A Sweetie Dream Land

by Lucar


Chapter 81: Yellow Dunes

After a small run on the rainbow rope, the heroes reach the second world: Yellow Dunes, a desert world with some ruins. Desertic areas with ruins are nothing new for them, so they expect to quickly finish this world and pass to the next. The only problem is that they have to find the guardian and destroy the seal it protects, and the guardian can be anywhere, so the time passed in this world will depend on their luck, not of the difficulty.

The exploration is rather uneventful at first, simply consisting of walking in the desert under the hot sun like always, but they eventually find a cannon that propels them in some underground ruins.

"Question!" suddenly shouts Sweetie Belle as she rises a hoof like in school. "Should we expect traps? Ruins are generally full of traps."

"Me and Claycia only put some harmless traps for the fun," answers Elline, before sighing. "But I wouldn't be surprised if Claycia placed some harmful ones..."

"So we must be ready for anything," says Bandana.

While they talk, Kirby approaches some clay in the floor that can be dug in, seeing that it's the only way to continue, only to almost get drilled by a Cotta fused with a drill coming from more clay in the ceiling. He jumps back to avoid him, then looks at him as he starts drilling the clay blocking the way and gets an idea. He quickly grabs the Cotta by the head (the jar), before using him like a drill to dig through the clay and open the way. As he starts, he waves at the others with a "Poyo!" to gain their attention.

"Hey! Smart!" comments Bandana.

Thanks to the Drill Cotta, the party easily pass its way through the many clay blocking the way, but they still have to watch out the other Drill Cottas coming from below and above as they pass. Not long after, they find a locked trapdoor, forcing them to continue further to find the key, hidden in a dead end full of clay that they have to dig through.

Opening the trapdoor lets them go deeper into the ruins, where they encounter clay versions of those living block-things trying to crush them that Sweetie and Kirby had first seen in the Popopo Islands which are actually named Grindarrs. Thankfully, those ones doesn't possess chains like the ones in the Popopo Islands, so when they fall, they can't go back up. So, to get rid of them, all they have to do is to destroy the floor under them and to let them fall, when it's possible. A Grindarr falling through the clay in the ceiling lets a hole from which a cannon comes, and the heroes us it to propel themselves back up a little.

They end in a room where they have another encounter with a Hand that tries to ambush them, only to get a violent smackdown from Kirby using the Drill Cotta to almost pierce its eye. With the Hand gone, they dig through more clay, and destroy a bomb block to let a Mega Grindarr open the way for them before they enter a succession of not paint zones. Here, they have to take two opposite paths to find two key and open two locked doors so they can reach another bomb block and destroy again the ground under the Mega Grindarr and open the way again. They jump after it, and have to destroy more bombs so it can continue to fall, so they can continue following the path that it blocks constantly, before they finally reach the end of this section and can continue without the Mega Gringarr.

After passing a black door, they appear in a place where they are surrounded by clay, and big Drill Cottas dig from above to drill them without leaving any space to escape. To avoid having to run away, Sweetie Belle eliminates them with energy beams, and they can continue digging in peace. A succession of cannons further down propels them through more rooms filled with clay, until they are expelled out of the ruins without finding any seal.

Not giving up, Kirby dropping the Drill Cotta, they continue exploring the desert, however, the number of enemies getting in the way suddenly climbs more and more.

"Seems like Claycia decided to get more serious," says Bandana.

Annoyed, Elline says "If only I had an easel! I could do something to help with all those enemies!"

"Really?" asks Sweetie Belle before she makes an easel appear beside her. "For you!"

Elline gasps. "You can materialize easels? Does this mean that you know how to give life to what you paint?"

The filly smiles. "Yes! Thanks to a friend named Adeleine, I learned this magic!"

"IIIIHH!!! Oh my gosh! So there are users of the Life Giving Artist Magic in Popstar?! I thought they had all disappeared and I was the last one!"

"Then I will present you to Adeleine once this is over. She wants to start a school to teach this magic, and she would love your help." She looks at the easel. "So, what will you do with it?"

"Oh, right! Let me do, you will see."

At this, Elline takes her paintbrush form, and in just one swing, she paints a tank on the canvas of the easel. Then, with another swing, she transfers the paint from the canvas to Kirby, turning his legs into orange tracks while a red cannon comes out of his mouth.

"And I present to you... Kirby Tank!"

Excited, Kirby fires a few bullets from his mouth cannon.

With a gasp, Bandana shouts "Do me! Do me! Please!"

Two swings later, and the Waddle Dee is also turned into a tank, also with orange tracks and a red cannon, but his spear disappears. Excited, he does like Kirby while rolling around.

"What about you Sweetie Belle?" asks Elline.

The filly looks at her two friends turned tanks in thought before smiling. "Alright. Why not. I don't need to be turned into a tank, but this may be fun."

And so, two swings later, Sweetie Belle is turned into a tank too with her clothes adapting to this new form, making the tracks golden, and since her body isn't round, she has the advantage to have a head that can be used like the turret of a real tank to better target the enemies.

The three friends turned tanks look at each other, and with a nod and some laughs, they start rolling in the desert, facing the many waves of enemies coming at them only to get destroyed, because there's no way for them to survive against three tanks.


"Can somepony pinch me? I must be dreaming," asks Twilight.

Spikes pinches her, painfully proving to her that she isn't dreaming.

"Well darn... That there fairy is more dangerous than we thought," comments Applejack. "You imagine if she was a bad guy? She would just have to turn her minions into those tank thingies, and we would all be in trouble."

"Not me," says Discord.

It's at this moment that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo enter the room.

"Oh, finally we found them!" shouts Scootaloo.

"Hey Scoot! Took your time!" says Rainbow.

"We didn't know in which room your were! We searched through at least half the castle!"

"Oops, maybe I should have put some signs," says Discord.

The two fillies sigh before placing their saddlebags beside the door.

"So, what's going on?" asks Apple bloom as they approach them.

"Woah! Is that Sweetie Belle?!" shouts Scootaloo upon seeing her friend through the portal.

"What happened to her?" asks Apple Bloom.

"Yeah! How did she take this awesome form?!"

"You see that paintbrush fairy?" asks Discord as he points at Elline. "She's the one that turned our sweet filly into a sweet tank."

They look at him blankly, their brain seemingly shutting down.

"Boy... They barely arrived, and they're already broken."

"How..." then starts Apple Bloom. "How could a fairy paintbrush turn somepony into a tank? It makes even less sense than the rest of this universe!"

"That's exactly what I was asking myself just before you came..." says dejectedly Twilight.

"Maybe you should simply stop thinking about the 'How?' or 'Why?' and accept it," advises Starlight. "Isn't this what you do with Pinkie? Why not do it with this universe?"

"I try, Starlight..., I try... But each time that I seem to get used to the craziness of this universe, something happens to make it even more crazy. And I thought that I was done with Kirby using that fish to cut a volcano!"

Then, before their eyes, as a particularly big wave of enemies come at them, Kirby suddenly becomes taller, his mouth filling with eight cannons while four more cannons and two rocket launchers appear at his sides. Nothing remains of the wave of enemies after his passage. However, Kirby quickly returns to his previous appearance, seemingly a little tired. Seeing what he has done, Sweetie Belle and Bandana Dee are able to do the same, turning into real war machines spreading death and destruction where they pass.

Twilight looks blankly at the portal, eye twitching, until she hears the distinctive sound of something being cooked in a pan. Looking up, she sees that a pan is placed just above her head, an egg cooking in it.

"Somepony wants an omelet?" asks Discord.

The next instant, he's hit on the head by the pan.


As they approach some ruins that look different from the others, more futuristic, Elline decides to give the heroes back to their normal appearance, judging that this tank form will not be adapted to explore them.

She has judged well.

Inside those ruins, they have to avoid lasers and watch out for the green slime hindering them, and they even encounter a Blado.

As they climb a room full of those lasers, Elline says "We never wanted to do futuristic ruins full of lasers in this world! We just wanted simple ruins fun to explore! Whatever possessed her is twisting our creations! Ooh... What has she done to the other worlds?

"We will see soon enough..." replies Sweetie Belle before they pass a black door at the top of the room.

In the following hallway, brick walls collapse on them, forcing them to run until they enter a room where the exit is locked, with the key floating just above. As they get near it, the key suddenly grows in size, a malicious grin appearing in it as it starts to fly around the room, avoiding them. Not wanting to play cat and mouse with a key, Sweetie Belle simply uses her magic to catch it and bring it to them, where the three of them punch it until it returns to its previous form, letting them use it to open the door.. After passing a round room with two more Blados, they pass a black door, and appear in a room with three weird smiling faces on the wall, one of them glowing.

Jumping in front of them causes them to glow or stop glowing, and when the three faces glow, a trap door opens, and they continue down. After a small cannon, they arrive in a room missing a wall, letting them see the exterior, and again, a Hand tries to ambush them, only to fly away with a couple dozens bumps, cuts, and burns. Sweetie can swear she has heard it whimper.

Why do those hands still try to capture Elline?

They find a black door behind some clay just after, and appear in a room where they find themselves face to face against a giant mechanised Cotta. But despite its slightly more threatening appearance, it isn't a problem to fight. It's very slow, and doesn't possess any weapons or attacks. All it does is charging at them at the speed of a snail.

So in less than ten seconds, it's turned into a pile of scraps.

Passing another black door the heroes pass a series of lasers, then climb a few levels while avoiding collapsing walls before exiting the ruins.

"Really? Those ruins were the perfect place for the seal! How could it not be here?" asks Bandana.

"Maybe it was too obvious?" proposes Sweetie.

"Poyo!" shouts Kirby before pointing at a nearby ruin that look less grand.

They all nod, and enter the designed ruin. Inside, they have to dig their way through clay before reaching a black door. They enter a room without any exit, and without anything actually. They sigh.

"Another bust," says Bandana.

But then, one of the designs in the wall starts shaking before coming out of it, changing color to become brown with yellow rims. Whatever has come out of the wall is some kind of floating ball with two squinting eyes surrounded by four armored plates, including a metallic one. Between the plates, four blue cones come out, and the thing stares at them.

"Or not," continues Bandana.

The ball's plates and cones start rotating while it starts slowly bouncing around the room, and the cones suddenly start firing lasers.

They are so painfully easy to avoid...

"Come on. Even the attacks of Clay Whispy were harder to dodge," says Sweetie Belle. An easel appear beside her, and she paints a Birdon on it. When the Birdon comes to life, she grabs it and throws it at Kirby. Understanding, Kirby inhales the painted bird, and gains the Wing ability.

The three heroes then start flying or air-jumping around the ball, and quickly destroy a first plate, revealing that it is actually a robot. With the destruction of one of its plates, the robot gets angry and somehow grows bigger, but this doesn't pose problems for Sweetie and the others who easily destroy a second plate.

The robot, in return, grows even bigger, starting to take more place in the room, and suddenly, it surrounds itself in electricity like the Mecha Kracko from Doc, which actually surprises Bandana and gets him to be shocked. But this doesn't stop Sweetie and Kirby to attack from a distance and destroy a third plate, leaving only the metallic one.

The robot grows again bigger, now taking half of the room, and surrounds itself in electricity again. It would be problematic, if it was faster. Sweetie Belle gets Bandana on her back, and they can easily fly around the robot as it bounces from wall to wall. When the metal plate pass in front of her, Sweetie Belle charges a big energy beam, and fires, destroying it.

With its four plates destroyed, the robot explodes, dropping the seal that Bandana destroys.

"If this continues like that, we will be back at home for dinner," comments Bandana.

"You forget that nobody is moving anymore. They aren't preparing dinner," replies Sweetie.

"Drat..."

"But if we finish early enough, they could have time to prepare for it."

"But we still have five worlds to explore," says Elline. "Don't you think it's a little early to talk about this?"

"Right. Who knows. The next world could surprise us," says Sweetie Belle.