The tension in Castle Dedede was so palpable that Sunset felt like she could cut it with a knife. As soon as they had returned, the extrauniversal guests stored the Star Rod fragment in the castle treasury, hopeful that the various other golden objects would camouflage the fragment well, if it came to that. Bandee had joined them not long after, delivering his two fragments in only a few hours. The next several hours had been spent preparing for what both Bandee and Sunset felt was inevitable: Kirby’s arrival. Neither had high hopes for either Kirby’s defeat or convincing him to stop, but with the world on the line, they prepared nonetheless.
Kabula was in the air, prepared to fire at anything approaching from the sky. Ground troops had every entrance to Castle Dedede secured, dreading the third assault on the castle in under two months. Everyone inside the castle that could fight had taken up arms, wielding everything from swords to staves to even brooms. After ensuring that everyone was ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice, Bandee, Sunset, and Twilight had gathered in the throne room. It was, at this point, nearing evening and everyone was staring at Sunset’s communicator with bated breath.
Finally, just as the clock struck six, the object crackled to life. Meta Knight’s voice on the other end, though, boded poorly for their chances. “Kirby has bested me,” he reported, his voice sounding rather strained. “He has united six of the eight fragments and is headed your way.”
Sunset blanched and Twilight’s face held a shocked expression. Neither, though, responded quite the same way as Bandana Dee.
“What are we gonna do?” he wailed. “We can’t stop Kirby!”
Twilight took a deep breath. “But we have to try,” she countered.
“And if we fail?” Bandee asked.
“There is, perhaps, one additional hope,” Meta Knight said, and everyone turned back to look at the device. “Should Kirby successfully reassemble the Star Rod, there is a distinct possibility that he may be able to defeat the Nightmare himself.”
Sunset frowned. “I don’t think we should bank on what-ifs, though.”
“Do whatever you feel is right,” Meta Knight reassured. “I will be preparing the rest of the Meta-Knights to defend against Nightmare in a last-ditch effort, but for now, I leave the future to you.”
The communicator clicked off, and Bandee descended into panic. “We’re doomed,” he said, plopping himself down. He began hyperventilating, “We’re completely, utterly doomed. Kirby’ll just steamroll us, and there’s no telling if he can defeat Nightmare on his own!”
“Just because we probably can’t stop him doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try!” Twilight retorted. “The whole world’s counting on us to stop Nightmare from escaping!”
“That just makes it worse!” Bandee exclaimed.
Sunset drew in a shaky breath and looked Bandana in the eye. “Listen. I’m terrified of Kirby too. But…”
She trailed off, unsure of her own ideas. Where was this drive to stop Kirby even coming from? She’d spent over a decade caring most about her own self-interest, surely she should be getting as far away from Castle Dedede as possible.
She shook her head. Nightmare was the bigger overall threat here, she reminded herself. This was still the best option no matter what. “But if we don’t at least try,” she finished, “we might as well just hand the Star Rod right back over to Nightmare.”
Bandee took a deep breath and forced himself back to his feet. Gripping his spear, he nodded at Sunset. “Y’know what? You’re right.” He looked to the door and steeled himself. “You two head down to the boxing ring. It’s the only room in the castle really designed to take a fight. I’ll try to lead him your way.”
Twilight frowned. “But…what about you?”
Bandee shrugged. “I’ll try my best to make it out alright. I’ve got an army behind me, after all.” He grabbed his own communicator, linked to the castle’s PA system. “Kirby is on his way, everyone! I know he’s beaten us down twice before, but this time we have more on the line than just our pride! Kirby seeks to restore the Star Rod, which would release a powerful wizard called the Nightmare! We must stop him, at all costs!” Bandee took another, even deeper breath than before, seeming to try and psych himself up as much as his troops. “Even if we have to fight to the last man. I wish you all the best of luck.”
Spike crouched in the shadows, frowning at the scene he was watching. Twilight had told him to stay in their room while Kirby was in the castle, but he just couldn’t force himself to sit there and do nothing while Twilight put her life on the line again! No, he had to help in any way he could! He just…wasn’t entirely sure how to go about it. He knew that, if Bandee caught sight of him, he’d be back in the room before he knew it. So he stuck to the shadows, itching to jump in and help but unsure of when to do so.
Currently, Bandee was patrolling by Castle Dedede’s main entrance, watching the door as intently as Spike was. Kirby had arrived via the main gates both times he had attacked the castle before, and it seemed that Bandee suspected he would do so again. Spike didn’t really have any reason to doubt that, so he also watched the main entrance.
A massive crashing sound from outside alerted both of them to a new development. Spike gulped. He’d never actually gotten a chance to see Kabula in person before, but from what he’d heard of her, taking her down was no easy feat. After another quick sound of a short scuffle with the exterior guards, there was a polite knock on the door, heralding the appearance of a dangerous pink puff. After no one answered, Spike could swear he heard a huff of annoyance from outside before the doors slammed open.
Kirby seemed to be wearing a jetpack of some sort, a white metallic suit wrapping around his back and over his head. A blue visor completed the look, though Kirby wasn’t actively wearing it. Instead, his expression was on full display, though he seemed more mildly annoyed, rather than the anger Spike had expected.
“Good evening, Kirby,” Bandee stated, his voice wobbling slightly. “Any chance you’ll stop trying to put the Star Rod back together?”
Kirby narrowed his eyes.
“I’m not sure if Meta Knight already told you this,” Bandee tried to explain, “but putting the Star Rod back will release a being called Nightmare. We can’t risk that.”
Kirby huffed and readied a fighting stance.
Bandee sighed. “You think we’re lying, don’t you?” He raised his spear, readying his own stance as well. “Very well, then.”
Kirby launched forward with tremendous speed, Bandee just barely moving to block the blow in time. Spike felt his jaw drop. The only thing he’d ever seen move so fast was Rainbow Dash, and even she needed some time to accelerate first. The fact that Bandee managed to block something like that was just insane!
It didn’t stop there, either. Bandee gracefully twirled out of the way of Kirby’s next strike, a punch that instead significantly cracked the tiled floor. Bandee’s retaliatory strike went wide, however, as Kirby’s jetpack activated and he launched into the air. The pink puff hovered for a few moments before attempting to slam back down, forcing Bandee to jump out of the way. Kirby kept up the pressure, launching forward again with a spinning kick that Bandee was forced to use his spear to block.
This time, instead of just letting Bandana Dee get away with another dodge, Kirby feinted. He threw a punch with his left arm, even seeming to overextend, prompting Bandee to dodge in the opposite direction. Kirby, though, quickly activated his jetpack again, nimbly reversing his direction and turning his left hook into a right hook, allowing him to score a powerful blow on the bandana-clad general.
Bandee went flying, landing a good ways down the hall. He’d managed to keep himself upright, at least, planting his spear into the ground to slow down his slide. “Alright then,” he said, pulling out his PA microphone, “guess we have to pull out all the stops.” He clicked it on, and the sound of the PA system activating echoed throughout Castle Dedede. “Everyone! Defend the way to the boxing ring at all costs!”
Kirby huffed and pouted a bit as the castle came alive with the sounds of its many inhabitants mobilizing.
Bandee grinned with his eyes. “If you want this Star Rod fragment,” he said, wrenching his spear out of the ground, “we’re gonna make you work for it.”
With that, he turned and ran.
Kirby let out an angered cry and shot after him like a speeding bullet.
Spike couldn’t bring himself to move for a few moments, his eyes still as wide as dinner plates. His ideas of actually contributing anything to the fight, at this point, seemed sorely misplaced. There was no way in Tartarus he could stand up to something like Kirby–hay, he didn’t think even an adult dragon could stand up to Kirby!
He shook his head. No, he had to help Twilight! Bandee seemed like he had no hope of winning either and he tried to fight, so what kind of a dragon would Spike be if he didn’t stand up for his friends? A selfish one–that’s what. He shivered at the thought of ending up like Garble, but quickly realized that he needed to get a move on. The fight was moving on without him!
Thankfully, it seemed that Kirby hadn’t gotten far. Just beyond the castle’s antechamber was a line of unconscious Dreamlanders leading to the puffball of destruction, who was currently stalled in a one-on-one battle with the castle’s resident Bugzzy. Kirby, it seemed, had swapped out his jetpack for a green, glowing hat, sparking with energy every few seconds. As Spike watched, once again making sure to confine himself to the shadows, Kirby zigged and zagged around Bugzzy’s attempts to grapple him, ending up behind the poor beetle. Before Bugzzy could react, Kirby whirled around and delivered a devastating, green-coated punch to his back, downing him in an instant.
The moment Bugzzy was down, a Blade Knight tried to get the jump on Kirby from behind, but that ended extra poorly for him. Kirby whirled around and formed a barrier of green energy, forcing the Blade Knight to stumble as he tried to stop himself from falling into it. Not that it mattered, since Kirby simply launched the barrier forward and knocked the Blade Knight out anyway.
Kirby dusted off his hands and huffed in annoyance before once again rushing down the hall and ever closer to the boxing ring.
Spike tried his best to keep up, but at this point Kirby was moving so quickly all he knew of the battle were its sounds and its aftermath. Kirby’s trail of destruction was awesome–in the sense that it was terrifying. In his wake the puffball left the unconscious bodies of everyone he came across, be them Dee, Doo, Kibble, Blade Knight, Plugg, Broom Hatter, or any other castle resident. If they crossed Kirby, they did not win.
Finally, after a few minutes, several turns in the hallway, and a staircase, the sounds of battle ceased. Spike crept forward, somewhat curious as to what had stopped Kirby’s rampage. He peeked around the corner and immediately retreated. If he stepped out into the hallway, there was no way Bandee would miss him. All he could do was listen in.
“Alright, Kirby,” Bandee panted, “you might’ve torn through all of our defenses, but we’re not giving up. I can still fight–oh no.”
There was a loud sound akin to the sounds of Pinkie literally inhaling a spread of baked goods, and Spike thought he felt a faint breeze, despite the totally enclosed hallway. He shook his head. That couldn’t be right…right?
He spared a glance around the corner again and nearly sighed in relief. Kirby was gone, but so was Bandee for some reason. His eyes drifted upward to the massive set of double doors containing the boxing ring. They were slightly ajar, and Spike realized that Kirby must’ve gone in. His eyes narrowed. Sunset and Twilight were in there!
Gathering up his courage, he stepped forward and, as stealthily as possible, slunk into the room.
Sunset had thought that she had gotten a handle on her fear of Kirby. Sure, the little guy could probably end the world on purpose if he wanted to, but she’d never been scared of Celestia and she could definitely end the world.
Granted, Celestia had also never broken multiple of Sunset’s bones and set off a bomb in her face.
Regardless, Sunset assumed that she’d gotten pretty good control of her emotions. And that a measly little pink puffball being capable of nuclear-level strikes was a hilarious enough statement in and of itself that she should be able to get over it fairly quickly. Her plan was simple: simply don’t feel fear and fight accordingly.
Of course, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. The moment Kirby became visible, once again wielding a spear, her heart rate spiked tremendously. Her pupils shrunk to pinpricks, and she subconsciously backed up a few steps. She silently cursed herself the whole way, of course, especially once she noticed that her ears had naturally flattened themselves again, too. Twilight, thankfully, completely failed to notice, her focus entirely devoted to the force of pure destruction entering the room.
So focused on Kirby, neither noticed the young dragon enter the room either, nor him slinking his way over to a shadowed audience’s seat.
Twilight fixed Kirby with a disappointed frown. “We can’t let you release Nightmare.”
Kirby rolled his eyes and huffed. “Lies,” he simply claimed.
Twilight seemed genuinely taken aback. “What?” she asked, shocked. “Now why would I-” she shook her head. “Never mind. I really don’t want to fight you, Kirby, but I will if I have to.” She lit her horn. “Please, give up trying to put the Star Rod back together.”
Kirby firmly shook his head, shifting his foot back.
Twilight sighed deeply. “So be it, then.”
Kirby charged forward, spear at the ready. In response, Twilight simply raised a shield, and Kirby’s first, experimental strike glanced off of it. Kirby repositioned himself immediately, as if expecting a retaliatory strike, but none came. Instead, it seemed that Twilight had taken the opportunity to set up, and a rotating collection of shields now surrounded her.
With a start, Sunset realized that Twilight wasn’t going to be attacking. She was clearly still holding on to the hope that she could talk Kirby down, or something. Sunset rolled her eyes and lit her horn as well. Clearly she was going to be doing most of the offensive work, here.
Kirby, thankfully, was focused on trying to break through Twilight’s shields with limited success. It seemed like he was still using a spear suboptimally, slashing with it instead of stabbing, which was probably contributing to his inability to break through any of Twilight’s defenses. His single-minded determination allowed Sunset to sneak behind him undetected until she unleashed her first attack.
Flames danced around her horn as she called upon her talent for pyroturgy. A spiral of fire shot out moments after, but unfortunately Kirby must have felt the increased temperature. Nimbly, he dodged out of the way and whirled around to face Sunset. Wordlessly, he charged at her.
Sunset responded to his advance with more fire, a constant stream of flame spewing from her horn. Kirby, displaying his frankly absurd agility for his shape and stature, managed to dodge around the entire attack. Once he was within striking distance, Sunset’s eyes widened as he tried to take a swing at her.
Thankfully, a violet shield sprang into existence before his strike connected, his spear clattering off it and sending him stumbling. Sunset took full advantage, summoning a fireball and sending it careening into Kirby at full force, launching him nearly to the other side of the ring. She nodded at Twilight in thanks, who beamed back at her.
Kirby, though, recovered easily enough, back on his feet only moments later. As he refocused on Twilight’s shields again, Sunset considered her options. Clearly, fire wasn’t going to cut it, just like in their last bout. Her cryokinetic spells fared generally better against him, and with Twilight here to help, perhaps they’d actually be enough to win this time.
Thankfully, her earlier pyrokinesis had left large amounts of water vapor in the air, which were trivial to begin to cool. The ambient temperature sharply dropped, and Kirby’s eyes widened as he let out an involuntary shiver. He twirled out of the way just before a pillar of ice dropped from the ceiling, piercing straight through the boxing ring right where he had previously been. Sharp icicle spears branched off from the main pillar as frost began coating the ring’s ropes.
Kirby, apparently eager to cut off the magic at the source, rushed after Sunset once again, but this time she was prepared. Wrenching one of the icicles from its source with her telekinesis, she personally blocked his attack with it. The pair engaged in a spear fight, but Kirby was constantly able to keep her on the back hoof. Regardless of how many strikes she parried, he constantly kept on the offensive until eventually, something had to give.
Unfortunately for Sunset, the thing that gave was her makeshift weapon. Ice is hardly an effective material to build weapons out of, given both its low melting point and its brittleness. After having sustained enough damage from Kirby whaling on it with his spear, the icicle finally gave out after he drew back his arm and punched straight through it. The strike continued forward as well, directly towards Sunset, but she grinned as Twilight quickly erected another set of shields around her.
Her grin dropped as Kirby slid to a stop, though. Instead of completing his punch, he instead quickly turned and threw his spear at the now sorely underdefended Twilight, a significant proportion of her shields having been repurposed to defend Sunset. Twilight gasped, and Sunset could do nothing but watch in horror, her mouth agape, as the projectile smashed through weakened shield after weakened shield in its destructive path towards the princess. Even Kirby seemed surprised and perhaps a bit distraught, as if he hadn’t expected to throw it with so much strength.
Before the spear could complete its violent trajectory, however, a ball of green fire interrupted it, incinerating it in its entirety. Sunset turned to stare at its source: the young purple dragon currently trying to force his way into the ring. Spike, after launching the fireball, had managed to get himself tangled up in the ring’s ropes. It took him a few moments of struggling, but he eventually freed himself and was unceremoniously dumped onto the boxing ring’s floor.
He picked himself back up, though, and dusted himself off. Clearing his throat, he declared, “I won’t let you hurt them!”
“SPIKE?” Twilight shouted after getting over her shock. “I told you to stay in the room!”
“I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing!” he retorted.
Kirby blinked as his headband disintegrated, and looked between the two arguing siblings confusedly. He gestured at them and looked to Sunset.
“Yeah, I don’t really know either,” she said.
Kirby shrugged, and Sunset’s eyes widened in surprise as he suddenly resumed the fight, lashing out at her with a punch. She barely managed to teleport away in time, Kirby’s strike whiffing through empty air.
She reappeared right between Twilight and Spike. “Sorry to break this up, but we’ve got a bigger problem to deal with!”
All of them turned towards Kirby, who was already rushing forward.
“Spike, get behind me,” Twilight ordered.
“But I want to help!” Spike protested.
“Whatever you choose, do it fast!” Sunset added, flaring her horn and summoning an iceball. She hurled it at the rapidly-approaching puffball, but he apparently remembered its effects. He leapt up to dodge it, completely avoiding the iced-over floor and even puffing himself up a few times to float. At this point, really, Sunset was done with questioning how he did it and just more concerned with the fact that he was now above them.
Kirby let himself exhale, plummeting towards the three with his arm outstretched for a punch. Twilight started desperately summoning shields, but it wasn’t nearly enough. With how haphazardly and quickly she was erecting them, the shields were far weaker than her usual fare. Kirby smashed through shield after shield with relative ease, but was knocked off-course just before he reached his targets by another bout of fire breath from Spike. Instead, he impacted the boxing ring’s floor, forming another large hole in it.
Sunset, at this point desperate to just keep him contained now that they had an ever-so-slight reprieve, looked around for anything she could use to her advantage. With a grunt, she once again lit her horn and telekinetically ripped the ring’s posts from their positions, attempting to use the ropes to tie Kirby down.
Unfortunately, Kirby had recovered fast enough to react, and opened his mouth. A massive suction took hold, ripping away Sunset’s grip of the ropes and letting Kirby completely inhale the massive projectile. His cheeks puffed up, he turned to Twilight and spat the ropes right at her at an impressive speed.
Both Twilight and Sunset focused their telekinetic fields on the projectile, slowing it to a stop only inches away from its target. Together, they reversed its direction as well, hurling it right back at Kirby.
He responded by opening his mouth again and beginning another inhale.
Spike narrowed his eyes. “Oh no you don't,” he said, rushing forward.
“Spike, no!” Twilight called out, but it was already too late. Spike had reached his target and, rather impressively for someone of his stature, jumped up and punched the ball of ropes and posts hard enough to knock it away from Kirby’s suction force.
He realized his own mistake only moments later.
The two ponies could only watch in horror as Spike found himself now in Kirby’s vacuum, disappearing down the pink demon’s gullet before either could even spark their horn in an attempt to save him. For a brief moment, silence reigned as Kirby looked over himself, curious about the new claw-shaped purple hat he wore.
Sunset, at least, knew that Kirby’s inhale was nonlethal. Spike would be fine in a few minutes–if a bit disoriented. She realized half a second later, however, one very important overall detail she’d missed.
No one had told Twilight about that.
Before Sunset could even blink, there was a flash of violet light as Twilight teleported.
The wall exploded.
Something in Twilight snapped when she saw Spike vanish. She wasn’t entirely sure what, just that she had never felt so much pure, unadulterated rage for another being before. Not even Discord had gotten this sort of reaction out of her. Her thoughts were colored near-completely red, her usual cohesive, logical thought process thrown completely out the window. There was a small voice in the back of her head still hypothesizing, contemplating that her reaction was a defense mechanism to prevent her from clamming up in a dangerous situation. Overall, though, it was drowned out by her utter fury. This pink monster had just eaten her little brother. He needed to pay. Dearly.
So one can’t really fault her for her immediate reaction of teleporting beside Kirby, summoning a large amount of earth pony magic, and punching him hard enough to send him directly through the exterior wall.
She immediately switched to using a combination of pegasus and unicorn magic, blasting away most of the rest of the wall and launching after him at near-supersonic speeds. She caught up to the stunned but still very much conscious puffball mere moments later in the skies above Mount Dedede, and blasted him straight towards one of the other peaks.
Before he hit the ground, though, Kirby managed to recover and tested out one of the abilities that inhaling Spike had given him. Great wings of purple flame sprouted from his back, launching him back skyward. Quickly getting back in range of Twilight, he shot a stream of fire at her.
His attempt went nowhere, however, as he was suddenly buffeted by hurricane-force crosswinds, interrupting his attack and sending him careening off-course. Twilight followed up by teleporting directly above him and flapping her wings hard, unconsciously summoning large amounts of pegasus magic to form a massive downdraft. Kirby, though, rolled with the wind, flaring out his fiery wings again and swooping out of his dive just above the craggy ground. He gracefully soared back upward, dodging rapidfire blasts of arcane might from Twilight in the process.
Once he reached the same altitude as her, he changed up his strategy. Instead of going for a ranged attack, Kirby wrapped himself in fire and slammed forward as a fireball, hoping to catch Twilight off-guard.
Unfortunately for him, Twilight simply teleported again, this time above him as he began to slow. Unable to dodge, she hit him with a massive beam of pure magic, sending him crashing into one of the neighboring mountains in a plume of dust.
“Oh shit,” Sunset swore as she realized the damage that had been done to the room. Beyond the now completely irreparable boxing ring, the exterior wall had been nearly entirely demolished. Her eyes widened as she heard the ceiling start to creak dangerously.
“Oh fuck!” she swore again, flaring her horn and casting as large a shield as she could just under the ceiling, hoping to at least partially replace any load-bearing force the wall had had.
“By the stars, getting inhaled is never pleasant,” she heard Bandee mumble as he entered the room. “Are you guys alright…” he trailed off, staring dumbfounded at the state of affairs.
Sunset cringed as a flash of violet lit up the sky, even overpowering the setting sun, and a mountaintop looked like it exploded. Using what little mana she could afford to spare, she conjured the communicator Meta Knight had given her. “You mind calling in some help to stop the building from collapsing?”
Twilight growled as she stared through her farsight spell. His hat had been knocked off, but that damn puff dared to keep living. Calling upon her purview as the Element of Magic–which some part of her recognized that she was fortunate to have left in her dresser today–she summoned a swirling, pulsing mass of arcane energy and hurled it downward at Kirby.
It hit the ground and exploded in only moments, but unfortunately it seemed that Kirby had seen it coming. Twilight frowned. Not only that, but he’d managed to inhale some of the very essence of magic itself in the explosion, gaining a getup that looked a bit reminiscent of Trixie’s.
Kirby, though, seemed quite a bit more powerful than a mere stage performer. A retaliatory blast of blue magic shot its way towards Twilight, forcing her to swoop out of the way. He levitated himself upward at a rapid clip, racing towards the alicorn startlingly quickly. Twilight’s attempts to use pegasus magic were nullified as well, as Kirby–rather impressively, she had to begrudgingly admit–had a fairly decent handle on atmokinesis.
Still, she had the edge in raw magical ability. His second attempt to fire a magical beam was fully countered by one of her own completely overpowering it, forcing him to give up and dodge downward, out of the way. She kept up the pressure, teleporting closer and bringing down a torrent of magic upon him.
Kirby was carried down nearly all the way to the ground again, but before he impacted it, he teleported himself to safety on another mountaintop. Twilight grit her teeth and audibly growled again. With naught but pure rage determining her decisions, she used most of her directly-available mana to summon a beam of arcane wrath. It raced downward, entirely obscuring Twilight’s view of her target with a glow of purple light. She felt a slight bit of resistance, but determined her attack a success when the mountain’s peak exploded.
Her assessment lasted all of a quarter-second before she heard Kirby teleport directly above her, and her world turned from rage to pain. She shrieked in surprise and agony as she felt her right wing break. She plummeted towards the ground as Kirby continued his assault, feeling one of the bones in her left foreleg shatter. He teleported away afterward, but the pain was still so great that Twilight was barely lucid enough to summon a cushioning charm before she hit the ground, sending up a plume of dust and forming a small crater.
There, broken, battered, and probably bleeding–she couldn’t quite tell–Twilight lay utterly defeated as her vision went black, just as the sun sank below the horizon.