"Let me go! I will turn that backstabbing rotten egg into an omelette!" yells Rainbow Dash.
To say that the ponies have reacted badly to Magolor's betrayal would be an understatement. Now, Twilight finds herself holding her angry pegasus friend with her magic to stop her from flying into the portal. Not so surprisingly, she has to do the same thing with Rarity.
"Stop it Rainbow! I know that what Magolor did is horrible, but you know that you can't pass this portal! You too, Rarity!"
"But...! But...! He almost killed her!" shouts back Rarity. "He used her friendship to get that crown, and when she wasn't useful anymore, he betrayed it and almost killed her WITHOUT EVEN SAYING ANYTHING AND WITHOUT WARNING! This is THE WORST THING EVER! And this time, I'm not overdramatizing it!"
"I know! I know! But Sweetie Belle and her friends have gone after him, and I'm sure that despite the power of the crown, he'll get the punishment he deserves. So calm down, please." She turns to Rainbow. "Unless you want to miss the five heroes riding dragons in space while chasing an all powerful wizard."
Rainbow blinks, and stops flapping her wings. "Yeah, no way I'm missing something that awesome." At this, Twilight lets her go, and she returns at her place. "But I hope to see a good thrashing."
"I don't remember seeing you react that badly when I betrayed you," says Discord.
"While I wanted to buck you in the face and make you eat your teeth for what you did and for making Fluttershy cry, you didn't try to kill us. And frankly, I wasn't really trusting you so I wasn't that surprised to see you with Tirek. But this guy... Everything about him was screaming at us to trust him! He was just so... friendly! And he didn't look threatening at all!"
"My dear Rainbow, don't judge a book by its cover," replies Discord, showing a book with a rainbow on the cover before opening it, a tentacle coming out of it. He quickly closes the book, and burns it, making Twilight's eye twitch. "Magolor was simply what we call a manipulator. One of the worst kind, that go all buddy buddy with you and use your friendship or your trust to better hurt you or to reach their goal. A specialty of the changelings, but some ponies are also like this."
Hearing this, Rarity clenched her teeth. "Suri Polomare."
"The Flim Flam Brothers," growls Applejack.
"Me..." says Starlight Glimmer.
"Of course, the guy looking all cute helped greatly in his manipulation," adds Discord. "Nobody suspects cute things."
"But if we can't trust our own friends anymore, then who can we trust?" asks a crying Fluttershy who is consoled by a nearly flat-maned Pinkie Pie.
"Don't stop trusting your friends because there was a bad apple in the lot," answers Applejack.
Celestia nods, smiling. "I stopped counting the number of times ponies acted friendly with me only to have bad intentions. And yet, I don't stop giving my trust to everypony, because until they prove the contrary, everypony deserve to be trusted. And even if somepony broke this trust..." She looks at Discord. "They can still earn it back with some good actions, even if some times, it takes time."
"And remember that it already happened in the past for Sweetie Belle," continues Discord. "Remember Marx? And yet, it didn't stop her to make more friends afterwards, and even to befriend Marx for real." At this, he rubs his chin in thought. "Will she try to befriend Magolor after that?"
"After Magolor almost killed her like that?" asks Spike. "I doubt."
"And he would have to survive first, and I doubt that he will survive the violent fight that will probably happen," says Luna.
"True. It's only by miracle that Marx survived the explosion of Nova," says Discord. "He almost died, like all the other bad guys that Sweetie Belle and Kirby fought.
"Not all. Dedede, Meta Knight, Daroach, Yin, and Yarn survived, and now, they are all friends!" says Pinkie.
"Erh... for Yin and Yarn, it's more like they are Sweetie's slaves," says Scootaloo.
"And I don't know if Daroach can be considered as a friend," says Rainbow Dash. "He's still a thief."
"Of course he's a friend. Sweetie helped him, and he was nice to her. Also, you wouldn't be able to turn Magolor into an omelette, he doesn't have the shape of an egg anymore. But since his body is all gazy, you could buck him like you buck a cloud."
"Too bad I can't..."
Sweetie Belle, Kirby, Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana, now riding the four Landias, come out of the portal opened by Magolor in what seems to be the middle of nowhere in the other dimension, tunnels in the fabric of space everywhere around them, with gaseous lines, floating shapes like stars or triangles, and even the areas formed from Popstar and Halcandra.
This is something to see the other dimension from one of those areas, this is something else to see it from out of those areas. This dimension is really screwed.
They spot Magolor flying away while looking at them, and the Landias start chasing him. But then, Magolor raises his hands, the crown glows, and a couple of seconds later, a dozen of purple Doomers with normal feathery wings comes from everywhere and charge at them, and the Landias attack them in return, eliminating each of those Doomers with just one shot. But more of those Doomers come, and their number is enough to let some of them approach close enough to the dragons to almost ram them, only to be eliminated by the fire, whip, hammer, sword, and spear of the riders. To help the Landias, Sweetie decides to fire her own projectiles to destroy some of the charging Doomers and make it easier for the others. Meanwhile, Magolor flies away, passing between what can only be called solid space while bigger of those Doomers, those ones red, come in the way and start shooting their orbs at the dragons. Those Doomers take a few more hits, but the Landia quickly destroy them before passing between the solid spaces.
Solid space, seriously, this dimension is really screwed.
And walking on those solid spaces are small green Doomers with no wings but possessing feet, walking around while shooting orbs. They are fast, but the dragons and the filly are easily able to target and destroy them while avoiding the projectiles.
"You will be ok, Landia?" asks Sweetie Belle to her dragon. "You're still weakened by our fight."
The Landia looks at her with a smile and nods before quickly looking in front of him, barely avoiding the projectile of one of the red Doomers. At least, despite their number, the Doomers they have encountered since coming out of this portal are weaker than the Doomers they have fought until now. Their lack of tail-feathers show that they are really the weaklings of the species. The purple ones don't even shoot projectiles!
But now, they have to avoid solid spaces moving and threatening to crush them. The Landias accelerate to pass them before they close on them, still firing at the Doomers tirelessly attacking them wave after wave, and after passing a rather long space tunnel, they have to fight pink Doomers almost as big as the Grand Doomer possessing each four large spikes coming out of their sides diagonally. When the Landias destroy one of those Doomers, the spikes are projected forward, threatening to impale them, and avoiding them while dealing with the other ones especially with their number, is Tartarus.
Thankfully, the Landias are professionals, and the riders are really helpful.
Not long after, the Landias have to avoid strange prismatic meteors, some of them absolutely huge, while they have to shoot at switches to move the solid space blocking the way and open it, and all the while still fighting the more and more numerous Doomers, and avoiding the crushing moving spaces.
After avoiding some of the huge meteors, the Doomers stop coming, and the Landias are sweating, breathing heavily.
Meta Knight frowns. "We must catch Magolor quick, the Landias are tiring out."
"Like I thought, they haven't recuperated from our fight," says Sweetie Belle, looking sadly at the Landia she's riding. "I feel so bad."
"Poyo..." says Kirby as he starts patting the Landia on the head.
"Magolor will regret this!" shouts Bandana Dee.
Speaking of Magolor, the wizard appears in front of them, and he seems upset. And is it Sweetie, or is the crown moving disturbingly like a parasite on Magolor's head? She doesn't have much time to stare at it before a huge star-shaped portal opens between them and Magolor, and out of it comes none other than the Lor Starcutter, now dark purple and dark blue colored.
What has this BIIIIIIIIP done to this majestic spaceship?!
"Don't tell me we will be forced to destroy the ship we've passed all day to repair!" shouts Dedede.
When the portal closes once the Lor is fully out, Magolor teleports not far away and starts to do some hand signs, followed by the Lor starting to fly up, down, left, and right while firing dark stars from the emblem at the dragons, and the four Landia quickly separate before firing back at the ship.
"We're given no choice..." says Meta Knight.
Sweetie grit her teeth and stares at Magolor in anger, as the wizard raises his hands, followed by the ship spinning throwing its wings at them, the wings having a boomerang effect, hitting the Landia that Dedede is riding. Sweetie Belle then charges a beam and fires it directly at Magolor, only for him to easily slap it away with his right hand before he makes the Lor fire more dark stars directly at her and Kirby, forcing their Landia to maneuver to avoid the many projectiles.
A well placed shot from Bandana's Landia causes a small explosion at the left wing of the Lor, destabilizing the ship, and Magolor counters by firing the oars like spears at all of them. The oars are then used like swords, targeting and slashing at the dragons again and again, while Magolor does another hand sign, and the sail on the mast starts glowing before it projects a tornado horizontally, the ship flying in all directions to try to catch the dragons in it, forcing them to focus on avoiding it, which leads some of them to be slashed by the oars, the one that Meta Knight is riding saved by him parrying them.
But the Landias resist, and soon, the Lor stops its tornado, and the four Landias charge a projectile before firing them at the same time, the four charged projectiles hitting the Lor with enough force to throw it back a little, which forces the oars to return at their place, causes arcs of electricity to course the ship, and angers Magolor greatly. He throws the oars at the heroes again, and big blue orbs appear from behind the ship before being projected at the party. Sweetie Belle creates a mirror shield and deflects one of the orbs back at the ship, and the Lor counters by enveloping itself in a sphere before trying to ram her Landia while spinning to throw its wings at the others, the left wing going slightly off because of the explosion earlier, which only makes it more unpredictable, and the oars continues to relentlessly slash at them.
Sweetie's Landia quickly flies out of the way of the Lor, and the filly takes one of the oars in her magic and throws it at the ship's engines, damaging one and causing the Lor to go off while losing control of the oars again, which return at their place. More orbs appear and are fired, along with the dark stars that the Lor starts firing without stopping while spinning chaotically in all directions, creating a storm of projectiles. The ship quickly adds the wings, oars, and tornado to it, Magolor pushing the ship to its limits, and pushing the Landias to their limits too.
The four dragons fly back before gathering, Sweetie Belle rapidly creating a shield to protect all of them from the onslaught and gain time. The Landias then start charging four projectiles like earlier, only to fuse them into a single powerful projectile that they fire at the ship. The oars are placed in the way to block it, but the Landias fly alongside it and headbutt some of the oars to move them out of the way, and Sweetie uses her magic to move another, leaving only one to parry the giant projectile, which is not enough. The projectiles passes through the oar, damaging it heavily, before hitting the Lor at the front in a big explosion.
The Lor Starcutter, heavily damaged, black smoke coming out of it, starts to drop, leaving an enraged Magolor by himself. With the defeat of his spaceship, the wizard flies back, and the dragons immediately chase him, the four of them and Sweetie Belle firing many projectiles that Magolor avoids by teleporting.
"Give up, Magolor!" yells the filly.
"No," simply answers back Magolor before he fires a few dozens of his black orbs. Sweetie Belle creates four mirror shields in front of the Landias, deflecting the projectiles, only for Magolor to teleport just in front of her Landia and to punch him, his punch breaking the shield, propelling the dragon back and unseating Sweetie and Kirby. Quickly, Magolor then creates two small portals and throws his hands inside them. Two more portals appear in front of Dedede and Meta Knight's Landias, and out of them come Magolor's hands, punching the dragons, while Magolor himself headbutts the last one.
Now without their dragons, the five heroes fall, and Sweetie rapidly creates a platform for her and Bandana Dee while Kirby and Dedede inflates and Meta Knight deploys his wings. Looking up, they see Magolor, still looking at them, slowly floating down toward... they aren't sure what. It seems to be a black hole, or at least a black sphere surrounded by a disc of blue fire or gaz and various shapes.
They follow Magolor, and when they reach the blue thing, Kirby places a foot on it, and seeing that he can walk on it, surprisingly, he deflates, soon followed by the others.
"I will not ask... This dimension is just weird," says Sweetie.
"I did say that this dimension is messed up," they hear Magolor say. They look up, and see the wizard approaching, the crown still disturbingly moving on his head. "I was really hoping that you wouldn't be able to survive this dimension, but I underestimated Landia. Even the Lor Starcutter wasn't enough to stop you. Seems like I will have to do it myself. Once I'm done with you, the way will be open for me to become the ruler of the Dream Universe."
"Poyo!" shouts Kirby challengingly.
"Yes. Let's see who's the strongest," says Magolor as he raises a hand, black orbs appearing above it. "The son of the Dark God, or me and my power boosted by the most powerful magical artefact in both universes, the Master Crown." He chuckles. "I already know the answer. You're just a child. You've barely started obtaining your powers. But me..." He raises the other hand, and more orbs appear above him, until at least one hundred of them are floating above the wizard and the heroes. "I HAVE ALL MY POWERS!!!"
He lowers his hands, and the black orbs start raining on the party who destroy them with various attacks in the hope of avoiding being hit, Sweetie Belle using shield, whip, and materialized weapons, Kirby spinning to create a small tornado of fire, Dedede and Bandana Dee twirling their weapon above them, and Meta Knight slashing so rapidly that nobody can see his sword anymore. In just a few seconds, the rain of black orbs stops, and none of them have hit the heroes.
Sweetie Belle smirks. "But he's not alone."
Magolor finds himself slammed from behind by one of Sweetie's shields, and he's projected into Kirby's stream of fire. He places a hand on the way of the fire to protect himself and raises the other, and a puddle of liquid appears under the puffball. Meta Knight flies above him and catches him in passing just as the puddle turns into a spike, and Dedede inhales the both of them before spitting them back at Magolor, Kirby turning into a fire ball that hits him on the head, followed by Meta Knight slashing him diagonally. Bandana Dee then impales him from behind with his spear, and he teleports just before taking a charged beam from Sweetie Belle.
When reappearing, Magolor raises his hands, and a field of puddles appear on the whole battlefield. While Meta Knight catches Kirby and rapidly flies up, Dedede and Bandana Dee join Sweetie Belle who forms a platform under the three of them before making it rise quickly as the field of puddles turns into a field of spikes, Sweetie feeling some of them scratching her platform. From it, Dedede then jumps toward Magolor and bonks him on the head with his hammer, only to be caught in Magolor's hands. Fire suddenly appear on Dedede who starts yelling in pain, and Magolor throws him at the approaching Meta Knight still holding Kirby despite the spikes having disappeared. Meta Knight is slammed by Dedede and drops Kirby, and the puffball turns into a fireball and slams into Magolor in return, who's hit from behind by Sweetie's whip.
Magolor turns around and catches the whip before spinning, dragging Sweetie and slamming her into Kirby. He teleports a few times in random around the battlefield before appearing above Bandana Dee and crushing him under his fist. He then grabs Bandana Dee and throws him in the air before firing a few black orbs at him. A mirror shield then appears between the Waddle Dee and the orbs, and all the projectiles are deflected back toward Magolor who teleports out of the way.
Magolor appears directly behind Sweetie Belle and grabs her before teleporting again, reappearing in the air. Raising a hand, he creates a small field of puddles under him, and he starts to drop toward the forming spikes, holding Sweetie Belle between him and them. To his surprise, he's rammed by Dedede projected by Kirby, making him drop Sweetie Belle who is caught by Meta Knight before she falls on the spikes.
Growling, Magolor opens a portal and punches Dedede into it. Another portal appears just above Meta Knight and Sweetie Belle, and Dedede falls on them, while Magolor fires some blue fire blasts at all of them, Sweetie quickly creating another shield to protect herself, Meta Knight, and Dedede as they are getting back up. Upon reaching her shield however, the fire blast explodes, destroying it and projecting them backward while Kirby and Bandana Dee run to avoid the others. Magolor then opens a rift, and out of it come small versions of the Doomers they have fought in the portals, and the Doomers charge at Kirby, only to be destroyed by the puffball charging at them as a fireball. Magolor then raises his hands, and dozens of black orbs come out of them like geysers before they home in at the heroes from all directions, and Kirby jumps on Sweetie's back, giving her the Fire, before she envelops the both of them in a spheric shield covered in fire. The giant fireballs is then hit from behind by Dedede's hammer, and it destroys many of the orbs before slamming into Magolor who's blasted far in the sky.
However, Magolor reappears, and creates a familiar rune, followed by the appearance of a star-shaped black hole, but this time, the party is prepared, and they all run in the opposite direction to fight the pull of the hole until it disappears.
"Grrrr... Like I thought, you're a pain in the butt," then says Magolor before he places his hands beside him in a gesture that Sweetie recognizes easily. Energy charging between them confirms it. And effectively, Magolor fires a giant lasers that Sweetie doesn't even try to counter like she did with the ape, instead opting to jump out of the way, like all the others.
"This is why I tried to kill you when you didn't expect it, after you beat Landia. The moment I understood about Kirby's origins, and I heard about you beating Zero, I knew that I couldn't just leave you like I was planning to do at first. And I would've succeeded, if that wasn't for that stupid dragon! And by now, I would be on my way to rule the Dream Universe, as it is my right to do!"
"Your right?! How is it your right?" asks Sweetie Belle.
Magolor points a finger at her, and fires from it a black lightning bolt that she blocks by putting her whip in the way with her magic. With his other hand, he creates some ice shards that he throws at the others along with some black orbs. Seeing that the projectiles are easily destroyed or deflected, he starts spinning on himself, creating a tornado around him, and he starts floating toward the heroes to catch them in it, all the while creating firing more black orbs at them as they run away. Seeing that it doesn't work too as they disperse, he suddenly throws the tornado at Kirby, and Kirby is successfully caught in it and projected in the air where Magolor shoots a fire blast, but Kirby is saved by Meta Knight catching him, making Magolor growl in frustration, and he's hit by a charged beam from Sweetie Belle.
Magolor turns toward her. "Remember what I told you. The Ancients created the Dream Universe. I am the descendant of the Ancients. Ergo, it is my right to rule it."
"That's stupid!" shouts Dedede. "That's not because the Ancients created the universe that this means that they can rule it!"
Magolor raises a hand and creates a boulder that he throws at Dedede, only for the penguin to smash it with his hammer. "Why not? When you create something, you own it, so why shouldn't it be the case for the Dream Universe? If the civil war hadn't happened, no doubt that by now, the Ancients would be ruling the Dream Universe. And why shouldn't the universe have a ruler? It needs one! For the same reason that a kingdom needs a ruler! To guide it! To protect it! To make sure that it doesn't fall into anarchie!"
He creates another black hole, forcing the heroes to run again. This time, using more power, he creates spikes in their path, forcing them to watch out where they run and their speed.
"Since the civil war, the Dream Universe has become a nightmare! The Dark God's abominations run rampant, destroying many worlds! The Ancients' own inventions are used by overlord wannabes to hurt, destroy, and conquer, sometimes leading them to become corrupted and to become real monsters, adding to the list of abominations already rampaging! And when those are not overlords that cause problems, those are whole civilizations that go to their doom because of their foolishness! Take the humans for example. Because nobody was there to guide them, they let their greed get the better, and the totality of their population was exterminated in a war because some idiots didn't want to share the resources, and the weapons they used were so powerful that they led to an eternal winter that lasts even today a few centuries later, and the human survivors are scattered in the cosmos, hoping one day to rebuild their civilization, waiting for their end, or forgetting everything about their past."
"Oh... So this is what happened..." says Sweetie.
Magolor opens some portals and uses them like previously to punch the heroes through them, or to fire his black orbs, or even to try to impale them with spikes from directions they don't expect, the spikes entering in one portal and exiting from another. All the while, the heroes continue attacking Magolor despite him regularly teleporting to avoid them.
"With me ruling the Dream Universe, all of this would stop! With the power of the Master Crown, I would exterminate all the monsters! I would also find the other descendants of the Ancients scattered and rebuild our civilization, with me as the God King! Under my rule, I would assure that everybody would remain at their place! No more wars! No more conquerings! Greediness! Selfishness! Jealousy! Hate! All of this would disappear!"
He teleports to avoid a sharp shockwave fired by Meta Knight.
"So, you would lead the universe into a forced peace, where to assure it, we would have to act like robots," Dedede says.
"Not like robots. You would still be allowed to love, laugh, and do everything else that isn't 'negatif'."
Meta Knight lets out a growl. "Which means forcing everyone to act like you want without them being able to express themselves like they want. You remind me of myself a few months ago, when I tried to conquer Dreamland. I wanted to force everyone to learn to fight so they could protect themselves against threats. But I learned, forcing the others is not the way!"
"This is the only way! If not, then how can you stop billions of billions of beings from hurting each others?"
Meta Knight points his sword at Magolor. "We can't. But at least, we can make sure that you can't hurt them with your oppressive way!"
"Yes! We can't save everyone in the universe from themselves, but at least, we can save them from threats like you!" shouts Bandana Dee. "Like this, many people will still be happy!"
"And we can always find ways to avoid what happened to the humans without becoming tyrants," says Sweetie Belle. "I'm sure that we aren't the only ones in the universe who want to protect people. If we unite, then we will be able to fight every monsters, evil beings, and dangers that would appear, and we would save many, many people! This is what we've been doing in Popstar, me, Kirby, and the others, and we've successfully protected it from every threat until now!"
"Grrrr... This is why I tried to kill you. I knew that you wouldn't listen. Why only save the majority to keep most people happy, rather than saving everyone, even if for this, some people must lose that happiness?!"
"Because it wouldn't be worth it!" yells Sweetie Belle.
"Why did Marx had to lose?! When I encountered him, and he told me about his plan and the hero defending Popstar, I told him about Nova, and I thought that with the power he would gain from him, he would succeed! When I found this portal door to Halcandra and tried to get the crown from Landia only to lose, I thought that I could use him to defeat that blasted dragon before taking the crown and use its power to kill him! But no! When I came to Popstar, I encountered the very hero he talked about, still alive! And the hero had to be the son of the God and an happy-go-lucky moron at the head of a band of morons that can't understand that sometimes, you must dirty your hands for the better of all! Curse that idiot! And curse all of you!"
"You're the idiot! You refuse to understand that it is not worth to save someone if you force them to be unhappy the rest of their life! And how do you expect to fight the Dark God? I'm sure that the power of the crown is nothing against him! Me and Kirby are doing everything we can to be ready to fight him!"
"I would ensure that the heart where he's sealed would be buried in the deepest hole in the universe, with the best defenses assuring that nobody dare to come close to it! The God can't get out of the seal by himself! He can only get out with the help of someone! But who would be crazy enough to try to free him knowing that he would destroy everything?"
"Achoo!! Juh?"
"Enough!" yells Magolor before he creates a star-shaped shield formed of five smaller shields each forming one of the branches. "That you're able to fight me despite the power of the crown is impressive, but now, it is over! None of your attacks are powerful enough to break this shield! You can't hurt me anymore!"
At this, he starts unleashing attacks after attacks, from his black orbs to his black hole or giant laser.
"This is like against the Grand Doomer," says Bandana Dee. "We need a Super Ability."
"But Magolor is not as stupid as the Grand Doomer," says Dedede. "I doubt he will drop a super enemy for us to break his shield."
"And of course, he always makes sure that he's facing all of us, so we can't attack him from behind, where he's vulnerable," says Meta Knight.
Sweetie looks at the crown. "We don't need a super enemy. The origin of the Super Abilities is right there."
"The crown, of course," says Meta Knight.
"Poyo!"
Determined, Kirby charges toward Magolor and turns into a fireball before ramming his shield, which has no effects except making Magolor laugh. Despite this, and being hit by some of Magolor's attacks, Kirby continues ramming the shield again and again, covering its surface in fire, until Magolor has enough and throws some rune that destroys Kirby's Fire ability right there and then.
That's when Sweetie Belle falls right on the crown, Magolor not seeing her coming because of the fire covering his vision.
"What?!"
Quickly, Sweetie Belle clings to the crown and touches it with her horn, and immediately, her body is filled by an energy beyond anything she can think of, so powerful that her body glows in every color, and wings made of pure energy appear on her back. She can also feel...
...That Magolor doesn't control the full power of the crown. He's barely using half of it.
And this crown is corrupted. They MUST destroy it!
She's grabbed and thrown away by Magolor, the wizard filled with anger, the crown on his head glowing like never before as a second star-shield appears on the first one, this one inverted, creating a ten-branched star.
She must be quick, she can already feel the power of the crown leaving her little by little.
She raises a hoof, and forms a sun-like fireball above it before throwing it at Magolor, only for him to teleport. With one swing of her hoof, the fireball changes trajectory, and seeing where Magolor reappears, points her hoof at him, and the fireball strikes his shield, breaking one of the branches of the shield.
"Curse!" he screams before he throws the same rune as earlier to destroy the power in her, but she spins on herself, creating a tornado like Magolor has done earlier, but more powerful with razor sharp wind going at hundreds of miles per hour, enough to destroy the rune before she throws the tornado at Magolor, destroying a second branch.
He raises his hands, and hundreds of black orbs appear behind him before he throws them at the filly like a wall of death, only for the filly to counter by creating a giant wave of water that destroys every single orbs as well as another branch of the shield.
Magolor then creates a field of puddles, but one flap of Sweetie's wings is enough to get her out of range of the forming spikes before she unleashes a real column made of lightning on him, destroying a fourth branch.
Next, Magolor opens a black hole, only for Sweetie to plug it with a giant ball of ice like Kirby did to the volcano earlier before she creates a golem of ice and makes him punch the shield, destroying a fifth branch.
Magolor now fires a giant laser. Sweetie easily dodges it, preparing her own beam, only to see a portal open at her right, Magolor's laser coming out of it. She fires her own giant beam at it, and her beam destroys Magolor's laser before passing the portal and hitting Magolor. Six down, four to go.
A couple dozens portals open around her, and Magolor sends his fist through two more portals. No way to know from which portals the fists will come, so Sweetie Belle covers herself in stone, tripling her size at the same occasion, turning into a giant stone version of herself, and when Magolor's fists come out, they are not powerful enough to destroy the thick stone covering her. Still as a stone golem of herself, she then jumps and turns into a giant boulder, striking Magolor's shield. Only three left.
Magolor starts teleporting around without stopping, attacking her from all directions with his black orbs, but she unleashes a storm of cutter blades all around her, destroys all the orbs, and is able to hit Magolor despite his teleporting. Two left.
But Magolor continues teleporting around her, this time attacking with his fire blasts. Sweetie smirks, and starts spinning on herself, a giant hammer appearing in both her front hooves, one of them ramming Magolor from behind, and she quickly closes the other on him, crushing him between the two hammers. One last time! And it even hurt Magolor!
Magolor then teleports away, breathing heavily.
"I-impossible..." he says, seeing Sweetie Belle raises her whip, which is covered in energy until it becomes absolutely huge, before she cracks it toward him, destroying his last shield. He teleports, and appears just in front of the filly, grabbing her neck before shocking her with electricity. "DIE!"
Despite the pain, Sweetie opens her eyes and smirks. Gathering the energy of the crown remaining in her, turning back to normal, she creates an orb from her horn that she throws at Magolor, only for him to slap it away with his other hand. "No. Die," she then says.
From the direction Magolor has slapped away the orb, he hears the sound of someone inhaling something. Looking in this direction, he sees Kirby jumping toward him, a giant sword raised, ready to strike. Magolor quickly drops Sweetie Belle and places his hands on the way of the sword, trying to repel it as Kirby brings it down on him, engaging the two of them in a violent deadlock, the crown on Magolor's head glowing like the sun as the dimension around them starts shaking.
SLASH!
Kirby breaks Magolor's defense and cuts him. But Kirby doesn't stops there, and to be sure that Magolor is defeated, he strikes the wizard a few more times, finishing by growing his sword even bigger before cutting vertically. Magolor then yells in pain as his body starts exploding, intense energy escaping him, to the point that the whole area is plunged in light.
And everything becomes silent.
...
...
"Did we-"
Boom!
With the sound of an explosion, a silhouette appears in the light for a brief moment. It seemed to be the Master Crown but... different.
Boom boom!
The silhouette appears again, and dark energy comes out of it, turning the light into black light before absorbing it, letting everyone see the disturbing new form of the Master Crown, looking like a claw as the energy is gathering under it, forming a mass of gaseous looking energy. Then the crown glows brightly, and the energy takes form, looking like a floating ball with two big ram-like horns, surrounded by tentacle-like protrusions of the crown. Two wings of the same blue and red gas as Magolor's body then appear behind it, followed by two red oval eyes at the front, and finally, an empty, white, grinning mouth appear under them, along with the two floating hands, the tips of the fingers now black. Disturbingly, a droplet of his upper lip is dripping over his mouth and connects into his lower lip.
This is Magolor but...
Sweetie gulps. "M... Magolor?"
ROAAAAAAAAAR!!!
With a big roar, Magolor(?) claps his hands, creating the rune that destroys Kirby's Super Ability. Immediately after, he creates many star-shaped portals above the heroes who quickly run away as the space inside the portals solidify before forming large spikes.
"Okay then. We have to kill Magolor a second time. As if fighting him once wasn't enough," says Dedede.
"The crown revived him," says Meta Knight. "But... I don't think it's Magolor anymore. That roar..."
"He has become a monster!" shouts Bandana Dee.
"No..." says Sweetie Belle. She looks at the tentacle-like protrusion surrounding Magolor, then at the glowing crown. The glow grows in intensity as countless black orbs appear around the party. They all gather back to back in a circle, and start twirling their respective weapons to destroy many of the projectiles coming from all directions, except Kirby who inhales them. Once all the orbs are destroyed, Kirby jumps and spits a giant projectile at Magolor, hitting him violently. But then before their eyes, the crown glows again, and Magolor's injuries heal in just one second. Sweetie grits her teeth. "He has become the crown's puppet. This is not Magolor anymore that we fight, but the crown itself." She points at the crown. "We must destroy it! Everyone target the crown!"
"That's my second in command!" shouts proudly Dedede. His smile quickly disappears. "But this won't be easy..." he says as Magolor disappears inside a portal. Another portal opens beside Sweetie Belle, and out of it comes Magolor body slamming her before he disappears into another portal and comes out above Kirby who is not able to avoid him despite running as fast as he can. As Magolor flies back up, Meta Knight flies toward the crown to attack it, but Magolor teleports just before he's able to strike it, before he reappears just behind and fires a laser at close range that Meta Knight isn't able to avoid in time, heavily burning him.
Magolor then teleports between Dedede and Bandana Dee, and as the two of them jump to attack the crown, Magolor teleports away, creating before that a black hole that would have mean their doom if Sweetie hadn't slammed them with her shields to project them away from it. The area around the party is then surrounded by a barrier of darkness, and as Dedede and Bandana Dee go up after crashing after being slammed, they look up and see Magolor drawing with his fingers a giant star using white ink.
"Hey! Look up!" screams the penguin.
They all look up in time to see Magolor fill the star with more darkness, and they all understand what he's about to do before they start running toward parts of the area that aren't directly under the star. Magolor then throws the star that hits the ground, failing to hit anyone.
As the darkness disappears, Sweetie counters by firing beams after beams at the crown, and Magolor flies around to avoid them while firing back his black orbs. Some of the beams hit Magolor, but the crown easily heals all the injuries. At the same time, Kirby inhales the black orbs, waits for Magolor to stop flying around, and spits a projectile, targeting the crown, but Magolor just places a hand in the way, blocking the projectile before crushing it between his fingers.
That's when one of Sweetie's beams hit the crown, causing Magolor to roar. He turns toward her, staring at her.
Tears start flowing from his right eye.
Seeing this, Sweetie frowns.
She takes a big breath.
"You have tried to become the one, ultimate master of all.
You have attempted to bring everything under your control.
You have been ready to achieve everything to reach your goal.
To betray friends for it..."
As Sweetie starts singing, she is enveloped in an aura, exactly like in her fight against Kirby. All this time, she doesn't stop staring at Magolor, looking at the tears.
"It's about time she does this..." grumbles Dedede.
As she starts creating many elemental weapons around her, Sweetie Belle continues singing.
"You made of us your puppets so we could obtain this crown for you."
She throws the weapons one after another while her friends charge at Magolor. He teleports, avoiding the assault, and appears behind Sweetie Belle, ready to fire another laser. She turns around to look at him.
"You have gotten this crown so the whole universe would bow to you."
Rather than trying to avoid the laser, she throws a dozen sword at Magolor's face, making sure to reach the eyes, until his face is nothing more than a pincushion, hurting him so much that it gets him to miss, the laser fired just above the filly who then jumps and throws a Force Blast at the crown, making it crack a little and causing Magolor to float back, only to get attacked by Meta Knight, then Bandana Dee, and finally Dedede, damaging the crown a little more. Sweetie then shoots a fireball beside Kirby, causing an orange star to appear. Kirby inhales the orange star, and gains the Fire ability again thanks to it.
"But now just look at what, as a consequence, has become of you:"
With a roar, Magolor gets rid of all the sword in his face, and the injuries heal. Now able to see again, he looks back at Sweetie Belle, only to see that she has formed a small wall of ice, where he can see his reflection, which immobilizes him.
Tears starts flowing from the other eye.
"Just a crowned puppet."
Sweetie punches the wall, and it explodes into many shards of ice that impale Magolor, some of the shards hitting the crown, and Kirby takes the occasion to ram the crown like a comet, and the others follow in attacking the crown until Magolor teleports away. Far enough, he raises his hands, creating the small star-shaped that morph into spikes everywhere above the battlefield, leaving no space to run and hide.
Sweetie Belle takes Yin and Yarn.
"And you will discover that it was for nothing"
With the knitting needles, she quickly knits some kind of shield made of yarn as the others run toward her, understanding that she's preparing something to save all of them. Then, her horn glows as she touches the shield with her hoof, and it turns into metal just before the spikes come out, the new metal shield hard enough to protect them.
"Woah, good job," say both Yin and Yarn, impressed.
"Because against our friendship this crown is nothing!
With her magic, she places the metal shield in front of her, and hits it strongly with his hammer, proping the shield toward Magolor with Sweetie and the other clinging to it. As the shield slams on his head, they jump, and as Magolor is stunned, they attack the crown before running away as Magolor surrounds himself with the spike-portals to protect himself. That's at this moment that Dedede, who has jumped to catch the shield before putting it under him, uses it to pass the spikes and slam it violently on the crown.
With a roar, Magolor takes the shield as Dedede jumps away and crushes it between his hands, the damaged crown starting to glow more and more as a huge quantity of energy is starting to escape it. The heroes can only watch as Magolor is engulfed in light.
"What now...?" asks Dedede, sweating.
"No matter what this cursed crown, against us all, will bring
We will stand and continue, not giving up, fighting"
The dimension starts shaking again before the incredible power shown by the crown as the light disappears, letting the heroes see that Magolor has yet again taken a new appearance, much more terrifying than the previous one. More dark colored, fully black hands with jagged fingers, dark cyan torned-like wings, empty white eyes... The Master Crown still looks like a claw on his head, but the main body of it looks now like an eye, with what looks like deranged eyelashes at the top, two pairs of horns at the sides, the first bull-like while the second curls at the end, and two more extensions have appeared at the top of the wings. Those extensions, along with the ones around Magolor's horns, now possess black spikes, and the crown itself is now ivory colored. And the most disturbing of all...
Magolor's grinning mouth has turned into a frowning eye with a red iris. With the two small white eyes above, it's now impossible to say if he's smiling, or looking angrily at them.
And the power he releases is beyond anything Sweetie Belle has ever encountered. She can feel it right into her soul.
And the tears have disappeared...
She gulps.
"To... the... end!"
Magolor... No. It's not right anymore to call that thing Magolor.
The Master Crown roars, releasing energy like a sun releases light, before he slams his hands on the ground, freezing the whole area, almost making Bandana Dee fall, not prepared to walk on ice. The Master Crown then raises suddenly his hands, and big spikes of ice come out randomly of the frozen ground, hitting this way Dedede and Kirby, knocking the Fire ability out of the puffball who quickly recovers it after recovering from the hit.
The Master Crown then does circles above him with his hands, and a giant sun-like fireball appears above him before he punches it, breaking the ball into dozens of smaller fireballs, still really big, making them rain on the battlefield in front of him.
The party dodges the fireballs as best as it can, easier to avoid than the ice spikes, and Kirby screams "Poyo!!!" as he waves at the others before running toward the monster. The Master crown raises his hands again, and a giant hammer appears in them, ready to crush the very small pink ball compared to it.
Sweetie Belle grit her teeth, takes her whip, and turns toward Dedede. "Ready your hammer!"
Before Dedede can say anything in return to voice his confusion, Sweetie Belle wraps her whip around him and start spinning.
"You think you are frightening us with your overwhelming power?"
The glowing aura disappears from Sweetie Belle only for another one to appear around Dedede, to his surprise as he can feel himself becoming stronger. Sweetie Belle then throws him toward the Master Crown as the giant hammer starts to come down on Kirby.
"You think that you will crush us and that we are living our last hour?"
Understanding what he must do, even if he's not certain, Dedede readies his hammer, and when he reaches the giant one, bring it up with all the strength he could muster, and hits the giant hammer from below. The force of the giant hammer brings Dedede back on the ground beside Kirby, but the penguin is able to hold it, and Kirby successfully passes before attacking the crown with his fireball charge. With Kirby safe, Dedede quickly jumps back, letting the giant hammer smash the ground in front of him. Meta Knight then takes him away just before he's hit by the shockwaves created by the shock which destroy the spikes of ice on the ground.
"You think that you are surpassing us and we are gonna cower?
You have to think again."
The Master Crown roars, teleports a few times, then fires a giant black laser at Dedede and Meta Knight who are able to dodge it. The laser disappears into a portal, and comes out from another elsewhere, only to disappear again in another portal. As this continues, the Master Crown fires a second laser inside a portal, making a total of two lasers that are randomly entering and exiting portals and that the party has to watch out.
"Power means not much if this is everything that you possess."
The Master Crown then forms a sphere of energy around his body and enters a portal, forcing the heroes to dodge him at the same time as the lasers.
"Knowing how to use it is the better way for this fight's success."
The glowing aura disappears from Dedede, and appears around Bandana Dee as he jumps to avoid the Master Crown charging at him. With his boosted strength, he throws his spear down and impales the puppet, immobilizing him on the ground in a earth-shaking impact and causing the energy around him and the lasers to disappear. Everyone takes this occasion to attack the crown before he teleports away, letting Bandana Dee recovers his spear.
"As you can see, despite your massive power, you are in distress.
You are fighting in vain!"
The Master Crown roars, and a giant sword made of ice appear in his right hand before he charges toward the heroes, ready to swing it. Meta Knight flies toward him.
"You are understanding that it is for nothing,"
The glowing aura appears around Meta Knight just has both him and the Master Crown swing their swords, locking the two of them in a violent clash. But then, the Master Crown raises his other hand and invokes a great fiery dragon that immediately flies above Meta Knight toward the others like a flying snake.
"Because against our team your power is nothing."
The glowing aura now appears around Kirby as he jumps, spins, and charges toward the dragon enveloping himself in fire until becoming a fireball double its normal size. He passes through the dragon, destroying it and even absorbing some of its fire, growing even bigger as he continues his charge toward the Master Crown who punches Meta Knight away. The giant Kirby fireball rams the Master Crown, dragging him for several feet in the air.
At the same time, Sweetie Belle is flying above them on a platform.
"Be ready
Because your end is coming!"
She charges a beam with her horn as the glowing aura reappears around her.
"Be ready
Because you will lose your strings!"
She fires it at the crown as Kirby's charge is stopping, and the beam hits it right in the ruby at the center, heavily damaging it.
The Master Crown raises his hands, giving the most powerful, deafening roar that it can do. What seems to be unlimited energy is escaping him, the whole dimension is shaking more and more, cracks appear in its very fabric, and the crown starts discharging all its fury under the form of a real hurricane of devastating, uncontrolled attacks. The most powerful, deadliest tornado surround him, countless black balls, fireballs, ice shards, lightning bolts, lasers, and all other kinds of projectiles are expelled all around without stopping, spikes, now looking like brambles, pop randomly everywhere as well as black holes, the gaseous ground is opening...
And the cracks on the crown are expending more and more.
As the party tries to dodge the literal apocalypse, they all charge toward the crown, taking many hits, but continuing despite everything.
"We will triumph and return back to Popstar
And nothing of what you are..."
The glowing aura appears simultaneously on the five heroes who each ready their attack as they pass the storm of attacks of the crown and are reaching it.
"Will be left to bring suffering to someone."
They hit.
"So it is time for you piece of junk to begone!"
The Master Crown explodes in a big explosion of energy, and Magolor's body is enveloped in a blue gaseous fire as he starts to move and yell in pain, becoming smaller, losing form, until the fire disappears, revealing Magolor back in his normal appearance... crying.
And he disappears in a shaft of light.
But this doesn't stop the dimension from shaking and breaking. On the contrary, the intense discharge of energy at the moment of the destruction of the crown has made it worse. Already, the dreaded erasing purple space is appearing here and there, and the ground disappears under the heroes who start falling toward the void. Meta Knight quickly uses his wings to stop his fall, but the others are slower.
But before they can stop their fall, the injured Landias, followed by the Lor Starcutter back to normal but still slightly damaged, come from the shattering space and catch each party members, Sweetie Belle falling on the bow of the spaceship. She looks in wonder as the emblem of the Lor shoots a beam which creates a portal that they all pass just before the purple space reaches them.
And, exhausted beyond her limits, she loses consciousness.
The ponies sigh in relief as Sweetie Belle and her friends pass the portal.
"Too close... Much too close..." says weakly Rarity.
"Remember. I'm here to avoid the worst from happening," reminds Discord.
"In the action, I keep forgetting..."
"Is... Magolor dead?" asks Fluttershy.
"Hard to say," answers Discord. "Him disappearing in light can mean anything."
"Wait. The Lor is flying with the dragons... But who's piloting it?" asks Twilight.
"Mmh?" Discord raises an eyebrow before he snaps his fingers. The portal changes from showing the dragons depositing everyone to the inside of the Lor Starcutter, only to show that nobody is there. "Curious."
"Remember what Magolor said," says Celestia. "This ship apparently possesses a mind of its own. Maybe it refused to show itself to Magolor, but now that he's not here anymore, it has decided to come out."
"That's incredible!" shouts Twilight in awe. "Now I'm really glad that it hasn't been destroyed in the fight. It would have been horrible to lose such a technological wonder."
"And maybe thanks to this ship, Sweetie Belle will be able to come home without the need of Discord," says Rainbow Dash.
With another snap of his fingers, Discord shows back Sweetie Belle and the others. "It seems like this is not in the Lor's intentions," points out Discord as the ship opens a portal, and it flies through it with the four dragons.
"What?" shouts Rainbow. She flies to the window-portal and yells "Hey! Why are you leaving?! Come back! You could become Sweetie Belle's spaceship!"
"Maybe it wants to return home, or maybe it has something to do elsewhere," proposes Pinkie. "But I'm sure we will see it again. It seems to like Sweetie Belle."
"How can you say?" asks Starlight.
"Why would the Lor save specifically Sweetie Belle?"
"Because she was the only one that the dragons hadn't caught?"
"And why have the Landias let it save her?"
"Because there were only four Landias for five beings and they couldn't save everypony? And that they choose to save the others, but one of them could have saved Sweetie Belle instead?"
"No. I'm sure that there's a reason for the Lor saving Sweetie Belle! And now, I must go to start preparing a 'Sweetie Belle saved the Dream Universe and will have a spaceship' party!" And on this, she bounces out of the room.
"She's not waiting to see if something else happen?" asks Apple Bloom.
Discord looks at the portal. "Mmh... The heroes are walking toward the castle for a well deserved rest. I don't think there's more to see. Ahahah. Sweetie Belle is already resting on 3D's back. That Soul Song must have drained her."
"Especially boosting the five of them at the same time," says Luna.
"Being able to do this... She is becoming so powerful," comments Celestia. "I think she would be able to defeat you in a duel, Luna."
"No way! I am still much stronger than her!"
"At this rate, not for long."
Luna huffs. "Once she returns, we will see."
"Ooooh! I'll have to prepare the popcorn!" says Discord in glee. "Oh! And when you lose, Lulu, you'll have to put a shirt with written on it 'A filly kicked my flank' for a whole day."