Legacy of the Past

Ditzy stumbled when her hoof caught a tree root that stuck from the ground. She grunted as she tried to shrug the heavy weight her suit was currently giving her. Her ears had tuned out the alarms that rang incessantly, her 10 points of energy on the side flashing, warning her of how close to death she was. To try and keep her mind occupied, she pulled up the status of how close her Ice Beam was to being restored, and was surprised to see it at 61% completion, her Plasma Beam had taken far longer. Could it possibly be that even the restoration process was close to completely degrading when she first brought her suit out? Or is the Ice Beam somehow less complicated and therefore easier to restore then the Plasma Beam?

She stopped her pondering thoughts when she spotted something, more Phazon, on the forest floor. It glowed brightly and the grass around had died from the radiation, except for a few strands that continued staying up, but it was now black, surviving the Phazon but becoming corrupted nevertheless.

In the end, what's the difference? She asked herself as she stared a particularly large patch of corrupted grass. When the Phazon completely takes over, you're as good as dead.

At least, that was what she had thought. But her combat with Applejack proved otherwise. She had found a way to purge all the Phazon from the mare's body, and expel to the Dark Alias. I wonder... If I had done the same with Rundas, Ghor and Gandrayda, and destroyed their PED's... would they have survived? Would they still be alive if I had just taken one shot at their PED's? That was when the armoured pegasus realized... Applejack had a PED... Why? What was the point? Nevermind the how, it was obvious Dark Samus had gotten stronger, but why? Why even corrupt them? Sure with Twilight, it made sense, she was the most powerful unicorn she had ever seen, but why AJ and Rainbow? They would've been more useful if they were fed to the Phazon... Her eyes widened when she realized something...

The brief flashes... They're Dark Samus' thoughts! And she... wants revenge... that bitch! She wants to repeat what I've gone through with my old allies!

Then, she heard something, it sounded like... faint giggles... Ditzy spun around, her arm cannon raised, there was nothing but forest and foliage around her, and a calm, and frightening silence. She didn't imagine it, it was real, and it sounded familiar, but it wasn't normal. She looked around, unable to see anything past the foliage, but she knew she was being watched.

A few feet away from her, a pair of dark purple eyes watched her intently, an insane grin appearing beneath the eyes, the left one twitching occasionally. In the centre of the eyes, was the visor of Dark Samus, watching with passing interest. Then, a horn above the eyes glowed a dark purple, a pile of rocks next to Ditzy glowed and were shoved aside, revealing a small darkened area. Ditzy spun at the sound of the rocks moving, and saw something stir in the shadows. No, not stir, slither...

A pair of dark red eyes shone as a loud hiss broke out, a forked tongue flicking out as it smelled it's surroundings, and zeroed in on the armoured pegasus, smelling blood from it. Ditzy quickly scanned what was in there.

Morphology: Emperoro Cobra

Massive snake with lightning speed attacks, will flare its head and hiss before making its strike

Suddenly, a massive snake that was 3 times Ditzy's height lunged at her, hissing at its prey. Ditzy ducked and spun to the side, barely avoiding the strike that would've killed her then and there. She faced her attacked and fired several shots at the creature's head, causing it to flinch in pain and hiss. Then, it raised its head, to flaps extending out as it hissed. Anticipating an attack, Ditzy jumped and changed into her Morph Ball mod. Avoiding another lunge as the snake missed and starred, eyeing the change warily, it's tongue flicking curiously. Ditzy shifted back and charged her cannon, firing it at its head, but the snake dropped to the ground and slithered around for a moment, shifting its body as it anticipated the pegasus' attacks.

Ditzy growled in frustration as the snake moved around her, avoiding her shots with ease. She needed to take it down, and fast. One hit, even a minor one, was all it would take to finish her off. She needed to slow it down, even for just a moment, long enough to hit it with a fully charged shot, that was when an idea struck her, it might work...

With a determined look on her face, her visor flashing opaque, she charged up her cannon and took a few steps closer to the snake. The creature eyed its prey, noticing her glowing cannon, and eyed it closely. But it didn't notice when Ditzy stretched out her left forhoof, when a green glowing rope of pure energy jumped out and wrapped itself tightly around the snake. The creature hissed in surprise as it twisted around, trying to escape from the Grapple Beam. Ditzy smiled, she had caught the creature. But her smile dropped when she realized something was wrong. The snake wasn't twisting around to escape, it was twisting around in pain, but that wasn't the only thing that caught her attention. Her suit's Energy levels were rising. From 11... to 12.... 13.... 14.... She glanced back at that twisting snake and realized she was draining the creature's life and somehow converting into a form suitable for the suit's power.

Not sure what to do, she stood and watched as the snake's panicked thrashing slowed, before stopping entirely, letting out a final gasp before going completely silent. It's body then quickly browned, then her Grapple Beam disengaged and returned to her left forhoof. She watched the body of the snake and checked her suit's status...

26 points of energy... What the hell happened?

Slowly, she approached the body of the snake, and cautiously outstretched her hoof, lightly tapping the body. The snake then completely disintegrated into a large pile of what looked like sand. Her eyes widened in shock and horror, she had seen this before... An image of a giant baby Metroid flashed in her mind as well as the tunnel of sand and the numerous corpses that fell apart when she came near them. She briefly wondered why this had happened with her when she suddenly remembered why... The Metroid DNA infused with her own... With the Grapple Beam, she could now trap her enemies and drain them of their life for her own needs the same way a Metroid would. If only the senior Doctor Zeb knew, he might've kept her after he saved her life when the X Parasites infected her, it certainly wouldn't have surprised her, as she would later find out when the War broke out.

She shook the memories of the War away, focusing instead on the task at hand. She wasn't sure if she should be horrified at the new ability she now had, or be grateful of a way to get her suit's power up. Regardless, it was best to focus on it later, for now, she would use it if she needed it. And at 26 points of Energy, she would probably need it again soon.

The shadow in the trees smiled insanely again, feeling it had studied the armoured pegasus long enough. Now it was time to deal with her. But first, she needed to be strengthened, strengthened so she could defeat her. Why she was to be defeated, she did not know, her Dark Majesty wished it and it would get what it desired. With a laugh, the shadow teleported away.

Ditzy turned around again, this time catching the flash of a teleport. It had to have been Twilight... was she watching her this whole time? Why not just fight her while she was still weak? She noted her heart rate was quickening as she walked towards where she saw the flash of Twilight's teleport. There, on the ground, was a large puddle of Phazon. Too large a puddle... But, Twilight or not, it was definitely hostile. Again, a faint laugh was heard and Ditzy turned and saw another flash. Moving away from the sight where she fought the snake, Ditzy followed the flash and saw another puddle of Phazon.

A thought crossed her mind, would the Phazon still harm her on contact? After the Phazon Conflicts, she had managed to expel all of the Phazon in her body, but during the time that it was in her, coursing with her blood, the Phazon rejuvenated her when she touched it. Now that it was gone, would it still harm or would it heal like before?

Regardless, I can't risk having Phazon in me again... With that thought, she moved down the path where she saw small formations of the Phazon in the shape of hooves. A trail... Was Twilight leading her somewhere? And why with Phazon? Where did she get all of it? The questions stopped when a small gold glow caught her attention.

Ahead of her, was a large clearing where large clumps of Navitas flowers bloomed. Ditzy smiled tiredly, finally she had something to restore her strength completely. She stepped onto the nearest patch, and felt her suit's Energy slowly power up, the weight of her armour slowly but surely lightening, her cracked visor now slowly repairing itself. As she waited for her suit to fill up, she saw a large redish plant with purple-tinted leaves and it slowly expanded, before thinning, and then expanding, like it was breathing. Ditzy wasn't worried however, as she did not get as bad a feeling from it, somehow, she could tell it was natural (as natural as a plant could be for the Everfree). Curious, she brought out her Scan Visor and looked it over.

Morphology: Attono Fungi

This fungus mostly remains underground, but brings out a small plant-like object to expel its spores over the landscape

When threatened, the spore carriers of the fungi create a large electrical shock that stuns whatever is threatening it

Electrical current also reacts severely to Unicorn magics, causing them to not only be shocked, but also to temporarily lose their magical capabilities

Ditzy checked the status of her suit, it looked like she was nearly healed up and would be back a full strength, she breathed a mental sigh of relief, soon she would be able to continue her hunt for Dark Samus and Twilight and Rain-

Another laugh, this time much, much louder. Ditzy raised her cannon up, but the laugh sounded like it was coming from all around her. Then, a flash appeared over a patch of Navitas Flowers furthest from the pegasus. Ditzy's eyes widened at the sight. Twilight Sparkle floated over the flowers, her horn glowing a dark, evil purple as an orb of the same colour covered her, keeping her in the air. The Unicorn opened her eyes, showing a darker purple hue to them and an insane grin appeared, the dark lines pulsing across her body. Her mane was now black, save for the lighter purple stripe, which now glowed a pure white of Phazon. No, it oozed Phazon, dripping down her grinning face and landing at the bottom of the orb. Her Cutie Mark also glowed as Phazon kept dripping down her legs.

She laughed again.

"Hello Ditzy..." She said, her left eye twitching severely. "I'm so glad you're back at full strength."

That was when she saw it, the PED as a necklace, wrapped tightly around her neck. The sight reminded her of Gandrayda's styled PED. Moving in a flash, she raised her cannon and fired a shot. The energy would've struck the PED dead centre, but  it was stopped short by the orb. The corrupted Twilight laughed.

"I must say, that armour of yours is unlike anything I've ever seen. You clearly have been hiding a lot. I wonder what other secrets you have... perhaps the Dark Lady will allow me to perform an autopsy on your body after I've finished you off!" With a laugh, her eyes suddenly glowed and her horn flashed as the orb began rapidly expanding. "Let's make this quick, but entertaining...."

The orb covered the whole clearing and covering the area in a dark purple hue all around, save for the Navitas flowers, who kept glowing their gold colour. Upon reaching Ditzy, she was struck with a stinging pain all around her, a pain that was familiar, but not exactly the same, as the atmosphere of Dark Aether. Were it not for the Navitas Flowers, she would've begun losing Energy. The Unicorn then dropped to the ground, landing on the patch of flowers below. Upon landing, the flowers flashed, instantly changing from gold to white as they became corrupted by the Phazon dripping from her. Twilight grinned insanely at Ditzy again and laughed.

Seeing an opportunity, the wide-eyed pegasus brought up her Scan Visor, looking directly at Twilight.

Morphology: Twilight Sparkle (Unicorn)

Target is creating an abnormal amount of Phazon, likely causing increased mental instability

Extra Phazon has dramatically increased her magical capabilities

Target has changed the atmosphere of the area to be harmful to the Suit's energy, steadily draining it

Target has an array of both offensive and defensive spells, likely warped from the Phazon, extreme caution is advised

Ditzy raised her cannon, and fired rapidly, aiming for the Unicorn's PED as her status came up in her HUD, muck like with Applejack's. Twilight grinned as she brought up a magical forcefield in front of her, blocking the shots, then with a flash, she teleported to a distance slightly closer, landing on empty dirt, where she launched a shot of purple energy. Seeing the attack, Ditzy rolled out of the way of the projectile, moving away from the Navitas Flowers. At that moment, her suit began being drained of its Energy. Moving back to the Flowers, she fired more shots at the Unicorn, who teleported once again.

When she reappeared at a different spot, Ditzy charged up her cannon and fired at the corrupted mare. Twilight smiled again as her horn glowed and Ditzy's powered shot was wrapped in a dark purple aura, and flung straight back at Ditzy. The armoured Pegasus gasped in surprised and jumped to the side, but Twilight saw this coming and fired a small beam of deadly magic, calculating where it would strike her. Her calculations were spot on as they struck Ditzy square in the chest, knocking her into the air and rolling on the ground a few meters. She gasped in pain and quickly checked her status.

A small chunk of her Energy was gone, but it wasn't as bad as taking a hit from Applejack. She stood up and looked just in time to see Twilight fire another blast of magic. Ditzy jumped into the air, nimbly avoiding the attack, and glided over a large nearby boulder, although she was taking damage from the poisoned atmosphere the corrupted Unicorn created, she had plenty of Energy to give herself a few moments to think of a way to strike at Twilight. Suddenly, Ditzy was knocked to ground, grunting in pain as something struck her from behind.

She turned and looked up but only saw the boulder. She heard Twilight laugh insanely as another bolt of magic somehow passed through the stone, barely missing Ditzy.

Her spells can go through objects! She realized, cover was completely useless. Ditzy jumped over the boulder, her wings flaring aggresively. Twilight launched another bolt, but Ditzy spun in the air, switching to her Morph Ball, rolling into a Navitas Flower patch. She reformed and fired a shot at Twilight, who teleported onto another patch of the golden flowers, which instantly changed as they became corrupted by Twilight's excess Phazon. Ditzy's eyes widened again, Twilight could corrupt the Navitas Flowers, making it more difficult for her to survive against her constant assaults the weird atmospheric warping spell she cast.

She had to take the Unicorn down... but how? She had shields and teleported constantly... Then, she eyed the nearby Attono Fungus next to her, as well as several others scattered throughout the clearing. That's it!

Twilight launched another bolt of magic, which Ditzy avoided. With her Grapple Beam, she grabbed the Attono fungus and, with a strong tug, pulled it out of its roots and quickly threw it at Twilight as the fungus began glowing. The Unicorn quickly created a shield, but upon impact, the plant disintegrated into Purple electrical bolts, running right through Twilight's shield and tearing into her.

The corrupted mare screamed as her horn stopped glowing and she fell onto her rump, her head swimming slightly as she was dazed. Seeing her opportunity, Ditzy fired rapidly, aiming for the PED. Each shot impacted on target, but the PED glowed with a dark purple aura as it was struck repeatedly. It seemed Twilight had set up a shield around her PED before the fight as a final line of defense. Ditzy growled angrily, charging up her cannon and firing, the bright burning orb spun and rammed into Twilight's chest, hitting the Unicorn's PED and sending her sprawling from the impact, the shield flashed brightly before shattering like glass, that looked like a good sign to Ditzy.

But then, Twilight's horn began glowing violently, and she teleported and reappeared at the centre of the clearing, upright and showing a look of rage.

"That's it! I was hoping to keep most of your body intact for study later, but I'll have to settle for whatever is salvageable!" With that, her PED flashed brightly, the black lines across her body pulsing white as Phazon began oozing out like pores. Her eyes glowed white as she began levitating off of the ground, Phazon pouring out her eyes and mouth as fangs formed from her teeth and she let out an unnatural hiss.

Ditzy stared dumbstruck and profoundly terrified, her heart racing. Quickly bringing up her Scan Visor, she looked over Twilight's new formed.

Target is now in Hyper-mode and is producing an extreme amount of Phazon and can now manipulate the Phazon via her magic.

Ditzy stared wide-eyed at the monster floating before. That is most certainly *not** Hyper-mode!*

With a hiss, Twilight outstretched her forehooves, her horn flashing as streams of Phazon spilled out. She telekinectically lifted all the phazon that had been dripping and oozing out of her body and, with a twirl, shot it all around the clearing. Ditzy ducked and rolled out of the way. When she got up, she saw every patch of the Navitas Flowers corrupted. Now, she was without a way to heal herself from the poisonous atmosphere Twilight had created.

Her heart rate quickened when she saw her suit's Energy decreasing. She looked back at the horrifyingly changed Twilight, her body now almost completely covered in Phazon, large drops falling from her body. Letting out a piercing scream, the Unicorn fired a magical bolt infused with the Phazon, Ditzy rolled to the side and fired a plasma shot at her PED. The shot struck her PED, causing sparks to jump out as it became damaged. The creature fell back, landing on the ground as it howled in pain. Ditzy could tell she did a lot of damage. Her eyes widened once more when she saw the Dark Alias form behind Twilight, she had to move fast! But with her covered in Phazon, she couldn't get near her, how was she going to get at her PED?

Then, she remembered and quickly outstretched her left forehoof, her Grapple Beam jumped out and wrapped itself around Twilight's PED. With all her strength, Ditzy pulled the PED off of the Unicorn's chest. The object flew straight at her and rammed her suit, shattering upon impact. Then, her suit alarms began screaming, blue lights sounding around as Ditzy felt the Phazon enter her body again and bring her into Hyper-mode. In her aggressive state, she saw the Dark Alias suck up all the excess Phazon Twilight had created, pulling the deadly radiation from her body as she fell into a comatose state. Ditzy waited until not a drop of Phazon remained on the Unicorn's body before unleashing the Phazon through her arm cannon at the Alias. It died the same way it had before...

She had done it again, the Alias died and Twilight collapsed onto the now Phazon-free ground, her body returning to normal. She had saved her. A bright object where the Alias once was floated there, before it flew and rammed into the armoured Pegasus' chest. Again, the brief overdrive of her very being as her suit became upgraded, and a pop-up appeared.

Wave Beam Restored

Ditzy smiled victoriously, her suit was returning to its former strength- suddenly, a rage-filled scream could be heard as she felt her mind suddenly go blank.

Anger... uncontrollable anger, it had thought that saving the farmer was just blind luck, but it had done the same to the powerful unicorn. It thought it had a chance to exact revenge, but instead the hunter had found a way around that. How? How did it know to target the PEDs? And why did the hunter feel... Wrong? Moreso then the last time it had fought her and freed her from Phaaze's controlling grasp. Perhaps she will not be awble to save the Pegasus... perhaps, perhaps...

Ditzy collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily as the pain came through her head. Her vision became blurry as she saw something move, then fall with a groan. Ditzy blinked when the pain suddenly cleared and a purple aura surrounded her, suddenly, her suit's energy began filling up, as well as... she gasped, her missile ammo was replenishing! Her eyes popped open, suddenly clear as she saw Twilight Sparkle, completely cured of the Phazon, her horn glowing as she cast some sort of spell. She got up to her hooves.

"T-Twilight, what are you doing!?" She asked, she could see the lavender Unicorn trembling as she was losing strength and consciousness.

"G-go..." She said, her voice very weak. "...Stop that thing...."

With that, her magic cut off and her head fell to the ground. Ditzy quickly scanned her and relaxed slightly when she saw that she was merely unconscious, she would be fine. The armoured Pegasus sighed as she looked down at Twilight, she couldn't just leave her here, but she had to find Dark Samus and finish her off. What to do, what to do? She soon decided it was best to track her dark doppelganger, but not before moving Twilight to the spot behind the boulder where she had hid during the fight, perhaps she would be safe until she awoke with the strength to return to Ponyville. When she finished carefully moving her, she looked up and saw cloudy skies as the sun began setting over the horizon, how long had she been here in the forest?

She shook her head, it didn't matter, she would take as long as needed to to find and destroy Dark Samus and free Rainbow Dash...