Heroes of Dreamland Rewritten, Book 3: Stars Amidst Darkness

Epilogue

Meta Knight | メタナイト

I smile to myself as I shut the door of my training room and lean against it. Today was actually a really good day, once the events of the morning blew over. Galacta Knight's attempt to flood Dreamland with the tenebrisium gas failed in the end, though I'm sure many of the planet's inhabitants suffered in the time it took us to fix things. I'm just glad Sakura never had to encounter the horrible substance without a shield of her healing light to protect her. After she gave so much in the fight against the Lightning last time, it was a relief to see that this time, she didn't really have to suffer much to help us save the world.

Of course, I was a little bit worried of what might happen if she did encounter the gas straight on—the monster within her might have come out more strongly, or worse. As it is, she was safe. I was safe. Aside from Kirby and Bandanna's run-in with the dreadful substance, we were all safe.

And now, the whole planet is safe once more.

I close my eyes and think back over the events of the day. First, there was flying through the castle with Sakura, both of us surrounded in large spheres of the strange light. It felt so weird to have made some myself, but right, somehow. It's as if Sakura was right in her later explanation, that it was supposed to be one of the Star Warriors' greatest powers. Whatever the cause, it didn't feel nearly as odd as I was initially worried it would.

We cleared out several rooms of the castle, eventually reaching the Waddle Dees. The poor things were all strewn around the room in various degrees of despair. It took quite some time to help them all. Once we got a few of them saved, though, and helped them learn to use their own lights, the light in the room grew exponentially. After that, it was really just a matter of spreading the message to every Waddle Dee on the planet and continuing to help clear out the castle grounds. We rendezvoused with the others in the Star Warriors' Garden for a short breather, and then finished the process of clearing out the castle.

Thanks to how inundated the planet is with Waddle Dees, it really only took a couple of hours for the entire process to run its course. Just like the gas, the light ended up practically 'self-replicating.' One light-maker helped another light-maker helped another, and so on and so forth. Heart by heart, paw by paw, the world banished the darkness.

Not long after we finished clearing out the castle and were discussing where to go next, the news came in from Magolor's device: The gas was gone. We'd saved the planet. The solution was so simple, once we managed to find it—once Sakura managed to find it and Bandanna Dee pointed out how to make it work.

I just wish the army had known about it during the war. So many soldiers could have lived to see at least another day. So many soldiers could have avoided having 'succumbed to despair' listed as the cause of death in their official records.

I sigh. I wonder if those who passed away in the battles on the last day ever had their files updated. I could see Arthur being a stickler about it and updating the files to reflect everyone's death, even if he couldn't record the cause. I could equally see him not bothering at all. With Arthur, it can often go either way.

I shake the thoughts of the war away. I really don't want to be thinking about it right now. Not after how good most of the day was.

Sakura made us pancakes and bacon for brunch. Kirby suggested playing board games afterwards, so we gathered in the secret library to do that. (I'm still convinced that Magolor cheated, but what could I do about it? None of the others believed me.) We ended up having some of the Waddle Dees bring in our lunch and dinner, both of which were delicious—chili and cinnamon rolls for lunch, and macaroni and cheese and dried fruit for dinner.