NOTE: I do not own rights to either two of these franchises. Metroid is owned by Nintendo and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Hasbro.
Chapter One: Beginnings
Samus rolled out of the way as another volley of fireballs hit the platform. She looked up again as the beast dived into her. She jumped out of the way, letting the tail of his spike hit the platform and embed itself in it. The hunter jumped at her opponent, the front of the arm cannon swivelled open to reveal a Super Missile sitting in it. She fired, and a streak of blue and orange flew from the device. It hit the creature, sending him careening into the wall. He managed to detach himself before falling onto the stonework.
He stumbled back up, the force of the explosive pulling his tail from the structure. He roared continuously as she kept firing several missiles at him, the concussive blasts pushing him against the wall. He managed to roll out of the way out of the hail of munitions, then checking himself, realizing that his once dull-grey skin was a deep shade of red. He roared again as he prepared to charge into Samus to deal a blow, but one more missile was one far too many.
Ridley had reached his peak of endurance, he screamed and roared in agonizing pain as explosions rained all around him as the hunter continued firing. The echoes of his booming screeches finally created a tremor in the large room. Samus ran out as stalactites and rocks fell onto him, creating an earthly tomb around him. Several minutes later, it stopped.
Dead silence sat throughout the dark caves of Norfair as he lay there, unmoving. Ridley, Samus Aran’s lifelong archenemy, was finally defeated. But something happened, the eyelids of the Space Pirate commander slowly fluttered open. He looked around, the large room was empty, the hunter was no longer present.
He attempted crawling forward, but roared again, he was pinned under the pile of rocks that had brought him to his alleged demise. He tried craning his neck , but he was too weak.
He began moving his body forward. He managed to pull an arm from the pile, but quickly rested it, he tried pulling his other arm from the pile of rocks, but he was sapped of energy. He then slowly tried moving his hand onto the other side of him, and grabbed one of the rocks. It was surprisingly light, and Ridley removed it from its place. He continued pulling rocks from himself until he finally released his hand.
He threw it forward, then, drawing the reserves of all the energy of every muscle in his body, then pulled. He failed continuously as he tried removing himself from the pile of rocks, he pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and finally, he got out.
His last pull threw himself forward, landing on the other side of the platform. He inspected himself, his skin was still a bright scarlet, cuts and burns surrounded his body. He stood up, only to fall back down. He looked ahead, the blue door laying barely more than a few feet in front of him tantalizing him. He reached both his claws out, and pulled himself forward, he continued doing so until he reached the edge of the platform, the lava churning down below.
He slowly moved his body over it, sticking his limbs out to hold himself over. He felt the heat beating against his chest as he faced the shield-like door. One more time, he drew in all the strength within his body, and breathed out. A tiny stream of flame drifted out, and hit the door. The blue dulled out to a dark grey, and it opened.
Ridley looked in the passageway. He examined its size, then placed his arms to his sides. Folding his wings, he slowly slithered through. Barely avoiding the pit of lava below, he crawled in.
He looked ahead of him, a large statue sat in the distance, its hand was outstretched, and a blue aura emitted its palm. Struggling, the Zebesian walked over to it. He reached his hand forward, and grabbed it. Nothing. He rested his head on it in an attempt to use it. Once again, nothing happened.
Frustrated, Ridley put his tail against the glow. Once more, nothing happened. The creature screeched in fury, he turned around in a complete circle, his tail swinging out and hitting the statues head. The bird-like object was immediately decapitated by the blow, but that’s when a flow of blue erupted from it. It went straight in the air for a brief moment before hitting Ridley.
It hit him, planting itself in his body, the hit from the aura sending him back onto his back. He got up, aching from the blast, but he looked at himself, his skin was now purple.
Not completely healed, but I guess it could’ve been worse... he thought to himself as he examined his body. He stood up, and turned around, walking out of the door, he looked up. The slight earthquake created a large gash in the ceiling. Small, fireball-esque bugs were crawling along the sides. He stood directly below it on the platform, then began flapping his wings.
He continued up until getting inside of a small cave, he looked to his left and right where pools of lava, and more of Zebes’ hostile inhabitants incubated. He walked through the tunnel, hopping onto the occasional platform or rock to avoid the stirring magma down below. He kept on walking until he reached a wall.
He looked around the entire area, but there was no way around it. He tried punching it, the wall was very weak, and the blow left a hole. He looked through, a purple cave could be seen through it, more creatures crawling and flying around. He stood back, raised his fists, and forced them down. The collateral blow smashed into the wall, and it crumbled immediately. He looked around, the area was much roomier.
He walked into it before looking up. A large door was at the top of the room. He spread his wings out, and took flight. He only got a few feet off the ground, however, before falling back down. The alien felt fatigued, remembering he wasn’t completely healed from the encounter. He decided to traverse the distance to the wall. Dodging more obstacles until he finally reached the other side of the cavern.
Ridley looked up at the wall, observing its size. He chuckled to himself, and stood on his legs. He took his claws, and planted them in the glass-like bubbles lining the wall. He then raised one up, now putting his feet on it, and began climbing. He continued until he reached a small ledge, he quickly climbed over it before collapsing from exhaustion. He looked at the door, a small, damaged, stone sign on top of it. Etched into it was an interesting writing, but the Zebesian was quickly able to translate the Chozo text:
BRINSTAR-NORFAIR CARGO ELEVATOR
Ridley smiled, he moved his head forward, his long neck extending until he was directly in front of the shield. He then exhaled, another stream of fire flew out from his mouth, hitting the door. It opened, and revealed a dimly lit shaft.
He observed the bottom, the energized elevator plate wasn’t there. He looked up, thankfully, the shaft wasn’t blocked by anything. He examined the walls, they were cracked and dented. He placed his limbs onto the wall once more, and began climbing. He continued said action until reaching halfway, his lack of energy got the best of him, and he let go.
Quickly realizing his mistake, Ridley extended his wings and flared his limbs out in an attempt to stop his fall. Falling a few feet, he finally managed to get a grip. He began climbing again, eventually reaching the top of the room. He opened the door, and was relieved to see the dark-blue caves of Brinstar once more. He walked through, the occasional group of miniscule Zoomers casually strolling past him.
He continued through the caves, dodging the pits of boiling acid lying below him. Finally, he reached an area where a massive hole in the ceiling laid. Zebes’ acid rain passing through in an unrelentless downpour. He looked up, and began flying, trying not to mind the pain as he reached for an edge of the hole. Once he did, he grabbed onto it, and began climbing. The dragon was increasingly confused as the hole seemed to go through several rooms. Requiring him to jump, climb, and repeated. After he did so several times, he finally reached the surface of the planet, and garbled communications began echoing through the back of his head.
“Life-signs seem to be stable, sir, but his locator must have been damaged by the Hunter. We cannot trace him on our systems for some reason...”
“Are you telling me that he’s alive, but we cannot track him?”
“Yes sir.”
A burst of static, sounding something between a grunt and a sigh, then the conversation finished, “Resume your search for Lord Ridley, we’re not going farther than 15,000 kilometres from Zebes until he is found.”
Ridley chuckled, before saying, “Where are you? My locator was damaged, yes, so I’m not able to find a direct route to the Mothership. Can you help me get there?”
“L-Lord Ridley! Yes, we can, once you manage to exit the atmosphere, we should be able to find you.”
“Good, stand by until I do so, then.”
“Yes, My Lord.”
He smiled, and then spread his wings, he began running. After starting into a full sprint, the Space Pirate began flapping his wings, eventually taking off. After the first couple of seconds, it was fine, but his fatigue was coming back, but he persevered.
After getting about a hundred feet of the ground, the strain in his muscles was almost unbearable. His body began cramping from the pulling, he roared in pain as he continued through the thick clouds. After what felt like hours of painful flying to the Zebesian, he began to feel lighter, and he looked down. Clouds covered his distance from, but as he looked up, he saw the muddy-brown sky began to dim.
He finally felt space wrap him in its deathly, black embrace as he breached Zebes’ atmosphere. The thick clouds of the planet’s sky were now replaced by the sparkle of billions of stars. He looked around, then saw his familiar ship. The massive, purple starship was drifting lazily near the planet.
He stretched his wings out and began to slowly move himself over, but something diverted his attention. A harsh, white glow nearby. Ridley thought it was stationary, but that’s when he noticed that it began to move. His eyes went wide as he noticed that it was starting to move in his direction at a blindingly fast speed.
He tried turning, but his efforts came to no avail, the object came too close and it hit him. The Space Pirate commander’s shouts and screams of pain travelled nowhere in the vacuum of space as the energy consumed him. All he saw was a bright flash, then nothing.
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“I-...what’s-...what’s going on?” Ridley muttered as he began to regain consciousness. He looked around him, the black expanse of outer space was replaced by blue skies and green fields. Trees, flowers, and more vegetation was spread across a massive meadow. Birds chirping happily as they passed over the creature.
He tried moving his body, but he felt pinned to the blanket of grass below him. He moved his eyes downwards, seeing that his skin had turned into a dull maroon. Soon, he began to get feeling in his muscles, and he slowly rolled over. Several small animals surrounded him, expressions of astonishment and fright smitten across their faces.
He slowly began to stand up, and looked around him. The animals were small and helpless, but, even if they were as dumb as bricks, Ridley thought that he needed to create an imposing figure to scare them off.
“Well...what are you waiting for? SHOO!” he bellowed. A few moved away, but they remained still. The Pirate was too confused to understand. His flabbergasted look distorted into a grimace, and he stamped his hand down. “SHOO!” he screamed.
Several ran away, but several stood still. The Zebesian was enraged, and he turned around, allowing his chainlike tail to swing in the air, and hit the ground. Dirt, animals, and streams of blood were sent in the air as he struck. He began walking up to the few remaining, and was prepared to swipe again when a small squeal stopped him.
He looked around, until his eyes were set upon a small, quivering, yellow-and-pink figure. Ridely stopped in the middle of his attack and walked over to it. “Hello?” he asked.
It slowly removed its limbs from its face to reveal a rounded, equine-like face, the long, curled eyelashes of the frightened creature telling Ridley it was a female. “What is this? An equine? Hm...I’ve never actually seen one for myself...” he observed.
“Oh...oh my...is there a p-problem, Mister?” the creature asked.
“Hm...and you can talk, too? I never heard about that in human lore...Tell me, though, what is this place?” Ridley asked.
“E-Equestria.” she responded.
“Hmph, ‘Equestria’, what an...interesting name for a planet. Equestrian is the word used to describe horses though, no? It’s what you seem to be. So does that make you the dominant race of this planet?”
She was confused of the creatures words. Then she responded, “Well...a-actually...we’re called ‘ponies’...What are monsters like you called?” she immediately put her hooves over her mouth.
Ridley was enraged, he had been called things like “Ruthless Bastard”, “Merciless Beast”, and “Horrific Monster” before, the speakers of that word didn’t last more than a few seconds. “You dare disgrace my ability with words like ‘monster’?!” he growled.
“I WILL SHOW YOU WHAT A TRUE MONSTER IS!” he screamed, he arched onto his back, holding his hands into two fists, then shoved them onto the ground. They hit on either side of the mare, she jumped in the air before the shockwaves of earth could hit her though.
She spread her wings and began flying backwards. She then turned around as Ridley continued swatting at the creature. She eventually flew too far away, though, and Ridley began to give chase.
He spread his wings, and was about to take flight when one of them bent awkwardly. He landed face-first on the ground, grunting in pain as it happened. “You pathetic imbecile...I’LL DESTROY YOU!” he shouted. But the filly was long gone.
He got up, and looked ahead, a small town lay ahead a short distance. More than just this pathetic “pony”, hmph....but I’m weak...I must find a way to heal... he thought to himself. He looked at the patch of woods to his right, and began walking towards them.
His walking slowly turned into a sprint, and he continued on. He eventually reached the woods, silently stalking through them until he was in a clearing, obstructed by a massive, wooden structure.
The building looked deserted to the creature, until he saw who was going through the front of it. The same, yellow pegasus he had encountered before. Ridley bellowed and screamed in fury as he approached it, growling and hissing as he slowly walked up to it.
The pony was startled, unaware whether it was the adversary she had faced before or if it was something else. Then, a phrase was screamed at her that she feared she would soon hear.
“YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!”
Then it happened.
She swung around as a burst of yellow came smashing through the side of the cottage. She ran out of the way as the stream shot passed her, lightly singing her soft flesh. She cried in pain as she felt the burn mark on her flank. Then she turned around, the burst of yellow energy was gone, but a now she looked in horror as flames licked the walls of the building.
She kept on screaming, trying to find a way through the smoke that filled up the dwelling. More distant screams came through the thick soot and fire. But she couldn’t find where it was, instinctively, she looked desperately for a way out. Light seemed to be nowhere to be seen as flames surrounded the filly. Then she found a bright light penetrating the black smoke.
Coughing, she ran as fast as she could to the source. And, within a moment’s notice, found herself in outside. Fresh air greeted her, and she looked around herself, her mane was matted with dust and soot, her flank stinged from the burn. She turned around and saw her cottage. Flames engulfed the structure, no more distant cries, just the crackling of the fire.
She was immediately caught off guard as what felt like a brick wall tackled her to the ground. She opened her eyes, and found herself face-to-face with the beast. His bill open to reveal long rows of razor-sharp teeth. “You...” Ridley whispered.
“YOU WILL PAY!”
He raised a fist in the air to deal a blow, but he screamed in pain. She noticed that his skin was cut, bruised, and burned severely. He grabbed his arm, releasing his grip from the pony, who quickly scooted back as far as she could. Stumbling, she turned onto a gravel path, and sprinted away.
Ridley looked at the direction she was running, “You-...you will pay...” he mumbled.
A/N:
Hey everypony! I decided that, considering how loosely it connected to Ridley himself, that I’d rewrite this. New things you will notice is this:
-Ridley is much more aggressive and observant compared to the original.
-If you haven’t noticed, this is to take place after the Ridley battle from Metroid: Zero Mission (A remake of the original Metroid).
Regardless, I hope you all enjoy!