Kirby and the Rod of Darkness

Chapter 32: Magoland Mayhem

Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe is another Kirby game I haven't played, but I still did my best to make this accurate.


It was getting late when Kirby, Magolor, Taranza, and Susie made it back to Popstar. Kirby was watching the capsule where the six pieces of light energy were currently contained. "I wonder how we'll find all of the Dream Rod's power," he said, "It'll take forever if it's all over the galaxy!"

"Don't worry," Magolor told him, "Our friends in the Dream Kingdom and Another Dimension are helping us out, remember? It won't take as long if we all work together!"

"We could ask some of our friends for help too," Susie added, "I know the Mage Sisters travel a lot-maybe they could be of assistance."

Taranza yawned. "Right now I think it's time for us to get some sleep."

The next morning at breakfast, Magolor told the others he had a surprise for them, which made Kirby very interested. When the four of them went outside after breakfast they discovered that the Lor had landed in front of an amusement park. "Welcome to Merry Magoland!" Magolor announced cheerfully.

After ancient artifacts and interdimensional travel, amusement parks were Magolor's second interest. He'd even built three of his own! First there was the New Challenge Stages, which he'd made for Kirby when he first came back to Popstar to make up for the trouble he caused. Next was Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe which he constructed for King Dedede. And finally, he created Merry Magoland a while later for all of his friends to enjoy.

Right now there were mixed feelings among Magolor's pals. Kirby, who had been to Magoland before and found it lots of fun, was super excited and ran off to play some mini-games; but Taranza and Susie weren't quite so enthusiastic. "Aren't we supposed to be looking for the Dream Rod's energy instead of playing games?" Taranza stated.

"Trust me, we didn't come here just to have fun," Magolor replied, "This is where the Lor happened to land, so I figured we might as well take a look around. Some of those glowing orbs could be around here, after all."

That idea made sense so the three of them began exploring the park. Susie was admiring the array of gold statues lining the plaza resembling some of Kirby's friends, particularly the one modeled in her likeness. "What a lovely statue!" she said to herself as she gazed at it, "It's almost as beautiful as the real thing!"

Taranza was viewing the assortment of Dress-Up Masks Magolor kept in a stand at the center of the plaza. There was a large number of masks based on different allies and rivals of Kirby. It didn't take long for Taranza to notice that, much to his surprise, there were masks of Sectonia before and after her corruption. The saddened spider couldn't bear to stare at those ones for very long. Wiping a tear from his eye, he turned and ran away from the stand until he almost bumped into...himself? No, something was different. This imposter only had two hands! "Magolor, what are you doing?" Taranza frowned at him.

Laughing, Magolor removed his Taranza mask. "I just love these Dress-Up Masks! It's so much fun surprising people with them!"

Taranza wasn't exactly amused. "Yeah, well I was pretty surprised to see those two Sectonia masks over there."

Magolor looked a bit more serious at that remark. "Oh, sorry about that. I didn't think about the fact that you and Susie might see those masks." Fortunately, Susie was too busy admiring the statues to notice there was also a Pres. Haltmann mask. Magolor hurried over to the stand where the masks were and hid the three troublesome ones. "There! No more troublemaker masks!" he declared with a chuckle, "Or should I say troublemaskers?"

The next thing the blue-garbed mage did was put on a top hat and bow tie, which was how he normally dressed when he was at Magoland. "Manager Magolor has arrived!" he proclaimed when he rejoined Taranza and Susie in front of the castle where the mini-games were held.

Susie was impressed. "Wow! So technically you're a magician, a treasure hunter, a pilot, a traveler, a shopkeeper, AND an amusement park manager? Amazing!" Magolor was a regular jack-of-all-trades!

While all this was going on, Kirby was having a lot of fun playing games. Right now he was enjoying Smash Ride, which involved riding a Warp Star around a circular platform and trying to knock your opponents off. Sometimes Kirby played this game with the Squeaks but they weren't here right now, so he was playing with some Waddle Dees instead. After completing a few rounds, the pink hero spotted something that surprised him so much he nearly fell off his Warp Star. A familiar jester was approaching the platform...and he was carrying three small radiant orbs on his head! "Marx, what are you doing here? Where did you get those?" Kirby called out to him.

"I like to visit Magoland sometimes-I'm a fun-loving jester, you know," Marx replied, landing a short distance away, "And these glowy things? I found 'em behind the fountain outside, but they're too small to roll around on. Kind of a rip-off, if you ask me."

"Well, if you're not using them, me and my friends need them for an important mission," Kirby said.

Marx grinned. "I didn't say I didn't like 'em, did I? I think these orbs are pretty cool, actually. But if you can beat me at Smash Ride, maybe I'll let you have them."

Kirby wasn't too happy with the typical Marx attitude, but he knew he had no other choice. "Fine! We'll have a Smash Ride battle!" he said. Laughing his jester laugh, Marx hopped on an unoccupied Warp Star, and then the two opponents began flying all around the platform and ramming into each other. All the Waddle Dees who were previously playing had to move back and watch from a safe distance.

Meanwhile Magolor, Taranza, and Susie were still trying to find some of the light energy, but they weren't having any luck so far. Taranza was hitting the targets with six throwing stars at a time in Ninja Dojo, even though that was basically cheating. Susie was shooting targets with her Blaster in Kirby On the Draw (or Susie On the Draw?) and Magolor was searching around the castle's exterior. When the three of them heard the racket coming from the Smash Ride room, they stopped what they were doing to investigate. "What's going on in here-AAH!" Susie yelled when two Warp Stars whizzed right by her.

"I think we'd better stay out of this," Taranza remarked. Magolor, Susie, and he moved back before any of them could get run over.

Kirby and Marx were having a fierce battle. Both of them zipped around the platform and crashed into each other like pinballs on a pinball table. Currently the score was even and one point would decide the winner. The audience watched Marx near the edge...then Kirby...and then finally, giving it his all, Kirby managed to knock Marx off the platform. The jester flew back up, looking tired. "Okay, okay, you win," he panted, "Here." He threw the pieces of light energy to Kirby.

Kirby caught the shining items he'd sought after and was so happy he jumped for joy. Taranza and Susie were equally pleased with the outcome, but Magolor noticed Marx looked sad; the trickster was going to miss his new beach balls that weren't really beach balls. "Tell you what, Marx," he offered, "if you want, I could make you a new glowing ball-one that's big enough to balance on!"

Marx's expression immediately brightened. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Of course! No one should be unhappy at Merry Magoland!"

That night when the sky had just gotten dark, everyone except Magolor gathered in the plaza. Kirby was eating cotton candy, Susie was eating ice cream, and Marx was bouncing contentedly on a glow-in-the-dark ball. "Lady and gentlemen!" Magolor announced from in front of the castle, "In honor of today's achievement, and just for fun, I now present to you...the Merry Magoland Fireworks Show!" Everyone enjoyed watching the colorful fireworks in the sky around the castle.

After watching the fireworks for a little while Kirby took a look at the Dress-Up Masks. Then he walked up to Magolor with a Traitor Magolor mask on, which startled the mage. "Whoa!" he said, "I gotta admit, the Master Crown made me look pretty scary!"

Next Kirby grabbed a different mask and ran over to Susie. "Susie, do you know anything about this mask?" he asked her, holding it up. This particular mask appeared to portray Susie dressed differently; she was wearing a hat and glasses and her hairstyle was changed a bit.

"Oh, that's my weekend outfit!" the pink-haired woman responded with a cheerful expression, "I wear it on the weekend when I'm off from work. Isn't it cute?"

As the fireworks show ended Marx and the Waddle Dees began to leave. "Thanks for coming, everyone!" Magolor waved to them. Soon he was alone with Kirby, Taranza, and Susie again. "I think this has been a great day for us all," he said to them, and they agreed. Their visit to Merry Magoland was even better than expected.