They stayed together talking, joking, having good laughs for a whole hour before Marx told them that he wanted to go back to his house to get some more rest, still feeling tired, before thanking them. Sweetie Belle then decided that she should too return to the castle. And so, the three friends bid each others goodbye before separating.
Rather than taking the Warp Star, she decided to walk back. The castle was not that far and she knew the way. When she reached the castle, she took the way to the throne room, expecting Dedede to be there. The king not being here once she entered, she then went to the boxing room where he was probably training. And yes he was, clobbering dozens of dummies, trying to perfect his skills.
"King Dedede!" she shouted to gain his attention.
"Mmh? Oh, it's you Sweetie Belle. Where were you? Nobody was able to find you this morning."
"Sorry your majesty. I couldn't sleep so I got out in the middle of the night to take some fresh air. Then... an incident happened and I ended up sleeping in Kirby's house. NOT TOGETHER!!!" she screamed the last part at seeing the smirk on Dedede's face.
"Yeah sure. Anyway, what was this incident?"
"I found someone hurt, and Kirby's house was the closest. But this doesn't matter. I have been able to think, and while I don't like the idea of killing, I understand that to save Popstar, I may be forced to do it, and I accept it. However, I will only do it as a last resort if there are no other ways to stop the villain."
Dedede smiled warmly at her. "I understand. So what now? Remember that I gave you free day today. You can do whatever you want."
"And I know what I will do!"
"So you are saying that you beat my two cousins in Floria?" Whispy Woods asked, with many burns on his bark and trying to stop crying.
"Eeyup. I knew they must have been related to you somehow. They had your face," Sweetie said, sitting against the tree while eating an apple. "However, their apples weren't as delicious as yours. You should tell them your secret recipe, just in case I decide to visit them someday. I know that I will probably come back in this world, it was nice, and we made some good friends. By the way, next time we battle, you should ask them to help you. This way, you may have a chance to beat me. Sorry Whispy, but you are starting to get too easy."
She dove under Orange Ocean, finally having her first view of how it was under the ocean. Considering she didn't need to hold her breath, she could explore it as much as she wanted, and she was doing well! By Celestia, this was beautiful! She slowly swam beside a shoal of Blippers, following them as they passed between two rocks with some Glunks on them. On the other side, she could see a group of Squishies going up and down in their way, and further beyond, another shoal of Blippers.
The ocean got deeper the more she swam away of the coast, columns of rocks started to appear left and right, some of them going beyond the surface to form islands. She could see a cliff further to her right where it went evn deeper, and after some more swimming, passing by a tunnel with many Glunks, she found a fissure in the ground. Smiling at the idea of exploring it, she went inside, discovering the fissure to be the home of many faunas and floras, some of them reflecting the light of the sun, illuminating the dark.
If only she could show this to everypony.
"WIIIIIII!!!"
Sweetie was using the bark of a dead tree (not one of Whispy's family) as a snowboard, going down the slope of a high, snowy mountain. Going slightly to the left, she barely avoided a Rocky in the way, then went right to avoid a tree. She saw a cliff approaching before her, but rather than slowing down, she braced herself. Jumping the cliff, she did multiple 360°, laughing loudly, until she saw a tree getting closer in her way. And nope, she will not pass above it.
"Horsea-" BAM! "Arg!" Crack! "Ouch!" Crack! "Eep!" Vlan! "Ow! Aaaaah!" Scrunch!
And she fell head first into the snow at the bottom of the tree, only her hind hooves, butt and tail sticking out of it, the tree bark falling at her left. A few seconds later, she extracted the rest of her body and shook the snow out of it before rubbing her head.
"Owie... I'm not doing this again anytime soon," she groaned, before giggling. That was still fun.
She was sitting at her picnic place, under the tree beside the lake, sighing in contentment, having just finished her lunch constituted of various food she found around, including a strawberry shortcake, bread, an ice cream, a banana, and a few cookies with some milk. Not the more healthy and usual lunch, but she didn't care, it was delicious, and she couldn't pass something like cookies, cake or ice cream.
Maybe she should take a nap. Yeah... A nap sounded good...
"Googoo!" she suddenly heard.
"Uh?" She opened her eyes and looked around until she spotted the origin of the voice approaching, making her smile widely. "Gooey! Long time no see! Where were you?"
Gooey waved around with his tongue.
"You were exploring around?"
"Goo!" He nodded.
"Exploring Popstar?"
"Googoo!"
She giggled. "This sure explains the time you took. Lucky you, I have not yet explored beyond Dream Land. The farther I have gone is Rainbow Resort, with the Fountain of Dream. But now that I have a Warp Star, one day, I will explore Popstar too. But you know what? I got to explore other worlds!"
"Goo?"
"Let me tell you, you will not believe what happened to me and Kirby."
"And now, Marx is our friend again! At least, I hope this is for good this time, and that he isn't faking it. He still seems to be a little crazy and sadistic..."
"Goo!" Gooey shouted, doing some punching with his tongue. "Goo!"
Sweetie giggled. "It's nice that we can count on you to help us if he betrays us again." She then looked at the lake, seeing a Blipper swim on the surface for a few seconds before going back in the water. Her smile diminished. "I have a question Gooey."
"Goo?"
"Could... Could we have spared Dark Matter?"
Gooey looked at her in surprise. "Goo?!"
Sweetie then pointed at him. "You were like him, right?"
Gooey looked at her in silence, getting sad, before nodding. "Gooey... Dark Matter..."
"Thought so... And yet, somehow, you became kind. But good feelings hurt Dark Matter, so how did you become... you? Why aren't you hurt anymore by good feelings?"
Gooey looked pensively at the ground for a whole minute. He then took a stick and started to draw something in the earth. After a moment, Sweetie identified the drawing as Dark Matter in his last form, a black ball of darkness with an eye and smaller orbs behind him. Once he was done with Dark Matter, he then drew beside him a small heart, before crossing it. After that, he drew an arrow coming from the crossed heart to Dark Matter.
"Dark Matter can't love," Sweetie guessed from the drawing.
Gooey nodded and drew below the heart a smiling face, and crossed it, yet again drawing an arrow going from it to Dark Matter.
"Dark Matter can't be happy, or feel joy."
Another nod before he drew a fire with a swirl in it, crossed it, and drew an arrow from it to Dark Matter.
"Fire?"
Gooey shook is head and pointed at Sweetie's chest. Could this be...?
"The soul?"
He nodded.
"Dark Matter... doesn't have a soul?"
He nodded again, then drew a small star, and like the previous times, crossed it and drew an arrow from it to Dark Matter.
This one was harder. What did the star represent? "I don't understand. What is the star?"
Gooey mimicked someone sleeping.
"Sleeping? Wait..." What does someone do when they sleep? "Dreaming?" It would seem so. After all, the artefact that helped spreading dreams was a wand with a star.
Gooey nodded, confirming her conclusion.
So the star was a symbol of dreams? So, did that mean that Popstar was the world of dreams? No, not just Popstar. When she was exploring the other worlds, stars were everywhere. It was as if all those worlds were made of dreams. That also meant... Well, she had been starting to have a doubt, but now... Could she be in an universe made of dreams? A different dimension? This would explain the crazy logic. Food popping everywhere, breathing in water, walking on clouds. Those were dreams come true!
But that also meant that she couldn't go home with just a spaceship...
Focus Sweetie. I will think about it later. Right now, I'm talking with Gooey. "So... Dark Matter can't dream?"
Gooey nodded. Then, he went to another place and started a new drawing. Before long, he drew what she recognized as the Fountain of Dreams, but without the Star Rod, and so, not working. He pointed at the fountain with the stick. "Goo!"
"The Fountain of Dreams when Nightmare was corrupting it."
He nodded again, then drew above the fountain a smaller Dark Matter. But then, Gooey pointed at the Dark Matter, before pointing at himself. "Goo! Goo! Dark Matter!"
"That's... you? I mean, it was you? You were there?"
He nodded before restarting drawing something on the fountain. He drew the Star Rod, and the fountain started working again. He then drew a circle of stars around the fountain, and drew around the stars arrows showing them spreading everywhere, making sure to point at the Dark Matter Gooey.
"So... The Fountain of Dreams working again, it spread the dreams back all over Popstar, and with you being there, you were affected. Let me guess, it gave you dreams?"
"Goo!" He nodded, smiling. He then drew a small star beside the Dark Matter Gooey. After that, he drew an arrow from it to elsewhere, and at the end of the arrows, he drew a heart, a smiling face, and a soul.
"Dreams gave you a soul and the possibility to love and feel happiness!"
"Googoo!" He drew a circle around the Dark Matter, the star, the heart, the soul, and the face, then linked it to another arrow. At the end of the arrow, he drew himself, like he was actually.
"So, the 'Nightmare Incident' led to you gaining dreams and feelings!" she shouted excited.
"Googoo!"
Her smile then disappeared. "That means... We couldn't have saved Dark Matter. Unless another being like Nightmare forced the 'Nightmare Incident' to happen again, nothing could be done..."
"Goo..." Gooey confirmed with a nod. He then started to think about something, and after a few minutes, drew something new. He drew himself, then beside him, Dark Matter. Sweetie nodded to confirm that she was following. Gooey then drew another Dark Matter, then another, then another. At each new Dark Matter drawn, Sweetie got more and more shocked. A few minutes later, he had drawn twenty Dark Matters in total, without counting himself.
She gulped. "There are more of you out there?"
He nodded and started to draw one last thing behind all the Dark Matters. One big circle, at least ten times their sizes, and in the circle, one single eye. Nothing else.
Whoever, whatever that thing was, it filled Sweetie Belle with dread. "Who... is that?"
Gooey looked at what he drew in pure fear, shaking and sweating. Silent.
"Father..."
"Evil..."
"Hate..."
"Zero."
In the depth of space, the beautiful little stars were floating everywhere, giving light to the dark and filling the emptiness.
However, there was something else that was filling that emptiness. Moving with a destination in mind, a giant cloud of Darkness progressed between the stars, engulfing some of them, leaving nothing behind. Some small eyes could be seen poking out of the cloud every now and then before disappearing back in. However, there was a constant feature to that cloud. An eye, red like blood, giant, never disappearing, always looking in the same direction, the same one that the cloud was moving to. Its black pupil was fixed into a single point, far, far away. But each days, that point became a little bigger.
A star.