16. Reunion
Metroid Equis
Chapter 16
Reunion
Samus’s senses were working on overdrive as she stared her archenemy in the face. Fancying a quick gaze towards Luna’s direction, she found a gaping dent twenty feet above where the alicorn fell unconscious. Ridley had clotheslined her flying at full speed and if she were an average human or pony sans advanced armor, Samus was sure Luna would be dead right now. All in all, however, Samus wasn’t worried about Luna’s well-being. She’d come to eventually. Ridley wasn’t likely to turn his attention to the alicorn, especially with his archenemy standing right in front of him.
It was interesting, though. Samus had fought Ridley twice before this point and had encountered him physically even more than that. She was not afraid to stand in his vision and fight, potentially to the death. Still, from what she had seen as a young girl, there was always a voice in the back of her head that she learned to suppress since her incident on Zebes:
Run… RUN!
He’s gonna slaughter you just like your family! You better run, you idiot!
Of course, it could say whatever it wanted but it was still promptly ignored and it didn’t change the stoic expression she wore under her violet visor… it was actually a bit more complicated than that. The right part of her lips curled down slightly as a result of some blood-lust coming through. Nevertheless, even though her adrenaline was fueled to the max, her breathing was controlled and her thoughts were perfectly clear.
Ridley growled once more before angling his head up and unleashing a mighty roar that not only shook the structure to the very core, but obliterated any glass and fragile equipment. Samus took this time to step back a bit and generate some distance between the two of them. Then, Ridley let out a shrill growl as he reared his head and upper body back… an action Samus knew very well where it lead. Immediately, Samus dashed to the side and rolled on the ground with the aid of her Space Jump boosters as Ridley charged forward, his jaws having been a second too late.
The harsh roll had Samus on her knee and she quickly recovered. She drew her cannon and fired a single missile, which struck Ridley’s cheek armor and forced him to recoil a tad on impact. Unlike previous experiences, Ridley didn’t expose his chest and instead shot his arm straight out and attempted to grab the Hunter. She somersaulted horizontally over his arm while unleashing a Night Beam torrent to little avail. Ridley reared back and countered with a Plasma Bombardment from his mouth.
“AHuuHH!” Samus cried out briefly as the bombs shot out like canister shot and engulfed her shielding in the tremendous heat before she was able to get out. The shielding held up thankfully and she got her mind back into the battle.
Ridley gave out another screech and took flight, circling within the large structure as Samus never released the lock-on. She charged a Power Beam round and held it for safe keeping, ready to send a Super Missile off at milliseconds notice.
“Come on you bastard…” she mouthed to herself as she watched her adversary take no particular pattern in his flight. She stole another glance and found the Lunar Alicorn still safely unconscious. This fight was, for some reason, energizing her confidence beyond normal means. Most likely another side effect of magic.
Ridley halted his flight right above the large projection of Planet Equis and spread his wings harshly. As he did that, six missiles erupted from launchers on his back one after the other and homed in straight for the Hunter. Samus released the charge round, destroying the first missile, obliterated the second and third with standard Power Beam rounds, magically generated a small shield which absorbed the impacts of the fourth and fifth before promptly shattering, and easily dodged the last with a hard dash to the right.
Samus found that Ridley’s launchers had to vent themselves so she took the opportunity that presented itself to deliver a quick strike with a Super Missile, which found its mark in Ridley’s abdomen as he attempted a last second dodge. The blast sent the dragon careening into some consoles on the ground and into the wall, though he recovered instantly with a glare that could kill entire worlds.
“You’ll pay for that you little brat…” He muttered to himself, though Samus’s translators couldn’t catch the words. He lunged forward with impressive speed with the aid of his wings and with a mighty dragon’s roar. Samus could do very little as he covered distance so quickly and caught her in his grasp. Right before Ridley impacted Samus into the wall, she fired a charged Night Beam round straight at his eye which forced him to recoil, slowing his acceleration, although Samus felt her back hit the metal wall harshly and saw stars for a few moments as a result.
Ridley lunged his neck forward and attempted to ensnare the Hunter, still in his grip, with his cybernetic jaws. She fired another charged round down his gullet just in time, forcing an agonized cry out of him. Ridley countered by pressing Samus into the wall and dragging her harshly as he flew. Samus’s shielding held but was slowly beginning to start whittling away at the constant abuse.
“GGAAHH!” Samus yelled in strain as she charged her Power Beam and aimed a Super Missile straight as Ridley’s hand. The blast forced his grip to open immediately yet the collateral damage sent Samus flying in the opposite direction. She hit the ground hard but after a few moments, regained her senses and flipped back up on her feet, arm cannon aimed right back at the dragon.
Ridley’s armor on his hand had cracked significantly yet he was undeterred. He rushed back at Samus in a similar manner, but as he looked like he was going to grab her, Samus was blindsided when Ridley altered his course and slammed the end of his tail straight into her. The strike swept her off her feet as she face-planted into the ground. She rolled to the side just in time, avoiding a death-dealing fist smashing into the ground on her previous position. Samus peppered Ridley’s face with Night Beam rounds, several of them hitting their marks in his eyes and forcing him to take flight once more… although not without dropping several Plasma Bombs, to which Samus shielded herself from magically.
Ridley fired a missile back at her, to which she tracked but its trajectory landed behind her, attempting to draw her attention. It failed, yet Ridley pressed on with his attack, flying low straight at her while his tail-head pounded into the ground with his ever-famous jackhammer attack. The small-grade seismic activity it created caused some disorientation with Samus’s footing, though she stood strong and waited for her opportunity. She aimed and right before she would have been impaled from the top, she fired another Super Missile, its trajectory taking it perfectly into Ridley’s chest even though he did his best to protect with his hands. He roared agonizingly as he hit the ground right in front of Samus, though not without the gift of his tail smashing into her with a hard swipe.
The thicker portion of Ridley’s tail collided with Samus’s full figure and slammed her into the wall, leaving a noticeable indentation. Ridley regained his bearings as he moved his appendage, releasing Samus as she fell to her knees from pain and disorientation. He pressed his attack and grasped her hard with his left hand before chucking her into the ground where Samus also noticeably bounced. Ridley had to clutch his chest with his right hand as pain was starting to form once more from Samus’s strike, yet he advanced forward.
Samus held herself up with her left hand and coughed. Her suit’s shielding was holding up though there was easily noticeable damage to the superstructure, one of the more notable signs being a crack on her chest plate.
“I’ll make sure there’s no body to bury…” Ridley muttered out in a pained manner before he charged a powerful beam in his mouth, ready to finish off his stunned/wounded prey. Samus immediately collapsed her arm and rolled on her back, sending a Super Missile straight into his gullet, and prematurely exploding his own plasma attack. The blast in his mouth sent him flying backwards and hitting the ground hard, and it was only by advanced cybernetics that the strike didn’t kill him instantly.
“F… Feels good huh?!” Samus screamed out as she got up, her anger and vigor shining anew. As Ridley was still reeling, Samus did a quick suit diagnostic:
[Suit Integrity: Seventy-one percent.]
[Shield Generator: Intact]
[Defensive Shielding: Moderately Depleted. Energy Tank recharge highly recommended.]
[Missile Ammunition: Sixty-four percent capacity.]
[All Systems Fully Operational.]
Samus dismissed the notifications and entered her battle stance once more, coinciding with Ridley’s recovery. It was clear that Ridley had grown stronger since she last saw him… which really wasn’t all that long ago. At this rate, there was a decent probability that he could wear her down and she’d succumb to him in this little game of attack-and-defend. Thus, she felt that she needed to go on the offensive.
Samus began sprinting towards her archenemy until her Speed Booster activated. She altered her trajectory several times in order to easily avoid the hailstorm of projectiles Ridley was sending her way.
“Come on… come on…”
Like she expected, Ridley took flight to avoid being hit by the speeding Hunter (which honestly would have done some serious damage to both of them). Samus initiated her Shinespark technique and shot herself straight at Ridley’s flying form. Ridley rolled over mid-flight and attempted to swat the ‘Shinepark-ing’ Samus out of the sky but she deactivated it, his hand overshooting her form. She let herself freefall for half a second before she shot her grapple beam while simultaneously charging her Night Beam; her now Sticky Grapple attaching to Ridley’s chest. Ridley was taken off guard, midair, while Samus retracted her beam and brought the two of them closer. She released the magically charged round straight into his weaker chest armor, magically weakening it temporarily, and ending with Samus extending her leg and slamming her heel into his chest, cracking the armor and forcing both of them to slam into the wall, as Ridley was still in the process of flight when this all went down in a matter of seconds.
The impact against the wall was too much and they went straight through it, Samus continuing to hitch a ride on Ridley’s chest and firing away with her Night Beam while the latter attempted to remove her. They flew several hundred feet out of the Command Center and into the uninhabited forest where they crash-landed, Samus being violently thrown off of her adversary as they tumbled and rolled. Cries, screams, screeches and roars could be heard simultaneously as inertia and obstacles brought their violent landing to a halt.
Samus had tumbled and struck the side of an enormous tree nice and hard, while Ridley had fallen on his head when he lost control. Both belligerents were stunned and lightly writhing on the ground. The rain pelted both parties as they slowly came to their bearings and righted themselves, both enduring bruising pain.
Samus was still catching her breath as she stood up strong (though it took some internal coaxing). Ridley was finally able to hoist himself up on all fours. The two then caught glances of each other in their weakened states. Both had conceded: this encounter between them had been short, yet incredibly destructive. Samus would readily admit that few of her adversaries had the ability to wear her thin like Ridley. The latter craned his neck to her and growled before speaking, Samus’s translators doing the work:
“You’ll… join your parents soon enough, Aran.”
“Just… die already…” Samus responded through her residual pain, raising her cannon and preparing for the inevitable attack. In all honesty, Samus wasn’t entirely sure how much either of them could take in terms of beatings. Nevertheless, she readied a Super Missile and was prepared for anything.
If she fell here, she would fall fighting.
Before either belligerent could strike, eight teleportation spells went off around Samus, revealing black-clad unicorn troops plus the Lunar Princess who quickly took positions in front of Samus, horns charged to great luminosity aimed straight at Ridley. The latter, equally surprised as Samus by the events that just unfolded, stared down the threatening unicorn troops, who had the term Magickakorps emblazoned on their black armor and uniforms.
Ironically, Samus knew Ridley relatively well. In her own weakened and exhausted state, it wasn’t like she could resist in any way to… whatever was transpiring, and the same thing went for Ridley. She suspected in his state, he wouldn’t fight any further, especially since he most likely knew from reports the dangers of weaponized magic.
This fight was over.
Ridley shifted his glare to the Hunter, who had removed her cannon from an aimed state and left it passive. The unicorn troops kept their horns charged, Luna standing next to Samus, ready to attack at moments notice, and Samus half expected them to attack the wounded Pirate-commander… though the fact that they didn’t when they immediately teleported in led her to believe that they weren’t under orders to engage the Pirates.
“We adjourn… for now,” Ridley begrudgingly conceded. In his state, he knew well that he wouldn’t be able to fight back effectively against several magical entities. He let out a mighty roar towards the Hunter and the interfering unicorns before taking flight, heading straight for his capital ship.
Another battle where both archenemies survived. Samus needed a moment to just… rest, so she took a seat on the forest ground.
“Soldiers, ensure our immediate area is secured,” Luna softly ordered, to which they all nodded and went about their task.
“Samus, do you require medical attention?” Luna asked, unequipping her helm. Samus looked to her through her own visor and shook her head. However, one thing was already bothering her:
“Why didn’t you attack him?”
Luna turned around to face her with a stoic expression on her face, ethereal mane further framing her power.
“While I could give a whole reasoning about 'honor amongst mortal enemies' and 'not being my place to destroy him,' simply put, we... I need you alive. While my soldiers and I could have most probably dealt with this 'Ridley,' there was a high risk he would attempt to attack you in your currently weakened state, and if he managed, however improbable you may consider the possibility, to kill you before we could finish our offensive, everything would be null. I sense your adversary is very powerful, and I was not willing to take that chance by going on the offensive. ”
Samus just stared at her, processing what she said. Luna continued, deciding to answer any questions before they were asked:
“Before I was banished I had a large control over things military. Of course when I turned, it wasn’t so nice for Celestia having half an army willing to follow me to their deaths. When I returned, I was explicitly forbidden to raise a well trained force without her knowledge, yet she would never understand. She felt the Guards Force, on top of a small peacekeeping army and air wing would be sufficient, and that we could rely on the Elements of Harmony for protection against whatever threatened our nation and planet.”
Samus continued to listen as the rain ran down her armor.
“Without her knowledge, I had been training for several years a force of magic adepts. Recruitment was secretive, and those in the Guard who showed promise were offered opportunity but had their memories magically ‘forget’ any mention should they have refused. So, I oversaw the build-up of my Magickakorps, a two thousand five hundred pony-strong force that could be called upon in times of extraordinary crisis should the Elements have proved ineffective.”
“How did they find us?” Samus asked.
“When I got word of the invasion, I immediately ordered the execution of a top secret protocol, which gave the Magickakorps complete knowledge of my whereabouts and my state of mind at critical points. Should I have fallen unconscious or had critical lifesigns, they would know where to find me, and so they did. After they helped me regain consciousness, which was apparently right after you took your fight outside, we set out to look for you, and a little bit of magical prodding yielded your whereabouts.”
Luna then placed her hoof on Samus’s pauldron as the latter kept her seat.
“Call your ship, repair your armorsuit, and return to Ponyville to brief with Celestia. She awaits your return as she coordinates evacuation efforts. Canterlot needs me right now. Gather what rest you can, for the day is not over and we shall need you in the fight.”
Samus nodded quietly and Luna took that as her time to leave. She called her troops back and they all teleported out of sight.
Samus was alone once more. As the rain quietly pattered on her armor , she stood up, released a pent up scream of frustration, and struck the nearest tree with her fist, cracking the bark and the wood under it.
She panted a bit while she unequipped her suit, letting the rain cool her off as it matted her hair to her skin. She called her ship via her arm-console and took her seat back on the ground as she awaited her carriage, a bunch of thoughts running through her head as she placed her forehead on her curled-up knees.
And as she waited, she did what she did best when she wasn’t in battle…
Think.
Edited by Tatsurou
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BEST! RIDLEY FIGHT! EVER! The tension between the two rivals I could cut it with a knife! Their different yet somewhat similar fighting styles was perfect! YOU SIR HAVE WON THE INTERNETS AND METROID!
(On a side note I was thinking about doing a Metroid crossover that takes place after Metroid Fusion. Would you be interested as an editor for it?)
Mmmm Ridley and Samus battles. So intense and AWESOME
Can't wait for more
Also EPIC BOSS MUSIC!
This story is awesome. Just wanted to tell you that.
Very nice chapter, and quite an intense battle.
But I have the feeling those Magickakorps are going to cause some political backlash when Celestia finds out. ...I'm also surprised Twilight and Shining didn't get recruited.
3666192 Quite possibly yes. As well, do you think Twily could keep a secret from her dear Mentor? ;D
3666147 Well, thank you very much :). I hope you continue to enjoy it!
Thanks for your opinion!
3666134 Pretty good haha, I was going more for the Other M version of the Ridley battle... its VERY intense :D
Thanks!!! Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it hahaha. As well, I was already heavily considering a sequel to this to be after Fusion, so if you're doing the same thing I'd love to be an editor while I write :)
3666244 Sweet! I'll PM you the details.
3666239
Well, by the time Luna was recruiting, Twilight was no longer living in Canterlot.
Then again...Element of Harmony.
And Shining probably refused because the super soldier training probably involved a cutting off of romantic ties and, well, Cadence.
3666255 Indeed so. However, the Magickakorps aren't so much 'super soldiers' in the sense of like, Spartans from the Halo universe. More like unicorns being trained in Magic for War purposes, something that hadn't been seen in a long long time
3666133 Haha they are indeed! Glad you enjoyed the chapter and I look forward to more of your thoughts in the future
3666259
I know. I was only saying super soldier as compared to the Royal Guard.
3666271 Fair point
Hell yeah
3666242 No worries there!
man ive had a headache all day and i was kinda thinkin to my self. "When is metroid equis gonna update?" not long after that it updates.........AWESOME
Uh, first off, it is Luna's battle. Her nation and citizens are under extreme danger, and she settles on some stupidly over-mentioned yet completely ambiguous notion of honor, further endangering them? Either this version of Luna is extremely foolish, or "honor" is something I just don't and will never understand.
3667126 Indeed, her battle is with the Pirates themselves as they're invading, but from what Luna had seen in Samus's dreams, Ridley is Samus's fight only. In regards to the Metroid Series, I didn't feel comfortable having anyone else but Samus physically defeat Ridley for obvious reasons, but this only set things up. Ridley will return.
… Luna's explanation didn't explain why she thought that letting an intergalactic terrorist live was a good idea. They should have EXTERMINATED Ridley on the spot. Of course, that would leave no 'story' left, but it would be the FAR MORE LOGICAL DECISION TO MAKE! I mean, REALLY! Honor before Reason? Are you REALLY that thick?
3667317 *sigh*
As if Ridley would have even LET them anyways. He would have retreated anyways knowing him. Even if they had fought, he'd still attack Samus anyways, or Samus wouldn't even let them near him for her own reasons. Had Samus died it would have been all over. As controversial as this may be, aside from reasons of plot, letting him go was the best decision for the moment, as it ties into something very important as the story progresses.
Should have expected this reaction lol
3667328 Meh… I'm logical like that. I just want to say that later there should be something from the Galactic Federation/whatchamacallit where they ride Luna's ass (get your head out of the gutter) for letting Ridley go at that point. Maybe some kind of 'trial' or something, because, pretty much, she let- as I already stated- an intergalactic criminal who is NOTORIOUS for MASS MURDER on god-knows-how-many-worlds, along with the destruction and vandalism of almost as many via an evil and nearly unstoppable alien plague thingie. Yes, I just went into Buffy Speak. Deal with it.
3667761 Oh it's very logical don't get me wrong. However of the paths I laid out before myself, this one would have a better future down the road. I could have had Ridley die now... in which this would be a pretty short story. I could have had Samus die... and yeah just no. If Ridley died (capturing him was out of the question for obvious reasons), the story would just collapse on itself even if Luna and the Magickakorps didn't intervene. He would have had to retreat or be let go somehow. Samus wouldn't have let him go that's for sure. So there was a problem I had to address. And as such, I made it so they weakened each other beyond best fighting capabilities, and gave Ridley the chance to retreat. That will come back full swing in interesting ways in the future which you will see.
Make no mistake of it, Samus will confront Luna over this when she gets the next chance. I'll solder things up as best I can :p
Why do I see a phazon-corrupted Magickakorps in Samus's future?
3667857 ridley's gonna come back with magic powers isn't he? If he does what physical changes will be made to him any sort of transformation like Luna to nightmare moon
I doubt finishing Ridley off would've been that easy even if Luna decided to end it right there. Dude's been revived so many times anyway, it wouldn't last.
Honestly, I'm totally cool with Ridley getting away for now. It wouldn't feel...climactic enough if he got offed here.
3677220 Indeed! Also, funfact: It was confirmed by nintendo that Ridley had survived all encounters with Samus up until Super Metroid, which was his first true death. So this is the same Ridley haha
Wow... That was amazing!!!!!!! I swear I thought About other m's Ridley fight. But I'm not raging about Luna not attacking. I think I know why she didn't attack Ridley
i do find it odd that Luna would create a secret military force almost immediately after being forgiven for treachery where access to military forces was key. While having some extra meat behind Samus is nice and helpful, i'm more interested to see how Luna thinks raising this army in secret could possibly play out in her favor.
3686305 that, good sir, is a wonderful question, and it shall be addressed in the coming chapters :)
3686390 I had hoped as much. Raising an army of over six-thousand hoof-picked adepts in secret isn't something that can be done quickly. Which means she started LONG before this story started. So ... consider my interest piqued
(not that my interest hadn't already been piqued before)
I expected Ridley to be dangerously genre savvy. Or he could just fight dirty against samus. Unfortunately since he is the bad guy, he'll die. Because the good guys ALWAYS win! Unless the bad guys wins.
But.... the base didn't explode.
Choose your Ridley Theme!
5621028 Sorry to be a stick-in-the-mud, but you're missing a theme, there. Though you never fight Ridley in Prime 2: Echoes, he has a battle theme hidden in the game's data. It's leftover from the early development stages of the game, when they'd originally planned to put him in the game, and the music is on the Prime 2 demo disc, but incomplete. To complete your list, here's the secret Prime 2: Echoes theme (as a bonus, someone actually managed to figure out how the remainder of the song was supposed to sound like by comparing it with other Ridley themes, then created a track of what the song would've sounded like if the battle had actually made it into the game. The following video is of the "repaired" theme):
4841848 that's because all your base are belong to us
What happened to that asteroids attack?
7480863
All your base are belong to me.
Back to reading this story, haven't read it since... mid 2018 or late 2017 either those two years, but yeah, back to the Hunter's story
9649600
God I REALLY need to rewrite this shit... lmao