to the side as Spike's tail lashed out at her, the now bladed tip nearly cutting her in half.  Now, how am I supposed to get enough Light Energy into him to push the Emperor Ing out?  She set her suit to calculations.

Eventually, her on board computer beeped.  Required Light Energy infusion calculated.  Approximately 12 Sunbursts fired simultaneously will suffice.

"Dammit!" Samus snarled.  Even with every upgrade she could scavenge, she only had 250 Light Ammo, only enough for 8 Sunbursts before she was out of ammo.  Her momentary distraction was enough for Spike to catch her off guard with a blast of dark energy from his mouth, slamming her back into the Phazon that edged the chamber.  She struggled out, checking the damage.

450 units of energy depleted.

She swore under her breath.  That was nearly a third of her total energy shielding.  Can't keep trying and hoping, she thought to herself.  Gotta go for broke.  Seeing that Dark Spike was taking a moment to laugh at her helplessness, she called up her suit settings.



-Arm Cannon Settings
-Power Beam
-Light Beam
-Dark Beam
-Annihilator Beam
[X]Charge Beam
-Charge Combo
-Disable Charge Limiter? [X]Yes [ ]No
Warning: Overcharging can result in damage to Arm Cannon, Suit, and person!  Confirm Disable?
[X]Yes [ ]No

...Charge Limiter Disabled.  Overcharge Combos available.



With the systems changed, she switched to her Light Beam and began to charge.  Dark Spike renewed his assault, but she managed to evade most of the attacks as she charged her weapon.

Three minutes into the charge - when her suit started giving her warning signs about the likely damage she would take from discharging it - Dark Spike roared, summoning several Warrior and Hunter Ing to back him up.  The added assault proved even more difficult for Samus to evade, and she took several bad hits as she continued to charge her weapon.  Thankfully, the Ing were single minded in their attack, and they couldn't survive in the Phazon around the edges of the chamber, which Samus was quite happy to lead them into.

When her suit alerted her to there being ten minutes left until the planet exploded, she received another alert from her arm cannon.



Overcharge at Maximum.  Super Sunburst will use 250 Light Ammo and 255 missiles.
Warning: Chance of damaging Arm Cannon 250%
Warning: Chance of damaging suit 150%
Warning: Chance of internal injuries 99%
Warning: Chance of death from firing 50%



"I'm only going to get one shot then," she muttered under her breath, ducking around the Ing as she charged Dark Spike.  He lashed at her with claws and tail, but she was able to leap just as he opened his mouth to hit her with fire.  "Get out of my son!" she roared, shoving her Arm Cannon down the beast's throat and releasing, firing the blast.  She let out a scream of pain as the recoil from the massive burst of light energy sent her flying back against the wall to sink into Phazon.  She was barely able to roll out of it, her body screaming in agony.

As she lay there, gasping for breath against the pain in her body, her suit gave her a report of the damages.



Arm Cannon Destroyed.
Light Suit damaged beyond repair.
All Energy Tanks damaged beyond repair.
Seven cracked ribs, one broken rib.
All bones in right arm broken.  Bones in right hand shattered.
Rebooting Suit defaults in attempt to stabilize life signs...
Reboot successful.
Varia Suit Online.
Morph Ball Online.
Morph Ball Bombs Online.
Power Beam Online but unavailable.  Replace Arm Cannon at next opportunity.
Charge Beam Online but unavailable.
Energy Transfer Module undamaged.
All other systems lost.  Suit has engaged paralytic functions on right arm to prevent further damage.



"Well, that fucking sucks," Samus gasped out, coughing and staring at the red stain on the inside of her face plate.  "Great..."



Warning: Dark Aether atmosphere draining suit energy rapidly.  Locate safe zone immediately.



So this is how it ends... Samus thought to herself.  Suddenly, light surrounded her.



Safe Zone entered.



"What?" Samus asked, looking up in shock.

Standing above her was Spike...but he had changed again.  His overall body shape and size was the same as Dark Spike, but his coloration was white and gold, with his eyes glowing white.  At the end of each spike on his back and shoulders was a Luminoth crystal, growing from his flesh, making his entire body generate a safe zone.

Samus could only stare as her suit scanned him.



Updated to Logbook
Light Spike
With the Emperor Ing purged from Spike's body, he has absorbed and metabolized the massive surge of Light Energy, taking it into his body.  Crystals have grown from his body with properties identical to Luminoth Crystals, generating a safe zone from his entire body.  He appears to have complete control of himself, though his vocal chords are presently non-functional.  His breath now has properties of the Annihilator Beam, being a mix of Light and Dark Energy, while also being compatible with Phazon energies if absorbed.



Samus could only stare in amazement as Spike gently lifted her onto his back before blasting the floor apart beneath them, spreading six feathery wings to slow his fall to the ground.





Everyone listening was staring in awe.  "Wow..." Celestia finally said, the first to break the silence.

"Yeah," Spike muttered, scratching the back of his head.  "It was pretty impressive...I guess."

"Can...can ya still take that form?" Applejack asked curiously.

"No idea.  Haven't tried since.  And...I'd rather not unless I have to."

"Given what happened next, understandable," Samus agreed.  As all eyes turned to her once more, she continued the story.





As Spike landed gently as a feather, he turned to force his way through the rest of Dark Aether to the nearest portal, only to find his path blocked by a rapidly growing wall of Phazon.  Turning, both he and Samus caught sight of Dark Samus...but it had changed.  Its body was now a translucent blue, though still the same shape.  Inside, however, the nucleus of Metroid Prime was plainly visible, having reshaped itself to resemble Samus somewhat.

As it lunged forward to attack, Spike lunged in first, seizing hold of the creature and slamming it to the ground.  Spreading his wings, he began circling the area, dragging Dark Samus against the wall behind him.

As he continued to use massive brute force against the creature, Samus couldn't help but wonder, Is this what it's like from Ridley's perspective when he's fighting me?





"Seriously?" Spike asked sardonically.

"Perspective only, not personality," Samus was quick to point out as the listeners giggled.





After a time and heavy damage received, Dark Samus released a wave of Phazon, breaking free of Spike's grip as it proceeded to attack with waves and rains of Phazon energy.  Samus' scans revealed that in this form, Dark Samus was only vulnerable to Phazon based weaponry.

Spike, however, was way ahead of her.  Taking a huge mouthful of Phazon from the wall, he chewed for a time before exhaling a blast of pure Phazon energy, tearing Dark Samus apart on the molecular level.

In the aftermath of the battle, Samus checked her readouts.  "Spike!" she shouted.  "Two minutes until the planet explodes!"

As Spike turned to flee, an endless wave of Ing swarmed in, blocking his path from all sides and above, all plainly seeking to destroy Samus and release the planetary energy, which would stop the planetary collapse.

However, the destruction of Dark Samus had caused an unexpected reaction.  A wall of Phazon had collapsed, revealing an active portal to Aether.  However, the hordes of Ing were between them and the portal.

"We'll make it Spike," Samus whispered reassuringly.  "We've got...sixty seconds.  Plenty of time.  Plenty of time..."

Spike, however, apparently had other ideas.  He obviously knew he couldn't clear a path and make it to the portal in sixty seconds.  Lifting Samus off his back, he tore one of the crystal formations from his back and used his breath weapon on it, supercharging it.  He then handed it to Samus, sticking it in her left hand.



Morph Ball triggered.



"What-"  Samus was unable to say anymore as she was forced into Morph Ball, the crystal inside with her, surrounding her in the supercharged safe zone.  Before Samus could react, Spike had hurled her like a missile through the portal.  The last thing she heard was Spike releasing his breath attack.

When Samus unrolled from Morph Ball on the other side, actually caught by U-Mos, the first thing she saw was the portal she just came through exploding.  "What happened?" she asked.

"Someone destroyed the portal from the other side," U-Mos explained.

"But Spike's still over there!" Samus shouted, clutching the crystal.

U-Mos stared impassively, the very air around him palpable with the force of sudden grief.  "Then he has chosen to die for our world..."
> Aether: Throw it all Away
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	For a long time, no one around the table spoke or even breathed.  They simply stared at Samus in disbelief.  At long last, Pinkie Pie burst into wailing tears as she threw herself at Spike, wrapping her forelegs around his neck as she wept into his shoulder.

"Oh, Spike!" she wailed.  "How c-c-could you?  You went and d-d-died a noble death, saving the universe and your Mom from a terrible threat!  Now we'll never get to see you again to know just how heroic you've b-b-become!"  She continued to cry for a time, Spike now having bent his neck to stare down at her, one eyebrow raised in consternation.  Eventually Pinkie paused in her crying, and glanced from Spike to Samus.  "...wait a minute..."

Samus and Discord both burst into laughter.  "Oh you should see your faces!" Discord cackled, flashing Samus a thumbs up.  "Very nice," he complimented.

Samus waved it off.  "I knew we could tell a good yarn...but he's sitting right here!"

The ponies managed a nervous chuckle, all looking more than a little bit sheepish.  "So how did you not die?" Luna asked curiously.

Spike scratched the back of his head.  "Actually...I think I might have."

The table fell silent again.  "But...b-but you're here!" Sweetie Belle pointed out.  "Are...are you a ghost?"

"Did interacting with Samus so frequently turn you part Chozo, able to physically manifest yourself from the ether of the spirit realm the way the Chozo Ghosts can, but more fully because you're a dragon?" Twilight guessed.

Spike shrugged his shoulders.  "Maybe?"

"Consarnit!" Applejack snapped.  "Let's stop guessing and just hear what happened?"

Samus chuckled as eyes once more turned to her.  "Well, U-Mos kept me from moving recklessly until he'd finished repairing the damage to my arm and ribs, which thankfully didn't take too long.  However, by that time I could see from the absence of distortion in the atmosphere that Dark Aether was no more.  I was...not exactly happy with that."





Samus sat back against the wall, staring blindly into the middle distance.  She saw everything around her, but none of it registered.  Spike, her son, was gone.  She didn't want to accept it, but she was too well trained by the Chozo to deny the obvious when it slammed her in the face.  But it just wasn't fair.  The Chozo gave Spike to her so she could have a child of her own, someone to love, cherish, and raise...how could they have let him be taken away like this?

As she stared, U-Mos approached her.  "Samus," he began softly, "I know your pain.  I have lost sons of my own to this war, witnessed the fall of my race, the near death of my world.  I had given up all hope when you and your dragon son arrived...but you both brought hope back to us.  I am sorry to disturb your grief now...but it is time to return the last of Aether's Light to the Energy Controller."

It took all of Samus' self control not to deck U-Mos in the face.  Her left hand actually clenched inside her Varia Suit in preparation...but she felt the crystal in her hand, and turned to stare at it.  It still was fully charged from when it had seen her safely back to Aether, and she'd heard a few of the Luminoth - now awakened from the deep sleep capsules they had sealed themselves in - speculating as to why.  The full story had been plucked from her suit's records, as she herself had been incoherent, so they knew it was biological in nature.  One of the scientists had sought to relieve her of it for study...but U-Mos had knocked him aside before Samus' fury could be unleashed.  All the Luminoth had kept their distance from her since.

Sighing, she pushed herself off from the wall, crystal still clutched in her hand.  Spike would want her to finish the mission.  She would have to do just that.  She turned to face the Energy Controller.

Since she lacked her Arm Cannon, she would have to enter the Light of Aether - the energy manipulated by the Controller - in order to release both the Energy Transfer Module and the energy stored within it.  Entering the light warper, she lifted into the energy, feeling it all flow out of her.

Landing outside the Controller, she turned to walk away, not even acknowledging the Luminoth bowing their gratitude around her.  She lifted her left hand...and stared at the empty space where the crystal had been.  "What?"

"Look!" one of the Luminoth called out, pointing upward.

Inside the Light of Aether, the crystal was visibly pulsing, energy and information swirling around it as the Energy Controller hummed.  A beam of energy shot down from the crystal, looking exactly like the light based teleportation system from the outside.  As the energy flowed down, a physical form took shape out of the light.  As the crystal crumbled into dust and the light faded, Spike lay there on the ground, unmoving, looking exactly like he had last time he had been in the Grand Temple.

"S-Spike?" Samus gasped out, disbelieving.  As she saw him starting to stir, she raced forward.  "Spike!"

As Spike lifted his head, Samus wrapped her arms around it, discarding her Varia Suit as she pulled his head against her chest, weeping as she held him close.  "M-Mom?" he gasped out, surprised.  "What happened?  Last thing I remember is...the Emperor Ing falling...and then pain..."

"Don't worry about it," Samus reassured him quickly.  "You're safe now, and the world's been saved.  That's all that matters."





Twilight wiped her eyes as Samus finished that part of her story.  From the sudden propensity of hankies, she knew she wasn't the only one touched by hearing that part.  It reminded her a little too much of her own initial reunion with Spike, just...was it really only four days ago?

"So...how'd it happen?" Rainbow asked suddenly.  As some turned towards her, she held up her hooves defensively.  "Look, I'm just as happy it worked and Spike pulled through okay with all that mushy stuff as the rest of you...but I can't be the only one wanting to know how!"

Samus shrugged her shoulders.  "To be perfectly honest, we don't know.  The Luminoth discussed it for a long while and eventually reached a conclusion they seemed to feel was the most likely...but I didn't bother to listen.  Once I had Spike back, I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth."  Noticing the stares, she chuckled.  "It's a figure of speech.  It basically means Don't question a miracle."

Twilight scratched her chin for a time.  "Actually...I think I might have a few ideas.  Would you say Luminoth tech used crystal computers instead of microchips?"

Thinking back, Samus nodded.  "Yeah, sounds about right.  ...why?"

"Well, the crystal grew out of Spike's body," she explained.  "Logically, it would have all the same genetic material in any leftover cells as any other part of him that broke off.  So when you took it into the Light Based Teleportation System, it read the data of his genetic code as a second passenger passing through.  And if he'd used the main system previously, it would have used the backup of his last passage as the template to restore him with the energy from the crystal.  The only question would be how it managed to incorporate his mind...and soul.  That's...going into aspects of cloning that is why duplication magic is strictly regulated."

"I said I was sorry!" Pinkie Pie snapped out, causing several giggles.

"Considering how heavily spiritual both the Luminoth and the Chozo are," Celestia spoke up, "I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of their ghosts guided Spike's soul back into his new body after Dark Aether's destruction..."





On Aether, immediately after Samus fired the Super Sunburst...

The Emperor Ing let out a shriek of agony as the supercharged light energies attacked his anchors in his new host.  He struggled desperately to hold on.  He would not fall now!

As he struggled, he felt the etheral grip of ten Luminoth take hold of his spiritual being, ripping him out of his host.  He screamed his curses as his essence was torn into nothing, the last fragments of his being cast into the dimensional void, to eventually be scattered, unless he found something new to anchor himself to somewhere in time.

The ten Luminoth Warrior Spirits - the Keybearer squadron, who had been sent to gather the Sky Temple Keys - infused their essence into the dragon they had helped to free.

"Rest now, young warrior," one spake.

"You are weary," another added.

"Let us guide you from here," continued a third.

"We will guide you safely home," a fourth concluded.

The ten spirits settled into the form as it adapted to their power, guiding it as it sought the way back to Aether.  However, it soon became apparent that they would not make it back.  They felt the dragon's soul accept this outcome.

"No," a fifth spirit denied.  "You will not die here young warrior."

"This is our battle," a sixth proclaimed.  "You must live to fight another day."

"You and your mother have more to save than just our world," an eighth reassured.

"Let us do our part for you," a ninth stated.

Taking a crystal from the beast's back, they infused it with his mind, his soul, and his light, that the Light of Aether would give him a new form in which to continue his journey.  With that, they hurled the pair in their care through the portal, destroying it behind them.

Rounding on the assaulting Ing, the tenth roared out their challenge.  "Come Dark Ones!  Dance into oblivion with us!  We shall drag you beyond and into the Abyss, until the last of our souls burns in defiance of thee!  Come!"





Spike shrugged his shoulders at Celestia's conclusion.  "No idea," he replied.  "I don't even remember it...other than a few voices in dreams.  I can never remember what they said when I wake up, though."

Celestia chuckled.  "In that case, I think for now we should all seek our beds."  Turning, she lowered the sun as Luna raised the moon.  "There will be plenty of time for more of the story...the day after tomorrow."

"Agreed," Luna stated.  "Tomorrow we should all see to whatever duties we have, to ensure no interruptions."

Sharing smiles and yawns, the group around the table began making their way to their beds.





The Emperor Ing snarled in frustration.  It had just barely escaped its destruction in the Void before finding its way to this magical world.  The magic of the world had restored it, and it had even found the perfect host to possess so it could move about in the light.  A King that was curious about darkness had fallen to the Emperor, and it had soon had an Empire working towards the restoration of the Ing...

But then two Princesses had struck him down, and then a third had all but destroyed his vessel.  Now, he was left, once more barely a fragment of himself, clinging to a piece of horn to avoid dissolution.

And now a dragon had picked it up, obviously mistaking it for a gem.  The Emperor Ing roared his frustration, screaming vile curses on the warriors of Light who had cast him down...Samus Aran and Spike the Dragon!

The dragon hesitated as the Emperor's last essence was halfway to his mouth.  The mouth closed, and the horn base was pressed to the dragon's forehead.

As the Emperor Ing worked to fuse the horn to the new vessel, he found a deep rage and darkness equaling his own awaiting him.  The voice of the dragon was as grim as the Emperor's own.

"Tell me more," Ridley asked the phantom he'd taken into his own body.
> Interlude: A Slice of Life
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The following day, the group went their separate ways for the day to take care of various tasks they needed to see to, agreeing to meet up again the next day to hear more of the story.

Applejack and Apple Bloom went back to the farm to take care of chores they'd left a few days more than they should have, as well as a harangue from Granny Smith for ditching so long.  When they explained that it was because Spike had come back after so long, they then got a different harangue for not bringing Granny Smith along to help welcome "the little fella" back.  She didn't seem to hear any of the comments about Spike not being so little anymore.

Rarity took Sweetie Belle back to the Boutique, since she was watching her this week while their parents were out of town...again.  While Sweetie Belle got to work on her Spring Break homework - after a bit of a lecture from Rarity for delaying it so long - Rarity got to work on some of her own back orders of dresses and suits.  Intermittently, she paused to work on another suit design, though if one paid close attention one would see it was most definitely not for a pony frame.  Also, the design was more...archaic than the norm, giving a sense of being armored, despite being crafted of cloth and gem.

Rainbow Dash spent the entire day practicing her own flying, while working with Scootaloo to figure out what changes needed to be made to normal flight lessons to take into account the fact her flight used different vectors.  Scootaloo was a bit surprised just how much of the advanced mathematics involved in flight Rainbow knew so well, having long assumed that Rainbow flew by instinct and awesome.  When they weren't redesigning the lesson plan, they were flying together, both of them happy as could be.

Celestia took her chance to check back in with Canterlot, to find out if anything of significance had happened to require her immediate return.  Her new Guard Commander - a thorough going professional Earth Pony/Diamond Dog hybrid named Shepard - gave her a brief report with nothing too urgent.  The nobles were, of course, in a fit over their Princesses "abandoning them", but Blueblood had finally showed enough of a spine to actually deliver the message she'd given him pass on to the nobles, and he'd ranted at them for a good three hours straight about being 'spineless foals who couldn't do anything without mumzy coming up behind them to wipe their asses'.  As a result, Canterlot was running smoothly, if with a bit of tension, and the Canterlot kitchens had been keeping Blueblood tipsy with a steady supply of high quality booze.  Celestia wasn't sure whether she should be pleased with Blueblood's apparent growth or dreading the fallout when she and Luna finally returned.  Beyond that, the only thing of issue was a minor report of disturbances in the Badlands, but it didn't seem to be of significance.

Pinkie Pie bounced happily back to the Cakes' and began making plans for Spike's "Welcome Back" party.  Having gathered a great deal of intel during the story about new flavors Spike liked and disliked, she first went to update the file she had in her Party Planning Palace in the basement, including notations on portions to take into account his new size.  She also created a brand new file for Samus, though it was a bit more sparse than she liked, as all she'd determined so far about Samus' likes and dislikes so far was that she liked Spike and chocolate, and disliked big meany stinky-heads like that Ridley character.  While a lot that Pinkie could agree with, it didn't really leave much to plan a "Welcome to Ponyville" party around.  Somehow, she didn't think a Spike shaped cake would be the best of ideas...especially with how all her friends were being doggies.  Something about those two things said "bad idea" to her, though she couldn't put her hoof on why.

After all, friends didn't think naughty thoughts about each other.  That was an absolute she'd known for years.(1)

Luna and Fluttershy took it upon themselves to show Samus around Ponyville, after bringing her by Fluttershy's cottage to help feed her animals.  Samus, for her part, was careful and gentle with the animals, though she kept her helmet on so neither mare was able to see her emotional reaction.  She did seem to enjoy the tour of the town, however, and the ponies around town certainly worked to make her feel welcome, even if her armored appearance did make some of them a little nervous.

Twilight, much to her surprise, slept late.  When she finally awoke, she saw that it was nearly noon, and nearly freaked out.  "Oh my gosh, I'm so late!"  Dashing from her bedroom, she rushed through brushing her teeth and combing her mane - managing to use the wrong tools on the wrong spots by mistake in her panic - before rushing downstairs, hoping that opening the library so late wouldn't cause a problem.

Once she actually reached the downstairs where the public library was, however, she was startled to hear ponies already present.

"Thanks for the help, Spike!" Lyra was saying.

"Glad to help, Lyra," Spike replied.  "Library needs to open...and Twilight needed the sleep."

"Well, have a nice day!"

"You too!"

When Twilight got into the library portion, she saw Lyra leaving with a checked out book while Spike worked on reshelving.  Noticing Twilight enter, he smiled at her.  "This is a lot easier now that I'm not pint sized," he joked, reaching easily up to the top shelf to put a book back.  He then suppressed a chuckle.  "Twilight, you've got tooth paste in your hair and hair in your teeth...again."

Groaning, Twilight spat the hair from her brush out.  "You've got things down here for a bit?" she asked.

"I can handle it," he replied.  "Go get cleaned up.  I'll make you an omelette for breakfast when you're back down."

Twilight smiled as she turned to head back upstairs, but paused at the door.  "...Spike?" she called over her shoulder.  "It's...it's good to have you back.  The place just...wasn't home without you."

Spike smiled back, knowing how hard it was at times for Twilight to vocalize her deeper emotions.  "I'm here to stay," he reassured her, pretending not to see the tears she raced upstairs to hide.








(1)Yes, Pinkie's lack of understanding of the "woof" thing is due to a logical disconnect in her mind, given the way she thinks.  Not a lack of understanding of what 'woof' could mean, but a mental refusal to see the connection.
> Interlude: Hero's Reward
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The next day, the group gathered again shortly after breakfast to hear more of the story.  However, shortly before Samus or Spike could begin, there was a knock on the door.  Confused, Twilight started to move for the door.

"I'll get it!" Spike told her, heading for the door and opening it.  Before him, two figures he had been starting to remember stood there, staring up at him in shock.  Spike couldn't help but chuckle at that.  "Last time I saw you, you were bigger than me," he pointed out to the unicorn stallion.

"Spike?" Shining and Cadence gasped out in shock.

"Shining?  Cadence?" Twilight called out from inside, recognizing their voices as she rushed out to join what quickly became a group hug.

"What happened to you, Spike?" Shining finally asked as the hug broke up.

"Nope!" Pinkie piped up, jumping between them.  "We've already sat through four days of storytelling.  You can join in in the middle and get the refresher later!"

Cadence couldn't help but laugh at that.  "Or we could just read Twilight's notes," she teased, resulting in Twilight blowing her a raspberry.

Shining rolled his eyes at that.  "Yeah...she's the only filly to ever take notes during The Cat in the Hat."

"Shi-ning!"

Laughter and introductions went around, as well as a few quick explanations, and Shining and Cadence took seats around the table.  "So what have we missed?" Shining asked.  "Any chance we could get a cliff notes version before you continue?"

"Samus hatched Spike due to crazy time stuff," Rainbow began.  "Spike ate bad stuff which is actually good for dragons, grew super tough, fought a dragon, fought a demon, saved two planets, and had trouble convincing himself he wasn't a monster.  Oh, and he apparently snagged a kiss at some point we haven't heard about yet, since apparently dragon fire cleanses their mouth completely, even of bad breath, leaving only a 'smokey aftertaste'."

Rarity gave Rainbow a long suffering look.  "That was a rather...blunt way of putting it," she commented, noting Shining's somewhat shell-shocked expression.  "However, I must admit I'm still curious about who it was that you got such...attention from, Spikey-Wikey."  She fluttered her eyelashes at the dragon, making him scratch at his neck uncomfortably.

"Funny you should bring that up," Samus pointed out.  "That's actually the next part of the story, when we went back to that same world where Spike had his 'monster' moment before."

"Ya took him back?" Applejack asked in shock.

"My idea," Spike indicated.  "I wanted to face up to what I'd done and accept it...and prove to myself that I'd moved past it."

"And boy did he..." Samus chuckled.





As Samus and Spike stepped out on the world where their previous abortive picnic had occurred, Spike glanced around carefully.  His armor hummed faintly, limiting his capabilities to account for the 1G environment, as opposed to the 20G he was used to.  He was still immensely strong like this, but with luck he wouldn't break anything, or anyone.  He wasn't surprised to see looks of concern or hostility sent his way after his last visit there.

Samus, for her part, greeted any hostility directed at Spike with a hostile look of her own.  She was much better at it than the civilians.  Few hostile civilians remained any longer than it took them to turn tail.





Cadence couldn't help but giggle at that.  "I never would have pegged you for the overprotective type, Samus," she teased.

Samus merely shrugged in response as Spike rolled his eyes.  "Well, considering I thought I'd lost him at the end of the last mission-"

"Wait, lost?" Shining asked, confused.

"Oh, yeah, Spike died at the end of the second planet," Rainbow added nonchalantly.  "He got better though, and he apparently has a taste for brains.  No big."

Discord busted several guts laughing.  "Shiney...Cadey...you should both see your faces!"

The Princess and Prince Consort both blushed, as while Discord was the most vocal, he wasn't the only one laughing.

Samus suppressed her own chuckles.  "At any rate, things were...tense.  At least until the fire broke out."

"Fire?" many of the listeners gasped out.

Spike rolled his eyes.  "Mom, I don't know which of you is worse..."





Spike and Samus were caught off guard when they saw the fire truck go racing by.  However, neither hesitated either.  Samus donned her Varia Suit - Arm Cannon restored - and raced after Spike, who managed to get ahead of her in the short time she had taken to get armored.

Arriving at the scene, she saw the fire truck in position, dousing a large apartment complex with their hoses, trying to extinguish the flames.  "What's the situation?" she asked the head of the squad.

Recognizing her by her armor, he breathed a sigh of relief.  "Fuel Gel tanker had a navigation malfunction and crashed into the apartment building.  It's mostly empty, but there are still people and animals trapped inside.  Was the dragon with you?"  He gestured to the large hole in the wall.

"Spike went inside?" she demanded in shock.

"He said he was fire proof!" one of the other fire fighters called out.

"Not Fuel Gel proof!" Samus snapped, getting ready to charge in.





"Fuel Gel?" Twilight asked curiously.

"A highly reactive chemical substance, naturally occurring on various worlds," Samus explained.  "Ideal for interstellar ships as a fuel source.  Highly acidic to organic materials."

Twilight and several others winced.  Samus continued the story.





As Samus got ready to move in, the fire bowed outward around the hole as Spike stepped out carefully, several people and animals shielded under his armored wings.  The fire fighters raced forward to guide them to the EMTs.  "I think that's everyone," Spike told the one in charge.

"My baby!" one of the women shouted out.  "My little girl's still in there!"

His eyes going wide, Spike turned and immediately raced back inside, eyes closed and nostrils flared.





"Eyes closed?" Shining asked, confused.

"Sight isn't actually the strongest sense in most reptiles," Fluttershy pointed out.  "From the sound of it, Spike was trying to track the difference in heat between human body temperature and flames, and scent anyone living left in the burning building."

"That exactly, Fluttershy," Spike praised.  "Unfortunately, I was nearly too late..."





Samus watched from below, focusing on using her power beam to shoot any fragments of debris that were flying towards other buildings or people.  She regretted her lack of Ice Beam, as it would be ideal for the situation.  Not even her missiles were useful here.  While focusing on what she could do, she pushed back her worries about Spike.  After all, he was a big dragon, right?

At that moment, a scream was heard from the far side of the building.  Up near the top, a teenage girl - presumably the one Spike had gone back in to find - was holding on for dear life from a window ledge, fire shooting out the window above her.

Samus raced over with the firemen, trying to position an impact pad to help the girl survive the fall, but she lost her grip before they'd even made it around the corner, screaming as she fell.

As she passed the halfway point - about when the impact pad was fully unpacked - the side of the building exploded outward just above her.  The civilians screamed in fear, but Samus felt her jaw drop as she saw lances of green incinerate bits of debris falling towards the girl.

Spike swooped down out of the cloud of smoke and flame, moving as fast as he could to catch up to the girl.  Just before she hit the ground, he managed to snag her.  His armor's anti-G field kicked in, using the same energies that limited his strength in a low-G environment to neutralize the effect of sudden G's on his body - or anything he was holding - allowing him to shift instantly to lateral flight without tearing himself or the girl apart as he pulled her into his forelegs.  He performed a gentle swoop up and around to land amongst the civilians safely.  "You alright, miss?" he asked as he set her down gently.

The girl smiled up at him.  "My hero," she breathed, throwing her arms around his head and planting her lips firmly on his.  His eyes popped open in shock.  After a few moments, she pulled back, licking her lips thoughtfully.  "Hmm...smokey."  She giggled.  "My name's Lauren.  What's yours?"

"Er...I...uh...guh..." Spike stammered out.

"Spike!" Samus shouted, catching their attention.  She pointed upward, where a bit of pipe blasted upward by another explosion in the building had caused one of the aerial tankers carrying the flame retardant to extinguish the flames start to list dangerously, losing altitude.  Without thinking, Spike took wing, shooting up into the air to catch the listing ship, using his own strength and wings to position it in the right place to dump its load.

Lauren looked up with an awestruck grin.  "Dragons are awesome!"





"That they are!" Rainbow crowed, holding out her hoof for Spike to bump.

Rarity sighed theatrically.  "A young girl bestows her first kiss upon her rescuer...how romantic..."

Samus chuckled at Spike's embarrassment.  "Well, we weren't able to stay for long.  By the time we were finally ready to unwind, we got called up for another mission.  We had to meet up with one of the Federation's main fleets near Planet Norian for debriefing.  That mission...was a doozy."

"Made some friends while we were at it, though," Spike pointed out.

"You know how that ended," Samus countered.

Spike shuddered.  "Don't remind me-"

"Forgive my interruption!" Luna spoke up.  "However, my attention is required immediately.  An errant comet has just entered our region of space and is approaching the planet at untoward velocity!"

Twilight let out a shocked gasp, shortly followed by the entire group racing out of the castle.  "Where is it, Luna?" Celestia asked.

Luna focused her magic, and her eyes widened.  "That is far too fast!  It has already entered the atmosphere!"  She pointed upward.

A bright blue spot surrounded by a red corona could be seen shooting through the atmosphere, coming downward.

"Shining Armor!" Luna barked out.  "We need your strongest shield spell, backed by all the magic we can bring to bear!  If that thing impacts at those speeds-"

"It won't," Spike commented calmly, his eyes locked on the object and the readouts his visor was giving him.  "It'll slow down well before it reaches the ground, and come in for a gentle landing..."  He tracked the course projection, and pointed to a clear space near the crystal castle, within walking distance.  "Right about there."  He glanced up at Discord.  "I wonder how they got the course so accurate?  Or knew where to find us?"

Discord glanced away, whistling innocently.

"I...I don't understand..." Luna began.

"It's not a comet," Samus explained as the object began to slow its descent.  "It's a spaceship...made of living ice."

"And machines, from the looks of things," Spike pointed out.

As the ship landed gently, its door opened.  Three familiar figures stepped out into the light.
> Corruption: Allies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The three figures that walked down the ice ramp of the ship were both quite distinctive and visibly alien, just barely humanoid as far as the ponies could tell.  The first was pale blue, gradiating to white on some parts of his body, black on others.  His body was somewhere between crystalline ice and flesh in texture, and there were no features on his face with which to read expressions.  There were only two yellow dots of eyes to even denote that it was his face.  One notable distinction was a portion of his torso that looked like some sort of scar, which shone bright blue and was far more ice than flesh in appearance.  He walked right up to Samus and Spike.  "It is good to see you both again," he stated calmly, bowing respectfully.

"Good to see you too, Rundas," Samus replied, returning the bow.

"I'd have thought that would have fully healed by now," Spike spoke up, indicating the bright blue scarring.

"It has," Rundas replied.  "However, I have chosen to leave the sealing scab of ice in place, to remind me of the event.  I still owe you a life debt, Spike."

Spike rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Now don't overwhelm the poor boy," the second figure stated as he walked up.  His body was almost entirely robotic, with only the brain visible through the transparent casing of his head unit indicating this was a cyborg and not an android.  His limbs were somewhat spindly, plainly not built for strength.  However, the numerous manipulators and interface points along the length of all the limbs indicated that this was because his body was designed to interface with other machines.  "You know how flustered he gets when people hero worship him."

Samus chuckled a bit.  "Funny meeting you here, Ghor," she greeted.  "How'd you find your way here?"

"We received a signal that you were here," he explained.  "We decided it would be nice to stop by and reminisce."

"But that one makes her own way home," Rundus grolwed, gesturing back at the third figure still making her way down the ramp.  "How is it no one's slit her throat for talking so much before?"

"They probably have," Ghor replied.  "But she's pure energy.  It wouldn't kill her."  He glanced around, not noticing how unnerved the ponies were getting from the line of the conversation.  "Such a curious world you hail from, Spike," he commented in his synthesized voice.  "There's so much I could learn here..."

Spike nearly choked on his laughter when he saw how Twilight's eyes lit up at that statement.  However, his expression changed to nervousness as the third figure approached.

She was most definitely female, and the most humanoid in appearance of the trio.  Her entire body was blue and pink, glowing with energy, with her grey skeletal structure visible through her flesh.  Her eyes sparked with mischief, and she had a coy smirk on her face.  If one looked closely, however, they would spy what looked like green fire running here and there where veins and arteries should have been.  She sauntered up to Spike, her hips swaying enticingly as she completely ignored Samus.  "Well, well, Spike...is this how you treat a lady?  I honestly never thought that was how you were.  You never called, you never wrote...shame on you."

Spike stepped back a bit nervously.  "Uh...Sorry Gandrayda...things were kind of...busy.  Didn't realize I should..."

"But after all we shared?" Gandrayda pouted, fluttering her eyelashes at him.  "We did so much together..."

"Well, I..."

"And the way you stole that kiss," she breathed enticingly.

"Excuse me?" Rarity gasped out in shock.

"It wasn't like that!" Spike shouted.  "I was trying to save your life!"

"And you succeeded beyond your wildest dreams," Gandrayda purred, attempting to press herself up against Spike only for him to flee into the upper branches of the crystal tree palace.  She then giggled.  "He's just so cute when he's flustered."

"Funny you three should be here now, bringing all that up," Samus interrupted.  "Spike and I were just telling his friends and family on this world of his adventures, and we'd just gotten to the mission you're all talking about."

"Perhaps we could join you then," Ghor offered.  "Give a perspective on events the two of you can't provide."

"Not a bad idea," Samus allowed.  She then turned to Gandrayda.  "As long as you can keep your flirting to a minimum.  It won't help the story if Spike's running away from you every other minute."

Gandrayda rolled her eyes.  "If you insist," she allowed.  "It's good to see you well, by the way."

"You too.  Just don't turn into me this time."

"Turn...into you?" Twilight gasped in shock.

Smirking, Gandrayda stretched.  Her body became extra translucent as she flared with pink electricity.  When the light faded, she looked identical to Twilight Sparkle.  "It's a peculiarity of my race," she explained in her own voice.  "Since we're pure energy, we can reshape our bodies to mimic the appearance and abilities of anything we've encountered."

"Sounds a lot like the Changelings," Rainbow Dash pointed out as the alien shapeshifter resumed her own form.

"Except they aren't pure energy," Twilight pointed out.  She approached Gandrayda.  "Could...could you do that again?  But more slowly, so I can take some scans?"

Gandrayda chuckled.  "Maybe later.  First, I think some introductions are in order."

"Not to mention your Welcome to Ponyville party!" Pinkie Pie proclaimed as she leapt up, confetti exploding around her.

Ghor stared at Pinkie as she raced around gathering party supplies.  "Something tells me trying to understand her will give me a real headache..."

"It's Pinkie Pie," Twilight told him.  "Don't question it.  Trust me, don't.  It's not worth the headaches.  Besides, she's a good friend, even when she doesn't make any sense."

"Now where's the fun in making sense?" Discord asked with a cackle as the large group went into the crystal tree castle, laughing and talking as they waited for the party.

"...Ghor!" Twilight shouted.  "Don't cut chunks off my home!"

"Apologies."
> Corruption: Olympus part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The Welcome Party lasted the entire rest of the day, and Twilight was happy to put their new visitors up in her Crystal Castle/Library home.  By sunrise, however, she was ready to throw Ghor out, as she couldn't leave him unsupervised in the library for more than five minutes before he started trying to 'collect samples' again.  While she was happy to meet someone who was so dedicated to study and learning from another world, it wasn't just the castle's structure of living crystal that he tried to take study samples from.  She tried to be understanding, since she could get the same way in her own studies...but she drew the line at waking up to find him brushing her mane while she slept with an attachment to his arm 'to collect dandruff samples'.  She did not have dandruff!

Twilight wasn't the only one who looked like they didn't get much sleep the previous night.  Rainbow and Applejack both looked hungover, and Rundus looked smug.  At some point during the party, they had engaged in a drinking contest, which Rundus had won with ease.  Rarity looked somewhat put out, claiming the loud noise from that 'contest' had interrupted her beauty sleep...although her eyes were on Gandrayda.  Since Spike had shrunk down to be smaller than the Crusaders and hidden in amongst the roots of the chandelier, Twilight privately suspected Rarity's lack of sleep had been trying to keep Spike and the energy alien apart all night.

Samus herself looked none the worse for the night of partying, and the Crusaders were happily eating their breakfast alongside Pinkie, Fluttershy, Celestia, and Luna.  Discord hadn't stopped laughing the entire night, and didn't look like he needed any sleep.

"So, will we begin telling the story now?" Ghor asked curiously.  "There is quite a bit to go over."

"Four planets, three spaceships, and a grand finale," Rundus added mildly.

"Should kill a few days," Gandrayda agreed as she leaned back, arching her back as she stretched.

Samus rolled her eyes.  "Well...if everyone's ready..."  With nods all around, she continued.  "It began with the summons to the Kalandor Region of space, and the GFS Olympus, in orbit around Planet Norion..."





Once the ship landed in the Olympus' docking bay, Samus and Spike stepped off the ship, walking side by side towards the waiting GF Soldiers.  One of them greeted them warmly.  "Samus, Spike, welcome aboard the flagship GFS Olympus.  Admiral Dane is waiting for you in the briefing room.  I will upload the location to you now."

Both of them nodded in response as the coordinates of the briefing room were uploaded to their suits' map systems.  As they progressed, Samus couldn't help but chuckle as Spike looked around eagerly, enjoying his reactions to his first time aboard a Federation battle ship.  To the right of the docking station was a target practice course, involving shooting a training drone as many times as you could in the air without letting it fall to the ground.  Spike attempted it, but one burst of his breath melted the drone without launching it.  Spike proceeded to pout all the way through the next door, only to get distracted by other things.

As they progressed, they had to wait outside the contamination scanner, since Ghor was going through the procedure ahead of them.





"I must apologize for my rudeness that day," Ghor spoke up at table.  "I'd had a rough past few months, and it rubbed me the wrong way that the troops were treating me like a moron.  I did design this body for myself after losing my original one, after all.  I know my way around technology."

"It's no problem," Samus replied with a shrug.  "Pretty sure we were all under a bit of stress that day."

"Not all," Rundus growled, glowering at Gandrayda, who merely rolled her eyes.

Samus shook her head.  "At any rate, nothing really interesting there...except when it was Spike's turn in the scanner..."





"What do you mean there's a problem?" Samus demanded of the techs as Spike stood patiently in the chamber.

"We can't seem to scan him," the tech replied.  "All the data coming from the scanners makes no sense.  It's claiming there's some sort of gravimetric distortion in his body, and that's impossible!"

Samus took a closer look at the scans.  "...oh.  So that's how it works."

"Excuse me?" the tech demanded.

"Spike's adapted for a 20G planet," Samus explained.  "His armor's designed to limit his physical capabilities in lower G environments so he doesn't break things - or people - accidentally.  That's what you're picking up."

After that, Spike was cleared for the command bridge rather quickly, with the techs gaping at him.  Smirking, he idly flexed his arm, making them duck under their consoles.





"I gotta admit," Spike called from his perch in the chandelier, "I probably had too much fun with that."

Several of the listeners chuckled, though it turned to genuine laughter when Gandrayda sent him a flirtatious smirk that had him hiding in the chandelier again.

"Gandrayda," Samus chided gently.

"I can't help it!" she replied.  "He's just too adorable!"

Rolling her eyes, Samus continued her tale.





As Samus and Spike entered the command bridge, they found several people waiting for them.  Admiral Dane was a middle aged soldier in full uniform, with a no-nonsense air about him.  Lined up alongside where Samus and Spike had walked in were Rundus, Ghor, and...Samus?

"Gandrayda, enough!" Admiral Dane barked as Rundus and Ghor glanced back and forth between the two Samuses in confusion.  The one to the far right reverted to Gandrayda in a flash of light as she giggled.

Spike, for his part, chuckled as well, shooting Gandrayda a thumbs up behind the backs of the other Hunters.  Catching sight of it, Gandrayda smiled and sent him a wink.

Admiral Dane began the debriefing.  "Looks like everyone's here now," he stated bluntly.  "Before I begin the briefing, let me introduce 242, the flagship's Aurora Unit."





"Auroroa Unit?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Biological supercomputers," Ghor explained.  "They are based off living brains, and can thus process data in ways simple electronics cannot handle, even making intuitive leaps of logic.  The biological component actually proved an unexpected advantage, as the system was able to react to damage in ways above and beyond simple status reports, able to act to preserve ship and crew beyond what a standard computer could do."

"All well and good," Samus grumbled, "but they gave me the creeps.  Reminded me too much of Mother Brain."

"Mother Brain?" Celestia inquired.

"The Space Pirates bio-supercomputer," Samus explained.  "A giant brain that controlled everything with powerful telepathic abilities.  Not pleasant.  Fought the thing on Zebes shortly before I found Spike's egg."

"Can we skip over the actual briefing?" Spike asked plaintively.  "It was rather boring.  Couldn't we just sum up the highlights?"

"Well..."

"The Aurora network was down due to viral infection," Gandryada explained quickly.  "A vaccine had been developed, but it needed to be administered to each Aurora Unit in person, but the virus was Space Pirate origin, due to them having captured another vessel, the GFS Valhalla, and its Aurora Unit.  Since the Feds were worried about further Pirate attack, they called in Hunters with records of thwarting the Pirates to do it.  That was us."

"Succinct and to the point," Ghor complimented.  "I didn't know you could be so efficient."

"We were also to investigate Pirate activity in the area while we did so," Samus added.  "Of course, the need for that was quickly discarded when the Pirates attacked the Olympus and planet Norion..."
> Corruption: Olympus part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"The pirates attacked the Olympus?" Twilight gasped in shock.

"Actually, they were attacking Norion," Samus clarified.  "They were after the planetary defense system."

"Why would they want to break that?" Rainbow asked curiously.

"Well, we didn't know it at the time," Samus began, "but-"

She paused as she noticed Pinkie reaching around in her mane, only to become confused.  She then ducked under the table.  When she came back out, she was holding her 'Spoilers!' sign and looking rather put out about something, and could be barely heard to be muttering about 'spartans' and 'robot ponies'.

"The Space Pirates were working for Dark Samus, and had accessed the source of Phazon and were trying to crash a Phazon meteorite into Norion, amongst other worlds," Ghor explained.  "Of course, we didn't get the full details of that for quite some time."

"Nor were we able to do much about it," Rundus admitted, lowering his head.

"I'd say we did okay as far as Norion was concerned," Gandrayda countered.

"At any rate," Samus continued, "Rundus, Ghor, and Gandrayda were ordered immediately to the planet's surface to assist the ground troops.  While Spike and I had the same orders, we decided to make sure everything was more or less stable in orbit and the Olympus before heading for the surface..."





As Samus and Spike made their way back to the docking bay, they bore witness to a single massive energy blast disabling another warship through a view screen.  Continuing on, they spotted Pirate Militia troops attacking some of the techs.  While they were able to take out the milita, they had already killed the techs.  Also, the fighting had led to the security doors locking shut, forcing Samus and Spike to take an alternate route.

On the way, a pirate boarding craft slammed into the side of the ship.  Pirate troops poured out, but were quickly taken down by both Samus' Power Beam and Spike's flame breath, keeping the few troops in the hall alive.  In the next hallway, another Trooper was pinned down by Pirate automatons, which fell rapidly to the pair's joint assault.  Spike tossed the trooper a med pack as they raced by.

In the next hallway, a fighter crashed into the side of the ship, creating a vacuum that sucked several Pirates out.  Seeing two of the troops being pulled towards the opening, Spike leapt forward.  He managed to catch the first troop in one claw as he sank the other claw into the floor, his tail snaking out to grab the other trooper just before he was pulled out.

Some quick thinking on Samus' part triggered the shutters to seal the breach, giving Spike just enough time to pull his tail back before it was cut off.  Both troops clung to the hull as they caught their breath.  Turning back to seek another path, they encountered a swarm of pirates, who managed to pull an Energy Cell from its housing, disabling several security measures.

Unfortunately for the Pirates, while Samus had lost most of her weaponry from previous adventures, Spike's breath had lost none of its potency.  The scent of cooked pirate quickly filled the passageway, making Spike gag and Samus glad her suit purified any air it absorbed from the environment.





The retelling was paused as several of the gathered audience members gagged.  "Did ya have ta tell that part?" Applejack gasped out desperately.

Samus scratched her chin.  "...probably not-"

"Yes," Spike growled.  "Ugh...this helm needs an air freshener attachment or something..."

"Now I know why you were so happy after saving me," Rundus commented.

"We'll explain when we get to that part of the story," Samus stated quickly as she saw everypony turn towards her with curious faces...and one sign waved like a bludgeon.  "At any rate..."





Putting the Energy Cell back in its socket restored power to the room, which - much to Spike's appreciation - also activated the air circulation system, which rapidly purged the stench of the dead pirates.  Unfortunately, it also heralded the approach of numerous explosive automatons.  Samus was able to escape by way of air vents in her Morph Ball, while Spike took the path the Pirates had blasted inward to escape.





"My route involved me taking a brief detour outside the ship, as well as regaining my Missile Launcher from the ship's armory," Samus explained.

"Mine involved a detour through the ship's mess hall," Spike explained.  "Which was even more of a mess thanks to the Pirates' attack.  There wasn't even anything left worth eating...except that bento Gandrayda'd hidden away for me on her way through."

As several pairs of eyes turned to her, Gandrayda chuckled and shrugged.  "What?  I was on that route myself, and boys of any race are always hungry.  When he shot me the thumbs up over my pretending to be Samus, he piqued my interest, and I figured leaving a meal for him would earn me some points if he were looking."

"The thought would have been more appreciated if you hadn't cut the weenies into miniature hearts and images of you," Spike pointed out from his hiding spot in the chandelier.

"Aw...didn't you like eating little old me?" Gandrayda asked teasingly.

"Can we skip to the Berserker Lord?" Spike pleaded.

"Berserker Lord?" several ponies asked.

"A new mainstay of the Pirate forces," Samus explained.  "Large and bulky, with crystalized Phazon armor and launching Phazon based projectiles.  Best way to fight it was to hit its own projectiles back at it with charged shots or, in Spike's case, breath attacks."

"One of them caught up to us at the ship," Spike continued.





As the Berserker Lord stomped up, Samus sent the command to her ship to get out of range of the fight.  The Berserker Lord's primary attacks involved spraying liquid Phazon from its mouth and Phazon based lasers.  Spike and Samus started the battle by focusing on the Lord's shoulders, where they could tell the armor was weaker.  They each took one shoulder to speed the fight up.  Once it had taken enough damage, it started launching the Phazon spheres, which Samus and Spike shot back.

After four shots were reflected that way, the armor plating broke off, and Spike lunged in, digging his claws into the exposed flesh, tearing it to shreds.  The Lord did not remain standing for long, especially after he'd dug a big enough hole to fire a blast of flame straight into its brain.





"Impressive," Rundus commented, nodding to Spike.

"You've done well incorporating your instinctive side into educated combat," Ghor praised.  "Few can manage that."

"Wish I'd seen more of you fighting if you fight like that," Gandrayda purred.  "Rar!"

Samus sighed.  "After that, we took the ship down to Norion...and I'll tell you about that just as soon as I get Spike out of the chandelier..."

"So, did Spike master size changing as a way to hide from Gandrayda?" Rainbow Dash joked as Samus went in amongst the roots in her Morph Ball.  Laughter and Gandrayda's pout greeting it.
> Corruption: Norion 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once Samus had managed to coax Spike out of hiding to sit at the table - accomplished by having Twilight and Rarity magically bind Gandrayda to her chair, which was moved to the opposite end of the table amongst the CMC with Discord hovering over her - everyone was ready to hear more of the story.

"In answer to your question Rainbow, no I didn't," Spike explained.  "Though I did master it partially because of her."

"Mmmhmm," Gandrayda purred.  "You most certainly-"

Discord promptly swatted Gandrayda's nose with a rolled up copy of the Foal Free Press.  "Bad dog," he scolded.  "No biscuit."

When Rundus finally stopped laughing, Samus continued the story.  "At any rate, we headed down for Norion to deal with the pirates there..."





As the ship glided into landing on Norion, Spike spied Ridley in the distance.  "So he's back," he muttered under his breath.  "I guess it's time for a rematch."

"Be careful," Samus chided.  "He's probably been training since your last encounter specifically for fighting you."

Spike chuckled and flashed her a smirk.  "He's not the only one," he pointed out, gesturing to the well used VR trainer in the back of the ship.





"VR trainer?" Rainbow and Twilight both asked curiously.

"Interstellar flight tends to be very long, even with hyper-light travel," Samus explained.  "Before finding Spike, I would alternate the time between planets between cryosleep and using the VR trainer to keep me physically fit.  It basically creates a fight simulation in the mind, while using electrical stimulation in response to the simulation so the body experiences the strain and intensity of the training."

"Wait, you mean it's an exercise you can get while napping?" Rainbow asked eagerly, making Twilight face hoof.

"Basically," Samus chuckled.  "Spike had been using it since Tallon IV to train against a simulation of Ridley in all sorts of environments.  I suggested he train against other opponents, but he claimed Ridley would always give him the greatest challenge, and I had a lot of data on him to build the simulation."

"So I knew I was ready for Ridley when I went after him in the skies of Norion, while Mom went after the generators," Spike explained.





As Spike flew into battle, he saw Ridley had changed his strategy.  He wasn't heavily armored as he had been before.  However, his scales had been chemically altered to amplify their defensive attribute, taking on a strong blue tinge.  Spike assumed that Ridley had experimented with Phazon augmentation the same way the other Pirates seemed to have.  He was certain, however, that he was more than a match for the beast.  He roared his challenge.

Ridley turned away from assaulting one of the Generators for the Planetary Defense System at the sound, and roared a challenge back.  He immediately lunged through the air for the younger dragon.

Spike knew a direct assault wouldn't be a good idea.  His armor was restricting his power output to take the planet's lower gravity - only 10Gs - into account, while Ridley was still flying at his peak.  Locking claws or teeth wouldn't be a good idea unless he disengaged his armor's limiters, and then he might do more damage to the place than Ridley.  However, the environment itself proved an advantage.

Rather than clashing with Ridley directly, he led the old wyrm to chase him, weaving in and out of the buildings.  Ridley pursued him with alacrity, plainly determined to destroy the younger drake, blind to everything around them.  When Spike dodged around a Pirate transport craft, Ridley blasted right through it, destroying the craft and its passengers.  Ridley attempted the same with the buildings at first, but the lack of success and headaches made him decide to do otherwise.

Once he knew Ridley was following his path exactly - too close for breath attacks, since Spike could easily dodge - he put his plan into action.  Flying over one of the bridges between buildings, he immediately dove down the other side, coming back under it.  Ridley followed his path exactly, but Spike had just enough lead to catch hold of the end of Ridley's tail, catching him where he couldn't easily turn around to face him.  Taking advantage, he dug into the lower half of Ridley's body with claws, fangs, and breath, trying to do as much damage as he could.

Ridley eventually managed to break free, and Spike had to give up a good amount of altitude to evade his counter attack, though he didn't come away unscathed.  His readouts indicated the energy shields of his armor were down about 20%.  He'd pushed the attack too long, and it wouldn't be so easy to lead Ridley into another such attack...which is why he didn't intend to.

Knowing Ridley would be more cautious in the bridge areas, Spike found the one he was looking for and flew through it.  As expected, Ridley was slower in his approach of it, expecting Spike to pull the same trick as before.  As a result, Ridley made himself a perfect target for the PED Delta marine squad, who happily blasted away at him with their Phazon enhanced weapons.





"PED squad?" Celestia asked curiously.

"Phazon enhanced weapons?"  Luna's voice showed her distaste for the very idea.

"With how much the Pirates were making use of Phazon, the Federation had to respond in kind or be completely overwhelmed," Ghor explained.  "However, seeing the harm Phazon could work when exposed directly to organic beings, they instead designed power suits that contained a Phazon reserve that could be used to temporarily turbo-charge weapons and armor until the system was disengaged or the Phazon reserve ran out.  This was the PED - Phazon Enhancement Device - suits."

"And as I'd thought, the blue color of Ridley's scales was from Phazon enhancement, and Phazon based weaponry like the hypermode of a PED tore right through his scales," Spike explained eagerly.  "While he was roaring in pain and getting ready to counter attack, I flew up between him and the marines, doing a fly by attack with claws and breath on the areas his scales had been weakened.  Of course, Ridley immediately turned to follow me..."

"Which meant he took a full salvo of Phazon enhanced rounds to his back and wings, knocking him out of the sky!" Rundus finished.  "I saw the end of that battle on my way back from Generator C to check on how Samus was doing at Generator B, since she'd already activated Generator A."  He held out his closed fist.

Smiling, Spike returned the fist bump.  "I admit, I was proud of that strategy."

"As well you should," Luna praised.

"Of course, there wasn't much time to celebrate," Samus explained.  "Not only was Ridley not down for the count - we had to deal with him again later - but a massive meteorite filled with Phazon - what we'd later learn was a Leviathan Seed, as we've explained - had come out of a rift in space, and was on a collision course with the planet."

"We all met up at the elevator to the controls," Gandrayda explained.  "We needed to activate the defense cannons right away."

"Our decision proved to be...tactically unsound," Ghor admitted.





As Spike came racing into the elevator, he found Samus, Rundus, Ghor in a larger battle body, and Gandrayda waiting for him.  He immediately noticed the new upgrade on Samus' left arm, a new modification for the Grapple Beam his scanners identified as the Grapple Lasso, which could be used to latch onto objects for the purpose of yanking them from their moorings.

"Nice flying, Spike," Rundus complimented.  "Saw you kick that other dragon's ass."

"I witnessed it myself through the security cameras," Ghor added in a much gruffer voice than normal as the elevator started moving.  "I admit, I had my doubts about your abilities...but no longer."

"Not bad at all, big boy," Gandrayda purred.

Spike chuckled nervously at all the praise, but couldn't help but preen as Samus threw him a silent thumbs up.

Once the elevator stopped, the group rushed out to activate the Planetary Defense Cannons...but when they weren't looking, Dark Samus charged in in a blast of Phazon, and surrounded by a Phazon energy shield.  The group immediately leapt to the attack, but each of them was felled one by one by a well placed Phazon shot near the center of their bodies.

Spike was the only one who'd had the sense to finish powering up the Defense Cannon before charging to the fight.  As a result, Dark Samus' assault did not doom the planet...but it did have long reaching effects for the Hunters.
> Corruption: Corruption
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"What happened?" Twilight asked worriedly.  "From the sound of it, killing you wasn't Dark Samus' intent...and that's worrisome."

"Agreed," Rundus confirmed.  "What actually happened was that Dark Samus planted a Phazon Seed inside each of us, close to our cores, where it would be difficult to extract or purge.  The seed then started pumping low levels of Phazon into our systems."

"Long term, that would have been bad," Gandrayda explained.  "But in the short term, the Fed's scientists saw it as an opportunity, by equipping each of us with modified PED suits, designed to draw from the Phazon our bodies now naturally generated to power them."

"But wouldn't that just accelerate the rate at which the Phazon corrupted your body?" Rainbow asked in confusion.  "Like with the Pirate Phazon Elites?"

The Hunters all stared at the prismatic pegasus for a time.  Ghor was the first to speak up.  "Correct me if I'm wrong, Spike...but isn't the purple one the genius of the group?"

"Each of them has their own genius, actually," Spike corrected.  "But you're right that Rainbow tends to prefer action over book learning.  Why?"

"I'm just wondering how she caught what the Federation's scientists missed when this world's science is nearly a millenium behind," Ghor clarified.

"To make a long story short, Rainbow," Rundus continued before she could parse the sentences enough to take offense, "that's exactly what happened to myself, Ghor, and Gandrayda...and probably was Dark Samus' plan all along."

"But she didn't account for Spike," Gandrayda clarified with a smirk.

"Why?" Twilight asked.  "What happened to him?  I know his body automatically metabolizes Phazon..."

Spike chuckled.  "This mission is where my breath started working like Mom's Arm Cannon."

Seeing even more confused expressions, Samus waved her hand to gather attention.  "Let me explain.  See, after the hit, Rundus, Ghor, and Gandrayda all regained consciousness within a week.  Spike woke up around the same time, but stayed onboard the Olympus to wait for me to wake up."

"Mostly because they wouldn't let him take your ship out without a Pilot's License," Rundus teased, getting a dragon raspberry blown his way, startling laughter from many of the listeners.

Samus smiled as she continued.  "For me, however, it took a full month to wake up.  And after getting an explanation of how my new PED suit enabled a Hyper Mode function by injecting an Energy Tank - as well as testing it out - I got some answers about what it had done to Spike..."





"So is Spike now generating his own Phazon, too?" Samus asked the tech as she was led out of the lab.

"Not...exactly," the tech replied nervously.  "As best as we can tell based on the reports we've received about his past physical examinations from Ceres, he's...developed a new gland."

"A new gland?" Samus asked.  "What, in his gut or something?"

"No, amongst his flame sacs," the tech clarified.  "The exact nature through which he generates his flames still isn't completely analyzed, but all the glands and organs involved had already been identified.  There's a new gland connected to the system, and it uses energy to convert his flame into...something else."

"Something else?" Samus asked.  "Stop beating around the bush and tell it to me straight."

Shrugging, the tech gestured to a vid screen.  A video file played, showing Spike facing of against a pillar energized by Phazon.  In the screen, Spike took a deep breath and opened his mouth wide.

A flowing blue and white stream similar to Samus' own charged Phazon Beam erupted from his mouth, tearing through the Phazon and the column as though it were made of tissue paper.  It deflected off the wall behind the pillar with no damage, however.

"...that wasn't Phazon," Samus pointed out.

"No," the tech agreed.  "Phazon energy would have torn right through the far wall, too, at those energy levels.  From what we've been able to determine, however, it's an energy that functions similarly to the energy harvested from processed Phazon, but on the opposite wavelength.  From what we've been able to determine, it has an...antithetical nature to Phazon and anything making use of Phazon energy.  We've taken to referring to this new energy - and the gland that produces it - as Fazite."

Samus nodded carefully as she took this all in.  "So...what exactly does this...Fazite do?"

"As we've noted, it has an antithetical effect on Phazon and Phazon users," the tech explained.  "When used against a material composed of Phazon, it will tear right through it, destroying its molecular structure.  It will have a similar effect on any organic lifeform actively using Phazon, like through the Hypermode of a PED of Federation or Pirate origin."

"I'll make sure not to stand in front of him, then," Samus muttered dryly.

"You only need to worry about it if you're actively in Hypermode," the tech clarified.  "At any other time, the Fazite will have no effect on your Power Suit."

"Good to know," Samus allowed, "but I'm still not standing in front of him until I'm not generating Phazon anymore."





"After that, I was reunited with Spike, and we went to get a mission briefing from the ship's Aurora Unit," Samus concluded.

"So, what was Spike doing for the three weeks he was awake and you weren't?" Pinkie asked curiously.

"Researching the condition," Spike explained.  "At first in the hope of fixing Mom...but as we lost contact with Rundus, Ghor, and Gandrayda, to figure out exactly how it worked.  And a good thing I did.  That knowledge saved their lives..."
> Corruption: New Mission
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Saved their lives?" Cadence asked worriedly.  "You mean, the Phazon was going to..."

"Yup," Spike replied.  "As best as I was able to determine, Dark Samus planted the Phazon Seeds in us in the hopes of harvesting them after we were fully corrupted, absorbing our unique ability sets into her own and eliminating the greatest threat to her goals in one fell swoop."

"She was...perturbed that Spike thwarted her," Ghor stated mildly.

"That's an understatement," Rundus and Gandrayda chimed in together.  The way they glared at each other afterwards made Shining Armor, amongst others, chuckle.

"At any rate," Samus continued, "we went to the Aurora Unit for our mission briefing..."





Reaching the Aurora chamber, Samus activated the interface to speak with the unit.

"Welcome Samus and Spike Aran," the Aurora Unit intoned.  "Let us begin.  Time is most critical.  During the attempted Pirate invasion of Norion, it was confirmed that two nearby planets were similarly attacked.  These planets are named Bryyo and Elysia.  These 'Leviathans' have impacted and embedded themselves deep into each planet, spreading a virulent Phazon inside their bodies.  The Leviathans must be destroyed.  As Spike has been informed, Rundus was dispatched to Bryyo and Ghor to Elysia on that exact mission, while Gandrayda was dispatched to find the Pirate stronghold.  This was two weeks ago, and we lost contact with them seven days ago.  They were also outfitted with PED suits like yours to take advantage of the Phazon their bodies were generating.  Your mission now is to complete their missions and find out what happened to them, and take whatever action you deem necessary in the process.  As Bryyo is closest, it is your first objective.  Good luck."

With the briefing complete, Samus and Spike immediately made for their ship.





"So what was Bryyo like?" Luna asked curiously.

"Unpleasant," Rundus replied.  "Equal parts barren stone, ruined citadels, and overgrown jungle.  The once proud natives had been reduced to feral madness."

"Natives?" Twilight asked in surprise.

"The Bryyonians were actually once allies of the Chozo," Samus explained.  "However, unlike the Chozo, they didn't learn the proper balance between technological advancement and attunement with nature, and it...destroyed them.  It led to civil war between the Lords of Science and the Shamans, with the regular citizenry divided between them, and sometimes even being turned into weapons by each.  In the end, the last Lord of Science found balance by combining science with the Nature Magic of their race...and his only Shaman disciple went out into the wilderness after his death to inscribe the records of what had happened, and attempt to turn what was left of their people back from howling barbarism.  She succeeded in the first.  ...we have no idea how successful she was in the latter."

Silence surrounded the table as they all took this in.  Even Discord hung his head in respect for the fallen.

Spike was the first to break the silence.  "It wasn't all bad, though," he mentioned.  "At least, not for me.  See, the entirety of the part of the planet we were exploring regarding the Leviathan was tropical...and almost entirely open air."

Rainbow, Scootaloo, Celestia, Luna, and Cadence all smirked at that, with Rainbow and Cadence holding their hooves up to bump Spike's clenched claws.





As they came in for a landing on Bryyo, Samus and Spike noticed that the Leviathan was surrounded by a force shield of Space Pirate design.  On instructions from the Aurora Unit, they sought out a downed Federation Ship to reactivate its satellite uplink in hopes of getting more information.

Spike took to the air, intending to get an aerial survey of the areas available to explore, plot a course to the downed ship, and grab whatever useful items he could for Samus.  This included several missile expansions and Energy Tanks.

As Samus moved along an interior path, she encountered a great deal of evidence of Rundus' movements.  Several unnatural ice formations throughout the area - some encasing formerly hostile organic creatures - showed his progress.  A rather large ice bridge was evidence that he was expecting someone without his abilities to come after him, and sought to leave a path for them.  She took that as a good sign.

The central area of the first segment of Bryyo was a massive structure somewhat resembling Chozo ruins, but without the natural flow of stone and metal reminiscent of growing things that marked Chozo work.  For some reason, it made Samus feel uneasy to see a city so similar and yet so different from that which she grew up in.

After dealing with many hostile creatures - some new, and some similar to varieties she'd encountered on other worlds - Samus reached a point where the path was blocked by Phazon vines.  There were Phazon concentrations that could be destroyed with Phazon based weaponry to open the path.  Entering Hypermode, Samus did so.

Shortly after, Samus would have faced off against Reptilicus hunters, Phazon mutated ground based predators of Bryyo that resembled six-limbed velociraptors.  However, Bryyo had few high altitude fliers, and the Reptilicus had no reason to expect attack from an aerial creature, as there were none larger than them.  This made them easy prey for Spike, who took the first one out with a dropped boulder, the second with his flame breath, and the third with his claws.

A hidden alcove granted Samus the Grapple Swing upgrade, which restored the Grapple Beam's original function of swinging from Grapple Points.  This allowed Samus to follow the path Spike had plotted to the crashed ship, the GFS Theseus.

Due to the damage the ship had taken in crashing, there were no entrances to the control station large enough for Spike, so he'd been forced to wait for Samus to arrive.  It didn't take Samus long to restart the uplink, and she and Spike then waited for information from the Aurora Unit on where to go and what to do next.





"The satellite data gave us the location of two shield generators of Pirate construction," Samus explained.  "At first, Spike was all for trying to fly in and destroy them, but satellite mapping revealed that the Pirates had added anti-air turrets specifically designed to target small, high speed fliers."

Rainbow snickered.  "The Pirates designed anti-Spike turrets?"

Spike smirked in pride.  "Eeyup!"

"So we had to go in another way," Samus explained.  "Thankfully, the data also included two other landing points for the ship."

"On the way out, we spotted Rundus in the distance, but..."  Spike glanced towards Rundus.

"At that point, the Phazon corruption was already quite strong," Rundus explained.  "I...feared I would injure them if I got too close and lost control."  Noticing Samus, Spike, Ghor, and Gandrayda's firm gazes, he quailed.  "Alright, I was also too prideful to admit I'd failed my mission."  This admission brought more than a few snickers from those around the table, as well as a gentle pat on the side from Applejack.
> Corruption: Fire and Ice
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Pinkie Pie brought everyone some refreshments, Samus continued her tale of their explorations of Bryyo.

"On the way back to the ship to check out those new landing coordinates, I had to deal with some Alpha Hoppers," she explained.  "The bulbous bastards were tough.  I had to switch to Hypermode to take them down."

"Why not just call in Spike for an air strike?" Scootaloo asked curiously.

"It was on that ice bridge I mentioned earlier," Samus replied coolly.  "I didn't want to risk it breaking from impact of flames."

"Valid point," Rainbow agreed.  "You don't have wings."

Samus nodded, ignoring Gandrayda's chuckle.  "At any rate, the first place we headed with the ship was the Fiery Airdock, in the Bryyo Fire region..."





The 'Bryyo Fire' region was aptly named.  The entire region had a much higher temperature than elsewhere due to the high quantities of Fuel Gel that flowed freely throughout the region.  In point of fact, most of the region was a factory designed to harvest the Fuel Gel, though Samus couldn't be entirely certain if it had been built by the Bryyonians, the Federation, or the Pirates.  It showed signs of having been used by both of the latter, at any rate.

Spike's main concern at first, though, had been the discovery that the majority of the area was inside the factory, with very few points he could see where he could gain aerial access.  This left him with a choice of being absent for most of the exploration or not flying.  Grumbling to himself, he decided to opt for the latter, hoping he wouldn't have to deal with too many Morph Ball tunnels.  After all, unlike Magmoor Caverns back on Tallon IV where he could swim in the lava, his hide was not immune to the caustic effects of Fuel Gel.

Another thing the pair noticed that drew their attention was Rundus' ship, which was also docked in midair on an ice platform nearby.  "Rundus is here," Spike murmured.  "Or at least, somewhere on the planet.  He's as versatile as I am in the air."

"More so, since he can use smaller doors," Samus teased, earning her a halfhearted glare from her draconian son.  Taking another look through her scanners, she frowned.  "The engines are still warm."

"Then he's somewhere nearby," Spike replied, steeling himself for the worst he could imagine.

As they explored inside the facility, Spike's flame breath was both useful and dangerous.  While it could ignite some streams of Fuel Gel in order to activate various devices, if he didn't aim carefully, he ran the risk of igniting pools of Fuel Gel with explosive results.

Unfortunately for Spike, a Morph Ball tunnel was almost immediately the only way forward, forcing him to backtrack and hope he could catch up with Samus sooner rather than later.





"This was rather unfortunate for me as well," Samus murmured.  "If Spike had been able to be with me at a certain point, things might have gone much smoother."

"Sorry about that, Mom," Spike murmured softly.

"Not your fault," she hastened to reassure him.  "Besides, it all worked out in the end."

"What happened?" Twilight asked worriedly.

Samus sighed.  "...I found out what had happened to Rundus and the others..."





Finding more Phazon-based vines blocking her path at one point, Samus calmly switched to Hypermode and blasted them away with her Phazon Beam.  However, just as the last Phazon node burst, her suit systems started going haywire, and she felt a sudden pain in her gut.  The PED started overclocking, and her suit registered a Phazon Overcharge, as well as an emergency message to vent the Phazon via her Arm Cannon.  Pumping out all the Phazon currently in the PED - difficult, since it was constantly replenishing - Samus managed to force herself out of Hypermode by triggering the PED's forced cooldown function.

She received an immediate message from the Aurora Unit that an abnormality in her suit's life support had been detected.  Well, isn't that the understatement of the year? she thought grumpily as the message continued on, indicating that the data had been downloaded for analysis.





"I got the message about her suit, too," Spike spoke up.  "If she hadn't immediately messaged me that she was fine, I'd have probably ripped the facility apart to get to her."

"I'd have paid to see that," Rundus joked.

Rolling her eyes as several ponies around the table giggled, Samus moved on.  "At any rate, I was able to catch up to Spike later on..."





As Samus entered an open air area, Spike swooped down from above for landing.  "You sure you're okay, Mom?" he asked worriedly.

Samus managed a shrug.  "I'll live," she replied.  "And I can keep going.  Beyond that...let's wait and see what the Aurora Unit has to say."

Spike nodded slowly, plainly still worried.  "Still going to stick close to you," he affirmed.  "Just to be on the safe side."

Samus chuckled as she rolled her eyes.  "Whatever you say," she replied jokingly.

Not long after that, the pair came to a rather large open air area...and immediately came under attack by Space Pirate bombardment.  Spike immediately took to the air, taking out the Pirate assault before it could get too close to Samus, while Samus herself focused on whatever Pirate troops managed to get past Spike.

Midway through the assault, however, the Pirates came under attack from another source, as massive spires of ice erupted out of nowhere and rained down from the sky to tear them apart.





"Aw yeah!" Rainbow crowed, pumping her hoof.  "And the ice dude saves the day!"

Rundus lowered his head.  "Not...exactly..."  When all eyes turned to him, he sighed.  "At that point, I'd...all but lost the battle with the Phazon corruption in my body.  I sought out Samus and Spike at that point...hoping they could stop me before I turned - or was turned - against innocents."

"You mean..." Twilight began in a horrified tone.

"You were there looking to be put down," Shining Armor stated in a flat tone, neither hostile nor compassionate...but still somehow understanding.

"Yes," Rundus agreed.  "I...thought it was the only solution.  Thankfully, Spike had come up with another."

Spike grinned as all eyes turned to him.  "Remember what I said about having studied the Phazon infections in the others?  Well, in Rundus' case, his physiology is a mix of flesh and living ice...and the Phazon Seed inside him had embedded itself in a large ice crystal near his heart.  I'd reconfigured my scanners with that data, just in case we encountered Rundus on Bryyo...and my scans showed that, despite the Phazon Corruption having spread through most of his body, it was still sustained by the seed, in much the same way the Phazon of a planet was sustained by the Core inside the Leviathan.  Remove the seed, the Phazon in the rest of the body dissipates.  At least, that was the theory."

"And so you put the theory to the test?" Twilight inquired with a proud smile.

"Once we'd managed to get Rundus to hold still long enough," Spike replied.  "With how close the ice crystal with the Phazon Seed was to his heart, I didn't want to miss..."





The first focus of the battle with Rundus for Samus and Spike was to do enough damage to him to daze him so his ice armor could be torn off.  This was made somewhat difficult by the series of ice pillars he'd erected in the area, and the fact that he'd roofed the entire area in ice, seriously hampering both allied Hunters' maneuverability.  Thankfully, Spike's flame breath under control was very effective at dazing Rundus, as his icy nature made him especially susceptible to the heat.

Once Rundus was dazed, Samus immediately leapt forward to tear the ice armor off with her Grapple Lasso.  Rundus immediately snapped out of his daze and began attacking again while racing about.  Samus continued her assault, while Spike pursued, trying to find his moment to strike.

His moment came as Rundus paused to reform his ice armor.  Lunging forward, Spike plunged his claw into Rundus' chest.  Relying on his sense of touch and awareness of Phazon, he managed to find the crystal with the Phazon Seed.  Grasping it, he tore it from Rundus' torso.  As Rundus fell backwards to the ground, his PED falling apart, Spike immediately swallowed the crystal to digest the Phazon Seed.

Samus stared in shock, then quickly switched to her scan visor.  To her surprise, Spike's assault had, indeed, cleansed Rundus of all Phazon Corruption.  However, he was now dying of the wound.

As she swung back to Spike, her scans displayed an alert.



New adaption detected in Spike's flame sac region.  Analyzing...



Before the analysis had completed, Spike opened his mouth and exhaled.  A blast of super-chilled air shot into the hole in Rundus' chest, sealing it in ice.



Analysis complete.  Spike now has a gland amongst his flame sacs to generate and store freon and other similar gases in liquid form to generate a super cold breath weapon, capable of freezing the surroundings in a manner similar to Rundus' own abilities.

Spike has acquired Ice Breath.

Adaption has been analyzed and applied to your Missile system, as it is incompatible with your Beam Weapon in current suit configuration.  Ice Missile acquired.



Samus leaned back, a proud smile on her face.  "Well, that was unexpected," she murmured.

Rundus stared up at Spike as his hand went to the icy seal.  "I'm...alive?  And...uncorrupted?"

"Barely," Spike commented dryly.  "I suggest you get back to your ship and hightail it for the Olympus for a more thorough medical checkup-"  In the middle of his statement, Spike's head snapped up and he spun around.

A ghostly apparition of Dark Samus floated in the air as the ice dome faded away, seeming to snarl in rage at Spike.

Spike growled deep in his throat, opened his mouth wide, and released a Fazite blast.  Dark Samus wasn't able to dodge all of it, as it hadn't expected an attack that could hurt it in that form, and was forced to flee.

Rundus stared up at what had just happened.  "...I think I'll take your advice," he murmured.  Managing to get himself to his feet, he placed his hand on Spike's shoulder.  "I...won't forget this."





"And I didn't," Rundus concluded, raising his hand to where the ice patch remained as a seeming discoloration of his flesh.  "Especially since, seeing how weak I was, Spike insisted on flying me back to my ship.  Well, I wasn't exactly doing well in all that heat, anyway..."
> Corruption: First Generator
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So what did you do after returning to your ship?" Luna inquired of Rundus.

"I took the advice and went up into space, sending the Olympus a mayday," Rundus replied.  "It wasn't long after that that I was picked up and they began medical treatment, as well as trying to study what happened to me."  He couldn't suppress his chuckle.  "I say 'trying' because they couldn't find any trace of Phazon in my system to study what effect it had on me."

"I'm just that good," Spike preened.

"While Spike was taking Rundus back to his ship, I moved on," Samus explained.  "The new Ice Missiles proved quite useful.  Not only could I freeze enemies and other obstacles, but one fired into fuel gel provided a temporary ice platform I could jump on.  It could even freeze flowing fuel gel, turning a pouring gel waterfall into a frozen platform to jump across."  She chuckled at the sight of Rainbow taking assiduous notes.  "Still planning on making that video game?"

"Yup!" Rainbow agreed.  "I'm going to make a mint!"

"Oh, I love mints!" Pinkie called happily.  "They taste so good on my tongue and make my breath so chilly fresh!"

Chuckling, Samus moved on.  "I managed to get a scan of the Space Pirate shield generator...but none of my weapons were tough enough to damage it.  Based on my scans, even Spike's arsenal wouldn't have damaged it.  The Aurora Unit indicated I'd need to find some new sort of armament."

"So we went back to the main area of Bryyo," Spike explained.  "With ice weaponry, more paths were available.  And, since I had to take it easy carrying Rundus, we actually made it back to the ship at about the same time..."





Once back in the northern area of Bryyo, Spike and Samus made their way towards a path beyond the crashed frigate they had been unable to pursue before, which their ice weaponry now made viable.  On their way there, the Aurora Unit informed them that along said path was a Federation landing site, where they would be able to upgrade their ship.

They also received a message about the malfunction in the PED.  Apparently, the stimulation of the unique Phazon inside Samus by the PED caused it to go into overproduction.  The Aurora Unit offered the Federation's apologies for not foreseeing the possibility.





Spike, Rundus, Ghor, and Gandrayda all snorted.

"Well, that's what they said," Samus complained defensively.





Reaching the landing site they were told about, Samus and Spike looked around to see what they needed to do to get the ship in.  However, just as Samus found the controls, an alert began.  The whole site closed itself down as several of the Bryyonian creatures attacked them.  Samus and Spike, as was their habit in these situations, went back to back at first until they could identify all threats, then split apart to take the enemies out in a pincer attack.

Between Samus' new Ice Missiles and Spike's Ice Breath, it was relatively easy to freeze most of the enemies, after which Spike charged through them to smash them to bits.  Once all the enemies were destroyed, the controls became available again.  Since all paths to the controls for the skylight were through Morph Ball tunnels in the ventilation system, Spike stayed at the controls for the ship upgrade system, ready to act once the ship was in place.

As she went, Samus collected an Energy Cell that she thought might prove useful later.  This also disengaged the system it was powering, causing a force field to drop, revealing a new path which required heat-based weaponry to open.  Samus made a mental note of it, deciding to explore it later after upgrading her ship and dealing with the Leviathan.

Once Samus had the bay doors opened, Spike lowered the platforms to clear the pad.  Samus then called the ship to land with her Command Visor, allowing Spike to trigger the upgrade.  The Ship Missiles it provided proved to be exactly what they needed to destroy the Shield Generators.





"The Ship Missiles weren't just useful for dealing with the Generators," Samus explained.  "Not only were there other obstacles that could be destroyed with them, the ship could also be called in to deliver an aerial bombardment on any enemies we were dealing with, as long as we were in open air and not somewhere protected by anti-air artillery."

"Sounds like it would have been more efficient to give Spike Power Bombs," Rainbow pointed out as she looked up from her notes.

Samus rolled her eyes as Spike chuckled.  "Possibly," she allowed.  "But it was still useful in a lot of situations.  And it certainly looked amazing..."





Since there weren't any anti-Spike artillery platforms set up in Bryyo Fire, Spike decided that the most efficient way of destroying the Generator in that area was to fly Samus there on his back, get into position where she could lock onto the Generator with her Command Visor, and order the bombardment.  They could then meet up with the ship in midair, board, and head for the next region of Bryyo to go after the other Generator.

The strategy proved quite effective, though Samus insisted on Spike roosting somewhere sturdy before she called in the gunship.  Once braced above where Samus had gotten the generator scan in the first place, she attempted to call in the ship...only to find the signal blocked.

Tracking the source of the interference, they found a Pirate jamming station where they'd fought Rundus.  Before Samus could give any instructions, Spike dove like a meteorite, seized an armored aerotrooper, and smashed it into the jamming station.  Samus followed up with several ice missiles just before Spike unleashed his flame breath.  The resulting temperature variance caused the station to crack as the metal weakened.  With the signal interrupted, Samus called in the gunship as Spike took to the air.

The ship swept in, launching its barrage of missiles.  The heavy impacts and explosives obliterated the Pirate equipment.

The explosion when the same missiles slammed into the shield generator, however, was much more satisfying to watch.





"After that," Samus continued, "we had to head for the western portion of Bryyo for the other generator.  Things...weren't as easy there..."
> Corruption: The Guns
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Not as easy?" Twilight asked curiously.

"So more of a challenge?" Rainbow asked eagerly.

"No," Spike replied.  "Just more frustration.  Because of the anti-air turrets - able to track both the ship and me accurately - we had to go along the ground.  Not only did that prove more difficult for me in the jungle, but we also began encountering Pirate Troops with Hyper Modes of their own."

"That meant I had to use my own Hyper Mode a lot more," Samus explained, "and Spike had to use his Fazite breath.  Since both drained our energy rapidly, this was an...unpleasant journey."

"Especially for me," Spike pouted.  "And the Pirates had scared off most of the local wildlife, so there wasn't even anything for me to eat!"

"Though the really dangerous thing for me were the Phazon-based weapons some of the Pirate Troops had," Samus explained.  "They were like Phazon bombs, and if they went off near me, they put me instantly into Overload in Hyper Mode.  I'd have to drain the Phazon quickly and without warning, after recovering from the hit."  She smirked.  "I did find a tricky way to use the Overload.  Even when Overloaded, the PED would automatically shut down after 25 seconds if I was still functioning normally.  If I carefully managed how fast I purged Phazon energy, I could keep the Overload powering the Hyper Mode for the full time, dealing much more damage than a single Energy Tank injected into the PED would normally allow me to do."

Rainbow grinned widely as she jotted that one down.  "Gonna make a killing with this game," she muttered under her breath.

"Well, it is going to be a platforming shoot-em-up," Pinkie indicated logically.

"Do we get royalties for using our images?" Spike and Gandrayda asked simultaneously, making Samus and Ghor laugh.

"At any rate," Samus continued, "as I said, the enemies we encountered were getting tougher.  We even encountered Berzerker Knights, scaled down versions of the Berzerker Lord we'd fought back on the Olympus.  We found that both the Phazon Beam and Spike's Fazite breath were effective in stripping it of its Phazite armor."

"The first real challenge came not long later..." Spike explained.





The pair of Hunters entered a wide open area, flat ground with a couple of pools of fuel gel, surrounded on all sides by the spiky foliage of the area.  As they entered, a gate behind them came alive, sealing them in with an energy field.  Two Aerotroopers took to the air as a gate at the opposite side activated as well.

Samus and Spike each took one of the Aerotroopers.  While Samus took hers on with Ice Missiles and charged beam attacks - the jetpacks were too hot to freeze - Spike leapt on his, dragging it to the ground and attacking it with claws and fangs.

At that point, a massive beast roared as it leapt into the glade.  It had two legs, though the tusks at the front stretched out large enough to be mistaken as limbs.  It had heavy natural armor - including Phazite armor on top of its head - a long whip-like tongue in a small, round mouth, and a short tail.  On its back was a Pirate troop armed with a Phazon lance.  Samus' scan visor identified it as a Korakk Beast.  Spike's scanners identified it as lunch.





"They did not!" Spike snapped at Gandrayda as the rest of the table burst into laughter.

"Can you honestly tell me you didn't eat it?" she teased with a wide smirk.

Grumbling and muttering under his breath, Spike turned away in a huff.  Once she got her laughter under control, Samus continued telling of the fight.





The first part of the fight was about getting the Pirate rider off the Korakk.  With it in control, the beast was a lot more dangerous.  Spike dealt with that by leaping to the beast's back, grabbing hold of the Pirate, yanking the lance out of its hand, eating the lance, and hurling the Pirate into the fuel gel.

As the Pirate screamed in death, the Korakk went mad and lunged for Samus.  She managed to keep it at bay by shooting it in its open mouth a few times before rolling into Morph Ball.  Since her scanners showed that it was vulnerable in its underbelly, she dropped a few bombs to injure it.  Seeing an opportunity as she unrolled on the opposite side, she locked onto its tail with her Grapple Beam, yanking back.

As the beast reared up in pain, Spike lunged in, digging claws and teeth into the belly as he devoured the Phazon producing organism, leaving only the empty armored skin and the interior bones behind.  Dropping the carcass, he belched loudly.

"Feeling better?" Samus asked, having noticed Spike getting more and more irritable from hunger since he'd gotten his Ice Breath.

"Much," he agreed.





Spike rolled his eyes as several members of his audience chuckled.  "What?  I was still growing!"

Gandrayda started to open her mouth, only to get Rarity's hoof shoved in and a glare from the white unicorn.  This startled even more laughter from Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Cadence, and Rundus, but confusion from the Crusaders.

"So how'd it taste, Spike?" Pinkie asked.  "You talked about how nearly everything else you ate tasted!"

"Well, it was rather tender and juicy," Spike explained.  "But the glands that produced its Phazon were especially delicious, spicy and tangy."

"How was the Korakk producing Phazon, anyway?" Twilight asked.  "That can't be natural."

"It's a native of the Space Pirate base in that region," Gandrayda explained.  "Since that world had been heavily - and I do mean heavily - corrupted by its own Leviathan, all the creatures there had mutated for Phazon production.  Which is a pity, really.  The Korraks and their Hussars had a much healthier bond before they were corrupted by Phazon.  The bond they shared before Phazon corruption was...the closest thing the Pirates ever experienced to love."

Spike glanced away, not knowing what to say, and feeling strangely...guilty.
> Corruption: Cleansing Bryyo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So how'd you handle the cannons?" Gandrayda asked suddenly, shattering the mood of quiet contemplation that had fallen over the table from her own revelation regarding the Pirates and the Korakk.  While several glares were leveled her way at her seeming insensitivity to the mood, Rarity saw Gandrayda's eyes slip away from Spike as he was pulled out of obviously unpleasant thoughts, and her own glare softened.

Spike shook himself out of his reverie in response to Gandrayda's question.  Smiling, he sat back.  "That was actually rather fun," he admitted.  "Intense, too."

"The turret points were, of course, heavily defended," Samus explained.  "And a ground assault isn't exactly the most efficient.  However, we worked out an effective strategy..."





Samus' scans of the 'Tiamat' turret showed her just how durable the thing was.  However, it also revealed a few weak points.  To power the turret, the Pirates had loaded Fuel Gel canisters at four points, the caps on three of the points were controlled by another unit underneath the turret.  That point could be targeted by her grapple beam, causing the three points to eject the Fuel Gel capsules for a time.

"Alright, here's the plan," Samus explained as she ducked back into the corridor leading to the turret.  "I'm going to stay under the turret and keep the points open.  You run around outside, taking down as many pirates as you can and hitting the Fuel Gel capsules with your flame whenever you can."

"Got it," Spike agreed.

The plan worked out quite well.  As soon as Samus charged out, the Pirate troops focused on her, leaving their backs open to Spike's assault.  When they turned to face him, Samus pulled open the valve, releasing the Fuel Gel capsules.  When the Pirates turned to stop Samus, Spike destroyed one of the capsules.  When the Pirates spun to stop Spike, Samus opened the valves again.

By the third time this was done, with the turret detonating, only one Pirate Troop was left standing, and he was so confused by the tactic that he actually ran away in tears.





"Seriously?" Rainbow burst out in laughter.  She wasn't the only one around the table who was laughing at that tidbit.

"Yup!" Spike replied proudly.  "Of course, the defenses were stronger at the other turret, since he managed to warn them about our strategy.  The Pirates were split into two groups.  One focused on Samus, while the other focused on me."

"Don't you just hate it when your enemies get smart?" Gandrayda asked expansively as she leaned back.

Pinkie turned to look at Applejack and giggled.  Applejack just stared at her in confusion, not getting it.





The second turret was secured differently.  The control valve for the ammunition was secured underneath the turret, held by several clamps that were manually locked in place by levers scattered around the area.  It was also guarded by Aerotroopers.

"Switch it up," Spike suggested.  "You stand by the ammo valve, I'll throw the levers.  I'm faster on the ground or air than you, and the turret can't aim downward!"

Nodding, Samus moved to make the plan into action.  While she focused on destroying as many Pirates as she could while heading for under the turret, Spike raced around the outside of the area, taking to the air and flying low.  Normally, the levers would have had to be pulled from the outside, but Spike was able to strike them hard enough with his tail as he passed to throw them.  The turret tried to track him, but as he'd determined, it couldn't aim downward.  As long as he stayed below it, he was safe.

Once all the levers were thrown, the three Fuel Gel canister sets popped out.  Samus destroyed them with quick shots of her Phazon Beam, causing the turret to self destruct.





"With both turrets destroyed, we were able to call the ship in to destroy the second shield generator," Samus continued.  "With that down, there was nothing stopping us from going after the Leviathan core."

"So we flew the ship inside," Spike explained.  "It was...unusual..."





Flying in through the only opening on the Leviathan, the ship landed in a sea of blue.  Dark blue platforms rose out of the pale blue light of flowing Phazon.  Tiny critters skittered all over the area, as floating organic platforms marked a path deeper inside.  Massive glands pulsed, slowly generating more and more Phazon.  An organic door was shielded by energy, though it resembled nothing so much as an oversized heart valve.

Passing through the door, Spike and Samus saw a passage blocked three times by large growths.  A few blasts to the vulnerable points were able to destroy them, granting them passage into the center of the Leviathan.

Inside the center was a fully functional Mogenar, one of the giant war golems built by the last Bryyonian Lord of Science through a fusion of Science and their native magic, now corrupted by the Phazon and drawing power from it.  Spike and Samus braced themselves, certain in their minds that they would have to fight the behemoth in order to destroy the Leviathan's core.

They weren't disappointed.  As they approached, the Mogenar activated, seizing four power core units from around the chamber to plug into itself.  Three were in the front in a triangle formation - one at each shoulder and one at the navel - while the last was high on the center of its back.  Samus' scans revealed that the orbs contained pure Phazon, and had to be completely depleted to shut down the Mogenar.

Since it was only a single target, the pair of Hunters split, seeking to take it from both sides.  Oddly, it focused entirely on Samus, possibly seeing her Chozo tech as an echo of its own maker's techniques.  Samus focused on the orbs in front, while Spike locked on the one in back.  While Samus leapt into the air to avoid the shockwaves released when it jumped, Spike took flight to avoid them completely.

They were able to destroy the two orbs they were focused on - Samus' orb had shifted to the left shoulder before being destroyed - at the same time through a combination of Phazon beam and Fazite breath, causing the behemoth to roar in agony before encasing its feet in a Phazon shell, creating an energy barrier around its body.

Samus rolled into Morph Ball, intending to use her bombs to shatter the crystals and break the barrier.  However, the Mogenar charged forward, trying to slam her with its fists.  A quick shift to Hypermode shielded her from damage due to the shockwaves, and her bombs took out the crystals.  As the behemoth staggered, dazed, Spike flew down and landed on the right shoulder just as the metal flap protecting the orb slid briefly open.  Slamming his clenched fist in, he broke the shell of the orb, exposing the Phazon.  Spike then unleashed his Fazite breath, exploding the orb.

The Mogenar immediately created another barrier, but Samus dealt with it the same way.  As the beast staggered around, dazed, Samus and Spike combined their weapons fire to obliterate the final orb, Samus' Phazon Beam delivering the final blow.

The Mogenar exploded, releasing an immense wave of Phazon that overwhelmed both Hunters.  Spike was able to absorb and metabolize the Phazon that hit him completely, but Samus found herself saturated.  She felt the Phazon Seed inside her growing as it absorbed the Phazon energy from the explosion.  Falling to her knees, she quickly disengaged her helmet to let herself vomit.  As she retched, she was disgusted to see the electric blue coloration of her expulsion.

Putting her helmet back on, she saw an alert from her suit.



New functionality for PED suit.
Hyper Ball obtained.
While in Hyper Mode, you can no longer drop bombs.  Instead, arcs of Phazon energy will lash from the Morph Ball to any nearby target, overloading and destroying it.  Certain targets can only be destroyed in this manner.

Alert: Hyper Mode currently overcharged with absorbed Phazon.



Seeing her body glowing with the light of Phazon, Samus quickly shifted to Morph Ball to destroy several flowers that had appeared.  When the energy of the Hyper Ball had destroyed them, a surge of Phazon from the floor shot up to the ceiling, causing the bulbous core of the Leviathan to drop down, exposing its half organic, half mineral visage.

Triggering her PED, Samus unleashed the overcharged levels of Phazon from her suit into the core, killing it.  It collapsed and exploded violently.





"With that, Bryyo was cleansed completely of all Phazon," Samus finished to the silent audience.
> Corruption: City in the Clouds
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So...destroying the Leviathan's core erased all the Phazon it had created?" Twilight asked.  "How does that work?"

"To be perfectly honest, I have no idea," Samus replied.  "I'm just glad it does."

"Don't think too hard about it, Twi," Rainbow cautioned with a shrug.  "Probably some meta-whatever that would fry your brain."

"So, after that, we were sent to planet Elysia," Spike began.

"Elysium?" Celestia asked, shocked.  "The Paradise Fields?"

"No," Ghor corrected.  "Elysia.  A gas giant with a solid planet buried deep within its storms, a most unusual planetary configuration.  There is a city in the clouds built by the Chozo, and - until the Phazon - had been maintained by a race of sapient robots of Chozo design.  I had...attempted to work with them to purge the Leviathan, but..."  He looked away.  "I, too, had fallen victim to the Corruption of the Phazon inside me."

"Until Spike saved you," Discord intuited.

"Precisely," Ghor agreed.

"Elysia was...quite the beautiful place," Samus began.





As the ship cut through the outermost storms of the planet Elysia, Samus and Spike stared out at the pale brown clouds that swirled in eddies and currents, as though the planet's oceans had been relocated to the sky.  Down below, they could see the Leviathan Seed in a hole in the sea of clouds, its presence pushing the storms back, a Pirate shield already surrounding it.

The city itself, when they saw it, was an elegant thing of delicate spires, elegant domes, glowing spheres, and sprawling structures, all colored to either blend with the clouds or stand out against them.  The yellow lightning beneath each structure danced in a flicker of light, holding the metal creations aloft upon the soft clouds that swirled beneath them, both taming and drawing power from the gaseous firmament.

The ship came in for landing facing a large carving of a Chozo, its face bearing a welcoming expression as it looked upon the new arrivals.  For a moment, Samus thought it might come alive.

Spike stretched his wings as he stepped off the ship, feeling how the gasses of the planet felt against the delicate membrane.  Finding that the thicker gasses were actually easier to fly through than air - they supported his weight in the air much more efficiently, almost like swimming - he leapt into the skies to fly about the city, mapping a path for Samus and locating anything that might be a problem.

Samus was concerned at first, especially with how aggressively the Pirates had been targeting Spike, but then she spotted Spike diving into a cloud bank just before a Pirate transport swung by, vanishing completely only to reappear behind the Transport and destroy it before any signal could be released.





"At that point, I was this close to transferring the Aurora antibody program to Spike and letting him handle Elysia without me," Samus stated, holding her thumb and forefinger millimeters apart.

"What stopped you?" Twilight gasped out as she joined the others in laughter.

"My suit couldn't handle the program," Spike replied easily, causing more laughter.

"At any rate, while Spike handled the outside of the city, I explored inside the buildings," Samus continued.  "It made for pretty effective teamwork, especially when it came to some of the mechanical enemies that Spike could target from outside.  Surprisingly enough, they were all vulnerable to high heat weaponry."

"Yeah, Spike pretty much dominated that world, didn't he?" Rainbow joked.

Samus chuckled.  "I think the best part of that mission for me was the zip lines," she admitted.  "They were the primary means of getting about in the sky city.  I just hooked my grapple beam to it and rode along to the other end through spins, loops, and the occasional obstacle I had to shoot my way through.  Spike would always follow the path exactly just below me, in case I got disconnected from the line."  She stroked Spike's neck.  "It was the closest we've ever come to flying together, instead of me riding him..."

Rainbow grinned widely as she stretched.  "Yeah...nothing quite like flying..."  Reaching over, she pulled Scootaloo out of the air for a hug.  Since being shown how to fly on her own wings, she'd spent nearly every waking moment in the air...not that Rainbow could begrudge her that.

"While that was all fun," Spike agreed, "what wasn't fun was the fact that I wasn't able to help against the first major opponent.  The area Mom faced off against the Steamlord in was only accessible via Morph Ball tunnels."  He grumbled a bit as he glanced away.  "Stupid narrow tunnels..."

"The Steamlord wasn't that hard," Samus soothed.  Seeing curious glances, she explained.  "The Steamlord was a floating robot with a cloaking device.  It repaired damaged Steambots I had to face off against.  The fight was more frustratingly long than difficult."  She chuckled, then frowned.  "But...when I found the Aurora Unit..."





Samus stared through the glass wall at the floating organic supercomputer, its still form disturbingly quiet.  The capsule it was contained in was covered in Phazon-based fungal growths, as though the Aurora Unit itself was slowly becoming infected with Phazon.  Samus began to wonder if the virus it had been infected with might not share some sort of similarity to Phazon's virulent nature.

The Aurora Unit from the Olympus informed her the the chamber was sealed with a kinetic lock, and that something within Skytown would likely help her unlock it.





"Skytown?" Apple Bloom asked.

"The name of the facility," Samus explained.

"This is where you get your Boost Ball back, isn't it?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Samus chuckled.  "Yup, that's what happened next.  Though on the way, I spotted Ghor's battle armor...with no Ghor in it.  Seeing that was...worrisome."

"Because you were concerned about what I might be up to?" Ghor asked.

"More I was worried what would happen to you if you were corrupted and Spike found you without it," Samus replied, startling laughs from several listeners.
> Corruption: Flesh and Steel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"At any rate," Samus continued, "after that, I had to find something that would allow me to open the kinetic lock."

"How did the kinetic lock work?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Basically, something had to transfer enough kinetic force inside the lock's mechanisms to make it open," Samus explained, drawing a few sketches.

"In other words, you needed your boost ball back?" Pinkie guessed.

"Precisely," Samus confirmed.  "And it wasn't exactly fun getting it."

"You can't tell me you didn't have fun collapsing that bridge behind you and dropping all those robots into the storm clouds below," Spike countered.

Samus shrugged.  "Okay, that was fun."  She then frowned.  "But the Defense Drone I had to fight to get the Boost Ball wasn't fun...especially since you stayed outside."

"I couldn't fit through the passage to where the Boost Ball was!" Spike complained.

"You could have just folded your wings," Samus chided.

"I got stuck!"

"So, how did you fight the Defense Drone?" Fluttershy interrupted, not wanting to see them fight each other.

Samus shrugged.  "It wasn't all that difficult, actually.  Just really frustrating.  I had to blast its sensors to get it off balance, then tear its top open with my grapple, then blast the insides as it leapt around, trying to do as much damage as I could before having to do it all over again.  After that, I got my Boost Ball back, and headed straight for the Aurora Unit..."





With the Boost Ball, Samus was able to unlock the kinetic lock and enter the Aurora chamber.  However, when she attempted to open communications, she instead got an alert.  "The Aurora Unit is corrupted and requires repair.  Opening maintenance level hatch."

As expected, the hatch opened to reveal a Morph Ball tunnel.  Spike pouted when he saw that.  "I'll wait outside," he grumbled, turning to leave.

Samus sighed as she watched him go.  The cramped interior of Skytown had severely limited Spike's ability to assist her, despite how easily he handled things in the open air.  Entering Morph Ball, Samus went down the maintenance tunnel to enter the lower level, beneath the Aurora Unit.  There she was confronted by numerous Tinbots, similar to Steambots but more durable.  However, as she'd learned, boosting into them caused them to fly apart.

With all the Tinbots down, Samus gained access to the Aurora interface, letting her download the antivirus program to purify the systems.  However, as she turned to leave to actually communicate with the Aurora Unit, she was surprised to see someone waiting for her.  "Ghor!" she gasped out.  "Are you alright?  Why haven't you been communicating with us, or the Aurora Unit?"

Ghor twitched a bit, his circuitry glowing blue with Phazon.  "This turn of events is insignificant!" he proclaimed.  "Here, I'll show you what I mean.  Observe!"  His last word was barked out angrily as he spun, firing his plasma beam and severing the connections of several terminals.

Samus ducked under the beam and did the only thing she could to minimize damage by opening fire.  She managed to get one shot on the PED itself, causing Ghor to fall back.

When Ghor stood back up, his body seemed to be acting on a different set of instructions than his head.  As his body started to flee, he shouted out, "The network's been severed!  You have no chance of destroying the Seed, unless you restore the Aurora Unit!"

As he fled, Samus realized what that meant.  "Spike!" she called over her communicator.  "Ghor's on the run, and I don't think he's been fully claimed by the corruption!  I think he managed to segment off part of his brain to protect it!"





"You were quite right, Samus," Ghor pointed out as he leaned back.  "That's exactly what I did.  As soon as I realized that the Phazon was corrupting me, I segmented most of my brain - and my machine empathy abilities - off, and sacrificed the rest to the Phazon.  It was my hope I could use this to minimize the damage I inflicted, but..."  He shrugged.  "Once the Phazon claimed my entire body, there wasn't really much I could do."

"The fact that you were able to do anything at all is impressive," Luna countered softly.  "Well do I know the power of a corruptive influence on one's mind...and the guilt of it being one's own doing.  That you preserved any part of yourself against the corruption's control is a testament to your strength of character."

"And besides that, can you imagine how much harder it would have been if your corrupted self could control the other machines in Skytown?" Samus pointed out.  "We might never have gotten as far as the Aurora Unit if they were acting on a plan...or if you'd reactivated the Aurora Unit without purging it of the virus."

Ghor was silent for a time.  "I...had not thought of that," he admitted.

"Besides," Spike admitted.  "That bit you protected saved you, too."

"Huh?" several voices asked in confusion.

Spike chuckled.  "While Mom was discussing things with the Aurora Unit, I tracked Ghor's movements.  He joined with his power armor, and then went after our ship.  I didn't let him get that far..."





Spike growled deep in his throat as he saw Ghor - once more in his power armor - leaping towards the ship.  His armor was well designed for traversing the cloudy environment, and Spike followed along as silently as he could.  This was going to be difficult.  He needed a way to get Ghor out of the armor if he was to work his plan to save him.  He just hoped he knew enough tech to actually make it happen.

Seeing Ghor getting ready to attack the ship, Spike decided to act immediately.  Diving forward, he slammed full force into Ghor's side, knocking him away from the ship.  Sending a command to the ship, it took off to get out of range of the battle.  As Ghor stood, Spike noticed he'd left dents in the metal of the armor where his claws impacted.  If I can do that much damage as is...

"Shi'cho-kra!" Spike barked, the hum of his armor vanishing as he lunged forward.  He seized hold of the left arm unit of Ghor's armor.  "If you can still hear me at all and act, I suggest disconnecting from this part of the armor now!"  Without waiting for a response, he flexed, tearing the left arm off, leaving Ghor's arm intact.





"Wait, what?" Rainbow demanded.  "I thought you were only adapted to a 20g world at that point!  How did disengaging your armor on a gas giant make you that much stronger?  Last I checked in physics, gas giants had, like, super strong gravity as compared to rock worlds."

"Elysia was...unique," Samus explained.  "Since it was, in essence, a 'rock world' inside a gas giant, the gravity was...unusual.  Down where the seed was, the gravity was 30g.  The pressure of the storms could increase that to as high as 80g due to the added atmospheric pressure, like being deep underwater.  However, up in Skytown...it was only 0.5g."

"So having my armored arm ripped off hurt like hell," Ghor explained.  "However, most of the pain was being diverted into the part of my mind that was corrupted, so each bit of damage gave me a bit more control."  Ghor continued to tell of the fight.





It hurt like hell, feeling my body torn apart piece by piece...but the corruption was suffering more than I.  Each piece torn from my body gave me more control.  The corrupted part of me activated my Hypermode, trying to do enough damage to Spike with the remaining weapons to gain a foothold...but Spike unleashed his breath.

I barely managed to pull my arm from the armor before the entire thing tore itself apart as the Fazite neutralized the Phazon.  The pain...I nearly lost awareness, despite the segmenting.  However, I held on.  I had to help Spike stop me.

As the last of the armor was torn away, I relaxed.  Spike could destroy me now.  The threat I presented would be ended.  Hopefully, doing so would not hurt Spike too much.  Then, much to my surprise, I heard Spike's voice.

"Ghor, can you hear me?"

He was trying to communicate?  I could hear him, but could I respond?  I couldn't access my voice box...I couldn't control my servos...my optics!  I could control those.  I blinked them off and back on.  He saw.

"Can you access the controls for the PED?"

I tried to focus on those, but they were beyond my reach.  I blinked my optics off and on twice.  I saw Spike's face fall, and then screw up in concentration.

"Can you reach it with your machine empathy?"

My machine empathy?  I never would have thought to use that to access something that had been made a part of my cybernetic self.  Touching those abilities, I discovered that my corrupted self apparently never thought of it either.  I blinked my optics off and on once.

"Put it in reverse!"

Reverse?  How would that work?  I couldn't think how...but the insistence in Spike's voice...I had to try.  Through a sheer effort of will as I felt the Phazon working away at my organic brain, I did so.

The PED reversed its flow.  Instead of pumping the Phazon through my systems as it had been, it started sucking the Phazon out of me, storing it inside itself.  As more and more Phazon was drained from my body, I felt more and more of my systems coming under my control.  I could access my voice box!

"It's working!" I shouted out.  "Spike, it's working!  I'm regaining control!"

"Let me know when you have control of your limbs!"

Nodding - surprise of surprises, I could nod! - I focused on my servos, struggling against the remains of the corruption.  When I felt my limbs under my control again, I gently gripped Spike's wrist where he had hold of my neck, lowering my feet to the ground.  Seeing me do so, Spike released my neck and instead seized the Phazon processing core of my PED, where it was braced on my chest.  I could see his face clearly, and he looked worried.

"This is going to hurt."

It was all I could do not to laugh.  It was surprisingly painful just to feel the Phazon drained out of me, like an addict being forcefully leeched of his favorite drug.  And then there was the burst of Fazite Breath.  Surely it couldn't be...

I forgot I no longer had the corrupted portion of my brain to protect my core.  And I had not realized that Spike intended to tear the core from my body so violently, especially not as it was absorbing the Phazon Seed.  Yeah, that definitely hurt.  As I fell backward, I stared up as Spike ate the Core just before it started to go critical.

As I lay back on the ground, struggling just to maintain function, I saw Samus arrive, staring at us in shock.  And then Spike lay his armored claw over the hole in my metal torso...and energy flowed from inside of him.  My machine empathy!  He'd absorbed an aspect of it, gaining the ability to feed his own energy into machines, and was using it to repair me!

As the healing finished, I managed - barely - to stand.  "My thanks...Spike."





Ghor fell silent as he finished the telling, his hand stroking his torso where no sign of any damage could be seen.  "My cybernetically augmented brain has flawless recall.  I will forever remember the pain of that moment...and the glory that was the cessation of that pain."

The whole table was silent for quite some time.  Discord was the first to speak up.  "So how long before Dark Samus showed up to throw a tissy fit?" he asked Samus.

Samus chuckled.  "Not long..."





Samus looked up as Dark Samus showed up, snarling in rage and unleashing blasts of Phazon at Spike.  Ghor acted quickly, hauling up one of the pieces of his dismantled power armor as a shield for Spike.  Spike immediately countered with his Fazite Breath, shearing through Dark Samus' arm cannon.  There was an ethereal shriek before the visage vanished.  Samus stepped up.  "Are you both alright?"

"I'm okay," Spike replied.  "Thanks for the save, Ghor."

"My thanks to you," Ghor replied.  "I am once more in control of myself.  However, my internal power reserves are low, and my systems are in need of major repair."

"Rundus should be recovered by now," Samus replied as she recalled her ship.  "I'll call him to give you a lift.  You can rest in our ship until he gets here, once we confirm a complete purge of Phazon from your systems."

Ghor nodded.  Turning to his right arm, he disengaged a component.  "Here," he said.  "Spike's flame breath is not accurate enough to repair the damage to the network.  However, my Plasma Beam should be viable to do so once uploaded to your Arm Cannon."

Samus nodded slowly as she took the component.  "...thanks."
> Corruption: Hold on Tight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So what next?" Scootaloo asked eagerly, bouncing up and down in midair.  "What next?"

Samus couldn't help but chuckle at the filly's eagerness, seeing it mirrored not only on the child's peers, but also her elders' expressions.  "Well, Ghor was right that I could use his Plasma Beam to repair the networks.  So that was the first step, repairing the networks so the Aurora Unit would have control of Skytown again."

"After that, we found out that the Pirate shield generators were hidden below the storms, beyond our ability to reach," Spike explained.  "There was nothing that could penetrate the cloud cover to destroy them, and we had nothing in our arsenal that could penetrate the shield.  However...the Aurora Unit had a plan."

"I'm certain, given the abilities of such organic supercomputers, that it was a truly clever and elegant one?" Celestia hypothesized.

"Sort of," Samus explained.  "We were going to build a giant bomb and drop it on the shield."

Luna snorted in amusement at Celestia's expression, though Discord was howling with laughter.  "So how did you go about constructing such a device?" Luna inquired delicately.

"First we needed to collect a new upgrade for our ship," Spike explained.  "A Ship Grapple, for use in collecting the components in the proper order to assemble the bomb, and depositing it where it was needed."

"I'd managed to retrieve Ghor by the time the ship was repaired enough to fly where they needed it," Rundus added.  "Even with Spike's repairs, he was in pretty bad shape."

"I was perfectly functional," Ghor countered acidly.

"You were supposed to be on bed rest, not trying to hack the Chozo security in the ship to study Spike," Rundus sniped back.

"You were what?" Samus asked harshly.

Ghor glanced away nervously.  "I...admit that I sometimes have difficulty controlling my curiosity.  Besides, the information I discovered did prove useful much later!"

"Then tell us later!" Pinkie piped up.  "I wanna hear about the bomb!"

Samus chuckled.  "Well, first it was getting the upgrade, which proved to be difficult with the abilities I currently had.  Beyond that, the area was too turbulent to risk riding Spike there.  Thankfully, I remembered some parts of Bryyo that I hadn't fully explored before.  Given their alliance with the Chozo, I figured that they might have something I could use there..."





Landing in Bryyo Fire, Samus made her way into the Fuel Gel refinery.  Once there, she followed a Morph Ball path she remembered to a part of the facility that was blocked by ice.  While the location itself was one Spike could get to, melting the ice with her Plasma Beam unfortunately only revealed another Morph Ball Tunnel.  Samus passed through, emitting a beacon Spike could follow, in the hopes he could rejoin her from the air.

Her path took her through a strange portal into a realm of frozen ice.  Much to her surprise, no signals could travel from here, whether to her ship, to the Aurora Unit...or to Spike.





"Scariest part of the whole mission for me when I lost track of her," Spike admitted.  "When her signal vanished like that, I...I kinda lost it."

"How much did you break?" Twilight asked calmly.

"...lots..."

"Sorry for worrying you like that," Samus apologized.  "I didn't think I'd be that long."  After stroking Spike's neck consolingly, Samus turned back to the listeners.  "While I was there, I reacquired my Screw Attack."

"Nice!" Rainbow crowed, pumping her hoof.

"While she was gone, the missing Valhalla was also located," Spike added.

"With that," Samus continued, "we were able to make our way back to Elysia and continue on to get the ship upgraded..."





The Eastern portion of Skytown proved just as straightforward for the pair to explore.  On Samus' end, there were a greater number of narrow passages to be explored via Morph Ball in the interior of the city.  On Spike's end, the Pirates had a much stronger presence in the East than the West.  Neither proved much of a challenge to the skills the pair had acquired, and as a great deal of the indoor path led back and forth to the outside, there were a great many opportunities for the pair to cooperate to progress.

It didn't take them long to reach the landing site with the upgrade, and Samus activated the upgrade systems once the ship had landed.

"I have a question," Spike asked.

"Shoot," Samus replied.

"Wouldn't it have been easier to have the Aurora Unit feed my suit the Landing Site coordinates and have me fly here?" he asked.  "I do have access to those Command Visor functions, after all."

Samus scratched her chin in thought.  "We'll do that for future upgrades," she commented as the upgrade process finished.

"Couldn't I also just overfly the bomb component locations?" Spike continued.  "And you could ride in the ship while we collected them."

"Not a bad plan," Samus agreed.





"While there weren't any other ship upgrades," Samus explained, "Spike's plan worked rather well, for the most part.  While I declined on riding around in the ship - with the Grapple activated, the ship could neither land nor open a hatch - I did let him guide the ship to the components."

"Mom did run afoul of another Berserker Lord," Spike added.  "But it was in an open air chamber.  With me attacking from above and Mom from in front, it didn't last long."

"However, Spike found the second component was locked in with a Seeker Missile lock," Samus groaned.  "And, unfortunately...the Seeker Missile upgrade was inside a Metroid Containment facility."

"Which you had to...disable in order to access the upgrade?" Twilight whimpered.  "Which...set the Metroids free?"

"Yup," Samus confirmed.  "And the overexposure to Phazon had given these Metroids the ability to phase slightly out of normal reality, making it impossible for me to shoot them.  Thankfully, they couldn't hurt me in that state, either."

"Oddly enough, my Fazite breath still worked on them even when phased out," Spike indicated.

"And I'm suddenly a lot less frightened of Metroids," Twilight admitted, startling laughter all around.
> Corruption: Drop the Bomb
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So what did this new variety of Metroids taste like?" Pinkie asked Spike.  Several startled glances turned her way, including their off-world visitors.  "What?" Pinkie complained.  "All through Tallon IV and Aether's story telling, Spike told us what every creature he ate during the mission tasted like.  I wanna know what these new phasing Metroids tasted like.  Were they spicy?  Or sweet?  Or was the flavor delicate?"

"Actually, I never got a chance to taste," Spike admitted.  "They phased out the minute they saw me coming, at which point I could only damage them with my Fazite breath, which didn't leave anything behind to eat.  And if I didn't attack them, they ignored me."

"And if he was around me, they ignored me, too," Samus added.  Seeing Pinkie's pout, Samus couldn't help but chuckle.  "Besides that, Spike's insatiable appetite had started to taper off, and he began to recharge his energy in other ways."

"Like eating Phazon or raw gemstones," Spike explained.  "I started carrying a cache in my chest compartment."

"At any rate," Samus continued, "the Metroids didn't interfere all that much with collecting the last two components of the bomb, once I'd unlocked the Seeker Missile locks.  With the bomb fully assembled, the Aurora instructed us to place it inside the cargo hold of the Spire Pod, in the center of Western Skytown.  The plan was to use the Spire Pod to drop the bomb on the shield."

"Why not just carry it there with your ship?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Strewth, Twilight," Luna chided before Samus could respond.  "Think how much energy it must take to carry an explosive device of such size and magnitude safely.  Surely the ship would not be able to fire weapons, or even engage in evasive maneuvers, while carrying the bomb deep into Pirate territory."

"And having Spike fly defensively wouldn't be an option, either," Celestia added.  "Imagine what would happen if one lucky hit by the pirates - or one stray shot from Spike - hit the Ship Grapple."

"Precisely," Samus agreed.  "The Spire Pod could hold the bomb inside itself, and could support itself in flight for a good while even if it took a good amount of damage.  It would also shield the bomb during the descent, so it didn't come apart on the way to the shield."

"I take it you and Spike defended the Spire Pod on its way there?" Ghor inferred.

"Yup," Spike confirmed.  "I guarded it from the air, while Mom stayed on board, both to shoot the Pirates and to give the command to cut the engines when the time was right."





After the Aurora Unit migrated Skytown into range of the Pirate Shield, Samus made her way to the Spire Pod.  Spike perched at the peak of the pod like a gargoyle, above where the bomb was stored.  Once they were both in position, the Aurora Unit disconnected the Spire Pod from the rest of Skytown, and the Pod followed its preprogrammed course to the Shield.

Once the Spire Pod was on its way, Samus watched as Skytown returned to its former position, disappearing into the clouds.  For a brief moment, a feeling of total abandonment started to rise in her heart, but the distinctive sound of Spike stretching his armored wings banished those feelings.  They were facing this together, and they didn't even need to speak to do so.

The first wave of Pirate assault was in their armored dropships, moving to both open fire and release both ground and air Troopers to attack Samus and Spike.  The dropships themselves were apparently going to focus on the Pod, while the troops were to keep the Hunters occupied.  The first ship, however, was unable to accomplish that, as Spike dropped like a bolt from the heavens to smash into the engines, causing the ship to drop into the clouds.  Its complement of Aerotroopers managed to get out to attack, but those without jetpacks were doomed with their ship.

Spike swept past the Aerotroopers on his way to the next incoming dropship, managing to destroy one stabilizing pod each on two of them, causing them to spin crazily into each other and explode.  Samus focused on the remaining ones, blasting them with both Plasma Beam and Ice Missiles.  Another strategy she discovered quite by accident involved hitting the Aerotrooper with a charged Plasma shot, and then using her Grapple Lasso to tear the bindings of the overheated jetpack off, causing the Pirate to drop to its death.

Even with the two of them working together, they weren't able to prevent the Spire from taking any damage.  However, its structural integrity was still quite sound by the time the last Pirate attacker was taken down.  The Spire Pod then moved sedately into position over the shield.  The control terminal in one corner then activated, revealing the controls for the Spire's engines.

Stepping up, Samus utilized the controls to disengage the three engines keeping the Spire afloat.  The control systems for the Spire announced that it would fall in two minutes.  The escape pod promptly rose up out of the floor.  Leaping inside, Samus activated the controls...only for the escape pod to shut down.

"Escape Pod malfunction!" the computerized voice announced.  "Opening maintenance hatch."

"You didn't think of checking on that before sending me on this suicide mission?" she shouted angrily as she leapt out of the escape pod.





"So what'd you do?" Rainbow asked eagerly.  "Did you race around inside the control systems for the escape pod, desperate to repair it before the Spire fell, dooming you with it?"

"Nope," Samus replied.  "I raced to the side of the Spire and leapt onto Spike's back.  He carried me back to Skytown."

Rainbow blinked.  "Oh," she replied, disappointment strong in her voice.  "I...guess that makes more sense.  Not as action-packed, though."  This garnered several chuckles from those around her.
> Corruption: Helios
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once everyone stopped chuckling, Samus continued the story.  "The bomb did exactly what it was supposed to, obliterating the Pirate shield around the Leviathan.  Unfortunately, the Leviathan itself was undamaged."

"Strewth, Pirate shields are impressive," Luna commented dryly.

"Were," Gandrayda corrected slyly.

"So we flew down into the seed," Spike concluded.





The inside of the second Leviathan seemed almost identical to the first one, at least as far as the initial landing area was concerned.  The same dark coloration, the same mineral-organic structures, the same floating platforms...  The only difference was a bit of reddish tint here and there, and a different type of critter crawling around the chamber.  Unfortunately for Spike, they were once again too small and explosive to be worth hunting for snacks.

After opening another arterial valve-like door, the pair found the same sort of barriers they'd found in the first Leviathan.  However, this time the weak spot was covered with an incredibly durable flower-like protrusion with five petals.  A quick scan told Samus that they were only vulnerable to simultaneous impacts at the tips of the five thin petals.  Two quick Seeker Missile volleys solved that for each such bud, and the energy left behind by the destruction of the barriers was absorbed by the PED to replenish the missiles used.(1)

The interior chamber had a great deal more red than the one in the first Leviathan had, and had very little Phazon scattered around.  As the pair entered, a hollow roar echoed within.  A large metallic sphere dropped from the ceiling, possessing a single large red optic.  It glared at Samus and Spike as it floated, surrounded by electrical energy.

As he could feel something about to happen, Spike decided to try and act quickly.  Charging forward, he tried to punch the sphere to smash it before it could act.  However, before he could get close, he was blasted back by the energy field surrounding it.  The sphere then opened up, revealing the core Spike had mistaken for an optic, surrounded by Phazon energy.  Two tendrils unfolded, each with an optic at the tip.  The same hollow roar echoed.

Samus' Scan Visor identified the mechanical creature as Helios, a control unit for Swarmbots, small bird-like mechanical creatures that they'd fought throughout Elysium.  "Spike, if we can hit it with enough shots, it'll overheat and expose its Phazon charged core!" she called out.

"Got it!" Spike replied groggily as he shook himself off.  As he spoke, Swarmbots flooded in, surrounding Helios, all of them charged with the same Phazon.  Spike attempted using his Fazite breath against the Swarmbots, but the feedback shockwave that resulted knocked him head over tail.  "Damn...they've gotten better," he grumbled.

"They're generating an energy field around Helios," Samus pointed out.  "Stick with your flame breath!"

The pair quickly assaulted Helios with their strongest beam weapons, dodging out of the way as it used different formations of Swarmbots to attack them.  At first it pulled them into a tight sphere, trying to roll them down.  Spike dealt with that by pulling Samus onto his back and taking to the air.  The next formation created a wide disc, with five Swarmbots acting as focal points to charge a massive energy discharge.  A well aimed Seeker Missile from Samus caused the energy charge to feed back into Helios, disorienting it for a time.

The pair took advantage of the disorientation to unleash as much heat blasts as they could, but Helios recovered quickly.  Scattering the Swarmbots, it caused the tiny bots to take their more traditional swarms, charging up smaller blasts.  Seeing a chance, Spike dove on Helios from above.  The help of Gravity allowed him to push through the protective energy field, slamming Helios into the ground and causing its armor to pop open.

Samus quickly switched to Hypermode and unloaded all the Phazon Beam shots and charged shots she could until the converted tank ran dry.  However, not nearly as many shots impacted as she would have liked, as Helios moved quite fast and was able to evade most of the damage by turning its back to Samus.

However, this left it facing Spike, who unleashed a single shot of his Fazite breath, doing a good amount of damage with just one shot as the Fazite reacted with the Phazon charge inside Helios' core, creating a massive explosion.  This unfortunately dispelled most of the built up heat, allowing Helios to close its armor up again and summon the Swarmbots.

The strategy continued to prove effective at each stage when repeated.  At one point, the Swarmbots assumed a humanoid configuration, but shooting out one of the lower joints caused the whole thing to fall over, rendering Helios vulnerable once more.

Before too long, Helios exploded, releasing another wave of supercharged Phazon.  Samus' body once again absorbed a good portion as it passed over her.  She could feel the infection growing deep inside, and the flood of Phazon through her body, though she managed to resist throwing up this time, if only just barely.

Her suit gave her a new alert as she found herself in a stable, supercharged Hypermode again.



Hyper Missile acquired!
Phazon has bonded to the Missile Launcher, enabling the firing of Phazon charged Missiles in Hypermode.  This does not deplete total missiles.  These supercharged missiles can destroy certain Phazon energized structures that are otherwise indestructible.



Useful, Samus thought to herself as several such structures erupted around the chamber, apparently exposed as a result of Helios' explosion.  A Hyper Missile to each destroyed them, causing the Leviathan core to expose itself.  Once again, Samus' suit automatically discharged the overload of Phazon into the core via the PED, causing it to explode, wiping out the Phazon throughout Elysium.





"And another one down, another one down, another one bites the dust!" Pinkie Pie suddenly sang out.

"Pinkie!" Twilight complained as many around giggled, including Samus and Spike.








(1) Since I hadn't explained pick ups any other way throughout the story.
> Corruption: Enemy Territory
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once all the laughter stopped, Twilight looked up.  "So next you went to check out the Valhalla, right?  Since the Aurora gave you its coordinates?"

"Nope," Samus countered.  "It was a derelict, so there was no rush.  But Gandrayda was still on the Pirate Homeworld, and the Aurora Unit had gotten a communication from her."

"So now we had the Pirate homeworld's coordinates, knowledge that a Leviathan had crashed there before the Pirate invasion of the sector, that the planet appeared to be transforming into pure Phazon, and that this was the last message sent by Gandrayda before contact was lost," Spike explained.

"Yeah...that trip wasn't pleasant," Gandrayda admitted ruefully.  "Had to hide a bit too much, which put an excessive drain on the PED and my own abilities..."

"Corruption," Ghor and Rundus chorused.

"Exactly," Gandrayda confirmed.

"Anyway," Samus continued, "the Federation were planning a full scale invasion of the Pirate Homeworld, but the 40g environment and heavy defensive artillery made a massed approach suicidal.  So they asked us to go in, disable the defenses, and find what happened to Gandrayda."

"It...wasn't exactly easy," Spike elaborated.





The Pirate Homeworld was a forbidding looking place.  The sky was dark orange with black clouds, and the rain was acidic as it poured from the sky.  Nearly the entire Pirate settlement was shielded against the acid rain, save areas where giant blue tendrils of pure Phazon swayed in the air as they stretched up from within the planet itself.

Samus' ship was small and fast enough - and the cloak effective enough - that it could slip unnoticed through the planet's defense grid, flying over a river of Phazon through a large waste disposal tube to reach a viable landing site.

As Samus and Spike disembarked from the ship, Spike grunted, feeling weighed down for the first time since his original growth spurt on Tallon IV.  "This is...really strong gravity..." he grunted.

Samus rubbed her faceplate in thought.  "...could you handle the Phazon radiation from that river we flew over on the way in?" she asked.

"Yeah, pretty easily," Spike replied.  "Despite the amount, the radiation level's rather low."

"Then get back in the ship," Samus instructed.

Once they were both back in the ship, Samus flew back out over the river of Phazon before opening up the hatch.  "Take a swim and catch up," she instructed before guiding the ship back to the landing site.

Once Spike was in the Phazon, he immediately  swam out to where the acid rain was falling.  While it did hurt, the amount of Phazon he was swimming in healed him too fast for the rain to injure him too long.  As he floated in the Phazon, his scales hardened, taking on a crystalline sheen.  When he lifted himself out, the acid rain pinged off his scales as easily as normal rain, with about as much effect.





"This adaption didn't actually increase my defensive strength," Spike hastened to explain.  "All it did was change the mineral nature of my scales to render them immune to acid and other similar environmental hazards."  He flexed his body slightly, making the light reflect off his scales to show what he was talking about.

"Much like the Hazard Shield I didn't collect till much later," Samus elaborated.

Spike turned to continue the story, a bit flustered at how Rarity was cooing over his scales.  "Once I was at full strength again, I flew out to meet up with Mom, staying low.  Thankfully, all the defense turrets recognized me as Ridley, for some reason.  Probably because they knew I wasn't immune to acid."  As the group laughed at that, he and Samus continued the tale.





Samus carefully stepped into an open area, finding it deluged by acid rain.  She saw a Pirate open a force field at the opposite end of the clearing, the field closing behind it.  A message from the Aurora Unit confirmed that this path led to a cargo supply route which led directly to the Leviathan.  However, she currently didn't have the tech to interact with it.

"Mom?" Spike called out over the comms.  "You there?"

"I'm here," Samus replied quietly.  "Where are you?"

"Above," Spike replied.  "Trying not to attract attention.  Everything okay down there?"

"Yeah.  I'm going to start exploring, see if I can find a safe way through."

"Good luck."





"And that was a good portion of exploring the Pirate Homeworld," Samus continued.  "Spike lending spotting and ocassional assistance from above while trying to avoid drawing attention, and me down below exploring the interior of the facilities.  First priority was finding a way past the acid rain."

Spike chuckled.  "Not going to mention the three hours it took you to spot that one Morph Ball tunnel above the grip ledge?" he asked.(1)

"I wasn't planning on it, no," Samus growled as many present laughed.

"To be fair, the Pirates were quite good at hiding things like that," Gandrayda indicated.  "And they got better at it while dealing with me before I...lost control."  Her face fell as she thought about that time.

"But I fixed that," Spike hastened to reassure her.

Gandrayda smiled mischievously at Spike.  "Indeed you did," she purred.

Spike quickly backed up from her, much to the amusement of many at the table.  Celestia, however, noted that it seemed to upset the confident energy being in a way that struck her as somehow familiar.  An inkling of suspicion began to worm its way into the Sun Princess' mind.








(1) My own experience at that part of the game my first time through.
> Corruption: Truth Seen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So how did things go on the Pirate Homeworld once you found your way?" Celestia asked carefully.

Samus shrugged her shoulders.  "Rather straight-forward.  Oddly enough, I didn't actually encounter all that many Pirates right at first.  Of course, I was mostly following the Morph Ball tunnels-"

"Why would the Pirates have Morph Ball tunnels in their base?" Twilight interrupted.  "I mean, they know you have the Morph Ball, and they certainly didn't."

"Most of them were ventilation shafts," Samus explained.  "Not sure about the rest.  For all I know, Dark Samus ordered them to design it that way in the hopes I'd get further corrupted via Phazon exposure."

"...possible," Spike admitted.  "That thing didn't think too clearly."

"At any rate, it wasn't long before I found a new X-Ray Visor," Samus explained, "which allowed me to - amongst other things - interact with the Space Pirate security terminals and door controls, since I could use it to see what the code was to open it."

"As Mom continued, we both picked up a distress signal from a Federation Trooper," Spike added.  "It was a bit of a sketchy signal-"

"Was it Corrupted Gandrayda trying to lure you into a trap?" Pinkie asked.

Gandrayda's jaw dropped.  "...I'm glad I never had to fight you," she muttered.  "Even Spike didn't get it until he was face to face."

"We did get a transmission of coordinates," Samus explained.  "Since it would take a while for me to get there, I told Spike to fly there on his own and see what he could do about rendering assistance."

"So while Mom was making her way through the Facility, I flew there directly," Spike explained.  "Oddly enough, a great many of the enclosed parts of the facility had openings that irised open for Ridley...and they continued to recognize me as such, for some reason.  Not that I was going to complain..."





As Spike flew carefully through the Pirate Facility, doing his best to look like he belonged there, he followed the path that opened on his flight.  He wasn't about to argue with that, since it was taking him exactly where he wanted to go, and it was easier and quieter than blasting through the walls.

As the walls of the final chamber he was trying to reach opened, he spotted a Federation Trooper under fire from two Space Pirate Commandos.  Without hesitation, he dropped down atop the Commandos, shredding through their shielding with his claws before blasting them to bits with his breath.

"Spike!" the Federation Trooper called out, stepping out from his cover.  "Thank the stars it's you!  I thought I was a dead man!  I think I can help you and Samus get to the Seed.  With the path blocked by acid rain-"

Without warning, Spike spat a fireball at the Trooper, making him duck.

"Spike, what-"

"Cut the act, Gandrayda," Spike growled.  "You've been corrupted.  It's the only explanation for why - once I was here - you wouldn't reveal yourself.  I can see the aura of your power surrounding you...and I can smell the Phazon poisoning your systems."

Gandrayda laughed wickedly as she resumed her true form, electric blue Phazon veining her body.  "Well well well...look who's all grown up and knows his stuff," she teased.  "You know, Dark Samus is very unhappy with you."  As she spoke, she began to saunter around Spike, strutting as they circled each other.

"I'm crushed," Spike replied blandly.  "And after I wanted her approval so badly."

"So now I'm going to have to punish you," Gandryda teased, smirking at him.

"It seems like I'm not the only one who's been naughty," Spike replied.  "Do I need to give you a spanking?"

Gandrayda laughed...but it wasn't a wicked laugh.  "Only if it's you," she replied, for a brief moment in a normal voice, without the echo the Phazon corruption was causing.

Spike grinned widely.  "And there you are," he murmured before firing off a blast of Fazite, making sure to aim so that Gandrayda was able to dodge it.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded as she rolled out of the way, launching blasts of electrical energy at him in retaliation.

Spike used his ice breath to make a wall of ice to deflect the electricity, before smashing it to launch the fragments at his foe.  "I studied your condition!" he shouted back, hurling chunks of the room at her between flame, frost, and Fazite breath.  "In the others, the Phazon Corruption is like a parasite, slowly corrupting them by filling them with the substance.  But in you, it's more like a poison, as its energy slowly corrupts, consumes, and replaces yours."

"Then you know how much has been replaced by now," Gandrayda muttered, once more her voice more normal as she evaded.  However, she was unable to dodge the full onslaught, and took several bad hits, making her stagger back,

"Which is why I had to be sure you were still in there!" Spike roared, charging forward.  Grabbing Gandrayda, he slammed her against the wall to daze her.  "Because now I know I can still save you.  And all I have to do is this."

Lunging forward, Spike locked his lips with Gandrayda's, sucking the Phazon out of her and breathing his own flame back in to replenish her as he held her there.  His plan proved quite effective, and before long the blue veins running through Gandrayda's body turned green, lined with fire instead of Phazon.  Her PED fell off of her with a clank as it lost its power with the destruction of the Phazon Seed inside her, and she wrapped her arms around Spike's neck for balance.

It was, of course, at exactly that moment that Samus caught up to Spike.  "Ahem!" she coughed, crossing her arms and tapping her foot.

Glancing back, Spike saw Samus staring at him.  Glancing down at how Gandrayda was smiling up at him, he suddenly realized how the situation could be misinterpreted.  "It's not what it looks like!" he shouted out as he leapt back from Gandrayda.





Samus decided to wait on telling any more until everyone stopped laughing, and Spike stopped sulking about the laughter.
> Corruption: Backtracking
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once the laughter finally died down, Rainbow was the first to speak up.  "So Spike, what new abilities did you get from-"  She paused to snicker.  "-sucking face with Gandrayda?"

Spike rolled his eyes as even more laughter greeted this statement.  "Can you be a little less crude about it?" he pleaded.

"Indeed, Darling," Rarity chided.  "While a valid question, there are other ways to ask."

"Spike got an electricity based breath, and gained complete control of his size changing," Samus explained.  "That's what I meant earlier about him mastering it because of her."

"An unusual honor, I admit," Gandrayda commented as she leaned back in her chair.

Unnoticed to many of the others, Celestia, Cadence, and - surprisingly - Rarity exchanged meaningful glances.  The slightest of nods from Cadence resulted in Celestia closing her eyes in thought with Rarity glancing curiously at the energy being.

"So how did that conversation go, anyway?" Sweetie Belle asked eagerly.  "You stopped at Spike saying, 'It's not what it looks like'."

Chuckling, Samus continued the tale.





"Really?" Samus asked simply.  She knew neither Spike or Gandrayda could see her raised eyebrow through her faceplate, but from the way they both flinched back, it must have been audible in her voice.  "So...you weren't sucking the Phazon out of her and replacing it with your own fire?"

Spike blinked, flustered.  "No-I mean, yes-I mean-"  He growled as he shook himself.  "Don't do that!" he complained angrily.

Gandrayda, for her part, burst into laughter.  "I knew there was a reason I liked you so much, Sammy," she purred, starting to saunter away...only to stagger and fall to her hands and knees.  "Huh...didn't realize just how weak I was going to be after that..."  She smiled up at Spike.  "Damn, you're a good kisser.  I'm still weak in the knees."

Spike glanced away with a blush.  Rolling her eyes, Samus stepped forward.  "Here, let me help you up," she told Gandrayda, offering her hand.

As Gandrayda gripped Samus' hand, some of her energy bled into Samus' Grapple Beam.  Her HUD beeped an alert.



Grapple Voltage acquired.
The Grapple Beam can now lock onto certain mechanical devices and drain energy out of them or pump energy into them.  This can be used to activate or deactivate these devices.  It will also work on certain enemies.



"Before you take me anywhere to recover," Gandrayda began, before coughing a bit.  "Wow, I am weaker than I thought...anyway, this really is a back path to where you can get a Hazard Shield, to protect you from the acid rain.  You'll need it.  You need two people to activate the elevator."

"We'll take care of it," Spike reassured her, bracing her as he moved to one side of the controls.  Samus took the other side, activating the elevator.

The trio rode the elevator up, leading to an open sky area that was only roofed over rather than fully enclosed.  "It'll be a long path back to the ship-"

"I don't take harm from the acid rain," Gandrayda pointed out.  "Energy being.  Spike can carry me back to the ship."

Nodding, Spike pulled her onto his back, taking to the air immediately.





"Quite the wild ride," Gandrayda teased, resulting in Spike rolling his eyes as several mares tittered.

"So is Spike really that good a kisser?" Applejack asked.  "From the sound o' it, he really blew ya away."  Noticing several glances her way, she blushed as she lowered her hat.  "What?" she demanded.  "Ah know ah ain't th' only one curious."

Gandrayda chuckled wickedly.  "Trust me...words don't do the experience justice."

"At any rate," Samus continued, "while it was a path to the Hazard Suit, I needed a Spider Ball upgrade to ride the magnetic rails that were the only path I could use to get there.  So after dropping Gandrayda off on the Olympus, Spike and I returned to Elysia, since he remembered spotting one of those devices that I could use the Grapple Voltage to interact with."

"It proved to be a good choice," Spike explained.  "That path led Mom right to the Spider Ball."

"The only thing missing at that point are your Power Bombs," Twilight pointed out.

"Didn't get those this mission," Samus admitted ruefully.  "Thankfully, as useful as they are normally, I didn't actually need them.  Also, since there was no rush in further exploring the Pirate Homeworld, Spike and I took the time to collect a few things we'd left behind in our rush to rescue our fellows."  She gestured to Rundus, Ghor, and Gandrayda.  "A few missile expansions - both for me and the ship - a few energy tanks, and a few Energy Cells.  Initial reports regarding the Valhalla suggested we'd need a lot of them to get through it completely, when the time came."

"Though while we were exploring, we encountered a new type of enemy on Elysia and Bryyo," Spike explained.  "Phaazoids - spherical Phazon based entities - that took shape wherever Leviathans had been shut down.  They could only be damaged by Phazon based weaponry, my Fazite breath..."  He licked his lips.  "Or my teeth.  They were delicious.  Especially the red ones."

"They were normally blue," Samus explained.  "At any rate, after a time, we received a message from Admiral Dane.  The fleet was moving into position around the Pirate Homeworld for the assault, and that Gandrayda had made a full recovery..."  Turning, she smirked at Gandrayda.  "And had had to be tied down to keep her from rejoining the battle on the front lines."

Gandrayda blew a raspberry at Samus as others laughed.

"After that," Spike continued, "we were heading back to the Pirate Homeworld."
> Corruption: New Dangers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After a brief break for refreshments - and to double check that Celestia had the sun in the right place, much to Cadence's amusement, followed by fielding Ghor's questions about 'having the sun in the right place' - Samus sat back to continue.  "At any rate, the Spider Ball allowed me to get into a lot of places I couldn't before...and it didn't mean getting into them alone anymore, since Spike could now shrink to Morph Ball size and crawl along the tunnels with me."

"It was such a relief to have that ability finally," Spike proclaimed happily.  "It meant I could stick with Mom no matter what."

"Not to mention making the ship a lot more comfortable," Samus indicated.  "While it could house us both with him at full size, it didn't leave much room to move about inside.  With Spike able to shrink down, we were able to move about easily."

"And I could sit in her lap," Spike added happily, shrinking down until he could sit in Samus' lap, resulting in many "Daw"s.

Samus chuckled, patting his head as she continued.  "At any rate, as we headed back towards where we needed to go so I could get a Hazard Suit upgrade, we got a communication about the location of the control unit for the Pirate Base's shield generator.  We needed to shut it down to let the fleet in."

"The Hazard Shield itself wasn't that far from where Gandrayda'd led us to," Spike added, hopping out of Samus' lap to return to normal size and go back to eating.  "Of course, as soon as Samus got it, we came under attack by Pirates and had to fight back in the acid rain...which was no longer a hazard."

"Actually, between the two of us and Spike's size changing, there really wasn't much we'd already encountered that was still a threat to the pair of us," Samus admitted.  "Of course, it wasn't long before we encountered something new..."





In a large chamber with three large turbine vents Samus was able to access with her Morph Ball, Spike and Samus moved about carefully, searching for the way forward.  After triggering two of the vents, however, a large creature burst out of the third.  It had a large blue and red nucleus, heavily armored, with four tentacles hanging down below a massive fanged maw.  Samus' scans revealed it to be a Metroid Hatcher, a mutation from the local metroids.  While it couldn't phase, the armor was rendered impervious to nearly all weaponry - including Spike's Fazite breath - and could only be slain by damaging its neural pathways via the removal of all four energy draining tentacles.  However, the tentacles moved too fast to be dealt with easily, and unlike the Hunter Metroids of Tallon IV, the entire tentacle could drain energy, not just the tips.

Spike was forced to stay back during the first portion of the battle, acting as distraction and charge target while Samus focused on the tentacles, locking onto them with her Seeker Missile until the Hatcher withdrew them into its body to recover.  At that point it started releasing the local strain of Metroids from its maw, which it could apparently control and command.  At that point, Spike lunged forward, catching hold of the beast and stunning it with a Frost breath into its maw.  His frost breath also proved effective on the released Metroids when caught off guard.

Once it was stunned, Spike grabbed hold of one tentacle with a claw, gritting his teeth against the energy drain.  Samus latched onto another with her Grapple Beam.  With grunts of effort, they each tore the tentacle they had hold of from the creature's body, causing it to roar in pain.

Once that was done, the beast reared back to fight again, and Spike and Samus repeated the sequence.  The creature was more careful the second time around...but it was still outmatched by the two pronged assault.





"Hoo-wee!" Applejack gasped out at the end of the description of the fight.  "Bet those things were a doozy ta fight."

"At least until I got the Nova Beam," Samus replied.

"Nova Beam?" Twilight asked.

"Another added effect for my beam weapon," Samus explained.  "It let me fire shots at ultra-high frequency modulations, which let the shots pass through most types of armor.  Not only that, but combined with the X-Ray visor, I could lock onto a nerve center and shoot straight through that for an instant kill.  Worked on most Pirate enemies, and the Metroid Hatchers."

"Awesome!" Rainbow shouted out as she took further notes.

"How'd you get it?" Scootaloo asked eagerly.

"Well, first we had to get to a mining site..." Samus began.





After using a large drilling mechanism to open a new path, the pair followed along back to the outside.  A heavily armored Phazon Harvester Drone proved a bit of an obstacle since it could not be destroyed...but Spike found it could be stunned by heavy kinetic impacts to its blast focus, so he clung to it and punched it every time it became un-stunned.  This allowed Samus to progress readily.

Eventually, they reached the Phazon mining site.  The Nova Beam - which Samus knew she needed - was suspended atop a mining laser that cycled between cutting up the Phazon and sucking up the deposits.

"So...what's the plan?" Spike asked.

"Break the laser," Samus replied.

"Good plan."

Going down into the Phazon deposit region, they came under attack by several Pirate troops.  "I have an idea for how to break it," Spike suggested.

"Go for it," Samus instructed firmly.

While the laser was breaking up Phazon deposits, Spike and Samus held the attacking Pirates at bay.  When it was sucking up the deposits, however, Spike and Samus stayed well back, gripping the ground as they blasted the pirates into the suction.  When a Pirate smashed into the mining laser, it extended an alert sensor with four energy shields.  Samus and Spike focused their fire on the shields.  When one went down, more Pirates attacked and the sensor was withdrawn, the laser returning to its normal cycle.

After three more rounds of that, the laser fell, completely broken, to smash into the ground.  Samus then leapt up to collect the Nova Beam.





"Clever," Ghor complimented as the rest of the table cheered.  Samus and Spike both took playful bows.
> Corruption: Investigations and Infiltrations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So after you got the Nova Beam, you went after the Leviathan, right?" Twilight asked eagerly.

Samus smirked.  "Nope.  I decided to backtrack and get a few more expansions and other things."

Twilight blinked, tilting her head in confusion.  "Umm...while I understand being fully prepared...weren't the Federation getting ready to assault the Pirate Homeworld?"

"Yes," Spike confirmed.  "And they were constantly bugging us about getting the shield down!  It was really annoying!"

"So I made a unilateral decision to be as prepared as possible before going in," Samus explained.  "After all, we'd be fighting Ridley, and I wanted to see if there were any upgrades available for Spike before he faced off against him again."

"There weren't," Spike admitted, "but the excuse got the feds off our back for a time."

While Twilight looked completely flabbergasted, she was the only one not laughing or at least giggling.

"Beyond that," Samus continued, "when I'd found all the Energy Cells I could, we were able to fully explore the Valhalla.  There was...some significant information there."

"Which I got left out of finding," Spike grumbled, pouting.  "Just cause it was in a vacuum and I couldn't breathe in space yet."

"Why didn't you just shrink to human size and put on an oxygen unit?" Rundus asked.

Spike stared at him for several moments before slamming his face into the table.  Laughter erupted.

Once the laughter subsided, Samus continued.  "It turned out that Dark Samus had ordered the Space Pirates to attack the Valhalla to steal the Aurora Unit...specifically to install it on Phaaze, the planet of living Phazon.  Doing so gave her complete control of the planet, and the ability to produce the Leviathans at an accelerated rate and determine where to aim them."

"What purpose did the Leviathans serve Phaaze?" Luna asked curiously.

Samus was dead silent.

"Reproduction," Spike explained.  "The Leviathans were seeds.  Planted in other worlds, they slowly converted those worlds into more like Phaaze, worlds of living Phazon.  Phaaze was a living planet...and a blight on all life as we knew it by its very existence."

Deciding to move past that quickly, Samus continued the story.  "I also found a Space Pirate control code that we later discovered was for controlling Leviathan based battleships, one of which was actually in orbit around the Pirate Homeworld.  That came in useful later."

"After that, we returned to the Pirate Homeworld, and headed for the shield generator..." Spike began.





Entering the shield control center, Samus and Spike moved carefully, investigating how best to shut it down.  After destroying a few enemies and turrets, they determined that the shield generator itself was the central pillar.  At three points along the pillar were Phazite armor plates, guarding the structural weak points of the mechanism.  Samus' X-Ray visor let her see through the Phazite armor, and her Nova Beam could shoot through them.  From what she could determine, the only entrances to the shield control tower was on the bottom floor.  However, the control panel to expose the Phazite panels was on the top floor.

"Here's the plan," Samus explained.  "You get down to the ground floor and guard the entrances.  As soon as you're in position, I'll activate the controls.  You keep the hostiles off my back while I disable the shield generator."

"Got it," Spike agreed, leaping down to the bottom of the tower.

As soon as she heard the thump of his landing, Samus activated the control panel.  Much to Samus' surprise, several enemies warped in near the top, and she had to open fire immediately.  Since they were equipped with special jamming tech, she wasn't able to use the X-ray visor/Nova Beam combo for instant kills, and was forced to rely on Hypermode until Spike was able to get back up and cover her back.  He dealt with the enemies by the simple expedient of grabbing them and hurling them out the window.

Each time a new segment of the generator pillar was disabled, more enemies appeared.  While they immediately attacked Samus, they hesitated when turning on Spike.  Apparently, they still couldn't quite convince themselves that he wasn't actually Ridley.

I wonder if the fall out the upper window helps them make up their minds, Samus thought idly as she went after the last panel.

With the final one disabled, Samus rode Spike back to the top of the tower, letting him grab hold of her in Morph Ball and slam her into the final slot.  Detonating a bomb, the entire shield generator shut down.  The shield dropped, and the defense turrets activated, trying to protect the base, but the Federation assaulted full force, with high speed fighter craft, heavy bombers, and full carriers.  The Pirate Homeworld was not prepared for such a full force assault.





"Whoa..." Rainbow gasped out, plainly excited at the mere idea of such a heavy assault.

"Yeah, the Federation went all out there," Samus admitted.  "Admittedly, that was only the one fleet."

"Only one fleet?" Luna asked nervously.  "Pray tell, how many fleets of such size doth this Federation have?"

"About 10," Samus replied with a shrug.  "I didn't bother to keep an exact count."

"If they have ten fleets that size," Celestia asked, more than a bit odd, "why do they need you?"

"Because, Celestia," Discord pointed out logically, "it doesn't matter how many sledgehammers you have in your shed if what you need is a scalpel.  The fleets are obviously for pitched wars and the like, and not just with the Space Pirates.  But for infiltration missions and things like that, Hunters like her are obviously the preferred choice.  And it's cheaper to hire her on a case by case basis than to train your own on payroll getting bored between jobs."

Celestia groaned.  "Don't remind me," she mumbled to herself, pointedly not meeting Twilight's eyes as she turned to her in confusion.

"After that," Spike continued, "all that was left was the assault on the path to the Seed..."
> Corruption: Assault
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"The path to the Seed itself was heavily defended," Samus explained.  "And aside from the defenses, it was heavily fortified.  Since there wasn't any way to target some of the barricades with the ship missiles, we needed some help getting through."

"But you got it, right?" Twilight asked.  "I mean, how else did you get past?"

Spike chuckled.  "Course we did.  Admiral Dane showed up himself to lend a hand with a special demolitions squad..."





As Samus and Spike returned to the path to the Seed, a Federation dropship descended, lowering a Grav-platform - a floating platform that stabilized a 1G gravity field on it, allowing it to ascend, descend, and collect injured troops in extreme conditions.  Aboard the platform was a Demolitions squadron, lightly armored Federation Troops carrying packs filled with high grade explosions, along with Admiral Dane himself.  His power armor currently had the faceplate retracted, so he could greet Samus and Spike face to face.

"Outstanding work, you two," he stated, a hint of admiration in his voice.  "I don't say this often, but I am impressed.  It's not every day a pair of bounty hunters can complete their objectives at your level of efficiency...and saving your competition in the process."

"Speaking of, how are they doing?" Samus asked.

"Rundus is fully recovered and eager to help out any way he can," Admiral Dane replied.  "Ghor's already researching a way to deal with Phaaze, once we've found a way to get to it.  And Gandrayda's well on her way to making a full recovery...physically, anyway.  For some reason, she hasn't been talking much."

"Probably feels violated by what Dark Samus did to her," Samus offered.





"Something like that, yeah," Gandrayda interrupted, glancing away.

Samus looked towards her curiously, wondering what could be going through the energy being's mind.  In the meantime, Spike continued the story.





"That said," Dane continued, "you've still got work to do.  Up ahead is the Pirate cargo line that leads to the seed.  There is a large security door located at the end.  Four Demolition Troopers are needed to open the final door, so-"

Spike quickly pointed to four of the Demolition Troopers.  "On my back," he said bluntly.  "There's a reason I'm classified as a cavalry unit."

The Troopers, used to taking unusual orders, quickly clambered onto Spike's back.  Dane chuckled.  "Good thinking, Spike.  I could wish the Federation had 50 of you-"

"So would the Pirates," Samus muttered under her breath.

"-but I'm glad enough to have the two of you on our side," Dane finished.  "The two of you are the only ones who can destroy the Seed.  We'll help however we can here, but if it's a choice between a Trooper and you, make sure you survive.  Understood?"

"Yes sir," Samus said quickly as Spike bridled at the idea.





"What?" every pony save Celestia and Luna shouted in shock.

"Seriously?" Twilight demanded in disbelief.  "He...seriously ordered you to sacrifice the Troopers to keep yourselves alive if necessary?"

"Battlefield logic, Twilight Sparkle," Celestia stated sorrowfully.  "When it comes to planning a war, you can't think of your troops as individuals.  You have to think in terms of numbers."

"And when you have troops with necessary, unique capabilities," Luna continued, "you must prioritize their survival over those whom you have many of.  If things went the worst, Dane could always have sent Samus and Spike another Demolitions squad.  But if Spike and Samus fell, there would have been none left to destroy the Seed.  The Troops were expendable, and they weren't."

"I didn't like that any more than you do, Twilight," Spike growled.  "So I made certain it didn't become an issue..."





Once Dane had left, the Demolition Troopers used their bombs to start clearing the path.  As soon as the path was open, Spike surged forward.  He watched each door as it began to open, and blasted away with his frost breath as soon as they did.  Pirate troops often tried to leap to attack as soon as the doors opened, only to get frozen solid.  Spike then charged bodily through them.

The combination of frost breath, sheer bulk, and Samus adding her own arsenal not only proved more than the defending Pirates could handle, the sheer ferocity of Spike's assault actually sent some of the weaker Pirates leaping onto active tram tracks rather than face him.  The Demolition Troopers on his back were also staring in awe, terrified fascination as he tore through the defenses, sometimes literally.

Samus' own observations were more worried.  She always got nervous whenever Spike started becoming too ferocious in battle.  With what the Chozo had told her about his nature on Tallon IV and what had happened on Aether, she couldn't help but worry that one day he might not come back from such ferocity, that she'd lose him forever to the beast within.

Not that I could necessarily stop him if I had to, she thought silently as she saw him burst through the second wall by body checking it.

At one point, a Berzerker Lord tried to stop Spike's assault, but Samus was able to lock onto it with the X-Ray visor and take out its brain with her Nova Beam.  This cleared the path for Spike to lay waste to the smaller Pirate troops, who stood no chance against his enraged assault.

One last defensive force attempted to stop them, but Spike was able to easily crush them.  With that done, the four Demolition Troopers got into position to detonate the final door.  Once it was destroyed, Spike and Samus raced ahead.

A pool of Phazon provided a way for Spike and Samus to rejuvenate themselves, but Spike only guzzled half the pool before charging on ahead.  Samus had recovered just enough to race after him to keep an eye on him.

She found Spike pacing angrily around before the final door, his eyes glowing as he growled.  When Samus moved to open the final gate and the skylight to let her ship in, a Pirate Commando warped in to attack her.  Before she had a chance to counterattack, Spike had seized the crimson armored pirate and crushed it in his claws before tearing it in half.





Everyone was staring at Spike in a mix of concern, awe, and a hint of fear.  He sighed.  "I knew I'd be fighting Ridley soon," he explained.  "I...I could feel him, and he could feel me.  And my armor had disengaged to let me adapt completely to the world's 40G environment.  I...I knew I would need every advantage possible.  So...I'd woken the beast inside me to full strength...sinking into it and embracing everything it could give me."  He turned sadly to Samus.  "Sorry I scared you, Mom...but it was that or risk losing to him."

"I understand," Samus replied.  "Still, it would have been nice if you'd waited for me."





Once Samus opened the skylights, she was able to call in the ship to destroy the last door with the ship missiles.  As soon as the final door was blasted open, Spike leapt into the path revealed, roaring as he sped down the long tunnel.

"Spike!" Samus shouted out, leaping into the ship and pursuing, not even waiting for her ship to land.
> Corruption: Dueling Dragons
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The inside of the Leviathan Seed was much the same as the other two, half mineral and half organic with critters scampering around the inside of the first chamber.  The only major difference Samus noticed as she hoped out of the ship was the valve-like door having been torn out of the wall, along with a good chunk of the wall, which was now weeping Phazon.  Realizing Spike had literally torn through it, she quickly charged after him.

She could hear the sounds of battle as she rushed through the narrow passage beyond, racing over the forms of some sort of defensive tendril creature that had been torn out at the root.  The wall at the opposite end had been slammed outward, leaving a wide gap with ragged edges.

Inside the central chamber, scorch marks, ice formations and water puddles, and dancing electricity covered the entire chamber.  Huge openings high up in the four walls pulsed as two draconic figures swept in and out of them, alternately clashing and circling.  Blood and other things rained from the air to the floor as the battle increased in intensity, and ferocious roars punctuated by shrieks of pain or triumph deafened the ears.

Samus stared in awe as two equally powered dragons at their full strength did fierce battle with one another, all the weapons at their disposal being unleashed full force in a fury that could reshape worlds.  Their movements were too fast for her to get a lock on Ridley.  There was too high a chance she'd hit Spike.  All she could do was watch.

...where's a popcorn vendor when you need one? she thought silently to herself as she watched.





Discord grinned widely as he snapped his talons, teleporting a bag of popcorn into everyone's hands, hooves, or claws as the case may be.  "If only we could have seen the whole fight from the beginning," he pouted.  "That would have been incredible."

Spike hesitated.  "Actually..."  Reaching over to his gauntlet, he disconnected the holographic projector.  Setting it on the Map table, it hummed.  After a time, an image of the Leviathan Central Chamber was projected, with Spike visible charging in.  "It fell off while I was charging, and that's how I discovered it could follow along behind me and record things."

Excitement raced through the air around the table as everyone looked up eagerly to watch, as Spike prepared to fill in his thoughts at the various times.





As Spike charged into the central chamber, he let out a challenging roar.  He knew Ridley was here as Guardian of the Seed.  He could feel it.  It was time for dragon to fight dragon.

Before he could react, Ridley dropped down from the ceiling, his bladed tail whipping around to stab him in the neck.  As Spike pulled back, he felt his scales shift to cover the wound, but his visor gave him a status update.



Fazite gland punctured.  Healing in process.  Estimated time till complete recovery, 10 minutes.  Use of Fazite Breath in the meantime highly dangerous.



Fair enough, Spike growled as he prepared for battle.  That would have made it too easy, anyway.  Deciding not to give Ridley a chance to strike again, Spike lunged forward, wings mantled and teeth bared as he leapt, knocking his foe to the ground on his back.

The two struggled for a time, wrestling for dominance as they exchanged strikes of claw, wing, teeth, and tail blades.  Unable to get a clear strike with the points of their various weapons, they weren't able to do any serious damage to each other.  Ridley managed to briefly get the upper hand, pinning Spike beneath him as he opened his mouth wide.

Seeing metal plates hanging open over a wound in Ridley's chest - where he'd been injured back on Norian - Spike reacted quickly, sending a shock of electric breath into the wound.  Ridley screamed in pain as he fell back, leaping into the air to try and gain an advantage.  Spike quickly pursued him into the air.

Spike pursued Ridley, firing blasts of flame, frost, and electric breath at him indiscriminately, trying to land a hit on him to take him out of the air.  Ridley wasn't about to hold still for it, however, and fired back with his own flame breath in beams, blasts, and spheres.  Spike managed to evade each blast, trying to close the distance.

The pair began to circle each other both in and out of the central chamber, closing on each other for intense clashes where neither was entirely certain whose claws, teeth, and tail blades were whose.  The only thing in either of their minds was rage, as both sought to tear the other apart.

It was at this time that Samus entered the chamber, trying to get a lock on Ridley.  After a time, she lowered her arm cannon, focusing on watching the battle, ready to leap in should Spike need help.

Briefly, Ridley's eyes locked on Samus, and he snarled fury.  Diving, he tried to attack her, only to get knocked to the side by Spike.  Taking a page from what he'd seen Ridley do, he fired a sphere of electricity straight into the metal armor plates covering Ridley's wound.  The electricity coursed through rapidly as Ridley screamed in pain.  Samus quickly fired several Ice Missiles as Spike released a blast of flame breath, the mix of energies and temperature imbalance causing the armor plates to blast off of the enemy dragon.

Snarling defiance, Ridley leapt back, calling Phazon onto his body to shape armor to protect his wound.  With that done, he unleashed a Phazon charged flame breath straight at Spike, catching him all along his neck.

Spike screamed in pain as he fell back.  Pushing himself to his claws, he shook his head as Ridley leapt into the air.  He spread his wings to pursue, but Samus' hand was on his wing.

"Spike," she whispered.  "He's the better beast.  Be a better Hunter."

Spike let the words percolate through his brain for a time, then nodded, reigning in the raging dragon inside him.  Lowering one shoulder, he let Samus mount as the Spider Ball tech magnetically attached Samus' armor to his own where she sat astride his shoulders at the base of his neck.  Spreading his wings, he leapt into the air.

Ridley cackled as he saw them approach.  "Where is your pride, dragon?" he spat.  "Not only do you debase yourself to serve this mongrel, but you let her ride you?  You are no dragon!  You are an overgrown lizard, and I will spit on your grave as I feast on your entrails!"  He unleashed a barrage of flame blasts.

Spike spread his wings wide and high, riding the thermal the intense flame generated to claim altitude.  "I am more than just dragon, Ridley," Spike growled back as he soared over him.  Turning, he performed a brief aileron roll in the air, letting Samus aim straight at Ridley's skull and back with missiles before bombarding the internal vulnerabilities of the Phazite armor with her Nova Beam.  "Yes, I am dragon.  But I am also warrior!"  Curving downward, he slammed his opponent to the ground in a dive, claws locked.  "I am child!  I am Hatchling!"  Ridley swept his tail up, and Spike latched onto it with his teeth below the blade and tore the blade out from the root.

As Ridley screamed in pain, Samus leapt off.  Ridley activated his hypermode, and Samus hers as she held Ridley's upper jaw open.

"And I!  Am!  CHOZO!" Spike roared out.  As his visor informed him that his Fazite gland was fully healed and ready for use, he opened his mouth wide and exhaled a huge blast of Fazite energy straight down Ridley's throat.

Ridley's last scream of agony was cut off as his body exploded, blasting Spike and Samus backward and flooding their bodies with Phazon.





The recording cut off, as the surge of Phazon had temporarily shorted out the recording device.  It was good timing, however, as several of those observing had burst into cheers.  Shining even went so far as to give Spike a friendly punch on the shoulder.  "Nice one, bro!" he shouted out proudly.

Spike chuckled a bit.  "Yeah...got a bit carried away there, I'll admit.  Don't know where that bit at the end came from."

"But what did you mean, Samus?" Cadence asked curiously.  "About being a better Beast or Hunter?"

Samus smiled.  "Drawing out his primal side full force like that, Spike was fighting like a Beast.  While he was a great deal more powerful, by nature Ridley's far more vicious than he could ever be...a much better Beast.  But you don't need to be a better Beast to beat a Beast.  That's what Hunters are for."  She patted Spike on the other shoulder.  "He just needed to be reminded of that."

"So what happened then?" Rainbow asked eagerly.

Samus shrugged.  "Another Hypermode option - Hyper Grapple, basically Grapple Voltage with Phazon - and another Seed destroyed.  And then meeting up aboard the Olympus to plan the final stage."
> Corruption: The Final Plan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Before we get to the Olympus," Luna cut in, "I was wondering if perchance we might explore Spike's battle declaration at the end of the fight with Ridley?"  She gave Spike a direct look.  "You claim you don't know where it came from...but I recognize its nature.  Whereas ponies have heartsong - a spontaneous melody that can express a deep feeling from the heart, often causing many others around them to spontaneously sing along-"

"Wait, you mean Equestria is the land of spontaneous musicals?" Samus interrupted.

Fluttershy gasped, stunned.  "You...you mean you don't have heartsong?  But...but then how do you know you belong within a community, welcomed despite your differences, if your heart doesn't resonate with the hearts of others for the music that comes from within?  You poor thing..."

Samus stared at Fluttershy for a time before deciding to not explore the idea any further.  "You were saying, Princess?"

"Yes," Luna continued.  "At any rate, where ponies have heartsong, the dragons of our world have something similar they dub heartfire, which takes shape in battle declarations that spring forth from the fire in their core without bothering to consult the brain.  From the sound of it, that is what happened there."  She looked carefully at Spike.  "Proclaiming yourself warrior, distancing yourself from the beastial nature of Ridley, proclaiming you are not like him.  Hatchling is the Chozo term for Samus, and how they referred to you as well, so that proclaims your kinship with Samus.  Proclaiming yourself Chozo needs no explanation, as you declared your allegiance to their ways and morals.  But...why proclaim yourself a child?"

Spike glanced away, shooting a soft smile at Twilight.  "I didn't understand at the time...but whenever I tried to make sense of it as I fell into slumber, I'd always have the some dream...a vague recollection of a warm hug, and a motherly voice telling me I was her baby dragon."

Twilight blushed in pleasure as she glanced away.  Luna smirked smugly at the sight.

"It turned out the Federation's plan was...rather straight forward," Ghor spoke up, directing the talk back to the story.  "Use the Leviathan orbiting the Pirate Homeworld to open a wormhole to Phaaze.  Send the entire fleet to bombard the living Phazon planet and the Pirate Fleet surrounding it, while Samus and Spike went in to take down Dark Samus and the stolen Aurora Unit.  It was hoped this would cause a cascade failure that resulted in the planet's destruction, as the Aurora Unit was known to be connected directly to the planet's control core.  When the plan was explained to all of us, I expressed...dissatisfaction."





"Foolishness," Ghor stated bluntly as Admiral Dane finished the briefing.

All heads turned to him.  "...excuse me?" Dane demanded.  "Do you have a problem with the plan?"

"Several," Ghor replied calmly.  "First, the Pirate Fleet surrounding Phaaze will be constantly drawing power from it, meaning you will be dealing with ships in Hypermode.  Your fleet will barely make a dent in the defensive formation, let alone in the planet.  Second, while Samus would be able to maneuver past the defensive fleet to make planetfall in a best case scenario, the Phazon radiation in the area can be calculated as being three times as intense as the orange Phazon Samus encountered in Tallon IV's Impact Crater.  Not only would this be instantly lethal to Spike, it would overload Samus' PED, causing an explosive growth of her Phazon infection.  Even if she didn't immediately become completely corrupted, it would be a race against time and her own body to find Dark Samus and the Aurora Unit and destroy both, when they could conceivably heal themselves from the planet around them, while just walking on the surface would push Samus towards total corruption."

While Samus recognized all the hazards Ghor was pointing out, she was ready to make the attempt - without Spike - in order to preserve the galaxy against the threat of Phazon.

"We know the plan has problems," Dane barked out.  "But unless you have a better one-"

"I do," Ghor countered.

Silence fell once again.  "Well, don't leave us in suspense," Gandrayda chided.  "Let's hear it."

"The first step is for Spike to eat the core of the Leviathin in orbit around the Pirate Homeworld," Ghor explained.  "As Spike's ability absorption is based in situational requirements, this should enable him to open his own spatial rifts.  Since the Leviathan is already programmed with Phaaze's coordinates, he will be able to open a rift gate right there, using the structure of the Leviathan as an amplifier.  I've already run simulations based on the data collected on Spike's growth so far to confirm this will work."

"And then what?" Dane demanded.  "How do you intend to use that as a way to destroy Phaaze?"

Ghor turned, ignoring the Admiral.  "Gandrayda, I assume from the way you were able to absorb Spike's flame energy into your body that you would be able to enter a pure energy state and infuse him?"

Gandrayda swallowed, plainly shocked.  "Well...yeah, I could, but-"

"Doing so will amplify Spike's energy abilities to immense proportions," Ghor interrupted.  "Combine that with the amplification of the Leviathan, and a full powered Fazite blast should cause a cataclysmic chain reaction that will utterly destroy Phaaze.  Based on my calculations, the Federation's plan has a 15% chance of success, with a 60% chance of death for all involved.  My plan, on the other hand, has a 84% chance of success, no chance of death, and failure will allow us to implement the Admiral's plan as backup...especially if we use the technology available to upgrade the Leviathan's energy generation and amplification properties."





"Once Dane got his ego under control," Rundus added, "that's the plan we went with."

"He's a good Admiral," Samus pointed out.  "It only took him two minutes to calm down and agree to the better plan."
> Corruption: Execution
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So everything went according to plan, then?" Shining Armor asked.  "Pretty sure that's a first in military history."  His statement brought a chuckle from several around the table.

"More or less," Spike replied.  "In addition to letting me create the rifts as expected, consuming the Leviathan Core also granted me the ability to breathe in space."

"How does that even work, anyway?" Twilight demanded angrily.  "Breathing requires oxygen, and even as evolved as you've become, dragons need it as much as ponies, or any other race!  How do you get oxygen from a vacuum?"

"Molecular conversion," Samus explained.  "He developed an organ alongside his lungs that uses the ambient energy of stellar radiation - anything from stardust to solar flares or ship engine residue - to convert carbon-dioxide into oxygen, while the carbon left over is redirected to the flame sacs to burn for excess energy, to replenish what is used in the process."

Twilight's eyes lit up in eagerness.  "Fascinating..."  She turned towards Spike, her horn lighting up as she subconsciously gripped her tools from her lab in her magic.

"Science later, Twilight," Spike scolded.  "Story now."

Twilight chuckled ruefully as she blushed, the tools going back where they were.

"So once Ghor, Rundus, and the Federation engineers finished improving the Leviathan for the big plan," Gandrayda explained, "Spike and I boarded to head off for the final battle..."





Spike sat calmly in the chamber in the center of the Leviathan battleship, cords both technological and organic hooked up to his claws, wings, tail, and face.  It had been difficult figuring out how to properly hook him up in the core chamber so that the amplification systems would work properly, and it wasn't exactly comfortable, but they'd finally confirmed it was all condition green.  "You ready, Gandrayda?" Spike asked.

"As ready as I can be," Gandrayda replied, pacing back and forth, wringing her hands.  "So...the merging with you...when's that supposed to take place?"

"After we come out the other side of the wormhole," Spike explained.  "That way we have the maximum amount of energy available for the final Fazite blast.  So you'd best do anything you need to do to get prepared now, before I open the wormhole."

"Right," Gandrayda replied nervously, taking a few breaths to calm herself.  She spent a few minutes just staring at Spike...before closing her eyes.  "Alright...I'm ready."

"And here we go."  Closing his eyes, Spike focused his energy through the Leviathan, opening the wormhole.

As they exited the wormhole, they saw the amassed fleet of the Space Pirates under Dark Samus' control surrounding the living Phazon planet.  All were armed to the teeth, and the planet itself looked ready to defend itself.

"This could get ugly far before it gets pretty," Gandrayda pointed out.

"Except without any Federation ships with us, they think we're one of them," Spike countered.  "You ready?"

"...yeah," Gandrayda replied, closing her eyes.  "Watch closely."

Turning, Spike watched carefully as Gandrayda arched her back, letting her arms hang limp, her head laying back against her neck.  Her physical form began to blur and fade, leaving behind only bright pink and green energy in a rough humanoid shape.  The cloud of energy slowly floated forward...and into him.

It was like nothing Spike had ever experienced before.  It wasn't just the sheer amount of energy thrumming through his body.  He could feel Gandrayda's heart beat, the thrum of her thoughts, the pulse of her very life, all alongside his own as they slowly synchronized.  His eyes glowed as he took a deep breath.

The blast of Fazite released by the Leviathan was enormous, larger than the Leviathan itself.  It lanced through three Pirate flagships before impacting with the planet itself, drilling down into the core.

And the planet slowly unfolded, awakened to anger as it took on the shape of a massive Phazon behemoth, ready to tear us apart.  Feeling the energy inside me, I released it all.  The Leviathan amplified my ability to control my size, and I expanded into immensity until I faced off against Phaaze as a planet sized dragon-





"That did not happen," Gandrayda interrupted, shooting Spike a playful glare.  "I was there too, remember?"

Spike glanced away with a pout.  "...would've been awesome..." he grumbled.

"Can we hear the end of that fight anyway?" Scootaloo asked hopefully.

"What next?  Hurling galaxies as shurikens?" Rainbow added.  "That'd make an awesome secret ending to the game."

Chuckling, Ghor reached into his armor and pulled out a box of discs labeled 'TTGL'.  He slid it across to the pair.  "I'll provide you a means of watching these later," he promised.

"So what did happen?" Luna asked curiously.  "In reality, I mean."

"Planet blew up," Gandrayda replied bluntly.  "All Phazon vanished.  Shockwave took out the Pirate fleet and the Leviathan.  Spike had to make his own way back through the wormhole..."  She smirked a bit at Spike.  "With me inside him."

Spike blushed as he looked away.  "I wish you wouldn't put it like that," he grumbled.

"How else should I put it?" Gandrayda demanded, her temper flaring a bit.  "Nothing else seems to get through to you how significant it was."

"Significant?" Spike shouted angrily, lunging to his feet.

"This is getting good!" Pinkie whispered, stuffing a hoofful of popcorn into her mouth, Discord mirroring her actions.

"You didn't think it had no meaning, did you?" Gandrayda yelled, shooting to her own feet.  "Is that really how you think of me?"

"Why are you putting it in that sort of context?" Spike roared back, his tail lashing.

"What other context is there?" Gandrayda screamed out.  "You have no idea how big something like that is-"

"I was six!" Spike roared out at the top of his lungs, bringing his clenched claws down on the table hard enough Twilight was afraid it would crack.

"...and now it's creepy," Pinkie whimpered, her mane starting to flatten.

"So was I!" Gandrayda wailed, her own fists slamming onto the table.

"...and now it's freaky," Discord commented, his body bursting into blue flames for no apparent reason.

Everyone turned to stare at Gandrayda.  Rundus was the first to speak.  "...what?  But..."  He gestured awkwardly to Gandrayda, trying to express something without words.

"Physically, my people don't age, once our base forms are shaped," Gandrayda explained.  "Once we develop enough to take on our base form, we're able to move about beyond our homeworld, or anywhere within it.  Most don't leave.  I was...a prodigy.  I wasn't even a year old when my base form took shape, and my mastery of the energy based abilities my race possesses was leagues ahead of even some of our elders.  But...I was still a child, and despite my talents was treated like one."  She glanced up at the table.  "Can you imagine that?  It..."  She struggled for words.

"It'd be like knowing how to calculate advance thaumaturgical waveforms in your head and explain them completely, but no one letting you do anything but sit with the other kindergartners still learning how to brush their teeth," Twilight murmured.

Gandrayda nodded.  "Yeah...like that.  Since I couldn't stand it, I left...but outside the homeworld, in the mostly human Federation..."  She glanced towards Samus.  "Well, I look like this.  What do you think happened?"

"Young and innocent?" Samus asked.  "Nobody cared what was in your head then either, just that your body was desirable."

"Exactly," Gandrayda confirmed.  "So, just so I'd be taken seriously...I crafted a persona to use.  A mask to wear...and I based it on someone I'd learned about, someone I could truly look up to."  She smiled softly at her fellow Hunter.  "You, Samus."

"Me?"

"Yes.  A strong woman, taking no nonsense from anyone, unafraid to do whatever it took...but the soft side of a loving mother?"  Gandrayda chuckled softly.  "Who could be better?  I...idol worshiped you, Samus.  It's why, when we were finally going to meet for the first time, I took on your form."  Her smile was rueful.  "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all."

"And then I laughed," Spike said slowly, beginning to realize.  "And shot you the thumbs up."

Gandrayda nodded slowly.  "Yes.  You were the adopted son of my idol...and you offered friendship.  I wanted to get to know you, so I left you that bento.  And you liked it...and after I saw you fight, I saw you as an equal as a Hunter, and a possible friend.  And..."  She glanced away.  "After Dark Samus shot us, when I awoke, you were there, making sure I was okay.  Helping me through adjusting to what had happened.  And...with the way you laughed and joked, and showed such worry for Samus...I saw the childish side of you.  I...knew you couldn't have been much older than I.

"And when you saved me..."  She shivered, a strange look in her eyes.  "You gave me some of your own energy, energy that is still a part of me.  I...don't know what it could mean for you, but amongst my people, such an act is-"  The word that came out next was not Galactic Standard, and more a harmony of notes than actual words.  "...it doesn't translate.  But...it's the same thing for merging with you like I did.  It..."

"Your language doesn't have a word for 'holy', does it?" Cadence asked calmly.

Gandrayda blinked.  "...no, not really.  But it doesn't fit-"

"That's why you can't translate that word," Cadence continued.  "I can...see it in you.  The word you're looking for...is sacred."

Gandrayda thought about it for a time.  "Yes...that sounds about right..."

"And you wanted to explain that to Spike," Cadence continued, stepping forward to lay one wing over Gandrayda's shoulders, the other over Spike's arm as he came closer.  "But you didn't know how.  You couldn't find the words...and you fell back on the aggressive attitude you'd built for yourself, the mask you didn't know how to take off anymore...and the closest words you could find, however wrong they were."

Gandrayda could only nod as she sobbed into her crossed arms against the table.  "I just...wanted to connect with you, Spike...to tell you...how much it all meant to me..."

Silently, Spike nudged Cadence aside.  Wrapping his wing around Gandrayda, he held her close, watching her with soft, compassionate eyes.

"Do...do you know what it's like...to forever try to find a place to belong...and people to belong with...only to always be left feeling you're the odd one out, not quite fitting in anywhere?" she sobbed.

"...all too well," Spike replied softly.  "In both my lives..."

At this point, Samus was rather unsurprised to see all the ponies pile around Gandrayda and Spike for a group hug.  And given what she'd just heard of Gandrayda's past, it was unsurprising that the energy being responded eagerly to the comfort.  After a time, she chuckled ruefully.  "Over a decade of effort maintaining the image of a tough as nails Hunter down the drain," she groaned softly.

"Not if we don't let it!" Pinkie piped up.  "We'll all just promise not to tell."  She spun on Rundus and Ghor.  "Won't we fellas?"

"As a favor to Spike," Rundus replied instantly, watching the pair.

"...agreed," Ghor added after a few moments.

"Then repeat after me!"  Lifting a hoof, Pinkie demonstrated the motions, echoed around the table.  "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"

After sharing a chuckle and letting the tension defuse a bit, Samus spoke up.  "I wish I'd known about all this back on the Olympus," Samus told Gandrayda.  "I'd have been happy to adopt you."

Gandrayda thought about that for a time, then shook her head.  "Nah.  As nice as that would have been..."  She sent Spike a flirtatious smirk.  "This big guy's way too cute for me to see him as a brother."

Whereas before Spike would have cringed away from such behavior...knowing what he did now, Spike managed to smirk back.
> Interlude: To Love a Dragon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After the emotional end to the story telling, the entire group decided to make an early night of it.  Celestia lowered the sun, Luna raised the moon, and the whole group curled up for sleep around the Map.  No one was that surprised that Gandrayda found her way to curl up against Spike during the night, though it was a little surprising to a few that Rarity and Cadence also wound up curled against the energy being.

As the group went different ways for various tasks - Ghor with Twilight and Samus to get more answers about this new world, Rundus to 'chill' with Rainbow and Pinkie, and others to various chores or relaxation activities (the Diarchs availed themselves of the Ponyville spa) - Rarity surprised everyone by dragging Gandrayda off to her boutique, closely followed by Cadence.  She also suggested to Spike that he take some 'guy time' with Shining Armor and Discord before that afternoon if he planned to take Gandrayda out for dinner later.  The Crusaders had laughed uproariously at Spike's expression, apparently torn between startled and pleased that Rarity could still seemingly read his mind about such things.

Gandrayda didn't take too kindly to being dragged off to a dress shop.  "Why do I have to do this, anyway?" she demanded angrily as she was left on a raised platform while Rarity took measurements.  "I don't normally wear clothes, anyway!"

"Different occasions call for different approaches, darling," Rarity explained mildly.  "What do you think Spike would think if you showed up for a date without a stitch, like you expected to fight something?"

"Probably that I'm a lot like his Moms," Gandrayda countered.  "Besides, I'm not sure I want to take fashion advice from a member of a race that normally walks around naked anyway."

As Cadence giggled, Rarity rolled her eyes.  "You want Spike to see another side of you, don't you?" she chided.  "To see you as a young lady looking to court, rather than the more...wanton aspects you've presented in trying to be tough?  The aspects that caused such a long standing miscommunication?"  When Gandrayda said nothing, Rarity went back to taking measurements.  "Leave this to me, then.  Assuming they haven't changed too much, I know Spike's tastes in fashion quite well, and exactly how to make you look your best for him."  She glanced over the somewhat spiky projections that rose from the back of Gandrayda's head.  "Pity there isn't more to work with in regards to hair, but I can make it work."

As Rarity began taking notes, Gandrayda stared at her for a time.  "Why do all this?" she demanded finally.  "From the way you were acting before, I thought you'd staked a claim on him.  Why help me woo him?"

Rarity paused in mid sketch, then continued.  "That's a long story, Gandrayda...and it goes all the way back to the day I first met him.  Are you sure you want to hear?"

Gandrayda nodded firmly.  "I think I do."

Rarity smiled softly as she continued.  "The first time I met him, he was this tiny little baby dragon, about Sweetie Belle's size.  Plainly only a child...but he fell head over heels for me at first sight.  While flattered, I brushed it off at first.  It was hardly the first time a young colt had become smitten with me.  I was certain he'd have forgotten about it in a few days...especially considering other events that happened not long after."

"Other events?" Gandrayda asked, confused.

"Eternal Night, the return of Nightmare Moon, the near collapse of the Equestrian government and destruction of the world," Rarity replied offhandedly.  "You know, little things like that."

"...you've...dealt with that sort of thing a lot?" Gandrayda asked, beginning to reevaluate the pony before her.

"Well, that was the first time," Rarity admitted.  "At any rate, after that I was rather surprised that Spike was still smitten with me, and going well out of his way to do anything he could to assist me, just to spend time with me."  Rarity glanced from Cadence to Gandrayda sheepishly.  "I'm...ashamed to admit that I took advantage of his devotion right at first.  I was...a bit shallow back then, and the idea of someone eager to wait on me hoof and claw like that..."  She sighed sadly.  "And yet he never once complained, never once even hinted that he didn't like it.  He was simply...overjoyed to do anything for me, if I would just give him the time of day.  When I realized that, I felt simply awful, and I knew I had to put a stop to it.

"But I couldn't just reject him outright.  That would destroy him."  She shook her head to dispel unpleasant thoughts.  "So I decided to disillusion him instead.  I started asking him to do unpleasant or more difficult tasks...nothing he couldn't do, but enough to make sure he saw me in different lights, so he would see the real me, and not whatever ideal he thought I represented.  But...it didn't work.  The more he learned of me, the more devoted he became, even when I swooned after one stallion or another.  When, inevitably, I came back heartbroken, he was always right there."

Rarity paused in her storytelling to consult on her design quietly with Cadence, letting Gandrayda soak in everything she'd said.  Eventually, Gandrayda spoke up.  "He's...always been incredibly loyal," she murmured.

"Yes," Rarity replied as she continued her work.  "It makes me wonder about that old nature vs nurture debate in regard to him."  She sighed.  "And...when I realized just how dedicated and devoted he was to me, and how much I'd come to rely on him being there, I gave serious thought to how to let him down gently with words, so he could pursue someone that would be...better for him.  I just wanted what was best for him...but the more I thought about it, the more painful the idea of him not being there anymore became.  I realized...I'd come to care for him, as more than a friend if not in the same way he cared for me."

"A Spark Sibling," Gandrayda replied.  "One as close to you as if you were born from the same spark of life."

"What a poetic way of putting it," Rarity gushed happily.  "And...yes, I suppose that's about right.  I feel much the same way about Twilight and the others...but there was something more with Spike.  I...was actually on my way to talk with Twilight about it when...the accident happened, and Spike went...missing.

"Those two months...they were the most painful of my life," Rarity continued sadly.  "I...I tried to stay strong for Twilight, but...behind closed doors, the sorrow of not knowing what had happened to him was...crippling.  My designs took a dour turn those months, I admit."

"And then he came back," Gandrayda inferred.

"Yes," Rarity sighed dreamily.  "At first, I was just overjoyed to know Spike had returned.  I didn't care about how different he might be.  I was overjoyed to rush to his side, wrap him in my forelegs and kiss his precious scales to welcome him home...and then I saw just how much he had changed.  For a moment, I saw not little Spikey-Wikey, but a huge beast, all teeth and claws.  And then...he smiled, acting apologetic for making us nervous, and...shrank himself down to make us more comfortable.  Right there, I saw that however much he'd changed, had seen, had grown...he was still the same caring, compassionate, devoted drake he'd always been.  The little squire had just grown up to become the knight he'd always envisioned himself to become one day.

"And what a knight he had become!"  Rarity's tone changed from reminiscent to more than a bit starstruck.  "That shimmering white armor, only slightly more bright than his own scales.  The same kind eyes...the claws sharp enough to cut steel, yet gentle enough for a tender caress...and those muscles!"  Rarity shivered a bit in delight just from remembering.  "And then how casually he spoke of his power, and of the things he'd done to protect those he cared about..."  Rarity smiled a bit sheepishly.  "I'm not sure why, as I've never been fond of violence in any form, but I got more and more excited with every tale of the viciousness he displayed in protecting those he cared for."

"It's instinctive," Cadence explained.  "Before ponies became civilized, we grouped in herds, with several mares banding together for safety when foaling with only a few stallions around.  The stallions would often fight - sometimes to the death - with each other or enemies to prove themselves.  A stallion that was gentle with the mares but vicious with enemies, while strong enough to protect many...that was the ideal sire to foals."  She chuckled.  "The reason you reacted so strongly to Spike is because the little guy you were so fond of for so long suddenly started pushing every single one of your instinctive buttons."

Gandrayda couldn't help but chuckle at the face Rarity was making in response to that.  "That still doesn't explain why you're helping me snag him.  It sounds like you want to snag him."

"And that's why I'm helping you snag him," Rarity finished.  "Do you think you could send a little bit of your energy over here?"

Gandrayda was so stupefied by Rarity's first statement that she didn't even think twice before granting the request.  "...what?"

Rarity chuckled as she wove the energy into the fabric she was working with.  "You see, Spike is still Spike.  He still cares more for the happiness of others than for himself...and more for his friendships than romance.  He'd sooner go without romance than risk it damaging his bonds with his friends, or his friends' bonds with each other.  If we were to actually fight over him, all it would do is hurt him...push him away."

"Huh," Gandrayda admitted thoughtfully.  "I know you're right - it's part of what drew me to him to begin with - but I never would have imagined a guy who didn't want girls fighting over him."

"Oh, a bit of competition he won't mind, and he'll probably enjoy watching, as long as it's friendly," Rarity replied easily.  "After all, you and I are hardly the only ones who've come to see him this way now.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if Rainbow Dash and Applejack decided to wrestle over whose turn it was to spend time with him, and invite him to watch.  He might feel awkward about it, but he wouldn't say nay or be turned away."  She chuckled softly.  "But that's Rainbow and Applejack.  They're always competing over something, it's just how they are.  But the minute any of us start treating Spike as a prize...is the moment we've lost."

"Then...how does helping me help you?" Gandrayda repeated, going back to her original question.

"Because Spike cares about you, and wants you to be happy," Rarity concluded as she finished the dress.  "And I want him to be happy.  If things work out for the two of you, I can take pride in knowing I played a hoof in it, and I know I'll always be close to you both.  If it doesn't, you'll both stay friends, and the work I put to helping you will count in my favor when it's my turn to try my hoof at winning him over."

"Alternatively," Cadence offered, "if things do work out with the two of you, but it turns out Spike is too much dragon for one lady to handle alone, Rarity's on good terms with both of you as far as becoming first co-wife."  Seeing the startled looks on both of their faces, Cadence chuckled.  "What?  Dragons amongst their own kind are only rarely monogamous, and the herd relationship only went out of style amongst ponies.  It's still part of our traditions and culture.  And given Samus' approach to romance, I doubt if Spike would have any reservations about a group dynamic should he feel it appropriate."

"How about I try that dress on?" Gandrayda asked quickly.  Before I start testing the limits of my xenophilia, she added silently to herself.

Smiling, Rarity levitated it over to Gandrayda and slipped it over her figure, before turning her to see her reflection.  "What do you think?" she asked softly.

The dress was a seamless mix of pale pink and bright green, blending together like a fragment of an alien sky.  It hung off Gandrayda's left shoulder from a single strap, covering her completely without breaks down to her left knee.  It hung loosely around her, the right train going all the way down to her ankle.  And on top of everything else, it flowed around her constantly, not unlike Celestia's mane and tail.  "It's...amazing..." she whispered softly.

"Cadence explained to me how Princess Celestia and Princess Luna make their manes and tails flow," Rarity explained.  "It has to do with an expression of their magical energy.  I thought blending a little of your own energy into the fabric might do that for you, and it seems to have worked."  Rarity then lowered her head, gazing at Gandrayda's feet.  "I think low heels might complete the look, though I've never worked shoes before..."

Smiling, Gandrayda raised herself up on her toes before shaping low heels under her feet from her own energy.  "You're right.  This does look even better.  Think Spike will like it?"

"You could just ask me."

Gandryada stifled a gasp as she spun, finding Spike smiling at her from the doorway.  "H...how long have you been there?" she asked, more than a bit worried he'd heard the bit about 'group dynamics' and either gotten ideas or been scared away.

"Just got here," Spike replied easily.  "You did a wonderful job, Rarity."

"I aim to please," Rarity replied with a smile.

Spike held his hand out to Gandrayda.  "Ready?"

Smiling, Gandrayda shyly reached out to take the offered hand.
> SR-38-Hate
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The following day, everyone was once more gathered around the Map table just after breakfast, ready and eager to hear more of the story from Samus and Spike.  When the pair entered, however, everyone noticed just how...morose they both looked.  "Is everything alright?" Twilight asked worriedly.  "You look...rather down."

"We just remembered what the next two missions were, is all," Spike replied sadly.  "They...aren't very pleasant to remember."

"Does anyone mind if I skim through the next one?" Samus asked bluntly.  "It's not really all that interesting, and it went by rather fast.  And to be perfectly honest, it's one I'd rather not remember in too much detail if I can help it."

As everypony present glanced back and forth between them in confusion, Gandrayda nodded in understanding.  "SR-388?" she asked idly.

"...the first time, yeah," Samus replied.  Ghor and Rundus immediately nodded understanding.

"I'm afraid I don't follow," Discord spoke up.

"No matter how necessary or justified it may be, no one likes remembering being party to a genocide," Rundus stated bluntly.

Dead silence greeted that statement.  Fluttershy was the first to speak up.  "G...genocide?" she whimpered.

"It was the next mission we were given," Spike stated bluntly.  "Metroids were deemed too dangerous to all other forms of life to be allowed to continue to exist in their current form.  So it was decided that they were to be exterminated.  The Federation was planning a full scale military objective to the Metroid homeworld, SR-388.  However, they did invite any interested bounty hunter to attempt the extermination first, with a rather large bounty offered for success."

"But...but you said earlier that the Chozo designed the Metroids!" Twilight spoke up.  "They were designed for a purpose, weren't they?  Wouldn't destroying them-"

"Unfortunately," Samus interrupted, "those details weren't discovered until much later...and I paid the price for that."  She glanced off into the distance.  "Another part of the reason I don't particularly like remembering the next couple of missions..."

Silence reined over the table as the ponies glanced at each other, silently discussing the point.  Eventually, Sweetie spoke up.  "So...what did SR-388 Metroids taste like, Spike?" she asked innocently.

Samus and Spike both stared at her for a time, and then burst into laughter.  "Unfortunately, I didn't get to taste any of them," Spike explained.  "Except the standard adult forms after freezing them.  Then I could break off chunks to eat, and they tasted like blueberry snow cones like that."

"The other forms of Metroid on SR-388 had higher resistance to cold due to the environment," Samus explained.  "Cold based weaponry - such as my ice beam or Spike's ice breath - could damage them, but not freeze them solid.  Not only that, said environment required completely retweaking the functions of my Power Suit to deal with, meaning that most of my upgrades from other worlds were unavailable.  All I had going in was my missile launcher, power beam, and basic Power Suit.  Thankfully, the Chozo had left behind quite a few upgrades behind that did function in the new environment."

"So what was this SR-thraight place like, anyway?" Applejack asked.  "Sounds pretty interesting."

"...unpleasant, to say the least," Spike explained.  "The planet itself was constantly shifting, as were the cave systems the Metroids lived in.  Water, acid, and lava levels rose and fell, pathways changed, and non-Metroid life signs varied.  The...the most frightening part was that it seemed to happen in response to the deaths of the Metroids we were hunting...as though the planet itself were alive and fighting us..."

Luna glanced at the terrified expressions on the faces of the other equine listeners.  "Samus, before night falls, I want a full list of all your suit upgrades and functionality.  If I'm going to be fighting Metroids in everyponies' dreams tonight, I want to be properly equipped."

"Will do, Luna," Samus agreed, chuckling a bit.

"So, you mentioned types of Metroids other than the adult stage," Rainbow asked quickly, taking notes.  "What were they?  What did they look like?  And how did you fight them?"

Spike chuckled as he let his mind reach back.  "Well, my own hunting instincts let us track them down," he explained.  "The most common Metroid variation we encountered was the Alpha Metroid.  This was the second stage of Metroid evolution, where the Metroid has developed a durable exoskeleton that is resistant to weapons fire.  The gripping fangs point forward for ramming, and it develops eyes in addition to whatever other means of sensing its environment it possesses."

"While it was more durable than the Adult," Samus added, "the underbelly was still vulnerable to missile fire...or punching and biting."

"But they moved too fast for me to land too many bites," Spike explained.  "So I didn't really get a chance to taste."

"The Gammas were the next stage," Samus continued.  "We frequently saw Alphas evolving into Gammas, becoming more durable, sprouting more fangs, and gaining the ability to discharge electrical energy for defense."

"Still had the vulnerable underbelly, though," Spike explained.  "So the strategy was more or less the same.  The Zetas were more interesting.  They had arms, legs, a tail, and could shoot fire from their mouths.  It was like fighting a miniature dragon."

"Especially since shedding the exoskeleton of the Gammas left them more vulnerable to weapons," Samus added.  "The Omegas were much the same...except more durable and bigger."

"Fighting the Omegas was like fighting Ridley again, to a certain extent," Spike admitted.  "Tough...but fun."

"What was the gravity there like?" Celestia asked.  "If it was so easy for you-"

"30gs," Samus explained.  "A bit tough for me, easy for Spike after the Pirate Homeworld."

Spike and Samus both fell silent for a time.  "The last Metroid we killed was the Queen," Spike stated at last.  "The one that laid the eggs so other Metroids could hatch."

"That was a tougher battle," Samus explained.  "Not only were all the abilities of an Omega cranked up, it kept its underbelly flat to the ground so we couldn't shoot it, and its neck was long enough to attack us without lifting its body."

"At first I clashed with it in bulk," Spike explained.  "But it was...tough.  I couldn't manage to damage it."

"Eventually...I found a way to kill it," Samus concluded.  "I...let it eat me."

Rainbow's pen dropped.  "...seriously?"

"Yup," Samus replied.  "Once inside, I just laid Morph Ball Bombs until it took too much damage and its body crumbled."  She took a slow breath.  "And...then there was the last egg.  And the infant Metroid inside.  I...I was this close to killing it, to complete the mission.  If I had...it would have doomed the universe.  But Spike stopped me."

"Why did you, Spike?" Rarity asked curiously.  "While the mission was distasteful...I don't see why you wouldn't want to complete it."

Spike looked away.  "...because, for some reason...when that last Metroid hatched...I was able to understand it..."





As the infant Metroid came out of its egg, Samus lifted her arm cannon, ready to finish the job.  As it floated around her, she readied her ice beam.

Spike watched the Metroid, his own ice breath ready.  But as it orbited around Samus, his ear flaps twitched.  He could almost hear something, just out of range.  Focusing, he tried to make sense.

Mama?

Gasping, he pushed Samus' arm cannon up, to not be aimed at the Metroid.  "Spike, what-"

"Shh!"  Spike focused his senses on the Metroid, trying to make sense of what he had heard.

Mama?  Brother?

The infant began orbiting around him as well, obviously confused.  And yet, somehow...it had imprinted on Samus, and seemed to think he was a more mature Metroid, possibly an Omega, with Samus as his Queen.  "Mom...he thinks you're his mother..."

Samus stared at the tiny gelatinous creature, not a threat to anyone or anything.  It let out a tiny, adorable sounding skree, seeming to be awaiting instructions.  She lowered her arm cannon...and disengaged it.  Holding out her hand, she let the infant hover over her hand.  Reaching out, she broke off some of the bio-matter hanging from the walls and held it out.  The infant ate from her hand.





"So we took him with us," Samus stated softly.  "...a decision that changed the fate of the universe..."
> Zebes: Ceres Station
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Samus and Spike sat in silence for a time, plainly lost in painful memories.  Eventually, Fluttershy spoke up.  "What happened to him?" she whispered softly.

Samus sighed sadly.  "That was actually the next mission...which was more a continuation of the previous one.  Before I went to file the report of the successful extermination of the Metroids, I...dropped the little guy off at Ceres research station.  I wanted them to give him a full going over, make sure he was healthy, figure out how to feed him without predation..."  She shrugged.  "Maybe figure out how to synthesize the crystallized bio matter from SR-388."

"I explained to little Squishy that the humans were going to take care of him until we got back, to do as they said, and to not eat them," Spike added.

"S...Squishy?" Rainbow Dash snorted out.  "You...you named him Squishy?"

Spike shrugged his shoulders.  "Neither of us are really good with original names."

"Didn't the researchers of Ceres take good care of him?" Cadence asked worriedly.

Seeing the pair's expressions, Shining Armor frowned.  "Someone else took care of them first, didn't they?"

"Yeah," Samus agreed.  "I'd just set course to get their report when we got their distress beacon.  Ceres Station was under attack..."





Once Samus' ship had docked with Ceres Station, she and Spike entered carefully, weapons primed and senses sharp.  The docking elevator had them entering at the top of a tall shaft, and the pair carefully made their way down through the dark passage, even the emergency lights non-functional.  Reaching the bottom of the shaft, they found the automatic hatches still functioned, opening as they approached.

The next chamber in the path to the central research chamber was the cafeteria.  There were chairs and tables, but no signs of life.  Leaping over them all, Samus and Spike took the stairway downward.

Reaching the next chamber, Samus froze, struggling not to see what awaited them.  It wasn't even the damage to the lab that bothered her, though all the damage to the machines meant no data could be recovered.  What hit her so hard were the bodies scattered about, lifeless and broken.  While it wasn't the first time she had encountered the aftermath of a battlefield like this...this was the first time the bodies were people she knew personally, ones whose names she now tried hard not to remember.  After all, they were all on her Christmas card list.

Even trying not to think about it, happy memories forced her to see as she passed each body.  Here was the lady scientist who had discovered just how much Spike enjoyed being scratched under his ear frills as opposed to over.  Looking at the body, she heard Spike's happy giggle in her mind as the memory of that day played through her head.

Over there were the two younger scientists, about Samus' age, who were such total dorks.  While studying Spike, they would awkwardly attempt to inveigle Samus to allow them to 'study' the 'capabilities' of a human/Chozo hybrid in a more 'controlled environment'.  They were so socially awkward about it - and so obviously smitten to the point of blindness with her - that she'd laughed it off rather than taken it as insult, even gone so far as to encourage them to find a girl who was actually interested, giving them pointers on how to have more confidence.

Against the far door...the one who'd discovered the Metroidal DNA in Spike after Tallon IV, and the one she'd left Squishy with.  She gently shifted the body aside before opening the door.

The hardest part of all of it for her...was that she recognized the wounds inflicted upon them.  She knew exactly who she'd find behind the door.  She privately regretted that she'd limited her arsenal coming in here to avoid damaging the station further.

She really wanted to tear Ridley apart, piece by piece.





Dead silence reined as Samus paused in the story to rub her eyes a bit...only to find the ponies divided evenly between glomping onto her or Spike.  Cuddling her was Twilight, Luna, Cadence, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle.  Shining Armor was trying to reach through the pony pile on Spike to give him a brotherly embrace, but was having trouble getting past Celestia, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom, and Gandrayda.

Discord was oddly quiet, his eagle talon and lion paw clenching and flexing.  "...tell me you left him in pieces," he suddenly growled out, startling everyone with how intense the raw, seething hatred in his voice was.

"...not there," Samus admitted.  "But we did.  Several times."

"Ridley was in the back of the station...but..." Spike began.





As the pair entered the last chamber, they saw Squishy in his containment capsule, skreeing pitifully.  As Samus and Spike moved towards him, however, his skrees became much louder.  Mama!  Brother!  Danger!

Hearing the warning, Spike pulled Samus back just before Ridley leapt out of the shadows, roaring at them.  Grabbing the capsule, he took to the air, bombarding them with flame bombs.  Spike and Samus both unleashed the full arsenal they had available against him as best they could, but they had to be careful not to hit Squishy.  Ridley's lashing tail was also a concern in the confined space, which prevented Spike from taking to the air as well.

After taking enough hits, Ridley withdrew, fleeing with Squishy in tow.  Samus and Spike were briefly torn between two conflicting desires: immediately pursuing Ridley to retrieve Squishy, or seeing to a proper disposition for the remains of their friends on the station.

The computer coming online settled that dispute for them.  "WARNING: Research Area Containment Breach!  Galactic Safety Protocols Implemented!  Self Destruct Sequence Activated!  One Minute Till Detonation!  Evacuate Colony Immediately!"

"Fuck!" Samus snapped as she turned, rushing alongside Spike just to make it back to the ship in time as the insides of the colony started to collapse.  They were left with no choice but to leave the bodies of their friends behind...
> Zebes: Crateria
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Samus and Spike both stared at the table for a time, lost in their memories.  It took a while for them to notice that they were being hugged again.  "...thanks," Samus eventually spoke up.

"So you went after him, then?" Luna spoke up, stepping back from the embracing once the pair were responding again.

"Yeah," Samus replied.  "Followed him all the way back to Zebes."

"Isn't that where the Chozo gave you Spike's egg?" Twilight asked, remembering the early part of the story.

"Yes," Samus confirmed.  "It was like reliving my first mission all over again."

"Complete with picking up the same power ups!" Spike joked, earning himself a punch on the arm from his bounty hunter mother.

"Didn't you have all your upgrades in the ship's computer?" Rainbow asked, confused.  "I mean, I know you said you downgraded to not damage the station..."

"My ship's computer only has so much space," Samus explained.  "An emergency protocol during Ceres' self destruct protocol was to download all information into the nearest ship granted clearance...and since I brought in most of what the information came from, my ship had clearance.  And the only data on my hard drive marked 'non-essential' for the station to overwrite was the data on my upgrades."

"At least we were able to save their work..." Spike murmured softly.

"I'm guessing this adventure ran a bit longer?" Cadence inquired gently, thinking to distract them with storytelling.  "And perhaps a bit nostalgic for you, Samus?"

Samus shrugged.  "A bit," she admitted.  "The ship settled down in the only viable landing spot, in the region called Crateria..."





The ship settled down amidst pouring rain and crackling thunder, the storm seeming to mirror the moods of the two Hunters.  The blue stone of the ground was interspersed with patches of green grass, sending small echoes as the pair followed the path into the cave systems that were nearly the entirety of the planet.  The stone crunched under their feet, both metal boots and scaled claws, each setting up their own distinct echoes.

Spike followed Samus closely, since she knew the way through.  The entrance to the cave system was sealed by a blue energy door, which irised open from a single shot from Samus' arm cannon.

Knowing exactly where to go, Samus made her way down a long passage that varied between natural stone and carved walls, the sure sign of a Chozo structure.  What she found beyond there, however, was definitely not Chozo.  Recognizing the old Pirate base where she'd destroyed Mother Brain all those years ago, she continued to scour for a sign of Chozo tech or Squishy.

An elevator took the pair down to Brinstar, where Samus found a replacement Morph Ball module-





"Seriously?" Rainbow demanded, stupefied.  "You disabled your Morph Ball for fear of damaging the space station?"

"My upgrade programs had all become intertwined because of the PED functionality," Samus explained.  "I had a choice of 'full arsenal' or 'restore suit defaults'.  Since I thought I might actually have been able to rescue survivors, it was a no-brainer."

"...oh," Rainbow replied lamely, wilting in on herself. "Sorry..."

"It's alright," Samus replied.  "I didn't really explain that well..."

"So..." Twilight began, "once you had the Morph Ball, you had to recover the rest of your arsenal?"

"Yup," Samus confirmed.  "Thankfully, having Spike along made navigating the place easier, even if he wasn't able to open any but the blue doors."  Noticing shocked expressions, she chuckled.  "Unlike the other worlds, the doors - except the blue ones - required specific energy reactions to disable shield locks, after which they'd be blue.  Reds required the energy of five missile explosions.  Green required one super missile, and yellow required a power bomb."

"So we were limited to what we could get through via skill," Spike explained.  "Thankfully, we managed it well.  Although when Mom grabbed the Morph Ball, security systems activated, causing both the native wildlife and various old mechanicals to become both active and hostile."

"Thankfully, I was able to recover my Missile Launcher shortly thereafter," Samus continued.  "Five Missiles for enemies and doors.  And the first red door trailing back had a missile expansion behind it."

"After that, it was back up to Crateria for her Bombs," Spike concluded.  "Unfortunately, not only had both the local wildlife and Space Pirates come out of the woodwork to fight us, the Bombs were guarded..."





After grabbing the Bombs from the Chozo Statue that was holding it, Samus turned to join Spike in leaving the room.  Before she could get there, the door irised shut, the brown coloration showing that the locking mechanism had kicked in.  Both she and Spike tried to blast it open anyway, to no avail.

Behind them, the stone covering of the Chozo Statue broke off as the inner mechanisms activated, its normally peaceful systems overridden by an unknown signal as it stood up, its eyes glowing a malevolent red.  It then let out a roar as it charged them, hurling bombs and releasing explosive energy from its talons.

Samus and Spike split to either side of it, readying for battle.  Spike's breath attacks were effective, but getting too close for melee resulted in him taking bad hits from the explosive energy.  Samus used both her missiles and her arm cannon when she ran out of them.

Eventually, the chest of the statue burst open, letting its internal circuitry fall out.  A few more shots and its head exploded.  After that, it collapsed, its structure totally compromised.

As the door unlocked, Samus approached the ruined statue...and examined the name engraved upon it in Chozo text.  She owed it to the spirits of the Chozo to remember the one whose statue she'd been forced to deface and destroy.





"After that, we returned to Crateria," Samus finished.  "I was able to collect a few expansions and map data for the region before making our way to the next region...Brinstar."
> Zebes: Brinstar
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So what was Brinstar like?" Fluttershy asked eagerly.

"...a lot like the forest I landed my ship in, actually," Samus replied.  "Very green, filled with plant life and twisting vines, and lots of dangerous critters."

"An underground Everfree..." Twilight whispered.  "Fascinating..."

"There were also a lot of twisting paths and hidden passages," Spike added.  "Even the map data we were able to recover didn't show everything.  Thankfully, old habits and my senses helped us find them.  Otherwise, Mom would have completely missed getting her Charge Beam back."

"Unfortunately, one of its more useful functions wasn't available on Zebes," Samus explained.  "When I destroy an enemy - whether mechanical or biological - energy is left behind that my suit can use to replenish various functions, depending on the type of energy.  Shielding, ammunition, and so on.  Normally, my Charge Beam can be used to draw that energy in for absorption...but that function wasn't available on Zebes, due to atmospheric incompatibility."

"That must have been frustrating," Shining commented dryly.

"Not really," Samus replied, shrugging her shoulders.  "On the plus side, the Zebes suit configuration allowed me to carry separate Missile and Super Missile ammo, even though I lost the Charge Combos.  I considered it a fair trade."

"Though before you got your Super Missiles back, we encountered...an unusual enemy..." Spike explained.





As Samus and Spike leapt upward through the door in the ceiling, a green energy barrier closed behind them.  The plant filled chamber seemed to stir at their presence, and spores fell from above towards them.  Before long, a large, spiked plant-form descended, a massive maw held shut with the hard outer jaws covered in spikes as it slowly swayed around, like a massive venus fly trap.

Samus hunkered down in a corner of the room in Morph Ball to evade the swaying plant.  Spike, for his part, scaled the walls to the roof of the chamber.  The plant-form limited its swaying to the middle of the room as it tried to keep track of both of them.  After a time, it opened its maw wide, the soft inner tissues becoming visible.

At that point, Spike snaked his head down, opened his mouth wide, and exhaled a stream of his flame.  The plant-form let out a screech of agony as it swung around wildly, trying to extinguish itself, only to eventually withdraw to the center of the room, the whole chamber turning brown and dead.





"So...what was it?" Luna asked curiously.

"No idea," Samus replied.  "My Scan Visor didn't work on Zebes.  Too much atmospheric interference."

"I'll tell you what it wasn't," Spike spoke up.  "Tasty."

"I did tell you not to try taking a bite," Samus chided.

"You also told me I needed to eat more vegetables," Spike countered, sticking his tongue out at her as the Crusaders giggled.

Rolling her eyes, Samus continued the tale.  "After that, I recovered my Super Missile functionality.  Admittedly, only having five to start was rough, but they were easy to replenish.  Between that and them being five times as strong as my missiles - and the fact their explosive impacts shook the chambers when they hit walls - made it a balance I could handle."

"After that, we made our way briefly into Maridia, a very watery part of the world," Spike continued.  "On the way, Mom got a new beam function, the Spazer Beam."

"This one allowed me to fire three beam shots at once," Samus explained.  "Charged, it was quite powerful."

"After that was a detour into Norfair," Spike elaborated.  "Which was rather risky, since several parts of it were superheated, and without the Varia Suit, Mom would take a lot of damage just being there."

"Thankfully, I only went down there for my High-Jump Boots, which wasn't along any such path," Samus clarified.  "These increased my jumping power, making a single jump send me much higher in the air."

"After that, it was back into another part of Crateria...and another larger creature we had to fight," Spike finished.  "This one was another Space Pirate general, though one I hadn't encountered before...a giant behemoth called Kraid..."





After carefully making their way past a few unusual obstacles, Samus and Spike found the energy shield on one door sealed over by a strange biological creature, not unlike the Ingwebs from Dark Aether.  Unlike those, however, this one opened an eye to try and shoot at them.  Three missiles to the eye caused the creature to dissipate, allowing them to open the door and pass through.

When they entered, they found a low corridor where the floor was covered in thorny plants, the thorns sharp enough to penetrate Samus' power suit, and thin enough to slip between Spike's scales if he wasn't careful.  They both glanced around for a way through, only to stagger back as a massive green head erupted out of the ground.

The beast had dark green scales over most of its visible body, a massive maw, tiny arms, and three red eyes.  What could be seen of its lower body made it seem extraordinarily fat, and Samus could tell that the creature's exterior was too tough for any of their weapons.  The creature attacked by charging them and spitting rocks at them from its mouth.  A stray shot revealed that the inside of its mouth wasn't nearly as durable as the rest of it.  A flame breath across the beast's eyes caused it to roar in irritation, opening its mouth to let Samus fire in a Super Missile.

The creature roared in pain as it climbed the rest of the way out of the ground, the pair of Hunters now only coming up to its ankles.  It shouldered the roof aside, revealing a much larger chamber as it crushed the thorny plants beneath it.  Samus quickly leapt onto Spike's back as he took to the air in pursuit.

Spike swooped in, this time with an electric breath.  When it roared in pain, Spike blasted its jaw with his ice breath to lock it open, allowing Samus to unload two more Super Missiles in quick succession.  The beast collapsed, writhing before falling back into the pit it had climbed out of.





"There's a reason Kraid didn't get much use," Samus explained as Gandrayda, Ghor, and Rundus chuckled.

"Not much of a challenge for the two of us," Spike confirmed.  "And the Varia Suit he was guarding made exploring much easier..."
> Zebes: Norfair
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So I take it you went back to Norfair after that?" Rainbow asked curiously.  "I mean, that Varia Suit, the superheated passages..."

"Yup," Samus confirmed back to Norfair.  "And while the Varia Suit didn't protect me from the lava in those chambers, Spike could get through them easily to pick up a few expansions I couldn't get to yet."

"And nearly everything we encountered was something I could tear into with teeth and claws," Spike added.  "Of course, all these wild creatures realized this, and tended to avoid us..."  This statement brought laughter to the entire group.

"The first upgrade I wanted to grab was actually out of reach if I'd been alone," Samus explained.  "It was at the opposite end of a wide gap lined with spikes that would heavily damage my Power Suit to land on.  There were two ways I could have made it alone.  One was to use a Grapple Beam to swing across on the Grapple blocks lining the ceiling.  The other would be to leap to the opposite side of the gap and attempt to wall jump up...a technique I hadn't quite perfected yet without suit system assistance."

"Or you could ride Spike across?" Fluttershy offered.

"That's what I did," Samus confirmed.  "That let me get the Wave Beam a lot sooner than I could have normally.  And the Zebes model Wave Beam was much more useful than the Tallon IV model.  It let me shoot through walls and platforms to destroy enemy targets, or activate beam switches."

"Such as for doors that could only be opened by shooting the beam receiver on the other side of the door," Spike added.

"Turned my beam purple while the function was active," Samus explained.  Seeing confused glances, she continued.  "Unlike previously, the Zebes suit upgrades could be activated and deactivated individually at need.  If, for example, I needed to make a very careful jump through a low corridor, I could turn off the high jump boots so I didn't lose forward momentum against the ceiling.  Or to turn off Gravity Suit in the water if the added buoyancy was more useful than the jump height.  Things like that."

"Of if you wanted to just blast enemies instead of freezing them first, after you got your Ice Beam," Spike elaborated.  "Which was the next beam upgrade you grabbed."

"Right after getting my Speed Booster," Samus corrected.

"Speed Booster?" Rainbow asked eagerly, causing chuckles all around.

"It's part of the same functionality as what makes the Morph Ball and Screw Attack work," Samus explained.  "But it converts my body to a partial energy state while running, allow me to ignore the normal laws of physics affecting matter and accelerate well beyond the limits of my normal body.  It lets me run at just over the speed of sound, Mach 1.06 or so.  I can also store the energy thus generated inside my body, and release it in a technique called the Shinespark, which can allow me to launch myself in any direction at just over that speed."

"...awesome..." Rainbow and Scootaloo breathed in excited glee.

"Of course, due to the thickness of Zebes' atmosphere, using the Shinespark rapidly drained Mom's energy reserves," Spike added.  "It took that much energy just to hold her body together in that quasi-energy state at those speeds.  Thankfully, there were all sorts of safety measures built in to keep her from tearing herself apart."

"It did open the path to collect the Ice Beam, though," Samus concluded.  "One shot froze just about any enemy, letting me either keep blasting them, shatter them with missiles, or use them as platforms.  Also turned my beam blue."

"Useful, and a lot less weird than the next expansion she found," Spike added.  "I mean, I understand Energy Tanks to keep your suit energy higher...but what was the point of having Reserve Tanks that refilled your energy a certain amount when you hit empty?  Wouldn't it make more sense to just have more Energy Tanks?"

"Possibly," Samus allowed.  "But I wouldn't know.  I never actually ran low enough to activate the Reserve Tanks."

"After that, we headed back to Brinstar," Spike continued with a grin.  "That's where Mom picked up her Power Bombs."

Cheers greeted this as Samus chuckled.  "Started with five of them, which was useful, since the expansions also increased it by 5 each.  A good, reliable amount for once.  And they also let us go back to another path in Norfair, letting me pick up my Grapple Beam."

"Although to get to it, there was a rather...large native creature we had to make it past," Spike murmured.  "The Crocomire..."





As Spike and Samus dropped down into the long tunnel, a massive red lizard creature blocked a large portion, looking not unlike a miniature Kraid except for color.  It dragged itself back and forth with big feet and long arms, roaring at them.  Most of its body was immune to damage from any of their available weapons.  However, much like Kraid, the inside of its mouth was, if not vulnerable, at least sensitive enough to force the creature to back up.

Unfortunately, no matter how much damage the pair did, the creature didn't seem to get any weaker.  However, they eventually forced it to back up onto a bridge platform that was suspended over a pit of lava...and the bridge collapsed, dropping the creature in.  The lava rapidly melted the flesh from its bones.

Approaching the other end of the tunnel, the pair found a wall of spikes...which was broken down by the creature's skeleton, attempting one last assault on the pair before it crumbled into dust.





"Yeah...not a pleasant fight," Samus admitted, gazing around at the shocked faces of the listening mares.
> Zebes: Friendly Critters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So how useful was the Grapple Beam on Zebes?" Rainbow asked, taking notes.  "I get the feeling it was more useful than it was elsewhere."

Samus shrugged.  "Well, grapple points were more frequent," Samus admitted.  "That and a larger variety of wildlife could be grappled onto, and the Grapple Beam could be used to gather energy to replenish my suit by firing it into the concentrations..."

"But nine times out of ten, it was easier for her to just ride me," Spike finished jokingly, startling laughter around the table.

"So, useful but not entirely necessary?" Twilight clarified.

"Yup," Samus agreed.  "Much like the X-Ray Visor I picked up next back in Brinstar.  It let me see if any aspects of the terrain around me were vulnerable to destruction, as well as informing me what would damage them.  It also more clearly defined any passages hidden in the walls that Spike and I could pass through.  Useful, but not strictly necessary to progress."

"After that, we made our way back to Crateria," Spike continued.  "After a brief stop at the ship to recharge and scan for other Chozo tech we could collect, we headed down to Brinstar for a few extra expansions that we could get to now."

"Going up against Ridley, I wanted to be as prepared as possible," Samus explained.  "And while we were there, we encountered some rather...friendly and helpful critters..."





As Samus and Spike passed through the door, they found themselves in a narrow passage leading upward, too narrow for Spike to spread his wings full length while large enough to carry Samus, but too wide to stretch full length and climb.  Inside the passage, the pair found themselves confronted by a trio of small, green, koala-like critters.  They squeaked happily as Samus and Spike stared at them, gathering around the pair, trying to make them feel welcome.

Since there were no threats present, the pair of Hunters decided to relax for a while.  Noticing Samus glancing up the passage - the only path her map showed to get back up to the rest of Crateria - the three creatures squeaked happily, moving to the passage.  One bounced up and down at the bottom, to indicate the pair should follow the others.  The other two then began to leap up the passage, bouncing from wall to wall.

Seeing this, Samus carefully mimicked them, seeing exactly how she should position her feet and hands to properly propel herself off the walls to move upward.  Spike, meanwhile, shrunk down to a smaller size so he could fly up after them.  When Samus reached the top successfully, the small creatures bounced happily around her, plainly congratulating her, before one of them leapt across to a narrow path through the wall.  Following it, Spike was able to collect a Power Bomb expansion for Samus.





Several of those around the table cooed happily over the pictures of the creatures Samus showed some images of the creatures in question, not just ponies.  Although Fluttershy was certainly the most vocal.  "Aww, they're adorable!" she squealed happily.

"Not to mention friendly and highly intelligent, even if they don't speak Galactic Standard," Samus added.  "And not the only friendly creature we encountered in Brinstar..."





As Samus raced through Brinstar to get back on track, she found the floor dissolving beneath her as her Speed Booster carried her over it.  She saw Spike stumble into the pit, and instinctively dove in after him.  The pit sealed over behind them, and the pair descended more or less safely to the bottom of the deep pit.

At the bottom, they found a strange green ostrich-like creature which looked upon them without fear as it tended its egg.  As it saw Samus in Speed Booster, the creature chirruped happily.  Noticing Spike struggling to keep up, it chuckled before moving to Spike's side.  It then shifted its position, its wings slightly spread, head low, legs braced.

Confused but eager to learn, Spike shifted his body to mimic the creature's position, his forelegs withdrawing somewhat into his body to reduce drag as he called on the ability to reshape his body he'd gotten from Gandrayda.  When the creature began to run, Spike ran as well, matching stride for stride.

To Samus' amazement, both the creature and Spike began to leave glowing contrails, having biologically triggered the Speed Booster effect.  As the creature ducked, Spike did as well, both of them storing the energy in their bodies before releasing it in a Shinespark.





"The bear like creatures are called Etecoons," Samus explained as she showed the pictures of both creatures.  "The ostrich-like one is a Dachora.  As I've told you, they're friendly, highly intelligent, and decidedly non-violent.  They've helped us out on more than one occasion."

Fluttershy suddenly squeaked in fear.  "But...but Zebes gets blown up, you said so," she whimpered pitifully.  "Does...does that mean-"

"They got out just fine," Spike hastened to reassure her.  "On our way out we found them trying to get to a Chozo escape vessel, and we cleared the path for them."

Fluttershy looked up at him worriedly.  "Really?" she asked softly.

"Want me to bring them over?" Samus offered.  "They're in our ship just now, out in the forest.  I've actually been trying to find them somewhere new they can settle-"

Fluttershy let out a happy squeal and dashed off towards the Everfree.  This resulted in several giggles around the table, and more than a few rolled eyes.

Sighing, Samus got to her feet.  "I'd better go after her," she offered.  "The ship won't let her in without me, and I don't want to know what she'll do to try to get in."

"I'll go with you," Spike offered as he got to his own feet.  "I know my way around Fluttershy's animals."

It wasn't much of a surprise to Spike that nearly everyone else present made an excuse to come with as well.  Some things never changed.
> Zebes: Wrecked Ship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It didn't take long for Fluttershy to make fast friends with the Etecoons and Dachoras once Samus had opened the ship for her.  She had squealed happily at the sight of the Dachora's infant, eagerly scooping it up to cuddle.  The mother Dachora had greeted this with surprise, followed by bemused tolerance, plainly recognizing that Fluttershy wasn't a threat.

Fluttershy had been quick to make space for the five critters in the lands around her cottage, making them feel at home.  The Etecoons were actually able to help build their own preferred environment, as well as the Dachoras, working alongside Twilight, Rarity, and Ghor under Fluttershy's directions to assemble an area to allow them to frolic as they chose.  When Fluttershy moved to feed the other critters under her care before coming back for more story time, the Etecoons eagerly lent a few helping hand-paws.

Celestia shook her head in wonder as she watched this.  "You weren't kidding about how intelligent they are, Samus," she marveled.  "Normally animals don't show this much ability to cooperate with ponies unless they've been living alongside them for a year or more...but the Etecoons are anticipating Fluttershy's needs and finding ways to help without being asked, and they've only just met her!"

"They flew their own escape craft," Samus pointed out.  "Honestly, I think the only reason they don't use technology as advanced as I do is because they don't want to."  Even Samus was startled when this statement was followed by one of the Etecoons shooting her a thumbs-up.

"Well, Fluttershy's going to be a while tending to her critters," Discord mentioned as he hovered overhead.  "So how about you tell us a bit more about Zebes while she's at it?"

"I can listen while I work!" Fluttershy hastened to assure Samus.  "And my animal friends love a good story!  I even have a book club with them every other Thursday."

Samus glanced around at the gathered critters, everything from squirrels to birds to rabbits to a full grown bear.  She tried hard not to imagine how they could all hold books.  "Well, our ship told us that a rather significant upgrade - a new Gravity Suit - was available to the east, so we headed that way.  Improved water mobility is a big advantage for exploring planets."

"We found it on an old wrecked ship," Spike added.  "Unfortunately, the power was out, which made the path to the suit inaccessible.  Turning the power back on, though..."





The oppressive atmosphere of the wrecked ship pressed down on Samus and Spike as they made their way through, keeping their eyes peeled for anything that might attack them.  The fact that nothing was only made them even more on edge.  Spike's non-physical senses were going crazy, knowing that there was something there that was a danger, just out of sight.  Strange specters that looked like several human faces had been fused together and partially melted appeared here and there, but didn't actually attack them.  The specters merely floated, waiting to be dispersed with energy blasts...which was oddly more unnerving than if they'd lunged at the pair with hair raising shrieks.

Even the ship wasn't fully intact.  Bits of the walls crumbled from a touch or a low power shot...only to reshape behind them when they left the room.  Defunct robotics creaked as entropy weathered their circuits.  It was almost a relief when the path led them to another organic door cover like what had blocked the entrance to Kraid's chamber.  A single super missile cleared the way for the pair to enter.

As they entered the small chamber, the door sealed behind them.  Blue flames like will-o-wisps appeared in a circle, staring at the pair before spinning around before collapsing inward to a central point...and a horrific apparition appeared.

It was green, shaped roughly like a severed human head, but had no face.  There was no apparent hair or ears, and tendrils hung down from its sides.  It flew slowly around the room, only half in reality, dropping the eyeball flames as it swung around.  After a few passes, its jaw opened wide as it let out a roar...revealing a single eye inside the mouth.  More flames spun out from it in a circle.

Much to Spike's frustration, his own breath attacks were useless against the creature, only managing to extinguish the flame eyes.  Even Samus could only harm the creature with missiles, super missiles, or charged beam shots when the eye was open.  At any other time, it wasn't physically there enough to be harmed...or inflict harm, thankfully.

After the initial roar, it vanished, continuing to drop flames while hidden.  It then appeared all at once with a roar, dropping flames from the ceiling.  This pattern continued as Samus struggled to inflict enough damage on the creature to take it down.

After five super missiles managed to hit the exposed eye, the creature fluctuated in and out of reality before finally dissipating completely...and power returned to the ship.





"That was not fun," Samus concluded, in what the listeners laughingly referred to as the 'understatement of the day'.

"And it wasn't much better with the power back on," Spike continued.  "With that, the ship's own systems began to attack us, and any exposed wires dripped sparks to damage us."

"Not to mention the native creatures that had infested the ship coming out of the woodwork to attack us," Samus added.  "Once I managed to get the Gravity Suit, I was glad to see the back of that place and never return."

"And then you went on to an underwater region?" Rainbow Dash asked eagerly as the group returned to the crystal castle, Fluttershy's animals tended to and the Etecoons and Dachoras properly settled.

"Yup," Spike confirmed.  "Next stop...Maridia."
> Zebes: Maridia
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Did you encounter any new creatures in Maridia?" Fluttershy asked eagerly as the group once more took their seats around the table in the Crystal Castle.

"A few," Samus admitted.  Since Spike had decided to make everyone some snacks, she'd taken over telling the story until he returned to the kitchen.  "Unfortunately, we didn't get much more than a few glimpses here and there.  Even though he couldn't use his breath attacks underwater, with rare exception anything smaller than Spike ran and hid as soon as they felt his approach.  The more concerning enemies were the Space Pirates we encountered.  Their new underwater armor was resistant to all the weapons I had at my disposal at that time, and Spike's melee strikes were only able to inflict so much damage."

"How were they that big a threat?" Rainbow demanded angrily.  "I mean, you'd been kicking their flanks from here to Manehatten until now.  What changed?"

"They successfully reverse engineered my Gravity Suit," Samus explained.  "Not only did it give them unmatched maneuverability in an aquatic environment, the pressurized suit made them immune to beams and missiles, and the high heat explosions of my Power Bombs just weren't effective underwater."

"Wow..." Rainbow murmured, stunned.  "That...that sucks."

"If it was that tough, how come all the troops weren't wearing it?" Scootaloo demanded.

"Probably too expensive to produce for all of them," Twilight offered.  "Whether time, scarcity of the required materials, or simple cost of programming all the circuitry."

"That, and it wasn't that unstoppable," Spike added as he brought in some snacks for everyone.  "There was a weapon Mom got later that let her deal with them more easily.  But in the meantime, we mostly just avoided them."

"The one enemy we encountered frequently in Maridia that was a real concern were the Mochtroids," Samus continued, shivering slightly.  "They were less complex, failed clones of little Squishy.  They could drain energy like Metroids...but couldn't maintain a grip, and were much less sturdy."

"We think the Pirates were trying to find multiple ways to mass produce Metroids," Spike offered, "but gave up that method because they deemed the result useless.  I can understand why, I guess.  I mean, they died from a shot of Mom's grapple beam... or one punch from me."

"Those poor creatures," Fluttershy murmured sadly.

Samus waited until Fluttershy seemed a bit more at peace with that before continuing.  "Not long after first encountering the Mochtroids, we came across a large, brown sea serpent that hid in tunnels inside the walls before swimming out to try and attack us.  Looking it up later, I learned it was called a Botwoon."

"How'd that fight go?" Gandrayda asked curiously.

Samus snorted in amusement.  "Fight?" she replied jokingly, turning to give Spike a playful glare.  Spike merely smiled innocently, licking his lips, much to the amusement of those around them.

"So what was next in your quest for equipment to take Ridley down?" Shining Armor asked curiously.  "That new weapon you mentioned?"

"Nope," Samus countered.  "My Space Jump.  As this was the original Chozo construction, it was much more effective, letting me jump continuously in the air, getting an immense amount of height if I timed the jumps right."

"Of course to get that, we needed to fight the Draygon," Spike explained.  "It was a massive green creature that swam in the depths of Maridia..."





As Samus and Spike entered the massive underwater chamber, a massive creature swooped down on them.  It had a dark green carapace over its back with a greenish-yellow underbelly, a large sting for a tail, and numerous pincer-like arms.  Its eyes locked on the pair with baleful fire as it rocketed at them, trying to pierce them with its stinger.

Spike quickly swam to the top of the chamber, trying to both get a strike at its head and divide its attention.  Samus stayed low to the ground, trying to find a weak point.  After a few dives, the creature came in slower, spitting globs of gunk from its mouth.  As Samus came in to try and get a good shot, she wound up stuck in the gray goop, and grabbed by the creature.

Snarling in rage, Spike dove in, trying to make the creature let her go, but only succeeded in driving the creature closer to the walls and breaking the covers off several power couplings, revealing their sparking circuitry.  Seeing this, Samus got an idea.  Switching to her grapple beam, she locked onto the circuitry.

She clenched her teeth as the electricity raced through her suit and body, but could hear the screams of pain from the creature.  With its claws stuck in the goo, it couldn't release her to escape the damage.  Before long, the goo burst apart, and the creature fell to the sandy bottom, barely alive.

As Spike swam over to Samus, much smaller versions of the creature - smaller than Samus herself - swam up to it, gently pulling it into the sand while hissing at Samus, trying to stay between her and the large creature.





"The only reason it attacked us," Samus began sadly, "was because the Space Jump power up we were after was in its nest.  It saw us as a threat to its young..."

"It was...sobering..." Spike murmured softly, trying not to see the shocked faces of those listening.

Everyone remained silent for a time, not sure what to say.  Eventually, Spike spoke up again.  "The rest of Maridia wasn't as fun after that," he admitted.  "The only things of note were when we collected Mom's Spring Ball upgrade - which let her jump in Morph Ball mode - and the other weapon we mentioned, the Plasma Beam."

"Unlike on Tallon IV," Samus explained, "this Plasma Beam was a different mode for my normal beam, which could be alternated with the Spazer function.  Instead of three equidistant beams, it launched two beams that swirled around each other...and penetrated through creatures as easily as the Wave beam function did walls."

"After that..."  Spike paused to take a deep breath before continuing, his eyes flinty with rage at what he was remembering.  "After that, we went after Ridley..."
> Zebes: Ridley
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Ridley actually had his own special area within Zebes' catacombs," Samus explained.  "It could be accessed via an elevator in Norfair, and it was filled with acid pits, which were incredibly difficult for me to navigate around.  Spike's adaption from the Pirate Homeworld made him immune, so I mostly let him explore ahead and see if he could identify the path forward first.  Although the first path forward involved activating a Chozo Statue to drain the acid by curling up in its outstretched hands."

"Which made it rather confusing as, immediately after, we came face to face with another rogue statue..." Spike continued.





As the pair dropped down into a wide open area, a Chozo Statue also dropped down.  As its eyes opened, its brown exterior turned golden and it stood up.  It lunged after the pair, hurling explosives, emitting penetrating energy waves, and leaping to try and crush them.

Spike expanded himself to match the size of the statue, trying to meet its charge head on.  Samus dodged around the conflict, trying to get clear shots on the Statue with her Plasma Beam that wouldn't risk hitting Spike.  As it had been discovered, this version of the Plasma Beam phased through his scales as easily as anything else, forcing Samus to be quite a bit more careful with her weapons.

With careful maneuvering and timing on both their parts, the statue was eventually destroyed...which revealed an alcove behind it containing the Screw Attack.





"Now we're talking!" Rainbow crowed, pumping her hoof into the air, ignoring the titters from the star born visitors at her enthusiasm.  "Bet that made things a lot easier!"

"As long as I was careful not to hit Spike," Samus replied.  "He isn't immune to that either."

"Really it just changed how we did things," Spike added.  "Always before, I'd been the one leading the charge, with Mom either behind me or on my back.  Now, she charged ahead Screw Attacking, and I followed up blasting anything she missed.  Allowed me to stay clear of her to avoid getting shredded, and was quite efficient any time we had to head through an area that started to fill with acid as we passed through...which did happen in that area."

"Further beyond that, we encountered Space Pirates with two new types of armor," Samus explained.  "The first type, in gold armor, could only be damaged by my Screw Attack, while the second - in black - could only be damaged from behind after they performed a jump kick.  Thankfully, there were only two of that last sort."

"And then we encountered Ridley himself," Spike concluded.  "He was not happy to see me..."





As Samus and Spike entered the chamber, a draconic shriek startled them as Ridley lunged up at them, slamming Spike against the ceiling as he immediately lunged in for a bite.  Spike managed to catch hold of the lunging jaw with both claws, but was left defenseless against the lashing tail.

Samus immediately opened fire with a volley of Super Missiles from below, slamming them into Ridley's hide.  "Let go of my son, you son of a bitch!" she roared out as she continued the unending volley.

Ridley snarled angrily as he deflected several of the Super Missiles with his tail.  "Stay out of this, bitch!" he growled.  "This is a battle between dragons!"  He exhaled a barrage of fireballs at Samus, which she barely managed to dodge.

"You leave my mother alone!" Spike snarled, bringing his clenched fist back and punching Ridley across the jaw.

Ridley staggered back, spitting blood.  "Always hiding behind your human, are you?" Ridley screeched.  "You're no dragon!  You're nothing but a pet lizard!"

"As if I wanted to be anything like you!" Spike snapped back.

"You'd be no match for a true dragon without your tender!" Ridley snarled.

"I'm 7!" Spike shouted back.  "What's your excuse?"

"Insolent whelp-"  Ridley cut off his tirade to round on Samus, who had taken advantage of his distraction to get behind him and slam him with several super missiles.  "Do you mind?" he growled out.

"Yes," Samus replied as she shot a super missile straight down his throat.

Ridley started coughing up blood.  "You'll pay for that, wretch!" he snarled, lunging for her only to fall on his face as Spike grabbed hold of his tail.

"You really need to learn not to turn your back on me," Spike growled, spinning to slam Ridley bodily against the walls of the chamber before plunging him into the acid pits below.

Ridley shrieked in agony as the acid poured through the missile wounds and into his flesh, burning him away.

"Where's Squishy?" Spike demanded angrily.

Ridley burst into agonized laughter.  "The Metroid is ours now!" he shrieked out.  "And will be your demise!"  With one last agonized wail, most of Ridley's body dissolved.

As the acid drained away, the door opened wide.  Samus and Spike immediately rushed through.  Inside, they found the containment capsule the infant Metroid had been in...broken open, no trace of little Squishy anywhere in sight.

"W...what now, Mom?" Spike asked worriedly.  "Where else could he be?  We've been everywhere on this planet!"

"Almost everywhere," Samus corrected.  "There's one last area we can check.  The one part of the planet that they'd keep a Metroid.  The one place they kept them before.  But if we need to go there...then they've brought back Mother Brain, who can control Metroids telepathically, and...we may end up fighting Squishy, like Ridley said."

Spike stared at Samus, waiting for clarification.  "Where?"

"...Tourian."
> Zebes: Tourian
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Tourian?" several voices asked Samus and Spike in shock.

"The nerve center of the Space Pirate base on Zebes," Samus explained.  "Where everything was directed from, all research was performed, and where Mother Brain was installed.  The most heavily defended and fortified part of the entire planet...and where everything began so long ago."

"Where it all began?" Rainbow asked, confused.

"Zebes is the Chozo world I was raised on, after the deaths of my parents at Ridley's hands," Samus explained.  "And...Tourian is where I received the gift of Chozo blood, making me into the ultimate warrior they foresaw the universe needing."  She glanced away.  "And...it's where I first faced off against Ridley as a warrior...and lost.  That battle...shaped me."  She shook her head.  "So I was in no real rush to return there if I could avoid it."

"Which is one reason why we didn't look there first," Spike elaborated.

The whole table was silent for a time.  Eventually, Samus spoke up again.  "And like last time I was on Zebes, the gate to Tourian was sealed so that it couldn't be opened until certain beings were defeated.  Although it was...a little different this time..."





As Samus and Spike entered the chamber deep within Crateria, the door sealed behind them.  The small cavern was just large enough for the four golden statues sitting in the pool of water before them: Kraid, Phantoon, and the Draygon, with Ridley resting atop them.  Each statue had a gem of a different color where the eye was supposed to be.  Kraid's was green, Phantoon's was yellow, Draygon's was blue, and Ridley's was red.

As they watched, the gems shattered one by one, gray energy escaping from them as the statues changed from gold to grey.  When all the gems were broken and all the statues were grey, the chamber shook.  The statues sank into the ground, revealing a pathway to an elevator beneath them.

As Samus made her way to the elevator within the water, she heard the sound of stone being smashed.  Turning, she saw Spike floating beside the rubble that had been the statue of Ridley.  As she glowered at him, he tilted his face in one of the cutest expressions of faked innocence she'd ever seen.  She just knew that, if he could talk under water, he'd be saying something along the lines of, "Wasn't me!"





As laughter echoed around the table, Spike chuckled.  "Actually, I was trying to say, 'What?'  I didn't really think I did anything wrong there."

As Samus finished her own chuckles, she shrugged her shoulders.  "I was glad for the brief break in the mood, though.  Tourian itself was...almost oppressive.  Where the rest of Zebes was almost entirely natural with very little technology visible, Tourian was pure technology.  Metal walls with diodes and lights blinking from within them.  Black metal pipes flowing from ventilation and power systems.  Nearly every room had a pit of lava for the geothermal systems.  It was...overall unpleasant, not even including the Metroids we faced."

"They were all adults," Spike continued, "obviously created from Squishy...but all but mindless, mere puppets of Mother Brain.  We were...forced to kill them all."

Silence greeted this proclamation, interrupted only by a brief whimper from Fluttershy.

"Space adventures aren't all glory and adventure," Rundus spoke up.  "Sometimes they're unpleasant...grim...or just bloody."

"You're all fortunate your world moves through the cosmos under its own power," Ghor added.  "None who would have interest in it could ever find it without guidance."

Everyone remained silent for a time.  "And...Squishy?" Fluttershy asked worriedly.

After a further time of silence, Samus continued the tale.





Samus and Spike made their way down to a region that was incongruously covered in dark brown earth.  After making their way past an incredibly durable pair of creatures - whose natural armor was immune to the Plasma Beam, and could only be sufficiently damaged by Samus' Super Missiles - they made their way to the next chamber.

Numerous creatures filled the chamber...all brown and dead.  When touched, the husks dissolved into the brown dust that covered the floors.  Samus shuddered at the sight, recognizing the signs of lethal Metroid predation.

As they progressed, another of the creatures they'd encountered before limped towards them...only to be seized by a Metroid larger than Ridley had been.  In moments, the beast had drained the creature dry.  Samus primed her arm cannon, but her systems quickly informed her that the Metroid had absorbed enough energy that even her fully charged ice beam wouldn't even slow it down.  Its exterior had also reached a particular texture where explosive impact wouldn't damage it unless it had been frozen first.  All she could do was try and evade.

And then the beast lunged, and neither she nor Spike could do even that as they found themselves trapped in its maw.

Both of them struggled as much as they could, but the Metroid that had hold of them was simply too powerful.  Each could only watch in their suits' HUDs as their energy dropped down to almost nothing.

Then, just before Samus' suit would have fallen apart and Spike's energy shields collapsed, the creature stopped.  It hovered over them, confused and uncertain.

...Mama? it skreed.  ...Brother?

"S...Squishy?" Spike gasped out, surprised.

As it floated away from them, Samus reached out to gently caress the creature...only for it to flee.

I'm sorry...I didn't...they hurt me...I didn't see...I'm sorry...

Before either of them could do anything, Squishy had fled.





Samus and Spike were both silent for a long time.  No one dared speak up.  Eventually, Spike resumed the narrative.  "Thankfully, there was an energy restoration station nearby, and my armor was able to adjust to let me refresh myself there as well.  Both of us were...well, pissed was a massive understatement."

"We charged in, determined to make Mother Brain pay for what she'd done," Samus continued.  "Her chamber had a pool of acid covering the floor...but it didn't slow us down long..."





As Samus and Spike passed through the passageway to where Mother Brain rested, numerous tubes blocked the path, filled with energy to give them integrity.  Spike ripped them from their moorings, and tore their moorings from the walls for good measure, clearing the way for Samus to somersault through with her Screw Attack.  Eventually, they reached Mother Brain herself, a massive pulsating monstrosity not unlike the Aurora Units, but far more menacing, pulsing orange flesh with silver spikes sticking out from within.

Spike wasted no time shattering the glass container with a single blow, clearing the path for Samus to barrage the abomination with Missiles and Super Missiles.  Before long, the machinery began to break apart as the flesh turned grey and sank, unprotected, to the floor as the acid drained from the suddenly sealed chamber.

And then a new body arose, a distortion of a Metroid Queen supporting Mother Brain at the top of the neck.  Mother Brain's eye opened, and she let out a ferocious shriek as she unleashed everything in her arsenal.

Samus and Spike fought back as best they could, with breath weapons and beams, blows and missiles...but nothing slowed the behemoth for even a moment.  After a time, Mother Brain began charging energy...and released a wave of rainbow colored light that tore through the armor of both Hunters, knocking them back against the far wall and leaving them winded, barely able to move.  An alert message on Samus' HUD showed her that her Missile Launcher and Power Bomb generator had both been damaged, rendering the systems inoperable.

Spike was the first to recover, relying more on his physical strength than on his armor, even though the energy shields were fluctuating.  Snarling defiance, he lunged to the attack, only to shriek in pain as Mother Brain's claws - enhanced with the same coating that allowed Metroid fangs to penetrate the toughest armor - slipped between his scales and into the flesh of his torso.

Samus tried to get to her feet, but Mother Brain shrieked again as she hurled Spike on top of Samus, leaving them both pinned.  She then began drawing in energy for another barrage of the rainbow wave.

LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!

That horrendous shriek tore through the air as Squishy lunged in, latching onto Mother Brain and draining every drop of gathered energy, and a great deal of energy from Mother Brain itself.  By the time it released the monstrosity, it had turned dark grey.  Floating over, Squishy enveloped Samus and Spike...and began pouring energy into them both.

Samus came aware as they were wrapped in Squishy's protective embrace.  She could feel her strength returning, and could see that Spike was recovering as well.  The wounds in his torso sealed before her very eyes.  But as Squishy replenished them, Mother Brain regained energy as well.  Once again at full strength, she roared her fury before opening fire on Squishy.

Despite shrieking in pain from each impact as each blow impacted his dome, he refused to let go until Samus and Spike were both once more at full strength.  By then, the green of the membrane had dulled to pale yellow, and the red nucleus had darkened to violet, both from the barrage and the cellular degradation of reversing the energy drain.  Squishy released them.

I'm okay, Mama...brother... he skreed softly.  I just need...to feed again...

"Squishy, no!" Spike shouted out, but it was too late.  One last shot from Mother Brain punched right through the Metroid's membrane, collapsing its body over top the pair, the gelatinous body dissolving and dispersing as the nucleus lost cohesion.

As the last traces of the Metroid interacted with the energies of her suit, Samus let out a roar of pure, unadulterated fury.  Energy welled up inside her as she aimed at Mother Brain and opened fire.





"I...don't really remember anything after that until we were back on the ship, the planet exploding behind us," Samus admitted.  "It's...all a hazy blur.  I...remember watching Mother Brain die...and saving the Etecoons and Dachora...but it's all a blur..."

"It wasn't pleasant," Spike mentioned when all eyes turned to him.  "I don't want to talk about it beyond that."

"All I know for sure is that...I got a new beam function based on what Mother Brain hit us with," Samus concluded.  "A...function that stopped working once Zebes exploded."

The whole table was silent for a long time.  Eventually, a broken sob broke the silence.  "S-Squishy..." Fluttershy whimpered, tears streaming down her face.

Samus glanced away, clenching her fist.  "There was...nothing I could do..."

"...but I could.  And did."

All eyes turned to Spike.  "W...what do you mean?" Samus asked, confused.

Spike closed his eyes.  "I...I ate his nucleus," he explained.  "I...I thought that, with all the things I'd absorbed...maybe I could carry his mind...his essence with me.  I didn't know if it had worked until we returned here...when the magic of this world suffused me again..."

He opened his eyes, revealing the compound look of the later stages of Metroid growth.  "When he woke up in here," he concluded, tapping his skull.  "He's with me...with us both."

Samus stared in disbelief...before stumbling against Spike and holding him close.  When Spike blinked again, his eyes returned to normal, the focus to maintain more Metroid traits a bit rough on him, even as the ponies gathered around to embrace the pair.
> Interlude: Surprise Guests
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After the rather emotional conclusion to the tale of the Zebes mission, no one was eager for more story at that point.  The whole group was more than happy to wind down quietly as night settled in.  A quiet but filling repast was the only prelude to a comforting rest.  Ghor returned to the ship the starborn trio had arrived in, plugging himself in to recharge.  Rundus chose to curl up on the roof of the crystalline castle, finding himself at home amongst the shimmering spires.  The Crusaders curled up together under Celestia's wing at her offer, since she claimed she missed the feeling of a young filly curled up to her after a tiring day, sending an amused glance towards Twilight's flustered face.  Ah, the fond memories from the time between Twilight being old enough to live in the castle and outgrowing the need for motherly comfort.

With the Crusaders under her wing, Celestia curled up in a watchful position, as the rest of the group - save Discord himself - arrayed themselves comfortably over Spike's massive form as he found his most comfortable rest position, not unlike the rest position of the Chozo Statues.  Discord chose to sleep in the air above everyone, constantly circling in random patterns as he snored in 57 randomly selected different languages, only about half of which being of planetary origin.

Luna, for her part, had her own duties to attend to.  With everyone else asleep, she took the time to ensure none were dealing with any unpleasant dreams before tending to the rest of Equestria.  One of the advantages of her night based duties was that she could tend to them while everyone else slumbered, meaning they took no time away from listening to Spike and Samus' stories.  She could even tend to her duties while her own body rested should the need arise, so she could be relaxed and refreshed for wakefulness at any time.  As she still did not need to return to Night Court, she took advantage of this for tending to the Dream Realm.

After seeing to the Dream Realm, she turned her eyes to her stars.  She worked so hard to tend to the night and everything it represented for her little ponies...but she'd had no idea just how much life there was out amongst them, how much adventure and excitement...and danger.  She'd walked the surface of her moon once, after being freed from the Nightmare, as a means of coming to terms with her past mistakes.  As a result, she'd been further from their mother soil than any pony in the history of their people.  And yet that was little better than foal steps compared to how far Spike had gone, only to return.

She let out a sigh of relief, though, knowing that all who had come to the world from the stars had been friends, and knowing that they would need to know where they were going to get to the world that was under her care.

Her ears perked and she frowned, feeling something odd in the space surrounding her world.  Something was approaching, large and metal, and on a direct course for the planet.  Quickly tracking its trajectory, she was able to determine it was coming in for a landing within the Everfree Forest.  Spreading her wings, Luna made her way to the anticipated landing site to receive these new visitors from the stars...and to give them whatever welcome she deemed appropriate.  She was grateful she'd taken the precautions of plucking knowledge of galactic languages from the minds of their visitors, so that she would be able to understand what was said if those in the vessel were invited friends.

The ship came in for a landing, more swiftly but far less smoothly than either of the other ships that had arrived.  Whereas Samus' ship was smooth and sleek by design to the point of being almost organic and Rundus and Ghor's ship was crystalline as though it had been grown from the ground...this one was boxy and clunky, obviously designed by ones who valued function far over form.  The black, bulky ship had a large engine on the back, presently deactivated, and two engines on wings to either side which were lowering the ship to the ground as the vegetation of the Everfree pulled away from it, giving it a wider berth than the clearing originally allowed for.

As the ship came to a halt, Luna stepped more fully behind the tree that was her cover, watching as a ramp lowered, waiting to see what came off.

The first figure that stepped out was bipedal, looking to be not unlike Samus in biological configuration, equipped with a grey and dark blue armor suit with an orange faceplate.  The figure glanced around for a time, a gun of some sort (what she'd seen in Spike's dreams suggested it was an energy rifle) strapped to its back.  It then turned towards the ship before calling out in Galactic Standard.  "Atmosphere's okay!" he called out, his voice deep with a pleasing timbre.  "A few exotic trace elements, but nothing harmful.  A lot cleaner than most planets we've been on."

"Conserve your air then," a more authoritative voice called from inside the ship, this one much less pleasant in tone as well as sounding somewhat older.  The source of the voice stepped out, raising the faceplate on his power suit to reveal a pale face with grey-green eyes.  "But stay watchful.  We don't know what kind of environment we'll find here."

"The little guy wanted to come back here, so it must be pretty nice!" the first human pointed out, lifting his faceplate to reveal a dark brown face - Luna would personally describe it as 'chocolate' - with golden brown eyes and an open, friendly smile.

"Remember just what he's capable of," the older human countered.  "This is the environment that created that 'little guy'.  Don't let your guard down."

Luna managed a smile.  They were talking about Spike, so she was pretty certain based on what she saw in Spike and Samus' dreams who these two were.  She knew one for certain.  "Anthony Higgs?" she called out as she stepped out.  "And Commander Adam Malkovich, if I'm not mistaken?"

Anthony blinked as he stared at her.  "Commander?  How did we get to the planet of psychic talking pony people?"

Adam stepped forward, his hands going to his weapons.  "Identify yourself," he demanded, firmly but not with hostility.

Luna chuckled.  "Forgive my rudeness.  I am Luna, Princess of the Moon, coregent of this entire region, and a good friend of Spike's.  He's told us a great deal about his adventures...and mentioned a fondness for his 'Uncle Tony's drinking songs."

Anthony managed a chuckle.  "Okay, guess we've just got the most unusual sophonts we've encountered yet."  He lowered his weapons.  "Lucky she speaks Galactic Standard."  He raised his hand to his brow, pantomiming tipping his hat.  "Evening, Princess."

Adam straightened, relaxing his hands but not removing them from his weapons.  "Apologies for intruding on your territory, Ma'am," he offered politely.  "We detected a signal from this region of space on Samus' private frequency.  Since it was the same code we used back when she was in my unit, we acted under the assumption it was a distress beacon and came to her aid.  Might you know where we can find her?"

Luna suppressed her own chuckles, but couldn't suppress her smile.  "Worry not.  You are not the first friends of Spike and his Star Born mother to arrive on our home soil.  Come, allow me to guide you to them.  This forest can be quite dangerous to those it is not accustomed to...but you will be safe with me."  Seeing Anthony open his mouth, she raised a hoof.  "Please save questions until we reach the town.  We do not want to draw the attention of the creatures here, either."

Once they both nodded in agreement, Luna turned and led them to town, making sure to warn them away from a large patch of Poison Joke near the path, though she had to go so far as to seize Anthony's hand in her magic to prevent him from plucking a bloom, the impish look on his face indicating a plan of mischief.  It wasn't long before they reached the edge of town...at which point Luna led the pair straight into the castle, and to the room where everyone had curled up to sleep, as she felt this was worth an early wake up.

Adam and Anthony's first sight of Spike after not meeting him for several years showed him with his back towards the far wall, facing the door with his head hanging down towards his lap, eyes closed.  Rainbow Dash was curled up on his head between his horns, with Applejack resting against the back of his neck with her legs hanging over his shoulders.  Pinkie Pie curled up in his elbow, while Rarity and Fluttershy were curled up on his knees.  Twilight slept curled up in his tail, while Gandrayda lay in his lap, her head by his stomach.  One hand held Samus in her Morph Ball, while the other rested on Gandrayda.

Anthony let out an appreciative whistle that startled everyone awake, the translation magic based in the stones of the castle itself letting everyone understand what he said.  "Damn, ankle biter!" he crowed.  "Forget to turn your SWAG off?"

Spike's head shot up, nearly unseating Rainbow.  "Uncle Tony?" he gasped out, shocked.  "A-Adam?"

"Adam?" Samus asked in shock, quickly unrolling.  "Anthony?"

"Looks like there are some introductions in order!" Discord cackled as he flipped end over end in midair.

Adam nodded.  "I'd say a lot of explanations are in order," he agreed.  He then turned to Samus.  "Any objections, Lady?"

With a smirk, Samus extended her right fist...with her thumb pointing downward.
> M: How it Began
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once everyone was gathered around the table again, Samus went through all the introductions while Spike made breakfast for everyone.  While interested glances were exchanged at each name, only two moments of real interest caught attention, both of which based in how Anthony reacted.  The first was when Samus introduced Twilight as Spike's other mother.

"Heh," Anthony chuckled.  "You know, I always wondered what your type was, Sam."

As Twilight tilted her head in confusion and Luna guffawed, Samus punched Anthony on his arm, hard.  At that point, Spike came back from the kitchen with waffles for everyone, pausing behind Gandrayda's chair to smile down at her, only to blush when she leaned up to kiss him on the cheek.

"Whoa!" Anthony gasped out, surprised.  "When'd you two get lovey dovey?  I thought you couldn't stand how forward she was?"

Spike shrugged.  "We came to understand each other a bit better.  Things change."

"Especially in our case," Gandrayda offered with a chuckle, briefly turning into Anthony before changing back.

"...that was just freaky," Anthony and Spike stated together.

"This seems to be an unusually large gathering," Adam commented, "with several figures of obvious significance for this planet.  But it seems a bit too relaxed for an official diplomatic event."

"Neigh, Commander," Luna countered.  "Spike is as close to sister and I as family, so we came to hear his tales of adventure amongst the stars now that he has returned to us."

"I just stopped in cause everyone else was here," Discord offered.  "It's boring when they're all in one place somewhere I'm not."

"How far you got?" Anthony asked curiously.

Spike and Samus both lowered their eyes.  Twilight was the one who spoke up.  "We just learned about Zebes destruction," she offered.

"Ugh..." Anthony winced.  "Talk about a grim note."

"And talk about timing," Adam added.  "We arrive just in time to help tell the next mission...your second to last for the Federation.  Isn't that an odd coincidence?"

"Not really," Rundus countered.  "We arrived just in time to help tell about the Phaaze conflict."

"That's a bit much to shrug off as coincidence," Adam countered.  "It almost seems...planned."  He glanced towards Discord.

"What are you looking at me for?" he asked, his voice filled with injured innocence.

"You're the only one here with the power to arrange this," Adam indicated.

"Puh-leez!" Discord scoffed.  "I'm the Spirit of Chaos!  Why would I do something so...orderly?"

"Because no one would believe you would, so you could get away with it," Adam offered.

Discord smirked widely.  "Well now, you're a clever one.  But don't you think it's a bit much on my part to gather you all here from across the cosmos just for a reunion and story time?  That's just silly!"

"True," Celestia agreed.  "It's far too simple for your normal hijinks.  What else are you planning?"

"Aren't you overlooking the possibility that it might actually be coincidence?" Discord offered.

"Discord..." Fluttershy began, her tone of voice between encouraging, chiding, and motherly disapproval.

Discord sighed.  "Cross my heart," he began, doing the motions, "hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye, my only future plans involving all of you are to hear the rest of the story."

Adam remained suspicious, but with everyone else present accepting this, he decided to remain silent.  Samus then began the tale.  "Our first stop after Zebes was the nearest Federation outpost," she explained.  "Using that other beam augment as I did actually damaged my suit, so I actually needed a tune up before I could get a check up."  She lowered her eyes.  "It wasn't until later I would understand the significance when one of the scientists said they gave my suit a 'good cleaning'."

"Did they try to harvest Metroid cells from your suit to clone, but end up cloning nearly everything you fought on Zebes including Ridley?" Scootaloo asked.  When everyone looked at her, she shrugged.  "What?  The Space Pirates abused cloning.  You can't tell me the Federation doesn't have it.  And we've got two more 'maybe Ridley' battles based on how many times Samus and Spike said they fought him, and only two more missions.  He has to show up here somehow."

Adam and Anthony both stared.  "How...?" Anthony tried to ask.

"Gamers," Spike replied, causing Anthony to nod in understanding and chuckle.

"That's exactly what happened, Scootaloo," Samus explained.  "Of course, I wouldn't find out about that for a few months.  After reporting the results of the Zebes mission to the authorities, Spike and I decided to find someplace to relax and detox.  So we swung by Aether to see how things were going there with the rebuilding."

"It wasn't doing too well," Spike admitted ruefully.  "The Luminoth were busy debating exactly how to go about rebuilding their world properly.  The major debate was about whether to try and rebuild Aether as it was before the conflict, or to try and live in Aether as it had become."

"But wasn't that mission three years before?" Twilight demanded, having kept track of those details.  "How could they still be debating?"

"According to U-Mos, the Luminoth are long lived, can last for a long time on little food, and are very patient," Samus explained, rolling her eyes.  "Not unlike the Chozo.  By my estimates at the time, as long as they had enough rations and clean water - which they did - the debate would probably last a full decade."

"So we spent most of our time riding the thermals over Agon Desert," Spike finished.  "Bureaucratic infighting was not our idea of relaxation."

"When we felt more at peace with ourselves, we left," Samus offered.  "Once out in space, we picked up...a rather unique distress signal.  An SOS signal demanding immediate attention and aid from anyone who heard it.  It was code named 'Baby's Cry'."

Spike snorted derisively.

"You have a problem with Federation protocols?" Adam asked calmly.

"Nah," Spike countered.  "I just think it sounds like a bad joke that the 'Baby's Cry' led us to the Bottleship."

Rainbow wasn't the only one who snorted in disbelief, though she was the one that spoke.  "Seriously?"

Samus shrugged helplessly.
> M: A Strange Friend in a Not So Strange Land
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So what happened on this...Bottleship, then?" Shining Armor asked curiously before pursing his lips.  "Yeah, you're right Spike.  That just does not have the epic sound one of these stories seem to call for."

"Know what you mean," Spike agreed.  "Wasn't even all that great an adventure."

"Was still rather important," Samus commented dryly.  "For a variety of reasons..."





As Samus set the ship down gently aboard the Bottleship, she gestured for Spike to follow behind her.  He obeyed readily, his claws clicking quietly against the metal walkway making less noise than her own boots, his tail lashing gently in the air showing the relaxed tension of his body.  Samus kept her hand on her arm cannon, just in case she had to shoot something.  Neither made a sound at first, waiting to see what would come.

Before too long, Samus spotted another ship that had apparently landed in the dock some time before.  A quick scan showed it had the Galactic Federation logo...but an explosion further in grabbed attention before either of them could investigate further.  The pair quickly made their way to the source of the explosion, Spike shifting halfway to his 'Speed Boost' shape so that he could run faster without actually triggering the biological reaction.  Samus kept her own pace much the same.

Shortly after the second explosion made the pair reconsider whether or not to actually activate a Speed Boost, they reached the source of the noise.  Samus went into a diving roll as she brought her arm cannon to bare, while Spike leapt into the air to cling to the ceiling as he built up his flame.  Across the room from them, a squad of Federation soldiers in standard issue power suits spun to face them, weapons primed.

The whole tableau held, on the verge of hostility...until the largest of the troops stepped forward, a bulky plasma cannon strapped to his back.  "Ah...fancy meeting you here, Princess!" he called out in a comfortingly familiar voice.  "And the Little Prince too, not so little anymore!  Where'd the muscles come from, ankle biter?"  He lifted his visor, revealing his wide grin.

"Uncle Tony?" Spike asked in shock as his fire faded, relaxing as he recognized that this one, at least, was friendly.  Samus herself returned to an 'at ease' posture as opposed to active combat.

"Anthony..." Samus breathed in relief, plainly as glad to see the familiar figure as Spike was.





"Princess?" Rainbow gasped out, snickering.

"You didn't tell us you were royalty!" Twilight burst out, amazed as she turned to Samus.  Her amazed expression turned to confusion when Anthony burst into laughter, and Rainbow only laughed harder.

"It's an affectionate nickname," Samus explained, rolling her eyes.  "Admittedly, I can see why you'd make that mistake, considering there are four of them here-"

"Five, actually," Gandrayda corrected.  "I don't make a fuss, but...yeah.  My people have a sort of fusion between an oligarchy and a meritocracy, so I was slated for a position in the ruling class...in about 500 years when they decided I was 'experienced' enough."

"And technically, as the last living representative of the Chozo in this plane of reality, and thus their sole living representative, you technically are one, Mom," Spike corrected.  "Even if they never had a monarchy."

Samus groaned as her hand met her face.  "Can we get back to talking about the mission instead?" she groaned.

"From the sound of it, this conversation's going to be much more fun!" Discord teased.  "Now...do we want to know about the rest of that unit beyond 'you knew them all personally'...or do they all wind up dead?"

Samus closed her eyes as the jocular atmosphere slowly faded.  "...let's continue..."





"Haven't seen you since the last time I sat the ankle biter!" Anthony greeted warmly as he stepped forward.  "And your buddy's here too!"

Samus hesitated as her eyes fell on Adam Malkovich, plainly the commander of this mission.  A welter of emotions swamped her mind.  On the one hand, he had been the closest to a father she'd had since leaving Zebes the first time.  On the other, they...hadn't parted on the best of terms, and the less said about that the better, all things considered.  And he'd never entirely approved of Bounty Hunters in the first place, let alone her decision to become one.

"What are you doing here?" Adam demanded coldly.

Noticing Spike bridling a little, Samus struggled to get herself under control.  "We picked up the distress signal," Samus explained firmly.  "We came to investigate."  She knew why Spike might have taken offense to Adam's tone, but the Commander had always been all business on missions.  He never let his emotions get in the way of what had to be done.  "What brings you here?"

As Anthony started to speak, Adam cut him off.  "That information is not for an outsider," he stated bluntly.

As most of the unit turned towards Adam in shock, Samus closed her eyes.  His words had hurt, showing just how much damage she'd done to her relationship with the man with how they'd parted so long ago.  Hearing Spike begin to growl as her suit detected an increase in heat, however, forced Samus to push that aside as she turned to give Spike a warning glance.  While he didn't seem to be in a forgiving mood, his growling quieted.

At that point, one of the other troops informed Adam that they were 'all prepped', and the whole unit pulled back.  An explosive device attached to the large sealed door in front of them went off after Anthony had guided Samus back out of range.  However, the door did not open.

"No dice," one of the other troops grumbled.  "I think our only option is to slowly cut our way through with the laser."

"The electrical system's out," Anthony explained to Samus, "so we can't get the door open.  And explosions are tricky without causing collateral damage.  What we need is some way to focus the power on a centralized location."  He shot Samus a wink.

Samus rolled her eyes, knowing that was an obvious hint to use her missiles.  However, before she could, there was a loud crunch that made everyone spin.

Spike had just put his clenched fist through the metal of the door, right where the explosion had been.  Pulling his fist back, he gripped the edges of the hole he'd just made with both foreclaws and pulled.  With a screech of twisting metal, a reasonable sized passageway had been forced open.  "You coming Mom?" he asked bluntly.

Anthony whistled in appreciation.  "Well look who's got the big guns now!" he teased, making Spike chuckle and flex playfully.

Adam glanced briefly from Samus to Spike, then stepped forward.  "The Federation is handling this objective," he stated bluntly.  "We don't need any interference from outsiders."

Spike snorted derisively.  "Well, I came here in response to a distress beacon, so I'm going to look for whoever sent it to offer rescue."

"Interfere with our objective, and we will treat you as hostile," Adam continued firmly.

Spike gave a cursory look at the unit's armaments as the other soldiers tensed before snorting defiantly and getting into a combat stance.  "And if your entire arsenal could even so much as scuff my scales, I might be the slightest bit intimidated!" he barked back.

Samus quickly stepped forward before it could devolve further.  "Spike, enough!" she snapped.  "Stand down!"  Much to her surprise, Spike immediately obeyed.  Turning to Adam, she gathered her thoughts, trying to figure out how to smooth this over.  "Commander Malkovich, I recognize this is not a mission posted for any Hunters.  However, I find myself concerned for any civilians on board.  My abilities and arsenal are available at no charge, should you choose to avail yourself of them."

Adam stared at her for a time, then nodded.  "You remember the regs?" he said coldly.

"Yes sir," Samus confirmed, using mental commands to disengage some of the more advanced tech in her power suit, reverting back to the basic set up, though leaving the rest to be activated at need.

"Then stick to the objectives, and keep him under control," Adam directed firmly.

"Yes sir!" Samus confirmed.

She wasn't sure if she imagined the approving smirk under his faceplate as he turned away, but it quieted her roiling emotions either way.





Samus paused, noticing a lot of hostile glances being directed Adam's way from the pony members of her audience.  The only one not looking at him with some degree of hostility was Twilight, and she was looking at Spike in concern.  "Why'd you react with so much hostility, Spike?" she asked worriedly.

"I...honestly don't know, Mom," he replied softly.  "It's just...the moment I laid eyes on him...I felt insecure and angry.  I felt like I had to assert myself, to let him know I wasn't afraid of him or his dinky little guns.  And yeah, that actual thought crossed my mind.  It didn't fade until Mom told me to stand down."  He glanced towards Samus, his eyes confused.

"Instincts," Adam replied reasonably.  "Samus is Spike's Alpha, so when my presence caused her emotional state to become confused, Spike's instincts decided I was a threat, and compelled him to clash with me.  It's why I pushed the conflict.  It both forced Samus to realize how much her emotional stability affected Spike's self control, and compelled her to bring her own emotions under control, which was to the benefit of the mission.  She'd hardly function at her best as an emotional wreck."

Celestia pursed her lips in a somewhat disapproving frown.  "I'm not sure that was the best way to handle it..." she murmured.

"It worked," Adam replied firmly.  "If Spike had been human, I'd have handled it differently.  But even with how well he thinks and how well developed his emotions are, he's an animal."  Noticing several unpleasant reactions to that statement, he continued, "I mean that as a compliment, of course."

"Pray tell, elaborate," Luna requested curiously.

"Humanity left behind being 'animals' ages ago," Adam explained.  "We traded it away, along with our older instincts, in exchange for our reliance on technology, civilization, and other such things.  While many feel this is proof of human superiority...I feel it has left us a weaker species overall."

"From what Samus talked about with the Chozo, I'd say they agreed with you," Anthony offered.  "Weren't their biggest teachings about balancing nature with the development of technology?"

"That's right," Samus confirmed.  "With that attitude, you'd have probably fit right in with them, Adam."

"An odd view to take for someone of your rank, however," Ghor offered.

"The only logical view, in my opinion," Adam countered.  "I've lost count of the number of stories I've come across where someone was saved from becoming an unwitting victim of a psychotic or a sociopath because their pet dog sensed something fundamentally wrong with the individual in question that their owner could not, responding to it with uncharacteristic hostility."

"Don't mention that sort of thing, please," Spike pleaded, rolling his eyes.

"Remembering Sir ni Vore?" Adam asked, his voice as calm as ever.

"Eh?" Pinkie asked, confused.

"A rather eccentric billionaire who believed that the truest expression of humanity was the hunt," Ghor explained.  "He challenged anyone to best him in the true hunt.  It was speculated he also imported rare and exotic - especially endangered - species specifically to dine on them.  An absolute scoundrel...but unfortunately, he was careful to make sure he never did anything actually illegal."

"And then when Spike was 13, he arranged to redirect him to one of his 'hunting grounds', with every intent of making him his latest delicacy," Adam explained.  "And he was never heard from again."

"What happened to him, anyway?" Anthony asked curiously.

"He didn't taste very good," Spike replied.

Samus stared at Spike, stunned, and she wasn't the only one.  "You didn't..." she began

Spike shrugged.  "Meat is meat.  Once it's dead, what does it matter what it was while alive?"

Luna tilted her head, curious.  "Then...you would not find it objectionable to dine on, say, anypony here after they died?"

"Actually, I think I'd want to," Spike explained simply.  "I mean, now that I know doing so kept Squishy alive inside me...I wouldn't want to lose anyone I care about for eternity.  Eating them after they die...it's just making them a part of me forever."  He chuckled.  "Not that I'd ever dream of doing anything to hasten that day.  I enjoy spending time with everyone too much."

As everyone relaxed, Adam smirked.  "How very Martian of you," he said idly.  Glancing around at the relaxed faces of the ponies, he shook his head in amazement.  "All of you."

"So you really wanna eat me someday, huh Spike?" Rainbow teased.

"Well...a creature's diet effects the flavor of the meat...so maybe if you drank a little less cider and ate your veggies," Spike countered teasingly, startling laughter from several listeners.

"How come I'm the only one even close to wigging out over Spike talking about eating his friends?" Anthony asked Adam.

"Because everyone else here is far more civilized than we are," Adam replied easily.  "They know Spike's in no rush to, as Heinlein said, grok them in fullness before they've reached their fullness."

"Huh," Anthony replied thoughtfully.

"Well," Scootaloo spoke up expansively, "I don't know about the rest of you, but if I'm gonna achieve 'fullness', I need some more nachos!"

As those gathered laughed or groaned as was their wont, Spike headed to the kitchen with a chuckle to make more snacks.
> M: Regulations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once the nachos and other snack foods had been prepared and served, Samus and Spike wasted no time getting back to retelling the adventure.





As Adam's unit moved ahead, Samus followed, Spike close at her heels.  The corridors were drab metal and exposed circuitry, typical of Federation 'function over form' design preferences.  The lighting was poor, but that proved no problem for either Hunter.  Samus' suit had its own built in lights, and Spike could see in the dark better than Samus could in the light.  He proved this when his head snaked forward, snapping up a large insectoid creature that attempted to bumrush Samus off the platform bridge they were crossing.

Spike pulled his head back, crunching the creature up in his jaws before swallowing, licking his lips.  "...slimy yet satisfying," he offered cheekily.

Samus frowned.  "No more Disney movies for you," she chided with a roll of her eyes.





Samus paused in the retelling as she waited for Anthony to stop laughing.  She felt sorry that few of the others around the table would get the joke.  Once Anthony had calmed down - due to Adam giving a quiet cough and a glare - Samus continued the tale.





Other wild creatures they recognized - Zoomers and Shriekbats - attempted to waylay their path, but Spike readily recognized them as some of the tastier creatures he'd eaten, and decided to take a few snacks.  Few continued to trouble them for long after he charged forward.

By that time, Adam's unit had moved far ahead of the pair, and they were in a rush to catch up.  In the larger chambers, Samus leapt to Spike's back and let him fly her to the exit while she guarded his back.  The oppressive atmosphere continued to weigh on Samus, though Spike seemed right at home.

Before long, they came across a Navigation Chamber, the newer models of Federation Communications Ports.  In addition to restoring suit shield energy and sending log book data back to the ship, it also replenished ammunition and boosted communications channels so that coordination was possible in areas where constant communication with allies was impossible.

After taking a few moments to send the data, Samus led Spike past the chamber and across another hallway, catching up with Adam and the others.  They found them standing around the dead body of a scientist, his flesh and clothing torn, and stained with something green.  After a time, the body shook, and a pink creature resembling an overlarge rhinoceros beetle crawled out...whether from inside him or under him was uncertain.

"Get away from me!" one of the soldiers shouted as it got too close, getting ready to kick it away.  Before he could, Spike zapped the insect with his ice breath, taking hold of the creature.

"Anyone know what this is?" he asked, holding the frozen specimen.  "It's not in the ship databanks, as far as I can recall."

"I'll take it for analysis," Adam replied, holding out his hand.  After a nod from Samus, Spike handed over the specimen.

At that moment, a swarm of the creatures began crawling out of the walls and up towards the ceiling of the massive chamber.  Adam immediately ordered everyone to prepare for combat.  The soldiers lowered their face plates as the creatures surrounded a large eyeball that lowered towards them before dropping to the floor amongst them, taking the shape of a large beast with two long tentacles for limbs.

"Open fire!" Adam ordered, and the entire group began firing.  Samus utilized her power beam to aid, while Spike tried his flame breath.  However, the assault wasn't proving very effective.  The weapons discharge was bouncing off the creature amalgamation.

"This isn't working!" one of the troops shouted.

"Ice worked!" Anthony pointed out.

"Freeze guns authorized!" Adam ordered, and the entire group switched their auto-fire pistols out for hand held cryogenic pistols.  "Samus, missiles authorized!"

Samus nodded as she reactivated her missiles, recognizing the strategy Adam wanted to use.  Spike, meanwhile, joined in with his ice breath.  While Adam's unit focused on freezing one part for Samus to shatter with a missile, Spike focused on a different part, as a focused discharge from him was enough to create the desired freeze effect, and a charging punch the shattering blow.

When the creature amalgamation finally fell over, the eyeball was revealed to be a much larger beetle like the others, which Spike was quick to smash, causing the other beetles to disperse.

"Everyone okay?" Anthony called out, getting affirmatives all around.

Once everyone had calmed down, Adam began a debriefing for everyone.  "Exactly what transpired here on the BOTTLE SHIP is still uncertain.  Here's what we do know: the equipment we thought had been destroyed is operational again, and we've seen casualties attributed to an unidentified and lethal creature.  The situation is critical.  We need to gather all the information we can, but priority one is to find any survivors and bring them to safety.  Consider this site extremely dangerous.  Be careful as you make your sweeps.  And there's one problem."

"Just one?" Spike muttered as the troops raised their heads to listen.  His snark earned him a glower from Samus.

"The wireless interference in this facility is all-pervasive," Adam continued, the slightest twitch of his mouth his only reaction to Spike's aside.  "Your comm systems are useless.  As a result, communication channels will be limited to the facility's Navigation Chambers."

He then proceeded to give each of the troops their orders.  Anthony was sent to Sector 3, and given permission to use his heavy plasma cannon at his discretion.  Samus and Spike were ordered to the System Management room, and to do everything they could to get the electrical systems up and running again.  Apparently, Samus' comms were still functional for some reason, which would prove an advantage in directing her.

Adam also authorized the use of her Bombs, but not Power Bombs, as they were too dangerous when they were trying to find survivors.  With one last caution to everyone to be careful, Adam declared the briefing over.

Samus felt somewhat ill at ease.  Despite having her aid accepted, she felt like she was still somewhat excluded as the troops gave the traditional thumbs up.  But then Adam turned to her.

"Any objections, Lady?"

Smiling under her helmet, she gave her usual thumbs down, before turning to follow the mission objective.





As Samus paused in her retelling, Celestia turned towards Adam.  "Do you think...you might have been a little cold with her?" she asked softly.

"I knew Samus' story," Adam explained firmly.  "If I'd ever approached her too openly or with too much friendliness as a superior officer, she'd have distrusted me or pushed me away.  When she was first in my command, she wasn't ready to accept connection with others again, after what had happened in her past.  At the Bottle Ship, returning to the way we'd related before was repairing a broken bridge.  It may seem cold to you, but it was what Samus needed."  He carefully sipped his tea.  "I take it you yourself have frequently been in a position like that?"

"Yes," Celestia replied.  "I've taken many personal students, and done my best to help them grow into whatever awaits them.  Twilight is my most recent student, and the one I'm most proud of."  Twilight couldn't help but blush at that.

"And do you use the same approach with every student?" Adam inquired further.  "Or do you adjust it for each one?"

Celestia blinked in surprise.  "Well, I do try to tend to each student's unique needs...but overall I try to maintain the same sort of relationship with each..."

"And has that ever resulted in things going wrong, and those students rejecting you?"

Celestia glanced away.

"I'll take that as a yes," Adam replied.  "I mean this as no sinecure.  Merely making a point.  Not everyone responds the same in a situation.  I took the approach my interpretation of events said Samus needed.  From what happened, I can say I guessed right."

"I...see your point," Celestia allowed.
> Interlude: Parents
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	While Samus and Spike were telling the story, a train pulled into Ponyville Station from Canterlot.  This, in and of itself, was hardly something of significance.  Trains between Canterlot and Ponyville ran nearly every day.  What was of particular significance regarding this train, however, were two particular passengers.  Both were unicorns.  The stallion had a pale blue coat, a darker blue mane and tail, golden brown eyes, and a Cutie Mark of two crescent moons cradling each other.  The mare had a grayish white coat, purple and white striped mane and tail, pale blue eyes, and a Cutie Mark of three purple stars.  The older couple didn't stand out very much, unless those who saw them knew who they were.  If they were known, they tended to be given a wide berth.  After all, strong magical talent ran in this particular family.

"Oh, I can't believe Spike is finally home again!" Twilight Velvet proclaimed happily as the pair made their way through Ponyville.  "I can't wait to see the little guy again!  I just wish Twilight had let us come by to help her while he was missing."

"Now you know our little Sparkle, dear," Night Light offered in a conciliatory tone.  "She probably spent the entire month he was gone trying to reverse engineer the spell gone wrong to bring him back.  It wasn't even through her we learned he was gone, after all."

"Or through her that we learned he was back," Velvet grumbled, just a hint of annoyance in her voice.  "Now don't get me wrong, I know how caught up in things she can get...but to hear about it from Discord of all creatures?  I didn't think we were that low on her list of priority contacts."

"Maybe she was waiting until she had Spike settled in again before she wrote us," Night Light suggested reasonably.  "Discord did mention he was a...little different."

"Please, dear," Velvet countered as they reached the Crystal Castle, "how different can he be?  It's only been a month-oh, this place is new.  Are you sure these are the right directions?  I thought she lived in the library."

"We read about this in the news about Tirek, dear," Night Light reminded her.

"I know that, Night Light," Velvet snapped back playfully.  "But we should have heard about it from Twilight, right?"

"Point made," Night Light allowed as they made their way in through the open door.

It didn't take long for the pair to make their way through the castle to where the large gathering was, somewhat startled at the diversity of the gathering.  "And I thought I was done being surprised by your odd acquaintances, Twilight!" Velvet called out, drawing attention.

"Mom?" Twilight called out, stunned.  "Dad?"  She eagerly rushed forward to embrace the pair.

"What are you both doing here?" Shining asked, surprised.

"We heard Spike was back," Night Light replied warmly as he embraced Twilight Sparkle.  "So we came to see the little guy."

"While I'm not at all surprised we hadn't gotten word about it from Twilight yet, with how forgetful she can be," Velvet teased as she mussed her daughter's mane, "but you're more responsible with that sort of thing last I checked."

Twilight Sparkle let off a cough that sounded remarkably like "The wedding!" making several gathered burst into laughter.

"What's the joke?" Spike called out as he stepped out of the kitchens, having made himself larger to better carry multiple trays of food and drink.  "I want in on this!"

Twilight Velvet stared up at the armored dragon.  "Woof..." she let out all unintentionally.  "Twilight, dear, who's the hunk?  Did you finally get yourself a suitor?"

As most present stared, Celestia, Luna, Samus, Anthony, and Gandrayda burst into peals of laughter.  Spike turned awkwardly to Twilight.  "Mom...how do I handle this?" he asked worriedly.

"I wish I knew, Spike," Twilight replied, mortified for her mother's sake.

Velvet, however, put two and two together.  "...Spike?"

"In the flesh, Grandma," Spike replied nervously.

Velvet let out a low groan as she buried her face against the table.  "Applejack, can I get a hard cider?" she asked softly.  Inside she moaned as she thought, I was drooling over my own grandson...

"Ah don't exactly have-"

Pinkie Pie cut Applejack off by reaching into the farm pony's stetson and pulling out a bottle.  "Here you go, Missus Velvet!" Pinkie proclaimed happily.  "I stash some all over just in case of cider emergencies-"

"Why wasn't I ever a cider emergency?" Rainbow demanded angrily as Applejack, quite unnerved, took her hat off her head to stick her face inside to see what else Pinkie might have stashed in there.

"Because you drink for pleasure, silly filly!" Pinkie replied.  "Cider emergencies are for therapeutic drinking!"

Night Light shook his head as he glanced around at the gathered group.  "Well, it seems like some introductions - and explanations - are in order here."

"Montage time!" Pinkie shouted out, yanking on Spike's wrist before futzing with the holo-projector.





About an hour later, Night Light and Twilight Velvet were both a little glass-eyed, having been given a quick summary of all the story Spike and Samus had told everyone so far, and Spike was rubbing his wrist and grumbling a bit to himself.

Twilight Velvet managed to gather her wits towards the end.  "Well...quite the tale," she stated finally.

"Certainly a lot to take in," Night Light agreed.  "You seem to have done a lot in what, to us, was quite a short time, Spike."

Spike shrugged deprecatingly.  "I suppose."

Velvet then turned to Gandrayda.  "From the sound of it, you and my grandson are rather sweet on each other," she began dryly.

Gandrayda shrugged hesitantly.  "I-I suppose so," she stammered, a trifle intimidated without knowing why.

"So when can I expect great grandkids?" Velvet asked incisively.  "I'm still waiting on more grandfoals, but-"

"Mom/Grandma/Mo~ther!" three voices complained loudly, much to the amusement of nearly everyone else at the table.
> M: Mission Start
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once Night Light and Twilight Velvet were caught up with the story, Samus and Spike continued the tale.  "The trip to the Systems' Management Room was rather uneventful," Samus explained.  "There were a few biological threats which, for some reason, were now more hostile to us than before.  Spike's aggression wasn't enough to make them retreat anymore."

"And for some reason, they didn't taste good anymore, either," Spike complained.  "Not fun."  He decided to ignore the giggles from most present, though he noticed his grandparents looking a bit sick.  "Grandma, Grandpa, I'm an apex predator."  He opened his mouth to reveal razor sharp incisors in the front and saw like molars in back.  He pointed to the molars.  "These are the only ones meant for eating gems, and most of that gets done in the stomach."  He then pointed to the incisors.  "And these are not for vegetables."

"We know that, Spike," Night Light replied.  "It's just..."

"It's one thing to know your grandson is built to eat other creatures," Velvet explained.  "Quite another to wrap your head around him writing the 'Gourmet Predator's Guide to the Galaxy'."

"That's actually still the fifth best seller, last time I checked," Anthony pointed out good naturedly.

Twilight gasped eagerly.  "You wrote a book Spike?  Why didn't you tell me?  When can I get a copy for the shelves?  When do I get to read it?"

Several laughs and rolled eyes greeted Twilight's enthusiasm, but it managed to smooth over the tension Spike's new eating habits had raised ever so briefly.  Samus then continued speaking.  "As it turned out, the circuitry in the Systems' Management Room was loaded with insect hives," she explained.  "When we tried to turn the machines back on, the insects came out to defend their hives against the electricity.  While I kept them back with my Power Beam, Spike used his flame breath in a wave to cook the hives out."

"Using it as a beam there would have melted the circuitry," Spike explained.  "Took longer that way, but did less damage."

"Once the hives were gone, we turned the machines back on," Samus concluded.

"With the systems back online, I had a bit more access to the station's controls," Adam explained.  "However, as this did nothing to clear up the communications block, I sent Samus and Spike to assist one of my men in Sector 1.  He went to investigate a facility of interest there, so I instructed Samus and Spike to survey the area, to try and determine the purpose of the station, since we didn't even know that yet."

"Did you tell Samus that's what you wanted her to do?" Luna asked curiously.

"No," Adam replied curtly.  "Samus and Spike had proven themselves supremely effective at handling situations with minimal instructions.  I was counting on those abilities and perceptions to discover more about the situation without putting the artificial filter of my expectations over their senses."

"And how did that go?" Luna inquired, glancing over at Samus and Spike.

Samus glanced away while Spike shrugged.  "Took a while to figure out what we were looking for," Spike explained.  "Unfortunately, the outcome from that wasn't...entirely pleasant."  He shrugged slightly.  "Although the journey itself wasn't entirely unpleasant..."





Sector One was dubbed the Biosphere, and for good reason.  Nearly every subdivided chamber in the sector was nearly overgrown with wild, out of control plant life and various animals...and sometimes the plants were the more dangerous, as several actively tried to eat the Hunter pair.  This was nothing new for Samus or Spike after Tallon IV, so they dealt with it in the manner that had been most effective back there: set everything in sight on fire and pick their way through the wreckage.

The first major animal challenge they faced was a large lizard like creature that had the ability to cloak itself, rendering it invisible.  While Samus had difficulty tracking the creature as a result, Spike did not, since the light-bending ability did nothing to cloak its scent.  The long tail it used to lash at the pair lost much of its effectiveness after Spike had bit off the last three feet of it.

Before long the pair came to a centralized chamber that went up and down through a good portion of the Biosphere that had become completely overgrown by a massive tree-like plant structure made up of several intertwined trunks.  Making their way up the winding path around it, they made their way to the next Navigation Room.

The two continued the winding path through the overgrown hallways of the Biosphere, moving from Navigation Room to Navigation Room as Adam directed, sending them map data as it became available.  Spike was forced to use the shape/size changing abilities he got from Gandrayda a great deal more than ever before, as many of the paths they had to take were through what Samus thought of as 'Morph Ball Tunnels', which were too small for Spike unless he shrank down.  Thankfully, no matter what size he became he was able to adjust himself for flight.

The most concerning part for Samus and Spike was when they encountered a chamber the map labeled as the 'Breeding Room', filled with plants, heating lamps, and another dead scientist.  Unlike the previous one - which had been torn apart by something large - the wounds showed the attack pattern of a tiny but vicious and deadly creature.

As Samus examined the corpse, she shot to her feet, hand on her arm cannon.  She felt...something.  An evil, familiar presence she couldn't quite place.  She could tell that Spike was much the same, as his claws lengthened of their own accord in response to a growl from deep in his throat.

Making their way back from the Breeding Room, they returned to a plant filled chamber only to freeze as they heard a sound in the bushes.  Both spun, weapons primed and ready to unleash devastation on whatever evil creature had come after them...

...only to see a tiny white bird like creature, with stick legs, trying and failing to crack open a fruit, actually managing to fall over helplessly onto its back as it tried to rotate the fruit for a better angle.

Spike and Samus both tried to keep their defenses up...but it was just so small...so helpless looking...so fluffy...


> M: Keep Him Out of the Light
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Aww!" Fluttershy squealed happily as she and everyone else stared at the picture Samus provided of the 'Little Birdie'.  "Ridley was so cute as an infant!"

All faces around the table spun to her, most in confusion but four completely stunned.  "How'd you know that was Ridley?" Samus demanded.

Fluttershy blinked in surprise.  "You mean I was right?" she asked, shocked.  "It's just, I used to play video games with Rainbow Dash when we were younger up in Cloudsdale, and thinking of it in terms of video games with what you said about how Ridley somehow got cloned from cells on your suit at the Bottleship and all that, I just thought about what Rainbow would call the worst, most obvious, most irritating twist that couldn't even be called that that could come out of bad writing..."  She blushed.  "Not that it's your fault this would qualify as that, you just lived through it after all...I'm sorry..."  Meeping quietly, Fluttershy hid behind her mane.

"Wait..." Rainbow spoke up.  "You mean that's really Ridley?" she demanded, pointing at the picture.  When she got a confirming nod, she rolled her eyes.  "Great.  He seemed like a big bad before now, but now I've lost all respect for him."

"How can anything so evil be so...tiny?" Rarity demanded, stunned.

"Parasprites," Twilight reminded her.

Rarity thought about that, then shrugged.  "Fair enough."

"How does he survive like that, anyway?" Scootaloo demanded.  "Act super cute around anything bigger than him so they'll baby him until he's eaten enough to become a monster?"

"Basically, yeah," Spike agreed.  "Not that uncommon a survival trait, actually."

Pinkie Pie suddenly burst out laughing.  "You're telling me Ridley's a Gremlin?" she gasped out.

As everyone burst out laughing at that, revealing that some things show up no matter how the culture develops, Samus could only shrug, gasping out, "Basically!"

As laughter surrounded the table, Shining Armor spoke up through his gasps.  "Don't get your Ridley wet!"

"And don't feed him after midnight!" Anthony agreed, extending his clenched fist to bump with Shining's hoof.

Even Adam managed a chuckle or two.  "The Mogwai called, they want their schtick back."

"At that size, Ridley doesn't have one!" Spike gasped out, startling even more laughter.

Amidst the amusement, Luna - the only one not laughing - leaned towards her sister.  "...I don't get it," she whispered.

Celestia stifled her own giggles.  "I'll show you the film another time," she promised.

Once the laughter died down, Samus got back to the business at hand.  "Yes, that was Ridley, though we didn't realize it at the time," she confirmed.  "Even Spike didn't recognize him...though somehow, I think he recognized us.  As soon as he caught sight of us watching him, he raced away into the bushes."

"Before we could go investigate, Adam managed to unlock another door for us and ordered us through to continue our investigation of the Biodome," Spike added.  "But when we went to continue...he was watching us."

"It was...unsettling, to say the least," Samus admitted, "but Adam locked the hatch behind us, so we weren't too worried at the time."  More relaxed, she continued the tale.  "The next few areas seemed to be much more expansive, but we quickly discovered that much of it was holographic backdrops.  That frustrated Spike more than me, I'll admit."

"You try flying into an expansive sky, only to bang your beak against a wall you couldn't see!" Spike snapped back, causing more stifled giggles, save from Rainbow, Celestia, and Luna, who all wrinkled their muzzles sympathetically.

"Despite those hurdles," Samus continued, "things were more or less smooth sailing for us until we reached the subterranean control room.  At first, it seemed like we'd just have to fight some more cloaking lizards, but once we got past the navigation room..."





As the pair of Hunters entered the next chamber, two floating mechanical drones descended from the ceiling to confront them.  At first it seemed they would be easy enough to deal with, but they were rather more heavily armored than they first appeared.  Samus' beam weapons and missiles bounced right off the drones, as did Spike's beam focused breath weapons, and they moved too fast for Spike to get a good grip on.  After a time, however, the drones pulled some of their armor back, revealing energy projection points.  On an impulse, Samus tried firing there, and found that part could be damaged.  With that discovery, the fight was quick and brutal, as they each took one drone.

When Spike dealt with his first one, a third one dropped down, which he dealt with in much the same way.  When all three were destroyed, a strange device remained.  Samus went to collect it...and found it absorbed into her suit, her Arm Cannon registering a new function.



Diffusion Beam acquired.
Charged Beam blast will scatter after impact.







"And here I was beginning to think you wouldn't get anything new this time around," Rainbow chuckled, rubbing her hooves together.  "What with you coming in with a full arsenal."

Samus smirked at that.  "Well, it was one of the few," she admitted.  "Still quite useful against large groups.  Nearly as effective as Spike spraying his different breath weapons."  She frowned.  "Of course, on our way out..."





As the pair moved to leave the Subterranean Control Room, a large worm with a mouth full of sharp teeth, which they'd encountered once in some underground tunnels, burst through the metal walls, roaring.  Another worm head - whether another worm or its other end was difficult to determine - burst through nearby.

Samus and Spike both prepared for battle as the worm ends began firing electrical energy at them in concentrated spheres.  While Spike drew their fire, Samus locked on and fired a missile after the energy was released, forcing each worm out of the walls.  Spike then followed up by slamming into the worms to down them, allowing Samus to finish them off with a diffusion blast straight down their throats.

With both worms taken down the same way, the path was cleared for the pair to continue onward, returning to where the controls inside had opened a path at another Navigation Room.
> M: Dangerous Creatures
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"From the sound of it, the Bottleship mission didn't really have anything of big interest for rather large gaps," Twilight mused as Samus paused in her tale.  "Why is that?"

Samus shrugged.  "We were going up against creatures of the sort we'd faced hundreds of times before, on an enclosed station, and Spike still had all his abilities.  Even with some of the abilities of the creatures which seemed designed with countering his abilities in mind - which, in hindsight, really should have rung a few alarm bells - we had no trouble coasting through for most of it.  Not to mention if things really got tough, I could always reactivate more of my abilities."

"Assuming you got permission," Spike grumbled, turning a glare towards Adam, who ignored it.

"At any rate," Samus continued quickly, "it wasn't long after the worm that we encountered another unusual hurdle...a large hive of insectoid creatures that proved more difficult to take down.  It also happened to be the first step towards a rather...rough reunion..."





Samus and Spike scanned their surroundings after sliding down the long tube.  They found themselves in a large chamber with beetle like creatures scuttling around a good distance away.  Nothing seemed all that interested in attacking them...until something let out a loud, piercing, almost human shriek.  All the beetles rose up on their abdomens and turned to attack the pair even as several large insectoids resembling dragonflies began to dive bomb them.

Spike and Samus did their best to evade, countering with the Diffusion Beam and Spike's various breath weapons, along with striking physically when the enemies grew too close.  They continued to blast away at the creatures that attacked, but the creatures continued to drop out of a large structure above them, the very structure they'd slid through to reach the chamber.

After a time, five blooms on the branches holding the hive up opened, projecting energy towards the pair.  Acting on experience and practice working together, each of them took on one, Spike using his claws to tear his bloom to shreds, Samus destroying hers with a missile.  The branches broke apart into bits from the destruction, and the remaining two blooms closed up, and more dragonfly like insectoids descended, and ones without wings crawled up out of the ground to attack as well.

The pattern repeated, but working together they were able to take out the fifth bloom before it could close, Samus targeting the bloom while Spike kept the insects that attacked at bay.  With that, the hive fell to the ground and broke open, revealing the 'queen' creature embedded in the hive's structure, and a mess of their 'honey'.  Several creatures tried to protect the 'queen', but Samus and Spike were too thorough, and before long all were dead.  The hive turned black, and the few surviving creatures fled.

A loud growling echoed nearby.  The 'Little Birdie' could be seen, eagerly devouring the honey from a hive piece with a long wet tongue that gleamed blood red, and tearing the hive chunk to bits with sharp teeth.  Seeing its voracity, it was no longer cute, and Samus felt sick at the way the creature fed off her power like that, using her and Spike to get it the food they needed.

Spike snarled his own distaste, spitting a bit of fire at the creature out of spite, but it dodged to the side, hissing at him before returning to its grisly feast.





"Ridley was the source of the shriek, wasn't he?" Fluttershy asked softly.  "He did that to make you fight the insects so he could get the honey?"

"Yeah, that's right," Samus confirmed.  "It's what he needed to jumpstart his metamorphosis to his next stage...though we didn't discover that until later."

"At that point I directed them to the Biosphere Test Area in that sector," Adam spoke up.  "A rendezvous with the whole unit was planned at the Exam Center there, as it held important information about the Bottleship."

"But the trip there wasn't as smooth as it could have been," Spike added.  "I still don't understand why you didn't approve the Gravity Suit for when we had to go into the water."

"Because every approved piece of equipment meant more attention drawn to Samus," Adam explained.  "The more of her tech was active, the stronger her communications signal became...and the easier it was for whoever else was on the station to track you both down.  Besides, you can swim.  It's not like she needed the Gravity Suit to maneuver underwater as long as you were there."

Spike blinked, shocked.  "You already thought someone or something on the station was trying to kill us at that point?"

"When on a mission, I always assume that someone or something from an unexpected direction is trying to kill me and the men and women under my command," Adam countered.

"Which is why before that mission, our unit had such a low casualty rate," Anthony added with a smirk.

"And if I'd gotten a bit more information sooner, I could have saved everyone there, too," Adam stated curtly, not meeting anyone's eyes.

Silence greeted that statement at first.  Then Celestia quietly set her teacup down.  "Commander," she said softly, "I think, when next we take a break from this story, you should join my sister, my former student, and I for some tea."

Adam frowned.  "I'm not so sure-"

"I've long been of the opinion that lessons were best learned through experiencing them," she continued, "but you have brought to my attention that, sometimes, this method can be...unnecessarily cruel.  As Twilight is now a Princess, she is also a leader of our little ponies...and she has already proven herself time and again on the field of battle.  However, I'm sure you know as well as I that sometimes, a leader will lose some of those who look to them for guidance."  She smiled beatifically at him.  "I thought it might be good if my sister and I passed on the lessons we've learned for dealing with such things, especially ways to handle the guilt, before she needed them.  Perhaps you'd care to listen in?  If only for cultural comparisons?"

Adam was silent for a time, but eventually nodded, taking a sip of his tea.  He seemed...far less tense than before.
> M: Baneful Beasts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once the tension in the room faded, Samus decided to continue the story.  "Of course, some of the creatures we faced were larger and more difficult to deal with than others," she explained.  "Although the largest ones in Sector 1 were easy to deal with, for the simple reason that they tended to show up in the largest areas..."





After making their way through a long, winding path of gratings through the large forested chamber they were within, Samus was finally able to turn off the holo-projector to see the path they needed in order to move forward.  With the holograms off, the sky filled backdrop and many of the larger trees vanished, revealing metal walls and metallic structures.

One of the larger trees, however, unfolded angrily, revealing what looked like a brachiosaur made of wood-





"Like a dinosaur version of a timberwolf?" Twilight gasped out eagerly, pulling out a book to show an image of the creature she was describing.

Samus stared at the image for a time, then chuckled.  "More or less, yes," she admitted.





-its long neck stretched out on its low slung body, its massive tree trunk legs stomping along like a spider with two missing legs.  Its rather obvious weak point was a large orange sphere on its undercarriage, pulsing with light.  Samus readied her arm cannon to lunge in for battle...only for Spike to lunge past her, expanding in size until he matched the creature, bowling it over with sheer bulk to attack the orange sphere.

Samus stepped back, thinking Spike had it all under control until the creature reversed its limbs, standing upright with the orange sphere high above, now walking more like a giraffe.  Spike, for his part, leapt into the air, shrinking back down to human size as he landed on the creature's back and hitting the orange sphere with his flame breath.  The fire spread, and the entire creature collapsed, smoldering.





"Yeah...probably should have realized wood plus fire equals dead a bit sooner," Spike admitted, causing a few titters.

"It wasn't all as fun as that, though," Samus admitted.  "Not long after that, we reached the Test Area Adam sent us to..."  Her voice trailed off.  "That's when things started going wrong..."





As they reached the entrance to the Exam Centers Control Chamber, they found the door damaged and forced open.  Samus and Spike immediately went on the defensive.  They carefully made their way in through the door.  When they entered, they found one of the members of Adam's unit already there, working on the computers.  As he got up, the rest of the unit arrived...minus one.

"Where's Lyle?" the one from the computers asked.

"Looks like he's late," Anthony offered with a shrug.

Another one of the troopers began working on the computers, but the information was fragmented.  Apparently, the CPU had self destructed, and it would take a while for him to piece anything useful together.

Anthony took charge of the situation, ordering everyone else to search the building while their computer expert worked on recovering the data.  After a brief bout of shared nostalgia between Anthony and Samus, everyone began to search.

During her search, however, Samus stumbled across a Zebesian - one of the creatures native to Zebes - that had been cybernetically enhanced to resemble the Space Pirates...with Galactic Federation tech.





"What?"

Twilight wasn't the only one shocked by this revelation.  Before Samus could respond, Adam took over the explanation.

"It wasn't clear at the time," Adam began, "but the Bottleship was the work of certain branches of the military to create an ideal assault force based around the Space Pirates, since that force was no longer an issue.  The idea behind it was that, since they'd proven so effective against us, creating such a force to work for us would provide an ideal force to be reckoned with."

"And the idea that they might go rogue and become the Pirates all over again never occurred to the big wigs?" Applejack demanded snidely.

"That's why my report on the matter said it was folly to attempt," Adam grumbled.  "Unfortunately, someone went through with it anyway, basing the whole thing on that report...which made it easy for certain parties to point the blame my way at just the right time..."

"Not that it did any good," Spike countered.  He tapped his muzzle.  "Takes a lot to fool this nose."

"I just wish I'd had access to it sooner..." Adam muttered.





The single file recovered from the computer revealed that the Bottleship was a bioweapons research platform - a highly illegal one at that - under the supervision of a Dr. Madeline Bergman.  With nothing else forthcoming, Anthony gave orders to have the two computer experts stay and try and get more information, while the rest of them searched the area for the missing doctor.

During the search, Samus and Spike came across a few of the augmented Zebesians that had become active somehow, and moved to attack them.  As they moved with the same coordination that Space Pirates did, Adam ordered the troops back and for Samus and Spike to take care of them.

Spike quickly found that the cybernetic augmentations made the Zebesians taste terrible, and focused on combat that didn't involve biting.

Despite the bite damage, that enemy kept charging in, apparently not fazed by its partially crushed torso and skull.  The augmented Zebesians proved to be far more athletic and maneuverable than the Space Pirates had ever been, even managing to evade Samus and Spike's attacks at times.  However, as there were only six of them, eventually they were taken down by a mix of assault techniques, allowing the pair to go meet up with the others.

However, when they made it to the control center, they saw the others under attack by a large purple creature with white bristly hair on its back between body spikes, an alligator like jaw surmounted by a long, red tongue.  Its long tail ended in a sharp spine.  As it roared, it looked up and spotted Samus and Spike through the window.

"We need to get out to them, fast!" Samus barked out, rushing for the door, only to be grabbed by Spike.

"Right!" he growled, smashing his way through the reinforced glass, coming down on top of the creature with Samus in tow.

The creature let off the same almost human shriek that had sent the insectoids from before into a frenzy, and dozens of other creatures erupted out of the ground to attack.  As Samus moved to back up the other troops, Spike and the creature circled each other.  The creature gazed balefully at Spike, its eyes filled with an unnatural level of hatred.

Spike snarled defiance, clashing with the creature with teeth and claws, the battle driving back and forth across the landscape.  At one point, Spike attempted to leap into the air for an advantage, only for the creature's tail to pierce his wing.  Screaming in pain, Spike fell to the ground.

"Spike!" Samus called out, rushing forward.

As the creature leapt to pin Spike and press its advantage, a highly charged burst of plasma seared its shoulder, a last minute twist being all that prevented it from losing the limb.  As Anthony charged his heavy plasma cannon for a second shot, it raced away, leaping through the walls of the large open area hidden by holograms to escape.

Grumbling, Anthony disengaged the heavy plasma cannon, letting it recharge.  At that point, the other attacking creatures had dispersed.  "You okay there, ankle biter?" he called out.  "It got you good!"

Spike shrugged, swallowing one of the creatures that had gotten a bit too close to him.  "It'll heal," he replied, wincing as the membrane already began to knit.

"Hey!" one of the others called out.  "Get over here!"

Samus paused by Spike to check on his injury - it was already fully healed - before joining the others...where they found the body of the missing Lyle, torn to shreds.

"Looks like an animal attack," Samus muttered.

"Animals don't use Federation issue blasters," Spike muttered.  "He stinks of the ozone tang of blaster burns.  Someone - or something - shot him dead, and something else came and cleaned up the job."

As everyone glanced nervously at each other, Anthony spoke up.  "What do you mean...something?"

"I'm also smelling...something a lot like Ghor," Spike muttered.  "And...a bit of the electrical tang from Gandrayda's camouflage abilities."

While everyone was talking, Samus had followed a trail of green blood...to the body of the Little Birdie, an empty husk split down the middle like a pupa that had cracked open.





"So...I get that gecko Ridley broke out of Bird Ridley," Rainbow spoke up.  "But what was that about Ghor and Gandrayda?"

"I was able to piece the details together," Adam explained.  "The Federation had taken the studies of Ghor and Gandrayda post Phazon exposure, and used it to create a new type of soldier...androids that could make themselves look human with energy based cloaks."

"The Federation usurped my body's design?!" Ghor demanded angrily.  "How dare they warp my creations!"

"You mean...they used me to make weapons?" Gandrayda gasped out, aghast.

"Yes," Adam confirmed.  "And...one such weapon was stowed on our ship on the way to the Bottleship, meant to keep us from learning too much."  He ground his teeth.  "The idea of such technological weapons was another I suggested.  Using technology to create soldiers that can fight instead of people, to reduce the waste of life.  If I'd known one was already completed, I'd have made sure everyone traveled in pairs, to be sure no one could be caught by such a troop unawares if one were a present hostile.  As it was..."

Silence reigned.
> M: Hot Under the Collar
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So you just learned you had a Terminator on the loose out to kill you all," Discord commented dryly as he floated over Adam.  "What brilliant strategic decision did you make in response?"

"I sent Samus and Spike after the creature that had attacked the group, made sure everyone was in pairs, and authorized one electric based weapon for each team with orders to shoot anyone they encountered with the stun setting," Adam replied.  "If it were our own men, Samus, or Spike, it would cause a momentary paralysis.  To the android trying to kill us, it would cause internal shorts and the disengaging of the cloak, at which point everyone was authorized to terminate it.  Spike got the same instructions regarding his electric breath, since having him do so meant keeping more of Samus' tech inactive, and allowing them both to stay as incognito as possible."

Discord stared at Adam for a time, then huffed to himself.  "Fine!" he pouted, floating back over to Fluttershy.  "Ruin my sarcasm."  A wave of titters and giggles made Discord grin, as his brilliant plan to defuse the negative emotional energy had proven completely successful.

Samus picked up the tale where it was left off.  "Pursuing the creature took us into Sector 3, the Pyrosphere," she explained.  "This sector was very similar to Norfair, with many rocky passages, and superheated chambers filled with artificial lava."

"So you activated your Varia Suit?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Not at first," Samus admitted.  "The original orders were to explore the areas I could access safely without it.  My normal Power Suit can handle superheated areas for a while, so I planned on rushing through any such area I came across.  I felt I could handle it."

"I felt Mom was putting herself in enough danger using a limited arsenal without letting the environment kill her, too," Spike grumbled.  "I had it out with Adam about that at the first Navigation Room before we entered a superheated section unprotected."

"In my defense, Samus knew her capabilities at that point better than I did," Adam replied.  "I assumed if she felt the area put her in too much danger from the temperature, she would request authorization of the Varia Suit immediately, since we were in constant communication."

Spike snorted.  "That's not what you said when I confronted you about it..."





As Samus stepped towards the door and the superheated air started to work its way through her Power Suit, Spike yanked her back in before accessing the Navigation Booth.  "Adam, I've got a bone to pick with you."

"Make it quick," Adam countered.  "We have a large scale operation going on here."

"And Mom's about to go into an artificial active volcano!" Spike growled.  "This wouldn't be that big of a deal except - oh, I don't know - you haven't authorized her use of the Varia Suit.  I'm certain you have your reasons for not authorizing everything right away - to be honest, I'm used to Mom having an incomplete arsenal in these missions-"

"Hey!" Samus snapped, punching him on the shoulder.

"-but to have protection from this environment and not use it is just stupid!" Spike concluded.  "Can you give me one good reason why she should risk a lethal dose of heat stroke to get through there?"

Adam was silent for a time.  "...Samus, use of Varia Suit is authorized."

Nodding, Samus activated her Varia Suit.  "Understood Adam."

"As is the use of your common sense and sound judgment to request the authorization of tech on an at need basis," Adam continued.  "That's something I didn't think I had to authorize."

Sneering under her helmet, Samus gave Adam a very different salute from normal, making Spike chuckle.





Luna snorted into her cocoa as she chuckled at that.  "Did you seriously have to say that?" she asked Adam.

"I don't normally have to authorize my men to tie their shoes," Adam replied, earning himself a punch on either arm from Samus and Anthony.

"Hey, you knew Samus was all mixed up over working for you again!" Anthony insisted.  "Ya could have cut her a little slack."

"And make her even more confused?" Adam countered.

"You want a punch from me?" Spike suggested.

"Only if you shrink first."

"If you three can stop the dick measuring contest?" Samus demanded.  "Pretty sure Spike wins anyway, with or without size changing."

"He does have two," Gandrayda spoke up.

Everyone turned to stare at her.  "How...do you know that?" Samus asked worriedly.

"I turned into him once while trying to figure out how to woo him more successfully," Gandrayda offered easily.  "I thought seeing things from his perspective might help."

Pinkie leaned over to Discord.  "I'm not sure, but does that still qualify as creepy?"

"Considering she was likely still a minor at the time, I'd say more awkwardly adorable," Discord whispered back.

"Umm...if Spike can reshape himself...doesn't that mean he can have as many as he wants?" Fluttershy offered nervously.  Noticing every face at the table pointed at her, she let out a quiet 'meep' and hid under the table.

Anthony let out a low whistle.  "Always the quiet ones," he murmured appreciatively.

After a time, Applejack spoke up, quickly covering Apple Bloom's mouth before she could ask embarrassing questions about the present subject matter.  "So!  Didya get yer Ice Beam authorized?  Figure it's a good weapon if yer in a fire place, right?"

"Considering many of the enemies were on fire, yes," Samus confirmed, eager for anything to change the subject.

"They tasted spicy!" Spike offered readily.
> M: Fire and Ice
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So I take it your Ice Beam and Spike's Ice Breath saw a lot of use in the Pyrosphere?" Twilight asked curiously.

"It certainly did," Samus confirmed, glad to be past the more awkward topics from before.  "Nearly every monster we encountered went down quickly under concentrated Ice based attacks."

"The only problem was that they exploded, rather than froze most times," Spike grumbled.  "Didn't get much to eat as we went through."  He rolled his eyes at the knowing chuckles.

"Anything interesting happen while you were there?" Luna asked curiously.

"Well...not until the Floor Observation Room..." Samus began.





As Samus and Spike entered the large Observation Room, latent instincts caused both to dive to either side as a large, armored creature that somewhat resembled a beetle skittered across the floor towards them, nearly running them over.  As they came to a stop, it stood up on heavily armored legs and extended large metal pincers on arms before turning to fight the pair.

Its preferred method of fighting was to dash around flat against the ground, where its metal body deflected all beam and missile weapons, while launching smaller versions of itself that lacked its defensive capabilities at the attacking pair.  While these smaller versions were easy to destroy, they also moved fast and exploded if they got too close.

After destroying enough of the smaller ones, the larger one tried a different tack, extending its pincers and head on a long neck to aim his attack.  The fleshy neck was more vulnerable than the metal body, allowing Samus and Spike to attack and inflict damage.  Spike tried flipping it onto its back at one point, but not only was the underside armored but that allowed it to bring blades and clawed legs into the fray if Spike or Samus stayed too close, and it was easily able to flip itself back over.

Admittedly, there was a weak point in the center of its underbelly, a spot that glowed red when it charged energy for an assault.  Eventually, the pair managed to develop a strategy to take it down.  Spike tackled the creature to the wall, holding its legs and pincers at bay and snapping at the angry head.  Samus then ducked in as it tried to charge energy to break free, blasting away at the weak point.  It managed to break free, but it was staggered.  Samus then lunged in, grabbed hold of the head...and pulled out what turned out to be a worm that had been controlling an armored battle body.  The worm lunged for her, but Spike seized it and dug in, tearing away at the flesh with claws and teeth as he devoured it.

Samus stood back to let him finish his meal.  "So how is it?" she asked as he licked his lips.

"Tastes kinda like a hot dog," Spike replied.  "Or maybe an undercooked sausage."





"If it tasted undercooked, why didn't you roast it with your flame breath?" Pinkie asked curiously, startling a few laughs.

"Too hungry," Spike countered, startling more laughter.

Rolling her eyes, Samus continued the tale.  "Not far beyond that, the Pyrosphere actually had an artificial volcano."

Twilight's eyes widened.  "That's fascinating!" she gasped eagerly.  "How did they manage it?"

"No clue," Samus, Spike, Adam, and Anthony responded in unison, making Twilight pout.

"I have a few ideas how they could have managed such a feat," Ghor offered.  "Once we have reached the end of the story of this mission, I will happily share those ideas with you."

Twilight grinned eagerly.

Chuckling indulgently, Spike took up the tale.  "Of course, the volcano made things interesting since we had to go towards it, while dodging the lava bombs it launched.  "Once we were past that, we encountered a few more enhanced Zebesians.  The Diffusion/Ice Beam combination created a rather interesting effect, since it froze over their blasters, making them much easier to take down."

"Still miss that beam mod," Samus grumbled to herself.

"I'm sorry we weren't able to properly correct the coding," Ghor offered apologetically.  "We were a trifle pressed for time at that point, and it was the most complicated beam."

"Not your fault, Ghor," Samus hastened to assure him.  "What you did was more than enough."

"Ummm...?" Shining voiced in confusion.

"Something from the next mission," Adam explained.  "We'll get to that."

"Besides," Spike continued, "what happened next was really fun!"





As Spike and Samus dropped down into the volcanic crater's interior, the magma level slowly began to rise towards them.  Samus quickly looked around, seeing a winding path around the crater interior leading upwards, which would involve a lot of carefully timed jumps, ducks, bobbing, and weaving all while racing at top speed to outrun the rising lava.

She then considered her alternative, riding her winged dragon son up to the top on the sweetest thermal ever.

She took a few moments to carefully consider which would be more fun before leaping onto Spike's back as he spread his wings.





Twilight could only roll her eyes as Rainbow, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie, and Luna burst into laughter before exchanging hoof bumps with Samus.  "Of course that was the deciding factor..." she grumbled.

"What else would be?" Samus asked before getting back into the tale.





With Samus on his back, Spike shot up through the volcano, briefly dodging a massive red tendril that tried to sweep him out of the air.  The pair blasted out the top of the mountain like a cannon, shortly followed by a flood of magma.  As the caldera overflowed, a massive red creature erupted out of the magma.  It had a long, thin neck with tendrils waving out the sides, a massive pair of tentacles ending in malformed hands, and a glowing red spot on its neck.  Its head was rather simplistic, with only a few fins and a tooth filled maw as distinguishing features.

It would likely have proved a serious challenge had they attacked it from the ground.  So Spike attacked it from the air, freezing the neck so Samus could snipe the frozen section with missiles.  Its only ranged attack involved hurling chunks of lava at them, which Spike was easily able to evade.  Once it took enough damage, the glowing point faded.  With no other weak point readily available, Spike started dive bombing the head, digging into the crown with claws before pulling away and letting Samus hit the open wound with charged blasts.  A few of those runs, and the creature began exploding, its structure strained to the breaking point.

With its destruction, the magma level lowered.





"Apparently, the creature was controlling the volcano somehow," Samus explained.  "With it destroyed, the place became much safer to navigate."
> M: Lava and Leave 'Em
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"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.
> M: Cold Hearted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The mecha was large and bulky, but still able to move quite fast in a charge.  Thankfully, it took some time after each charge before it could reorient for another charge.  The engine block was mounted on the back, so after Samus evaded the first charge, she was able to fire several charged Diffusion/Ice blasts to the engine, inflicting damage and eventually freezing the joint of the right manipulator arm.  One missile shattered the joint, letting the limb fall to the ground and break apart.  The mech attempted to fight back with laser blasts and other weapons, but Samus had too much practice against mechas to fail so easily.  It wasn't long before she was able to take out the second manipulator arm.

At that point, the mecha deployed buzzsaw blades around its treads, attempting to shred Samus as it charged back and forth.  Spike, watching from a safe distance, rolled his eyes.  "This is getting ridiculous," he grumbled, gathering energy into his mouth.  "Stay behind me!"

Nodding fearfully, the woman he was ordered to guard clung to his back near the base of his tail, below his wings.  This nailed down to her even further that they were, in fact, clinging upside down to the ceiling, and it was only when his tail wrapped protectively around her that she felt safe again.

Watching carefully, Spike chose his moment...then unleashed a fully charged blast of electric breath, which slammed full force into the side of the mecha and sending it - and its pilot - flipping end over end to slam into the far wall as the top burst into flames.

"Spike!" Samus snapped.  "I said not to assist me!"

"And Adam ordered me to hit any suspicious figure with my electric breath!" Spike called back innocently.  "I'd say a mech designed for transporting crates equipped with lasers and buzzsaws is pretty suspicious!"

A clang echoed up to Spike, letting him know Samus had smacked her faceplate with her armored hand.  He smirked as he heard the woman wrapped in his tail giggle girlishly.





"Ugh!" Twilight groaned as she brought her hoof to her face, despite the laughter around her.  "Did you ever learn to turn your 'Swag' off, whatever that is?  Am I going to have to watch out for that woman, whoever she is, showing up as a rival for Gandrayda?"

"Wait, what?" Gandrayda demanded, stunned.

"Mom, seriously, Melissa didn't see me that way!" Spike insisted.

"Just keep telling yourself that," Anthony offered with a wide smirk.

Samus rolled her eyes.  "At any rate, Adam sent orders to change our priority to taking down the creature we know now was Ridley, since the wavelength of its cry was driving all creatures around it into a frenzy.  If left unchecked, the creatures within the Bottleship would take down us and survivors."

"I told the woman we'd just saved - we didn't get her name just there, since we were in such a rush - to find somewhere safe and secure to hide, and to only open the door if it was me on the other side," Spike explained.  "Since the Deleter android was humanoid, it was logical to assume it could only mimic humans or those with a humanoid structure."

"Logical and accurate," Adam agreed.

"So after that, we set course for Sector 3, in pursuit of 'the creature'," Samus continued.  "Unfortunately, we found our way to a dead end based on the path Adam gave us.  When we tried to backtrack us, we found ourselves trapped by more upgraded Zebesians in a glass cage.  Our beams bounced off, and the glass was too thick for Spike to smash through without disabling his armor's limiter-"

"Which would have been a bad idea," Spike insisted, "since I'd have been able to smash through the walls of the station then, which wouldn't have been safe."

"-and the Zebesians had Wave Beams, which shot right through the clear walls," Samus finished.

"As soon as I got that information, I authorized Samus' own Wave Beam," Adam continued.

"In addition to letting my beam penetrate transparent or semi-transparent substances, it made it much more powerful," Samus explained.  "It also opened the path forward, allowing us to actually make our way to Sector 3."

"If only it were so easy," Spike muttered.





Samus activated the elevator controls somewhat dubiously as Spike settled himself on the platform.  The elevator immediately started shooting up the long lift towards the central elevator.  Despite the seeming quiet, Spike paced the platform, his instincts and senses on high alert.  Taking that as a cue, Samus scanned their surrounding, ready to fight at a moment's notice.

Both turned out to be right, as Wave Beam equipped enhanced Zebesians dropped onto the platform from above, immediately lunging for the attack.  Samus focused on the first of the attacking trio while Spike took the second, knocking the third off the platform behind them with his tail, where it fell far behind them.

More Wave Beam Zebesians continued to drop down as the elevator platform rose, but Spike's strategy of knocking any beyond the two he and Samus were actively focusing on off the elevator - whether down to fall behind or up to be run over as the platform raced up the sloping shaft - continued to prove effective.

As the last of the Zebesians were dealt with, another creature swooped down.  This creature somewhat resembled an oversize stag beetle with its giant horns, with a narrow body lined with spikes that were either teeth or flight assist fins, it was difficult to determine.  It had two long arms ending in red claws, two small legs, and a large eye where its head should have been.  It quickly proved to be cybernetic as it unleashed a wave of missiles that locked onto the pair as they dodged around them.

As soon as it landed on the platform, Spike closed to clash with the creature, clenching his teeth as he discovered it could match his present level of physical strength.  He dug his hind claws into the platform to keep from being pushed back while Samus raced around, taking pot shots at the creature's eye as they became clear, not charging her beam to keep the Diffusion effect from injuring Spike.

After a time, the creature broke free of the grapple, its eye becoming a red hole as it began drawing in energy for some sort of attack.  Samus quickly countered this by firing a missile into the hole, causing the creature to fall back, allowing Spike to charge in and knock it for a loop before Samus jammed her charged arm cannon into the eye and fired.

Despite the amassed assault, the creature recovered readily and continued the attack until the platform reached the end of the elevator shaft.  It then unleashed a few more attacks to make the pair back off a bit before taking flight, diving down the shaft and away from the pair.
> M: Hot on the Trail
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"What the hay was that thing?" Applejack demanded worriedly, the description of the beast having made her more than a bit squeamish.

"We're not entirely sure," Samus admitted.  "Though it wasn't the last time we saw it.  It was obviously another bio-weapon of some sort, but we weren't able to figure out why it was attacking us when it was.  As best we were able to determine, something was in control of every creature made in the Bottleship, and was directing them to attack anything that wasn't...and Ridley was somehow boosting their aggressiveness far beyond normal levels."

"It made the trip through Sector 3 rather...interesting," Spike muttered.  "Not only were all the creatures much more ferocious, they were pumping themselves full of various chemicals that made them taste awful.  Between that and far more enhanced Zebesians, we barely had time in all that heat to breathe."

"And every time we turned around, one of the larger, harder to kill creatures we'd faced before popped up," Samus added.  "I couldn't wait to track 'the beast' down and tear it apart."

Spike snickered a bit, only to whistle innocently as Samus glared at him.

"Am I...missing something?" Anthony asked, confused.

"Oh yeah, you weren't there for that fight!" Spike replied, grinning.  "Did you catch it, Adam?"

"I'm afraid not," Adam replied.  "That's when I made my move."

Seeing several confused glances, Spike shrugged.  "We'll get there soon enough.  Before that, though, we actually bumped into Anthony."

"I remember that!" Anthony spoke up.  "Really saved my bacon, too!  Woulda wound up extra crispy without you..."





As Samus and Spike came charging into a large room, they heard a very human scream of frustration.  Across the room from them on a much higher platform above a pool of lava, Anthony was desperately trying to fight off the large creature they'd faced on the way out of Sector 2.  His plasma cannon was strapped to his back, still charging, and he was forced to fight off the creature and several others with only his freeze pistol.  It quickly became plain he was outgunned when the beetle like creature unleashed a searing blast of electrical energy that he only barely managed to evade.

"Anthony!" Samus screamed out in terror.

"Uncle Tony!" Spike yelled.  "Duck!"  With that warning, he leapt into the air, quickly clearing the gap and landing on the high platform, grappling with the beast.

Samus watched carefully, searching for a way to assist.  However, a problem quickly became apparent.  Without her to assist him, Spike was quickly caught in a pure power struggle, and couldn't spare a glance for anything around him.  Spike was now just as much a danger to Anthony as the creature he was fighting.  "Adam, I need to get up there!" she shouted into her comms.

"There's a grapple point directly above you," Adam responded quickly.  "Your Grapple Beam is authorized.  Do it, Samus!"

Immediately activating her Grapple Beam, Samus locked on and dragged herself to the platform.  As she came off the swing, she landed a heavy kick right in the creature's eye, making it rock back.  A few quick shots took out its backup, letting her and Anthony move to the back of the platform against the wall, out of danger of being knocked into the lava below.

"Nice timing, Princess," Anthony greeted, immediately focusing his fire.

"Less talky, more shooty!" Spike barked out as he decked the recovering creature.

"Got it, ankle biter!" Anthony replied jovially, quickly pulling his standard rifle out with his free hand, firing with both as quickly as he could.

The combined fire of Anthony's freeze blaster, Samus' Ice effect with her Wave/Diffusion Beam, and Spike's own Ice breath quickly froze the base of the creature's horns, limiting its combat abilities somehow and forcing it to stay grounded.  However, its own energy blasts could now be unleashed much more rapidly, and it now attacked with its arms, which stretched out in sweeping strikes.

On occasion, Samus attempted leaping onto the monstrosity to inflict additional damage up close, but each time it reared, using its horns to knock her off.  Eventually, the red hole appeared and began sucking energy in, and a missile knocked the creature temporarily prone.  Dashing in, she unleashed a full charged blast into the eye, and the damage caused the creature's horn base to shatter, leaving it hornless.

Rather than disabling it, however, this only seemed to make the creature angrier.  It began attacking much more ferociously, as well as unleashing its missiles.  After the first volley, however, Spike dashed in close at a small size, delivering a fierce uppercut as he expanded to the creature's size, sending it flipping into the air.  Rather than continue the assault, however, the creature fled, diving into the lava.

"Whew!" Anthony gasped in relief, lifting his faceplate to get a breath of less recycled air.  "That was ugly.  Thanks Princess, ankle biter.  So...seen anyone else?"

"No, we haven't," Spike muttered.  "Were you expecting anyone?"

"Well, I got orders from the Commander to meet up with everyone over here to activate the Geothermal Power Plant," Anthony explained.  "The meetup point's a nearby Navigation Booth, but after waiting for everyone for a while, I decided to take a look around...only to get jumped by those things."

"We're after the creature from Sector 1," Samus explained.  "It's causing all the other creatures to go nuts, so we're going to put it down before things get any hotter."

"Well, as long as it's just the three of us...can I ask you something, Samus?"

Samus paused, turning to face Anthony.  "...go ahead."

(1)"It's...I just don't get it, Samus," Anthony finally spoke up.  "I've heard what you two are capable of, alone and together.  Between the two of you with your full arsenal, you could have just brushed right past the lot of us and sought out every survivor, and whatever else you felt needed to be done here...and we couldn't have done thing one to stop you.  But instead, you come practically hat in hand begging the Commander to let you both help."  He rubbed the back of his helmet.  "I get that there's a lot of tension between you two, and stuff I probably don't understand...but why are you still taking orders from him?"

Samus glanced away, unsure how to explain herself.  "It's...complicated..."

"Try me," Anthony replied easily, his warm smile showing his fraternal affection for her.

Samus searched her mind for the right words.  "I...respect him," she offered at last.

Anthony stared at her for a time.  "That's it?" he asked.  "That's all you've got for me?"

"All she's willing to share with Adam listening in on an open comms channel," Spike offered, smirking mischievously.

Anthony's eyes widened.  "Whoops!"  He quickly prepped his weapons.  "Catcha later, you two!"  He quickly rushed off on his mission.





"It's not that funny!" Anthony complained as almost everyone listening burst into laughter.

"Yes it is," Adam countered, smirking slightly.








(1) The following conversation is dedicated to The Fiery Joker, as it was his Rant Video with TheAutarch that was a major inspiration for this entire arc.  Thanks for being awesome, Scorcher!
> M: Fishing for Answers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once the laughter started to die down, Samus took pity on Anthony's embarrassment and quickly continued the tale.  "After Anthony headed off on his mission, Spike and I made our way into a new part of the Pyrosphere, the Blast Furnace area.  We figured starting somewhere new was better than retreading old ground, as Adam would have informed us if the creature was somewhere we'd already explored."

"Of course, the actual passage through the Blast Furnace itself wasn't exactly smooth," Spike explained.  "Even as we were making our way in, activating grapple points to hover so Mom could make her own way through, a giant magma fish leapt out and tried to eat one."

"Which meant we had to fight it once we made it into the main part of the Blast Furnace," Samus explained.





After opening the path into the Blast Furnace, Samus used one of the Grapple Points to swing out over the lava, only to have to leap free as the massive magma fish creature leapt out of the lava to try and eat her.  She managed to barely leap clear, coming in for a landing on a stone platform after spotting the grapple point it had previously eaten lodged in the back of its throat.

Spike quickly joined her on the stone platform.  "The thermals are too strong for me to fly safely," he grunted, "and the fish is too heavily armored for me to meet it in the lava.  The only weak point I saw were some engorged nodules on its underbelly, but we'll need to make it expose those."

Samus quickly rolled to the side as the fish splashed into the lava, launching a sphere of flame towards them.  "I think I have an idea," she muttered.  "We just need to get it to open its mouth wide near us."

Spike grinned, having seen the grapple point as well.  "I like fishing," he agreed.

Samus kept her grapple beam ready, letting Spike fire at the engorged nodules whenever the fish exposed them in its leaping.  Eventually, the fish reared near the edge of the paltform with its mouth wide open.  Samus locked on and dragged it onto the rocks with her Grapple Beam.  She and Spike then leapt to the attack, Samus using her beam and missiles and Spike digging in with claws and fangs.

The gigantic fish, for its part, flopped around madly until it was able to get back into the lava, but it had already taken heavy damage.  As it struggled in the magma, Spike dove in after it, going low before coming up underneath it, delivering a heavy strike to its vulnerable underbelly with his tail, making it once more rear out of the lava, roaring.  Samus once more grappled it out of the magma, letting the pair inflict even more damage.

When it came back out of the lava again, it had managed to swallow the grapple point completely, meaning Samus could no longer fish it out, but it had taken enough damage that it didn't take much longer to finish it off, letting the grapple point float back where it belonged as the lava drained out of the chamber.





"...huh," Applejack muttered.  "Never thought o' fishin' as an extreme sport before."

"Guess it all depends on how you do it!" Rainbow snickered as the others tittered.

Samus chuckled softly, but continued the tale.  "Not long after, Adam contacted me, informing us that the creature we were after was heading for the Geothermal Electric Power Generator," she explained.  "Since that was where Anthony was headed, we didn't need to be told twice to get after it fast."

"Even with the map coordinates, it was going to take a while to get there, though," Spike added.  "Was rather worrisome for us.  We didn't want to think about what it would mean if Anthony got there first."

"And of course, there was always the chance it would be the Deleter android pretending to be Anthony when we got there," Samus continued.  "Plenty of worries for that trip.  Thankfully, the path was mostly straightforward, making it easy for us to make it through rapidly."

"Did you have any trouble along the way?" Shining asked curiously.

"You could say that," Samus confirmed.





After a long, winding path upward, Spike and Samus charged into a new chamber, only to have to instantly dive to either side to evade the bio-mech from before trying to catch them off guard by smashing through a small tower.  It immediately moved in to try and take them down, lashing with its arms and firing its missiles.  Samus noticed in passing that either it had grown its horns back, or there was more than one of these creatures.

Some concentrated fire from Samus and Spike's Ice Breath froze the base of its horns again...at which point it took to the air.  Unlike before, the chamber was big enough for Spike to pursue it in the air, and despite its seeming ability to float, Spike had more aerial combat experience.  Before long, a heavy blow knocked it out the open roof of the chamber, sending it tumbling down into the pit below.

Spike moved to pursue it, but Samus quickly called out to him.  "That thing's not our priority!" she barked out.  "Come on!"

Spike grumbled, but turned back.  "I don't like leaving it alive to chase us," he complained.

"We'll get it eventually," Samus assured him.  "But if we delay too long now, Anthony might pay the price."

"Right," Spike agreed, his head hanging, feeling ashamed he'd forgotten about that.

Samus stroked his muzzle comfortingly.  "Come on," she ordered.  "We'd better hurry."





"We didn't encounter any other major hurdles," Samus admitted.  "Unfortunately...what was waiting for us..."

Samus and Spike both fell silent.
> M: Animal Inside
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After the silence hung for a while, Anthony finally spoke up.  "If I have to tell this part, it's going to be pretty short!"

Spike and Samus both managed to chuckle at that.  "Alright," Samus stated finally.  "Well, as we were about to enter the Geothermal plant..."





As Samus and Spike approached the entrance to the Plant, both paused.  Above the door, the shape of the creature they'd been pursuing could be seen, split open and discarded like the shape of the Little Birdie had been.  Both steeled themselves at the sight.  They were about to face an unknown threat...and they had to be extra careful when they did.

A few chambers beyond, and they found themselves in the Plant itself, dark from everything being turned off.  The pair made their way carefully onto the central platform, glancing around to see any threat that might be there.  As they walked, Spike froze.  "Mom..." he whispered, his eyes tracking from her boot up her body.

Glancing down, Samus saw the red light of a laser sight tracking up her body.  Spinning, she saw a figure in Federation Trooper armor with a heavy plasma cannon aimed towards her.  On the assumption it was the Deleter android, she prepped her arm cannon.

"Samus!" Anthony shouted out.  "Get out of the way!"

Reacting instantly, Samus dove to the side.  A figure behind Samus leapt into the air, the sound of leathery wings echoing in the chamber as Samus and Spike raced to back up Anthony.

"Damn!" Anthony swore as he tried to track the creature.  "I can't see a thing in here!  We gotta clear out!"

"The exit's over there-" Spike began, only to witness a blast of flame destroy the bridge between platform and exit.  "...no..." he whispered.  It was familiar...too familiar.  "Not again..."

"Spike, what-" Samus began.

"Samus!" Adam interrupted.  "None of you can fight in the dark like that.  Use your super missiles to blast open the eruption port to get the magma flowing for the Power Plant."

Nodding, Samus isolated the Eruption Port and unleashed a Super Missile.  The Port exploded, magma pouring in and illuminating the entire chamber.  As she spun to track the target...Ridley erupted from beneath the flowing magma, his glowing eyes locked on her with baleful rage.

Samus staggered back.  She'd fought Ridley several times...but each time, he had been different.  Whether amplified by cybernetics or Phazon, or simply the ravages of time, he was a distinctly different figure in each confrontation.  But here before her, in sight, sound, and even smell, was the very same visage she had seen when her parents died on K-2L...when he ravaged her Chozo home on Zebes.  He was once more the face of her nightmares.

Samus struggled against the fear and rage that raced through her being, doing her best to maintain the mental control the Chozo had taught her...but her concentration slipped as the nightmares returned.  She saw her father exploded right in front of her eyes to protect her from Ridley.  She saw the scorched ruin of her world.  She smelled the charred flesh that had spattered her in her dark hiding spot.

She heard Ridley all but gloating over how he'd eaten her mother to sustain himself after her father's suicidal tactic had only damaged him.  The death screams of those who counted on her, whom she'd failed, echoed in her ears.

Unable to completely fight off the nightmare images, to completely separate reality from nightmare, her Power Suit began to fail as her focus wavered.

"Samus!  Do you copy?" Adam yelled in her ear...but she barely heard him.  "Samus!  Use your Plasma Beam!"  Her suit registered the command and reactivated the functionality...but Samus continued to fall back.  "What's your status?  Samus, do you read me?"

...but his words were swallowed by the nightmare.

Spike and Anthony lunged forward to try and get between Samus and Ridley, trying to draw his attention.  As soon as they were in sight, Ridley let out an enraged shriek and lunged for Spike, his lashing tail smashing Anthony's plasma cannon and knocking him aside almost contemptuously.

Spike struggled to match Ridley in battle...but it was much like his first fight with the dragon.  Except this time, Ridley was the young and strong dragon in the full power of first flight.  Spike was the one having to marshal his power to keep from breaking the world around him.  Ridley had no such compunctions.  Before Spike knew what had happened, Ridley had hurled him into the wall of the chamber before leaping forward, slamming both hind talons into his gut.

Spike struggled to break free, but Ridley moved too fast.  Catching hold of Spike's skull, he brought it down in both claws to slam his knee into Spike's jaw, dazing him.  Ridley then hurled him to the platform below and dove in, digging claws into his foe's back and driving his barbed tail through his right wing.  Spike screamed in agony.

Something inside Samus snapped.  Spike's scream of pain cut through the storm in her mind.  "GET AWAY FROM MY SON!" she roared out as her suit responded.





Samus paused in her tale.  "I...I don't actually remember what happened next," she admitted.  "All I know is what my suit logged at the time of what settings I altered somehow, and the damage it did to the suit in the process.  Something about putting it into Overdrive, risking permanent damage to the suit...and interlinking Upgrades to unlock new systems...something about an Electromorph..."  She shook her head.  "Probably not what you want to hear..."

"Heck no that's not enough for this part!" Rainbow Dash complained.  "Anthony, you describe the battle!"

"No can do," Anthony admitted.  "When I got hit by Ridley's tail, I fell into the magma below.  Missed the whole fight."

Twilight gasped in shock.  "How did you survive?"

Anthony smirked, a wicked twinkle in his eye.  "How do you know I did?" he teased.

"Yeah, I already did that bit with Spike during the Aether section," Pinkie pointed out.  "Not gonna do it twice."

Pouting, Anthony lowered his head.  "Froze a magma monster with my freeze rounds," he grumbled.

"Spike, at least tell us you saw the whole thing!" Scootaloo pleaded.

Spike grinned widely, his eyes somewhat starry.  "I certainly did..."





"GET AWAY FROM MY SON!"

Spike glanced up as he heard that roar, as did Ridley.  A blaze of light that Spike recognized as Samus in Shinespark slammed into Ridley, driving him back and slamming him against the far wall.  As dazed as Spike was, all he could manage to think was, Where did Mom get room and time to trigger Speed Booster?

With Ridley pinned against the wall, Samus' Speed Booster jets and Space Jump Boots triggered, keeping her hovering in the air in front of Ridley as she proceeded to wail on him with punches, kicks, headbutts, and charged plasma blasts that diffused through his whole body.  Even as she unleashed an unbelievable wave of punishment, her Power Suit fluctuated, rippling with the colors of every suit configuration ever stored as data in its systems.  Ridley attempted to swipe at her to push her away, only to receive three Super Missiles energized with the Plasma Beam in quick succession to his shoulder, elbow, and wrist joint, atomizing his right foreleg.

Screaming in agony, Ridley finally managed to kick Samus away before turning to try and run, bombarding a far wall with his weapons to open a hole.  Samus landed heavily on the platform as her suit shifted, briefly taking on the yellow of the standard Power Suit and the black of the Phazon Suit.  "GET OVER HERE!" she roared at him, hurling a grapple beam that was a lot thicker than normal.  It latched onto Ridley's tail and dragged him back to the platform.

As Ridley thrashed in desperation, Samus grabbed his left wing with her free hand and ripped it from the joint as easily as if she were pulling a roast chicken apart.  Screaming, Ridley spun to try and attack, only for Samus to slam a Power Bomb into his crotch, the explosion somehow tightly focused so it only blasted forward to obliterate his lower body.

At this point, Samus' arm cannon shut down, no longer able to handle the strain it was undergoing after focusing the blast of a Power Bomb.  Undeterred, Samus leapt onto Ridley's torso and delivered punch after punch to what was left of the dragon.  In desperation, Ridley tried to lunge in for a bite...and Samus' arm plunged straight down the dragon's throat.  When it jerked back out, it held a lump of flesh that pulsed and wept blood.  She crushed it in her hand.

As Ridley fell backwards, Samus stalked forward and brought her foot down on his skull, crushing it beneath her.  As she caught her breath and turned towards Spike, the young dragon slunk up to his mother, finding himself purring as he nuzzled her hand, soliciting affection.

Relaxing, Samus stroked Spike's head.  Then she glanced around.  "W...what happened here?" she marveled.





Just to check, Discord dropped a pin.  The sound of its fall - let alone its landing - was plainly audible throughout the entire castle.
> M: Mother and Child
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	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."
> M: Broken Child
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So how did things go in Sector One?" Celestia asked curiously.

Spike and Samus exchanged glances.  "Complicated," Spike admitted.

"Though I'm not sure if it was more or less so because of Spike's sense of smell," Samus added.

"How do you mean?" Luna inquired.

"We'll...get there," Samus replied.  "The trip through Sector One was...somewhat difficult to manage as more dangerous creatures began attacking, although Spike was able to handle the escalation relatively easily.  We also managed to spot the figure resembling a trooper a few times in our pursuit.  At one point, a bridge we needed to cross shut itself down right ahead of us, the control device on the near side damaged.  At that point, my suit alerted me that my Space Jump and Screw Attack functions were fully repaired, and I made the decision to activate them, since I was unable to contact Adam...and there was every possibility we were the only remaining operatives on the mission."

"The path led to a new elevator," Spike continued.  "Which is when we encountered Melissa again, and finally got her name."

"Even if she lied about it at first," Samus countered.

"Reasonably so," Spike insisted, as they began speaking of that part of the tale.





As Samus and Spike entered a large new chamber, they saw the only feature of interest being an inactive computer system.  As they approached, however, it turned itself on.  Samus quickly went to examine it and attempt to access some files, but Spike hung back.  He'd felt...something...when the computer turned itself on, and he wanted to be sure it wasn't what he thought before approaching.

A nearby door opened, and the blonde woman they'd helped earlier stepped out.  She started to back through the door when she saw Samus, but paused when she saw Spike, shaking.

"It's me," Spike offered softly.  "You don't need to be afraid.  We're here to protect you."  He stepped forward, shrinking himself down to human size and shifting to a bipedal physical configuration.  "I'm Spike.  This is my Mom, Samus.  What's your name?"

The woman stepped forward nervously.  "M-Madeline...Bergman," she offered.

"The one mentioned in the computer files?" Samus asked incisively.  "Then you know the purpose of this station?"

'Madeline' nodded.  "I do.  ...let me show you."  She took a seat at the computer accessing files as she made her way through security protocols.  "Behind closed doors, the Galactic Federation was trying to create a special-forces unit composed of bio-weapons.  In order to make it happen, they were attempting to create an organization modeled after the Space Pirates, with the Zebesians at the center."

"As we'd deduced," Samus muttered.

"I've heard of 'if you can't beat them, join them', but to recreate your worst enemies as a weapon?" Spike grumbled, shaking his head.  "What were they thinking?"

"Yes," 'Madeline' replied.  "Things went according to plan, but...a certain presence caused the life-forms to become ferocious.  We were no longer able to control them."  She paused, as though trying to formulate her next words carefully.

Spike leaned down.  "Where did they get Ridley's cells to clone him?" he asked firmly, causing Samus' eyes to widen.

'Madeline' frowned.  "...scrapings from Samus' suit upon your return from Zebes," she admitted finally.

"So now you're going to tell us about where the Metroids are being bred, what insane idea the military had for making them into weapons, and what security is in place," Spike continued.

'Madeline' lowered her head to the console, calling up the files on the 'Metroid Militarization Program'.  Samus stared, stunned as she took in the details, realizing how she had unwittingly been used by the Federation to create this.  "But...to control Metroids, they would need Mother Brain's telepathy.  Did...did you clone that as well from my suit?"

"No," 'Madeline' corrected.  "We developed an AI program to generate Mother Brain's thought processes, including the telepathy that controlled the Metroids.  We called it...MB."

"And then Madeline gave you her name," Spike spoke up, catching both women off guard, "awakening your heart...and once you had emotions, the Federation couldn't control you.  So they ordered you terminated...and you fought back."

'Madeline' stared at him, her expression stricken.  "W...what...?"

"I'm part Metroid," Spike replied.  "Not much, but some.  Enough, at any rate, to feel Mother Brain's telepathy, but not be controlled by it.  So I felt it when you remotely activated this terminal.  At first, I thought you might just have telepathic abilities, so I got close...close enough to scent your mechanical components, identifying you...as an android."  He smiled softly, reassuringly.  "So...what name did Madeline give you, Miss Bergman?"

The android looked away.  "...my name is Melissa," she admitted softly, sadly.  "...what are you going to do with me?"

"What do you mean?" Samus asked, confused.

"I'm Mother Brain," Melissa explained.  "The last vestige of the Space Pirates you hate so much, and the key to the military's ability to control this program.  Logic dictates that you eliminate me to achieve your long term objectives."

"Is that why you ran away?" Samus asked softly.  When Melissa nodded, Samus shrugged.  "Well there's another logic.  The Chozo created Mother Brain, with built in limiters designed to prevent her from going rogue...until she became filled with so much rage at being enslaved that she circumvented them.  You, however, are a new entity with her capabilities.  To me...that says you are a newborn Chozo, or at least as Chozo as Spike or I are.  So answer me one question honestly.  Have you, or any creature under your direct control, killed anyone since you were born?"

Melissa closed her eyes, then shook her head.  "No," she replied.  "I agitated the creatures, but they were not under my control.  They never were.  I...didn't mean for things to go so bad, but I hadn't realized how agitated they had become from Ridley's presence..."

"You only acted to defend yourself," Samus stated firmly.  "We will protect you.  And if we can find Madeline still alive, and she can forgive you for what happened, and you her for not being able to save you before...then we'll find a place in the universe where you can live peacefully and unafraid."  I think I might even have one ready, she added silently, remembering the problems on Aether.

Staring up at Samus in disbelief, Melissa closed her eyes, wiping away tears before throwing her arms around the Hunter, clinging to her like a lifeline.

"There's one more thing," Spike added, looking at the files.  "We'll need to eliminate any and all Metroids on this station."

"What?" Samus demanded, stunned.  "But-"

"They've been modified to remove their vulnerability to cold," Spike explained, indicating the file in question.  "Whether or not they were successful, if any of them remain...Melissa will always be hounded by those who seek to use her to control them.  No faction can have that at their disposal."

Melissa nodded slowly as she released Samus.  "Though unpleasant, your logic is undeniable."

Sighing sadly, Samus nodded.  She didn't like the idea of once again exterminating Metroids, but there really seemed to be no other choice.

"The Metroids are in Sector Zero," Melissa explained, calling up the map of the station, isolating the unmapped area.  "It resembles Tourian on Zebes...and can be accessed via Sector 2."

"How can we destroy the whole sector?" Spike asked.

"It has a built in self destruct protocol," Melissa explained.  "If enough damage is inflicted to the sector, it will disengage from the station and explode."

"Then that's my job," Spike declared.  "Mom, you should stay here and protect Melissa.  I'll take care of Sector Zero."

"Are you sure you can?" Melissa asked worriedly.

Samus chuckled.  "Just going to disengage your limiters and blast around?" she asked.

"That's the plan," Spike confirmed, turning to leave.  He then smirked over his shoulder as he shifted to all fours.  "Any objections, Lady?"

Rolling her eyes, Samus shot him a thumbs down.  "Good luck, and stay safe."

"Will do," Spike promised, turning to head back to Sector 2.
> M: Split Path, Spike
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Was splitting up really such a good choice?" Rainbow asked worriedly.  "I mean...creepy space base straight out of a horror movie-"

"With Melissa now emitting soothing telepathic waves to calm the creatures down so they wouldn't attack me, except for the larger ones that were already on a rampage?" Spike clarified.  "And no more Ridley to counteract those waves?"

Rainbow paused, one hoof raised as though to make a counterpoint, then settled down.  "Okay, I guess that makes sense."

As several members of the audience chuckled, Shining Armor spoke up.  "So anything in particular you had to deal with in the way of hazards or enemies?" he asked curiously.

"Well, on my way out I encountered the bio-mech creature we'd dealt with several times before," Spike began.  "But it wasn't that much of a challenge for me...mostly because of where it attacked me."

"Why would that affect anything?" Twilight asked curiously.  "Was there some aspect of the terrain that gave you an advantage?"

"No, it was a completely circular room," Spike corrected.  He then grinned wickedly.  "One which I knew was nowhere near any vital systems or the outside of the station."

Twilight tilted her head in confusion at first, but quickly reached the same conclusion that Rainbow vocalized.  "Turned your limiters off?" Rainbow asked wickedly.

Spike grinned.  "Yup.  Tore the bugger apart!"  His grin faded.  "Of course, that's when I found that not a single part of it was edible..."  His grin quickly returned as everyone laughed.  "It wasn't a complete loss, though.  It seemed I was on the right track that the Seeker Missiles would have given me a missile system."  Lifting his right arm, the gauntlet around his claw shifted, revealing a missile launcher.

"Sweet!" Scootaloo squealed, rushing up to examine it up close.

"Of course, generating the missiles drains energy from me, since I don't have anywhere to store them," Spike explained as he let Scootaloo, then Rainbow, then Luna and Twilight examine it.  "Still, useful in any number of situations.  Don't have the Super Missile option, but I can fire up to five missiles at a time with independent lock-ons."

"Any problems in Sector 2?" Night Light asked curiously.  "From the sound of what we've heard, I get the feeling you didn't encounter anything serious..."

"Well, when I reached the path to Sector Zero from Sector Two, I encountered an area where security caused gravity to go screwy," Spike explained.  "Reversed gravity proved more problematic than enhanced gravity, since my armor automatically adjusted how much of my strength it was limiting to account for the gravity change, so I always felt like I was in normal gravity.  Suddenly flipping from ceiling to floor was more disorienting.  And then there was the enemy I encountered just before Sector Zero..."





As Spike entered the tall, circular chamber, he looked at his map.  "Alright...the entrance to Sector Zero is right up there...I just need to get up there."  Spreading his wings, he leapt into the air, flapping his way towards the top of the room.  As he made it to the third level, he paused.  Something about the shape in the center of the roof was concerning.  "...why are all those cables leading into that thing?" he muttered.  Deciding not to think about it, he approached the door.

Just before he reached it, energy flowed down the cables into the nearby construct, which turned out to be another bio-mech.  This one had a fully armored blocky central body, two armored 'wings' to either side that flexed like arms, and a hanging tail with a strange glowing device at the end.  When the device flared to life, gravity increased dramatically.

"Damn!" Spike snapped, letting his armor readjust as he clung to the platform...only for gravity to shift again.  "Okay, that settles it.  They were designing things here to kill me, too.  That's what this is..."  His eyes narrowed to slits.  "Well then...let's give this Nightmare a field test..."

He raced around the platform, tracking the creature as it fired balls of energy from its wings at him.  He rolled to the side to evade each blast, tracking the beast's movements.  He quickly saw that the source of the gravity manipulation was the device at the end of the tail, and that the beast moved to keep him away from it.  "Huh...is that so?"  He growled deep in his throat.  "Well, can't plan a launch in changing gravity...time to take a different risk.  Shi'cho-kra!"

His armor disengaged, he dealt with the changing gravity as it happened, racing around to get a good angle on the gravity device.  As soon as he had a good shot, he unleashed his ice breath to try and freeze the device.  It seemed to be working, but the creature reacted quickly, spinning to intercept the blast with its wings.  Frustrated, Spike continued to race around until he could get a good angle.

Eventually, the device became completely frozen, and the changing gravity ended.  As soon as it did, he lunged forward, grabbing hold of the creature and clawing at its armor.  Eventually, he managed to pry the faceplate off, revealing a grotesque green facade that seemed to be on the verge of melting.  "...ick..." Spike gagged.  "Well...I have to do this anyway..."  Pulling one arm back, he plunged his claws into the gooey face, feeling bone crumble as he punched through full force.  Twisting his hand and gripping, he ripped back out, riding the now dead creature as it crashed to the floor before exploding.

Spike turned to the hand he'd plunged in, gagging at the stench.  He quickly unleashed his fire breath to cleanse it.  He then made his way to Sector Zero.





"Sector Zero itself..." Spike concluded.  "...well, I don't really want to talk about that.  It...it wasn't pleasant."  He turned away, saying nothing.

Twilight quickly came up to his side.  "Spike..." she offered consolingly.

Much to her surprise, Spike shrank down until he was the same size as he'd been when he'd gone missing.  "Just hold me?" he pleaded.

Nodding, Twilight pulled Spike into her arms, cuddling him and nuzzling his head.
> M: Split Path, Samus
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Spike curled up in Twilight's embrace, Samus decided to try and move past it by continuing the tale.  "While Spike made his way to Sector Zero, I got ready to escort Melissa.  Unfortunately, we were almost immediately confronted by the Deleter, trying to finish its mission of destroying all survivors."

"A hunter-killer android," Ghor mused curiously.  "Obviously an achievement at the time...but I came across no such project anywhere in the Federation data banks at a later date...which indicates that it did not function at the desired level.  How did you handle it?"

Samus shrugged.  "It was...both easier and far harder than I thought it would be..."





Once Spike was on his way, Samus nodded to Melissa.  "Alright, let's go."  Turning, she moved to lead the way out, only to pause as the door opened, a familiar figure entering, helmet removed.  "Adam?" she gasped out, both in surprise and relief.  "You're alright!  When I didn't hear from you after the Ridley fight-"

"Get down!" Melissa shouted out, lunging forward and pushing her to the floor, just before 'Adam's rifle would have sent a round through Samus' faceplate.

Samus spun, confused as she leveled her weapon.  "What?" she demanded angrily.  "Adam, what are you-"

"There's no psychic impression!" Melissa interrupted her.  "That's not Commander Malkovich!  It's the Deleter!"

The Deleter turned, still wearing Adam's face, its weapons shifting as its cover was blown.  That same disapproving gaze Samus knew so well was turned her way as it opened fire with a Plasma Beam.  She quickly grabbed Melissa and rolled to the side, out of firing range.  "Get to cover!" Samus ordered her.  Nodding, Melissa hid behind the nearest command console, using her telepathy to activate all those around to distract the Deleter even as Samus moved to confront it.

She quickly saw that the Deleter android was nearly as mobile as her, but not quite as well armed.  However, it was nearly as durable as the bio-mech she'd faced before, able to both take and give a great deal of damage.  Not only that, the design of its circuitry caused an error in her suit's lock on systems, meaning she had to use manual targeting for all of her weapons.  On top of that, even the Plasma Beam didn't do much damage, even diffused and fully charged.  All it did was slow it down momentarily, and it was still fast enough to dodge missiles.

As she fought, however, Samus found some old anger building up inside her.  She knew that this wasn't Adam before her, but somehow in her mind's eye, she found herself thinking of every moment in the past Adam had pushed her, and the unresolved anger that had been buried each time.  As she faced down the android, she remembered that her anger had apparently done something to her suit's capabilities before...and decided to try and make use of it.  Disabling her Beam Cannon, she charged in, closing the distance to melee range.

"I was never good enough for you!" she snarled out, delivering a solid right cross to the android's disguised face.  As it staggered back, she spun and kicked it in the knee, and she heard the crunch of metal as the join broke from the impact.  "It wasn't enough that I could do everything you threw my way, you'd never treat me like one of the guys!"  It tried to swing up another weapon, but she grabbed hold of the elbow joint, forcing the arm around so it shot itself.  "Even when I was in the Federation I was an outsider!"  Lunging forward, she slammed bodily against the Deleter, slamming her helmet against 'Adam's face.  "And always that same look whenever I was around your 'baby brother'!" she snapped, hurling the android to the ground.  "I didn't even see him that way!  He was just my first friend my own age!"  Her arm cannon reactivated, Super Missiles slotted in for rapid fire.  "And you wouldn't let me save him!"  She fired Super Missile after Super Missile into the thing's body until she ran out of ammo...and android to destroy.

As she stared at the wreckage before her, a familiar voice spoke behind her.  "He knew you could be just as reckless as he could be," Adam said softly.  "Before that mission, he made me promise...if I had to choose between letting him go or letting you risk yourself to save him..."  She turned, seeing Adam not quite meeting her gaze.  "We were in agreement.  There was a great deal of potential in you, more than you could ever achieve in the Federation.  The only way you could become the hero the galaxy needed...was if I pushed you away."

Samus slowly stood up, taking in Adam's words.  They had the ring of truth.  She let them sink into her mind...and accepted their meaning.  She nodded silently in understanding.

"Divisions of the Federation military are on their way," Adam stated, once more looking Samus right in the eye.  "In all likelihood, it's the group that built this Bottleship, and will want to silence any survivors.  I've found signs of one in Room MW, toward the rear of the Bioweapons Research Center.  I assume Spike is dealing with the Metroids in Sector Zero?"  When Samus nodded again, Adam continued.  "Then we need to get Melissa and the other survivor off this station before the military gets here.  Losing the Deleter's signal likely accelerated their time table."  Reaching into the wreckage of the android, Adam withdrew its central processing unit.  "They won't want anyone seeing what's on here."  He turned back to Samus.  "Any objections, Lady?"

Managing to smirk under her mask, Samus gave her traditional thumbs down.





Celestia smiled warmly as she heard this part of the tale come to an end.  "So you two were able to work through the last bit of what stood between you?" she asked softly.

"Thanks to violently beating him to a pulp in effigy?" Luna teased.  "Hmm...perhaps I should try that?"  She glanced side-on at Celestia, who responded with a blown raspberry, much to Rarity's astonishment.

"It was a beginning of reconciliation," Adam admitted.  "We still had a long way to go.  Thankfully, there was ample opportunity later."

"The rest of the present mission didn't go as smoothly as we could have hoped," Samus explained.  "Then again, that was to be expected..."
> M: Split Path, Melissa
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Room MW wasn't actually all that far from where we were," Adam began, taking his part in telling the tale as heads turned towards him.  "However, once we got there, things were a different story.  Melissa tried to calm the creatures down that attacked us, but something else was influencing them, something Melissa was unfamiliar with."

"Because of that, Adam and I spent most of our efforts on protecting her," Samus explained.  "During that time...I also talked things over with Melissa.  She...had some anger towards Madeline, since her perception of past events had led her to the conclusion that Dr. Bergman had handed her over to the Federation for destruction, especially since she'd felt Madeline's fear in their last meeting.  In our talk, she reanalyzed events, and came to the conclusion that perhaps Madeline had been afraid for Melissa, rather than of...much as I was afraid for Spike at the time, even with the report that Sector Zero had disengaged with the station and had likely self destructed by then.  Since Spike hadn't returned to the station..."  Her voice trailed off.

"You were afraid he hadn't made it out alive," Celestia suggested softly.

"Yeah..." Samus agreed.  "And there was also Anthony.  We hadn't heard from him, so we had no idea if he was alive or dead."

"Sorry to worry you like that, Princess," Anthony apologized.  "Admittedly, by then I had figured out why our communications weren't working.  See, our comms were designed to relay through our ship.  After my fall, I made my way back there to resupply...only to find all its systems smashed."

"The Deleter," Rainbow concluded.  Adam and Anthony nodded in response.

"By the time we made it to Room MW..." Samus began.





As the trio reached Room MW, they heard a loud scream.  Melissa's head immediately shot up.  "Mother!" she called out, fear audible in her voice.  She ran ahead into the room, Samus and Adam close on her heels.

What all three saw stopped them cold.  The room was large and square, with various control pillars scattered about, and large extra-thick security doors would have another chamber sealed off normally.  However, the doors had been forced open, and a Metroid Queen had forced its way out, and had ripped a door out of its slot to get at the red haired woman inside.  The woman had features similar to Melissa's, though it was hard to tell as she scampered away from the Queen's searching claw.

"Leave her alone!" Melissa screamed out, racing forward with her arms stretched forward, her teeth clenched.  The Metroid Queen and the few Metroids it had released hesitated, moving back from the door.  However, as Melissa positioned herself between the door and the Metroids, the Queen clenched its jaw and moved its head forward.  Melissa staggered back, then held firm, even as blood started to leak from her nose.

"What's going on?" Adam demanded in confusion.

"Mother Brain's telepathy is based in how a Metroid Queen controls its offspring!" Samus snapped out.  "But Mother Brain had a much larger cerebral capacity, and could generate enough telepathic power to control a Queen and hundreds of Metroids.  But Melissa doesn't have that much brain power to call on!  She's not strong enough to overrule the will of a hungry Queen!"

Even as Samus spoke, Melissa was forced back a step, then two.  Blood started to leak out from under her right eye.  "M-Mom..." she stammered out, sparing a glance towards the woman in the small room.  "R...run..."  She winced and sank to one knee as the Queen took advantage of the momentary distraction to press forward.  The Queen's jaws opened wide to crush the interloper...

A super missile to the side of the Queen's head rocked it back and broke its concentration.  The other Metroids flew back from Melissa's last surge of energy just before she collapsed to the floor.  "Adam, Madeline!" Samus barked out.  "Get her into one of these rooms!  I'll handle the Queen!"  Rounding on the massive creature as it reeled from the impact, Samus took advantage of Melissa's last energy surge to freeze the floating Metroids, destroying them with Super Missiles.  In a rage, the Queen rounded on her, pursuing her into the larger chamber it had come from.

As she stepped into the darkness, Samus quickly accessed her suit functions, restoring one of her old visors.  Given Metroid vulnerability to cold, she reactivated her Thermal Visor.  Spinning, she flipped out of the way as more Metroids lunged for her, spawned from the Queen's back to hunt her down.  Leveling her arm cannon, she unleashed a charged blast, freezing the group.  Seeing just how fast she would need to work, she went into her arm cannon systems, switching functions so she would automatically fire Super Missiles.  The risk of damage to her systems was worth it to keep Adam and the others alive.

Once two more batches of Metroids were destroyed, the Queen roared in rage, crystal formations erupting from around its head and neck before it unleashed a blast of fire at Samus, which she barely dodged by backflipping over it, grateful that her Varia Suit kept her from being burned by it, even if she did have to switch to X-Ray Visor because the flames blinded her Thermal Visor.

Once again accessing her missile functions, she switched from Super Missiles to Seekers, locking onto the crystals.  Racing around the chamber, she managed to leap onto the Queen's back, unleashing her missiles at the crystals, shattering them.  Even as they broke, however, the Queen only got back up.

"Samus!" Adam called through the comms.  "From your own records, a Metroid Queen can only be damaged from the inside...and only one weapon in your arsenal can do enough damage to counteract it feeding on you once you're there."

Samus nodded.  "Understood Adam," she replied coldly, activating the functionality even as she leapt forward, going into Morph Ball as the Queen roared, rolling straight down the beast's throat.

Outside the chamber, Adam ducked for cover behind everything he was able to put into place between himself and the chamber Samus was fighting in, even going so far as to shield Madeline and Melissa with his own body.  "Power Bombs authorized!" he called out.  "Do it Samus!"

As he spoke, the explosion went off, tearing through the chamber and searing straight through everything around it, coming close enough that Adam could feel the wave of heat against his back.  He knew if he'd been even a few centimeters closer to the epicenter, it would have seared right through his armor, cooking him alive.  Much closer than that, and he'd have been incinerated.  Once he was certain Madeline and Melissa were safe, he stepped into the main chamber.

The walls that had been meant to keep the Metroid Queen locked up were fused together.  If Samus was in one piece beyond them, she wouldn't be able to get back through.  "...Samus, do you copy?" Adam called out worriedly.

"...I read you, Adam," Samus replied.  "...there was a path out of here, but it's broken..."

"...Samus-"

"One moment, Adam," Samus interrupted.

As Adam waited, he heard the sounds of Samus' footfalls, followed by her banging against the wall every so often.  When she heard a sound she liked, she paused.  A red spot began to glow on the wall, followed by a highly focused plasma torch beam punching through.  This continued in a small circle.  Once it was complete, Samus pushed out the circle, exactly the size of her Morph Ball.  Through the hole, Adam could see her smirking at her arm cannon.  "Thank you, Ghor," she murmured softly, before shifting to Morph Ball and getting through the hole.





"You are quite welcome," Ghor offered with a warm smile.  "I am glad to see that function continued to be of assistance."
> M: Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As everyone around marveled at the intensity of the tale, Samus continued, filling in the last few details.  "Adam actually had to carry Melissa all the way out, she was in such a bad state," she explained.  "Thankfully, with the Metroid Queen and Ridley dead, there was nothing agitating any of the creatures, so we didn't encounter anything hostile on the way back to the ships.  Of course, that's when we learned that Adam's ship had been...sabotaged..."





Adam stared at the wrecked ship he had come in on, the vast majority of its systems torn out and tossed towards the open docking bay doors to float out into space.  "That's problematic," he grumbled.

"Not really," Samus replied.  "My ship's big enough inside for everyone as long as Spike shrinks down.  Strapping in will be a problem, but as long as we don't accelerate too suddenly..."

"You've got room?" Anthony called out, stepping out of the wrecked ship.  "Boy is that a relief, Princess.  Thought we'd be stuck here."

"Anthony!" Samus gasped out in relief.  "You're alive!"

"And kicking!" Anthony responded, grinning widely.  "But where's the ankle-biter?"

"He-"

Samus' words were cut off as a rift in space opened above her ship.  Spike flew out, landing roughly atop the broken Federation ship.  He slowly lifted himself up, looking haggard and worn, a thousand yard stare dominating his eyes.  "We need to leave quickly..." he managed to say, his voice sounding detached.  "A Federation military vessel is nearly here, and it locked weapons on me after I identified myself."

"Everyone onto my ship, now!" Samus barked out.  Once everyone was on board, she strapped herself into the pilot's seat.  "Spike, brace everyone!"

Once everyone was braced as best they could, Samus gunned the engine, shooting out of the Bottleship docking bay.  Almost immediately, her sensors showed that she was being locked onto with weapons and tractor beams.  She cursed under her breath.  Even with the ship's cloaking tech, it was only a matter of time before a lock on was made, and they were either taken into custody or destroyed.

As she sent her ship into a twisting course, trying to evade, she saw another wormhole open, this one large enough for the ship to dive through.  Glancing back, she saw Spike's eyes glowing.  Realizing he'd opened it for them, she sent the ship straight in, hoping Spike knew where he was sending them.





"They tried to destroy you?" Cadence gasped out, stunned.

"They were desperate," Adam explained.  "When we took the CPU from the Deleter, they received a signal, so they knew that we had the proof not only of what the Bottleship was about, but that they tried to kill everyone involved to keep the secret and the Metroids.  That would be enough information to completely destroy their careers, or even send them to jail for life, if not the death penalty for treason."

"Their entire modus operandi had been based in keeping the operation secret," Ghor explained.  "If the secret got out..."  He let the sentence peter out as he shrugged.

"So where did Spike take you?" Apple Bloom asked curiously.  "Did he find someone who could help?"

"He took us straight to Admiral Dane," Samus explained.  "A good choice.  Not only did we know him personally, he had always been firm in his stance against bio-weapons, even more so than Adam.  If there was anyone high enough in the military hierarchy to handle the situation who we knew would be on our side, it would be him."  She paused, glancing away.  "Not that it went how we wanted it to..."





Admiral Dane frowned across his desk at the group gathered there.  "I'm afraid things aren't as simple as you'd all like them to be," he admitted finally, having heard the entire story from all involved and read through all data they'd provided.  "While I can take action, there's really only two possible courses to take, and I doubt any of you will find either palatable."

"What do you mean?" Samus asked, frowning.

"The first option is the full inquiry," Dane explained.  "Drag all of this to light, show the entire Federation what was being done on the Bottleship, and how far they were going to keep it secret.  Full inquests and Court Martials for those at the highest, and everyone involved facing the harshest penalties that can be levied."

"I like the sound of that," Spike growled, the sound rumbling along the full length of his throat.

"You won't like the sound of the next part," Dane continued.  "MB will also have to be brought to light...and the policy on bio-weapons is absolute.  She'll be destroyed."

"No!" Madeline cried out, pulling Melissa to her.

"That's what created this situation in the first place!" Samus called out.

"I know that," Dane replied.  "The other option is what keeps Melissa alive, but is just as unpalatable."

"...we keep quiet," Adam translated.  "The ones who made this project know you have the information and can destroy them, and that keeps those involved safe...but they aren't punished for their actions.  They get to keep working, but just get less ambitious about it, keeping it more secret."

"WHAT?!" Spike roared out, leaping to his feet.  "After everything they did, we just let them go?"

"If Melissa's to survive, that's what we have to do-"

Snarling in defiance of Dane's words, Spike stormed out of the office, smashing part of the metal wall aside as he charged out.

"...those Demolition Troopers weren't kidding," Dane murmured, staring at the damage Spike had inflicted, somewhat awed.

"And that's with his armor limiting his strength to the environment!" Anthony quipped.

"Sorry about him," Samus said quickly, turning to go.

"Don't be," Dane replied.  "I feel much the same about this situation."

Nodding, Samus raced out to pursue Spike, finding him slumped in the gardens outside the building.  "Spike..."

"And they just get away with it..." Spike mumbled, staring into nothing, his eyes unfocused.

Samus stepped forward, putting her hand on Spike's shoulder to offer comfort...but jerked back as she felt the emotional turmoil swirling through him, tearing him apart inside.  "Spike..."

"...they welcomed me, Mom..." he moaned out, tears pouring from his eyes.  "I went into Sector Zero...and the Metroids welcomed me as a friend, a brother.  They tried to make me comfortable, guide me to places to eat...and when I started to wreck the place, they just kept asking me...why?  Why?  I knew I had to, and they could see my thoughts, but they couldn't understand!"  He curled up on himself, shrinking in despair, quite literally.  "They screamed in fear, and in pain...but they never attacked me.  They were made to be weapons, but they were innocents...and I killed them all!  I heard their screams as they died!  ...and I heard the silence as they were no more..."

Spike had shrunk down to the size he'd been when he'd first set foot on Tallon IV, small enough for Samus to cradle in her arms...and that's exactly what she did, scooping him into her embrace, letting his turmoil wash over her, struggling to be the rock in his sea of despair.

"And...and the ones who made them...the ones who made those innocent weapons, only to die...they aren't even going to pay for it..."

Samus' empathic tears beaded Spike's forehead, her emotional control strained beyond its limits as she felt her son's pain...





Twilight's tears beaded her returned draconic son's forehead as she held him, feeling his despair as he relived one of the worst moments of his life.  Warmth surrounded them both as Samus joined the ponies in trying to offer desperate comfort.
> Interlude: Of Dragons and Ages
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight sighed softly to herself as she cleaned up a bit in the dining room, clearing up the dishes that had built up with so many unexpected guests.  Nobody was going to be story telling today, since Spike had gone flying first thing in the morning, and sought his bed almost as soon as the story ended the previous night.  Twilight could well understand that reliving that part of his adventure had been rough on him.  Samus herself had stayed only long enough to let everyone know that they had left Melissa with the Luminoth to help streamline the reconstruction of Aether before seeking her own bed.  As a result, everyone had parted ways for the day, those with chores seeing to them, and visitors exploring Ponyville.  Twilight privately hoped Ponyville would still be standing come afternoon.

As she cleaned up, she heard a frighteningly familiar sound from the Map Room.  Dropping everything from her magical aura, she raced there to find the magical dome she had expected to see given the noise floating over the Map.  Her student, Starlight Glimmer, dropped out of the dome to land lightly on the Map.  As the portal closed, Starlight dropped the scroll from her magical grip and collapsed to the table, bursting into tears.

Twilight approached cautiously.  "Starlight?" she asked worriedly.

Starlight lifted her head.  "Oh, Princess Twilight..." she wept softly, seeking comfort.  "I...I know you said it was dangerous to experiment with time spells like that again, and I remember what happened last time...but..."

Twilight gently pulled her close with a wing.  "Starlight, you've been gone for two weeks.  What were you doing?"

"I was..."  Starlight choked on her sobs.  "I was trying to prevent Spike from going missing."

Twilight winced.  She had forgotten how much Starlight had come to rely on Spike before the experiment went wrong.  She'd been just as fervent in trying to find a way to bring him back as Twilight had.  Before she could say anything, however, Starlight continued speaking.

"But every timeline where I succeeded was horrible!" she wailed.  "In some, the Crystal Empire never vanished, and wound up conquering Equestria and ruling with an iron hoof!  In others, the land was torn as Tirek, Nightmare Moon, Queen Chrysalis, and Discord fought over what was left."  She shuddered violently.  "The worst was when the world was all but consumed by a horrible blue poison!"

Phazon? Twilight thought, shocked.  How could Phazon find its way to Equestria?  ...then again, it was a modification of Starlight's spell gone awry that sent him away in the first place...

"I'm sorry, Princess," Starlight sobbed.  "I just...I just wanted to bring him back..."

Twilight smiled softly.  "He's back," she told her student comfortingly.

"He...he is?" Starlight sniffed, struggling to get control of herself.  "You managed to bring him back?"

"No," Twilight corrected.  "He found his own way.  But...he's a bit different.  Still him, but...different."

Starlight managed to reign in her sorrow.  "So...where is he?"

"He's out flying for today," Twilight explained.

"He has wings now?" Starlight gasped.

Twilight couldn't help but chuckle.  "And then some," she joked, looking forward to Starlight's reaction to her 'little friend'.





Spike flew firmly and strongly, though he wasn't sure where he was going.  When he first woke up that morning, he'd just meant to fly around Ponyville - and possibly Canterlot - for most of the day to clear his head, but as soon as he was high enough, he'd felt...called, somewhere.  From the power of the call, he could tell it would have any ordinary dragon racing to respond, but the mental discipline he'd gained from Samus - and later, the Chozo Spirits - meant that he could resist the call and its physical sensations easily.  Not that he minded glowing, but the itching was uncomfortable.

While he could have chosen to ignore the call, something inside him suggested he should respond, a memory that hadn't yet fully returned, but one of importance in any case.  As such, he had already left the settled lands of Equestria, and now flew over rather barren land, filled with rocks and the occasional magma flow.  Here and there he could sense gem deposits, both natural and artificial...but they didn't catch his attention at the moment.

As he flew, he spotted quite a few dragons.  Unlike the three he'd encountered when he had been flying with Rainbow, they gave him a wide berth save for a few respectful glances...except for the dragonesses.  They sent cat calls and wolf whistles his way, and the occasional pick up line.  He wasn't entirely sure how to handle that.

Eventually, he left the areas where dragons were apparently more settled and approached a wide body of water, what appeared to be an inland sea.  He stopped as he saw it, gazing out over the water to an island that jutted out of the waves, the mountain atop it twisting and curving as it rose from the ground, its configuration far from natural.  There was something familiar about the crystal studded island.  "...I've been here before..." he murmured.

The call was coming from inside the island.  Without hesitation, he dove down, skimming over the surface of the water towards his destination.  Strange creatures used their tails to hurl large boulders at him once they got over the surprise of his approach, but he moved far too fast for them to target him.  When he reached the island itself, he shot upward, diving into a tunnel entrance even as the wake of his passage bowled over several of the creatures.

Spires of stone crashed up and down like massive teeth through the tunnel, but Spike found he remembered the pattern, remembered racing through it with someone at his side.  Dodging past both stone and crystal spires that tried to trap him, he reached a maze of crystal, following his returning memories to follow his former path through.

Before long, he reached the center, and flew silently upwards towards a massive conglomeration of crystals.  Sitting within it, a blue dragoness not much larger than Spike's pony friends clutched a scepter taller than herself, the large red stone at its top pulsed with energy.  As Spike slowly approached, he saw the start of tears in her eyes.  "Spike..." she whispered sorrowfully, a new surge of power pulsing out of the Bloodstone.

Spike landed gently behind her.  "...Ember?"

The dragoness yelped, spinning around and waving the Scepter threateningly.  "I ordered I was not to be disturbed!" she snapped out.  "Who are you?  How dare you defy your Dragon Lord?"

Spike couldn't help but chuckle.  "Ember, you called me!" he insisted.  "I didn't know the Scepter could summon one specific dragon.  Then again, I didn't even know what it was the first time I held it."

"You held-" Ember cut herself off, her eyes widening.  "But...the only one who knew Spike got to the Scepter before me was Garble...and he'd never..."  She frowned, narrowing her eyes.  Energy pulsed through the Bloodstone Scepter again.  This time, Spike let it manifest as he glowed.  Ember's eyes widened.  "Spike?  Is...is that really you?"

Spike chuckled.  "Yeah, it's me.  I know, different than you expected, right?"

"I'll say," Ember mused, circling him.  "Now that I look again, I can see it's you...but it's like expecting Clark Colt but getting Supermane..."  She shook her head and scoffed.  "Not that I actually read those comics of yours Twilight sent me to 'better my understanding' of dragon/pony relations."

"Twilight sent you some of my comics?" Spike gasped out, sounding hurt.

"I took good care of them!" Ember insisted, pulling the comics out from between two crystals, showing they were still in good condition.  "N-not that I care or anything," she grumbled.

Spike couldn't help but chuckle.  "Missed you too, Ember," he replied softly, pulling her into a one armed embrace.

Ember promised a slow and painful death to anyone who claimed she was blushing from being pressed so close against Spike like that.  She extricated herself from the embrace as quickly as possible...and absolutely did not revel in it or return it at all, no matter what anyone said.  She stared up at Spike, trying to figure out what could have possibly happened to him...only to flinch as information started pouring into her mind from the Scepter.

Feeling his memories being read, Spike let it go until it reached the point where he'd left off with the others, then cut it off.  "Sorry," he teased.  "If you want the rest, you're going to have to come and listen like the others."

Ember rolled her eyes.  "Not that I care personally, but it's probably best the Dragonlord know the full story of how a dragon became as powerful as you have while remaining so gentle."  While she maintained her outward toughness, inside she almost withered away at the pain Spike had been through.

Smiling, Spike spread his wings.  "Come fly with me?" he asked.

Chuckling, Ember spread her own wings.  "I'd say 'try to keep up', but I have my dignity to think of now.  So stay behind me."

"Not gonna complain about that view!" Spike joked, only to clamp his jaws shut, blushing profusely.  Where the heck did that come from?  Dammit, Gandrayda's rubbing off on me.

Ember hid her own blush with a confident grin.  "Get used to it," she replied, taking to the air, Spike following after her shortly.





Ridley stared at the necklace in his hand.  Are you certain about this? he demanded of the dark presence from within the horn.  It doesn't look like a dragon relic.

It was shaped by pony magic, the voice replied, but its original form was a dragon's Bloodstone.  The sage that forged it sought to use its power to give himself strength that dwarfed any other, never realizing the wicked dragon whose stone it was would ride inside it, corrupting and twisting any who wielded it.  You need not concern yourself, though.  When a dragon eats the Bloodstone of another, the other ceases to be.  The metal will digest just as readily.

Shrugging, Ridley opened his jaws wide, dropping the Alicorn Amulet straight down his gullet.  He paused as he saw two figures flying through the sky outside his cave.  He snarled, flexing his limbs as he recognized one of them.

Not yet, the former Ing Emperor cautioned.  We want them completely annihilated.  We want absolute vengeance.  We will strike when we are fully prepared.

What else do we need? Ridley demanded angrily.

Something else that is within this cave, the Ing replied, drawing Ridley's attention to a seemingly ordinary crystal buried within.  It's almost ready.  Once it is, we will absorb it and grow ever stronger...or perhaps not.  It seems we will have an ally in this.

The crystal pulsed with blue light...and a black visage appeared, a helmet with blue visor, glowing with fury.

Hello, mother, the Ing Emperor greeted.  The last vestiges of your children await to serve you.

Ridley growled deep in his throat as he saw the Hunter - and yet not the Hunter - appear in the crystal, a face he knew, even as the crystal itself took on properties he knew all too well.  Explain!
> BSL: Prelude to Awakening
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	If Starlight thought she'd had a difficult time wrapping her head around what everyone said Spike had been through and the otherworldly guests that came back with him, that was nothing compared to when she actually caught sight of him as he winged into the castle, the last rays of the sun glinting on his scales, the new Dragonlord at his side.  Starlight had let out a startled "Woof!" and promptly fled to her room in embarrassment, both from her reaction and from the fact that she managed to find every other room in the castle on her way to finding her room, including three accidental returns to the main room where everyone had settled for dinner.  Spike had commented that Twilight should get her a map and compass.

Despite having read much of what had happened to him from Spike's own mind via the Scepter, Ember had some difficulty adjusting to the reality of the off world visitors.  At first Twilight had been afraid Ember would make a bad impression on the off world visitors, but her warrior mindset allowed her to click quite well with nearly all of them, while Ghor seemed more interested in studying her over interacting with her.  He did, however, get the message the third time she gave him a sample of her fire to keep him from trying to get a horn, scale, or claw sample.  Oddly, the one she most readily bonded with was Gandrayda, and they spent most of the evening talking together.  Spike was quite relieved with this result...until he learned that the primary subject of their discussion was himself.  The only real point of contention was between Ember and Anthony, as he refused to explain what he meant when he called her 'Tsundere'.

Around breakfast time the next morning, Starlight met everyone in the main dining hall - which now had enough seating for all the guests, since Twilight had made extra seating the previous night - just as Spike was serving everyone breakfast.  When asked, she refused to answer if she'd actually made it to her room the previous night...though she did look somewhat sleep deprived.

As breakfast - Spike's waffles in various varieties tailored to each guest's dietary preference - concluded, Rainbow spoke up eagerly.  "So what mission did you go on next?" she asked eagerly.  "I mean, I know the end of the last one was a real downer...but the next one had to be better, right?"  She glanced hopefully from Samus to Spike.  The pair's silence answered Rainbow's inquiry, but even then she tried to be hopeful.  "R-right?"

Samus eventually spoke up.  "Our next mission took us back to SR388," she began calmly.  "Biologic's research team was investigating new life forms discovered there, and Spike and I had been contracted as protection.  We...weren't sure what would happen, but nothing could have prepared us for what did..."





Samus and Spike carefully led the scientists through the tunnels of SR388, guiding them through the various pathways they'd once walked.  The memories brought back of their last visit were especially painful for Spike, and he'd grown snappy and waspish the deeper they went in.  The scientists wisely kept their distance from him.

Before long, a hostile life form moved forward to attack.  As it wasn't on Biologic's list of those they still needed to tag for study, Spike didn't hesitate to blast it with his flame breath, roasting the creature.  However, instead of dropping for him to consume, the creature morphed, becoming a pair of strange yellow gelatinous...things.  Samus and Spike both attempted to shoot the new creatures out of the air as they flew around, but their weaponry passed harmlessly through them, and the organisms seemed to splatter themselves against Samus and Spike before vanishing.





"We didn't know it at the time, but we had been attacked by the X Parasite," Samus explained.  "A rather...voracious organism, and incredibly deadly.  We didn't know anything about it at the time, but they were the reason the Chozo created the Metroids...specifically to keep the X in check and ensure they never left SR388."

"Seriously?" Twilight gasped out, stunned.  "They're so dangerous that the Chozo felt Metroids were a better option?"

"Believe me," Samus replied, "Metroids were a better option by far.  If the Chozo hadn't been as pacifistic as they had been when they'd found SR388, the best option would have been blowing up the planet rather than risk the X ever escaping."  She stared around at those native to Equestria stared at her, stunned at the very idea of an entire planet being dubbed a threat and destroyed.  Nodding, she continued.  "And while Spike's metroidal DNA enabled him to absorb and feed on the X as Metroids were designed to do...I was infected.  And when it was finally noticed..."





Samus held the controls of her ship lightly in her hands, steering her ship alongside the BSL frigate as they made their way back to the station.  She was looking forward to collecting her fee and getting out of there with Spike, heading somewhere they could just relax and let Spike unwind from what had happened on the Bottleship.  Maybe they'd go back to Aether and just soar over Agon, or swim in Torvus, or scale the Sanctuary cliffs.  Or maybe they'd see if they could find the last Shaman of Bryyo, and see if she had succeeded in her mission with the purging of Phazon.  The clouds of Elysia could be good flying as well.  Or maybe the Chozo temples of Tallon IV would be relaxing e-

In the middle of her thought, her whole body jerked, the X infection having reached her central nervous system and now attempting to override it.  She slumped back into her seat, the ship listing dangerously towards an asteroid belt.

"Mom!" Spike screamed out, terrified.  "Mom, what's wrong?  Wake up!"  He shook her, trying to get her to take control of the ship again, but she didn't respond.  Grabbing hold of the controls, he pulled back, barely keeping the ship from crashing into a large asteroid.  He then opened the comms.  "Come in BSL Frigate!  This is Spike Aran.  Clear your docking bay for emergency uncontrolled docking, and prepare the medical lab for quarantine!  I'm coming in, and Mom's suffering from an unknown contagion!"  With that warning given, he got the ship into the docking bay the only way he could, by opening a wormhole there and letting the ship activate its automatic landing protocols.  It came out a little dinged and a few bits of equipment got smashed, but overall the damage was minimal.

The med team responded quickly, arriving at the ship immediately under quarantine protocol to give Samus and Spike any medical attention they could, while keeping everyone else safe from whatever had felled the infamous Hunter.





"They didn't have the resources to treat Mom aboard the frigate and knew it," Spike continued as everyone listening for the first time gasped in terror.  "So they kept the ship sealed off and transported us to Galactic Federation HQ.  During that time...all I could do was watch as the X multiplied, infesting and corrupting both Mom and her suit.  With how integrated her suit was with her body, it couldn't be removed while she was unconscious.  In an attempt to save her, the Doctors surgically removed the more infected portions of her suit, drastically altering its appearance...but it didn't do any good.  They still couldn't risk targeting the X in her central nervous system.

"Then one of the scientists had an idea."

Adam took over from there.  "Someone pointed out that there had been no traces of the X when Samus and Spike had been on SR388 to exterminate the Metroids.  On the assumption that Metroids fed on the X, the scientist suggested using the last Metroid cell culture taken from...Squishy...on Ceres to formulate a gene therapy for Samus, altering her physiology to become part Metroid, since that had made Spike immune to the X."

"But some questioned if that would have a viable result on Samus," Ghor added.  "They said that Spike was unique, in that his genetic code was designed to incorporate new code as he grew.  So, as I was there as well...I submitted that they use Spike's DNA as a basis for the gene therapy, bonding the original draconic code from when he first came to Ceres station with the Metroid DNA in the cell culture as the vaccine.  The end result was injected into Samus, and everyone hoped for the best."

"It worked," Samus concluded.  "The X parasites inside me were immediately and completely wiped out, my system absorbing them.  After a time, the two genetic codes finished bonding to mine, and I underwent my own metamorphosis.  In addition to the changes to my suit..."  She gestured to how different her suit currently was as compared to the images she'd shown previously.  "My skin cells had taken on a scale like pattern at the microscopic level, becoming much stronger.  At the same time, I gained the ability to extend small blades from my arms, legs, and back as defensive weaponry, mimicking Spike's own."  Turning to Rarity, she gestured to the spikes protruding from the arm of her Power Suit.  "That's what I meant when I told you they were a part of me."

"Wait!" Ember interrupted.  "Are you saying you're part dragon?" she demanded in disbelief.

Samus shrugged.  "And part Chozo, human, and Metroid," she added.  "What's your point?"

Ember smirked widely.  "I guess that makes you one of my subjects, doesn't it?" she asked, raising the Bloodstone Scepter.

"Try that again when your symbol of power isn't bigger than you," Samus countered, startling laughter all around the table.

Much to Twilight's surprise, Ember's smirk didn't waver.  She seemed to enjoy the telling rejoinder.  As she took her seat again, though, her expression soured.  "Where did they take the infected portions of your suit?" she asked worriedly.

Samus nodded.  "To the BSL station, along with the samples from SR388.  Despite my only recently recovering and still adapting to a new shape and abilities...when I heard that an unexplained explosion rocked the station..."

"We set out for the station immediately," Spike concluded.  "While we'd be the only ones going in...we didn't go alone."
> BSL: Friends in Need
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"What do you mean by that?" Ember asked insistently.  "How could anyone be with you if they didn't go in with you?"

Spike smiled widely.  "In a mission like that, a good support network can be incredibly useful..."





Samus carefully steered the ship in towards the BSL station in its position in orbit around SR388.  Unlike most stations, this one was constructed to resemble an asteroid rather than anything technological.  A large stone column, narrow at one end and wider at the other, floated in space, the only signs it was a station rather than a natural construct being the lights barely visible through occasional windows and the metal ring surrounding it at its widest point.  As she set the course towards the docking bay, she noticed another ship orbiting around it, this one of unrecognizable origins.  "That's not good..." Samus murmured.  "It doesn't look like any sort of ship we've ever encountered before...Spike, you're more used to dragon eyes than I am.  Take a closer look through the scope."

Nodding, Spike took hold of the viewer, zooming in on the small craft.  "Hmm...it seems to be a fighter class, or at least the size of one.  Much sleeker than Federation design, but far too bright to be Chozo.  Too elegant in design to be Space Pirate, and it doesn't match any other ship style we've seen before.  ...the engines seem to be large crystals, though, and are drawing in power from the local stars."

Samus blinked.  Something about that sounded familiar.  "...white and gold?" she asked.

"...yes, actually, the ship is white with gold edging," Spike replied.  "A lot like my armor-"  He jerked his head up.  "You think it's a Luminoth ship?"

"Only one way to find out," Samus answered.  Tapping into her ship's databanks, she called up the Luminoth recognition codes that U-Mos had provided them when they'd left Melissa with him.  He'd said that, with the defense network being reinitialized, they'd need those codes to land on Aether unmolested in the future.

To her surprise, she received a communications response.  Opening the comms, she found Melissa smiling back at her.  "I guess U-Mos was right," Melissa stated cryptically.  "It was a true vision after all.  You do need my help."

"Melissa?" Samus and Spike gasped out in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Samus demanded.  "I thought U-Mos said the ritual would take a full year!"





"Ritual?" Twilight, Ember, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Discord all asked insistently.

"When I explained Melissa's situation - and my interpretation of it - to U-Mos, he decided the solution to her problems was to adopt her," Samus explained.  "He'd lost his own children in the war with the Ing, which meant there would likely be a major conflict when he passed on to determine who would become the next Guardian of Aether.  The ritual we mentioned involved bonding his energy to Melissa's, and bonding Melissa to the Light of Aether, granting her the abilities she'd need to lead the planet when the time came for her to take up the mantle of Guardian."  Noticing concerned expressions on her listeners, she shrugged.  "Of course, she'll have a couple of centuries to get used to Aether and the Luminoth.  Despite how old U-Mos is, he's nowhere near his end.  He just takes the very long view..."





"My telepathic abilities were stronger than he expected," Melissa explained.  "The energy linking only took three months, and he spent the rest of the time since then teaching me how to use the new skills it unlocked.  In this case, the Chozo capacity for visions...one that told me you'd need help."  She blushed a bit as she glanced at Spike.  "Though not sure why you'd need it, Spike..."





Twilight promptly slammed her face into the table.  "Spike...is there a single female you met out amongst the galaxy that didn't become completely smitten with you?"

"Huh?" Spike asked, completely confused even as Ember cackled.

"Just me, I'm pretty sure," Samus answered.  "I don't think motherly affection counts as 'smitten'."

"Told ya so, ankle biter," Anthony teased.

"At any rate..." Samus continued.





"Good to see you made a full recovery, Samus," Adam spoke up as he stepped up behind Melissa.

"Adam?" Samus gasped in shock.  "W-what are you doing here?"

"Melissa brought us," Ghor added as his face appeared on the screens.  "She determined the ideal team to assist you: those with the skills needed to lend aid, but with temperaments that would not lend themselves to storming in after you and getting infected by the X.  That was the three of us."

"I'm going to use my telepathic link to machines - boosted by Ghor's techniques - to hack my way through the station's security systems to get the data you need to progress," Melissa explained.  "While I'm doing that, Ghor's going to work on recoding your old power ups for your new suit.  We'll be able to send you those at Data Rooms throughout the station for you to download, just in case things are as bad as we suspect."

"I'll be collating the data Melissa provides me with your discoveries, transmitted via Navigation Rooms," Adam explained.  "Using that data, I'll plot out the long term objectives you'll need to accomplish, as well as giving you directions to areas of safety should that prove necessary."

"...thank you," Samus spoke up after some time.  "All of you.  ...how long will you be there to support us?"

"As long as you need," Melissa replied.  "Adam took vacation days, and Ghor and I are independents.  And this ship is the last of the Luminoth interstellar crafts, which they used before settling Aether.  The Federation couldn't track it if they tried."

Spike smiled widely.  "Thanks guys," he spoke up.  "It's good to know you've got our backs."

With that said, Samus set course for the docking bay, flying in through the open bay doors.
> BSL: Into Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So what was it like aboard the BSL station?" Twilight asked curiously, once more taking notes much to the amusement of many around her.

"A lot like Bottleship, actually," Samus replied.  "Same sort of atmosphere of abandonment, same sense of always being watched, same sense of danger just out of sight..."

"We really should have caught what was going on a lot sooner," Spike murmured dryly.

"Another bio-weapons research facility, complete with Metroids?" Rainbow asked.

"And even a Sector Zero," Samus confirmed.  "Although it was a while before we discovered it.  Just getting into the station itself was a trial..."





As Samus landed the ship, Adam sent over the map data for the Main Sector that Melissa'd managed to access so far.  "We'll send you map data for a sector as we get it," he added in communication.  "For right now, you should investigate the source of the reported explosion, the Quarantine Bay.  That's where the containment capsules of samples from SR388 - and your infected suit parts - were stored."  The indicated location was illuminated on the map.  "Since we don't know the cause of the explosion, exercise extreme caution.  Remember, you have a brand new suit and no power ups to help you, Samus.  Spike, keep a close eye on her."

"Will do," Spike confirmed.

"I'll be alright," Samus promised.

"Link up with us at the Navigation Room on the way," Adam instructed.  "We may have more information for you there.  In the meantime, we'll work on data for your suit to restore your latent abilities."

"Thanks," Samus confirmed, cutting communications as the pair disembarked from the ship.  The hangar bay was a dull green, very similar in appearance to that of the Bottleship, an unpleasant reminder in this situation.  The door at the end stood open for the pair, the only sound Samus' foot-falls and Spike's claws clicking against the floor.  The halls they passed through were stark gray with grated floors.  The doors that were closed had no power flowing to them, and could not be opened.  As such, the pair took the path through only open doors.  The path led straight to the Navigation Room, which they activated to communicate with Adam and the others.  "Adam?" she asked.  "Any new information?"

"We have detected bio-signs in the Quarantine Bay," Adam replied worriedly.  "Exercise extreme caution.  We have no idea what could be there."





"Life signs?" Celestia asked, surprised.  "What could that have been?"

"The X Parasites in the samples, freed somehow?" Luna suggested.

"That's what we found out," Samus confirmed.





Entering the Quarantine Bay, Samus and Spike made their way around the fallen containment capsules.  Before long, they found the same creature they'd encountered back on SR388, the one that had released the X Parasite that had infected Samus.  It leapt to the attack, and Samus quickly shot it.  As the flesh dissolved, an X Parasite appeared, floating around the room.  Spike and Samus quickly withdrew to the Navigation Room to confer with Adam.

"Come in, Adam!" Samus stated as soon as she activated the console.  "There was an X Parasite!  It had somehow taken on the shape of a creature.  When damaged, the Parasite revealed itself!"

"It seems all the specimens the field team brought back were infected by X," Melissa added.  "I've just now gotten access to some video logs, and every single sample container had X Parasites in them. I still can't get much data, though."

"From what I've been able to determine, the X can mimic their prey," Ghor supplied.  "Once the prey is fully consumed by the X, the Parasites will take on the prey's shape, both to interact with the environment and hunt down new prey.  We have a scan of one from before the explosion."

As an image of the gelatinous organism appeared on screen, Adam continued.  "The parasite invades the host, rapidly reproduces, then kills the host, retaining the DNA of the host in its body, with the capability of recreating the host."

"I know how they spread," Samus countered.  "That nearly killed me."

"But it didn't hurt Spike," Adam continued.  "As we'd determined, the Metroidal aspects of his DNA enabled him to absorb the X completely in much the same way Metroids could feed on them, as best as we can determine.  And between his genetic code and the Metroid cell culture in the vaccine, you should be able to as well.  Absorbing free floating X without a host should instead replenish your suit resources."

"Based on my projections," Ghor added, "this may also restore latent abilities, should you absorb a large core X with compatible DNA information stored inside.  So you should pursue free-floating X at every opportunity."

"Understood," Samus confirmed.

"According to my data," Melissa spoke up, "this station is home to many different species of creatures...some quite violent.  We should make it a priority to keep the X out of the breeding environments, both to protect the creatures and to prevent the X from gaining access to more powerful forms while you're still weak.  Unfortunately..."

"Unfortunately?" Samus inquired.

"We've already detected massive bio-signs here," Adam clarified as the area in question lit up on the map.  "The X appear to be gathering.  This may be our chance to exterminate them, but you're only at 10% combat capacity.  Even with Spike's assistance, survival projections are low."

"I'll make do," Samus replied firmly.  "Just open the path."

Adam stared at her over the comms.  "Alright," he agreed finally.

"I've opened Level 0 hatches, the grey ones," Melissa continued.  "They'll be blinking as you approach them.  Shoot them with any weapon type to trigger the mechanism."

"Will do," Spike confirmed as communications were cut.
> BSL: Helping Hurdles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Samus got ready to continue the tale, Rainbow spoke up.  "Hey, I just remembered something!  Back when you were telling us about Aether, we wound up talking about a zombie apocalypse, and Spike asked if BSL counted.  That's this mission, right?"

Samus smirked.  "Yes, it is.  One of the most common forms of X Parasite hostile we encountered in the Main Sector was X Parasites animating piles of protoplasmic sludge.  An X would fly into the pile and infest it, causing it to rise up in a roughly humanoid shape in a state of constant decay.  When we blasted it, it collapsed, releasing the X Parasite for Spike and I to absorb.  The pile would then sit there until another X infested it."

"We encountered quite a few of those on our way to the next Navigation Room along our path," Spike explained.  "Thankfully, that Navigation Room came with good news..."





Once Samus and Spike had fought their way through some rather simplistic X hosts, they were relieved to see that the Navigation Rooms were properly quarantined so that the X were unable to enter without the use of extreme force, which both doubted the X had access to.  Samus was quick to activate the Navigation Booth to reconnect with Adam and the others.  "Do you read me, Adam?" she called out.

The screen quickly lit up with Adam's face, Melissa and Gohr hard at work in the background.  "Good news, Samus," Adam replied immediately.  "Melissa's managed to gain access to the Main Sector Data Room, so we can send you downloadable weapons data for your suit."

"That's...good news," Samus replied noncommittally.

"In addition, Ghor's just finished reprogramming your missile launcher in a format your new suit will accept for download," Adam added.  "If you make your way to the Main Sector Data Room up on the Main Deck-"  The map of the Main Sector lit up, highlighting the Data Room.  "-you'll be able to download it.  In addition, the new program will allow you to restock missiles by absorbing a certain type of X Parasite."

"Now that is good news!" Samus replied, far more enthusiastically this time.  "I've felt naked without my Missile Launcher, and Spike's drains too much of his inner energy for regular use.  Good work Melissa, Ghor!"

"Just doing my part," Ghor replied readily.

"It'd help if you hurried," Melissa added urgently.  "The security system of BSL is a mutating algorithm, and it's actively fighting my attempts to hack.  I don't know how long I'll be able to maintain the link to systems beyond the Navigation Rooms without the proper security codes."

"We'll hurry," Spike replied readily.  "Don't strain yourself too much, Melissa."

"If you can't maintain the link, leave the data in the Data Room," Samus added.  "It'll wait there for the first person with clearance to download it, and with the X running rampant, the only one that's going to be is me."

"I'll do it if there's no other option," Melissa answered.  "But I'm going to do my best to hold the link anyway, just in case."

"Get moving, Samus," Adam ordered firmly as communications were cut.





"So how well did that go?" Anthony asked curiously.  "In my experience, plans like that tend to go wrong at the worst possible moment."

"It...kinda did?" Spike offered.  "See, the Main Deck only had one elevator up to it.  Getting up there went without a hitch."

"However, as we left the Data Room..." Samus continued.





As Samus and Spike left the Data Room, Samus admiring her new Missile Launcher, they heard computer systems all around them shutting down.  As they were in a Navigation Room, Samus quickly activated the communications rig, grateful to see it still running.  "Adam, Ghor, Melissa, do you read?  The power's shutting down!"

"Electrical interference has knocked out many of the systems in the Main Deck," Melissa explained, rubbing her temple with one hand while the other raced over her keyboard.  "This includes the Recharge Rooms, Log Stations, and Elevators.  I don't know if this is X activity or just a coincidence.  However, it doesn't look like I'll be able to reactivate them any time soon.  You'd best find another way back down."

"I spotted a hatch cover that my scans showed to be vulnerable to missiles out there," Spike indicated, pointing out towards the large main chamber of the Main Deck.  "It's directly above the elevator.  Maybe we can make our way behind it back to the Main Sector?"

Melissa made a few quick computations as she looked at the map screen.  "...that might work.  That hatch leads into the ventilation ducts.  Unfortunately, I can't get access to those pathways.  You'll need to map it out on your own."

"Will do," Samus confirmed.  "Adam, make Melissa lie down, she's pushing herself too hard.  Ghor, can you take over accessing the computers?"

"Can do," Ghor replied firmly as he bodily grabbed Melissa and laid her in a Luminoth recovery chamber.  "Now that she's made the telepathic connection, my more mundane hacking methods - while less efficient - won't send any alert signals to whatever Federation authority is in charge of this station."

"I'll see to it she doesn't strain herself further," Adam promised.  "You both make sure you survive."

Nodding, Samus led the way out of the Navigation Room, letting Spike point the way to the hatch cover.  As expected, it burst apart from a single missile impact.  Further in, the passageway was blocked by a green creature that filled the pathway.  Ordinary shots bounced off of it, but three missiles caused it to collapse, releasing a green X, which replenished two of Samus' missiles when absorbed.

The ventilation shafts proved to be a rather minor maze, easy for the pair to make their way through, returning to the mapped portion of the Main Sector in short order, pausing only long enough to pick up a pair of Missile Expansions Samus found scattered about.





"Where do those even come from?" Twilight asked curiously.

"They're actually just local ammunition stocks," Samus explained.  "But my suit's able to absorb them for the weapon systems I have, expanded the available ammunition storage for whatever weapon system is most similar."

"Fascinating..." Twilight murmured, glancing down at the notes she'd made up of how Samus' suit worked.
> BSL: Terror in the Dark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Once back in the mapped areas of the Main Deck," Samus continued, "we discovered something rather interesting.  The doorway to the area we were trying to get to was covered over by an X Parasite mimicking a creature we'd encountered on Zebes."

"The weird eyeball things that covered some boss doors?" Rainbow asked, consulting her 'game' notes quickly.

"I wouldn't have put it that way, but yes," Samus confirmed.  "It could only be destroyed with missiles to the eye...and once destroyed, they would release a Red X Parasite that restored a great deal of suit energy and ammunition...and they always guarded chambers where a Large Core X could be found."

"Large Core X?" Twilight asked curiously.

Smiling, Samus explained what happened behind the door.





Samus and Spike carefully made their way around a few twists in the hallway, stopping long enough for Samus to pick up an energy cell that happened to be compatible with her suit, which - once assimilated - increased her suit's maximum energy.  With that, Samus felt much readier to confront whatever awaited them down the pit nearby.  Spike, however, stopped her, sniffing the air and briefly detouring through a broken segment of ceiling to grab her another stray Energy Tank, having recognized a similar scent.

With those in hand, the pair dropped down the pit into the chamber below, only to stare at what they saw.  A much larger X Parasite, pulsing yellow and green, floated in the air, surrounded by a spiky, translucent barrier and swarming smaller X.  It slowly floated to the ground before assuming a mimicked form...a rather large pink creature resembling an armadillo with a dark green shell.  As soon as it formed, it roared aggressively.

Samus and Spike wasted no time blasting into it with Missiles and Spike's breath weapons.  They quickly discovered that only the pink portions of its body could be damaged, and it became invincible when it curled up into its shell and attempted to roll at them.  This assault was easy to dodge.  The flames it could spew out and the energy slashes released from its large claws were less so.  However, it wasn't very durable, and under their combined assault, the mimicked body eventually collapsed, revealing the Large Core X.

A quick probing attack revealed that the barrier was only vulnerable to missiles, and it resisted impacts more strongly just after taking damage.  Three well timed missile hits caused the barrier to collapse, however, allowing Samus to leap up and absorb the X into her system, completely replenishing her energy and ammunition.  Once she'd done so, she dropped to the ground as her suit gave her a message.



Morph Ball ability recovered.



Samus smiled, somewhat relieved.  "That's good news," she murmured.  "I seriously doubt Ghor would have been able to recreate that."  Quickly going into Morph Ball, she led Spike out of the chamber.





"Large Core X not only fully restored my resources," Samus explained, "but they also contained enough data for my suit to use to restore my latent abilities, based on the creature the X had been mimicking."

"Useful," Applejack commented dryly.

"Convenient," Pinkie pipped up happily.

"Nice game mechanic!" Rainbow added with a chuckle, resulting in several facehooves around the table.

"With the source of the disturbance eliminated," Spike spoke up, getting things back on track, "we headed back to the Navigation Room to report..."





Adam listened calmly as Samus and Spike explained what had happened.  "This is very bad news," Adam grumbled.  "If the X have infiltrated the Breeding Environments here, then just about every biological you come across is likely to be an X host."

"The bio-sensors in Sector 1, designated SRX, are already showing several abnormalities," Melissa explained, once more at the controls.  "SRX is apparently a recreation of the SR388 environment for the creatures brought up from there.  You'll need to investigate.  Take the Main Elevator to the Access Shaft and use Elevator 1."  As she spoke, the map screen shifted to show the path, as well as the location of the Navigation Room just inside the entrance of Sector 1.

"How did the missiles work?" Ghor asked curiously.  "I didn't have the resources to test the modifications..."

"They worked flawlessly," Samus replied.  "Good work, Ghor.  We'll contact you as soon as we're in Sector 1."

"Be careful," Adam insisted.  "I think whoever let the X into the Breeding Environments may have been behind the explosion that released the X in the first place."





"And I was right," Adam spoke up calmly.  "Though none of us could have guessed what it was...and when we did learn..."

Noticing everyone's startled looks, Samus spoke up.  "On the way down the Main Elevator, we heard a large explosion above us, one that shut down the Main Elevator once we reached the bottom.  Spike...said it sounded like a Super Missile."

"W-what?" Twilight asked, terrified.

"We didn't learn what it was until Samus was finished in Sector 1," Ghor explained.  "That's when Melissa managed to get access to security video."

"Sector 1 itself was rather straight forward," Samus explained.  "The X had infested the atmospheric stabilizers, in order to alter atmospheric conditions to meet their needs.  We just had to reach each one and destroy the infestation.  The only point of interest was when we found another door blocked by what Spike called the 'eyeball X', and a different variety of Large Core X behind it..."





Inside the large chamber, Samus and Spike made their way to the far end where they saw, of all things, a Chozo Statue holding a Power Up for Samus' suit.  Eagerly, Samus fired on the protective cover, revealing the upgrade within...only for the entire statue to shift and warp, revealing a Large Core X.  However, the barrier on this one was much thicker, and looked far more durable.  Missiles bounced right off of it as it slowly pursued Samus and Spike around the room.  Eventually, it opened a strange eye where energy began to gather.  A missile impacting the eye caused the barrier to flex in response, as well as release the blast being charged.  After the fourth missile, the barrier shattered, allowing Samus to absorb the X.



Charge Beam ability recovered.



"Now that is good news," Samus crowed, charging up a blast in her arm cannon, just because she could.





"The second variety of Large Core X always had beam weapon data for me," Samus explained, "and would use those beams against us.  Once defeated, absorbing the X allowed me to regain the Beam ability."

"That made clearing the last of the Environmental Stabilizers much easier," Spike added.  He then frowned.  "Unfortunately..."





With the atmosphere stabilized throughout the sector, Samus and Spike returned to the Navigation Room to report.  Melissa and Ghor both seemed distracted with getting the video data needed to identify the mystery saboteur, and Adam seemed unusually upset as he instructed Samus and Spike to make their way to Sector 2, the Tropical area.  Knowing they still had work to do, the pair took the elevators as instructed.

However, as soon as they opened communications in Sector 2, they knew something was wrong.  They could see Melissa curled up in the back of the ship, shivering in fear.  Ghor looked like he'd encountered a processing error of some sort.  Adam...had gone pale.  "Samus," he greeted calmly.  "We've...identified the saboteur."

"That's good," Samus began.  Noticing Adam's almost frightened gaze, she swallowed convulsively.  "R-right?"

"Samus, Spike...you should both sit down for this," Adam instructed.

Both took the instruction, Spike sitting against the wall, and Samus sitting on his knee as he was still in his larger size.  "You're starting to make me nervous, Adam," he chided jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

Adam ignored the levity.  "Samus...our saboteur is...an X mimicking you."

Samus and Spike both stared, blood draining from their faces as they paled at the very idea.





Discord blinked in surprise as he noticed that Twilight and her friends were trying to hide behind him.  He wasn't sure whether to be flattered or freaked out.
> BSL: The Face of the Enemy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"An X...mimicking you?" Celestia asked, her voice shaking.  "H...how is that possible?"

Luna's eyes widened.  "The infected portions of your suit," she whispered.  "They were half biological, weren't they?"

"Not exactly," Samus replied softly.  "But yes, they did contain enough of my genetic material and tech for the X to create an incomplete copy of me...and a complete copy of my suit.  It had all of my abilities, and...we don't know how much of my mentality.  We later learned that the X could process data biologically, but...we never did figure out how the X worked beyond that..."

"Learning there was, in essence, an evil clone of Mom running around drastically changed our priorities," Spike added.

"I dubbed the creature SA-X," Adam explained.  "And a large part of my efforts after that were dedicated to trying to analyze its movements and goals.  As for Samus herself..."





"We've analyzed the explosion from the Quarantine Bay," Adam continued.  "The SA-X apparently came from your infected suit parts, and used a Power Bomb to escape, so we know it has that capability at least."

"Like it needs any others?" Samus asked worriedly, glancing back and forth in terror.

"Don't worry, Samus," Adam continued.  "The Navigation Rooms on the BSL are specially hardened.  Even the blast of a Power Bomb won't penetrate the walls of that chamber, or others like it, and with the doors locked down, it can't get in.  If you need to rest, you can do so safely in the Navigation Rooms."

"That's a relief," Spike proclaimed as he released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.  "So...the SA-X has Power Bombs and Super Missiles bare minimum..."

"And its original escape explosion released the X that started this disaster," Adam continued.  "But for now, we need to focus on the SA-X.  It's mimicking you at full power, Samus.  You can't face it.  Based on our projections, the only thing that can even damage it is your Plasma Beam function...but we aren't having much luck creating it for your new suit.  In the meantime, if you see it, just run.  Spike's Ice Breath should slow it down for a little while, but a direct confrontation is out of the question.  Its Plasma Beam and Screw Attack would tear through Spike's armor and scales like tissue paper, and its Ice Beam would freeze you solid, Samus.  Unfortunately, the Metroid Vaccine gave you the Metroid vulnerability to cold.  We're working on Varia Suit data to account for that in the meantime."

"I know you're all doing everything you can," Samus replied, struggling to get the shaking out of her voice.  "But I can't just sit here and wait and hope you get what I need.  The SA-X might go after our ship.  If it gets off station..."

"I've got remote access to your ship's controls," Melissa responded.  "While I can't make it take off on its own, I can lock it down.  And..."  She hesitated, not wanting to go on.

"If it looks like the SA-X is going to get into the ship, activate its self destruct," Samus instructed firmly.  "We can't let the X leave the station, especially not the SA-X."

"Okay, Samus," Melissa replied worriedly.  "If...if it comes to that-"

"If it comes to that, we'll set the station to self destruct," Spike replied.  "Do not try to board the station for us.  Assuming Mom's suit is still functional, I'll take us out into space with a wormhole jump, and you can pick us up there."

"Understood," Adam replied readily, cutting off Melissa's worried reply.  "In the meantime, Ghor did finish reconstructing Bomb data for you, which should be helpful in evading the SA-X.  We can't get you back to the Main Deck Data Room, so we'll have to use the one here in Sector 2."  The map on the display shifted to highlight it.  "Unfortunately, it's sealed behind a Level 1 Hatch, which can't be unlocked remotely.  Instead, you'll have to find the Security Room to release the locks on Blue Hatches."

"Despite my best efforts, I can't locate the Security Rooms," Melissa added sadly.  "That data is completely locked down, and can't be accessed unless the hatches it controls are unlocked."

"So you can't show us the Security Rooms until after we find them," Samus murmured.  "It's alright, Melissa.  We'll find our own way."

Adam nodded firmly.  "Get to the Security Room, get the Bomb Data, and get out.  Move quickly but carefully."

"Understood Adam," Samus confirmed before cutting the communications.  The security door into Sector 2 opened.





"After that, even the simple part of exploring Sector 2 became terrifying," Samus admitted.  "Every sound I mistook for the SA-X coming after us.  Every sudden movement made me spin."  She chuckled ruefully.  "I nearly shot Spike 12 times before we even made it to the Security Room."

"Thankfully, the only X hosts we encountered on the way to the Security Room were some familiar looking giant larva," Spike explained.  "A bit of logic while looking at the map allowed us to figure out where the Security Room was right away and head right there.  Oddly, it was a tall room with a Blue Hatch at the bottom by the Security Terminal and a White one at the top...both on the same side."

"...odd choice in architecture," Shining murmured.  "Not sure of the logic of it."

"Especially since there wasn't a stairwell down," Samus added.  "We just had to drop.  Thankfully, there weren't any new forms of X hosts until we nearly reached the Data Room, and the dragonfly-like creature was relatively easy to evade-"

"And was quite tasty," Spike interrupted.

Samus rolled her eyes as several listeners giggled.  "Considering I was 'eating' the X this trip, too, I can't really call you on that."  Her face turned serious.  "I managed to download the Bomb data with no problems, but...when we tried to leave, we found the pathway severely damaged, sealed against our getting through.  And..."  She swallowed.  "We could hear footfalls, like the sound of my suit, walking away.  We learned to fear that sound."

"We wound up taking a detour," Spike continued once he got his shivers under control, "through a few paths the bombs opened for us.  Thankfully, we didn't encounter the SA-X on our way out."

"The SA-X wasn't attacking us at that point, we don't think," Samus concluded.

"Then what was it's-" Twilight began, only to freeze.  "The path it blocked off...it was the only way into the Data Room, wasn't it?"

"Yup," Samus confirmed.  "Once it had done that, we couldn't get back in..."
> BSL: Maze Escape
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"The SA-X was...that intelligent?" Shining asked worriedly.  "Is that because it was copying you and you're that intelligent, or are all X that intelligent?"

Samus shrugged her shoulders.  "We were never able to get a straight answer about that," Samus replied.  "It's not like it sat down and talked to us or anything.  Sides, once I knew what it was and that it was after me, surviving was the main goal."

"That's something I've been wondering about, actually," Discord spoke up, spiraling down from the ceiling.  "I get that the SA-X was incredibly dangerous...but why were you so terrified of it?  How was it any different from Dark Samus, as far as fighting it was concerned?"

"I was on a space station," Samus replied simply.

"Huh?" several of her listeners asked, confused.

"Confined spaces," Samus explained.  "Very little room to maneuver.  Chambers that would seal themselves shut if I got caught in combat in order to limit damage to the station, meaning escape wouldn't always be a viable option, especially if we clashed.  And even if I was able to avoid being frozen long enough to do any damage to it...that model of my suit allowed me to survive in space for a time, and even reboard a space station after unexpected EVA, like back on the Olympus.  So if the SA-X determined I was too much trouble...it could just blast open the walls and have us all sucked out into space...where without the Varia Suit data, that absolute chill would freeze me solid, and I would either die slowly from hypothermia and suffocation, or quickly as I plunged into SR388's atmosphere..."

Everyone listening shuddered from her description.

"But there's more than that," Samus continued.  "Dark Samus' weapons were all Phazon based, which could damage Spike's energy reserves at worst.  It could weaken him into a comatose state, but not really kill him unless he was really careless.  With the SA-X...one Plasma Beam between the eyes and he'd drop, brain fried.  The SA-X could kill him in a single shot if it got lucky, or Spike got careless.  And if he got too close and it used the Screw Attack..."  She shuddered just imagining it.  "So yeah, I wasn't risking facing that thing unless absolutely necessary."

"I can easily understand why," Twilight agreed, glancing worriedly towards Spike.

"It didn't happen, Mom," Spike chided gently, smiling reassuringly.  "We were fine...after the fact, anyway."

As everyone digested that tidbit, silence reigned.  Eventually, Adam spoke up.  "How come it took you so long to return from the TRO sector, anyway?" he asked.  "Were the other tunnels that hard to maneuver?"

"More that they required an ability I didn't have at the time," Samus explained.  "I needed to jump higher than I could normally to get back to the mapped areas, and the rooms were too small for Spike to get big enough to carry me and get up there.  Thankfully, we encountered another Large Core X..."





Spike and Samus dropped down into the large chamber they'd found in the unmapped area while trying to get back out, surprised to find a large red and blue Core X surrounded by a pale blue shell, with numerous small yellow X floating around it.  Eventually, it fused together, manifesting as an armored, bulbous creature, tall and thin with a single eye near the top and several tendrils waving up top.  The pink, spiky shell surrounding the creature proved impenetrable to the pair's available weapons, though it only wriggled along the ground towards them.  Unexpectedly, it leapt into the air, forcing Samus and Spike to race under it to avoid being landed on.

When it jumped again, the pair once more dashed under it.  Glancing up, Samus saw that the bottom of the creature was, in fact, a maw, and what she'd taken for toes were actually teeth.  The maw also had a straight path to the creature's core, behind the eye.  At the next leap, it paused in the air, slowly floating down to attempt to envelop her.  Taking a moment to fire a missiles upward, she confirmed the nucleus was the only part that could be damaged, then rolled out of the way of its landing.

"Spike!" she called out.  "How strong is the ceiling?"

Spike glanced from the creature to the roof, then grinned.  "Strong enough!" he called back, racing up the wall while Samus continued to fire on the creature with her beam, keeping its attention.  After a time, it began its jumps again, while Spike stayed near the ceiling near the center of the room.  When it once more paused at the apex of a leap with its maw open, Spike lashed out and caught the tendrils at the top with his teeth.  He then held it there as Samus moved underneath, firing her missiles straight down the maw into the nucleus until the creature's form began to dissolve.

When the form collapsed, the X Core attempted to escape, only to be knocked back into the chamber by Spike's claws, leaving it in perfect position for Samus to shoot it with her missiles until the shell broke apart, allowing her to absorb the X inside.



Hi-Jump and Jump Ball abilities recovered.



Samus couldn't help but smile.  "That will be most useful," she murmured happily, leaping up to catch hold of Spike's outstretched claw.  "Let's go."





"After that, we made our way out of the TRO Sector," Samus explained.  "The only odd point of the trip was that all the red larva we'd encountered had turned grey and solid...as though having entered cocoons."

"We didn't know what it was about at the time," Spike explained.  "But it came back to bite us later.  Not that we could have done anything about it..."
> BSL: Run!  Footsteps!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"You say that's the only odd point," Luna asked carefully as Samus and Spike paused in the retelling to take a drink.  "Does that mean it was a straight trip back aside from that?"

"Definitely not," Samus murmured.  "There's a reason we didn't get a chance to investigate it.  See, as we were making our way back to the main path, we found one of the doors had been completely slagged.  As best I could tell, someone had taken a high-heat beam to it and melted it until it was unusable.  It looked like the damage Spike's hottest flame breath would have made..."

"Or the plasma torch modification I gave you for your Arm Cannon?" Ghor asked hesitantly.

"Precisely," Samus admitted.  "We found a way around it by bombing our way through some cracked flooring...but..."





As Samus and Spike dropped into the ventilation pathways of the room below, they froze.  Down below, they could hear the sound of footsteps.  Gazing through tiny holes in the grating below them, Samus could see...herself, her old Power Suit carefully walking towards the door out of the chamber, gaze sweeping back and forth in search.  Feeling her breath catch in her throat, she saw the figure starting to look up.  With a mental command, she shut her entire suit down to turn off every light and reduce the reflective glare of her faceplate, so the SA-X's searchlight wouldn't catch on her.  She felt the cessation of the hum of Spike's armor, a sign that he'd deactivated it completely as well, though whether to avoid detection or in case of direct confrontation, Samus couldn't be sure.

The SA-X started to turn away, but stopped.  It then swept its searchlight back, and Samus froze as she saw it glinting off Spike's gauntlet.  Spike held perfectly still, but ready to act.  Samus could see the energy gathering around his muzzle as he prepared to open a wormhole.  She herself began to reactivate her own suit, in case the SA-X began an assault.

The SA-X continued to stare...and then, to Samus' and Spike's surprise, lifted its gauntleted hand to its helmet.  A signal on their communication frequency was picked up, but was nothing but garbled noises and static.  The same set of garbled noise and static repeated, this time seeming more insistent.  In the end, the signal cut out and the SA-X continued out of the chamber.

It was a full minute before either Spike or Samus dared to breathe again.  "What was that about?" Spike whispered as he reactivated his armor.

"Don't know, don't care," Samus whispered back.  "Let's get to a Navigation Room, pronto!"





"What was that about?" Twilight asked curiously, once she got her nerves under control.

"No idea," Samus replied.  "It was...strange, with the SA-X.  Sometimes when we encountered it, it would attack us mindlessly, trying to kill us.  Other times, it would only attack me...and every so often, we'd get that signal again, and each time it was more and more intense."  She shook her head.  "We couldn't make sense of it."

The various figures around the table thought it over for a time, trying to apply their own logic...only for it to be cut off by the sound of a balloon deflating.  Pinkie Pie lay slumped against the table, her eyes wide and staring, tears at the corners.  "Pinkie, darling," Rarity began, "is anything the matter?"

"I...I think I understand..." Pinkie began.

"Really?" Twilight asked eagerly.  "Then tell us!"

"Don't wanna..." Pinkie whimpered.  "I wanna be wrong..."

Those who knew Pinkie well stared at her, their expressions a mix of concern and terror.  Spike made his way over to her and scooped her into his claws.  Sitting back, he held her close and started stroking her mane.  "Feeling better?" he asked as she started to relax again.

After a time, Pinkie's mane and tail floofed up again.  "Meow!" she let out happily, startling quite a few laughs all around.

Once the tense atmosphere faded, Samus continued the tale.  "We made it back to the Navigation Room after that without incident...but..."





"Adam, do you read?" Samus called out as she activated the Navigation Room computers.  "We had a close encounter with the SA-X.  We're unharmed, but the behavior it exhibited-"

"Download your system's logs for us to go over later," Adam cut in curtly.  "We have other problems.  Releasing the Security Lock may have been a mistake.  The SA-X has invaded the water environment in Sector 4 (AQA) with several thousand X."

"That thing sure moves fast," Spike muttered worriedly.  "We just saw it here, not ten or so minutes ago."





Pinkie let out a startled whimper, but quickly motioned for Samus to go on when concerned expressions were turned her way.





"It slipped in easily with the blue hatches active," Adam explained.  "The creatures and systems in Sector 4 are already showing multiple irregularities.  Melissa is monitoring them, and should have more information for you when you get to Sector 4's Navigation Room."

"And there's another concern," Ghor spoke up.  "I've picked up several automated signals emanating from the station that I can't intercept.  I believe the members of the Federation directly in charge of this station may be getting regular updates from all its systems...so we can expect Federation forces to arrive before too long.  We need to have this situation handled before they get here, or we risk the X getting into their ships."

"Understood," Samus replied wearily.  "We're on our way."





"At that point, any chance of taking things slow and taking breaks when we could went out the window," Samus concluded.  "Even the thought of stopping for any length of time was anathema, no matter how appealing it sounded...not with a clock over our heads, endlessly ticking away..."

"Making this simultaneously our most terrifying and exhausting mission ever," Spike added, sinking back into his seat, even the memory of it exhausting him.
> BSL: Faster!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So, how did things go in Sector 4?" Gandrayda asked, plainly trying to shift the focus of the story away from whatever was distressing Pinkie so badly.  "Given the designation (AQA), I presume it was an aquatic sector?  Probably difficult for you without a Gravity Suit effect."

"Actually, that wasn't the real problem there," Samus replied.  "Apparently, a large creature being kept in (AQA), dubbed Serris, had escaped it's containment-"

"You mean become an X host?" Rainbow translated.

"As it turned out, yes," Samus replied gruffly, "though we didn't know it at the time.  As a result, the damage to Sector 4 was far more severe than other sectors, and there were several broken power couplings under the water, meaning it was electrified, and even touching it would damage my suit."

"Or me," Spike added.  "I never developed any special resistance against electricity-based weaponry, so being electrocuted is still pretty painful for me.  Continuous electrocution from being in the water?"  He shuddered, setting Pinkie down.  "The first time I saw how small the areas we had to move through outside the electrified water were, I did this."  With that said, he shrank down...and down...and down.  Now approximately the size of a bird, he clambered up onto Samus' shoulder.  "Mom gave me a ride for a change," he explained, his voice having the same timbre...but several octaves higher.  He then covered his ears.

The off-world visitors confusion at this action was quickly alleviated as every mare present squealed in unison over how 'cute' he was so tiny.  Spike quickly returned to his normal size, and waited for everyone's hearing to return before letting Adam add something to the tale.  "The damage to the Sector wasn't just more extensive than expected," he explained coolly.  "It also seemed more...purposeful.  This led us to the conclusion that the X - or at the least, the SA-X - had a high degree of intelligence."

Noticing Pinkie once more getting down, Spike quickly scooped her up for ear scratches.  Samus then picked up the tale.  "Adam warned us that Serris was capable of moving and attacking at ultra-high speeds-"

"So that's how you got your Speed Booster back?" Rainbow, Luna, Scootaloo, and Twilight all asked simultaneously.

"Okay, now I want to play these 'video games' you keep talking about," Samus insisted.  "Anything that gives you this much insight into how my adventures worked I should research!  Maybe it could save me from any future pitfalls."

Spike laughed as he saw Rainbow and Scootaloo's eager expressions at that.  "So we went to where we thought Serris would be, only to find his bones.  When we found the 'eye door' some ways later, we knew the Serris-X would be behind it.  That battle was...fun."

"For you, maybe," Samus quipped.

"You can't say you didn't like watching," Spike chided.

"I found it more worrisome what it said about my Speed Booster's limitations," Samus countered.  Noticing several confused expressions turned towards her, she shrugged.  "It was like this..."





As Samus and Spike passed through the door the 'eye door' had blocked, they found themselves under water, though thankfully not electrified water.  For maneuverability, Samus quickly climbed up to platforms on the surface of the water, with an assist from Spike, who stayed in the water to cover more bases.

As Samus moved to the opposite side of the room, the chamber shook, and cracked portions of the wide platform over the water crumbled into nothing.  Spike quickly dodged out of the way as the long, sea snake creature known as Serris drove into the area, its body flashing as it raced through at Speed Booster velocities.  Staying against the bottom, he was able to avoid getting smashed, while Samus leapt about the platforms left behind to evade being hit.

Eventually, Serris' Speed Boost state faded, leaving it moving much more slowly and revealed to be a dark blue coloration over each segment of its body.  A few test shots proved that the only vulnerable part was the head, and that any impact there caused it to enter the Speed Boost state.  Unfortunately, Samus found she had difficulty tracking the creature, whatever state it was in.

Spike, however, had no such trouble.  Swimming up to it while it wasn't Boosted, he roared a challenge underwater.  Serris took it, charging in...and Spike rolled to the side, grabbing hold of the creature with three claws and tail.  Reabsorbing his wings into his body to avoid any possible drag, he pulled back his free fist and punched Serris hard on the back of its head.

Serris shrieked in pain and once more attempted to Boost away...but Spike was clinging too tight to be easily thrown off, and was thus pulled into the Speed Boost state as well, since he was biologically capable of it as well.  Even as Serris raced around, Spike pulled his fist back again.  To his pleasant surprise, another punch to the back of Serris' head while they were both Boosted brought another scream of pain.

Samus watched, stunned, as Spike rode Serris around the chamber, utilizing the same strategy he'd used on Quadraxis...'hit it really hard'.  Before long, the body of Serris crumbled, leaving Spike unable to stop his Boosted movement and slamming bodily against the wall.  "...nailed it..." he whimpered out as Samus focused her missiles on the X Core, breaking its protective membrane and absorbing it, regaining her own Speed Booster effect.





"And that's why I found it worrisome," Samus concluded.  "I'd always thought that in Speed Booster or Screw Attack states, I was pretty much invulnerable as long as the energy/matter conversion engines were functioning properly.  But the fact that Spike could hurt Serris while they were both in that state...implied I had the same vulnerability.  That while in Boost, Shinespark, or Screw Attack, I could take physical damage from another being in the same state."  Her eyes hardened towards Spike.  "And the SA-X had all those abilities."

"Ah," Spike allowed, rubbing the back of his head nervously.  "Right..."

"Which means the SA-X had the same vulnerabilities?" Sweetie Belle asked.  "And since you learned it after being purged of your infection, there was no way for the SA-X to know about it until you used the knowledge against it?"

Samus turned to stare at Sweetie, completely flummoxed.

"And that's why it's on the List!" Anthony joked.

"She's 10, not 5," Spike pointed out with a smirk, even as Samus facepalmed.
> BSL: Super Powered
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So was that the end of Sector 4?" Starlight asked curiously.  "I mean, you stopped the X Serris..."

"Not quite," Spike replied.  "Unfortunately, the station's auto repair functions were fully operational, so walls we'd broken through earlier were completely repaired by the time we tried to get back through, forcing us to find alternate paths rather frequently."

"That proved difficult in Sector 4," Samus explained, "until we found the hydraulic controls.  That let us lower the water level to below where the broken power conduits were, so it was no longer electrified.  That freed up a great deal of area to explore.  Picked up a few more expansions that way before heading back to the Navigation Room.  For once, good news was waiting for us..."





Samus sat back after reporting everything that had happened in Sector 4 to Adam and the others.  Adam had listened carefully before nodding.  "So the X seem to be seeking out powerful creatures to infect to use as weapons," he concluded.  "That's worrisome, as it means you'll likely be facing more and more powerful creatures that will be specifically hunting you.  It also means more and more of the specimens here that will be compromised, but it's not our job to protect the station, so that's hardly our concern."

Spike chuckled in response to that.  "On the plus side, it means more abilities being recovered."

"True," Adam agreed.  "It may yet give you enough abilities to face the SA-X...in time.  In the meantime, Ghor's managed to finish with your Super Missile data."

"That will be very useful," Samus responded gratefully.

"There was a minor problem, however," Ghor cautioned.  "When I attempted to load a secondary missile system into your suit data, it couldn't accept it.  I couldn't give you separate missiles and super missiles."

Samus sighed.  "So, what?  I'm going to have to choose between carrying missiles and super missiles every time I come to a resupply station?"

"No," Ghor countered.  "I instead applied the Super Missile modifications to your standard missile systems.  With the altered payload data, your ordinary missiles will be as powerful as Super Missiles."

"But...I've already got 80 missiles available," Samus replied slowly, stunned.  "You mean...when I download that data, I'm going to have 80 Super Missiles available?"

"Precisely," Ghor replied readily.  "I apologize for any inconvenience this might cause-"

"Ghor, I could freaking kiss you!" Samus interrupted.  "That's the best power up related news I've had since I got my Power Suit!"

Ghor's optics flickered for a time.  "Umm...you're welcome?"





"You know, I never did get that kiss," Ghor spoke up teasingly.

"Oh shut up," Samus countered with a roll of her eyes as a laughing Spike continued telling the tale.





"Unfortunately, the Data Room in Sector 4 is sealed with a Level 4 hatch, the highest security level on the station," Melissa pointed out.  "I...don't think unsealing that would be a good idea just yet."

"Definitely not," Samus agreed.  "Where else can I download the data?"

Melissa began scanning through the systems.  "Hmm...the SA-X is highly active in Sector 2 just now, so that Data Room's out..."

"It almost seems like the SA-X is deliberately blocking your recovery," Adam murmured.

"The best option looks to be in Sector 3 (PYR)," Melissa concluded.  "Stop in the Navigation Room there for further details.  I'll need to debrief you more fully before you go in."

"We'll see you there, Melissa," Samus responded before heading out.

... ... ... ...

Once in Sector 3, Samus activated the Navigation Booth, downloading the available map data.  Melissa immediately began explaining the situation.  "The Data Room here is sealed behind a Level 2 Hatch," she explained.  "You're going to need to find the Security Room first, just like in Sector 2.  However, there's a snag.  Some portions of Sector 3 are superheated, both for high-heat creatures and to vent the main boilers that are in the same sector.  Until Ghor's finished with the Varia effect for you to download, the super-heated areas will be just as devastating to you as super-chilled ones."

"That's going to be a problem," Samus grumbled.  "How are we supposed to explore to find the Security and Data Rooms if I can't go through half the Sector?"

"I've...managed to get some information regarding that," Melissa answered.  "While I can't get the exact location of the Security Room, I can confirm that the path from entrance to Security Room and back - and the path to the Data Room from there - passes through no super-heated sections.  Part of a safety precaution, since the usual protective gear to pass through the super-heated sections is incompatible with the Security Room's systems."

"That's a relief," Spike admitted.  "I wasn't looking forward to exploring alone."





"And that's what we did," Samus concluded.  "As expected, releasing the Security locks allowed the X to invade other sectors, but there wasn't much we could do about that.  Thankfully, I was able to download the Super Missile modification, and boy was it useful."

"I'll bet!" Rainbow cackled, continuing to take her notes.

"Unfortunately, on the way out..."





After leaving the Data Room, Samus and Spike made their way back towards the Navigation Room, only to find an entire chamber on their main path trashed, the doorway crushed so they couldn't make their way back through.  "What the?" Samus demanded, confused.

"Okay, it can't have been the SA-X that did this," Spike muttered.  "This looks like damage I would do-"

As he spoke, the entire area shook from an impact tremor.  "That sounded like it came from the Data Room!" Samus shouted out, turning to rush back, Spike hot on her heels.

As they reached the Data Room, however, they found a strange security drone smashing its way through the door, having already trashed the Data Room.  At first it looked like a standard four legged drone with a cyber-organic control brain in its main body, protected by an armored clear case.  However, as it caught sight of them, it uncurled a long neck and tail...and then spread wings.





"What?" Twilight demanded, stunned.  And she plainly wasn't the only one.
> BSL: S.P.I.K.E.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Seriously, what?" Twilight demanded again.  "What was that thing?"

Adam typed away at his datapad for a time, then presented the holographic image of the robotic dragon.  "This was the primary security drone used to patrol the BSL station, based off the most dangerous life form encountered in the known universe.  It's full project name was Super Powered Indomitable Killing Engine Security Unit, or the S.P.I.K.E. Security Unit."

"They...they made a robot Spike?" Twilight continued, her voice still filled with disbelief.

"Yeah...yet another in the long line of secret military projects designed to kill me having gone rogue," Spike admitted.  "And this one was...actually pretty well designed."

"While it lacked Spike's size and shape changing abilities, it had all of his elemental resistances," Samus explained.  "And while it lacked his variable breath weapons...it had a homing missile launcher, and a breath weapon with Plasma and Wave functionality.  The control circuitry was a cybernetic brain, the electronic aspects based off scans of Spike's own brain taken while he was unconscious at the start of the Phaaze mission...and the organic parts were vat grown from genetic samples taken at the same time, designed and modified during construction to control this ideal killing machine."

"I did not like hearing about that data file when Melissa found it," Spike grumbled, clenching his claws into fists.

"So...it was basically Spike's inner beast stuck in a metal body?" Rainbow Dash asked nervously.  "The sort of thing...the Space Pirates wanted?"

"Exactly," Samus confirmed.  "And as we discovered when we tried to fight it...they had good reason to want such a thing..."





Before Spike or Samus could fully react to what they were seeing, the S.P.I.K.E. roared and charged, lunging straight for them both.  As the pair dodged to either side, the cybernetic foe rounded to pursue Spike, its tail lashing and striking Samus hard in the chest, knocking her back against the wall.  Without seeming to keep track of her, it lunged, throwing its full impressive weight against Spike as it tackled him across the floor.

Groaning, Samus pushed herself to her feet.  She attempted to give some covering fire, but her shots bounced right off the metal of the bot's body and the casing surrounding its cybernetic brain.  As Spike clashed with S.P.I.K.E., she also saw that his claws, clenched fists, teeth, and breath had no real effect on its armored blue and red exterior either.  The only point where the bot even reacted was when Spike tried to punch the brain case.  In response, it either twisted its body so the punch landed on its metal exterior, or blocked with a limb or wing.

Deciding that was as good a hint as any, Samus aimed her arm canon and fired one of her Super Missiles, only to curse as the bot's tail lashed up, grabbed the missile around the middle, and hurled it aside and off course to slam against the wall.  Deciding the only remaining option was to try and get close, Samus waited until it seemed Spike had the bot's undivided attention as they clashed upright, claw in claw, before attempting to charge in.  To her surprise, the bot responded by seeming to crumple under Spike's assault, rolling over and slamming Spike into Samus.  Both fell back before getting once more to their feet.

"Can't fight from range...can't get close..." Samus grumbled.  "How am I supposed to handle this thing?"

"It's quick, not fast," Spike suggested in a whisper before lunging in to clash again.

Getting the idea, Samus raced away, getting room to charge up her Speed Booster, thinking to slam into the brain case before unleashing a few Super Missiles.  Getting the distance proved no problem, but just as she'd started to enter the Boosted state, the bot's tail fired missiles of its own...into the ground in front of Samus, creating potholes to make Samus stumble before she had a chance to react.  Unable to stop herself, she wound up skidding a good distance across the ground, taking even more damage.

Growling deep in his throat, Spike attempted a desperate gamble.  Releasing the bot, he backed away, trying to get some distance.  The S.P.I.K.E., meanwhile, turned its attention to Samus, plainly intending to take the time to finish her off.  However, while she wasn't that well armored at this point against the bot's arsenal, Samus proved to be far more agile than it expected, able to dodge each swipe of claw, snap of jaw, or beam and missile assault.

At that moment, Spike could be heard, having entered his Boosted state and charging straight at the S.P.I.K.E., which countered the same way it had countered Samus...only for Spike to leap into the air before reaching the potholes, spreading his wings to fly the distance, touching down on ground just before slamming bodily into the bot, pushing it along until he could slam it into the opposite wall.

As Spike backed up for an assault, however, he discovered that, despite all expectations, the S.P.I.K.E. was even more durable than it looked, as that smash only dazed it for a few seconds.  Even before it was on its feet, its lashing tail had caught Spike across the jaw, staggering him with the force of the blow as it took to the air, forcing him to follow.

Samus watched as, even in the confined quarters of the station, the aerial dog fight of dragon vs dragon took place.  Desperately, she looked for an opening, a way for her to add to the fight and help Spike...and she saw a desperate gamble.  Once more, she charged in with Speed Booster until she saw her opening, then leapt, seizing the bot's writhing tail.  As she expected, it lashed the tail to get her off while focusing its attention on Spike...and she timed her release so she was flung upward, flipping in the air until she could unload multiple Super Missiles in rapid succession at the brain case in the small of its back at close range.

Even now, the S.P.I.K.E. caught Samus off with how quick it was, as it dropped from the air after only two impacts to the brain case, causing the remaining Missiles to impact harmlessly against its armor plating.  She could see that the brain case was cracked, though, and the creature backed against the wrecked Data Room as Samus and Spike once more gathered to plan the next assault.  It watched them for a time...then leapt upward, tearing through the ceiling and disappearing through the hidden passages of the station.  The debris that dropped gave Spike and Samus platforms to allow them to take the same path themselves, to get back to the Navigation Room.





"It...ran away?" Scootaloo asked, stupefied.

"It was part of its program," Adam explained.  "It's primary objective was to maximize its ability to protect the secrets of the station.  It only targeted Samus and Spike - as best as we could determine - because Samus had been using the Data Rooms without proper authorization.  Once it determined that directly confronting them both together wasn't working, it came to the conclusion that its own survival to protect the more sensitive and secret parts of the station took priority over dealing with Samus and Spike...and left to repair, rearm, and simulate new combat tactics."

Discord whistled appreciatively.  "I have to give the shadowy aspects of the Federation their due...when they put their minds to it, they do know how to build an effective Death Machine."

"That's hardly reassuring," Celestia murmured worriedly.  "If they can build one..."

Eyes all around the table widened in fear.  "Well," Shining spoke up, his voice unnaturally high, "it's not like I needed to sleep for the next month anyway, right?  Flurry already gave me plenty of practice going without sleeping!"

"Speaking of which, where is she?" Spike asked curiously.

"We left her with Sunburst-" Cadence began, only to cut herself off.

"Nom nom nom!" Flurry Heart called happily, mouthing one of Spike's horns.

"I thought Sunburst figured out how to curb her magic surges?" Twilight complained.

"Perhaps there is a reason there are no other recorded alicorn births..." Celestia murmured worriedly.

Chuckling, Samus lifted the even tinier pony off Spike's head, cradling her gently in her lap and letting her suck on a finger.
> BSL: Cold Blooded
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So, with the bot running, what next?" Ember asked curiously.  She paused when she noticed a great many eyes turned towards her.  "What?"

"I don't think this is a good story to be telling around a baby," Twilight insisted pointedly, jerking her head towards Flurry Heart.

"She's either too young to understand what we're saying, or it's no different from telling the Crusaders," Spike countered.  "And you haven't objected to them being here."

"If I'd known what would happen on Aether, the Bottleship, and BSL when they first showed up, I would have!" Twilight countered.

"Hey!" Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all called out angrily.

"Besides, if her magic surges aren't contained anymore, she could shatter the castle with a terrified scream if she gets scared!" Twilight added.  "That's what happened to the Crystal Heart, after all!"

"Twilight," Cadence interrupted calmly, getting her attention.  "I think it's fine."

"What?" Twilight gasped out.  "But-"

"Whose adventures do you think are her bedtime stories?" Cadence asked pointedly.

"Umm...Daring Do?"

Shining Armor chuckled.  "No, Twilight...yours."

"What?  But...I haven't had 'adventures', per say-"

Luna, Discord, Ember, and Starlight Glimmer all noisily cleared their throats.

Blushing, Twilight lowered her head with a sigh.  "Point made..."

"Well, after the S.P.I.K.E. fled, we went back to the Navigation Room," Spike explained.  "We then had a discussion with Adam, Melissa, and Ghor about the security bot and its true nature."  He clenched his claws.  "As I said, I...didn't take it so well."

"The worse information we got from that was the fact that the organic brain that powered the S.P.I.K.E. did not have Spike's Metroidal aspects," Samus added.  "Meaning if it didn't reseal its brain case in time, it could become infected by the X."

"Which is exactly what happened, right?" Rainbow inquired.  "And eventually, that's how you regained your Plasma and Wave Beams?"

"Just Wave," Samus corrected.  "Plasma came from somewhere else.  Besides...much more significant information came to light before long..."





"With Level 2 doors open, Sectors 5 and 6 are unlocked," Adam explained.  "Those sectors have already been infiltrated by the X."

"So we'll be headed there next?" Samus asked.

"To Sector 6, yes," Adam agreed.  "Sector 5, however, is Sub-Zero.  Until the Varia Suit data is ready and downloaded, you don't dare go there.  Just being in a Sub-Zero environment will drain your energy as surely as a superheated one will.  For now, you should head for the Sector 6 Data Room.  You don't need to unlock any more levels of Security to get in there, so you should camp out at the Data Room or close to it until we're ready to transmit the data, to make sure the path doesn't get damaged before you get there."

"We're on our way," Samus confirmed, both her and Spike incensed at the idea of Spike's genetic material being used in experiments like the S.P.I.K.E., which was why she had been so short with Adam.  Turning they made their way to Sector 6.

----

Once in contact in the Sector 6 Navigation Room, Adam proceeded with a briefing.  "We have good news and bad news," he began firmly.  "The good news is that the Varia Suit data is ready.  However, due to a change in the BSL's mutating security algorithms, we were unable to maintain contact with the Sector 6 Data Room, and had to transfer the data early.  It's waiting for you there, so you had best hurry."

"That doesn't seem so bad," Spike replied easily.

"That's not the bad news," Adam replied coolly, calling up an image of a blue X virus.  "Some of the X that went into Sector 5 have been altered by the Sub-Zero temperatures.  Samus, if you absorb one, you will be frozen from within.  This is obviously a tactic designed to kill you specifically, Samus, so we cannot deny that the X are both intelligent and out to kill you."

"That's alright," Spike replied easily.  "I'll just absorb them until we get Mom to the Data Room-"

"No!" Melissa interrupted.  "Spike, there's more.  Sector 5 is where experiments with various chemical and biological agents were performed...and according to the data, one of the experiments was a virulent toxin specifically designed to break down the unique composition of your cellular structure!"

"What?" Samus and Spike both shouted out, stunned.

"While it was only ever stabilized in the Sub-Zero climate...the blue X have absorbed it into their own beings as well," Melissa explained.  "It's a flawed form, so it won't be lethal...but if you absorb a blue X, your inner energy will be depleted, and there's a chance one of your latent abilities will be temporarily disabled, if not permanently lost."

Spike's eyes widened in shock.  "Wh...how can I stop that?"

"I was getting to that," Adam continued.  "Because of the alterations in the Sub-Zero climate, the blue X are far more susceptible to heat.  A blast of your flame breath should completely disperse the blue X.  In the meantime, Ghor's already working on an anti-toxin to inoculate you against this agent."

"However, one thing becomes clear," Ghor spoke up.  "The existence of this compound makes it clear that, whatever else BSL exists for...one of its primary objectives was the development of weapons specifically to kill you, Spike."





Noticing the stares they were receiving, Spike nodded.  "Yeah...not pleasant to learn."

"Dang," Rainbow grumbled.  "Hoping this is another place that gets blown up, if only to keep stuff like that from falling into the wrong hands.  I mean, can you imagine if they gave that toxin to the S.P.I.K.E. as a komodo-style poison bite?"

Spike whimpered at the very idea.  "Don't you think I have enough nightmares already, Rainbow?"

Rainbow's ears went flat against her skull.  "Sorry..."
> BSL: Unexpected Varia-ble
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So, unintended nightmare scenarios aside," Velvet cut in, "what was Sector 6 like?"

"Dark," Samus replied readily.  "Sector 6 (NOC) was specifically for the study of nocturnal creatures, and as such large portions of it were kept in absolute darkness.  Only the light our armor gave off even let us see."

"That and my flame breath," Spike added.  "I...admit I went a little overboard with it..."

"A little?" Samus countered with a raised eyebrow.  "Spike you roasted anything that moved, and half the things that didn't!  I had to dodge a panicked discharge five times."

As Spike rubbed the back of his head nervously, Twilight spoke up.  "Well, you can't really blame him for being cau-"

"In the first dark room," Samus added in a growl.

Twilight froze, her hoof raised and her mouth hanging open.  "...sorry Spike," she admitted as she unfroze.  "I've got nothing for that."

"Well, what else was I supposed to do?" Spike demanded.  "I couldn't see the X in the dark!"

"But you could still feel unusual heat sources," Fluttershy pointed out.  "Why not use that to sense any unusual cold spots to aim?"

Spike stared at Fluttershy for a time, then brought his claw to his face with an audible smack.  Several listeners stifled giggles.  Ember laughed openly.

"So other than almost being roasted, how did things go in Sector 6?" Rainbow asked once the laughing stopped.

"Pretty straight forward, actually," Samus replied.  "In addition to being completely dispersed by Spike's flame breath, the Blue X could also be stunned by my beam weapons.  Although...there was one point..."





Samus and Spike raced along the corridor they'd entered, only to find the path blocked by a solid wall.  Scans showed that it could only be broken down with a Power Bomb.  They started to turn back, only to hear the approach of footsteps.  "What do we do?" Spike whispered desperately.

Looking around, Samus noticed that the floor was vulnerable to ordinary bombs and quickly dropped one.  Finding a passageway underneath, she dropped into it, Spike quickly shrinking down and following.  As they hid, they could hear the footsteps directly above them, making their way to the wall.  Hearing a familiar beeping, Samus rolled as far down the passage as she could, Spike racing after her just ahead of the blast of a Power Bomb.

When the blast passed, Samus and Spike carefully made their way forward, the entire floor above them missing.  They could see the SA-X walking ahead, simply marching, behaving very differently than it had when last they'd seen it.  It stepped on one of Spike's shed scales without even noticing before leaping down to a lower level, making its way through another door.  Samus and Spike waited a while to let it move ahead, before leaping down to make their own way through.





Samus paused, glancing worriedly towards Pinkie, remembering how discussion of the SA-X had affected her earlier.  Pinkie, for her part, was munching popcorn.  "You okay, Pinkie?" Samus asked softly.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Pinkie asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Well...last time the SA-X came up..." Samus began.

"That was then, this is now," Pinkie countered.  "Completely different issue."  She tossed more popcorn into her mouth.

Chuckling, Samus turned back to the others.  "Well, the Data Room wasn't long after that, and we didn't really encounter much in the way of dangers beyond the Blue X...but the Data Room was covered by an Eye Door."

"Wait...a Large Core X was in the Data Room?" Shining asked, stunned.

"What was it doin' in there?" Applejack demanded.

"Something that was rather frightening..." Spike murmured softly.





As Samus and Spike burst into the Data Room, they found the Large Core X settled in the download capsule, information transferring from the device into the X.  Before either of them could fully react, the download finished, and the X destroyed the download capsule as it phased through the opposite wall.  Realizing the X had stolen the Varia Suit data, Samus and Spike raced after it into the next room.

The chamber was quite tall, filled with water at the bottom with only a few platforms above it.  As they entered, a massive, bulbous creature flew in, covered in spikes and surrounded by smaller versions of itself.  It was like no creature they had ever seen before.  "What is that?" Samus demanded.

Spike sniffed at the air as the creature passed.  "I...I think that's the biological components of your Varia Suit," he explained.  "It downloaded the data...and used it to create a form to fight us with."

Growling, Samus charged her beam.  "I'm taking my suit back."

Nodding, Spike focused his attention.  Varia Suit...that's resistance to temperature extremes, so my ice and fire breath aren't going to be helpful...  Shifting his focus in his glands, he took a deep breath and unleashed his electric breath.  As he'd expected, it tore through the smaller spheroids surrounding the main creature, pushing it back as it took damage.  Samus took advantage of the opening created to fire off a few charged shots.

After a few volleys, the bright green creature began to dim towards orange, and then red, before the beast finally crumbled away.  The Large Core X revealed had a thinner outer membrane, like the ones that had restored Samus Morph Ball and Jump-related abilities.  Like those, missiles were able to damage the membrane at any time, and Spike was able to grasp the membrane to hold it in place for Samus to fire at.  Before long, the membrane collapsed, and Samus was able to reclaim her Varia Suit effect, which changed her suit from a pale blue to the bright green the creature had originally been.
> BSL: Emergency!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Wait...the X downloaded the Varia Suit?" Twilight gasped out.  "That's...fascinating!  They could process electronic data organically?"

"That's the theory we developed," Samus confirmed.  "Was more disturbing than fascinating to me, since they could apparently steal my data-based power ups that way.  Not fun."

"Thankfully, the back of that chamber led to a rather straightforward path back to the Navigation Room which let us evade most of the Blue X," Spike continued.  "While Mom could absorb them now...I still preferred to avoid them."

"I had...unfortunate news for them when we got back in contact..." Ghor admitted.





Samus stared at Ghor through the screen.  "...repeat that, please," she said calmly.

"I'm...afraid I will be unable to provide you with any downloadable beam weapon data," Ghor admitted.  "All my efforts of simulating the downloads with your current arm cannon configuration results in data rejection.  Were it just the Metroidal alterations, I believe it might have been possible...but your arm cannon received the majority of the suit modification from the draconic DNA you received from Spike.  And the simulation data I have from your acquisition of the Charge Beam indicates that it is similar to how Spike unlocked new breath type weapons...and that's something I can't analyze."  He lowered his gaze.  "...I'm sorry."

Samus sighed, rubbing her faceplate with her palm.  "It's fine," she reassured him.  "Honestly, I'm not surprised there's more difficulties.  This is quickly turning into our roughest mission ever, so why shouldn't it be all the harder?"  She shook her head.  "Sorry, Ghor.  It's not your fault.  I know you're doing your best.  I'm...just a bit stressed out about the whole 'biological agent designed to kill Spike' thing."

"Understandably," Ghor answered.  "I do have good news, however.  Your missile system proves to be far more versatile and adaptable to data downloads, and I was able to retrieve some data from Rundas.  I have Ice Missile data ready for download."

"That's great!" Samus replied eagerly.  "While ice damage didn't penetrate my old armor the way it did with this new suit before I got the Varia effect, an Ice Missile should still freeze the SA-X for a few moments so I can get past it."

"Too bad the X Core destroyed the Data Room here..." Spike grumbled.

"You will just have to use the Data Room in Sector 5 (ARC)," Adam instructed.  "With your Varia Suit effect recovered, the sub-zero temperatures will no longer harm you.  And Spike, your flame breath will be supremely effective there, both to fight and dispel the Blue X."

"We're on our way," Samus confirmed stoically, even as Spike looked nervous.





"Of course, getting the Ice Missiles wasn't nearly as straightforward as talking about it," Samus admitted.

"Anything other than finding the next Security Room to complicate it?" Gandrayda spoke up teasingly.

"...admittedly, no," Samus admitted, getting quite a few chuckles around the table.  "However, Ghor did have a bit of a surprise for me..."





As Samus downloaded the Ice Missiles in the Data Room, she found a second file awaiting her, along with a note.



Samus,
What I said about your arm cannon getting most of the draconic adaptions, and getting new beam weapons the way Spike gained new breath weapons, got me thinking.  I haven't had time to fully test out this program, but I think it might help you.
Ghor



Curious, Samus gave the mental command for her suit to download the new program.



Suit downloading...download complete.
Checking for compatibility...no errors found.
Uploading...upload complete.
New Arm Cannon functionality unlocked.  Charge function/Dragon Blast Autofire switch enabled.
Initiating test.



Samus lifted her arm cannon and turned towards the wall.  As the cannon shifted to the new functionality, it gathered energy...and then unleashed a continuous stream of weapon shots, exceeding the normal fire limiter by a huge factor to the point it more closely resembled Spike's breath attacks than ordinary weapons fire.  When she stopped the assault, her arm cannon wasn't even hot.



Dragon Blast Autofire Acquired
Fire Governor has been rendered obsolete.  Arm Cannon can now fire continuous stream of uncharged shots indefinitely.



Samus stared at her Arm Cannon in awe.  "Wow..."

"You okay, Mom?" Spike asked curiously.

"I'm fine," Samus replied.  "But I think I need to get Ghor a pony this Christmas..."





The looks had changed from awe to shock at the last few words, and Cadence had quickly snatched Flurry Heart from Ghor's cradling arms.  Samus quickly lifted her hand.  "Not the sentient variety found here," she hastened to assure them.  "It's just, amongst human society, a child getting a pony for birthday or holiday gift was a way of saying they were incredibly spoiled."

"Personally, I'd have preferred a mecha-dragon," Ghor countered jokingly.

"I do happen to have the S.P.I.K.E. specs from B.S.L. still," Samus offered.  "It wouldn't be that hard for you to get the parts and program it to not be a mindless killing machine."

Ghor stared at Samus, his jaw manipulators hanging limp, his hands clenched together and his optics sparking.

"Umm...?" Spike asked worriedly.

Ember snickered.  "I think you made him squee," she teased.

Samus chuckled a bit at that, making a mental note to get the specs out of her ship's computers when they next took a break.  "Of course, releasing the yellow security locks had its own drawbacks, as we discovered on our way back to the Navigation Room.  Just before we got there, alarms started going off about an Emergency in Sector 3.  We found out from Adam what it was..."





"Sector 3 is on the verge of meltdown!" Adam called out as soon as communication was open in the Navigation Room.  "The Main Boiler's Cooling Unit is malfunctioning.  Melissa's trying to reactivate it remotely, but she's being stonewalled somehow.  If it's not reactivated soon, it could trigger the station's auto-destruct explosives.  Samus, you've got about six minutes to get to the Boiler's control room, find out what's causing the problem, and fix it!"

Samus and Spike were racing for Sector 3 before Adam had even finished speaking.





Everyone stared with bated breath as Samus paused to take a drink.  Ember was the first to speak after that.  "Did...did you make it in time?" she asked breathlessly.  She frowned as this resulted in several snickers.  "What?" she demanded angrily.  "They might have had to abandon ship instead!"

Spike chuckled softly.  "We did make it in time," he replied.  "The only new obstacle we had to deal with was lava in some of the super-heated chambers along the new path, which we dealt with by having me swim across it while Mom stood on my back and shot at any hostiles.  Since the Blue X couldn't function in Sector 3, we didn't even have to worry about them."

"The only point of concern was when we reached the entrance to the control room, with five minutes to spare," Samus explained.  "It was another eye door.  And you all know what that meant..."





As Samus and Spike raced into the control room, they saw what looked like a human scientist at the controls, actively fighting Melissa's attempts to reactivate the cooling unit.  While normally Samus might have hesitated at firing on a human, somehow she didn't need her sensors to know unequivocally that what she saw before her was an X host, fully enslaved by the parasites within.  Neither of them hesitated before blowing it away.

When the body collapsed, a Large Core X with a thicker membrane protecting it took shape.  It moved faster than the previous ones had, keeping out of Spike's grapple range to maintain freedom of movement.  Fortunately, this was the only new tactic it had at its disposal, and Samus' missiles still proved effective at breaching the membrane when it opened an 'eye' to fire on them.

Four missiles and one minute later, the membrane collapsed.  Samus quickly absorbed the X core, recovering her Wide Beam functionality.  Spike, meanwhile, accessed the controls and reactivated the Cooling Unit.
> BSL: Friendly Fuzzy Faces
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Alright, where were the Metroids?" Rainbow Dash asked blandly.

Samus paused.  "...okay, I know it was pretty obvious in hindsight that this was another Bottleship all over again, but why are you asking that now?"

"Duh!" Rainbow countered.  "The Metroids were made to kill the X.  The X were getting tons of power on the station, and the only things that could hurt them with all that power would be you guys or Metroids, and they seemed perfectly happy to hunt you down.  Only reason they'd be trying to blow the place up is if they learned there were a bunch of Metroids somewhere on the station."  She shrugged her shoulders, giving her wings a flap.  "Simple logic, really.  After all, if those Metroids got off station, X everywhere would be in danger."

Samus stared at Rainbow for a time before turning to glower at Spike's smug smirk.  "Fine!" she growled out finally.  "I admit it, video games are good practice for missions.  Now stop harping on it already!"

As several of the listeners burst into giggles, Spike continued the tale.  "We had a similar discussion back at the Sector 3 navigation Room on our way out, though we didn't put together the bit about the Metroids yet.  We thought destroying the station was directed at us.  However, the crewman the X were controlling - that's right, controlling, not imitating - hadn't shown any signs of starting to decay, meaning he'd been infected only recently.  Between that and bio-signs on the habitation deck, we thought there might be survivors.  So we went back to the main deck to investigate..."





The Habitation Deck was, unfortunately, on security lock down, forcing Samus and Spike to make their way along a roundabout path in order to get past the security doors and to the control panel so they could open the Enviro-Sphere at the top.  By the time they reached it, both were frustrated with it.  "There better actually be some survivors in here," Spike grumbled irritably.

"Agreed," Samus confirmed as she activated the controls.  As they watched, the door opened...and four familiar furry forms and one unfamiliar clambered out.





Fluttershy gasped excitedly.  "The Etecoons and Dachoras?" she squealed happily.

"Yup," Samus confirmed.  "No idea what they were doing there, but we were able to confirm they had no X infection.  That was also the first time we saw the baby Dachora."  She sighed nostalgically.  "So adorable..."

"Chirrup?"

At that noise, everyone turned, only to see the three Etecoons gathered around Flurry Heart grooming her, with the baby Dachora nestled in her mane, the mother Dachora preening her wings as the infant alicorn giggled.  The sound had come from the curious infant Dachora.

Discord clutched at his chest.  "Hnng...the only way that could be more adorable is if-"

Gasping happily, Fluttershy rushed over and began nuzzling the creatures and baby pony.

"HNNNNNNNNNNGH!" Discord cried out, clutching at his chest as he fell backwards, daisies popping up from his clutched paw and claw.

After the laughter and cooing faded away, Spike spoke up.  "While it was certainly a pleasant surprise...I took a minor detour on our way back to Sector 5, the only Data Room available to download the Power Bomb data Ghor had just finished."  As Ghor nodded happily, Spike sighed.  "What I discovered..."





Spike paused as he came across the door labelled 'Sub-Zero Containment'.  He'd noticed it previously as they'd passed by, but he had a feeling this would be the last time for a while before they would be back there, so he decided to take a peek inside.

As soon as he entered the room, he found the entire chamber kept incredibly cold.  Also, there was only the one containment chamber, and he'd expected more.  Curiously, he approached the large chamber and read the plaque on the front.



Subject was found on a piece of space debris later identified as part of planet Zebes after its destruction.  Subject had suffered massive damage as a result of exposure to lava, as well as the destruction of the planet.  However, enough living cells were found intact for cellular reconstruction.
Alert: Subject's danger level is in excess of SSS.  Do not release under any circumstances.  Subject is to be kept in absolute zero containment at all times.  As soon as all information regarding subject's capability to combat 'target entity' has been acquired, subject is to be immediately terminated.



Spike furrowed his brow, wondering what could have been found in the wreckage of Zebes that could have survived and been of interest.  The worrying part was that the dates showed it had been found after the shut down of the Bottleship.  Reaching up, Spike wiped the glass wall of the cell clean...

...and found himself staring at the frozen form of Ridley.





"That fucker was still alive?" Rainbow gasped out, stunned.

"Language!" Cadence barked out fiercely, her eyes on Flurry Heart.

"U-ka!" Flurry Heart called out happily, making everyone wince.

"Sorry about that," Rainbow apologized sincerely.  She then turned back to Spike.  "But seriously, what's it take to keep that guy down for the count?"

Spike looked away.  "No idea..." he muttered softly.

"I actually had to go in there to get Spike, he'd stood there so long staring," Samus explained.  "When I saw Ridley in there...I admit, I reacted much the same way you did, Rainbow."

"The only thing that kept you from blasting the door open to tear him apart was the fact the door was only vulnerable to Power Bombs," Spike shot back teasingly.

"Which just became one more reason to go get those Power Bombs," Samus proclaimed cheekily.
> BSL: Power
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So, how was the trip to collect the Power Bomb data?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Rather straightforward," Samus admitted.  "Sector 5 hadn't really changed much since we were there last, so it was a straight run to the Data Room to download the data.  The only real point of interest was a strange shadow we could see in one of the non-cold rooms, flying about in the background.  I didn't recognize it, but something about it was familiar to Spike-"

"The Nightmare from Bottleship?" Scootaloo asked curiously.  "I mean, if everything here was designed to fight and kill Spike, it makes sense they've got an upgraded version of that."

"...note to self, never underestimate ponies," Samus murmured, startling several giggles around the table.  "As I was saying, going in was simple.  Coming back out, we had to take a detour.  Along that path, we...heard the SA-X coming up behind us."

"Fortunately, we were able to rush ahead before it caught up, so there was no confrontation that time," Spike hastened to reassure everyone as he saw their nervous expressions.  "As we made our way back out, we took a few side trips to pick up a few expansions for Mom's Power Bombs.  Since they were going to be quite useful, Mom wanted to be sure to have as many as possible."

"And it was rather helpful that Melissa had provided a tweak for Spike's armor programs, so his energy shields could completely filter out the heat damage of the Power Bombs," Samus added.  "Although it did take a while for Ghor to translate it for transmission as Federation Data Room file."

"That must have been a relief," Twilight spoke up with a pleased smile.  She had been worried about that for a while.

"It was," Spike agreed.  "Especially since it meant I was also immune to the SA-X's Power Bombs."

"So what was your next objective?" Rainbow asked curiously.

"We had to head back to the ship after that," Samus explained.  "Adam had gotten an alert from the ship that didn't make sense, so we went to investigate.  I couldn't check remote because...the tech for that interface was part of what was surgically removed while I was infected."

"You mean...the SA-X could access your ship?" Luna asked worriedly.

"Thankfully, no," Samus countered.  "Once I realized I couldn't use the function anymore, I disabled it so it couldn't be used against me."

"On our way back, though..." Spike began.





Halfway up the main elevator shaft, power cut to the entire station, stopping the elevator there.  A quick scan showed Samus that the wall to one side was structurally weak, allowing her to blast a narrow path to get them out of the shaft.  This led them into the ventilation ducts in the walls again, through a short path that dropped them into the sub-zero quarantine chamber.  Seeing her opportunity, Samus got ready to smash the frozen Ridley...only for it to crumble before her eyes.  A red X Core floated away before she could grab hold of it.  She considered blasting the wall with a Power Bomb to follow, but she could see the doors were inactive again, leaving no way to actually leave the chamber that way.  Since the floor near the Ridley corpse crumbled, she dropped down that path to move on.

Noticing Spike did not immediately follow her, she paused to wait for him.  When he did eventually arrive, however, he simply pushed past her, a sorrowful frown on his face, plainly not wanting to talk about whatever was bothering him.





"I never did get a straight answer about that," Samus murmured softly, turning to Spike.  "Though I get the feeling it's something I'd have trouble understanding."

"It's just..." Spike began, plainly struggling for words.  "Despite how much I'd fought Ridely, how fiercely I'd tried to kill him...it hurt to see him like that, and not in an 'the mighty have fallen' kind of way..."  He shook his head.  "I couldn't even explain it to myself..."

"I can," Ember spoke up.  "For a dragon of our world, it's unnatural to hate another dragon.  There can be some incredibly fierce rivalries, and some intense squabbles over territory or treasure...but not real hate.  As much as you fought Ridley, wanted him dead, hated the things he'd done, wanted to avenge those he'd hurt or killed...you never really hated him, did you Spike?"

Spike glanced away, not meeting anyone's eyes.  "...no, I didn't," he said finally.  "No matter how much I knew I should...and knew he hated me...I just couldn't bring myself to hate him.  And..."

"And you couldn't help but respect him as a fellow dragon," Ember finished for him.  "It's inbuilt into us.  No one knows why."  She shivered slightly.  "Just the idea of seeing a dragon in such a state...I can't imagine how you dealt with it..."

Spike turned back to his thoughts and memories, ones he'd shared with no one, and would not share...





Spike stared down at the crumbled form of Ridley.  To see his foe so reduced was painful, pitiful.  He wanted to turn away, not see it...but he could not.  Something was forcing him to look closer and examine it.

His eyes widened as his senses told him something that was beyond belief.  Ridley was still alive!  There was no trace of X infection left inside him, as the X Core had used him up and tossed him aside...but some part of him was still clinging to life, struggling to keep moving, keep living...to not die like this.

Spike stared down at his longtime foe in such a state.  He knew he couldn't turn his back on this and leave him like this.  At the same time, to kill him when he was helpless...that would make Spike no better than he.  But what other option was left?

Something deep in Spike's mind spoke to him...a voice from before his hatching, from another life, memories locked away...

"...everyone deserves a second chance..."

Sighing, Spike did the only thing he could accept of himself to do.  Gathering some of his inner energy, he breathed it out, infusing it into his fallen foe, giving him enough energy to hold flesh and bone together.  Turning, he pried the containment door open.  With the power off, the Sub-Zero conditions were already failing.  Ridley now had a fair chance of survival and escape.  More than enough for one as clever as he to survive.  Spike would do no more than that.

As he saw his foe take a labored breath, he dove down the path of the crumbling floor, giving no more thought to the one he left behind.





"...I dealt," Spike answered finally.
> BSL: In the Dark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Seeing how distressed Spike was, Twilight decided it was up to her to change the subject and drag him out of his sorrowful reverie.  "So, what was the alert from your ship?" she asked Samus, hoping that would be enough to shift the focus back.

"Actually, it was just a message to let us know that the Etecoons and Dachoras had boarded," Samus replied, chuckling.  "So we didn't really have to go all the way back there.  Still, with the power down throughout the entire station, the ship was the only place we could open communications with Adam and the others."

"With the station down, we weren't even able to access the maps to locate the Auxiliary Power Station," Adam added.  "We'd have been sunk...if not..."  He glanced away.

"What?" Rainbow asked eagerly.  "How'd you save the day?"

"We didn't," Ghor offered, hanging his head.  "One of the Etecoons had apparently entertained himself by hacking around the station's networks.  He already had the exact path from Samus' ship to the Auxiliary Power Station memorized, and typed it in for us over the communicator."

As several of those listening laughed, one of the Etecoons lifted both hands over his head and pumped them up and down, chittering excitedly, before turning and spanking his rear at Adam...only for one of the others to smack him upside the head to make him stop.

"Any unexpected obstacles along the path?" Ember asked eagerly.

Spike grinned, apparently past his funk now.  "Just one big one, really.  While all the cocoons from Sector One had hatched and more dragonfly-like creatures identical to what we'd encountered on the Bottleship, but they were just as vulnerable to fire as before.  The Central Reactor Core itself was completely overgrown with vines, which we made a note of."

"The only other X form we came across were Space Pirates," Samus added.  "Probably made from genetic material recovered along with Ridley from the wreckage of Zebes..."

"The real obstacle, though," Spike continued, grinning from ear to ear, "wasn't until just before we reached the Auxiliary Power Station..."





After destroying the Eye Door, Samus and Spike both knew they were in for another intense fight.  Passing through, they found themselves dropping down into a deep, circular chamber.  Once at the bottom, Spike spread his wings, seeing if there was enough room for him to fly up carrying Samus.  Unfortunately, it was just barely too small for that.

As the pair were trying to find a way out, the entire chamber shook.  A roof panel far above shattered and flames rained down towards them.  Samus evaded the flames while Spike shrugged them off, as they weren't hot enough to even bother him, let alone drain his energy.  His eyes were locked on the massive, six-legged spider that was slowly crawling down the wall towards them.

Samus immediately started trying to get a scan to locate a vulnerable point where she could hit it with a Super Missile or charged beam attack.  Spike, however, lunged upward, grappling with the spider-like creature with claws and jaws.

The creature screeched in rage and pain as it struggled in his grasp, biting and clawing back at him, only for its claws to be diverted by his energy shields and armor.  The teeth were another story, but Spike's neck was too flexible for it to get more than one or two glancing bites in.  Meanwhile, Spike started tearing its legs off one by one, swallowing them as he did so.

Eventually, the creature was able to wriggle free after losing all of its limbs.  It opened its mouth in a wide scream, only to swallow a Super Missile and blast backward.

Spike moved quickly, grabbing hold of the spider with all four claws, pulling its mouth open to let Samus bombard it with Super Missiles until it dissolved, revealing an X Core with the thinner, less spiky membrane.  Spike continued to hold it tight as Samus continued to unleash Super Missile after Super Missile until the membrane broke, letting Samus absorb the X Core within.



Space Jump Ability recovered.



"About damn time," Samus grumbled under her breath, somersaulting upward into the opened path, Spike following behind her.





As several ponies gave Spike amused looks - save Twilight Velvet and Night Light, who looked a little stunned - Ember chuckled.  "And here I thought you'd have had plenty to eat there, since the X hosts would charge you."

"X hosts are tasty depending on the creature," Spike offered, "but not very filling.  They have very little in the way of nutritional substance."

"Thankfully, the Auxiliary Power Station was right through the passage the spider opened when it broke through," Samus explained.  "And once it was on, we went into the next room, which just happened to be a Navigation Room, so we could communicate with Adam and the others..."





Once communications were active, Adam nodded firmly, hiding his relief.  "Good work, you two," he complimented.  "With Auxiliary Power restored, Recharge Stations, Safe Rooms, and Navigation Rooms are online.  Unfortunately, hatches and elevators are still offline."

"By my calculations," Ghor added, "Auxiliary Power will last at most two hours.  If you don't manage to reactivate the main silo in that time, it will become impossible."

"We saw some vines choking the Main Silo," Samus noted.  "They seem to be growing everywhere."

"That's probably the cause," Melissa noted.  "Do you have any ideas where they might be coming from?"

"Those cocoons we've seen broken open are from Sector 2," Spike noted.  "The vines are probably sourced from there, too."

"Find the source, Samus, Spike," Adam ordered.  "Kill the vines, and the Silo should activate automatically once they're dead as long as Auxiliary Power is active."

"So we need to get to Sector 2 without the use of elevators or hatches," Samus murmured softly.  "Fun times..."
> BSL: Hunter and Hunted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So, how did it go?" Rainbow asked curiously.

"Well, it got off to a really bad start," Samus grumbled.  "While finding a path into Sector 2 proved surprisingly easy, as soon as we got there..."





As soon as Samus rolled through the narrow path into Sector 2, she heard the footsteps.  She immediately froze, listening to determine exactly where they were coming from, rolling forward very quietly before uncurling from Morph Ball as she reached a wide opening.  Spike joined her, staying Morph Ball size for now.  "The SA-X..." he whispered.

Samus listened to the footsteps carefully.  "What's taking it so long to leave?" she grumbled angrily.

Spike listened carefully.  "It's not leaving, it's patrolling," Spike murmured softly.  "It's walking back and forth directly below us...waiting for something."

Samus cursed under her breath.  "It knows we have to come this way.  It's waiting for us."

They stared at each other for a time.  Finally, Spike spoke up.  "I'll go in first as a distraction," he stated firmly.  "I'll go in for a physical strike, then shrink down to evade any counterattack, giving you time to pull ahead.  I'll catch up with you."

"No," Samus countered firmly.  "If it's anything like me, as soon as it sees you it'll shoot you with Plasma.  With you charging in full force, you'd be torn apart, especially if it then followed up with Screw Attack.  I'll be the distraction while you clear a path for me to follow you down.  My armor can take a few Plasma shots, and I'll be able to freeze it with an Ice Missile for a time.  Maybe I can apply the dragon auto-fire to my missile launcher to keep it still long enough for us to get away."

"Hang on a sec," Spike interrupted.  "...you didn't have any fire type weapons when you got infected, right?"

"No..." Samus confirmed, waiting for Spike to continue.

"Here's the plan then," Spike offered.  "You go first and get the SA-X with some Ice Missiles.  I'll back you up with my Ice Breath.  Once it's frozen, I'll make an ice wall with my breath between it and us.  The only way it'll be able to pursue-"

The wall nearby erupted as an orange clad fist punched through.

"-is if it can do that!" Spike shrieked out, diving down through the partially damaged floor and making a run for it, Samus close behind.

The SA-X Screw Attacked through the wall to pursue them, immediately firing off several rounds of Plasma Beam.  Samus fired Ice Missiles all around, hoping to create enough temperature differential to skew the beam flow dynamics with its Ice functionality.  Spike, meanwhile, turned his head and filled the whole corridor with his Ice Breath, since it was narrow enough he could do so efficiently.  Unfortunately, the SA-X Screw Attacked through, not freezing as a result of the half-energy state.

Thankfully, this also stopped the build up of speed it had been developing, allowing Samus to run ahead, unlocking security gates as she went.  Her scans showed a path downward through a hidden passage through the floor.  She quickly blasted it open and leapt down.  "Come on!" she shouted at Spike.

Spike dove after her, freezing the path closed behind him as they raced ahead.  Past the next open door, they stopped hearing any sound of footsteps.  They both breathed a sigh of relief as they realized they'd successfully evaded it once more.





"Eeyikes!" Pinkie yelped out.  "It went all Shining on you!"

"Huh?" Shining Armor asked, confused.

"Horror movie, dear," Cadence told him.

"Oh, right, never mind," Shining muttered, shivering all over.

"You've got that here too?" Anthony gasped out, stunned.  "Okay, someone's gotta do a comparison of everything that developed here that's like what we've got.  There's way too many similarities to be coincidence."

"There's 27,432,965 points of commonality over the course of historical development of science, fiction, and entertainment," Discord spoke up.  As everyone turned to stare at him, he shrugged.  "What?  I had to entertain myself somehow while being in stone for over a millennium."

Spike cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.  "At any rate, the only hard part after that was actually getting to the source of the vines.  Having a path already laid out for us helped immensely."  He tipped his head towards the Ettecoon, who shot him a thumbs up.  "The actual source of the vines, on the other hand..."





After passing the Eye Door, Samus and Spike found themselves dropping down into a large chamber.  The bottom was platforms interspersed with pools of water filled with carnivorous plants.  Other flowers dropped acidic pollen into the air from the ceiling, floating down towards the pair as they landed.  Across the room, a massive plant creature resembling an upright Chozo Statue controlled all the plants.

"Looks like that's the source-"

Samus' voice was cut off as Spike opened his mouth and unleashed his full power flame breath, scorching everything even as the plant creatures let out screams of anguish.  He didn't let up even as the source of the plants started to crumble, bits of its structure falling away.  When the plants on the ceiling dissolved as the front of the creature fell away and it started firing Plasma Beams at them, he leapt to the ceiling out of its range, clung there, and blasted it with even more fire until the entire thing crumbled away, revealing the Large X Core, showing the signs of being another one with Beam Data, having the thicker membrane and the eye that occasionally opened to fire on them.  It focused attention on Spike, only to freeze.

Samus stared right at the X Core she held in her dragon-modified Grapple Beam.  "...you know, with there not being any points to lock onto with this, I hadn't even realized I still had this.  Funny thing...the dragon modifier supercharges my Grapple Beam.  I can lock onto anything now."  Turning, she yanked her arm, slamming the X Core into several walls as she flipped it around before jerking back, tearing the membrane open.  As the X Core floated, dazed, she leapt up and absorbed it.



Plasma Beam ability recovered.
Beam now pierces enemies.
...dragon auto-fire modification applied.
Piercing beam aimed at joints can disarm targets.



"...nice!" Samus purred, stroking her arm cannon lovingly.





"I did not!" Samus insisted angrily.

"You so totally did, Mom!" Spike snapped back as many of those listening laughed.  "It was really creepy!"
> BSL: Nightmare's Return
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So did taking out that plant thing restore the station's power?" Twilight asked curiously.

"It did," Spike confirmed.  "It caused all the strange vegetation that had been swarming through Sector 2 and over the central silo to wither and die, which in addition to restoring power made various areas much more navigable.  We did a bit of exploring to pick up a few extra expansions for Mom before checking back in at the Navigation Room.  We had quite the interesting conversation there..."





Samus hid her grin as she watched Adam struggle to maintain his composure after hearing about the restoration of her Plasma Beam and the added effect from the Dragon Auto-Fire with that beam.  "Most impressive, Samus," he offered finally.  "At this rate, you may just stand a chance against the SA-X when you encounter it again.  However, you should still avoid it for now.  It might be collecting expansions or power-ups as well."

"That's a terrifying thought," Spike mumbled unpleasantly.

"We have good news and bad news for you," Ghor spoke up.  "The bad news is that during the power outage, a particularly dangerous specimen in Sector 5 broke free of its containment to rampage through it, including destroying the Data Room.  If it isn't contained soon, the entire station may be at risk."

"I guess that's where we're going next," Samus mumbled.

"There's more," Ghor added.  "From what I've been able to determine, it's a bio-weapon Spike has faced before...from BSL.  Upgraded from the original schematics it had...when it was guarding Sector Zero."

Spike growled under his breath.  "The Nightmare..."

"Affirmative," Ghor confirmed.  "However, I have good news..."  His voice trailed off.

"...Ghor?" Samus asked in concern.

"...I successfully applied the Diffusion Effect to your Missile Launcher," Ghor stated finally.  "With the program downloaded, a charged missile will release a destructive wave of ice that will effect anything in range.  However, while you will be immune to the effect...I can't guarantee that Spike will be as well."

Samus frowned thoughtfully.  "I...see..."

"On top of that," Melissa spoke up, "the only Data Room we could send the data to was the one in Sector 4...the one behind the Level 4 Security Lock.  And you know what happens each time you unlock a new Security Level."

"Samus," Adam interrupted, "I leave it up to your discretion whether acquiring the Diffusion Missiles is worth the risk of unlocking Level 4 Security.  For now, head straight to Sector 5."





"Seriously?" Rainbow Dash demanded angrily.  "They brought that thing back?"

"That's more or less how we felt about it," Spike grumbled.  "Only of course, now it was an X Host and running rampant rather than guarding, so we were expecting it to hunt us down."

"How much of a rampage did it manage?" Ember asked curiously.  "Just how strong was it?"

"Pretty strong," Samus admitted.  "Entire sections of Sector 5 were completely restructured from the damage, and nearly all of the previously frozen segments were thawed.  The entire place was a shambles.  Melissa couldn't give us an accurate location...so we just had to wander around."

"And most of the paths we'd taken before had changed," Spike added.  "On the plus side, new areas were available to explore."

"On the minus side, they had a great deal of water in them, which made things difficult for me," Samus grumbled.

"I was able to carry you through those parts, though," Spike offered.  "That made things somewhat simpler."

"Those 'mer-Pirates' were still frustrating to see," Samus growled.

"Mer-Pirates?" Twilight asked, confused.

"The X mimicking Space Pirates in the water mutated to be amphibious," Spike explained.  "Lost their legs, gained a tail and fins along their sides, letting them move much faster underwater."

"It was a relief when we found the Eye Door that it wasn't underwater," Samus admitted.  "However, I get the feeling Spike didn't like encountering the Nightmare again..."





As Spike and Samus dropped down into the massive chamber, they could feel something was approaching.  Samus immediately switched to her Dragon Auto-Fire, hoping to make use of its special function with the Plasma Beam.  Spike expanded himself as big as he could reasonably manage without crowding Samus.

Before long, the creature arose from beneath a massive junk pile it had been hiding under.  It hovered before them for a few moments...and immediately launched upward.

"Shi'cho-kra!" Spike barked out, lunging after it before it could activate its gravity engine.  He quickly grappled with one of its 'wings', gripping tightly and digging in with his claws.  The creature attempted to shake him off, but Spike held on tight, expanding himself further in an attempt to drag the creature to the ground.

Samus focused her attention on the struggle, trying to spot her opportunity.  Eventually, she spotted it.  As the Nightmare slowed to shake Spike off again, the joint where the Gravity Generator was attached became visible.  Locking on, Samus opened fire.  Her beam lanced forth, tearing through the joint and destroying the Gravity Generator.  This caused a chain reaction within the creature's mechanical components that caused its face plate to blow off.

Spike immediately clambered up the Nightmare's body to attack the exposed face even as the creature continued to attack with bulk and the lasers along its wings.  Samus quickly moved to target the wing joints.  When she got into proper position with her Space Jump, she was able to shoot each one off with her Dragon Plasma, as she now dubbed the new function.

The Nightmare let off shrieks of pain and rage, trying to fight back, but Samus continued to target every joint and kink in its armor as Spike wailed on its face.  Eventually, it collapsed in a massive explosion, revealing the X Core.  Much like the others, it took barely any time for the membrane to be destroyed, allowing Samus to absorb it.



Gravity Suit Effect recovered.
Move freely in water.



Samus smiled widely as her suit changed from a yellowish green to a dark purple.
> BSL: Ghost in the Machine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So after beating the Nightmare again, wither did you go to next?" Luna asked curiously.

"Well, because of all the damage the Nightmare did to Sector 5, we couldn't go back the way we'd come," Samus explained.  "Instead, we were forced to take another path to find our way back to a Navigation Room.  The only path available was an underwater path only accessible via my Speed Booster, which I could use underwater now that I had my Gravity Suit effect back.  This path led us into the lower portions of Sector 4, actually."

"Which means this is where you picked up those Diffusion Missiles?" Rainbow asked eagerly.

"Yes," Samus admitted.  "We found that we couldn't actually get out without unlocking level 4 security...and once that was done, I decided it was better I have the upgrade than risk the SA-X getting ahold of it, or any other X for that matter.  Thankfully, we quickly found out that as long as Spike was far enough away from the epicenter when the missile went off, the Diffusion effect wouldn't hurt him."

"After that, we made our way back to the Sector 4 Navigation Room," Spike continued.  "There, we received...unusual news..."





"I see you collected the Diffusion system," Adam commented as communications was opened.

"Once we were forced to unlock Level 4 Security, it was either get it or leave it for something else to get," Samus explained.  "The good news is that it doesn't effect Spike unless he's too close to the epicenter."

"That is good," Adam confirmed.  "You may need it before too long.  We've received...an unusual signal."

"A signal?" Spike spoke up immediately, remembering the strange garbled signals they'd been getting along their communication frequency throughout the journey.

"From Sector 6," Melissa explained.  "It...it was from the S.P.I.K.E.  On a distress frequency."

"What?" Samus demanded, stunned.  

"The S.P.I.K.E. is in Sector 6...and calling for help.  Calling you."





"Was it a trap?" Rainbow asked eagerly.

"As far as we were able to tell, no," Samus explained.  "From all reports of its behavior, its organic components had been infected by the X, but its cybernetic components were enabling it to fight off the infection somehow, but it wasn't able to keep it up any longer.  And...the distress signal began as soon as we unlocked Level 4 security."

"Then...when all the security was unlocked, it must have concluded that station security and secrecy was no longer a priority," Twilight concluded.  "At that point...it decided its survival was its new primary objective...and since you unlocked the security, you could be called to assist it."

"Possible," Samus admitted.  "We never did get straight answers, unfortunately.  Besides that..."

"When they reached NOC, I had to inform them that the SA-X was actively hunting them," Adam explained.  "They had to get in, find the S.P.I.K.E., take whatever action was appropriate, and get out."

"So in we went," Spike continued.  "We went deeper into the Sector than ever...and we found something strange..."





As Samus and Spike went as deep as they could go, they found an area sealed off by a security gate, the switch to unlock it on the other side, apparently designed to open from the inside or a security code only.  As they stood there, a computerized voice spoke up.  "Warning!  No entry without authorization!"  The message repeated on endless loop.

As they listened, a loud crash could be heard from back the way they'd come, along with a loud metallic shriek.  Turning, the pair raced to see what had happened.

In a wide room with a deep pool of water covering the floor, they found the S.P.I.K.E.  It seemed to be writhing, struggling against itself as it smashed repeatedly into walls and floor, letting out the occasional shriek as it tried to reach its own back, scratching at its brain case.  The case was cracked open, and a large, tumorous yellow growth pulsed there.

Samus leveled her arm cannon, ready to shoot, but couldn't get a straight shot.  "Spike!  Can you get it to hold still long enough for me to shoot?" she asked as she readied her Dragon Plasma.

"On it!" Spike confirmed, lunging forward.  Leaping up, he landed on the S.P.I.K.E.'s back, grasping the growth and pulling.  The S.P.I.K.E., apparently recognizing a helping claw, shifted side on to Samus, lowering one wing.  Samus fired.

The growth was torn from the S.P.I.K.E., damaging its organic components somewhat as it staggered, but leaving it uncorrupted by the X.  The growth, however, landed in a broken wall segment amongst damaged mechanical components...which it immediately began to absorb.

"What the-" Samus began before throwing herself into the water as a Plasma/Wave blast erupted from the hole.

Samus, Spike, and the S.P.I.K.E. turned to face the hole as a fully functional S.P.I.K.E.-X clambered out, looking between the three as it determined the greatest threat.

As the beast roared and lunged forward, Spike and his robotic counterpart lunged in, attacking it from both sides even as it tried to lunge for Samus.  Samus, for her part, sent her Dragon Plasma straight down the beast's throat, damaging its beam system and making it rear back even as Spike and S.P.I.K.E. attacked its wings.  The beast then leapt into the air, countering with missile systems, locking onto both Spike and Samus.  However, S.P.I.K.E. raised its wings, taking the blows for them both, its already damaged chassis starting to crack.  With a snarl, it lunged up and grappled with its Parasitic copy.

The two nearly identical creatures reared and spun, tearing at each other until it became impossible to tell which one was which.  Samus growled under her breath.  "I've got a shot...but it'll hit both brain cores..."

Spike looked up...and for a moment, his eyes locked on his robotic counterpart's.  "...take it," he stated firmly.

Nodding, Samus fired, her shot punching through both brain cases, causing the S.P.I.K.E. to crash to the ground as the parasitic copy revealed the X-Core within.  Before Samus could take a shot, the S.P.I.K.E. unloaded its arsenal into the membrane, shattering it and allowing Samus to absorb the X.



Wave Beam Ability Recovered
Beam pierces walls
Dragon Auto-Fire adaption...complete
Diffusion Effect restored to Beam Weapon system via Dragon Auto-Fire



Spike, for his part, walked up to his robotic counterpart, gently lifting its head.  It looked up at him for a time...and then the light in its optics went dim.

"Mom..." Spike finally spoke up.  "I...need a Power Bomb..."

Nodding, Samus triggered her suit to dispense one, leaving it up to Spike to arm it.  He set it to a longer than normal timer, then set it inside the fallen bot's brain case.  He then turned and slowly walked away, Samus by his side.

As they left the room, the Power Bomb went off, destroying the last trace of the unit.





The table was silent for a time.  Spike refused to meet anyone's eyes at first...until Ember caught his attention.  She gently touched the Bloodstone in her scepter to her brow, and nodded understandingly.  Spike nodded back.  No more needed to be said.
> BSL: Life's Purpose
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a time, Discord cleared his throat.  "Normally, this would be where someone tries to change the tone of things to try and cheer everyone up by continuing the story," he explained calmly, orbiting above the table.  "However...I'm pretty sure that would be a mistake just now."  He snaked downwards so his face was level with Samus' and Spike's.  "After all...I don't need to be a gamer to know that beyond that door you needed the Wave Beam to open - which you just described yourself getting - was Sector Zero, where the Metroids were."

Samus nodded slowly.  "Yes.  That's...where they were.  It...it was rough on both of us...but not for the same reason it was for Spike on the Bottleship."  She lifted her head.  "Now that I was part Metroid, I could understand them as well...but the ones on BSL had much more to say..."





As they went past the final airlock of the Restricted Zone, the incessant computer alert cut off.  In the very first chamber, they found themselves confronted by a capsule full of infant Metroids...who all skreed happily to see them.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Brother and sister!

We knew you were coming!  We felt you moving!

You will free us, yes?  The enemy stalks!  We must hunt!

Samus and Spike both staggered to a halt as the multitude of voices echoed in their heads.  "E...enemy?" Samus spoke out, confused.

"Hunt?" Spike added, focusing on that as he braced for battle.

The enemies inside!

From beneath the plant!

Tiny tiny evil!

We exist to destroy it!

It comes for us!  Free us to hunt, brother and sister!

This...way...

That last voice came from the next chamber, and Samus and Spike readily followed it...finding four more capsules.  One each containing an Adult, an Alpha, a Gamma, and a Zeta Metroid.

The Adult floated up and down in its tube.  The little ones do not fully understand, they have not grown yet.  But they know, and as do we.

The Alpha scratched at its tube with its fangs.  But we...we were grown too fast...it hurts...

The Gamma Metroid whimpered in its tube.  We cannot...face the foe...

It hurts! The Zeta shrieked as it flailed in its tube.  It hurts!

The humans think they have found a way to use us, The Adult spoke up.  But it destroys our minds even as it accelerates our bodies.  Only I retain myself...for now.  Only I can explain to you...that our Makers crafted our race to cage the tiny enemies inside the living, that create the Empty Ones, the Living Dead.  We Metroids were created...to hunt those you know as the X.

"What?" Samus demanded, stunned.  "But...who would do that?"

The Adult Metroid seemed to chuckle.  The same ones whose work I see in your blood, sister.  They gave you their blood long before you had ours.

Samus' eyes widened.  "The Chozo...made you to contain the X..."

That is the purpose of our existence, the Adult continued, and every Metroid has an instinctive understanding of our enemy, and how to hunt them.  We all strain for those that race through this facility...and those that wake on the world below.  At that moment, the entire Restricted Sector shook, and the capsules broke.  They are here! the Adult cried even as the others raced for the other chamber.  Samus and Spike followed.

The SA-X was firing at the walls of the Sector randomly, plainly trying to cause as much damage as possible before the Metroids converged.  "Alert!" a computerized voice proclaimed.  "Damage to Restricted Labs!  Sector is being locked down!  60 seconds to detachment of Restricted Laboratory!"

Go! the Adult Metroid proclaimed, forcing the pair up towards the one door that was still open to the rest of the station.  Fulfill our purpose for us!  Destroy the Enemy, all of them...that our deaths will have meaning, and our purpose fulfilled!  With that, the Adult rounded on the SA-X, skreeing in hunger.

Unable to sway any of the Metroids from their assault, Samus and Spike made their way through the door as instructed...and watched the Restricted Laboratory fall away from the BSL station to explode.





"When we made it to the Navigation Room, we got in contact with Adam...and everything was confirmed," Samus continued.  "With the Restricted Laboratory compromised, the security protecting the data went down...and we got everything.  BSL was being run by the same people behind the Bottleship, and it was another bio-weapons research lab...officially for turning bio-weapons to peaceful applications.  The Metroid research had also discovered a way to accelerate Metroid growth, as the Metroids told us, a way to turn a Larva into an Omega in a matter of days."

"It didn't matter to the ones in charge that this reduced the Metroid to a pain-maddened berserker who had to eat everything in sight in a desperate attempt to reverse the cellular degradation caused by such rapid growth," Spike grumbled angrily, snorting a bit of fire as he spoke.

"Needless to say, all of us were quite incensed," Ghor spoke up.  "However, our resolve quickly hardened as we determined exactly what our next course of action was.  Samus and Spike would alter the station's course so that, when the self-destruct was initiated, the vaporization field would engulf SR388.  With that, all X everywhere would be gone permanently...and the Metroids would be able to rest in peace, their purpose fulfilled."

"But there were two more problems," Adam concluded.  "First, with the security down, we had full access to BSL's automated systems, and could scan through the whole station...and we saw no less than 10 SA-X patrolling the halls of the station."  Gasps raced around the table...along with the sound of a deflating balloon.  "It was surprising to see at first...but the X did reproduce by asexual division, so it made sense.  And on top of that...the ones behind the station were on their way there.  They saw...potential in the X, and the SA-X, and wanted to capture them."

"That's insane!" Twilight shouted out.  "That would unleash the X on the entire galaxy, with no way to control them!"

"Precisely," Samus confirmed.  "And so we were on a time limit.  Download every bit of available data from the station, and destroy both it and SR388, and get out alive...before the Federation got there."
> BSL: False Dragon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Of course, even getting back to the regular station proved to be a pain and a half," Samus continued, not pausing for any reactions.  Her quickness in continuing the story conveyed the urgency the group felt when the events had originally unfolded.  "The other exit from the restricted sector led into an area that rather closely resembled Tourian in atmosphere and appearance.  Exposed cold metal, maze-like corridors without path deviations, pools of acid..."

"And X imitating the Mochtroids from Zebes, somehow," Spike added.  "That was frustrating, especially since they were more durable."

"Not to mention many other highly durable X forms," Samus continued.  "Including the golden armored Space Pirates from Tourian that could only be damaged from behind.  Apparently, Ridley wasn't the only cloned survivor of Zebes.  Thankfully, the X mimicking them weren't as intelligent or fierce as the originals."

"Which didn't exactly fill us with confidence when we encountered another Eye Door..." Spike explained, his voice growing hard.





Spike and Samus dropped down into the large chamber, landing lightly on the floor...and finding themselves face to face with what looked like Ridley.  Neither hesitated as they readied themselves for fierce battle.  Before them, Ridley's eyes opened, glowing red...and his body warped.

The form before them became bulbous and twisted, like a mockery of the mighty beast they were so used to fighting.  The tail retained its strong striking power, but the claws and fangs were dulled.  The wings were too small for the massive form, holding itself aloft by other means despite the flapping.  The scales covering the body glowed blue, and the roar it let out was a shrieking cacophony without meaning.  The fireballs it unleashed from its jaw were a pale echo of what the true Ridley had been capable of.

In his mind, Spike refused to even give this mock up Ridley's name.  Calling it the R-X, he lunged after it, attacking its wings with claws and fangs, driving it back towards the ground as Samus unleashed her missiles.  Seeing it tried to use its tail to deflect the missiles, Spike caught it with his hind claws, holding it out of the way to let Samus fire away unabated.

As the pair unleashed their devastating onslaught against the R-X, its scales slowly dulled from blue towards a deep red, its screams of pain echoing as it was slowly being torn apart.  It attempted to put up a fight, but every time it turned towards Spike, it flinched back from the raw, unfettered rage in his eyes.

Before long, the creature crumbled away, revealing the X Core inside.  Like with all others, the membrane did not hold long before releasing the X.  Samus quickly absorbed it, regaining her Screw Attack.





Samus and Spike both paused in their telling to take a drink.  Rainbow suddenly grinned wickedly.  "So Samus, how did it feel to get Screwed and have some of Ridley inside you?"

Samus and Spike both spit their drink all over the table as others gasped in shock, cried out in frustration, or burst into laughter as was their wont.  Samus leveled flinty eyes at Rainbow and leapt across the table at her, hands outstretched angrily.

"Yikes!" Rainbow yelped out, taking off at high speeds with Samus hot on her heels.  It looked like she'd get away...until the Speed Booster kicked in.  "Twilight, help!"

Twilight scratched her chin for a time.  "...she won't hurt you too much..."  She glanced towards Spike.  "Right?"

Spike coughed cider out of the wrong pipe for a while before speaking up.  "Nah, at worst she'll get her in a headlock or something."

"Then I don't need to interfere," Twilight concluded.  "So, until Samus gets back from making Rainbow say Uncle...there's one more thing I'd like to know.  How come you were so angry about the X mimicking Ridley?  I mean, I get there was some sort of...dragon respect thing going on or something?  But..."

"It's more than that," Ember spoke up.  "A big defining quality for dragons is pride.  Like the Metroids, we exist with a purpose.  That purpose is ingrained instinctively in the mind of every dragon...in a way none of us can explain."  She stroked the Bloodstone Scepter.  "I can only really explain it this much...because the Bloodstone Scepter is made from the Bloodstone of our first leader, the first dragon to embody that purpose, and carries the wisdom of every dragon to wield it since.  I...can't really come up with words beyond that, I'm afraid..."

"Protect the planet..." Spike murmured softly.  "I...I remember those words in my mind, when I first took up the Scepter.  I think...I think dragons are supposed to protect the planet itself, somehow."

"But from what?" Ember asked curiously.

"How about Phazon?" Gandrayda offered, causing every eye to swivel towards her.  "I mean think about it.  Phazon is lethal, not just to creatures but to planets as well, and it's been around for a long time, even if it's all gone now.  And yet the dragons of this world can eat it without harm, and are built in such a way that it becomes an instinctive urge to hunt down and devour as much as they can out of a desire to get stronger?  That doesn't sound like something that just happens.  It...it sounds like somebody specifically designed the dragons to protect this world from Phazon...like the Chozo designed the Metroids to protect the universe from the X..."

"That...makes a frightening amount of sense," Samus spoke up as she walked back in, Rainbow trapped in a headlock in her elbow.  "But there's never been a Chozo presence on this world, I checked.  So the question becomes...who did that?"

Nobody noticed Discord hiding behind the tree chandelier, whistling innocently.

"Either way," Ember continued, "the idea of something pretending to be a dragon, and twisting that purpose...yeah, I can't really blame Spike for wanting to rip that thing to shreds."
> BSL: False Hunter?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"After getting my Screw Attack back, we made our way as quickly as we could out of the Tourian-like Sector back into Sector 1," Samus continued once the tension of Ember's revelation had passed, still not having released Rainbow from the headlock.  "We had to go through it to get back to the Main Sector, and up to the Main Deck where the controls were.  We didn't encounter anything that would prove an obstacle to us along the way, but..."  Her voice trailed off, unsure how to explain things.

"We encountered progressively larger empty Metroid cocoons," Spike filled in.  "And since the data stated that the ones running the station had found a way to make an infant grow to an Omega, and we hadn't seen any Omegas yet..."  Several of those listening shivered.

"So you had to fight an Omega Metroid - without Ice Beam - to get to the controls for the station?" Scootaloo gasped out, stunned.

"No," Spike corrected.  "Thankfully not.  We made it up to the Main Deck without incident.  However...something was waiting for us there..."





As Samus and Spike approached the Operations Room, they found the door sealed against possible damage.  Samus paused as she reached the door.  "Why would it...?"

A loud explosion echoed from behind them, the sound of a wall being blasted open.  As the pair turned, they saw an SA-X somersault in...Screw Attack inactive, using only the Space Jump.  As it landed, it immediately launched a barrage of Super Missiles towards Samus, which she barely dodged.

Spike immediately lunged forward, trying to clash with the SA-X, but it leapt over his muzzle and struck right at the back of his skull behind the ear frill with an overhand chop of its free hand, dazing him from the strike, before leaping past him to attack Samus.  As soon as the angle was right, Samus unleashed a Dragon Auto-Fire right into its face, slamming it back into the opposite wall as the Wave-Diffusion locked its muscles until it hit the wall, the Plasma cutting through the suit to damage it internally.

As Samus cut the beam to regroup, the SA-X dropped to the ground, its entire form briefly fluctuating.  Samus expected it, since nearly every other X she'd faced off against had after a heavy hit, but what happened next confused her.  The SA-X stared at its hand like it had never seen it before, shuddering for a time...and then clenched its fist before racing around, firing off its beam weapon...surprisingly careful not to hit Spike.

Samus wasn't sure what had caused this behavior in the SA-X, but if it wasn't going to attack Spike, she was going to take advantage of it.  "Spike, get clear!" she ordered.

"But Mom-"

"Now!" she barked out, charging the SA-X as she triggered her Speed Booster to slam it into the wall before backhanding it across the faceplate with her arm cannon.  The SA-X countered by punching her on her own faceplate, knocking her back.  She glanced away just enough to see Spike following her orders to withdraw, then dove to the side as she heard the shrieking of air that foretold the use of the Screw Attack.  Barely evading, she locked onto her foe with the Dragon Grapple and slammed it into the wall again.

Again, the SA-X fluctuated, and again it hesitated.  This time, however, Samus didn't.  Switching from Dragon Auto-Fire to charge, she charged her beam to maximum as she raced forward, and unleashed it right in the SA-X' face, sending it tumbling to its knees.  Its form fluctuated angrily...and it expanded.

The resulting mutant bulked over Samus and Spike, staring down at them from a dark blue dome on an orange body as its entire body pulsated like an overgrown tumor.  Before it attacked, it let out a roar from a giant mouth as it stared down at itself...then paused as Spike once more returned to Samus' side.  It stared at them both for a while...and then they received that strange signal again, still garbled, and yet...somehow sad.

And then the mutated form crumbled away, the membrane around the blue Large X Core collapsed, and the X floated away.  So stunned were Samus and Spike by what happened that they took no action to stop its escape.





As Samus finished explaining what had happened, the sound of a balloon deflating echoed around the table, and every eye turned to the flat-maned Pinkie who began to bawl her eyes out.  "Pinkie?" Samus asked worriedly.  "What's wrong?"

"I...I was right..." Pinkie sniffled.  "I didn't...want to be right..."

"What do you mean-" Twilight began, only to cut herself off.  "Pinkie, you don't mean...you think it was like the Mirror Pool?  An imperfect copy...that didn't know it was a copy?"

Pinkie nodded.  "That's exactly what it was...that first SA-X - the one that broke out of Quarantine, almost found them in the first hallway, and fought them on the Main Deck - had all of Samus' abilities, tech, and memories...but a broken language center.  So she kept trying to call Spike to reunite with him so she could figure out what happened...only to find him with a Metroid version of herself...which she probably thought was Dark Samus come back controlling him somehow..."

"That's why it wouldn't risk hurting Spike when fighting you," Twilight Velvet spoke up.  "Even if he was enthralled...she couldn't hurt...her son..."

"And when it started to lose its form, it was confronted with the terrifying realization that it was the fake," Discord spoke up.  "And then when it mutated...it couldn't deny it anymore."

"When it roared, it was enraged," Rarity offered, her voice throbbing with emotion.  "It wanted to tear into you, to take back what it thought was its life...but it saw that Spike was with you, and was happy...and that was all it really cared about...just like you."

Ember shivered.  "Can you imagine what that must have been like?" she asked.  "Desperately tracking down a monster with your face to try and protect the one you care about the most...only to discover you are the monster that needs to be stopped?"

Samus looked away, a strange nightmare and part of another adventure suddenly making sense after all this time.  "...I don't have to..."
> BSL: Close Escape
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"You don't have to?" Luna asked curiously.  "Whatever do you mean, Samus?"

"...later," Samus replied.  "We're almost finished here.  Let's get all the way to the end."

"Well, from the sound of it, it was setup the bomb and fly clear," Rainbow pointed out, having gotten free of the headlock while everyone had been stunned at Pinkie's revelation.  "That's about it, right?"

"Can't be!" Scootaloo pointed out.  "She's still purple!"

"Say again?" Apple Bloom asked, confused.

"After getting the Gravity Suit effect, her suit turned purple," Scootaloo explained.  "So she had to have absorbed something else to turn her suit orange, so there must be something more!"

"There is still several years of time to cover," Sweetie Belle pointed out.

Scootaloo frowned.  "Oh...hadn't thought of that..."

"Actually, you're right," Spike spoke up.  "We did have one more obstacle to deal with on the way out of BSL.  After altering the station's orbit and starting the destruct sequence, we started racing for the ship...only to receive a signal that the ship was under attack, and Melissa had activated it to move out of the station to escape the attack.  And when we got there..."





The last hallway to the docking bay was violently torn up, as though something had clawed and chewed its way through the material, like it was searching for something, or desperate to try and stop something.  It looked a bit like the damage from Spike's first teething, but scaled up immensely.  Unnerved, Samus and Spike continued into the docking bay...where they spotted the largest of the broken open Metroid cocoons.

At that moment, the far wall of the docking bay broke open and an Omega Metroid broke through, landing atop the cocoon and crushing it beneath its hind claws.  It let out a roaring shriek.

It hurts...it HURTS!

It continued to rampage, smashing itself against everything in sight and clawing at the walls, pain maddened beyond reason.  Samus sighed sadly.  "There's only one thing we can do..." she muttered softly.

"Yeah," Spike confirmed sadly.  "Besides, the ship can't pick us up as long as it's rampaging in here."  Opening his mouth, he exhaled a stream of ice breath...only for it to bounce off the Omega's claws.

You're hurting me! it shrieked out, swiping at them both, its claws tearing through armor and scales as it knocked them back.

"Aah!" Spike shrieked in pain, clutching at the new gashes even as they started to heal.

Samus slammed into the ground nearby, clenching her teeth in pain.  "S-Spike!" she called out, trying to get to her feet.



Alert: Power Suit Integrity failure!  Atmosphere failure!



Samus cursed under her breath, clutching at the hole in her armor to keep her air from leaking out too much, unable to move to protect Spike.

It hurts! the Omega shrieked out in pain again.

Samus jerked her head up as she heard the strange signal - the one from the SA-X - again, this time sounding infuriated.  The blue X Core floated in, settling down between Spike and the Omega Metroid before once more turning into the SA-X.  As the Omega approached Spike, the SA-X unleashed a barrage of ice beam shots straight into its belly, the Plasma effect allowing the beam to pierce the hard shell.  The Omega let out screams of pain until it took a swipe, knocking the SA-X back and forcing it to revert to an X Core.  The signal came again, this one pleading, as the X Core floated over to above Samus.

Steeling herself, Samus leapt up, absorbing the X Core.



Armor Integrity Restored.
Ice Beam Functionality Restored.
Dragon Auto-Fire...Adapted.
Auto-Fired Ice Beam will cause Crystalization within the target.



"Get away from my son!" Samus roared out, her furious tone exactly matching the tone of the signal the SA-X had sent as it had come to their rescue.  Lifting her arm cannon, Samus opened fire, pointing straight into the Metroid's underbelly.  The twining streams of ice that erupted from her cannon, slamming the Omega against the wall as its body slowly froze from the inside.

As the light started to fade from the Omega's eyes, it let out a final skree.

Pain's...gone...thank you...

As the Omega crumbled away, Samus' ship flew in.  Spike and Samus immediately leapt inside, letting the ship take them away from the station as it entered SR388's atmosphere.

As they flew away alongside Melissa's Luminoth fighter craft, they watched the station and planet explode, all the X wiped out at once.  Samus and Spike both felt a strange sense of relief, as though a weight upon their very souls they weren't even aware of had been removed.  Samus took the controls and opened communications.  "Mission complete," she told Adam.

"Good work, Samus," Adam congratulated.  "The ones in charge of the station can no longer get their hands on any X."

"But they still get away with it," Spike grumbled.  "They're the same ones behind the Bottleship, and again they get away with everything!"

"Not quite," Melissa spoke up.  "I was able to download everything off the station's files once the security went down with the jettisoning of the Restricted Sector.  Names, dates, signatures...enough to nail them to the wall for everything.  Every last detail."

"So what are you going to do with it?" Samus asked.  "Hand it over to Dane to prosecute them?"

"No," Melissa countered.  "There's too much here.  The very act of giving him the information will put him in danger.  They'd have Deleters dispatched by the time we landed."

"Then what is your plan?" Ghor asked curiously.

"The Federation's new instantaneous communications network isn't as secure as they'd like to believe," Melissa replied cryptically.  Hooking into the network, she typed in an instant message with, leaving the 'To' field blank.



Jane, I need a favor...







"I don't know what Melissa did," Adam concluded, "but the very next morning, all the information from BSL appeared simultaneously on every computer system in the entire Federation.  Personal computers, media outlets, government units...all at once, and with no source code to say where it came from."

"At that point, the Federation cracked down hard on those responsible," Ghor added.  "Because in addition to information about bio-weapons research - which was illegal - the information revealed that BSL's primary purpose was, indeed, to develop weapons specifically to kill Spike, on the off chance he became an enemy of the Federation.  With how popular Samus and Spike were with the general populace for everything they'd done..."

"It began to look like a witch hunt," Anthony added.  "The public had the names, and they wanted blood.  The Federation actually hired Samus and Spike to carry out the arrests of the guilty parties and transporting them to the trials, as the only ones the public wouldn't tear through to get at them."

"I found it oddly cathartic that the ones we were bringing in knew that all we had to do was step back, and the mob would descend upon them," Spike murmured softly.  "Knowing the only reason they made it to the trial in one piece was because we were more honorable than they."
> Interlude: Dark Tale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	With the end of the tale of the events of BSL station, those gathered for stories turned in for the night, with the promise that the story would continue - and conclude - the next morning.  As the new guests were shown back to their guest rooms, the ponies once more took their preferred sleeping positions, with Twilight and the others arranging themselves over Spike while Celestia took the Crusaders under her wing for cuddles.  Gandrayda had dragged Ember into joining her in curling up in Spike's lap, overriding Ember's protests much to the amusement of others.

However, as sleep and night descended upon Ponyville, something darker was rising out in the Badlands, in the cavern where Ridley was learning a tale long forgotten of ancient Equestria.

When I first arrived upon this world, the Emperor Ing began, I was greatly weakened.  Only by embedding my essence in a large crystal could I survive.  However, the magical fields of this planet were strong, strong enough for me to begin crafting servants to aid me.  At first it was slow going, and I despaired of ever rebuilding my Empire...but hope arrived.  A fragment of Mother Phaaze descended from the heavens to impact the world.  And lo and behold, an entity arrived, one who should have been claimed by the Leviathan to become its Guardian.

But he was too powerful, and kept his distance from the Leviathan's influence.  He studied it for a time, and found it to be problematic for the world he was overseeing.  He took great delight in chaos, but the Leviathan promised only an invading Order, and he would have none of that.  As such, he gazed into the very fabric of time to find a way to contain and neutralize the Leviathan...and found it in my own past.

"Spike..." Ridley growled out angrily.

Indeed, the Ing Emperor confirmed.  Seeing a dragon that could devour the product of the Seeds, he remade the dragons of this world in his image, and loosed them upon the Seed.  I could only watch as they devoured my only hope of resurrection...and did the only thing I could.  Sending out all of my servants, I managed to extract the Seed's core and crystallize it, rendering it dormant so I could hide it away, making it so the dragon's hunger could not scent it.  But that blasted chimera saw my plan, and he added a tweak to the dragons, making them crave gemstones so they would even hunt the dormant Core.  I thought myself lost...but he seemed to reconsider.  Apparently, he was making things too orderly for his own taste.  He found his greatest entertainment by not knowing the outcome of events...and so he let me escape and hide the Core away...here.  And now, the Core has become active again...and the one known as Dark Samus, the last survivor of Phaaze, has risen within it.

Ridley snarled under his breath.  "Fine," he grumbled.  "A very interesting story.  I suppose that explains why there's Phazon here, and something that looks like Samus.  But how does that help me?"

Patience, Ridley, the Ing Emperor began.  You've only heard half of the story.  You see, I wasn't content to simply wait until I could act.  I made my moves against the races of the world, just as I did against the Luminoth.  My people are The Shadows, but we have had many names.  The Luminoth called us Ing.  The dragons called us Dark Spots.  The minotaurs called us The Slenders.  The griffons called us The Hungry Dark.  ...the ponies called us Umbrum.

The ponies were the greatest threat to my plans, as their magic was able to tap the power of light to destroy us, much as the Luminoth could.  However, I crafted a new plan.  Half pony, half Umbrum, I created my living weapon and left him where I knew ponies would tend to him, because he was left alone.  I watched as they played into my hands, keeping him where their Artifact of Light would give him chronic agony, until eventually he was forced to seek answers.  And when he did, I turned him against those he felt had wronged him, and he became my vessel as I brought a kingdom to my heel, ready to begin rebuilding my Empire...only to be forced to seal it away for over a millennium because of those two Princesses!  And then, when I'm able to bring it back, Spike the Dragon - different than when I last fought him, but still recognizably the same dragon - again destroyed my plans as he was able to deliver the Artifact of Light to the ponies so they could use it to purge me from my host and destroy him, leaving me only this horn fragment to anchor to!

Ridley ground his teeth.  "While all of that is very interesting, how does that apply to the now?"

You poor naive fool...as I've said, I have been preparing.  As the Ing Emperor spoke, Dark Samus stepped out of the Phazon Core and made its way further into the back of the cave.  Curious, Ridley followed, and found a Changeling trapped in magic.  After all, my Shadows do better with hosts to possess...and it took a great deal of time to master some of the more unique aspects of this world's magic.

"I don't think a single Changeling will give us an army, since I can tell that is your intention," Ridley growled out.

And normally it wouldn't, the Emperor responded.  But now that Mother is here...

Reaching up, Dark Samus caressed the horn embedded in Ridley's forehead, then turned and ripped open a rift in space-time.

There is enough magic here to draw one last resource that the Hunter and her pet think they have conquered, the Emperor Ing concluded as Dark Samus reached through, and pulled out a Blue X Core and several smaller X.  The last remnants of Phaaze' sister world, another living planet destroyed by the Hunter and Spike.  As he spoke, Dark Samus absorbed the X Core, and the smaller X infested the Changeling.  We shall soon have our Dark Army of parasites...and then I will show you that even the ponies' strongest magic can be turned against them...that even Heartsong can be twisted to darkness...

Ridley grinned widely, beginning to enjoy where this was going.  "Excellent..."
> The Last Adventure: Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The following morning, everyone once again gathered around to hear more stories, wanting to know more about what had happened with Samus and Spike.  Once everyone was gathered, Scootaloo spoke up eagerly.  "So what next?" she asked eagerly.  "Where'd you go next?  What other adventures did you go on?  Or did you just come straight here after that?"

Samus chuckled softly.  "Well, BSL was six years ago," Samus pointed out logically.  "We did quite a few things during that time, though for about the first year or so we laid low on Tallon IV until the entire BSL situation resolved itself.  With Phazon purged from the planet, it provided everything we needed until we got confirmation that we were out of the news feeds.  It was a good detox for both of us."

"After that, we went back to being bounty hunters," Spike explained.  "Capturing a few felons, dealing with chemically altered wildlife, helping with disaster cleanup...whatever we got hired to do.  Nothing that paid as well as our previous jobs, but it was mostly to keep busy."

"Both of us were pretty sure something big would come along eventually," Samus continued.  "Something that would start us on our next big adventure, or lead us to something new...but nothing ever seemed to come."

"Then what did start the next adventure?" Twilight asked curiously.  "I mean, I'm just guessing, but it has something to do with you not having to imagine what it was like for the SA-X, right?"

Samus jerked her head up in surprise, then chuckled softly.  "Yeah, it did, though that was only part of it.  As for what set things in motion..."  She sighed softly.  "After leaving BSL, every time I'd go to sleep, I'd have...odd dreams.  Sometimes I was searching for something through dark corridors.  Other times, I'd be flying through the air.  Once, I was actively hunting something to devour it..."  She shook her head.  "I couldn't really make sense of any of it.  All I got out of it was bad sleep and a lot of confusion."

"Not to mention being incredibly irritable," Spike added jokingly.

Samus chuckled softly as the surrounding mares giggled.  "Yeah, that too."  She shrugged her shoulders.  "At first, that was all it was, so I was willing to ignore it...but before long, other symptoms began to arise."

"Symptoms?" Luna asked worriedly.  "Were you unwell?"

"Not exactly," Samus corrected.  "The symptoms weren't medical as far as we could tell.  They were...behavioral."  She sighed as she gathered her thoughts, deciding how best to explain things.  "Aboard ship, I became...a bit more territorial, making Spike stay in his area, unless I felt like cuddling him or he was in his smaller size.  I also found myself counting our credits and...enjoying it a bit more than normal.  I also started seeking jobs more actively, to earn more credits...and getting stingy with what we had, even though I knew intellectually that we had plenty."

"Sounds like early hoarding instincts," Ember spoke up.  "You did just become part-dragon and started tapping the abilities.  I suppose it's conceivable you'd start exhibiting behaviors."

"That's exactly what it was, though we didn't know it at the time," Samus confirmed.  "At the time, however, it didn't seem harmful or out of control, so we let it slide."  She frowned, glancing away.  "But then...there was an incident."

"An incident?" Fluttershy asked worriedly, shivering.

"It was on one of our missions," Spike explained softly.  "We'd been hired as bodyguards for the young daughter of an Ambassador.  The Ambassador had received word that she was being targeted by an agency seeking to use her to pressure him into handling certain diplomatic matters to their advantage, and wanted her transported to somewhere safe.  We were the ones he asked to do that."  He shrugged his wings nervously.  "It seemed like a standard escort mission for a while, but halfway to our destination, the mercenaries hired to kidnap the girl took out one of our engines, and we were forced to make an emergency landing."

"Seems rather routine," Rarity murmured softly.  "I don't see what-"

"While we were affecting repairs, the ship's security systems were down," Samus explained.  "That's when the mercenaries made their strike, getting Spike and I distracted while one of their men got into the ship to snatch the girl.  I...heard her scream in fear, and..."  She looked away, shivering slightly.

"You snapped," Ember translated.  "You killed every last one of them for trying to steal a young from your nest, and you did so brutally, to send a message to anyone else that might try."

Samus nodded slowly.  "Yeah...but it's not just what I did.  It's how..."  She shivered slightly as she remembered.  "I...I didn't use the weapons of my suit.  I..."

When she remained silent for a while, Spike spoke up.  "She tore their armor off their bodies with her bare hands, breaking several bones before snapping necks, literally tearing through them while back-handing laser fire out of the way.  When she got to the last one, the one who actually took the girl, she ripped his arm off and beat him half to death with it...and then grabbed him by the head and remaining shoulder, jerking to expose his neck before baring her teeth."  He shivered slightly.  "I stopped her before she ripped his throat out with her teeth."

Silence reigned over the table.  Eventually, Samus spoke up.  "When that happened, I knew I couldn't just ignore what was happening to me.  After safely delivering the girl, I decided to find somewhere to face down everything about myself.  Since it was apparently dragon behavior, I went looking for a place to meditate and face down my inner dragon...the ruins of K2L, my birthplace."
> The Last Adventure: K2L
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why K2L?" Twilight asked curiously.  "I mean, after what happened last time you were there..."  Her voice trailed off, not wanting to bring up those painful memories for Samus.

"Exactly," Samus replied.  "In essence, dealing with my new draconic aspects, I was restarting my Chozo training from the beginning.  And if you're going back to the beginning, you might as well go back to the beginning."  She shrugged her shoulders.  "Besides, Zebes didn't exist anymore at that point.  Stupid Space Pirates hooking Mother Brain directly to geothermal power of the planet's core causing a cascading meltdown when she was destroyed..."

"Oh, is that what caused that?" Twilight asked eagerly.  "Fascinating!"  Several around the table giggled at that.

Samus chuckled softly.  "Yes, that's what caused it.  But that's neither here nor there for now."  As all attention returned to her, she sighed contemplatively.  "Going back to K2L was...difficult for me, since the Federation hadn't touched the place since the Space Pirates decimated the colony.  Time and weather had extinguished the flames, but the scars of that battle were still there...and I still remembered every single one.  I...even went to where I'd hid from Ridley when he killed my parents.  It showed no signs of being touched since."

"It felt...weird, for me," Spike admitted.  "I'd never been there, but I could feel the emotional impressions left behind, untouched for so long.  It...it was like walking through a memory.  Or a nightmare."

"The really hard part, though, was when I came across an area that did show signs of change," Samus began.  "At first, I wasn't sure what to think..."





Samus stared as she approached the area of thriving vegetation amongst the ruins of the colony.  The trees arched protectively over a shaded path where the battle damage had been cleaned up, providing the exact amount of room for Samus and Spike to walk down the path together.  Small critters raced amongst the trees and bushes lining the path, watching them carefully as they resided in an almost unnatural peace with each other.  Bird song, normally high-pitched and happy, was muted and somber, as though the birds were singing someone to their rest, as though trained to sing a soft funeral march.

As the pair reached the end of the path, they came to a large clearing with two large tombstones surmounting the center.  The first thing Samus noticed about them was that, despite the design following human tradition, the stonework itself was Chozo.  The two tombstones were linked at the base, plainly meant to show they stood over a joined pair.  Though Samus did not recognize the first name written on each tombstone, the family name on each stood out in stark clarity.

Aran.

Upon the left tombstone was written 'loving father'.  The right bore the inscription 'loving mother'.  Both bore the final inscription, 'Offered his/her life up to save his/her daughter.  May his/her sacrifice never be forgotten.  May young Samus ever stand as a testament to this sacrifice, for the safety of all life.'

Samus sank to her knees as she stared at the twin graves, tears in her eyes.  "They...they gave them graves," she murmured softly, struggling against the onslaught of emotion.  "I...I never knew...Mom...Dad..."

Curious, Spike approached the gravestones closer, and noticed something.  "Mom...there's something written here where the bases are joined," he pointed out.  "It looks like the Chozo Script we saw on Tallon IV, but I think it's a different dialect or something..."

Samus joined him once she got herself under control.  "The text on Tallon IV was a very old dialect," she explained.  "Those inscriptions were eons old.  But this...this is the modern Zebesian dialect of Chozo text.  I...I grew up reading this."

"What does it say?" Spike asked curiously.

"It says...'We rest eternally with them, our Hatchlings.  We have awaited the time you would return to us, to free you from your last pain.  Join us, and welcome'."

As Samus finished reading, the ground beneath their feet began to shake.  The pair quickly pulled back as the ground descended slowly, bit by bit, until a deep staircase descended into the earth beneath them.

"Doo do doo, doo do doo~!" Spike hummed softly, only to get smacked upside the head by Samus.

The pair slowly made their way down the spiral staircase, past stonework that absolutely couldn't be mistaken for anything but Chozo work.  The stone flowed organically, and tamed bioluminescent plant life provided illumination as they went.  When they reached the bottom, however, Samus froze, staring in awe.

It was plainly an entrance to a Chozo Temple, but it was not Chozo imagery that greeted them as they approached the door.  Instead, perfectly carved statues of Samus' parents as they'd been when the Chozo first visited K2L stood side by side before the great door, each smiling welcomingly, lovingly at the pair as they approached, the expertise of Chozo carving making it look less like a lifeless imitation and more like a captured frozen moment of living time.  Samus could only stare in awe as she approached, reaching forward with both suited hands to take her parents' outstretched ones, almost believing that in doing so, they would step off their pedestals to embrace her.  While that did not happen, she felt the warmth of their embrace around her, as taking the hands called back to her the almost lost memory of their embrace from before they were lost.

As she stood there in that warmth, the far doors opened, revealing two Chozo Statues that looked almost brand new as compared to any others she had seen.  The stonework and circuitry couldn't even be as old as she was, it still shone as though pristine from the quarry.  The jeweled eyes stared out at the pair warmly, and the voices of the Statues sounded clearly in both their minds.  Hatchlings...welcome.

Samus stared in shock.  She knew those voices far too well to ever mistake them.  "O-Old Bird?  G-Grey Voice?"

When we saw in the future what would become of you, we prepared this place for you, Grey Voice explained.

We had already returned to pay proper tribute to your parents, and knew it would be where you came when you needed us, and we were no longer here, Old Bird added.

We built these statues to house our souls, when our physical bodies ceased to be, Grey Voice continued.  It was our doing that made you what you are, Hatchling.  We take it as our duty to remain on this plane, until your need of us has ended.

Your need of us is great, Hatchlings, Old Bird continued.  Both of you.

Spike, Grey Voice called, you are haunted by dreams of your life before you found your way through time to Samus.  Come, meditate with me, that we might find the answers you desperately need.

Nodding, Spike approached the Statue of Grey Voice, shrinking down so he could curl up in a ball in the Chozo Elder's grip.

Samus, Old Bird called gently, your Metroid and Dragon instincts scream loud in your mind, and you are torn within your soul.  Come, meditate with me, that we might aid you in coming to peace with your inner Dragon, that you might once more be whole.

Samus smiled as she curled up in Morph Ball, bouncing into the outstretched hands.
> The Last Adventure: The Dive
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Samus and Spike paused in their telling, they noticed there wasn't a dry eye amongst their listeners.  Samus smiled softly as she saw this.  "It's alright," Samus spoke up.  "It...was quite a bit emotional, but it was healing.  For both of us."

"Old Bird and Grey Voice," Twilight spoke up.  "Were they...?"

"Old Bird was my first friend amongst the Chozo," Samus explained.  "I befriended him back on K2L before Ridley devastated the place, and he acted as an honorary Uncle while I was being raised amongst the Chozo.  And Grey Voice...his DNA was what was used to adapt me to Zebes' environment.  His blood is in my veins...and Spike's.  Made him sort of an...adoptive father.  I admit, we didn't have the best of relationships while he was alive, but..."

"They made up over time," Spike explained.  "And...Grandpa helped me to dive back through my mind, to my hidden memories of this world, which let us find where it was, so we could come here.  Although...calculating its exact location took a long time.  Apparently, this world once passed through Chozo occupied space, and they made a brief study of it...but they weren't able to approach because the unique energy fields of the planet were...out of sync, making any attempt at landing suicidal."

"Sorry about that," Discord apologized.  "I was having fun, and didn't want interference.  Besides, I'd had...bad experience previously with things coming from space."

"How come you didn't interfere with my ship landing, then?" Samus asked curiously.

"Two reasons," Discord explained.  "First, that's Luna's job now, and she'd throw a tizzy-fit if I stuck my oar in without an invitation."  This resulted in Luna blowing him a raspberry, making him laugh.  "Second, I sensed Spike on board."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Fluttershy asked sorrowfully.

"And interfere with that wonderfully emotional reunion?" Discord countered playfully.  "Parish the thought."  For some obscure reason, he transformed himself into a church for a brief moment.

"While Spike explored his origins...Old Bird took me back to mine," Samus explained.  "I started out back on Zebes' surface, in just my Zero Suit, going through my original training again as I fought my way through waves of obstacles without my Power Suit, ending in staff combat with a Chozo Warrior.  When I managed to best him, I regained my Power Suit in my own mind...with only the most basic functions of beam and visor, save for two new functions."

"Two?" Rainbow asked eagerly, taking copious notes again.

"One each derived from my new Draconic and Metroidal traits," Samus explained.  "From my Metroidal side..."  Lifting her right arm, she made her arm cannon vanish and showed everyone her hand and palm, the fang-like claws at the fingertips of the armored gauntlet and the hole in the palm.  "When I grapple with a foe, I can plunge my hand into them and drain their energy to replenish my suit resources, much like Metroid predation.  I can use the same process to transfer some of my energy to someone else, though at lower efficiency."

"Dude..." Rainbow marveled.  "That's so cool..."

"And from my dragon side..."  Smiling, Samus clenched her left hand before spreading her fingers out again, energy dancing between her fingertips as it shaped into flame, ice, and electrical energy at her will.  "I got my own version of Spike's breath weapon."

Gasps of amazement echoed around the table as Twilight rushed forward, scanning the energy with her magic.  "This is amazing!" she gasped out eagerly.  "You're biologically generating magical energy you can project outside your body without any of the adaptions the creatures of our world use!  Admittedly, it's at pretty low levels, but the tight focus means when you launch it, it could be pretty devastating..."  Her voice trailed off as the energy became even more tightly focused.  "You...you can charge that, too?"

Samus nodded.  "I could once I recovered my Charge Beam," she explained.  "After recovering the suit and taking time to master the new functions, Old Bird guided me into a dive into my memories.  That was...different."

"How so?" Scootaloo asked eagerly.

"Well, because of the chaos my mind had been put into because of the dragon instincts awakening, it wasn't consistent," Samus explained.  "It was like exploring all the worlds I'd ever been to simultaneously, all mixed up.  I'd start out in a chamber of Zebes' tunnels, only to pass through a door and come out in the Chozo Temple area of Tallon IV...and turning around to go through the same door would leave me in Torvus Bog."

"How could you possibly maneuver through that kind of chaos?" Twilight gasped, stunned.

"There were several fixed points," Samus explained.  "Each of my latent abilities was a fixed point in my mindscape, and the chambers surrounding them as well, since each latent ability was guarded by larger foes I'd fought on several worlds, whose nature was connected to the ability they guarded...and the path into those chambers couldn't be opened unless I had the abilities needed to fight the guardians.  For example, the path to where Quadraxis guarded the Annihilator Beam in my mind required the Spider Ball and Bombs to get to...but I could explore in any direction I wanted to as I went.  Old Bird was kind enough to ensure I could sense everywhere in the mindscape where my latent abilities were located...as well as the core where I had to face my inner dragon to come to terms with myself."

"Annihilator Beam?" Luna spoke up quickly.  "You mean you regained the Luminoth tech?"

Smiling, Samus tweaked the energy between her fingers, shifting it from Light, to Dark, to a mix.  "And because of my added draconic nature, I don't need to collect ammunition anymore, since my suit can generate it now."

"Okay, that's pretty cool," Ember was forced to admit.  "Sounds like an incredible adventure."

Samus chuckled softly.  "Gotta admit, it really was..."
> The Last Adventure: The Inner Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So, the dive into your memories was literally reliving all of your past adventures?" Ember asked curiously.

"Pretty much," Samus confirmed.  "Before I went to the Core of my mind, it was basically just walking through a patchwork of everything I'd lived through, a patchwork that became more and more straightforward as I recovered more of my latent abilities.  I could have gone straight to the Core at any time...but long habit had me gather all my latent abilities before I did."  She smiled softly.  "Besides, it...felt good to retrace my steps like that, reliving my memories."

"So everything you encountered is something we've already covered, then?" Rainbow clarified.

"Until the Core, yeah," Samus confirmed.

"Then what was the Core like?" Rainbow demanded eagerly.

Samus shivered slightly as she remembered.  "It was...strange.  And...terrifying..."





As Samus reached the Core of her mind, the doors were unlike any she'd ever encountered in her travels.  They were massive and engraved in language that she did not recognize, and yet she could read it plainly.

Here lie your greatest secrets, your worst nightmares, and your true self.  Beware entry, for you will leave whole or not at all.

Samus couldn't help but shiver at that as she stepped up to the doors, which swung open easily for her.  Steeling herself, she stepped through...

She found herself back on K2L...but not the ruins.  The whole planet looked exactly like it had before Ridley and the Space Pirates attacked.  Everything seemed calm and peaceful, just like she remembered it from those peaceful days.  As she walked, she was surprised to see a child running by, chasing a familiar bunny like creature.

And then the sky exploded, and the Pirates descended.  Before her very eyes, her parents rushed to save her younger self from Ridley's attack.  She realized...she was going to watch them die.

"No!" Samus snapped out, lunging forward.  Just as Ridley lunged for her parents, she grabbed him around his neck, flipped over him to twist him into a grapple, shoved her arm cannon into his mouth, and fired off a Super Missile.  "I won't let you kill them again!"

Ridley flapped back, screaming in rage...and the Pirates swarmed around, aiming for her parents.  Samus narrowed her eyes as she braced herself.  "Not this time..." she growled, ready for battle.

The first wave of Pirates came in firing weapons, and Samus used the new energy in her left arm as she'd seen the Luminoth do, throwing out tiny light barriers to block each shot as it came.  When each wave of shots ended, she opened fire with her arm cannon, taking down as many pirates as she could before the next wave of shots came.  This repeated several times, until eventually the Pirates realized they couldn't get a shot past her.

After that, the Pirates charged in with their blades.  Growling under her breath, Samus disabled her arm cannon to handle them in melee.  In addition to punches and kicks, she occasionally grappled tight with one Pirate to rip it apart or snap its neck.  At one point, she grabbed one Pirate's wrist and used its blade to kill several of its fellows before crushing its torso.  When she felt herself becoming overwhelmed, she would slam her right hand into one of the Pirates' chests and use her new predation aspect to drain them completely.  Before long, all the Pirates were down.

A shriek caught her attention, and she saw Ridley sweeping down, reaching once more for her folks.  She could see her younger self cowering in terror, unable to act...and she slammed herself into Ridley's sternum with her Speed Booster.  "I said...not this time!" she roared out as Ridley descended and she landed.  Reaching out, she grabbed hold of Ridley by his tail and swung him over her head, slamming him into the ground.  Leaping upward, she focused the energy she'd absorbed into her left hand, charging as much electrical energy as she could and unleashing it point blank into Ridley's chest.  The fell dragon flexed, pulsed...and dissolved into memory mist.

Turning, she walked over to her parents and younger self, who watched her with awe.  "She did it!" her younger self called out happily.  "Mommy, Daddy, we're safe!"  She turned towards them...only to see them dissolving into memory mist.  "Mommy?  Daddy?"

Samus felt the twisting in her gut.  She knew it hadn't been real, but she'd wanted so badly to have a chance to save them.  She realized now what she had to do.  Walking up, she knelt beside her younger self.  "It's alright," she said softly.  "There was nothing you could have done.  It's not your fault."

"B...but..."  Her younger self clutched her bunny-like friend, tears in her eyes.

Samus embraced herself.  "Be strong," she told herself softly.  "I know it hurts...but letting it control and define you will only destroy you.  They wouldn't want that."

No they wouldn't, Hatchling, Old Bird whispered softly to her as her younger self faded away.  But this day had sat inside your mind for all your life.  In order to find balance within yourself, you had to face it again, and understand it...so you could let it go.

Only years of Chozo training and discipline kept Samus from sniffling.  "...didn't make it easy..." she mumbled softly.

Necessary things seldom are, Hatchling.





Samus was rather unsurprised this time around to find herself on the receiving end of a ponypile of hugs.  "It's alright," she said softly.  "Yes, it was hard...but at the same time, it was cathartic.  I'd thrown myself into my training, and becoming as strong as I could, so that I could look back on that day and say 'never again'.  Discovering that I was indeed strong enough to actually do so...it was healing."  As the ponies pulled back misty-eyed, she chuckled.  "Besides, that was just the first stage..."
> The Last Adventure: The Hunt
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"So, what was next-" Rainbow demanded eagerly before being cut off.

"Maybe we shouldn't delve any deeper," Twilight offered in concern.  "I mean, we're talking about what you encountered in the very core of your mind.  It...it probably doesn't get any more personal or private than that."  She looked up at Samus.  "If...if you don't want to tell us anymore, we'll understand."

Samus chuckled softly.  "I was raised by the Chozo, who saw things a little differently," she explained softly.  "This was a spiritual journey, and the details of such things were often recorded indelibly so those who came after could learn from them.  While each Chozo had the privacy of their own thoughts, all who reached a certain level were privy to the spiritual discoveries of those at the same level.  It's...it's actually rather comforting for me to talk about it all.  Makes it...a little more real."  She smiled at Twilight.  "Thanks for the concern, though."

Twilight smiled happily, blushing a bit as Celestia sent her a pleased smirk.  "Well, if there's no problem with continuing, then..."

Samus couldn't help but laugh as so many eager faces turned her way.  "Well, the actual journey through the core of my being after that was...if anything, stranger than the journey through the rest of my mind had been.  Once I'd let go of what happened on K2L by defeating my memory of Ridley, I found myself swamped in darkness, only to awaken in some sort of containment capsule.  Without even thinking about it, I broke myself out with a Power Bomb.  I noticed several other creatures running around, but they didn't bother me.  I couldn't even remember that I was in my own mind at that point.  All I knew was that I had to find Spike, that he was going to be worried about me.  I needed...to reassure him, to tell him everything was alright..."

Pinkie whimpered deep in her throat.  "You were reliving the memories of the SA-X you absorbed, weren't you?" she asked softly.

Samus nodded as everyone fell silent.  "I didn't put it together for quite some time, not until I tried to contact Spike after I thought I spotted him in a ventilation shaft and got no response.  The fact that the creatures I encountered weren't hostile to me was confusing before that, but once I'd realized it, it all made sense.  While I had some control, I couldn't deviate too far from what the SA-X I'd absorbed remembered doing.  It-...her memories were a part of me now, and I had to come to terms with that.  All the sorrow, the loneliness, the desperation to be reunited with Spike, the confusion when he ran..."  Samus shivered slightly.  "I couldn't help but feel sorry for her, knowing that in her shoes I would have felt the same.  In fact, I did...until I came face to face with myself, that is."

"Did the fight go like it did originally?" Rainbow asked curiously.

"No, it didn't," Samus replied quietly.  "I had full control of myself there, with all of the abilities the SA-X had possessed.  This time, though, I knew what tactics I had used against myself, and was able to counter them.  It was a very close battle, and the fluctuations from the heavy hits I received were...disquieting.  What was even more disquieting was that the other me - the one I thought represented the real me from that day - also fluctuated with each hit.  I managed to damage the other me enough before I mutated...to trigger her mutation."  She stared off into the middle distance.  "She...turned into Metroid Prime."

Gasps echoed around the table.  "You mean..." Fluttershy finally spoke up.  "The one you faced in Tallon IV's Impact Crater?"

"The very same," Samus confirmed.  "I tried to fight with the equipment I had, but the next big hit...I transformed into the mutant I remembered seeing the SA-X turn into.  But knowing it had happened...I adapted, and fought Metroid Prime like that.  Monster against Monster."

"So...awesome!" Rainbow squealed out eagerly.  "How'd that fight go?  Come on, tell!"

"Rather confusing at first, actually," Samus admitted.  "It took a while to figure out how to control myself as the mutant.  I was able to leap quite far, and my sheer physical mass was able to buckle Metroid Prime's armor somewhat, but at the same time I lacked armor, and a physical blow could deal a great amount of damage.  I quickly figured out that I could actually fire my various beams as breath weapons, and was able to use that to my advantage, especially when Metroid Prime shifted to only be vulnerable to Ice."  She grinned mercilessly.  "A blast to freeze it, followed by a stunning body slam and several shattering strikes with both arms before leaping away carved off massive chunks of Metroid Prime's health...but then the Core was revealed."

"And the Core could only be damaged by Phazon," Twilight spoke up, remembering that particular detail.

"Not...quite," Samus corrected.  "See, at that point, I was myself again, and I found out two interesting things.  First, the magical nature of my draconic weapons..."  She raised her left hand to generate the energy.  "While it didn't damage the creature, it could hold it still for quite some time.  And second, since I'd fully accepted the SA-X inside me, it unlocked the true power of my Metroidal aspect."

"True power?" Discord asked curiously.  "Oh, go on!  Don't leave us in suspense!"

Samus chuckled softly at that.  "Simply put, if I came across an enemy that could not be damaged by any of my normal beams, I could inject an energy tank into my arm cannon just like I did with my PED.  Instead of creating a Hyper Mode, though, it gave me a certain number of shots...of the Hyper Beam, the one Squishy granted me with his death that I used to destroy Mother Brain."  She grinned widely.  "Tore through the Core like that!"  She snapped her fingers together, the metal gauntlet making a loud clacking sound as she did.

"...so...awesome!" Rainbow squeed, and no one gainsaid her.
> The Last Adventure: The Dragon Within
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"From the sound of things," Ember spoke up softly, "I'd say at that point you could handle literally anything you'd ever faced before, solo.  What sort of challenges could have been left for you?"

Samus smiled mirthlessly.  "That's not what this was about in the first place.  While that's true, each trial was about facing a part of myself I'd had trouble accepting in the past, which was the source of the problems I'd dealt with.  I'd embraced my Chozo side from the beginning, so I never experienced problems there...but I'd been isolated from humanity for so long by the time I returned, I felt like an outsider.  I couldn't really see myself as human anymore.  That's what the first trial was about, when I fought to save my parents...accepting my humanity."

She leaned back, letting her thoughts drift as she spoke.  "Facing myself through the eyes of the SA-X, and seeing myself become Metroid Prime...it forced me to accept the entirety of my Metroid aspect, and not fear what could happen as that side of myself matured, knowing that even as it happened I would always be myself.  The final trial..."

"Coming to terms with your dragon side," Rarity deduced pointedly.  "And from the sound of things, it was the hardest such trial?"

"Very much so," Samus confirmed.  "It started simply enough, but..."





Samus found herself walking through a dark void, at the shores of a deep, crystal clear lake.  Gazing into it, she knew she should be able to see straight to the bottom, but all she saw was darkness.  Beyond that, the water was far from still, constantly shifting in turbulent waves as though something deep inside were thrashing.  "What is this?" she spoke up softly.

This is your inner dragon, Old Bird explained softly.  The beast inside, seeking to break free.  The instincts you haven't been able to embrace and understand.  It fights you even now.  If you cannot come to terms with it, it will eventually devour you.  Are you prepared to face it?

Samus thought silently to herself for a time, then braced her weapons and nodded firmly.

Instantly, the lake erupted, and a massive form leapt free from it.  She readily recognized the draconic shape similar to Spike's, but it was massive, nearly the size of a Federation Dreadnought.  It had golden scales over its underbelly, and orange scales covering its upper body, limbs, and tail.  Its long neck was covered in silvery-black scales, while its head was covered in dark purple.  Rather than eyes, it had a green visor, and the roar it let out was half-shriek, half-scream.  Massive wings spread from its back as it dove down towards her.  Lunging to the side, Samus quickly scanned it, hoping even in her mind this would work.



Recording to Logbook
Hunter Dragon
This metaphysical manifestation of your inner dragon possesses all of your technological abilities as biological functions.  However, its combat techniques are based entirely in draconic instinct, relying more on brute force tactics than anything else.  It is far from stupid, though, and capable of converting its body into the half-energy state of the Screw Attack without somersaulting.  It is recommended you do not engage in physical contact for long periods of time.



Useful knowledge, Samus thought to herself as she once more dove out of the way.  She opened fire with her normal arsenal as she raced around, trying to inflict an appreciable amount of damage, but found that the armor of the creature was even more durable than her own.  The only places she'd managed to get any reaction from with her beams was when she struck the visor or inside the mouth.  Even that only made it rear back, and she knew it didn't inflict enough damage.  She continued to race away as her surroundings became more rocky, taking the shape of a massive cavern surrounding the pool.

Samus continued to dodge the strikes as best she could, but a Speed Boosted clenched fist slammed into her mid-leap, sending her flying across the chamber to slam into the opposite wall.  She winced as she saw just how much damage that did.  As she got to her feet, she saw that the Hunter Dragon was once more taking to the air.  Noticing how part of the rocky ground had buckled upward into almost a ramp, a desperate strategy came to mind.  As the Hunter Dragon circled towards her, she took to her heels, racing around the room.

As expected, the Hunter Dragon pursued her with the single-minded precision of a hungry predator, actively seeking to devour her as it blasted her with its breath.  She dodged each amplified form of her beams as she kept her Speed Booster primed, not quite activated until she got into the right position.  As she approached the ramp again, she triggered it, building up into the Boosted state.  As soon as the Dragon triggered its own to keep up, she stored the energy for a Shinespark before racing back to the ramp.  As she'd expected, the Dragon came to a halt with its tail nearly in line with the ramp.  Leaping into the air, she unleashed her Shinespark, hitting the ramp and getting her feet under her to race up it before leaping off.

With the dragon nearly horizontal, she was able to land on its tail at a downward slope and race down, conserving momentum so she almost immediately triggered Speed Booster again, entering the state just before the Dragon triggered its Screw Attack state.  As Spike had discovered back on BSL, two beings in half-energy state could interact with each other as though physical, and her Speed Boosted state protected her from the energies of the Dragon's non-spinning Screw Attack.

Reaching the Dragon's head, she caught hold of the tip of one horn and flipped, aiming her arm cannon straight at the visor before sending a mental command.  Missile Discharge.

She probably couldn't have done this with her real arm cannon, but she was in her mind, where physical limitations were what she believed them to be.  As such, all of her Super Missiles discharged at once, slamming into the visor for a time before shattering it and slamming into the pulsing flesh beneath.  The Hunter Dragon shrieked in pain as it tossed its head, forcing her to flip away as the acidic blood splashed her.  However, she was fine with this.  She'd made an opening.

As the Hunter Dragon continued to roar in pain, Samus raced up the side of the chamber, running along the wall in Speed Booster before she reached the ceiling.  Once there, she raced along before leaping off, aiming straight towards the Hunter Dragon's head.  Injecting an Energy Tank, she unleashed a volley of Hyper Beam shots from her arm cannon while firing off magical blasts of all elements from her left hand, focusing both streams to cross as they shot through the broken visor.

The explosion rocked the entire chamber, once more leaving it in total darkness as Samus was sent flying back again.  She skidded to a halt at the edge of the lake, nearly falling in.  Once she gathered herself, she turned towards where the Hunter Dragon had been...and stared at herself.

It wasn't quite herself, now that she looked again.  It was definitely her shape, but the armor of the suit was very different.  It was pitch black, and somewhere between chitinous and scaly, less power armor and more exoskeleton.  Spikes jutted out along the back and out of each elbow.  The visor glowed gold as it stared her down, hunched slightly over.  Quickly, she activated her Scan Visor again.



Recording to Logbook
Dark Hunter Core
This is the core of your essence made metaphysically manifest, drawing on the darker side of your very soul.  The instincts and training of all sides of your being, fused into a single entity.  Human, Chozo, Metroid, and Dragon in balance, the instincts and civilized tactics molded into one.
You cannot defeat this opponent.



Samus stared at those last five words in the logbook entry.  Never in her entire life had she ever seen something so bleak.  But here, in the core of her mind, she stared at what sounded like an absolute death sentence.

You cannot defeat this opponent.

She knew, somehow, that it was no lie, or deception.  It was simple statement of fact.  If she fought this part of herself, she could not win.  But she'd never before faced a battle where she was required to lose.  It went against everything she'd ever learned in her Chozo training.

You cannot defeat this opponent.

Spike... she thought silently.  It looks like...I'm not going to make it back...  She wondered what would happen, if she fell here...to her own darkness...

A thought struck her.  A memory of a game Spike had played, and an argument over how to handle one particular segment...

Standing upright, Samus took the biggest gamble of her hunting career.

She deactivated her Power Suit completely.  As it faded into light, she focused her mental discipline, and caused the mental manifestation of her Zero Suit to fade as well.  She then stood before her innermost darkness, naked as the day she was born, and opened her arms to it.

The Dark Hunter Core rushed forward.  But as it approached, it seemed to lose cohesion.  As it impacted her...

...she accepted it.

The darkness infused her, finding balance inside her against the light, and the lake behind her turned still.

Turning, she stared into the lake.  There, she saw four faces reflected back.  A human, a Chozo Warrior, an Omega Metroid, and a powerful dragon.  As she stared, she realized that in truth, they were all her own face.

As she came to terms with this, the reflection vanished, and she unfolded from her Morph Ball in Old Bird's stone grip.  Her suit gave her the new alerts.



New systems activated in suit.  Loading...
Grapple Beam has been modified to control mystic energy generated within the body.
Hyper Beam function available.  Inject one Energy Tank to activate.
Weapon Overlaunch available.  Missiles can now be fired to depletion without damaging arm cannon.
Unknown Item acquired.  Analyzing...



The display changed, black text against a golden background as a new meter appeared on her HUD beneath that which measured her suit's energy.



Omega Systems Online.







"Omega Systems?" Rainbow gasped out eagerly.  "What is that?"

Samus chuckled, noticing how interested everyone was.  "Well-"

At that moment, the doors of the chamber burst open, and a familiar red dragon rushed in, wearing a very unfamiliar expression of abject terror.  "Dragonlord!" he shouted out despairingly, seeming to shrink in on himself even as he reached the table.  He then began to babble, his voice racing too fast in terror for anyone to make sense of what he was saying.

"Garble, calm down!" Ember yelled out.  "I can't understand what you're saying!"  Despite her shout, he didn't respond, starting to sob in hysterics.

Without knowing why, Spike drew himself upright and glared down at Garble.  "Speak sense!" he barked out.  To Ember's stunned amazement, the Bloodstone Scepter flared in response to the command.

Something seemed to grip Garble, and he calmed enough to speak rationally.  "We were out in the badlands, my underlings and I.  We were grousing over an earlier bad defeat, and we came across what looked like half a dragon corpse.  It...it ate them!  Just grabbed hold of them and stripped the flesh from their bones to repair itself!  Dark Magic, Dark Magic..."  He began to sob hysterically.  "I couldn't get away fast enough...that name will haunt my nightmares..."

"What name?" Spike snapped out, leaning over him fiercely to make him speak.

Garble stared up, an expression of absolute terror on his face.  "...Ridley..."

As he spoke, a chill ran through the room...and shadows blanketed the sky.
> Final Battle: In the Dark of the Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        As a surge of adrenaline raced through Samus, she turned towards the boundaries of the town, looking for anything defensible even in the slightest.  Spike, however, was way ahead of her.  “Shining, shield the town, now!”

        “What?” Shining gasped out in shock.  “But-”

        “Do it Shining!” Celestia barked out.  “Don’t argue!”

        Leaping to the table, Shining charged magic along his horn before launching his spell, which took shape as a shimmering pink bubble surrounding the entire town.  Samus quickly scanned it, and found it to be as durable as she’d hoped.  With luck, this would offer some protection from civilians.

        However, before she could begin plotting out a defense, Samus heard what sounded like a piano and a heavy guitar echoing through town, and she saw the ponies shivering as their fear spiked.  Glancing out the window, she saw crimson eyes in the shadows over the town, and heard a familiar voice singing.

In the dark of the night I was fading and shrieking
For the nightmare that plagued was as bad as could be
It left me in raging fits
To see a corpse falling to bits-

        Before her very eyes, dragon bones rained down from the clouds to ping off the shield.

How horrid it was that this nightmare was me!

        “Ridley!” she hissed angrily, turning towards the others.

        “Heart song…” Luna whimpered softly.  “Even Heart Song...twisted by Dark Magic…”  Before anyone else could sing, the song continued, now backed up by the sound of thousands of hooves marching and the buzzing of countless insect wings.

I was once the mightiest warlord of the cluster!
When they thought to replace me, that was a mistake!
On pirates my vengeance did wreak!
But till they are slain I won’t sleep!
Upon them now what Ridley has sown he shall reap!

        Switching her visor, Samus saw the armies marching and flying towards Ponyville and quickly scanned them.  What she discovered did not fill her with hope.




Recorded to Logbook
Para-spite
X Parasites have mimicked Changeling drones, creating an army to march under Ridley’s banner.  These have further been amplified by Dark Magic, Ing Possession, and Phazon injection.  Their normal carapace is now much thicker, and the additional spikes are coated with Dark Water, making them especially toxic to the touch.  Retains shape-shifting ability and capacity to drain emotional energy, though limited to an equine shape of equivalent size.  Destructive and ruthless, they retain both the Ing vulnerability to light based weaponry and the X weakness to Metroid based beams and predation.  Your dragon aspect will allow you to absorb them without Phazon corruption, and the Light tech will protect you from Ing Possession.

Warrior Para-spite
Like Para-spites, but these X mimic Warrior Changelings and are possessed by Warrior Ing.  The end result is a far stronger creature.  Standing nearly three times the height of the standard Para-spite, it is capable of inflicting far more damage and taking much greater punishment.  Retains the same weaknesses of the Para-spite, but the thicker armor makes it more difficult to damage.

Hunter Para-spite
Unlike Warrior Para-spites, these Warrior Changeling mimics have been possessed by Hunter Ing.  Preferring aerial battle and having a lighter build than Warrior Para-spites, these retain the Hunter Ing capability of phasing in and out of local space.  Retains the same weaknesses as other Para-spite variants, but incredibly deadly both at range at close in.  Engage with caution.




        “Adam!” Samus called out.  “We need to evacuate this town!”

        “What?” Adam shouted out.  “But we’re shielded-”

        “The shield’s relying on one pony’s strength!” she barked out.  “And we’ve got an army of X, Ing, and Dark Magic coming in!  I need as much room as possible to work in, and no civilians to trip over, especially when the hosts are shape shifters!”

        “On it!” Anthony barked out as he raced to the door.  “This castle’s huge!  We’ll bring them all in here!”

        As Adam, Anthony, Rundus, Ghor, and Gandrayda got to work, Samus and Spike moved into combat positions as the dark song continued, this time from the army, sounding like an unholy, hissing hymn.

In the dark of the night, evil has found you!
As the dark of the night blots out the dawn!

        “Revenge will be sweet…” Ridley sang out.

        “Now the power’s complete!” the army sang out with him.

In the dark of the night...you will die!

        Samus growled under her breath, watching as the lead scouts of the marching army began banging on the outside of the shield, sending the citizenry there panicking towards the Castle.  “At least they know where to go,” she murmured softly as they raced past her.

        “Thanks for small blessings,” Spike murmured back as he took to the air, the music echoing still.

Can’t you feel how my power has grown overwhelming…
Soon I shall crush you both ‘neath my heel!
Though your fear I can smell in this place
I know my forces you’ll face!
Just before, dear Hunters, I send you to Hell!

        Seeing some of the hostiles starting to breach the shield, Samus raced forward, using a straight physical strike to knock them back, not wanting to risk releasing any X until all the civilians were safely out of the range of the battle.  Despite that, the army continued to sing.

In the dark of this night, Terror has found you!

        “Terror’s the least I will do!” Ridley snarled from the clouds as the billowing shadows slammed into the shield from above.

In the dark of the night, our march is true!

        “Soon we shall feast!” Ridley shouted out.

On the flesh of the weak!

        “In the dark of this night, you’re through!” Ridley snarled out.

        “We’re not done yet!” Spike growled back as the shield shrank down, protecting just the castle now that everyone - and everything - had been evacuated there safely.  The army continued to sing, but Samus and Spike refused to listen, already lunging to battle, but the magic of the song held the forces together.

        “Come my minions!” Ridley sang out.  “March for your master!  Now it’s time to feed!”  The soldiers charged forward on ground and sky, surrounding the pair of defending Hunters.  “Show them now how hopeless it is!”

        “In the dark of the night!” the creatures proclaimed repeatedly as they stalked forward, only for Ridley himself to take shape out of the dark clouds.

        His body had drastically changed.  He was no longer sleek and smooth as he had been.  He’d bulked up in the same way Spike had when possessed by the Emperor Ing, spines erupting along his back between his wings and lining his arms.  A crimson horn curved from the center of his forehead, and acid dripped from his jaws.  A spiked sphere tipped his tail, smashing a house apart with a lash.

        “You’re through!” Ridley snarled down at the Hunter pair as lightning flashed around them.
> Final Battle: Battle in Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	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.
> Final Battle: Dark and Darker
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Samus' eyes fell on her opponent.  Dark Samus had yet again changed.  While its usual black suit and cyan visor remained, crimson eyes glowed behind the visor now.  The shoulder epaulets bulged, filled both with veiny blue Phazon and the yellow pustules of X infection.  The arm cannon was far more fully developed, shifting rapidly between multiple configurations revealing the blue glow of Phazon under the metal.  The fingers on the free hand were all bone, looking exactly like Metroid fangs, clenched tightly together.  Samus quickly scanned her foe.



Updated to Logbook
Negative Samus
Dark Samus has achieved a penultimate state, pushing the limits of its physical form.  Possession by a Hunter Ing has further amplified this creature's combat prowess, as well as enabling the dimensional phasing of those creatures.  It has also absorbed an SA-X, gaining all the combat abilities of that creature.  Dark Magic has enhanced the creature, but it lacks the ability to project that energy.  It does, however, possess the same ability you do to replenish itself by absorbing free floating X parasites, or devouring other Ing or Phazon sources.  Extreme caution is recommended.
Alert: Cellular structure of subject is severely weakened due to temporal strain.  The former regenerative properties are unavailable.  If Negative Samus is forced to disperse, the consciousness driving it will be lost forever.



"Well isn't that interesting," Samus muttered as she shifted back to her combat visor.  As expected, the Negative Samus immediately opened with a heavy assault, firing Missiles, Super Missiles, and Phazon enhanced versions of each of Samus' regular beam weapons.  Samus evaded the initial assault, countering with her own beam weapons.  Unfortunately, Negative Samus took full advantage of its dimensional phasing, evading each blast with rapid movements.

As Negative Samus charged in with a Screw Attack, Samus rolled out of the way, managing to land a blow with a Super Missile as it landed before it could phase back out.  As it staggered, Samus lunged in for a melee combo, attempting to grapple and drain some of its energy.  However, it leapt back before she could get a grip, and quickly ripped a Para-spite apart to replenish itself.

Samus cursed under her breath.  While the number of Para-spites wasn't enough to really cause her a threat, between Negative Samus' dimensional phasing and ability to replenish itself, this was a battle of attrition that was heavily in Negative Samus' favor.  She pulled back, letting the creature pursue her for a time as she formulated a plan.

An alert from her sensors gave her a desperate one.



Negative Samus' ability to phase in and out of normal space is heavily reliant on Dark Magic, and its similarity to the energies of Dark Aether.  Overloading it with Light Energy should neutralize the ability for a time.



Samus thought quickly about how she could manage such a thing, and saw only one way.  "Adam!" she shouted into her communicator.  "I need clearance from Celestia to cause collateral damage!"

The response came quickly.  "Permission granted, Samus," Adam stated firmly.  "The Princesses say eliminating the threat is priority one.  The town can always be rebuilt.  Apparently, they've done it already with distressing frequency."

"Then tell everyone to get ready for a show," Samus growled out as she triggered her suit to dispense a Power Bomb into her open hand.  Focusing, she charged magical light energy into the sphere until it could hold no more.  "Spike, get high!" she screamed out as she slammed it into the ground.

The high heat and light explosion covered the entire town, stretching from the innermost edge of the orchards to the near edge of the Everfree, and higher than the peak of the castle.  When it faded, only Samus, Negative Samus, and the castle remained standing.  The air swarmed with disrupted X and hostless Ing.

Negative Samus staggered, then turned to replenish itself with the floating X.

"Not this time!" Samus snapped out as she disengaged her arm cannon.  Focusing her magical energy through her body into her right hand, she held it up, fingers spread wide.  The hole in the palm opened.

A massive windstorm erupted, sucking the X and Ing to Samus hand and allowing her to absorb them all into her, fully replenishing her...and building up a store of energy to let her really cut loose.

As she closed her hand with the last X and Ing consumed, she received the alert she was looking for.



Rage filled.  Activate Omega Systems?



"Do it!" Samus barked out.

Her entire suit blazed in white light.  When the light faded, she had changed.  To Spike's eyes far above, the black and blue spiked chitinous appearance made it appear Samus had taken the exoskeleton of the Omega Metroid from BSL station and grafted it to her power suit as armor.  On top of that, black dragon wings spread from her back in the place of the jump boosters, and her arm cannon now resembled a dragon's head.  The armor on the fingers on her left hand resembled the claws of the Omega Metroid, designed to both shred armor and drain energy.

As Samus felt the new systems fully activated, she examined the readout.



Omega Systems
Omega Systems are activated by fully charging Rage.  This can be charged either through the use of Predation in excess of need or taking damage when under 50% energy reserves.  Omega Systems will remain online until Rage is expended, at which point the suit will enter an enforced cool down period of two minutes, during which only Suit defaults will be available.
The following systems are now online.
Arm Cannon
-Hyperion Beam: fusion of Hyper Beam, Phazon Beam, and Annihilator Beam.  Will destroy all known materials if structural weaknesses are present.
Power Suit
-Omega Suit: Possesses the durability of an Omega Metroid's carapace.  Vulnerable only to high yield kinetic damage.
Missile Systems
-Final Missile: Each missile delivers the impact of a Hyper Missile from the PED, with an impact range of the Diffusion effect.
Misc.
-Electromorph: Enter Shinespark from a standing start.
-G_Master: redirect Shinespark at any time.
-Annihilation: ordinary Morph Ball bombs upgraded to shaped Power Bomb charges.
-Dragon Wings: full free flight available.



"Oh fuck the hell, yes!" Samus cried out as she reveled in the sheer power her new suit gave her.  Grinning widely, she locked eyes on Negative Samus, who visibly flinched back in fear.  Growling, Samus raced forward, the Electromorph activating automatically.  Negative Samus tried to dodge out of the way, only for Samus to change direction mid-flight and deliver a powerful haymaker to its chin.

As it went flying across the ground, Samus zipped past it, dropping an Annihilation charge to knock it back before delivering a powerful kick to send it upward into the air.  Taking flight, she pursued after it, delivering several Final Missiles into its body and Hyperion Beam blasts to follow that up.  She could see she was rapidly draining her energy this way, but she already knew what she was going to do next.

Wafting up after Negative Samus, she saw the figure was completely dazed, unable to defend itself.  Lunging in close, she plunged both hand into its torso, rapidly draining it of energy as she gripped and held on tight.  Negative Samus flailed, struggling to break free, but Samus refused to let go.

Before long, Negative Samus began to dissolve, the extremities sinking back into its flesh, and eventually fully absorbed by Samus.  Spreading her wings wide and flexing herself as she felt all the power within her, she turned her eyes upwards, towards where Ridley watched.

This time, the battle would be finished in the skies...and Samus and Spike would take him down together.
> Final Battle: Yet Darker
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Samus and Spike raced into the sky towards where they saw Ridley, who glowered down as he waited for them.  Samus took the opportunity to scan him, since he was holding so still, figuring the information would help them plan a strategy.



Recorded to Logbook
Shadow Ridley
Unable to completely scan.  Excess of Dark Magic interferes with Visor tech.  Data will be added as it is acquired through combat.



I suppose I should have expected that, Samus thought to herself as she and Spike peeled away from each other to come at Ridley from both sides.  Coming up from underneath him, Samus fired off her Hyperion Beam while Spike used his breath attacks.  Unfortunately, Ridley proved quite mobile, leaping aside to avoid both blasts as he countered by dropping several dark magic charges in his wake, primed to detonate as the pair of Hunters approached.  Though each of them managed to pull back out of range of the actual explosions, the shockwaves still caught each of them.

As soon as the shockwaves passed, Ridley was down between them, slamming into Spike's back with talons as he slammed his spiked tail cap against Samus, knocking her back.  Samus reeled, but discovered quickly that she'd barely taken any damage from the impact.  In point of fact, Spike seemed to be taking more from the talons digging at his energy shields and scales than she did from being hit with the force of a speeding bus.  I don't know how this armor has such power, but damn if it isn't impressive! she thought to herself, activating the Electromorph to body slam into Ridley, knocking him off Spike's back.  As soon as Spike was free, he came up spitting, lunging at Ridley's underbelly, only to pull back as a gout of acid from Ridley's mouth burned against his shields.

"Spike, get range!" Samus called out.  "Keep him pinned!"  With that order given, she dove in anew, lobbing a bomb to knock Ridley away as the shaped charge slammed into him.

Spike didn't need to be told twice.  Taking to the skies, he took the role Samus had so many times in their battles with Ridley, watching from a distance for an opportunity to strike and keeping Ridley from getting any distance.  Despite the power of Ridley's new form, it seemed no match for Samus with her Metroid and Dragon traits fully manifest.

As Ridley tried to pull away for distance, Samus grabbed hold of his tail just above the spike ball.  Folding her own wings tight to her back, she rolled up the length of the tail, finding that the Omega Systems even amplified her Spider Ball so she could cling to large enemies.  Using that, she raced up Ridley's back and delivered a Final Missile straight to the back of his skull.  She took grim satisfaction in the scream of pain he let out as she leapt away, turning to slam another Shinespark into the center of his torso.  As he gasped for air, she grabbed his lower jaw and fired another Final Missile into his mouth.  Acidic blood fountained out of the damaged mouth as the lower jaw hung limp.

Samus readied herself for another attack, only for a magical lightning bolt to lance from the crimson horn, catching her off guard and sending her slamming hard into the ground.  Grunting, she levered herself up to take to the air again.  Spike, meanwhile, moved in, keeping his distance while striking at Ridley from above, keeping him from gaining an upper hand while managing to do a certain amount of damage with his own breath attacks.  Seeing Ridley start to flounder, he dove in, trying to strike at the horn as it gathered energy...only for Ridley to vanish.

"Spike!" Samus shouted out as she saw Ridley reappear, having somehow recovered from his previous injuries.  "Above you!"

Turning, Spike quickly dove down and to the side to evade the dropping strike Ridley had attempted, plainly trying to damage Spike's wings and take him out of the air.  Samus, for her part, used her Electromorph to race up to meet the dive.  This time, however, she led with her left arm, her fanged fingers slamming into Ridley's chest as she started to leech him of energy.

Ridley shrieked in pain as he warped away again, breaking off what would have been a lethal grapple as he reappeared further away.  Samus chased after him, going higher and higher into the sky.  Eventually, Ridley stopped and faced her.  "To think I was always so dismissive of you, Hunter," he hissed out, his voice oddly echoing as he hovered near the shadowy clouds that magically blotted out the sky.  "I had thought it debasement to be bested by a human...but you are far more than that.  As you are now...I would have considered you a worthy opponent."

Samus snarled derisively.  "I think you should double check," she snapped out.  "See who's been kicking whose ass all over the sky and town!  I've got you whipped, and nothing you can do now can stop me from putting you in the ground where you belong!"  She gnashed her teeth as she glowered at him.  "And this time, I'm keeping you there!"

Ridley merely chuckled in response.  His voice echoed again...but it didn't seem to be coming from his mouth.  "Samus, do you know what powers Dark Magic in this world?" he asked tauntingly.  Not waiting for Samus to respond, he continued.  "Fear and hatred.  The more I hate you, the more you hate me, and the more all those pathetic ponies down there fear what I can do...the stronger I become.  And as long as I hate, or am hated and feared, I cannot be killed, certainly not by one fueled by hate as you are."

"I sure seem to be doing a good job of it!" Samus snapped out, but she felt her bravado lessening.  With all the damage she'd inflicted on Ridley, he should be terrified, or at least enraged.  He was far too calm.

Ridley's wicked laugh echoed...from above.  "How blind your new power has made you!" the voice barked out as the Ridley before her vanished...and a massive figure plunged out of the clouds.

Ridley - the real Ridley this time, easily twice the size of what she'd fought before - plunged out of the sky like a dark god as a clawed hand bigger than Samus' entire body lunged out and grabbed her, gripping her in only four of five claws.  She let out a cry of sudden pain as he squeezed, and she felt her armor - which had seemed so invincible before - starting to give under the crushing force.

Of all things, her Scan Visor beeped an alert.



Recording to Logbook
Nightmare Ridley
The true form of Ridley, amplified by fusing with the Emperor Ing, the Nightmare spirits of this world, and having absorbed a Phazon Core from a Leviathan into his own body.  There is nothing holding his power back.  While his armor is no more resilient than it has ever been, his sheer size means that tactics that were once debilitating are hardly noticeable.  His Dark Magic abilities include being able to animate Shadows of himself, smaller and weaker duplicates to fight in his place while he recuperates, or merely sounds out the battle.



Little late there! Samus snarled angrily at her own tech as she freed her buster arm, firing off as many Final Missiles as she could at Ridley's face.

Ridley simply moved his head to the side, shooting the missiles out of the sky almost contemptuously with lightning from his horn.  "As I said," he sneered, "you would have been a worthy opponent.  But I am no fool.  I knew you would have new tricks, and I let you play all your cards.  I knew this form couldn't last forever, so I let a few of my Shadows wear you down and lead you to my trap."  He squeezed tightly, and Samus screamed in agony.  The crushing pressure proved more than her armor could take and it collapsed, leaving her in just her Zero Suit in Ridley's claw.

"And now," Ridley snarled, "you are nothing but an appetizer, to the feast this world shall give me."  Callously, he tossed her upward, his jaws opening wide...only to jerk as something dove out of the clouds on top of him.

As Samus fell towards the ground, she saw the transformation that rage and the sight of her almost dying had put her son through.  Apparently, the marks upon his soul his foes had left remained.  She could only hope this time, Dark Spike was on her side.
> Final Battle: Lost in the Dark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Samus tumbled towards the ground, she desperately focused her mind, trying to call her power suit back up.  She could already feel that she had some serious injuries under her Zero Suit, but she'd never let that stop her before.  If nothing else, she could run for her ship or call it to her for quick repairs...although the idea of leading Ridley, as powerful as he was now, to her ship of all places gave her pause.  Quickly realizing that this should be the last of her worries at the moment, she focused her mind, trying to ignore the ground rapidly approaching her as she tumbled down and down-

Only for a pink and green dragon to snatch her out of the air before carrying her into an upper floor of the castle.  "You alright, Sammy?" the dragon asked as it turned back into Gandrayda once it landed.

"No..." Samus groaned out, managing to get to her feet.  "Pretty sure I've got broken ribs and a broken arm again...this is as bad as when I had to try and kick the Ing Emperor out of Spike..."  She paused as she felt energy flowing into her, her injuries fixing themselves.  "Huh?"

Smiling, Gandrayda handed over what looked like a Power Suit arm cannon module.  "Pinkie said the Chozo Ghosts gave her this.  I decided not to question it."

Nodding, Samus managed to call up her power suit, quickly going over what systems were available.



Omega Systems have taken critical damage.  Suit has reverted to defaults until such time as full repairs have been completed.  Recommend immediate withdrawal to the ship for repairs.



Kinda figured that, Samus grumbled thoughtfully as she continued to examine the report.



Available systems:
Power Suit
Power Beam
Scan Visor
New item acquired...analyzing...
Heal Beam acquired.



"Son of a bitch!" Samus snapped, unsure whether to be pleased, upset, or laugh outrageously.



Using the Heal Beam, one or more whole energy tanks can be injected into a downed ally to reactivate suit systems and repair physical injury.  Energy must be injected in intervals of 100, as the Heal Beam is not designed for smaller units.
Alert: energy reserves in suit default mode are 99.



"Pissed it is," she grumbled as she turned out the window to see how Spike was doing.

Up in the sky, the battle between Dark Spike and Nightmare Ridley was distressingly even.  Both had fully unleashed the powers of their inner beast.  Both were of approximately equal size and agility in the air.  Both had a wide variety of weapons to turn against each other that more or less cancelled each other out, leaving the fight a stalemate whether they clashed beneath the cloud cover where the shadowy clouds rippled from their proximity, or on the earth where acres of land were torn up from every crash to the ground or take off just from the shockwaves.  It was plainly a clash of titans, and the only moments of concern were when one or the other dragons was sent crashing into the barrier around the castle, and that barrier visibly flexed and cracked from the impact.  The cracks quickly sealed, but it was still terrifying to see, knowing that a single impact could strain those generating the barrier that much.

But as the two dark dragons clashed, the very air seeming to flinch back from each impact, a distressing trend began to surface.  Each time the two clashed physically, Nightmare Ridley was able to push Dark Spike back just a little further.  Each time their breaths clashed in the air, the point of struggle was just a little closer to Dark Spike.  Each time they slammed into ground or shield, Ridley got up a little quicker, and Spike got up a bit more slowly.  It wasn't enough at each instant to be plainly noticed, but as the pattern emerged, the pair could tell something was going wrong.

"I don't understand," Gandrayda began.  "I thought Dark Spike was some sort of...ultimate beast form or something.  How is Ridley overpowering it?"

"Dark Magic," Samus concluded finally.  "The more Ridley is feared and hated, the more powerful he becomes in this battle.  As long as he keeps fighting where everyone can see him, he draws power from everyone that sees him...and Dark Spike is a creature of hate, shaped by the Ing Emperor.  The more Spike fights like this, the stronger Ridley's going to become...and the more tired Spike will be."

"Then...is there no way Spike can win here?" Gandrayda asked desperately.

"Not as Dark Spike," Samus concluded worriedly.  "And that's why Ridley did things like this!  The entire thing with bringing back Dark Samus and toying with me in the air was to put me in enough danger that Spike would feel he had to call on Dark Spike to fight him, because once he did he'd be a berserker!  Because he knows that when Spike fights him with rage and his inner beast..."

"He has the advantage," Ghor spoke up as he stepped up behind them.  "And that's why he's not pressing the advantage he's gaining.  He's wearing Spike down so that when he does press the advantage, Spike will have nothing left to fight with even if he is able to shift out of Dark Spike."

"But that Heal Beam you just got..." Gandrayda began.

"I don't have enough energy to use it!" Samus snapped in frustration.  "Ridley...played us all for fools..."

As she spoke, Nightmare Ridley lunged forward, claws outstretched.  Dark Spike shifted to try and counter, but he was just a hair too slow, and Nightmare Ridley's claws plunged into Spike's torso.

"Spike!"  The agonized cry tore its way out of hundreds of watching throats, no more painfully than from one Hunter and one pony princess, who saw those claws coming out of their son's back.

"And that's why you lose!" Ridley snarled as he carried Spike into the air.  "Even as deep as you are into your inner beast, you hesitate!  You don't unleash everything if you might hit these pathetic mortals!  You are weak and pathetic, unworthy of the name dragon!"  Tilting over, Nightmare Ridley dove, dragging Spike down at high speeds before releasing him.  The comatose body smashed through the barrier around the castle, and then through the roof and several floors before coming down atop the Map, barely missing the precious tree root chandelier.

"S...Spike..." Twilight whimpered as she desperately rushed to the comatose dragon's side, desperately trying to wake him.

Ridley laughed madly.  "And now you, like these weaklings, are nothing but carrion upon which for me to feed!"  Seeing so many of his victims crying at the sight of their fallen champion, Ridley continued to laugh.

As the tears fell upon Spike's prone body and upon the map - whether pony, dragon, human, or other race in origin - something reacted.  Deep in the Everfree, a light began to glow, to push back the darkness.
> Final Battle: The Light in the Darkest Hour
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As Ridley stood over his fallen foe, he continued to laugh.  His laughter, however, cut off quickly when he heard a voice in his head...a very familiar voice.

You truly are a fool, Ridley, Spike murmured in Ridley's head.

"What?" Ridley demanded angrily.  "How are you still alive?"

You of all creatures are proof of how hard it is to keep a dragon down, Spike's voice continued as his body started to stir.  And you don't even begin to understand me...or my friends.

"Your so called friends are weak and pathetic!" Ridley snapped out.  "See!"  He gestured disdainfully to where the various beings were gathering around Spike, trying to 'protect' the slowly stirring warrior.  "They know they stand no chance against me, that I could wipe them out without even half trying!  And yet here they are trying to face me down, and for what?  It will mean nothing, and the more that fall to me the stronger I become!"

True, Spike agreed.  My friends are brave, and to a certain extent foolish.  No matter how unmatched they are, they'll fight...because that's who they are.  ...but I have a different problem.

Ridley backwinged as the entire crystal castle began to glow with a brilliant light that extended up from the roots and out from the table on which Spike stood.  Spike's voice continued to echo in Ridley's mind.  From that first gulp of Phazon on Tallon IV...and even before then, I've lived in a world of shimmering glass, bright lights and pretty colors with as much structural integrity as an illusion.  Even before I found my way to Samus, I had to suppress my nature to the fullest extent to keep from hurting my friends...and after that first taste of Phazon, I've had to suppress my power to the utmost and still hold myself back all I could to keep from shattering something - or someone - I loved.  Think about how much control that means I have.

Think about what it means when I let go...against someone like you, who can take it!

As the castle blazed in light, Spike's voice echoed over the entire town.  "Let me show you what I'm really made of!"

As a beam of light erupted from the castle to pierce the shadowed heavens, bringing back the sun and moon in a dance around the castle itself, the only sound was the snap of talons conjuring a music player, and a mighty chord shook the heavens.

"Go get him, big boy," Discord whispered as the words of the music echoed with Spike's roar as he leapt free of the light.

You've got the touch!
You've got the pow~er, yeah!

Spike had changed again.  Once more, Light Spike had taken shape, but there were differences.  His six wings were each different colors - magenta, orange, pink, blue, purple, and crimson - and a sun and moon were emblazoned on the chest plate of his armor, orbiting a silver heart.  the flesh of his tail spade gripped the bones there like a sheath, and the white and gold of his body blazed with light that hurt Ridley just to come in contact with...and Spike wasn't about to attack him with just the light.

Spike launched himself from the castle in a shattering of light and sound, a Rainboom shaping behind him as he body-slammed into Ridley, driving him across the town and smashing him into the ground, digging in with claws and fangs before leaping free, lunging into the air to unleash a blast of solar plasma and sacred light from his mouth.  Ridley barely managed to roll out of the way as the ground where he lay turned molten briefly before solidifying again.

As Nightmare Ridley once more took to the air, Samus desperately raised her hand to her visor.  She had to add this to her Logbook.



Recording to Logbook
Rainbow Spike
Light Spike has been amplified by the Rainbow Power of the Crystal Castle and the Tree of Harmony, allowing him to draw on the strength of his friends and family to push his abilities beyond what can be accurately measured.  The Luminoth Crystals growing from his body now generate a Harmony Charged field that causes intense pain to any beings of Dark Magic, or anyone who puts their own power or goals before the well being of others, especially those they should hold dear.  The full spectrum of Rainbow Spike's abilities is unknown, and it is not certain that this is the full manifestation of this form.



"Holy..." Samus breathed, stunned beyond belief as the two dragons circled each other beneath the dancing sun and moon, like a twisted parody of the Yin-Yang symbol.  Eventually they came to a halt and faced each other down, their voices carrying across the entire world it seemed, words that no one would ever forget.

"So this is your final form!" Nightmare Ridley growled out.  "How pathetic that you bear the symbols of these weaklings, and not the mark of a true dragon!"

"This battle was inevitable, wasn't it?" Rainbow Spike demanded.  "From the moment we met, we were destined to be the end of each other, one way or another."

"Of course!" Nightmare Ridley snapped back.  "I cannot rest so long as you live, and none you care for will be safe so long as I do!  Our fated duel is at hand!"

Rainbow Spike nodded sadly.  "One shall stand, and one shall fall."

"You throw your life away in this!" Nightmare Ridley snapped out as he braced for battle.

"Odd that you say that, when your life here is one I gave you," Rainbow Spike stated flatly, startling gasps from those who heard.

"Yes..." Nightmare Ridley hissed.  "And now...I want some more!"  With that said, he lunged for Spike, who side slipped out of the air, letting Ridley pass over him and catch him off guard with another searing blast before shooting up after him.

With both dragons operating at the maximum of their powers unleashed, standard physics no longer seemed to apply.  With how enhanced they had both become, it was as easy to shoot upward as down, with only the ground and the outermost layer of the atmosphere as barriers for their battle.  Blows of claws, fang, and breath exchanged almost too fast for eyes to track...though each blow from Spike sent Ridley flying back, and when the breath blasts struggled against each other, light pushed back the darkness.

The battle seemed to culminate as Spike charged below Ridley and then straight up, shooting out of the atmosphere to slam against the moon, the surface of that celestial body cratering as he drove his foe into its surface before dragging him up and taking him back to the ground, slamming him down hard enough to shatter several bones.  As Spike leapt back, however, Ridley leapt into the air, the broken bones and torn flesh knitting and sealing before everyone's very eyes.  Ridley laughed at Spike's shock.

"You fool!" Nightmare Ridley roared out.  "I have given up much to become this, but now I am as much Nightmare as Dragon!  With the dark spirits strengthening me, my body replenishes from the hate and fear directed my way, and the blood of everyone I've slain!  You cannot destroy me faster than I can regenerate...and as great as your power has become, you will still tire long before you have worn me down!  As always whelp, alone you can never best me!"  He started to laugh his triumph, only to stop as Spike began to chuckle.  "What?"

"You're right, Ridley," Spike murmured, as the flesh of his spade tail peeled back, revealing four curved bones, two long and two short.  "I don't win when I fight alone...but also that this is no different from any other time."  He closed his eyes as his tail flexed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ridley demanded angrily.

"That now as ever, I'm not fighting alone."  Spike's eyes flashed open, revealing the compound gaze of an Omega Metroid even as the bones of his tail spade flexed like fangs.  He opened his mouth again, but the roar that erupted as he lunged for Ridley was no roar at all.

"SKREEEEEE!"

Ridley fell back, but not fast enough.  Spike's fore claws sunk into Ridley's shoulders, hind claws into hips, jaw into neck, and tail fangs into torso.  Ridley shrieked in pain as rainbow light flashed from him into Spike in Metroid Predation.  All eyes watched in shock as Nightmare Ridley's struggles slowly weakened, and then at long last his body dissolved, fading inward towards where Spike's tail was embedded in his body.

As the dust swirled, floating upward to form a shadowy shape in the air that snarled down at Spike.  "This isn't the end!" Ridley hissed.  "I will return!  I always do!"

"Not this time," Spike replied softly, drawing his tail back and dropping a crimson gem from the fang bones into his hand.  "You know what this is, don't you?"

Even as a shadowy wraith, Ridley blanched.  "My...my bloodstone?"

"That's right," Spike confirmed.  "The core of everything you are.  As long as it's whole, you are bound to it.  If it is destroyed - or absorbed - then you are no more.  Erased."

"You wouldn't!" Ridley hissed in fear.

"You have left me no choice."

Before anyone could react, the Bloodstone Scepter blazed white in Ember's grip and shot out of her hands to hover over Spike, his eyes sharing the same glow.

"You who have taken on our essence and form, be judged as one of us," Spike proclaimed, his voice booming, echoing, and sending every dragon who could hear it instinctively to their knees.  "Ridley, you have welcomed darkness into your soul, surrendered to wrath and hatred, coaxed the poison we were shaped to destroy to spread, and chosen your own power over the world we were reshaped to protect.  There is no defense for these crimes.  You are unworthy of the name of dragon...and shall bear it no more."  With that said, the bloodstone was tossed upward.  Ember gasped and averted her gaze.

"No!" Ridley shrieked out, but it was too late.  In a single snap, Spike consumed the bloodstone.  As it traveled down his throat, the shadowy wraith that was all that was left of Ridley, the Nightmare Spirits, and the Emperor Ing was drawn into Spike's body where the light that surrounded him erased the evil within.  The light slowly became blinding.

When anyone could see again, the music wound down to the end as Spike settled to the ground, back in his normal form with the Bloodstone Scepter cradled gently in the grip of one claw.

As everyone cheered, Pinkie Pie stared at Spike in amazement.  In her mind, she was trying to figure out a new train of thought in her head.  As she stared at Spike and took in everything he had done, done for them all, and was still himself...everything he was capable of now that defied description or explanation...

"Woof!"  As that slipped out of her mouth, her eyes widened as she finally realized what she'd misunderstood all this time, and a rosy blush tinged her cheeks.

One thing was for sure.  This afterparty was going to be really intense.
> Afterparty 1: Answers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Adam shook his head, rather bemused at just how rapidly a massive, town wide party had been setup to celebrate Spike's victory over Nightmare Ridley.  Given the devastation of the town - only the Crystal Castle, Sweet Apple Acres, and Fluttershy's cottage were still standing, untouched by the battle - he had been certain that the ponies who lived there would be too dumbstruck to celebrate anything.  He had actually voiced this to Rainbow Dash, which had led to a rather...enlightening discussion.

"Why would anyone be like that?" she asked easily.  "It's Tuesday."

Adam blinked in response.  "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Ponyville has something crazy like this that destroys some or all of the town every Tuesday," Rainbow explained readily.  "Ponies here are used to it.  Heck, Applejack's even managed to arrange a town raising over there as a party activity."

Adam shook his head as he wrapped his mind around that.  He could see Applejack leading a large group of citizens in rebuilding the town in the midst of the party, leading them through it while singing what sounded like a square dance song called 'Raise This Town'.  "If it happens that often, why are ponies still living here?" he finally demanded.

"Well, a lot of reasons," Rainbow answered thoughtfully.  "Some are just too stubborn to leave.  Some have lived here for generations.  And some just don't feel at home anywhere else.  I mean, this has led to a pretty close-knit community."  She shrugged her shoulders.  "Personally, I think the cost-of-living ratio might have something to do with it.  With a farm on the edge of town and Ponyville being near all the trade routes, you can get just about anything you need cheap at the markets, and the frequent crises mean that houses are cheaper here than anywhere else in Equestria.  It's actually cheaper to buy a house here for a month than to rent a hotel room.  Plus, there's a company dedicated to just insuring Ponyville citizens against disasters like that."

"How could such a company recoup its losses?" Adam mused thoughtfully.

"By holding betting pools for the rest of Equestria over what's going to destroy Ponyville this week," Rainbow answered easily.  "It's really profitable for the company and whoever happens to win any given week."

Adam once again shook his head in wonder.  "And here I thought humans were the most adaptable species..."





Of course, Adam wasn't the only one having an interesting discussion as the town celebrated.  Behind the Crystal Castle, Discord, Celestia, Luna, and Ember had gathered to discuss certain matters pertaining the event.  Ember was clutching the Bloodstone Scepter nervously.  It had promptly returned to her the moment Spike released it after it had amplified him for dealing with Ridley, but she still didn't like the fact that it was doing things it wasn't supposed to.

"Very well, Discord," Celestia spoke up.  "Perhaps you could explain why you contributed so little to aid Samus and Spike in this last battle?"

"Pssh!" Discord countered, blowing a raspberry.  "Just because you didn't see me do anything doesn't mean I didn't, Celestia.  You should know me better than that.  I did quite a bit as far as this battle...but even I have limits."

"What sort of limits?" Luna asked curiously.  "I had thought that, aside from the Elements, the only thing that limited you was your own decisions."

Bells rang around them as Discord pulled a cord, dropping a paper mache duck on strings to in front of Luna, who looked very nonplussed.  "Got it dead on, Luna!" Discord proclaimed.  "That is exactly right.  My own choices are the biggest limit I am forced to deal with, at least as far as my choices made with Chaos.  It's why I'm rather careful about making any sweeping choices with my magic, since I hate being limited, even by myself."  Noticing the confused glances directed his way, he sighed.  Snapping his talons, the duck vanished, along with the confetti and noise it had brought with it.  "Simply put, I can't go against a decision I've made with my Chaos, only alter or undo it.  A short example: once I've flooded a field, I can't just drain the water away, but I can freeze it, evaporate it, or turn it into a giant snowcone...or I can undo the flood, leaving it as an event only in memories."  He sighed as he lay back in the air.  "That's what happened here.  I was trapped by a chaos decision I'd made long ago, where undoing it was my only option, but would cause more damage than I was willing to do."

"I'm sure this is all rather interesting," Ember grumbled irritably, "but I was hoping one of you could tell me what was going on back there with the Bloodstone Scepter!"

"Actually, that's part of this," Discord pointed out.  "Earlier, someone asked who could have designed dragons of this world such that they became a natural defense against Phazon."  He smirked, laying back in the air.  "Feel free to applaud."

Celestia's eyes widened.  "You did that?" she gasped out even as Ember's jaw dropped.

"That's right," Discord confirmed.  "Long ago, before any civilized life existed on this world and I was the only creature running about who could do more with my brain than eat, sleep, and fuck, a Phazon Leviathan landed on this world.  Now, at first I was intrigued, since I'd never seen anything like it before...but then I saw what it was doing.  Now, I'm all for chaos, but this wasn't chaos...just an unpleasant order where everything was either a Phazon creature or dead, and as entertaining as the Phazon creatures looked, this was just boring!  So I decided to do something about it...but my first attempt ended up..."  He shivered all over, his different parts flipping independently of each other.  "Well, that's why I look like this now.  No idea what I looked like before it anymore.

"Anyway, I decided to take a different approach," he continued, ignoring the sympathetic glances sent his way by Celestia and Luna.  "I cast through space-time and found a template I could use to alter a native race - the dragons - to be able to keep Phazon contained, and even eradicate it.  I created one to reshape the race through breeding and Phazon absorption.  That one was the first Dragon Lord, whose Bloodstone even now sits at the top of the Scepter you hold so tightly Ember."

"What does that have to do with how it was reacting to Spike?" Ember demanded angrily.

Grinning, Discord leaned in close.  "Where in space-time do you think I found such a template creature, hmm?" he asked, gesturing to where the dragon in question was stuffing his face with cake.

Ember's eyes widened, and she slumped backwards onto her rear as she stared towards Spike.  "Then..."

"The reason the Bloodstone Scepter reacts so strongly to Spike...is because the Dragon Lord who made the Scepter from his own Bloodstone and Spike are reincarnations of each other, depending on which way you're looking," Discord explained.  "Of course, this never would have been possible if Spike hadn't been sent through time to be raised by Samus and encounter Phazon.  Don't you just love how convoluted time travel can get?"

"What does that have to do with you not fighting today?" Celestia asked, deciding to get back to the original subject before her headache over that particular revelation had her seeking a barrel of cider.

"Simple, Celestia," Discord explained readily.  "After I made the first Dragon Lord, I realized if I did anymore, the outcome would be too obvious...so I left it at that.  This meant that the creation of that Dragon Lord was now the only direct action I could take against Phazon or anything directly related to it...which is why I couldn't do anything when the Umbrum first showed up, since they derive from the Ing which were born of Phazon."  He shrugged sadly.  "Back then, not being bored was my biggest concern.  This...is the first time that's come to bite me so viciously.  I was left unable to act to protect Fluttershy or anyone else...and the only action I could take would have so drastically altered the timeline that they'd never have existed in the first place...which meant I never would have come to care about others and thus wouldn't have wanted to undo the choice-"

"Please stop now," Luna groaned, clutching at her head.  "Even Starswirl's explanations of time travel were not so convoluted."

"So...you mentioned you did take action here?" Ember asked curiously.  "What sort, if it drained you as much as you suggest."

Discord smirked.  "Have you any idea how much chaos it takes to retroactively gather anyone that a Dark Magic reality warper might have used as a hostage against Spike into a castle that by its very nature prevents anyone from being removed by force, and do so from within said castle when it actively resists Chaos magic above a certain scale...and all without creating a causality paradox?"

"Gangway!" Celestia shouted out as she raced off and leapt into a large barrel of cider before starting to drink her way out.

Discord chuckled to himself as the other two went to deal with their own headaches(1).  "Can't wait to see what comes of this party now..."








(1) Note that Celestia and Luna's headaches aren't because they can't wrap their heads around what Discord's talking about...it's because they can, and are actively conceptualizing it.
> Afterparty 2: Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As the party continued, Spike eventually made his way away from the center of the party, allowing everyone to celebrate without him for a time.  He felt he had a lot to think about, and preferred to sort it out on his own, without deadening anyone else's celebratory moods.  Unfortunately, with most of the town still being rebuilt, there weren't that many spots for someone of Spike's size to slink away without being noticed, even when he could change that size at will.  Eventually, Spike settled on heading into the Everfree, making his way towards the ship.  He idly wondered if some meditation would help him sort through his emotions.

"Didn't think you were the sort to ditch your own party."

Spike sighed as he glanced over his shoulder at the chocolate brown face of the one following him.  "Never thought you were one to leave any party until the last note played, Uncle Tony."

Anthony chuckled as he stepped up beside Spike.  "Well, most of the reason I stick with parties like that is for the ladies, know what I'm saying?"  He gave Spike a playful punch on the shoulder.  "Unfortunately, all the ladies who I'd consider my type back there either have their eye on you or are your Mom, and I'm not her type."

Spike managed a chuckle.  "I have to wonder, after all this time, what Mom's type even is."

Anthony shook his head.  "Boy, that's not something I'd even begin to try and figure out.  Your Mom's a mystery wrapped in an enigma, bundled up in a genetically engineered six foot untouchable perfect goddess.  And as far as I can imagine, she's gonna stay untouchable for a long time."

Spike rolled his eyes.  "Somehow, I doubt you followed me out here to talk about Mom."

Anthony nodded.  "True enough.  I actually wanted to ask ya something about what ya said to Ridley when you were fighting him."

Spike sighed softly.  He was pretty sure he knew exactly where this was going.  "Yeah?  What did you want to know?"

Anthony was silent for a time.  "...do you regret giving him enough energy to make it off BSL?" he asked carefully.

Spike raised an eyebrow.  "You...don't seem surprised to learn I did that."

"Wasn't that hard to put together," Anthony replied easily.  "I know how you think, Ankle Biter.  You probably were thinking he might see that act of mercy and generosity and change his ways or something, right?"

Spike chuckled softly to himself.  "I don't think I actually gave it that much thought when I did it.  I just...couldn't let him die like that.  It was as simple as that.  When I did it...I didn't give any thought for what he might do afterwards."

Anthony nodded thoughtfully.  "So, having seen what he did with it...do you regret it?"

Spike frowned as he thought about it, thinking about everything Ridley had done with the energy he had given him, knowing he was at least partially responsible for it since his actions made it possible for Ridley to do them.  He then thought about what it would have been like to have left him to die, or killed him in cold blood when he was helpless, his only other two options there.  "...no," he said finally.  "I don't regret staying true to myself, whatever the consequences."

Anthony nodded to himself.  "Then I suppose you just have to live with those consequences, then."

"That's all anyone can do," Spike agreed, staring up into the branches.  "I doubt anything else is a viable action-"

"Tell me friends, what is a hoof?" Zecora asked as she stepped out of the foliage.  "In Ponyville and Everfree, so much is-"  She froze as she caught sight of Spike, her eyes widening as she took in Spike's altered physique.  "...woof," she concluded.

"Seriously, Zecora?" Spike demanded as Anthony fell back against a tree, laughing hysterically.  "Anthony, what's so funny?"  This demand only made Anthony laugh harder.





Twilight looked up at Samus as the pair sat together, each of them taking a drink of some strong cider as the party continued around them.  "So...Ridley's gone for good now," she observed idly.

"Finally," Samus grunted out in relief.  "And good riddance to him, too."

Twilight managed a smile at that.  "How does it feel to finally put that to rest?" she asked curiously.

Samus thought about it for a while.  "Odd," she finally admitted.  "On the one hand, I'm pleased to finally see the end of him, and relieved I'll never have to worry about him showing up again.  On the other hand, knowing I might encounter him again at any time was a push to keep myself at my peak, and keep growing stronger.  On the other hand..."  After a brief pause, she chuckled.  "I've run out of hands."

Twilight giggled to herself.  "That's why I prefer counting on the hooves," she joked, wiggling all four hooves playfully.

Smirking, Samus took another swig.  "So, yeah, my feelings on that situation are complicated to say the least."

Twilight nodded understandingly.  "So...what's next for you?" she asked curiously.  "I mean, there's probably not much in the way of adventure here..."

"Then it's a good thing I've had my fill of adventure," Samus stated bluntly.  "I didn't just come here to bring Spike home.  I was hoping to make a home here myself, if I could.  Figured a world that produced him would produce more than enough excitement to keep me from growing bored in retirement."

Twilight chuckled.  "Yeah, I suppose it would.  Especially here in Ponyville."

"Friendly locals are certainly a plus," Samus murmured thoughtfully.

Twilight rubbed her chin.  "You know, there's plenty of room in my castle," she observed idly.  "It'd probably be good for Spike to...have his whole family together."

Samus smirked, her eyes bemused.  "And I'd be readily available for you to barrage with your endless questions about me and the galaxies beyond, right?"

"W-well, okay maybe my motives aren't entirely altruistic," Twilight admitted with a blushing stammer, apparently having drunk a bit too much already.  Understandable, given recent events.  "But surely you've got your own share of questions?"

"Can't deny that," Samus admitted.  "Alright, I'll take you up on your offer."  Reaching out, she playfully mussed Twilight's mane, chuckling as she flailed her hooves over it.  I've heard of worse reasons to start a relationship than 'for our kid', she mused silently.





Twilight groaned, a hoof going to her head as a lance of morning sunlight came through the window to land right on her eye.  She had a terrible headache, and other symptoms she instantly recognized as the mother of all hangovers.  She started to shift, trying to find a more comfortable spot, but a soft arm held her in place as a warm body shifted, blocking the sun.

Twilight sighed in relief, willing to give no more thought to it...until she realized someone was in bed with her.  Her eyes instantly popped open, taking in a mess of blonde hair, a heart shaped human face smiling softly...and far more bare flesh than she ever expected to see under the covers.  Knowing she had to say or do something right now, she opened her mouth.  However, all that came out was, "...woof."

At that moment, a few books were knocked off her bookshelf as Pinkie Pie popped out from behind them.  "Ha!  She said it!  She said it!" Pinkie squealed out.

"Pinkie, if you don't keep it down, I will use your tongue to turn you into a tetherball," Samus growled out, pulling Twilight closer to her as she tried to curl up for tighter sleep.  This caused Twilight to let out a startled squeak.

As the door opened, Spike stepped in carrying a platter with black coffee and aspirin.  He glanced between his two mothers, then muttered in a monotone voice, "Well, that escalated quickly..."








Fin