Chapter 96: The Mourning Spider: Taranza
Sweetie Belle is flying up the Dreamstalk with her Warp Star, Floralia's castle, her castle, being her destination. The previous day, a little before sunset, she received a message saying that it is finally finished, so as soon as she had finished breakfast, she has taken her crown, exited Dedede's castle, climbed on her Warp Star, and started her short journey toward the last main island of the kingdom of the sky.
It is so nice to finally have such a long period of peace after all those terrible events that happened to Popstar. The Dreamstark going out of control because of Sectonia, covering the whole planet in vines. Dark Crafter stealing all the colors, causing everything and everyone to stop moving like statues. And finally, the HWC's invasion, the worst event so far, easily equal to the invasion of the Dark Matters, the both of them having caused so much tragedies, so much deaths... After all those events, the inhabitants of Popstar needed that peace.
In that time, not only the castle has obviously been repaired --it didn't take long-- but Dedede has finally finished the Space Resort! To inaugurate this, Dedede passed two whole weeks in it with Sweetie Belle and Bandana Dee. They offered Cape Knight to come too, but he refused, remaining behind to take care of the castle in the absence of the ruler. Sweetie Belle also invited all her closest friends living on Popstar, and even used the sock to go on Patch Land and invite Prince Fluff. All together, they passed two wonderful weeks full of fun and relaxation under the stars.
Adeleine and Claycia's school has finally opened too, and so far, it's a success. People come from all over Popstar to learn how to give life to their creations, or to get better at it for the ones that already know, like the Vividrias, beings that remind Sweetie Belle of Paintra, probably because the Great Artist used Paintra's painting as a model to create them. Paint Roller is also among the students, and Sweetie Belle also comes sometimes to learn to sculpt.
With the help of Magolor, Susie has been able to reform the HWC, which she calls the Neo HWC. From what Sweetie Belle learned, Susie has already started to explore the universe in search of planets full of precious resources to take to help her company grow back to its former glory, making sure that those are always uninhabited planets, and of advanced civilizations to study, not only to increase her knowledge, but also to better fill her part of the bargain she did with Magolor, helping him to build New Halcandra. Thankfully, when she encounters unknown new technology, she always make sure to ask Magolor for advice before activating them, wanting to avoid another Star Dream incident where she would be the victim this time. The two of them also accepted to grant Doc's request, and the Squeak Squad now possesses a brand new high-tech airship.
Sadly, neither Susie nor Magolor have been able to find Sweetie Bot and Robobot, but Sweetie Belle still has hope.
Dark Meta Knight, still his edgy self, has somewhat mellowed down a little. Seems like the company of Sweetie and the others has grown on him, and he has less problems accepting to join them in their activities, like the two weeks in the Space Resort, but he remains a lonely knight. Marx still remains at his side most of the time, to the dark knight's annoyance. The jester now considers himself as "Darky's best pal." Dark Meta Knight refutes this every time, but Marx never listens. Of course, Marx' real best pal remains Magolor. When the egg-shaped mage comes to visit Popstar, those two are always up for mischief, to the dismay of everyone else, especially Dark Meta Knight. For some reason, Sweetie seems to be one of their favorite victims, probably because the filly always make sure to return the favor, often leading to prank wars. Kirby and Gooey are close seconds because they never get mad at them.
As for Sweetie Belle, she has finally learned to levitate herself, and it is so much better than air-jumping or using a shield. She is also much better at gathering and using the Four Matters for her attacks. She still needs some time to master Heart Matter, but Soul Matter, Dream Matter, and Dark Matter are now fully part of her panoply. For this, Magolor and Susie also upgraded her whip. She now can't wait to use it against the next bad guy.
Also, on one of the smaller, secondary islands of Floralia, not even linked to the Dreamstalk, she has started to build a hangar for her own battleship. If Meta Knight and Dedede have one, then why not her? And if another battle like the one against Star Dream happens in the future, three battleships will be better than two, especially that they may not be able to use the Fusion Capacity of her Sweetie Bot.
Eh! With that in mind, why not build a whole armada? With the help of Susie and Magolor, they could! And no bad guys would ever dare anymore to attack Popstar!
However, as the months passed, only one problem, predictable, has appeared: she's now chubby. Curse that world! The two weeks in the Space Resort definitely didn't help. Adeleine's school being on the island entirely made of delicious food too. And that time she visited Patch Land, she swore to herself to never return to that place with the cake mountains. She also did the error to participate in a Gourmet Race. As much as she wanted to try at least once, she knew that this would end badly for her, especially with Dedede as her opponent. But at least, it was fun.
At least, thanks to her constant training, this doesn't cause problems to her agility.
Eventually, she reaches the last island of Floralia, and she gets to see her finished new castle.
And it is absolutely beautiful.
The castle is entirely made from Sectonia's crystals, and it shines in the light of the sun like a star. It's easily bigger than any castle she can think of, and the tallest tower, at its very center, must be as tall as the crystal castle from the Crystal Empire. Around this central tower are dozens of other towers, and the more towers are close to the edge of the castle, the smaller they are. When looking from above, those towers form the shape of a star.
There's no doubt that the central tower is where her future chamber is.
And waiting for her at the entrance is Taranza, waving at her.
The poor spider. Despite all the months that passed since Sectonia's death, he hasn't gotten over it yet. He tries to be strong, smiling, laughing, playing, but sometimes, she surprises him shedding a tear.
When she lands, he says "Hello, Sweetie Belle. Glad you could come. What do you think of the castle?"
"It's the greatest and most beautiful castle I ever saw! You all did a really wonderful job! I wasn't asking for so much!"
Taranza laughs. "I know, but when King Dedede gave us the idea to use the crystals to build the castle, I knew that we had to use all of them, not leave a single one."
"I can't believe there were so many crystals."
"You have no idea how much pocket dimensions there were in that giant crystal vault. So, want a tour?"
Sweetie Belle nods, and Taranza leads her inside the castle, showing her the various rooms, hallways, gardens... With the castle covering the whole island, there's a lot! And many of those rooms are chambers, the castle being the home of the whole Bug Clan as well as of many beings that also served under Sectonia or that decided to come live here, including some of the Flower Fairies. Speaking of flowers, outside of the crystals, they are the main theme inside the castle, each room, each hallways being filled with flower pots and even some trees in the bigger ones.
However, there aren't any banners. The bugs are waiting for Sweetie Belle to have her Cutie Mark to place it on them, planning for it to become Sweetie Belle's symbol.
Hoping that the Cutie Mark won't be something like some she described. Having for symbol a snail or a spoon would be very weird. They are hoping for something like a crown, a flower, a star, a sun, a heart... Just in case, Sweetie Belle's planning to draw a symbol that they would use if the Cutie Mark reveals to be one not fit for this.
After a couple of hours, the tour ends at the top of the central tower, her apartment, and more exactly in her chamber where Sweetie already dreams of sleeping on that huge bed that looks even softer than a cloud. The chamber has a big window opening to a balcony, and as they walk on it, Sweetie Belle can only look in awe at the view it gives of her castle. The main courtyard is visible under it, so she can watch the people, her people, from it. The balcony is also facing the flower of the Dreamstalk, as beautiful as always.
"This castle is magnificent! I don't know what to say, Taranza. Thank you. And thank you to everyone who participated. To... To think I'm the queen of this castle, I... It's like a dream."
They look both at the castle in silence for a few seconds.
"I don't know much about Sectonia, the real Sectonia, but I can see that this castle would have been perfect for her," says then Sweetie Belle.
"Yes... This is the castle that I would have loved building for her. A castle that would have reflected her beauty, in all the senses of the term."
Sweetie Belle puts a leg around him, pressing him against her. "Wherever she is now, I'm sure she loves this castle. I... really regret that she isn't the one ruling over it. That I am in her place..."
Taranza just sighs in reply.
"But she wouldn't want us to mourn her. Especially you, because it hurts you."
"I... know... She would want me to move on, to live happily, to think about my future, and not the past." He sighs again. "I still need time..."
"Remember, we are here."
Taranza nods before looking up toward the sky, thinking about his queen.
But then, as he looks at the sky, he spots something.
"Uh? What is that?"
Hearing him, Sweetie Belle looks up, seeing what he spotted. In the sky, many purple lights, and a few pink ones, are approaching like meteors, reminding Sweetie Belle of that night when the crystal shards rained. Like the shards, those lights eventually fall here and there on Popstar, all around the castle, and when they spot two approaching the balcony, a purple one followed by a pink one, the two of them turn around to run away, only for the purple light to crash behind them, propelling them forward on their bellies. Unbeknown to Sweetie Belle, the pink light falls right on her, the pink heart composing it disappearing in her.
She could feel a great energy entering her body, but she doesn't focus on it as she quickly gets up and turns around to look at what crashed on the balcony.
A heart made of purple energy.
A purple energy that feels SO wrong. Everything negatif in the universe, she can feel it in this heart.
And just beside it, looking at it like in a trance, is Taranza, the purple energy starting to enter him.
"Taranza! Get away from it!"
But it's too late. Almost as soon as she finishes talking, the heart disappears in a cloud of purple energy that disappears inside Taranza's body, his eyes glowing purple.
As the spider turns toward her, Sweetie Belle immediately jumps back before taking her whip as well as Yin and Yarn in her magic. Spiky, in his doll form, is hanging from her neck, but she decides to not turn him into Spikezilla. On this balcony, it would be too dangerous.
The two needles yawn, having slept all the while.
"What's going on?" asks Yin.
"Corrupted friend," simply answers Sweetie Belle.
Surrounding himself in a net, Taranza teleports above the edge of the balcony in front of Sweetie Belle.
Taranza throws a net at Sweetie Belle, intending to trap her in it like the time he foalnapped her, but Sweetie Belle jumps out of the way and immediately attacks the spider mage with her whip while firing magical beams from her horn. Taranza avoids most of the attacks by teleporting around while also firing energy balls at her, which she deflects with a mirror shield, and eventually, Sweetie Belle's able to wrap her whip around Taranza's neck before pulling down hard, making him crash on the balcony while also electrifying him with it.
Sweetie Belle immediately jumps to kick him from above, only for Taranza to teleport at the last second before appearing just beside her where he creates an explosion of energy all around him. Sweetie Belle is sent above the edge of the balcony because of the explosion, but quickly levitates back on it while using Yin and Yarn to knit Yarn Bronto Burts to attack him. Taranza throws more energy balls to eliminate them, opening him to Sweetie Belle slamming a shield on him from above, making him crash on the balcony again. Then, the ten parts of the whip all charge at him one after another after surrounding themselves in energy, before Sweetie finishes by charging at him too.
Taranza uses a shockwave of energy to expel Sweetie Belle and the ten whip parts before teleporting a few meters up. He then materializes two crystals that he throws at the filly who easily levitates out of the way, only for Taranza to throw more crystals one after another without stopping. Avoiding them, Sweetie Belle eventually uses a fist shield to punch one of them back at Taranza who sidefloats to dodge it before he surrounds himself in a shield of energy just in time to protect himself from Sweetie Belle charging at him also surrounded by a shield. The two then charge at each other a couple of times before Taranza suddenly teleports just before they clash again, throwing Sweetie Belle off guard for a couple of seconds.
Taranza uses this to charge energy above him, creating a huge energy ball that he throws at the filly. Thankfully, the ball is rather slow, so Sweetie has no problems avoiding it, only for Taranza to appear in the path of the ball and to use an energy shockwave to send the ball toward her again. Sweetie quickly reforms her whip before turning it into staff mode and covering its extremity in energy. Using the extremity like a bat, she then hits the ball, and after some efforts, sends it back toward Taranza, the ball exploding on him.
As the explosion sends him away in the air, Sweetie Belle attacks him again with many energy beams until he teleports again to reappear above the balcony, a purple aura now surrounding him.
And then, using his magic, Taranza surrounds himself in a purple magical shell in the effigy of Sectonia, two rapiers appearing in its hands.
"Uh... That's new... I didn't know he could do that," says Yarn.
"Because he couldn't," says Sweetie Belle.
Readying the rapiers, Taranza teleports behind her before swinging, Sweetie Belle using Yin and Yarn to parry the attack before swinging her staff at him, hitting the head of the Sectonia lookalike. It doesn't do much, and Taranza tries to sting her with the hard part of the shell, which she avoids by levitating backward before firing a few beams, only for Taranza to teleport above her before dropping on her, trying again to sting her. Sweetie Belle dodges, and Taranza tries a third time, not leaving her time to breath, but this time, Sweetie Belle is able to form a fly swatter with her shield before using it to slap Taranza and slam him against the wall of the tower.
Taranza immediately comes back, charging at her with his rapiers, and Sweetie Belle uses Yin and Yarn as her own rapiers to parry him, the two flying around the tower and clashing again and again, firing all kinds of projectiles between each clashes.
Moving away from each other after one of those clashes, Taranza charges energy around the rapiers before firing two dozen energy balls. Sweetie Belle avoids most of them and uses a mirror shield to deflect the others, only to be electrified from behind by the spider who teleported. Sweetie Belle quickly turns around and uses her whip to drag Taranza at her before forming a sharp ring with a shield. She then uses the ring like a saw to badly cut Taranza's shell until he teleports away.
As he appears however, he's immediately trapped in a cage formed by energy bars from Sweetie's ten cannons. Not letting him time to teleport again, Sweetie Belle closes the cage on him, the energy bars badly hurting him before she uses a giant shield fist to punch him through the bars from above. But as he's propelled down by the punch, he teleports just above her, using the momentum to headbutt her. As she's headbutted, Sweetie Belle grabs the head and points her horn right between its eyes before firing a huge beam from it along with dozens of other beams below her, hitting the shell all over its body. Taranza quickly uses an explosion of energy around him to force her away before he starts teleporting and flying back and forth while firing lightning bolts continuously.
Using a shield to avoid being electrified, Sweetie Belle quickly puts another shield on the way of Taranza, causing him to hit it head first. With the spider stopped, creates another shield behind him, and crushes him between the two of them. The shields are destroyed with an explosion of energy, and Taranza immediately throws a dozen crystals at the filly, and as Sweetie Belle flies away, he teleports in her path with a giant sharp ring circling him. Unbeknown to him, Sweetie Belle has been knitting, and soon, the spider is hit on the head by a 1T weight of yarn. Taranza quickly moves from under it, only to receive a storm of punches from Sweetie Belle's now metallic hooves. With one last punch, Sweetie Belle then levitates herself above Taranza and turns herself into metal, dropping on him like a heavy weight (even more heavy with her, well, added weight).
While they drop because of her, Sweetie Belle quickly puts her hooves together and charges energy. She then turns back to normal and flies away before firing a huge energy beam that pushes Taranza back on the balcony, his Sectonia shell exploding.
The purple heart comes out of him, but before Sweetie could do anything to it, it flies away.
Rather than chasing it, Sweetie Belle lands beside the unconscious Taranza, looking at him in worry. That's when she gets an idea. The energy that she absorbed earlier, it felt totally the opposite of the purple heart, pure positivity. Maybe if she could use it...
Raising her hooves, she focuses on that positivity, and soon, a pink heart forms above her. She then throws the heart at Taranza, and the effect is immediate. The spider is healed and immediately wakes up as if the fight never happened.
"Are you alright, Taranza?"
"Better than ever! Sorry for attacking you, I don't know what got over me. I suddenly had that irrepressible urge to find a way to resurrect Sectonia and to become like her. Well, the her at the end. Weird, I'm not even sad anymore thinking about her."
"This must be this heart of positive energy I threw at you. As for those urges, it was caused by this purple heart that crashed. When you looked at it and got too close, you absorbed all its negative energy." She looks around. "I don't like this. Those purple hearts fell a little everywhere around Popstar. I fear that more people got corrupted. I should call Dedede."
She takes a communication device from her belt that Dedede gave her to talk with him at all times, and presses a button, only for nobody to answer the call. She tries again a couple of times before giving up.
"Drat. Either he has been corrupted too, or he's fighting someone who has been corrupted. Hopefully, this isn't Kirby."
"Kirby corrupted?" asks Taranza with horror. "Please, don't talk about such a nightmare fuel possibility."
"We can't have nightmares. The Fountain of Dreams makes sure of that." Sweetie Belle places the device back in her belt along with Yin, Yarn, and her whip before calling her Warp Star. "I'm going to investigate. You want to come?"
"Very well. Depending on who got corrupted by those hearts, you may need my help. They're able to power us up, and some of us are already really powerful. If Kirby got corrupted..." He shakes in fear at this. "We will need as many fighters as possible."
Sweetie Belle nods and lets Taranza climb on the Warp Star before they fly down the Dreamstalk, passing the islands of Floralia one by one.
Until they reach Lollipop Land and find out that it has been turned into a twisted painting version of itself.
Sweetie Belle facehoof. "Ooooh... Come on!"
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Yeah, looks like they won't have their rendezvous with Kirby until Jambastion. Of course, that's also the point where the new villains start showing up, so...
New Villans Yay!
You mean 'so many tragedies.'
I forgot to mention that you don't use spaces before or after hyphens. Also, it's spelled inaugurate.
I can see it now: the, uh... I can't think of a good name for a battleship that is also the name of one of Sweetie's weapons. Oh, wait, I got it--the Unique Horn! I thank Pokemon Sword and Shield for inspiration for that name!
Guess it's time for Sweetie to learn a weight-loss spell.
It's entrance.
So many crystals, and how many pocket dimensions.
Everything negative.
You even included the boss subtitles! Awesome!
I was instantly reminded of the Giant boss battle against the Robo Drilldigger in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team; the second time it shoots its electric ball, Dreamy Luigi uses his hammer to knock it back.
Dedede goes Hulk, Meta Knight clones himself, and Taranza goes Sectonia. Nice second-phase maneuver for Taranza!
It's spelled 'dart.' And I believe the word you're looking for is 'stinger.'
Here's hoping that her latest adventure burns off her weight.
And also, you mean 'even heavier.'
As many fighters as possible.
I have a bad feeling that Adeline will be even tougher than Drawcia...
Sweetie Belle facehoofs.
9926347
Sweetie rolled a 1, if she had already mastered heart matter the boost from the pink heart would have been much more substantial.
9926370
So you mean that she will get more benefits from the Friend Heart as she trains to use Heart Matter? That makes plenty of sense. Considering that, I'm sure Adeline won't be too tough.
9926347
I buy it!
I was searching a name for it.
It was bound to happen sooner or later, with her living with Dedede, in a world where food pops everywhere and is the best way to heal, where mountains are made of cookies, trees of ice cream, an island entirely made of chocolate and desserts... Any child in her place without supervision would probably be in the same situation.
Gotta go in the spirit of the game.
Thank you. It was hard to find second phases for some of the bosses. I had to seriously overwork my brain to find the one for Adeleine in the next chapter.
If only it was that easy...
I can't promise this, but she will sure be a tough fight. Don't expect her to turn into a giant ball of paint however.
9926434
It depends, if the heart is a multiplier she will, if it is an additive it will not.
9926434
9926465
For me, the pink heart, which is a piece of the Heart Spears, is a conglomeration of positivity used to counter and seal the negativity of the Jamba Heart. It's mainly Heart Matter (love, happiness, etc...), but there's also some of the rest, dreams, goodness, and so on. In the game, all it does is giving the possibility for Kirby to become friend with pretty much everyone, get rid of all negativity in someone to make them good (at least for a time) or to save them from evil (at the condition that they're weakened first, like Hyness and the mage-sisters at the end of Heroes in Another Dimension), and hurt beings of pure negativity, but I like to think that it immunizes against the negativity of the shards of Jamba Heart. It doesn't boost any capacity, but it gives the possibility to fight the negativity at its root.
What about galacta knight!?
Or the butterfly for that matter?
Hmm...
9926442
In case you're wondering, the origin of my name for Sweetie's battleship is the Galarian form of Ponyta. Its category is the Unique Horn (get it?) Pokemon.
Here's an idea: Ever play the game Epic Mickey? If so, then you know that Mickey uses two main kinds of ammunition to fight: paint and thinner. See where I'm going with this? 😈
9926515
Ah yes, I see what you mean, but you see, I was thinking of something else. Hint: Adeleine's theme against Morpho Knight.
Y'know, with how much Magolor and Susie have worked together in this fic and the sequel, I can't be the only one that's started lowkey shipping them, right?
No? Just me? Alright then.
11227118
You are not the only one. I personally ship these two but I don't think I will even show a romance between them in this story.
So the Dark Knight and the Joker then?
Please tell me I'm not the only one to see that.
11361998
Pretty much, lol. Except that here, it's the dark knight who tries to kill the jester.