Sweetie Belle slowly opens her eyes, regaining consciousness. Looking around, she sees that everyone is alright, and that they are also waking up, and that Magolor is already up and looking at the screen. Thankfully, the Lor Starcutter, at least the inside doesn't seem to have gotten damaged by the crash. Outside, however... Hopefully, they will not have to explore all Halcandra in search of the pieces of the ship.
Seeing that she's not injured, she gets up and joins Magolor with the others, looking at the screen showing the orange four-headed crowned dragon, many small windows with skull symboles opened to explain how dangerous this dragon is, even if she can't understand what is written.
"Is that Landia?" asks Meta Knight.
"Yes. That's him," answers Magolor.
Landia. The dragon they must stop. To think that he's a four-headed one! It's hard to say what is his size with the screen, but no matter it, Sweetie can already say that this dragon will put to shame all the dragons of Equestria, especially with this crown that the head at the top is wearing.
And yep, that's the crown alright. She recognizes it from the picture that queen Ripple has shown her back then.
"Poyo!" shouts Kirby in determination.
"He's right! I didn't think that Landia would have four heads, but this will not change the fact that we will beat him!" shouts Bandana Dee.
"Exactly!" says Dedede, arms crossed to show how determined he's. "This dragon doesn't scare me with those four heads!"
"You are shaking," says Sweetie Belle.
"It's cold."
"So close to a volcanic area?" asks Meta Knight.
"..."
"Thank you everyone," says Magolor, shaking their hands/hooves. "I'm glad that you still want to fight Landia despite all this." He turns back to the screen and starts to press buttons on the keyboard. "Thankfully, the attack and the crash haven't damaged the Lor too much. Nothing that I can't quickly repair."
At this, they all sigh in relief.
"But we are still missing a few Energy Spheres, which are dispersed here in Halcandra. It would be nice to get all of them back before you fight Landia. If worst comes to worst, I could come help you fight him with the Lor Starcutter. And with all the Energy Spheres, it will be at its full power."
The screen now shows a global map of Halcandra, and two arrows start from where they are, at the base of the plateaus, and go to the volcanoes at the top. One of the arrows takes a straight path in the air while the other goes on land, passing by the abandoned city.
"So you can choose to take your Warp Stars to go directly fight him, but he would see you coming and you would have to dodge his fireballs, or you can take this path, where you would find all the Energy Spheres before fighting him, but you would have to go through Egg Engines and Dangerous Dinner, which are full of dangers.
"Wait. Egg Engines? Dangerous Dinner? Are those the names of the city and the volcano area?" asks Sweetie Belle with a deadpan look.
"Uh... Yes?"
She facehoofs. "I can kinda understand why the Ancients would name their city Egg Engines..." She waves at Magolor. "with their egg-shaped body, but why name a volcanic area Dangerous Dinner?!"
Dedede rubs his chin in thought. "Beeeecause you could have some dangerous barbecue over there?"
Hearing him, Kirby imagines himself cooking meat using a volcano as a giant grill. Before long, he starts drooling. This would be dangerous, yes, but so worth it!
"Forget about the name!" says Meta Knight before turning back to Magolor. "How will we bring back the Energy Spheres once we have found all of them?"
"Mmh... Kirby could use his Warp Star to come back here with the spheres, but it would be risky because Landia could attack him."
"Don't worry. Kirby is really fast with his Warp Star. He will easily be able to escape Landia's fireballs," says Sweetie Belle.
"So we take the journey by land through the creepy abandoned city and the dangerous volcanoes," says Dedede. "Mpf. Nothing problematic. We're already used to abandoned futuristic cities and volcanoes. However, am I the only one feeling that we're gonna fight some robot in the city?"
"It's almost certain. Everytime that me and Kirby pass by a futuristic city, we end up fighting a robot. First, there was that Heavy Lobster, then the HR-H," says Sweetie Belle. "The exception was the cities created by Drawcia, but she probably just didn't think about it."
"Well, there are indeed some things in the city that are still activated," says Magolor. "Including some great weapons from the time of the civil war. The worst for you would be to encounter the Metal General. This robot is a programmed killing machine really smart that was made to lead the armies of robots of the techno-clan against the magic-clan. And now, it's protecting what remains of the city. Anyone that it encounters and that isn't an Ancient of the techno-clan is considered an enemy to be exterminated."
"Yeah, we're gonna end up fighting it," says Dedede matter of factly.
"Yup."
"Definitively."
"Poyo."
Meta Knight looks at the others. "You are getting too used to adventuring..."
"Wait, you really think that you will encounter the Metal General?" asks Magolor. "The city is big! The chances to encounter it are low!"
"It's just our thing," says Sweetie Belle. "Each time we go adventuring and that we enter a new area, we end up encountering a powerful enemy. It's like video games. Each area is a level ending with a boss." At this, she raises an eyebrow. "Were there gamers among the Ancients?"
"I... don't know. Maybe? Well, if you end up encountering it, I don't doubt that you will be able to destroy it. This robot is strong, but it's nothing compared to Landia. And whatever dangers you will encounter in the city will be nothing to what awaits you in the volcanoes. I know because it's in the volcanoes that I excavated the Lor Starcutter, and I almost died, like, one thousand times. And that was before Landia awakened."
"Really? You found the Lor in the volcanoes? Not in the city?" asks Sweetie Belle.
"It was probably hidden there by the Ancients to avoid that it falls between wrong hands. This ship can go anywhere in the universe, and even in others, in a matter of a few seconds after all. Or it crashed here after being damaged in the civil war or the Dark God's rampage, because it was in a really bad shape when I found it. Thankfully, I found out about the Lor in some documents, so I searched it, repaired it, and upgraded it in the hope to be able to explore the universe with it. It's also said that the Lor has a mind of its own, but it hasn't said or done anything until now, so I don't know. But it would be nice to have a companion to explore the universe with." He looked down in sadness, his ears lowering. "Too bad Landia awakened before I could go."
They all look at Magolor in wonder before looking at the screen.
"A living ship? It would be so wonderful!" shouts Bandana Dee.
"I hope that it will talk to us then. Maybe it is just shy and doesn't dare talk," says Sweetie Belle with a giggle. "Hello Lor Starcutter! It would be nice to become your friend! Will you talk to us, please?"
"Poyo! Poyo!"
...
...
Nothing.
Dedede huffs. "It could at least say 'thank you' after everything we've gone through to repair it."
"We will give it time," says Sweetie Belle. She then starts to walk toward the exit. "Let's go, we have a dragon to beat up."
"Right."
"Poyo."
At this, they all start to leave the Lor, Magolor saying "Good luck," to them. Before she leaves the Lor, Sweetie looks one last time toward the screen.
It would be great to have a ship like that to explore the universe. Or rather, the universes. All the adventures that I would have! All the friends that I would make! I wonder if Magolor will let me use it sometimes.
"They are seriously going to fight that thing that seems to be a fusion between a dragon and a hydra?" asks Starlight.
"Don't forget the crown that is giving him unlimited power," says Pinkie.
"Right. With a crown that gives him unlimited power."
"Yes. They are seriously going to fight that thing that seems to be a fusion between a dragon and a hydra with a crown that gives him unlimited power," says Discord. "And like I already said, I'm sure they will somehow be able to beat him." He then materializes a cheerleader's uniform on him and starts to do a dance. "Go! Go! Sweetie Company! Give us a sweet victory!"
"They will not fight Landia right now. They still have to pass this city before traversing the volcanoes," says Applejack.
"Yes. Yes. A city with killer robots, and volcanoes with lava everywhere," says Rarity. "Why are there always volcanoes?"
"Because this wouldn't be a real heroic adventure if they didn't pass through dangerous areas," says Discord. "They are the best way to test their courage. And what better area to fight an ultimate dragon of doom than among volcanoes?"
"Anywhere where you don't risk dying each second!"
"This would be too anticlimatic."
Despite what Discord says, many of the ponies are clearly worried about the filly. This adventure is by far the most dangerous, even more than the one to save Ripple Star. Yes, Sweetie has already traversed futuristic cities and volcanic areas in the past, but here, this is a city made by the Ancients almost destroyed by the Dark God after a civil war, and the volcanoes are home to a four-headed dragon that must be even more powerful than Tirek powered by the magic of all of Equestria.
At least, she's with strong friends.
It isn't long before the party enters the city, only having to climb some plateaux on the way, nothing too problematic. They have however encountered in their journey what seems to be Halcandran version of some of the creatures from Popstar, like Waddle Dees, Bouncys, and Bronto Burts. Either they look more like Magolor, black body almost hidden under grey clothes excepted the eyes, or they have no clothes, possessing just a black body with a white face (the Bouncys' face being even heart-shaped) with some other unique features, like white wings for the Bouncys, or the face being orange around the eyes for the Bronto Burts. Their bodies mainly being white, black, and grey don't help decrease the griming feeling of this world.
And now that they have entered the city, this is even worth. A place where magic and technologic worked together to create all those great things like Nova, the Lor Starcutter, a whole universe... A center of knowledge that would make Twilight drool. A civilization with a history even older than Luna, Celestia, or even Discord. Beings that had reached the point that they could be called gods.
Nothing remains of all this, but cold carcasses of buildings.
And on one of the roads, they see something that makes them pale.
Footprints. Giant footprints. So big that they can all enter just one of the holes that have been left. Round, with three extensions that seem to have been left by three sharp claws for toes. And wherever those footprints go, the buildings around are in the worst shape, many being left as just piles of rubble.
Something really big passed here and destroyed everything around it. And unless the mage-clan had some warbeast, it's easy to guess who those footprints belong.
Stopping thinking about the footprints and their owner, they continue traversing the city, following Kirby. After crossing more of those footprints, they eventually take a path going up in the air among the buildings, passing by walls of iron blocks that they have to destroy by pressing switches, and by giant hammers swinging down on them when they come just in front, forcing them to run without stopping. Volttzos and spikes quickly join the list of obstacles, and by the time they pass the first black door, they have already passed more dangers than they are used to, giving the color.
This city will be Tartarus to pass.
The next section has many, many blocks disappearing when they walk on them, so again, they haven't much place to stop, not helped by the many Volttzos and other enemies going in the way, including literal walls of Gordos leaving just a small opening to jump through.
It's followed by a section where they have to be propelled by cannons. The dangers? There are moving structures acting like giant crushers on the way, and they have to propel themselves at the right time, unless to be turned into pancakes. At a time, they spot a black door, and have to wait for the next crusher to be closed so it stops them just above the door. In the room than the door leads to, they have to propel themselves from a cannon toward a small wall moving rapidly up and down to reach their first Energy Sphere of Halcandra, which takes them a few annoying tries.
After that, they pass a few more crushers before reaching the next door, appearing at the start of a succession of narrow metal bridges with many Volttzos firing at it, or on it, which leads to an Invincibility Candy that they use to rush through the many obstacles that follow and easily reach the next door, entering a factory that still works very well, the sound of pistons and gears deafening them.
They pass a couple of mechanical bombs on wheels using scissor lifts to elevate themselves just as the party jumps to pass above them before shooting missiles, before finding a Super Hot Head that Kirby eats, the puffball using the boosted Fire to light the fuse of the bombs on the way and destroy them. He also destroys some weird black boxes revealing to possess a piston that moves and spins one of the sides from which comes out a bunch of spikes.
The Ancients have really well trapped this city. The civil war must have been very nasty.
The destruction of a giant bomb just before a door reveals a portal, which surprises the party.
"A portal? But we already are in the other dimension!" says Sweetie Belle.
"Not quite," says Meta Knight. "Remember what Magolor said? Halcandra is at the frontier between the two dimensions. This place is in its own pocket dimension at the limit of the other dimension, between the two, which would explain why we aren't swarmed by hundreds of Doomers."
"So... we are in the other dimension, but not really?" asks Bandana Dee, tilting his head.
"Too complicated for me!" shouts Dedede. "Let's just jump in the portal and clobber the Doomer at the other side!"
"Yeah, right," says Sweetie Belle.
So they all jump in the portal, and they already find themselves in a problematic situation: they are in a dead end, and the only way to get out is for Kirby to inhale two big stone blocks in the floor... right in front of the purple space-wall. So Kirby quickly inhales them, and spat them back at the wall... causing it to move back a little.
"He... can do that..." says Bandana Dee. "He can push back the dimensional erasing wall..."
He's slapped by Meta Knight. "Come back to your senses! The wall is coming back! We must go!"
"Y-y-yes!"
They jump in the hole and start running, reaching conveyor belts where they have to destroy bomb blocks to free the way, then Kirby has to inhale more stone blocks before they destroy star blocks in the way. After more stone blocks, they reach the door, entering an arena with a conveyor belt where they encounter a white Doomer with five tail-feathers. While it is not really a problem, it is a little more powerful than the others, using ice to attack them and abusing of ice balls, even cloaking himself in a freezing aura similar to the Ice ability. The most annoying must be when it creates a group of ice balls that it levitates around itself, using those balls as a shield that can hurt them. It can also use the ice balls in many dangerous ways, very rapidly, and they all home in. Add in that the Doomer teleports, and this makes it less of a joke than the others.
But it's not the Grand Doomer, so the party is quickly able to eliminate it, Kirby taking the occasion to inhale one of the ice balls to gain Ice. Taking the two Energy Spheres that it leaves, they return to the factory and pass the door that has been behind the bomb.
From there, dangerous obstacles after dangerous obstacles. They first pass giant moving cubes with spikes on all four sides, then traverse a room full of Flamers and their electric counterpart named Elec, before running in a hallway with spinning saws, then avoid being drilled by drills falling continuously from the ceiling like stalactites. The next room contains fire blocks and crushers, the blocks forming some of the floor under said crushers, and they find an Energy Sphere by destroying some of them in the ceiling above another crusher.
Then comes a small room with two gigatzos under them, and they have to reach the exit at the top of said room before the cannons fire, having nowhere in the room to dodge the projectiles. They then have to pass a similar room, this one possessing Volttzos, before reaching the next door leading to a section of the factory with water. Having to swim in it to continue, they must avoid being turned into flattened cheese by giant spiked rollers, finding another Energy Sphere in a small space under metal blocks in the middle of three of those rollers.
They exit the water, only to enter a section full of floating mine-like beings named Search, exploding when they come too close, before entering a vast room where the room is entirely covered in spikes, so they have to fly from platforms to platforms while avoiding the flying enemies in the way until reaching the end, where they go down a ladder toward a similar room... with no floor at all, having a pit instead.
Kirby eats the Leafan at the start of the next room, gaining Leaf, before they end up fighting a Dubior that is quickly eliminated, the Leaf ability working very well against it. In the next room, they press a switch, causing the room to move, revealing that it is actually some horizontal elevator. In the ceiling, as it passes, they spot bomb blocks that Sweetie quickly destroys with her magic, destroying some iron blocks after they leave the elevator and letting them take an Energy Sphere.
After the next door, they pull a level, causing a platform with a key to rise from the pit just in front. Bandana Dee takes the key, and run through the crushers that follow and jumps from platforms to platforms to reach the locked door that it opens to take the Energy Sphere behind it while the others deal with the weird cyclops metallic ball-things that chase them, and once done, they pass the next black door just above, entering an elevator that gets them in front of a door that opens with a lever, getting them out of the factory.
Sweetie Belle sighs in relief. "Boy. This place was more trapped than any other places that me and Kirby have gone through. Not even Drawcia's last few painted worlds were that trapped. The Ancients of the techno-clan sure weren't kidding."
"And we still have some way to go before traversing the city," says Bandana Dee. He then looks around. "Does anybody see the Metal General?"
Sweetie Belle, Dedede, and Kirby look around, searching for the robot.
"Nope."
"Poyo."
"No robot in sight."
Meta Knight sighs. "You don't even know how it looks, how would you recognize it?"
"Easy," answers Dedede. "If we spot a robot charging at us ready to attack, then we will assume that it's the Metal General."
Meta Knight chuckles. "It works."
With this, they jump from the door on a conveyor belt just in front, and it leads them through a series of up and down, their advance helped by strong air currents pushing them from behind while they must avoid jumping too much to avoid the spikes on the low ceilings.
At the end of the conveyor belt, two cannons propel them toward the next one at the start of a series of conveyor belts with more air current. On the way, jumping at the right time lets them pull a handle that causes a bunch of iron blocks in the ceiling to be destroyed, revealing n Energy Sphere, while creating a wall on the way, stopping them from being pushed and giving them the occasion to jump and take the sphere before landing at the other side.
At the end of the conveyor belts, they enter another factory with more conveyor belts as well as those giant hammers, and after some of those, they have to fight a King Doo and a Moundo at the same time, making it a little less easy. The party answers by dividing into two groups, Kirby and Meta Knight facing the King Doo while Sweetie Belle, Dedede, and Bandana Dee take care of the Moundo, and soon, the two of them are knocked out, letting them continue toward the next door.
They press a red switch in front of a pit, causing a long platform to rise before it starts to slowly lower itself, forcing them to run toward the other end, finding an Energy Sphere in a small hole on the way, before they exit the factory.
They climb a ladder, and are almost turned into cheese by one of those black boxes, which is quickly followed by another one, before they find a Super Waddle Doo. Like in the Sky Tower, Kirby then has to light prisms to open doors while destroying more of those black boxes, and like in the tower, he goes on Sweetie's back so she can make the job easier with her multi-homing beams technique, while she uses stronger beams and energy balls to destroy the boxes. The task is a little harder than in the tower, because some of the prisms move, but despite this, they are able to find the portal by making an elevator work and moving a wall.
In the other dimension, they escape the wall by... swimming in water floating and zigzagging in the air, with Shotzos shooting along the way. Sometimes, the water just forms into a small floating block while other times, it forms small intersections, with Gordos moving in them. Many spiked walls, floors, and ceilings to make sure that they are forced to swim in it without going out. after the door, they fight another white Doomer, and now that they better know how it fights, they have less problems dealing with it, the main problem being that the middle of the floor of the arena is actually floating in the water.
Back in Halcandra with two more Energy Spheres, they take a cannon that propels them toward the next door, entering... what seems to be the sewers. After dropping in the water, much to their disgust, and swimming in it pushed by strong currents for a small moment, they enter a door and enter a dark area. Thanks to Sweetie's light, they can easily see where they go, and soon find a candle to help them, and thanks to both it and the filly, they find an Energy Sphere by destroying some metal blocks.
They find a door, but Kirby doesn't enters it, and instead, destroys some stone blocks, revealing a passage with more water leading to another door. Entering it leads to an underwater hallway with many stone blocks, spinning saws and another Energy Sphere in the middle of a group of Glunks. After the sphere, they have to watch out for walls moving up and down, spikes at their bottom, before they pass the next door where they fight a Kibble Blade on a bridge. Once he's defeated, Sweetie fires a beam at a switch at the other side of a waterfall, destroying iron blocks on the floor and revealing an Energy Sphere.
They pass a succession of small rooms connected to each other by small passages with strong currents in what reveals to be a small maze that is, thankfully, not too big, and thanks to Kirby, they find another Energy Sphere before they swim toward the door, appearing in another underwater section with strong currents, but also with the giant eels, with a door just in front of one of the huge ones.
This place wants their death, seriously. But again, a strong energy boosted punch from Sweetie Belle is enough to convince the eel to not eat them.
the door leads back in a dark room, where they have to destroy some bomb blocks until they find the key that opens the locked door at the start, an Energy Sphere at the other side. Back in the section with the eels, they continue swimming and passing the eels until they reach the door, finally exiting this awful place.
They will need a good bath when this is over.
The door leads inside a factory, and... Ooh! More crushers! Why aren't they surprised?
Anyway, they have no problems passing those crushers until reaching the next door, where they enter a room... Or rather, a crusher room, because this is nothing more than a room without any exit where crushers of different shapes drop from above before going back up to let their place to the next one, and the party has to go where the crushers don't meet the floor to avoid being flattened or tuned into cheese in the case where there are spikes until the black door just appears. At one moment, one of the crushers drops with an Energy Sphere, and they easily get it.
After the door, they enter a section with many small conveyor belts above a huge pit, before they reach a succession of very fast conveyor belts where they can't walk on them unless they want to find themselves above the pit in less time than it takes to say it, so they have to jump on platforms above it. After some platform, they pass a door behind a Halcandran version of the Armored Waddle Dee, leading to a room where one of them has to take a key and drop it on a conveyor belt where it passes under Gordos until another one takes the key at the other side and uses it to open a locked door and take the Energy Sphere behind it.
After that, they come to a second crusher room where they get another Energy Sphere before exiting it. In the next section, they destroy a bomb block that lets them use a ladder to go down. They then pull a handle to destroy a wall of iron blocks blocking the way, only to free a bunch of Gordos, forcing them to hide in a hole while they pass. This happens a second time, only this time, there are no hole to hide. An Invisibility Stone drops, but this just lets one of them pass the Gordos, while the others can't do anything. What they do is that when the one holding the crystal passes, they throw the crystal at the others so the next one can pass, and before long, they have all passed the Gordos. Thanks to the crystal, one of them, Dedede, is able to pass a crystal wall to pull a lever, destroying a wall of iron blocks and getting an Energy Sphere.
They then enter a third crusher room, except that this time more than one crusher drop from above at the same time. A first crusher drop, and they have to go on it to avoid being crushed by the one that follows, having to go back on the floor when the crushers rise back up -one by one, thankfully-. Just before the door appears, they catch the last Energy Sphere of the city.
They appear in an elevator that leads them on a conveyor belt before they reach a second elevator that leads them toward the exit of the factory.
Only to appear on a narrow path just in front of a deactivated blue and white robot strangely looking like a Capsule J2, excepted that it possesses three rocket engines, including a big one, rather than a jetpack. The robot then activates, its yellow eyes lighting up, before it expulses steam and takes from behind some cyber-katana.
"I take it that this is the Metal General..." says Dedede. "I thought that it would be bigger." Cling! "Wah?!"
To his surprise, he sees the robot in front of him, its cyber-katana just parried by Meta Knight before it could behead him.
"Don't... underestimate it... because of its size," says Meta Knight.
Putting some force in his sword, he's able to push back the katana, and he immediately attacks, only to be parried by the robot. A sword fight between the knight and the robot then starts, and Sweetie Belle starts to encourage her friend.
"Come on Meta Knight! You are much better than this pile of scraps! You can win!"
"Poyo! Poyo! Poyopoyo! Poyo!" starts Kirby.
"Uh... Shouldn't we go help him?" asks Bandana Dee.
"Let the knight have his fun," says Dedede. "The enemy is using a sword, so this fight is perfect for him."
The fight continues for a few more seconds, the two adversaries attacking savagely. Meta Knight is faster, but the robot is always able to calculate the trajectory of its enemy's attacks before calculating the better trajectory to counterattack, and since it's a robot, there's no way to understand what it prepares next, like Meta Knight with its mask. The swords clash almost ten times per second, and none of them are ready to give up, but the robot is advantaged by its infinite endurance, which could change the balance of the fight in the long term. But eventually, Meta Knight is able to deceive the robot, attacking in the less likely trajectory rather than the most likely trajectory, passing the robot's defense. But the robot doesn't let out any shock at this, and immediately moves to dodge the attack, but not before getting a little slashed under the left eye.
Feeling the small damage, the Metal General's eyes flash before it's cannon-like right arm opens to reveal a machine gun, and it fires countless lasers at Meta Knight who flies away, only for the lasers to continue their way toward Sweetie and the others, which are only saved by the filly's quick reaction, a shield forming in front of them.
"Okay. The fun is over. Time to get serious," says Dedede.
Meta Knight forces the robot to stop using its machine gun by sending a shockwave that it parries, and Sweetie takes the occasion to fire a lightning bolt at it while the others jump into action, quite literally for Dedede who drops on the robot with all his weight, before he runs away to avoid being cut in half by the cyber-katana. The Metal General then parries Bandana Dee's spear and targets Sweetie Belle with his machine gun, the filly jumping on a shield to fly away to avoid the storm of lasers, which is quickly stopped by Kirby sending sharp leaves from above after jumping.
The General's arm cannon closes, and it uses it to send away Bandana Dee with a swing before it jumps, avoiding another shockwave from Meta Knight, and sends from the air dozens of electric darts everywhere, successfully hitting Dedede with one of them because he has been too close, about to attack again. Meta Knight is able to slalom between the darts and slash at the robot, making it crash back on the floor where Bandana Dee, Kirby, and Sweetie Belle pummel it. The Metal General jumps back on its feet, swinging its katana to force Bandana Dee to run away, before its arm cannon opens, this time revealing a rocket launcher from which it fired nine missiles, three homing at Kirby, three others at Sweetie Belle, and the last three at Meta Knight.
While Sweetie, Kirby, and Meta Knight are busy either escaping or destroying the missiles, the Metal General jumps at one end of the narrow path and starts spinning its katana in front of it, and the engines in its back start propelling it forward, ready to slice everyone in its path, which are Bandana, Dedede, and Kirby, Sweetie and Meta Knight still flying. Seeing the robot coming, Dedede prepares himself and starts spinning, successfully stopping its advance as the hammer and the katana clash, and Bandana jumps above them before attacking from the robot's back. Its arm cannon opens again, and it fire a missile at Dedede at close range, the resulting explosion propelling the both of them in opposite directions, which causes the robot to ram Bandana Dee and to crush him against the wall behind, while the same thing happens with Dedede and Kirby, which expelled the Leaf ability out of him.
Under the Metal General's watchful eyes, Kirby inhales back his ability, and the robot immediately charges at him all the way from the other side of the path, firing on the way some lasers from his machine gun at the approaching Meta Knight and Sweetie Belle above him to force them to move back, before slashing repeatedly at the puffball until his ability is knocked out. Seeing the green star out, the robot then quickly cuts it in half, destroying the ability, before attacking Kirby again, only for him to put his right arm on the trajectory of the robot's left hand, catching it and stopping its katana attack, before he lifts the robot above his shoulder by the arm and slams it on the floor. Kirby then jumps away before a lightning bolt from Sweetie Belle strikes the Metal General, the robot starting to short circuit as it spasms.
It gets back up, and opens its arm cannon, launching a blue rocket two times bigger than the robot from it! The Metal General and clings to the rocket before it flies up. With the robot riding on the rocket, it's able to guide it, and tries to ram Sweetie Belle, but the filly is easily able to dodge. The Metal General, however, comes back, and this time, moves left and right to become more unpredictable, and almost rams Meta Knight. Third time's the charm, and the robot flies around erratically with the rocket. Seeing that the rocket eventually charges toward him, Kirby prepares himself and starts inhaling, successfully eating the big rocket while the General jumps away to avoid the same fate. Eating the rocket gives Kirby a white glowing crown, recognizable as being Kirby's hat for the Crash ability.
"Oh oh. Quick! Everyone around me!" shouts Sweetie Belle as she lands beside one of the walls. Everyone excepted Kirby joins her and she rapidly forms five layers of shields around all of them just before Kirby activates the ability and causes a huge explosion, destroying three of the five shields. However, the robot is barely damaged by it, to everyone's surprise.
"Poyo?!"
Seeing Kirby's shock, the Metal General immediately attacks him with its katana, only to be stopped by Meta Knight again, and they clash for a moment before Dedede smashes it away with his hammer. Getting back up, the Metal General then raises its right arm and fires up dozens of missiles, raining them on all the arena before launching another giant rocket, then another, then another, and the last one that it rides, so while the party is busy avoiding the three rockets falling back, the robot tries to ram them with the fourth, and successfully hits Meta Knight with it before it starts flying in circle all the long of the path, only for Kirby to inhale the rocket and to spit it back at the robot.
The Metal general fires yet another rocket that it rides, only this time, it flies above the path while launching mines all the way, then it comes back this time to launch weird drones looking like the ones that were inside Nova and that start to attack the party with spark shots while the General passes a third time to rain missiles. Having enough, kirby inhales one of the missiles, gaining Bomb, and like against Mr Dooter, throws a bomb at the passing rocket, Sweetie Belle growing it with her magic, which is enough to explode the rocket and damage the robot on it. As the robot recovers, they all attack it while destroying the remaining drones until the robot starts spasming again, electricity appearing everywhere on its metallic body.
But instead of exploding, the robot flies up, and the walls at both sides of the path lower, extending the arena.
That's when a huge red and black robot flies down from the sky beside the path, strangely looking like Dedede, and the penguin's jaw drop, along with Sweetie's, and if he had a mouth, Bandana Dee's too.
"W-w-w-w... What the heck is the HR-D3 doing here?!" shouts Dedede.
"Poyo?"
"Wait, don't tell me that this place is where it has been transported to!" shouts Sweetie Belle.
"What are you talking about?" asks Meta Knight.
At this moment, the head opens, revealing it to be some helmet that has been hiding the penguin-like head under it, with a cockpit at the top, which the Metal General flies into before the helmet closes.
Dedede then starts talking. "After our adventure to save Ripple Star, I thought back to the robot that we fought on the frozen Earth, which the local robots called HR-H, and I thought about the Heavy Lobster that you have... or had... and I told myself that I wanted a robot too! SoWAHH!" He barely dodges the giant left fist of the robot pounding the floor where he has been.
"So he sent me back to the frozen Earth to ask the robots here if they could build a robot for us, which they accepted!" continues Sweetie Belle while she starts firing lighting bolts at the giant robot.
"I named it HR-D3, in reference to the robot we fought, and I wanted it to be my ultimate weapon against Kirby!"
"Poyo?!"
Sweetie Belle then dodges the drill that the robot possesses instead of a right hand, the drill leaving a huge hole in the floor where she has been. She then continues talking. "But just before it was finished, we got unlucky. A rift opened, and the HR-D3 disappeared in it."
Meta Knight visibly frowns. "So this place is close enough to our dimension that it can randomly open rifts... And the Metal General got its hand on the HR-D3 and made it into its own war mecha."
"Which is unforgivable!!! This is MY mecha! That piece of scrap even put its emblem on the torso where my emblem has been!" The helmet opens and the Metal General starts firing missiles. Dedede points his finger at it while Sweetie destroys the missiles. "You've done the worst error of your artificial life! Nobody touch my mecha but ME! I will destroy you, and recycle you into my personal dummy!"
"But now, we have to destroy our robot..." says Bandana Dee.
Dedede clenches his teeth, growling. "Yeah..."
The HR-D3 then fires lasers from its eyes, sweeping the whole path with them and forcing everyone to jump to avoid them, before it starts pounding the floor again with its fist and drill, the party attacking them. It then sweeps its drill on the path, forcing everyone to jump again, before doing the same thing with its hand in the air just above, hoping to slap the ones that have jumped too late in the middle of their jump. Too bad for it that Meta Knight can fly. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle fires an energy beam toward the robot's body, hugely damaging it and causing the helmet to be destroyed.
The robot starts falling, seemingly defeated, only to fly back before bouncing on the floor three times, trying to crush the party, or at least hurt them with spikes at the bottom of the body. Once it stops, they immediately start attacking it, making it lose a part of the outer body and starting to reveal its skeleton. But then a huge cannon appears from under the head and they immediately move away before it fires a giant laser half as big as the robot itself, the robot moving so the laser follows the runaways, almost getting them when the laser finally stops.
By the stars, this laser could rival with the one of the Main Cannon 2 from the Halberd! Everywhere it has passed, it has destroyed or melted everything, destroying a huge part of the path and some of the buildings around!
The robot flies and joins them at the other side of the hole left by the laser, and tries to body slam them, which is easily avoided and leaving it open to attacks for a small moment, destroying more of its body, revealing the metal parts under the torso while electricity appears. The HR-D3 gets up and starts spinning after them, hand and drill heating up above them, and as they run to escape, Sweetie and Kirby continue attacking it with lightning bolts and bombs, destroying the spiked bottom part, so now, it's forced to keep its balance on a small black part.
The HR-D3 stops spinning and starts advancing while continuously pounding the floor with its fist and its drill, while also firing its eye lasers. At the same time, the Metal General fires more missiles on their path, forcing them to destroy them while avoiding the attacks of the bigger robot. Meta Knight flies backward and charges his sword, and once everyone passes under him, he sends tornadoes after tornadoes, only leaving the metal-framed skeleton of the HR-D3, before the robot sends a punch through one of the tornadoes and hits Meta Knight, propelling him for hundreds of meters, before firing a laser from its huge cannon just in front of the others, cutting their path and trapping them. It then jumps to crush them, but they run under it before it falls back, and Dedede immediately jumps before pounding it on the back with his hammer that has been electrified by Sweetie Belle, seriously damaging what seems to be the core of the robot.
Dedede quickly jumps back as the robot starts spasming, before exploding, destroying the Metal General with it.
The robots destroyed, they all lie down, taking back their breath.
Sweetie then giggles. "We would have won if we had this robot back then."
Dedede chuckles. "Maybe I should build another."
At this moment, Meta Knight comes back, planting his sword in the ground to remain up. "If you do, make sure to build a mean to destroy it if it ends like this one."
"Oh hey. What are the chances that this happens again?" asks Dedede. "Even if another rift opens, we destroyed the Metal General."
"But it could fall in other hands."
"Pffff. I'm not THAT unlucky."
"Ahahah. That's what he says, but sometimes, life just hates you," says Discord.
"I'm glad that they are getting out of this city of death," says Rarity.
"But now, they are going toward the volcanoes," says Applejack. "And this will be worse."
Rarity puts her hooves on her eyes. "Don't remind me..."
"The worst has yet to come," says Celestia. "But I am certain that they will survive. Have faith."