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// Chapter 3: Equestriabound (Gim) 
// Story: Kirby Star Allies: Friend Hearts are Magic (REMASTERED) 
// by The Kelduo 
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Rebooting… 10 percent… 25 percent… 75 percent… 99 percent… All systems fully rebooted. Who knew a reboot every once in a while could be so refreshing? Unless you're a robot like me, you probably didn't know until now.

Activating auditory sensors… “Heads up, everypony. This thing could be dangerous!” Why is it that robots are almost always portrayed as evil? There are good robots too!

Time to find out who the uninformed speaker is. Activating visual monitors and locomotion motors… Having landed on my front, I pushed myself to my feet using my gloved hand. Three beings were detected: To the left, a yellow quadruped with a red mane and tail, and a large pink bow. To the right, a white quadruped with a horn and a purple-pink mane and tail. Directly in front, an orange quadruped with wings and a purple mane and tail.

The orange one spoke aggressively. “It’s looking at us! No doubt it’s ready to attack us!” It spread its wings and took an offensive stance. “I’ve got this!”

Engaging vocal output module… “Hold it!” I parried its right hoof with my hand, much to its fear. “I ain’t here to hurt any of you! Unless you’re evil, in which case…” Retracting my gloved arm into my body, I drew my Sizzle Yo-Yo and pulled a Walk The Dog, making it hover slightly above the wooden floor so as to not burn my current location down. “I’m gonna walk this hot dog right into your faces! You ain’t gonna taste anything hotter!”

“Taste? Dog? Now that don’t make a lick of sense,” the yellow one responded, the others confused as well. “That thing looks nothing like a dog, and why would we even eat a dog in the first place?”

Evaluation: all three subjects had flat teeth, suggesting a vegetarian lifestyle. “Oh, my bad! Didn’t see that you were vegetarians. See, this bad boy is called a yo-yo.” I flicked my wrist to make the yo-yo go down the string, then flicked it back up to return the yo-yo to its original position. “You can pull off all sorts of cool tricks with yo-yos, including one called Walk The Dog.”

The white one questioned, “Isn’t that dangerous? I mean, it’s on fire!”

“Yo-yos aren’t usually on fire, so they're safe for the most part. But this is a special occasion.” I raised my yo-yo in the air, causing a heart-shaped glow to come from it. “My pal Kirby added fire to this one to make it a Sizzle Yo-Yo. With it, I can light hard-to-reach flammable stuff like fuses!”

“It’s still dangerous, though.”

I sighed. “I know that, but like I said, this is a special occasion. I learned recently that my home planet was in danger! Kirby came to my home planet Misteen to recruit me to help him and two other helpers save the universe from a mad wizard who’s trying to free some kind of Dark Lord! But…” I recalled a scene I stored in my memory bank. “The young psychic NESP just had to try out that new spell of his, and now I’m somewhere I don’t know anything about... Heck, I might as well be on a planet thousands of light-years away from the villain's lair!”

“Did you say spell?” the yellow one asked. “Maybe you should go ask Twilight Sparkle about that. She and her friends were having a picnic today in Ponyville Square, but chances are you’ll find her at her castle. Once you leave our clubhouse, just head down the road and you’ll reach the square. As for Twilight’s castle, ya can’t miss it!”

“Cool, thanks!” I started to leave, but something came to my mind. “Uh, you’re not gonna question the fact that you’re helping a robot that randomly showed up in your clubhouse…” I looked up. “...by means of the roof? Sorry about that, by the way.”

“No worries.” The orange one raised her right wing towards the yellow one. “Apple Bloom can fix that up just fine. She’s pretty good at working with wood!”

“And to answer your question…” the yellow one, Apple Bloom, confidently remarked, “...nope, not one bit. Pony, dragon, or robot, we always help others!” She stepped forward. “I’m Apple Bloom!”

The white one stepped forward. “I’m Sweetie Belle!”

The orange one stepped forward. “I’m Scootaloo! And together, we’re…”

All three showed their hindquarters, which each had a shield symbol on them. At the same time, they shouted, “The Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

“It's a pleasure to meet you all! Guess I should introduce myself too. Just like fiction makes it out to be, robots of my kind are each given a number based on the order in which they were constructed.” I pointed a thumb towards myself. “I’m GM-2375, the 2,375th in the GM-series robots, but you can refer to me as my kind are informally called, Gim.”

The crusaders shook my hand one by one. “Howdy!”

“Nice to meet you!”

“Good luck saving the day, dude!”

“From what I’ve heard about Kirby, we’re almost guaranteed to win. But I still appreciate the morale boost, Scootaloo!” I gave one final wave before leaving the clubhouse. Man, we need more creatures like those three! ...Whatever they are. There was no information on their kind at all in my database.