Sweetie Belle looked at her friend in confusion. Getting possessed turned Waddle Dee into a Waddle Doo. She turned to Kirby, remarking that he was wearing the familiar cone-shaped hat indicating that he was actually using the Bomb Ability, and asked him, "Did this happen before?"
Kirby shook his head, a little confused too, before he pointed to Waddle Dee... Doo, indicating to her to focus.
When she looked back at their enemy, she saw that he was charging at them, and she readied her whip, grinding her teeth and silently apologizing to Waddle Dee. However, the charge was halted by Kirby rolling a bomb right at Waddle Doo's feet, the explosion sending him flying before he crashed on his head. A big, round bump appeared on his head as Waddle Doo fell on his back, his eye becoming swirly.
Yeah... Possessed or not, Waddle Dee was still Waddle Dee... Easy to knock out. That would have been different if the Dark Matter had been possessing her like he had been about to do before Waddle Dee jumped in his way. Rest now to find a way to force the Dark Matter out of him.
The little girl then approached him and pointed the crystal at his body, shouting, "Get out of him, you monster!" Following that, the crystal shot a laser at Waddle Dee, and not long after, the Dark Matter was forced out of him.
Sweetie stared in awe at that before she saw the Dark Matter charging at her. "Nope! Not this time!" she screamed, hitting the Dark Matter by throwing a shield at him, knocking him back. Of course, that did nothing to the Dark Matter who charged at her again, only for the girl to fly between him and Sweetie, crystal pointed at the black ball. The crystal then shot a few crystalized projectiles, hitting the Dark Matter in the eye. After taking three projectiles in rapid succession, the Dark Matter exploded.
Again, Sweetie was awed at that, until the girl talked to her, asking, "Are you alright?" in worry.
"Yes, I'm alright," the filly answered before looking in the direction of the still unconscious Waddle Dee, back to normal. "But we should help him."
"Aah! Right!" the girl shouted in panic before flying toward Waddle Dee. "What can we do?!"
But then, Waddle Dee started to wake up, groaning and rubbing his bump before he sat, his eyes opening. Sweetie immediately hugged him, almost knocking him on his back again, shouting, "Waddle Dee! Are you alright?!"
"Woah!" he shouted, trying to not fall. Once stable, he patted Sweetie on the back of the head, answering her. "Yes, I'm alright. My head hurts a little, and I can still feel the burns from the bomb, but it's not too bad."
Sweetie released him before stepping back, sighing in relief. "I'm glad..." she said before turning to the little girl. "Thank you for getting rid of this Dark Matter."
The girl smiled at her. "You are welcome. I'm glad he is alright," she said. She then put her right hand on her chest. "My name is Ribbon, nice meeting you."
"Nice meeting you too, Ribbon, my name is Sweetie Belle, and this is Waddle Dee," the filly replied, pointing at herself, then at Waddle Dee. She then turned to Kirby. "So, what is happening? I thought that we had eliminated the Dark Matters by killing Zero."
Kirby only shrugged at her, not knowing how they could be back.
"You killed Zero?!" Ribbon asked in surprise. "That's incredible! He was like one of the oldest evil beings in the universe! Created from the darkness of the Dark God himself!" She turned to Kirby. "Now I know that I can count on you to save my world and my people! If you have been able to eliminate Zero, then you can eliminate whatever is now controlling the Dark Matters!"
Putting her question about this Dark God in the back of her head, Sweetie asked to her, "You are from another world that is attacked by the Dark Matters?"
"Yes," Ribbon responded. "I come from a world named Ripple Star, the world of the fairies."
Sweetie gasped at that. Fairies?! She then shook her head. Focus Sweetie! It's not the time!
Meanwhile, Ribbon sighed. "We were suddenly attacked by the Dark Matters. Our queen quickly understood that they may be after the Crystal, which may be the most powerful weapon against them, and asked me to take it and escape Ripple Star to protect it. However, I was pursued by three Dark Matters, and they destroyed the Crystal, shattering it into many shards that scattered in space."
"And now, we must find these crystal shards to reform this Crystal and save your world," Sweetie Belle continued. She then took the crystal that had fallen from Waddle Dee's arm in her magic and levitated it to the fairy. "Is it one?"
"Yes!" Ribbon shouted in joy. She then touched the crystal with her bigger crystal, getting the two to fuse into a slightly bigger crystal. "Thank you, Sweetie Belle! Wait, you said 'we', you want to join us?"
"Of course! I fought the Dark Matters alongside Kirby two times, so I'm ready for a third!" She then showed her whip. "You can count on me to help you!"
"Poyo!" Kirby shouted in joy.
Waddle Dee looked at Sweetie Belle, then at Ribbon. He closed his eyes, and after some time, took a big breath and said, "I'm coming too!"
"What? Really?" Sweetie asked in surprise.
"Yes! I'm not a fighter like you or Kirby but at least, I have the occasion to do something, and I want to help! M-maybe I can be useful."
Sweetie smiled at him and said "It will be nice to have you with us Waddle Dee." She then turned to Kirby. "You will not mind?"
Kirby shook his head, smiling, before he started walking, waving at everyone to follow him.
And so, Sweetie started a new adventure alongside Kirby, this time with her friend Waddle Dee, and a fairy named Ribbon. But before long, she stopped and shouted, "Wait a minute! How are we gonna find the shards? They can be everywhere on Popstar!"
"Oh! Don't worry," Ribbon replied, showing the crystal to her. "The crystal can guide us to the closest shard. Here, look." She then pointed the crystal toward the sky, and a small light appeared on the surface, pointing at a direction, a little at the left.
Seeing that, Sweetie and Waddle Dee sighed in relief, glad that they will not have to search each bushes and behind each rocks of Popstar.
Following the light, they reached a forest that seemed to be in the middle of Autumn, the leaves of the trees being red, orange, or yellow. After knocking out some of the locals attacking them for some reason, they ended up entering a rather big tree with an entry at the bottom. In the tree, they had to climb a few wooden platforms, Kirby however being surprised in the way by a bunch of Pupas, tear shaped insects with a black face and red and yellow stripes, not seeing them before he touched one, making it explode like a Scarfy.
They reached a wooden bridge inside the tree leading to an exit. Outside the tree, they found themselves on an extension where they saw a wooden lift linking the tree to another one. When they got on the lift, Ribbon saw that the light on the crystal was pointing a little down.
"Poyo!" Kirby shouted, pointing slightly down under the path of the lift.
Waddle Dee came to his left and put an arm above his eyes to have a better look. "Yes! I see a shard floating a little further down."
"I see it! I'm gonna get it!" Ribbon said, flying to the floating shard.
"How can it float?" Sweetie asked, confused.
"It's a magical crystal. Do you have to ask?" Waddle Dee said.
"Right..."
At this moment, Ribbon came back and pointed at the other tree linked by the lift. "The crystal says that the next shard is this way."
"Well then, let's use this lift."
Once he finished talking, Waddle Dee jumped on the log on the cables connected to the platform of the lift, and started walking on it, making the lift advance.
Sweetie used this moment of calm to ask something. "Ribbon. Earlier, you said something about a Dark God, and Zero being created from his darkness. Who is this Dark God?"
"I don't know that much about this God. All I know is that he comes from the origin of the universe, and that he is responsible of the creation of the Darkness, including Zero. I think he also created or helped create a few other stuffs, but I don't remember. There was also something about an ancient civilization, but I never really was interested by this, you would have to ask the queen."
"Ok."
Not long after, they reached the other tree, they entered it, and found a strawberry shortcake that Kirby ate to heal his burn from the Pupa. This made Sweetie remember that she didn't have breakfast today. Well lucky her, after some rather long jump toward the bottom of the tree, they found a Maxim Tomato that Kirby happily let Sweetie take. The filly however cut it in two, giving the second half to Waddle Dee who hadn't eaten too this morning. The Maxim Tomato eaten, they jumped in a hole in the middle of the floor.
This led them to a room with a giant Bouncy guarding the exit door. However, even if she was a giant, she was still just a Bouncy, and so, with some cracks of Sweetie's whip and some of Kirby's bombs, it didn't take them long to knock her out. That made her release a crystal shard that Ribbon immediately took before they passed the door.
Following the light to the next shard, they followed a small path until they found someone unexpected. Lying down on a tree stump was Adeleine, her easel at her feet. As they approached, they saw that she had a crystal shard in her right hand.
"Adeleine!" Sweetie Belle shouted to get her attention.
The girl got up and turned toward them, eyes closed, making them stop in confusion. And then, she opened her eyes, and seeing how she looked at them, something was definitely wrong. She then turned to her canvas and started painting on it, forming some black rounded creature with two pointed black ears, two black dots as eyes, and two white feet. Once finished, the black thing jumped from the canvas and charged at them only to be destroyed by one of Kirby's bombs.
"She must be possessed by a Dark Matter," Ribbon said.
"Then I'm gonna watch the fight from over there. Good luck," Waddle Dee said before receding just as Adeleine finished painting a Bronto Burt that got destroyed by a beam from Sweetie.
Adeleine then painted a big, black spider with long legs and two white eyes, quickly followed by a Mumbies, the floating creepy mummy head, only for the two of them to be destroyed by another bomb and another beam.
"Does this Dark Matter really think that he can beat us by throwing those small fries?" Sweetie asked.
As she talked, Adeleine painted... something that was easily destroyed too. Seemed like the Dark Matter was losing patience, and Sweetie's comment probably hadn't helped, because Adeleine then painted nothing else than the Ice Dragon that they fought in Iceberg.
This may be a little harder to beat.
Once out of the canvas, the dragon immediately used his tail as a propeller to get closer to them while he breathed his ice, trying to freeze them, while they saw Adeleine hiding behind the easel, shouting at the dragon to kill them. Sweetie and Kirby avoided the ice breath by running in opposite directions, forcing the dragon to choose who will be his target. At the same time, the two started attacking him, Sweetie using fireballs alongside her whip. The dragon then jumped in her direction only for a last fireball making him explode in midair, surprising Sweetie.
"Already? Seems like Adeleine's creations aren't as strong as the real ones."
The destruction of the dragon caused Adeleine to make a tantrum before she started to paint something else on her canvas, the something being a Dark Matter.
A Dark Matter painting a Dark Matter to attack them. He must really be getting desperate.
Once out of the canvas, the Dark Matter shot his dark lightning at them only for Sweetie to use a shield to stop the projectiles while she and Kirby counterattacked with actual lightning and bombs. The Dark Matter then charged at them but they easily dodged him before he was destroyed by a bomb.
That was the last straw for Adeleine who made another tantrum before jumping from the stump and charging at Kirby, swinging her brush in fury, eyes closed. Kirby exchanged a look with Sweetie, not even moving, before the filly sighed and shot a beam at Adeleine's back, knocking her on her belly, the girl stopping moving after that.
Knowing it was her cue, Ribbon approached Adeleine and shot a small laser from the crystal at the girl, forcing the Dark Matter out of her. Before the Dark Matter could go far, Sweetie trapped him in a shield, giving an opening for Ribbon to shoot the crystal projectiles to destroy him.
The fight finished, Waddle Dee came back, saying, "Maybe I could have helped for that one."
"Yeah, you probably could have," Sweetie said.
Adeleine then woke up, groaning, before they could hear her say, "Again..."
Sweetie approached her. "Are you alright?"
"Yes. I'm alright," Adeleine answered as she sat up. "I thought that the Dark Matters were destroyed."
"We all thought, but they are apparently stubborn," Waddle Dee said.
Adeleine giggled. "So, back again to save the world?" she asked to Sweetie and Kirby.
"For once, it's not Popstar that must be saved," Sweetie said, pointing at Ribbon. "but her world. Her name is Ribbon, and the Dark Matters are invading her world."
"And we need those crystals like the one that you have," Waddle Dee added.
Adeleine took the crystal shard and showed it. "You mean this one?"
They nodded.
"Then take it," she said, as she tended the crystal for Ribbon to take, the fairy thanking her. "Say, can I come with you in your adventure? I have enough of those Dark Matters, and I want to do something to help get rid of them once and for all."
"Of course!" Ribbon shouted. "Any help is welcome!"
"And I'm sure that your painting will greatly help us in our journey!" Sweetie Belle said.
"Poyo!"
"Thanks! You will see, you will not regret taking me with you!"
Ribbon then took the crystal and looked at the light. "The next shard is this way. Let's go, everyone."
"Yeah/Poyo!"
The light led them beyond the forest, approaching an imposing structure composed of three circular levels, the superior levels smaller than the inferiors. The walls were made of stone bricks with parts made of smooth grey stone protruding at regular interval. On the wall of the second level, they could see entrances placed above the grey stone parts of the first level.
"What is this?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"It's one of the king's fortresses!" Waddle Dee answered happily.
"So there are shards inside it?" Adeleine asked.
Ribbons looked at the light on the crystal before answering. "Maybe. It could simply be in the way. We will have to go around it to verify."
"We are not in front of the entrance," Waddle Dee said. "so we will have the occasion while we look for it."
"Wait, I see something," Sweetie said, looking at the path around the fortress. On the path, among other creatures, like living white rockets with a red top named Skuds or Bronto Burts, she saw one of those black things like Adeleine painted in their fight. She pointed at it. "What is that? I have never seen a creature like that one in Dream Land before."
"Yes, I remember painting it at our fight," Adeleine said. "I think it's some sort of minion of the Dark Matters."
"That's it," Ribbon confirmed. "When the Dark Matters invaded Ripple Star, I saw some of them drop those things. I'm not sure what they are, but I think they are created from their darkness. The ones following me probably created them to help them find the crystal shards."
"Then let's get rid of it! Tayooo!" Waddle Dee shouted, charging at the black creature. Reaching it, he used the momentum to give a powerful punch that knocked the creature on its back before it poofed into a small cloud of darkness. At that, Waddle Dee raised his arms, yelling, "Victory!"
Sweetie giggled, but before she was able to congrats Waddle Dee, she saw a Sir kibble approaching.
Understanding that he was a soldier of Dedede's army, probably patrolling around the fortress, she approached him and talked to him. "Sorry for the trouble, Waddle Dee was beating an enemy minion that had gotten too close of the fortress."
The Sir Kibble saluted at her, but remained silent
"Hey now, no need saluting," Sweetie said, gesturing him to stop with an embarrassed smile. "We are here because we are in search of crystal shards, and we were led here. We need them to stop the Dark Matters."
The Sir Kibble stepped back in shock, as if to shout, "They are back?"
"Yes, they are back."
At that, the Sir Kibble signed at her to follow him. He then bowed before he pointed at the fortress.
That surprised Sweetie Belle who immediately understood. "Dedede is in the fortress?" she asked. "This fortress is the one that has been raided by the Squeak Squad?"
The Sir Kibble nodded and pointed at th highest part of the fortress, the roof of the top section.
"On the upper roof?"
The Sir Kibble nodded again.
"Oh my gosh!" she shouted in joy before she turned to the others. "You hear that everyone? Dedede is here! I'm sure he will help us!" She turned back to the Sir Kibble. "Where is he?"
The Sir Kibble pointed at the roof.
"Then let's go!"
At that, she started running, quickly followed by the others, with Adeleine yelling, "Wait for us!", leaving a sweating Sir Kibble behind. Following the path around the castle, they found the entrance, with a lowered drawbridge as a door. Inside, the entrance hall was a giant room with a red carpet starting from the entrance and going on a stair right in front. The stairs led to a passage all around the room with doors. Sweetie was then stopped at seeing the first soldier in the way, or rather, at seeing what he was: a one-eyed smiling ghost with a lance and a shield.
She looked at him. He looked back.
...
"We have ghosts in our army?" she eventually asked with a raised eyebrow.
The ghost bowed at her at that, laughing.
She shrugged, saying, "Well, alright then. Can you show us the quickest way to the roof? We want to see King Dedede."
The ghost answered her by turning around, pointing his lance at a door just at the top of the stairs.
"Thank you."
She passed the ghost, waving at him, before climbing the stairs followed by the others, with Sweetie thinking, Talk to a ghost, check! In the next room, they followed the path passing by their left, passing beside stained glasses, before reaching the exit, leading to a small vertical room with floating platforms to go up. Gordos were in the way, but once they saw Sweetie, they got out of it, letting them pass.
It was so good to be the second of the king!
At the top of the room, they passed a hole in the ceiling, which led them outside the castle, on the roof of the first level, revealing that the earlier room had been one of these sections made of smooth grey stone. Walking on the roof, they found themselves back at the entrance of the castle, where the drawbridge had been raised, helping them to reach the other side.
They then heard Ribbon say, "I think there is a shard close! The light is pointing down slightly at the left! Right inside this tower!" before she pointed at one of the sections of the first level made of smooth stone. They could see a hole on the roof of it, leading inside.
"Sweet!" the filly shouted in joy, jumping in the hole followed by the fairy. The rest of the group remained on the roof, waiting. Soon, they heard her again. "Found it! There is also a door here, and Ribbon says that there is another shard in the same direction!"
Adeleine rubbed her head. "Does this lead us at least to the roof where the king is?"
"We will find out," Waddle Dee replied before he jumped.
Adeleine sighed before she said, "I don't understand this fortress... Why are we even on the roof of the first level?"
"Poyo," Kirby answered her with a shrug before jumping too, followed by the girl.
Once everyone was at the bottom of the tower, they passed the door, traversed a small empty room, and eventually reached a big room with a spiral staircase made of really big stairs. In the middle of the room was a beautiful fountain. Ribbon then looked at the light of the crystal, turned around, and looked above the entrance by where they came from. And here it was, a crystal shard that she immediately took.
After that, they took the stairs until they reached a dead end with a chain linking the staircase to the ceiling. They saw that above there was a circular passage with more chains leading to the ceiling, with one of them passing through a hole in the ceiling.
"Oh no... Don't tell me we have to climb those chains..." Adeleine complained.
"I... I never learned how to climb ropes, or chains..." Sweetie said.
"Oh don't worry, it's not that hard!" Waddle Dee claimed, approaching the chain. "Look at me." At that, he grabbed the chain before putting a foot on one of the links. He raised the other foot, put one of his arms higher, making him go up a little, before he put the foot on a second link, and repeated the process with the first foot. "See?"
After he climbed the chain enough, Kirby jumped on it and started to climb it too, having no problems. Sweetie gulped before approaching the chain and she started to do like Waddle Dee showed, successfully climbing it, followed by an insure Adeleine, while Ribbon simply flew beside them. Once they reached the circular path, they went to the chain leading to the hole and climbed it the same way.
The hole led them on the upper roof of the fortress, where as they were said, they found Dedede actually looking at one of the crystal shards that he was holding in his left hand.
"Dedede!"
"My king!"
"Mmh?" Dedede raised his head and saw the group approaching, getting confused. "Sweetie Belle? Waddle Dee? Kirby? Adeleine? What are you doing here?"
Kirby then tried to take the crystal, only for Dedede to raise it out of his reach.
"Hey! Hands off! It's mine!"
"Dedede, we need this crystal," Sweetie pleaded beside him.
The king raised an eyebrow at her, and asked, "Why?"
"Well you see-"
But before she could say more, something fell from the sky between them, throwing them away, shocking Adeleine and Ribbon. Just as Sweetie, Kirby, and Dedede got back up and looked at what threw them, the thing, which was actually a Dark Matter, charged at the king before they could do anything to stop him. The next instant, Dedede found himself possessed, getting back into his sleepwalking state, and turned toward the group, readying his hammer.
"Oh come on! Again?!"
"Poyo..."
"Quick Adeleine! Let's go away of here to let them fight!"
"Uh... Yeah..."
As Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and Ribbon went away, Kirby and Sweetie Belle readied themselves to fight the possessed king, the filly cursing the Dark Matter for forcing her to fight Dedede.
They will pay so much for that.
Dedede charged at them, hammer raised above his head, and Sweetie answered by charging at him. She dodged the hammer and got around him, getting behind him where she shot a beam. With great speed, Dedede turned around and swung his hammer, forcing the filly to jump back, only to be jabbed by the hammer, throwing her a few meters away. Behind him, Kirby threw at him his bombs, getting his attention. After being hit by the first few bombs, Dedede then swung his hammer to send them away, eventually sending one back at Kirby to his surprise, the bomb exploding on the puffball before he could do anything.
That was when Sweetie Belle jumped on Dedede's back, clinging to his head, before she punched him again and again and again, until he grabbed her. Knowing it would happen, Sweetie shot a big fireball at his face, causing him to release her as he stepped back. Rapidly, Kirby came back and ran around him, dropping bombs all around him before he ran away with Sweetie Belle. Just as Dedede stopped rubbing his face, the bombs exploded, heavily hurting him. Angry, he then jumped to try to crush them under his weight, only for them to dodge. However, he was able to grab Kirby before throwing him at Sweetie Belle, causing them to roll a few meters. He followed that by another jump, this time successfully falling on them.
Hurt, Sweetie turned her head and shot fire at him from under, forcing him to jump away. As they got up however, Dedede charged back at them, and they were forced to run. Kirby dropped a bomb in the way, only for Dedede to use his hammer like a croquet mallet, throwing the ball at the puffball, but Sweetie used a shield to make it bounce back toward the king where it exploded. Kirby then changed direction and started to run around Dedede, throwing bombs at him all the way while Sweetie finally decided to use her whip to attack Dedede once he had his back turned.
That was when Dedede dropped his hammer and lowered his arms, as if losing consciousness, only for him to start floating without even inhaling air. Sweetie quickly joined Kirby in front of the penguin before she asked, "What is going on?"
"Poyo..." Kirby said while taking a step back.
Then, Dedede's belly opened, letting appear the Dark Matter, his eye looking at them. Sweetie's fur somehow became more white at that. She could see Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and Ribbon becoming pale too.
The Dark Matter then threw dark projectiles homing at them, and they were forced to run to avoid them until they stopped chasing them, Sweetie shooting a few beams at the king.
But then, the eye closed and let place to a giant mouth with sharp teeth. And now, Dedede charged at them, the belly mouth opening and closing back and forth. And now, Kirby and Sweetie were running away again, shouting "POYOOOOOOOO!!!" and "HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!! NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE!"
The spectators looked at the chase with both horror and fascination.
"I don't know if I must find King Dedede's belly chasing Kirby and Sweetie to eat them horrifying, or amusing..." Waddle Dee commented.
"Why not both?" Adeleine said.
That was when the Dark Matter stopped chasing Sweetie and Kirby, only to turn toward Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and Ribbon, to their horror.
And he charged at them.
"WAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!"
They ran (or flew) away from the apparently hungry Dark Matter, Waddle Dee shouting, "WHY UUUUUS?!"
"SHUT UP AND RUN!"
"I DON'T WANNA BE EATEN!"
Sweetie and Kirby remarked that the Dark Matter was now chasing the others, and Sweetie shouted, "Oh no! We must help them!" She followed that by shooting beams at the flying penguin, while Kirby ran toward them so he could throw his bombs.
Adeleine saw the bomb in Kirby's hands as he approached and got an idea. While still running, she took a blank paper and her brush and quickly painted a Bomber. When the Bomber jumped out of the paper, Adeleine took it and threw it right into the mouth in Dedede's belly. When the Dark Matter chomped on the Bomber, it exploded inside him, stopping the penguin from chasing them as smoke escape from the belly and from Dedede's beak. Kirby finally got close enough to throw his bombs, and Sweetie also started shooting explosive balls, eventually causing the king to fall on the floor, the belly getting back to normal.
Ribbon then used the crystal to force the Dark Matter out. Like last time, Sweetie trapped him with her shield, letting Ribbon kill him with the crystal. After that, everyone sat down, taking back their breath.
"Is it what Dedede meant when he said that he tried to eat you?" Sweetie asked Kirby.
"Poyo..." Kirby confirmed.
"Some warning could have been nice," Adeleine said.
"That was so scary," Ribbon commented.
At this moment, Dedede started to wake up, Waddle Dee quickly helping him to get back on his feet.
"Urg... This is starting to become a habit..." the king said.
"Are you alright Dedede?" Sweetie asked.
"I will be better once I eat something..."
"I can help with that!" Adeleine shouted. Soon enough, she used her painting skills to create enough food for all of them, meat for the king, a strawberry shortcake for Kirby, an onigiri for Waddle Dee, a chocolate ice cream for Sweetie, an apple for Ribbon, and a sandwich for herself.
As they started eating, Dedede said, "So the Dark Matters are back?"
"Yes, this is what I was about to say. They survived Zero's death, and they are invading Ribbon's world," Sweetie said.
"Ribbon is the fairy, by the way," Waddle Dee added.
"Hi!"
"Mmh. And what does the crystal have to do in all this?"
"It's a powerful relic of my world that can destroy the Dark Matters, but it has been shattered by them."
"And now, we are looking everywhere for the shards to reform the crystal," Sweetie continued.
"Well, if it's to destroy those cursed Dark Matters, then I suppose that I can give this crystal. Here." At that, Dedede tossed the shard at the fairy, who fused it with her crystal.
Sweetie, once her ice cream finished, approached Dedede and sat beside him, rubbing her head at his side. "Thank you Dedede."
The penguin looked at her, smiled, and petted her gently.
"My king," Waddle Dee then said. "We were wondering if you would accept to join us."
"Join you?" At that, he looked at Kirby. "Join him?"
"Please Dedede, it will be so fun to have an adventure together," Sweetie pleaded, giving him puppy dog eyes.
Dedede crossed his arms, and after a moment, he sighed. "Alright. I'm coming. Beside, I'm starting to get tired of being possessed by those Dark Matter. Time to make them pay."
"Yay!" Sweetie shouted in joy, hugging him. "Welcome to the team!"
"Poyo!" Kirby said while raising an arm to welcome him.
"Don't push it, you oversized living chewing gum!"
Later, as they walked.
"So, how much of those shards do we have to find?" Dedede asked.
"I don't know," Ribbon answered. "We will just follow the light until the crystal is back to its normal size. It's all I can think that we can do."
"And I think that I see where is the next one," Sweetie Belle said, pointing before her. "Look."
It turned out that following the light led them to Whispy Woods, a crystal visible in his branches.
"Yes!" Adeleine shouted before she started running toward the tree followed by Kirby, Ribbon, and Waddle Dee. However, when Whispy saw them approaching, he started shaking his branches.
"Ah no!" Sweetie yelled. She then materialized a shield as a platform and jumped on it before making it fly with her on it to the tree. She stopped herself just in front of his eyes. "Don't think about it, Whispy! We have no time for a fight!"
"What? Why?" the tree asked in confusion.
"Because the Dark Matters are back, and we must stop them!"
"Really?"
"Yes. Long story short..." she pointed to Ribbon. "This poor girl's world is attacked by the Dark Matters, and we need the crystal in your branches to destroy them."
Whispy frowned. "Then let me give it to you." After saying that, he shook his branches, making the crystal fall, Sweetie catching it. "I hope that this time, those monsters will be exterminated for good. I'm still angry just thinking about getting possessed by them."
"Thank you Whispy. Don't worry, I don't know how they came back, but we will eliminate them. And if they come back again, then we will eliminate them again, and again, until they stop coming back."
"Poyo!" Kirby confirmed behind her.
As Whispy nodded to them, Sweetie jumped down from her shield before giving the crystal to Ribbon who fused it. The fairy then looked at it to see where they had to go next, only for the crystal to start floating, to everyone's surprise.
"What now?" Dedede asked.
"I don't know!" Ribbon answered, looking at the crystal in worry.
The crystal flew away from them before it started glowing brighter and brighter. Soon after, at the emplacement of the crystal, a star-shaped portal opened, and they could see that it was leading to another world. The portal gave them a view from space of the world in question, which seemed to be a world made entirely of rock. A particularity of this world was that it was in pieces that were constantly pulled together and pushed apart by gravity.
"This world seems bad news..." Dedede commented.
"So this means that we have found all the shards of Popstar?" Adeleine asked.
"It looks like it," Waddle Dee answered. "And it means that this world is our next destination. But I don't know, this world is destroyed. Look at the pieces."
"But we have to go," Ribbon replied. "We have to get the shards in this world." At that, she flew into the portal, disappearing in it.
"She is right," Sweetie Belle said. "Beside, Kirby and I have visited much more dangerous worlds back in our journey to invoke Nova. Come on everyone!"
After that, the members of the group looked at each other, nodded with determination, Waddle Dee still gulping, before they jumped into the portal, which closed behind them.