Shining Armor was completely and utterly speechless. Between Spike electrocuting a giant beetle with a frying pan and Twily managing to get offensive shielding to work, he was stuck performing an imitation of a fish as he continually tried and failed to articulate his thoughts. He'd already known about the former, at least, as he had been around to watch the debrief after they had restored the Rainbow Bridges, but the latter shouldn't even have been possible. The best he could do to warp his talents into an offensive form was either by rapidly expanding a shield to turn it into a blunt object, or by making planar shields a couple of angstroms thick. That was impressive, sure, but far too inefficient to use in combat when simply carrying a sword would accomplish the same goal (though being able to slice through material that conventional cutting spells failed on was a neat party trick).

The fact that Twily had managed to hold four external shields long enough to purge the Darkness from her adversaries, even with the Element of Magic, was absurd. Frankly, he wasn't quite sure if he should be feeling immense amounts of pride in his sister for the accomplishment or if he should be a bit put out that she was quite likely to swipe his title of being the best Equestrian shield mage in centuries (disregarding Princess Celestia, of course). Hay, with the sheer amount of power she was putting out, with just a bit more finesse Twilight could probably even give the Princess a run for her money in that regard.

He almost, almost felt bad for whatever big threat would come for Equestria first after she got back.

If she gets back, some traitorous part of Shining's mind whispered.

He shook the thought away. Shining knew his sister, and he knew that she would stop at nothing to find a way home. Even if she had to fight Void Itself.

Before that train of thought could continue, though, Rainbow Dash letting out a cheer brought his attention back to the screen. Twily had gotten the generator back up and running with the help of those creatures that she'd saved from the Darkness and teleported back to the kitchen after making sure that the four of them would protect it.

Rarity let out a relieved sigh as soon as the power was back on, and was the first to speak in minutes. "Well, they certainly have more time now."

"They've still gotta take the castle back," Applejack pointed out. "That won't be easy."

"It won't be," Shining agreed. "But it's possible, and if I know my sister, a possibility is all she needs."

When Twilight teleported back to the kitchen, she wasn't quite sure what to expect. Spike had sent along that blob of Darkness, so she knew that he was alright, at least, but what had they fought in the process? Was Chef Kawasaki okay? Did they still have their food stores?

What she was greeted with was an unconscious Bugzzy, Kawasaki chowing down on a piece of asparagus, and a very smug Spike. Oh, and a wide open and broken door, which she fixed and relocked almost on instinct as soon as she noticed it.

Both Spike and Kawasaki jumped when she teleported in and braced themselves to attack (and when had Spike picked up Kawasaki's frying pan?), but quickly relaxed when they saw that it was just her. Twilight shot both of them a tired smile and glanced at the (once again lit) lights, taking note of the humming of the walk-in freezer in the back of the room as well. At the very least, her quest to get the generator running again had bought them time.

Looking back at the sprawled-out form of Bugzzy on the floor, Twilight finally broke the silence that had pervaded the room since she'd popped in. "So I take it he was possessed?"

Spike gave her a deadpan look. "No, we beat him up just because."

Twilight snorted and rolled her eyes, allowing the snark without comment (and she couldn't really blame him for being snarky; she knew that she could get just as snippy in stressful situations). As she did, she cast a quick diagnostic spell on Bugzzy to make sure that it was safe to wake him magically—as much as it would be better for him to recover naturally, they had access to the entire kitchen and a severe shortage of people who could help take back the castle. And they would take back Castle Dedede.

She just…wasn't quite sure how, yet.

"So," Kawasaki cut in as Twilight got to work on waking Bugzzy up, "the lights are on. Is the generator guarded?"

Twilight nodded. "I managed to purge the Darkness from Lieutenant Licht and a few others on my way down there. They're keeping an eye on the generator, and that'll at least buy us some more time."

Kawasaki frowned. "Time to do what, exactly?"

Twilight cringed. As much as she was loath to admit it aloud, she said, "I don't know. There's just too many unknowns. We don't know how fast the Darkness can split itself, we don't know if they have reinforcements, we don't know how things went for the Meta-Knights, we don't know where Kirby is-"

Before she could work herself into a proper panic, though, Spike gently shook her shoulder to snap her out of it. "What if that didn't matter?" he asked, the glint in his eyes making it clear that he'd had an idea. With her spiral halted for the moment, she turned her full attention to him.

Spike's ideas usually had a fifty-fifty shot of backfiring spectacularly, but the situation was desperate enough that Twilight was at least willing to hear out any thoughts before rejecting them. "How do you mean?"

"Well, with Zero in the sky, the Darkness is probably going to be able to spread really fast since things feel so hopeless," Spike elaborated, "so going through the castle and taking them out one by one'll be too slow."

Twilight nodded. He was right on that account, assuming that his thoughts on how the Darkness reproduced were correct (and given his own experiences, she thought that he had a pretty good idea of how it could split itself). It was simply far too inefficient to purge Castle Dedede of the Darkness by going through it and purging it from every inhabitant; it would both take too long and there was a strong possibility of them missing one. But she still wasn't quite sure where her brother was going with this.

"So what if you cast a spell that hit the entire castle at once like…" Spike trailed off, trying to think of an example. Snapping his claws in realization, he continued. "Like what Shining did at his wedding to clear the Changelings out of Canterlot!"

As he exclaimed his idea, he mimed an expanding shield with his claws, forcing Twilight to lean back to avoid an accidental hit from the frying pan—clearly Spike had forgotten that he was holding it. The dragon blinked when he realized it before shooting her a sheepish green and quickly placing his hands behind his back. "Uh, sorry. But yeah, I saw you working on shields yesterday, so I just thought that might…work…y'know?"

Twilight frowned in thought. "It could work," she conceded. It wasn't a terrible idea; enveloping the castle in a shield and then purging the Darkness from it was essentially what she had done against Licht and the others, just on a larger scale. That scale was the issue, though. "But only if I can manage it. Shiny had days to get that shield up, he could only keep it up with constant attention, and the shield at the ceremony probably only happened like that because of Cadance lending a hoof."

Spike pointed at her wings, followed a moment later by pointing at her tiara. "I think you're forgetting something."

Reflexively, Twilight tapped the Element of Magic with a hoof and brought her right wing around to look at it. "I…might be able to pull it off," she allowed. "Maybe. But even with the Element of Magic and the extra power from being an alicorn, I don't have Shining's proficiency with shields. It'll still take a bit and I'd have to be in the center of the castle."

"That'd be the throne room," Kawasaki added with a frown. "How long would it take you to charge up that spell?"

"An hour at least, maybe two," Twilight replied. "Complex shields like this can be finicky; they're not something you can just cast instantly like a simple bubble shield. It'll take some preparatory spells and basically all of my concentration when I cast it, so I'll need someone to keep the Darkness off me in the throne room when I do."

"We could split its attention," came a voice from the floor, and everyone looked down in surprise as Bugzzy began pushing himself to his feet.

"You're awake already?" Twilight asked incredulously. "I thought you'd be out for another few minutes at least."

"Can't-" Bugzzy hissed and brought a gloved hand up to massage his temple as his mandibles chittered. "Can't keep the King of the Insects down for long." He gave Spike an appraising look and involuntarily twitched. "Good job on the lightning, kid, but didja have to hold it that long?"

Spike gave off the impression that if he had eyebrows, he'd be raising one of them. "Did you prefer being possessed?"

Bugzzy chuckled and grimaced simultaneously, an impressive feat for a beetle. "No, I suppose not." Looking over to the chef in the room, he started stumbling his way towards the counter—Twilight presumed it was for him to lean on. "Hey, Kawasaki, you got any syrup?"

Kawasaki blinked in surprise before jolting upright and shoving the last of his asparagus in his mouth. "Ah, yeah, I think I have some," he said, quickly making his way over to the fridge and rummaging around for a bit before he retrieved a bottle of maple syrup. Closing the fridge, he grabbed a glass and walked over to Bugzzy with both in hand.

Spike and Twilight both looked on in some combination of shock and mild disgust. The latter simply wrinkled her nose a bit, but Spike, in a characteristic lack of tact, voiced his confusion. "You just drink…straight maple syrup?"

Bugzzy poured his syrup and even Twilight couldn't hold back a choking sound when he slammed it back like a shot. When he turned back to look at them, it couldn't be seen on account of his mandibles, but Twilight could tell from his eyes that he would be grinning if he could. "Normally I prefer sap straight from the tree," he said. "Syrup's a bit too sugary. But I can make do for now."

Twilight, though admittedly a bit intrigued by Bugzzy's diet, pushed her mind back on track. "You said that we should split its attention?"

"Well, you said that you need someone to keep the Darkness away from you," he elaborated, "so I figure that it'll be easier on them if we split up and force it three ways."

"Four—wait, no, five," Twilight corrected with a bit of a frown. "There'll be some going after the generator as well, and I'd expect some to come here, too. I don't think we have enough people to spli-"

She was cut off by the boarded-up window exploding inward.

Everyone reacted instantly. Spike jumped back and held the frying pan out like a sword with a crackle of charge, Bugzzy smashed his glass against the counter and held the sharp debris like a weapon, Kawasaki grabbed and threw the nearest salt shaker, and Twilight fired off a beam of magic before she could even blink.

The figure that had smashed through the window blurred as it dodged out of the way of the salt shaker, but instead of clearing Twilight's attack entirely it landed just to the right of it. Then the figure—which Twilight had initially clocked as a sphere of Darkness in the chaos of the broken window—held out a gleaming sword with a second sphere impaled on its tip directly in the path of the magical laser. In mere moments, Galaxia was visible in its entirety as the Darkness on it was incinerated.

Slowly—likely to not provoke any more attacks—Meta Knight turned around and lowered his sword. "Good instincts," he commented.

"Well, I'm not quite sure what reaction you expec-" Twilight began, but once again cut herself off upon seeing what Meta Knight had in his arms.

She wasn't the only one shocked. Spike's frying pan clattered to the ground, Kawasaki retched into the nearby trash can, and she could've sworn that she heard a muttered "By the stars" from Bugzzy.

Honestly? Fair.

Given how quickly Meta must have flown to get to Castle Dedede (and the fact that apparently he encountered some Darkness on the way), it was a miracle that Sailor's cap was still on her head. But that was the only comforting thing about the scene in front of Twilight, as saying that Sailor Dee was in a rough state would be the understatement of the millennium. She was extremely pale, her permanent blush having disappeared entirely and her orange skin having paled to almost match the tan of her face. But more concerningly was her feet—or rather foot, as the right one was less a foot and more a mess of burnt flesh that ended in a stump where her foot should've connected with her torso. Whatever happened hadn't burned the underside of her torso, thankfully, but full treatment would probably involve amputating whatever was left of her right foot.

The only comfort was the fact that she was shifting ever so slightly in her sleep and that her shallow breaths were—while just barely—audible. She was alive, at the least.

"Celestia's starry tail, what the hay happened?" Twilight asked, but internally she was already fearing the answer. Meta Knight had come alone, after all, and with the nature of the damage…

"The Darkness got to Miss Shimmer," Meta solemnly confirmed. Looking around at the kitchen, his eyes narrowed. "Are your food stores sufficient?"

Twilight swore under her breath. Sunset's magic was one of the main counters they had against the Darkness, so her being off the table was just about as close to a worst-case scenario as they could get. Regardless, they had more pressing concerns at the moment. "Kawasaki," she said, snapping the chef's attention to her, "see if you can salvage any of the tomato paste from earlier."

In the meantime, Twilight got to work on repairing the window. While the glass was unsalvageable, Meta Knight's entrance thankfully hadn't shattered the boards beyond repair, so all it would take to fix that up was a few adhesive spells. Hopefully, the lingering spellwork would serve a dual purpose and help ward away any pieces of the Darkness looking to get in that way, too.

Meanwhile, Kawasaki had gathered up some of the leftover paste from when the Darkness had had him smashing maxim tomatoes left and right. The paste wouldn't be as effective as a fresh tomato would be, especially after having been left out in the open for almost an hour, but it was far simpler for them to administer it to Sailor in a paste form and wouldn't use up their more limited supply of full tomatoes.

Twilight finished boarding up the window again just in time to look back and see Meta Knight trying to find something resembling a comfortable position to lay Sailor Dee in. Quickly, she cast a duplication charm on a couple of the boards (plus an adhesion charm and a cushioning charm) to at least get something comfortable for her—the kitchen floor was cold and unforgiving in comparison. While she was at it, she conjured up some gauze to make sure that the wound didn't get infected. The duplicates and conjuration wouldn't last forever, of course, and would dematerialize back into free-flowing mana in a scant few hours. But for the time being, she could at least provide some sort of comfort for Sailor.

Meta nodded at her in appreciation as he laid Sailor on the provided cushioned boards just in time for Kawasaki to approach with the tomato paste. Waddle Dees didn't have mouths, exactly, and instead absorbed food, water, and air directly through the skin on the lower part of their face. This even worked while they were unconscious, but according to Bandee it got a bit finicky with solids if the Waddle Dee wasn't awake to subconsciously use their magic while eating.

Thankfully, the paste was absorbed just fine and worked its magic rather quickly. Even as Kawasaki was backing off, Twilight could see some color return to Sailor and she seemed to start breathing more deeply. Her constant unconscious shifting relaxed a bit as well, though she didn't wake even as Twilight carefully wrapped the gauze around the wound.

With Sailor no longer actively in critical condition, though, the tension in the room that had been building since Meta Knight's explosive entrance reduced a bit. Bugzzy even let out a chuckle, though it sounded somewhat mirthless to Twilight's ears. "So," he said, "at least we have more people for the plan, now."

Meta Knight's yellow eyes zeroed in on him in an instant, and Twilight could see that the beetle wasn't expecting such sudden attention if the way he flinched back was any indication. "What plan?"

The plan, in essence, ended up being rather simple. With a bit of practice while Twilight was setting up her shield spell, Spike determined that he could send things to Meta Knight with his messenger flame—in his own words, he'd spent enough time around him (or perhaps around Galaxia, Twilight mused) that he'd gotten a decent feel for how his magic felt. While she wasn't happy about it (to the point that she and Spike had argued about it for a solid fifteen minutes before she relented), he ended up volunteering himself to be the one to accompany Twilight and hold off the Darkness that would inevitably try and prevent her from reaching the throne room, as he was the only one other than Meta Knight who could outright remove the Darkness from the situation as long as Twilight was focused on her shield.

Meta himself would be staying in the kitchen to kill any Darkness that Spike sent to him, or those that would simply target the area. He'd actually offered to accompany Twilight at first, but between Spike standing firm on his position and Twilight being able to cast some spells while charging the shield to help him, he'd decided to stay and keep their Darkness-killing abilities in two locations instead of one. And besides it being a decent strategy on its own, he refused to leave one of his men alone in such a vulnerable position so deep in hostile territory, and with the kitchen being such a valuable target for the Darkness, Kawasaki or Bugzzy wouldn't be suitable to hold the line there.

Those two would be making as much of a ruckus as they could to draw as many of the Darkness's forces as possible to them. Kawasaki, equipped with his trusty frying pan (or, to be more accurate, a spare, as Spike was holding onto one of them) and a rolling pin, and Bugzzy, equipped with naught but his fists and a thirst for vengeance against the Darkness, would make their ways to the West and East Wings of Castle Dedede, respectively. The pair were well aware that they'd likely be overwhelmed eventually and once again taken by the Darkness, but they were willing to go through with it if it meant that they could retake the castle.

It was, frankly, a disturbing amount of trust that they were placing in Twilight. She was far, far from comfortable gambling basically everything on this, but it was just about the only viable option with the deadlines they were working with. According to Meta Knight, anything else, like going through the castle to track down and eliminate the Darkness one by one left far too much room for error and would take far too long—by the time they successfully rescued Castle Dedede from the Darkness's influence, the rest of the planet would be lost.

No, this was the only way forward, so Twilight pushed down her qualms about taking massive risks and tried to perform her own role to the best of her abilities. Her job was all magic, and she was good at magic. Hay, she held the Element of Magic. She could do this. She had to do this. She could not afford to fail. Not now. Not when so much was on the line. So she cast her preparatory spells and worked on getting a specialized reversible shield working and ignored the ever-growing apprehension within her.

One hour, thirty-six minutes, and twenty-seven seconds after the plan was finalized, Twilight gave the signal for the four of them to move out.

It was a good plan.

But no plan survives contact with the enemy.

Castle Dedede's West Wing was perhaps the area of the castle that Chef Kawasaki knew best. It contained the residential suites (which wrapped around a courtyard to intersect the main hallway at two points), kitchens, and banquet halls, meaning that he rarely even left the area. He could probably navigate the wing blindfolded if the hallways were empty.

And while he wasn't blindfolded, the hallways were empty. It was disconcerting, to say the least. Castle Dedede was normally so vibrant and full of life, so seeing the halls completely deserted put Kawasaki majorly on edge. The Darkness knew that there was an active resistance, so why didn't it have troops patrolling the halls? Had it guessed at their plan?

Kawasaki shook his head. That didn't matter; he had to lure the Darkness to him regardless. Thankfully, he had a plan for that. One that involved the room he had just entered—his own.

He wasn't sure how much the Darkness that was in his head had transmitted to its fellows, but if he was lucky then it hadn't betrayed the fact that he kept a decent amount of leftovers in a minifridge in his room (working with food so much had him peckish sometimes, sue him). Most of it wouldn't keep with the power off and thus probably wouldn't be high priority for the Darkness anyway, but there was a single item in the fridge that Kawasaki was sure would draw attention to him.

Opening the minifridge, he reached in and pulled out a maxim tomato.

Kawasaki took in a shuddering breath as he closed the fridge and stared at the tomato in his hand. What he was about to do was quite possibly the stupidest, most reckless thing he'd ever done in his life. But Princess Twilight needed the heat off of her so she could concentrate and Spike was so young to defend her alone and Meta had to defend Sailor and Bugzzy was better suited for the East Wing. He was the only one who could do this.

Kawasaki steeled his expression and turned around. Marching out of his room as loudly as he could, he held the maxim tomato aloft for the world to see. "Alright you castle-stealing, friend-stealing blobs," he shouted into the hallway, banking on something being around to hear him, "I've got a tomato!"

A scuttling sound above him drew Kawasaki's attention, and he gulped at the sight. A horde of Comos—at least five of them, perhaps more that he couldn't see—were approaching along the hallway's ceiling. He only hesitated for a moment, though, before carefully stuffing the tomato in his apron pocket and holding his rolling pin and frying pan in a fighting stance, one in each hand.

Taking another deep breath to calm himself, Chef Kawasaki narrowed his eyes at the Darkness-possessed residents of Castle Dedede. "Come and get it."

The lead Como let out a screech—a sound that Kawasaki knew for a fact that Comos were incapable of making—and leapt from the ceiling directly towards Kawasaki's head. With all three of its eyes being obsidian from pupil to sclera and with saliva dripping from its mandibles, it was a truly harrowing sight. Still, he stood his ground, raising up his frying pan to whack the Como out of the way just before it could latch onto his face, knocking it out in the process.

Before he could do anything else, though, one of the Comos that was still on the ceiling spat a wad of webbing at his arm, cocooning his left hand and the frying pan's handle together. Effectively, it prevented him from changing his grip on the object at all. That would be annoying, but at least it'd be manageable.

Hearing something behind him, Kawasaki whirled around to bonk whatever it was with his rolling pin. The pin, though, sailed straight through open air and he realized that his assailant was a Waddle Dee holding a parasol. He hurriedly tried to correct his mistake, following through with a swipe from his webbed hand, but the Parasol Dee was quicker. They swiped Kawasaki's legs out from under him, sending the chef sprawling face-first onto the ground.

For once, Kawasaki was glad that he didn't have a proper nose, as despite it meaning that his sense of smell was generally worse than some others, he definitely would've broken it in that fall if he had one. Instead, it was just marginally painful and he could react quickly, pushing himself up with his right hand and swatting at the Parasol Dee with the pan in his left. Doing so was the correct decision in two separate ways: first, it slammed into the Parasol Dee, knocking them to the side and into the wall, and second, it avoided another web shot from a Como on the ceiling.

That would've stuck Kawasaki to the ground, effectively immobilizing him, but that reality was thankfully not to be. Unfortunately, a second web shot did hit his rolling pin, sticking that to the ground and forcing the chef to abandon that weapon. As he got back to his feet, he reassessed the situation. Another two Parasol Dees were approaching from down the hallway, and quickly looking over his shoulder, Kawasaki saw that Mr. Tick-Tock was boxing him in on the other side. When he glanced upward, he could see the three Comos doing something—wait, three?

Kawasaki grunted as an additional weight landed on his back and cried out in pain as the fourth Como bit him as hard as it could. With how short his arms were and the difficulty in reaching back there with the frying pan, he had very few options to deal with it. Stumbling backwards, he tried to slam himself into the wall to at least dislodge the spider, but the Como scurried up onto his head (displacing his toque) before he could manage it. All he managed to do was slam his back into the wall, giving the Comos on the ceiling a clear shot at his frying pan while he was stunned.

Thwip, thwip, thwip.

Triplet balls of sticky webbing hit the frying pan's edges, securing it—and thus Kawasaki—to the wall. The chef tried his damndest to thrash out of it, but no matter what, the bindings held. All he could do was stare in horror as the Darkness-possessed denizens of Castle Dedede advanced towards him, even the ones he had managed to take out earlier with solid hits; the Darkness possessing them must've taken the time to fix those hits.

Then, to make matters worse, the lights in the hallway flickered. It was eye-catching enough to draw Kawasaki's attention to it just in time for him to see the lights shut off fully once again.

And all Kawasaki knew was Darkness.

In Castle Dedede's East Wing, Bugzzy was very much not having a good time. Despite having downed an additional few shots of syrup—which should, by all means, have left him in near perfect health—he was still sore from his confrontation with Spike and Kawasaki. The combination of the possession and a couple solid blows to the head had his memory of the fight a bit spotty, so all he could really remember was the tail end of the fight, when the kid had hit him with that electrified frying pan. Unfortunately, he knew from experience (specifically from training with Licht) that that meant that most of the healing effects of the syrup he'd drank would have gone into healing his burns, rather than all of the microscopic tears his seizing had caused. As a result, he was still sore all over his body, and nothing short of overeating, a maxim tomato, or good old fashioned waiting would fix that.

It had taken him a good few trips to the infirmary for one of the Nurse Waddle Dees to finally get it into his head why that happened, but he'd retained the information eventually!

Regardless, all of this put together meant that he wasn't exactly at the top of his game, so he might have not noticed a Spear Waddle Dee until they were basically right on top of him. He'd had enough situational awareness to dodge their strike, thankfully, but he wasn't able to get fully out of the way fast enough and the spear nicked his right forearm. Given that it had previously been aimed right for his chest, though, Bugzzy figured that he'd gotten lucky.

Additionally, the hit to his arm was a glancing blow, so his exoskeleton was able to prevent the spear from piercing through. Fighting through his soreness, Bugzzy retaliated quickly, as he knew that he needed to act before the Darkness recovered its wits. Launching out his left hand as he whirled around to face his adversary, he grabbed the spear around its middle and ripped it out of the Waddle Dee's hands. Before the Darkness could even dream of doing anything about that, Bugzzy slammed the spear's shaft into the Dee's side like a staff, making sure to keep the pointed end away from both himself and the Dee.

The Waddle Dee's spear was a bit short for an insect of Bugzzy's stature, but the sheer strength behind the hit made up for the lackluster leverage. The unfortunate Waddle Dee flew into the air like a particularly large golf ball, sailing a solid ten meters before they tumbled painfully to the ground. Bugzzy winced—he hadn't meant to hit them that hard—but he didn't have time to ponder the morality of fighting his possessed comrades before the sound of rustling fabric drew his attention to something behind him.

Bugzzy spun back around, holding the spear horizontally to block whatever this new arrival was doing. That turned out to be a fortuitous decision, since it meant that the spear's shaft took the first two mirror projectiles from a Simirror's attack. That was all it could handle before shattering, but it bought Bugzzy enough time to let him slip to the left, dodging the rest of the projectile stream.

He tossed the broken shaft to the side and readjusted his grip on the pointed end in his left hand so that he was essentially wielding a short, pointy stick. Bugzzy whipped around his right hand to retaliate, hoping for his brute strength to simply knock out the Simirror in a single hit, but they reacted far more quickly than Bugzzy would've liked. The air shimmered for a moment like it was a hot summer's day before solidifying into an iridescent shield in front of the Simirror. Bugzzy's fist hit the shield dead center, and from there the Simorror's reflection magic took over. His punch bounced away from the shield as the entire force of his punch was reflected right back onto him. Against most opponents, this is enough to effectively end the fight immediately, as the attacker would be left both hurting and overbalanced—easy pickings for the Simirror on the followup.

But Bugzzy wasn't like most opponents.

He had trained with Castle Dedede's Simirrors before (he liked to cover his bases when it came to knowing how to win a fight), so he knew where both his and their weaknesses lay. Namely, he had learned how to take his own punches, and while a Simirror's reflection was powerful, especially when reflecting an attack from someone like Bugzzy, it had one key weakness: the shield, much like an actual mirror, could only stand up to one solid hit before shattering. While this wouldn't actually stun the Simorror, it would prevent them from simply recasting the spell; reflection effectively had a bit of a cooldown. It wasn't much of an opening—a mere few seconds—but that was all Bugzzy needed.

When the reflection shield shattered, the Simirror—and thus the Darkness possessing them—would likely have expected Bugzzy to stumble as his punch was forced to the side, leaving him open to attack. Instead, they had failed to account for the extra limbs that he had courtesy of being a beetle: his wings. His elytra snapped open and buzzing filled the hallway as he used his wings to stabilize himself, leaving him ready to attack the Simirror the moment their shield went down.

The Darkness clearly hadn't expected that, as its guard was completely down as Bugzzy lunged forward, stabbing the spearhead into the Simirror's left hand and forcing them to drop their staff. The beetle wasn't done yet, though, and as he caught the dropped mirror rod in his right hand, he wrapped his mandibles around the Simirror. Since he had left the broken spear embedded in the Simirror's hand (with a mental apology to the unfortunate Simirror that the Darkness was possessing), the Darkness was too preoccupied with fixing the damage done to its host to prevent Bugzzy from suplexing them straight into the floor.

He whipped around and hurled the mirror rod at the Waddle Dee—who had gotten back up but was clearly still possessed if their eyes were any indication—from earlier as well. It wouldn't keep either of them down for long, he knew, but it would let him get away long enough that he could make it to his destination.

There were very few things that Bugzzy could do to bait the Darkness to him, especially when the kitchens, generator, and Princess Twilight herself were much higher-priority targets. Even Kawasaki, Bugzzy presumed, had some stash of food that he could use to lure some of the Darkness to him. He, himself, didn't have anything like that. But what he did have was intimate knowledge of almost every weapon in Castle Dedede's armory from having sparred against almost everyone in the castle. And the East Wing included most of the administrative parts of Castle Dedede: offices, the treasury, and importantly for Bugzzy, the barracks and armory.

It might be unconventional for both of those to be in the castle itself, but hey, there wasn't much space to build on a mountaintop.

Every piece of Darkness Twilight or Meta Knight took down was another member for their ragtag resistance group, so even if Twilight failed to stop the Darkness here, Bugzzy getting back to the kitchen with a ton of weapons was a decent enough fallback option. Because of that, he knew that the Darkness would be sending significant troops to stop him, and that this was effectively a suicide mission for the purposes of staying unpossessed—the Darkness would catch him and possess him once again. But if it kept them off of Princess Twilight's back, it'd be worth it. And as Bugzzy saw the door to the armory, he would've grinned if he could.

Still, he had to play this strategically. Every second he bought here was another second that Twilight and Spike had fewer Darkness blobs to deal with, so he couldn't just charge in without a care for his own health. He was almost certain that the Darkness had worked out where he was going, after all, so there had to be some Darkness-possessed creatures right behind the door, likely laying in wait to ambush him. Well, he could work with that.

Thankfully, from the hallway side, the armory had a pull door. Bugzzy could avoid the first strike of an ambush by simply staying behind the door itself. Since the door handle was on the left side, he had gripped it with his right hand to ready his other for a nasty left hook. When the first Blade Knight stormed out of the now-opened armory, sword at the ready and having backed out to actually face Bugzzy, they hadn't expected to get socked hard enough to dent their armor. That forced them back a bit and aborted their sword swing, which let Bugzzy let go of the door handle and grip the Blade Knight's sword arm hard enough that it let out a sick snap.

They didn't drop the blade, though, the Darkness's modifications letting its grip remain strong even with the broken forearm. But it still bought Bugzzy time, and when the second Blade Knight charged out of the armory with their sword raised, the beetle, still holding onto the first Knight's broken arm, jerked their arm up and forward to intercept.

Even under the best of circumstances, a swordsman didn't have any sort of chance to parry, or even simply block, a blow with a broken sword arm. The modifications that the Darkness had made to this Blade Knight—like the clearly increased grip strength—certainly helped enough to give the other Blade Knight pause, but it wasn't enough to keep their blade in their hands. And the second Blade Knight hesitating for just a moment was all Bugzzy needed to let go of the first's arm, grab them in his mandibles, and catch the falling sword's hilt.

Raising up his new weapon, he blocked another swing from the second Blade Knight. Bugzzy was by no means a master swordsman—his fists and mandibles were his weapons of choice—but he had sparred with the various sword-wielding residents of Castle Dedede enough to know the basics. But against the Darkness it seemed like that wouldn't be enough; this Blade Knight was certainly going to be better with a sword than him. Bugzzy would have to get creative if he wanted to win this.

So, with one Blade Knight still in his mandibles, he slammed said mandibles into the other Blade Knight. This knocked their helmets together with an ear-shattering CLANG, forcing the second Knight to stumble back and letting Bugzzy get close in again with another left hook. To free up his mandibles, he spun around and threw the first Blade Knight away from the door, where they slammed into the wall hard enough to chip the stonework. In the same motion, he slammed the flat of his blade against the other Blade Knight's helmet, further disorienting the Darkness. Finally, reaching forward, Bugzzy squeezed the Blade Knight's sword hand, breaking it similarly to how he broke the other Blade Knight's arm. This time, though, with him aiming for the hand, it forced the Darkness to drop the sword.

Disarmed and disoriented, the Blade Knight could do nothing to stop Bugzzy from picking them up in his mandibles and slamming them into the ground. Hopefully, that'd be enough to keep the Darkness at bay for another few minutes.

With that taken care of, though, Bugzzy could finally properly enter the armory—and immediately jump to the side to avoid a bomb from a Poppy Bros. Junior. Bugzzy's luck had finally run out, though, because that dodge landed him directly in front of a Burning Leo, leaving him staring into their coal-black eyes. The Burning Leo's usual mane of flames had changed as well, the usually vibrant reds and oranges having distorted into an impossible flame as black as the blackest night.

Bugzzy scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could, but the jet of black flames that the possessed Burning Leo unleashed still clipped his leg. And by the stars did it hurt, like every nerve ending under the burned section of exoskeleton was being seared by a hot iron simultaneously. He could feel his cuticle in the burned area bubble and warp under the heat, and he wrenched his leg away from the flame as fast as possible, sparing a glance downward to inspect the damage.

It had felt a lot worse than it looked. While there would certainly be scarring, it didn't look like there was any permanent damage that a maxim tomato wouldn't fix. Still, he definitely wouldn't be able to stand on it for the time being, so Bugzzy's wings buzzed as he took to the air. That Burning Leo was more than just a threat, they were a priority.

As he flew out of the way of another bomb from the Poppy Bros.—which slammed against the wall of weapons with a kaboom and sent a mace clattering to the floor—he got an idea. He only had one shot at this, though, so he had to make sure to make it count.

When he dodged the next bomb—this one took out a longsword, two bows, and a quiver—he made a beeline for the Burning Leo, who was gearing up for another shot of fire breath. This time Bugzzy was ready for it, and when the black fire approached him he spun out of the way, the dark flames eerily glinting off of his stolen sword. He gripped the hilt with both hands as he approached the possessed Burning Leo and, with all of his strength, he slammed the flat of the blade into their side.

Upon contact, the sword deformed so much that it'd be useless as a weapon in the future, the heat having weakened the metal so much that it almost melted right out of Bugzzy's hands. But it was solid enough when it hit the Burning Leo to launch them right at the Poppy Bros.—at just the same time as they were pulling out another bomb. The impact and the fire set off the explosive immediately, launching both the Burning Leo and the Poppy Bros. at the wall opposite the weapons, which was lined with lockers. There was a screech of bending metal as the two impacted, denting the lockers so much that they stuck there.

For a moment, Bugzzy thought that he might be home free to grab as many weapons as he could and get back to the kitchen. But a loud roar from just outside of the armory nixed that thought, for the half-open door simply exploded off of its hinges as a Fire Lion barged through. Its eyes and mane, much like the Burning Leo's, were completely black. Its tail, rather than simply having a flame as for a tuft at its end, instead seemed to be composed almost entirely of that same horrible dark fire. Still, despite the terrifying sight, Bugzzy still ignored the throbbing pain in his leg and swooped down to pick up the mace that had fallen earlier.

He was going down, but by the stars he'd go down swinging.

Rei the Bio Spark shuddered as they observed the three beings making their way to the generator. Two were simple blobs of Darkness, which would be enough of an issue on their own, but accompanying them was King Doo—the only one of his kind in the castle. It made for an unsettling sight, the possession having rendered his one eye, which took up most of his face, completely black.

Cloaked as they were in the shadows, though, Rei could slip away unseen and quickly retreat back to where the three Pluggs were waiting in the generator room, not making a sound as they got inside and swiftly climbed to the rafters. "We have incoming," they reported, dropping down and landing silently.

There was no particular reason for doing so; Rei simply enjoyed dropping from rafters.

Kupfer, the Plugg closest to their landing spot, jumped when they spoke. "Stars above, Rei, don't scare me like that," she said. Glancing between them and the door to the generator room, she then confusedly asked, "Wait, how did you even get in without us noticing?"

"Two beings of Darkness and King Doo approach," Rei stated without elaborating on Kupfer's question. "I fear our odds of victory are slim."

Licht narrowed his eyes. "Be that as it may, Princess Twilight has entrusted us with the defense of the generator, so we will delay for as long as possible." He stepped forward, sparks beginning to flicker between his prongs as he turned to address the other Pluggs. "Kupfer, Strom, us three will focus on King Doo. Rei, we'll be relying on you to keep the Darkness off our backs."

Rei gave a sharp nod, pulling out and inspecting one of their kunai. "I shall be your shadowed assassin, for the Darkness has made a mockery of my art."

"Drama queen," Kupfer muttered under her breath. Rei pretended not to hear her.

"What about the generator?" Strom asked. "Shouldn't one of us stay here to maintain it?"

Licht shook his body, as Pluggs didn't exactly have a proper head to perform that motion with. "That'll run itself for a while," he explained. "We just need to give it some juice every now and again when it slows down from friction."

The generator was, in essence, just like a smaller, gas-powered model. It spun a magnet inside a coil of wire (or, in the case of Castle Dedede's generator, on account of it needing to power the entire castle, several magnets inside several coils of wire), but it needed some energy to start with to spin the rotors. In a gas generator that was an internal combustion engine, but Castle Dedede's generator was started and maintained by the castle's Pluggs.

There were usually quite a few Pluggs that charged the rotors when they started to slow down, and the teams of them worked in shifts—with the occasional Sparky helping out here and there when available. But there were only three Pluggs there now—Rei honestly had no idea where the Darkness had taken the rest of them—and it had already visibly taken quite a bit out of the three to get the generator up and running. But if Rei knew anything about Lieutenant Licht, they knew that he, much like every other member of Dedede's military, wasn't one to throw in the towel that easily.

They'd all at least give the Darkness one heck of a fight first.

"Alright then," Licht said, snapping the others' attention to him, "let's move out."

Rei slipped back into the shadows with ease, silencing their steps and darting up to the far more comfortable rafters. Well, Rei supposed that they weren't exactly rafters, as they weren't supporting the roof directly, but they served a similar structural purpose for the lower levels of Castle Dedede. And they were the perfect spot for Rei to hide and observe the Darkness from.

Kupfer was the first of the Pluggs to arrive on the scene, letting out a war cry and charging forward at King Doo. Sparks flew between her prongs as she ran, and the distinct crackle of electricity filled the air. King Doo was unphased, though, and his blackened eye seemed to glint as the Darkness began its beam attack.

A Waddle Doo's (and thus King Doo's) beam usually gave off considerable amounts of light. After all, its dazzling nature was half the attack, since a blinded opponent was massively disadvantaged, and Waddle Doos, despite the massive eyeball, were resistant against being blinded by their own attacks. Their pupils would contract whenever they were attacking, preventing the beam attack from being self-defeating.

The Darkness, however, seemed to do things differently. When King Doo unleashed his beam, it seemed to darken the hall simply by existing. Despite the lights remaining on and Kupfer's electricity staying strong, the peripherals of Rei's vision faded as their spirits quieted a bit and their senses seemed to numb. Even Kupfer faltered at the attack, her forward momentum slowing.

And then a glob of plasma slammed into King Doo's left nub, courtesy of Licht. He aborted his beam attack, drawing back to heal the burn. In an instant, Rei's senses returned to them, and they threw a kunai at the blob of Darkness that had started to make for Kupfer. The kunai speared through it, dragging it to the floor long enough for Kupfer to make it to King Doo. He spasmed as electricity coursed through him, but the Darkness fought through it and warped one of King Doo's nubs into a proper arm.

Rei felt ill just watching it.

The nub-arm, now a solid ten times its original length, backhanded Kupfer to knock her away from King Doo (despite the nub still lacking a hand). She hit the wall with a pained grunt, but was still conscious and able to fight. The Darkness was prevented from following up on the attack, though, by a second blob of plasma that seared straight through the extended arm.

The Darkness didn't even seem phased, simply dropping the destroyed arm with a sickening squelch and growing a new nub. As King Doo turned his attention towards Licht, though, it gave Strom an opening to charge in. The blob of Darkness that Rei had pinned earlier had ripped itself off of the kunai and was back in the air, unfortunately, so both blobs went for him during his charge. Another kunai took down one of them, but the other was getting too close for Rei to feel comfortable throwing another one—the chances of them missing and hitting Strom by mistake were getting higher every moment.

Instead, they dropped from the ceiling, blade at the ready, to engage the Darkness themself. Their blade sliced the blob in twain, letting Strom safely run past, and Rei was back in the shadows and climbing back into the rafters before it could reform itself. Unfortunately, they were being pursued by the Darkness, as the blob that they had taken down with a kunai earlier had gotten back up once again.

Still, Rei couldn't afford to forget their mission. A third kunai kept the other Darkness blob—which had just reconstituted itself—down long enough for Licht to rush past it so that he, Strom, and Kupfer could converge on King Doo simultaneously. As Rei watched the three of them do their best to try and knock the Darkness out of King Doo, they tried to throw another one behind them at the Darkness blob in pursuit, but their aim was finally off for once and the kunai embedded itself into a beam. Stopping, Rei drew their blade to at least try and get this blob off of their tail.

Perhaps it would've worked, but just as the Darkness blob got within swinging range, the hallway once again was thick with that feeling of apathy—King Doo must've used a beam attack again. Rei stilled with their blade pointed straight outward, and the Darkness took the fastest path forward, impaling itself upon the blade. But with King Doo's attack passively sapping Rei's emotions, the Darkness could keep moving down to the hilt without consequence.

It was a slow, agonizing few moments as Rei watched the Darkness pull its way over the hilt like some kind of eldritch slime mold. They knew that they should move, or even just drop the blade, but whatever King Doo was doing made it nigh impossible to even want to move. They just…didn't feel like it.

The moment the Darkness made contact with Rei's hand, though, it was over. Their world went Dark.

Meta Knight had already slain eight beings of Darkness—three sent to him by Spike and five that had found the kitchen on their own—when the lights shut off. On its own, this would not be a major problem for him, as Astrals had excellent night vision. The issue was that the power went out when he was in the middle of a fight, and his eyes still needed time to adjust to darkness.

As soon as the others had dispersed, he'd made sure that the interior of the kitchen was secure before stepping out into the hallway, closing the door behind him. Sailor's recovery was a priority, so he refused to take a fight into her proximity, especially while she was still unconscious. As such, the three spheres of Darkness that Spike had sent him had been dealt with swiftly, Galaxia's properties allowing him to simply cut them down in the hallway. The other five had been a patrolling squad of castle residents: two Waddle Dees, a Waddle Doo, and two Burning Leos. Had the group stumbled upon Kawasaki or Bugzzy, perhaps they would have stood a chance, but against Galaxia the Darkness possessing them was helpless.

After purging the Darkness from them (which was a somewhat arduous task, as Meta had to ensure that he did not stab or slice its victims in any ways that would be fatal or leave permanent injury), he'd directed them into the kitchen to heal themselves. A few minutes later, though, a Gigant Edge of all things had lumbered their way down the hall, so now Meta Knight was defending the kitchen not only for Sailor, but also for the five other vulnerable beings in the room.

The fight was more like a puzzle for Meta Knight to begin with. While the Gigant Edge certainly was dangerous—he would be in trouble if any of their strikes made contact—their slow, lumbering sword swings left ample time for Meta Knight to dodge. Unfortunately, he did need to actually break their skin for Galaxia to work its magic and expel the Darkness, and the Gigant Edge's armor made that difficult. His two options were to either spend so long fighting that he could wear down the armor enough to break off a piece—which wasn't exactly an appealing prospect—or to go for the slit in the helmet. Meta had been attempting the latter, but getting that close left him vulnerable to a strike from either the Gigant Edge's sword or shield.

Then the lights shut off just as the Gigant Edge began raising their sword for a blow, and because of the timing Meta Knight couldn't tell where the strike was going. A quick flap of his wings took him well outside of the Edge's range, however, and a crash rang out as the massive sword slammed into the floor. Now, though, the lack of lighting was going to be a major annoyance.

He needed to find some way to disarm them, and probably some way to get rid of the shield, too. With the Gigant Edge's armor including gauntlets, though, he'd have to physically overpower them to do so. While he trusted in his ability to do such a thing—Astrals were an unusually strong species to begin with, and he made sure to stay in top form on top of that—against a Gigant Edge he would only be able to deal with the sword or the shield at once. He'd have to get creative.

The Gigant Edge recovered from their failed strike quickly, and soon enough they were charging at Meta Knight once again, sword raised for a devastating blow. Or he at least assumed, based on the sounds; his eyes hadn't quite yet adjusted to the lower light levels. Still, he darted to the side and into the air, once more dodging the swing, and he smiled as he heard the sword hit the ground hard enough to embed itself. Flipping around, he springboarded off of the wall, Galaxia outstretched. But he wasn't aiming for the Gigant Edge's helmet—no, the Darkness would react far too quickly and raise the shield for that.

With their sword still embedded in the ground, they raised their shield, as Meta Knight expected. Before Galaxia could be deflected, though, Meta shifted in the air with another flap of his wings, reorienting himself and letting him shove Galaxia behind the shield, attempting to use it as a lever. Unfortunately, with the darkness pervading the hallway he'd had to make several estimates, and his aim was ever so slightly off. Instead of jamming his sword into the junction between the Gigant Edge's gauntlet and shield (with the added leverage allowing him to pry the shield off through sheer strength, despite it being welded to the gauntlet), Galaxia glanced off of the gauntlet at an angle, forcing Meta to hurriedly retreat further into the air.

His hasty retreat came just in time, as the Gigant Edge's sword swung through the space he had just occupied. While he was hovering out of range, though, he could plan a bit. Clearly, until his eyes properly adjusted—which would take a couple minutes at best—that strategy was likely doomed to failure. But if he couldn't get in close without undue risk to himself, how else could he disarm them?

Then the kitchen door slammed open, and Meta Knight's salvation came in the form of a pair of very determined Burning Leos.

Without warning, the hallway was bathed in a fiery glow as they unleashed twin streams of flame at the Gigant Edge. The Darkness was forced to react if it didn't want to lose its greatest advantage—its host's armor—so it raised their shield to intercept. Slowly, they started to force their way through the flames to try and get to the Burning Leos, but Meta knew that the Darkness wouldn't even make it halfway there.

Because he finally had an opening.

In an instant, he had flown from his position near the ceiling back down to the Gigant Edge's eye level. The Darkness futilely raised their sword, attempting to swing it back down with enough force to crack Meta Knight's mask, resolve, and quite possibly his skull. But instead of getting even close to him, the sword was stopped in its tracks midair as it was caught on one of Galaxia's prongs.

On most swords, such prongs would be a major liability. For much the same reason that swords are not usually serrated, a sword with those sorts of prongs would just snag on something internal the moment someone was stabbed with it, leaving its wielder effectively disarmed in the middle of a battlefield. But Galaxia was special for two reasons. For one, its shape was optimized for whatever magicks had been involved in its creation to be efficient specifically at combating the Darkness.

And for another, its material was unlike anything else Meta Knight knew. Galaxia was made of a gold-mithril alloy that had extremely unique magical properties. The fact that it had been forged in the first place implied that it had been malleable at some time in the past, but in the modern day it was harder than even diamond while managing to share none of the weaknesses of the gemstone's crystal structure. The blade never dulled, despite centuries, maybe even millennia of use. His great-great-great grandmother once claimed that it could cleave through even nuclear pasta, but that wasn't a hypothesis that Meta was willing to test.

Unfortunately, whatever process had been used to make such a magically potent alloy had been lost to time, despite his family's many attempts to recreate it over the centuries. Meta Knight personally suspected that there were likely some spells involved during Galaxia's forging that the Astrals simply no longer knew, as even recreating the ratio of gold to mithril exactly did not yield the desired results. Regardless, meant that Galaxia was likely the strongest sword in the Gamble Galaxy, and quite possibly one of, if not the most powerful weapon in the known universe.

So when faced with the steel of a Gigant Edge's sword, the inferior metal stood no chance. A sword makes a far better fulcrum than armor, so with the shield out of the way Meta Knight was finally able to simply twist Galaxia to get his desired results. With a horrible screech as the steel buckled and deformed, the Gigant Edge's sword cracked and chipped and snapped under the pressure, Galaxia proving its strength once more. Before the Darkness could even hope to react to that, Meta Knight darted forward with Galaxia in front of him. The added firelight meant that his aim was true, and the sword slipped right into the helmet's sight. Meta was careful, of course, to make sure that Galaxia only just barely grazed the Gigant Edge's skin, but that was all the sword needed to work its magic.

The gem embedded in Galaxia's guard glowed as it worked to expel the Darkness from its host. Against a larger creature, like Spike had been at Dark Castle, stabbing a single limb wouldn't have been enough to expel the Darkness entirely—it had just lost control of Spike's arm, after all—but the comparatively small size of a Gigant Edge meant just a nick was enough. They twisted unnaturally a few times as a dark miasma rose off of their armor, but Meta Knight stood by unperturbed. Eventually, the Gigant Edge stilled—they would be unconscious for a few minutes—as a sphere of Darkness formed from the miasma above them.

Meta Knight cut it down before it even had a chance to move.

With the Darkness gone, the Burning Leos let up their fire breath. The Gigant Edge's shield was a mess and they would likely require treatment for the burns on their left hand, but they were free from the Darkness's control. "Thank you," Meta Knight said, giving the two Burning Leos an appreciative nod.

Before the two could get a word out, though, a wisp of green flame appeared in front of him. Meta Knight prepared to slice another sphere of Darkness to ribbons, but instead of the parasite he was expecting, Spike's messenger flame spat out a rock. It looked like a piece of rubble, and was carved with some sort of writing. It wasn't Somnic, though, and Meta recognized it as a language that Sunset had shown him the written form of some time earlier: Ponish. The piece of rubble was chipped around the writing, indicating that Spike had hurriedly carved it with his own claws.

Despite not being able to read it, the message still got across. Something was wrong.

"Get the Gigant Edge into the kitchen and prepare some food for when they awaken," Meta Knight ordered, snapping out his wings and taking to the air.

Without waiting for a response, he shot down the hallway as fast as he could.

Spike was hesitantly optimistic as he and Twilight approached Castle Dedede's throne room. Things had gone well so far, with Twilight having been able to focus almost entirely on getting her shield ready. The first thing they'd encountered, a Broom Hatter, went down easily. Their broom was quite flammable, and they proved to be just as susceptible to an electrified cast-iron skillet as Bugzzy was. The second enemy they'd come across was a Waddle Dee, and the Darkness possessing them suffered the same fate.

Just before making it to the throne room, they had found a Knuckle Joe. He had put up enough of a fight to force Twilight to assist, even if it was just a series of atmokinetic spells aimed at his feet. He eventually tripped and Spike could finally land a solid hit with his frying pan, but Twilight mentioned that it had cost her maybe a minute or two of preparation. Still, it could've been worse, and Spike was just happy that she was good enough at multitasking (he'd seen her organize all of Golden Oaks at once; she was scarily proficient at it) that it hadn't wasted the last hour and a half.

Regardless, as the pair made their way to the opulent doors of Dedede's throne room, Spike was hopeful that their plan had worked. Hopeful that the Darkness's forces were spread thin throughout Castle Dedede, too focused on their distractions to put up a sizable force against him and Twilight.

Then the doors opened and all Tatarus broke loose.

Immediately, Twilight tossed up a shield in front of them, blocking the wave of attacks that would have swept them away without it. Everything from spears to water to even Rockies themselves bounced off of the shield that just barely poked into the room, and it took a couple seconds for everything to clear so that Spike could get a good grasp on what they were up against. From what he could see, the throne room contained three Rockies, two Driblees, a Grizzo, no fewer than four spear-wielding Waddle Dees, a Simirror, a Knuckle Joe, and two Parasol Dees.

And in the center of it all was Bandana Dee himself.

Wordlessly, he pointed his spear towards Twilight and Spike, prompting the throne room to explode into action. The Knuckle Joe picked up the nearest Rocky and hurled them at the shield like a discus. The Grizzo charged forward, their claws glinting ominously. Two of the Spear Dees threw their weapons, and the Parasol Dee nearest to the shield took a swing.

Twilight winced as the hits connected, and Spike didn't waste time waiting for her concentration to potentially waver. He charged forward, skillet at the ready and armed with the knowledge of how basic shields worked. One couldn't hang around two of the most talented mages in Equestria for one's entire life without picking up some knowledge on the subject, at least.

The most basic of shields—and thus the type of shield that Twi probably cast on instinct—blocked two things: direct magical attacks and physical matter. They did nothing to stop energy transfers across the barrier; doing things like maintaining a temperature differential or disrupting an electric or magnetic field required a specialized spell. So when Spike brought down his skillet right next to the unfortunate Parasol Dee that was right by the shield, while the barrier could physically stop any electrons from getting through, it didn't stop it from inducing a charge in the parasol itself, which proceeded to give the Dee a rather nasty shock.

The forces of Darkness backed off a bit at that, letting Spike and Twilight advance a few steps forward. Grinning, Spike let flames lick behind his teeth and his off hand crackled with sparks. If this kept up, Twilight would be able to get off her castle-wide shield in a few minutes and the day would be saved. Or, well, Castle Dedede's day would be saved.

But then the lights shut off, and suddenly the momentum shifted.

The throne room was awash with the violet of Twilight's shield and horn, casting an eerie purple glow over everything and everyone. Everything was still visible, though dim, but before they could react to it, the space in front of Spike seemed to crack like a shattered mirror as the Simirror teleported in. The little dragon reacted instinctively and tried to grab the Simirror with his already-sparking hand, and while he did successfully make contact, that was what the Darkness had wanted.

A Simirror's form of teleportation was something that Spike hadn't experienced before and it wasn't something that he wanted to experience again. For a moment, his world shattered into a hall of mirrors, as up became down and left became right. He stared his own reflection in the face countless times in under a second in a way that was rather similar to how it felt going through Star Swirl's Mirror.

When his world finally righted itself and reality was back in a single piece, he was in the middle of the throne room and, more pressingly, outside of the shield. The Simirror was unconscious, as teleporting while being shocked proved to be too much for them. In the brief moment before anything else happened, Spike's eyes met Twilight's. He could see that she was preparing to drop her shield to properly help, but he shook his head. She needed to focus on casting the final shield.

She'd probably help out anyway with minor spells, though, so all Spike could really do there was hope that she stayed focused on the end goal.

Then that moment ended, thrusting Spike into the thick of battle. Immediately, he had to duck to avoid a thrown Rocky, which hit the wall behind him hard enough to send chunks of marble flying every which way. He retaliated by sending a stream of fire towards the Knuckle Joe that threw them, but it was blocked and neutralized by an attack from a Driblee.

Without warning, he stumbled a few paces forward as something slammed into his back. He spun around and swung with his frying pan on instinct, and a thunk rang out as the cooking implement impacted the Parasol Waddle Dee that had attacked him. They went down instantly, but Spike didn't have time to really note that before he was spinning around again, fire building in his throat, at the sound of a guttural roar. The Grizzo was charging him with the second Parasol Dee on their back.

His first instinct was to unleash his flame, but as soon as he did another stream of water hit him right in the face, courtesy of one of the Driblees. Sputtering, Spike could do nothing but dive to the side as the Grizzo's claws just barely missed him. Now prone on the floor as the Grizzo charged past, he caught a glimpse of movement in his peripheral and rolled right, dodging another Rocky that otherwise would've hit him in the head.

That roll, though, brought him face-to-face with a piece of rubble, and Spike had an idea. As he scrambled to his feet, he grabbed the shard of stone and stuck his claw into it. Between the resistance from the rock itself and having to hold the frying pan with the same claw as he was writing with, the penmanship was horrid, but he hoped that it'd be enough to get the message through. With a puff of green flame too short for the Driblees to counter, the stone vanished from his hand just in time for him to raise the frying pan and block one heck of a haymaker from Knuckle Joe.

Spike mentally apologized to Kawasaki as the skillet dented under the force, a section of the pan now bending inward. A sickening crunch reached Spike's ears as multiple bones in the Joe's hand broke against it, but that didn't even seem to faze the Darkness. Spike yelped and ducked as the Knuckle Joe's left hand whiffed just above his spines, and he tried to electrify the pan in response.

Unfortunately, the Joe just jumped away before they could be properly shocked, picking up a Rocky with their still-healing right hand. With the rock creature hurtling directly at him immediately after, Spike tried to get out of the way, but it turned out that the Darkness wasn't aiming for him. Instead, the Rocky slammed into the frying pan so hard that it was wrenched out of Spike's hands, sending it hurtling across the room.

That did leave that Rocky nearby, though, meaning that when the Knuckle Joe's next attack came, Spike instincitively grabbed them to block with and they took it for him. Of course, that also sent the Rocky flying again, but it gave him another idea on how to deal with the Grizzo that had, by now, turned around and was ready to charge again.

Spike dove to the side again to dodge Knuckle Joe's next hit, taking him ever so slightly closer to the Grizzo, which roared and began another charge. He rolled over and scrambled to his feet just in time to avoid Joe's fist, which hit the ground hard enough to crack the floor. Now the Grizzo was just before him, and Spike gulped as he gazed upon the bear-like creature's sharp teeth and claws. Even with his scales protecting him from most things, he didn't want to chance that.

But, just as he'd hoped, he didn't have to. He hit the deck right in time to dodge the Knuckle Joe's next attack: a leaping punch. Right as the Grizzo was bearing down on him, Joe smacked right into their face, stopping the bear right in their tracks and knocking them both out of the fight. The Parasol Dee went flying, but instead of smacking into the wall or Twilight's shield like Spike had wanted, they stuck out their Parasol and gently floated to the ground.

It was no matter, though, as when Spike emerged from the Grizzo-Knuckle Joe pileup, all it took was reaching out once with electrified claws to shock them into unconsciousness.

Panting, Spike looked around. Without Knuckle Joe to throw them, the Rockies' threat level had been massively reduced. The four Spear Dees were occupied, as what magic Twilight could cast while keeping her concentration included enough atmoturgy to keep them from throwing their spears at Spike. And Bandana Dee wasn't even moving, instead just staring at Spike with blackened eyes, which was admittedly rather terrifying. Still, maybe he hadn't needed to call for hel-

Bandana Waddle Dee moved.

This wasn't the usual waddling motion of a Waddle Dee, though. He almost seemed to blur as he shot across the room directly at Spike, and the snapping sound that rang out indicated that the Darkness had broken at least one of Bandee's feet to accomplish that. He was leaping through the air faster than Spike would have any hope of reacting to, with his left nub grotesquely extending and growing out into a full arm, even including finger-like protrusions at its tip. Reaching out, the Darkness grabbed Spike's forehead.

His world went black.

The Darkness in charge of securing Castle Dedede knew that its position was of strategic importance. The main—and likely only—challenge in securing Stellarium would be the Voidspawn it homed, but the Darkness had a lucky break there. This Voidspawn was young, and hadn't come into, or was perhaps unaware of, its full power. It was nothing like what the Aeon Hero had been.

No, once Nebula was recovered and the Dreamwater was dealt with, the Voidspawn calling itself "Kirby" would fall easily to the Whole. But there was no need to take undue risks, so to prevent any aid from coming to the Voidspawn, the Darkness had taken positions to prevent that. The Darkness securing Castle Dedede, the Meta-Knights' complex, and the Rainbow Islands thus had some of the most important jobs in the Whole's takeover of Stellarium.

The Darkness knew from the telepathic data package sent by its failed scout that the dragon before it was a previous host of the Darkness, and his power had been aptly demonstrated over the past minute. All that made him an ideal host, and the Darkness was far from shy when it came to swapping to a more powerful host.

So it delved into the dragon's mind, expecting to transfer bodies easily, before it was suddenly completely stalled.

No.

What?

No, not again. Never again.

The Darkness pushed harder, but to no avail.

The dragon's Heart beat ever louder.

I won't be your puppet again! Get OUT!

In a rare new experience for the Darkness, it was ejected from a potential host, ending up back in the Waddle Dee's body. The dragon's eyes were wide and still emerald green, but in only a moment he seemed to realize that he had just successfully repelled the Darkness. That wasn't something that had happened in a very, very long time.

Still, the Darkness had other ways of dealing with a threat, and it readied the spear it was holding in order to go on the attack. But before it could, something shot into the throne room over the purple one's shield (which was a threat that the Darkness had hoped to neutralize by now), and the Darkness actually recoiled. Very few things could make the Darkness approximate emotion. Fewer still could make it approximate fear.

Darkness's Bane was one of those things.

Desperate to do anything to deter that annoying Astral and the horrible sword he wielded, the Darkness leapt for the Simirror's unconscious body.

Twilight wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation after Meta Knight arrived. He had quickly taken care of the four Spear Dees, Driblees, and Rockies, meaning that she could get back to finishing casting the castle-wide shield. Only a few more moments, and Castle Dedede would be free.

Then the Darkness possessing Bandee touched the Simirror, and things got strange.

There was a squelching sound as flesh was reshaped, but at the end of it both Bandee and the Simirror looked unchanged. Bandee's nub was even back to being a nub! The only odd thing was that he was holding the Simirror's staff in his left hand.

And then when Meta Knight brought Galaxia down on him, he waved the staff. The air shimmered as a mirror-like shield appeared, and Meta's eyes widened. He quickly flapped his wings to avoid actually hitting the shield with Galaxia. He veered upward, but the downdraft generated by his wings hitting the shield still reflected back at him, sending him off-balance.

Half a second later, the air in front of Twilight shimmered and cracked as Bandee teleported inside of her shield. His spear was raised and aimed right for her neck, and had he been seconds sooner she would have had to sacrifice multiple minutes of preparation to defend herself. But she was ready.

The Element of Magic pulsed almost eagerly as she dropped her earlier shield and formed a newer, smaller one containing herself and not much else. Her wings spread wide and she began levitating simply from the sheer amount of magic she was putting out. A pulse of magic shook the room and forced Bandee backwards before her spell finalized and her shield rapidly expanded.

The world went purple.

Perhaps it was the Fountain allowing her to sleep dreamlessly, perhaps it was the potency of maxim tomatoes, or perhaps it was because she knew the urgency of the information she held, but when Sailor Waddle Dee opened her eyes she was almost immediately coherent, despite the extreme pain in her lower right. She was in an infirmary of some sort, but not one of the Meta-Knights. Based on the stonework (and the Waddle Dee in a nurse's outfit), it was probably Castle Dedede's.

Well, at least Princess Twilight had done her job and the castle hadn't fallen to the Darkness. It would make getting the complex back more complicated, though.

Thankfully, the person she most needed to speak to was by her bedside. "Sir Meta Knight," she said somewhat weakly.

Meta Knight looked up from his book, and while she couldn't see it behind his mask, Sailor was sure that he was smiling. "Sailor, it is good to see you awake. You were unconscious for a few hours."

"What happened when I was out?"

"Miss Shimmer teleported away after she was possessed," Meta Knight explained. "I retreated here, to Castle Dedede, to assist Princess Twilight in repelling the Darkness and to secure treatment for your burns."

Curiously, she tried to move her foot, but nothing felt like it shifted around. Why would…

Sailor blinked. Oh.

She was an amputee.

She'd probably be properly shocked about that later, but she pushed through that right now. She had some information that she needed to share.

"Vul knows where Shimmer is."

Meta Knight blinked in surprise. "Elaborate."

Sailor took a breath. "The syringe that I grabbed wasn't random; it was an experimental solution that Vul claimed might make maxim tomatoes obsolete."

Meta nodded. "He's discussed this with me. It uses nanites to simulate the effects of a tomato, yes?"

"Yeah," Sailor confirmed, "but since Vul's more paranoid than even you sometimes, Sir, he puts trackers on all of his inventions in case they're used against him."

Meta Knight's eyes narrowed a bit at the implication that he was particularly paranoid before widening in realization. "So if we free Captain Vul from the Darkness…"

"He can find Shimmer," Sailor finished.

Meta Knight shot to his feet, his eyes glinting in a way that Sailor knew meant that he was grinning. "I need to inform Princess Twilight and General Bandana Dee of this immediately."

Sailor's eyes reflected a grin right back. "How long until we can free the complex?"

"If all goes well," Meta Knight said with a for once hopeful tone, "we'll march on Orange Ocean tomorrow at first light."

Authors Notes:

The Forces of Darkness

Castle Dedede is normally home to many creatures from Waddle Dees to Waddle Doos to Simirrors, but almost all of them have been taken by the Darkness! Now the Darkness has enhanced them further, beyond their natural capabilities, to fully take the castle.

Bandana Waddle Dee, the Darkened General

Bandana Waddle Dee is the General of King Dedede's military, second only to the King himself. While his skill with a spear is formidable, it is his strategic mind that is the true threat. But whether the Darkness makes use of that is up to it...

Bit of a long one today! Not the longest chapter yet, but it's up there with Storming the Violet Castle, which, come to think of it, is another chapter about taking a castle from the Darkness. Well they're fortifications for a reason, I guess—taking one is always going to be difficult.