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.