Sweetie Belle finished to put Adeleine's drawings in a drawer in her recently acquired desk. Recently, as in a few days before the incident with Marx. Dedede hated paperwork as much as any normal person, so he hadn't thought that she would need a desk, but she argued that she may need one to stow stuff, or if she needed to write something, so he reluctantly accepted to give her one. Right now, the desk was rather empty, with just a few books, a pen (why wasn't there something like that in Equestria?) and a pile of blank paper in one of the drawers. And now she could add Adeleine's drawings, which will make good souvenirs of this day with her friends.
She also got to keep the sailor hat and the red bow, Pick and Nyupun refusing to take them back. So she put them in her closet, not sure if she will use them one day. Well, she may actually use the sailor hat, thinking about trying to obtain a Cutie Mark in being a sailor. She would need to borrow one of Dedede's ships, and a few minions to be the crew.
Why not do it tomorrow?
"You are lucky that Cape Knight knows how to command a ship, or else, it would have ended very badly," Dedede said.
"I'm sorry..."
"You know, before trying something else to obtain your Cutie Mark, you should first learn how to do it. It doesn't matter to try to be a sailor, if you don't even know what is port or starboard."
Sweetie chuckled embarrassingly at that. Yeah, it was pretty stupid now that she thought about this. Wait...
"You don't know either what it means!"
"And that's why I let someone that know how to command a ship do the job at my place. I'm not a sailor, I'm a king. I say to the captain where I want to go, and he makes sure that the ship leads me where I want by ordering the crew, because I don't know anything about being a sailor. If I want to lead a ship, then I will have to learn first."
She giggled. "You? Learning? Impossible!"
"Exactly!" Dedede said, guffawing.
"So... Am I grounded?"
"Grounded? Why would I ground you?"
"Well... I almost destroyed one of your ships."
"I never grounded you until now, not even when you flooded half of the castle, I will not ground you now, especially with you being now my second in command. This castle has seen worse. As long as you don't destroy the whole castle, you can try anything you want. Just don't forget to ask for someone to help you in the future."
"Ok. Thank you, your majesty."
It wasn't in Equestria that this kind of thing could have happened. If she did something wrong, then she was grounded, end of the story. But here, no matter what she did, Dedede let it pass. Well, sometime he got angry, but even then, no 'No dessert at dinner!' or 'go to your room and don't get out!'. At worse, he lectured her, and that was all.
That was nice, but somehow, it made her feel even more guilty. Dedede was so nice to her, so when she screwed something and made him upset, only for him to let her go, it almost made her want to cry.
And so, she decided that she must do something for him.
But the problem was... What could she do for him?
"So, do you have any idea?" she asked to Waddle Dee and Cape Knight.
"Sorry Sweetie, but I have no idea," Waddle Dee answered. "He is a king, he can already have everything he wants."
"Not really everything," Cape Knight said. "Remember, if he goes too far, he will just have his butt kicked by Kirby again."
"Oh right... Well, the best thing we could do for him would be to beat Kirby, but..."
"I can't even expect yet to beat Dedede in a duel, so Kirby? No chance," Sweetie Belle said.
"Sorry Sweetie Belle," Cape Knight then said. "If you want to thank the king, you will have to find by yourself what you think will please him based on what you know of him. It will be the best way to show your gratitude."
"Mmh... I know! He loves to eat! I will make him the best cake ever!"
"Aren't you still banished from the kitchen?" Cape Knight asked.
"Then I will ask the cooks!"
"NO!" the Cook Waddle Dee screamed in front of the door.
"But please! I just want to cook something for King Dedede!"
"You would kill him!"
"I'm... I'm not that bad, right?"
The Waddle Dee just glared at her without saying anything.
"Then... Maybe you can help me learn?" she said, insure.
"What?" the Waddle Dee asked, slightly surprised.
"Dedede told me that when I try something new, I should learn with the help of others. And, well..." She rubbed her left foreleg with her right hoof. "He is right. I tried cooking by myself, and... that didn't work well, as you know. But with your help, maybe I can do at least something that can be eaten."
The Waddle Dee stared at her for a moment before his expression brightened.
"Then come!" he said, waving his arm to sign her to enter.
"Yay!" she shouted in happiness, bouncing once, before entering the kitchen.
"So, what do you want to bake for the king?" the cook Waddle Dee asked.
"I don't know..." Sweetie Belle answered. "He loves cakes, and he loves fruits too. So... a cake with some fruits?" She then gasped. "I think that I know what I will do!" And she said what she was thinking to the cook.
"That's a beautiful idea!" the cook said, clapping his tubby arms. "Alright, so we will need the basics, like eggs, milk, sugar, or flour, but we will also need strawberries, blueberries, and apples."
"Okay. Can I still try to do the cake by myself as much as possible? You will help me by telling me when I'm doing something wrong."
The cook sighed. "Very well," he said before calling a few other cooks. "We will keep a close eye on you, and make sure that you don't put the kitchen on fire."
Sweetie Belle looked at her creation with some doubts. Even with the help of the cooks telling her when she was starting to do something wrong, she still made a few small mistakes here and there. A little too much sugar, or getting the cake a little overcooked for example. The cake was also not fully uniform, being slightly smaller at one side than at the other. Finally, she tried to form Dedede's face with the fruits, blueberries for the blue head, strawberries for the red hat, apples peeled and cut in cubes to form the beak and the golden rim of the hat, and white chocolate for the pompom on the hat and for the eyes, alongside a single blackberry for each pupils. At least, she did that right, but it wasn't perfect. One eye was a little bigger than the other, and the beak and the hat weren't symmetrical.
At least, it seemed edible. But...
"Maybe I should do something else..."
"I don't know," Cape Knight said behind her. "You have done the best that you could to bake this cake, I'm sure he would like it."
"I still want to try to do something else that I could do better. Like... Like... I know! Dedede has a big ego, so I could do something about it!"
"And what will you do?" Cape Knight asked.
"I will create a small statuette of him!"
"Do you even know how to do?"
"No... But I can still try!"
Sweetie asked around the castle for someone to help her. After a few minutes, she was directed to a group of Waddle Dees, and when she met them, she found out that it was a group specialized in creating objects using clay.
"So you will help me?" she asked them after telling them what she wanted to do.
"Of course!" one of them answered. "We will help you learn how to use clay to create that statuette! However, we must warn you, it's messy, and it takes time."
"I don't mind getting messy, I will just take a bath after, and I'm ready to take the whole day if I have to."
"Good! Then take some clay, and we will start."
Sweetie looked at her new creation now beside the cake. She followed the instructions to the letters, but she learned that molding clay was definitely not as easy as she thought. She wanted to do a statuette of Dedede making a peace sign, his symbole, and at least she was able to give it the shape she had wanted. However, his beak looked like the fusion of his beak and the one of a duck, and the right foot was a little bigger and rounder than the left. The pompom was a little too big too. And of course, she missed the arm and the hand doing the peace sign. The right arm looked more like a small noodle with the head of a rabbit at the end. At least, she was able to paint it more or less correctly, even if she spilled the paint a little everywhere, so the white rims had a little red or blue here and there, for example.
At least it looked like Dedede. But...
"No..."
"Maybe you should try to do something that you know how to do, rather than doing something that you don't know anything about," Cape Knight said.
"Yeah... Maybe... The problem is, I'm not sure about what I am good at. I don't know what is my special talent yet, and everything I have tried until now has ended in failure." She sighed, then looked at the painted statuette. "Maybe... drawing? Yes... I like drawing, and it's not something that I should mess too badly. But it may be a little too childish..."
"You are a child," Cape Knight said. "If it's from you, it will not be too childish."
Sweetie giggled. "You are right. I will draw, then."
Using some colored pencils and a blank paper from her drawer in her desk, she started drawing, cake and statuette at her left and right, not knowing what to do with them. She already had an idea of what she wanted to draw, and so, it didn't take her long to end her drawing.
"You wanted to see me?" she suddenly heard behind her. Recognizing the voice, she turned around to see King Dedede at the entrance of her chamber.
"Dedede?! What are you doing here?" she asked in surprise.
The king raised an eyebrow at her question. "Waddle Dee told me that you needed me."
"What? But I never asked him to go find you."
A vein appeared on Dedede's forehead. "Really? Then why did he..." He suddenly stopped his rant when he saw what was on the deck. Again, he raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is this statuette representing me? And is this my head on this cake?"
At that, Sweetie's cheeks became red. "W-well..." She sighed. "They are gift that I created for you but... erh... Like you see, they aren't as good as I wanted them to be..."
"Gifts?"
"Yes..." she answered him before taking her drawing in her magic and giving it to him.
Dedede looked at the drawing. It was a drawing of him doing the peace sign with his right hand, a fierce look on his face, rather well done, but not perfect. His left arm was against his chest, Sweetie Belle sitting on it holding a scepter with Dedede's symbole at the top while giving the same fierce look than the king. Her cape was also wrapped around her, making sure to show the symbol on it.
Above the two of them, in big, red, yellow rimmed letters, was written "THANK YOU! BEST KING!"
Sweetie Belle then talked again. "I wanted to thank you for being so kind to me. I tried to do a cake with the help of the cooks, but I messed it a little. I then tried to do a statuette of you but..." Laughing sheepishly, she showed the statuette with a wave of her hoof. "I messed it too a little. And so, I decided to just do something that I know I'm rather good at: drawing." She then looked at him with hopeful eyes. "I... I hope that you like it. I understand if you find it a little too childish, but Cape Knight told me that from me, it would be alright."
Dedede smiled warmly at her. "Of course it is alright. It's even really good! Look at that! It's a great pose!" He then took Sweetie Belle and sat her on his left arm against his chest, before doing the peace sign with his right hand, like in the drawing. "Yeah! I look awesome like this! WE look awesome like this! Just... wrap your cape like in the drawing, to see..."
"Like that?" she asked, wrapping her cape around her, making sure that the symbol was showing.
"Yes! Like that! Now all we miss is the scepter, but as we are right now, we already look like the perfect duo! The best king and his wonderful second!"
She laughed. "Yay! We are... the Dededestroyers!"
"That's it!" he shouted, pointing at her, before guffawing. He then looked at the cake, took it, and ate it whole, to Sweetie's surprise. After swallowing it, he said, "Not bad. You may actually become a good cook in the future."
"Really?!"
"If I say it! As for the statuette..." He took it and studied it. "Even if it's not perfect, I will still keep it. It's a statuette of me after all. Perfect or not, it would be a waste to throw it. It will make my bedroom a little livelier. The drawing too." He suddenly felt Sweetie's hooves around his neck. Recognizing the now familiar hug, he put the statuette back on the desk before petting the filly.
Cape Knight and Waddle Dee watched the scene from the entrance, happy.