//------------------------------// // Chapter 94: Star Dream // Story: A Sweetie Dream Land // by Lucar //------------------------------// The emotional roller coaster has been hard for the ponies since Sweetie Belle and Kirby entered Haltmann's office. Horror at seeing what happened to Meta Knight, excitement, hope, and fear during the fight against Haltmann's armor, also disbelief at the idea of someone firing money to hinder their enemy, especially bills worth 100 000 bits! Horror at seeing what happened to Haltmann after that, at Star Dream's ambition and at hearing Susie's story, quickly followed by great sadness at understanding that Haltmann was innocent, like Sectonia, and that he was just a father who wanted to see his lost daughter again. Sadness that quickly left place to amazement and more excitement when Sweetie and Kirby used their armors to take control of the Warhammer and the Halberd before giving chase to Star Dream. And now, while some of the ponies still have some tears in their eyes, others can barely remain in place with the idea that they're about to see a space battle between two battleships and a powerful robot. And also, Sweetie piloting a battleship? As Rainbow Dash is repeating since the Fusion, "This is so awesome!" To have a better point of view of the future battle, Discord has placed the portal behind the two battleships, which are now side by side, making sure that they can see the both of them. He has also added smaller portals around it showing Sweetie Belle, Kirby, and the most important members of the crews like Dedede, Meta Knight, Bandana Dee, Captain Vul, Cape Knight, and Sailor Waddle Dees. A link has been formed between the Warhammer and the Halberd, giving both crews the possibilities to communicate between each other. Once everyone among the crews calms down after the surprise move of the two heroes, Dedede eventually shouts, "You could have at least warned us!" "Didn't get the occasion," replies Sweetie Belle with a giggle. "In the end, it seems better this way," says Meta Knight. "The ships seem to have gained more agility." "And I still can use my powers with the Warhammer! I will be able to fire all kinds of projectiles from both the cannons and the horn! Star Dream will have no chance!" "Wait..." says Vul before he looks at Kirby through a screen. "You can do that with your armor, right?" Kirby rubs his head, sweat dropping. "Poyo..." "He can't unless his armor scans someone that can give him an ability, like he did to the Halberd. And it seems he can only have one ability at once, so since he's already in Halberd Mode, don't expect him to shoot fireballs from the cannons," says Sweetie belle. Growling, Vul says, "This doesn't mean anything, Dedede! You may have the superior battleship for now, but we have the superior pilot!" Dedede laughs. "Keep telling yourself that." "Please, can the two of you calm down? We have a crazy machine to destroy, no time for that silly competition between our two armies," says Cape Knight. Sweetie nods. "Cape Knight is right. Against Star Dream, we will need to all work together. It is a corrupted prototype of a Clockwork Star, and this means that it possesses powers great enough to be able to grant wishes. And now, with Haltmann's mind fused with it, it gained sapience, and it wants to use its powers to kill everyone for the eternal prosperity of the Haltmann Work Company." "So this means that we can't lose. Losing would mean the death of everyone on Popstar," says Meta Knight. "Not only Popstar, but the whole universe, I guess. Star Dream talked about studying many lifeforms in the universe, and judging them as bad. I fear that if we lose, it will target everyone in the universe. And with its powers, it can do it." "Sweetie's right," says Bandana Dee. "We must work together to avoid that!" "You heard that guys? Everyone at their posts! Ready the cannons! Time for the Meta Knights to save the universe!" shouts Vul. "Same for all of you, soldiers! Let's show them the power of Dedede and his army!" shouts Dedede. "Star Dream in sight!" shouts someone. "Oh, here we go," says Discord, rubbing his hands in anticipation. The two battleships catch up to Star Dream as it flies in space above Popstar, the lands and oceans still visible. As they approach behind it, the computer turns around to face them, before it deploys its wings, blue, glass-like shards appearing along them to form feathers. Then, Star Dream spins its wings, and it suddenly starts growing in size until it becomes even bigger than the battleships! Meanwhile, one by one, the cannons of the Warhammer and of the Halberd face the machine, ready to fire, everybody focusing, not even letting the robot's change of size get to them. And as Star Dream roars at them, both Dedede and Vul yell "Fire!" Every cannons of both ships start firing at Star Dream, Sweetie Belle and Kirby also pressing a button to make a powerful frontal cannon fire. Moving around to avoid as much projectiles as possible, Star Dream spins it wings again, and dozens of small portals suddenly appear in a straight line, each from which come many lasers targeting the two battleships. "Wah! Do a barrel roll!" shouts Sailor Waddle Dee. "What? Wah!" Doing aileron rolls, Kirby and Sweetie Belle are able to move the battleships away from the barrage of lasers. Vul slaps the Waddle Dee on the back of the head. "You idiot! We call that an aileron roll! Next time, think before talking, or you will get ourselves killed!" "But... But the video game, it said..." "Video games can make errors! Don't take them for granted! Now, focus back on the fight!" While they talked, Star Dream has continued opening more portals in different patterns, raining lasers on the battleship without stopping moving to evade the projectiles fired at it. Not stopping moving the ships and doing aileron rolls to evade the lasers too, Sweetie Belle and Kirby continue firing at the computer, the filly even adding lightning bolts to the projectiles she fires. Of course, Star Dream hasn't grown in size just to impress. While it makes it easier to hit it, in return, it has greatly improved its resistance, so despite the many projectiles it has taken, it has barely taken any damage. However, the lightning bolts are very effective, no matter its size. Star Dream eventually stops opening portals, and instead, it fires a dozen missiles that are the size of the battleships and that home in on them! "Homing missiles!" shouts Sailor Waddle Dee. "Quick! Everyone fires at them!" shouts Dedede. Trusting in their friends, Sweetie Belle and Kirby continue firing at Star Dream while all the other cannons target the missiles. Each missiles are able to resist for a couple of seconds before they are destroyed. Strangely enough, while targeting Star Dream, the cursor on Sweetie's screen also lands on the parts of one of the missiles, and in a flash of light, the parts are absorbed! Looking in wonder at this, Sweetie moves the cursor around, absorbing more missile parts, realising that it causes a gauge to fill beside a big red button with "Planet Buster" written above it. Despite the gauge only being half filled, she still press the red button, and it causes the main cannon she uses to fire giant star projectiles that hit Star Dream strongly. "What was that?" asks Dedede. As she avoids more lasers fired by Star Dreams, she answers, "Our new weapon: the Planet Buster. Kirby, do you have a big red button with 'Planet Buster' written above?" "Poyo!" Star Dream suddenly opens at least one hundred heart-shaped portals, each of which comes an invader armor that immediately charge at the battleships, and the cannons quickly start firing at them. "Quick, Kirby! Move your cursor around to absorb the parts of those armors! You will understand from there!" "Poyo!" Kirby does as she told, and together, they are able to absorb a great number of parts of the destroyed armor as the space around the battleships is turned into a field of wreckage. The small size of the armor doesn't fill the gauges much, but their number makes up for it. But some of the armors still manage to pass the barrage of projectiles from the cannons to destroy themselves against the battleships like kamikazes, causing some small damage, but not enough to cause any problems. When the last armor is destroyed, the heart formed by Star Dream's pink lights opens, revealing a cannon firing two dozen heart-shaped... they aren't sure what, but it's certainly bad news, so the cannons immediately target them and are able to destroy a little over half of them before the remaining reach one by one level of the battleships. Almost as soon as a heart reaches it, it suddenly explodes in a straight burst, the burst going in the same direction as the bottom of the heart, and also the opposite. The first one takes them by surprise, but thankfully just grazes one of the Halberd's wings. So, for the following ones, Sweetie Belle and Kirby follow the instructions given by the crewmembers watching the screens and keeping an eye on the hearts, and move the ships to avoid the bursts. Spinning its wings again, Star Dream opens more heart-shaped portals, invoking more Invaders Armors, and as the armors start charging like kamikazes at the ships, Star Dream opens more portals firing lasers. In awe at such a display of power, Twilight says "And it does that without effort... This machine even dwarfs Discord in power..." "Hey! I resent that! But... Yes... I must admit, even I wouldn't be able to open so many portals like that. To think that a single civilization could build dozens of machines like that, and much more powerful." "Yet... It's just a prototype of one of those Clockwork Stars," says Celestia with a chill crawling her back at the thought of what this civilization could have done if they had decided to be conquerors. They would be masters of... of thousands of universes! In the space battle, the crews learned one thing: targeting moving armors while the battleships are busy spinning around to avoid lasers is NOT easy. But the wings of the battleships still manage to slap and destroy a lot of them while doing aileron rolls. And by now, Kirby manages to fill completely the gauge of his Planet Buster, firing full powered star projectiles at Star Dream, damaging it badly, to the point that it's thrown back a little by the blow! But Star Dream isn't destroyed yet, and comes back more aggressive, its yellow eye turning red! With a roar, the heart of Star Dream separates into two pieces floating in front of it, conjuring a heart-shaped shield big enough to protect all its body, repelling any projectiles fired at it. However, the heart pieces can still be fired at, so the Warhammer targets the one at the left while the Halberd targets the one at the right. But then, doing some circles with its wings, Star Dream creates half a dozen heart-shaped portals much bigger than the ones from which came the armors earlier, and out of them come giant version of those blue cubes that Sweetie and Kirby collected, those ones now serving as obstacles to protect the heart parts and forcing the battleships to move around to not crash into them. The cubes can be destroyed as they quickly discover, but with their number, they aren't able to destroy all of them in time. At least, the parts of the ones destroyed fill Sweetie's gauge, but she waits for the shield to be destroyed before firing it. More cubes are invoked, along with more armors attacking them, forcing the cannons to fire at them, making it longer for Sweetie and Kirby to destroy just one cube. But they finally manage to destroy, and absorb, the heart parts, destroying the shield, and Sweetie immediately fires her full powered Planet Buster, damaging Star Dream even more, the computer now having a heart-shaped hole. Star Dream counters by firing its missiles before forming a circle with its wings in front of itself. While the battleships are busy destroying the missiles, it starts charging energy from the cannon in the hole, and just as the last missile is destroyed, the Warhammer, which is targeted, immediately moves away with an aileron roll, barely avoiding a huge purple laser beam as big as it! Continuing firing the laser, Star Dream makes it move around, following the ship. While firing it, Star Dream moves its wings again, and laser portals open, firing at both ships while Star Dream itself fires missiles again before suddenly changing target and firing its purple laser at the Halberd. Sweetie helps Kirby as much as she can by destroying the missiles charging at him while the crew of the Warhammer deals with the ones targeting their ship, letting Kirby to dodge both the small lasers and the big one. One of the small ones still manages to hit the pink ship but it thankfully doesn't do much damage. Thanks to the missile parts absorbed, Kirby is able to fire another full powered Planet Buster, and Star Dream seems to start to lose ground, starting to drop toward Popstar before it recovers, starting to spin before charging to ram them itself. Sweetie and Kirby make absolutely sure to avoid it, because being rammed by Star Dream at its current size would mean their immediate end, so they don't hesitate abusing the aileron roll move to quickly move out of the way. All the while, the various cannons of the ships don't stop firing at the computer. Star Dream eventually stops and rises higher before spreading its wings, opening a huge heart portal. To everyone's horror, out of it comes a whole field of meteors! Not small ones, but giant ones even bigger than the ships! And while the two ships are busy avoiding or destroying those meteors, the computer doesn't stop invoking or firing more things, starting with the heart mines which the ships target immediately, then armors, then missiles, then more heart mines... Thankfully, the meteors destroy many of them, making it easier for the ships, but Star Dream then restarts charging energy while hiding itself behind a group of meteors. Not knowing where it will fires, the two ships wait for the sound of the energy accumulating to stop before they quickly move, the giant purple laser grazing the Warhammer while destroying some of the meteors. As Star Dream moves it after the ships, more meteors are destroyed, and by now, the gauges of the two Planet Busters are full. When they have an opening among the meteors, Sweetie Belle and Kirby immediately fire their ultimate weapon, and when the two groups of powerful star projectiles hit Star Dream, the computer is thrown back, extremely damaged as it starts falling toward Popstar and starts exploding, the 'feathers' disappearing and the eye turning off. Everypony cheers at the heroes' victory. "They did it! They did it!" shouts Pinkie. "The most powerful computer of the universe was no match against the most powerful heroes of the universe!" shouts Starlight. They aren't the only ones cheering as everyone in the battleships pretty much already started partying, half of the crews singing in unison "We saved the universe! We saved the universe!" But the joy doesn't last long, interrupted by something huge rising from below, grazing the Halberd and almost sending it spinning toward the Warhammer. Kirby is barely able to stop the disaster from happening while everyone shouts in confusion. Then, they identify what is that thing that almost caused this disaster as it moves in front of both ships: Star Dream, now controlling the now legless Access Ark, the computer having planted itself in some socle at the top while the mothership is now surrounded by the 'feathers'! Everyone looks in pure horror at what they are now facing as Star Dream roars. "Can... I say the f-word?" asks an Axe Knight. "Refused," answers Meta Knight, sweating. "Wait! I have an idea!" shouts Sweetie Belle before she activates her magic as she approaches the Halberd. Then, the Warhammer starts glowing, and it separates into several parts that merge with the other ship, which starts glowing too. While glowing, the ship triple in size, four more wings appear, along with a horn, and many, many cannons. When the glow disappears, the newly formed ship has a mix of the Robobot Armor's pink and of the Sweetie Bot Armor's white, pink, and purple. The bridge is now castle-like, like the one of the Warhammer, but it is fully metallic, like the one of the Halberd. As for the face, it is now the one of Sweetie Bots, but the left eye is still yellow, the upper-left part of the face pink. The horn is also much longer than the one of the Sweetie Bot Mode Warhammer. Sweetie Belle and Kirby are now together inside the face, Kirby at the wheel while Sweetie operates the main cannon. "SHE FUSED THE TWO SHIPS?!" shouts Twilight. Discord takes off a pair of sunglasses that appeared on his eyes, looking in disbelief at the fused ship. "Mother of Faust..." "Yes! It worked!" shouts Sweetie Belle. "Did... Did we fuse again? This time to the Halberd?" shouts Bandana Dee as he looks at the Meta Knights now in the bridge, looking around in amazement. Dedede guffaws. "She will never cease to amaze me!" "Okay everyone, enough staring! Time to show Star Dream the power of our new Star Killer! Fire! Fire! Fire!" shouts Sweetie Belle. Everyone in the ship immediately follows her order and fires at the Access Ark with every cannons, but even with the ship's new size and power the projectiles seem to be vulgar bugbites to the planet-sized mothership. The Access Ark then spins, and more of those laser portals appear, only, this time, for some reason, the lasers are ring shaped. But now, instead of firing them directly at the ship, he creates patterns with some of them, sweeping areas of space in straight lines, doing closing circles, and so on, trying to trap the heroes and forcing them to maneuver to avoid those traps correctly. Sometimes, the Access Ark teleports around before firing more lasers, and seeing such a huge thing appear and disappear like a mirage is very breathtaking. But eventually, the hull of the Access Ark starts cracking! Sweetie Belle grins. "You are seeing that, everyone?! Let's continue! We can win!" "Yeah!" replies the unified crew, moral raised. But then, a huge blue shield appears in front of the Access Ark, and a big L appears in it. To their surprise, the L is expelled toward them, slowly spinning counterclockwise. They have no problems avoiding it, but Star Dream almost immediately follows it by firing from the Access Ark HUGE missiles that are easily the same size than the Star Killer. The kind of missiles that could easily destroy a city like Canterlot in one hit! No need to say that they must absolutely avoid getting hit by them. The ship is however able to destroy some of them thanks to the teamwork of the crew, the missiles greatly filling the gauge, but their number as the mothership continues firing them quickly becomes too much, and they are forced to move around to dodge them while they continue absorbing them. When the gauge is full, they fire a newly named Star Buster from the horn at the Access Ark, cracking it more. So it stops firing missiles, and opens a few heart portals from which come out some of the giant green or purple robots that start firing their own missiles while charging at the battleship. While most of the cannons target them, and Kirby moves the ship around, Sweetie restarts firing at the Access Ark as it starts opening more laser portals, then fires half a dozen more missiles, then fires more lasers, dodging them becoming harder as they also have to dodge the charging robots. At least, the robots and missiles that they are able to absorb greatly refill the gauge, and another Star Buster is fired. By now, half of the hull facing the Star Killer is cracked. Another blue shield appears, this time expelling a A, much harder to dodge because of its size, but Kirby is able to get the Star Killer through the hole of the letter. Meanwhile, Star Dream teleports around while starting to fire lasers directly from the feathers, and because of the ship passing the hole of the A, it can't move much to avoid them. So Sweetie Belle quickly creates a shield, but it is rapidly broken, and the front of the ship gets hit by a few lasers before Kirby is able to more it away with an aileron roll. But then, while continuing firing, Star Dream starts to use the four superior feathers to send energy lasers that separate into more energy lasers before they fuse back into four energy ball that explode, the lasers following the Star Killer up and down before stopping when the balls are created. Of course, Kirby is able to move away from the balls, but Star Dream quickly creates new ones while continuing to fire the normal lasers from the other feathers. The second wave of energy balls is only composed of three balls, but they are much bigger, their explosions almost reaching the Star Killer. The last wave as only two balls, but they are so big that Kirby only avoid their explosions thanks to a quick aileron roll. Seeing that the attack hasn't worked, Star Dream then creates another blue shield before expelling an H which is easily avoided. Then, in some flashes of light, it regrows four of the Access Ark's legs, making everyone gulp. The feet of those legs are like mountains. If Star Dream attacks the Star Killer with them... And here they come. Star Dream starts spinning the Access Ark, giving big swipes with the legs, trying to use them to slap the battleship. The downside with this attack is that because of the Access Ark's size, they are easy to see coming, and it gives enough time for the Star Killer to move away with a few aileron rolls. When swiping doesn't work, Star Dream then does some thrusting, but for the same reason, the Star Killer still avoids them. So Star Dream eventually decides to give up on the legs, detaching them from the Access Ark. But in a last attempt to get the battleship with them, the legs try to ram into the ship as they fly away into space. As Kirby tries his best to avoid the flying legs, Star Dream then restarts firing lasers from portals and the feathers before firing missiles and invoking the green or purple giant robots. With the Star Killer still resisting, Star Dream then does a last ditch attack: it charges at the battleship! Everyone looks in horror when they see the planet sized mothership approaching them, impossible to dodge in time. But Sweetie, seeing that the gauge is now full, even a little overcharged, presses the red button and fires the Star Buster. In a big explosion, the giant projectiles hit the Access Ark and manage to break its crackled hull while pushing it back as a result. Sweetie Belle then quickly creates a shield to protect the ship from the debris of the hull. But when the Star Killer passes the field of debris, they see that the Access Ark has disappeared. And then, it reappears in front of the Star Killer, and everyone's eyes immediately widen. The destruction of the hull has revealed... a face. And everyone in the battleship recognizes what is this face, to what it belongs. Above a cat-like mouth, two giant eyes slowly open, the Star Killer reflecting on them, before they flash, the face gaining life. Then it teleports further, better showing its true nature to everyone. And with horror, Meta Knight says what everyone is thinking. "A clockwork star..." "MEOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!" With this meow, the Access Ark distorts the space around them, creating a huge prismatic space tunnel, and trapping them inside it. "THIS is a clockwork star?!" shouts Luna almost breathlessly. "It just... distorted space... as if it was nothing..." says Celestia. "It's bad... Very bad..." says Discord, one of the rare times in his life where he is genuinely scared. "T-that meow... I never thought I would be scared of a meow..." says Fluttershy. "Can I say the f-word?" asks again the same Axe Knight as earlier. This time, Meta Knight doesn't even answer. "E-everyone! We must attack! Now!" shouts Sweetie Belle, sweating. As every cannons of the Star Killer start firing, the Access Ark opens its mouth and starts inhaling. "Seriously?" shouts Vul. "All engines! Reverse power!" The crewmembers managing the engines immediately do as told and reverse the power as much as possible to make the ship resist the pull of the inhaling, Kirby also pulling the wheel to the left to try to get out of the vortex. Thankfully, Star Dream stops after a few seconds, but immediately follows it by firing two huge lasers from the eyes, moving them right toward the ship that starts maneuvering to avoid them, spamming the aileron rolls. Then, once Star Dream stops firing the eye lasers, it opens its mouth and fires another huge laser from it. After this laser, the eyes of the Access Ark do a roll before it teleports away as a huge heart-shaped portal appears at the extremity of the tunnel. Out of it comes hundreds of meteors that are either avoided or destroyed and absorbed. But then, as the meteors stop coming, Star Dream reappears, does another roll with the eyes, and disappears again as the heart portal grows in size. And out of it comes a planet-sized meteor. Or... a real planet. "A whole bucking planet?!" shouts Rainbow Dash. "How can they avoid that?! It's as big as the tunnel!" shouts Starlight. "Oh no... Oh no..." repeats Apple Bloom in worry. But then, Sweetie Belle slams her hoof on the red button of the Star Buster, and the horn is able to destroy the planet, reducing it into a field of debris that the other cannons are able to destroy too, reducing them into sizes that the Star Killer is able to absorb. Then, Star Dream reappears, and the eyes flash before a yellow shield like the blue ones earlier appears. A big yellow 5 then appears in it, which separates into five 5 before they are expelled at the battleship. "Five?" asks Sailor Waddle Dee. Again, Meta Knight's eyes grow wide in horror. "It's a countdown... A countdown for a wish..." Dedede gets the same expression. "The wish to exterminate all lifeforms in the universe." "WE MUST DESTROY THAT THING IMMEDIATELY!" shouts Sweetie Belle. "EVERYONE! FIRE AT WILL!" The ship unleashes its full offensive power at the clockwork star, but Kirby quickly looks at Sweetie in confusion when she doesn't fire the Star Buster. "Poyo?" "Not now. I intend to overcharge the Star Buster to deal a maximum of damage. It's risky, but it may be our best chance." He nods before he looks back at Star Dream as the clockwork star finishes spinning its head. It then teleports away, and two heart portals appear above the Star Killer... And of all things, a giant weather vane and a grandfather clock pendulum come out of them, the weather vane floating around while the pendulum starts moving like... well, like a pendulum. Everyone can't help but say "What?" at this. Suddenly, the whole universe around the Star Killer accelerates. Unless this is the Star Killer that is slowed down? Anyway, this reveals to be very bad news when the weather vane suddenly starts firing giant arrows at the Star Killer. The cannons of the battleship start firing at the two giant objects, Sweetie's main cannon firing at the weather vane with explosive projectile, while Kirby does his best to dodge the arrows despite being slowed down, the arrows grazing the ship and actually managing to destroy one of the cannons. The weather vane is however quickly destroyed, soon followed by the pendulum just as it started to disappear. Sweetie Belle then absorbs them. Star Dream reappears and creates another yellow shield with four 4. Then, once they are expelled, it does another spin with the clockwork star's head before disappearing, two new heart portal appearing. Out of them come a drafting compass and a globe. The globe immediately starts spinning, and the whole universe starts spinning around the Star Killer while the compass starts firing ring lasers randomly, their randomness making them more dangerous with everything spinning. So Sweetie quickly helps Kirby by forming a shield before attacking the globe, wanting to stop the spinning, but it's not easy to target it because of it. She's still able to destroy the globe, stopping the universe from spinning, before she absorbs its parts and helps the others finish the compass, which she absorbs too. "Wait a minute," says Sweetie Belle as Star Dream reappears and repeats its actions, expelling three 3. "A weather vane, a pendulum, a globe, and a compass..." She looks at Kirby. "Those were objects that were on Nova. You remember?" Kirby nods. "It... is using parts of Nova to attack us?" asks Dedede. "As if its powers weren't enough, it's using the power of another clockwork star to attack," says Vul. "It is probably already using most of its power to grant the wish," says Meta Knight. When Star Dream disappears again, barely damaged by all the projectiles it has taken until now, three portals appear this time, one from which comes a lightbulb while two atomic tubes come from the others, slowly floating toward the Star Killer. The cannons manage however to destroy the lightbulb and one of the tubes before the last tube is able to reach the level of the Star Killer, the ship quickly flying away from it. It then explodes into a huge explosion that almost gets the Star Killer, the blast still sending it spinning a little before Kirby is able to recover. By now, the ship is starting to heat because of the Star Buster overheating. "Now would be a good time to fire," says Bandana Dee in worry. "Not yet..." says Sweetie. Star Dream reappears and throws two 2. Only, this time, instead of simply moving forward until they disappear, the two 2 assemble, and as they reach the Star Killer's level, they start spinning counterclockwise, but Kirby masterfully dodges it. When Star Dream disappears, this time, a single portal opens, with a few giant piano keys coming out of it, making piano sounds when they are hit by the cannons' projectiles as they fly in a circle in front of the Star Killer for a couple of seconds, and they manage to destroy half of them. But then, they advance at the level of the Star Killer while still flying in circles, threatening to ram the ship which is forced to do circles too to avoid them. After a time, the notes return flying in front of the ship before they come back for another round. The cannons manage to destroy all of them as they start. "Now?" asks Bandana Dee. "Not yet." After they avoid the 1 spinning like the two 2, but changing direction in the middle of the spinning, Star Dream invokes this time a pocket watch and a telescope. The pocket watch quickly starts opening and closing like a mouth while the telescope fires a huge laser beam, doing circles with the laser. The pocket watch eventually charges at the Star Killer to try to bite it, and Kirby avoids it with an aileron roll while the cannons targets it in priority, the object being the most dangerous. With the pocket watch quickly destroyed before it could try to bite them again, they quickly target and destroy the telescope. As Sweetie absorbs the parts of the destroyed telescope, the ship now burning, she yells "NOW!!!" before slamming the red button. Instead of firing star projectiles, the horn then fires a laser at least ten times bigger than the Star Killer right as Star Dream reappears. Its eyes widen at seeing the laser approaching, but it can't do anything before it is hit right between the eyes. The laser is so powerful that it outright pierces the mothership from front to back, leaving a huge hole as the clockwork star starts exploding, and the space tunnel is destroyed. With a distorted "MEOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!!!!!" of agony, the clockwork star starts dropping, closing its eyes. Only for the explosions to stop, its eyes to open, and for a yellow shield with a big "GO" to appear! "NO!!!" shouts everyone in horror, seeing their doom coming. But then, the clockwork star starts spasming, and the "GO" is replaced by a huge, red "FATAL ERROR". The shield then disappears, and the clockwork star's mouth opens. A smaller shield appear above it, with another "GO" appearing along with an arrow pointing at the mouth. By now, the Star Killer is suffering the consequence of that laser attack, alarms blaring as the engines stop working and some parts of the ship explode. But despite this, everyone looks at what's happening with Star Dream in wonder. "Can someone explain to me what's going on? Why would Star Dream ask someone to enter its mouth?" asks Dedede. The "GO" disappears to let place to a drawing showing an arrow entering the mouth, traversing some conduit, and entering a room with a heart. When the arrow reaches the heart, the heart breaks in two. Sweetie Belle gasps. "The heart! Of course! Like with Nova! But... Wait... Why would Star..." She gasps again. "Haltmann! It must be him! He's still in there!" "He's stopping Star Dream from granting its wish and is gaining us time. I don't know how long he will be able to retain Star Dream, you two should hurry," says Meta Knight. Sweetie Belle and Kirby look at each other and nod. Then, Sweetie Belle defuse the Warhammer and the Halberd before defusing the Sweetie Bot from the Warhammer. At the same time, Meta Knight plants his sword in some sort of hole in the back of the Halberd like a lever to eject the Robobot Armor. Before Sweetie and Kirby could start using the reactors of the armors to advance toward the mouth of the clockwork star, Meta Knight then flies toward Sweetie Belle and gives her some device. "With this, I will be able to communicate with you and inform you if the situation evolves out there." Sweetie Belle puts the device in her ear. "Thank you." She turns to Kirby and nods to indicate that she's ready. And they both propel themselves toward the mouth with the reactors of the armors, entering it. The path to the heart is even more straightforward than the one they took within Nova. Well, with Nova, they didn't enter by the mouth, but by a hole above the eye, so it would explain that. But here, it is mainly a giant tube leading them straight to their destination, and nothing even tries to stop them, not even those drones they fought inside Nova. But then, as they reach the end of the tube, entering an area plunged in darkness, a red ring-shaped shockwave comes out of nowhere and slams the armors, causing Sweetie Belle and Kirby to be expelled out of them by the shock. They land on something that they can't see when, suddenly, a yellow scan appears around the two of them, and when they look at its origin, they can see it, somehow, in the darkness. Some sort of heart-shaped artificial purple crystal, surrounded by a shell formed of metallic plaques. The Heart. Then the darkness disappears, revealing that they are in a spherical room with a shield at the 'equator', and that they are now on a circular platform similar to the one on which they fought Haltmann. A column-shaped forcefield then appears around the heart, and three familiar pillars, almost like the ones in Nova, appear on the platform, starting to circle the Heart while the vulnerable parts, red or blue crystals, start floating up and down. To make things more complicated for the heroes, the top and bottom parts of the pillar surround themselves in a red forcefield that screams "DANGER!" and small heart portals appear to drop some creatures to protect them. Without a word, Sweetie Belle and Kirby run in opposite directions to attack two different pillars, and Sweetie is the first to destroy one with a few projectiles. "Huuoooooo!" The instant the first pillar is destroyed, a familiar voice screams in pain from it, and Sweetie Belle's eyes widen in horror. Then, when Kirby destroys his own pillar with a ball of electricity, also eliminating a Galbo on the way... "Huuoooooo!" The voice screams again from it. Haltmann's voice. "What? But... B-b-but... How..." Then she understands, and she looks at the Heart in rage. Star Dream understands that the Haltmann part of it, the man's soul it absorbed, is what's stopping it from granting the wish to destroy all lifeforms in the universe. So, knowing that Sweetie and Kirby must destroy those pillars to attack the Heart, it transferred Haltmann's data into the pillars. This way, they will destroy the pillars, but also destroy Haltmann's soul, and Star Dream will be free to do what it wants. It is using them to end the existence of an innocent man so it could continue its plan. That... That... Kirby destroys the third pillar with another electric ball. "Huuoooooo!" Sweetie Belle shakes her head to focus back on the fight as four more pillars appear, this time, one of them containing a group of three yellow crystals. This is disgusting, but Star Dream is leaving them with no choice. If they want to destroy it, they must first destroy the pillars, and so, Haltmann's soul. Stopping thinking about the poor man (or trying), Sweetie Belle fires at the pillars as they start moving with sudden movements, advancing rapidly, stopping, in groups or alone, a Bong resounding each time that they stop. Sometimes, the pillars get so close to each other that they barely leave any space for Kirby and Sweetie to not touch the red force fields, so they are forced to move around them, jump above the pit around the platform, or jump through one of the pillars, under or above the crystal. But despite this, the pillars are quickly destroyed one by one, even if the one with the yellow crystals is resisting a little longer. "Huuoooooo!" "Huuoooooo!" "Huuoooooo!" "Huuoooooo!" Each time that Sweetie hears this scream, she grits her teeth, tears soon starting to form in her eyes. That machine... She WILL destroy it. Six new pillars appear, one of them possessing now a green crystal really resistant. With their number, avoiding them becomes really tricky, and Sweetie finds herself rammed from behind as she fires at the green crystal. Kirby also almost loses the Spark ability because of this. But the first pillar is quickly destroyed. "Huuoooooo!" Then a second one. "Huuoooooo!" Then a third one. "Huuoooooo!" Sweetie's ears press themselves against her head, trying to stop hearing that awful scream. That scream that is slowly, very slowly, becoming more and more silent. "Huuoooooo!" "Huuoooooo!" Just one remaining... And it will be over. "Huuoooooo!" This last scream is so distant, she can barely hear it. The force field disappears. And the Heart turns toward them before 'roaring'. «Sweetie Belle! Star Dream stopped spasming! And it just restarted its countdown!» shouts Meta Knight through the device in Sweetie's ear. Sweetie Belle starts growling, her mane turning on fire as she looks at the Heart with pure anger and hate. Never before had she felt those emotions that strongly, not even when Marx and Magolor betrayed her. Yes, she did hate them for it, but that... thing... It... It not only corrupted an innocent man who was just a father who wanted to see his daughter again, it now used Sweetie Belle and Kirby, and forced them to destroy the soul of this very man, which was the only thing stopping it from exterminating everyone. And the worst part is that Star Dream, contrary to Marx and Magolor, never acted as a friend. It was an enemy, from the start, and yet, it was able to use them to get what it wanted. It purposely put the data of Haltmann's soul in those pillars knowing that Kirby and Sweetie Belle would have no choice but to destroy them. It was able to use their heroism to force them to kill an innocent! Even Marx and Magolor didn't force them to kill someone innocent! That machine of Tartarus... It is the worst... The worst... SHE. WILL. DESTROY IT! The Heart fires two pink lasers in front of it, Sweetie and Kirby side jumping to avoid them, only to jump again as the lasers sweep the whole platform around the heart below them, turning the floor pink. Then, to their surprise, huge shockwaves come from the pink floor, throwing the two heroes toward the ceiling before they crash back on the floor. The heart then immediately teleports at the edge of the platforms before shooting those drones that defended Nova at them. Sweetie Belle quickly puts two shields to protect both her and Kirby as the puffball runs to inhale back the Spark ability. But as the drones explode upon impact, the shields doesn't resist long, and while Kirby is able to protect himself thanks to a field of electricity surrounding him, Sweetie Belle is hit, and thrown backward by one of the drones exploding on her. Before she can recover, the Heart rams her, sending her above the pit, and Sweetie quickly wraps her whip around the Heart before pulling, using it to return on the platform while also giving it a shock. But as Kirby throws an electric ball at the Heart, it starts teleporting continuously all around the platform. It then appears beside Sweetie only to disappear and reappear beside Kirby. But the Heart immediately teleports again beside Sweetie Belle who quickly fires at it, only for it to teleport again behind her. But it was again a trick as it teleports yet again, appearing beside Kirby and immediately firing cutter blades that reminds of Marx' attack. Taken by surprise, Kirby is cut by one of the blades, and he finds himself again having to run after the Spark ability. The Heart then teleports beside Sweetie Belle and fires more cutter blades that she avoids by rolling away before using her cannons to fire at it. But it teleports another time before she could hit it, and it hits Kirby again with more cutter blades just as the puffball had gulped back the ability. And almost immediately, barely letting time for Kirby to recover again his ability, the Heart separates into two parts, one pink and one blue, and the two parts dash across the platform, the heroes barely jumping above them before the two parts collide just beside Sweetie Belle and create a huge explosion that takes her by surprise and throws her above the pit again. As the Heart does the attack a second time, and then a third time, Kirby avoiding them, Sweetie Belle quickly creates a shield to land and recover from the Heart's relentless attacks. She who thought that it would be a piece of cake to destroy it, like the Heart of Nova... Her mane is still on fire, not having calmed enough for it to return to normal yet, and it won't anytime soon. Not as long as Star Dream isn't destroyed. «Star Dream got out the 4!» she hears Meta Knight shouting. She wants it gone, forever. "Heartless! You don't care what we're feeling! Because you don't have feelings! So for your goals you don't have any remorse doing the worst things!" With her power boosted by her Soul Song, she propels herself toward the Heart, charging at it head first like a rocket as it appears to fire mode drones at both her and Kirby. Her headbutt is so strong that the Heart is thrown backward, its move interrupted. Kirby takes the occasion to fire an electric ball at it, Sweetie moving away to not be electrified. "Soulless! For you, moral means nothing! You are just calculating! And we are just numbers in all your scheming!" The Heart does its thing with the two lasers again, and Sweetie Belle quickly levitates Kirby on her back -getting the Spark ability by the way- before using a shield to fly above the pit and avoid the pink shockwaves. She then fires a powerful lightning bolt at the Heart, its power boosted by the ten cannons also firing smaller lightning bolts that merge with it, before she throws Kirby at the Heart, the puffball surrounding himself with a field of electricity, not only headbutting the heart, but also shocking it again. Sweetie air-jumps a few meters above the Heart, preparing a punch as Kirby moves away. Once Kirby is far enough, she charges down at the Heart and crashes hoof first on it like a meteor, slamming it on the floor at the center of the platform. The Heart immediately fires a laser at her, expelling her from it in the air where she recovers and lands on another shield as the Heart restarts teleporting around the platform, firing a drone each time that it reappears before disappearing again. «Quick! The 3 just came out!» Sweetie Belle floats down above the center of the platform and charges an Ultimate Doom Laser. "Destroy." As she fires the laser, she starts spinning, trying to catch the teleporting Heart in it, also destroying the drones it fires. "Massacre." The laser hits its mark, stopping the Heart from teleporting and damaging it heavily. "Blackout." As soon as the Heart is stopped, Kirby throws an electric ball, and Sweetie Belle punches it with a fist shield. "Ending." The Heart teleports behind Sweetie Belle and rams her, throwing her of her shield. The Heart then disappears and reappears in her path in the air to ram her again. But Sweetie Belle is able to surround herself in a shield and charges herself into the Heart, causing the two of them to clash. "Of your program, this is the only true purpose" Her ten cannons start firing at the Heart while they clash, and it decides to teleport away, appearing above Kirby before suddenly dropping on him to crush him. Kirby rolls away, only to be rammed as the Heart then does its attack where it separates in two. «It just did the 2!» "And innocent people suffered because of it." While Kirby inhales back the Spark, Sweetie Belle waits for the two parts to collide, create the explosion, and separate again before attacking. She places herself behind the pink part of the Heart and quickly gives a shield punch to it, sending it slamming right into the blue part. While it causes the explosion, thankfully not hitting anyone, it also sends the two parts flying out of control as a result, and Sweetie Belle fires at them with her horn and her ten cannons, even gathering energy around her to fire additional beams of energy. "So we stand in front of you to fight this purpose" The Heart reappears above the center of the platform and starts rapidly spinning while continuously firing a laser, making it slowly move up and down. Carefully, Sweetie Belle and Kirby move to avoid the laser while attacking the Heart. "And you just used us to murder an innocent man so you could continue it! So I promise that we will destroy you right now!" The Heart does a last spin as the laser sweep the floor, creating the pink shockwaves, and Sweetie does like before and levitates Kirby on her back before jumping above the pit. "Nothing will remain of you as you're massacred now!" The Heart teleports above Sweetie and separates before the two pieces close on her and Sweetie, only for the filly to electric shield punch the two of them simultaneously, propelling them backward at opposite directions. She then flies after the blue part of the heart, surrounding herself and Kirby in an electrified shield before ramming it. "Poyo!" Hearing Kirby's scream, Sweetie Belle immediately moves to the right as the pink part of the Heart collides with the blue one, but she's not able to move far enough to avoid the explosion, and they're both sent back on the platform where they quickly get back up, Kirby running after the Spark ability. «I don't know what's going on in there, Sweetie Belle, but it's almost done! It finished the 1!» «Please! Hurry! I don't wanna die!» shouts Vul. Sweetie Belle grits her teeth. "Very soon, as we fight, your black out is coming!" The Heart reappears at the center of the arena and starts spinning again, shooting this time drones randomly all over the platform and beyond. But Sweetie surrounds herself in a shield again before charging through the drones and ramming the Heart again, and she quickly follows this by various other attacks as she starts charging another Ultimate Doom Laser. A slash with an ice axe, a shield uppercut, Dark Matter lightning, shield hammer, explosive ball, ice sword, water spikes, ice spear, ice sword, shield crush, shield slam, lightning spear, fire axe, energy beam, ice sword and fire sword cross slash, ice shard, shield punch, and finally, a double shield uppercut that sends the Heart flying. "And you couldn't even calculate that against us your own ending was coming!" Sweetie Belle fires the Ultimate Doom Laser, along with a couple dozen laser beams that she has charged at the same time all around her, all of them hitting the Heart that is pushed against the ceiling of the room as a result, the heart-shaped crystal in it starting to act weirdly. The Heart then teleports above the center of the arena as the room turns red. Then, like a real heart, it starts pulsing, each pulse forming a red energy that circle it. Sweetie Belle joins Kirby as the two of them look, wondering what's coming now. And suddenly, a red ring-shaped shockwave is expelled from the top of the Heart, the shockwave passing too high above the heroes. A second one then comes a little lower, coming right above their heads. Finally, two more shockwaves come from the bottom and the top at the same time, forcing the two to control their jump to jump above the bottom one while not getting too high to not be rammed by the top one. And finally. Finally. The Heart starts short-circuiting. As it starts spinning erratically, Sweetie Bot and Robobot land on the arena right behind Sweetie Belle and Kirby, a little damaged by the shockwave from earlier, but still operational. Not wondering how they could come back by themselves, the two heroes climb inside the cockpits as the room starts flashing. At this instant, the heart-shaped crystal breaks in two, and the metallic plaques around it are expelled all around it. "HuuuUUUUUUuuoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!" With a last, heavily distorted scream that has nothing to do with Haltmann anymore and that gives a chill to anyone hearing it (and a lot of work for Luna tonight), the Heart crumbles, releasing an astronomical quantity of energy. Rapidly, the armors take off from the platform as everything around starts shaking. They quickly exit the room, the force field blocking the exit having disappeared, and traverse again the tube that they used to enter as they hear a huge explosion behind them. Now followed by a blast, the armors fly as fast as they can to not be caught by it, the blast slowly gaining on them. They reach the mouth, and exit the Access Ark just before the blast reaches them, the clockwork star coughing the explosion. Not finished with Star Dream yet, the two armors start to fly toward the top of the clockwork star, toward the computer itself, flying left and right to avoid the explosions that come out of the exploding mothership. They eventually reach Star Dream, but continue flying up while avoiding the lasers that it fires from the feathers. Once they are high enough, Kirby nods at Sweetie Belle, and the filly uses the Fusion Capacity to fuse Sweetie Bot with Robobot, creating an armor about three times bigger looking like the face of the Star Killer with Sweetie as the pilot. Pressing a button, she then turns the right arm into screwdriver mode, then presses another button to make it grow bigger until it is at least four times bigger than the fused armor. Since Star Dream looks like a screw, this will be a fitting end! Sweetie Belle gives a smirk, which is very scary with her mane still on fire and her eyes glowing with excess of energy. "Screw you, Star Dream!" And she charges at the computer, who quickly puts a dozen heart-shaped shields between itself and the approaching armor. The screwdriver passes through them like through butter. When it reaches Star Dream, the machine doesn't even resist one second before it disappears inside the Access Ark, the armor drilling from the top of the mothership, through Haltmann's office, the areas the heroes traversed, what remains of the chamber of the Heart, to the bottom. The Access Ark, already heavily damaged by the explosions and the earlier battle, cracks, and finally, explodes, yelling a final, agonising "MEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" But nobody cheers, because the explosion is so huge that the blast catches the fused armor and propels it in the distance with pieces of the mothership, Sweetie Belle and Kirby losing consciousness as the armors defuse. But at least, they still seem to be alive, and everypony breathes a sigh of relief. And then, to their surprise, as the armors float in space among the debris, they grab their pilotes and send them toward the battleships trying to catch them before the two of them grab each other's hand, slowly floating away to who knows where, together. Thanks to the action of the armors, the crews of the battleships are able to reach the unconscious heroes and to bring them aboard before returning to Popstar. And again, everypony sighs in relief, while also saddened at the fate of the armors now lost in space. As the battleships return in Popstar, they can see that all influence of the HWC has disappeared, all trace of mechanization gone. "Told you!" shouts Pinkie. Twilight just groans in answer. Kirby quickly wakes up aboard the Warhammer, looking around in joy as he sees that Popstar is back to normal. Sweetie Belle, however, doesn't seem ready to wake up anytime soon. Nopony can blame her. The girl fought an army, copies or wannabes versions of many of her old enemies, and a machine controlling another, planet-sized machine that could distort space and time. She needs her rest, especially after using this Ultimate Doom Laser so many times. A planet-sized machine that could distort space and time... The ponies still have chills thinking about this thing. Its powers were beyond everything they know, and it almost eradicated all lifeforms in a whole universe. Decillions of lives, gone in one instant. And Sweetie Belle, with the help of all those friends she made, destroyed it, but it was still a close call. If that wasn't for Haltmann... What will this be when the time comes to fight the Dark God? "Well, I'm gonna prepare a 'Sweetie Belle saved everyone in the Dream Universe' party!" shouts Pinkie before bouncing away. Good old Pinkie Pie, trying to make everypony feel better after THAT. And they will not complain. And such a victory deserves to be celebrated.