"Gim!"
It's a beautiful day outside on my home planet. When you open your ears, you can hear birds singing, with the occasional shrill cry of the mighty Dyna Blade soaring through the sky. And when you look around, you can see the many flowers blooming, and sometimes the telltale smile of a Lovely. On days like these, Dream Landers such as myself...
Should be having a nice, peaceful stroll down a quiet path. In my case, alongside a teenage human boy with spiky brown anime hair, big baggy pants, and a giant key for a sword.
"Thanks for showing me the healing powers of the Fountain of Dreams, Kirby!" he said. "After that sparring match we had, I really needed it. I had no idea that a little pink puffball could be so tough!"
"Poyo..." I smiled at him before looking up to the sky. The sky was nice and blue, speckled with white clouds. But the sky wasn't what I was really thinking about. In fact, the words of the newest Smash Brother caused me to think of my dad.
My dad is a really nice guy, but you don't want to upset him. He's super strong, and I mean so strong that it would take an army of the most awesome good guys in the universe to even make him sweat!
But what I really love about him is simply the fact that he's my dad. That he made me. That I have the privilege of being the son of the most important resident of the Dream Universe. As I walked down the road, I silently thanked him for making me, and for training me on how to use the powers I inherited from him.
And that reminded me of my time on the planet Equus, where I first unlocked my inner power. I made so many friends there... Too bad they had to pass on...
With a sad look on my face, I took out a few pictures that were taken in Equestria. One of them was a group photo of me; the pink Earth pony Pinkie Pie; the orange Earth pony wearing a cowboy hat, Applejack; the white unicorn with the deep purple mane, Rarity; the yellow Pegasus with the pink mane, Fluttershy; the cyan Pegasus with the rainbow mane, Rainbow Dash; the purple alicorn Twilight; and the young purple dragon with the green spines, Spike. Another was of me kicking apple trees with AJ. Next was one of Rainbow Dash trying to outrace me on my Warp Star. After that, Pinkie and me dancing together.
Each and every one of them was amazing and unique in their own way. Rainbow Dash had the determination of Susie rebuilding the Haltmann Works Company from scratch, and if the Pegasus had the smarts to do it, the company would have been all built in a week. Pinkie Pie, while a little too crazy for me sometimes, always managed to make me smile with her antics. Rarity would generously offer her advice on how I could use my various Abilities stylishly. Applejack would always let me eat any leftover apples after harvest, and she got a kick out of my enormous appetite. Fluttershy cared so deeply for animals and cute creatures like me, so she would be right at home in Dream Land. Twilight Sparkle was such a bookworm that loved to research things but wracked her brain trying to figure me out, though she quickly put that aside when she learned something very surprising about me. And Spike was your everyday boy who loved comic books and liked helping Twilight with things, and he thought I was an awesome guy due to having sweet powers and using them to save my home planet time and time again.
But I would never be able to see them in person again. They were taken away from me by natural causes. Nothing will be able to replace them...
"Hello! Earth to Kirby!" Sora's sudden exclamation snapped me out of my obliviousness to what was going on around me as I thought about my dad and the Mane Six. "I was asking how you're so strong. Can you answer that? Or at least show me how?"
"Poyo!" The answer to his question was at King Dedede's castle. It was a long way there, so instead of walking, I took out my pink cell phone and got ready to press a button on it.
But I didn't need to, because we saw something yellow shimmering in the distance. As it came closer, we noticed that it was in the shape of a star, and that there was something spherical and green on top of it.
"Yo, Kirby!" it said in a cybernetic male voice. The star slowed to a halt three feet in front of us, and the neon green thing jumped off so we could get a better view of it.
It took me a moment to recognize the green robot with the two gloved hands, blue visual lenses, and clear glass vocal module. I beamed when I put two and two together.
"Gim!"
"Yep, that's me!" We gave each other a high five. "Though, you probably forgot this since we last saw each other, but ever since I got my upgrades, I go by Gim-E as well. The E stands for Enhanced. Sorry if my makeover is still making me look less familiar to you. Anyway, what's up, my radical pink buddy? Are you and that human friend of yours busy?"
"Not really," Sora answered. "We're just taking a little walk, that's all. Though I was wondering about why Kirby's so tough. You seem to know him pretty well. Can you tell me anything?"
"I can do you one better. There's a recording you can watch at King Dedede's castle that can teach you the origins of Kirby's power! But I gotta borrow Kirby for a moment, so you'll have to go there on your own." Gim-E motioned towards the Warp Star he rode here on. "Hop on, Kirby! I wanna show you something really cool!"
I nodded and got on. No clue what he wanted to show me, but from the sound of it, I would really want to see it.
"Now follow me!" With a snap of his fingers, wind swirled around him, signifying that he switched to Bluster Mode. Then his eyes flashed yellow. "Ooh, just got an update from my main man Roborygon! I'm not sure if you've met him, Sora, but he's a pretty cool robot. Anyway, let's see here... Interesting... Is that so..." He shook his head. "Gotta make a small change in our plans. Sorry, Sora. I know you wanna check out that video, but you better go home. Don't want you getting involved in this."
"Oh. Uh, okay..." Sora merely walked back the way we came, confusion in his voice.
After he left, Gim-E got onto his head and began spinning quickly, the wind causing him to rise up slowly before soaring away. I followed him on my Warp Star.
Half a minute passed before he finally stopped flying towards wherever we were headed. He turned upright and pointed forward.
"There!"
At first, I didn't see anything.
But after a few seconds, it revealed itself.
A huge black storm cloud peeking over the horizon. Not even ten seconds went by, and it already covered the skies as far as my eyes could see. Strange white spots formed in the cloud, shaping themselves into stars like the dimensional rifts that lead to Another Dimension. Strong winds came from the storm, threatening to pull us in. Luckily, I was clinging tightly to my Warp Star and Gim-E was in Bluster Mode, so we were safe for now.
My eyes were wide as saucers as I watched the storm for a while before I sprouted a determined grin. "Poyo!" This was just what I wanted. A new adventure!
"I knew you'd like it! Now let's go save the day again!" Together, we flew around in search of citizens that needed rescuing.
As we scouted the area, we saw many things getting caught in the storm and yanked into the dark cloud. Some victims included Star Blocks, apples, trees, and a few other kinds of things attached to the ground. And the round, adorable, orange citizens of Dream Land, Waddle Dees. Left and right, the poor, mouth–less creatures were getting lifted off the ground and flung into the star shapes in the storm.
There was no way I'd sit back and let them get sucked into the storm clouds... Especially not my best Dream Land friend Bandana Waddle Dee, who was desperately clinging onto his spear he had thrust into the ground in order to avoid getting pulled in!
"Poyo! Poyo!" I called out.
"Kirby?! I'm so glad you're—whoa!" His spear dislodged itself from the ground, and Bandana Dee got pulled towards one of the white spots.
"Gim-E!"
"On it!" Gim-E threw out his yo-yo, imbued with wind, and it wrapped around my friend before it was too late. "Gotcha!"
Bandana Dee wiggled around in fear before realizing the yo-yo saved him. "Whew, that was a close one... Thanks to both of you!"
"Poyo..." I sighed in relief now that my best friend was saved. But now that he was okay, I shifted my focus to figuring out what's up with the black storm. I had to find out the cause of—
"TREE INCOMING!!!" a girl's voice wailed from very close by.
"Wha—?!" I barely had time to heed the warning, and when I looked where I was going, I saw a big tree branch heading right towards me.
WHAM!
The branch knocked me clean off my Warp Star and into Gim-E, who released Bandana Dee, and all three of us were pulled into the nearest rift.
Most trips I take through dimensional rifts are pretty calm, but this was way different. My whole body got manhandled as I got tossed about in the rift, like a bunch of huge, invisible hands were turning me into a clay sculpture. To say it was uncomfortable is putting it lightly. I'm probably literally unable to vomit, but if I could...
Regaining consciousness, I felt itchy and queasy all over. I couldn't see anything, but I could hear the sound of an ocean splashing against a shore. Was my head stuck in something?
Suddenly, something rolled me onto my back, and I found myself gazing up at a nice blue sky, with a few leafy branches decorating the edges of my line of sight.
I sat up and brushed off the sand that was sprinkled on my face. As I had guessed from the sound of water, I was on a shore somewhere, and I happened to be facing the entrance to what looked like a rainforest.
"Poyo!" I jumped to my feet and got ready for adventure.
"Great, you're awake! Now the gang's all ready to set out!" the girl's voice I heard earlier said.
"Huh?" At my sides stood Gim-E and Bandana Dee, but they weren't the ones talking. The voice came from behind me, so I turned around.
To my surprise, the one who spoke to me... was a pony.
A unicorn mare with a coat colored like lilac flowers, a mane colored blue like the ocean, purple hooves, and happy magenta eyes.
"Hi there, Kirby! My name's Izzy!"