Legacy of the Past

Ditzy curled up and changed into her Morph Ball, catching Applejack off-guard. The mare fell to the ground with a surprised grunt, but her lasso remained tightly around Ditzy, her suit still losing its energy. Desperate, Ditzy laid a bomb, and the explosion broke the lasso off of her and launched her into the air, where she reformed and landed hard on the ground. She did a quick scan of the corrupted mare as she regained her composure.

Morphology: Applejack (Earth Pony)

Status: Corrupted

Phazon has increased her strength substantially

Target's lasso is also infused with Phazon and can drain suit's energy

Vulnerable to all forms of attack but Phazon has made target resistant

WARNING: Do not allow Target to approach into melee distance.

Ditzy raised her cannon as an approximation of Applejack's status showed in her HUD, representing itself as a bar. She didn't want to fight her, but maybe she could incapacitate her and then... and then what? She shook the thoughts off, first deal with Applejack, then find a way to remove the Phazon. The farm pony sneered as she rolled up her lasso and began twirling it in the air.

Ditzy, not wanting it around her again, switched to her Plasma Beam and fired at AJ's hoof. AJ grunted in pain as she dropped the lasso. She stared, before snorting and pawing the ground aggressively.

This can't be good...

Applejack charged, causing Ditzy to fire several shots to slow her down. It wasn't working and Ditzy's mind began panicking slightly.

This isn't gonna work, maybe if I try to Morph when she's about to strike, it could leave her open to some bombs and-

Her train of thought was interrupted when AJ suddenly jumped over the armoured pegasus. Surprised, she turned around to see AJ raise her hindlegs and buck her in the chest.

"GAAAH!" Ditzy screamed as her HUD suddenly shut down temporarily from the shock and she was sent sprawling to the ground, the wind knocked out of her. The pain was unbelievable and static covered her vision as Ditzy gasped, trying to breath but unable to, like her body had forgotten how to. The HUD came back online and alarms started ringing, alarms she knew all too well. Eyes wide, she looked at the status of her suit and gasped.

50 Energy points left!? All her bars of energy, gone... few attacks from even fewer creatures could do that. She looked up and saw AJ sneering down at her. She lifted a forehoof, before smashing it into Ditzy's faceplate.

40 points of Energy...

She raised her hoof and smashed it before Ditzy could regain her composure from the blow, the hoof landing with a sickening crunch.

30 points

Again.

20 points

and again.

10 points

The alarms went into overdrive as the last blow caused the screen to crack and Ditzy coughed up blood. Applejack chuckled.

"Well, this was disappointing, aw well, pleasure fightn' with ya, Derpy..." She lifted a hoof to deliver the final blow.

This is it... when that hoof strikes, my suit won't be able to take it and it will condense into Morph ball... only without the proper Matter to Energy protocols... I'll be crushed... The hoof seem to fall in slow motion as Ditzy stared at it, wide-eyed and bloody, she had failed... failed her home, failed her friends, failed Dinky...

Dinky...

"...NO!" She cried out as she slammed her arm cannon into AJ's stomach and fired a fully charged plasma shot. The corrupted mare screamed as the blow knocked her into the air and slammed her onto the ground a distance from Ditzy, who struggled to get back on her hooves. She coughed, stumbling and trying to look past her blurry vision and the cracked visor. Applejack got up quickly and snorted.

"Well, wasn't expectin' that..." She admitted.

"A-" The armoured pegasus coughed up more blood and nearly lost her balance, her suit was incredibly heavy now, it was almost too much for her. "Applejack, listen to me... You're corrupted, you have to fight the Phazon, it's influencing you!"

Applejack merely sneered. "Why would ah want to fight this? Do you have any idea the power that is flowing through me right now?"

"Yes..." She replied, panting. "Yes, I know all too well, and it is an evil power, Applejack! I don't want to fight you and I know that, deep down, you don't want to either. I know you're still in there, you have to be!"

The corrupted mare laughed. "Oh you poor, poor creature... always the naive one. Let me do you a favour and end it right now..." Suddenly, the PED on her hat flashed and sparks jumped out as her dark eyes began glowing a pure ghost white. The dark lines all around her body pulsed and glowed brightly as Phazon course through it. Heart pounding, Ditzy scanned Applejack to confirm her fears. Her eyes soon stopped glowing as she sneered, her PED now glowed as small bolts of electricity sparked from it.

Target Applejack is now in Hyper-mode, target is now slightly faster and strength is dramatically increased as well as resilience. Target may be vulnerable to stunning with enough concussive force.

Concussive force?

Suddenly, the corrupted mare charged and Ditzy, panicking, fired a flurry of shots, backing up slowly from the galloping death machine. She jumped and made a dive at the armoured pegasus, who side-stepped only just in time. Applejack crashed and broke through a nearby tree, the wood splintering into tiny pieces as the tree collapsed on top of her. Ditzy stepped back from the crumbling tree and raised her arm cannon cautiously. For a tense moment, everything was completely still. Then, the remains of the tree stirred, before being lifted by Applejack, who grunted under the weight.

"Ngh... Catch!"

Ditzy's eyes widened as the remains of the tree was suddenly flung at her. She jumped to the side and collapsed on the ground as branches scraped over her suit, thankfully doing no damage. The armoured pegasus was halfway up before she looked and saw AJ galloping at full speed to her. Ditzy raised her arm cannon and fired her last missile, which sped and struck AJ square in the chest. The impact knocking the wind out of her and the explosion sending her flying back. Ditzy got up once more and saw AJ on the ground, her stetson somehow still on her head, though tilted to the side and the PED slightly bent out of shape.

She placed a forehoof on the ground and pushed herself up, growling in frustration, when her PED suddenly sparked and electrical spikes shot out. AJ stumbled and screamed as pain shot through her. Ditzy looked at the HUD and saw the farm pony's status rapidly dropping. She was dying, the Phazon was eating her alive!

Applejack screamed as the black lines along her body pulsed and she was lifted into the air while a pitch black cloud formed behind her, a white V-shaped visor appearing as black wings spread from its cloud-like body.

Ditzy gasped as she was flashed with the images of Rundas, Ghor and Gandrayda meeting the same fate, consumed by her Dark counterpart. She had to do something, she couldn't let Applejack meet the same-

Relief, a small amount of relief... it was worried that the hunter would be defeated so easily by the farmer, thankfully, it turned out not to be the case. Now, revenge was in its grasp. It would absorb the farmer right before the hunter's eyes, powerless. Now she could do nothing but watch as another died... But it knew that the pain she was going through was not even a taste of what she forced it to endure even to this day. But that was not a worry, there was still the other two and itself to carry out its revenge fully.

Ditzy shook her head, her body too full of adrenaline to recognize the pain, and saw with growing horror as the dark alias began absorbing Applejack, who had gone deathly quiet. In a few seconds, it would all be over and she would be gone forever.

What do I do, what do I do!? Then, in her panicked mind, she noticed the damaged PED and a thought crossed her mind, why had Dark Samus given Applejack a PED, nevermind how she did. Her eyes widened as her brain made a connection. It was desperate, but she had nothing else.

"You won't take her..." She said as she jumped in the air and dived at AJ, aiming for her stetson. "...YOU WON'T!!"

Ditzy grabbed and pulled the stetson off of the farm pony's head and landed in-between her and the Dark Alias, her left hoof crushing the PED and the stetson. Suddenly, the red klaxon lights inside her suit warning her of her low energy burst into a ghostly white as a horrible pain began shooting up Ditzy's foreleg. It was incredibly intense, so much that, in her weakened state, Ditzy screamed. Then, everything became more gray and slightly fuzzy and she was given a powerful urge. An urge to destroy...

Phazon had entered her body and driven her to Hyper-mode. Panic returned as she realized that she may die or become corrupted if the Phazon remained in her body. She looked at her arm cannon and saw it practically glowing in Phazon energy, she had to expel the Phazon! And she knew just what to expel it to. Moving in a blur enhanced by the Phazon, she raised her arm cannon and fired and intense beam of Phazon energy at the Dark Alias. Now the dark being that absorbed Ditzy's three allies while she watched helplessly was now screaming and convulsing from the attack. Ditzy sneered in victory, a crazed look in her eyes as revenge was finally hers! And it felt good, so good to deal so much pain...

Finally, just as she ran out of Phazon, the Angelic-like being disintegrated with a pathetic, hollow scream that echoed across the woods. Ditzy lowered her beam as the aggression and dark thoughts left her as quickly as they arrived, leaving only disgust. Phazon had always made her more aggressive and gave her many dark thoughts though she had never succumbed to them as much as she did now. She should have been stronger, never mind the fact that she was close to death and severely weakened, it was no excuse, it never was, and it never would be.

Ditzy then noticed a strange glowing object where the Alias once floated. The glowing object then flew and rammed into Ditzy's suit and her whole body went into overdrive from a sudden energy boost. Ditzy blinked when a new pop-up appeared in her HUD.

Grapple Beam restored

For a moment, Ditzy was happy that another part of her suit, particularly a crucial part that would almost certainly come in handy in the near, was repaired and ready for use. Suddenly, a sound was heard and she spun around, her weapon ready to attack anything that-

She stopped when she saw Applejack, her coat now returning to its normal, bright orange as well as her Cutie Mark, returning to their full, healthy red apples instead of the dead, rotting ones. The farm pony stumbled, before collapsing to the ground, groaning. Ditzy galloped and knelt next to the groaning mare.

"Applejack?" She asked, placing a hoof on her shoulder. "Applejack!"

The armoured pegasus quickly scanned her and relief washed over her. She was fine and, better yet, all of the Phazon had been purged from her body. She had been corrupted by Dark Samus and survived thanks to Ditzy. The farm pony then stirred, groaning some more. Her eyes, now bright green, slowly opened and she looked up at the armoured pegasus before her.

"D-Derpy?" She asked, her voice hoarse.

"It's alright, Applejack..." Ditzy said in her motherly voice. "You're going to be fine now..."

Applejack stamped a hoof on the ground, struggling to get up.

"Applejack, don't strain yourself!" Ditzy protested.

"No."

"You could be seriously injured-"

"Consarn it, no!" She snapped. "Ah have to get up, ah have to prove to mahself that ah'm me now... Ah have to know that ah am in control..."

Ditzy reluctantly stepped back, allow AJ to get up on to her hooves, panting heavily and her legs shaking, before she collapsed again. "Good enough fer me..." she muttered. She then looked at Ditzy, her eyes watering up.

"Ah'm so sorry, Derpy... Ah didn't mean to attack you like ah did."

"Shh..." Ditzy stepped closer to her and placed a hoof gently on the farm pony. "It's alright, I've encountered this before and I can beat it..."

Applejack wanted to ask the numerous questions that were bubbling in her mind, but she felt so weak and tired she couldn't bring herself to ask them, but when she looked into Derpy's eyes through the cracked visor, and saw the eyes of a mother staring at her, filled with such concern, yet with an underlying ferocity beneath them, she felt calmed and safe and protected. Something she hadn't felt since her own parents passed away... Then, a thought struck her and her eyes widened.

"Sweet Celestia, Twilight and Rainbow! They're still out there in the forest!"

Ditzy's face turned grim, but she still held strong. "I'll find them, Applejack, and I'll turn them back to normal. Then, I'll find the creature that did this to you and your friends and make sure she doesn't do something like this again."

"I'm not so sure..." The farm pony muttered. "...Cause something tells me that thing has done something like this before... cause, for some reason..." Her voice faltered.

"...What?"

Applejack hesitated. "Ah don't know why... but ah can't shake the image of Nightmare Moon from my head when I think of what attacked me and mah friends..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After making sure that Applejack had the strength to make her way back to Ponyville, Ditzy slowly continued on into the forest, a worrying thought in her mind as the memories of Nightmare Moon swirled around. She was there when the Mare in the Moon had made her presence known at that fateful Summer Sun Celebration. It was first time in a long time that she had strongly considered activating her suit and confronting the dark alicorn that threatened to bring eternal night.

Nightmare Moon had deeply disturbed Ditzy, though she didn't know why at the time. Her aura was almost familiar, terrifyingly familiar. She didn't know then, but now she was getting the same feeling ever since Dark Samus had returned, only multiplied greatly. Could Dark Samus have had a role in the creation of Nightmare Moon? But Nightmare Moon's origins were supposedly a thousand years ago so, the essence of Dark Samus had somehow arrived not only before Ditzy, but also into the past as well. Another disturbing question with an even disturbing answer arose in her mind; With Ghor, Rundas, and Gandrayda, it had taken months for them to succumb to the Phazon's corrupting power, so why did the three mares fall in less then an hour?

The most likely answer didn't help calm the armoured pegasus.

She's gotten stronger... Dark Samus has gotten far stronger...

Ditzy shook her head and tried to continue on, the alarms in her suit still sounding and the energy meter still displaying the 10 points, a dangerous, dangerous low. If she didn't find something to restore her suit's Life Energy soon, she'd be in serious trouble.

A short distance away, a pair of dark purple eyes stared at the armoured pegasus, watching her intently, studying her, learning everything she could and making mental notes. Then, in a dark purple and Phazon-white flash, she vanished, an evil laugh echoing where she was...