//------------------------------// // 2. A Village of Ponies // Story: The Antithesis of Harmony // by Battery1320 //------------------------------// 2. A Village of Ponies Fluttershy flew high in the sky above her homeland, Kirby on her back and holding her neck tightly. He laughed loudly and joyfully as ever; it had been the first time in a long while that he had enjoyed a good flight in the air such as this, as the situation with Magolor kept the entirety of his time on Landia's back as serious business. The wind was blowing against his face as Fluttershy's hair waved around him, and he could smell the sweet scent steaming out of the flowing locks. The land below them didn't pass by in much of a blur; Fluttershy wasn't going particularly fast. Very fortunate, since this allowed Kirby to once again take in the sheer beauty of the land. Even from this height the colors where reaching out to touch him, but the trees began dropping in abundance, leaving behind gigantic patches of pure green. Just only a few moments later, beige colored structures came into Kirby's bird's-eye view, growing substantially in numbers. Varying in size and shape, the structures looked like houses of some sorts. In addition to the houses, hundreds of colored shapes moved across the spaces between the buildings. Kirby could barely make out the similar physical shape to Fluttershy that the shapes bore, and Fluttershy herself was scanning said colors for her friends – to no avail unfortunately. This problem would be solved though, as Fluttershy's flight descended towards a particularly large tree with some extra details. Whispy Woods? was Kirby's first thought upon seeing the tree, but when Fluttershy landed it became obvious to him that he was completely wrong. The tree had a front door and windows on the front and a balcony in the trees – it was a house, one that Fluttershy had just knocked the door to. The creature that answered was similar to Fluttershy – a pony. Her coat was a light purple and instead of wings she had a horn in the middle of her head. Said horn poked out of a deep purple mane with a notable pink stripe running down it, and her tail followed suit with the color and the stripe. Similarly, her eyes bore the same indigo color as her mane. "Hello Fluttershy!" The purple pony greeted, "Do you need anything?" Fluttershy smiled timidly and extended her wing to the ground, allowing Kirby to use it as a slide, "Oh my goodness!" the pony squealed. "Isn't he adorable?" Fluttershy asked, "I found him just outside of my cottage. Kirby, this is my friend Twilight Sparkle." Kirby extended a pointed stub of an arm at Twilight Sparkle, "Haiii!" Twilight couldn't keep herself from releasing an "awww!" at Kirby's squeak; it had to have been the most adorable sound she's heard. She held up a hoof and Kirby's stump hand and allowed him to shake it in some rough form of a handshake. Kirby released Twilight's hoof, "I Kirby, I from Dreamland." Kirby knew he was getting something wrong with that sentence. "Dreamland?" Twilight repeated, "That's..." she paused for thought, "I haven't seen anything in my books regarding a place called 'Dreamland'. Nor anything that even looks like him." "That's why I brought him here first." Said Fluttershy, "I thought you might know something about him." "Not a thing." Kirby looked downwards with a strong frown as he heard this exchange. He had traveled across Dreamland many times in his life, but he had never seen any creatures like these ponies, and had never seen a place like this. Even worse, the ponies had no idea what Dreamland was. His black hole holding stomach sunk lower and lower as the question came into his head: was this even his planet? "What's wrong Kirby?" Asked Fluttershy. Kirby glanced at Twilight, "You... know not... of Dreamland?" Twilight shook her head, "I'm sorry Kirby, I've never heard or read anything of it. Have you at least heard of Ponyville?" Kirby shook his head. "Canterlot?" Kirby shook his head again. "Equestria?" Kirby shaking his head a third time made Twilight step back a little. She was utterly stunned, unable to think of another thing to ask Kirby. He had never heard of Equestria, yet his home land was never mentioned in any history book. Where did he come from? Kirby continued to hold eye contact with Twilight for several seconds as his eyes began glisten, but a tear rolling down his face sealed the deal for both Fluttershy and Twilight. "I'm sorry Kirby, I wish I..." Twilight held her head down. She hardly knew this creature, but the more she thought about Kirby's situation the worse it got for her. Judging from his adorable voice and appearance, Kirby came off as no more than a child to her. The mere thought of a child misplaced from his world with no idea where he is, separated from his friends and family, possibly never seeing them again... Fluttershy must have been thinking the same thing; her head was low and her mane was falling over her face more than normal. Knowing Fluttershy, Kirby's problem probably hurt her more than it did Twilight; her love for animals was unmatched by any other pony in all of Equestria, not to mention that she was the pony who found Kirby. "Wait," Twilight's head rose as the thought struck, "Kirby, how did you get in Equestria?" Kirby and Fluttershy perked up too, and Kirby slowly answered, "Ship... from Halcandra... bring... me and other... here." "That must be it then," Twilight smiled, "there must have been a mistake in the ship's path. Maybe it'll come back to get you and take you back to Dreamland." Kirby's face lit up with his adorable smile again, "Yu-eh wert, it might!" "That's the spirit, Kirby!" Twilight encouraged, instilling hope in both Kirby and Fluttershy. It raised her own spirit to see Kirby's wide open smile again, as well as Fluttershy's timid one. "Besides," Fluttershy added, "you get to be in Ponyville in the meantime. You'll have plenty of company before you go back home. Oh, and that reminds me, do you want to see the rest of me and Twilight's friends?" Kirby nodded and climbed back onto Fluttershy's back, acting out his readiness. "Twilight, do you want to come?" "I can't right now, sorry." Twilight groaned, "Spike kept bugging me about some mustache growing spell and now he needs me to fix some... embarrassing results." "That's okay." Fluttershy managed to say in between a chuckle. "I'll be sure to join you when I'm done." Fluttershy began walking towards the door, "Okay then. Bye Twilight." "Bye Fluttershy, bye Kirby." "Baiii!" Kirby cooed, waving Twilight goodbye. Fluttershy didn't fly around Ponyville now, instead walking on the ground at a moderately slow pace, to allow Kirby to take in the abundance and liveliness of the community. Walking around them through a marketplace, what were just colored shapes before were know living, breathing ponies, each one interacting in some way with another. Some of them conversed with each other, some of them traded food for currency, and some stopped to gawk at Kirby with justified curiosity. Kirby would give them his adorable smile and wave, and most reacted just as Twilight and Fluttershy did before them: "awww!" Kirby then noticed something about the ponies that caught his interest: each pony, bar some of the younger ones, had some kind of marking on their back hips, and no two ponies had the same mark, although some were similar. He turned his head and noticed that Fluttershy herself had a mark as well: three pink butterflies. Kirby tried to discern what it could mean – maybe it meant she was as sweet as a butterfly? Fluttershy's path took her and Kirby to a vendor chock full of apples. Seriously, full of apples; every basket and box was nearly overflowing with them! Kirby's eyes were locked on the luscious, delicious looking fruit, staring at them with a watering mouth as though he was under hypnosis. An orange pony with a yellow mane stood behind the vendor, waving at them and calling Fluttershy's name. "Why hello Fluttershy!" The orange pony said with a heavy southern accent, "What can I do ya fer?" "Good afternoon Applejack," Fluttershy finished the greeting, "How are the apples selling?" "I just started, got a sale just a few minutes ago." "Well, I wish you luck." "Thanks," Applejack leaned her head towards her left, "What're you carryin'? Fluttershy turned to the side to reveal Kirby, who was still drooling at the apples, and Applejack's reaction was of no surprise at all. "Fluttershy," Applejack's face looked like it would split in half with how big her smile was getting, "that is the most adorable little critter I've seen in my life! What is it? Where did you find it?" "It came to me actually, I was just outside my cottage caring for the woodland critters, when this little guy came out of the bushes. It was just so adorable," Fluttershy rubbed her head against Kirby, "that I had to just show it to everypony." "Kaen hyt upplen..." Kirby murmured. "Oh, and it can talk," Fluttershy added, "Kirby? Could you please speak in Equestrian again?" "Kaen hyt upplen..." "It almost sounds like he's saying 'apples'." Applejack concurred. She picked up an apple and held it in front of Kirby, "You hungry little guy?" Kirby's face light up with a wide open smile and he leaped off of Fluttershy at the instance of the offering, holding his arms up and bouncing like an overly exited child. Applejack tossed the apple at Kirby, who ate it so fast that the ponies didn't even see him catch it. Did he? "Well, someone's hungry!" Applejack exclaimed, tossing Kirby another apple, "Can't let a cutie like you go hungry." This time Kirby visibly caught it before eating it, taking the time to thank Applejack – in his language of course. Fortunately he caught his mistake and corrected himself. "Thanks Applejack!" Kirby squeaked before swallowing the apple whole, again. Granted he did eat it at an incredible speed, but it was absolutely delicious! "No problem little guy. What's your name again?" "Kirby." "A pleasure to meet you Kirby. Welcome to Ponyville!" Kirby nodded, his smile stunting the growth of Applejack's smile. This little guy was just too cute. "Well, I'm going to show him to Pinkie Pie now, or Rarity." Said Fluttershy, allowing Kirby to climb onto her back. "Ooh, you'll like Pinkie Pie, Kirby, I guarantee it." Said Applejack. Kirby nodded, and waved Applejack goodbye as Fluttershy began walking away. "See you later Applejack." "See ya." "That thing looks so cute! What is it?! What is it?!" Squealed a high pitched and very loud voice from behind Fluttershy. The sudden outburst scared Fluttershy to the point of knocking Kirby off her back, yet Applejack was laughing almost as loudly as the voice was. As Fluttershy froze and Kirby wailed his arms in humorous panic, a pink pony with a slightly darker pink mane bounced around them by using her four legs as springs, talking so fast that neither of the ponies, especially Kirby, had an easy time understanding her. "He is so cute I have never seen something so cute before where did you find it I want to hug him and love him and call him Puffy!!!" The pink pony squealed. She stopped bouncing and leaned towards Kirby's face, "You are the most adorable thing I've seen! I've never seen anything as adorable as you before – well, actually that would have to be the case for you to be the most adorable thing I've seen, but then there's Gummy; he's adorable—!" "That's enough Pinkie Pie." Applejack finally said in between chuckles, "Yer scaring the poor thing." "I am?" The pink pony asked, still sounding extremely cheerful. One look at Kirby proved Applejack's point: Kirby was on his back, looking up at Pinkie Pie with a wide-eyed face of absolute shock and heavy breathing, "Oh, I'm sorry, let me start over." She leaped into a collection of bushes near Applejack's vendor, and after several seconds of silence, seemingly vanished. Kirby even ran to the bushes and checked them – the pony was gone. Or not. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie, and welcome to Ponyville, what's your name?!" The pink pony squeaked from behind Kirby, freaking him out and making him jump. He turned around to find the pony, once again, in his face. "Puy ku-eg yu genn zic?!" Kirby screamed. "Pinkie, I reckon you stop doing that." Said Applejack with no more humor in her voice, "All yer doing is scaring it." "Yes Pinkie, please, I don't want his first impression of us to be fear." Fluttershy added. "But I always make a good first impression on everypony." Pinkie Pie denied, losing her cheer. "Yeah? Well Kirby here ain't from around here," Applejack corrected, "he ain't seen any of us before and surely wasn't expecting this." Pinkie Pie sighed, "Fine, I'll start over again." "Oh no, that won't be necessary," Fluttershy interjected, "please introduce yourself to Kirby before he, um, runs away." "Okay!" Pinkie Pie chirped, regaining her briefly lost cheer. She turned back to just inches away from Kirby's face and did just as Fluttershy asked, "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie and welcome to Ponyville! What's your name?" Kirby sighed of relief. Finally the pony wasn't acting completely nuts. He opened his mouth to speak, but Pinkie Pie had cut– "Wait, why did I ask for your name? Fluttershy and Applejack already said your name: Kirby! Oh I'm so sill–" "Pinkie Pie!" Applejack shouted. "Woops, sorry." Kirby sighed again, "I Kirby, I from Dreamland." "Dreamland? I never heard of that place before, but it sounds dreamy! Do dreams come true in Dreamland? Oh it would be great if my dreams would come true; we would have parties forever! Hey, that reminds me, I should throw a party for you Kirby – a welcoming party!..." As Pinkie Pie continued to ramble on and on almost senselessly about the details of the party and how great it was going to be, Kirby's smile grew wide and open. Just the thought: not even an hour on this strange new world and he was already making friends! Fluttershy was right, even if he might be gone from Dreamland for a while, he was going to have good new friends to keep him company in the meantime—Wait, what did Pinkie Pie say about cake?! "Tell me Waddle Dee, you are one of my most trusted and loyal waddle dees and you do know where my castle is, right?" "Yes sire!" "Then why do you think my castle is in a forest?!" Great old trees surrounded the King and his servant, looming over them and blocking a large portion of the sun from the ground. More than enough sunlight was around for safe and easy travel, but anything under the leaves were undoubtedly shaded. A trail beneath their feet was carved in a straight path from as far as they could see in one direction to as far as they could see in the other. As it was fairly crowded, King Dedede was not exactly wrong; this forest wouldn't be an ideal place for a castle, so why should Waddle Dee think of stopping here? There wasn't anything important about the forest; there were no wildlife worth stopping to see, and there were no convenient places to stop and rest. The whole situation did not make sense, and Waddle Dee had some explaining to do. "I don't sire," said Waddle Dee in between deep breaths as he stuck his spear into the ground and sat down, "I stopped here...because I was tired...sire." "Tired." Dedede flatly repeated. He had expected an actual excuse, so much so that he had to repeat himself for clarity, "You're tired." "My apologies...sire." "Do you expect them to excuse this?" Waddle Dee sighed and anticipated the King's wrath. He knew he screwed up, and years of working under His rule taught him that all he could do is take it. He cringed at the thought of several different punishments: a heavy slap on the face, thrown at one of the tress, a heavy punch to the face, among many others. The absolute pinnacle punishment for angering the King would be a pernicious strike from his giant hammer. Waddle Dee still held onto the one sliver of hope that the King just might one day understand and hold back his anger. That day apparently was not today. "Get up," Dedede growled as he grabbed Waddle Dee's arm and dragged the poor creature back to his feet, "I shouldn't have to tell you that these passed few days have been very tiring, but I am not about to take a nap in some ridiculous forest in the middle of nowhere!" "But, um, sire...?" Waddle Dee stammered from panic as the King raised his fist. "What?!" "What you just said, it has been, uh, bugging me e-ever since we got here." "What? The forest?" "No. I-I know where your castle is, but I don't know where we are, and I have not seen any other waddle dees or waddle doos since we landed." Dedede paused and brought his raised hand to his chin for thought. Waddle Dee spoke no lie; they have yet to come across any sort of familiar wildlife since they arrived in Dreamland, much less waddle dees or doos. Those creatures are one of the primary inhabitants of Dreamland, they should have seen hundreds of them by now! "You got a point." Dedede muttered. "And I have not seen any of the landmarks we had passed before. Maybe we are in the middle of nowhere." "That puffball runs across nowhere every time he makes a pain of himself." The King muttered. "So what do we do?" "Keep walking until we find something that tells us where we are!" Dedede shouted as he shoved Waddle Dee aside and began walking, "Even if we have to ask for directions – I don't care what we do – we are getting to my castle; I! Want! To! Rest! Now let's go!" Waddle Dee yanked his spear out of the ground and gave his usual "Yes, sire!" as he followed his abusive king, only to be scolded at again in a mere moment. "Oh, and we didn't have to go far to get out of this forest!" Dedede yelled from the other side of three close trees, "What's wrong with you Waddle Dee?!" "I'm sorry sire!" Waddle Dee called back as he was catching up. "Just shut up and follow me." Dedede pointed out to clear land with significantly less trees. What he was specifically pointing at appeared to be a collection of structures, in fact they looked like buildings, "I see some kind of civilization over there. We'll rest there, ask for directions, then get to my castle. Got it?" "Yes sire!" "Shall we stop and see if someone is here sire?" Asked Waddle Dee. He and the King had traveled far away from the forest, and what stood before them now instead of trees was a large, lone, pink and white building – more accurately, an oversized house. Waddle Dee's eyes were locked at the complete beauty the house wore: it was tall, it was elegant, the colors complemented each other, and it had a near countless number of luxurious ornaments strung along its arches and pillars. Not much taller than King Dedede, the front door bore a flat purple color, made more attractive to the eye by the two very well detailed diamond shapes plastered on the top and bottom half. "It's promising enough." The King answered. Although is grumpy frustrated tone and scowled face showed little interest towards the house, Dedede was just as marveled as his servant; the house itself truly was impressive. Although it obviously didn't hold a candle to the glorious and luxurious castle that King Dedede called home, it still prodded his curiosity, and he had discerned that the owner must have been able to give them some sort of guide. As his curiosity demanded, he proceeded to knock his fist against the diamond encrusted door. What appeared on the other side of the door as it opened had startled Waddle Dee and left Dedede dumbfounded, for their expectations were not prepared for what they had seen. Greeting them with a feminine, elegant, and "upper-crust" sounding "Yes?" was a white four legged creature with a beautifully curled purple mane hanging over her head and neck on either side. Underneath the top curl on her head was a thin horn just above her utterly striking and sparkling blue eyes. The creature's fabulous appearance was topped off with her attractive and welcoming smile, which managed to relieve Waddle Dee of his shock somewhat. King Dedede, however, was still completely flabbergasted by what he saw. Offensively so. "Waddle Dee, what is that thing?!" The only thing the question got him was a violently slammed door, at least until a short pause later. "I don't know sire, but I believe you angered it." King Dedede dropped his hammer and lazily glared at Waddle Dee, beaming a nonverbal message of "you think?" towards his servant. He mumbled something about incompetence and knocked on the door again, not at all expecting an answer. The top half of the door moving into the house proved him wrong. "What do you want?" The creature asked with an aggravated groan. She locked her eyes onto Dedede with a piercing glare, far from willing to forgive him for that insult just yet. Dedede got the message that she didn't want him here, so he straightened his stature and tried to make himself seem more formal. It had to get on her good side. Dedede cleared his throat, "I am very sorry ma'am, for saying that, I—" he stopped; the creature was rolling her eyes, unintentionally interrupting him. "I understand that we offended you. Ma'am." Dedede continued the facade, his frustration starting to show in a very slight scowl, "But, please, here us out. We haven't seen anything like you before, and we were just surprised." "Disgusted too." "N-no!" Dedede stammered for a pleasurable message, "Just surprised! In fact, now that I'm getting a good look at you, you're very beautiful." The creature scoffed, brushing off the false compliment, "What is it that you wanderers need? I have work to do." "Directions." Waddle Dee spoke up, "Can you tell us where Mt. Dedede is?" "Never heard of it." The creature shook her head. Both King Dedede and Waddle Dee were shoved back by that shocking statement of hers; it was as bizarre and unbelievable as the creature itself. Dedede initially felt insulted – how could someone not know about him or his glorious kingdom?! "Never heard of it?!" Dedede yelled as he stomped towards the door with a threatening stature, "Don't you lie to me you-" "Back off, brute!" The creature yelled back, "You can't be expecting to help you if you wish to get aggressive. "Don't you dare talk to me like that!" Dedede shouted in her face, "I am K-" "I don't care who you are! Take your anger and your terrible manners somewhere else!" Dedede glared at the creature with the fires of a burning rage in his eyes. No one talks back to the king this way, ever! How dare she put him on the same level as her?! It doesn't matter that he said something to her out of line; he was nice enough to apologize! "Get out of my face, and off of my doorstep. Now." "Sire, I think we should go." Waddle Dee pleaded. He and the creature watched the king for several seconds, and the king himself watched the creature during those same seconds. Waddle Dee could feel the increasing aura of of tension as the two sides came to the brink of war. Dedede only added more tension to this brink by heaving his hammer back over his shoulders. "Sire, please..." Waddle Dee begged, fearing the worst of King Dedede's wrath upon the creature, "We'll just find someone else to get directions from." King Dedede remained silent with his eyes still locked onto the creature. By this point, the three of them lost track of how long they held this position; it had seemed like several minutes almost. Fortunately, through his servant's wish or just not wanting to exert punishment, Dedede finally backed off. He said nothing – didn't even give any attention to Waddle Dee – as he turned from the creature and walked away from the house. Waddle Dee could only release a relieved sigh as Dedede averted the conflict. As much as he respected the king, he had to side with this other creature on this situation. King Dedede made the first offense, and chose only to make the situation worse. "I am very sorry for the king's attitude." Waddle Dee apologized, "He's not normally this rude." "Thank you." The creature said flatly, "At least you aren't a ruffian." "Is it true though? Do you not know where Mt. Dedede is?" "I can assure you that I know nothing of it. I am sorry." "Oh..." Waddle Dee dipped his head downwards, "Well, thanks anyway ma'am." "You're welcome, and good like finding your place." The creature closed the conversation, her tone still tainted by the previous conflict. She closed her door and left Waddle Dee to soak up the thought's in his head about the situation. It didn't make any sense: none of the landscape is familiar, they've yet to see the common wildlife, and the only life he and the king found so far had no idea who they were or where they were from! None of it added up; the Starcutter had to have returned them to Dreamland!... Didn't it? "Sire!" Waddle Dee gave a worried call as he caught up with his king, "Sire, I think we have a serious problem!" King Dedede kept walking without even so much as turning his head. "Sire, please...!" King Dedede said nothing. He just kept walking.