A Sweetie Dream Land

by Lucar

Chapter 35: The Fallen World

They jumped out of the portal and landed on snow, the temperature going from the extreme heat of the volcano to really cold. Barely they took their first step on the snow and they were already shaking, some of them even having their teeth clacking. Dedede and Sweetie Belle were the less affected by the cold, the king thanks to his clothes and the fact that he was a penguin, and so was naturally resistant to the cold, and the filly thanks to both her fur and her cape, that she still wrapped around herself.

Waddle Dee crossed his arms, trying to warm himself. "Brrrr... I don't know what is worse. Almost melting in the heat, or freezing in the cold. Sweetie Belle, can I borrow your fur?"

The filly gave him a deadpan look. "I'm not sure if you are trying to be funny, or if you really think that I can give you my fur just like that. And no, even if I had a mean to shave my fur, I would not give it to you, or to anyone."

"Besides, I don't think I want to see how Sweetie would look without her fur," Adeleine said. "It would probably be no better than seeing a naked Mr. Frosty."

"Ugh... Please, don't give us images like that," Dedede said in disgust. "Let's just go and find the shards in this world as quickly as possible, so we can go to a warmer place."

They all nodded and looked at Ribbon for a direction. Once she gave it, they started to walk, Kirby eating in the way some bird made of ice to gain the Ice Ability, giving him a greater resistance to the cold, to Waddle Dee's envy. After a small and rather uneventful trek, they reached the base of a small cliff that they could climb with the help of ladders installed on the wall. They just had to watch out for the flying enemies while climbing them, and they found some food in small holes. At the top, they found nothing else then bobsleds, all in range, ready to be taken and used to slide!

Adeleine was the first to take one and to start making it slide, Ribbon jumping in it with her. Dedede took another one and jumped in it, Kirby going with him, to his displeasure. This left Sweetie and Waddle Dee to take a third one before following the others.

During the ride, while they had fun, they still had to avoid many obstacles, like tree trunks, or holes. At a moment, they even passed through an igloo, and they saw Adeleine and Ribbon jump on another where they caught the first crystal shard of this world. Sweetie and Waddle Dee prefered to slide around it, and after a few more holes, they reached the end of the slope, Kirby and Dedede crashing into a big rock while the others were able to avoid it. Kirby found himself propelled above the rock and right inside a big igloo that was just behind it, and the others quickly followed him.

Inside the igloo, they discovered another shard trapped in ice under the ceiling. However, there was also a big Chilly with a few ice birds that they had to eliminate first so they could melt the ice in peace. While Sweetie shot at the birds with fireballs, Kirby, Dedede, and Waddle Dee knocked out the Chilly in a few seconds. Once done, Sweetie used a shield to go closer to the trapped shard and shot fire at the ice, melting it. Once the ice melted enough, the shard fell, and Ribbon caught it and nodded at the filly. The shard obtained, they exited the igloo by a second entrance that the Chilly had been guarding, finding themselves in front of a frozen lake.

Ribbon pointed at the lake. "I think that the next shard is under the water."

...

"So... Someone will have to jump in this certainly extremely cold water?" Waddle Dee asked.

"Seems like it," Sweetie Belle said. "But I'm sure it will be nothing for Kirby thanks to his Ice Ability."

"And I could go in too. Cold water is nothing to me," Dedede said.

But Kirby decided to go in first. He spotted a hole in the ice at the surface and ran toward it before jumping in. Dedede simply huffed at that before he decided to continue their journey, thinking that Kirby will rapidly join them. So he went on the lake, having no problem to walk on it, followed by Sweetie Belle who knew how to keep her balance on it. However, Waddle Dee and Adeleine decided to walk around the lake, not wanting to risk a few painful faceplants. As for Ribbon, she flew above the lake, beside Sweetie and Dedede.

After about one minute, Kirby jumped out of another hole in the ice, holding a shard that he gave to Ribbon, and not long after, they reached the other side of the lake where they waited for Waddle Dee and Adeleine to join them. Once they were all back together, Ribbon looked at the light in the crystal and raised an eyebrow.

"Is there a problem, Ribbon?" Waddle Dee asked.

The fairy looked up. "It says that the next shard is up there, in the sky."

"So, in the clouds, I guess," Dedede said, crossing his arms. "Now, how are we going to get up there?"

Sweetie put a hoof under her chin. "We can try to fly."

Adeleine nodded. "We can try. But... We should try at first to find if there is not a way to get up. We will fly if there is nothing."

"I can search around," Ribbon proposed.

Kirby nodded. "Poyo."

At that, Ribbons flew away, scouting in hope of finding something that could help them go to the clouds. She prioritised searching in the direction pointed by the light. A few minutes later, she came back to the group with a big smile and pointed in the direction she came from.

"Over there. I found one of those floating green balls that can propel us like cannons. I asked it if it could propel us to the clouds and it accepted. Now it is waiting us at the top of that mountain."

"That mountain?" Adeleine asked, pointing at a mountain in the direction shown by Ribbon.

"Yes. However, in the way, we will have to pass a field full of small mounts of ice, and there are some small cracks and cliffs too."

Dedede chuckled. "That's nothing new."

This made Sweetie giggle. "That's true. Let's go, everyone."

As Ribbon warned, the way was full of small mounts of ice that they either climbed or walked around, with a few small cracks and cliffs to jump. The problem with the mounts of ice was that all of them had at the top some sort of green worm with a big head and a yellow horn that pushed boulders at them if they got too close. In these cases, Dedede was always here to break the boulders with his hammers so they didn't have to jump out of the way constantly.

Soon, they passed the field, and after a small walk, started to climb the mountain. Thankfully, the flank of the mountain was just a big slope, so they just had to walk on it to reach the top, with a few big crystals in the way that were, sadly, not the ones that they searched. At the top, they found a hole with the green blob waiting for them inside. Once it saw them, the blob nodded, indicating that it was ready.

Ribbon bowed her head. "Thank you."

Kirby was the first one to jump in, and they watched him being propelled toward the sky, until he reached a hole in the clouds. Sweetie was the next one to jump, joining Kirby on the clouds. She landed just beside him, and remarked that the clouds here had more of these crystals on them, without counting the stars patterned everywhere. She remained beside him to wait the others, just as she saw Dedede come.

---

"That's strange. They walk on a cloud, and yet, I haven't seen her cast the cloudwalking spell. I don't think she even knows how to cast this spell," Twilight said in confusion.

Discord turned toward her to answer. "They can walk on clouds for the same reason they can breathe underwater. It's just a thing in this dimension."

"Is there even something in this dimension that is impossible?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Good question. Mmh... Surviving a bath of lava, maybe?"

"Yeah, probably. Clearly, they didn't want to fall in it."

"Or maybe they can survive falling in it for a time, but it still hurts," Pinkie said.

"I don't think we will even know unless we see somepony fall in it," Applejack said.

Spike looked unsure. "I don't think I want to see what would happen if Pinkie is wrong... This actually makes me think of all those creatures that were in the volcano when the lava started to rise. The majority of them must be dead now..."

Celestia sighed. "That is the risk with volcanoes. They are deadly. How about we stop thinking about this and we go back to watching Sweetie Belle and her friends? They have started their journey on the clouds, and I think they found another shard."

They all looked back at the portal, and could see that Celestia was right. The whole group was now on the clouds, and Ribbon was flying under one, just catching a shard floating under it. At the same time, the rest of the group reached a series of small flat clouds with strong currents going up, helping them to jump higher and further. After those clouds, they reached a really big cloud with a tunnel going through it. After the tunnel, at the other side of the cloud, they found another one of the green blobs, and one by one, they used it to go up through three clouds toward another green blob, and from there, even more blobs until reaching another cloud, finding a second shard in the way.

Now they were in a very cloudy area of the sky, with some round clouds of different colors like pink or green that shrink and grow back and forth.

This made Rainbow giggles. "Colored clouds. They must be made of fruit juice."

Pinkie licked her lips. "Fruit juice flavored clouds? This needs to happen! It would be the best thing ever for summer!"

"Hum... I don't think it's possible, unless using magic..." Fluttershy said in a small voice.

Rainbow looked at her. "Actually, it would be possible. We create a normal cloud, and we put in the fruit juice of our choice. It would just have to be a lot of fruit juice for it to propagate to the whole cloud."

"Or I just have to snap my finger and tadaa!" Discord snapped his claw and made two colored clouds appear, one yellow, and one purple. "Lemon, or grapes? Unless..." He snapped again, making a brown cloud appear. "you want the classic chocolate milk?"

"Chocolate milk!" Pinkie shouted.

Discord put a straw in the cloud and gave it to Pinkie. "Maybe I could open a business with that stuff."

"I would be your first customer!"

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle and her friends jumped on a few small clouds to reach the layer of clouds just above them. On this layer, after a small walk, Waddle Dee almost got eaten by a blue enemy constituted of a round body with a big crocodile-like mouth, and an eye on each sides. He had been jumping above a hole when one of those things had suddenly jumped out of it to trap him in his mouth. Sweetie Belle had saved him just in time, shooting a beam at the creature to force it to spit her friend before sending it flying through the clouds to who knew where. They encountered some more of these creatures, alongside many spherical white beings that jumped out of the clouds at the approach of the group, before they reached an entrance leading inside the cloud.

Surprisingly, the inside of the cloud was pink, and they had to fight one of those white balls, but bigger, with these enemies flying thanks to a propeller. Of course, they didn't last long against the full power of the heroes, who left the cloud with a new shard after breaking some big cube that had been trapping it. Outside the cloud, they walked a little before reaching the edge, and everyone had their mouth opening in awe at what they now saw beyond the edge, back at the surface: a city. A city with skyscrapers, like Manehattan, and totally covered in snow. And being this high in the sky, they could see that the city was big, very big. Maybe even bigger than Manehattan.

"Wow... So, there is a real civilization in this world?" Waddle Dee said.

"Maybe they have found some of the shards. We can ask the locals, or the guards, or even the mayor of this city," Sweetie Belle proposed.

Adeleine started to paint something. "But first, we have to go down there, and I think that I know how we will do." She then finished painting, revealing a balloon carrying a basket. Once it got out of the canvas, it was actually big enough to carry all of them at the same time. As Adeleine jumped in the basket, she shouted, "All aboard!"

At that, they all jumped in the basket, and the balloon started to lift them toward the city.

Rarity turned toward Twilight. "You said that this is Earth. So, does this mean that this is a human city, darling?"

"Yes, I think. But in the Mirror World, humans are the only sapient species, and they can't walk on clouds or breathe in water. But this world clearly possesses other sapient creatures. So this may be Earth, yes, but a very different Earth where humans aren't alone, and where some of them seem to possess some powers, like Adeleine."

"Uh... Twilight."

"Yes, Pinkie?"

She pointed at the portal, more exactly, at the streets below the balloon. "Where are the humans?"

"Hey. That's true!" Applejack said. "If this city is like Manehattan, then the streets should be as full as the waiting line at the start of the apple cider season, and yet, I see no humans."

"Maybe they are in their home because of the cold?" Fluttershy proposed.

Rarity shook her head. "No... Even with the cold, there would be a few of them still out, either going to their job, visiting a friend or a family member, or playing in the snow. The streets shouldn't be empty like they are..."

Twilight nodded. "Rarity is right. Humans always wear clothes, and I'm sure they have clothes against the cold." She frowned. "Their absence worries me. Something is going on."

She was not the only one worrying about the absence of sign of life in this city. Sweetie Belle and the others were looking down at the empty streets, not seeing anyone that they could speak to.

"Why don't we see anybody?" the filly asked.

After a moment of silence, Adeleine said, "I will get us down, and we will search."

So she made the balloon go down, and they landed in the middle of a snow-covered street. They jumped out of the basket, and the balloon disappeared. Dedede then approached one of the buildings and knocked at the door.

"Hey! Anybody?!"

But nothing. After a whole minute, he went to another building to try the same thing, only to have the same result. The rest of the group dispersed to help him. Most of them simply decided to do like Dedede, in vain. Ribbon however decided to fly to the windows, trying to see through them if she could spot anyone. But nothing.

Sweetie had the luck of finding a door that was not locked, and entered the building. "Hello? Is there anyone?"

But nobody came...

Despite this, she decided to continue inside the building. She passed the small entrance hall, and saw that she could either take the stairs, or an elevator to go up. She decided to take the stairs, so she could search the floors one by one. But before that, she knocked at the doors of the first floor, nobody answering her.

Second floor, same thing.

Third floor, idem. Annoyed, she tried to open one of the door, and to her surprise, she was able to open it!

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what surprises me more. That Sweetie would open the door of a stranger's house, or that she has been able to open it. In a big city like that, ponies tend to close their door to avoid the risks of a stranger, or a thief entering."

Sweetie opened the door more, and said, "Hello?"

Nobody answered her.

She entered the apartment, entering a small hallway. She then heard something approaching, seemingly on wheels, and soon saw a robot with a broom appearing from one of the rooms connecting to the hallway. It was a white, cylindrical robot about the size of Sweetie Belle, with two metallic blue arms ending in claws, two round, yellow, glowing eyes, and a rectangular mouth that flashed red when it started speaking.

"I'm sorry, visitor. The masters aren't home right now. Do you want to leave a message?"

Her brain rebooting from the fact that a robot was talking to her-even if she had seen robots before, it was the first time that she heard one talk-, she asked, "Who are you?"

"I am UHA500614913, or as my masters name me, Waly. I am a robot programmed to take care of the master's home."

"Alright. When will your masters come back?"

"Unknown. The masters have been gone for 427 years, 3 months, and 15 days. They haven't precised when they would come back."

Sweetie looked at the robot, insure. "Erh... Why are they gone?"

"The masters have gone in a journey to another world."

"With a spaceship?" she asked with a doubt.

"Affirmative."

She sighed in relief. "So they have just moved to another world. Alright. What about the other inhabitants of this city?"

"I have heard the master say..." The voice of the robot became deeper, like the one of an adult stallion. "It's time to go Eva. The spaceship is ready." The voice then became similar to the one of a mare. "Everyone is really going with us? They have really been able to build a spaceship big enough for everyone to go in?" The voice turned back to the deep one, getting excited. "Yes! I have just seen the photos in the computer. It's like a giant flying city! And they built them all over the world! Every single humans on this planet will be able to go!" There was a small silence where the person with a deep voice took a big breath, then said, "It will be a new start for humanity. We will find a better world, and hopefully, not do the same error than our ancestors..." The robot then started to talk again in its own voice. "End of recording. I conclude that the masters have gone in their journey with everyone in the city, and in the world. Time of their return: unknown."

Sweetie Belle was silent for a few minutes, biting her lip, looking down, then said, "Thank you. I will be going now. But... hum... Do you know how long a human lives?"

"Human's average lifespan is of one hundred seven years as stated in the last medical report."

"And you said that your masters have been gone for 427 years, right?"

"Affirmatif."

"Then... Don't you know that your masters will never come back, because they are probably dead of old age by now?"

The robot was silent for a few seconds, then dropped the broom. "Confirmed. The time since the masters' departure is superior to the masters' lifespan. Conclusion: they are dead."

"So, what will you do?"

"Without master to serve, I have no purpose. So I will shut down until I have a new master to serve."

"Are... Are there other robots like you, in this city?"

"Affirmatif."

"So they would shutdown too, if they learn that their masters won't come back?"

"Some units don't need masters to have a purpose, and will continue to work even if they learn that they have no masters anymore."

"I see... Well, here is a purpose for you, Waly. Go find the other robots, tell them that their masters aren't coming back, and together, you can take humanity's place. Have friends, a home, like, this one, maybe a job if you want, anything you would like to do, not necessarily about taking care of homes. You can even try to find another robot that you like, and together, build a baby bot! Just, go tell what I just said to the other robots, make them spreed the message, and start a new life. You don't have to wait for a master that could never come."

Again, the robot was silent for a few seconds. "Affirmatif. I will spreed the message." It then passed beside Sweetie Belle, and exited the apartment. Just as it passed the door, it stopped, and looked at her. "Thank you."

She smiled. "You are welcome. By the way, my name is Sweetie Belle."

"And so..." Discord suddenly said. "Sweetie Belle helped to form a new civilisation. She will be worshiped by those robots like a goddess, forever known as 'The Sweet One'."

Rarity looked at him. "Don't go too far, Discord. They will probably be thankful to her, but they are still robots. I don't think they understand the concept of religion."

"One day, maybe they will."

Twilight looked down at the book from the Mirror World still in her hooves. "It's so hard to believe... Those humans were superior in technology than the ones in the Mirror World, but they had to abandon Earth because it was starting to freeze for some reason. Is it what will happen to the Earth of the Mirror World?"

"You can talk about this to Sunset Shimmer once you have the occasion," Celestia said. "I'm sure that she and her friends would be interested to learn about this other version of their world. And together, you can discuss of the possibility that their version of Earth may freeze too in the future. However, I'm not sure they could do anything to change it if it was the case."

"Yes. I will."

Sweetie Belle exited the building and found her friends waiting for her.

"You are right in time. We were thinking of coming to search you," Dedede said. "Have you found anything?"

"Yes. I have found what happened, and even made a new friend. There was a robot, and it told me that the inhabitants of this world left it to go live elsewhere."

"So there is nobody?" Ribbon asked.

"Beside robots and creatures like we encountered wandering around? No. Beside, Adeleine, you will be interested to learn that the ones living in this world were humans."

"Really?"

"Yes. Do you know anything about where the humans of Popstar come from?"

"No, I don't know. I always thought that Popstar was our homeworld."

"It's still possible," Waddle Dee said. "After all, there are Waddle Dees living in Popstar, and there are Waddle Dees also living in other worlds."

"But there are some species that seem to live in only one world," Dedede said. He then pointed at Ribbon. "Look at her for example. Have we encountered any fairies yet beside her in all the worlds that we have visited? There is a possibility that all the humans of Popstar, and the universe, originate from this world."

Adeleine crossed her arms and sighs. "The two are possible. But we aren't here to question my origins, we are here to find the crystal shards. We will go back to this once Ribbon's world is saved."

They all nodded.

"But I wanna know..." Pinkie complained.

"Sorry Pinkie. Another time," Applejack said.

Dedede crossed his arms. "But that means that there is nobody to help us find the shards. We will have to find them in this abandoned city by ourselves."

"That's nothing new," Adeleine said. "but it's true that I wouldn't have minded some help."

"If we find robots, we could ask them," Sweetie Belle said.

Waddle Dee rubbed his arms against each other. "Hopefully, there aren't robots that will shoot at us with rockets or lasers..."

Sweetie huffed. "Kirby and I took on the Heavy Lobster, twice. If we end up fighting a robot in this city, we will be more than ready."

---

The light led them through the abandoned city toward one of the buildings, where it pointed slightly up. To enter the building, they passed through what was probably some small park with a path going through it to the building, star-shaped lamps at both sides of it.

Luckily, the door was not locked, so they entered the building without problem. Inside, Sweetie Belle discovered that the building seemed to be a giant mall. A mall specializing in toys, if she judged by the toys that she could see being sold everywhere in the first floor. Conveyor belts led to each floors, each selling even more toys, and they found also a shard above the last one. Surprisingly, or not, many creatures seemed to live in this mall, because they had to fight their way through a great diversity of them, from Sir Kibbles to those worms that push rocks from the top of the conveyor belts, passing by Poppys, and even Gordos.

Once at the top, they found an elevator working with a winding key that helped them climbing to another floor, in a separate section of the mall. They traversed a first room with what looked like Kabus jumping out of holes hidden under big leaves to spit bubbles at them. Strangely, the holes disappeared once they were defeated. In this room were also three basins full of pink, orange, and blue liquids, with small pillars circled by weird-shaped colored rings that looked like stars at their center. Whatever was the purpose of these things, they could only guess.

At the end of the room, they entered another elevator with a winding key that led them to the floor above. Getting out of it, they were now in a room full of giant blocks of various shapes, squares, triangles, cylinders, some of them with holes. Suspicious, Dedede approached the first of these holes and put an arm in front of it before rapidly getting out of the way as one of these frog creatures got its head out of it to gobble him. Dedede crushed it with his hammer before it went back in the hole, and from there, they made sure to avoid getting in front of these holes.

Another elevator awaited them at the other side of the room. Climbing to the next floor, the new room was, this time, full of small pathways above the floor connected to each others and going in all directions, for kids to walk on and work their balance. For the fun, Sweetie decided to walk on them, followed by Kirby and Waddle Dee, while Dedede and Adeleine simply walked around of jumped above them.

Another elevator, another floor, another room, this one simply having big tilted pillars, and there were some of these one-eyed green blocks that were very easily avoided, along with a few Gordos. The room after the next elevator was more problematic, because while the room just possessed what seemed to be round tables, there were Shotzos on some of them that immediately started shooting at them once they entered. By running, jumping, or taking cover behind the tables for the smaller ones, they were able to avoid their projectiles and reach the exit, while making sure to avoid being blown up by the Poppies that were in this room.

After a small hallway, they reached a ring-shaped indoor garden, with a big Pupa hanging above the center, and some little black balls with two white eyes floating around. A good beat down later, and they exited the garden with a new shard. After the garden, they ended in a room with a big glass, someone having painted in white on it a couple of Cherries, a Peach, and a Melon. Seeing this, they looked at each other and all raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"This smells like another puzzle to obtain a shard," Waddle Dee said.

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Probably." She looked at the painted fruits to memorize them, and went to the next room, followed by the others. In it, they found colored buttons on the ground. Again, they raised an eyebrow at this.

"I thought that it would be buttons with fruits painted on them," Dedede said.

Adeleine put a hand under her chin and tilted her head, thinking about what to do. "Let's see... Cherry... Peach... Melon..." She looked at the buttons. "Wait... They are colored buttons. Colors! Of course!" She went beside the first button, which was colored red, and pusheed it. "Cherries are red!" She then pusheed a pink button. "Peaches are pink!" And she pushed a green button. "And melons are green!" Once the green button was pushed, a shard appeared above it.

Kirby applauded while Sweetie Belle facehoofed. "Of course! That was so obvious!"

"I'm sure you would have found out with some time. It's not hard to guess."

Ribbon took the shard and looked at the light of the crystal, seeing it pointing down. "I don't know if the next shard is in this building, but I can already tell that we have to go down."

"So, do we continue?" Waddle Dee asked.

Dedede nodded. "Just in case there is an elevator going down."

And so they continued. They passed through a room full of plants, some of them trying to eat them; a second room full of furniture, some of them threatening to crush them by falling of them; a third room where they had to go in a big aquarium with some of those frog-like creatures; a fourth room full of giant screws and bolts where they had to avoid some enemies that were just a purple sphere with four metal claw surrounded by electric sparks trying to ambush them; and a fifth room with fridges, televisions, and yellow vertical poles going from the floor or the ceiling with those yellow, electrical round beings like there was in the spaceship on that desert world.

They were now in a dome-shaped room with walls made of glasses. At the center, there was a eight-pointed hollowed green star floating above the ground, with three Shotzos on three of its points. Shotzos that knew how to aim! They perfectly predicted their position, always shooting at the exact place they would be if they didn't change direction or speed. Thankfully, there were floating colored glasses that they could use as shields, and Sweetie was of great help to stop the projectiles too. They circled almost the whole room before reaching a new elevator. However, this one went up instead of down, and they ended up on the roof of the building.

"Well, at least, we are sure that we will not go more up," Sweetie Belle said with a giggle.

Ribbon looked at the crystal. "And now, I know that the next shard is not in this building. The light points over there." She pointed down over the edge of the roof.

Waddle Dee sighed. "Well, time to go back down." And so, he started to walk back to the elevator.

"Where are you going?" Sweetie Belle asked.

He looked at the filly and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Back inside to take the way back to the streets."

Sweetie Belle stared at Waddle Dee, then looked at Dedede and Kirby before the three for them laughed. "We don't need to go back inside the building to go down."

"There is another way?"

Dedede suddenly put him on his back. "Of course!"

Adeleine started to rub between her eyes in annoyance. "I think that I see what you are talking about. I suppose that this is faster this way."

"Uh?" At this moment, he saw Kirby running toward the edge of the roof... and jumping. "Oh... Of course..."

Sweetie Belle and Dedede then looked at each other, nodded, and followed Kirby. While falling, Dedede inflated to slow down, and Sweetie Belle wrapped her whip around him. Once they landed, they looked up and spotted Adeleine floating down with a parasol, Ribbon flying beside her. Once the human and the fairy joined them, they followed the direction of the light.

---

They had to traverse the whole city, the streets starting to fill with robots, much to Sweetie's joy. Soon, they left the city, and after a small trek through a field full of firs but without grass or snow, they reached a lonely dome-shaped building surrounded by a small wall that seemed to be made of puzzle pieces. There was a chimney spitting smoke at both sides of it, and they could see three turning gears and a piston moving up and down some metallic thing shaped like an anchor on the roof.

However, the light didn't lead them to the building itself, but to a hole in front of it, that looked like the entrance to a sewer, with a small wall circling three quarters of it, and a ladder leading down. They looked at the hole, nodded to each others, and took the ladder one by one. The way down was rather long, and there were a few Gordos going back and forth in the way. They could already see that the place seemed childish, because like the wall around the building, the walls and floors here seemed to be made of puzzle pieces, but they saw also many boxes, and machines lifting them from one place to another. When they reached the end of the ladder, they also spotted gears almost everywhere, and there were lamps lighting the place. They could hear the clangs and thumps of more machines, coming in particular from below.

This reminded Sweetie Belle that futuristic world, and she didn't like it. That world was very dangerous, so who knew what kind of dangers there were in there. Well, she still hoped that this place will not be as problematic.

They still went down, jumping from a few platforms while avoiding some kind of blue living rockets or torpedoes shot from cannons in the walls. They had to jump from more platforms beside small tunnels, and with Shotzos on them. Following Ribbon's instructions, they went in the first tunnel, only for it to lead to a dead end. Only the last one led to a box that seemed to be more fragile than the others. So Dedede destroyed it with his hammer, revealing a ladder going up, exactly where Ribbon pointed. However, there were more boxes in the way, and Sweetie destroyed them with explosive balls while Kirby climbed the ladder, until he reached a shard that he gave to Ribbon.

Now in possession of the shard, they jumped from a last platform and landed on a green conveyor belt going in the opposite direction than the one where they had to go. Beside it was another conveyor belt that went to the right direction, and they jump on it to make their journey easier. However, after a small passage, the conveyor belt turned to the left, which didn't seem to be the right way, because the light showed the right. So they went back, much to their annoyance, and took the first one, forcing them to run on it to advance.

After the small passage, they saw that this one turned to the right, but had many gates blocking the way, with squeaky hammer machines slamming their hammers on it. So, rather than continuing on the conveyor belt, they jumped on the floor under it and went directly to the exit. This led to a new room with more conveyor belts, red ones going back, and green ones going forth, all the while above a dark gulf, so this time they had no choice but to walk on them. But something disturbing stopped them before they even stepped on the first conveyor belt. At their left, there were many pipes, and they started from some aquarium full of water... with what seemed to be a weird pink hippo floating in it. They could see another aquarium a little further, but from where they were, they couldn't see if there was something in there.

"Why is there an animal trapped in there?" Ribbon asked in shock. "Is it even alive?"

"I-I-I don't know. That... I don't understand," Sweetie Belle said. "But we must save it!"

"But how?" Waddle Dee asked.

He was answered by Sweetie shooting an explosive ball at the glass of the aquarium, only for the glass to remain intact. She frowned, and jumped on a shield to get closer. Once beside it, she accumulated energy in one of her hooves, and punched the glass, but this left not even the start of a crack. She then threw a Vulcan Jabs, hitting the glass at least a couple dozens times, only to have no results. The hippo didn't even move to acknowledge her existence.

"Come on!" she shouted in anger.

She heard Dedede sigh. "Seems like we will have to find something more powerful to get this animal out of this aquarium."

"But... We can't leave it here..."

She felt someone tap on her shoulder, and looked to see Kirby, inflated, flying behind her with a sad expression.

Then, Dedede talked again. "Actually, seeing all those machines, I wonder if there is not something else behind its presence."

"Like what?" Waddle Dee asked.

Dedede waved around. "We are in a factory. Why would they trap animals in aquariums?"

"Good point," Adeleine said. "You know, with this factory, and this whole world, being technologically advanced, with robots and all, maybe this is a clone."

"A clone?!" Sweetie Belle shouted. "You mean that this factory could be producing clones?!"

"Among other things, I think. Again, this is a theory. But this is the only reason that I see why there is a weird hippo trapped in there. What is in this other aquarium?"

"Uh... I'm gonna look. Wait a minute." Sweetie flew to the other aquarium and saw in it some white and round creature with a white needle-like beak, blue wings, and a blue tail. "Seems like some bird that look like the ones made of fire or ice that we have fought previously, but it's normal, and white! And it's really big! it's a little bigger than Kirby!"

"A hippo and a bird, but different from all the ones that we know..." Dedede thought. "Were the humans trying to create new species of animals from old ones?"

Waddle Dee rubbed his left arm in incertitude. "I... I propose that we continue, and that we think of those animals, or whatever, later. This place gives me the creeps, and we can ask the robots back in the city if they know something."

Sweetie Belle sighed in resignation. "You are right... And I hope that you are right, Adeleine."

Dedede stepped on the first conveyor belt and started to walk on it, having to lower himself to pass under some big metallic tubes with valves on them. "Urg... I feel that I will hate this room..."

"Don't complain," Adeleine said behind him. "I'm forced to lower myself too."

"Watch out guys!" Sweetie Belle then shouted. "There are Gordos floating up and down between some tubes!"

"Neat!" Dedede shouted back with sarcasm.

They passed beside more aquariums, those ones empty, one of them with a turbine while the others were cylindrical. Midway through the room, they passed under a really big machine with a black section constantly illuminating with colored square lights, prods all around it, and with giant screws under it with the one eyed green blocks between them. After this machine, they passed beside another turbine, and reached a new aquarium with some black cat-like creature the size of Dedede inside it. The cat only had a big head with the ears, the eyes, and the whiskers, an oval body, and a tail, but no legs.

They could clearly see it blink its yellow eyes.

After this one, they reached another aquarium with... an orange cat-like creature in a black cloak with a red bow, only the head and the ears visible, with some blue hairs, and big, round black eyes. This one really made them question what had been going on in this factory, because this creature, judging by the cloak, wasn't, or hadn't been, just a simple animal.

That was with big relief that they left this room, only to end in a big cylindrical room with lava below them. They spotted a cage hanging from the ceiling at the center, with a shard in it, and there was a big bird of fire charging at them. While Sweetie flew to the cage and tried to melt the chains suspending it with the hottest fire that she could summon, Kirby froze the bird with his ice, quickly getting rid of it with the help of Dedede and Waddle Dee. Soon, Sweetie Belle was able to melt the chain, and made the cage fall on a platform suspended above the lava. At that, Dedede jumped on the platform and hit the cage with his hammer, bending the bars. Some more hits, and he opened a hole big enough for him to put his arm through and catch the shard that he gave to Ribbon.

The next room was just a very long path. The problem? There was a big press going constantly up and down on this path, making it clear what fate it reserved. Thankfully, the press didn't seem to be shaped like the path, leaving some holes. So like in that cave in the previous world, they went in one by one, starting with Kirby, then Sweetie Belle following him.

She waited for the press to go all the way down, and to start to go back up. Once that was the case, she started to run, was able to reach the end without needing to stop in one of the holes, only to discover that there was another press, and Shotzos were shooting at her. Like before, she waited for it to start getting back up, using a shield to protect herself against the Shotzos, and ran, before stopping just before reaching the end, where there was a hole.

She did the same thing for the following press, but the next one was more problematic. She was forced to stop at the first hole, and rapidly ran to reach the end before it went back down. The last press was the most risky one, because there was only one small hole toward the end. Sweetie could already imagine Dedede and Adeleine being forced to crawl in this hole because of their size.

She joined Kirby, and waited the others, taking the occasion to look at the machines that looked like big heads with sharp teeth, and that seemed to be pumping. Pumping what, she didn't know. And after seeing the animals, or whatever they were, in the previous room, she was not sure that she wanted to know. And all those gears... And all those flashing lights... And not a single person to make them work. This factory really creeped her out.

Once they were all back together, they continued to the next room, with there were more of these pump machines that looked like creepy faces, but smaller, and they were connected to a small machine with a thermometer. Again, she could only guess the meaning. However, that seemed to be a dead end, until they saw that they could reach the level above by passing through a hole. However, once they were there, some yellow transparent wall lifted by some big green robot started to advance toward them, and they were forced to run.

This went like this for a few more levels, where they found a shard in the fourth one, at the end. At the fifth level, they had to stop on a small metallic wall in the middle of the hallway, because in addition to the yellow wall chasing them, there was another one coming from before them, and the metallic wall was the only way for them to not be crushed. Once the two yellow walls were against the metallic one, the robots started to step back, giving them the occasion to continue and reach the level above, where there were no walls chasing them this time. Beside a few of those lightning creatures on clouds, the only thing in this level was actually another machine that looked like the pumps, but the 'sharp teeth' were replaced by a black section with the flashing colored square lights, and it was connected by cables to two other machines that Sweetie guessed were two supercomputers. Things that only existed in sci-fi stories. So the machine at the center must be some generator.

Destroying it would probably stop the factory.

But she decided to do nothing. It may cause the whole building to explode.

So she continued with the others, and after a few more rooms without much obstacles, they reached a big room that seemed to be a big hangar with what seemed to be white vehicles big enough for all of them to go in. They had the shape of a cone, the top covered in glass, with reactors at the back, and four flat red 'legs' with round ends. At their side were entrances on top of slopes.

Waddle Dee pointed at one. "Wherever the next shard is, we could use one of these things to go to it faster!"

"And do you know how to use one?" Dedede asked.

"We... can always learn. It must not be hard. Come on, my king, please."

"Please," Sweetie Belle repeated, doing her puppy dog eyes.

Adeleine sighed. "We can try..."

And so, they entered one of the ships. In the cockpit, Dedede, Kirby, and Ribbon sat down on the back seats while Adeleine, Waddle Dee, and Sweetie Belle went to the front to see how it worked.

The filly raised an eyebrow. "Wait, that's all? I thought that there would have been more buttons. There are only a few ones, a lever, and a wheel."

"Even if there are only a few buttons, we don't know which one to push. I guess that the wheel is to steer the vehicle, and the lever may be for the speed, but which button starts it?" Adeleine asked.

"Maybe the big, green one beside the wheel?" Waddle Dee proposed.

Adeleine nodded. "Alright, I'll try. Get a sit you two."

They nodded and sat down on the seats at Adeleine's left and right. Once they were seated, Adeleine sat down on the driver seat and pushed the green button. At the moment she pushed it, the floor around the vehicle started to rise, and the ceiling above them opened. After a few seconds, they reached the surface, not far from the dome-shaped building, and the vehicle suddenly floated up, the 'legs' turning into wings, with the round ends revealing to be turbines. Adeleine then took the wheel, and with her right hand, pushed a little the lever, and the ship-because this was clearly a ship-started to move. She then saw that she could pull or push the wheel. On an intuition, she pulled it, and the ship went up, flying above the firs, and leaving the factory behind.

"You are actually right Waddle Dee, this is not hard! Which direction Ribbon?"

"Turn to the right."

So she turned the wheel to the right, making the ship turn in the same direction until Ribbon told her to stop. Once she was sure that this was the right direction, Adeleine smiled widely and pushed the lever a little more, gaining speed.

"That's so cool!" Waddle Dee shouted.

"Poyo!"

"Now I wonder what the other buttons do," Sweetie Belle said. She then pushed a small button below a screen.

Adeleine tried to stop her, but too late. As Sweetie pushed the button, music then started to play. They all looked at where the song came from, Adeleine quickly looking back at where she was driving to make sure that they didn't fly into a mountain, before they all started bobbing their head at the song.

"Hey. I like it," Waddle Dee said.

"At least, the ride won't be boring," Dedede said.

Sweetie Belle laughed. "Rainbow Dash would love this song! Maybe I should write the lyrics so I can sing it once I'm back to Equestria."

---

"Yeah! That song must come to Equestria!" Rainbow shouted.

Rarity took a big breath. "I'm so glad they are out of that awful place. If such a thing existed in Equestria, it would definitely close. There are so much dangers that there would be more ponies dying in this place than in the Royal Guard. What were the humans thinking?"

"To be fair," Spike said. "Sweetie Belle and her friends haven't really taken the intended path. Ponies, or people, aren't supposed to go on conveyor belts in those factories. From what I learned, factories like that are everywhere on Earth. Of course, this is the first one that I see producing clones, if their theory is right."

What he said gave her goosebumps. "Oh yes. Those clones. Just... why? And how?"

Twilight answered her. "I don't know how this technology works, so I can't answer how. I would have to ask Sunset, she probably knows more about this, or could do some research to find out. As for why... There can be many reasons. My theory is that when this version of Earth started to freeze, many species of animal must have gone extinct. So the humans cloned them in the hope than if Earth goes back to normal one day, then they could put them back. Of course, they gave up the project once they left Earth."

"What we miss is what caused their world to freeze in the first place," Luna said. "When Sweetie Belle spoke to that robot, the recording said something about some error caused by their ancestors. Maybe there was an accident."

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "An accident that could cause a whole planet to freeze?"

"Maybe they had a big winter factory, and it exploded, causing winter to fall everywhere," Pinkie proposed.

"That is not possible Pinkie," Twilight said. "The humans don't control the weather and the seasons like we do. Their whole planet is like the Everfree Forest, so they don't need anything like a winter factory."

Rainbow Dash looked at her with big eyes. "Say what now?"

Discords laughed. "Such a chaotic world. Maybe I should take some vacation on a version of Earth one day. A version where it is not freezing, of course."

Rarity looked back at the portal, seeing Sweetie now singing a song about some 'thriller night' that was not so bad too. However, she remarked something. "Since when has the night fallen?"

"Oh, since a couple of minutes ago," Discord answered. He then raised a paw and materialized above it a small version of the frozen Earth with the moon. Half of it was covered in shadow. A dotted red line then appeared at the surface, starting in the half not in shadow, before ending in the other half. "They have joined the night side of this world."

"That fast?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes. Their ship could leave you in the dust."

"What did you say?!"

"Do you mean that you could go in the other side of Equus in a few minutes?" Rainbow opened her mouth to retort, only to say nothing. "Thought so." She crossed her hooves and pouted at that, to his amusement.

---

They were now above a really giant city, the skyscrapers dwarfing the ones of Manehattan or of the city they visited previously, and going for miles and miles. However, this city was much more gloomy, and not just because this was the night or because there was not a single living being to see. The buildings were all made of metal, with a few black lines and some red lights the only features that they could spot at their surface, but no apparent windows, or colors. It was just... metal... and empty... and soulless... Among the buildings, they also spotted a few metallic roads suspended high above the surface, stretching in straight lines for miles.

Ribbon then started to speak. "The next shard is somewhere down there, but... but it seems to move. I think that someone, or something, is in possession of it."

Sweetie Belle frowned. "I hope that we will not have to fight something like that living lava back in the volcano."

Adeleine sighed. "Knowing our luck..."

"I'm telling you, this will be a robot!" Waddle Dee shouted.

"If it's a robot, then maybe I could ask it to give the shard to us." Sweetie Belle said.

Suddenly, a yellow laser pierced one of the left wings, causing the ship to start to lose altitude, Adeleine losing control of it, and making the whole group panic.

"Waaaaahhh!!! We will crash!" Adeleine shouted.

Waddle Dee took a device that looked like a micro and shouted at it. "SOS! SOS!"

"Idiot! There is nobody in this world to save us!" Dedede yelled.

Kirby then pointed at one of the metallic roads. "Poyo!"

"Of course!" Sweetie Belle said. "Adeleine, try to land the ship on this road!"

"I will try!"

Hands on the wheel, Adeleine turned it slightly to the right, turning with difficulty the ship so it went above the road. Once close enough, she made sure that the ship remained above the road while it continued to go down. At the same time, she pulled the wheel so the ship remained as parallel to the road as possible, so it didn't crash nose first on the road, which could be bad. Another laser piercing one of the right wings almost caused her to spin the ship, but she was able to use it to regain some balance and make the landing easier. After a whole minute, the ship bounced on the road, destroying one of the right wings and forcing everyone to cling to their seats to not be propelled by the shock. The ship bounced again, and started sliding on the road, going slightly to the right and threatening to go over the edge of the road. Thankfully, it stopped sliding just as a part of it was above the chasm, but was able to remain on the road. But for how long?

Kirby quickly opened the door, and everyone ran to exit the vehicle, Adeleine leaving at the last second just as it started to tilt, and it fell off the road. A few seconds later, they heard an explosion below, illuminating the area for a very short period, before smoke started to rise.

However, they didn't have time to breathe. A giant robot appeared at the other side of the road, flying and seemingly looking at them. It possessed a cylindrical white body, bigger at the top, and smaller at the bottom, with two yellow diamond-shaped parts that looked like eyes, and a red part at the bottom between the two 'eyes' and two reactors that it used to fly. There were two other reactors behind it, and they had a red triangle drawn on them, and possessed a few holes at the top. There was a fifth, cylindrical reactor under the main body that looked like one from the Halberd. It also possessed two white arms that looked like paddles, blue at the end, and linked to the main body by black 'shoulders'. The parts of the main body under the arms were actually black with a green light, revealing that the white part was actually an armor and above it, there was also a cone-shaped black head with a single yellow glowing light.

Ribbon looked at the robot in fear, and then at the crystal. "It... It's the one possessing the crystal."

"And it shot at us," Dedede said angrily, hammer in hands. "Seems like it wants a fight."

Sweetie Belle gulped and started to speak to the robot, waving at it. "Uh... Hello? You don't need to fight us! We only want the crystal that you possess, and we will be gone!"

The robot 'looked' at her for a few seconds, and raised its left arm, sweeping it across the road and forcing everyone to jump above it to not be slapped.

Dedede smirked. "Well, we have our answer. Let's turn this robot into a pile of scraps."

The reactors suddenly opened, shooting missiles at the group, easily dodged. Sweetie Belle was the first to attack by shooting an explosive beam at the robot, only to cause no damage to it.

She frowned. "That thing is solid, even more than the Heavy Lobster."

"We will have to target parts that are not armored," Waddle Dee said.

Adeleine studied the robot. "So, the head, the parts under the arms, and maybe the blue end of the arms. I wonder if the yellow and red parts are weak points too."

The robot attacked again with another sweep, this time of the right arm. While they jumped above it, they took the occasion to attack it with everything they had, effectively damaging it. Sweetie then shot at the yellow and red parts of the main body to test if they were weak points or not, only to do no damage. However, when she shot at the head, it worked. Speaking of the head, it suddenly shot a laser from the yellow light, sweeping the road with it, forcing them to jump again. It followed by slamming both its arms on the road, trying to crush Kirby and Dedede who ran out of the way before attacking them.
Sweetie decided to jump on a shield and fly around the robot, not stopping shooting at the head. She gained its attention, and the robot shot another laser at her that she dodged. It tried to slap her, then it tried again, and again, and again, the robot totally forgetting the rest of the group. Taking the occasion, Dedede grabbed Kirby and threw him toward the head of the robot. Kirby clung to it, and started to breathe ice at it. To get itself rid of him, the robot started to fly around, turning on itself at great speed, trying to use the centrifugal force to make him fall. Knowing that he couldn't last, Kirby released the head and inflated himself to fly away and quickly go back on the road.

While he flew, the robot shot at him with another laser, only for Sweetie to protect him with the shield, the laser powerful enough to break it, but it gave time for Kirby to get out of the way and land on the road. Not paying Sweetie Belle attention, the robot charged toward the road at the group on it. Seeing it approach, they quickly ran away just before it broke a part of the road by crashing on it. Ribbon counterattacked by shooting crystals, only to be slapped like a fly, making her crash into Sweetie Belle as she was flying toward it.

At this moment, the robot being close enough of the road, Dedede did a big jump, and when he started to fall toward the robot, he prepared the hammer, and violently hit the head, making the robot tilt. His action accomplished, he jumped again and landed on the road.

The robot seemed to have enough, because it suddenly flew above the road and opened itself from the bottom. The head entered the body, and the two parts fused back from where it was, changing shape to give the body the shape of a cone similar to the ship they used to come here. The armor that had been the front of the body was too fused with the one of the back, the red part now above the nose, leaving the front and the nose unprotected. The reactors were still at the bottom, the ones at the front having not followed the armor when the robot had started to split. The black 'shoulders' went down beside the green lights at the side, and the arms turned around, the blue end now beside the 'shoulders', and the white parts splitting open to form claws. The robot then lied down on the road, the black parts that were in the front now at the bottom, nose pointed at the group, and it started to advance toward them, snipping at them with its claws while firing more missiles, and the road behind it broke into pieces.

Because of the claws, they were forced to run away from it, and they couldn't approach to attack the exposed bottom part. frowning, Kirby gave up the Ice Ability and sucked one of the missiles before spitting it back at the black nose of the robot. At this moment, Sweetie Belle and Ribbon came back, and the filly shot many explosive balls at the bottom while the fairy shot crystals from the other side. The robot counterattacked by shooting more missiles at them, but they were easily dodged, and it couldn't shoot its laser anymore in this form.

Whoever designed this robot wasn't really smart.

A door then opened under it, and out of it came a missile bigger than the others going straight in front of it. Kirby sucked it, only to inhale the top part while the body of the missile was not inhaled and continued its course. Taken by surprise, Kirby was hit, but he didn't let it stop him and spat the top of the missile back at the robot.

It suddenly flew up in the sky, taking back its first form, and started to fall back toward them reactors first in a clear attempt to crush them. Kirby then looked at Dedede, Waddle Dee, and Adeleine and nodded at them, before he opened his mouth and inhaled them, to their surprise. Once they were all in him, Kirby looked up toward the approaching robot, and once it was close enough, he spat his friends at its main reactor under the body. The collision threw the robot back up before it crashed on the road a little further, and Dedede, Waddle Dee, and Adeleine landed back beside Kirby.

Dedede punched Kirby on the top of his head in anger, flattening him. "You could have warned us!"

Kirby rubbed the spot where he was hit. "Po-poyo..." He then spotted at his feet a shard, and smiling in joy, he took it. "Poyo!"

"Yes!" Adeleine shouted. "The robot musts have dropped it after that attack!"

"Speaking of the robot, it has stopped moving," Waddle Dee remarked, staring at the robot.

Sweetie Belle joined them with Ribbon, and while the fairy took the shard, she said, "That's it? No big explosion? When we defeated the Heavy Lobster, it exploded."

A part of the road under the robot then broke apart, and because of its weight, the robot tilted and fell into the chasm, disappearing in the darkness. The only thing showing what became of it was a big sound indicating it crashing at the surface, but still no explosion.

Dedede huffed. "It's less fun when they don't explode."

---

Leaving the breaking road, they flew to the roof of a nearby building, and Ribbon let the crystal open a portal. Once open, the portal showed a heart-shaped pink world with a face and three smaller hearts around it. there was also a ring with two yellow bows that circled the big heart. However, they could see darkness spread everywhere at the surface.

Ribbon gasped. "It's Ripple Star! It's my world! It's almost covered in darkness!"

"So it's time," Sweetie Belle said.

"But the crystal is not complete."

"The crystal is leading us to Ripple Star despite not being completed?" Dedede asked. "Then that means that there are shards that have somehow fallen back in this world."

Kirby looked at Ribbon and nodded in determination, raising his arm and shouting a fierce, "Poyo!"

They all nodded, and Adeleine said, "This is the last step of our journey, and the most dangerous. But we are ready! We will find the remaining shards, and beat the Dark Matters!"

"Hopefully, this time once and for all!" Waddle Dee continued.

"And nothing will stop us!" Sweetie Belle shouted.

"Now let's go! We have a world to save!" Dedede finished.

Ribbon looked at all of them and smiled. "Thank you, everyone. I don't doubt that we will win."

At this, they entered one by one the portal, ready to fight the darkness.

Comments

[Lucar]

9602308
Thank you. I love your Kirby story, by the way. It's what started to inspire me for this one.

[Kir B]

9602867
Thank you! I'm glad that my story could help inspire such a great tale as this. Reading this makes me want to get back in the game of writing myself. It's been too long. Keep it up m8, you've got a great thing here.

[Edguy0009]

Nice.

[Lucar]

9602881
I will ! And I will look forward to the next chapter of your story. And the one with Dedede too, it looks interesting.

[Switch Swap]

Discord puts a straw in the cloud and gives it to Pinkie. "Maybe I could open a business with that stuff."

That's actually a really good idea. Someone make a fic about this

[Cyrus Colter]

"You can talk about this to Sunset Shimmer once you have the occasion," says Celestia. "I'm sure that she and her friends would be interested to learn about this other version of their world. And together, you can discuss of the possibility that their version of Earth may freeze too in the future. However, I'm not sure they could do anything to change it if it was the case."

speaking of Sunset, is she and her world at all gonna be relevant in UME?

[Lucar]

11545973
Probably, not sure how yet.

[Slamp5000XL-3-0]

Ahora me pregunto si en la nueva historia vas a incluir el nuevo juego de Kirby "Kirby forgotten land", que se ambienta en una tierra parecida a la nuestra

[Lucar]

11633531
I just finished it actually.

[lastbreathjared]

Twilight looks down at the book from the mirror world still in her hooves. "It's so hard to believe... Those humans were superior in technology than the ones in the mirror world, but they had to abandon Earth because it was starting to freeze for some reason. Is it what will happen to the Earth of the mirror world?"

I think I know what caused the earth to freeze

It became a rogue planet yeeted out of the solar system by a nearby star.