A Sweetie Dream Land

by Lucar

Chapter 76: Queen Sectonia

Sectonia flies above the heroes as she shoots orbs from her scepters at them with a cackle. Dedede grabs Sweetie Belle who's still on the floor, and they jump out of the way. Quickly, Sweetie Belle uses her magic to take one of the three remaining axes, and she sends it at Kirby who eats it, gaining the Axe ability again, while the filly, dropped by Dedede, grabs one of her cannons to turn it into a double beam swords, and the other cannons start floating around her.

Sectonia then appears a few feet away from them, and turns her scepters into rapiers. She then charges toward the nearest hero, Kirby, and swings one of her rapiers at him. Kirby parries it with his axe, and Bandana jumps from her left to impale her, only for her to use her other rapier to block his spear. She then thrusts her rapier at him, and he barely dodges it with an air jump. Dedede runs toward her while Sweetie Belle starts shooting beams both with her horn and her cannons. Sectonia chuckles before teleporting, avoiding the lasers, and she appears beside Sweetie Belle. With her rapiers, she performs a dozen thrusts very rapidly, and Sweetie Belle is able to parry all of them with her double beam swords before jumping out of the way to avoid a few orbs that Sectonia fires at her from one of her rapiers turned back into a scepter. She's caught off guard by Kirby who slashes her from behind with his axe, before getting a few missiles on the head from Dedede, and she teleports away, causing Bandana to miss his thrust.

Sectonia appears away from the heroes, then teleports again elsewhere, and another time, this time appearing just above Dedede, rapiers turned back into scepters as she raises the golden one before firing many black lightning bolts from it in the area below her, electrifying the king. She teleports again, and tries to do the same to Kirby and Bandana Dee who are together, and Sweetie Belle quickly puts a mirror shield above them, deflecting the lightning bolts back to the queen bee. Annoyed, Sectonia fires some orbs at Sweetie Belle, only for her to use another mirror shield to deflect them, forcing Sectonia to teleport.

Appearing beyond the edge of what remains of the room, Sectonia materializes a golden, clearly sharp ring around her waist that turns like a saw. With it, she starts flying after Sweetie Belle who's forced to run, but this leaves the bee open to the projectiles from Sweetie's cannons as well as a stream of fire from Dedede's mecha hammer. So she turns the ring into a giant one, and throws it after Sweetie Belle who lowers herself against the ground to avoid it. She throws more giant rings at Dedede and Kirby, but they avoid respectively by jumping and flattening. All the while, she fires more orbs this time at Sweetie's cannons, and the filly has to assemble them together back into her whip (still keeping the tenth part for her double beam swords) to make them avoid the projectiles more easily. That's when Bandana, who's been able to approach Sectonia, starts twirling his spear, making him raise in the air until he reaches Sectonia and cuts her continuously until she slaps him with one of her scepters.

At this moment, Sectonia teleports near the edge, turns toward the sky, raises her hands, and creates a giant rune from which a huge crystal like the floating ones back in the castle comes out. Once the crystal has fully appeared and starts floating in the air, Sectonia turns back to them, and the floor under them starts shaking. The queen then raises her hands, and the heroes find themselves projected on the crystal. And with the four of them, there isn't much place to move.

Seeing Sectonia create smaller versions of the sharp golden rings, Sweetie Belle decides to fly on a shield, freeing some space for the others, and they have less problems running around to avoid the rings. Until Sectonia stops playing with them and throws ten rings at the same time, targeting the whole surface of the crystal at once. So, to avoid them, the three heroes still on the crystal simply jump beyond the edge of the crystal, letting the rings hit it, before flying/jumping back on it.

Sectonia is displeased.

She sees Sweetie Belle approaching her on her shield, whip floating beside her and double beam sword on her right hoof, and she quickly turns her scepters back into rapiers to parry the double sword. The whip then turns into its staff version -a little smaller since it's missing its tenth part-, and Sweetie grabs it with her left hoof. She then starts twirling her two weapons back and forth, moving them to both attack and defend as Sectonia reveals to be an excellent swordbee, the queen parrying and counterattacking Sweetie's blows with great grace and efficacy.

Meta Knight would have a blast fighting her.

But Sectonia spots missiles coming toward her, and she quickly teleports above the crystal, where she creates five smaller runes. From those runes come five ant soldiers, one big red, two greens of smaller size, and two whites even smaller. Those ants are all equipped with a spiked club and a heart-shaped shield, and as the colors suggest, the red one uses fire attacks, the green ones use spark attacks, and the white ones use ice attacks. There's not many place on the crystal, and with those ants, it's pretty much impossible to move without bumping on someone or falling beyond the edge. The heroes still have no problems facing them, but this opens them to Sectonia who starts a flying-and-slashing maneuver, and Sweetie rapidly flies to her to parry one of her slashes, stopping her. This, instead of exchanging blows with her, Sweetie decides to shoot a stream of fire at her face, forcing her to fly back.

By now, the others have dealt with the ants who have been pushed beyond the edge of the crystal, and Dedede immediately shoots more fire with his hammer, burning Sectonia even more. So Sectonia surrounds herself with another golden ring, and flies toward the center of the crystal, and the ring is so big that it forces everyone on the crystal into a dilemme: rest on the crystal and being turned into shreds by the ring, or jump beyond the edge and become an easy target. Kirby takes none of those solutions, and moves directly under Sectonia just before she reaches the crystal. He then performs many slashes with his axe, cutting her heavily at the lower part of her body and forcing Sectonia to move back up to stop this. The ring around her disappears, and she raises her golden scepter, unleashing her storm of lightning bolts in a large area on the surface of the crystal. But again, Sweetie Belle creates a mirror shield above her friends, and Sectonia is the one getting shocked. The others all attack her then.

Badly hurt, Sectonia starts teleporting randomly around the crystal before appearing directly behind Sweetie Belle, quickly using a scepter to slap her back at the surface of the crystal. She then teleports more, before appearing above the center of the crystal, her two scepters raised. The heroes near the center rapidly run away, just in time, as Sectonia slam her scepters on the crystal, destroying it, and blasting the four heroes back at the tower, at the remains of the room.

As they recover, Sectonia creates seven runes, invoking seven ants: two whites, two greens, two reds, and a yellow one even bigger than the red ones that doesn't use elemental attacks but shoot magic blasts. With the heroes forced to fight the ants, Sectonia directly starts rapidly teleporting around the room, her chuckle seemingly coming from everywhere at once. She then appears directly behind Sweetie Belle as she is busy attacking a green ant, and performs a big slash at her back. The ant takes the occasion to bonk her with his shield before shocking her with his club. But Sweetie quickly recovers and finishes the ant by trapping him in ice.

Meanwhile, Sectonia restarts teleporting around while chuckling, and she successfully slashes Kirby on the back, knocking out his ability and leaving him vulnerable to the yellow ant he's facing. Thankfully, Kirby is able to roll, avoiding the ant's club, and inhales back his Axe ability. And Sectonia restarts teleporting around again, while more ants appear. This continues for a moment, more and more ants appearing while Sectonia teleports around before appearing behind one of the heroes at random to slash at their back. At that moment, Bandana as spotted Sectonia appearing behind him and has tried to run to avoid being slashed, only for Sectonia to teleport again and to appear just in front of him. Too surprised by this, Bandana couldn't parry the following slash. By now, there are dozens of bodies of ants littering the floor, and it starts to get hard to move around because of them and the ones that continue appearing.

But eventually, as Sectonia appears behind Dedede to attack him, she's slashed in the back by Kirby, stopping her from attacking. Annoyed, Sectonia restarts teleporting, and this time, appears behind Sweetie Belle, only for Bandana Dee to throw his spear at her. With the heroes now watching each others backs, forming some kind of circle, Sectonia can't take them by surprise anymore, because, as soon as she appears to attack, she's attacked by someone else. Understanding that this attack doesn't work anymore, Sectonia stops it, and simply starts her flying-and-slashing maneuver again, which is not much more effectives, the heroes not stopping keeping an eye on her while fighting the ants that are always coming.

Now very angry and hurts, Sectonia starts creating and throwing her rings, both big ones and small ones, toward all the heroes without caring for the ants, both conscious and unconscious, that get cut in half by them, turning the room into a bloody mess. And despite this, the ants continue coming and attacking, without caring if they are killed by their own queen. Disgusted by such a dirty act, the heroes stop attacking the ants and focus on the queen. Sweetie Belle jumps on her whip and starts firing her projectiles on her, while Dedede fires his missiles. Kirby and Bandana Dee run toward Sectonia, avoiding the rings, and once she throws her latest giant ring, they jump at her before she can reform one and slash at her as much as they can before they land back on the ground.

The pain being too much for her, Sectonia falls on the ground, half conscious.

The ants run away, and the heroes sigh in relief.

Only to see Sectonia starting to slowly fly up again.

"Bah... Aha... I see..."

"Give up, Sectonia," says Sweetie Belle. "We have beaten you. You can't win against us."

"Yes. I didn't expect less from you four. The four of you have been chosen by the Dreamstalk after all. I wouldn't even be surprised if just one of you could defeat me. I had no chance from the start. But I wonder..." Sectonia flies higher, revealing the giant bulb of the Dreamstalk further in the sky behind her, glowing in the light of the moon visible behind it. "How will you handle this?"

The four heroes raise an eyebrow in wonder. What is she talking about concerning the Dreamstalk?

"You see, true beauty... is control," continues Sectonia.

Sweetie Belle huffs. "My sister would like to have two words with you about what beauty truly is."

"She's just cuckoo," says Dedede, twirling a finger beside his head.

But Sectonia doesn't listen to them as she continues her monologue, her eyes glowing as she flies closer to the bulb. "The Dreamstalk has guided you thus far." And suddenly, as she reaches the bulb, they are both plunged in light, and her voice starts echoing, powerful. "But its bloom will be your doom!"

"Wait. Don't tell me she's..." says Dedede in horror.

Below them, beyond the clouds, they can see the vines of the Dreamstalk quickly growing and spreading all over the surface.

"Floralia, Dreamland, and this entire planet!"

"She's fusing with the Dreamstalk! What the heck?! How can she do that?!" yells Sweetie Belle.

"The question is: How will we stop her?!" replies Bandana Dee in panic.

The vines are spreading everywhere, including the castle. There's nowhere to hide. The whole planet is invaded by those.

"You should all feel honored. You will serve as my sustenance... for eternity!"

And the light spreads, plunging everything in it.

When it disappears, and everyone can see again, everything is covered in vines, and the bulb of the Dreamstalk, still visible, is now surrounded by Sectonia's four wings.

And dozens of vines suddenly come and block the way. Not giving up to panic, Sweetie Belle starts using fire on them, and Dedede quickly joins her with the fire of his mecha hammer, but each time a vine disappears in ash, another takes its place. They then see a small bulb on one of the vines opening, revealing a single eye in it, and Sweetie Belle targets it with her fire, destroying it. Surprisingly, this causes some of the vines blocking the way to disperse, opening a hole, but before they can do anything, the hole closes with more vines, and three more of those bulbs appear.

That's when the flower fairies, now free of their cages, come with a cannon, and they drop it in front of the vines.

"Use it to pass those vines and reach Sectonia!" says one of them.

"You should be able to use the vines of the Dreamstalk as platforms to get to her," says another.

Bandana looks at the cannon, insure. "One of us will have to take control of it, but it means that one of us has to remain behind."

Dedede huffs. "I can already see that I'll be too big to enter the cannon, so I suppose that I'll be the one remaining behind." At this, he sits on the seat of the cannon and starts using the levers to move it, getting the feeling. He then gives the bag of food to Sweetie Belle. "Don't worry, I'll try to find a way to join you. Until then, you'll have to deal with this loony flower bee without me."

They nod. "But first, we have to deal with those vines," says Sweetie Belle.

At this, Kirby enters the cannon. Smirking, Dedede shouts "Ready the cannonball!" He then targets one of the bulbs, wait for it to open to reveal its eye, and... "Fire!" BAM! "Target destroyed!"

Sweetie Belle, Bandana Dee, and the flower fairies laugh at Dedede's silliness, before the filly places herself beside the cannon and shoots a fireball at another opening bulb, destroying it. Kirby returns inside the cannon, and Dedede firesat the last bulb. When it's destroyed, the vines separate, opening a hole, but it quickly closes before Dedede can fire Kirby through it, and five bulbs appear, now possessing spikes on them.

"Rah! Come on!" yells Dedede.

"Let's continue," says Sweetie Belle.

Despite the bulbs trying to trick them into misfiring and even shooting big seeds to try to destroy the cannon, which are destroyed by Sweetie, the five bulbs are eventually eliminated, and a hole opens again, and this time, it doesn't close right away. So, rapidly, Dedede fires Kirby through it. Bandana Dee then enters the cannon and Dedede fires him. Sweetie Belle quickly follows him just before the hole closes.

They land on a vine about halfway between the castle and the giant bulb of the Dreamstalk, covered in shadow because of the moonlight coming from behind. They look up at it, understanding how big it is, as it raises in the middle of a jungle of vines.

Without hesitation, they start jumping from vine to vine toward it, and their next battle to save Popstar from becoming plant food for eternity. The first rays of the sun rising beyond the horizon appear.

---

"How do you think they'll be able to fight that giant flower?" asks Spike.

"For Sweetie Belle, it's obvious, she'll fire lasers at it," says Pinkie Pie. "For the others, I don't know... Kirby possesses an axe, so maybe he'll cut the stalk. And Popstar will know forever how Kirby saved the world this day: by becoming a lumberjack!"

"Still. A giant queen bee fused to a giant flower... That's probably the weirdest thing they've fought until now," says Rainbow Dash.

Rarity sighs. "That queen as such a beautiful body. Too bad her soul is as black as Sombra's magic," she finishes in disgust.

---

The heroes run and jump on the vine, approaching the bulb of the Dreamstalk. The bulb then opens, revealing Sectonia's head inside it, who's glaring at them. She then gives a big roar, her new voice having nothing to do with the one she had previously, and dozens of one eyed flowers rise from the vines before separating from them and flying toward the heroes. As for the vines themselves, they start moving chaotically, forming hills, slopes, crossing each other, and some of them also start rising like towers in a threatening way, pointing their sharp end toward the heroes.

The movement of the vines forces the trio to separate, each going on a different vine to continue, weapons ready as the flying flowers approach them. Stopping herself from focusing on her friends, Sweetie Belle slashes with her double beam sword at one of the flowers, cutting it in half. This seemingly hurts Sectonia a little, but not much, and more of the flowers come at her. She jumps to avoid being impaled by a vine, and starts running on it, before parrying one of the flowers that has turned into a sword to attack her. Other flowers then start firing seeds, while others try to ram her after turning into spiked bulbs.

She quickly cuts the sword flower in half, and jumps on another vine below her to avoid the seeds and the spiked bulbs. Here, two sword flowers do a cross slash at her, and she jumps back to avoid them before she turns her staff back into nine cannons, and turns five of the cannons into double beam swords that she starts twirling around her with her magic. Flowers after flowers are cut, as well as a few vines, while the cannons shoot fireballs at more of the flowers, the filly not stopping her advance toward the looming Flowered Sectonia.

Two flowers start spinning, their petals becoming as sharp as her beam swords, and she stops herself just as one pass in front of her. She quickly jumps forward to avoid the other, and destroys the two with some fireballs. She creates a mirror shield, deflecting some fiery seeds, before she jumps to a rising vine at her right. Coating her gauntlets in ice, she glides on the formed slope, cutting more flowers in her way, before she spots Bandana Dee further down at her left, her friend thrusting continuously his spear left and right to destroy the flowers while jumping to avoid the attacks, clearly in difficulty.

Waiting for the right moment, she jumps, and lands right on Bandana Dee's back. Bandana Dee has spotted her coming, so he isn't surprised and continues his advance. On his back, Sweetie Belle turns the sbeam swords back into cannons, except the one she's holding, and makes them surround her before they fire lasers all around, disintegrating dozens of flowers and damaging many vines. Some flowers are able to pass the barrage of lasers, and four of them surround Bandana Dee before creating stream of electricity between each other, surrounding the Waddle Dee with them. The flowers then close on him, and Bandana jumps just in time to avoid them.

Flowers start firing lasers back at them, and the two separate, jumping at opposite direction from vine to vine, Bandana Dee impaling one that is rising to cling to it and gain height, while Sweetie Belle cuts a giant leave and uses it as a parachute, flying left and right to avoid many vines trying to impale her as well as many lasers before she reaches another vine that is however moving backward, so she quickly jumps to another one next to it, cutting in two ten spiked bulbs charging at her one after another. The vine she's on, however, starts rising vertically like a tower, threatening to make her fall, so she creates a spiked shield around her hooves and uses them to cling to the vine. She starts climbing it as more flowers fire lasers at her, until she comes to a group of flowers that she uses to reach another vine, jumping from flower to flower.

She lands just behind Kirby just as he starts using his axe to glide on the vine as it forms a slope going down. She quickly jumps on the axe beside him, and she makes the axe spin to be able to attack and defend at all sides. The vine comes to an end, and Kirby bounces his axe to another vine at the left, continuing his gliding on it. A vine blocks their way, and they both jump, Kirby taking his axe to cut the vine and be able to continue his gliding. Eventually, they jump on a vine forming a slope that goes up, forcing them to stop gliding and to return to running.

They jump to avoid a vine trying to impale them from above, Bandana Dee clinging to it, and Kirby jumps on a vine at their right to eliminate a group of laser firing flowers, while Sweetie Belle raises her hooves, catching Bandana Dee who's jumped toward her. She spins, and throws him to another vine where there are not many flowers, and she uses her cannons to destroy the ones chasing him.

A sword flower cuts the vine she's on, and as she falls, she quickly forms back her whip before wrapping it around another vise. A quick swinging later, she jumps, reforms her nine cannons and double beam sword, and cuts a flower about to slash Kirby from behind. She jumps to another vine a little higher, planting her sword in it to balance herself and land on it, and starts climbing it as it rises vertically. Like previously, a sword flower cuts it, and as it falls, she runs on it before jumping, clinging to Bandana's legs as he flies on the way with his twirling spear. Not wanting to cause problems to him because of her weight, she quickly jumps to another vine, and she lets Kirby cut the flower behind her as his vine is rising beside her.

Her vine then starts rising too, as well as the one on which Bandana Dee lands, and in a few seconds, they find themselves in front of Sectonia herself, who's surrounded by some of her flowers, all of them glowing as they gather energy.

The three heroes stare at her, and ready themselves.

"Under the moon
The beautiful queen bee is filled with love."

They jump from the vines they're on just before Sectonia fires a huge laser at them, the laser disintegrating the vines they've been on, and they land on other vines below.

"Which so much, she has of,
Rationality leaves her as she croons."

Countless flowers start to rise from the jungle of vines below. Sweetie Belle, now surrounded by the familiar aura, surrounds her horn with the ten cannons, all pointing at its end as she gathers energy, before firing a powerful laser, not as big and powerful as the black one she fired while puppeted by Taranza, but still powerful enough to disintegrate every flowers that get in the way before hitting Sectonia on the face. But more and more flowers continue rising, as well as the vines, more and more of them rising their pointy ends around Sectonia and the heroes.

The sun fully appears at the horizon behind them, while the moon still shines behind Sectonia.

"In the moonset,
Moonstruck blossoms before the rising sun."

They restart running and jumping on the vines as the flowers restart attacking them. Simply using a double beam sword to cut the ones getting too close, Sweetie Belle continues firing at Sectonia with her cannons and her horn, only for Sectonia to create a shield in front of her using some of the flowers. Understanding what she's to do, Sweetie Belle targets the flowers moving in the shield. Meanwhile, Bandana Dee is using his spear to climb a vine close to the stem, while Kirby is attacked by a dozen vines trying to impale him one after another, only for him to always jump at the last second before landing on them.

"Care for the others, there is none
Her love song is not a duet!

By now, hundreds of flowers are darkening the sky above them, and they start diving toward the heroes. Sweetie Belle stops attacking the ones creating the shield in front of Sectonia, and grabs Kirby as he jumps toward her. She spins, and throws him toward the sky, where he twirls his axe, cutting all the flowers on the way. At the same time, Bandana Dee has reached the top of his vine beside Sectonia, and jumps toward her, reaching her behind her shield before slashing her. He then grabs one of her antennas, and clings to it to attack her again and again. To get rid of him, Sectonia starts to shake erratically until she successfully throws him away. This has still caused the shield to disappear, so Sweetie Belle immediately starts firing giant fireballs at her face, burning her badly.

"She loves just her reflection,
Others are imperfections!
She is the supreme, and everything else deserves to bow before her beauty!"

Sectonia roars at Sweetie Belle before sending the majority of her flowers and vines after her. The flowers slash, charge, fire, and the vines try to impale her, crush her, wrap her, but the filly surrounds herself with ten double beam swords, and uses them to cut everything attacking her as she runs up a hill-like vine to get closer of Sectonia's face. Then, Kirby falls from the sky just above Sectonia, and slashes her vertically before bouncing on the stem to land on a nearby vine.

"She is among the divines
And like the great sun she shines!
Everything else is just a mean for her to remain for all eterni-ty!"

Sweetie Belle throws all the double beam swords at Sectonia. The flower-bee moves around to dodge them, but still gets impaled by many of them because of her great size, mainly in the petals and one time in the stem, while the rest impale her around her head. The flowers take the occasion that Sweetie is weaponless to charge at her, only for her to surround herself in a shield of fire before expelling it, turning the flowers and vines around her to ash, only for another vine to slap her toward a sword flower ready to impale her. With an air jump, she passes above the flower, and punches it toward Sectonia, slamming her face with it.

"Her body is all beauty
But her soul is all dirty!
She is ready to doom Popstar so her beauty can remain like this forever!"

She's not sure how long the fight will continue. They've already greatly hurt Sectonia, between the flowers, the vines, and the head, and they can see her petals starting to drop and lose their shine, but she doesn't seem ready to give up anytime soon. Knowing that she's using her vines to suck energy from the whole planet, this could last for hours unless they give a decisive blow, but Sectonia, in this form, reveals herself to be extremely resistant. Maybe the big black laser from earlier could have worked, but she would need to become an alicorn to reach that level of power without Taranza's boosting.

But if she has to, she's ready to fight until the sun sets. Well, mentally, but physically, she and the others may not last that long. If only she had mastered gathering energy from her environment, like she used while she was under Taranza's control! Right now, all she can do, at best, is throwing a few dozen energy balls before getting tired.

As she shoots more giant fireballs at Sectonia while using her double beam swords to destroy all the flowers attacking her and her friends, she starts thinking of what they could do to end this fight early.

"So the queen must be absolutely
Stopped to save the world as it is our duty.
So we won't give up and will continue to fight like this, if we have to, for-ev-er!"

Then, a shadow passes rapidly in front of Sectonia, slashing her, before stopping a little further, revealing itself to be none other than Meta Knight! The knight, flying thanks to his bat wings, then starts flying all around, cutting the flowers one after another.

"Meta Knight!" shouts Bandana Dee in happiness.

Suddenly, a familiar laugh resonates, and when Sweetie Belle looks at its origin, she sees Marx, split in two, creating a black hole that starts sucking up the flowers nearby. Lightning bolts, normal and black, then start raining here and there on the flowers, their origin being none other than a painted Kracko rode by Adeleine, followed by Gooey in his Dark Matter form! Enraged, Sectonia sends a good number of her flowers after them, only for a laser beam to suddenly appear and freeze the majority of them, the frozen flowers dropping. Turning her head at the source of the laser, Sweetie Belle spots Daroach floating not far in the sky, charging another laser with his wand.

Sweetie Belle smiles like Pinkie Pie. Of course they would all come help when the vines spread to the whole planet!

And then, Dedede drops from the sky, and bonks Sectonia right on the head, before his hammer opens and expels fire right on her, covering her in it. Seeing a flower come to him to attack him, Dedede bounces from Sectonia and Meta Knight catches him before dropping him beside Kirby. Sweetie Belle quickly joins them with a few air jumps.

"Ah! Told you I would join you sooner or later!" He then points up. "And I come with a gift for Kirby!"

Sweetie Belle and Kirby looked up to see Taranza approaching them, holding some weird red fruit surrounded by a yellow spiral and glowing blue.

"Taranza?" asks Sweetie Belle in wonder.

"Explanation later!" shouts Dedede before grabbing Kirby. "Kirby, time for you to do what you do best: eat!"

Dedede then throws Kirby toward Taranza, who throws the fruit at him. Looking at the fruit, Kirby opens his mouth and eats it. Immediately, he loses his Axe ability, is surrounded in light, and his body starts glowing all the colors of the rainbow! When he lands on a vine, he jumps on a few others before going on the highest one and facing Sectonia, the sun now shining behind her as she turns around to face him despite the chaos of attacks and of destroyed flowers surrounding her.

With a roar, Sectonia sends all her flowers at Kirby, who opens his mouth, and inhales.

The vortex created by his inhaling is at least ten times more powerful than usual, and he starts inhaling all the flowers, dozens, hundreds, over one thousand! Roaring again, Sectonia rises a vine and brings it down at Kirby, who jumps just before on a vine below. With most of the flowers gone, everyone starts attacking directly Sectonia who finds her body bombarded from all sides by all kinds of projectiles, fireballs, ice beam, lightning bolts, missiles, arrows, lasers!

With another roar, Sectonia makes the majority of the vines around her rise like giant spikes, and everyone still on them is forced to take flight or to air jump to not fall. Coo suddenly flies from above and starts scratching Sectonia's eyes with his claws while Sweetie Belle joins Kirby on one of her shields and lets him go on her back so he doesn't have to keep his mouth closed to remain inflated to fly. Her body then also starts glowing in the colors of the rainbow as the ability spreads to her, and like when she had the power of the Master Crown in her, she can feel herself becoming much more powerful.

Roaring, Sectonia headbutts Coo to stop him from attacking her eyes, then continues rising her vines like spikes all around her again and again to try to impale her attackers. She then spots Kirby on Sweetie's back just as the filly shoots with her horn and her cannons a huge fireball that engulfs the flower-bee. Roaring in both rage and pain, Sectonia rises a vine and uses it to try to impale them, only for Kirby to open his mouth before inhaling the vine. The giant vine disappears more and more inside Kirby's small body until it is torn apart from Sectonia.

Now having enough, Sectonia charges energy, and fires a huge laser at them.

And Kirby opens his mouth and inhales it.

Sectonia continues firing her laser which continues to be inhaled by Kirby, until she can't take it anymore and stops. But Kirby continues inhaling, and one by one, Sectonia's petals are torn from her. The queen, totally drained, is totally at the mercy of the puffball.

But Kirby doesn't swallow the laser.

He stares at Sectonia, who looks back at him...

"STOP!" screams suddenly Taranza as he places himself between them.

"What are you doing?" asks Sweetie Belle.

"Please, don't kill her! She wasn't always like that! I'm sure there's still some good in her!"

"You idiot!" they hear Dedede yell from Daroach's back. "Don't you see she's totally lost it!"

"Maybe her defeat has returned her to her senses! Please, let me try!" Taranza then turns around to face his queen, giving her the softest smile he can give. "Queen Sectonia, do you remember me? We watched each other since our childhood. I swore loyalty to you to the end." Sectonia looks at him, without saying anything. "Sectonia. It's me. Your best friend. Taranza."

"Ta...ranza...?"

"Yes! Remember! I was with you all the time! We played together! I watched over you when you caught the flu! I searched the whole planet for the best dresses for you! I even went to that mirror world to give you this mirror at your last birthday!"

"What?" asks Sweetie Belle in surprise at hearing this.

"I followed you despite you becoming like this because I didn't want to leave you. But... Let's restart like before! Let's return to the castle and forget about all this! You were already beautiful, you don't need more!"

"No..."

"Uh?"

"I... was... ugly... I... was... weak... But... I... I..."

"Sectonia!"

"I... Ugh... Uuuugh... Rah... Raah...! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Sectonia raises her head toward the sky as she starts shrieking, a sudden wave of energy coming from her pushing back everyone around.

"I...! WILL BE...! THE MOST BEAUTIFUL...! OF THE UNIVERSE...! EVERYTHING...! WILL BOW TO ME...! FOREVER...!!!"

As she yelled those words, dozens of vines start to rise from the islands of Floralia, each wrapping a fruit similar to the one that Kirby has eaten. Then, flowers come and start eating those fruits. Sectonia, and the whole Dreamstalk start glowing.

"No!" yells Taranza in despair.

"Now Kirby!" shouts Sweetie Belle.

"Mmh!" answers the bloated puffball on her back before he opens his mouth, firing back the laser he's eaten earlier at Sectonia. The laser envelops her, and soon, Sectonia disappears in it.

Only for a very bright light to engulf everything, and Sectonia's silhouette reappears in it, only now, her wings look jagged, and a huge power emanates from her. When the light disappears, they can see that she now possesses darker colors and... all reason seems to have disappeared from her eyes. As for the Dreamstalk, the vines now have thorns and roses.

She then starts stirring herself on the stem, until she succeeds, only leaving her head and her disembodied wings floating with a purplish blue aura behind her. Then, with a ghostly cackle, she disappears.

At this instant, as she looks in horror at what has happened, Sweetie Belle remembers Magolor's words:
If you encounter someday someone with a strong will, you may end up having to fight their soul to definitively kill them. The soul can either be unleashed by killing the being a first time, or the being can choose to unleash it. Just watch out if this happens, because souls are pure will, so if the being unleashing it wants you dead, then the soul will do everything to kill you without a care for what happens to it or around it. A battle against a soul may also be triggered if the being totally loses their mind.

Sweetie looks as Sectonia reappears in the sky to her left, only rapidly to fly to her right with this same ghostly cackle before disappearing. She continues to do that, randomly reappearing somewhere in the sky, flying rapidly to another point, before teleporting again, all the time with that cackle that seems to come from Tartarus and makes her fur stand on end.

Then, Sectonia appears right beside Taranza, who has barely time to look at her in pain and despair before she shoots four cutter blades around her, one of them cutting the spider. After that, Sectonia restarts teleporting and flying randomly. In the meantime, the vines start to move again despite Sectonia having left the Dreamstalk, and with their thorns, they look even more threatening.

The Dreamstalk as nothing dreamy anymore.

The filly looks at all her friends that are flying a little everywhere, some of them on others' backs, and they all nod.

Time to fight a soul to save the world.

She quickly grabs Taranza in her magic before they all dove toward the jungle of vines below them despite the dangers, but at least, they could use the vines to hide from Sectonia's attacks, and the ones that can't fly and attack at the same time will be able to fight, even if it means getting hurt in the feet by the thorns.

She lands on a vine, and lets Kirby, still with the power of the fruit, leave her back, before she places Taranza on it. Now, the ghostly cackle seems to come from everywhere, and the filly keeps her senses alert for whenever the soul decides to attack her. Her horn is already ready to fire a beam, while Kirby inhales a vine to be ready to spit something.

They hear a few explosions not far, either Dedede firing some missiles, or Daroach dropping some bombs, but they don't lose focus. Then, the vines around start to close on them, and they start running to not end up crushed or turned into cheese.

Almost immediately, Sectonia appears in front of them, and they both fire their respective projectiles at her while Sectonia surrounds herself with some runes before firing lasers from them. They are forced to jump on other vines to avoid them, which separates them, but Sweetie Belle, not afraid for Kirby, restarts running as the vines start attacking her.

"Sectonia..." she hears Taranza say sadly on her back.

"We can't do anything for her anymore, Taranza. We've no choice but to kill her, or this will be the end of Popstar."

Taranza doesn't reply.

"You love her, uh?"

No reply again.

"I'm sorry."

Nothing more is said as Sweetie starts using her cannons turned double beam swords to cut the vines around her. She then feels a powerful source of energy coming from her right, and she quickly jumps back just in time to avoid being rammed by a giant fireball, its passage putting the vines on fire, adding another danger. The fireball, which actually reminds Sweetie of Drawcia Soul's fireball form, then starts bouncing from vine to vine before it bounces toward Sweetie Belle, and the filly jumps back again to avoid being crushed as the ball destroys the part of the vine she's been on. The fireball then turns back into Sectonia who immediately disappears.

She jumps on another vine, and continues running. Above her, she spots Daroach and Adeleine running on another vine, Adeleine on a painted Waiu (the ninja from her adventure in the Rainbow Islands), and Sectonia appears not far from them. They both attack her immediately, Daroach using Necrodeus' staff to fire lightning while the painted Waiu shoots kunais. Sweetie Belle helps them by firing beams. But then, Sectonia, to everyone's surprise, turns into a big ball of paint before shooting multiple pink and blue paint blobs that start raining everywhere, exactly like Drawcia Soul! The painted Waiu grabs Adeleine and puts her under him, becoming a shield for her, but Daroach can't do anything to protect himself, and before Sweetie Belle can creates a shield for him, he's hit by some of the blobs. Sweetie Belle also quickly creates a shield for herself, however, the Waiu is destroyed.

And now, Sectonia has disappeared again.

At this moment, Sweetie Belle sees Marx flying below her, and Sectonia appears behind him, many runes appearing around her. Marx turns around to face her, and starts flying erratically to dodge the lasers before he spits his own laser, that Sectonia counters with another laser. Sweetie Belle, as well as Daroach who has spotted her, take the occasion to attack her, while Adeleine quickly paints another Waiu. Sectonia then surrounds herself with a sphere of runes, firing lasers everywhere, in all directions, destroying many vines, which causes some of them to almost fall on the heroes who are forced to jump from vine to vine until reaching some where they're safe. Meta Knight suddenly comes flying from the vines and does a series of strikes against her until she teleports.

A big vortex then inhales some of the falling vines, and Kirby spits the giant formed projectile toward a big fireball charging toward him, stopping it in its course and forcing Sectonia to give up her fireball form. Before the heroes can attack her, she teleports randomly around the heroes before disappearing completely, her cackle still resonating.

Sweetie Belle then starts feeling a very huge amount of energy being gathered into a single point further, before hearing the distinctive sound of Sectonia firing a laser. The heroes then see an absolutely HUGE laser pass below them, cutting all the vines in its way as the laser does a whole arc until it disappears out of their view, hidden by the now falling vines. The heroes run, jump, or fly up the falling vines while avoiding the ones about to fall on them, until they reach the last ones. They then go on the cut surfaces of what remains of the vines, seeing that every vines have been cut to that level, and only the stem of the Dreamstalk is still standing completely, but badly burned.

If the stem is cut... Celestia, the damages it would cause as it falls! Speaking of damages, that laser has left a nasty scar on the few mountains it has hit. At least, now, with all the vines cut at the same level, the heroes can see each other again. But now, the problem, nothing is hiding them from Sectonia's attacks. And speaking of her, they spot her beyond the cut vines.

Behind her, many vines suddenly rise toward the sky, wrapping around each other to form a giant tentacle-like thing almost as large as the stem. The giant thing then brings itself down on the heroes, the ones that can fly or teleport doing so while helping the ones that can't or that are too slow. With this, the arena composed of the cut vines is pretty much separated in two.

And Sectonia restarts teleporting and flying in random.

Ugh, she has no choice... Even with their number, she's still too powerful.

"Has beauty been so worth it?
Even to lose your reason for it?
Just was it worth it to become a mindless monster for it?!"

Sectonia suddenly appears at one end of the arena, and starts flying so that she gets near as much heroes as possible while shooting constantly cutter blades down at them. Some of the heroes start jumping from cut vine to cut vine while others take flight, including Sweetie Belle, to avoid the attack. Kirby simply opens his mouth to inhale as much cutter blades as possible before spitting them back at Sectonia while the others start attacking her in their own ways.

"Beauty means nothing anymore for you,
Destruction is just all that count for you,
And so to save the world we sadly have to destroy you!"

After some teleportations, Sectonia creates about two dozens runes above the arena, and she fires lasers from them. Not ending right away, the lasers start randomly moving in all directions through the arena. With the help of the power of the fruit, Kirby does like earlier and inhales one of the lasers before spitting it back at Sectonia. Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle fires all she can at the soul, like the others.

"You were once a queen full of goodness, of kindness, full of joy, full of love, full of life.
But right now you are just a sad shell full of hate, full of pain, that we must send to the af-terlife!"

Sectonia appear at the center of the arena, and creates a circle of vertical runes around her. The runes all fire a laser toward the sky before the laser all move down at the same time. The heroes closest to her have the hardest time avoiding them because of the small space there's between them this close, but this doesn't stop them from continuing assaulting the soul from all sides.

And then, as the lasers stop, dozens of vines start rising around the arena, and the sky is suddenly covered by over one hundred of those runes. As the lasers start raining everywhere, half the vines fire themselves at them like spikes, and as they return to their previous position, the second half attack. Thus, the two halves start attacking alternatively without stopping. Between them and the raining lasers, the situation is getting desperate, as Sectonia flies back and forth above the rune, getting hard to hit.

Despite the heavy injuries she's getting, Sweetie Belle uses half of her cannons to fire at Sectonia while she uses the other half as double beam swords to cut the vines, but for each vine cut, another one takes its place.

Then, as she's about to continue singing, the unbelievable happens.

Taranza, after hearing what Sweetie Belle has sung, has stared at Sectonia for a few seconds, understanding that the filly is right. Nothing remains of his friend but a twisted version of her.

He starts flying toward her, grabbing on the way one of the double beam swords.

He flies left and right, dodging the lasers.

He passes the runes.

And he impales Sectonia with the beam sword.

Everything stops, everything becomes silent.

"I'm sorry... Sectonia..."

At this, Sectonia starts flashing, and screaming, before exploding in a shower of petals.

Slowly, Taranza looks toward the rising sun as he opens one of his hands to let one of the falling petals land on it.

Thank you...

Comments

[Edguy0009]

Me thinks that Tahnok and Lehvak would be helpful in dealing with those vines or Nod Flame Tanks or Dragon Tanks with black napalm upgrade...... you know what let's go for all four.

[Lucar]

9828252
Vines that are as large as tree trunks, that extend for miles, that can move to defend themselves, and that are by hundreds, maybe even thousands? I doubt.

[Edguy0009]

9828256
Okay then aircraft carrying incendiary bombs or maybe a battery of TOS-1 (TOC-1) which name literally translates into English as Heavy Flamethrower System even though it doesn't use a flamethrower and uses rockets with incendiary and thermobaric warheads..

[Lucar]

9828372
Yeah, this may work, with heavy losts.

[Edguy0009]

9828375
GDI Ion Cannon or turbolaser bombardment?

[Lucar]

9828385
Yes, they work.

[Viatorem]

:( I was hopping that, with Sweetie Belle around, things will be different this time, that this time Taranza and Sectonia will be together T_T

[Lucar]

9828436
Sadly, not all stories end well, even with ponies involved. The only thing that could have saved Sectonia would have been the power of Harmony to cleanse her of the corruption of the mirror, but Sweetie Belle doesn't possess it, so...

[The Kelduo]

Taranza, after hearing what Sweetie Belle has sung, has stared at Sectonia for a few seconds, understanding that the filly is right. Nothing remains of his friend but a twisted version of her.

I thought he would never realize the truth. It must hurt, but he needed to know the truth...

[sonictj3]

Ok what an ending. Man Planet Robobot is gonna be GOOD..... Though i wonder if susie will try to take sweetie instead of meta knight for enhancing with tech....

[Lucar]

9828448
Ahahah. After what I've done with Triple Deluxe, you start to wonder what I've planned for the three remaining games. Good.

Let's just say, when I first imagined this story, there was four things that I ABSOLUTELY wanted to write.

Sweetie Belle captured by Taranza before fighting Sectonia with her friends, finishing with Taranza killing his friend was the first.

[emeraldhuskydragon0]

This is close to the actual fight, but the rest of the squad is there? I can’t wait to see what you are gonna make happen to the rest of the Kirby games!

[Lucar]

9828485
Not all the squad, sadly. Of the animals, only Coo could come. The others couldn't come because they have no way to fly. As for Pitch, his mother was like "You will not go play the hero against that giant monstruosity when you almost got eaten last time!" And of course, Magolor wasn't here because he's on another planet.

[Emperor Wolfgang]

Okay, that was quite the chapter. Didn't expect Marx and the others to come in. For a moment when the familiar laugh was mentioned, I thought Dark Meta Knight was making a return. He was my first thought when the familiar laugh was mentioned.
Also...
9828436
I was also hopping for a happy ending for Taranza and Sectonia!
I can only imagine how the ponies must be feeling after that...
And just think for a moment: Triple Deluxe happened because of a birthday gone wrong.

[Lucar]

9828702
Ouch, yeah. When they'll hear Taranza's tale... Especially Pinkie. A birthday leading to such a tragedy will NOT be fun to hear for her.

Gosh, when I see all the drama I've been able to do with Triple Deluxe, I wonder what I'll be able to do with Planet Robobot, which is probably even more tragic (it depends of points of view, but I find Planet Robobot's full story more tragic). And to think it's a Kirby story...

[Herald of Opera]

9829114
Pop Star is the land of dreams, so it should have been obvious that the villains would be nightmarish.

[Lucar]

9829172
I understand the nightmarish villains, but the tragic backstories are other things.

Taranza gives a mirror to Sectonia. Bad luck, this mirror is corrupted. As a result, Sectonia turns from a nice and loving queen to a powerhungry tyrant full of vanity, and nothing could be done to save her. Oh, and Taranza and Sectonia loved each others. I know a princess of love that would be devastated if she learns that.

And then, there will be Haltmann and Susie...

[Emperor Wolfgang]

9829332
I looked up what you said about Haltmann and Susie and I have to agree with you. Why is it that the most innocent looking games have the most tragic and darkest stories?
I am now sending a telepathic message to Discord to bring tissues for the Mane Six in the future.
I don't know anything about Kirby and the Rainbow Curse but hopefully it will be more light-hearted because I think our hearts could use a break after this.
On a more light-hearted note, are you still contemplating whether or not to turn Sweetie Belle into an Alicorn or have we passed that point?

[Lucar]

9829722

On a more light-hearted note, are you still contemplating whether or not to turn Sweetie Belle into an Alicorn or have we passed that point?

I have taken a decision about this. As to whether or not I will turn her into an alicorn, you'll have to wait. Thankfully, you will not have to wait long, since there's only three games left and the post Star-Allies arc.

[Kir B]

I see you brought in the rest of the Gang as well! Which actually makes sense. Considering that the Dreamstalk was growing out of control, it makes sense that everybody would come along to investigate/stop it.

We got a Soul battle as well! Was not expecting that.

Poor Taranza, so close to redeeming his friend, and he failed. Only way to get her back now would be to wish upon a clockwork star, and considering that the only one around for countless light-years is about to start a mecha invasion. . . . .ssss yeah she gone buddy.

Though now that the robobot arc is now upon us, unless I'm missing something that is, it makes me wonder how this will play out.

Castle Dedede gets rekt, and Dedede kinda just sat there in the rubble for the whole game (didn't even try to rebuild it), yet Susie (or someone) had to have gotten some of his DNA at some point for the clone battle. I'm seeing countless ways that this arc could pan out from this alone since Sweetie Belle lives there!

Once again, great chapter! We've finished one tragedy and we're headed towards the next. Can't wait to see what you've got for us!

Man, I really gotta finish my own robobot based story don't I? XD

[Lucar]

9830681
Actually, first, there's Rainbow Curse, which should give everyone some respite after the emotionaly heavy Return to Dreamland and Triple Deluxe, and before we attack the as (more?) emotionaly heavy Planet Robobot and Star Allies.

Man, I really gotta finish my own robobot based story don't I? XD

I'm checking everydays if a new chapter is out. Of this story, or of your others. XD

[Teraunce]

you already broke canon once by having Maglador go into his Soul form. you broke it further by having him survive. Why couldn't you do the same here? Onion/10.

[Lucar]

11027045
Magolor does survive in canon. Here, however, nothing could be done to save Sectonia.

[DockingWater17]

Meta Knight would have a blast fighting her.

Fun nod to Meta Knightmare Returns