A Sweetie Dream Land

by Lucar

Chapter 58: Sandy Canyon and Dedede Resort

Soon after beating Whispy Woods and destroying the seal that he has been guarding, Daroach's airship comes to pick them. Once inside, they see that Storo is now aboard, saluting at his boss.

"We confirm that the dark cloud around Sandy Canyon disappeared boss. However, we didn't find any medals," he says.

"Don't worry for the medals, we found all of them in Green Grounds," replies Daroach. "Let's go to Sandy Canyon to destroy the next seal."

"Yes boss!" shouts the Squeaker at the wheel.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle and Storo look at each other.

...

...

She smiles.

He sweats.

She activates the Magic ability and takes her hat. "Do you want to see a magic trick?"

"IIIIIHHH!!!" The next instant, Storo screams like a girl and runs at the opposite side of the gondola faster than he has even ran.

"Please. Don't bully Storo," says Daroach with a paw on his face.

"But I wanted to give him some cheese," she replies with an innocent smile while taking a big piece of cheese out of the hat.

"Cheese?!" they hear Storo shout before Sweetie Belle finds herself trapped in a bear hug by Storo who gobble the cheese. "Besties!" he then shouts while rubbing her head with his cheek like a teddy bear.

Despite almost having her bones crushed by the hug, Sweetie Belle is able to say weakly "You... You are welcome... Storo..." After saying that, she turns into a ghost and passes through the arm hugging her before turning back to normal once back on the floor. She then puts her right front hoof in front of her, and understanding, Storo gives her a fist/hoofbump.

They then hear something hitting the glass of one of the windows, and when they look, they see a Skully headbutting one of the windows, trying to break it. Soon, more skullys start attacking the windows, without succeeding at breaking them.

Daroach chuckles. "They can try, they will not be able to break those windows by just headbutting them with their skulls. They are armored. But just in case..." He turns to the Squeakers. "Use the cannons to blow them."

"Yes boss!"

Sweetie Belle looks at the Skullys as the cannons start to fire their homing missiles at them, eliminating a few of them.

"So they are out there too?"

"Yes. They started to patrol the sky around the islands. If you had used a Warp Star, you would have been forced to fight your way through them. Not like they would have given you any problems."

"Sandy Canyon in sight!" shouts one of the Squeakers.

"Ah. Sandy Canyon. My favorite island," comments Daroach. "With those ruins full of treasures, I could pass weeks exploring it to search all of them."

"Lady Ivy told me everything. How the island was very fertile before and how the civilization here was able to thrive." She sighs. "That's so sad that it's now just ruins and desert. I would've loved to see it. Instead, all I got were a few traps, and weird robots guarding the place. Why would anyone build a robot that looks like a gear? I should ask Lady Ivy once it's over."

"Speaking of her, since you have already found all the medals of Sandy Canyon, we will stop the airship directly above her to fight her, so we don't have to lose time traversing the ruins. We will do the same with Dedede Resort so we can go straight to the big part of this journey: Volcano Valley. We will have much to do here, and not just finding the medals."

Sweetie and the Kirbys all nod. "Okay." The filly then starts to think. "Mmh... How are we going to fight her? The Kirbys will not be able to use Fire this time, there will be thorny vines everywhere on the ground and they can't use Fire while inflated." She then raises an eyebrow and look at the Kirbys. "You can't even inflate anymore, right?"

Looking down in sadness, the Kirbys shake their heads.

"Thought so."

"They can try to use the seesaw to bonk her on the head when she is below it," proposes Daroach.

"It could work but..." Sweetie Belle thinks about all the abilities that she knows, and how to use them to make the fight easier. She then looks out at the windows, seeing the skullys being destroyed by the homing missiles. She smirks. "Ideaaaa!"

---

"I appreciate that she imitates me, but I'm not sure of what to think about the way she imitated me," comments Rarity.

"Why? It's exactly you when you suddenly gets an idea for a new dress and I'm unlucky enough to be around when it happens. You have that sadistic smile before shouting this while looking at me," says Rainbow.

She huffs and looks up in the opposite direction, eyes closed as she gives a look similar to the nobles of Canterlot. "I don't know what you are talking about!" However, she quickly hides behind her hoof a forming smile.

---

Upon reaching the island, the Skullys stop attacking the airship, and they are able to go to the center of the island without any problems. Sweetie Belle then opens the door of the gondola and looks down, easily spotting Lady Ivy, or at least, her vines, before her head seems hidden under the seesaw. Or maybe her head is buried in the ground.

She looks back behind her, and shouts "Let's go!" before flying down with the Wing ability.

Following her, a Kirby with a hat that looks like the top of a missile jump too, quickly followed by a Kirby with the Wing ability, the first Kirby grabbing his feet before the Wing Kirby starts to fly down. Four more Missile Kirbys jump, followed by four more Wing Kirbys, each of the Missile Kirbys grabbing the feet of one of the Wing Kirbys before they follow the others. Daroach is the last one to jump.

They fly down toward Lady Ivy, the plant spotting them from under the seesaw. She spits a few seeds at them, but they are deflected by a mirror from Sweetie Belle while the Missile Kirbys let go of the feet of the Wing Kirbys to let themselves drop. As Sweetie Belle starts attacking Ivy with some fire to distract her, helped by Daroach dropping a few bombs, the Missile Kirbys take their missile form and charge toward the plant. By the time Lady Ivy notice them, it is already too late, and the five missile explode as they hit her, the Wing Kirbys quickly coming so the Missile Kirbys can grab their feet before they fall on the vines.

Surprisingly, the five missiles aren't enough to knock Lady Ivy out, but she is clearly hurt, and she is stunned. At this, Sweetie charges toward her and uppercuts her under the chin with enough force to make her head hit the seesaw above her, causing the seesaw to tip on the opposite side as the blow stuns her even more. She then quickly flies above the side of the seesaw that is above Lady Ivy, which is now up, and turns into metal, falling on the seesaw. Her great weight causes the seesaw to tip again, bonking Lady Ivy violently on the head.

She hears her screams of pain, and a few seconds later, she hears the distinct sound of something hitting the floor. When she flies away from the seesaw and looks back, she sees Lady Ivy now knocked out, and a purple fire getting out of her before disappearing, like with Whispy.

She smiles and turns to the Kirbys with a big smile. "Good job everyone!"

"Poyo!" reply proudly the Kirbys.

She looks back at the knocked out Lady Ivy. "Sorry Lady Ivy. I promise to come back once it's over. We must go save Dedede now."

---

Back in the airship, they start to move toward Dedede Resort. Upon returning to the airship, they see that Spinny has been able to go back aboard during the fight.

"Storo told me that we are now allies, so..." He places his hand in front of him. "Let's forget about the past so we can work together."

Sweetie nods with a smile and gives him a hand/hoofshake to confirm it.

"I will give you your sunglasses back once we are back in the castle."

"No need. You can keep them. I have many others and I always lose one or two while treasure hunting."

"Thanks. Do you wanna know something cool?"

He raises an eyebrow. "And what is it?"

Sweetie then switches to the Ninja ability, making the ninja costume appear on her. "I'm a fellow ninja!"

He gasps. "Can we race?!"

She giggles. "Maybe another time. Let's first deal with Necrodeus."

At this moment, she sees the Skullys starting to attack the airship again, only to be blown by the cannons. She frowns at them.

"They are stubborn."

"They are just stupid grunts that only follow orders without thinking," says Daroach. "They will continue no matter how much it's no use or how many die."

"It is said that they are the poor guys that Necrodeus has been able to kidnap before transforming them into these things," says Spinni. "It's probably why he sends his minions to take some medals before letting those skull keys behind, so the poor fools taking the bet would end up turned into more minions."

"But those rumors aren't confirmed," informs Daroach. "Let's avoid jumping into such horrible conclusions."

"And yet, it's really possible. I mean, those Skullys must come from somewhere."

Sweetie Belle frowns thinking about this. "I hope that you are wrong and that they are just created the same way that Zero created the Dark Matters: from his body."

"But then, why would he try to kidnap people?"

Nobody knows...

...

Daroach clears his throat to divert the attention of everyone before speaking. "So, what is the plan against Dedede this time?"

"Just try to not be hit by his hammer. After that, there are no real strategies. And don't think that attacking him at distance will keep you safe, Dedede can easily get you no matter the distance if you let your guard down. The best way is just to attack him with everything you have until he is down."

At this, she gives the Kirbys the abilities Fire, Ice, Spark, Beam, Sword, Hammer, Bomb, Ninja, Cutter, and Fighter. Once done, she hears a Squeaker shouting that the resort is in sight, and looks at the front window, waiting for the coming fight.

Soon, they land beside the hotel, and they start exploring it to find Dedede. As they explore, they are attacked by the Waddle Dees working in the hotel, obviously controlled by Necrodeus, but they don't last long against the power of the whole group.

But no sign of Dedede...

They search in his chamber, where he takes his meal, the pool,and so on without finding him. They eventually enter a room at the top of the hotel without a roof and with a big window giving a great view of the lake.

"Not here too. Where is he?" asks Sweetie Belle irritated.

"Is there a secret room in this hotel?" asks Daroach.

"Not that I know..."

The eyes of the Cutter Kirby suddenly open wide while looking at the window, and points his arm at it with a "Poyo!"

Looking at the window, they see through it a big balloon looking like Dedede's head floating up. Attached to it is a basked, with Dedede himself inside it, looking at them with a smirk promising suffering.

"I didn't know that he had a balloon!"

The balloon continues to float up, before stopping above them, Dedede looking at them over the edge of the basket before he takes something from inside it and drops it, revealing it to be a bomb with a countdown.

"That's new..."

"Pff! No problems!" says Daroach before grabbing the Hammer Kirby and tossing him at the bomb. The Hammer Kirby hits the bomb, causing it to bounce back up at Dedede just as the countdown reaches 0, making the bomb explode in his face.

"Good thinking Daroach!"

"Instead of praising me, you should do something for the Kirby. They can't attack Dedede with their current abilities."

"Right!" She looks up at the Dedede balloon as Dedede drops two more bombs, and smirks. "And I know what to do. I let you deal with the bomb!" She shouts the last bit as her wings appear, before she flies up to the balloon without letting time for Daroach to reply. A sword then appear at her side, and as soon as she reaches the balloon, she swings the sword at it, opening a big hole causing the air in the balloon to escape. With the balloon losing air rapidly, the basket quickly lose altitude, barely escaping the explosions of the two bombs that Daroach has bounced back, before crashing in the middle of the Kirbys, all the puffballs ready to attack.

Angry, Dedede takes his hammer and jump from the basket, targeting Spark Kirby. In the middle of his jump, one of Sweetie's shields hits him on the top of his head, making him crash on the floor. Sword Kirby slashes him first, before the Kirbys that can attack from a distance, which are Fire, Ice, Spark, Beam, Bomb, Ninja, Cutter, and Fighter (with his Force Blast), throw all their projectiles at him. They are joined by Daroach with his bombs, and Sweetie Belle with her beams. Despite the assault, Dedede is able to get up before he starts to spin around with his hammer, forcing the Kirbys closer to him to run away., only to be stopped by Hammer Kirby bonking him on the head. Sweetie Belle also materializes the hammer and quickly flies toward Dedede before hitting him under the chin with it with enough force to make him fly back in the basket now covered by the balloon now empty of air. Daroach then smirks and throws another bomb at Dedede in the basket.

A basket full of those time bombs he has used at the start.

They jump out the window just before the resulting explosion engulfs the whole room. When they land at the base of the hotel, Sweetie Belle looks at Daroach. "Don't you think that was a little overkill?"

"You are the one telling me that? At least, it ended the fight faster."

"True. I'm not scarred for Dedede surviving this explosion, but now, he has probably been propelled by it, and he could have ended anywhere. And I was thinking of asking him to join us."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA"

"I'm sure that the Squeakers in the airship saw-"

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" CRASH!

Someone suddenly crashing not far beside them interrupts their discussion, the crash expelling a good amount of dust toward them, which forces them to protect their eyes. When the dust settles, they look at who crashed, which is none other than Dedede, totally blackened and upside down, his head stuck in the ground. At this moment, the purple fire gets out of him before disappearing.

"Seriously?" deadpans Yin and Yarn.

Sweetie Belle giggles. "Seems like we are lucky. Can you help him while I go in the hotel to search for something to heal him?"

Daroach and the Kirbys nod, and Sweetie Belle enters the hotel through a window.

---

It hasn't taken long to heal Dedede and to explain everything to him, the penguin growling at being controlled, again. When Sweetie Belle asks him if he wants to join them to fight the Skull Gang, he accepts immediately, swearing to take his revenge.

Dedede saved, Sweetie Belle has then led Daroach to her chamber to give him the medals from Sandy Canyon and Dedede Resort, and Daroach notes that they are effectively all here, to Sweetie's relief.

Now done with Dedede Resort, they all go back in the airship, finding out that Doc is now aboard too, his saucer parked at the right of the wheel, while Doc himself is now piloting the airship while Storo is napping against a wall and Spinni is simply looking at them. However, when he spots Sweetie Belle and the Kirbys...

"YOU! Don't think that because we are now working together I forgive you about all the wrongs you have done to me the previous time!"

"But Daroach, Storo and Spinni forgave us easily. Why not you?"

"Because I'm not as forgiving!"

Spinni then whispers to the filly "Remember, he is a grumpy old mule."

"Mmh..." Sweetie Belle ponders what to do. She looks at Doc, before looking around at the gondola, smiling. "Say, Doc..."

...

"Doc?"

...

"Doc!"

"What?!"

The joy of being old... She waves around her. "You are the one that built this airship if I remember well."

"Exactly! This airship is my baby!"

"How does it work? I mean, I know that there are airships back in my world, but none of them are like this one! Shooting tornadoes from the propellers! Firing a big laser! Being able to fly backwards! That's really impressive! Can you tell me please?"

"Of course I can! Take the wheel Squeaker."

"Yes Doc!"

"Prepare yourself to be mind blown by my genius!"

Spinni looks at the scene with his jaw dropping. "Did she just use his ego to..."

"Yes she did," confirm both Daroach and Dedede.

Daroach then looks at the Squeaker now at the wheel. "To Volcano Valley."

Comments

[Edguy0009]

A squad or two of Tahnok could deal with Lady Ivy and her vines easily, I've also heard that Napalm as well other incendiary bombs and thermobaric weapons are good for dealing with pesky forests.

[Herald of Opera]

You know, I'd actually been looking forward to Kirby fighting Bandanna Dee back in the Return to the King section; with Sweetie convincing him to take his levels in badass a few games early, that was probably a legitimate boss fight instead of what happened in canon. Shame we didn't get any specifics.

[Lucar]

9708030
Sorry about that. Yes, during Revenge of the King, this version of Bandana Dee has been slightly stronger than his counterpart in canon, but against Kirby, I thought that he still wouldn't have the level to have a correct fight against him even if he would put up a better fight than in the game with his spear, so I focused on Sweetie Belle.

9707953
Too bad there aren't any Napalm ability. Instead, we got some kind of bomber with Wing Kirby and Missile Kirby.

[Edguy0009]

9708622
And no Tahnok either oh well.

[The Kelduo]

The Missile and Wing Kirbys reminded me of those Bronto Burts in Kirby's Epic Yarn that would throw missiles at the Tankbot, as well as those Bronto Burts in Planet Robobot.

[Lucar]

9708941
Yeah, that was the idea. ^^

[The Kelduo]

9708988
I wonder, will those missile-throwing Bronto Burts appear in the Planet Robobot chapters? Also, if you want some more puns, I like to call those insect Bronto Burts from Royal Road (in Triple Deluxe) Bronto Bugs.

[Lucar]

9709123
Yes, some of them will appear. After all, I have to show the horrors that Haltmann Works Company do with their mecanisation of Popstar, so as to give Sweetie more reasons to go all "EXTERMINATE" on them. Of course, her seeing Meca Knight will be...

[The Kelduo]

9709216
If only Tails was there with his Hypno-Bot from Sonic Boom. That way, he could deactivate the robotic part of the mechanized citizens' minds and free them from the Haltmann Works Company's control. Of course, if you haven't watched the episodes of Sonic Boom with Hypno-Bot, have you at least seen Sonic Underground, where Sonic, Sonia, and Manic use their medallions to temporarily free the roboticized citizens of Mobius?

[Lucar]

9709277
I have seen none of them. It's actually the first time that I hear of Sonic Underground. But yeah, a machine like that would be useful.

[The Kelduo]

9709334
Then here's a story about Sonic Underground: Queen Aleena, ruler of Mobius, gave birth to triplets Sonic, Sonia, and Manic, who were relentlessly pursued by Dr. Robotnik and his bounty-hunter sidekicks. They were separated as infants and hidden in order to fulfill a prophecy made by the Oracle of Delphius: they would grow up and find their estranged mother, overthrow Dr. Robotnik, and take their places as the rightful rulers of Mobius.

The siblings possess enchanted medallions that can transform into instruments that double as weapons: Sonic's medallion becomes an electric guitar that fires lasers; Sonia's medallion becomes a keyboard that fires lasers and can create smoke; and Manic's medallion becomes drums that control seismic activity (triggering earthquakes, rock slides, etc.). Furthermore, the medallions can temporarily release roboticized citizens from Robotnik's control.

Aside from battling, the trio use their instruments to perform as the underground rock band, the Sonic Underground.

[Lucar]

9709588
Ah yeah. I remember seeing some images of it, but I totally forgot that it was called Sonic Underground.

[emeraldhuskydragon0]

9709641
I remember seeing sonic underground. I watched it like quite a while ago *years* and the only thing I remember is kid sonic saying “no bath!” while running around

[sonictj3]

She activates the Magic ability and takes her hat. "Do you want to see a magic trick?"

(Zooms in on my face looking excited) No!

[Skulljack17]

I can imagine Twilight pulling out so many notepads as Doc explains everything about this amazing ship of his, while the other observers are just rolling their eyes. "Don't you DARE cut this explanation off Discord!"

[Lucar]

10634211
It's totally that!

[The Kelduo]

She spits a few seeds at them, but they are deflected by a mirror from Sweetie Belle while the Missile Kirbys the feet of the Wing Kirbys to let themselves drop.

While the Missile Kirbys let go of the feet of the Wing Kirbys.

[Lucar]

10931316
Thanks.

[redsopine]

Here’s hoping discord muted doc otherwise twilight is stealing his tec