Everypony in Discord's living room had been stunned silent by Twilight's display. Aside from Shining and Princess Cadance, they had all seen her attack the Halberd's wing, but despite being a similar attack, it just couldn't compare to what they'd just seen. Nothing Twilight had done before, not even when she dealt with the ursa minor attack, compared to this feat. Her friends all needed a moment to process, Fluttershy particularly.

She knew that Twilight was powerful. She'd known from the beginning, when the six of them had rescued Princess Luna from herself. Twilight was strong, a capable leader, and was the most accomplished mage Fluttershy had ever heard of. Of course, as a pegasus from Cloudsdale, she hadn't heard of many mages to begin with, but she digressed. But to wield magic on such a scale, in combat especially…it reminded Fluttershy of what all six of them could do together with the Elements.

And a quiet part of her, a part that she had hoped had been at least partially compartmentalized away over the past year, whispered that she wouldn't need them anymore when she got back.

The silence didn't last, thankfully. It, along with Fluttershy's slowly spiraling thoughts, was broken fairly quickly by a quiet chuckle from, surprisingly, Discord of all beings. "Ah, Harmony," he muttered, so quiet that Fluttershy, being the closest and used to speaking quietly herself, thought that she was likely the only one to hear it. "You really know how to pick 'em, huh."

Mentally, Fluttershy filed that away. That was yet another instance of Discord mentioning somepony named Harmony. She'd need to ask him about that later.

"What was that, Discord?" Rarity asked, seemingly startled into breaking her own silence.

Discord chuckled again, louder this time. "Just an old draconequus reminiscing about ancient times. Nothing for you to worry about." He gestured towards the screen, where it looked like Twilight had regained enough of her energy to feel confident moving towards Dark Castle. The group prepared themselves for takeoff, recreating the same arrangement that they had going into Cloudy Park in the first place. "It looks like the action is getting started again."

Popstar's sun fully set, and Fluttershy let her previous worries fall to the wayside as she silently prayed that Twilight could save Spike.

The Darkness was annoyed.

This should have been cause for concern, given that the Darkness was ordinarily incapable of feeling any emotions at all. Unfortunately for it, that same annoyance was preventing it from realizing this. Or from realizing why it could feel annoyance in the first place.

The interlopers, including the Voidspawn and the traitor, had defeated its infested cloud golem. Decisively. The only Darkness left on Popstar was itself, traitorous, part of the Voidspawn, or otherwise inaccessible. It could feel the Nebula around somewhere, and it was useful to know where it had disappeared to, but knowing that it was around wasn't very helpful at the moment.

To make matters worse, the dragon's psyche was still fighting back! He couldn't do anything, but it was still a constant strain on the Darkness's resources to keep him down. Just another source of minor annoyance.

Involuntarily, a growl escaped from the two and a half meter tall dragon's mouth as the doors to the throne room slammed open. Some of the annoyance slipped away at the sight, at least. There was a proper throne to sit upon!

All the Darkness had left to fall back on now was itself. But that should still be fine. It had destroyed all of the Rainbow Bridges, muting at least some of the planet's emotion. It had grown more powerful than it ever had been before, and its understanding of draconic biology had reached new heights, allowing for greater manipulation of its host's form.

After all, its probe into his DNA had finally gotten back to it with the set of genes that controlled greed growth.

It performed another cursory skim of its host's memories, searching for ways to dissuade the extremely powerful purple one specifically, before landing upon one memory in particular. That of an illusory door, showing the viewer their greatest fear. A bit too dependent on emotion for the Darkness's taste, but it still gave it an idea.

The Darkness slammed its host's claws into the castle's stone floor, the dragon's sharpened appendages easily piercing directly through. It chipped a couple scales, but that was trivial for the Darkness to heal later. For now, it sent a pulse of itself directly into the building, having grown powerful enough to spread its influence throughout the entire structure.

It should be enough to stop the interlopers, or at the very least weaken them. And with the most powerful entities on the planet dealt with, nothing would be able to stop the encroaching Darkness.

Soon, this planet would belong to it.

As the group approached Dark Castle, Twilight noticed a few things about it that at first seemed relatively unimportant, but that she couldn't stop her mind from cataloguing anyway. Firstly, the island it was on had seemingly torn itself from the ocean and floated up into the air, and recently at that, if the swirling waters below was anything to go by. Secondly, the bricks were an incredibly dark, almost black violet, giving the entire island an eerie edge to it. Finally, and most upsettingly, the shadows themselves seemed to undulate, but Twilight suspected that that might be the exhaustion finally catching up to her.

When the group landed on the island, the Sun had finally fully set, casting their side of Popstar into twilight. That just made the castle gates even more imposing, but Twilight and her companions soldiered on nonetheless. Her horn glowing brightly with her magic, Twilight telekinetically grasped the castle's ornate main doors and wrenched them open with so much force it nearly ripped them off of their hinges.

There was no time to waste with Spike in danger, after all.

Immediately, however, the group froze. A sudden chill crept down everyone's spines, but they only hesitated for a moment before the Element of Magic pulsed. With her eyes narrowed in determination, Twilight stepped forward. The rest of the party followed.

The castle's interior was just as spooky as the outside. Despite being more than large enough to fit them all, the hallway they were in felt cramped. The torches adorning the walls were lit with violet flames, giving just enough light for the invading force to cast waving shadows. Unfortunately, it was still difficult to see in front of them because of it.

Bandee audibly gulped, his spear already in a ready position. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Coo, still carrying Kine around, looked ahead. His own eyes were adapted to low light levels, so he could see further than the rest of them. "Now, where would the bugger hide?" he asked in a whisper. The low volume likely wasn't necessary, but it at least made Twilight feel a bit less uneasy.

"Heh, I know I'd be hangin' out in the throne room," Dedede commented. His voice was also lower than normal, but with his usual boisterousness that wasn't saying much.

Nago scoffed. "Ah dinnae think yer thought process is gonna help us much now."

As the group reached an intersection, Twilight looked around, confused. There were four hallways converging at this one point, but all of them looked identical. She knew that castles weren't supposed to be built like this.

"Well, this is just bloody brilliant," Rick commented. "Which way do we go?"

Gooey, who alongside Kirby had decided to keep the magic copy ability that Twilight had given them, perked up at that, moving himself forward a bit before stopping in the middle of the intersection. Slowly, he turned himself until he was facing the left corridor, and he set off without any fanfare.

The rest of the group looked at each other oddly, but since no one had any better ideas, they followed him.

So, they were relying on the traitor to guide them?

Unfortunate, but the Darkness had far more than mere mazes prepared to deal with the interlopers. No, the forces daring to intrude upon its domain would fall regardless.

Saying that Pitch was ecstatic would be a bit incorrect. He found this entire situation to be, quite frankly, terrifying, but he was excited to be included. His mother had always kept a close eye on him, never letting him venture too far from the nest unsupervised. He didn't begrudge her for that, of course, but this quest to help save the world was still exhilarating.

It did eat at him a bit, though. Pitch's mother worked so hard to ensure his safety, and yet here he was on a mission to help save her and everyone else on Popstar. Even though he was one of the few beings that could help at the moment, it felt like a bit of a betrayal of her trust in him.

Those lingering thoughts meant that she was on his mind, though, and he shot to attention when he heard her voice somewhere behind them. It was quiet, but there was no mistaking his ma's worried tone in the shout of "Pitch!"

Startled, Pitch looked around at his companions. None of them moved like they had heard it, but Pitch always thought that his hearing was pretty good. And it was so dark that he doubted the others would even notice if he left his perch on Nago's head. It wouldn't hurt if he quickly flew around the corner they'd just passed to check, right?

He took off without looking back to check if anyone had noticed. Flapping around the corner, he saw nothing, but heard another, further call.

"Pitch, where are you?"

A small, quiet part of Pitch was questioning how his mother had gotten to Dark Castle in the first place, but most of him was focused on finding where the voice was coming from. He flew and flew, following his mother's voice. After a few minutes, and taking another turn, he suddenly realized that he'd lost track of where the group was.

"Pitch? Pitch, where did you go?"

Never mind that, his mother was close!

Turning down one final corridor, Pitch finally relaxed, seeing his mother's pink feathers. "Mama!"

"Oh, Pitch, I was so worried about you!" his mother said, beginning to fuss over him.

Maybe it would be alright if he stayed here and let the others go on ahead with the quest. It would be so much easier for him to simply give up and go home.

When he felt Pitch's weight leave his head, Nago jolted and spun around, catching sight of the songbird just before he turned around a corner. "Dammit, Pitch's gone."

Everyone else stopped and turned as well, horrified expressions growing on their faces. "Oh no!" Chuchu cried.

Nago narrowed his eyes. "Ah dinnae know what 'e was thinkin', but the laddie ain't gonna make it far on 'is own. Ah'll go after 'im."

"Don't go alone," Twilight cut in. "That'd just make it easier for the darkness to pick us off."

"I can join ya, mate," Rick said.

Before the two of them could set off, though, Twilight cut them off again. "Wait, Rick, you and Nago can smell the best out of us here. If one of us gets lost again we'll need one of you with the main group to help track them down."

"Well can any of us see any good right now?" Kine asked. "I'm blind as a bat in here, but maybe one o' us can help Nago see ahead."

"Me own night vision is fine," Nago said. "But if Ah had a helper with it that'd be nice."

"I can go," Chuchu offered. "The darkness doesn't impair my own vision that much."

Nago nodded at her, and after quickly making sure none of the rest of the group objected, they set off. For ease of travel, Chuchu climbed onto Nago's back, which didn't feel quite as strange as he expected. Her tentacles still felt odd gripping his fur, but it wasn't wet or slimy at all, which part of him had been expecting. With that idle thought complete, Nago set to his task of tracking Pitch.

Said bird, unfortunately, was fast in the air, but the corridors were narrow enough to allow his scent to stick to the floor and walls. It took a solid five minutes of walking and Nago did nearly lose the trail once where Pitch had doubled back on himself, but they eventually turned around one final corner and caught sight of him.

Chuchu gasped in shock at the sight, and while Nago didn't vocalize anything, he agreed with the sentiment. Pitch was perched on an unlit torch, but he looked out of it. His eyes were unfocused and he only seemed to flap to correct himself if he started to tilt. But most concerning was what was happening around him. There was a tendril of darkness protruding from the wall and wrapped around his left talon. Along with that, he was incomprehensibly muttering to himself, though Nago could hear the word "Mama" said on occasion.

The two of them barely hesitated for a moment, though. Chuchu immediately leapt off of Nago's back to cling to the wall while Nago himself reached up to swipe at the tendril. His claws sharpened just before they struck, catching on the tendril and dragging it downward. It almost dragged Pitch with it, but Chuchu had clambered up the wall to Pitch's level. She stuck four of her tentacles to it and reached out with the other four, snaring Pitch and pulling against the darkness.

There was a quick tug-of-war match between her and the tendril before Nago lashed out with his other forepaw and stabbed the tendril directly. That still wasn't enough to fully release Pitch, however, so Nago braced himself for what would likely be a horrible experience, opened his mouth, and sank his fangs into the weakened point on the tendril of darkness.

Immediately, Nago felt himself involuntarily calm down. His heart rate slowed, and he could feel his claws begin to retract. Part of him wondered why he was even here, why he was trying to fight back against the darkness. It would be so much simpler if he just gave in, to stop fighting back…

Eyes widening, Nago frantically shook his head to try and clear those thoughts away. Thankfully, he still had his teeth sunk into the tendril of darkness, and that, finally, proved to be too much for it. It silently split in two, its remnants retreating into the wall. With the tendril no longer wrapped around Pitch, it was a trivial matter for Chuchu to pull him free as Nago spat onto the ground and frantically ran his paws over his tongue. He didn't know what that was made of and it was tasteless, but the metaphorical taste it left in his mouth was vile. That lack of feeling, even almost forgetting about Shiro…he never wanted to experience anything like it again.

After he was done, Nago looked back up to where Chuchu was carrying Pitch back down the wall. "He's unconscious, but breathing just fine," she said.

Nago nodded at her to show that he'd gotten that before he turned around to watch the hallway. He didn't know what else might be stalking the halls of this castle, but he wasn't keen to find out without some warning. "Keep watch until the laddie wakes up," he said. "Once he does, Ah'll track us back to the others."

Chuchu nodded, but as soon as she turned to look down the hallway she froze. "Uh, Nago…"

Nago turned around to look at her. "Now what is i-"

He froze as well, looking at the hallway that seemed to be deconstructing itself. Stone blocks flew out of the wall, tendrils of darkness tethering them to something in the ceiling. As Nago watched, the tethers seemed to tighten, pulling whatever it was out of the ceiling and towards them.

Immediately, he grabbed Pitch and placed him on his back while he and Chuchu backed up. Two stone feet sprouted out of the ceiling before the block they were attached to completely detached from it, sending the frowning cube with pure black eyes to the floor.

Before them, Nago realized, was a Blocky. One possessed by the darkness and aided by it, given the tendrils sprouting from it holding floating stones that used to be part of the wall.

A Blocky that they would likely have to fight to prevent it from delaying the main group.

Nago sighed. "Cannae we get a break?"

Bandana Waddle Dee was uneasy. Though perhaps that was putting it lightly; saying that he was uneasy was like saying that King Dedede was just a little vain (Bandee may be loyal to his king, but he'll call it like he sees it). Plus, now that the group was down three members, it made his unease even worse, and the suffocating darkness of the hallways and deafening quiet the group was traveling in had left him desperately gripping his spear.

He was constantly scanning his surroundings, and even the regular clop of Twilight's hooves were enough to make him jump. The paltry light the violet torches gave off was barely enough to see two meters in front of him, though, so his anxious scanning could barely amount to anything.

Bandee wasn't quite sure if it was paranoia or pragmatism that led him to scratch the wall with his spear, but at some point around half an hour or so after they had entered the castle, he did so. The wall underneath and a bit to the left of one of the torches now had a long, thin scratch on it. The act had scored him a few odd looks, but he shrugged it off with a "Just making sure."

Five minutes later, despite walking in a straight line and going up a staircase, Bandee's scanning caught sight of the wall again. And right there, underneath and just left of a torch, was a scratch in the stonework. He stopped short, and the rest of the group came to a sudden stop with him. "Guys," he said, concerned, "we're walking in circles."

Everyone groaned at that, but Gooey in particular seemed disheartened. Clearly, he'd been confident leading the group, but whatever it was that he was using to tell the way had been tricked.

Honestly, Bandee was still a bit torn on what was going on with Gooey. He was exceedingly similar to Kirby, even having the same copy ability, and seemed just as benevolent. But he'd shown up under rather suspicious circumstances, so while Bandee hated to think the worst of anyone, he was still keeping a close eye on him.

Twilight squinted at the scratch on the wall. "If this was just regular illusion magic I could probably dispel it, but I think it might be messing with our minds directly."

"How would that send us in circles, though?" Coo asked.

"Well, wit' da Rainbow Bridges disposed of, the darkness coulda gotten powerful 'nough ta mess wit' da castle too," Kine chipped in.

King Dedede stepped forward, and Bandee moved to the side to let him get closer to the wall. "Well, if that darkness fella is gonna make us go in circles, it best be prepared for us to bust out!"

He grabbed his hammer out of thin air, wound up, and with a massive bang slammed it against the wall. It kicked up a large amount of dust and did manage to crack the stonework, but it didn't do any meaningful damage. He wound up again for another swing, and after glancing at the rest of the group to make sure everyone stayed clear, he slammed the hammer back down.

This time it shifted the stones making up the wall, and Twilight's horn flared. Bandee wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, but he suspected it was something to make sure the ceiling didn't collapse on them. She did have some experience with that sort of thing, after all. Well, Bandee mentally noted, Sunset had experience holding up collapsing ceilings; Twilight had experience knocking them down.

King Dedede huffed a bit before bringing his hammer back for a third time. "Alright, this time I've got it!" The hammer shifted, its interior metal surface becoming the exterior, and its blue flame jutted out. The king began to spin and, with everyone very quickly backing out of the way, he sprang towards the wall, the head of his hammer slamming into it with enough force to bust straight though, filling the hallway with dust.

A flare of violet light, a gust of wind, and the hallway was once again clear, revealing what King Dedede had broken into. Or perhaps out of would be the more accurate term, because the king's hammer had busted a hole through the wall, beyond which the night sky was clearly visible. Popstar's rings glistened in the moonlight, and Bandee shivered slightly as the chill air washed over him, but he still steeled his resolve.

There was a slight grunt of exertion from Twilight as the stone blocks surrounding the hole were wrapped in her magic and she pushed, widening the opening and sending the stone plummeting to the sea below. Bandana could've sworn he heard a splash, even though the whistling of the wind and churning of the ocean should've prevented it. Trotting up to the hole, Twilight craned her neck to look up with a frown.

"Gooey," she asked, "I take it you can…sense, I suppose, where the darkness holding Spike is?"

Gooey made a motion that Bandee guessed was an approximation of a nod. Or at least, as close of an approximation as one could make with no limbs. He then jumped a couple of times, staring up towards the ceiling.

"The bugger's above us, then?" Coo asked.

Gooey nodded again, emphatically this time.

Twilight took a deep breath. "Fastest way up is to fly. Bandee can stay on my back and I can levitate Rick as long as Coo can keep his grip on Kine."

"You'll have no problems from me, lass!" Coo said.

Twilight nodded and crouched down a bit, letting Bandana secure himself on her back as Rick was wrapped in violet light. It was a bit of an odd position, since he had to make sure his feet weren't in the way of her wings, but it wasn't the first time this adventure he'd found himself on her back, so he adjusted quickly. As soon as he was secure, the group leapt from the now wide-open hallway and took to the air, making for the top of the castle's tallest tower.

From their position, they were able to see it clearly. It had a flat top with battlements like a parapet's all around its edge, and its cylindrical shape made it look almost like a rook. It didn't necessarily seem practical in Bandee's eyes, since it was in the center of the castle and if an enemy was within range to shoot at from there, the castle was already lost. But perhaps it was just for the aesthetic; Bandee wasn't the one to have built Dark Castle, after all, so the original architects may have just had a different vision. It being on an island already made it rather fortified to begin with, so he supposed that it could likely afford some aesthetic design.

Regardless of the castle's fortifiability, they were advancing at a good enough clip that Bandee thought they'd make it there in a minute, tops.

Of course, they only got halfway there before they were stopped.

And it wasn't by anything sensible, no. There was no gust of wind that blew them away, or a sudden storm that forced them to land. Instead, the castle itself seemed to shift, the nearest shaded wall (as Lunaris and Popstar's two other moons were full enough to cast shadows, at the moment) exploding outwards. Bandee quickly had to grip Twilight's mane as she dove, avoiding a large stone block that the explosion launched at them. She barely wrenched Rick out of the way as well, and had to reach out and telekinetically pull King Dedede away from getting hit too.

"Da heck was that?" Kine shouted from rather far below them, where Coo had dove too.

The shadows warped around where the explosion had occurred (an explosion that Bandee mentally noted had no light or heat to it) and a tendril of pure darkness, undulating like a tentacle of some sort, shot out. Coo squawked as it wrapped around Kine, who let out a muffled cry that Bandee was fairly certain was a curse of some sort. Coo strained and beat his wings harder to try and pull Kine away, but that only caused the tendril to pull back even harder.

Twilight, who had also caught on to what was going on, reacted quickly. She fired up her magic and shot out a beam of violet light, hitting the tendril just shy of Kine. Just like the rest of the darkness, it proved vulnerable to her magic, and it recoiled as if it was burned. Coo sighed in relief and Kine let out a relieved laugh of his own. "Ha! Take that youse darkness bastards!"

Instead of retreating entirely like they had hoped, though, the tendril instead dove straight down, impacting the churning waves with a visible splash. Moments later, a small army of Blippers and Squishies rose from the ocean, and for a moment Bandee was confused. How was a bunch of sea creatures—albeit a large number of them—supposed to stop them when they were dozens of meters in the air?

And then they started congregating together.

Arising from the waves was a giant facsimile of a Squishy, at least twenty meters from head to arm, composed entirely of hundreds of smaller creatures. The Blippers and Squishies were pulling on each other to keep each other up, though Bandee wasn't quite sure how they were staying out of the water in the first place. Regardless, it was a terrifying image, made worse by the few expressions on the creatures that he could see. They looked completely out of it, blank expressions showing that they likely had no agency in their actions either, having been completely controlled by the darkness.

Twilight attempted to free a few of them with her magic, shooting out a violet laser. It did impact the giant Squishy, and even freed some of the creatures. The light seemed to return to their eyes, and they threw themselves back into the sea and swam away, but it was far too little in the long run. They were quickly replaced by other Blippers and Squishies, and they probably wouldn't be able to chip away at it fast enough to do much, even if Gooey and Kirby chipped in with their copied magic.

Then it attacked.

The Squishies make up its joints pulled, wrenching up a ginormous arm and swinging at the group.

They scattered as much as possible in the air, given Kirby's more limited aerial mobility and the fact that King Dedede was still in Twilight's telekinetic grip. The arm itself turned out to be aimed for Kine and Coo, who dodged with a cry of "Blimey!"

A second swing almost clipped him, only averted by a timely purple laser knocking the tip of it off-course, and Kine looked up at the owl carrying him. "Youse've gotta drop me!"

Coo looked at him incredulously, his shocked expression conveying everything he wanted to say without saying it.

"I'm a fish!" Kine reminded him. "I'm better in the water!"

Realization dawned on Coo's face, though before he dropped Kine, he turned to address the rest of the group as Twilight pulled King Dedede away from another strike. "Princess, you take the others and head up there! We'll hold this bugger back!"

Kirby frowned at the idea of leaving even more friends behind, but before he could make a sound of protest, Twilight nodded at Coo and turned to start moving towards the tower.

"Wait a sec!" Rick suddenly called out. "Throw me at 'em too!"

Twilight whipped her head around so fast Bandee had to grab her mane to avoid falling off. "Are you crazy?"

Rick barked out a laugh. "Maybe, but that's not why!" He pointed down at the giant Squishy, where a giant jellyfish that Bandee recognized as a Master Green was visible, and its movements mirrored the giant Squishy's! "I can see a big 'un in the belly o' the beast! I betcha there's where the darkness is controlling all of 'em, and I'm better at gettin' close than Kine and Coo!" With a shrug, he added, "Plus, I can swim, too."

"Whatever it is, we've got to move fast!" Bandee reminded, pointing with his spear towards the exploded wall, near which the shadows were beginning to move again.

The group acted quickly, with Coo throwing Kine towards the water and Twilight throwing Rick towards the giant Squishy as it raised up an arm to swipe at Coo again. At the same time, more tendrils of darkness shot out from the castle, which were pushed back by three blasts of magic: one from Twilight, one from Kirby, and one from Gooey. Curiously, Gooey's magic seemed to impact the tendrils a bit differently from Kirby's or Twilights; for those two, the tendrils of darkness recoiled, while Gooey's magic almost seemed to destructively interfere with the darkness, warping it as it impacted until it simply disappeared.

"Good luck up there, chaps!" Coo called as he sent a retaliatory series of air cutters towards the giant Squishy.

"Good luck to you too!" King Dedede called back before they took off, Twilight still pulling the king along as he was the slowest of them in the air. Thankfully, once they were back over the building and away from the ocean, the Squishy couldn't get to them and the attacks from the building itself faded.

Less than a minute later, they had landed, Bandee slipping off of Twilight's back as they moved over the flat stone roof, looking around. Just like Bandee had thought from a distance, its wall was a parapet, with battlements built into the low wall surrounding the cylindrical tower. Curiously, he ventured over to the edge, peering over the parapet. While most angles would likely be a bit useless, this being the tallest tower did give it a clear shot towards where the Rainbow Bridge would have been, so Bandee supposed that perhaps it did have some sort of defensive purpose and wasn't purely aesthetic.

Looking back over the roof, he noted that near the back of the tower there was a trapdoor, probably for proper roof access. Unfortunately, it was the only way in, and there seemed to be darkness leaking from it like some sort of eldritch spider's tripwire webbing. Just looking at it was enough to give Bandee the creeps, and it seemed that the rest of the group agreed.

Sighing, Twilight looked towards Gooey. "I guess that's the way forward."

The blue blob gave a hesitant nod, and Twilight lit her horn, her tiara glowing. "Alright, I'll take point, then."

The group inched forward, wary of the darkness spilling out of the trapdoor. As they got closer, Bandee could even feel some of his insecurities creep forward, whispering to him that this was all pointless, but he shook his head to dispel those thoughts and stuck closer to Kirby, which seemed to help. Soon, they were close enough now that Twilight decided to properly open the trapdoor.

It was, predictably, trapped.

As soon as she wrenched it open, the darkness spilled out like an oncoming flood, a gooey mass of apathy reaching out and trying to snag them. Twilight and Gooey reacted with magic, successfully protecting themselves, and Bandee was close enough to Kirby that the latter's mere presence, on top of the magic copy ability, protected him. Unfortunately, though, one member of their group was too far away from the rest for easy protection, but was close enough to get attacked.

"GET IT OFF!" King Dedede shouted, hopping on one foot and frantically shaking the other, which a glob of darkness had latched onto.

Twilight reacted immediately, whipping around as soon as the darkness after her had died down. She shot out a beam of magic, hoping to nail the darkness directly. It moved, though, contorting to avoid it, before launching up and going for the king's face.

Bandee moved now, but he was too far away, too slow, to prevent the darkness from worming its way into King Dedede. Gooey shot out a magic laser of his own, but it was to no avail. It would have impacted the king's arm and likely thrown off the darkness again, but Dedede's arm wrenched itself out of the way with a sickening crack, followed by more cracking as tendrils of darkness wrapped themselves around the damaged arm, forcing the bones back into place. All the while, his eyes went black.

Twilight looked faintly ill as it happened, but Bandee and the other Dreamlanders had seen maxim tomatoes in action enough to be mostly desensitized to it at this point. Regardless, it was a very bad sign if the darkness had gotten enough power to segment itself and assert control over King Dedede as well. As soon as his arm was back in place, the possessed king moved, clearing the distance between him and Twilight in nary an instant. His hammer was raised and sparking before anyone could really react, and it broke through the hasty shield she erected.

Thankfully, that shield bought just enough time for one of the others to react as well.

In a flash of blue, Kirby teleported directly in front of Twilight, raising his staff and erecting a bright blue shield of his own. Dedede's hammer hit it with such force that it sent a shockwave spilling out over the rooftop. Kirby and Twilight were fine behind their shield and Gooey managed to stay put under his own power, but Bandee was sent flying, and only saved himself from going over the edge by jamming his spear into a battlement.

It wedged itself under a stone, and he was left hanging by his spear arm over a stars knows how high fall. Grunting, he pulled himself back over the wall, his left arm gaining purchase and that being enough to force himself back onto the roof. He tumbled over the battlement, wrenching his spear out of it in the process and rolling onto the hard stone of the roof.

Looking back up, he could see Kirby and King Dedede engaged in close combat, with every strike of Dedede's hammer countered by a shield or Kirby physically blocking with his staff. His little hat waved in the wind of each strike, and Twilight chipped in with a magic beam of her own whenever she got a clear shot. Unfortunately, the darkness possessing Dedede was quite adept at avoiding magic, casually snapping the king's bones or tearing at his flesh to avoid it, before healing it as if nothing had ever happened.

Bandee tore his eyes away from his possessed sovereign to look back at the trapdoor. It was still coated with darkness, and he knew that he'd have no hope of getting through. But…

He looked back at Twilight and Gooey, and to where Kirby was holding his own against King Dedede. "Princess!" Bandee shouted. "Take Gooey and save Spike! Kirby and I will hold off King Dedede!"

Kirby, at that point having just deflected a hammer swing with his staff, punched Dedede in the arm with enough force to snap it and send him tumbling back. He turned back to Bandee for a moment with a resolute expression and gave a determined nod before he returned to battling the king.

Twilight mirrored him. Her expression steeled and she gave a just as resolute nod before she and Gooey beelined for the trapdoor, her horn and crown glowing and sending the darkness recoiling away.

King Dedede, having recovered enough to reengage the fight, ignored Kirby and launched straight at Bandee, beginning the battle in earnest.

Twilight galloped through the halls, just barely behind Gooey, who was leading the way towards the darkness possessing her brother. There were twists and turns in the maze of halls, but thankfully the mysterious blue blob's instincts pulled through. He led them to a pair of ornate doors, before which Twilight took a moment to inhale deeply. This was it. She would go in there, kick the darkness's butt, and save her brother.

There were no other options.

Her horn flared, and she let out a snarl that would seem more like a timber wolf's than an alicorn's. The doors were both entirely wrapped in her violet magic before she pushed, ripping both giant doors off of their hinges and embedding them in the walls on either side of them.

They were pull doors.

And there, sitting on the throne, was Spike.

Or, perhaps, the thing possessing him.

He looked far taller, even moreso than that red dragon (Her mind was too clouded to really remember his name. Was it Gargle? No, no, it was Garble, right) he encountered back when he followed the Migration. He was lanky, too, all spindly limbs and a skinny torso. His spines seemed sharper than usual, along with his teeth, and his claws almost glinted in the moonlight streaming through the throne room's large window.

"So, the interlopers have arri-"

Twilight didn't care what the thing possessing her brother was saying. With blazing fury in her eyes, she cut the darkness off by flapping her wings and launching herself at it, smashing it through the throne it was sitting on and pinning it to the wall. Her magic was so intense around her horn that it was sparking off of it, and the Element of Magic glowed enough to be visible even through that maelstrom. And throughout it, only one thing was on her mind:

"Get the hay out of my brother, you Celestia-damned parasite."

The wind whipped through Sunset's mane as she and Meta Knight flew through the air, supported only by their own power. It was honestly freeing to autolevitate for so long; Sunset never would have been able to do this before her mana pool expanded. She was still being careful with it, of course—no loop-de-loops or aileron rolls—but she wasn't ashamed to admit that she still let out an excited whoop once they got up to speed.

They were passing over an island now, covered almost entirely in trees. There were two large islands on the horizon with peaks extending far above the water, and Meta had told her that Dark Castle, their ultimate goal, was behind them. "How much longer are we in the air for?"

Meta Knight hummed as he flapped again. "At this speed? Ten minutes."

Sunset grinned. She still had a lot of gas in the tank, so she sped up and set up a timer spell to go with it. "Let's try for seven, then!"

Chuchu let out a surprised eep as a block nearly slammed down on her, only being saved by Nago quickly snagging one of her tentacles and pulling her out of the way. "That one was too damn close!" he exclaimed as they ran.

"You're telling me?"

There was another screeching sound as the Blocky shot out more dark tendrils and wrenched more stone from the walls, and Chuchu winced. "This thing's gonna block our path sooner or later!"

Nago swore under his breath, likely just in case Pitch woke up and could've heard. "We'll have to fight it."

Chuchu glanced back to see the Blocky still charging them like it had been for the past minute. "Any ideas?"

She made a soft oof sound as Nago unexpectedly passed Pitch on to her before he sharpened his claws and leapt for the wall. They speared in, and he used the momentum to swing around and launch himself through the wall chunks orbiting the Blocky. He bounced from block to block, eventually getting within range to swipe at its feet, tripping it up for a moment.

Nago then quickly retreated, weaving through the now-still wall chunks and gesturing for Chuchu to start running already.

Eyes widening, she turned around and frantically pulled herself along the ground, passing Pitch back off to Nago as he passed for easier movement. Unfortunately, that failed to really do anything, as a wave of dark tendrils rushed past them and slammed into the wall and ceiling ahead of them. They quickly screeched to a stop, both even backpedaling to slow down faster, as the tendrils of darkness pulled and collapsed the ceiling to block off the hallway.

Chuchu looked at Nago humorlessly. "Told ya."

They turned around to look at their foe, Nago squinting even harder as he protectively curled to obscure the Blocky's vision of Pitch. "Right, plan o' attack?" he asked.

Chuchu narrowed her eyes at it. "If we get it next to a wall it ripped a piece out of, I might be able to suplex it through."

"Better hope it's an exterior wall, then," Nago gruffly said. "Hold onto the laddie fer a bit, will ya?"

Nago went back to weaving through the stone blocks, deftly pushing the Blocky further and further back as he advanced. He had to dodge out of the way of a couple of blocks that Chuchu called out for him, but eventually he got it next to a part of the wall that it had ripped up earlier.

Quickly, Nago scuffed a paw against the damaged floor, kicking up some dust into the Blocky's eyes. He sprinted back while it was distracted, gesturing for Chuchu to give him Pitch. She did, but she was just too slow on land, especially with how tired she was after the day she'd had. "Merde," she swore. The Blocky was going to recover before she could get to it, but that was still the closest she was willing to get to it while it was throwing around so many heavy objects, especially given that she was the one to hold Pitch while Nago attacked.

And then, salvation came in the form of a little green bird, recently awoken and only slightly disoriented.

Pitch shot forward with a wordless cry, his talons scraping against the Blocky's already sand-covered eyes to send even more dust into them, sending it stepping backwards once again. And, crucially, it kept that opening open, letting Chuchu sneak up behind it and wrap her tentacles around its middle.

With a mighty heave, she slammed the thing into the weakened wall, sending dust everywhere with a massive crash as the wall crumbled. She let go when she felt herself starting to fall, and thankfully Nago caught one of her tentacles before she could continue after the Blocky, which left her grasp and plummeted towards the sea below.

Guess it was an exterior wall after all.

Nago poked his head out of the new hole in the castle as Chuchu climbed up, Pitch landing on his head with a yawn. "Alright, maybe that," he yawned again, "was a bit too much for me right after waking up, y'know?"

Chuchu gave him an incredulous look, but Nago, somewhat surprisingly, didn't even respond. He was staring out at the ocean, completely transfixed by something. Curious, Chuchu turned to properly look out at the sea now that the dust had cleared, and her jaw dropped.

What in the world was that?

Rick could've sworn that he heard a distant rumble of thunder as he hit the water, but that might've just been the water rushing past his ears. He had a giant sea monster made of smaller sea creatures to deal with. Coo was dealing with attacks from the air and Kine from the sea, so it was Rick's job to run in there and take out the jelly running the show.

Or, well, take out the jelly that the darkness was using to run the show, but he digressed.

Unfortunately, that was looking to be a bit difficult at the moment. With how the giant Squishy's arms were structured, actually running in there to reach the Master Green at the center was going to be a nightmare. But it was a nightmare he'd have to try and brave.

Quickly, he swam forward, shooting Kine a quick nod as he darted in and out of the amalgamation's arms, dodging both blunt hits and what looked like quick shocks that the Master Green was sending through.

Ah, that would be a problem.

Eventually, Rick latched onto one of the creature's arms by way of physically ripping a Blipper out of the formation and inserting himself in. It definitely hurt, especially since the surrounding Squishies and Blippers were doing their damndest to make him as uncomfortable as possible, but he still shimmied forward, trying to get to the center.

He didn't make it very far before the entire arm just ceased to be, the Squishies and Blippers making it up exiting the formation en masse and letting Rick plummet back into the water. The arm then quickly reformed above him, and he yelped and dove to avoid getting hit (and possibly shocked). It still nearly clipped him, and it was only Kine quickly swimming in and pushing him away that kept him from getting a nasty bruise.

"Climbin' up the bastard's arm ain't gonna work!" Rick disgruntledly shouted, mostly to himself as Kine was already swimming off to keep more of the creature's underwater arms occupied. After a moment of pondering, he got an idea. Quickly, he swam up to the surface to shout, "Coo, mate, come down 'ere a moment!"

Thankfully, his shout was loud enough to carry over the wind, and after Coo sent another series of aerial cutters to sever another of the creature's arms (which it would then have to dedicate finding more Blippers and Squishies to replace) he dove down. "What is it, Rick?"

"I need ya to carry me up an' chuck me at the center o' it."

Coo, at this point, was rather desensitized to having been asked to throw his comrades, and he dutifully picked Rick up in his talons. He grunted a bit as he took to the air, though. "My, Rick, you might want to lay off of the seed for a while. You're heavier than Kine!"

Rick, who was already starting to turn some of his fur into rock in preparation, just chuckled. "Dontcha worry! It's all part o' the plan!"

Coo flapped harder, focused on one of the arms above them. "Well, I hope your plan's ready!"

Coo flipped himself over to give the maximum possible power to his throw just as Rick fully curled up into a ball, sending him spinning towards the Master Green controlling it all. During his flight, he could catch a glimpse of the arm from before bearing down on Coo, who just barely managed to dodge away using further momentum from the spin.

Meanwhile, Rick finished hardening his stony shell just in time, as he slammed hard into the layer of Blippers between the Master Green and the outside. They parted before him, letting him uncurl and shoot a ball of fire right at the particularly annoying jellyfish. It brought a few of its tentacles up to block, moving the Squishies and Blippers outside erratically and coincidentally lining up an easy shot for Coo's feathers.

Rick didn't let up on the offensive after the fireballs, though. He rushed forward, stepping on a few Squishies as he did so, to ram directly into the Master Green while still covered in stone. That seemed to do the trick, as it finally dislodged the Master Green from the Blippers it had wrapped itself around and forced it out the back of the facsimile of a giant Squishy. As Rick and it fell towards the water together, the entire structure began to dissolve behind them, as Blippers and Squishies fell into the water as one, freed from the control of the darkness.

The Master Green, though, was very much still aggressive, and Rick knew that as soon as they hit the water it would have the upper hand. He could still swim rather well for a hamster, sure, but he was dealing with a jellyfish, here; he was just outmatched.

Kine, however, was not.

As soon as they were underwater, Rick swam as hard as he could away from the Master Green as Kine rushed in, ice already forming around him in an attack pattern. The jellyfish tried to shock him, but whenever it fired up any sort of shock, Kine just interposed a sheet of ice to stop the current short.

The Master Green was pummeled with ice spike after ice spike, its tentacles getting more and more tangled with each strike. Soon, Kine had twisted it around so much that it was completely stuck, and he knocked it unconscious with a single strike of his tail.

Hopefully, that would be enough to keep it down until this entirely darkness situation was solved.

Rick and Kine nodded at each other before making for the surface, where Coo greeted them. A cry of "Yoo-hoo!" from the castle drew their attention upward, and Rick blinked in surprise at what he saw.

Standing in a hole in the castle wall (a different one from the one that they made earlier) were Chuchu, Nago, and Pitch! The former jumped down to let Rick properly get up there, while Coo picked up Kine and flew up to join them.

Soon, they were all standing on solid ground again. "So," Pitch started, "how do you think the others are doing?"

At that exact moment, the top of the tallest tower of Dark Castle seemed to almost explode with power, the wind even being felt by them all the way down on the lowest floor.

"What the blazes was that?" Coo called. Quickly, though, he narrowed his eyes. "Wait a moment…something's coming towards us!"

Bandee yelped and dove to the side, just barely dodging King Dedede's hammer strike. He retaliated with a jab from his spear (he knew that his king could take it) and before Dedede could counter, Kirby teleported in. He raised a blue shield protecting Bandee from the next hammer swing, which bounced off of it, and took the time to ready a solid punch to King Dedede's gut.

Dedede saw it coming, though. Acting quickly, he swung all the way around to target Kirby's other side, and the punch connected at the same time as his hammer swing. Both were powerful, the former launching the possessed king back a few meters, and the latter snapping Kirby's staff in twain, vanishing his copy ability and thus, his hat and magic. Kirby let out a cry of surprise and a bit of pain as he fell back next to Bandee, while Dedede slid to a stop by planting his hammer's handle onto the stone roof.

Then the flap opened and the missiles started firing.

Bandee, surprised, made sure that he was behind Kirby at that point. The pink ball, who by now Bandee was very, very glad was on their side, simply opened his maw and ate the missiles, swallowing them and becoming a pink missile himself.

Stunned, Bandee just blinked at the weapon that Kirby had become. That was a new one.

The missile fired, and before Bandee could blink and definitely before Dedede could move, it had hit its target. The possessed king grunted, though he didn't indicate any further pain, but now Kirby was up close and personal. Even without a copy ability, the pink ball was still strong, and he launched another punch at the penguin.

Dedede dodged it by jumping up, though, and as Bandee tracked him he realized that he'd land right next to him. He dodged again, but this time he was ready for it, and when the hammer came down (and cracked the stone!) he had his spear ready to sink into his king's hammer arm with a mental apology.

It did go in and managed to draw blood (which, by now, was a goopy, black substance that made Bandee viscerally uncomfortably just looking at it), but Dedede quickly wrenched his arm away, snapping the spear in two. Bandee, for a moment, looked down at the now useless stick in his hands and frowned. Or, well, frowned as much as a Waddle Dee could.

The tip of his spear ejected itself from the king's arm as the darkness worked to heal him, but it was enough of a delay for Kirby to catch up again. This time, he jumped up and decked Dedede across the face, sending the king sprawling for a moment. Just for a moment, though. He did a backflip to get back up.

It was the single most athletic thing Bandee had ever seen his king do and he wasn't even at the wheel at the moment.

As soon as the king was back on his feet, though, he retaliated. He swung his hammer hard at the puffball, who just barely managed to jump out of the way. Kirby inhaled some of the debris it kicked up to spit back at him, at least, which seemed to annoy the possessed king a bit.

Bandee's eyes narrowed. Shouldn't the darkness not even be able to get annoyed? They'd been feeling apathy when the bridges were destroyed, after all. Maybe King Dedede was fighting back!

He needed something to distract the darkness with, though, and Kirby probably needed to get another few solid hits in before anything Dedede could do mentally would help. Glancing down at his right arm, though, Bandee got an idea.

Once Kirby dodged the next overcommitted swing from the possessed Dedede, Bandee took the time he was recovering to throw the remains of his spear with all his strength. He didn't quite mind losing the weapon, at least. Not as much as he would have a month ago. After his experience with his spear breaking on the Halberd, he'd started carrying extras.

Plus, his throw struck home by clocking Dedede right in the head, distracting him just long enough for Kirby to wind up another jab to his face. Or he would've, had the king's arm not wrenched itself out of place again with another series of disturbing cracks to catch the blow.

Slowly, the possessed king turned his face to look at Kirby, his eyes leaking pure darkness like bloody tears. His belly seemed to warp, flesh and clothing melding into one as a thin line grew across it, opening into a single, intimidating eye.

Bandee felt sick at the sight of it.

The being that was using King Dedede as a vessel roared, sending a blast of air out in all directions. Kirby stood his ground, but Dedede's hammer was caught up in it and slammed into him. Bandee, on the other hand, was sent flying once again, but this time he hadn't gotten his spear out prematurely and really was sent flying over the parapet with a startled scream.

He, thankfully, wasn't left out in the air for long. A couple seconds after he was sent flying, he was caught by a familiar pair of talons surrounded by purple feathers.

"Almost missed you there, mate. That'd've been a bloody shame."

Bandee was relieved, but he certainly didn't relax. "Thanks, Coo. But I need to get back up there; the darkness got to King Dedede!"

Bandee couldn't see Coo's expression, but he imagined it was steeled. "The others are on their way up, too," he said as he took off for the tower. "What exactly happened to Dedede—BLOODY HELL."

That about summed up what was going on on the roof. Kirby had definitely inhaled Dedede's hammer at some point, since he had a little wooden hammer himself, along with a headband. He was going blow for blow with the darkness-infested Dedede, who at this point was just floating with an eye staring out of his belly and shooting balls of darkness. Because why not, right? Bandee wasn't even sure how this could get much more surreal.

Oh, maybe that would do it.

"That" being the eye closing before becoming a stars-damned mouth and attempting to fly at Kirby while chomping. Bandee didn't even have words for how utterly terrifying that very concept was, let alone seeing it play out before him.

Thankfully, he didn't need words for Coo to throw him directly at the possessed king spear-first. His new spear sank into Dedede's arm again (ignore the blood ignore the blood IGNORE THE BLOOD), and the creature possessing him let out another roar. It couldn't do anything, though, since Coo immediately chipped in with some air cutters.

Pitch was the next one to show up, but he didn't engage. He seemed unwilling to fight the possessed king directly, instead circling the edge of the tower to make sure nothing got out. Bandee couldn't really blame him.

By the time Chuchu and Rick hovered their way over the edge, Bandee and Coo had successfully forced the possessed king to the ground, letting Kirby get another swing in with his hammer. The darkness had given up the whole mouth thing, thankfully, instead going back to a single, unblinking eye. Dedede's actual eyes were still leaking blackness uncontrollably, though, and the darkness was still fighting back something fierce.

But then everyone took a turn whaling on him. Bandee struck his other arm with his spear, Coo shot out some sharpened feathers, Rick came out of nowhere as soon as he was on the roof and slammed into him while curled into a ball and covered in rock, Chuchu followed him and suplexed Dedede, and finally Kirby hit him one final time with his hammer.

That, finally, proved to be too much for him, and Dedede fell properly unconscious, with the darkness fleeing from him and making a beeline for the trapdoor.

Panting, everyone sat down other than Coo and Pitch, who just landed. "Can we, uh," Bandee said between pants while fetching a maxim tomato to stuff down King Dedede's throat, "wait a sec before going to help Twilight?"

Kirby looked between the assembled animals, a bit confused.

Coo blinked. "Oh, Nago and Kine are still down on the first floor. They're trying to find the actual exit."

Kirby nodded, and silence once again took them.

For all of ten seconds, before the roof exploded.

Twilight let out a cry of pain as a sudden shock ran through her system, and she launched herself backwards on reflex. The puppeteer controlling Spike pushed off of the wall, some sparks of electricity still dancing between his claws. It tilted Spike's head curiously. "Oh, but Miss Sparkle," it said matter-of-factly, "your brother is already gone."

It was lying.

It had to be. It was too casual, almost smug in how it said that. It had to be bluffing.

She did not even for a moment consider that Spike may have actually been subsumed by the darkness.

It was simply. Not. Possible.

Instead, she focused on the sparks jumping between his claws. "What did you do to him?" she growled.

The darkness seemed to process that for a moment before realizing what she meant. "Ah, I simply rearranged some of the silicon within the dragon's body. Bioelectrogenesis is a rare trait; I think I'll hold on to this vessel for some time."

A black laser speared out from behind Twilight, indicative of Gooey helping out. Before it reached the darkness, though, a piece of the floor ripped itself out to block the blow. The stone retreated soon after, and that darkness's black eyes zeroed in on Gooey.

"Ah yes," it said, "the traitor." It turned to look Twilight straight in the eye. "Are you aware, Miss Sparkle, that this…thing was originally an extension of myse-"

"Oh shut the hay up," Twilight interrupted, grabbing Spike's body in telekinesis and locking his limbs in place to keep it from moving. It took a lot more power than it usually would, but Twilight wasn't paying much attention to her mana levels at this point. She just wanted this whole thing over with. "He's on our side now, anyway." The darkness tried to shoot out a stream of black fire in retaliation, but Gooey quickly jumped in, his own magic destabilizing whatever the darkness was using.

As soon as it was over, Twilight had a clear shot with the Element of Magic. She aimed and prepared to fire, when…

SNAP

An extremely loud sound and sudden movement from Spike broke her concentration. He fell to the ground as her telekinesis wavered, his right leg giving out as soon as he hit the ground. It was quickly wrapped in tendrils of darkness, though, the darkness working to heal his broken leg so fast that he could stand again almost immediately.

"Sudden movements can break telekinetic control," the darkness quoted, a quote that Twilight recognized as one she had once told Spike. "It's why levitating living things is often so much more difficult than nonliving things. Your magic is truly quite versatile, but you have often told your brother where your weaknesses lie."

Twilight's eyes widened. If it had enough of Spike's memories to know that, then…

"Yes, Miss Sparkle," the darkness said, "Equus is a powerful world on its own. It must be possible to get there, somehow, and it will be a valuable world to assimilate following Popstar."

Twilight let out a wordless shout of rage, sending a beam of magic spearing the darkness's way. It bent over backwards in Spike's body to dodge it, performing a limbo move that Twilight knew her brother wasn't normally capable of.

There were no more words spoken, as the darkness continued to warp and distort Spike's body in unnatural ways to attack. His left claw, sparking with electricity, extended towards Twilight along with the entire arm, stretching out to several meters in length. She quickly erected a kinetic shield within a conducting shield, allowing the electricity to ground and blocking the physical claw strike moments after.

Gooey flew in after that, sending another wave of magic the darkness's way. Similar to how the piece of it within Dedede dodged, the darkness bent Spike's extended arm away with a sickening crack. The black beam of magic (that still gave Twilight slight shivers to look at, but if Gooey was physically once part of the darkness that did explain quite a bit) sailed clean through, with the arm bending in an arch above it.

Twilight felt ill just looking at the situation, but she had to fight through. For her brother's sake.

"I know you're still in there, Spike!" she shouted as the darkness pulled Spike's arm back to how it was previously and she stopped wasting energy on the shield. "Fight back!"

The darkness seemed to twitch a bit at that, and Twilight could feel it in her bones that her plea did something, at least. The darkness grit Spike's teeth, black flames leaking from the sides of his mouth, before a ring of purple scales, so sharp that they glinted in the firelight of the room, exploded off of him level with Twilight's neck.

She quickly took to the air to avoid them, but it turned out that that attack was just a distraction, for the darkness had extended both of Spike's arms. One was aiming for her and the other was for Gooey, but in at least Twilight's case it ramped the body horror up a notch. Spike's palm now had teeth. And not only that, but it seemed to be able to shoot fire as well, if the building black flames meant anything.

Twilight yelped and snapped her wings in, falling the couple meters to the ground and allowing the fire to shoot over her head. When it hit the opposite wall, it started eating through it like acid, complete with the wall sizzling, so Twilight really didn't want to find out what would happen if it hit her.

Gooey, at least, could counter the flames with magic of his own, but she wasn't sure how long that would last. Kirby's copy abilities (and wasn't that an interesting thought—could Kirby himself somehow be related to the darkness? Wait, no, now was not the time to be hypothesizing!) seemed somewhat fragile, and Twilight suspected that if Gooey took one solid hit that might be enough to break it.

Sure enough, that hit came rather soon. The darkness retreated the extended arms like one of Rarity's mechanical tape measures, and as soon as they were back next to Spike's body, it broke both of his legs. It wasn't a clean snap like it had been breaking his bones before, though; it seemed to augment the muscles enough that the bones just couldn't take it. Even mid-leap, though, the darkness was quickly healing Spike's legs. It leapt forward towards Gooey, and before either him or Twilight could react, it had sunk Spike's fangs into the blob.

It shook the poor thing repeatedly like a dog trying to snap its prey's neck. Gooey, thankfully, had no bones to break, but he still looked like he was in pain and he quickly lost the magic that he'd copied off of Twilight.

All the while, a selection of scales on Spike's left shoulder blinked. They had transformed into a myriad of eyes, watching Twilight to make sure she didn't interrupt before the darkness had finished Gooey off.

She, of course, interrupted anyway.

Twilight, with her magic flaring intensely, charged forward. The darkness attempted to raise a section of the floor again (had it fully incorporated itself into the castle as well? That'd explain the shadow tendrils from earlier), but this time Twilight was prepared. Before she released her cleansing magic, she sent an explosive spell out first, blowing the stone to smithereens and letting her jump straight at the possessed form of her brother.

That seemed to actually surprise it for the first time all fight, and it quickly let go of Gooey and whipped around to try and release a stream of flame at her. Purple magic met black flames, and struggled in midair for only a moment. Twilight's magic quickly pushed back against the darkness, slamming into Spike and sending him careening towards the wall.

It slammed into it, sending a dust cloud up and obscuring Twilight's view of it. Gooey, at least, was recovering quickly, and he joined Twilight in warily staring at the cloud of dust and debris.

It started to fall, revealing Spike's snarling form, with flame licking his cheeks and sparks dancing between his claws. It might have been a trick of the light, but Twilight was sure that he was a bit taller than before, as well. She prepared herself for another bout, putting herself in a ready stance and preparing her magic.

And then the window shattered.

"Six and a half minutes, baby!"

An aquamarine blur streaked down from the destroyed window to Spike as Sunset slammed into him full-force, sending the darkness straight through the wall and into the next room. Landing, she finally let go of her autolevitation and grinned at Twilight. "The cavalry has arrived!"

Meta Knight swooped in after her, landing in the throne room while avoiding the many shards of stone and glass that now littered the area. He had a new sword that Twilight hadn't seen before, a golden blade with some nasty-looking prongs sticking off of the sharp ends. It looked more like a torture device than a sword, but the orange gem embedded in its hilt gave of an aura of magic that only intensified as he pointed it at the darkness, which was clawing its way back through the hole in the wall.

"Begone, foul creature," Meta Knight said, his mask and tone truly giving off the feeling that he was living up to the second half of his name. "This planet is under our defense."

The darkness growled in response, and suddenly a pulse of darkness ran through the floor, centralizing on it. As soon as the darkness had absorbed another part of itself (Twilight guessed that it was probably the part that it had split off to infect Dedede), Spike's left arm suddenly doubled in size. His spine stretched, cracking as it did, and the rest of him started to swell as well. With a start, Twilight realized what was going on.

Greed growth.

"You utter fool of an Astral," the darkness said, Spike's voice dropping as he continued to grow, "this planet is mine!"

Spike's form reached the ceiling and, unable to take the pressure, it exploded outwards.

"Don't eat me, ya damn cat!"

Nago just let out a huff at Kine as he kept trotting through the hallways, looking for the exit. He wasn't exactly well-equipped to carry him any other way than with his mouth, as the fish didn't fit on his back the same way Pitch had. Plus, he didn't hunt sapient things anyway; he was a cat, not a monster.

Suddenly, the entire castle shook.

Both Nago and Kine looked around warily. "Da heck was dat?"

There was a giant crash, like an unstoppable force hitting an immovable object, and the already weakened castle couldn't take it anymore. The ceiling of the hallway Nago and Kine were in tore itself from the walls, spinning away into the sea with a mighty crash, exposing everything going on in the tower to the two of them.

Nago's jaw dropped, dropping Kine with it, but for once the fish didn't complain.

Whatever was going on up there was more important.

Bandee was honestly getting sick and tired of being thrown from towers, and it had only happened thrice so far today.

Thankfully, he was saved once again, though this time not by Coo; the owl was too busy dodging falling rocks and bits of destroyed castle alongside Pitch for him to really help. Instead, Twilight teleported in and caught the lot of them with her magic, the familiar feeling of her telekinesis washing over him.

Now that his world wasn't spinning (again), Bandee took in what was going on. Twilight seemed to be straining herself, but only slightly; the Element of Magic was glowing brightly and probably helping her out. The tower, on the other hand, hadn't handled the stress of the situation nearly as well.

It just didn't exist anymore, except for a single section of wall between them and what looked to be a giant purple dragon.

Was that Spike? What the heck had happened to him?

His eyes were still black, and beginning to leak like what had happened to King Dedede. He let out a piercing roar, and Bandee reflexively covered his ears. Spike's spines, which were curving out and down and looked incredibly sharp, dulled a bit, and he shot a column of black flame out towards Twilight.

Thankfully, an aura of aqua magic wrapped itself around his snout (Sunset was here too?) and forced the attack downwards a bit, so the fire hit the remaining wall of the tower, rather than them.

The wall didn't last very long, revealing the rest of the battle to Bandee.

Sunset was on the ground, her horn alight with so much magic that Bandee could clearly see it even from so far away. Gooey was with her, and given the black bolts that he was firing, he either still had Twilight's magic copied or had copied Sunset's. Finally, a winged figure darted around Spike, a flash of gold countering every claw strike the dragon tried to make.

If that wasn't Meta Knight, Bandee would eat his bandana.

Eventually, though, Meta must have made a mistake, because the darkness possessing Spike got the upper hand and backhanded him away. Meta Knight was still flying, at least, but it would take a few seconds for him to get back. A few seconds that Spike could use to attack Sunset and Gooey.

He raised up a giant claw, electricity sparking around it (since when could he do that?), and Twilight reacted quickly. She shot a beam of magic at Kirby (who had lost his hammer ability when the roof exploded), who thankfully got the memo and inhaled it just as Twilight teleported the lot of them. It was a feeling foreign to Bandee, but it was still certainly a more comfortable feeling than being inhaled.

They reappeared on a floor that had certainly seen better days, in the remains of what Bandee assumed had been the throne room ten minutes ago. Spike's claw was coming down, but Twilight's and Sunset's horns lit up in a display so bright that Bandee had to look away. A spherical shield with four colors to it—violet, aquamarine, black, and blue—appeared above them just in time, as Spike's sparking claw hit it with a violent crash.

His claw held.

The shield held.

Twilight, Sunset, Kirby, and Gooey held.

The castle did not.

The exchange had finally proved too much for the structural integrity of much of the castle, and the tower and surrounding areas finally collapsed in the explosion. The air pressure from the attack alone ripped the roofs from much of the rest of it. They were safe inside the shield, which turned out to be a complete sphere that all of them were inside, but Bandee could only hope that Nago and Kine weren't caught up in the collapse.

Twilight, her Element and magic both still glowing, teleported out of the shield and into Spike's face. "Spike!" she shouted so loudly that Bandee could hear it even dozens of meters below. "I know you're in there! Keep fighting this!"

Deep within Spike's psyche, a flame that the Darkness had almost, almost snuffed out fired up again.

Meta Knight caught back up, sinking Galaxia into Spike's right arm between his scales. The magic within his sword worked quickly, forcing the Darkness back and giving the drake control over his arm once again.

The knight looked back up at the possessed dragon, and he couldn't help but smile beneath his mask. The darkness had stopped dripping from his eyes, and there were even specks of green showing through. It was unexpected, but Meta Knight was quite happy with this result. The child didn't deserve to go through this, but it was good to see that he was fighting back.

GET.

Sunset narrowed her eyes. Spike was tough, and she did have full faith that he could fight back, but he could probably use a little help. Seeing that his left arm was beginning to curve back to attack Twilight again (though slower this time), Sunset also teleported out of their shield while straining to maintain it. It was tougher to maintain a bubble shield while outside of it, but it would probably be harder on her to keep maintaining it and also shoot a spell through.

Her horn ablaze, Sunset directed a beam of magic at Spike's left shoulder. She had seen Twilight go with pure magic attacks against the Darkness, so she hoped that it was an all magic thing and not just an alicorn or Element thing.

Thankfully, her gamble paid off, because the Darkness seemed to lose control of Spike's left arm as soon as her magic connected, and his eyes seemed just a bit more green.

She grinned. "You've got this, Spike!"

OUT.

"Keep it up, Spike!" Bandee shouted, hoping to help at least somewhat. Kirby and Gooey joined in cheering for him to push back the darkness, and soon enough everyone conscious within the shield was shouting for Spike to keep fighting.

OF.

Within Discord's living room, everypony was on the edge of their seats, all shouting for Spike to push back the darkness, as if he could hear them.

"C'mon, Spike," Shining Armor whispered. "You've got this, bro."

MY.

Twilight teleported again, avoiding the snap of Spike's jaws and standing on his snout. She stared directly into his eyes, eyes that were slowly returning to being Spike's. The black was starting to fade away, more and more of Spike's natural green returning to the surface.

Twilight's horn was once again lit in a blaze of fury, the Element of Magic glowing such a vibrant purple that it was shining even on Spike's own purple scales. Slowly, she walked forward on Spike's snout, getting ever closer to his eyes.

"It's me, Spike. Your sister, Twilight," she said softly, despite the maelstrom of magic swirling around her. "Come home, Spike. Please."

HEAD!

Twilight released her pent-up magic at the exact same time as Spike finally, finally reasserted some control over himself, pushing the Darkness back and viewing the world through his own eyes for the first time since the day before. His mind was still clouded with greed (take take TAKE) but he pushed that aside in the lucid moments he had before his biology would take over. Twilight was here. Twilight had come to save him. Just like he hoped she would.

The sheer relief he felt, combined with the Element of Magic firing, seemed to finally be the final straw for both the Darkness and his greed growth, and something forced itself out of him as he shrank. Just like when he had ended his rampage through Ponyville after his tenth birthday, he shrank all at once, snapping back to his usual form but drawn up into the air by his head.

Before he could even fall a meter, Twilight caught him, and he instinctively drew into her forelegs. Peering back at the Darkness, he finally got a good look at what had possessed him.

It wasn't particularly tall, maybe a meter from end to end at most. It was made of two segments: a lower, spherical portion surrounded in a wavy cloak of darkness, and an upper portion with hair-like protrusions, all still made of the same material. A single, small eye was visible in the upper portion, its positioning making it seem like it was glaring at them.

It fled upwards into the sky, and Meta Knight quickly shot past them in pursuit. Kirby was close behind.

There was a flash of violet light, and suddenly Spike, along with Sunset, Twilight, Bandee, and a number of creatures he didn't know, were teleported back down to the ground outside of the castle's entrance. Spike would've stumbled out of Twilight's embrace, but he was so tired at the moment that he didn't even try to resist his sister's hug. Had he the strength at the moment, he would've been hugging her back, too, anyway. Plus, Spike's memories of the past several hours were still a bit fuzzy, but he was pretty sure that the Darkness had done something important that he needed to remember…

His eyes opened wide. The Rainbow Droplets!

Squirming, he forced himself out of Twilight's embrace (much to her dismay; she seemed to be trying to convince herself that this was real, that Spike was okay) and started forcing himself to cough, slamming his fist against his chest and trying to summon up just a bit of his green messenger flame.

In only seconds, he hacked up the flame, which coalesced into seven colored droplets, clattering to the ground in front of them. Desperately, he locked eyes with his sister. He didn't know why, exactly, he said what he said next, but he could feel it in his heart that one being, in particular, needed to finish the job.

"Get these to Kirby," Spike rasped.

Sunset seemed to want to speak up, but her horn sparked and she winced. "I don't think I can," she said. "I don't want to risk mana burn with everything being so new. It's up to you, Twilight."

Twilight frowned, but grabbed the seven Rainbow Droplets in her magic and nodded resolutely. "Stay safe, Spike."

He smiled, even as blackness was starting to creep around the edges of his vision and he could feel his consciousness fading. This day had been so tiring and his body screamed at him to just collapse on the spot and fall asleep. "Kick its butt, Twi."

Twilight huffed at that, but didn't reprimand his slightly crass language. She took off with a mighty flap of her wings, and as she disappeared into the sky, Spike finally let unconsciousness take him.

Of course the bastard had to have a sword hidden in that cloak, too.

The Darkness's blade and Galaxia clashed against each other, both experienced swordsmen trying and failing to disarm the other. Meta Knight hadn't dueled against another sword user like this in…ever, really. He couldn't recall any of the few other Astrals he grew up with being able to keep up with him, and the last member of his family that had as great care for the family tradition as he was Luna Knight. And by the time Meta was proficient enough with a sword to possibly duel his great-great-great grandmother as an equal, she was on her deathbed.

Astrals were a rather long-lived species, sure, but they were far from immortal.

Regardless, this fight was dragging on. Neither Meta nor the Darkness could gain an edge over the other, and Kirby was barely able to keep up while hovering. He still tried to take a shot or two with his copied magic, but each time would let the Darkness gain even more of a lead if he missed.

Meta Knight snarled under his mask as he clashed with the Darkness's sword once again. No matter what, he would not let this creature escape to wreak havoc on Popstar again, nor any other world. It died today.

Something new finally broke the stalemate as a familiar beam of violet magic speared upward, knocking the Darkness back and allowing Meta Knight to wrench its blade from its…hand? He was not quite sure what sort of appendage was holding the sword under its cloak, if there was one at all.

Meta took the moment to look downward at the approaching princess, who seemed utterly furious with the Darkness and was carrying seven droplet-shaped items in her telekinetic grip. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet droplets, to be exact. Perhaps those were what was left of the Rainbow Bridges?

She threw them at Kirby, and they seemed to gravitate towards him, orbiting around him like planets to a sun. The spun faster and faster, before finally coalescing into an iridescent sword longer than Kirby was tall, but one that he grasped all the same, discarding his magic copy ability.

The sword seemed to almost pull him upward, towards the Darkness, and in one slash, the stunned Darkness was pushed back even more and forced to reveal its true form.

It looks like Gooey, was the first thing Twilight thought.

There definitely was a resemblance between the black sphere in front of her and the blue sphere she'd left on the ground, and if what the darkness had claimed earlier was correct, that resemblance was more than superficial. Granted, Gooey was solidly an ally, and Twilight was a staunch believer that someone could do good regardless of their origins. Unless the blue blob gave them a reason to distrust him, she found no harm in letting him help them. Especially given that he fought against the being that should have been his master.

Regardless of the similarities between the darkness and Gooey, though, there were some differences. The shape was the same, along with the orange spheres behind it, but the front of the darkness was a single, large eye. It stared at the assembled group—Kirby with a rainbow sword, Meta Knight with his golden one, and Twilight with her Element—and immediately attempted to flee.

"Oh no you don't," Twilight growled, teleporting in front of it with her magic ready. They were high enough up now that her breath was visible in the cool, thin air, and she didn't want to risk letting this get away.

It tried to retaliate with a black bolt of darkness (another attack rather similar to Gooey's), but none hit, blocked by a shield Twilight summoned. Another blast of magic had it tumbling downward into a slash from Meta Knight, before Kirby stabbed it straight through, though he missed the eye.

It forced itself off of Kirby's sword, quickly backing up as soon as it was no longer impaled, but its injury was leaking darkness and its eye was wide. It was healing, yes, but slowly. Far too slowly for it to have any hope of winning.

"So, this is what the parasite is reduced to without its host," Twilight commented, her eyes narrow and righteous fury blazing within her. She would not soon forget what this thing did to her brother, and ordinarily she would not be so callous, even towards an enemy, but this was personal. "How pathetic."

She lit her horn once again, sending out a wave of magic that locked the darkness in place before it could try and flee again. It strained against her, but completely failed to do anything against her magic. Meta Knight and Kirby both charged it from opposite directions, their swords at the ready to slice it apart. Twilight, meanwhile, charged up one final blast powered by the Element of Magic, ready and willing to end the threat of this darkness once and for all.

Golden sword, rainbow sword, and Magic impacted the darkness all at once. At that point, it was barely strong enough to withstand one of those things, let alone all three.

It stopped existing rather quickly.

Elsewhere in the universe, one of the most powerful beings out there felt it. Its scout was dead. It did not feel any sort of guilt, or shame, or remorse, or greif—the Whole was above such things. Emotion was below it, and its scout had violated its mission and given into its host's greed in the process. That removed any such possibility of the Whole mourning it, even if it was capable of emotion in the first place.

The only thing it felt from the death of its scout was acknowledgement that its plans were now delayed. Only slightly, though; a full-scale invasion of Stellarium was preferable to happen sooner rather than later. It would just need to work a bit harder to get past the shield the Dreamwater had placed around the system as a whole. But that would be a trivial matter for the Whole.

Soon, Stellarium—or Popstar, as the Whole learned the locals now called it from the data package its scout had sent it upon its death—would be under its control. Given the dragon's memories, Equus would soon follow, as long as there was some way to travel there.

It hadn't been to Stellarium in millenia; the last time it was there was before it was even the Whole. Idly, it wondered what had changed.

Author's Note:

Blocky, Defender of the Halls

This Blocky is possessed by the Darkness! It's been powered up by it, and now is the ultimate protector of Dark Castle's hallways; it's part of them, after all!

Master Green, Defender of the Seas

This Master Green is possessed by the Darkness! It's been given control of every Squishy and Blipper around Dark Castle, and is working to defend its master!

King Dedede, the Possessed Sovereign

King Dedede has been taken by the Darkness! This royal penguin is now giving his all to defend his new master, the Darkness infecting his brain.

Spike, the Lost Dragon

The Darkness has now fully taken over Spike's mind, but some vestige of him seems to remain. That flame must be fed for the Darkness to be beat and the dragon saved.

Dark Swordsman

The Darkness has retreated from Spike, engaging in a swordfight! Its skills seem unmatched except by Meta Knight—maybe it's possessed another skilled fighter before.

Dark Matter

A parasite without a host, the Darkness has been backed into a corner and forced to reveal its true form. Against most, this would allow it to flee, but against these three...well, it's not like it had any hope to lose.

When I said this chapter was gonna be a doozy, I meant it.

Granted, I didn't mean for this to take seven months. I got majorly burnt out at the beginning of the semester, and by the time I had some will to write again it was all spent on either getting down ideas for Of Heroes and Magic or for my classes. But hey, I've graduated now! And with the summer, I've fallen into a proper routine, which should help avoid the burnout I'd felt.

And, well, I hope that a 14,500-word chapter is enough of an apology for having a long, unplanned hiatus.

On another note, the chapter! I had a lot of fun writing these fight scenes and making sure every character got something to do, even if it was a more minor role in the grand scheme of things. And as for Zero at the end...well, I won't go too much into that, since that's some spoilers territory, but I will say that I have plans for how Zero connects to the greater Kirby cosmology that'll come to light in due time.

As for when that time will be, I'll say that there'll be some nuggets of information in Chapter Thirty-Three: The Rainbow Returned. After all, Spike spent a rather long time possessed by Dark Matter...I wonder just how much he remembers.