//------------------------------//
// Chapter 40: The Mirror World 
// Story: A Sweetie Dream Land 
// by Lucar 
//------------------------------//

During the party, Sweetie Belle was able to tell Kirby about her idea with the music notes, and Kirby accepted to help her the next day. After a good night of rest, she found Kirby in the way between his house and the castle, and together, they searched a Walky.

After a dozen minutes, they found one at the edge of a forest, the walking microphone attacking them as they approached, shooting music notes from his mouth with a terrible cacophony. They had no problem avoiding the music notes, and Kirby quickly ate him, gaining the Mike Ability, and earphones as a hat.

Now in possession of the Ability, Kirby jumped on Sweetie Belle's back, giving her a look very similar to Vinyl Scratch, with purple sunglasses, a mane that would make Rarity faint, and earphones. Seeing her new mane style, she giggled and started to mime operating a turntable.

"Hellooooo everypony! This is DJ 5-tar ready to make you headbang!"

She raised her right hoof, looked at Kirby on her back who smiled and nodded at her as he took a mike, and a song started to blast from her horn along with colorful sound waves and music notes in rhythm while Kirby shouted in his mike.

"Woooooh!!! I love this Ability!  Da! Da! Dadada! Dadadadadadada!"

Not far in the sky, hidden behind a cloud, the mini Discord shouted, "Heck yeah!" while headbanging. He was also holding a camera, recording the whole thing.



In the Carousel Boutique, Rarity was busy completing a dress for a customer. She was so focused in her task that she didn't see Discord appearing behind her.

"Rarityyy!" he singsonged.

She groaned in annoyance before turning around to look at him. "Hello Discord. What do you want?"

"To show you this!" He then showed her the camera that he just received from his mini him.

A few seconds later, Rarity's scream and Discord's laughter could be heard far outside of the boutique.



After her successful sound test, now having an idea of how to at least shoot music notes and sound waves from her horn (the music will be for another time), she thanked Kirby and said goodbye to him before returning to the castle where she started her training to master this new move. However, a few days later, she couldn't help but think that she could do more than simply shoot music notes and sound waves from her horn while singing.

What if... she put some energy in her singing...

She will have to test this later, but now, she was really curious to see what was in this ruined structure she had discovered on the other side of Popstar. Ready to go exploring it, she still asked before that Bandana Dee if he wanted to accompany her, which he accepted, excited at the idea of exploring another ruin and maybe discovering a treasure. So the two of them jumped on a Warp Star and flew around Popstar, joining the other side where Sweetie led them to the area where she had seen this structure.

It didn't take long before they found it, and they crash-landed at the entrance.

Bandana Dee groaned on the floor. "When will you learn to land with that thing?"

"Soon, I hope..." Sweetie Belle answered.

Once the two of them were up, they approached the big double doors made of metal leading to the inside of the structure, in the mountain, with four stars engraved both at the left and right. Twelve more stars were engraved on the doors, four of them being shooting stars. Seeing that they had no handles, they tried to push them open, without success.

"Urg... Don't tell me we will already be stuck outside," Waddle Dee said.

"I'm sure there is a way to open them. If not, we can always try something else to enter. Like blasting them."

"Blasting metal doors will not be easy. Let me think." At that, he placed himself against the wall at the left of the door, trying to think of how to open the doors. However, to his surprise, he actually pressed one of the stars, and a sound, like an organ, played from it. "Woah!" he shouted in surprise, bouncing away from the wall.

"Oooohhh!" Sweetie Belle immediately went press one of the stars at the right of the door, producing another sound, different from the first one. "A puzzle!" She pressed the three other stars, producing more sounds. "I know! This one is a G, then we have a A, B, and C! The one that you pressed is a F, and the three last ones must be a lower C, D, and E!" At that, she frowned. "Do we have to play a song with these stars? This will be impossible to find the right one!"

"So we would need a music sheet?" Bandana Dee asked. He then pointed at the door. "Maybe it has something to do with the stars on the door? Don't you think that they are placed like notes?"

She looked at the stars, and smiled. "Hey! You are right! This is probably what we must play! The shooting stars probably mean that we must continue to press the stars to extend the corresponding notes. And it looks easy. Let's see... C C D_____ C D E_________ C C D_____ C D E_________"

"You are right, that's easy! I just need to press these three stars like you said!" And so, following Sweetie Belle's instructions, Bandana Dee pressed the stars, and after playing the twelve notes, the doors opened. At that, they did a hoof/fist bump in victory, only for Bandana Dee to suddenly scream at seeing arrows coming at them from inside the ruins. Sweetie Belle rapidly created a shield to stop them, saving the both of them.

"Okay..." the filly said. "Puzzles: check. Traps: check. We will have to be careful once inside."

He nodded, wiping some sweat on his forehead before putting his spear in front of him, ready to use it to block any new projectiles.

Inside the ruins, they were quickly stopped by a sea of spikes on the floor, with the only way to continue a series of platforms. However, above each platforms, there were giant axes swinging like pendulums, forcing them to time their jumps to not be cut in half. At the end of the sea of spikes, Sweetie Belle almost got crushed by a pillar suddenly slamming on the floor in front of her. More pillars followed this one, with a few spears coming out of the walls and almost impaling them.

After the pillars and the spears, they saw more pillars in the middle of the hallway, these one spinning on themselves while expelling real walls of fire at opposite directions. More fire is expelled from the walls of the hallway at various height, slowing them down. Halfway through the pillars, lightning shot from the ceiling were added to the obstacles, forcing Sweetie to create another shield above them to not be shocked.

Barely they passed all that that they were now attacked by lasers shot from cannons in the walls! They quickly ran through this section, jumping and changing direction erratically to avoid them. Halfway through it, many grids of lasers appeared, and they had to jump in the holes between the lasers while still avoiding the cannons.

They passed a double door and rapidly closed it, almost out of breath.

"Having this many traps shouldn't be allowed!" Bandana Dee complained.

STOMP STOMP

They became as still as statues, and slowly turned around to see what caused these stomps, gulping. Here was a robot, about the size of the Heavy Lobster, with a simple round white body, two legs and two arms each ending with claws, and a single pink eye at the center, a black star painted around it.

Sweetie Belle sweated. "Guardian of the treasure: check."

"I should have said no..."

The robot opened its claws, revealing holes from where it expelled fire. Sweetie Belle and Waddle Dee ran in opposite directions to escape it. The filly was the first to attack, shooting beams at the robot, but barely doing any damage. The robot turned toward her, and energy started to gather in its eye. After a few seconds, a big, purple laser beam was shot from it at her. She stopped running suddenly, and the laser hit just in front of her. She counterattacked by shooting lightning, which seemed to be effective. Bandana Dee suddenly jumped from behind the robot and landed on it, spear raised. He then jumped again to fall in front of it, and pierced the eye. He quickly jumped away, leaving a hole.

"Now, Sweetie Belle! The eye!"

"Yes!"

As Bandana Dee distracted the robot who tries to crush him under its claws, Sweetie Belle charged both magic and energy into a giant beam, and shot it at the eye of the robot, totally piercing it from the front to the back, leaving a giant hole. the robot stopped moving, and electricity coursed it before it exploded, throwing Bandana Dee at a wall.

Sweetie Belle joined him to see if he was alright as he slid down the wall. Once on the floor, he groaned and said, "I hope that this treasure is worth it."

"After all those traps and that robot? Whatever is in these ruins MUST be worth all that."

After resting a little, they continued their exploration of the ruins. Thankfully, there was not much to explore, because they discovered that the next hallway contained the treasure at the end on a pedestal. However, they will have to pass a big hole just before that.

At seeing the chest, full of joy at reaching their goal, they started running toward it, only to stop after a few steps when they heard something land and roll behind them. Looking back, they saw a giant round boulder rapidly rolling toward them, threatening to crush them. Screaming in panic, they ran as fast as they could, and after a few seconds, were about to reach the hole, too big to be jumped above. Instead, Sweetie took her whip, wrapped it around a beam under the ceiling, grabbed Bandana Dee, and swung above the hole just as the boulder fell. They landed just in front of the chest. Now safe, they took their breath.

"I'm never exploring ruins ever again!" Bandana Dee shouted.

Sweetie Belle giggled. "Oh come on, Bandana Dee. This is not any more dangerous than our adventures!"

"We almost got ourselves killed at least twenty times since entering these ruins. I don't remember this happening before."

"That's true. But if one day, we find ourselves invading the fortress of an evil overlord, it could be worse."

"Right... At least, we have the treasure."

"Oh yes! Let's open it!"

They approached the chest that was almost their size, blue with golden rims, and a round ruby.

However...

"Drat! It's locked!" Bandana Dee shouted, kicking the chest.

"Awww... And we don't have the key." She glared at the chest. "Let's bring it to the castle! We will find a way to open it!"

Bandana Dee looked back at the way they came from, gulping. "Does this means we have to go all the way back, passing all those traps, with it?"

She sighed. "Seems like it... Come on, I will lift it with my magic."



"So this is why you look like you have gone through a war zone?" Dedede asked in the throne room.

They both nodded, not able to speak because of their mouth being full of well earned and much needed cake. Sweetie Belle quickly swallowed before speaking. "So, do you know how to open this chest?"

Dedede took his hammer, said, "Of course I do!" and violently hit the chest with it, only for the hammer to bounce. He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What?" He hit the chest again, with the same result. After a few more hits, he tried to force the chest to open with his hands, jumped and hit the chest with his hammer as he fell, took it and slammed it on the floor a few times, bit it, hit it again, inhaled it and spat it, threw a Gordo, only to fail each time. "What is the problem with this chest?!"

Bandana Dee raised his arm. "Maybe we can pick the lock."

Dedede looked at him, and after a few seconds, facepalmed. "Why didn't I think of it?"

"Because you prefer doing the brutal way?" Sweetie Belle proposed. She ducked to avoid the hammer thrown at her. "See?"

Dedede huffed. "Whatever."

At this moment, something broke through one of the windows, quickly identified to be Meta Knight.

"Dedede! Where is Sweetie Belle?" He then spotted the chest, and seemed to frown. "And where did you get that chest?!"

"We got it from some ruins on the other side of Popstar," Sweetie Belle answered, letting the knight know that she was here.

Meta Knight groaned. "Whatever you think, never open this chest! It contains something that must be kept trapped inside! Just hide it somewhere where nobody will find it!"

Bandana Dee facepalmed. "Aww really?! All those traps, and we get a cursed treasure?!"

Before Sweetie Belle could say anything, she was grabbed by Meta Knight who put her on his shoulder. "Wha- Hey!"

"No time!" He turned to Dedede. "Hide the chest! Don't open it!" At that, he flew out through the window.

Bandana Dee and Dedede looked at the knight flying away with Sweetie Belle, then looked at each other.

"Did Sweetie Belle just get kidnapped?" Bandana Dee asked.

"Naw... Knowing Meta Knight, there must be a good reason for him to take her. Besides, isn't it the dream of any girls to be taken out of a castle on the shoulder of a knight?"

"It looked more like a dark knight kidnapping the princess to lock her." He then looked at the chest. "So, what should we do about it?"

"If Meta Knight says that whatever is in this chest must not get out, then we will do as he told us: hide it."



"What's going on?!" Sweetie Belle shouted. "You know I can fly, right?!"

"I'm faster! The Kirbys are probably still fighting him right now, but they may need your help to beat him! I'm certain they can win by themselves, but I prefer to assure the victory by bringing you! I know very well how you form a good team together."

"What? The Kirbys? They?! Him?!"

"My evil counterpart from the Mirror World. He is... extremely powerful. He easily beat me and trapped me. It's only a few minutes ago that I have been able to escape thanks to the Kirbys. And yes, the Kirbys. Somehow, when my counterpart attacked Kirby, he split him into four Kirbys, and they were joined by the Mirror Kirby. Now the five of them are fighting my counterpart, but I could see that the fight was still hard for them. My counterpart possesses some abilities that I don't."

"You couldn't help them?"

"I'm still feeling too weak from my fight against him. I would have been a burden."

Not long after, they reached the mirror in the sky leading to the Mirror World. It was a giant oval-shaped mirror in a golden frame with four stars at the corners, a crown at the top, and angel wings at both sides.

Sweetie found it absolutely majestic.

They traversed it.



The Mirror World was so alien, and yet so familiar. Sweetie Belle could recognize from the sky many landmarks, but they looked different. Being in the sky, they were actually above a cloudy area, where Meta Knight led them through a few mirror doors until they reached a beautiful section with yellow clouds and structures that seemed to be made of crystals, including a big one simply constituted of a wall in a circle all around them, with windows and stars. On top of one of the structures in the center of the circle formed by the wall was another mirror similar to the one they took to come in this world, with many other, smaller mirror doors around it. Without losing time, Meta Knight passed through it.

She noted to herself to visit the Mirror World one day.



The other side of this mirror seemed to come from Tartarus. She recognized the wall from earlier, however, it was now half destroyed, without any stars to be seen, and there were no clouds anymore. Instead, all she could see was a dark, purple, swirly sky that gave Sweetie Belle goosebumps as they landed on a platform where Meta Knight dropped her before pointing down with his sword. Just at this instant, she remarked that she could hear a battle happening below them, and saw an electric ball flying toward the sky, followed by the area flashing a few times as she heard explosions, before she recognized the distinct sound of a tornado.

Looking down, she could see five Kirbys, a familiar pink one using the Sword, a yellow one that used Bomb, a red one that used the Hammer, a Green one that used the Tornado Ability-it was the first time that she saw it, but she recognized it by the tornado-like hat on his head like described by the minions after the Nightmare Incident-, and a dark gray one using the Spark, fighting a dark gray version of Meta Knight, with black bat wings, red armored shoes, a scar-like scratch at the left side of the mask going through the eye, and a silver colored sword similar to the one of Meta Knight with a sapphire in its hilt. Also, the mask had a thinner and more angled slit, making him look angry.

Dark Meta Knight-she will call him that-spun on himself, creating many tornadoes around him. The Kirbys passed between them, and Green started to spin around himself to become a tornado and flew toward the dark knight, only for him to jump to dodge. In the air, he parried Pink before kicking him to send him away, only to be hit by the hammer of Red in the back, making him crash into the ground. Despite that, he created a mirror to deflect a bomb sent by Yellow, before creating more mirrors from where he summoned swords to stab Black, Pink, and Green.

"So, an evil counterpart that also possesses the Mirror Ability?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"And ruthless, without honor, brutal... He is everything that I am not, making him extremely dangerous."

She frowned. "The Kirbys seem to have the upperhand, but you are right, this could get ugly. I'm going!" At that, she jumped from the platform, a hoof enveloped in energy. Dark Meta Knight wasn't expecting for something like that to happen, so she was able to take him by surprise just as he flew and prepared his sword to summon more tornadoes, and her hoof connected with the top of his head. They both fell to the floor, creating a small crater with Sweetie Belle pressing against him. She quickly jumped away as Dark Meta Knight swung his sword at her, and she landed among the Kirbys, smiling at them.

"Need a hoof?"



Twilight, her friends, Spike, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo suddenly found themselves teleported in an empty room of the castle that was turned into a theater. Before they could express their confusion, Discord appeared in front of them.

"No time to explain! It's already started! We are missing it!"

At that, he opened the portal, showing Sweetie Belle and... five Kirbys? Battling a darker version of Meta Knight. It opened just as bombs were raining from the sky thanks to Sweetie Belle having the yellow Kirby who possessed the Bomb Ability on her back. However, the knight skillfully ran between the explosions before sending a shockwave at her that she blocked with a shield while the black Kirby approached him from behind and electrified him before being slashed. Meta Knight then jumped high to avoid both the hammer from the red Kirby, and the tornado from the Green Kirby, only to be slammed by a shield from Sweetie Belle. Back on the floor, he was received by the pink Kirby who slashed him a few times before he was able to parry and counter him.

All of that happened in the space of a few seconds.

"Woah nelly!" Applejack shouted.

Meta Knight suddenly disappeared in a mirror that split into three shards, each with a Meta Knight inside. The three mirror shards then started to fly around erratically. One of them was hit by a beam from Sweetie Belle, only for the mirror to break into smaller shards that homed in on her, but the shards were stopped by the red Kirby destroying them with his hammer. The two last Meta Knights then flew out of the last two mirrors, one of them diving toward black Kirby, and the other one diving toward the pink one. Black Kirby shot a ball of electricity toward the Meta Knight charging at him, only for the Meta Knight to break into mirror shards that cut him. Meanwhile, pink Kirby parried the one charging at him, and green Kirby took the occasion to sweep him with his tornado before he was crushed under the red's hammer. Red Kirby jumped away to let place to the green one coming back, but Meta Knight then started to spin on himself, becoming a slashing tornado that countered green Kirby's tornado in a violent clash. He was then rammed by Sweetie Belle inside a shield, and a bomb from the yellow Kirby sent him flying high in the air where he used his wings to stabilize himself before he raised his sword, creating mirrors on the ground from where he summoned giant swords, doing it three times, each time the swords appearing at different places.

"That's so intense!" Spike and Scootaloo shouted, shaking in excitement.

"Too intense!" Fluttershy squeaked, hiding her eyes behind her hooves.

After finishing summoning the giant swords, Meta Knight then started to fly around while sending dozens of shockwaves from his sword, making them rain on the Kirbys and Sweetie Belle. He stopped advancing to dodge another electric ball from the black Kirby, but found his left foot wrapped in Sweetie's whip, before being slammed on the floor where red Kirby crushed him again. Meta Knight jumped away from red Kirby only to land beside a bomb, courtesy from yellow Kirby. The explosion sent him toward Sweetie Belle who punched him violently to send him toward pink Kirby who slashed him.

"Yeah, that's intense. But I'm confused," Rainbow Dash said. "Why are there five Kirbys? And why is Meta Knight black and looking all evil?"

"Maybe he is possessed by a Dark Matter?" Twilight proposed.

Rainbow Dash looked at her in confusion. "I thought that they were all exterminated after Zero Two's defeat."

"Maybe there are some survivors."

"No, this has nothing to do with the Dark Matters," Discord said. He then looked at a letter. "If what the mini me says is right, then they are actually fighting an evil mirror counterpart of Meta Knight."

Twilight gasped. "A mirror counterpart? As in, from a mirror world?"

"Exactly. Right now, Sweetie is in a mirror version of Dream Land. As for why there are five Kirbys, I'm not sure. There is something about Kirby being attacked by this dark knight, only to be split into four versions of himself. The fifth Kirby is the mirror version."

That was when they suddenly heard Sweetie Belle who started singing.

"Ah ahahah aaah
Ah ahahah aaah!"

And she shot music notes and sound waves from her horn toward Meta Knight, the soundwaves ramming him while the music notes exploded in contact.

At that, they all raised an eyebrow. "Sweetie Belle has turned singing into a weapon?" Apple Bloom asked.

"What? Rarity hasn't shown you?" Discord asked.

"Shown us what?" Spike asked.

Despite Rarity groaning, Discord answered. "You are lucky that I have a photo." He snapped his fingers, and a photo appeared in his claw. He then showed it to the others, letting everypony see Sweetie Belle's look, or rather, DJ 5-tar. "With the help of Kirby and one of his Abilities, she became like that."

"That's Sweetie Belle?!" both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo asked in wonder.

"She looks so cool!" Spike said.

"I think that I still have the recording somewhere. It would be perfect for a sweet rave party."

"Now I want to see this!" Rainbow Dash shouted.

"Me too! Me too! I will give it to Vinyl, and she will use it for my next party! This will be Sweetie Belle's first hit!" Pinkie Pie said.

Rarity only sighed while shaking her head. There was nothing she could do, even if it hurt to see Sweetie Belle with... this mane style.

They then heard a big explosion, and saw the Meta Knight being propelled toward Sweetie Belle who now had the green Kirby on her back, causing her mane and tail to become like tornadoes. She then summoned a tornado from her horn, and the Meta Knight was propelled in the sky, where he was hit many times by red Kirby spinning on himself with the hammer while he was slashed by shockwaves sent by the pink Kirby, and electricity thrown by the black one. Flying away from the assault, the Meta Knight summoned more giant swords all over the area despite being clearly weakened.

And then...

Slash!

He was cut by the real Meta Knight in the blink of an eye, stopping him right away. Cracks then started to spread all over the dark counterpart's body...

"Ugh... How... could I lose?"

More...

"Master..."

And more...

"No..."

And more...

"I will not die..."

And more!

"I will not die!"

And more!

"I will not-"

And he finally split into countless mirror shards.

The original Meta Knight looked at the falling shards. "Did he just said 'master'?" That was when the area started shaking, and flashing, to everyone's surprise. "I have a bad feeling..."

Suddenly, a black hole opened in the middle of the area, between the Kirbys and Sweetie Belle, and sucked all of them inside without leaving them any chance to escape and making the ponies panic. Seeing that, Meta Knight flew beside the black hole and threw his sword in it just before it disappeared.

"Whatever you will fight now, this is the best I can do to help. Good luck."



Sweetie Belle landed with the Kirbys in an unknown area, the sky looking like a maelstrom disappearing in a giant black hole. They then saw Meta Knight's sword fall in front of them, and Pink immediately took it, replacing his sword with it while his green hat disappeared. Just in time, because they could see some giant shadowed figure slowly floating down from the black hole in the sky.

The figure revealed himself to be a being wearing some hideous mask with four long yellow horns. The mouth of the mask was open, showing the being's pink face, with glowing yellow eyes, and two fangs protruding from his mouth. His body was enveloped in a dark blue cloak, and with his arms crossed, they couldn't see much. All they could see were his arms, metal-like with big spikes, and ending in hands with sharp nails. There were also two mirrors floating around him.

"I must say that I wasn't expecting my underling to be beaten. Congratulation."

"Who are you?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Call me Dark Mind." At that, he smiled, and spread his arms, revealing that his body looked like a big red-orange orb with a black eye with orange lines going to the red pupil. That surprised everyone excepted black Kirby, recognizing this orb. "Once I am done with all of you, I will be the supreme ruler of the two worlds! And, I will be your end!"

At this instant, he shot a wave of star-shaped colored projectiles very similar to Nightmare's that Sweetie blocked with her shield. Dark Mind then teleported behind them, and opened his cloak again to shoot more stars. Using Meta Knight's sword, Pink was able to cut through the stars and attack the orb, causing Dark Mind to float back in suffering before teleporting. Once he reappeared, everyone attacked him simultaneously with all they had, the mirrors deflecting some of the attacks. Quickly, he swatted Pink, Red, and Green before shooting stars at Yellow, Black, and Sweetie Belle, the filly using another shield to protect all three of them while Black sent another electric ball at the orb, forcing Dark Mind to disappear.

"At least, he doesn't spam teleport like Marx," Sweetie Belle commented.

When Dark Mind reappeared to throw more stars, she then shot at the orb a charged beam that she had been preparing while Pink stabbed him with the sword. Surprisingly, cracks then appeared on his body, and he broke into mirror shards like Dark Meta Knight. Once the shards disappeared, they were transported to some ruins, with a switch in front of them, a door behind it.

They all raised an eyebrow at that. "What? Already? This can't be over like that!"

Pink looked at the other Kirbys. "Poyo?"

Red shrugged. "Poyo."

Yellow shook his head. "Poyo poyo poyo."

Green put an arm under his mouth and started to ponder. "Poyo?"

Black then showed the door. "Poyo! Poyo poyo! Poyo!"

They all nodded. "Poyo!"

At that, they activated the switch, opening the door, and passed it, leaving a confused Sweetie Belle behind. "Erh... Poyo?"

It didn't take long to reach a mirror door, finding in the way a Maxim Tomato to heal all their wounds, having to pass a door that closed after a few seconds to find it. Passing the mirror door, they ended in a new area with the maelstrom sky, only this time, the floor was the one from the ruins, and there were platforms. They spotted Dark Mind floating down, ready to restart their fight.

He teleported around a few times before surprising them by swinging the mirrors around, using them to ram all of them, knocking all the Abilities from the Kirbys, including Meta Knight's sword. Green was the one catching the sword while red recovered the Spark, and Pink gt the Hammer. The Bomb and the Tornado were lost, however, Dark Mind destroying them with a swat of his hand, leaving Yellow and Black without Abilities. Following that, Dark Mind teleported around again a few more times before shooting his stars. Black inhaled a red one, gaining Fire, while Yellow inhaled a blue one, gaining Ice. Green cut some of the stars before stabbing the orb, Red and Sweetie attacking too both with electricity.

After teleporting a few more times, Dark Mind did again the trick with the mirrors, but seeing this coming, they all ran away, and Sweetie shot a beam, successfully hitting the orb. When he reappeared after a few teleportations, he was attacked by Pink on the head, and he decided to teleport away before attacking by shooting more stars. With the sword, Green opened the charge by cutting the stars, and all together, they attacked the orb, which eventually shattered Dark Mind. With a flash, they were now transported into a cavern.

Sweetie Belle sighed. "How many times will we have to do this?"

"Poyo?" Yellow said.

"Poyo poyo?" Green said.

"Poyo poyo poyo?" Pink said.

"Well, no matter how many times we will have to fight him, we will beat him."

What followed was that they had to choose between four paths, each starting with a Star Block and each going down in water. Separating, Black was the lucky one finding a Maxim Tomato, while Red and Yellow found cherries. Back together, they used the Maxim Tomato to heal before continuing, passing a Gordo, getting out of the water, and finding another mirror door.

Like the previous times, they were now in an area with the maelstrom sky, this one having the floor of the cavern, with some ponds. When Dark Mind appeared, they could see that he started to become irritated. Without losing time, Red threw an electric ball, but Dark Mind placed a mirror in the way. The mirror was destroyed, and the shards then homed in on Red who was saved by Green deflecting them with the sword. To his surprise however, Dark Mind teleported in front of him, grabbed him, and shot a few stars at him, knocking away the sword. Yellow caught the sword and used it to stab Dark Mind and force him to release Green. Dark Mind then turned toward Yellow and slapped him before teleporting around, shooting stars everywhere, too fast to be attacked. Green inhaled a green star to gain an Ability, and ended up having Cutter.

Once he stopped teleporting beside Yellow, about to grab him, Sweetie attacked him with a few beams. Dark Mind saw however the beams coming and placed the mirrors in front of them, stopping three beams while he was hit by the others, and was also stabbed by Yellow. The mirrors were shattered, and the shards now charged toward the filly. Grinding her teeth, Sweetie created a shield to stop the shards, but not just a simple shield, a mirror shield, deflecting the shards. However, Dark Mind teleported before being hit by the shards.

Dark Mind now looked toward Sweetie Belle, seeing that she now had two mirror shields floating around her. He couldn't help but chuckle at this. "Trying to imitate me?"

She smirked. "Why not?"

The mirrors reformed around him, and he immediately used one to ram Yellow about to stab him from behind, knocking away the sword. He still got cut by Green's cutters. Red caught the sword just as Dark Mind teleported beside him, about to ram him with another mirror, only for Red to be wrapped and sent away by Sweetie's whip. All the other Kirbys, except Yellow, took the occasion to attack him, and his body shattered for the third time. They were then transported to an icy mountain beside a tower. It didn't take them long to find the door behind some gate, however, they decided to explore the area to see if there was nothing. And effectively, they found a Maxim Tomato. Now fully healed, and Yellow now possessing the Sword Ability, they took the mirror door.

Back under the maelstrom sky, the area now just possessed an icy floor, making walking around rather difficult, the ice making them slip. Then, Dark Mind floated down above them, clearly angry, and promptly dropped some weird blue ball before trying to ram them with his mirrors, forcing them to step back. The blue ball then started to float, and exploded in a giant explosion that hit all of them, propelling them in all directions and knocking out all the Abilities. Green was able to inhale back the Cutter while Black caught Meta Knight's sword. But all the other Abilities were lost because of Dark Mind teleporting around at great speed, dropping another blue ball between two teleportations while shooting many stars. Seeing the ball, Sweetie quickly attacked it with her own projectiles, promptly destroying it, to Dark Mind's annoyance. Meanwhile, Pink, Yellow, and Red inhaled some of the stars, gaining respectively Spark, Parasol, and Ice. Red now having Ice, he stopped slipping on the icy floor and was able to reach Dark Mind to attack him. Dark Mind then shattered, only to reappear behind Red, sending him flying with a big punch and knocking away the Ice.

He turned toward Black just as he sent a shockwave from the sword. He placed a mirror in the way, and like the previous times, it was shattered, and the shards charged at Black. Sweetie however placed one of her mirror shields in front of Black and reflected the shards back to Dark Mind, who placed his second mirror in the way of the shards to reflect them in the direction of Sweetie Belle before teleporting. He appeared behind the filly just as she reflected the shards again, and rammed her with his mirror, sending her flying. He teleported again in the way and punched her, sending her flying toward Black who was able to catch her, sliding back a long way on the ice.

Pink threw an electric ball from behind, and the shock opened Dark Mind to Yellow's parasol and Green's cutters. He tried to punch Yellow, but the puffball was able to dodge by closing the parasol and dropping at the last second. Meanwhile, Black was joined by Red. They both nodded, and Red inhaled Black before spitting him toward Dark Mind, Black readying the sword. Dark Mind saw him coming and sent a mirror to ram him. Black cut it in two, then slashed the orb, forcing Dark Mind to teleport. Black then turned toward Pink and raised the sword. Pink approached and electrified the sword, covering it in electricity. Sword still raised, Black turned toward where Dark Mind had teleported-beside Red and Sweetie, attacking the both of them-, and swung down the sword, sending a sharp electric shockwave. Meanwhile, Sweetie was able to ram Dark Mind's head with one of her shields before she escaped with Red on her back. At this instant, the shockwave came from behind and cut him with great effects.

With this attack, Dark Mind's body started exploding and glowing white, and the area disappeared into light. When the light disappeared, Sweetie and the Kirbys could see that they were transported to yet another area, on a long, but thin platform floating in the sky. They now seemed to be inside a swirling storm, because they were surrounded by red clouds rapidly flying around them, even above and below. The red reminded both Sweetie and the Kirbys, except Black, of the planet-sized cloud of darkness in which they fought Zero Two.

Speaking of Zero, they spotted Dark Mind, still alive, floating not far from the platform. However, he was now nothing more than the red orb with the black eye, the eye actually closed. The orb then pulsed one, two, three times, before it grew until it became as big as Zero himself, and the eye opened.

Two mirrors appeared around him, and he started moving them in an erratic figure-eight pattern all over the platform, and because of how thin it was, dodging them was almost impossible. Black Kirby was still able to cut one, which seemed to hurt Dark Mind, surprisingly, only for the mirror to turn into four familiar cutter-like blades that almost cut Black. He was saved by Sweetie Belle placing a mirror shield between him and the blades, remembering that the mirrors were turning into homing shards previously. Thanks to the mirror, the shards were deflected toward Dark Mind, but they did nothing to him, Dark Mind closing his eye at the last second to protect himself.

The mirror reformed, and Dark Mind shot a laser at it. The mirror reflected the laser at the other, which reflected it toward Black Kirby, only for Sweetie's mirror to reflect the laser too. She then used her second mirror shield to reflect the laser back at Dark Mind, hitting the eye. She then looked at Black, and they both nodded. Black then jumped on her back, and Sweetie Belle transformed.

Her mane and tail became yellow and all spiky, a yellow aura appeared around her, and she gained wings with yellow sharp feathers.

She smirked. "Showtime."

She flew up, face to face with Dark Mind, and sent some of her yellow feathers toward him. Again, he closed his eye, but Sweetie took the occasion to charge at one of the mirrors, which she cut with her wing while Black sent a shockwave to destroy the other. Now without mirror, Dark Mind flew away and opened his eye, shooting at her a giant laser that she dodged with an aileron roll. He didn't stop, and shot more giant lasers, the filly flying left and right to dodge them as she charged toward him. His lasers not working, Dark Mind sent his now reformed mirrors away and shot a smaller laser at one of them. The laser was reflected toward the second mirror, and the two mirrors then started playing pong with it, forcing Sweetie to keep an eye on it. Before long, the laser was reflected toward her, and she dodged it, only for it to be reflected again a few times before it came back. This time, she reflected it, Dark Mind reflected it back, and now, the two of them were playing a dangerous tennis match. To add difficulty, Dark Mind shot a second laser.

Having enough, Black sent another shockwave toward the eye. Of course, Dark Mind closed it, but thanks to this, he was not able to reflect the lasers, and they disappeared in the storm around them. At this moment, as Dark Mind opened his eye, he received an electric ball, followed by a few cutters. The responsible were Pink and Green, both respectively on Red and Yellow's back, the two last Kirbys inflated to fly. Pink waved happily at Sweetie Belle.

She waved back, then cut a mirror about to ram her with her wings before flying away to avoid the blades it produced. The other mirror rammed Pink and Red, but thankfully, they were able to remain in the air. In retaliation, Sweetie Belle shot a beam at the eye and was able to hit before she had to dodge a big laser. Dark Mind then created from his mirrors clones of various flying enemies, forcing the Kirby to attack them. With them busy to eliminate his minions, Dark Mind flew toward them, the mirrors turning in circle before him, trying to ram them. He was taken in surprise by Sweetie rapidly passing just in front of him, her wing slashing both his eye and the mirrors, stopping him in his course, before he received sharp feathers in his eye.

Then, he did something unsettling: he spun everything upside down including them, somehow, totally screwing up their balance and visual perception. Using that, Dark Mind was able to hit all of them with his mirrors before shooting another big laser toward Sweetie Belle. However, she was still able to dodge the laser simply by letting herself drop. At this moment, the world returned to normal, and after a few seconds, they were all able to regain their senses, and Black sent another shockwave at the eye.

More lasers were shot from Dark Mind toward Sweetie Belle and Black, and she counterattacked by shooting her own beams at him, the mirrors deflecting some of them. The Kirbys were able to approach them, and using a cutter blade like a sword, Green destroyed one while Pink destroyed the other simply by punching it. They were cut by the blades, but at least, they had hurt Dark Mind and stopped the mirrors from reflecting Sweetie's beams. Seeing the way open, Sweetie Belle charged toward the eye, dodged another laser, and cross-slashed it. Black then jumped from her back and gave it a vertical slash before using it to bounce back and land on her before she lost the Ability.

With this last slash, Dark Mind suddenly stopped and closed his eye before he pulsed. With each pulse, he became smaller and smaller, until he returned to his original size. The whole storm then became unstable, they saw the platform start to crumble, and Dark Mind flew away.

Sweetie Belle frowned. "You will not escape!" She turned to the other Kirbys. "We are going! Try to catch up as soon as possible!"

They nodded. "Poyo!"

She nodded back, and flew after Dark Mind, out of the storm, in the sky above the Mirror World. When he saw her flying after him, Dark Mind started shooting his star-shaped projectiles by dozens. She dodged them as much as she could, helped by Black cutting some of them, and shot beams at him in return. He started flying left and right in an erratic pattern, trying to dodge her beams while his projectiles became harder to anticipate. He even charged at her more than once when she expected it the less! Generally, when this happened, she countered it with a slash from her wings.

Soon, his body started exploding, and yet, he continued, still hoping to escape. At this moment, Sweetie Belle and Black were joined by the four other Kirbys on their Warp Stars, and when Dark Mind tried again to charge at her, they charged at him in return, stopping him.

Seeing that Dark Mind was stubborn and refused to die, Sweetie Belle placed both her fore hooves at her right side, and started to charge a huge quantity of energy along with magic, forming a growing energy ball glowing yellow. She put in as much as she can, and thanks to the Ability given by Meta Knight's sword, it was a lot! After a whole minute of charging it, the Kirbys protecting her, she waited for Dark Mind to charge at her again.

"Let him come!"

Once he was close enough, she rapidly put her hooves in front of her and threw a beam of energy bigger than Dark Mind's current form, totally enveloping him inside it. The power of the beam pushed Dark Mind back, and little by little, his body got disintegrated, until he fully disappeared. The beam itself rapidly disappeared in the sky, leaving for a few seconds a sparkling star.

Seeing their enemy dead, Sweetie Belle took a huge breath, then looked at the Kirbys, smiling at them. "We won."

They all raised one of their arms and shouted, "Poyo!" in return.

At that, she saw a Warp Star coming at her left, and Black jumped on it. As Sweetie Belle returned to normal, she quickly created a shield under her to continue to fly, and when her own Warp Star joined her, alongside Meta Knight, she jumped on it. Once Meta Knight was close enough, Black gave him back his sword, and Meta Knight nodded at him in thanks. Black then waved at them as they approached the mirror leading back to Dream Land.

"Already?" Sweetie Belle said. "That was nice to fight alongside you. We form a good team. I won't mind coming back to this world every now and then to explore it, and then, I will visit you."

Black nodded and smiled at her. "Poyo!"

The four other Kirbys waved goodbye at him, and Black flew away, probably to rest after this adventure. Sweetie sure won't mind some rest after all she went through today. Exploring trapped ruins, fighting a robot, fighting an evil mirror counterpart of Meta Knight, and then, fighting the mirror version of Zero and maybe even Nightmare. That was a lot!

One by one, the Kirbys passed the mirror, and she followed them, Meta Knight coming last. Back in the sky of Dream Land, she then watched as whatever Dark Meta Knight did to Kirby seemed to wear off, because the four Kirbys suddenly fused back together.

That was funny, Dark Meta Knight had attacked Kirby thinking to stop him before he became a nuisance, but somehow, his attack hadn't killed Kirby, and had actually split him into four, which caused their doom both at him and his master. As to why his attack had caused this, maybe this had something to do with Kirby being the incarnation of the three Great Forces.

Meta Knight nodded at them and flew away. Sweetie decided to do the same. She said goodbye to Kirby and flew toward the castle, wanting to go to bed as soon as possible.



The end appeared in the portal, and Discord started clapping.

"You know," he said to the ponies. "When she comes back to Equestria, you will be out of your job as heroes."

"We can always work alongside her," Pinkie replied.

"I'm not so sure," Rainbow said. She waved at the portal. "By the time she comes back to Equestria, she will be able to beat any bad guys in ten seconds flat! They appear, she comes, she punches them in the face, done!"

Discord laughed. "Then I can't wait for her to come back! Things will become more interesting! And she will be such a good inspiration to the youths! Just, look!" He pointed at Spike, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom, the young ones mimicking the giant beam.

"One day, I will throw giant beams like her!" Spike shouted.

"Me too!" the fillies replied.

"If Sweetie can, then me too!" Scootaloo continued.

"Oh, Celestia..." some of the ponies said.