Chapter XXX: Red Soil
“Hey, looks like the storm’s clearing up a bit!”
Twilight glanced up at the sky, and blinked in surprise as Bandee’s statement was confirmed. It was still overcast, but it had stopped snowing on them, and it even seemed like the Sun was beginning to peek through the clouds over Red Canyon. For a moment, she felt hopeful. That things could–and would–improve.
Then a rumble of thunder, far louder than they had heard before, echoed out from Cloudy Park, and that hope was dashed. The storm hadn’t let up, it had just become far more localized.
Dedede sat down hard, sending snow flying behind him. With a heavy sigh, he planted his hammer on the ground. “So that’s it, then?” he despaired. “It hits Bridge number seven and we just lose?”
“I…I’m sure we still have time, Your Majesty!” Bandana Dee stuttered out, his voice wavering. “It’s…it’s not over yet.”
Rick nodded emphatically. “The world’s not endin’ while we’ve got some fight left in us!”
Twilight paced back and forth, her mind rushing through thought after thought. This particular wave of apathy didn’t feel like it had affected her that much, but these sorts of things could be impossible to detect sometimes. “We don’t have time for this,” she spoke up. “Rick’s right, the world hasn’t ended yet. But it will soon if we don’t hurry up.”
With that, she spread her wings and took off, moving towards Red Canyon so fast she left a trail of violet sparkles behind her.
Coo eventually cleared his throat as Dedede began recovering. “She…does know that we’re all quite a bit slower than her, does she not?”
“Twi seemed a might bit upset there,” Applejack pointed out. “That ain’t jus’ me seein’ that, right?”
“It most certainly is not just you,” Rarity answered. “Twilight does seem rather stressed.”
“Frankly, I’m impressed that she lasted this long,” Cadance pitched in. “Twilight’s never handled stress very well.”
“You could say that again,” Rainbow said.
“Why’d she just leave them behind like that, though?” Pinkie asked, a slight frown crossing her face.
Discord stroked his beard, his snaggletoothed grin prevalent as he peered at the screen. “Yes, it doesn’t seem very…princess-y of her, does it?”
Applejack turned to look at Shining. “What do you think, Yer Highness? You’re her brother, after all.”
Shining sighed. “Like Cadance said, Twily’s never handled stress well. And she’s always been protective of Spike, so add on those Bridges messing with her emotions and it’s a miracle she didn’t snap at them.”
“If, um, you don’t mind me asking, Mister Shining Armor, sir,” Fluttershy piped up, “you’ve been really calm, even when Twilight and the others are fighting. How do you do it?”
“Training, to be honest,” Shining answered quickly. “I want to be upset, to rage against the unfairness of the world, to scream and throw things and beg Discord here to figure out a faster way to get into that universe.” He shrugged. “But Princess Celestia already has ponies on working that out, so the most I can do is swallow my pride and accept that all I can do is watch and critique their fighting styles.”
Discord cleared his throat. “On the topic of breaking into Void’s multiverse, while I do maintain that us breaking into it will be impossible in your lifetimes, Twiggles and the others might be able to bust out of it.”
“Didn’t y’all say that breakin’ that barrier’d destroy everythin’, or somethin’ like that?” Applejack asked.
“If it’s shattered without weakening it first, yes, it would destroy everything inside of Void’s multiverse,” Discord affirmed. “But Void is still in there, somewhere. If they can figure that out, find It, and manage to get It to weaken–or just remove–the barrier they might be able to get back here.” He shrugged. “But it’s something that they’ll have to pull off from the inside. Void shut down Its multiverse over two thousand years ago, and no one’s seen It since.”
Pinkie tapped her chin. “Hey, isn’t that around the same time those Nova myths were supposed to originate from?”
The group went silent, everypony looking at each other in surprise and realization. “Ya don’t think…” Applejack trailed off.
“It is a distinct possibility,” Rarity noted.
“I feel a bit out of the loop here,” Cadance mused.
“Nova was a giant wish-granting machine!” Pinkie explained. “Sunset destroyed it, but all the myths and stories about it were two thousand years old!”
“Princess Luna thinks that there was a horrible calamity, then,” Fluttershy quietly added. “And if it has to do with Void…oh, I hope there’s another way for them to get back home.”
Twilight’s landing in Red Canyon was rough, both because of the terrain and because she was moving quite a bit faster than she was used to. The soil wasn’t soft enough to plow a trench through, though, so she just took a bit of a tumble upon trying to touch down. It was a bit painful, but she just ignored it and brushed herself off.
As she stood, she took in her surroundings. Red Canyon was, of course, very red and very rocky. She’d landed on the top of a cliff near the water’s edge, but even then it was one of the lower parts of the island. The whole thing was a mountain, totalling out at probably a kilometer above sea level. Interestingly, the mountain seemed to be split in twain, a jagged canyon running right through it.
She had been correct on her assessment of the sky earlier, as well. It was still overcast over most of the island, but near the summit the clouds split in a nearly perfect circle, casting sunlight down onto the dual peaks. She could only assume that something fishy was going on up there.
All-in-all, the environment seemed unforgiving. There was very little vegetation besides some hardier tufts of grass that clung to the canyon walls. But that openness meant it would be easier to fly around and scout out the landscape. She’d just have to be careful of rocky outcrops when landing.
Briefly, Twilight glanced back at Iceberg and considered waiting up for the others. She shook her head and took to the air again. Her mission here was simple: find whatever poor sap the darkness had possessed on this island, free them, and head on to Cloudy Park. She could do that on her own just fine.
Ten minutes of aimless searching later, and the thought came to her that maybe this hadn’t been the brightest idea. Of course, admitting that to herself would mean admitting that she’d made a critical error somewhere, which would mean she had a real chance of failing to save Spike, which was not a possibility even worth considering.
She was going to exorcize that thing out of her brother’s body, and then kick its ass into next Tuesday.
Just as soon as she took a quick rest.
Her wings were getting tired.
She landed–taking care for this one to be quite a bit less rough than the last–on a ledge of rock that stuck out over the ravine. Her wings weren’t exactly sore yet, but she wanted to take the chance to rest them a bit. They were still a bit damp from earlier and heavier than usual, so she didn’t exactly want to risk flying over the canyon too much.
She looked down. Falling down there would be…bad, to say the least. The canyon carved not only through the mountain, but straight through the island itself–technically speaking, Twilight supposed that Red Canyon really was two islands. But the water below looked particularly unsafe to fall into, roiling and churning like a set of whitewater rapids.
A loud rumble of thunder made clear what was causing the unruly ocean. She couldn’t quite see it from this angle, having chosen a spot to rest essentially within the mountain, but even if the storm was now confined to Cloudy Park, it sounded like it had gotten even worse locally. She shuddered to think of what it was going to be like traversing that island, and some mutinous corner of her mind whispered that it would be easier to give in.
She shook that off very quickly, though. Giving up was an even worse thought than the idea that she might fail, because she had a duty as a princess, as a friend, as a sister to give this her all. She would see this through.
Having reaffirmed to herself that she was doing just fine in her mission, thank you very much, she pushed herself back to her hooves and prepared to take off. If she was starting to repeat nihilistic thoughts, that was more than enough rest.
Then a sudden sound above her gave her pause.
Her experience on Iceberg had taught her to be wary of unknown sounds coming from above, and she immediately tensed. She caught a quick flash of movement out of the corner of her eye as something darted down while clinging to the canyon wall. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she heard something sharp hit the ledge she was on and ducked on instinct.
That turned out to have been the correct option, as something passed through the spot her head had just been.
With a quick flap of her wings, she spun herself around to face the new adversary. It looked much like a large housecat, with a white underbelly and brown splotches on its head, back, and tail. Its front claws were extended and sharp enough to pierce into the very rock itself. Its tail lashed back and forth, and it crouched in preparation to pounce.
Its beady eyes, of course, were entirely black marbles. At least Twilight had found what she’d been looking for.
The cat lunged forward, a paw swiping at Twilight’s left side. A hasty shield made sure that it didn’t connect, but the lithe creature was already moving again. Its left paw striked out and landed a solid hit, scoring five thin red lines down Twilight’s shoulder.
Twilight sucked in a sharp breath from the pain, and a quick application of telekinesis forced the cat away from her. Its back claws resisted that, though, and she was only able to hold the telekinesis long enough to get it around half a meter away. But that was enough to buy her time to take to the air.
She activated the Element of Magic, but her attempt to force the darkness out of the cat was unsuccessful. It leapt up to avoid the beam, its claws digging into the side of the canyon and sending pebbles falling down to the surf below. With impossible agility, it scampered across the wall and jumped at Twilight again, avoiding her second attempt to score a hit.
With a hiss, it tried to rake its claws across her left side, only thwarted by her jolting a bit to the right. That instinctive movement slammed her into the wall, though, and gave the cat enough time to recover from its landing on another ledge. It hissed at her again and whirled around, taking a swipe at its flying opponent.
It snagged her tail in the attack, and Twilight yelped as she was suddenly yanked downward. A quick flare of her horn produced a shield around her flanks, stopping it from digging its claws into her back legs. It still was able to use her tail for purchase, though, and it swung around to take a swing at her wings. Twilight closed them up in response, and all the cat was able to swipe at was her mane, carving off a fairly significant portion of it.
Well, she’d been meaning to have it cut.
Her closing up her wings, however, had the secondary effect of the pair suddenly being quite grossly affected by gravity again. They didn’t have far to plummet–only a couple meters or so to another ledge–but it was enough for the cat to disengage from her tail and land on its feet, leaving Twilight to nearly bounce right off the ledge. By the time she recovered enough to continue the fight, the cat had pulled back one of its paws. It struck forward right after, pushing a considerable amount of sand towards Twilight.
And right into her eyes.
She cried out in surprise and quite a bit of pain, suddenly blinded. The cat pressed its advantage and pounced, sinking its claws into Twilight’s shoulders and sending them careening off the ledge.
She desperately flapped her wings, but with the sand in her eyes she couldn’t see where she was going. It seemed to be having some effect, though most of her attention was on a self-applied eye-watering spell and rapidly blinking, doing her best to ignore the pain of the cat’s claws.
Eventually, after a few seconds of falling, her wings found purchase again and she could feel herself lining upright. She lashed out with her back hoof, kicking the cat directly and forcing it to let go of her. It mrowed loudly as it fell, and through watery eyes Twilight aimed the Element of Magic.
The beam connected, successfully expelling the darkness from the cat’s body. But this particular blob of darkness was more nimble than the others, dodging the second beam and shooting up and past Twilight, rocketing towards the summit.
Her wings tensed, and she very nearly flew after it in pursuit. But her mind caught up to her before she did, and she caught sight of the cat again just as it plunged into the surf below. She glanced back up, then down again. Pursue the darkness and potentially save Spike sooner, or save the cat right now?
Twilight took a deep breath, her mind made up. She tensed her wings again and took off at speed.
Downward.
There was a small island of rock in the channel, large enough for them to take a bit of a break and recover. It was good enough for her, so she focused on where the cat had fallen, prepared her magic, and plunged into the water.
The currents forced her every which way, but the cat’s form was plainly visible. She focused as much as she could on the hydroturgical spells that she knew, calming the currents as much as possible. That allowed her to swim forward and grab ahold of the unconscious cat before surfacing again.
The island was only a dozen or so meters away, a short swim with some applied hydrokinesis. But with her split focus between swimming, her magic, and keeping the cat in her grasp, she was blindsided by a sudden leftward current, slamming her into the rocky wall. She gasped in pain as she heard something crack on that side of her body, but she didn’t have time to focus on that.
Her vision was metaphorically swimming by the time she had finished physically swimming, and it was only with great effort–and no small amount of adrenaline, she was sure–that she managed to heave the cat and herself out of the water and onto the small island. Comfortable that she wasn’t about to be slammed into any more rocks, she glanced back at the water and winced. She must’ve been bleeding from the impact–the water she could see, before it was washed away by the current, at least, was red.
She glanced down to properly assess the damage. With the adrenaline fading and the pain beginning to assert itself, she nearly vomited at the sight of her left wing. She may have been new to the appendages, but she was pretty damn sure that wings were not supposed to bend like that. It was bleeding pretty heavily as well, enough to stain her fur and a few feathers around the laceration red.
That, along with her other scrapes and scratches, was healed with a quick spell, which would at least stop the bleeding and keep them from getting infected. It took a bit more mana than she would’ve liked, though, so if she wanted to teleport out of there she’d have to wait a while.
And besides, even if her wing wasn’t broken, she’d gone and waterlogged them again.
That thought, though, brought to her attention just how much of a pickle she’d gotten herself into. She was sitting on a tiny rocky island, surrounded by churning waves and canyon walls, with a broken wing, an unconscious cat, and not enough mana to manage a teleport for the both of them.
She sighed deeply before speaking to herself.
“I really should’ve just waited for the others.”
“Which way d’ya think she got off to?” Rick asked as they landed. It had been a bit slower going than previous trips between islands, but they had managed to make it in only one. Bandana Dee had ridden on Dedede’s back over the gap, and Chuchu could deform herself into a surprisingly good imitation of a hot air balloon for Rick’s fire breath to power.
Bandee pointed his spear at the canyon. “Either up to the summit or down into the ravine.”
Dedede nodded in agreement.
“What makes youse say that?” Kine asked.
“Well, she’s gonna be chasing after that darkness thingy,” Dedede explained, “and where do you think that’s gonna be hanging out on an island like this?”
“That would make sense,” Chuchu acknowledged, scrambling down from Rick’s head and onto the rocky ground. “Should we check the summit first?”
Kirby nodded with a determined look on his face and started forward, leading the trek up the mountain.
Twilight paced around on what little ground was available, her mind forming and rejecting ideas at an incredible rate. Trying to fly out of this with a broken wing was just asking to break the other one. The same was true of trying to swim out. She did suppose that the best option was waiting it out and hoping that the others found her, but that felt like it would take far too long. But teleporting both herself and the cat back up to the surface would leave her too magically exhausted to be of much use.
It really was quite the dilemma.
She turned around at the edge of the rock, something that happened every few seconds of her pacing given the size of the island. This time, though, her eyes focused on the rock wall of the canyon. There were multiple rocky ledges there, enough that she could make her way back up with some minimal autolevitation and using her good wing for balance.
As she watched, though, part of one ledge crumbled away and splashed into the water. If she wanted to get up that way, she’d need a guide who knew where it was safe to stand.
And then her eyes fell upon the cat from earlier.
It was certainly far larger than a normal housecat, and the darkness had so far only directly possessed intelligent beings. It wouldn’t surprise her if the cat was sapient as well.
She’d already taken care of its wounds with a healing spell earlier, so at this point it was just sleeping off the damage. She should have thought to bring along some food from Castle Dedede before this whole adventure began, but hindsight was 20/20 and she hadn’t been in the best mental state back at the castle. Plus, she wasn’t even sure if the food she would bring would have helped–as far as she was aware, cats were carnivores.
What she lacked in food, though, she could make up for with magic. Using a wakefulness spell to wake up someone knocked unconscious generally wasn’t recommended, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
The cat yawned massively and stretched out upon waking up, looking around a bit confused. “Hey, lassie, where’re we?” he asked. “Last Ah remember that bastard blob o’ darkness had me mind in a heavy twist.”
“Well, I’ve managed to get it out of you,” Twilight explained, “but it got away before I could destroy it entirely.” She gestured around them. “Right now we’re at the bottom of the canyon, and I was wondering if you knew the best way back up. I’d fly us up there myself, but…” she waved a hoof at her broken wing and winced in a bit of pain, “my wing is broken.”
The cat frowned. “Ah dunno aboot an easy way back up, but Ah didnae hang ‘round these parts fer nothing! Ah can tell ye which rocks’re safe.”
Twilight sighed in relief. “Oh, thank goodness. For a bit there I thought we’d be stuck down here until I got enough mana together to manage a teleport.”
The cat waved her off. “Dinnae ye worry aboot that, lassie. Least Ah can dae fer ye is help ye outta this bind.” He held out a paw, his claws clearly retracted. “Name’s Nago.”
Twilight accepted the hoofshake while her horn flared and she conjured some wood. “Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria,” she replied, fashioning herself a makeshift splint in the meantime. It wouldn’t do for her broken wing to mess itself up further on the trip back up, after all.
Once her wing was splinted, Nago leapt to the nearest rocky ledge. It took a liberal application of autolevitation for her to make it over as well, but the other ledges seemed closer than this had been to the tiny island. Satisfied that Twilight was stable on the rocks, Nago leapt to the next ledge and tested its stability.
As Twilight followed, he spoke up. “So, Yer Highness, what’s got ye here in Red Canyon?”
“That darkness thing, actually,” Twilight replied, feeling a bit sick of answering the same sorts of questions island after island. “A big one possessed my brother and has been destroying the Rainbow Bridges.”
Nago growled a bit. “So that’s what had me ‘n Shiro feeling off lately.”
Twilight nodded. “It’s already destroyed all of them, so I just hope it’s staying put in Dark Castle.” She sighed, a few traitorous thoughts of failure flickering across her mind. “If it hasn’t, I don’t know how we’ll find it.”
“One step at a time, Princess,” Nago reminded. “Let’s take out the one that got me, first. Ye said it got away?”
Twilight stumbled a bit at the next jump, having to extend her good wing for balancing. “It shot directly upwards,” she reported. “I think it went to the summit.”
Nago looked up above them and frowned. “Ah know the fastest way up there, but ye’d better hope it hasn’t gone ‘n possessed ol’ Shine ‘n Bright.”
“Shine and Bright,” Twilight repeated to herself, thinking. “I think I’ve heard those names before. Dedede had them keep a piece of the Star Rod when it was broken.”
“An’ they’re Solaria ‘n Lunaris’s kids,” Nago added.
Twilight stalled for a moment, that little tidbit of information dredging itself back up from the recesses of her mind. Right, the Sun and Moon here could reproduce. She really, really did not want to know how, at this point.
“Well, knowing my luck,” Twilight sighed, “that’s just what happened.”
They continued on in silence for a while after that, but before too long and with only one or two close calls, they had made it back up to solid ground at the top of the canyon and a solid ways up the mountain. Twilight almost wanted to collapse in relief at the top, but they still had a few hundred meters left to the summit. She couldn’t give up just yet.
Still, it was a bit concerning that she hadn’t seen the others yet. Though she supposed that she had left them with only one agile flier, so it might’ve taken them a few trips to get over.
“My word, the rain was bad, but this blasted sunshine is almost worse!” Coo grumbled.
The sun wasn’t directly visible through the hole in the clouds–it was far too late in the day for that. But its heat was felt in full force, and the whole group was sweating.
“Ya dink youse have it bad?” Kine asked. “I’m a fish!”
“Oh, shut it, Kine,” Dedede groused. “At least you’re a sunfish! I was never meant for this kinda weather!”
Rick stretched, basking in the sunlight that was available. “I’m not seein’ the problem. Chuchu isn’t complainin’ any either!”
“Oh, I can handle a wide range of temperatures!” Chuchu overexplained. “You see, I like hanging out in Iceberg, but hydrothermal vents are just fine for me, aussi!”
Dedede’s eye twitched in annoyance.
Bandee sighed from near the front of the group. “Yeah, I’m kind of surprised this didn’t happen earlier.”
Kirby frowned in exasperation as well, whirling around and shouting to get the group’s attention. Once everyone was looking at him (except Gooey, who had gotten distracted by a butterfly), he did his best to cross his arms and look disappointed.
When no one spoke up, he sighed and pointedly looked at Bandee.
Bandana Dee blinked in surprise. “Oh, you want me to talk?” He cleared his throat. “Guys, we really can’t afford to fight over stuff like this. I’m sure it’s because of the Bridges and we’d be getting along just swell otherwise, but we need to keep moving.” He turned back around and pointed his spear at the summit, around half a kilometer away. “We’ll get up there, save Twilight from whatever hole she’s dug herself into, and move on to Cloudy Park.”
Chuchu tilted her head as much as an octopus could. “What makes you think the Princess is gonna need saving, eh?”
“This is Princess Twilight we’re talking about,” Bandee said, an eyebrow raised. “Smart as she is, she’ll rush into a situation headfirst if it means saving as many people as possible.”
Kirby nodded in agreement, rather distinctly remembering her actions on the Halberd.
“Come on, let’s get moving,” Bandee ordered, starting forward again. “Gooey, you coming?”
Gooey looked up before bouncing back over to the group, its dopey grin never leaving its face.
None of them noticed the little orange butterfly it had been playing with vanish with a slight flicker of flame and a puff of smoke.
As soon as Twilight and Nago reached the summit, they could tell that something felt very wrong. Perhaps it was the slightly too-strong sunlight, or the way the breeze felt just a bit too light, or the fact that the summit was shaped like a giant circular arena split down the middle by the canyon.
Though the thing that felt the most wrong was probably the fact that the sun was attacking them.
Quite literally, even. It wasn’t Solaria, but it seemed like the darkness had gotten to Mister Bright, at least. The large flaming ball contrasted starkly with his jet black eyes, lending to a disconcerting image as he swooped down at the pair.
They just barely managed to jump out of the way, and Twilight could still feel the heat behind her as he passed by. Nago hissed as well, snatching his tail away from the flame but still singeing some of his fur.
Bright was fast in turning around though, going for a second strike at Twilight. She jumped out of the way again, but added in an attack of her own in the process. She conjured up a few gallons of water and threw them at Bright, hoping it would at least damage him a bit.
The water instantly evaporated, doing just about nothing to the miniature sun. He cupped his hands together and blasted a stream of fire out of them, aiming right for Twilight. Some quick cryoturgy rendered the attack useless, at least, but Bright wasn’t done just yet. He quickly changed targets, striking Nago with a launched fireball before Twilight could react and setting the poor cat ablaze.
He yelped and danced around in surprise and pain, but was thankfully soon doused by more conjured water. But the distraction did its job as a second adversary descended from the sky. Mister Shine–his eyes just as black as his brother’s–landed right next to Twilight and promptly kicked her in the ribs.
She gasped as most of the air in her lungs was forced out and she was launched almost directly into the canyon. Luckily, she noticed in time to apply a quick autolevitation spell and desperately flap her good wing for extra airtime, and she roughly landed a meter or so away from the edge on the opposite side.
It was better than falling right into the canyon, but it didn’t feel like it. Her ribs were screaming at her and the incredible pain on her left side indicated that her splint–or at least the adhesive spell she’d used to secure it–had broken at some point as well.
Still, she forced her eyes open as Nago loudly hissed on the other side, staring down both Shine and Bright. He bared his teeth and crouched, waiting for his opponent’s next move.
It came in the form of Mister Shine charging at him, arm pulled back for a punch. But even burned, Nago was nimble. He deftly dodged around Shine’s punch, his sharp claws lashing out and digging into his arm. He ducked under the tiny moon’s next punch, and used him as a shield against Bright’s stream of fire.
It didn’t do much to Shine, but at least it stopped Nago from getting set on fire again.
But Twilight knew that the cat didn’t stand a chance in the long run, especially with him already having been burned. All Nago could do on his own was extend the fight, so ignoring the pain, she forced herself back to her hooves. She grit her teeth and lit her horn, ready to try another cryoturgical spell to help out.
A sudden shout from behind her interrupted the casting process, though.
“Tally-ho, chaps!”
A second fireball fell from the sky, landing on Mister Shine and doing far more than his brother’s fire had. A rock ball hit Mister Bright right in the face, the octopus that had thrown it clinging to the projectile hamster. A blade of sharpened air slammed into the stunned sun, and a large fish just directly landed on the moon.
“Hey, Twilight!” she heard Bandee shout, and her head whipped around to see him, Gooey, and Dedede summit the mountain. He reached into nowhere and pulled out a maxim tomato. “Catch!”
At Gooey and Dedede’s confused looks after he threw it to her, he shrugged. “I nabbed a couple from the castle before we left. Thought they might come in handy.”
Twilight caught the tossed tomato in her telekinesis and immediately shoved it into her mouth, almost sighing in relief as the pain faded and her bones rearranged themselves into the proper positions. It was still an uncomfortable feeling, but far better than the alternative. “We might need one for Nago, too.”
Dedede pointed his hammer over at the ongoing fight. “That the cat?”
Twilight nodded.
The King of Dreamland sauntered past her and crouched, ready to jump. “We’ll take it from here, Princess.”
Dedede jumped right over the canyon, landing right next to Nago and batting away Mister Bright with his hammer. Ignoring Mister Shine charging right at him–Gooey slamming into him while coated in a fireball of its own took care of him well enough–he grabbed the surprised feline by the scruff of his neck and jumped back over. He didn’t spare any words back on Twilight’s side of the canyon, just delivering Nago to her and Bandee before jumpring right back into the fray.
Bandana Dee handed over a second tomato to Nago, who sighed a bit at the fact that it was a tomato, but ate it anyway. With her wings healed and having been dried from the sun and the heat of the battle, Twilight took the opportunity to make sure they were in decent condition as they watched the fight.
It was terribly one-sided, and favor had completely flipped against Mister Shine and Mister Bright. With so many opponents to keep track of, they were simply getting swarmed. Twilight winced as Shine took a direct hit from one of Kirby’s cutters–he must have swapped out copy abilities at some point–and was launched right into a storm of Coo’s sharp feathers.
“Ye think they’ll be alright?” Nago asked.
“Well, they did need to let off some steam,” Bandee said with a shrug as Chuchu threw Rick with all her might into Mister Bright, knocking him into a hit from Kine as the fish flopped in just the right direction to spit water at him.
“Ah more meant Shine ‘n Bright,” Nago clarified. “It dinnae seem like they’re having a good time.”
Twilight’s eyes narrowed and she tensed. “Well, it looks like they’re going after us, now,” she said. “Guess we’ll find out.”
Sure enough, Shine and Bright seemed like they’d decided that enough was enough and had switched targets. The former still got hit with one more hammer swing from Dedede, but the two of them managed to break out of the beatdown they were receiving and gunned it for Twilight, Nago, and Bandee.
The general readied his spear in a fighting stance, but his spearmanship turned out to not even be necessary. For as soon as the two of them had crossed the canyon–far slower than they had been before–Twilight activated the Element of Magic and hit them with the resultant beam.
This time, the darkness didn’t escape. The bit of it that had infected Nago earlier had clearly split itself in two to possess both Shine and Bright, but that cut into its power. It simply wasn’t fast enough to avoid Twilight’s second beam, and the twin pools of nothingness were purged from existence.
Shine and Bright themselves fell to the ground, the fight and exorcism proving too much to remain conscious through.
Smiling, Twilight fluttered across the gap, levitating Nago and Bandee over as well. “Thank you, everyone.” She blushed in embarrassment a bit. “I…really shouldn’t have just left you all on Iceberg. I’m sorry.”
Dedede waved her off, a grin on his face. “Hey, you were stressed, I get it.” He patted Kirby on the head and the puffball, annoyed, used the flat of a cutter blade to push his hand away. “Kirby here knows I’ve done worse!”
Kirby’s expression made it clear what would happen if that “worse” happened again.
Reaching down, Coo hovered back into the air with Kine in his talons again. “Regardless, I do believe we should make for Cloudy Park sometime soon.”
Everyone looked over, the next island plainly visible from this angle. Its mountain reached far higher than Red Canyon’s, its summit disappeared behind the clouds. Churning, so-dark-they-were-almost-black clouds, where a flash of lightning was visible every few seconds and a deep rumble of thunder was powerful enough to reach all the way to where they were standing atop Red Canyon’s summit every so often.
Twilight took a deep breath, remembering the technique that Cadance had taught her. The darkness was powerful, and they still had two islands left, but with her allies–really, at this point she really could consider them friends–with her, she was certain that they would pull through.
As soon as Steve the Broom Hatter got into the Meta-Knights’ base proper, he felt loads better than he had been running through the forest. It was like his mind had been fighting against itself all along the journey there, like it had been actively trying to forget why he cared about his mission, or even why he cared about King Dedede at all!
Even still, there was a nagging presence at the back of his mind that none of this was worth it, and even Meta Knight was doomed to failure, but he shook it off. His king had ordered him to tell Meta Knight what was going on, so come hell or high water that was what he’d do!
It was just a bit of trouble to actually find him.
A nice Chilly had pointed him in the direction of Sailor Waddle Dee, though. She apparently knew where Meta Knight was, so surely she would gladly allow him to deliver his message!
He found her disinterestedly looking over a clipboard in the dockyards, muttering to herself. “Vul really should’ve checked back in by now…”
“Excuse me?” Steve asked, and Sailor Dee jumped in surprise as she turned around.
She would later deny any accusations of the sort.
“What do you want?” she sighed.
“King Dedede sent me to relay a message to Meta Knight!”
Sailor Dee’s eyes narrowed over her clipboard. “And how urgent is it?”
“Very,” Steve emphatically said.
The Waddle Dee rolled her eyes. “Please, Dedede would find asking for help about a clogged toilet ‘urgent.’” She turned back around. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish up inspectio-”
“Someone’s been possessed.”
Sailor Dee froze and nearly dropped her clipboard. “Wh-what?”
“Someone’s been possessed,” Steve repeated.
“Who?”
“S-Spike the dragon,” Steven stuttered, suddenly very put off by the Waddle Dee’s change in demeanor.
She took a deep breath before gesturing for him to follow. “Sir Meta Knight is currently sparring with Miss Shimmer. I’m not sure if interrupting them is wise, but for news like this…”
She trailed off, and neither Sailor Dee nor Steve spoke for the remainder of the short walk to the Meta-Knights’ gymnasium complex. Sailor Dee swiped some sort of key card, and the door opened, allowing the pair access.
It really was a typical gymnasium, a large pair of double doors straight down the hall leading to the gym itself, with locker rooms on either side for the species that wore clothes. Or presumably if Meta Knight ever needed to change his mask. Barely anyone ever saw him without the thing.
Sailor Dee swung the main doors open, right as there was a loud crash of sword on magic barrier.
“Very good,” Meta Knight commented. “Your shields are strong enough now that I cannot easily slice through them.”
“To be fair,” Sunset countered, “last time you fought me I wasn’t exactly at top form.”
“And I was not exactly trying,” Meta retorted.
Sailor Dee cleared her throat.
“Ah, Sailor!” Meta Knight called. He blinked. “And a Broom Hatter?”
“Steve, Sir!” Steve reported. “I come bearing urgent news from Castle Dedede! Spike the dragon has been possessed!”
Sunset gasped, but Steve’s thought process didn’t even register that. Most of his mind was focused on the sheer speed of Meta Knight as he rushed forward to grab the brim of his hat and stare directly into his eyes. The Broom Hatter sweated in dread as the knight’s yellow eyes conveyed suspicion, analysis, and–terrifyingly–the tiniest trace of fear.
It seemed like an eternity passed in under a second. Until Meta Knight, his voice cold, uttered a single word. A simple word, just asking for clarification, but one which conveyed far more emotion than simple confusion. As if the knight already had a good idea of what was going on.
“What?”
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First off, P*rn chapter.
Now that this is done, to the commentary.
I wonder if every dark matter sends a black box of sorts back to the rest of the hivemind. Because if they don't, then Greed Matter (see what I did there?) Might not be aware of how close his pursuers are.
Also, please tell me the ones that get 4'd by DMK are the Equestrians. That would be so interesting.
Discord saying that they need to convince Void is going to be so funny when Kirby decides to have a chat with Them.
Another cool detail of your worldbuilding is the "Void has locked the world off" bit. It provides an explanation as to why Forgo Elfilis did open his portal earlier, but could still snatch Waddle dees. After all, if he takes one or two dees at a time over 30 years, it would add up to quite a lot. And since he'd focus on one dee at a time, it would be easier to crack open the dimension.
THE BUTTERFLY HAS ENTERED THE STORY.
THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
I REPEAT, THE BUTTERFLY HAS ENTERED THE STORY.
Twilight's bad habit of jumping ahead without waiting for the group sure bit her hard on the flank!
Hopefully she learned her lesson & stays with the others long enough to reach Spike, then she can wail on Darkness sorry behind!
Seems Metaknight may get involved next chapter, can't wait for that & to maybe catch up to poor Spike!
Well well welly well.
I love how Kirby basically needs a translator when he wants to get a point across to the group... or someone good at charades.
11658521
Keep in mind that the 30 years number in Forgotten land is the time between Elfilis's capture and Elfilin's creation--not the time between their capture and the game! They've had a lot more than just 30 years to chip away at Void's barrier.
11658760 And I oh so love how the Kirby series has given us all lepidopterophobia. But for now, the butterfly is simply here to...observe, shall we say.
11658574
The Darkness thinks it has this one in the bag, but really, it doesn't stand a chance. It's gonna be hella cathartic for our heroes to take it down.
11658893
Kirby, truly, is a puffball of few words.
11664653
Ah ok actually will the rest ok the MLP cast be a part of the future Kirby games or is it strictly twilight,spike and sunset like will princess Luna accidentally sent herself there or something or maybe chrysalis to try and get revenge on twilight and fail or something?
11665506
As of now, I the only MLP characters that I have planned to directly interact with the Kirby multiverse during the events of the games is those three, yes.
11667963
Good to know I and I hope to see more of this and other future story ideas anyway goodnight.
A bit late, but why didn't Twilight just do the dog-shake thing to get dry?
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/439/681/59f.gif
Since it’s been quite a while since a new chapter, I’d like to use this time to speculate on the Kirby multiverse in this story, rather than waiting for Amazing Mirror to make this speculation topical.
Back in Chapter IV, Discord noted that
We know of three (maybe four) right off the bat: the main universe, the mirror world, and the Team Kirby Clash world where Magalor ends up. The setting of Magalor’s Epilogue/Another Dimension is either another universe, or the space between Void’s universes (probably a universe by itself since it has planets like Halcandra). The rest are more speculative. Patch Land is apparently not another universe, as it can be seen as a planet from Popstar. Seventopia does seem like another universe, but it was crafted by Claycia and Elline, who I doubt have universe-creating powers (but that does leave the question of what exactly Seventopia is). The Forgotten land is probably in another universe since the portal that took Kirby to it was made by Fecto Forgo, who specifically has the power to create dimensional rifts and travel through them to other dimensions.
So I’ll speculate that Void’s five universes (if it’s exactly five) are Kirby’s main universe, the Mirror World, Team Kirby Clash, Another Dimension, and the universe containing the Forgotten Land.
Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?
Been missing this story for a while now, hoping to see it updated soon!
11763826
Yeah, school has been busy for me this semester with regular classwork for my senior year combined with my time spent working in the lab, so I haven't had a lot of time to write. But hey, I knew what I was getting into when I wanted to go into a STEM field. Finals are coming up though, so maybe I'll be able to polish off at least the rest of this arc during the break.