Wintertime. A time of snow, joy, and gathering of friends. But mostly snow, and an abundance of cold weather. But in the land of Nibel, snow was falling softly from the sky like tiny white leaves, which blanketed the ground and trees with white. And among the snow, a small round pink star warrior was making a sculpture made out of snow in the shape of a strawberry shortcake. The star warrior had two black shining oval-shaped eyes, two red spots on his cheeks, and large red feet. He smiled to himself as he put on the finishing touches on his sculpture. It looked like a giant slice of strawberry shortcake with a small strawberry on top. The star warrior's mouth watered as he looked at his creation.

He then began to open his mouth and approach the snow cake, and began to "chew" on it, despite the fact that he had no teeth to chew with. As the star warrior was munching on his giant snow cake, forgetting it was made of snow, a small white-furred bipedal creature with black eyes and white pupils with three fingers, a cat-like appearance, two small frills on the top of its head and long ears at its side, approached him and looked at him with a puzzled expression, cocked his head and said in a small voice, "Umm…Kirby…? What are….you...doing?"

Kirby looked up from his feast at the white creature and his eyes widened when he saw it. He looked around and took a piece of snow out of his mouth and put it back on the cake. "Ori! I….uhh…" Kirby stuttered as he looked around nervously and blinked. "I was just...uhh…"

"Eating your snow cake you said you would make?" Ori laughed.

"Yeah...so what? At least it looks delicious!" Kirby said as he sneaked a piece of his snow cake into his mouth.

Ori looked at kirby's snow cake and nodded. "Well, I guess it looks pretty tasty…" Ori said with his hand on his chin as he inspected the giant cake. "Maybe we should take your mind off of your wintertime cravings. Let's go see how the others are doing!"

"Yeah, aurion said he would try to make a snowman, right?" Kirby replied. "I think he and P.K. are done now!"

And so Kirby and his friend ori traveled east to the snow fields, where a few of Ori's friends were playing in the snow. Making snow sculptures, throwing snowballs, and everything in between. Kirby walked up to two spirits that were making a replica of a waddle Dee with a bandana, and the waddle Dee was posing right in front of it. The first spirit had wider ears than ori with one small point at the bottom of his ear, and had a shorter, and fluffier tail than ori. He had a large sword behind his back, with a grey base and a blue circle at its center. The second spirit that was with him was a small spirit with not as large as an average spirit, and had a very fluffy tail. Kirby had occasionally seen him with wingsuit-like skin under his arms, but not very often.

"Hey, Aurion! P.K! How's that snow waddle Dee coming out?" Kirby asked waving to them.

"Hey...you…?" Aurion said, waving to Kirby, but slowly stopping mid-wave.

"It's Kirby, remember? Ori introduced me to you a few weeks ago." Kirby replied.

"Oh, yeah!" P.K. Said. "Ori said you and him saved Nibel a while back, right?"

Kirby nodded. "That was one heck of an adventure...it's nice to have some down time every now and then. Saving pop star can get really tiring!"

"That's the planet you're from, right?" P.K. Asked. "Didn't a few of your friends come to Nibel from there?"

Just then, another voice was heard as the two spirits and star warrior were talking.

"Hey! How much longer do I gotta stand like this?" The voice came from Bandana waddle dee, who was posed dramatically, holding his spear up in the air.

"Just a bit longer, B!" Aurion said as he put more snow on the sculpture.

"We've been trying to make a snow carving of Bandana waddle Dee." Said P.K., his attention directed toward the snow waddle Dee. "This guy can't stand still to save his life!"

"Hey! Standing in one spot and not moving for a while can tire you out!" Bandana waddle Dee said with a frown.

"That...d-doesn't make any sense." Aurion replied.

"Stand where I am for like, fifteen minutes, and you'll see what I-oh, hey Kirby!" Bandana waddle Dee started to say, but stopped when he saw Kirby.

"Hey, B! I like that name Aurion have you!" Kirby said, waving. "How've you been doing?"

"Other than the fact that I've been standing here for fifteen minutes, I'm fine." Bandana waddle Dee Said.

"Hey Kirby, didn't you say another one of your friends was here?" P.k. Asked, tilting his head a little. "What was his name again…? He was pretty big, blue, wore like a robe and a little hat...big D?"

Kirby snickered at the name P.K. Said. "It's…*snort* King Dedede…"

"Ohh…wait, What's so funny?" P.K. Paused mid-sentence and Asked.

"Sorry...it's just...you guys come up with the best nicknames for us…!" Kirby chortled.

Meanwhile...on a large hill next to the spirit tree, a large castle sat on the top, the waddle dees working inside of the castle all around. And one specific creature in the castle, was a large blue penguin with a red robe and hat, wearing yellow gloves and a red-and-yellow patterned waistband around his body. Strangely enough, this is the true hero of our story,King Dedede. Despite his deeds in the past years, he has managed to redeem himself and gain the respect of everyone in Dream Land, and as well as everyone in Nibel as well.

However, Dedede was getting very frustrated as he failed to create a perfect version of his specialty, the fruitcake.

"AAAUUUUGGHHHH!" Dedede shouted as he waved his arms frantically and jumped up and down. "Why?! Why does fruitcake naturally taste bad?! It's cake, with fruit in it! Both those things are amazing! But when you put them together, they taste terrible! HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?!"

"Umm...sire?" A Said a voice from a door on side of the room, the door opening to reveal a waddle Dee. "Are you all right? I heard some shouting from in here…"

"I'm fine, Okay?" Dedede glared at the waddle Dee. "I just need some alone time, okay?! I'm trying to make the perfect fruitcake, but everything always goes wrong! I add the right ingredients, I cook at the exact time a fruitcake needs WITH A STOPWATCH, and I even put a little flag with happy face on it! HOW DOES IT STILL TASTE BAD?!"

The waddle Dee was stunned from all of dedede's yelling, but he snapped out of it and blinked. "Umm...Sire...if you don't mind my saying so...I have heard rumors of a secret ingredient for fruitca-"

Dedede jumped up upon hearing this, running up to the waddle Dee at full speed. "SECRET INGREDIENT?!" Dedede shouted, the hesitated. "Wait...Where did you hear this rumor from?"

"It was one of the spirits here in Nibel. I think I found her somewhere is sorrow pass, and I think her name was...kee..reey...?"

"Kiree?"

"Yeah! Kiree, that was it! She said that something called a "Power star" can instantly make anything taste better...Dedede?" the waddle dee paused, before seeing the king of Dream Land flipping through a book.

"Come on...come on…Power Star..." Dedede muttered as his eyes darted across the pages of the book.

"A-HA!" He then exclaimed as he planted his finger on the section of the book where it talked about the power stars. "It says here that power stars are usually found in very cold places, mainly the top of tall mountains and such…"

"Maybe you can try to visit Forlorn Ruins?" The waddle Dee Said.

"Forlorn Ruins? What the hey is that?"

"You don't remember? Kirby told you about it in his adventure to save Nibel with Ori!"

When the waddle Dee talked about Kirby saving Nibel, Dedede's mind raced with visions of all the spirits in Nibel cheering for king dedede, for he had saved their holiday cheer with a fruit cake that actually tasted amazing.

Dedede! Dedede! Dedede Dedede! Dedede! Dedede! Dedede Dedede! He envisioned them cheering, Dedede standing proudly with the fruitcake.

"Sire?" The waddle Dee poked at the daydreaming King. "Are you okay?"

"TO FORLORN RUINS!" Dedede shouted pointing heroically toward the sky, then ran up three flights of stairs, but got tired out by the second flight.

"*gasp*...I...really...need to...get out more…" Dedede wheezed as he crawled up the third flight.

When he reached his bedroom, he lifted a glass panel from a shelf, which revealed a large wooden hammer with yellow stars on both faces of the hammer, and two iron bands on the faces. He then grabbed the hammer, lifted his window, and jumped off with his feet running in the air, but remained suspended for a second before he looked down toward the ground. I really didn't think this through… Dedede thought before he plummeted to the ground, the snow breaking his fall. Dedede climbed out of the Dedede-shaped hole in the snow before he set off toward Forlorn Ruins, taking a shortcut through the field of the spirit tree.

Meanwhile…

"Almost got it...just gotta deal with these last few details...and...done!" Aurion finally said as he finished up the snow carving of bandana waddle dee.

Bandana waddle dee slumped down onto the snow and panted for a while.

"Come on B, You barely even moved! Why are you so tired?" P.K. asked.

I…*huff*...can't…*huff*...sit still…*gasp*...for long periods...of time…" Bandana waddle Dee gasped.

"...Riiiight...anyway, what do you think? Pretty cool, huh?" Aurion said.

"It's...great…" Bandana Dee panted.

Elsewhere in the fields, Kirby was talking to another spirit, who was far away from the others. This spirit had slightly longer fur around her ears than an average spirit and had three diamond-shaped frills on her head. She wore a necklace and a belt made of vines, with a marble on each piece of jewelry. a small blade hung from her belt, and had an abundance of ear fur.

"Come on, Kiree! There's a spirit right there, go try to talk to him!" Kirby said, pointing at a spirit that had a blue scarf around him and a small rainbow-colored diamond embedded within his chest. It had two wing-like appendages on his back and had a very long tail.

"Kirby, you know how I get around social situations! I can't talk to him!" Kiree replied.

"Alright, let's try it this way. We'll work as a team. I'll get him warmed up, then you come in for the kill." Kirby said, walking toward the spirit.

"Hey! How are you doing?" Kirby said as he walked up to the spirit. The spirit turned backward and waved at Kirby. "Oh, hey Kirby! Who's your friend?" The spirit asked.

"This, Jaso, is my friend Kiree." Kirby said, pointing his stubby hand outward toward the air.

"...Kirby..? Is this a joke…?" Jaso asked.

"What? She-" Kirby started before looking toward his hand, but saw Kiree wasn't there. "Heh...heheh...j-just give me a second…" Kirby stuttered as he walked back to Kiree's location. "Kiree, what happened? I set you up, all you had to do was just say hi!"

"Kirby, I told you, I can't speak to new people! I'm socially embarrassed with this kind of stuff!" Kiree replied angrily.

"Come on, Kiree. If you want to get better at social stuff, you're gonna have to try to-" Kirby was interrupted by king dedede, who was running across the snow and stopped near Kirby and Kiree.

"Hey, Kirby! Sorry to butt into your little hubbub, but I need to know the quickest way to Forlorn Ruins!" Dedede Said as he skidded to a stop next to Kiree.

"Umm...it's…over to the north of sunken glades…" Kiree said as she pointed to Forlorn Ruins.

"Thanks!" Dedede Said as he ran toward the direction Kiree pointed to.

"See? You can totally socialize! You just need to put in the effort." kirby said as he patted Kiree on the back.

"What?! That wasn't social stuff! I was just giving directions…!" Kiree stuttered before turning around to see jaso facing her, causing her to stumble backward and fall on top of Kirby. "AAUGH!" Kiree shouted as she fell backward.

"Hey, are you alright?" Jaso asked, reaching out his hand to help Kiree.

"Umm...yeah, I'm fine…" Kiree nervously replied as she got off of Kirby. He spun around, dazed for a short while, but shook his head and smiled when he saw kiree talking to Jaso.

"uhh...anyway...I got to...umm...go back and...yeah…" Kiree said as she backed away from Jaso.

"Wait! Kiree…" jaso started, but was stopped as Kiree walked away.

"Heheh...sorry…she's not really good with social situations…" kirby said as he went after kiree.

Back with our portly penguin hero, Dedede was climbing up the stones and structures of forlorn ruins and jumping over occasional small snowballs. Some enemies such as chillies and ice slimes appeared on his journey, but thanks to the power of his trusty hammer, he smashed them effortlessly. After a while of climbing, dedede soon found a small glowing object in a small pile of snow. He walked over to it, and found a small Star with two back oval-shaped eyes.

Dedede blinked with disbelief. This was it! The secret ingredient to his fruitcake! "Woo-Hoo!" Dedede shouted as he jumped up and down with the star in hand, but was abruptly stopped by a condor flying by and stealing the star right out of his hand. Dedede looked as his hand with disbelief, then looked at the bird with the star in its talons flying away. "AAAAAAAAUUUUGGGGHHH!" Dedede shouted as he ran off in the direction the condor was flying off to.

"HEY YOU!" Dedede shouted at the bird as he ran after it. "GIMME BACK THAT THERE STAR OR ELSE IMMA CLOBBER YOU INTO NEXT CENTURY!"

As Dedede is currently running along the remains of Forlorn Ruins, we turn to our spirit friends, in which Kiree is still refusing to speak to new people.

"Look, there's Ruben! You can easily talk to him!" Kirby said, pointing at a spirit with short frills and a turquoise cloth around her shoulder.

"I guess…" Kiree Said as she walked up to her. Ruben was fiddling with a blue horn with white markings, then stopped when she saw Kiree walking to her. "Hey...Ruben..!" Kiree Said as she walked to him.

"Hey, Kiree! How have you been?" Ruben Said as he waved.

Yes...come on...don't mess this up Kiree… Kirby thought as kiree spoke to Ruben. Just then, Jaso walked by Kiree and Ruben, seemingly not noticing them. Kirby shivered as he walked by them, but stopped when he paid no attention to them. So as kiree and Ruben spoke to one another about various things, Kirby smiled as he realized his work was done. But when he turned around, he was face-to-face with Jaso as he jumped in suprise with Kirby when they saw each other. "AUGH!" Kirby shouted as he jumped in the air.

"Kirby! What are you doing here?" Jaso asked as he regained his composure.

"I was...uhh...trying to get Kiree to talk to other people, since she had problems with social situations...so...I don't know, maybe I could try to get her to meet someone new, but I just decided to start simple and get her to talk to someone she knew." Kirby replied as he scratched the back of his head. "Besides, I could use a break from all this too. That's why I came to Nibel!"

"Well, if you really need a break, I guess we could sit down and talk a little." Jaso Said as he sat down on a stone. "So...I heard from Ori you have this little something called 'copy ability,' What is that?"

"Well to start off simple, whenever I…"

As Kirby and Jaso talked to one another, Dedede was in hot pursuit with the condor that had taken his precious star.

"*pant* *pant* YOU…huff...BETTER…*wheeze* Drop that…" Dedede panted as he ran after the bird. Eventually the condor landed on its nest in a tree. It dropped the star in the nest and flew off. Dedede stopped at the tree to catch his breath and to retrieve the star. "How can that bird…*huff* fly that fast…?" The king panted as he climbed the tree. When he reached the top, he found the star shining in the center of the nest, along with various other shiny objects, one being a mask with three yellow horns and two grey ones.

"I've been looking for that…" Dedede Said as he took the mask and the star. Dedede jumped down and whooped as he landed on the ground, for he had finally obtained the star, for real this time!

"YAAAHHH-HOOOO!" Dedede shouted as he jumped up and down, unaware that his shouting was caused a bit of snow to crumble from the top of the mountain, which began to build up into more snow falling, which caused Dedede to look back at the sound of snow rumbling. He saw snow falling toward him from the mountaintop, building up in size by the second. When Dedede recovered from his shock, he realized what this giant buildup of snow was.

An avalanche.

"Why does this kind of stuff always happen to me?!" Dedede shouted as he sprinted down toward the mountain bottom, tripping over a log as he began to slide down the mountain on it. The snow created more stones and boulders as Dedede slid down the mountain, the avalanche hot on his tail. He occasionally had to jump off the log in order to avoid obstacles that came his way. The faster the snow came, the more Dedede panicked and flailed. This experience felt oddly familiar to him, as he recalled Kirby telling him about how they had to escape Forlorn ruins when they restored the element of winds. Eventually, dedede reached the bottom of the mountain, where he jumped off the log he was sliding on, barely missing the snow by mere inches when he reached the bottom of the mountain, where the ground leveled out and stopped the snow. Dedede panted as he held the star and the mask close to him as the avalanche died out.

Now that was crazy…Dedede thought as he walked back to castle Dedede.

Meanwhile…

"And that's how I got my heart of Pokemon." Jaso explained to Kirby.

"Wow...and I thought my adventures were crazy." Kirby breathed as he listened to jaso's story.

"So, Kirby, I haven't seen Dedede in a while...where is he?"

"I think he went to Forlorn Ruins to get something...I don't know what though…" Kirby replied with a puzzled look on his face.

"aaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhh….!" A voice shouted as it flew above both Kirby and Jaso.

Both of them had a shocked expression on their faces. "What...was...that…?" Jaso stuttered, as he pointed at Dedede flying through the air.

"I think that's Dedede! He's flying straight toward his castle!" Kirby replied as he got up and ran off toward dedede's flight path.

"Hey, Wait up!" Jaso yelled as he took off after Kirby, his scarf flying by in the wind as he ran. As Kirby and Jaso ran along the ground, Kiree and Ruben took notice to them and ran off as well.

"aaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Dedede shouted as he crashed through the window to the kitchen to castle Dedede. He lifted himself up and shook his head, then remembered exactly what he had to do. He grabbed the star, and grounded it up into powder with his hammer. He took the powder, sprinkled it onto the fruitcake, in which the cake shone brightly with a pillar of light rising from the cake, all the way past the roof to castle Dedede. The light died down, revealing a golden-colored fruitcake with glimmering toppings.

"The legends are true…" Dedede stammered before picking it up, the cake pan warm to the touch, even with his mitts. "...now it's finally time. FAME AND FORTUNE, HERE I COME!" Dedede shouted as he ran out of the castle with the cake in hand.

Kirby, Jaso, Kiree, and Ruben ran over to castle Dedede, P.K, Bandana waddle Dee, Aurion, and Ori following as well.

"Ori, where have you been?" Aurion asked when ori arrived.

"I was with Naru, Gumo, and Ku." Ori replied calmly.

"Seems reasonable." Kirby replied.

Dedede burst through the entrance of castle dedede with a large fruitcake in his hand, the pastry glowing slightly in his hand.

"Greetings, spirits of Nibel!" King dedede announced proudly. "It is with great honor that I present you with a treat that will make your taste buds explode with joy upon the consuming of this fruitcake!"

"How did you make the fruitcake so delicious?" Ori asked.

"Well, my little spirit friend, that is a royal secret! And it has absolutely nothing to do with me flying across the sky and the avalanche on Forlo-" dedede started, but was interrupted by the weight on his hand lifted. Dedede opened his eyes and looked at his hand in the air, no fruitcake on top of it. The penguin king stared at his hand blankly.

The fruitcake was gone.

When he looked up at the sky, he saw the same bird that had stolen the star from him back at Forlorn ruins, flying off in the direction toward mount horu.

"I...the...cake…" Dedede stuttered with his mouth wide open and eyes blank.

"Dedede…? Are you all right?" Aurion asked, tugging on Dedede's robe.

"Look!" Ruben shouted. "That bird's taking the cake away! We gotta go after it!"

Dedede's eyes turned from mere blanks to rage-filled ones, his fists clenching and shaking from rage.

"Why that no good...rotten...grrr…GET BACK HERE YA PUTRID POULTRY!" Dedede shouted as he pulled out his hammer and ran after the bird.

"Dedede's seriously going that far just for cake?" Kiree Said with her hand on the back of her head.

"Well, I guess I can relate to Dedede, so I'm gonna help him out! To mount horu!" Kirby declared as he ran off after Dedede.

"Kirby, wait up! I wanna come too!" Ori said as he ran off after them.

"Hey! Kirby! Come back! I know you want cake, but to mount horu?! What if something happens to you?!" Kiree shouted.

"We'll be fine! Last one to the cake is a rotten egg!" Kirby shouted as he kept running.

"Hey! Wait!" Kiree yelled as she ran off to join Kirby and ori.

"Kiree, Wait up!" Ruben Said as he ran off as well, his cloth flipping in the wind.

"Well, I've know Kirby for a little while now, and I'm always up for adventure, so I'm gonna come too! Wait up guys!" Aurion said as he put eunix in his back sword sheath and ran off with everyone.

P.k. Simply shrugged, pulled out his wingsuit skin, and flew off with everyone after the bird. "Here I come!" P.k shouted as he flew through the air.

And so Dedede, Kirby, ori, and all of their spirit friends ran after the bird with the fruitcake in its talons, all for the pursuit of delicious cake. But that is a story for another time. In the meantime...well...Merry Christmas, and happy holidays.

—

CREDITS!

Kirby and King Dedede belong HAL Laboratory

Ori belongs to Moon Studios

Aurion belongs to MythSk1(Deviantart)

Kiree belongs to Galaxyykitten(Deviantart)

P.K. Belongs to PKNerd-catfox(deviantart)

Jaso belongs to mrmadmanx2(Deviantart)

Ruben belongs to AppleStream (deviantart)