//------------------------------// // Chapter 15: Choose your Weapon // Story: A Sweetie Dream Land // by Lucar //------------------------------// Consciousness came back to Sweetie Belle, the filly feeling the warmth of wherever she was. She didn't want to open her eyes, she didn't want to move from where she was, it was just so warm, and so calm, especially after all that happened... But her gurgling belly and her full bladder were saying something else. Urg... Stupid natural body needs. So she opened her eyes and discovered that she was back in her chamber in Dedede's castle. She could see that it must be rather late in the day, the sun not showing through the window like it did in the morning. She looked down at her bed and smiled at seeing Dedede's red finery covering her above her normal cover. Not so selfish the penguin, when he wanted. She remarked at the same time some bandages on her body, where she had been hurt in her fight against Dark Matter. It was only then that everything she did caught up in her mind. She had helped saving the world! She went in an adventure with the local hero, passed mortal traps and trials, fought a whole army and powerful beings that would give problems even to her sister and her friends excepted probably Twilight, almost got herself killed many times, and they killed, actually killed a creature of darkness with the help of a powerful artefact! It wasn't in Equestria that something like that would have happened to her! At worst, she had to face Diamond Tiara! And Scootaloo's 'awesome' ideas to obtain their Cutie Marks at the risk of being sent to the hospital... Without forgetting hiding during the occasional disaster that happened in Ponyville, from bunny stampedes to evil beings coming back after millenia of emprisonnement... Yeah, her life in Equestria was full of excitement, but actually risking her life to fight an evil being and save the world, never! Sweetie took the finery and pus it on her back to cover her whole body, then she took the Rarity plushie and hugged it, trying to think of it as her sister comforting her. Her stomach and bladder could wait. ... Or not... She dropped the Rarity plushie and quickly got out of her room, surprising the two Spear Waddle Dees guarding her room. "Hey! You are awake!" one of the Waddle Dee said. "No time! Need to go!" And she disappeared behind the door to the toilet, making the two Waddle Dees chuckle. "Well, I'm gonna warn the king. Wait for her and tell her whatever she wants to know when she gets out," the first Waddle Dee said. "Alright," the second replied. ... "Wait, was she wearing the king's finery?" the first asked. "Yep. And it's definitely too big for her." Sweetie got out, relieved, and was joined by the Waddle Dee. "Hello," he said. "Hello. What time is it?" she asked. "It's almost 5pm. We are still the same day if you want to know." "Really? I thought that I would have slept at least a whole day after everything that happened." "Eh! This was just one day of adventure! Nothing too serious!" the recognizable voice of Dedede said from farther, making them turn in his direction as he approached them. "After all these days of training, it wasn't too much!" "My king," the Waddle Dee said, bowing. "Thanks thanks. You can go." "Yes my king!" he shouts before exiting the hallway. King Dedede then took a Maxim Tomato out from his cloth and gave it to Sweetie Belle. "Here. This will heal you, and fill you until the banquet of tonight." "A banquet?" Sweetie asked while eating the tomato. "Of course! To celebrate your victory over this dark thing and saving me! Even if you had Kirby's help, you still proved that you have become quite the fighter and that you possess great potential like I thought! I have heard some stories from my soldiers, I had a hard time believing them. Can you really use Kirby's Abilities when he is on your back? When I fought you, I remember you just had a change of color." "It's totally true! He had his Stone Ability, and when he jumped on my back, my whole body became stone! And when he took the Fire Ability, I could shoot fireballs from my horn! As for the sword... I think it gave me more courage, because I had less problem taking risks to make sure that Kirby could use his sword and to pass the areas as quickly as possible." "Mhm!" Dedede nodded with a hand under his chin. "And do you think... you could use them without having Kirby on your back?" At this, Sweetie rubbed her head, thinking. "Maybe? With my magic, I suppose I could. But at my current level, I'm not sure. Shooting fireballs is more difficult than just shooting beams of raw magic, but I remember how it felt so I could try to reproduce it. But there are some things like covering my body in stone or in needles that will really take a long time to learn, and others where I will need to train with a weapon, like the sword and the parasol." "As long as you try, it's all I ask." "Speaking of weapon, King Dedede..." She looked at the floor. "It has already been two times since my arrival that Popstar has been put in danger, and the second time, I have been forced to fight. Who knows if it may happen again in the future?" "I think I see where you are going. You think that another evil being will pop out and you may end up having to fight again, so you want to train with a real weapon? And not just to copy Kirby?" Sweetie stared at the floor in silence for a few seconds before she looked at the king and answered, "Yes." "Alright then, let's go to one of the armories so you can choose. But first, let's take off these bandages, you don't need them anymore. And give me back my finery. As much as it looks good on you, it's too big." "King Dedede?" Sweetie Belle suddenly said on their way. "I have just thought about it, but what happened after I fell asleep?" "Nothing much. We all got back in the castle, Kirby took his Warp Star and went back to his house to rest, the three animals returned to their islands, and the blue blob... I'm not sure where he went. Of course, they made sure to say goodbye to you, even if you were sleeping. And everything came back to normal," Dedede answered. He then opened a door leading to a room full of weapons. "Here we are. Now choose your weapon. Take anything you want, whatever better fits your style." Sweetie entered the room and looked at all the weapons around her. There were swords, spears, parasols, hammers, bows, flails, and many others. It will be hard to choose. She already knew she will not take a hammer of a flail, too heavy. She took instead a bow with an arrow, but quickly dismissed them, she already had her beams. She then took a sword in her magic and started to swing it around, only to knock off an axe of its support, almost slicing Dedede in two. "Eek! W-watch out what you are doing!" "Sorry!" She put back the sword and saw another weapon on a table at the corner: a whip. She thought for a moment before taking it in her magic, levitating the weapon before taking it in her hoof by the handle. No, this will not do. She took it back in her magic, the light only around the handle rather than all over the whip. She tried to crack it, but yeah... She needed training, like for all these weapons. But then, she expanded the light of her magic all over the whip, and before long, she manipulated it around her, doing waves in the air as if it was a snake. She got it up, down, then made it do some loops around her body, then wrapped its extremity around the handle of a sword, picking it up briefly before putting it back with a big smile. "You know it's not how you use a whip, right?" "I know, but look what I can do with it thanks to my magic! I can feel it, once I have trained to use it, this will be the best! I can already see all the things that I will be able to do to fight my enemies with it! Like, I would crack it, but then I would use my magic to wrap it around them and trap them! Or even steal their weapons from their hands!" Dedede rubbed his chin with his fingers, smiling. "Yes! I see it! You would become a real little terror with this weapon coupled to your magic! So, you take it?" "Yes!" "Then let's test it on the boxing ring! With it, you will become my champion!" Dedede put a Kirby dummy on the boxing ring, in front of Sweetie. "There! First, I want to see your magic in action. Shoot this dummy with one of your beams." "Okay!" Sweetie shouted back before firing a beam at the dummy, making it fall on its back. "Good! Good!" Dedede clapped his hands. "I wonder what kind of other attacks you will develop in the future with your magic." "Well, if I can use my magic to do like when Kirby was on my back, then I could shoot fireballs, ice balls, lightning bolts, blade-like projectiles, turn my fur into needles or into stone, create bombs, or at least something that explode. I don't know about the parasol though, there was one popping out of my horn, but I don't know if I would be able to do the same thing. There is also the Broom Ability but I don't know what I would do with it. Of course, this is just thinking with Kirby's abilities. You should see all that Twilight can do with her magic, like teleporting, transforming objects, animating objects, using shields... She even created butterfly wings so my sister could fly, even if it was temporary. And... erh... There was the 'Smarty Pants incident' where she cursed a doll leading the whole town to try to get it, as if that doll was the most important thing in the world and we had to take it for us and us alone. That day was crazy." "I see. We will forget this curse and try to teach you the rest, especially this transformation spell. If you could turn your whip into whatever you want, like other weapons, then the possibilities in battles would be almost infinite. I don't think even Kirby would be able to learn all you could do and win thanks to it. And teleport..." He took a big breath. "Teleportation would be a huge addition. Thanks to it, you would become even more unpredictable. And I can't even start to think of all the possibilities that could happen thanks to this animation spell." "But those are really advanced spells. It would take years of training before I have enough magic and enough control to use them! The only one that I can think of right now is the shield." "Then we will start with the shield. Having a defensive move would leave you less vulnerable. But first, let's start your training with your weapon. Start to use it on the dummy, I will bring more." "Okay!" As Dedede exited the ring, Sweetie Belle used her magic to bring the dummy back on its feet. She then looked at her whip. "Mmh... Let's see..." Sweetie Belle and Dedede were in their way to the banquet room, the filly drained and slightly injured. Sweetie trained for two whole hours, trying to learn to use the whip, and later, the shield spell. In the later case, it consisted of Dedede throwing dummies at her, and she had to make a shield appear to stop them. The injuries were proof that the dummies won this battle, but they will not win this war! But now, it was time to start the banquet, and with having eaten just a Maxim Tomato since she woke up, and after such a workout, she was starving. Dedede opened the door, leading to a huge room with no less than five tables of banquet full of food of all kind, the Waddle Dees and other members of Dedede's army already around them eating with gusto, talking to each other in a big hubbub of laughter and discussions. Everything stopped when they entered, everyone looking at them, or more likely, at her. Knowing she hurt a good part of them in her journey, it was no wonder. Despite that, she could still hear someone eating. When she turned toward the origin of the sound, her jaw almost hit the floor. Here, at one of the tables, was none other than Kirby eating plate after plate of food. Dedede saw him too, and after a small silence due to shock, he yelled, "Kirby?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" "Poyo?" Kirby said at hearing that and turned around to see them. At seeing her, he smiled and waved at her. "Poyo!" "Hey!" she waved back. A Waddle Doo came beside Dedede, bowing. "I'm sorry my king, he invited himself and we didn't dare to stop him." "Grrr... The nerve!" "Well, he helped save you and fight Dark Matter," Sweetie Belle said. "I think he deserves to be here too." "Good point..." He took a big breath. "Alright, he can participate in the banquet. But it's only because I owe him one!" "Thank you King Dedede!" The penguin looked at Kirby with a 'I'm watching you' stare before going to another table to eat. Sweetie followed him, hopped on a chair beside him, and started to eat too until she was joined by a Waddle Dee. "Hey Sweetie, good job for yesterday." "Mmh?" She turned to the Waddle Dee and recognized him. "Oh hey! Thanks!" "You are welcome. And don't worry about everyone, they have no hard feeling about you beating them up. They actually admire you for what you have done." "Really? That's a relief. I thought that they were now mad at me, or scared of me. Speaking of, why did you run away?" "Urm... Sorry, but seeing you having Kirby's Ability, and knowing how things can get out of proportion with you, I thought I would die if I fought you." "Oh come on! You are exaggerating! I would have just punched you on the head like all the others!" "Yeah... I didn't want to test it. Remember when we sent you plumbering? You flooded half the castle! And must I remember you the 'Fatal Cutie Incident'?" Sweetie blushed at being reminded of that and pouted. "But I killed nobody!" "Yeah, by some miracle. But some of them ended up in a coma." He laughed. "Between you, Kirby, and the friends that joined your group, half our beds were full." "At least it was fun to watch." Broom Sunglasses said from her other side, eating a plate of fruits. "Good to know..." Sweetie said, giving him a deadpan look while eating an apple pie made from Whispy's apples. "Continue this way, and you will live more and more to the name 'Fatal Cutie'." He then looked directly at her and chuckled. "Though, if you continue to eat like that, we will have to call you 'Fatal Gut-" Splat! He was interrupted by a cream pie hitting his face, making him crash on the floor. This made Waddle Dee laugh, arms on his belly. "Sometime, I wonder if he has a death wish," Cape Knight said, coming from behind. "I wonder too," Sweetie Belle said, staring at the Hatter on the floor with anger while blushing. After a few seconds, she turned to Cape Knight. "How are you?" "Fine. Fine. Kirby eating me has done nothing, don't worry." Sweetie nodded and then said, "Thank you, for helping me." "I just did the right thing. You are the king's best hope, and I want to do everything I can to help you reach his expectations, even if I have to be hard with you. At least, I think I can stop calling you 'Rookie'. You don't get out of an adventure like this one alive and still being called like that. You have gained much experience." "Yeah... All these traps, and these battles against Dedede's lieutenants. And Dark Matter. I almost died, more than once. I now understand better what my sister has lived through. And now, I'm not even scared anymore of using a weapon. I'm actually starting training with one." "Really?" Waddle Dee shouted. "Yes. A whip." "A whip, mmh?" Cape Knight said, rubbing his chin. "We don't have any whip user in our army, but I could give you some advice in how to use it, if you want." "I would love it. I have trained a moment with it, but I still have a hard time hitting the dummies." "Yes, the whip is not an easy weapon, but it can be really useful, as well in a battle than outside. If you end up in another adventure, it will become your best friend. Just watch out the enemies using close quarter combat. I think you should learn some martial art or something, so you cover every possibilities." "I'm learning to use magical shields if it can help." "It can. But relying in your magic too much is a bad idea. It's not for nothing that the king trains you to use your hooves alongside your magic." "I understand. But I still want to get better in magic, it's the reason I ended up here after all." "I never said not to learn your magic, but to not focus on it." "King Dedede!" a Waddle Dee suddenly yelled, coming beside the king. "I have a bad news!" "What is it? I hope it's not another evil being trying to conquer Dream Land!" "No! Worse!" The Waddle Dee then pointed at Kirby. "You are about to lose your title of King Eater!" "WHAAT!!!" Dedede screamed, his head becoming red. He started to run toward the puffball, rolling up his sleeves. "I will not let it pass! KIRBY!!!" At his shout, Kirby stopped eating and turned toward him. "Poyo?" Dedede put his face before Kirby's. "So you think you can beat me at being the best eater of Popstar?" "P-poyo?" "Then you ask for it! Kirby!" He pointed a finger toward the puffball. "I challenge you in a Gourmet Race!" Silence... Then Sweetie said, "Wh-what?"