Chapter 104: Assault on Jambandra Base! Officiant of Doom: Hyness
Silence. Pure silence.
As Sweetie Belle falls asleep, victorious over the freaking most powerful warrior of the bucking universe, everypony just looks, not a word spoken.
And then, a butterfly lands on the unconscious knight, who disappears in a burst of particles of light absorbed by the insect before it flutters away.
After a few more seconds of silence, Starlight is the first to break it. "What. The buck. Just happened?"
"A butterfly disintegrated Galacta Knight," answers Discord.
"No! I mean, yes! But before that!"
"Sweetie Belle defeated the most powerful warrior of the universe."
"I mean what happened with Sweetie Belle? Why did she start to... change?"
At this, Celestia puts a hoof under her chin, starting to think. "Her skin was turning the same shade of green than her magic. Her mane and tail turned into that same color. And ethereal, like my mane. It... was as if Sweetie Belle was losing her physical envelop to become a being of pure magic."
"Ohohohohoho! I think I know what it was," says Discord who starts rubbing his paw and claw excitedly.
"And it was...?" asks Luna.
"I won't tell! Try to find out by yourself, I will not ruin it! But come on, it's not hard to guess. And please, if anypony guesses what it is, keep it to yourself to not spoil!"
"Oh please!"
"Tell us Discord!"
"What is it?!" the foals start asking.
"No! No! Don't insist! And stop doing the puppy dog eyes, it won't work on me."
"It works when Fluttershy does them on you," says Apple Bloom.
This silence Discord for a couple of seconds before he shouts "No, they don't!" and turns around, arms crossed.
"Well, whatever it was, it made her powerful enough to win a fight against a guy who could cut a planet in half," says Rainbow Dash. "Princess Luna, sorry to say, but I think you will lose your bet."
"Ah! As if! She doesn't control this power! I can still win!" replies Luna. After a small pause, she adds "Maybe I should start training. I think I'm a little rusty."
"Yes, you should," says Discord. "Oh, and don't worry, you won't need to fear this power, Sweetie Belle won't use it against you. Not unless she wants to risk destroying Equestria as a collateral damage."
"Unless you go fight in space, like they did," says Pinkie. "You would just have to make sure that Sweetie doesn't fire one of her giga beams toward the planet."
"Mmh... Alright, Sweetie is getting overpowered, that's nothing new, and the fight was the most awesome thing ever. Can we talk about the butterfly that just killed the most powerful warrior of the universe?" asks Spike.
"I will never look at a butterfly the same way," says Fluttershy.
They saw that meteor fall, and they immediately knew that this meteor was Sweetie Belle, having seen her fly toward space after that huge laser. From what her still conscious friends told, she was fighting none other than Galacta Knight himself! That's very worrying. Most of the time, the only outcome when fighting the Demon Knight is death, especially when fighting him in one versus one. But somehow, Sweetie Belle still put up a very good fight against him. She forced him to use some of his most powerful attacks, resulting, according to the reports, in New Halcandra getting sliced in two and in the Moon getting blown up. It's a miracle that New Halcandra hasn't been blown up.
Some healing magic was all it took to completely heal Magolor and his friends, and while most of them are tired, especially after fighting Galacta Knight, they will all be alright in no time. Once they made sure of that, Gandaro, Lockwar, and Shimago, followed by a small group of other mages, decided to go to the impact area where Sweetie fell and, hopefully, bring her back alive. At least bring back something to bury at worst.
After a few minutes, they reach the area, finding the expected crater. To their relief, they find Sweetie Belle in one piece at the center of the crater, alone, no trace of Galacta Knight. Since New Halcandra is still here, even if not in one piece anymore, then Galacta probably decided to leave it at that and go away.
They hope.
They quickly verify if the filly is still alive, and to their surprise and joy, she is! Shimago immediately uses her healing magic to heal her injuries, but it becomes clear that this fight exhausted her, the filly not waking up.
Problematic, because she and her friends need to quickly go to Jambandra Base to stop those idiots from freeing the Dark God. The last thing they want is to lose time waiting for her to recover her stamina, which may take hours, or even days. Thankfully, they've something for that, in their ship.
"So, how long will it take for her to wake up, Shimago?" asks Magolor.
"It will depend. Hopefully, just a few minutes," answers the nurse. She looks back toward Sweetie Belle, who's now inside a vat full of a special liquid containing all the nutrients that a body needs, helped with some magic, for a quick recovery after a hard work, or even to rapidly heal if no healing items or healers are near. The mages' ship, the Starwalker, is full of them, just in case. "At least, it shouldn't take her more than an hour."
"At least, that's that. In general, we never wake up after a fight against the Demon Knight," says Lockwar. "Seriously, corrupted or not, I never thought that you would be stupid enough to free this guy!"
"Don't remind me..." replies Magolor with a groan. "I almost died, twice."
"We all almost died," says Taranza.
"And we were all together against him. And yet, Sweetie Belle was able to face him alone and survive," says Adeleine with disbelief. "How did she do it?"
"You will have to ask her once she wakes up," says Marx.
"Until then, we should all prepare for the assault of Jambandra Base," says Lockwar. "I don't believe that we will have to do that. Jambandra Base was built to protect the Jamba Heart and was extremely well guarded. How was this Jambastion Religion able to conquer it?"
"From what I was told by the heroes, the Jambastion Religion uses the knowledge of our ancestors, the Magic Clan. The way they described this Jambastion reminded me of their mighty fortresses," says Gandaro with a sigh. "There's probably at least one of us among them."
"You mean, descendants of the Ancients from another clan?" asks Susie.
"Yes. And it's the most logical explanation of why they want to free the Dark God," answers Ganduro as he looks down in sadness. "Some of us are still full of hate, even after all those years."
"Well, I already know what I will do," says Magolor. "Jambandra Base is circled by many of those Jambastions, right? If we go using the Lor Starcutter, we will probably end up facing them. If we are followed by the Death Egg and the Starwalker, it's even certain. So I will go and ensure that..." He winks. "we can face them." At this, he floats away, finishing with "I'm taking the Lor!"
"And of course, he doesn't tell us what exactly he will do," says Yin-Yarn.
Susie sighs. "We will discover soon enough." She then turns to the others. "Meanwhile, I will repair the Death Egg."
"Oh yes! And once it's repaired, send it immediately toward Jambandra Base," says Gandaro. "We will do the same with the Starwalker. By the time Sweetie Belle wakes up, we should reach it, and the heroes will join us with the Lor Starcutter."
"Good point," replies Susie.
About ten minutes later, Sweetie Belle has been transferred to a building so the mages could take off with the Starwalker to start their journey toward Jambandra Base, leaving Sweetie Belle's friends behind to wait for the filly to wake up. The Death Egg has also been repaired, and has taken off without Susie, the girl deciding to remain behind with the heroes. Now, only Magolor is still missing as they rest in the same room than the vat, some of them, like the animals or Gooey, getting some shut eye while others, like Dark Meta Knight, are doing various activities to prepare themselves for the future battle, or simply to pass time.
And then, they hear Dedede's anthem playing from the vat, recognizing it despite the liquid and the glass. Daroach briefly teleports inside it, the vat having barely enough space for both him and Sweetie Belle, and takes Sweetie's communication device before teleporting out and answering.
"Dedede?"
«Uh? That's not Sweetie Belle.»
"It's Daroach. Sweetie Belle is sleeping. She had a hard fight."
«Really now? Well, I hope she will not sleep too long, because we just destroyed Jambandra Base's forcefield. We're about to enter the fortress.»
"Give us a few minutes. We will come with the Lor Starcutter."
«You should rather come with the star, unless you want to fight your way through a dozen Jambastions, plus whatever defenses Jambandra Base possesses.»
"Eheh. Don't worry about us. We will manage."
«If you say so... Anyway, hurry up, or we will defeat the bad guy without you,» finishes Dedede before ending the call.
Marx taps on the glass of the vat with his foot. "Hey! You heard that, Sweetie Belle?! Hurry to wake up, or we will miss the fun!"
"Even if she wakes up now, we still have to wait for Magolor," says Susie. "What is he doing?"
"Yeah, what am I doing?" suddenly says a voice behind her.
"Iiiiiih!" screams Susie as she jumps away in surprise, turning around in mid-jump to see that the voice comes from a giggling Magolor who wasn't here before. After taking a few breaths to calm her heart, she looks at the mage with a need to kill. "One day, I swear!"
"Where were you?" asks Adeleine.
"Oh, I did some... gathering. You will see," answers the mage.
When Sweetie Belle wakes up, it feels like she's inside a filled bathtub, except she isn't drowning, because, of course, this is the Dream Universe. And to her surprise, she feels as good as if she had slept a whole week! She would even say that she feels like Pinkie Pie after drinking some coffee.
Opening her eyes, she quickly understand why it feels like she's inside a filled bathtub: that's because she is really inside something filled with water. Some kind of giant glass tube? Oh, and this 'water' is strangely green. Where the heck is she?
She then spots a red button with a message written above pointing to it: Press it. So she presses it, and the next instant, the giant glass tube is emptying itself of this green 'water'. Once the tube is empty, a door opens in the glass, letting her get out.
She's immediately welcomed by her friends, some of them hugging her.
"Welcome back, sleepy head," says Daroach.
"About time you wake up," says Marx.
Sweetie Belle looks back at the tube... vat, where she just woke up in confusion.
"What is that?"
"A recovery vat," answers Magolor. "Gandaro and the others found you unconscious in a crater. Shimago healed you, but you weren't waking up. Instead of waiting for days for you to recover, they put you in it, and thanks to it, it only took a little less than half an hour for you to wake up."
"That's fantastic! I should ask Gandaro if I can take one or two to bring back to my castle."
Magolor gives a small laugh. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind, not after stopping me and surviving against Galacta Knight. Well, you couldn't stop him from cutting New Halcandra in two, but at least, New Halcandra is just cut in two. And lost its Moon. It could have been worse."
"Galacta... What happened to him?"
"You don't know?" asks Claycia.
"Uh... The last time I saw him before I fell asleep, he was unconscious in front of me. If Gandaro and the others found me, then they certainly found him too."
Magolor tilts his head in confusion. "No, they said they found you alone in the crater." Then, his eyes widen. "Wait! 'Unconscious'?!" Suddenly, he grabs Sweetie Belle and shakes her frantically. "ARE YOU SAYING THAT YOU DEFEATED GALACTA KNIGHT?!!"
When Magolor stops shaking her, Sweetie Belle shakes her head to recover her senses before answering with a giggle. "Yes. I defeated him. I'm not sure how." Actually, she knows how she did it, but she will need to test it to make it certain. And if it is really what she thinks it is, she wants to keep it a secret so she can use it as her trump card against Kirby. She then puts a hoof under her chin and asks to herself "Why wasn't he here anymore?"
At her answer, everyone, even Dark Meta Knight, looks at her in shock, stopping moving, some of them with their mouth agape. This makes Sweetie Belle look away with a blush, rubbing the back of her head. "Uh... So... Now that I'm awake, should we start to go toward Jambandra Base to join Kirby and the others?" She looks back at the others with worry. "Unless we're late and Kirby already stopped Hyness."
At this, the others recover from their shock, and Daroach replies. "Oh, yes. Don't worry, last time Dedede called, fifteen minutes ago, they were about to enter Jambandra Base. If they had defeated Hyness, he would have called again. Speaking of..." Daroach takes Sweetie's communication device from his cape and gives it back to her.
"Thanks."
"I already sent the Death Egg toward Jambandra Base," says Susie. "Gandaro and the other mages also went with their ship, the Starwalker. With the Lor Starcutter and its portals, we will join them in no time."
"They probably already arrived and are waiting for us. Of course, we will not appear too close of Jambandra Base, or we will be attacked directly," says Magolor. "So, are you ready for the final battle?"
"Yes!" immediately answers the filly with a big smile.
The next instant, she finds herself with Magolor just in front of her muzzle, looking at her right in the eyes. "And once we're done with the Jambastion Religion, you will tell me everything that happened against Galacta Knight. I want to know how you managed to beat him, and even if you don't know, I will find out."
"O-okay..."
The Lor Starcutter comes out of a star-shaped portal. Jambandra Base is now visible far away, a space station as huge as Dedede said, shaped like a cone circled all the way by many rings and arcs, with a second, smaller part floating above the top.
And as said, it's circled by about a dozen Jambastions.
Not far from where the Lor appeared, the Death Egg, as well as another ship are waiting, the second ship a little smaller than the other, and shaped like an elongated blue star with a smaller star 'traversing' it perpendicularly at the back. The Starwalker.
Soon, as the Lor joins the two other ships, the crew receives a call from the Starwalker. Magolor presses a button, and Lockwar appears at a corner of the screen.
"Glad that you could join us! I had more and more difficulty stopping myself from charging into battle! Now we can go kick those-"
"SHE DEFEATED GALACTA KNIGHT!" suddenly yells Magolor.
...
"Say what?"
"Sweetie Belle! Defeated! Galacta Knight!"
Lockwar's eyes can be seen moving from Magolor to Sweetie Belle, then back to Magolor. "Is this a joke?"
"No!"
"Come on, stop joking."
"This is not a joke, trick, fraud, lie, or whatever else you can think of! She did it!"
"Stop it Magolor!" shouts Sweetie Belle. "We're about to start a battle! We've no time to talk about that!"
Lockwar looks back toward Sweetie Belle. "We will talk about it later, but if what he says is true, then you'll have my eternal respect, kiddo. And I'll make sure to put a golden statue of you somewhere. Anyway, before we go into battle, a little exposition of what is awaiting us." At this, Lockwar presses a few buttons, and the next instant, an image of a Jambastion appears on the screen. "There are ten of those Jambastions circling Jambandra Base. We don't know much about them, but if they're anything like the old fortresses of the Magic Clan, then they should have a core somewhere. If we destroy the core, then-"
"We know. Dedede already told us about this," says Sweetie Belle. She then points at the image, at the top of the Jambastion. "It's somewhere at the top, under the floating octahedron, but we will need to destroy the hull to reach it."
"So we target the top in priority, thank you. But, of course, this will not be easy. Again, if those Jambastions are like the old fortresses, then the red octahedrons around them are actually magical cannons that can fire homing magical projectiles. The floating octahedron is also a weapon. The archives call it 'Wrath of the Void', a weapon that can gather Dark Matter and fire a huge corresponding beam that could annihilate any of our ships in one shot. Thankfully, it takes time to charge those things, so as long as we keep an eye, everything should be okay."
Lockwar then presses more buttons, and the image is replaced by one of Jambandra Base. "We shouldn't have to worry about Jambandra Base's biggest weapon, Judgement." The image zooms to the bottom of the station. "I don't know what went to the mind of the guys who built this station, but they decided that not only it would be the prison of the Dark God, it would also be a giant laser cannon. Maybe the Techno Clan thought that the Magic Clan would come with an even bigger station or ship to free their God. Well, no matter the reason, this station IS a giant laser cannon, and it's powerful enough to destroy anything. Of course, against our puny little ships, this cannon would be overkill, and it would take too much time for the station to maneuver to fire it at us. Our speed would also make it easy to dodge." The image moves up to the top of the station. "I don't know how long ago this Jambastion Religion took control of the station, but long enough that they've been able to do some redesign. Those eye-designs, bone-like whatever they are, and red stuff were definitely not there at the origin, but one thing hasn't changed: the surface is littered with thousands and thousands of cannons, especially on the arcs and at the top. Trying to dodge them will be like trying to dodge rain. Whatever happens, don't approach too close of the station unless you wish to die."
He presses a button again, and the picture changes to show Jambandra Base at a different angle, revealing a much smaller station (still much bigger than the Jambastions) linked to it by a bridge. "Thankfully, you won't need to. We did some scouting around the station and found out that those idiots moved the Jamba Heart to this place, that they built probably for their ritual to free the Dark God. It means that all you will have to do is fly around the station to reach it. Yes, it will be longer than flying straight toward it passing by this space between the two pieces of Jambandra Base, but at least you won't be killed by a rain of lasers. Of course, you'll have to pass the Jambastions first." Lockwar then presses a button, and the image disappears. "Since we haven't much time, I don't recommend that you participate too much in the battle against the Jambastions. We will try to gather all ten of them at this side of Jambandra Base, freeing the way for you to fly toward this smaller station without risk. Actually, you could even use a portal to gain time! Once the ten Jambastions are gathered, you leave us deal with them and go immediately."
"But this would be suicidal! You would be killed!" shouts Sweetie Belle.
"To ensure that the universe isn't destroyed, we are ready to sacrifice ourselves. I know there are probably your friends already working in avoiding it somewhere inside this station, but we don't know if they reached Hyness yet, and we don't know how much time we have left. We must act as quickly as possible."
"And don't worry, Sweetie Belle, they won't be alone," says Magolor.
"What do you mean?" asks Sweetie Belle.
"You will see, they should arrive soon."
"General! We're detecting five ships approaching!" suddenly shouts someone from Lockwar's side.
The next instant, the Lor detects the approaching ships too, and it reveals them on the screen, at the opposite side of the window with Lockwar. To everyone except Magolor's surprise, the ships are the Halberd, the Warhammer, Unisqueak, Bastron, and a triangle-shaped painted ship a little bigger than this last one. Another window opens to show Landia, still separated as four dragons, also coming. The Lor then receives four calls that Magolor immediately accepts, opening four windows with Captain Vul, Lololo and Lalala, Doc, and Paint Roller in them.
"Captain Vul here! Seems like we arrived just in time!"
"Here are Lololo-"
"And Lalala!"
"-and in the absence of all the other superiors in King Dedede's army, we took position as temporary captains of the Warhammer!"
"Yo headmistress Adeleine! We heard that you will need our help, so we painted this little beauty and came as soon as possible!"
"We also received the call, boss! We will finally be able to put Megasqueak to test!"
"It's Unisqueak!" yells Daroach.
"Wait, what?" shouts Adeleine before she turns toward Magolor. "That's what you did? You called reinforcement?"
"Yep!" answers proudly the mage. "Sadly, the fairies couldn't come because they don't have any spaceship, but they wish us luck. The robots of Shiver Star too."
"Wait a minute! Bastron? But Kirby and I destroyed it!" shouts Sweetie Belle.
Claycia and Elline blush before rubbing their head sheepishly. "We rebuilt it, just in case..."
"After the invasion of HWC."
Meanwhile, Doc presses something, and the next instant, the metallic blimp changes form, twisting and shifting until taking the form of a giant mecha mouse. The hat of the ship now truly serves as a hat on top of the mecha's head, while the metallic balloon has turned into the head and the body and the gondola has turned into the limbs.
"Megasqueak ready to take action!"
"I said it's Unisqueak!"
"Well, Magolor, I think we owe you one," says Lockwar.
"Thanks! But now, you have to repeat everything you just said to them," says Magolor with a giggle, making the general groan.
And so, after a second round of the exposition...
"Alright! Now we should be able to start this battle! Is everyone ready?!" shouts Lockwar.
"Yes!"
"Of course!"
"You bet!"
At this moment, something is selected in the screen without anyone pressing any buttons, and a song starts playing.
Sweetie looks at the screen with amusement. "Really, Lor?"
Adeleine raises an eyebrow. "Since when the Lor possesses a playlist of songs from Shiver Star?"
"Since the party a few months ago. The humans made some really good songs, so why not share them?" answers Sweetie Belle before she walks toward a chair further behind facing the screen recently added by Magolor for the captain of the Lor Starcutter. At first, Magolor made it for him since he considered himself as the captain, but the Lor refused to obey him as long as he was on this chair. However, when Sweetie Belle first sat on it before taking off earlier, the ship immediately followed her orders, to the mage's annoyance.
Once Sweetie Belle sits on it, a smaller screen with the communication windows appear at her left, leaving the main screen to fully let them view the action outside. "Lor Starcutter... Let's go."
At her words, the spaceshift immediately starts flying toward Jambandra Base.
"Hey! Don't start without us!" shouts Lockwar. "Alright boys! Time to show this Religion to not mess with our universe!"
"Aww yeah!" yells Lololo.
"Showtime!" shouts Lalala.
"Ahahahahah! The Halberd will help saving the universe for the third time!" shouts Vul in joy.
"The events with Dark Nebula don't count," says Sailor Waddle Dee offscreen. "He wasn't even a threat to the universe."
"Shut up!"
"Time to reveal your powers, Megasqueak!" shouts Doc in ecstasy.
"It's Unisqueak!"
"Yo! Those buffoons have no chance against us!" shouts Paint Roller.
All the ships start approaching the closest Jambastion, the fortress stopping to circle Jambandra Base when its crew detects them. A few seconds later, red projectiles of energy are fired from the red octahedrons, the projectiles flying right toward the closest ship: the Lor Starcutter.
"Dispersion!" yells Vul.
Every ships immediately separate, avoiding the risk of becoming the unexpected target of a dodged projectile, and making it easier to dodge without risking to collide with another ship. This let the Lor avoid the red projectiles without worry. The Jambastion fires more of those projectiles while a black energy is starting to be gathered above the floating octahedron at the top.
"Its Wrath of the Void is charging!" yells Lockwar. "Be ready, everyone!"
"We should target that thing to stop it," proposes Lalala.
"Good idea, pinky!"
"We're on it!" shouts Doc before the Unisqueak starts accelerating, overtaking all the other ships. As a result, it becomes the main target of the red projectiles, but its agility reveals to be far too much for them, the mecha gracefully flying around them. It eventually reaches the floating octahedron and starts firing at it with cannons at the arms and torso. While this isn't enough to destroy the octahedron, the Unisqueak is quickly joined by the Lor Starcutter which starts firing. A laser from the Halberd's Main Cannon 2 eventually finishes the octahedron just before it can fire, the octahedron exploding.
With the Jambastion deprived of its most powerful weapon, every ships start firing at its top, hoping to quickly destroy the hull and reach the core.
However...
"Jambastions coming from larboard and starboard!" shouts someone from Lololo and Lalala's side.
"So, it called its friends?" asks Paint Roller. "No problems!"
"It's exactly what we wanted," says Sweetie Belle. "But if the other nine Jambastions are starting to come, I fear that it will be too much, even with all of us together."
"Ahah! Let them come! We have a secret weapon!" shouts Doc. "Be ready," he then says to someone offscreen.
"Watch out!" yells Lockwar just before the two closest approaching Jambastions fire two huge black beams easily bigger than any of the ships. The beams target the Death Egg and the Starwalker, but the two ships manage to get out of the way in time, the Death Egg still losing a foot.
Rather than waiting for the two Jambastions to approach more, some of the ships separate from the others to attack them, trying to destroy the Wraths of the Void before they can fire again. Meanwhile, the hull of the first Jambastion is finally breached, and the Landias immediately enter and fire a storm of projectiles at the core, destroying it. With the core destroyed, the Jambastion stops attacking and starts to crumble.
"And one down!" shouts Vul.
"Nine to go," continues Lockwar.
At this moment, various creatures start flying from the crumbling Jambastion and from Jambandra Base to attack the ships directly, forcing them to change the target of some of the cannons to attack them. Meanwhile, more Jambastions are starting to come from both sides of the space station.
"I think it's time for us to use our secret weapon!" shouts Doc before the mouth of Unisqueak opens. "Go!"
Out of the mouth comes something so fast that everyone only see a blurred red and white trail. Whatever it is flies around for a few moments before it charges toward one of the Jambastions at a speed exceeding everything they can think of. The thing eventually reaches the Jambastion and flies right through its top, seemingly destroying the core on the way because the Jambastion starts crumbling just after.
"Wait! A Dragoon?!" shouts Sweetie Belle in surprise as she recognizes what it is.
"Exactly!" shouts proudly Doc. "Remember, Spinni used it in our battle against you."
"Oh, right! And so, it's Spinni who pilots it?"
"Nope, I'm right here," says Spinni as he shows himself behind Doc.
"But then, who...?"
She's answered by the Lor showing an image taken of the Dragoon and its pilot: Mirror Kirby.
"Mirror Kirby is here too?!"
"Yep!" answers Magolor. "The Lor can go anywhere, so going to Dreamland's Mirror World was no problem!"
"Bwaahahahahaha! That's perfect!" shouts Lockwar. "I think you should go now, Sweetie Belle, every Jambastions probably left their position, and the way to the small station behind Jambandra Base must be clear! We will manage." However, as he says that, Bastron is destroyed by a giant black beam from one of the Jambastions.
"Bastron!" yells Claycia.
"......Don't worry, we will still manage," says Lockwar, sweating.
"Trust us!" says Lololo.
"We will not let the Warhammer being destroyed!" says Lalala.
"And the ship we painted is the top of the top, those lasers don't scare us!" shouts Paint Roller.
Sweetie Belle sighs. "Alright. You heard that, Lor? Let's go."
At this, the Lor Starcutter opens a star-shaped portal, and disappears in it, leaving the others to deal with the eight... seven remaining Jambastion.
The Lor comes out of the portal near the smaller station, and it starts flying toward it. Seems like the Jambastion Religion hasn't even placed a single cannon to protect it when they built it, so the heroes approach the station without encountering any obstacles. Like planned, not even the Jambastions are here to stop them, the last of them disappearing behind Jambandra Base far away.
When the Lor reaches the middle of the top of the station, it starts hovering above a big place where the heroes spot Kirby, Dedede, Bandana Dee, Meta Knight, and over twenty other creatures fighting a yellow-haired girl using lightning. Not far, on an altar looking like a flower, is a big purple crystal heart not fully complete, the heart missing a small part. In front of it is a white cloaked figure doing... something, arms raised, while regularly looking back above their shoulder at the fight happening behind.
The fight is interrupted as the fighters spot the Lor Starcutter hovering above them, Kirby and his friends waving happily at it. The area is too small for the Lor to land however, but Sweetie Belle doesn't mind it.
"Lor, open the exit," orders Sweetie Belle before she leaves her chair. "Let's go, everyone."
"Are we really gonna do it?" asks Adeleine with a deadpan look.
"Don't worry, Ribbon will hold you," replies Sweetie Belle. "And, well, after making them wait all this time, our entrance must be as dramatic as possible," she adds with a smirk, making some of her friends laugh.
Sweetie Belle is the first to jump from the Lor, using her magic to safely land beside Kirby's group. Her friends all follow, landing one by one, Ribbon holding Adeleine, Coo holding Kine while ChuChu rides on him, Prince Fluff slowly floating down in the form of a parachute, and Susie using a propeller.
"Reinforcement is here!" shouts Sweetie Belle.
"Took your time!" shouts back Dedede with a laugh. "And you brought quite the dream team!"
"And nice entrance!" shouts Broom Sunglasses.
Sweetie Belle giggles before she looks at the other creatures. "And I see Kirby took advantage of the pink heart to make more friends. Typical of him."
"And again, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Kirby used the pink heart to befriend almost everyone we encountered on the way, even members of the Jambastion Religion. Those guys are just the ones who decided to follow us," says Bandana Dee.
Sweetie Belle rolls her eyes. "Why am I not surprised. By the way, nice seeing you here Cape Knight, you too Knuckle Joe. And I suppose that most of you come from Dedede's army."
Said members of Dedede's army wave at her.
Twenty four beings in total. With Broom Sunglasses, Cape Knight, and Knuckle Joe, there are too a Beetley, a Bio Spark, a Birdon, a Bonkers, a Bugzzy, a Burning Leo, a Chef Kawasaki, a Chilly, a Como, a Driblee (some big blue tadpole), a Gim, a NESP, a Parasol Waddle Dee, a Plugg, a Poppy Bros Jr, a Rocky, a Sir Kibble, a Vividria, a Waddle Doo, and a Wester. By elimination, the cloaked purple being with a staff must be the Jammerjab. Funny enough, for some reason, they all wear a hat of their corresponding ability, like the Bomb ability's cone hat for the Poppy Bros, or the Sword ability's green hat for Cape Knight.
Which brings their little army of heroes to a grand total of forty nine members. Fifty if Yin and Yarn are counted separately. This is ridiculous!
And opposing them, the Lightning General herself, leader of the three Jambastion Mages, Zan Partizanne. At first glance, she looks like a human, but then, it appears that she possesses disembodied hands, and no visible legs and feet. While her face is partially hidden behind her dark purple dress, it's easy to see that she also doesn't possess a nose. On her beret, the Jambastion Religion's emblem is present, showing her allegiance, and the yellow present on her, from her hairs, to lining and markings on her clothes, passing by two little curving marks coming from her eyes, show her affinity to the lightning element.
And the poor girl's body is littered with all kinds of injuries, cuts, bumps, burns, frostbite... She's at the verge of dropping unconscious, her breathing heavy. And right now, she's looking at all of them as if it is the end of the universe.
Again, poor girl. She has already been fighting a losing battle before, and now, every little hope she still had to win have just been destroyed by their arrival.
But, as if getting a second wind, Zan Partizanne suddenly materializes behind her a golden ring with three drums, and uses them to fire dozens of robs of electricity all over the area.
"Poyo!" shouts Kirby possessing a new ability with a red hat: the Staff. He twirls the staff above him, the staff being coated in water, while he jumps left and right to avoid the orbs. Then, he swings the staff while lengthening it, not only hitting Zan with hit, but also causing her ring to electrocute her before exploding, stunning her. Sweetie Belle then jumps in front of her to give her an uppercut that send her flying in the air, where she's attacked from all sides by many projectiles, from beams to kunais passing by fire, ice, lightning, and or even web.
By the end, she's propelled near the base of the staircase leading to the Jamba Heart, smoking, sticking with web, and electricity coursing her. Despite all this, she's able to raise her head to look at Hyness, reaching out to him with an arm, before weakly saying "Help... Hyness..." and finally falling unconscious.
Hearing her, Hyness looks above his shoulder, and seeing Zan knocked out, turns around. "Juh? What is this... interference?" He then proceeds to slowly walk down the stairs.
Seeing him coming, the heroes gather in front, waiting to see what he will do.
"This is it," says Meta Knight, sword ready.
The way Hyness is walking down the stairs, without making a sound, his dropped arms moving left and right at the rhythm of his steps, is making everypony looking really uneasy. They don't know why, but this guy has this... atmosphere around him... It's as if each step he's taking is getting them one step closer to their doom. His body entirely cloaked, the sleeves even reaching the floor, only revealing of his body his tiny, yellow, glowing eyes makes it even worse.
"I think we have our winner for the tournament of creepiest bad guy," says Pinkie while hugging as many scared foals as possible.
Hyness reaches the bottom of the staircase, arriving just in front of the unconscious mage. He looks down at her and they barely hear him say "You... You seem to be in my way," before he slaps her out of the way, to everypony's shock.
"Oh! He dares!" shouts Rarity.
"If I could I would punch him!" shouts Rainbow.
After advancing a little more, Hyness stops in front of Sweetie Belle and the others before he starts talking. "Well then… It seems… we do not have enough energy… to revive our Dark Lord… Must we… allow ourselves… to fall… into oblivion?" he says, not sure if he talks to himself or to the heroes. "No," he suddenly shouts, taking everypony by surprise after having talked so calmly since he started. "NO! No no no no no! NONONONONONONONONO!!! NOOOOO, I SAAAAY!!!"
"Woah, this guy misses a few screws," says Applejack.
Suddenly, Hyness starts erratically moving, doing circles with the top of his body while moving his head and his arms in all directions as he continues his rant, talking so rapidly that if they haven't been used to Pinkie, they probably would have missed a few words.
"We are the masters of a power driven to the far reaches of the universe, and we have but one desire! Can one such as you possibly fathom how dearly we have clung to this dream across the aeons? How could you! You couldn’t! Never ever ever! We who once faced those who were in such fear of our power that they sealed us away and banished us to the edge of the galaxy! US! As if THAT loveliness wasn’t enough, they tried to erase our very existence from history! RUDE! Only through our magic were we able to overcome their science and achieve great prosperity! We alone were responsible for stopping that repulsive nightmare of a galactic crisis, yet this is how you repay us! This won’t stand! It won’t be forgiven! It won’t be forgotten! Never ever EVER! Those who called us mad, are you listening? You left us at the edge of the galaxy to be forgotten, then went along your merry way, probably living somewhere pretty and peaceful! But know this! Your future is a farce! You have none! We, masters of a matter most dark, vow to be restored, as foretold in the book of legend, which everyone thought was just a fairy tale! It WASN’T! We have already obtained the vessel that contains our Dark Lord, and he will soon awaken and shower us in compassion! Look! The vessel of our Dark Lord is filling up even as we speak! Now the time for his greatness to enter our world has come! Welcome to a new history! A new age! The age of awesome! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARK LORD! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" he yells before he finishes by rising his arms, bending his body to his left and screaming "Grace us, Gloriously Dark Looooooord!"
"Okay, what the heck?" shouts Rainbow Dash.
"Is this so surprising that he's crazy?" asks Discord. "The guy wants to free a God to destroy the universe thinking that he will lead him to a better world."
However, surprisingly, while Hyness' rant and obvious craziness has disconcerted some of the heroes, especially among the new ones, Sweetie Belle and most of the others remain focused, barely rising an eyebrow or staring at Hyness wondering why he isn't in an asylum.
Hyness then floats up, seemingly calming down. "You see it now…don't you? Anyone who interrupts our revival ceremony… We must kindly ask that they…" He raises his arms. "PLEASE DISAPPEAR FOREVER!"
Finally, he points his right arm at the heroes, beginning the fight.
Hyness fights... surprisingly slowly, floating around fluidly and regularly sending black orbs looking like Magolor's. And yet, despite his slow flying, he always manage to avoid the projectiles sent his way. Attacking him directly with weapons or whatever else works better, but it's hard to say if he takes damage, the guy not even flinching when he's hit.
Eventually, he decides to get more serious, starting by creating an emblem, the same than the one of his hood, from which he fires countless sharp picks to impale the heroes. He immediately follows it by summoning two huge pillars of fire, followed by a pillar of lightning between them, the lightning releasing a shockwave. Not finished yet, he summons dozens of that emblems, colored blue, that release a freezing wind around them, trapping in ice anyone caught in it.
Yep, this guy means business. He starts alternating between all those spells while keeping this cold calmness, as if for him, the heroes are just a small nuisance deserving to be crushed under his shoes before he can start working again. In brief, he's barely trying.
But things change when Dark Meta Knight, Taranza, and the Birdon manage to stop Hyness from moving for a few seconds, letting enough time for Meta Knight to send a tornado at him. The tornado not only sends Hyness further in the air, but it also knocks the hood away. However, Hyness' body is now bent backward, so nobody can see his head.
"Juh? JUH… JUH!" Then, suddenly, he bends his body forward, revealing his big-nosed, chameleon-eyed blue face with two ears/horns and yelling "JUHYAMBAVITRIGOKOPOKOJAAAH!!"
Nobody is spared, both among the heroes and among the spectators. At best, they jump or flinch in surprise, at worst, they run away at the opposite extremity of the room yelling like little girls/fillies.
The only one not affected is Discord. "My... No wonder he wears a hood, with a face like that."
Screaming incomprehensible words, Hyness then does some weird dance, invoking Zan Partizanne as well as two other girls, one with blue hairs, the mage of ice Francisca, and one with red spiky hairs, the mage of fire Flamberge. To everypony's horror, he then drains their life force, the mages visibly becoming black with red eyes while Hyness' injuries he gained in the battle until now disappear.
"That's a new low!" shouts Twilight.
The shock turns into anger, Sweetie Belle saying "Guys... No mercy."
"Oh, don't worry, we will show none," says Bandana.
That's under the encouragement of the ponies, and shouts of "Punch his big-nosed face!" or "Make him pay!" especially from the little ones, that the fight restarts, the bodies of the mages starting to circle Hyness.
He immediately starts doing another dance, swaying his head side to side, before he starts throwing the three mages one by one at the heroes, to their total surprise. Even more surprising, when the mages hit the ground, making them groan in pain, depending of their element, it causes crystals of fire, ice, or electricity to come out around them. As soon as the mages hit the ground, Hyness brings them back to him, using them as shields to take the blunt of the projectiles fired toward him, or giving elemental damage to anyone touching them while trying to hit Hyness with direct attacks. He then tilts his body left and right while rising his arms, and the next instant, he grabs Zan Partizanne and starts swinging her around like a club, getting again the heroes by surprise by the cruelty of this move. After a few swings, he then violently slams the girl on the ground, creating more electric crystals to pop out in front of him. After that, he does the same with Flamberge. The targeted heroes, now knowing the move, try to get away, but Hyness, despite everything, is a smart guy, following after the running heroes to still hit them.
After that, Hyness spins his head twice, to everyone's horror, and starts using the elemental spells he used earlier, only this time, he rapidly switches between them, passing in a few seconds from the pillars of fire to the freezing wind, the electric pillar, and then, he bounces his head and shoulders before firing the sharp sticks.
Then, he spots Sweetie Belle, who hasn't stopped firing magical beams from her horn since the start of this second phase of the fight, not daring to come too close to not get hit by one of the circling mages. Without warning, Hyness charges toward her, and to everyone's surprise, again, he grabs her. He then puts an arm under her neck and barrel, grabs her tail with the other, and starts rapidly moving her tail up and down. Somehow, despite herself, this causes Sweetie Belle to fire magical beams from her horn, and of course, her friends are the targets.
"W-w-what?!" she shouts.
"Hey! That's my move!" yells Pinkie.
Dedede ducks down to avoid the beams. "Stop firing at us!"
"I can't! He's somehow forcing me to fire! Wait..." Thinking quickly, she turns her body into metal, her weight causing both her and Hyness to drop to the ground. Released from his grip, she turns toward him and punches him right on the nose, sending him flying and crashing into a wall. "That's for using me to hurt my friends, you sicko!"
Hyness quickly recovers from the punch and returns. And again, he surprises everyone by doing a circle with the mages before they start rapidly rolling around, turning, rolling, and turning again, left and right, back and forth, crushing more than one hero who couldn't get out of the way in time.
After many long seconds, they stop rolling, Hyness making them float instead, rolling in the air faster and faster until the circle 'explodes', projecting the three mages at three different directions too rapidly to react and dodge for the few unluckies on the way. As for Hyness, he remains in the air, having gotten himself dizzy, giving the perfect occasion for the heroes to attack him with everything they have. Some of them, the most hurt, rather take the occasion to heal themselves with food painted by Vividria and Adeleine. Some of them even let themselves getting in Kawasaki's pot so he can invoke more food.
Hyness reveals to be very resistant, the storm of attacks not being enough to knock him out before he recovers from his dizziness. He immediately spins his head once before he places the three mages against his body, hiding himself between the three of them, which creates a shield around them. Safely hidden, he starts to regularly come out to throw dark orbs, starting with small ones, but eventually charging giant ones. The moments where he comes out to attack are the only ones where he can be attacked, the shield disappearing. After a few hits, the shield formation is broken, stunning Hyness again.
This time, the heroes decide to attack him all at once. Using the power of the pink heart, they assemble together to form with their bodies a giant drill, the ones armed of swords or spears at the front while the ones able to fly are at the back. Once the drill is formed, the flying ones start spinning it before pushing the formation toward Hyness. He's hit just as he starts recovering, taking the full brunt of the attack! However, instead of being pierced, he's projected right into the Jamba Heart while the mages drop here and there. It doesn't knock it from the altar, but it causes the both of them to drop on it, the heart falling right on Hyness, cracked, purple energy escaping it.
Crushed by the heart, Hyness starts yelling, in pain, in hate, in anger... Before everyone's eyes, even the mages as they start waking up, dark energy starts to come out of him, enveloping him and the Jamba Heart in a dark cloud, his screams disappearing. Then, as everything around them starts shaking, the fabric of space and time around the cloud breaks apart, opening a hole in which the cloud disappears. Nothing remains of Hyness and the Jamba Heart.
"Lord Hyness!" yell the three mages before they fly into the hole.
"What?! They're still following him after what he's done to them?!" shouts Luna.
Celestia sighs. "They're blinded by their loyalty..."
"But what happened?" asks Apple Bloom.
"Oh, well, you see, Hyness was so mad that he simply broke. I think that in contact with the Jamba Heart, his evil escaped his heart and consumed the both of them, and the result was so powerful that it broke the frontier between the Dream Universe and the Other Dimension, already pretty damaged, opening this hole," explains Discord.
Meanwhile, Bandana Dee asks "What should we do?"
"What a question," replies Dedede. "We enter that hole."
Magolor nods. "We can't let Hyness and the Jamba Heart escape."
At his words, everyone nods. However, before they can start advancing toward the hole, they spot a butterfly fluttering down in front of them.
"Uh? What's a butterfly doing here?" asks Marx.
"Wait, I think I recognize this butterfly," says Sweetie Belle.
"Is it...?" asks Starlight.
Suddenly, the butterfly is enveloped in light, transforming.
When the light disappears, the new being, looking like a black Child of the God with red butterfly wings and a red helmet, opens his eyes, staring at the heroes.
???
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oh gezze! my god, heck YES!!!
Susie and Magolor....
I ship it.
Let me guess: You had the caps lock on and forgot that pressing Shift with caps lock on makes letters lowercase.
Why a triangle-shaped ship?
That's no Unisqueak... That's a Transqueaker!
(Also, truly is spelled without an e, and you forgot the second o in balloon.)
Between this and the Shiver Star rocket, would it be safe to assume that you like 80's and 90's music?
You forgot to capitalize Dragoon.
Pilot is spelled without an e.
Oh, I was expecting them to fall so hard that they caused a crater to appear where they landed rather than just float down. It's still dramatic, though.
Take that back! Driblee's a snake, not a tadpole!
And this is why Kirby should have his own version of Super Smash Bros. (By the way, forty is spelled without a u.)
I remember the first time I heard his rant. I was genuinely freaked out. And even more so by his unhooded face.
I was about to mention the reference, but Pinkie got there first.
A Friend Action that takes a whirling Luiginoid Formation and lays it on its side! The Star Allies make the ultimate reference with a callback to Kirby's Robobot adventure! Behold, the power of the Friend Drill! (Also, you didn't capitalize 'using.')
You mean 'at his words.'
Oh shit it's Morpho knight. Guess his boss before heroes in another dimension begins
10000052
Truth be told, I was so In the move that I pressed Shift by reflex.
Triangle ships are a very basic design, and easy and quick to paint. The painters didn't have much time to do a more complex design.
I like songs from all time, but you must say that outside of Rock and Metal, singers don't do songs like that anymore. Well, I say that, but this song was made in 2015 for the little amateur movie Kung Fury. Also, this song was the only one that I found that fit the action.
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/kirby/images/3/33/KSA_Driblee_Artwork.png/revision/latest?cb=20180220180716&path-prefix=en
cdn.britannica.com/23/124223-050-D46F70F6/Littlejohn-tree-frog-tadpole.jpg
Between the fins at the tail, and the big head compared to the rest, I would say that a Driblee is closer to a tadpole than to a snake. Also, Driblee is a being of water, and tadpoles live in water.
Lucar out.
media3.giphy.com/media/3o7qDSOvfaCO9b3MlO/200.gif?cid=790b761198b8a12f5a77374aa77a628eef1bc58797dbeaa1&rid=200.gif
I would buy immediately!
Same!
Without forgetting the serious Zant vibe he gives.
The perfect finish!
Well, it would have been perfect if Hyness was the final boss like they hoped.
I maintain that Fluttercord is the only way to make sense of several parts of the series, most notably "Twilight will not outlive her friends".
Oh, right, Mirror Kirby apparently had a cameo somewhere around here in the actual game post-updates. Never found him, but gray-on-black is actually harder to see than black-on-black.
So... we're skipping Void Termina for now in favor of the Guest Star version of these events? You better get back to that, for the aforementioned narrative obligations.
10000604
You can see him sometime flying on a Warp Star at the top of the Jambastion. You have to be at the last level to see him. And he only appears every now and then.
Don't worry, it's only the time of the next chapter. Then we will pass to the Heroes in Another Dimension events. I had to take some liberty so the Heroes in Another Dimension would happen before the final fight, because the heroes returning to Jambandra Base after the final fight would have been weird, and also to find something to justify the presence of Pink Hearts and of Heart Spears in the Other Dimension.
10000546
Good point, although there are snakes that live in water too.
By the way, I can't believe that you made Heroes in Another Dimension canon! Talk about a plot twist!
Eggman somewhere must feel ripped off and paranoid that someone stole his design.
10382454
It's just the name. Contrary to the real Death Egg which is spherical, this one is actually egg-shaped.
You forgot the closing parenthesis.
10557111
Corrected.
You should make the text in Hyness' rant a little smaller to make it seem like he's talking so fast it's hard to keep up, like in the game.
10560864
Good idea, I didn't think of this. Thanks.
Error spotted, correction in green.