Chapter 131: Winter Horns Part 1
It wasn't long after they left Wondaria that the grass left place to snow, and the architecture of the ruins changed greatly. Gone were the "modern" buildings and skyscrapers, at their place were buildings made of bricks, with many small windows, lots of chimneys, and almost no ornamentation. The buildings were geometrically simple, with either flat roofs or triangular roofs. Towers structures also had pyramidal roofs with a flat top. The most prominent colors, outside of the snow white, turned around of maroon and grey. This made the towns they passed look even colder and deader than they were.
"We must have entered what had been a different country with its own architecture," Diddy Kong commented.
"Probably. This is an architecture style that had been very common in the industrial revolution of Corneria," Fox said. "Seems like some places in this world decided to keep it despite the modernisation. I admit it has its charm, especially with the addition of the snow."
The group reached a city cut in two by a long bridge. Mist covered the lower streets, and mountains were visible far away. The Lor passed beside a clock tower and dropped the heroes on an elevated section of the city, on a plaza.
Members of the Beast Pack hunting for Waddle Dees were present in quite a number, and when they saw the Lor arriving, they positioned themselves, ready for the heroes to come. Among them were now present Cororis, small purple penguins native of colder regions of Popstar that formed and pushed giant snowballs. And with all the snow present on the floor, it was freestyle for the birds. They could try however, the heroes would just destroy the balls or send them back to the senders. They could have been distractive if the heroes had been lesser in number, or they could have even taken them by surprise with them being busy against other enemies, but as it was now, the snowballs were totally ineffective.
So the heroes moved up the boulevard lined with fences and trees beyond the plaza with nothing slowing them down, until they reached a staircase with a Cororis pushing snowballs down it. Fox dealt with the penguin, then reached a second part of the boulevard that was badly damaged, large pits littering it. Here, in a corner behind some metal crates, was a vending machine that Kirby hesitated to use before he shrugged and went with the fun. Bombarding enemies with soda cans was honestly hilarious, and the best was that they could drink the cans afterward.
Just after the vending machine was a series of small bridges linking pillars. Lots of Scarfys were present, forcing the heroes to advance carefully while defending themselves Cororis were also present pushing snowballs on them, so they dealt with them from a distance to stop them. There were two damaged shutter doors that the heroes had to destroy to find and free two Waddle Dees, one behind each door.
After that, it was a dead end, so they had to be picked up by the Lor to continue to their next destination. Krystal led them to a large river which had for some reason swaying buildings. Again, Cororis and their snowballs were present, and with the swaying structures, their trajectories constantly changed, forcing the heroes to be more watchful. The heroes who couldn't jump very high had to wait for the structures to fully sway one way or another to be able to reach the next structure (still or not), slowing them down a bit. It wasn't helped that the structures weren't that large, so the heroes couldn't go all at once. There was even the risk of sliding on them if they weren't careful.
"These penguins are starting to get seriously annoying," Dixie said. She didn't like penguins. After the Snowmads, the vikings that invaded her island several months ago, she had hoped to never see one again. At least, the Snowmads penguins hadn't been so annoying. Excepted the one with the mecha-thingy. This one gave the Kongs some intense scares before it got what it deserved.
Little Ghost giggled. "They are so cute!"
"Cuteness has nothing to do with annoyingness!"
"No, it makes it easier to forgive them."
Dixie snorted.
"Eh. Cute or not, they still get punched in the end," Marx said.
"Certainly not by you. You don't have any arms," Sweetie Void said. Then she remembered THAT time he had arms and shivered. Still top tier nightmare fuel even after everything.
After that first set of swaying structures, the heroes reached a large still building with a grid to open. To open it, someone had to fire at a flying target hidden at the side of the building, beside a bridge of crumbling blocks. A small group made of Kirby, Pikachu, and Diddy Kong then passed the door that had been behind the grid and entered the building while the others continued on a second set of swaying structures with more Cororis rolling snowballs on them, among other beings.
It wasn't long before Kirby's group returned with a Waddle Dee that they rescued by firing at a moving target to make a staircase leading to the Waddle Dee's cage appear. At the same time, the others also found a Waddle Dee in a fente in the wall of another building at the end of the second set of swaying structures. The Waddle Dee's cage was hidden behind a wall of metal blocks that they had to destroy by making a bomb block explode. The Clocker transporting the cage had been an idiot thinking that it was a good hiding place.
The heroes then just had to climb on a small pathway in the building to reach a door. At the other side, the group had to climb a series of walls by moving scaffold stairs to ladders while Cororis and Poppy Bros Jr. pushed snowballs and threw bombs down at them. Well, at first. The birds and elves stopped sending snowballs and bombs when the heroes who could fly dealt with them. Gabons were also throwing bones on the upper levels, but they were quickly eliminated too.
On the third level, the heroes didn't have to use a staircase as there were already scaffolds and a pile of materials present under the ladders leading to it. However, there was also a suspicious cracked section of the wall that Spiky and Dk destroyed, revealing a little section inside the wall with a trapped Waddle Dee hidden guarded by a single Buffahorn.
After a last staircase, normal this one, the heroes finally reached the roof of the building they had been climbing, where a lot of enemies awaited them.
Anubis shook his head in exasperation. "They never learn."
"Never," almost everyone else agreed. Pretty much everyone was used to enemies being darn stubborn despite said enemies constantly failing to stop them. They would gain so much time if the bad guys stopped sending minions to be slaughtered uselessly.
Needless to say, the battle that resulted was over quickly. Three switches then had to be pressed to make a walkway appear, allowing everyone to reach a golden cage with three Waddle Dees left behind by three Clockers that escaped, just beside another clock tower. It offered quite the nice view of the city.
The heroes' next destination quickly revealed to be a subway. The Lor dropped them just in front of the tube station.
"I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling," Present Sonic said.
He quickly found out why as the group entered the building and went down the stairs to the underground. It was badly flooded! Almost everything was under freezing water, leaving only some not that large elevated and partially crumbled walkways to allow the heroes to avoid getting wet. To make matter worse, parts of the ground were covered in ice.
"Anyone who don't know how to walk on ice without faceplanting, hold onto someone who knows," Meta Knight instructed.
"I don't think any of us has to worry about that, as long as we advance slowly and carefully," Pikachu said.
Thankfully, there weren't that many enemies, so the most the heroes generally had to worry about was to slide into the freezing water, or fall on their butt/face. At least, thanks to the total absence of snow since they were underground, there was a total lack of Cororis. However, there was the occasional Chilly and Balloon-Meister who were in their element.
After some scaffolds, they reached a section of walkway that had almost totally crumbled. A large gap separated the two parts, and for the heroes who couldn't jump far enough, they had to jump on much too small pieces at the left. A Balloon-Meister was present, ready to bomb the crossing heroes with its balloons, but it was eliminated from a distance before it could throw any. So the heroes could take their time while jumping.
After that, it was a narrow frozen section with lots of Balloon-Meisters throwing explosive balloons from the water. Pikachu and Zan Partizanne electrified the water, getting rid of all of them and allowing the heroes to continue without having to worry about balloon-bombs. They still had to worry about Bombers suddenly dropping from scaffolds above them however. And then there was a circular area where lots of enemies awaited them. Mookies attempted to use the lack of place and the heroes number at their advantage to rain mallets on the heroes who couldn't hope to dodge. Instead, the Mookies were the ones who had mallets rain on them and their friends thanks to Little Ghost and her telekinesis.
Finally, they reached the end of the tunnel, back on intact floor. After dealing with a few more enemies, Kirby pounded four nails, causing the floor to move to reveal a hole with a trapped Waddle Dee.
The group then climbed stairs, left underground, and entered a hallway that was also partially covered in ice, with falling icicles and many holes in the ground filled with water, and also with traffic barriers and lots of Mookies. Careful of the falling icicles, the heroes advanced and discovered more nails to pound to make pieces of wall move. A first one led to a small secret storeroom with another trapped Waddle Dee, and a second one led to another area down some stairs which seemed to be some underground mall. Kirby, Spiky, Fox, and Krystal took it, and the others continued.
In a side passage a bit further ahead, Sweetie Void destroyed some lockers, finding an Invincibility Candy. She took it and showed it to everyone else. "Who wants to have a turn at being invincible?"
Diddy immediately rose a hand. "Me! Me!"
Dixie lowered it however. "Nah. We already have the stars back home. Let another have it."
Link hesitantly rose his hand. "Hum? Me?"
"Ok." Sweetie tossed the candy at Link who ate it, becoming invincible. Putting up his shield, he then ran full speed and rammed all the enemies on the path as if they were pins. While Link did his carnage, Francisca flew to a chest on scaffolds and opened it, finding a Waddle Dee. They then reached stairs and returned underground to another flooded area with only some narrow walkway against a wall allowing them to avoid the water. However, there were huge containers moving back and forth on this walkway, so they had to watch out to not be crushed between them, using small ledges at the side to get out of the way when they had the occasion.
As it took some time for all the heroes to pass, they were finally joined by Kirby and the others bringing a freed Waddle Dee. This one had had to be saved by finding switches to open a gate keeping him trapped.
Kirby arrived just in time to find a cone on a ledge. With the cone inside his mouth, he destroyed some metal crates to reveal a switch that moved a couple of containers, revealing a crack in the ice covering the ground. DK destroyed the cracked area and revealed a hole with another Waddle Dee. At the same time, Past Sonic was the first to reach an area with shipping crates that started moving to push him into the water. Despite the ice, he was able to run to the other side of the moving crates, quickly joined by his future self. The others followed one by one, identifying the places where the crates didn't move all the way to the edge to rest until the crates moved away so they could continue.
On the way, Marx found a Waddle Dee hidden inside one of the crates at the top, behind cardboard boxes. If it hadn't been for Anubis, he would have missed this one.
Finally, after the crates were the stairs leading to the exit of the subway. They still had to do one last big jump to pass a large gap. The ones who couldn't do it either toughed it out and jumped into the water or let the others help. Once they were out, they found Galacta Knight beside a busted golden cage and a pile of defeated enemies.
"A job well done, Galacta!" Sweetie said.
The heroes quickly found that the worse still had yet to come. Krystal led the Lor to a part of the city that was flooded, leaving them no choice but to drop on damaged frozen rooftops barely pocking out of the water. And to not help at all, strong winds picked up.
So, they had to walk on roofs while watching out to not slide off into the frigid water while being careful of the wind that can cause them to miss jump, all the while dealing with the enemies crazy enough to stop them despite all this. Particularly, there were lots of Needlous rolling back and forth on these roofs, and the occasional Buffahorn charging at them. There was even a Gigatzo on one of the roofs.
Not far before reached a big frozen wall, Kirby found a pipe that he inhaled to roll on the roofs toward a cracked section of said wall, crushing all the enemies on the way and opening the way to the others. He then crashed into the cracked wall and revealed a hidden Waddle Dee. While Kirby freed the Waddle Dee, the others continued ahead along the wall until reaching a door.
The other side of the wall was as much flooded. And to continue, the heroes had no choice but to use boats. Kirby found a ring and a boat to use, transporting some of the heroes. Phantom rematerialised her edgy boat, but smaller to fit through the small pathways, transporting more. And Sweetie Void shapeshifted into a boat, transporting the last ones. All the rest could fly.
Apple Death sent wind into a fan, lowering a spiked wall to allow Kirby to pass and reach and destroy a cracked ice wall, opening the way to a Waddle Dee guarded by a pack of Scarfys. Not long after, they had to leave the boats, and Flamberge found another Waddle Dee behind a wall of ice blocks around a corner, on a ledge. Destroying the ice blocks was no problem for her.
Then they reached a dead end, and they wondered how to continue. In the end, Sweetie Void rematerialised her flying carpet to transport everyone while Krystal guided her. It quickly revealed to be a bad idea when the strong wind returned. Everyone had to land at the start of a long narrow path. While pushed by the wind, they avoided the potholes full of water and the Gordos, dealt right away with the few enemies that were present despite the wind, and freed a Waddle Dee hidden inside one of the holes.
The path ended suddenly in an area with lots of Gigatzos that Sweetie and the ghosts levitated into the water. Fighting the winds, the heroes had to jump on platforms one by one until they returned on the path where the holes were now bigger so there was now barely any ground to walk on. At the end of it, Krystal pointed to an elevated area, and Little Ghost flew to it to find another Waddle Dee.
At the same time, Marx headbutted an upside down switch to cause a piece of wall above a grid to rise. Through the grid, the heroes could see further ahead an ice pillar with a golden cage on it. It was too far to reach by jump, so Apple Death and Little Ghost worked together to levitate everyone to it.
They remarked that the ice pillar wasn't far of the bridge they saw at first when they arrived in the city. It really was a big bridge!
And when they were done rescuing the three Waddle Dees in the golden cage, Krystal pointed right at it.
Stats
Page generated in 0.02 seconds
Total duration
1,007 users online
1,956,648 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Well, i would assume that there will be at least the Battle of Blizzard Bridge before the battle against Dedede, for the story, so, having at least a rough idea of that level, that actually makes sense.
Let me guess, it won't be a Dedede fight because Sweetie Bell will quickly free him when she sees him, followed by a surprise boss level enemy to appear to take Dedede's place as this level's boss.
In the game, you can only drink the cans that don't manage to hit anything (that they can inflict damage to; walls are fine).
In the game proper, these could only be damaged by the vending machine attacks, which are both limited and require you to deal with that form's inability to fly. If you run out of soda, getting these Waddle Dees would require intentionally jumping into pits to deplete your health or outright leaving the level.
This is still a great subtle joke. Scarfies in particular are only a real threat to Kirby, and only while he lacks an ability (which is no longer possible in this story).
11563476
Yeah, and even here, the heroes still needed the heavy hitters like the fillies, DK, or Spiky.
And with the heroes' number? Scarfys are simple minor nuisances, like most enemies.