As explosions sounded around, Sweetie Belle and Samus jumped back to the bottom of the control center. A transmission from Admiral Dane informed Samus that the Admiral himself was coming with some troops, and he asked her to join in back where the huge gates blocked the path to the Leviathan.
Returning to the place in question didn't take long. No pirate even appeared on their path to stop them. As they passed the courtyard, they could see the ships passing above, but none came to land or drop troops here. It was as if the Federation was avoiding bringing the fight to the Pirate Command facility, probably to not make Samus lose time by getting her in the middle of this, instead distracting the pirates to get them out of her way.
Then, as Sweetie Belle and Samus reached their destination, a space battleship, about as big as the Halberd and the Warhammer, flew over and let out a mobile platform that slowly floated down while several marines jumped out. On the platform was Admiral Dane himself, surrounded by two Federation Troopers in black armor. The Admiral, however, had a lighter, fancier armor with a helmet that only covered the top of the head and that looked more like a hat. The man clearly was aged, and had experience, with a no nonsense expression on his face.
"Outstanding work, Samus," he began before he looked down at Sweetie Belle. "You two, Sweetie Belle. Ghor and Gandrayda told me about you." He then shifted his focus to both Samus and the filly. "I don't say this often, but I sure am impressed."
Sweetie Belle smiled at the praise from such a high-ranking officer.
"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 you need to make sure enough of them make it safely through this area. You two are the only ones who can destroy the Seed. We'll help you along the way, but once we get there, it's up to you to finish the job."
Both girls nodded to show that they understood.
"We're right behind you, Samus! Sweetie Belle! Do some damage!" he finished as his platform rose back into the sky.
One of the demolition troopers then placed a bomb on the gate blocking the exit and activated it, blowing it up a,d opening the way. The troopers then placed themselves in position before the door to the cargo line, waiting for Samus and Sweetie Belle to lead the way.
But before, Sweetie Belle got an idea. "Could you wait a bit, please? I want to bring something. I should quickly be back."
Samus looked at her with curiosity, but nodded. "Hurry up."
The filly nodded back, then flew away.
A couple of minutes later, the Lor Starcutter flew above, and out of it jumped something.
When it landed, Samus could see that it was some kind of round armor in Sweetie Belle's likeness, the filly herself piloting it. Samus remembered briefly seeing it when she had entered the ship, but she hadn't gotten time to see what it was.
"An armor?" she asked. "Isn't it superfluous with your powers?"
"I guess that she is in the actual situation, but since we are about to fight waves after waves of pirates while protecting these boys, then I thought that it was a good occasion to give Sweetie Bot Armor a workout. She didn't get to have one in almost a year, and I wanted to have a together time with her."
Samus gave a shrug before she moved toward the door. "Alright. do as you want."
Sweetie Belle chuckled as she followed the Hunter, passing before the Federation Troopers. "You will see, with Sweetie Bot, I will go from "the Little White Monster" to "the Little White Disaster." They won't see it coming."
...
"That's the most adorable yet badass thing I ever saw," the Demolition Trooper at the right said.
"Shut up, John," the other at the left rebuked.
Samus approached the Demolition Trooper who had positioned himself in front of the door, and once she got close enough, he began to talk.
"Samus, we are part of the demolition reinforcement squad. Since our armor is weaker than most other troopers, we need you to watch our backs through this area. Our group color is yellow," he informed. "Most of the demolition team has already started moving toward the Seed, so you better get going. Good luck."
The Demolition Trooper then moved to let Samus fire at the door and open it, starting the operation. In the hallway that followed, she had to use the Grapple Voltage to give energy to a terminal, opening several gates to let troopers in other hallways as well as her group advance. Then, as they continued, another gate opened, a pirate behind.
Before Samus could fire at him, the Sweetie Bot fired a big missile that homed in and exploded him to smithereens.
The Hunter stared at the armor, then continued, opening the next door.
What followed was a series of battles along the railway of a transit tram that regularly passed, so they had to be careful when they had to traverse. They moved from station to station, passing by tunnels that connected them, constantly on the lookout for pirates, many of them coming out of other paths.
Samus quickly discovered that Sweetie Belle hadn't been kidding about her armor. She rolled on the pirates, sometime literally as her armor could turn into a vehicle. The pirates often barely had time to show their ugly face before they were blow to bits, burn to ashes, frozen, shocked, or cut in pieces. If one dared to get too close, then the armor punched the idiot, generally ending with said idiot's head exploding as a result with the force of the punch. At some moments, Sweetie Belle even turned the armor into some kind of jet to pass above the passing tram and fire at the pirates at the other side or on hiding on the walkways.
She even made short work of a Berserker Lord. The behemoth had smashed one of the gates that usually opened to let the tram pass, and the armor immediately used soundwaves to send him flying before she jumped and landed heavily on his head, crushing it.
Thanks to her speed, she managed to save many marines that Samus would have otherwise failed to reach in time to avoid their death. But some marines still died, their bodies littering the ground here and there, and Sweetie Belle saw a few being killed before her. She immediately made the pirates regret each times.
The fights really were violent.
Samus still got her part in the action. The pirates were sending everything, and the Sweetie Bot often wasn't enough to kill all of them before they could fire at the Demolition Troopers. This forced the Hunter to use her Hypermode a lot to kill them quickly.
On the way, they spotted the pirate in red Phazite armor they had seen before, teleporting in another path to kill troopers before disappearing.
After the Berserker Lord was the gate that the Demolition Troopers had to open, and this same pirate in red armor appeared before them and commanded a group of Commandos to protect the gate before he disappeared. Of course, the Commandos didn't last even five seconds against the Sweetie Bot Armor despite their armor. She simply disintegrated them with some beams that exploded upon impact. the troopers then were able to blow up the large chains that kept the game locked shut. Samus then used a Hand Scanned beside it to open it.
Sweetie Belle and Samus then continued alone in the tunnel that followed, passing above a pool of Phazon that Samus jumped into to replenish her energy. An entry was also present, describing how Gandrayda had been ready to fight Samus and Sweetie Belle. It said also that the shapeshifter apparently used her power to secretly watch the pirates and kill them if they showed any weakness.
Eh, even among the enemy ranks, Gandrayda managed to reduce the pirates' number, making the Federation and Samus and Sweetie Belle's job easier.
At the end of the tunnel was another large gate that had to be opened with a Hand Scanner.
They then entered the next station, with another gate blocking the exit, but no Hand Scanner. In the ceiling were shutters, and they understood that they will be able to use the ship to open the gate. So Samus used a platform held by a mechanical cradle arm in the center of the station to reach a ledge where she found the terminal that should allow to open the shutters.
However, the pirate in red armor suddenly appeared and pushed Samus from the ledge. The central platform was then retracted before several Commandos appeared. The Commander then jumped down to join the fight.
Only for the Sweetie Bot Armor to teleport beside him before she grabbed a leg and slammed him continuously on the ground with such violence that his armor broke piece by piece little by little despite being made of the very solid red Phazite. Seeing that Sweetie Belle had the Commander, Samus faced the Commandos and used the combo X-Ray Visor plus Nova Beam to deal with them in a few seconds.
Sweetie Belle continued to slam the Commander even after his armor was entirely gone until pretty much all the bones of his body were shattered, turning him into a vegetal. The filly then dropped the pirate before she ended his suffering by crushing his head under the Sweetie Bot's foot with a loud STOMP!
Once all the pirates were killed, the Commando Troopers came into a walkway at the top of the station and interacted with terminals to put the central platform back in place and open the door to the terminal on the ledge.
Nodding at them in thanks, Samus joined the terminal and interacted with its lever, retracting the central platform as well as the ramps at the sides and opening the shutters. She then called her ship and made it fire missiles at the big gate, destroying it, before she made it land.
"We will have to use the ship to continue," Samus then said to Sweetie Belle after jumping down from the ledge. "Your armor won't be able to enter I fear. It's too big."
"Don't worry," Sweetie Belle replied. "I will follow you in Jet Mode. Lead the way.
Samus nodded and entered her ship before she took off and flew into the long tunnel that had been revealed. Like she said, Sweetie Belle turned the Sweetie Bot into a jet before she followed.
Before long, they entered the Leviathan and left their respective means of transport before they continued, the path being pretty much like in the other Leviathans, excepted that there were weird tentacles on the way that Samus had to destroy with the X-Ray Visor and the Nova Beam.
Once inside the chamber of the core, they stopped on the ledge, not jumping down to the main part yet.
"Sweetie Belle, you remember my nemesis I told you about?" Samus asked.
"You think the Guardian of this Leviathan will be him?"
"I am certain, if he survived the fall to Norion's core one month ago of course. So be ready."
The filly nodded, an they jumped down. Carefully, they advanced to the center of the chamber, looking around to see where the Guardian will come from.
Then, out of one of the big openings in the walls, a figure flew in.
Sweetie Belle quickly saw that it was some kind of cyborg dragon, its wings totally artificial and its purple body having some mechanical components while also being mostly covered in armored plating as well as what she felt was Phazon-enhanced armorskin.
After flying around a bit, the dragon landed almost on the girls, forcing them to jump back. This allowed Sweetie Belle to see it in more detail, and that was when she recognized the dragon's head as the one she had seen on holograms here and there in the pirates' base. It had a jaw full of razor-sharp teeth, long claws that could certainly tear into them like butter, and a long, serpentine tail that ended in an arrow that looked just as dangerous.
That thing was made to kill.
"Ridley!" Samus shouted with so much hate that it took Sweetie Belle off guard. "I knew it would be you!"
The named Ridley chuckled darkly before he approached with big strides, Phazon coming out of his mouth when he breathed out.
"Aww. I hoped to surprise you," he said before he roared in Samus' face and attempted to bit her. The Hunter turned into her Morph Ball, dodging the bite, and rolled around the dragon who breathed fire at her. After another attempt at biting her, Samus rolled away before returning to normal. And Sweetie Belle, who had flown up, landed beside her.
"There is no surprise anymore after the second fucking time you came back from the dead!" Samus yelled as she pointed her cannon at her nemesis.
Ridley laughed. "Yeah, I suppose that this is getting old. How about we reverse roles this time?"
"In your dreams, you overgrown lizard!"
At this moment, Ridley's chestplate opened, revealing a wound. The dragon looked down at it and growled before he closed it.
Samus smirked under her helmet. "You still have that old wound?"
Ridley growled more before he said, "Feasting on your corpse will heal it." He then gave her a sadistic grin. "You should be happy. I will make you join your mother as a part of my body."
Ridley was immediately punched on the cheek by a giant fist-shaped shield that sent him crashing head first into a wall of the chamber.
"So this is your nemesis?" Sweetie Belle asked to Samus as she advanced before the Hunter. "A cyborg dragon? This certainly explains how he could survive a fall to a planet's core."
Samus chuckled. "The cyborg part came after I had my way with him the first time. Nice punch by the way."
"Thanks."
Ridley recovered and stared angrily at the filly. "Who are you?!"
Sweetie Belle grinned. "Just an adorable filly who decided to help Samus in her current mission."
"She has been a blast to have around. Just ask your minions," Samus added.
"So you got yourself a sidekick?" Ridley asked with a smirk that promised nothing good. He then opened his mouth and fired a massive line of plasma and flames at the filly who dodged by flying upward while Samus jumped to the side.
"So, what's your history together?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"He's the one who led the pirates who attacked my homeworld, and Zebes," Samus answered as she fired at Ridley, trying to hit the inside of his mouth when he opened it.
"Aah. Good time," Ridley said as he charged at Samus to attack her with his claws. "Too bad K-2L ended in such a disaster. If it hadn't been for my ship somehow exploding, I would have gotten us a nice reserve of Afloraltite. Instead, I lost all my crew and almost died. Still, you remember Samus? You asked me if I wanted to be your friend. How adorable!"
Growling, Samus got away and continued to fire at Ridley's mouth, only for the dragon to suddenly fly up before crashing back on the ground, creating a powerful shockwave of Phazon that almost got the Hunter. Ridley then pointed his tail at Sweetie Belle as she had been firing at him from above, and fired a powerful beam of Phazon at her. Not expecting the tail to be a cannon, the filly barely dodged it by reflex.
"So what, you are the Captain of the Space Pirates?" Sweetie Belle asked with a frown.
Ridley gave a predatory smile. "Just one High-Commander among a few others, but I'm the most feared of all!" he proudly stated before he fired some fireballs that homed in both the filly and the Hunter.
"He is responsible of countless slaughters across the galaxy," Samus specified while she destroyed the fireballs going after her. Then, with another grin, she added, "However, recently, his reputation took some severe hits."
Ridley immediately roared at Samus (getting hit in the mouth a few times as a result) before he flew up and charged at her tail first.
Only for Sweetie Belle to catch his tail in her hooves, much to Ridley's surprise. But he didn't stop his charge and almost rammed the filly, getting a punch as a result that sent him flying. However, because Sweetie Belle was still holding his tail, he didn't go far, and the alicorn pulled to bring him back to her before punching him again. She repeated this, turning Ridley into a paddle ball.
She ended this by giving Ridley a powerful last punch that sent him into one of the big openings in the walls.
"I know this is your nemesis Samus, but I hope that you won't mind if I decide to have some... alone time with him," Sweetie Belle said, looking at Samus and giving a grin that gave the Hunter chills as she said the last part. "Let's add to his resume "being ridiculed by a child barely bigger than his claws." I will not just severely hit his reputation. I will ruin it. Be sure to film this."
"G-go on..." Samus said.
At this moment, Ridley flew back in the room and immediately fired a beam from his mouth at Sweetie Belle. The filly's mane and tail turned into fire and she stopped the beam with her bare hooves until all that remained was a large ball of energy and plasma that she threw back at the dragon at a speed breaking the one of sound. The ball exploded on Ridley's chest, destroying his chestplate and propelling him backward only for Sweetie Belle to teleport behind him and to stop him as she clung on his back, between his wings.
"Give me a ride?"
Ridley began to fly erratically to get her off. In return, Sweetie Belle played with his wings, making him do loops, corkscrews, and sudden direction changes, often causing him to crash into a wall or the ceiling or to fly into one of the paths beyond the openings.
Until she 'accidentally' ripped the wings off.
"Oopsie," she said with fake innocence as Ridley began to drop. She then flew from his back and watched as the dragon crashed on the ground.
Ridley quickly recovered and roared toward Sweetie Belle. Then, as he was about to fire another beam from his mouth, Sweetie Belle suddenly closed it at the last second with her magic. This caused an explosion inside his mouth, stunning him as smoke came out between his lips and out of his nostrils.
Sweetie Belle charged right into his wound in his chest, badly hurting him and sending him on his back. She then lifted him from under his back and made him spin until the world was just a blur for Ridley.
"STOOOOOOOOP THAAAAAAAAAT!!!"
"Okay."
She threw Ridley upward, then flew up after him, colliding with his back and almost breaking it. She then immediately fired a beam from her horn (which was on Ridley's back at this point), sending the dragon to the ceiling, almost into the hole to the Core. Sweetie Belle didn't stop here however and caught Ridley by the back again before she did a powerful spinning piledriver to him, making the dragon crash head first with the force of a meteorite. She continued by grabbing his tail and using it to slam the dragon a dozen time before she spun him again and threw him toward a wall.
This time, Ridley managed to stop himself from crashing, using his claws to bounce from the wall and back on the ground. Immediately, with a roar, he raised his claws and created two orbs of Phazon. Sweetie Belle didn't wait to see what they were for and used her magic to move the claws so Ridley ended up hitting himself with the orbs, causing electricity of Phazon energy to course his body. While Ridley shrieked in pain as a result, Sweetie Belle used the occasion to send a bomb into his mouth, causing another explosion inside it that stunned the dragon.
The filly then teleported behind Ridley's head, shifted one of her hooves into a claw, and used it to catch Ridley's head and slam it on the ground. She followed this by flying around while keeping her hold on the head, dragging it on the surfaces of the room with ferocity which pretty much shredded the armorskin on it.
Eventually, Ridley managed to point his tail at the filly still dragging him and he fired a Phazon beam from it only for her to put his head on the way (Ridley having a pretty long neck).
Sweetie Belle giggled. "You should stop hitting yourself, you know?"
"I'll kill you..." Ridley growled with pain.
This made the alicorn roll her eyes. "Yeah yeah yeah." Using her magic, she made Ridley's mouth open and close as if he was talking. "I'm the big bad Ridley. I'm evil. I'll kill everyone because I love it. Prepare to die. Blah blah blah." She then stopped and glared at him, making sure that he could see her eyes. "You don't scare me you tin canned lizard. You spread terror in the galaxy because there was nobody until Samus that could resist you and your army of pirates. And even against Samus, I can tell that you are pretty evenly matched. Time for you to discover what it's like to face someone against who you really can't do A-NY-THING." Her glare turned into a childish smile. "I was just playing with you until now. For the countless people who died because of you..." Then, her eyes began to glow. "Time for you to feel terror for the first time in your life."
She suddenly threw Ridley at the ground and materialized her ten cannons around her while she shifted the claw back into a hoof.
She fired a beam of pure darkness at the center of the room, and the beam turned into a black hole that began to suck up Ridley. The dragon quickly planted his front claws into the ground to resist the pull, but then, two of the cannons appeared beside them, let out black beam swords, and cut the claws. Without them, Ridley was pulled into the black hole.
Pain, it was all he felt inside it for what felt like eternity. He felt himself compressed from all sides, and it never stopped.
Until the black hole spat him out only five seconds later and he crashed on the ground for the... he wasn't sure anymore by now.
The ten cannons, all having now black beam swords, then opened holes in the fabric of space and time all around him. To his surprise, giant beams came out of them, hitting him from all sides. Despite the pain filling him, he managed to point his tail at the filly only for a sword to cut it at the base.
A giant claw made of darkness then materialized and grabbed Ridley before it began to press him, putting enough pressure to hurt him but not enough to kill.
"Look at you," Sweetie Belle, teleporting before him. "How does it feel to be totally powerless against someone?"
Ridley opened his mouth and fired a beam, but Sweetie Belle countered by firing her own beam that overpowered Ridley's, and Sweetie's beam ended up hitting the inside of Ridley's mouth. Some of it went down his throat and badly burned his insides, making him cough Phazon-filled blood.
"How... can you hurt me...? Only Phazon... should have any effect..." Ridley said with difficulty.
"Not with me," Sweetie Belle replied as a response before she made the giant claw of darkness press Ridley even more. "Now, prepare to die. For good."
At this, she made the claw of darkness rise, still holding the dragon.
Sweetie Belle surrounded her horn with her ten cannons, and she began to charge a huge quantity of energy into a black ball.
"Nothing will remain of you after that. I don't know how you survive each times, but I doubt that you will come back from this. Aah ahah ahaaaaaah~! Aah ahah ahaaaaaah~!" Sweetie Belle began to sing, boosting her power.
The black ball of energy doubled in size.
Ridley could tell that the filly was right. He won't come back from what she was about to fire. And there was nothing he could do to stop her. He was utterly powerless.
He could only watch as the filly fired a beam of absolute darkness that was the size of the whole chamber.
As it engulfed him, as his body disintegrated into nothingness, Ridley felt terror for the first time in his life.
Sweetie Belle grinned as she stared at the dragon petrified in terror.
When she made her eyes glow, she trapped Ridley in his own mind. All the fight since then had just been in his head, and in reality, only lasted a fraction of a second.
She released Ridley's head and let him drop.
"I let you finish him," she said to Samus who had observed everything but didn't know what happened that caused Ridley to freeze in terror. "He is your nemesis, so you should still have the honor."
Samus nodded and approached Ridley. "I must say, it was satisfyingly cathartic to watch."
"I knew you would love it. So you are not upset that I stole the fight?"
"I am only upset about two things. That I couldn't trash him like that myself, and that I didn't have popcorn."
"You should have asked me. I could have materialized some."
Samus reached Ridley who had landed on his back, leaving his wound in his chest open. Just as she entered Hypermode, she could see that Ridley was recovering from his terror as he began to look around, understanding that he was still alive.
Just as Ridley looked at her, Samus placed her cannon against his wound and fired without stopping.
After a few seconds of Ridley constantly shrieking in pain, Ridley was eventually weakened enough that he lost control of the huge quantity of Phazon inside him, as shown by the electricity beginning to course his body. Seeing this, Samus quickly stepped back and watched as Ridley seemingly exploded, releasing a huge quantity of Phazon like the two previous Guardians.
Like before, Samus felt the Seed inside her grow, and her Suit changed color again, now entirely blue excepted the red parts, which were still blue-red, and the cannon, and the joints were intensely glowing with Phazon energy.
Once she had recovered, Samus then took the upgrade left by Ridley: the Hyper Grapple.
Two growth with some kind of eye-like crystal then came down from the ceiling, pink crystals like the ones in the control center coming out of them. Samus used the Hyper Grapple on them, sending Phazon into them until it overloaded them and destroyed them.
This caused the Core to come out, and like the two previous times, Samus floated up before she released the Phazon inside her body, overloading the Core and killing it.
"Next: Phaaze," Sweetie Belle said as she flew beside Samus who nodded.
The two then left, and before long, as the Leviathan began to collapse and explode, Samus' ship and the Sweetie Bot Armor flew out of it. Along with it, the many giant tendrils of Phazon coming out of the ground as well as the river of Phazon began to disintegrate.