The portal opened in a vast jungle and disappeared once everyone got out of it. Sweetie Belle looked around at the new environment, the jungle reminding her of the Everfree Forest, but far less scary. The trees, while tall, were spaced enough to let the light come, and it was much more colored. Of course, it was a jungle, she knew that there must be many dangers, predators roaming around, toxic plants, maybe even natural traps. At least, she now knew how to defend herself, and she was among powerful fighters, and thanks to the light of the crystal guiding them, they will not get lost. They will just have to avoid suspicious plants,and keep an eye on the bushes, weapons always ready. Ribbon still decided to fly closer in the middle of the group, beside Adeleine.
"At least, we are not in a volcano," Waddle Dee said as they started advancing in the direction pointed by Ribbon.
"Don't talk yet. We are starting in a jungle, but something tells me that we will not remain in one too long," Dedede replied.
"Drats..."
"I'm not that scared of going in a volcano," Sweetie Belle said. "After exploring that world full of fire and lava, a volcano sounds lame. And as crazy as it is, the world of fire isn't the most dangerous I have explored. The one with a city covering the whole surface, and the one with the wind and the stars were far more perilous, even if the guardian in the last one was weird. That video game thingy was the most weird fight ever."
Adeleine stared at her. "You fought a video game?"
"Yeah... There was those three windows, and that was all like "The monster appears", "Sweetie Belle and Kirby attack", "Sweetie Belle and Kirby deal whatever how many damage"... There was even a window showing the health points, and the fight was by turns, like it was first us, then the monster, then us again, then the monster again... Really, it was like I was in a video game."
Discord snorted and whispered, "Oh, the irony."
"What have you said?" Luna said.
"Oh, I was just thinking that it could be fun to have a video game in real life. I could arrange that if anypony want to try."
Pinkie raised her hoof, shouting, "Me! Mememememe!"
They then heard Ribbon ask, "What is the strongest enemy you have ever fought?"
"I would say... Marx? Maybe Zero. Without counting the beings with godlike powers, clearly Meta Knight, with Dedede being a close second, even if he was possessed. Some other powerful enemies that come to mind and that were impressive to fight are Kracko, both Heavy Lobsters-big mecha lobsters-, and a giant in that world full of caves. I could only see his head in the dark, but he was easily over one hundred time my size. Even his eyes were bigger than me."
Everypony looked at the filly in awe. Then, Discord snapped his paw to make a glass of chocolate milk appear, drank it, and did a spit-take. "She fought what?!"
"A giant over one hundred time her size," Celestia said. "That is certainly an impressive feat."
Luna looked at Celestia and raised an eyebrow. ""Impressive"? You are kidding, right? Winning a fight against a thing this size would be like winning a fight against an Ursa Major. It's a miracle. Only us, among the ponies, are normally powerful enough to win such a fight." She pointed at the filly walking around a pit full of spikes. "In the space of a few months, this filly has gone from an innocent, harmless child to a warrior that could give even us a hard time in a duel. And if I understand well the chronology that I have been told, that fight dates from a few months ago. She has probably gotten even stronger since then."
Discord raised a finger. "If I can reassure you, she was very certainly with Kirby, and that puffball is no small fry. And when they work together, they are able to accomplish, to repeat your term, miracles. Like winning a fight against a giant over one hundred time their size. Or a mad jester that gained powers about equal to an alicorn. Or even against both you and Celestia together."
The floor under Waddle Dee suddenly broke apart, revealing a pitfall, thankfully only a few inches deep and without anything harmful. They learned however to watch their steps, because the next pitfall may not be as merciful.
After a minute of watching in worry if they fall in any other trap, Luna talked. "Even so, she has still become stronger than the majority of the Royal Guard, maybe even Shining Armor himself. I don't know how this is possible. Is it this universe? Or is she a prodigy? Or something else?"
"Or fate?" Discord proposed. "You ponies love that fate thing, I'm surprised you didn't propose it."
"Fate?" Celestia asked, as she watched the filly obtain a crystal shard in a pitfall between two tree trunks cut. She smiled. "Maybe..."
Passing a legged axe, they entered a small tunnel in a wall leading them in a cliff, high above a part of the jungle but not at the top, just between the two walls of what seemed to be a crack. Ribbon found another shard further down before she said, "The next shard is up. We have to climb."
"Using these vines?" Adeleine asked.
"Or we fly," Dedede said. "But I don't mind climbing."
So Sweetie climbed on Dedede's back and he jumped, clinging to a vine before he started climbing it. Adeleine decided instead to paint Kracko again and jumped on him, using him to fly up while knocking away all the creatures in the way so the others could climb in peace. Every now and then, they reached the top of a vine, and they had to jump on another to go further up, until they reached a hole in the opposite wall, Ribbon pointing at it.
Passing the hole, they could already see another wall with a tunnel in it. The problem? The wall was far away, nothing separating them but some vegetation with vines hanging from it.
They will have to jump from vine to vine to reach the other wall, a missed jump meaning a big fall right to the jungle below.
Kirby was the first one to go, jumping to a vine, then jumping to another. Waddle Dee followed him, and Adeleine simply continued to fly with the painted Kracko. Dedede waited for Sweetie to go on his shoulder again, then took a big breath, making a vine go toward them. He took it, stepped back a little, and smiled.
He ran... and jumped.
"OOOOOOOHUOHUOOOOOOHUOHUOOOOOOO!!!!!"
Once everyone reached the other wall, as Dedede landed, he took back his breath for a moment, and he guffawed, holding his belly. "I always dreamed of doing that!"
"Darn... I missed an occasion," Adeleine said.
"How could I not think of it?" Waddle Dee said, tears in his eyes.
Kirby looked down in sadness, disappointed too for not having thought of it.
Sweetie jumped from Dedede's shoulder, shaking. "That was scary... But it was so fun! Maybe I should learn to climb ropes so I can do the same?"
Dedede slapped her on the back, knocking her on her belly while still laughing. "I will make sure that one day, you can!"
"Y-yay..."
After fighting a big version of these red reptiles with a white belly that can breathe fire, they reached another cliff at the start of a succession of logs held up by vines, some of them balancing. Thankfully, the logs were big enough so they could walk on them without too much risks of falling, and Adeleine had kept Kracko. However, as Ribbon found another shard almost hidden by the leaves above them, they discovered that there were some logs that fell as they landed on them, so they had to hurry on these ones.
Passing another tunnel at the end of the path with the logs, they reached this time a path made of natural pillars, with an Invincibility Candy at the start. A mouth to mouth session later, and they were rushing on the pillars, knocking away blocks and enemies that blocked their path until the invincibility disappeared just before they entered another tunnel.
At the end of the tunnel, they were back in the jungle, only they were now beside a big crack in the ground.
"We have to jump in it," Ribbon said.
Sweetie Belle looked at her and the crystal, seeing that it was now as big as Kirby. "Is it becoming heavy? It has gotten much bigger thanks to all those shards."
"Don't worry. Like I said, I'm stronger than I look."
"If you say so," Adeleine said. "But remember that if it starts to be heavy, then you can give it to one of us so we can hold it for you."
Ribbon simply nodded.
After that, everyone flew down the crack, quickly finding another shard floating in the way, before Ribbon pointed at another crack in the floor of this place, where they reached a bunch of minecarts, making Sweetie Belle smile widely. The filly immediately jumped in the minecart at the front, lighting her horn so they could see in the dark, Dedede joining her behind. So Kirby went in another minecart behind with Waddle Dee, and Adeleine and Ribbon went to a third. Sweetie's minecart being the first, she was the first to go, using her magic to push it. When it reached the start of the slope, the minecart gained speed, making the filly scream in joy. Waddle Dee and Adeleine had to push their cart to start it.
Many creatures got the bad idea to be on the track, and were knocked away by the minecart. Sweetie and Dedede still had to jump above some giant gems or holes, but it didn't matter much for the laughing filly. In the way, after the railroad split into two tracks and they took the track above, they caught another shard that Dedede firmly gripped in his hand so he didn't accidentally dropped it into the chasm below.
Dedede then said, "Oh oh..."
"What?"
The penguin pointed in front, showing that the railroad suddenly ended just before another hole.
"Oh horsefeather!"
Using her magic on the wheels, Sweetie Belle tried to make the minecart stop. With the sudden brake, it slowed down, creating a high pitched noise while making sparks appear behind, until it finally stopped just at the end, the front bumping the curved up rail delimiting it.
They sighed in relief.
Only to be collided from behind, the sudden shock making their card bounces, go upside down, and fall in the hole. Dedede quickly grabbed Sweetie Belle before inflating his belly, only for the card to fall on him, deflating him and making them fall all the way until they crashed on the floor, the minecart on them. A few seconds later, after groaning, Dedede started to get up, lifting the minecart on him, only for Kirby and Waddle Dee's minecart to fall on it, making his minecart hit his head and knocking him back on the floor, Sweetie Belle crushed under his belly. It was in the middle of more groaning from Sweetie Belle, Dedede, Kirby, and Waddle Dee that Adeleine and Ribbon came, the fairy carrying the human girl.
As they landed beside the two minecarts and the four groaning beings, Adeleine shouted, "We are sorry! We couldn't stop the cart!"
"Urg... I should say the same thing... Sorry my king. Sorry Sweetie," Waddle Dee said.
"It's okay Waddle Dee... Dedede, can you get up please? You are crushing me."
"I... I don't... wanna get up... mommy... My head hurts..."
"Poyooooo..."
After a few minutes, everyone was back up and back to their senses, Dedede rubbing a big bump on his head. Sweetie lit again her horn and looked around, nothing much to see in the darkness beside some stalagmites and small ponds. They looked at Ribbon for a direction and followed the one that she pointed, this place having not much obstacles beside a greater quantity of creatures than normal, including these one-eyed green blocks from the desert world, these lezard-frog creatures jumping out of holes in a wall to gobble them, Gordos, or even a Shotzos on a Star Block.
After a small tunnel, the next room revealed to contain a path composed only of rock pillars rising from a chasm, a waterfall falling on all the pillars, with Shotzos and blobs of water with a red core suspending from the ceiling. Normally, jumping from pillar to pillar was nothing new, but between the water slowing them, the blobs of water trying to fall on them to hurt them, and the many Shotzos constantly shooting at them, the difficulty was much higher, and it was only through teamwork, Sweetie, Adeleine on a ninja, and Ribbon shooting the water blobs, Kirby, Dedede, and Waddle Dee using bombs, hammer, and spear to destroy the projectiles of the Shotzos, that they reached the end of this path without being hit.
Another small tunnel, another giant room, only this time, no holes, just a flat floor with stalagmites, a pillar going all the way to the ceiling here and there, and water in some parts lower than the rest. Of course, no obstacles didn't mean that there was nothing, the various creatures still here to try their luck at stopping them. Actually, after a moment walking in water, they reached a small cliff with a waterfall, revealing that this room was not as flat as they had thought, and there were some small pits, some in the water, others not, some of them with food, others with an enemy.
Another small cliff later, Ribbon suddenly said, "Wait!" making everyone stop before she pointed back at the wall of the cliff they just jumped from. "There is a shard behind this wall!"
"Seems like you are doing well holding the Bomb, Kirby," Dedede said.
Kirby nodded with a "Poyo," and approached the wall, placing a pile of bombs in front of it before stepping back. The bombs exploded, blowing up a big hole in the wall, and revealing the shard. Not long after getting it, they reached a small room where they found themselves face to face with a small army of these water blobs.
Dedede smiled and took his hammer. "Now they are trying to get us by number? Bring it on!"
However, before they could charge in, Sweetie shot lightning at the water blobs, the lightning spreading from a blob to another until the whole army was hit, and beaten. As the blobs stopped moving and the exit opened, Dedede and the others looked at the filly, the penguin crossing his arms in annoyance.
"You could have at least left some for me."
She stuck out her tongue at him. "You will have to be faster." She giggled.
Dedede's frown became deeper before he suddenly started laughing. "I think I'm rubbing off on you a little too much."
She huffed. "At least, I'm not as hot head as you."
"Yet."
"Never. My friend Scootaloo is already the hot head in my group."
"A group of friend can very well have more than one hot head."
"But then, who will make sure that the hot head doesn't lead us to the hospital with her ideas?"
"After everything you have gone through in the last few months, I'm sure you could handle those ideas."
"You may be right, but I still have to keep a level head to make sure that my friends don't get hurt." She then wrapped her cape around her, masking her muzzle and below, and started talking in a deep voice. "I will be like Meta Knight, strong, but calm, thinking before acting."
"Like Meta Knight, uh? Hopefully, you will not try to conquer Dream Land too."
She smirked. "Well, maybe once I finally surpass you in a duel, I could become queen of Dream Land."
"In your dreams."
"Isn't this universe an universe where dreams can become reality?"
Dedede took his hammer. "Then you wanna try right now?"
"I would like to, but we have a world to save, remember."
"Are you scared?"
"Not walking in that trap."
He pouted. "You are not funny."
"Sorry. Being fun is not my special talent."
Slap! Slap!
"Alright you two, enough of your bickering. Like said earlier, we have a world to save," Adeleine said, arms crossed, a drawn fan in her right hand, and a penguin and a filly rubbing their head in pain in front of her.
"Sorry..." Sweetie Belle said.
Dedede crossed his arms, grumbling, "Next time she uses a fan..."
"How would she use me?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Wait what?"
...
...
Waddle Dee suddenly facepalmed. "Urg... Because she is a fan of Adeleine's drawing... That was horrible Sweetie. Leave the bad jokes to Broom Sunglasses, please." However, he then heard Kirby and Ribbon laughing, and saw the two on their back. He raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"
"I thought you said that being funny wasn't your special talent," Dedede said.
"I can still try to be funny when I want."
"Hum hum!" they then heard, and they saw Adeleine slamming the fan on her left palm.
Sweetie Belle suddenly ran toward the exit. "Gotta go!"
Adeleine giggled. "Finally. I thought you two would never stop, even with my fan."
"It has slowly become a thing between us since a few weeks after I have started to test her in real fights. Must be some rival thing. I'm sure that if Kirby could talk, then we would bicker all the time."
"And then I would have to slap you two to get you back on track."
They suddenly heard Sweetie shout, "Hey! I found a Maxim Tomato! Hurry up, or I will eat it by myself!"
"Poyo!" In panic, Kirby started to run to join the filly.
"Wait for me!" Waddle Dee shouted, running after him.
Dedede sighed. "I'm definitely rubbing off on her..."
Adeleine and Ribbon giggled, and the fairy said, "I wonder if she is rubbing off on you too."
"I don't know."
"You are more friendly!" Adeleine said. "You are not the same Dedede as the one that stole all the food of Dream Land!"
He huffed, and started to walk to the exit. "Maybe. Or maybe I am just waiting to be able to beat Kirby."
"Yeah, right." She giggled.
The next room was clearly a different part of the cave. The rocks were not the same, and there were square-shaped pillars coming from the chasm below and the ceiling above everywhere, some of them moving up and down. These pillars were easily the most dangerous obstacles, because if Sweetie and the others didn't watch out, they could end up turned into pancakes.
There was one of these pillars just in front of them, but only a quarter of it was hitting another pillar above it, so at least, this one was not too dangerous. However, there was another pillar just after it, and they will have to time well their passage. Just to be sure, they decided to go one at a time so they had enough place to move without bothering the others. Kirby was the first to go, followed by Dedede.
Sweetie was the third, and she waited for the first pillar to go all the way down before going on it. She made sure to go on the part where she will not risk to be crushed, and she let the pillar lift her while she could see the second one go down until half of it hit another pillar below. Once the second pillar started to get back up, she jumped from the first, ran, and stopped just before reaching a third pillar that she passed with a jump once it was all the way down. She reached what seemed to be a dead end, only for the pillar above her to go up, revealing the way, and she quickly moved before the pillar went back down.
She had to wait for another pillar to go down before passing it, and she did the same thing for the one following it, jumping above it just as it started to go back up. The next one was harder to pass, because there were actually two pillars moving and hitting each other, threatening to crush her between the two if she didn't go at the right time. So she waited for the two pillars to slam into each other, then just as they separated, she jumped on the one going down, and jumped again to the immobile pillar following it. Passing a last pillar, she finally reached the end of the area and joined Kirby and Dedede, waiting with them Waddle Dee, Adeleine, and Ribbon. Two minutes later, Waddle Dee reached them, almost getting crushed between the two pillars before the last one, and Adeleine, Ribbon on her shoulder with the crystal, joined them two more minutes later with some careful jumps.
From here, it was a simple tunnel tilting up, just a big slope that seemed to go up, and up, and up forever, until they saw light. They exited the tunnel, finally back at the surface, only to look in awe at where they now were. There were mountains everywhere, made of giant columns of rocks of different colors. They were on a narrow path starting from one and passing between them, above the clouds that were like a white sea, hiding everything below. At least, to be above the clouds, they could tell that they were very high.
Waddle Dee placed his arms before his mouth and yelled, "YODELIHOOOO!!!"
YODELIHOOOO!!!
As Waddle Dee started to laugh, Sweetie joined him and yelled, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MOUNTAINEER, YEAH!!!"
-SADER MOUNTAINEER, YEAH!!!
"I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!!!" Dedede shouted.
-KING OF THE WORLD!!!
"POYOOOO!!!"
POYOOOO!!!
"Classic. Too bad the echo isn't answering back, it would be more fun," Discord commented.
Applejack giggled. "Powerful fighters, and yet childish. I'm not surprised that Sweetie Belle would do that, or Kirby, but Dedede?"
Pinkie suddenly popped beside her and wrap a hoof around her. "Silly! It's not because he is a king that he can't have some fun every now and then. Right, princesses?"
"Of course," Celestia answered, giggling. "I remember when I did it the first time. I passed a whole hour yelling silly things."
"One hour, or one day?" Luna asked.
Celestia smirked at her sister. "That was you who passed a whole day yelling at the echo. I remember, you were so young, and you thought that it was somepony else repeating what you said, and you wouldn't give up yelling at them to stop."
Rarity put a hoof on her mouth to hide a smile. "Oh... That's adorable."
Luna's cheeks became pink. "Celestia!" She then saw Discord wearing a shirt with written on it "Trollestia is best troll!" and blasted him, only for him to open a hole in the air for the beam to disappear in, the draconequus smiling smugly at her. She grumbled, "One day..."
Sweetie Belle and the others walked on the path, nothing much happening at first except the discovering of another shard, but after a moment, things started to become a little harder, with more enemies appearing, and the path sometime breaking up into small platforms, forcing them to jump above bottomless holes. At a moment, the path was nothing more than a succession of very small pillars, only big enough for someone to stand on them, forcing them to carefully jump one at a time until the path returned to a more larger one.
Things got more interesting once they encountered one of the human-like creatures with a spear, only this one wasn't attacking them, and had the particularity of wearing a blue top hat, for some reason. Instead, she looked at the crystal in Ribbon's hands and said, "Wow! Big crystal! Beautiful!"
This surprised everyone, and Ribbon answered, "Uh... Thank you."
"Me has gotten small crystal like that. Me has hidden it with puzzle. Me likes puzzle. Me doesn't want losing crystal. You giving big crystal to me?"
"Sorry, but we need this crystal to save my world and the ones I love."
"Oh..."
"And we also need the crystal you got. It's actually a part of this big crystal, and thanks to it, it will be easier to save my world. You don't mind giving it to us?"
"Me giving crystal to you. But you solve puzzle first! You follow me!"
The human-like creature led them a little further, until they reached a group of Star Blocks forming a big square of 7x7 blocks, but there was a block missing in the center.
The creature then pointed at the blocks and said, "Destroy blocks, form object! Form good object, and crystal appears!"
"And which object must we form?" Waddle Dee asked.
"Me not telling you. But you already seeing object needed."
"We already see it?" Sweetie Belle asked. She started looking up and down at the creature, and quickly got an idea. She signed the others to approach and whispered to them, "I think it's the top hat."
"Yes, I think so too," Adeleine replied. "She is the only one that we have seen wearing a top hat."
"How did she get her hands on a top hat ?" Dedede asked.
"She probably found it," Sweetie Belle answered. "Now let's destroy these blocks and hope that we are right."
Adeleine nodded. "Yes. And to make the right shape, we just have to destroy the blocks of the first and last columns, excepted the ones of the bottom line. We will have to be careful to not accidentally destroy one we shouldn't. So no bombs!" she said to Kirby.
The puffball looked down in disappointment.
"Let me do it," Sweetie Belle said. "With my beams, I can target the right blocks and destroy them one at a time."
"Then do it," Dedede said to her.
She nodded and turned to the blocks, going in front of them so she could see all of them. She then targeted the block at the upper-left corner and destroyed it with a beam, before destroying the one below it, and repeating for the four following ones under. She then did the same thing at the opposite side, effectively turning the square into a top hat. Once done, the crystal appeared in the hole in the center, and Ribbon quickly took it while the creature congratulated them.
"You quick! Impressive! You love puzzles too?"
"I like doing a puzzle sometime," Adeleine answered. "it's so satisfying to solve one."
"If it counts, I play chess," Dedede said. "Otherwise, I'm not too much into puzzles."
"Chess? What is chess?"
"Sorry, it would be too long to explain," Waddle Dee said.
Sweetie came back at his side. "Puzzles are nice. I could give you some examples of puzzles that I have done. If you tell me where you live, I could come back to tell you."
"Of course!"
Leaving the creature, Barbara, behind, they continued their journey, the path now almost only constituted of pillars more or less big, and there were now floating platforms that fell about one second after someone landed on them, sometime forcing the ones left behind to fly. In the way, between two pillars, they found another shard not long before reaching a series of pillars forming Kirby's name, to the group's confusion.
"How is this possible?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Dedede turned to Kirby. "Anything to say?"
The puffball only shrugged, as confused as the others, before deciding to just forget about this for now and continue, waving at the others to follow.
As they continued to follow the path, they could see that they were nearing a volcano, lava flowing from it. Ribbon looked at the light of the crystal and said, "The light points at the direction of the volcano..."
"Oh stars..." Waddle Dee groaned.
They reached the area around the volcano, with lakes and rivers of lava. They followed the path going right into the volcano, some rivers of lava passing through it while it rained small rocks that Sweetie destroyed with her beams. The sky was now black with the ash expelled from the volcano, and the lava gave it a red tint, while the temperature made the hot days of summer look cold by comparison.
Entering the volcano itself, the cave inside was half full of lava. There was still a floor for the group to walk on, but some of it moved because of the current of the lava, and there were many fire creatures trying to burn them. After a small passage, they entered another room where they could see small hills of rock in the middle of the lava, with cracked pillars at their top, and more pillars after them. They found another shard in one of these pillars, a little before reaching the end of the room, but they had had to take a dangerous path before Dedede could destroy it with his hammer.
In the next room, the only way beside flying was a small suspended path of rock above a big lake of lava, the path having a couple of Gordos in the way. The path was however broken at a few places, so they had to jump more than once before they reached a big rock in the middle of the lake where they could rest a little without risking of falling in the lava. The path restarted at the other side of the rock, Bronto Burts waiting to charge at them on some pillars beside it, and with a small section made of pillars after the Burts. A third section of the path was against a wall expelling streams of lava that they had to jump above before reaching the small passage leading to the next room, which was just a small room with a cracked rock in the middle. Ribbons pointed at it, and the rock was easily broken, letting the fairy obtain another shard without touching the lava below it.
They exited the room by another passage where they had to follow again a path on a lake of lava, thankfully much larger than the previous one. However, not long after entering it, the area started to shake, and lava suddenly rose behind them, forming a wall of lava advancing toward them, making the group panic.
"I knew something like that would happen!" Waddle Dee shouted.
Kirby started to run, yelling, "Poyo!" rapidly followed by the others.
They ran and jumped and ran and jumped, not looking back, not stopping to eat the food or to fight the creatures in the way. Some of the creatures were anyway too busy to run or fly away from the lava too. There were still some parts where they had to take more time, most of the time because it was too narrow. It was especially the case when the path turned into series of small platforms only large enough for one of two of them to jump on. It was worse where there were creatures on said platforms, forcing them to attack them to open the way.
They ran through the passage at the end of the room only to discover that the only way to continue in the next room was up, either flying or jumping on floating platform, while the lava was rising below them. Dedede grabbed Waddle Dee and inflated, Kirby doing the same, while Sweetie Belle jumped on a shield that she created and Ribbon grabbed Adeleine to lift her. Sweetie spotted a shard floating above one of these creatures that looked like a Kabu made of sand and took it in her magic before making it fuse with the crystal in Adeleine's hands.
The more they went up, the more the room got smaller, and after a moment, they decided to give up flying to simply jump from platform to platform, finally leaving the room not long before the lava. They ended up in a cave with a big crack in the ceiling, the rock around it red hot. They didn't have long however to look around, because soon, they saw the lava getting out of the hole where they came from, and they were forced to jump on a bunch of rocks that thankfully floated on it. They looked around as the lava filled the cave, until it stopped.
But when they started thinking that this was the end, they saw lava rise further from them, two black eyes and a big mouth appearing on it. The creature literally made of lava now looked at them, and seemed to press himself, causing lava to rise and move toward them. Luckily, there were more floating rocks around, so it was not hard for them to jump on other rocks to avoid them, Sweetie meanwhile shooting ice balls at the creature.
"You know, I'm not that surprised to fight something made of lava. I mean, I fought something made of clouds."
"Yeah... But how are we going to hurt it?" Dedede asked. "It's too far for us to reach! Only you can attack it! And Ribbon with her crystal!"
The fairy gasped. "Oh right! I'm going!" And so, she went toward the creature of lava and shot at it.
At this instant, the creature pressed itself again, causing columns of lava to rise beside their platforms. On a hunch, they jumped on platforms where there were no columns of lava beside them, just as the columns started to fall on the platforms they had been.
"Wait..." Adeleine suddenly said. "Is this lava part of its body? If that's the case, then maybe we can attack them to damage it."
"We can try," Dedede said. "But isn't attacking the lava like that a risk to burn and melt our weapons?"
The creature then pressed itself again, making more lava to flow toward them, only for it to disappear under their platforms. It was not hard for them to guess that this was bad, and so, they jumped on other platforms. One by one, the platform they had been on were then lifted by columns of lava toward the hot ceiling. Just at this instant, Kirby threw a bomb at one of the columns, and they could see the creature flinch.
Kirby turned to the others and nodded. "Poyo!"
"So it works," Waddle Dee said. "But can we attack it without burning our weapons?"
Dedede frowned while looking at the creature. "Only one way to know."
The creature made columns of lava appear beside their platforms while sending more lava toward them. Because of the columns, they had more difficulties to jump on other platforms, but they still managed to do it. Dedede made sure to jump on a platform beside one of the columns, and attack it with his hammer. Surprisingly, the hammer didn't burn, and the creature was hurt.
"We can attack it!"
"Then it's time to get serious!" Waddle Dee shouted in determination, using his spear to attack another column before it disappeared.
Sweetie Belle and Ribbon continued to attack the main body without stopping expecting to jump for the filly. Adeleine joined the assault on the columns by painting the Ice Dragon, his ice breath doing big damage to them. At that, the creature multiplied the attacks, giving them more brutality, and making combinations to try to trap them, only for Sweetie to cheat, using shields so they always had a platform to jump on, even when all the others were threatened by lava.
Between that and the now almost constant pain, the creature entered into a great rage, and suddenly went into the lava before the whole cave started shaking, and the creature emerged back beside them and charged at them. They were forced to run, or rather jump away to escape it, jumping on many platforms all the while avoiding its attacks and attacking back. After a few minutes, they reached the end of the lake of lava, getting on an upper area where there was none of it. The creature still followed them, sliding on the ground outside of the lava, before stopping. Not in its element anymore, the creature changed tactic, and instead breathed fire at them.
Dedede got himself in front of the group and started inhaling, sucking up the fire into his mouth. Once the creature stopped breathing fire, Dedede finished inhaling it, and after a second, spat it back at the creature, surprisingly hurting it. Once Dedede was done, Kirby jumpped above him and threw many bombs in the creature's mouth, hurting it even more. Irritated, the creature slammed the top of its head to the ceiling, causing rocks to fall on them. Sweetie however used a shield to protect everyone, the rocks accumulating on it. Once the rocks stopped falling, she looked at Adeleine still on the Ice Dragon and nodded. The human girl nodded back and the dragon readied its tail. Sweetie then dropped the rocks around her and used her magic to throw one at the Ice Dragon. The Ice Dragon then turned around and used its tail to send the rock toward the creature of lava, the rock hitting it between the eyes. Quickly, Sweetie threw the other rocks one after another at the Ice Dragon, and the big reptile sent them back at the creature thanks to his tail, never missing, until the creature went into the floor, forming a puddle of lava that charged that them.
They either jumped above or ran around it, and the creature eventually emerged, only to hit the ceiling again to make more rocks raining before breathing his fire. While Sweetie and Adeleine used ice on the fire to stop it, Kirby gave up the Bomb Ability and inhaled some of the rocks, gaining the Stone Ability. Once Dedede and Waddle Dee were done using their weapons to swat the rest of the rocks away, Kirby nodded at Dedede, miming him opening his mouth wide. Dedede smirked and inhaled Kirby, then spat him at the creature. While flying, Kirby turned into stone and crashed right in the forehead of the creature. He bounced up while turning back into normal went right above it, and turned back into stone, falling on its head. Dedede then inhaled Waddle Dee and spat him above the creature. Waddle Dee landed on Kirby still in his rock form and prepared his spear.
Adeleine looked at Sweetie Belle and made a small movement of the head toward the Ice Dragon. Sweetie nodded and readied herself, wrapping herself into a spherical shield. The Ice Dragon then breathed ice at her, turning her into a big ice ball, and used its tail to throw her at the creature's forehead. The impact caused the creature to tilt its head back, making Kirby fall. Before that, Waddle Dee jumped, and Sweetie Belle broke her ice shield, using it to bounce up beside Waddle Dee. She then shot ice at Waddle Dee's spear, wrapping it in ice, surprising him, before Waddle Dee nodded as he fell back toward the creature. He then pointed the ice spear down and impaled it in its forehead.
After that, the creature started to get smaller, and smaller, and also colder, its body turning into stone, and its face disappearing. In the end, the creature looked like the rest of the cave before crumbling into boulders of different sizes, releasing a shard. At their victory, the members of the group exchanged high fives and fist bumps, screaming in joy, sometime with a hug, and the Ice Dragon got some petting, to its pleasure.
Everypony looked in awe at the fight they just witnessed, even the princesses.
Rainbow was the first to comment about it. "Okay... That was awesome."
Rarity then took a big breath. "I can finally breathe. I was so scared that Sweetie would get burned to death by the lava. And when she was used as a projectile wrapped in ice... I... I think that I have gained some gray hair."
"Did they have to kill this... living lava?" Fluttershy asked.
Celestia sighed. "This creature could have stopped anytime... It was being hurt, and it could see that it was at a disadvantage. And yet, it continued the fight. And they needed the shard inside it, so they couldn't stop. The outcome could only be this. I'm sorry, Fluttershy, but not every fights can end with the enemy being knocked unconscious. You who love animals, you know that it is often the case."
"Yes... For some species of animals, the males often fight each others for the females, and sometime, it ends with one of the males getting killed, frequently because they refuse to stop before it is too late." She sighed sadly. "Why didn't it stop?"
"We can only guess," Luna said.
They then saw that the volcano started to shake violently, and the lava rose, forcing the group to run. A portal was quickly opened, showing a white, spherical world, with a moon, a real moon, turning around it. They could see shapes at the surface, and Twilight could swear she saw them before. One by one, they jumped in the portal before it closed just as the lava reached it.
Twilight quickly teleported to her personal library, took a book, and teleported back before opening it, revealing a map. It was a special book, because she got it in the Mirror World with a few others, so this map showed nothing on Equus. It was actually a map of the whole Mirror World, showing all the continents and the oceans. And the shapes of the continents... They were exactly the same as the ones in that white world!
This white world, it was not just any world.
It was Earth.
Frozen.