A Sweetie Dream Land

by Lucar

Chapter 84: Orange Woodland

The next world, Orange Woodland, is by far the most original area Sweetie has ended up exploring since many months. Yes, this isn't the first time she explores a forest, but a forest partially made of giant mushrooms? Never! Also, it's one of those forests where the trees are the size of small mountains, giving the filly the impression that she's the size of an insect.

And it's full of enemies and obstacles. Seems like Claycia, or the thing possessing her if there's one, hasn't liked being called an idiot. Barely they arrive in this world that they're swarmed by various enemies of the Cotta family including many of the metal ones, those weird insects that drop mines at them, or some weird giant one eyed spores,the red ones dividing into two smaller yellow one when they are destroyed, and the black ones exploding like bomb when hit. At this, they can add an armada worth of Bronto Burts.

Yeah, Claycia is an idiot. Hasn't she learned that swarming them doesn't work? One invocation of easel and a few paintbrush swings later, and the three heroes are back in their tank form, rampaging through the many enemies and obstacles while they follow the path literally traced by Elline. Some genius among the enemies has gotten the idea to drop giant logs on their path to crush them, but some quick shots are enough to push those logs back until they fall beyond the edge of whatever they are on. And because bigger is better, they eventually decide to drop behind them a truly huge log, too big to be shot back, forcing the heroes to roll as fast as they can. Bad luck for the enemies, the slope on which they are on ends with a bridge made of star blocks, and while the heroes can roll on them without problems, the log reveals to be too heavy, and the blocks are destroyed under it, the log quickly disappearing in the gap below. The enemies responsible pay their bad luck with their life.

But the rampage has to end, because they eventually pass a black door leading in a room where the only exit is through the roof, through a no paint zone, so no way for them to continue with their tank form. However, they find a gondola attached to a long rope, and it doesn't take long for Elline to guess that she can use her rainbow rope to transport the gondola from rope to rope. One of those ropes pass the no paint zone, so it's one of the ways for them to continue. They could also fly, but why using energy to air-jump or create a shield when you can rest a little while riding calmly a gondola?

And so, using the gondola, they ride from room to room, passing more no paint zones and destroying a few blocks in the way, until they get out. Outside, there is more riding, and even if they aren't forced to take them, each occasion to rest a little is good to take for when they will face Claycia. Just a few magical beams from Sweetie here and there to eliminate enemies and destroy blocks is all they need to do while riding those gondolas, until they pass a black that leads them back inside a room.

Having to go up, they are first forced to take a cannon to continue before they have to either air-jump, fly, or use Elline's rainbow rope., only having to watch out for what Elline calls Bzztbulbs, which are some kind of lightbulb-like enemies that project electricity around them like Sparkys. One of them riding a gondola could even electrify the rope attached to it!

After passing this last Bzztbulb, the party reaches the next black door and exit this room. Back outside, they find another gondola, and seeing the absolute absence of platforms from there, they have no choice but to either take it, use the rainbow rope, or fly/air-jump. Again, the gondola is the best choice, but Elline still has to use her rainbow rope to protect them against saws also riding those ropes or lasers blocking the way.

After a long ride, they reach a small bridge where a Hand ambushes them, only for Sweetie to take the gondola they have been riding and slam it on the back of the Hand. She then traps the Hand inside the gondola, spins, and throws the gondola far away in the mushroom forest.

With the Hand gone, they pass the door at the end of the bridge and reappear in another room. The activation of a switch causes some logs blocking the way to fall, revealing a gondola to use to pass a no paint zone. At the end of the ride, they have to use a cannon to pass some solid blocks and enter a tunnel where they have to escape, not from a boulder for once, but from a giant saw.

"Woah! Claycia really wants us dead now!" shouts Sweetie Belle as they run away, destroying many blocks slowing them.

"I should have kept my mouth shut!" shouts Bandana.

Escaping the saw doesn't take long before they reach a smaller tunnel with another gondola that get them in a second part of the bigger tunnel, getting away from the threat. Or so they thought, until the saw cuts the wall behind them and continues its way, Thankfully, in this second tunnel, there is more space to avoid it, and those are not the no paint zones above and below that will cause any problems. So they let the saw pass until it reaches the end of its course and ends up falling in the gap below. It's not long after that they pass another black door that transport them to a river, constating that they have reached the swamp part of this world.

So, to help them explore those green waters, Elline turns all of them into submarines. But while it makes it easier for them to explore the river, it forces them to move up waterfalls to reach some places inaccessible by remaining in the water. Yellow sloth-like creatures that Elline names Dangle Sloth come hanging from vines above them to drop bombs, but they are quickly eliminated by well fired torpedoes. More problematic however are Gordos dropping from above, forcing the party to maneuver to dodge them.

They are able to get a reprieve from them when they have to move in a deeper part of the river, only to enter a room where they are ambushed by a small army of Blippers attacking them from all sides. The torpedoes do short work of them, but the heroes are still forced to quickly move between the fish to avoid being rammed while continuously firing. When the last Blipper explodes, the party is able to pass the next door to exit the room to enter a new part of the river.

They appear at the bottom, and they are forced to move up, passing many levels of blocks that they have to be destroyed by firing at bomb blocks, only to cause many Gordos to fall on them, leaving not much space to dodge. When they reach the surface, they have to destroy one last bomb, freeing a waterfall that lets them reach a door once it stops raining Gordos and once the Dangle Sloths finally leave them alone.

They appear on a lake where they dive and steer through Gordos and currents to reach a door, and enter a room, where they encounter an old enemy, again. The robot from Yellow Dunes is there waiting for them, and it has gotten quite the upgrade. Now, it is fully covered in plaques all metallic, and the cones are everywhere between them, turning the robot into some kind of metallic spiky ball that can fire lasers at all directions at the same time while rotating and bouncing around.

Smart, dangerous... Too bad for it, the battle happens underwater, and they are in their submarine form. Dodging those lasers and attacking aren't as problematic as it would have been in a room without water. With their continuous firing of torpedoes, it doesn't take long for the first plaque to be destroyed, and like the previous time, the robot grows bigger, and its rotating gains in speed. The robot also starts changing the direction of the rotation, and while at first it isn't problematic since it starts doing that in a fluid way, the more plaques are destroyed, the more it's movements become erratic, catching the heroes off guard more than once. Thankfully, since it grows at the same time, the space between the lasers also grows, making it easier to dodge them, so the robot eventually decides to simply stop firing its lasers to use its electric shield, it's size by then making it more dangerous as the robot now takes half of the room.

But all it takes is a few more torpedoes to destroy the last plaque, and the robot. Another torpedo deals with the seal left behind.

After Elline gives them back their normal appearance, Bandana sighs in relief. "By the stars, Claycia is now going all out."

"Yeah... She really didn't like being called an idiot," replies Sweetie Belle. "But at least, it's making this adventure more challenging. This guardian is the first one that actually gave us a challenge. Until now, she was just playing with us."

"You mean... This may become worst?" asks Elline.

"Well... Now that she's being serious, who knows what she will do? So, we got the tree, and now the robot. Next time should be the squid. What do you think she will do with him?"

"Uh... No idea," answers Bandana. "But what scares me is what she will do with Bastron. I mean, we didn't destroy it."

"Oh boy..."

"You should be scared of Claycia!" suddenly shouts Yin.

"After all, if you are already scared of what she may create next time, then what do you think will happen when you will face the creator?" continues Yarn.

"And don't think that this time will be a dud like against us! Like Sweetie stated earlier, we are just a tool. Claycia isn't. Once you fight her, prepare to face the mighty power of creation."

"Whether or not she is possessed or corrupted, this will be a hard fight."

"Well then..." starts Sweetie Belle as she looks at the needles. "Lucky us, we also have the power of creation at our side..." She then looks at Elline. "Twice."

Comments

[The Kelduo]

The next world, Orange Woodland, is by far the most original area Sweetie has endend exploring since many months. Yes, this isn't the first time she explores a forest, but a forest partially made of giant mushrooms?

An orange forest partly made of giant mushrooms? Sounds like the arena you fight Espio on in Sonic the Fighters. Also, 'endend?' You should probably fix that. I honestly have no clue which word you meant to use.

And a little fun fact for the readers of this story: the first time in the show that Sweetie has explored a forest is in Stare Master, where the Cutie Mark Crusaders head into Everfree Forest in an attempt to rescue Elizabeak, Fluttershy's chicken.

[Herald of Opera]

9857820
Or in other words, she was exploring forests where everything wanted her dead before she was sent to Dream Land. And visited Zecora semi-regularly, IIRC.

[Lucar]

9857862
Yeah, from the start, the CMC are survivors. Not many foals can boast about going in the Everfree dozens of times without dying.

[Herald of Opera]

Also, a friendly reminder that "indigo" seems to have been invented entirely to make the whole "Roy G. Biv" thing work; Randall Munroe proved that with the same survey that conclusively proved that nobody can spell "fuchsia" correctly. (In that the six most common spellings used in said survey were all wrong, and so was the Google recommendation Randall used to check)

[Emperor Wolfgang]

I noticed that these chapters have been rather short lately. Any reason why? Just curious.

[Lucar]

9858160
Because there aren't much to say while Sweetie explores Seventopia without sounding repetitive, and the worlds themselves are rather short so there aren't much material. In this one there was the gondolas that offered something special to focus about for a small moment, but it wasn't much.

I feared that it would happen with Rainbow Curse, but hopefully, things should get better once we start the Planet Robobot arc.

[Herald of Opera]

"After all, if you are already scared of what she may create next time, then what do you think will happen when you will face the creator?"

Forgot to point this out, but... Adeleine goes down with less effort than the average Waddle Dee once you're actually confronting her directly (in that said Dee can at least survive the contact damage from successfully attacking you).

[Lucar]

9864027
But we must say that before attacking her, we get to fight her creations. Thankfully, Adeleine seems to be a novice, so her creations aren't powerful (The Ice Dragon goes down in a few hits, and her Kracko is a joke compared to the real deal). And she's clearly not trained to fight directly. But if she was to train herself a little more physicaly, and if she becomes better at her painting magic, Adeleine could become as powerful as Drawcia. She could create a small army of bosses between her and her enemies and remain safe behind to paint more.

That's the case with Claycia. She has experience and she has power. She can create real bosses, powerful weapons, and everything you can think of. She is a master of her art, and she has probably enough endurance to resist a few hits. The fights against Adeleine will be a joke compared to the one against her.

[Herald of Opera]

9864052
However, it should be noted that there's no such thing as "hiding in the background" so trying to pull that stunt she did in the actual game won't work very well for her. Also, Kracko has always been one of Kirby's most dangerous and persistent foes, so even a vastly weaker copy is no joke. Seriously, he's the only true returning boss in Amazing Mirror because... well, it took until Star Allies, but apparently the official explanation is "Even in the far-flung reaches of space, as long as there's a sky, Kirby's long-time nemesis Kracko can show up and cast a shadow across it," which suggests that all of the other variations are also just the same guy.

[Lucar]

9864143
Yeah, the fight against Claycia will not exactly be like in the game. It will be worthy of the final of the Dark Crafter Saga.