//------------------------------// // Chapter XII: A Nightmare's Aftermath // Story: A Purple Pony Princess's Problems on Planet Popstar // by ANerdWithASwitch //------------------------------// Sunset had to work to keep herself from gaping as she watched Twilight and Kirby’s battle. An entire mountaintop–probably nearly a gigatonne of solid granite–had been blown apart. And then, as if just to further rub in the insanity of Kirby’s power, Sunset got to bear witness to him one-upping the destructive force of an enraged Twilight Sparkle by beating her down so quickly a mushroom-shaped cloud of dust emerged where she hit the ground. It was a horrifying display of power. Sunset cringed as she felt the phantom pressure on her horn increase again. Filling in for a load-bearing wall was more than the average unicorn would’ve been able to do, and even though she was well above-average, she estimated that she had maybe an hour and a half maximum before she ran out of mana. Granted, given that the other option was to just let the roof collapse in on her, she was willing to put in the work. Bandee had already asked the Meta-Knights for assistance, and apparently a construction crew was on the way. Still wanting to be prepared for a worst-case scenario, the general had left soon after, trying to drag as many unconscious castle residents outside of its walls as possible. She still nearly jumped out of her skin when Kirby teleported back into the room. He angled his staff at her, as if expecting an attack. Of course, Sunset just responded by jumping back a bit as another section of wall crumbled. She winced and redirected some of her strength to replace the lost load. “Listen, if I stop doing this, the building’ll come down on both of us,” she explained. “The Star Rod fragment’s in the treasury. We’ve got a few of the Meta-Knights on the way to fix the wall, so you might want to just grab it and get out of here.” Kirby nodded and ran off, and Sunset sighed in relief at the fact that he didn’t attack her on sight. Even with being able to heal physical injuries near-instantly, this constant stress could not be good for her blood pressure. At this point, it didn’t even matter how much power she was taking with her. She just needed to get the hell off this planet. The weight shifted and she swore under her breath again. First chance she got, she resolved to herself, she was getting the fuck off this rock, with or without the others. She’d been here for under two weeks and had already gotten herself into four life-threatening situations. It was just far too much of a hassle to manage even her own survival at this point, even for the potential power this universe held. So why did her heart pang at the thought of leaving the others behind? Sunset shook her head. The others couldn’t be considered her friends. She’d never had friends, and anypony she’d thought was one had betrayed her. Any compassion she was feeling was purely just a general feeling of pity for other sapient creatures. She was too far gone in her goals for something like friendship to throw a wrench into things. …Right? She grit her teeth at her own thoughts. Of course, she reassured herself. The only reason I’m even sticking around is because Twilight’s our best shot to find a way back. If I had a way to Equestria faster on my own I’d take it! Her face fell into a contemplative expression as her mind ran with the thought. There might, in fact, be a way back to Equestria! Making sure to still keep most of her concentration on stopping the building from collapsing, Sunset grinned slightly in realization. “Any wish, huh?” she muttered. “You say something?” she heard Bandee ask from behind her, and she nearly jumped out of her skin again. “Jesus Christ, Bandee, try not to scare the person holding up an entire fucking building,” Sunset snapped back without answering the question. Bandee frowned–well, Sunset assumed he was frowning based on his eyes–at the lack of a wall. “Realistically speaking, I don’t think the entire building would come down, but it’d still cause quite a bit of damage.” “Yeah how about you try deadlifting several tonnes of rock and get back to me on how that feels,” Sunset grunted. “I think saying the entire building was a perfectly acceptable hyperbole, and a significant proportion of the castle collapsing would kill us both either way. You did get everyone outside, right?” Bandee nodded. “Everyone’s out. Kirby actually helped with that for the last few.” “Right, he likes saving everyone.” Sunset cringed again. “I can’t even blame him for the wall, Twilight was the one that blew it up.” “Well, Vul’s only a few minutes out, apparently, with enough of a crew to take it off your hooves,” Bandee assured. “Ugh,” Sunset groaned, “why him?” Bandee shrugged. “According to Meta Knight, he heads all of the engineering stuff in the organization.” Before Sunset could respond, there was a bright flash of light as Spike popped back into existence right where he’d been swallowed. Sitting down hard, he rubbed his forehead. “What…what was that?” “Welcome to my world,” Bandee said. “If you’re fighting Kirby and small enough for him to inhale, good luck avoiding it.” Spike blinked and looked down at his arms. “I’m glad I’m still here, but that was weird.” He looked around at the utterly destroyed room. “What happened here?” “Well, Kirby’s inhale is, obviously, nonlethal,” Sunset exposited. “But uh…no one ever bothered to let Twilight know about that. So she went, in a word, apeshit–and she threw Kirby through the wall.” Spike gaped at the open air. “Are they okay?” Sunset shrugged. “Kirby’s fine, but Twilight probably took some hard hits out there.” Spike’s face instantly turned distraught. “Twilight’s hurt?” he exclaimed. Sunset cringed for the nth time. “Yeah, but right now I’m just desperately hoping she’s just unconscious.” She twitched as the ceiling groaned again. “I can’t afford to lose concentration considering the alternative.” “Don’t worry about that one, Miss Shimmer,” a new voice called from the entryway. They all turned to look at the newcomer, a Trident Knight. Rather than wielding his signature weapon, though, he held a shore, and he wore a bright orange hard hat. “We can take it from here!” Following the Trident Knight was a veritable flood of other hard hat-wearing Meta-Knights, including Captain Vul himself. The large bird clicked his beak as he assessed the damage before pointing to several points on the ceiling. “We need shores here, here, and here,” he gruffly commanded. As the group with beams ran over to begin assembly, he pointed to another group of Meta-Knights. “I need half of you to begin gathering material from the surrounding area. I’ll speak with Dedede about the original ‘prints’ design as soon as possible. I want the other half of you to set up a temporary infirmary for the wounded out front.” He turned to Bandee. “Where do you keep your food stores?” Bandee snapped up. “The kitchen’s a bit of a ways through the halls. I can lead them there, if you’d like.” Vul nodded. “That would be best, yes.” “Alright, Miss, you can stop holding up the ceiling now,” one of the construction crew told Sunset. “The support structure’s in place.” Sunset tentatively reduced her active support of the ceiling and, when it didn’t collapse in on them, fully shut off her magic. She sighed deeply, releasing all of the tension she’d built up, but grinned nonetheless. She’d fought Kirby, successfully held up a building, and wasn’t suffering any mana burn–hell, she felt like she had enough mana left to teleport down to Twilight just fine. Sure, she was still pretty exhausted, but she’d be fine after a bit of rest. “Mind if I grab an extra tomato from the kitchens?” she asked, turning to Bandee and Vul. “I feel like Twilight’s gonna need it.” “Sure!” Bandee replied. “Good, now all of you need to get out of here,” Vul grunted. “As of now, this is an active construction zone and none of you have hard hats on.” Alicorn physiology, Twilight decided, was both a blessing and a curse. On one hoof, they were some of the hardiest things around. Unlike most other creatures, alicorns’ mana stores refilled fast enough that, in an emergency, they could metabolize pure magic. Should a damaged cell or group of cells be irreparable, this use of magic as energy could fuel their replacement far faster than other organisms. Even in an oxygen-free environment, or if the heart or lungs stopped functioning properly, an alicorn could likely survive for several hours–long enough for their body to naturally repair itself, assuming the necessary brain activity was still functional and given the proper nutrient stores. Thus, Twilight could theoretically survive pretty much anything that didn’t outright kill her immediately. On the other hoof, that meant that she was still alive and could very much feel pain. The physical pain as she came to was already bad enough. She’d never broken a bone before, and despite having read a few medical textbooks once just for the sake of it, she hadn’t expected the pain to be nearly as excruciating as it was. Honestly, she had a newfound respect for the fact that Rainbow had been more concerned with liking a book than with a broken limb, though some part of Twilight’s mind that somehow wasn’t entirely overwhelmed unhelpfully pointed out that Rainbow had access to painkillers during that incident. A luxury that, as that part of her mind was ever-so-happy to add, she currently did not have. Of course, as excruciating as her two broken limbs were, most of her pain was not physical. No, as her mind began to catch up on recent events, she felt the far more stabbing pang of emotional pain. She’d watched her little brother–the dragon she’d raised–get eaten alive by a force of pure hunger. Under two weeks in another universe and Spike was dead because of her own foolishness. She should have known that he’d sneak out to try and help. Everything she knew about Spike should have warned her of that. She should’ve been more cautious about him being in the castle. She should’ve just given up as soon as he joined the fight and dragged him away from it. She should’ve done something, anything, Twilight berated herself, instead of just staring on in horror. Had she the tears for it, Twilight would have wept. Her body, however, refused to allow such a waste of water, given that nearly all of it was going to repairing damaged tissue. Instead, she opened her eyes and simply gazed upward at the starry night sky, shocked at everything that had occurred. Despite her mind being in near-complete chaos, some part of her was still organizing everything she saw, such as the relative sizes of Popstar’s four moons varying wildly, and one even seeming to have leaves. Twilight blinked. Wait, four? “Alright, Twilight, eat up,” she heard Sunset say from off to the side. The mysterious new fourth moon, which Twilight’s mind finally registered as being a levitating maxim tomato, fell downward, and Twilight instinctively opened her mouth and began chewing. The feeling of her bones rearranging themselves back into their proper positions was rather uncomfortable, if she was being honest, but thankfully it was over in only a few moments, her physical aches and pains fading away. Twilight sat up and froze. Her mind simply refused to work after she looked in Sunset’s direction, mostly due to the small dragon standing next to her. Spike gave a sheepish smile and waved. “Hi, Twi.” Twilight gaped for half a moment as her brain struggled to comprehend the fact that Spike was still alive, but she reacted far faster than she could think. In an instant, she had flown over to Spike and gripped him tightly in an embrace. Once she was sure he was real and that this wasn’t simply a dying hallucination, she released him and looked at him with a grin on her face. Tears openly beginning to flow, she hugged him again. “You’re alive!” she exclaimed, relieved. Spike squirmed for a moment, realized that he wasn’t getting out of the hug, and hugged her back. The pair of siblings took a moment of silence to simply take in the embrace before Twilight eventually released Spike. She sniffed a bit and wiped the tears from her face, but her wide smile remained. “I thought I lost you when Kirby…when he…” she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. Sunset cringed. “Yeah, I kinda forgot to mention that Kirby’s inhale is nonlethal. That was on me. Sorry.” Twilight sighed. “At least we’re all alright in the end. And I suppose I’ll have to apologize to Kirby for…” her smile dropped and a haunted look came over her face. “By Celestia’s starry mane I tried to kill him.” Sunset tilted her head with a confused expression. “You thought he’d killed Spike. I’d be more concerned if you just let that slide.” Twilight shook her head. “No, you don’t understand. I wanted him dead by my own hooves. I’m a Princess of Equestria! I’m not supposed to react like that!” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?” Twilight nodded, staring down at her hooves in shame. “Even if somepony seriously injured Princess Luna, I don’t think Princess Celestia would want to kill them.” Sunset snorted, but prevented herself from chortling upon Spike shooting her an angry look. “You’ve never seen Celestia angry, have you?” “And you have?” Twilight asked. Sunset froze, as if suddenly realizing that she’d said far too much. After a pregnant pause, she finally replied. “You’re not the first student she’s ever had.” Before Twilight could inquire further as to what that was supposed to mean, Sunset continued with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Besides, Celestia’s like a bajillion years old. If anything, she’s the weird one.” “Yeah, but-” Twilight tried. “Plus, if I ever found out that someone hurt my brother,” Sunset added, “they’d only wish they were dead.” Twilight looked up, surprised. “You have a brother?” Sunset cringed and actually looked ashamed for once. “Yeah, but I…haven’t seen him in a while.” “Hey, I’m so sorry to interrupt,” Spike spoke up, “but given that this conversation is about me, do I get to say anything?” Both ponies blinked in surprise and looked at him, and Sunset gestured to give him the floor. “Twi, I think it’s really cool that you care about me enough to try and avenge me,” Spike said, “but we probably need to all say sorry to Kirby.” Sunset rolled her eyes. “As long as he apologizes first for trying to put the Star Rod back together after we told him not to.” Twilight gasped. “The Star Rod!” she realized. “What happened to our fragment?” Sunset shrugged. “I let Kirby have it after you two practically blew up a mountain.” “You WHAT?” Twilight and Spike shouted simultaneously. Sunset rubbed her forehead. “Yep, beginnings of mana burn, gotta get some extra rest tonight,” she mumbled. “It was either hand over the fragment or let the building collapse since you guys took out a load-bearing wall, apparently. So yeah, I had to hold it up. Myself.” Now it was Twilight’s turn to look sheepish. “Sorry, I…wasn’t thinking straight,” she answered. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she continued. “But what about Nightmare? We don’t know if Kirby can beat him, and–no offense to King Dedede–but he probably can’t hold off Kirby for long.” “At this point,” Sunset sighed, “I think the only thing we can do is wait and hope that Meta Knight was right.” At that exact moment, a cataclysmic BOOM washed over most of Planet Popstar. All over half of the planet, its denizens looked up in shock and awe at the sight, the Equestrians included. Twilight could barely believe her eyes as she watched a massive explosion envelop Popstar’s largest moon. A solid third of the satellite was missing, carved out as if some angry god had taken the universe’s largest ice cream scoop to it. Twilight couldn’t even make out any debris–it was like the matter caught in the explosion had simply ceased to exist. Sunset and Spike both seemed equally as shocked. “What the fuck?” the former asked. Twilight didn’t even bother to comment on Sunset’s profanity, her mind desperately trying to figure out whether or not this was a gross violation of conservation of energy. “Maybe we should get back to the castle?” Spike suggested. “If Dedede’s back he might have some answers.” Dedede, as it turned out, only had one answer when he arrived an hour or so later with Kirby in tow. “Kirby blew up half the moon to kill Nightmare.” Twilight was left to perform her best imitation of a fish for a few seconds and Spike nearly fell off of her back from the shock. Sunset, though, apparently decided to go for the dramatic option. She nabbed a glass of water from a passing Waddle Dee and promptly performed a spit take. “What the hell?” The hard hat-clad Dee glared at Sunset, who sheepishly levitated the empty glass back over, to which the Waddle Dee rolled their eyes and went back to the kitchens to fill it up again. Kirby just cheerfully waved at the group from atop Dedede’s head. The penguin growled, reached up, and tossed Kirby to the ground. “Don’t go up there!” Kirby bounced back up instantly, grinning at the irate king. Before he could retaliate, though, the puffball turned to the three Equestrians. Managing to actually look ashamed of himself, Kirby scuffed his feet on the floor. “Sorry,” he eventually managed to articulate. Twilight sighed. “I’m sorry, too. My actions were…unreasonable.” Kirby looked rather perplexed by her apology and Sunset raised an eyebrow. “I thought we’d already established that that wasn’t the case?” “Reacting to a loved one being put in danger with anger at the perpetrator is perfectly natural,” Meta Knight’s voice suddenly chipped in from above them, causing the entire group to jump. “Would it kill ya to enter a room normally for once?” Dedede grumbled. “Why’re you here, anyway?” “To oversee the repair operations on your castle,” Meta Knight answered as he landed. “Speaking of, Captain Vul would like to speak with you regarding the design of and possible renovations to your boxing room.” Dedede grumbled again–something Twilight suspected was due to his tiredness–and stomped off towards the boxing room. Meta Knight, meanwhile, turned to the rest of the group. “Well done, everyone,” he congratulated. “The Nightmare has been vanquished for good, with only minimal casualties.” “Minimal?” Twilight asked, a concerned tinge in her voice. “No deaths,” Meta clarified. “At least as far as I am aware. The Meta-Knights sustained a few minor injuries and I’ve received Vul’s damage report for the castle.” Kirby seemed to sigh in relief. Meta nodded at the three Equestrians. “I must say, I certainly owe you all a favor for agreeing to put yourselves in such a perilous situation.” Before any of them could respond, however, he turned to Kirby again. “Though, you may want to apologize to Lunaris as soon as you can. He will most certainly be rather miffed by a chunk of that size being taken out of him.” As Kirby embarrassedly rubbed his back and everyone else shared a chuckle, no one noticed another small pink sphere slink his way outside. Marx grinned to himself as he ascended Sky Tower later that night. Sure, getting all the way to Nutty Noon in only a few hours was a heck of a hassle and climbing all the way up the tower was exhausting, but the top of Sky Tower was one of the few places on Popstar one could reliably speak to its celestial bodies. And Marx simply could not pass an opportunity like this up. With such a recent injury on his mind, Lunaris would be far easier to manipulate. Marx nearly cackled, but made sure to keep himself as quiet as possible. Fools, the lot of them, he let his thoughts indulge. No one suspected a damn thing, and hero types were oh so easy to manipulate into doing what he wanted. He certainly wouldn’t be able to summon Nova on his own, but with just a bit of help, true power would be within his grasp. Ah, but he was getting ahead of himself. Reaching the apex of Sky Tower, he grinned up at the large form of Lunaris, Popstar’s closest, largest, and sapient moon. “Well howdy there, Lunaris!” Marx shouted. Communication with celestial bodies was always a tricky business. They communicated mentally more than anything else, so Marx always had to watch his own thoughts to make sure no part of his actual plans leaked through. Though with Lunaris’s injury and Marx’s own skill, he knew he could pull this off flawlessly. Lunaris heaved a mental sigh. Good evening, Marx. What do you want? Marx faked as good of a frown as he could–which was pretty good, in his opinion. “I just wanted to stop by. I heard about–well, saw, really–your injury and figured that’s gotta hurt.” Lunaris exuded the feeling of raising a nonexistent eyebrow. Really, now? “Well, that’s not all,” Marx conceded. “You see, I was paying attention to the Popstar grapevine, and I overheard some things you might want to know.” Oh? Lunaris asked. “Yeah,” Marx continued. “The big thing is that your ex was shittalking you again.” Lunaris mentally sighed again. What was Solaria saying this time? “Well, it started off pretty standard–calling you a bastard, no-good layabout, that kinda thing,” Marx falsely reported. Not all that unusual for her, Lunaris agreed. There’s a reason I broke things off with her. Alright, time to bring out the big guns. “Yeah, I thought that was just normal insults, too,” Marx said, “but then she called your mom a hoe.” Lunaris’s mental space went deathly silent, and for a moment Marx was a bit worried he’d gone too far–that rather than angry, Lunaris would simply refuse to accept it. It turned out that his worry was unfounded, though, as when Lunaris replied it was with absolute vehemence. Solaria knows how much my mother meant to me, Lunaris mentally growled. She’ll pay for this come morning. Thank you for letting me know, Marx. “Not a problem, buddo!” Marx cheerily replied. “Thought it was a good idea to keep you in the know, y’know?” Lunaris didn’t respond, instead speeding off towards the horizon, and Marx let his grin once again overtake his face. Now all that was left was to wait for the two to really start duking it out and grab…Kirby. Marx hummed as he considered Lunaris’s injury. Perhaps tricking Kirby wasn’t the right play, here, if the puffball had done all that. Sure, he’d have gone after Kirby if he had no other options, but–Marx’s grin returned–he had more options than just Kirby, now. He needed someone powerful enough to gather all the summoning stars, but not so powerful that they could defeat him after Nova granted him power. Someone who was cunning enough to understand the weight of the situation, but not so shrewd that they’d see through his plans. Someone who would stay motivated through their own plans, but would be conflicted enough for Marx to jump in with his own wish. Someone who, above all else, the Star Rod resonated with. Or–Marx full-on cackled, now–perhaps somepony. Oh yes, even if he would have to actively travel with her, getting Shim Sham to gather the summoning stars for him would do nicely.