//------------------------------//
// Chapter 32: A Dying World 
// Story: A Sweetie Dream Land 
// by Lucar 
//------------------------------//

The star-shaped portal opened on the new world, showing Popstar in the other side.  A couple seconds later, Ribbon flew out of it, followed soon by the others. The portal then disappeared, and the crystal reappeared, Ribbon quickly taking it. After that, the group looked around at the new world, finding out that they were actually on a flat rock surrounded by an immense desert littered with cacti made of rounded parts, more rocks, and the ever present stars. The sun hit hard, already making them sweat, and there was not a single cloud visible in the sky.

"Alright, this world already sucks. Let's hurry to find those shards before I melt," Dedede said while he wiped his forehead from the sweat.

Ribbon let herself fall on the head of the closest group member, Adeleine, not feeling like flying under the heat. The human girl took the fairy, then her red beret, before she put Ribbon on her head, and the beret on Ribbon, partially hiding her under it.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now can you tell us the direction we must take to find the shards?"

"Of course," Ribbon replied, looking at her crystal. She then pointed at a direction, and said, "This way."

Looking at the direction she pointed, they could see further a big structure where the front looked like a giant Kabu, partly hidden by rocks in the way.

Sweetie sighed in relief. "Thank Celestia, it's not far."

"Hopefully, it will be cooler inside," Waddle Dee said as he started walking toward the structure, quickly followed by the rest of the group.

With no real obstacles in the way to stop them beside some of this world's inhabitants, it didn't take long for them to reach their destination, Kirby giving up the bombs in the way to eat a Bobo, a walking fireball with eyes, to gain the Fire Ability, giving him better resistance to the sun's heat. Following that, he jumped on Sweetie's back to share the Ability and the resistance to the heat with her, the filly thanking him. This made both Dedede and Waddle Dee jealous to not have such an Ability.

And then, before entering the structure, they heard someone drinking something through a straw, and discovered that it was Adeleine and Ribbon, in the back, both of them drinking some cold fruit juice. The girls saw that they were being stared at, and Adeleine asked, "What?"

Dedede pointed at the glass of fruit juice in her hand and asked, "Did you create this from your painting?"

"Yes."

A vein became visible on his temple. "And why haven't you created more for us?"

Adeleine giggled before answering. "Because you didn't ask." She then stuck out her tongue mockingly. "You know about my ability, so you have no excuse."

Dedede opened his mouth, closed it, opened it, closed it, before letting his tamper get the better and starting chasing Adeleine in anger, his arms stretched before him to try to grab her, followed by Waddle Dee, the girls laughing all the while.

Sweetie and Kirby both giggled too before the filly said to the pink ball, "Let's wait them inside."

"Poyo."

So they passed the entrance, finding that the structure was a giant ruin. Seeing that, Sweetie smiled and shouted, "Cutie Mark Crusader Archeologist, yeah!" before she started running in the ruins, Kirby still on her back. When she reached a strange green floating block with an eye that was under another block, this time metallic with moons and stars motifs, she slowly approached it until the block suddenly fell, almost crushing her and Kirby, before the block floated back up to fall again. She just decided to walk around it.

Kirby then shouted, "Poyo!" and pointed up toward the ceiling, above a second metallic block with another one of these green blocks under it. When Sweetie looked, she saw a crystal shard floating there. Smiling in joy, she used her magic to levitate it back to them, and Kirby took it in his arms.

They continued their way until reaching the end of the room, the only way to continue being a hole in the ceiling with sand falling from it. Using a shield as a platform, she flew up to it with Kirby still on her back, and they both entered the next room, only to have a bad surprise, the door closing behind them. They didn't have time to be alarmed by that, because they were then assaulted by these plus-shaped cactus-like enemies, including a bigger one guarding the room on top of a pile of sand.

Kirby jumped from Sweetie's back and covered himself in flames before charging at the big cactus, letting Sweetie deal with the small ones. Between Kirby burning the big cactus, and Sweetie rapidly knocking out the small ones, the fight didn't last long, and the big cactus released another shard that Kirby took. Beating the big cactus also opened a door in the wall on top of the pile of sand.

"What do we do," Sweetie Belle then asked. "Should we wait for them?"

Kirby answered by shaking his head before pointing at the now open passage.

"We should exit the ruins to find them?"

He nodded.

"Well, I suppose you are right. It should be quicker this way."

At that, they entered the next room, the door closing behind them, finding themselves in a giant vertical room with many Kabu-like heads poking out of the walls. The closest to them then started to pour sand out of its mouth, slowly filling the room with it. As they looked everywhere, even up at the, for now, far ceiling, they found out that there were no exits.

This room was a trap with seemingly no escape.

"Kirby, please, tell me that you have an idea to get us out of here."

Rapidly, Kirby covered himself in flames and charged at the still visible door, but he was not able to destroy it. Sweetie shot an explosive ball at the head pouring sand, hoping to make it stop, but they revealed themselves to be more solid that she thought. Before long, the door disappeared under the sand, and a second head started to pour more.

They gulped.



A few minutes earlier.

The second part of the group composed of Dedede, Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and Ribbon entered the ruins, only to see Kirby and Sweetie Belle disappear into a hole in the ceiling at the end of the room. As they started following them, the hole closed, blocking the way.

"Great!" Dedede shouted. "What now?"

"Maybe we should try to find another entrance," Waddle Dee proposed.

"I think they have a shard," Ribbon said. "I see the light in the crystal move in the direction they took. So we will know where they are."

"At least there is that," Dedede said.

They exited the ruins from where they came, and started to walk around it, Ribbon keeping an eye on the light of the crystal. So far, no new entrance, not even a window. Ribbon then saw the light change direction and said, "I think we are going near another shard, the light is not pointing to Kirby and Sweetie Belle anymore."

"Then let's quickly find it so it shows them to us again," Dedede said.

Not long after, they reached the other side of the ruin where they found a sphinx with a Kabu-like head like the entrance of the ruin, half buried in the sand, with the light pointing at its nose.

"So we have to destroy the nose?" Adeleine asked.

"How will we do it?" Waddle Dee asked.

"Leave it to me," Dedede said, taking his hammer. He took some steps back, then charged at the nose, destroying it with a big swing of his hammer, freeing the shard that Ribbon immediately took.

The fairy then looked at the light of the crystal and said, "Yes! It shows them again! And they are going up!"

"Of course! Maybe there is an exit by the roof!" Waddle Dee shouted.

"But it's too high to jump..." Adeleine said.

At that, Dedede sighed. "Just go on my back, I will lift you up."

Waddle Dee and Adeleine did so while Dedede inhaled air to inflate. Soon, thanks to his ability to fly this way, they reached the roof, only to find that there was no exit.

"They are just bellow us," Ribbon said.

"But how will they go out?" Waddle Dee asked.

"Easy. If there are no exits, we will create one," Dedede answered. Yet again, he took his hammer and readied it above his head.



They were almost at the ceiling, and still no exit. Sweetie was able to slow the sand by blocking the mouths of the head with her shield, but now, the end seemed near. Right now, they were holding each other in comfort, the filly scared of the impending doom.

But then, something smashed the ceiling above them, creating a big hole. They then could see Waddle Dee poking his head before yelling, "They are there! And... Oh my gosh! Is this room being filled with sand? Seems like we are right in time!"

"Waddle Dee!" Sweetie shouted in relief and joy. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"Poyo poyo poyo!" Kirby shouted as he bounced in joy.

As the room continued to fill with sand, Sweetie and Kirby placed themselves under the hole, waiting to reach it thanks to the sand. Soon, they passed it, the sand stopping filling more. They saw that the rest of the group was here, looking at them in relief, and Sweetie immediately jumped in Dedede's arms to hug him.

The king chuckled while petting her. "Maybe in the future, you should wait for everyone before exploring unknown ruins."

"I will!"



"Twiliiiight! I bear some news! Mmh?" Discord shouted as he opened a door in a wall while waving a newspaper, only to stop in curiosity at seeing that Twilight was not alone, but was currently having a tea party with her five friends, Spike, and most surprising of all, Celestia and Luna. As everypony turned to look at him, he crossed his arms and pouted, saying, "You are all having a tea party, and I wasn't invited? Oh! Unless the postsmare got lost in my chaotic dimension!  If that's the case, then I will gladly join you!"

"Sorry Discord," Celestia then said. "We are having this tea party as a thanks for Twilight and her friends helping Luna with her guilt and stopping her rampaging creation to bring nightmares to everypony. I didn't think to invite you."

"That you weren't here to help didn't arrange," Luna said.

Discord looked at Luna for a couple seconds with a raised eyebrow before saying, "Remind me to remind you to tell me this story. Seems interesting."

"You will love it," Fluttershy said.

"Yeah, the moment where princess Luna merged the dreams of everypony in Ponyville into a single dreamscape will totally be in your tastes! That was crazy!" Pinkie shouted.

"Oooh! Now I definitively want to hear it!"

"Anyway Discord, you were saying about having news for me?" Twilight asked, only to get the newspaper on her face

"Here it is! Read the frontline!"

Twilight looked at Discord in annoyance with the newspaper in her hooves before reading, ""Sweetie Belle almost killed in a deathtrap." Wait what?!"

"WHAT?!" her friends yelled, especially Rarity, who took the newspaper from Twilight's hooves with her magic and read it. ""The young filly named Sweetie Belle and her friend Kirby were exploring some ruins in a vast desert when they got themselves trapped in a room that was slowly filling with sand. They were saved at the last minute by their friends creating a hole in the ceiling"?!" She then glared at Discord. "I hope that you had your paw or claw ready to snap to save her!"

"Of course!"

"And how did this happens?!"

"I'm not sure, they were already in this room half filled with sand when I opened the portal. I should really put some alarm to tell me when she starts something interesting."

"So you think she is in another adventure?" Applejack asked.

"Seeing as she was with Kirby, very probably. Or else, they were just exploring some ruins for the fun. You know, children."

"Knowing the Crusaders, I wouldn't be surprised," Rainbow Dash said. "Still! Escaping a deathtrap in a ruin! This makes me think of Daring Do! Again, she is the one having all the fun!"

"I wouldn't call 'barely escaping a deathtrap' having fun!" Rarity shouted harshly to her friend.

"Excuse me," they all suddenly heard from Celestia. "Isn't Sweetie Belle the filly that has been displaced to another dimension? Is something happening to her?" she asked in worry.

Discord answered her. "After escaping this trap, she is alright. Right now, I'm not sure. Wait a minute."

He then snapped his paw, making a portal appear on one of the walls. The portal showed Sweetie Belle with her mane and tail on fire, Kirby on her back with his head on fire, and the two of them among a group constituted of that penguin named Dedede, that creature named Waddle Dee, and a new one.

"Is that a human?!" Twilight shouted.

"Why is Sweetie's mane and tail on fire?!" Rarity shouted.

"Yes, it's a human, and for the fire, remember when her hooves turned into wheels thanks to Kirby? Same thing there, but with fire," Discord answered.

"She looks awesome!"

"Woah! So this is how a human looks?"

"Hey look! There is a little human poking out of the big human's hat!" Pinkie shouted while pointing at the human's head, showing a smaller human head with pink hair and a red ribbon poking out from under the human's red beret. They could see that she was also carrying some crystal.

"Aww... She looks adorable," Fluttershy commented.

"So they are crossing a desert?" Luna asked, remarking them walking on a vast expanse of sand with round cacti and rocks. The penguin, the big human girl, and the red creature were also carrying parasols to protect themselves from the sun, but for some reason, the filly and the pink ball on her back didn't have one.

"The newspaper did say that they were exploring some ruin in a desert," Celestia said. "Now, we must ask why."

"No idea," Discord answered as they saw the group starting to climb a big sand dune. "This is the problem when we miss the start of a story, we have no idea why whatever is happening is happening. That's frustrating. And after seeing her previous adventures, it may be for anything."

"This is not the first time?" Celestia asked in curiosity.

At that, Discord raised an eyebrow and looked at Twilight. "You didn't tell her?"

"I thought it would be irrelevant in our research of a way to bring her back."

And so, Discord looked back at Celestia to answer her, making a list appear in his claw and putting it in front of his eyes. "It definitively is the first time that she explores a ruin in a desert, unless I missed something. But before that, in this order, she has helped destroy a being made of darkness possessing her friend..." At that, Luna recoiled. "She destroyed a technologically advanced flying battleship. She explored a few worlds before fighting someone who possessed powers more or less at the level of an alicorn and sending him crashing into a planet-sized wish-granting clockwork comet, making it explode-don't worry, the guy survived, and they are now friend-. And just last month, she fought a literal army of the same beings made of darkness as the first one, and their leader, an abomination in the scale of the universe. In her first adventure, she had to collect objects made of rainbow, and in the most recent one, there was something about collecting love to use it to fight said leader." He threw away the list. "See? Collecting rainbow or love, fighting abominations, destroying a battleship... Like I said it can be anything. But it may have something to do with those crystals that Kirby-the pink puffball on her back-was holding. The same ones that this little human is looking at actually."

"You know, Discord, when you list these exploits, you make us look lame," Rainbow Dash said while she rubbed her hoof to the back of her head. "I mean, "destroying a battleship", "fighting a galactic abomination and his army of darkness", "blowing up a thing the size of a planet powerful enough to grant wishes"... What is the biggest exploit we have ever made? Shooting a rainbow at you to turn you to stone? Sending Tirek, a centaur that can absorb magic, back to Tartarus?"

That made Pinkie giggle. "So true. And she only started a few months ago! Oh! And you forgot that she was a ninja!"

Spike continued. "Oh yes, and she turned into Cadance when she fought that abomination. That's what you said Discord?"

"Oh boy! Yes! That was hilarious! Seeing a filly love princess giving the beat down of his life at that thing! So worth it!"

The princess sisters looked at all of them with round eyes. Meanwhile, they could hear Waddle Dee shouting, "Everyone! Look! I see grass!"

"Yes, I see it too. So this world isn't fully a desert?" Dedede said.

"Wait, "this world"?" Applejack asked. "They are in another world?"

Pinkie gasped. "Oh my gosh!" She took her chair and placed it in front of the portal. "Now I'm definitively not missing this one! Who knows what kind of world they are exploring! Maybe they will explore one made of cake!"

"Pinkie, I don't think..." Twilight began before stopping herself. "No, scrap that. Knowing how crazy this dimension is, there may be a world made of cake."

"Good, Twilight! You finally get it! It only took you three meltdowns!" Discord shouted, clapping.

By now, Sweetie's group reached the grassed area with some patches of sand, pink flowers, and various ruins composed of columns and walls, while fighting various creatures attacking them, including a flying cute orange creature that suddenly turned into a one-eyed monster once it was approached, much to Fluttershy's horror. For some reason, there was also a walking axe, as in a real axe with orange rounded feet, making Luna sputter in confusion. And let's not forget those pink things on spring wearing a red bow... And was that blue thing with a lance and shield a ghost?!

"Eep! G-g-g-ghost!" Fluttershy shouted in fright, hiding behind her chair while most of the others freaked out, particularly Twilight at seeing a real ghost. But then the ghost was bonked on the head by the parasol of Waddle Dee, beating it, much to everypony's surprise. How could he hit a ghost?

"That is certainly a curious dimension..." Celestia said, eyeing platforms made of stone floating without reasons apparent. "Now, I'm eager to see where this is going. Why don't we continue our tea party while watching?"

They recoil at seeing Dedede getting hit on the head by a falling living stone as the group approached a succession of arches. The human girl then made an easel appear and painted a big cloud with an eye in the center on it and spikes around it, Twilight and her friends recognizing it as one of the enemies that Sweetie fought the first time and that Discord showed them. Then, before their eyes, the painting came to life, flying out of the canvas, and the girl jumped on it. After that, the painted cloud flew up above the arches and shot lightning at the living rocks still on them.

"And now we have a human girl that can give life to what she paints..." Twilight groaned while rubbing her forehead. "That's not something that I would see in the Mirror World. Humans can't use magic, normally."

"I like that power! All I would have to do is paint cake, and I would have cake for everypony!" Pinkie said.

"And that's pretty over powered," Spike commented. "All she would have to do is paint Discord, and with him, she would be almost invincible."

Now the group reached a big structure made of five levels supported by columns similar to the ones around in the area, where yet again, Fluttershy, and most of everypony, were freaked out by some floating mummy head with a single eye charging at Waddle Dee, only again for the human girl to deal with it with her cloud. They then went around the structure, the small pink haired human suddenly getting out of the big one's beret, showing that she possessed nearly translucent insect-like wings on her back.

Fluttershy gaspd. "A breezie! She is a human breezie!"

"The more exact term would be a fairy, like the flutterponies in our legends," Celestia corrected her.

"After ghosts and mummies, now fairies?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Is there even something that doesn't exist in this dimension?"

As they talked, the fairy approached a crystal on the ground under the structure and touched it with her own crystal, merging the two of them before she came back to the human girl, using in the way the crystal to shoot crystal projectiles to another ghost.

"So that's it," Discord said. "They are collecting those crystals. Now, I wonder why."

"We will see," Applejack replied.

"Nopony comments on the fact that we just saw a human fairy shoot crystals at a ghost?" Spike asked.

"This is certainly not something we see everyday, but at this point, with this dimension, it's almost normal," Rarity answered.

After the structure, the group reached the entrance of an old building, Sweetie using her magic to take a strawberry shortcake on the arch in front of it before giving it to Dedede, while the human girl jumped from the back of the cloud before it disappeared. Dedede eating the shortcake healed the bump that he got from the falling rock. That caused Celestia to raise an eyebrow, but she didn't ask anything, and Luna just rubbed her eyes to reassure herself that she saw right.

Inside the building, the group ended up in a room with no floor, a giant pit in its place. Instead, there were six rectangular platforms sticking out of the wall in a triangular pattern, forcing them to jump on them to make it to the other side. There were also squared hole in this same wall from where some round pale ghosts came out to throw some blue and purple fireball at them, only for Sweetie to use a shield to protect them. Finally, there were also five cubic lanterns on this wall in an unversed triangular pattern, the lower lantern just between the two upper platforms.

The fairy flew out to go catch a floating crystal while the others jumped on the platforms, avoiding the fireballs from the ghosts. Sweetie Belle counterattacked by shooting her own fireballs, only stunning them. As they reached the exit, the fairy came back, and Sweetie used her magic to take one of those big tomatoes with a M on it, before they got out of this room.

In the next room, as Sweetie shared the tomato with everyone, they saw that this was a very large room with a giant pool, with some emerged floor in the center. On this floor, they could see that there were square-shaped gray stones, just under similar squared pillars sticking out from the ceiling. Dedede went first, jumping on floating blocks to get to the floor in the center of the pool, quickly followed by Sweetie and Kirby. Waddle Dee decided to just swim, and the fairy gave her crystal to the human before wrapping her arms around her chest as much as she could before flying, lifting her above the water.

"Thank you Ribbon," the human said. "But, am I not too heavy?"

"Don't worry, I may be small, but I can be really strong. I was lifting this crystal while it was about your size. Meanwhile, you can use it to attack anything that comes too close."

"Alright."

At the same time, Dedede walked on the grey squared, only for the square to suddenly go up, lifting him to the pillar above him. Acting quickly, he jumped back just before being crushed between the two actual pillars. This made everyone jump in fright at the close call and the suddenness of the event.

"Oh my gosh!" Sweetie Belle shouted behind the penguin. "Dedede! Are you alright?!"

"My king!" Waddle Dee shouted as he came beside him in panic.

"Don't worry you two, I have nothing," Dedede said while he put a hand on his heart. "By the stars, that took me by surprise! I don't know what the guys building these ruins were thinking to put a trap just here!"

"Yeah! This is in the middle of a pool! What the heck?!" Waddle Dee shouted.

"At least, we now know to not walk on the gray squares," Sweetie said.

"I'm with Waddle Dee there. What is this trap?!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Easy. Who would suspect a trap in the middle of a pool? And it almost worked," Pinkie Pie answered.

"That's smart, but weird..." Twilight commented.

"At least, they are alright," Fluttershy said.

At the end of the pool, the group saw that the exit was high up, at the top of a small stair too high to reach by a jump. They could use a crushing pillar under the water beside it, but it would be too risky. The human and Ribbon easily reached it thanks to the fairy, and she said, "I can lift all of you too!"

"No need!" Dedede said back before he put Waddle Dee on his back, inhaled air to inflate, and flew up. At the same time, Sweetie used a shield as a platform to lift both her and Kirby. With that, the whole group reached the stairs and passed the exit.

"It's an interesting way to use the shields," Luna commented. "I never thought to use them this way."

"You didn't need to," Celestia replied, poking at her sister's wings with a smile.

"I have to tell this to Shiny, he will love it! Why didn't we think of it?" Twilight said.

The exit led them outside of the ruins, on a big, damaged wall with cannons shooting in the way. Thanks to a matter of timing, they were able to go to the other side of the wall without being hit, and they entered the second part of the ruins, only to reach a small hallway leading to a dead end.

"Uh? Where do we go now?" Sweetie asked.

"The crystal shows that there is a shard above us," Ribbon said.

Kirby then jumped from Sweetie's back, reverting her to her normal appearance, and went toward the wall at the end of the hallway before pointing at small cracks in it with a "Poyo!"

"Yeah..." Dedede confirmed, looking closer. "The wall seems fragile. Maybe I can break it. Step back Kirby."

The puffball did so while Dedede took his hammer and approached the wall. Hitting it violently with the hammer, he was able to destroy it, successfully opening the way and revealing that it had actually been a door looking like a wall, only to show that to continue, they will have to climb a small chain, making Sweetie groan.

"This chain is smaller than the ones in Dedede's fortress, I don't know if I will be able to climb it."

"Then get on my back," Dedede said to her.

With the filly on his back, the penguin climbed the chain and discovered another door-wall to smash in front, and another chain to climb behind. Beyond the second chain, they could see two other ways, one going down with another chain, and one going up with a ladder sculpted from the wall. Smashing the wall, they discovered yet another chain to climb, and behind the chain, another door-wall .

"Oh no..." Sweetie said.

"It's a maze..." Dedede said, rubbing between his eyes in annoyance.

"I hate mazes."

"Me too."

Thankfully, with the help of the crystal, they didn't take long to find the shard by climbing the second chain, then the ladder, smashing a door-wall at the top, climbing another ladder while avoiding some fire-breathing round red lizard, jumping above a hole, and smashing a last door-wall.

Now came the hardest part: finding the exit. The human decided to help searching the way, using bombs that she painted to explode the door-walls before separating from Sweetie and Dedede, followed by Kirby just in case.

Discord chuckled. "It makes me remember when I 'played' with you in that maze back then," Discord said.

"You mean that time where you brainwashed us?" Rarity asked with a frown at the memories. "Because of this, I'm not really fond of mazes too."

"I don't think anypony like getting in a maze in the middle of an adventure," Applejack remarked. "It only makes us lose time."

"At least, they make great hiding spots for hide and seek!" Pinkie said.

After some minutes of exploring the maze in search of the exit, finding some food, the group finally got out of it.



They finally left the ruins, only for the crystal to rapidly lead them to a big hole in the ground, the light pointing down.

"So we have to jump in?" Adeleine asked.

"We can't even see the bottom," Sweetie Belle said.

"This is not a problem," Waddle Dee said, showing his parasol. "I can use it to float down, the king can inflate, Kirby too, Sweetie can use a shield, and you can let Ribbon transport you down."

"Eh, you really love that parasol that I painted, right? Why didn't you take one until now?"

"I didn't think about that..." Waddle Dee answered. "Maybe I should try to train using it as a weapon."

"Mmh... Beside bonking enemies on the head and floating down, I don't see many uses with a parasol," Sweetie Belle said. "Maybe you should try another weapon."

"Good point. I wonder which one..."

"You will decide once we return to the castle," Dedede said. "Right now, we have a hole to explore, crystal shards to find, a world to save, and an army of darkness to destroy, again. You can think about this until then." At that, he inflated and jumped in the hole.

"Of course Great King."

"Like this, Waddle Dee, you will be able to fight to save the world with us!" Sweetie Belle shouted in joy. "This will be so wonderful to have you fighting with us!"

"Yes... I wouldn't mind joining you in your adventures, like now."

"Hey!" they heard Dedede shout from the hole. "You can all jump! There is nothing dangerous down here beside some bat skulls!"

"Let's go," Sweetie Belle said, before forming a platform, jumping on it, and getting in the hole, followed by the others.

"One moment, did he just say 'bat skulls'?" Adeleine asked.

"After floating mummy heads and knight ghosts, I'm not surprised anymore," Sweetie answered.

"Poyo," Kirby said, nodding.

The hole led to an immense cave with metal blocks similar to the ones they saw before littered here and there with what seemed to be rock trees. However, they couldn't see too far because of the lack of light, so Sweetie lit her horn to illuminate the way. Thanks to Sweetie's light, and after climbing a nearby dune, they spotted the fossil of an immense creature whose the head reminded Sweetie of a dragon, and they could see something glowing in its mouth. It wasn't hard to guess that it was a shard, especially seeing that the light of the crystal led them to it. After easily taking it, they continued their way, and reached another hole in the sand, the light of the crystal pointing down again.

"I hope we will not fall through the bottom of this part of this world," Waddle Dee said.

"Don't worry," Ribbon said. "There must be still miles of rocks between us and the bottom."

"Of course," Dedede said. "Even if it's just a floating rock, it's still a giant floating rock. We will not go from top to bottom in just five minutes."

Sweetie then put a hoof under her chin. "Actually, this makes me wonder. What does happen if we traverse Popstar from top to bottom? Do we fall, or is there an other side where we would walk upside down?"

The others looked at her with raised eyebrows before Kirby also put an arm under his chin in wonder. "Poyo..."

"That's a good question. Is there an other side to Popstar?" Adeleine asked.

"You live in Popstar, and you don't know it?" Sweetie Belle asked.

At her question, everyone excepted Kirby and Ribbon rubbed their head in embarrassment.

"Well, why don't you go look with Kirby and your Warp Star once we have dealt with the Dark Matters?"



"Oh... They are fighting those guys again?" Discord asked with a gulp, hoping that this will not be like last time. The others looked at him in curiosity.



"Of course! What do you think Kirby?"

The puffball nodded at her.

With nothing more to say, the group jumped in the hole, falling in a smaller room of the cave with two other holes. at the left and at the right. Ribbon pointed at the left hole.

"The crystal says that there is another shard in that hole."

Following her direction, they jumped in the hole, only to end in a small room with flying fishbones composed of three triangles, a big red as the head, a smaller orange one behind, and an even smaller yellow one as the tail, including a big one floating just above another closed hole. The fishbones immediately threw their heads at them, new ones appearing in their place, and Waddle Dee found himself hit as he was floating down from the ceiling with his parasol while the others dodged or shielded. Fire, whip, and hammer quickly had reason of the big fishbone, opening the hole under it.

The hole led them to an underground river, to everyone's surprise.

"There are still sources of water in this world?" Sweetie asked.

Ribbon spotted a shard behind them and took it before saying, "With the sun not reaching this place, it's not surprising that there is still water underground." She then pointed at another hole a little farther beside the river. "There is another shard down this way."

"It's the only way we can go now anyway," Dedede said.

They jumped again in the hole, ending in a bigger room with more water. On the way, they had to either walk around a sand pit or use platforms to pass above it. Dedede decided to use the platforms, only to be almost bitten by a small yellow insect with a big jaw jumping out of the bottom of the pit. The insect was stopped in the middle of the jump by a beam of Sweetie, knocking it out.

Once the pit passed, they also passed another pit full of water with a couple of glunks at the bottom, then a third sand pit with another insect that ate Dedede's hammer in the face. They finally reached a lake with another hole leading to a room with three more sand pits, this time with no platforms to pass above them, forcing them to walk around. Kirby just decided to pass above the pits with his comet charge, gaining time and dealing with the few creatures in this room. A fourth pit, this time full of water, led them to an underwater tunnel with currents going down.

"There is a shard behind this wall," Ribbon said, pointing at the wall in front of them.

"It means that we have to find a way around it," Adeleine commented.

The way down was full of those fishbones hidden in the wall shooting their heads at them, but it was not a big deal for the group. They eventually reached a smaller tunnel going forward, leading them to another bigger tunnel with another current going down, and they spotted the shard further up, forcing them to swim against the current. Adeleine painted Kine, gave life to him, and used him to help her swim up against the current, Ribbon using the crystal to knock out the fishbones in the way. They however had to avoid in the way fossils falling, carried by the current, including a big one near the shard taking most of the tunnel, forcing them to use the holes of the fishbones in the wall to avoid it. With the fossil gone, Adeleine and Ribbon reached the shard and waited the others near the exit, before a big fossilized fanged maw. Beyond it, the tunnel went up and they reached the end of the underwater tunnel, emerging.

Looking around, they saw that they were now in an oasis at the surface, with grass all around. Once out of the water, Sweetie asked Ribbon, "Are there more shards?"

The fairy looked at the crystal and answered with a nod before pointing at their right. "This way."

They looked in the direction she pointed, and Dedede asked, "Is that a pyramid that I see in the distance?"

"I bet my dinner that it's our destination," Waddle Dee said.

"So we are going to explore a pyramid?" Sweetie Belle asked, bouncing in joy. "This is awesome! Best journey ever! I always dreamed to see a pyramid!"

"You know, pyramids are known to have big mazes," Adeleine said with a smirk.

The filly stopped bouncing at that. "Oh... right... Alright, I take it back."



"And now they are going to explore a pyramid..." Rainbow Dash said. "Daring Do would be so jealous." She sighed. "I know I am."

"This pyramid is strange. It's black. I have never heard of a black pyramid before," Rarity commented.

"It's a pyramid in an alien world," Spike said. "Who knows with what they built it."

They saw the group approach the area around the pyramid, area littered by blue pillars either tilted or fallen, and there were some parts of the ground without sand showing a floor sculpted in what seemed to be dark stones in a shape like a checkerboard, clear traces of an old civilisation that seemed different from the ones building the earlier ruins. They also remarked that the base of the pyramid seemed to be made of an unknown purple material at the arrises. The purple parts were actually smaller pyramids with flat backs disconnected from the big black one, making everypony look in wonder.

And then, after a few more minutes, once the group got close enough of the pyramid, which was at the other side of a crack, the whole structure suddenly started to rise, revealing that there was more to it under the ground.

That was not a pyramid, it was an octahedron, and the purple pyramids were actually pyramids with five surfaces, the 'flat backs' being actually the bases.

And it was floating.

And they saw a similar purple pyramid at the bottom floating down, ready to lift the group inside the structure.

They all looked in awe at that, both the group and the spectators, until they heard Sweetie ask, "Is... Is that a spaceship?"

"M-m-maybe?" Dedede answered.

Sweetie Belle and Waddle Dee looked at each other, starting to shake, before they screamed in joy with stars in their eyes. "We are going to explore a spaceship!"

Sweetie then turned to the others. "What are we waiting for?! Let's go! Quick!" And after that, the two of them ran toward the floating structure that flashed every few seconds, repeating, "We are going to explore a spaceship!" all the way, quickly followed by the others shouting vainly at the two to wait them.

"A BUCKING SPACESHIP?!!" Twilight suddenly yelled. "Discord! Send me there! I want to explore it too!"

"Twilight, hold yourself. Remember who is here," Discord said, pointing at Celestia and Luna who look at her with amusement.

"You are the one saying that?" Applejack asked.

"Touché."

"I want to go in too! This is like the most awesome thing to explore!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Me too!" Spike said.

"Hush! They are about to enter the spaceship!" Pinkie shouted.

"But spaceship!" Twilight, Rainbow, and Spike replied.

"Another time," Rarity said. "When you find a way to open a portal to this dimension, you will have the occasion to explore it," she continued to Twilight.

"Aaaww..."

Celestia giggled.



The group jumped on the unversed pyramid that was the platform that will lift them inside the spaceship. As soon as their feet touched it, the pyramid started to float up, soon entering the structure by a square hole at the bottom, Sweetie Belle and Waddle Dee smiling all the while. Inside, they were however attacked by cannons in the walls, probably some system against intruders. Luckily, their projectiles made of energy were rather slow, and so, easy to avoid, the main problem being the number of projectiles and the lack of space for everyone to move out of the way. Sweetie's shield and Dedede's hammer were of great help to protect themselves of the projectiles.

Eventually, the platform reached another squared hole in the ceiling, stopping once entering the next room. Here, the group had to climb a series of red and yellow platforms moving left and right, entering or exiting the walls at different speeds, forcing them to time their jumps to pass through the holes between the platforms. Or they just flew beside them, like Sweetie did with her shield, taking in the way a shard inside a small area between two walls and a floor at the center of the room. In the end, they all decided to follow her example, Ribbon lifting Adeleine while Kirby and Dedede inflated, Waddle Dee on the king's back. They still had to watch out at the top of the room for a couple of blue balls protecting themselves inside a shell in a similar shape to the spaceship and shooting electric balls.

Passing through another hole in the ceiling, they were now in a dark room with three black squares on one of the walls. That made Sweetie remember a room similar in Dark Castle, and she lit her horn, making symbols appear on the squares: a star, a crescent moon, and a sun. Adeleine drew them on a blank paper before they passed the exit, entering another room with big buttons with symboles on them. Looking at Adeleine's drawing just in case, Waddle Dee then pressed the button with a star, Sweetie pressed the one with a crescent moon, and Kirby pressed the one with a sun, making a shard appear on a pedestal at the end. After that, they climbed a ladder.

They entered an immense space with dozens of floating cubes, some of them forming a path for them to walk on. The walls were formed of... parts that sometime illuminated, showing the sky and the world outside like windows, before going back. They recognized that they were now in the center of the spaceship, and it was beyond anything that Sweetie imagined. Looking around in awe, they followed the path of the cubes, sometime having to go on a cube that floated back and forth to join the next part of it, until there were almost only these cubes to advance. At the end, they reached an octagonal prism that lifted them through a hole in the ceiling, entering a room guarded by a bigger version of those blue spheres easily eliminated with its companions, rewarding them with a new shard.

They exited the room by climbing another ladder, finding themselves now in a giant cylindrical room. They were on a plus-shaped black walkway protruding of the floor, the walkways going to the walls and going up as columns. Between them, there were four more columns starting the same way from the floor, and they were all flashing like the exterior of the spaceship. All the columns were joining under the ceiling in the same way as on the floor, and there were two yellow bars going from the floor to the ceiling, with some purple platforms floating between them above their head. Walking away from the center of the floor, they spotted a hole in the center of the ceiling that had been hidden by the platforms. They will have to climb the bars to reach it.

Or fly.

Adeleine still tried to climb the bar, only for some electrical living ball to suddenly appear on it and charge at her, electrifying her and making her fall from the bar. Thankfully, Ribbon had time to fly away before the hit.

"So, we fly?" Waddle Dee asked.

"We fly," Dedede answered.

"I agree..." Adeleine said after groaning from pain.



Passing the hole, they were now at the base of a spiral black slope leading them toward a ringed structure around something made of the same purple element as the floating pyramids outside. On the center of the purple thing rose a really tall pillar going all the way to the top of the spaceship. Suddenly, the pyramid roof of the ship opened and parts of it separated and floated up to create various forms like a holed tower, the central pillar gained in size, and the ringed structure started to rise, a purple forcefield appearing once the purple thing let place to a hole. Then, just as they reached the top of what remained of the roof before the 'tower', inside the forcefield, a red octahedron appeared from the cental pillar. The octahedron put itself beside the forcefield, and it formed a red laser blade through it, threatening to cut Sweetie and the others while protected behind the field.

"Hey! That's cheating!" Dedede yelled, hitting the forcefield with his hammer, without result, before jumping above the laser blade while the others ran on the ring to escape it. Sweetie Belle shot a beam at the blade, only for the beam to pass through it, not damaging the blade at all. She then shot another beam at the forcefield, without result too.

"Maybe if we continue to attack the forcefield, it will eventually break?" Waddle Dee proposed while hitting the forcefield with the parasol.

"Poyo!" Kirby nodded, spitting fire without stopping at the forcefield while jumping above the passing red blade.

That was when a green octahedron appeared from the pillar and joined the other in attacking them with a green laser blade, each one turning around the pillar in opposite sides while they also turned on themselves vertically. Sometime, they suddenly stopped advancing before moving the other way, trying to surprise the group with unpredictability, and Waddle Dee and Adeleine found themselves slightly cut because of that.

After a moment of jumping and running to avoid the two blades, a blue octahedron suddenly appeared from the pillar, formed its own blue laser blade, and joined the others in trying to slice them, the three going up and down back and forth in tandem at equal distance from each others. Dedede found himself almost beheaded by the red blade, ducking at the last second, and Sweetie got a cut on one of her legs while jumping because of the octahedrons changing way at the same time. All the while, they attacked the forcefield, trying to destroy it, but no matter how much they hit it, it didn't seem to even start to crack, frustrating everyone.

But then, they reached the top of the pillar, and by the same occasion, the end of the 'holed tower' made of the parts of the ship around them. They were now far up in the sky, but they didn't have time to admire the view, because by reaching the end of the pillar, they also reached the end of the forcefield! And that meant that the three octahedrons weren't protected anymore! The octahedrons seemed to understand that because they stopped attacking and they grouped together at the top of the pillar. Just then, strange things made of white lines and red, green, or blue balls popped out of the ring, and the three octahedrons came back on the offensive, starting to spin with their blades, each in a different axe: the red spun the blade perpendicularly to the ring from the inside to the outside, the green in parallel, making it risky to jump above, and the blue like the red, but following the floor of the ring, making it the most tricky to avoid.

The group quickly learned to avoid the things that popped out of the ring, the things hurting them in contact as Dedede and Kirby painfully learned, but thankfully, they could be easily destroyed by a single attack. Of course, with the three octahedrons not protected anymore by the forcefield, they unleashed everything they had on them, Sweetie shooting her beams and cracking her whip, Kirby charging at them with fire, Dedede either using his hammer or inhaling the things and spitting them back, Waddle Dee using the parasol even if it wasn't really effective, Adeleine painting one of the ninjas from the Rainbow Island and jumping on his head before letting him throw his cutter blades, and Ribbon using the crystal. Sweetie and Kirby teamed up on the blue one, Dedede and Waddle Dee on the red one, and it left the green one for Adeleine and Ribbon.

The ninja slid under the green blade as it passed above him, Adeleine clinging to him with difficulty while she bonked the octahedron with her brush. Once outside the range of the blade, the ninja jumped, and fell on the octahedron, giving it a powerful kick before bouncing back up. This got Adeleine close to Ribbon who continued to shoot crystals at it. Having an idea, Adeleine quickly told it to Ribbon and they both nodded. Then, Adeleine took Ribbon by the arm, and the ninja spun around himself, giving the fairy some momentum, before he jumped and Adeleine threw her to the octahedron at the apex of the jump. Ribbon took the crystal, and once close enough, rammed the octahedron with its point in a great shock, before she shot projectiles just at this moment, effectively destroying the octahedron, only leaving the still floating arrises. At their victory, Adeleine and Ribbon high-fived, screaming in joy.

Dedede had to constantly step back to avoid the red blade passing again, and again, and again before him like the hands of a clock, swinging his hammer to attack the octahedron. Waddle Dee was on his back, hitting the white things with colored spheres when they were approaching behind Dedede. Not surprisingly, it didn't take long for them to destroy the red octahedron, leaving the red arrises.

"Ah! Take that!" Dedede shouted, putting his hammer on his shoulder proudly.

"Wonderful, Great King!"

Sweetie passed under the blue octahedron after the passage of the blade and bucked the octahedron while Kirby charged at it covered in flames. The filly then wrapped her whip around Kirby who covered himself in fire again, and like the ball of a flail, Sweetie swung him to the octahedron from the side where the blade didn't spin. She stepped back to avoid the blade, getting her muzzle cut, and turned on herself, swinging Kirby at the octahedron from the opposite side with great force. She then swung up Kirby, released him, used a shield to join him, and wrapped the two of them in a round shield that they wrapped in fire before finally spinning around each other, falling on the blue octahedron like a comet, the impact creating a big shockwave of fire that destroyed the octahedron, leaving the blue arrises. Once landing, they raised their arm/forehoof in victory.

"Yay/Poyo!"

Defeated, the remains of the three octahedrons started to spin around each other, getting closer and closer to the center of the ring above the pillar, before finally colliding together and exploding, releasing a shard that Ribbon caught.

"Ah ah! Advanced technology is nothing against us!" Dedede shouted.

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle and Waddle Dee shouted.

"Aliens are zeros! We are champions!" Waddle Dee continued.

"Time for some delicious reward," Adeleine said, taking her brush. "We still got hurt, we need towhoaah!"

The ringed structure suddenly started to fall, alongside the parts of the ship forming the holed tower around them, interrupting her as they fell too. Ribbon quickly caught Adeleine while Waddle Dee opened his parasol to float down. Kirby caught Sweetie before inflating, slowing down their fall, and Dedede did the same. As they floated down and away from the ship, they could see it, bellow them, falling to the ground and not flashing anymore, first impacting at the point where they entered the ship before tilting on its side, the purple pyramids falling separately with the various pieces that had been floating. The ship finally falling with all its weight on the desert caused tons of sand to be displaced around it in a formidable spectacle, leaving only a wreck with a field of remains.

"You know..." Sweetie Belle then began. "my friends and I are known in Ponyville for accidentally destroying things. But I never thought that I would accidentally destroy a spaceship." She giggled. "Twilight would be horrified."



Twilight's eye twitched. Discord guffawed.

"Dude..." Spike said. "That was... wow..."

"You said it..." Rainbow Dash said in awe.

Pinkie bounced beside Twilight. "Don't worry Twilight, the ship is still there! It's just a little broken, nothing too bad."

"But whatever was making the ship working doesn't work anymore! It will not be the same thing!"

"Sorry Twilight," Celestia then said. "But from what I could see, it needed to be done to accomplish their quest. Nothing can be done about that."

"Breathe Twilight. At least, there are remains. the ship could have exploded, and nothing could have been left," Luna said.

"So what do the both of you think of this adventure until now?" Discord asked.

"It's entertaining," Luna answered. "I love the action."

"It's nice to see young Sweetie Belle not only alright, but also becoming a hero with her friends. That reminds me of a certain mare," Celestia answered before smiling at Twilight. "However, I can't help but worry. A filly of her age shouldn't fight life-threatening foes like they just fought."

"That was nothing for her, she has fought worse. Trust me," Discord said. He turned to the portal, seeing the group landing as they watched the remains of the spaceship. He gulped. "And who knows what she will fight at the end of this journey... It... may be ugly."

They saw the crystal float from Ribbon's hands before forming a star-shaped portal showing a rain drop-shaped mass of water with a core made of rock floating in space. After eating a quick meal painted by the human, they jumped in the portal that closed behind, going in their next step in their adventure.