Chapter 28: After the Dark Storm
They returned to the fortress of Iceberg, victorious. When they landed, the wand, like the Rainbow Sword, disappeared, not needed anymore, giving Sweetie her normal appearance, her white coat now however drenched by Zero's blood. Kirby and Gooey also had some blood on them, but not as much as the filly who tried to shake it off in disgust. Knowing that this blood came from something she killed, for real this time, didn't help. It made her look like a murderer, when she simply did what had been expected: ending the threat, and for that, Zero had had to be killed. She had accepted that she would have to kill a bad guy to save Popstar, and she had prepared herself for such an eventuality. However, she couldn't deny the fact that deep down, she had really wanted to kill Zero, for everything he did and what he forced her through.
She killed him by duty, but she also killed him for her own reason. Vengeance, anger and hate.
Did that still make it right? Or did that make her no better than him?
She tried not to think about it as everyone was gathering around her, Kirby, and Gooey to congratulate them in saving Popstar. She turned toward Dedede and saluted at him, forcing a smile.
"Zero is dead, King Dedede. You should be happy to learn that I am the one who gave the finishing blow."
"Seeing the blood, I'm not surprised. I didn't even know they could bleed," Dedede said.
She laughed sheepishly. "One of Zero's attacks consisted of shooting his own blood at us, and his eye was literally made of blood so when it exploded... it was messy."
"That doesn't matter," Dedede replied, lifting Sweetie Belle of the floor so they could be face to face. "I'm proud of you. Even if it must have been hard, you have done it." He smiled widely at her. "I didn't expect any less from my trump card."
Sweetie giggled at his compliment. "Thank you." But soon, she stopped giggling and looked at herself, at her bloody coat, and remembered. Her attacking Zero's eye like a raged beast. The eye bleeding so much. The eye being expelled of the body in even more blood. The red hole in the body. The eye exploding with yet again more blood. Blood. Blood. All that blood. Caused by her own hooves.
Dedede saw her starting shaking and immediately put her against his chest before running toward the stairs to enter the fortress, shouting, "I must go! She needs a bath! Nago, you come with me! She will need a plush, and you are like an oversized one!"
"Meow!" the cat replied, following the king.
Kirby looked as they took the stairs to enter the tower, understanding what was going on. Even him was a little... disturbed by what happened up there. It was also his first time seeing blood in such a great quantity. But it must be worse for Sweetie. She hadn't been as prepared as him for so much violence.
He looked at his friends, Gooey and the animals, and said, "Poyo," before pointing at the stairs.
They all understood and nodded, ChuChu wanting nothing more than to hug the filly. She hadn't seen the fight, but seeing the blood and hearing what Sweetie said earlier, the poor dear will need all the comfort in the world.
They shouldn't have let her fight. She had already not been so good mentally after being possessed and forced to hurt innocents, Zero only worsened it.
"You are going after Sweetie Belle?" they heard someone ask. When they looked, they saw that it was a Waddle Dee alongside a familiar Broom Hatter with sunglasses and a Knuckle Joe. "Let us come with you. We also want to help her."
Kirby smiled at them and nodded. And together, they entered the tower.
A few minutes later, they found Sweetie on a big bed, in Dedede's personal chamber in the fortress, without her cape, kerchief, and headband, her coat without blood anymore, and her eyes closed, but not from sleeping. Right now, she was curled against Nago's belly, the cat putting as much of his small tail as he could around her, which was not much. Dedede was beside the bed, petting the filly.
ChuChu rapidly jumped on the bed to hug Sweetie, her motherly instinct taking over, and she was soon followed by all the others trying to give her some comfort one way or another, Broom Sunglasses taking off his sunglasses and hat before getting on the bed, not saying anything for once. Before long, Sweetie found herself in the middle of a pile, hugged from all sides. Dedede decided to just sit down beside the wall and watch.
Then Sweetie talked, not opening her eyes.
"Thank you, everyone..."
"You can count on us to be here for you!" Knuckle Joe said.
"Was it really that horrible?" Waddle Dee asked.
Gooey and Kirby nodded.
"You can't get out of a bloody fight without being disturbed if you aren't used to it," Broom Sunglasses said.
They could hear Sweetie sighs. "The blood is not the only reason why I'm like that..."
"It's because of the fact that you are the one that killed Zero?" Dedede asked. "Despite you telling me that you had accepted this, it must still be hard, knowing that you have killed."
"There is that..." Sweetie answered. "It's... I feel like a murderer..." At this, she could feel the hugs getting stronger.
Dedede shook his head. "You aren't a murderer. Are soldiers considered as murderers? They do their duty, like you have done yours."
"He is right, Sweetie," Waddle Dee said. "You saved Popstar."
"Was there anyway to spare Zero?" Broom Sunglasses asked.
"No... If he could have been given the capacity to dream, like Gooey, then maybe. But there was no way to do that right now."
"Then that's okay. Killing Zero was the only way to save everyone. If it wasn't you who finished him, then it would have been Kirby, or Gooey."
"It's just... I... I have not just killed Zero because I had to..."
Kirby looked at Sweetie, understanding what she meant, seeing how she had been violent against Zero in the fight.
Surprisingly, Dedede was the one nailing it. "You let your feelings get the best of you? You killed Zero in anger?"
Sweetie nodded slowly, tears appearing in her eyes. "I hated him... I... I wanted to kill him... I wanted to make him pay... Because of him... I... I..."
"I wanted to kill him too," Dedede suddenly said, stopping her, the filly looking at him in surprise. "You aren't the only one that wanted to tear him apart. Remember, I got the same treatment than you because of him, twice. If I could have gone up there and fight him, then I would have done everything to make him suffer. And I'm speaking about me, but I'm sure the majority of my army wanted the same thing, right you three?" he asked to Waddle Dee, Broom Sunglasses, and Knuckle Joe.
They nodded.
"See, Sweetie? Don't feel bad about letting your feelings talk for you. In this situation, it was only natural. We will not look down on you because of this. We would have done the same in your place."
"Because we aren't robots," she suddenly heard coming from the entrance. When she looked, she saw that it was Cape Knight who had joined them. "Only someone with a great mental training would have been able to fight Zero without losing control of their feelings after what happened. And you have only started fighting for a few months. You weren't prepared. At least..." He looked at Sweetie Belle in the eyes. "you can now use this fight to learn and get better. Telling yourself 'never again'."
"Never again..." Sweetie Belle repeated, closing her eyes. "Yes... Never again." She then felt someone pet her head. Opening her eyes again, she saw that it was Kirby, smiling at her.
"Poyo."
"Like Kirby says, you can count on us to help you," Broom Sunglasses said.
"That's right," Cape Knight continued, now sitting beside Dedede. "You will probably encounter other villains, and some of them may be even more horrible than Zero. Their action will probably anger you again, and you will want to make them pay. Again, this is natural, and that's ok if that happens. However, remember that you have friends at your side that can help you keep your emotions in check, and not do something you may personally regret, like what happened just now."
"Yes..." Sweetie said. "I'm so happy... to have you all. Thank you."
Dedede smiled warmly at her. "Also, even if you have killed Zero by vengeance, you still killed him to save the world, right?"
"Yes."
"Then it's okay! You still have done the job of a hero! You just put some personal feelings in the matter, that's all. I'm sure Kirby also wanted a piece of Zero for forcing him to fight some of his friends."
"Poyo!"
"See? Even Kirby! So stop feeling guilty about that. It makes everyone sad when you are sad."
Broom Sunglasses then talked. "You could say..." He took his sunglasses and put them on. "our moral is at zero."
...
ChuChu hit him on the back of the head.
"That was bad and you should feel bad!" Knuckle Joe added.
But then, they heard Sweetie Belle starting laughing.
Seeing this, Broom Sunglasses said, "No. I actually feel good."
They all pass the night in the bedroom, sleeping together on the bed, except Dedede and Cape Knight who slept against the wall. The next day, Dedede said to everyone that it was time for him to return to the castle with the army. At that, with signs and poyos, Kirby proposed that they all take a picnic together tomorrow, to relax and let these events in the past, and everyone accepted, Dedede with reluctance, but seeing Sweetie happy at the idea, he couldn't say no. Beside, he could put his grudge against Kirby aside to pass some good time. He needed that after the drama from the previous day.
They will just have to bring a LOT of food.
At that, the animals returned to their homes, and soon, everyone else returned in the mainland, Kirby taking a Warp Star to fly around Dream Land, probably to bring more friends to the picnic. As for Gooey, he just decided to wait the next day in the castle with Sweetie Belle.
While waiting for the picnic, Sweetie decided to test some... new skills that she picked up from the Dark Matter possessing her. And so, accompanied by Dedede, Waddle Dee, Broom Sunglasses, Cape Knight, Knuckle Joe, and Gooey, she went on the boxing ring.
"I'm surprised you want to return training so soon," the king said.
"I wouldn't call it training," Sweetie replied. "It's more like 'testing'. You see, the Dark Matter possessing me used my shields in a way that I didn't think before. And it gave me an idea to use them to... 'fly', so I don't have to always go on Kirby's back to pass paths that couldn't be passed on hooves, or feet. I think it would be a good alternative until I can self-levitate."
"You can already levitate stuff, why can't you self-levitate?" Waddle Dee asked.
"Probably too heavy. Maybe she should stop the cakes," Broom Sunglasses said.
The hatter suddenly found himself levitated before being thrown above one of the stands, and they could hear him hit a pile of stuffs, and for some reason, they heard a cat. Everyone raised a sign with a number at that:
Dedede: 9
Waddle Dee: 10
Cape Knight: 7
Knuckle Joe: 100!!! ("WOOOO!!!" he screamed)
Gooey : 10 (he lifted the sign upside down, making it look like 01)
This made Sweetie giggle before she said, "I'm definitely not too heavy. Thanks to my training, I could now levitate another filly or colt my size. It's just that it's harder to focus in levitating our own body."
"But you will be able to do it! I know it!" Knuckle Joe shouted.
"Of course I will do it! I will train hard for that! But until then, I may have found another solution with my shields."
"Now I'm curious to see how you can use shields to fly," Dedede said.
"Well, see?" She materialized a flat shield on the floor and made it go up. "The Dark Matter used this to..." She rubbed her head sheepishly. "to crush Kine against the ceiling. And with that, I understood two things. I can use my shields to attack, and I can use my shields as platforms for someone or something to go on."
"I think that I see where you are going with this," Cape Knight said.
Sweetie made the flat shield disappear before she materialize another one a few inches above the floor, a little bigger than her, and she jumped on it. With her on it, she then made the shield slowly go up, successfully lifting her. "It works!"
Everyone applauded her, including Broom Sunglasses who had come back with some scratches on his head.
"That's impressive, Sweetie Belle! I'm so jealous!" Waddle Dee shouted.
"I can lift you too, you know?"
At that, she materialized another shield in front of Waddle Dee. He screamed in joy before jumping on it, the shield lifting him up. However, they could see that the filly was starting to sweat.
"Seems like lifting two persons at the same time is a little too much for you," Cape Knight said. "You should go back on the floor before the shield disappears under your hooves."
"Yeah... Urg... Twilight could probably lift all of us at the same time..."
The rest of the day, wanting to remain beside her just in case, Dedede decided to play some chess with Sweetie until dinner, where he ordered his chef to cook for the filly their best Maxim Tomato Pie. Because of that, it was a very stuffed Sweetie Belle that went to sleep this night, letting Gooey sleep with her.
The next day, she, with Dedede, Waddle Dee, Broom Sunglasses, Cape Knight, Knuckle Joe, and Gooey, joined the location that had been decided for the picnic, at lunchtime. The place was none other than her picnic spot, with the tree and the lake, the blanket just beside the water, and she could see that they were the last to come, and was surprised by some of the friends that Kirby invited.
She easily recognized Whispy Woods and Adeleine, but she also saw a bipedal pudgy raccoon, a bipedal yellow fox, and in the lake beside them an orca. She also saw beside Rick a female hamster that looked like him, but with pink fur where he possessed brown fur, and she wore a red bow on her head. Beside Nago was a cat like him, but all white. With ChuChu was a similar yellow octopus with a white sailor hat with a pink band around it. Pitch was under the wing of a bird that looked like him, but bigger, and pink instead of green. And in the lake, she could see a pink fish beside Kine. After the greetings, it was Adeleine who presented the new ones.
"The pink hamster is Pick, and the white cat is Shiro, they are Rick and Nago's girlfriend. And Mine, the pink fish, is Kine's wife." She pointed at the yellow octopus. "This is Nyupun, ChuChu's best friend. And the bird is Pitch's mom, Twitch. The orca is Acro, the raccoon is Pon, and the fox is Con."
"Hello, nice to meet you all," the filly said. She suddenly found herself in a bear hug by the white cat while she was surrounded by all the other females, excluding Adeleine and ChuChu, awwing at her. ChuChu went beside Nyupun and bumped her while giggling.
"Told you she was adorable," she said in her animal talk.
"You were right! I just want to pinch those little cheeks!" Nyupun replied.
Sweetie was able to get out of Shiro's hug only to be tickled in the belly by Pick, her laugh making all the females awwing again.
"To think that she helped save the world!" Twitch exclaimed.
"I know right? It's hard to believe that such an adorable little thing has done so much!" Mine said.
Pick then took her bow. "I will put it on her mane! She will be even more adorable!"
"Ooh! Before, I wanna put my hat on her!" Nyupun said.
Shiro took a brush. "Girl time with the cutie!"
"Help! Someone!" Sweetie shouted.
Dedede guffawed. "Sorry Sweetie Belle! You are alone this time! The women must sate their thirst of cuteness!"
"Why aren't they after Kirby?! He is as adorable as me!"
"They have already done it!" Adeleine said, showing Kirby who had his back turned, sweating. "Actually... Let me join you girls! I wanna brush her mane!"
"NOOOOOOO!!!"
Waddle Dee could only watch the scene, sweating. "Being adorable can be a benediction... but it also can be a curse..." he said.
"No... truer... words..." Broom Sunglasses said, back on the floor, all red, with steam getting out of him, with Knuckle Joe waving a fan at him.
Sweetie Belle was now sitting close beside Dedede, a sailor hat on her head, a red bow attached to her tail, and eyes going from girl to girl, ready to bolt if one started to approach her with THAT look. At least, Adeleine looked at her with an expression that said, "Sorry, I couldn't resist."
"Eventually, the Dark Matter in me got angry, and I found myself chasing Kirby trying to eat him," she then heard Whispy Woods say.
"Wow, you too?" Dedede said.
Kirby, Gooey, and the animals got goosebumps at what they were saying.
"Wait, you two tried to eat Kirby?" Sweetie asked. "I tried to eat Pitch!"
"Tweeeeet?!" Twitch shouted in horror.
"Well... That is one way like any other to get rid of an enemy..." Waddle Dee said. "Kirby does it all the time."
"Excepted that when he eats someone, they just reappear elsewhere not far. I don't think the same thing would have happened here..." Broom Sunglasses said.
"Eheh... It would have been ironic for Kirby to be eaten," Cape Knight said.
Dedede laughed. "The eater eaten! It is hilarious!"
"Poyo!" the puffball exclaimed, outraged. This made some of the others chuckle.
"There is something that I don't understand," Knuckle Joe said. "Gooey told Sweetie about Zero's existence, but..." He turned to Gooey. "Why didn't you tell us earlier that he was coming?"
"Goo..." Gooey said, doing a shrug with his tongue.
"You didn't know?" Sweetie Belle asked.
He nodded.
"How could you not know?" Dedede asked.
"Goo... Scout."
"I think I see," Cape Knight said. "You were going from world to world, trying to find targets?"
"Goo!" He nodded.
"But what about the Dark Matter that possessed me the first time?" Dedede asked. "Surely he was a sign."
"Dark Matter... powerful... alone..."
"A Dark Matter powerful enough can attack a world by themself?" Waddle Dee said.
Gooey nodded.
"It's true that this Dark Matter was more powerful than the ones we fought in that dark cloud," Sweetie Belle said. "So you thought that he was just a lonely attacker, rather than a soldier sent to weaken Popstar for an invasion?"
He nodded.
They all sighed at that. Nothing could have been done...
"I... have one last question, Gooey," Sweetie then said. "When we were possessed, the Dark Matters were calling Kirby 'the Incarnation'..."
"Poyo?"
"Oh right..." Dedede said. "They named him that when they were talking about you and how you were pushing them back."
"Yes, I remember," Whispy Wood said. "The Dark Matter in me was warned that 'the Incarnation was coming'."
"Same," Adeleine said.
Acro, Pon, and Con confirmed it too with a nod.
Gooey only answered with a shrug of his tongue. "Zero old... Knew things... Gooey not told."
"He probably recognized Kirby as something and told the Dark Matters that were with him," Dedede said.
"So Kirby is the incarnation of something?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Now I wonder what."
"Probably gluttony," Broom Sunglasses said.
This made Pitch roll in laughter and Dedede guffawed, soon followed by giggles from all the others, even Kirby.
And so, the picnic continued, with more laugh, some games, and a really good ambience overall. They learned that Acro will go live in another world somehow, Sweetie recounted some of her crusadings, they swam a little in the lake, Adeleine made some drawings of everyone...
Sweetie really regretted that her friends and family from Equestria weren't here.
But one day... One day, she will be with them again, and she will have another picnic, this time really with everyone.
And it will be the best day ever.
But right now, she was glad to be with so many good friends. Already, it was almost like the events with the Dark Matters had never happened.
Almost...
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Pfft...snerk...HA HA HA HA HA!
Too true.
H E W I L L R E T U R N
you can’t destroy what is called “Nothing”
9560773
The "Almost..." was actually about the fact that even if Sweetie is able to stop thinking about what happened thanks to her friends, the events with Zero and the Dark Matters have left their marks.
9560808
oh...
9560773
"You can not defeat me for I am nothing"
Makuta Teridax
Probably the incarnation of something very destructive.
I think Sweetie would've gotten a perfect 10 from everyone if she did the same thing that happened to Patrick in this scene (except she only does the spinning, slamming, and throwing part).
10545018
Probably, yes.
Bwahahahahaha!!
YES BROOM SUNGLASSES!
CAN YOU FEEL IT?
THE GOLDEN RATIO!
INFINITE MEMERY!
11513696
The memepower is strong in Broom Sunglasses!
Finally someone acknowledge it!