When we last left our heroes, they where in multiple different sets of problems. Kirby had only just managed to become friends with the very worried Twilight Sparkle, Meta Knight and Magenta were trapped inside an alleyway with the CMC blocking their way out (I know, REAL scary!), Steven, or Waddle Dee Number 17, was trying to make the princesses understand him using only sign language and his terrible charade skills, and Dedede was nowhere to be seen, and probably still unconscious, or maybe even dead! Will Twilight be able to find the Kirby's friends before something bad happens to them, like getting tickled into submission by the CMC? Find out!
Magenta calmly walked forwards, towards the CMC. Meta Knight tried to stop her, but tripped over his cape and fell on his face.
The CMC started backing away as Magenta got closer. Seeing this, Magenta started to speak.
"We mean you no harm." She said, "My name is Magenta, and my colleague here is Meta Knight. We are from a peaceful land called Dreamland, and we need your help..."
King Dedede awoke in a very strange and scary place. It was a dim cave, with millions of holes and glowing green walls. The holes seemed to be crawling with bugs of some sort, with green eyes. This place was definitely not Dreamland.
He was suddenly picked up off of the ground by the top of his coat.
"Hey! Put me down! I am the king and I demand you to PUT ME DOWN!!!" He yelled.
He was suddenly spun around. He came face to face with a tall, green haired, black alicorn with bug wings, cat-like eyes, holes in her legs and horn, and very sharp teeth. Dedede was being held up by one of her front hooves. He became terrified.
"A king, you say?" The Changeling Queen cackled. "The king of what?"
"D-D-Dreamland." Dedede stuttered. "I'm the king of Dreamland."
Chrysalis looked Dedede up and down for a bit, but then almost dropped him in surprise. "Why, you're a penguin!"
Dedede crossed his arms. "So what? If you don't put me down, I'll set my Waddle Dees on you!"
Chrysalis put the angry king down. "You're not from here, are you?"
"So what if I'm not?" Dedede answered. "I'll just overthrow the monarch and begin my reign of terror!"
Chrysalis smiled. "Not much of a lover, I see."
Dedede shook his head.
"Well, then do I have a proposition for you..."
Waddle Dee 17, or Steven, was on a chariot in the air. He had finally finished telling the princesses Luna and Celestia about himself, and they had decided that a certain Twilight Sparkle would be able to help him to find Dedede and get home.
The two white pegasi at the front landed gracefully in front of the library. "This is your stop, Mr Dee."
Steve hopped off of the chariot and watched it fly away.
As he turned around, he noticed something very strange about the library. It was a tree!
He opened the door and peeked inside. Nobody was there. Walking inside, he noticed something sleeping on a pile of books. Curious, he went and poked it...
"Mmm... *snort* Ug... wh- what? AAAHHH!!!!"
Spike awoke suddenly, scaring Steven and causing him to fall over backwards.
"Twilight!!!" Spike shouted. "I'm being attacked by a orange beach ball with eyes!!!"
Steven tried to calm the baby dragon down by waving his arms. It didn't work.
"AAAHH!!! NOW IT"S TRYING TO HIT ME SO THAT I STOP YELLING!!! IT HAS ARMS!!! ARMS ARE SCARY!!!"
Waddle Dee 17 started to wonder what could've made the little dragon so loud, and why he was so easy to scare. He was a fire breathing dragon! He shouldn't be scared of anything! Steve wondered who was more scared; him or the dragon?
His thoughts were interrupted by footsteps, coming from the staircase...
Meta Knight and Magenta were on their way to Twilight's library, riding on the backs of the CMC. They had been asked many questions by the little fillies about things like where they came from, what they were, and who Kirby and Dedede were.
The group suddenly came to a halt. "Good news, everyone!" Applebloom said. "The library i' just down the road!"
The three fillies started running, only to be stopped by two other fillies, a pink one with purple hair and a grey one with grey hair. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
"I thought that you were too old to play with toys anymore, Applebloom." Diamond Tiara mocked.
"Toys? What toys?" Applebloom asked, before realising that they were talking about Magenta and Meta Knight. "Oh, those toys. Those don't belong to me, they belong to..."
"Her cousin!" Sweetie Belle said.
"Yeah," Scootaloo continued, "We're bringing them back home because she didn't want them to get dirty!"
"Sure, your cousin! And... who exactly is this cousin of yours, Applebloom?"
"Um, er, ah.... Jerald Brown!" Applebloom answered. "Yeah. He's very young, only two years old! I didn't even know him until this morning!"
"I thought that you said that it was a she." Silver said.
Magenta, who was sitting on Sweetie Belle's back, whispered something into the white unicorn's ear.
"I also cut myself!" Sweetie said suddenly.
Magenta quickly got a knife out of mid air and cut the filly on the flank.
"Really?" Diamond asked. "Let's see it."
Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at her, wondering how the unicorn would be able to get out of the mess she made.
Sweetie turned around, showing the pink pony her cut.
Diamond scowled. "Well, I guess you should go then." She mumbled unhappily. "Come on Silver."
As soon as the two fillies walked off, the CMC sighed.
"That was a close one." Scootaloo said. "If they found out that you guys were inter-dimensional-whatever-it-is-you-call-yourselves then they would probably try to steal you, or something like that!"
"Luckily, they didn't, then." Magenta smiled. The fillies laughed, and then continued on their way.
Twilight rushed up the staircase.
"Spike!" She shouted. "What happened? Are you OK?"
"I'm up here in the bed!"
As Twilight got up the stairs and into the main room, the noticed a lump under the covers of her bed. Suddenly, Spike's head popped out.
"It's over there! Look!"
Twilight looked to where Spike was pointing. Behind a pile of books was an orange beach ball. It looked scared.
Pinkie walked out from behind Twilight, with Kirby on her back. As soon as the pink star warrior saw the frightened Waddle Dee, he jumped up and ran towards him.
Spike became hysterical at the sight of this. "AAAAHHH!!! There's more of them!!!!! We're under attack!!! Everypony and dragon for him and herself!!!"
He ran out of the library, quickly, before anything bad could happen. Or at least that is what he would've done, if he hadn't tripped over the first step of the staircase and fall down it, only coming to a stop when he was levitated by Rarity.
"Oh, you poor thing! Are you hurt?"
"Not anymore." Spike smiled.
Pinkie laughed. "Kirby is not going to hurt you, Spike! I don't think his friend will, either..."
She looked towards Kirby, who was currently hugging a very confused Waddle Dee 17.
Twilight came closer to the duo. "Don't worry, we won't hurt you." She said to Steve, patting him on the head.
Suddenly, Pinkie jumped up. "Where are the other two? Kirby said that three of his friends followed him!" She shouted. "We have to find them before somepony else does!!!"
The main six were about to get up to go look for them, when suddenly the door burst open.
The CMC came rushing into the library. "Twilight!" Scootaloo shouted. "You'll never guess what we found!"
Pinkie Pie jumped with joy when she saw Magenta and Meta Knight riding on the backs of the CMC. "You found Kirby's friends!"
The two star warriors jumped off of the CMC's backs, only to quickly get ambushed by one of Kirby's hugs. Well, Meta Knight was ambushed, at least. For some reason, Kirby seemed to really dislike Magenta.
"Well," Rainbow Dash said. "That was easy! We already found all three of your friends! Now, let's get you guys back home!"
Magenta blocked her from getting to the door. "King Dedede is still not here!" She told her.
"Why do you care about what happened to Dedede?" Kirby asked. "You're the one who tried to kill him!"
Magenta sighed. "I still stand on my decision, but when you're stuck in an alternate universe then sometimes you have to team up with your enemies."
Kirby crossed his arms and turned away. "Meta Knight," He said, "Tell Magenta that I'm not talking to her."
Meta Knight didn't do anything. He was on the other side of the room, being examined by Fluttershy.
"Ooh, what's this?" She asked, lifting up his cape. "Wings? Ooh, they would be useful, wouldn't they?" She walked in front of him, and tapped his mask. "Is this thing a part of you, or can you take it off?"
Meta Knight started to get annoyed, and so wrapped his cape tightly around himself, disappearing from view. This surprised Fluttershy.
"Where did he go? Was it something I said? Is he angry at me?"
Magenta chuckled. "It's his invisibility cloak. He'll follow us, I'm sure of it."
Rainbow Dash flew up. "What are we waiting for?" She asked. "Let's go find King Dedede!"
Applejack stopped her. "Now, hold on just one second!" She said. "If we're look'en for Dedede, then who is that lil' fella there?" She asked, pointing a hoof at Steve, who was being tickled into submission by the CMC with Twilight's quills.
Kirby whispered something to Pinkie, who translated it for the rest of the ponies. "That's a Waddle Dee; one of Dedede's minions. This one is called Steve."
"Well," Applejack asked, "If that's not Dedede, then what does he look like?"
"Whatever he is," Twilight told her, "It can't be as weird as what we've already seen..."
"So, you think that we're weirder that a giant penguin who wears a red cloak and wields a giant hammer?" Magenta asked, leaning against the wall with one hand.
"No, but... Wait, what? A penguin?"
"Well," Applejack smiled, ignoring Twilight, "Now that we know what he looks like, we better go find him! Yeeehaw!"
"We wanna come, too!" Applebloom said to her older sister.
"No, Applebloom. It's too dangerous. You stay here with Spike. We need somepony to look after the pets while we're away."
Spike suddenly dropped down in front of Applejack. "NOOO!!!! Please! I beg of you!" He cried, remembering what happened last time he was asked to look after the pets.
Scootaloo, feeling a bit cheeky, decided to put Spike into even more misery. "What he means is that he doesn't want you to go, because he doesn't want you to get hurt!" She said.
Rarity came up to the little dragon. "We'll be fine, my little Spikey Wikey!" She said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Just stay here, and we'll be back in no time!"
And with that, they went to find King Dedede. The main six where about to find out that finding the king was going to be easier than they thought. It was getting him back home that was going to be a problem...
"So let me get this straight..." Dedede said after listening to Chrysalis's proposition. "I help you take over this world, and in return I get to get rid of my lifelong enemy, Kirby?"
"Indeed."
The king pondered over this for a moment. "You have a deal!" He said finally, taking the changeling queen's hoof and giving it a firm shake.
"Excellent!" Chrysalis exclaimed. "Because phase one is just about to begin..."
The main six ran to the outskirts of Ponyville, with the star warriors and Steve riding on their backs. They had heard from a few of the locals about the sighting of a strange penguin (Well, OK, it was only one of the locals, but still...). They went along with it, even though it was only a very vague explanation from Derpy Hooves.
"There's a penguin over there." She had said simply, pointing off into the distance. It was the only clue the main six had, so they decided to roll with it.
As they reached the top of the hill, they saw Dedede, standing on top. Kirby, happy to see the king, ran up to him.
Meta Knight noticed something, suddenly. Dedede was... flickering?
"That's not the king..."
(Put THIS music on while reading this part. It adds a energetic atmosphere. End it when you see the *)
The ten suddenly heard powerful laughter filling the sky around them. Before you could say "Poyo!" they were suddenly split into groups of two by walls made of crystal. Since there was no roof, Rainbow Dash instantly tried to fly out of the trap. But she was instantly flung back to the ground with a zrrrch sound.
"Nice try, rainbow hair!" Dedede laughed from what seemed to be a speaker that had suddenly appeared in front of each pony. "There's a force field! Sentient creatures can't pass through it."
"What in tarnation are you doing, Dedede?" Applejack shouted. "We've gotta get you back home, and all you're doing is delaying the inevitable!"
"Be quiet, you country bumpkin! All you gots to do is get through this here labyrinth without die'n! Simple!"
But, as you know, nothing is ever as simple as it seems...
Meta Knight walked along the light blue crystal hallways, Fluttershy trotting quickly behind him. The little Pegasus was whimpering with fear every time she saw something new, like when she saw a strange shadow.
After getting scared for the tenth time in a row, Fluttershy curled up into a ball. "I can't do it!" She cried. "It's too scary!"
Meta Knight turned around. "We don't have time for this..."
Fluttershy lifted her head slightly. "I-I'm sorry... Go on without me..."
Meta Knight sighed. Note to self. He thought. Candy coloured ponies do not make good partners... I think I prefer Kirby...
He walked up to the shivering Pegasus. "Listen," He said, "I'm not going to let anything hurt you. Just follow me, and you'll be fine."
Fluttershy looked up at the star warrior "O-OK..." She got up and gave the blue knight a hug. "Th-thank you, Meta Knight. I appreciate it."
Meta Knight, feeling a bit uncomfortable, broke away from the yellow mare's arms. "Let's just get going."
Neither of them knew, but the end of the labyrinth wasn't that far away. Not far at all. It was getting out that was going to be the tricky part...
Pinkie Pie hopped happily through the labyrinth, with Kirby riding on her back.
"Why do you think that Dedede would do what he has?" Pinkie asked Kirby, hopping down another corridor.
"I don't know." Kirby answered. "Maybe he wants to know what the cake tastes like in this dimension, and so he is stopping us from going home until he gets a piece. That's what I would do."
The two giggled at the thought of this, but their happiness was soon interrupted by a loud rumbling.
"Wha-a-a-a-a-at's ha-a-a-a-a-a-a-apne-e-e-e-e-e-ening?!?!?" Pinkie said, her voice vibrating due to the ground shaking.
Suddenly, the floor gave way.
Rainbow Dash flew slowly through the corridors, still a bit sore from flying into the force field. She would've gone much faster if she didn't have Steve with her.
"You don't talk much, do you little guy?"
Steve shook his head.
"Can you even speak at all?"
Another shake.
"Why not?"
Steve stared at Rainbow, a look of bemusement on his face.
"Oh, right. No mouth. But then how do you eat?"
Steve was about to somewhat answer the question when about twenty robotic arms came out of the walls on either side of the corridor, each of them with a big hand on the end.
"WHAT THE....?!?!?"
The hands tried to grabbed the two. Rainbow Dash bucked one, ripping the hand off of the tube like arm and knocking it into another one, ripping that one off it's arm too.
"Oh, yeah! Two for the price of one, grandma!"
Steven quickly reached backwards, grabbing two star shaped things. Rainbow Dash soon realised that they were ninja stars. Steve threw them with a surprising amount of skill. They crisscrossed, cutting two of the hands off of their arms, before returning to Steve.
"Whoa! What else can you do?"
Steve winked at her, and then jumped onto her head. He suddenly pulled out a rake, which he swung around like a windmill.
As the hands got closer, they got ripped out of their sockets.
Rainbow Dash smiled. "You keep them away, and I'll find a way out! Hold on tight!"
She started zooming down the hallways, with Steve knocking away anything that the maze threw at her. The duo soon turned a corner, coming into a room that was much wider than the others. The roof was also taller.
They heard a phwoomf behind them. As they turned around, they saw that a door had blocked their way out.
But, that wasn't the bad thing. The bad thing was that they had a giant metal manticore standing in front of them...
Twilight trotted quickly through the labyrinth. She was panicking. Magenta was doing her best to calm her down.
"OOOOHHHH!!!! What if something happens to one of them!?! What if they get hurt?!?! What if...... What if...!?!?!" Twilight started to hyperventilate.
"Whoa!" Magenta said. "Calm down! Nothing bad is going to happen to them! I know that Meta Knight is a skilled swordsman, Kirby has amazing powers and the Waddle Dee probably knows how to take care of himself. I don't know about your guys though..."
Twilight took a deep breath. "Well..." She told the star warrior. "Rainbow Dash does seem to know how to use her strength to her benefit, Applejack has a rather strong buck, Fluttershy can do "the stare" and Pinkie Pie... Well, she's just Pinkie Pie! I'm not too sure about Rarity though..."
Twilight turned to Magenta. "Why doesn't Kirby like you?" She asked.
"Well," The star warrior answered. "It might have something to do with me trying to assassinate King Dedede...."
"You did WHAT?!?!"
"Never mind about that!" Magenta answered, trying to get off the subject. "What matters is that we find out why Dedede is doing all this."
Twilight nodded. "I don't think that he's doing this on his own." She said. "He probably has some sort of help from a pony. How else could he have made this giant crystal labyrinth so quickly? Unless for some reason the portal made him go back in time before he came here... Buuuuut, I think it's the first one. Better not to complicate things."
The two were suddenly stopped by a sound.
RRRRRROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRR......
The two slowly turned around.
"Oh.... NOVA...... What is that thing?!?"
"That's... an URSA MAJOR!!!!"
Rarity and Applejack ran though the crystal maze, occasionally stopping to catch their breath.
"Why did this have to happen to me?!" Rarity moaned as they ran down yet another corridor.
"Shut your yap and run!" Applejack shouted back. "The faster we do this, the faster we can go get Dedede and bring those strange creatures back ta their own world!"
"Well, at least this place is pretty..."
Her thoughts were interrupted by a giant hammer coming down in front of them. Applejack stopped Rarity a only few inches from where the hammer landed.
"What in tarnation?!?" Applejack cried. "Is Dedede try'en to kill us? What's with the hammer?"
She was interrupted by a sound behind her. The two turned around. More hammers were appearing out of nowhere and crashing to the ground with tremendous force.
"RUN!!!"
The two ran as fast as they could to avoid getting squashed. They soon came to a dead end.
"What are we going to do?!?" Rarity cried. "WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?!?!?"
Suddenly one last hammer came out of the wall and crashed to the floor, only centimeters away from them. A giant crack soon appeared, making it's way in between the two mares.
The floor underneath Applejack and Rarity suddenly crumbled away, dropping them into a large, black hole...
Now, before we see if our heroes make it out of the labyrinth alive, let's see what is happening back in Dreamland...
Escargoon paced quickly up and down the hall.
"What are we going to do?!?" The snail asked himself. "Without the king around somebody has got to take over, but who?"
Suddenly his mouth burst into a sinister smile. With the king gone, there's only one person left for the job... He thought to himself.
Me.
He shouted out to a group of Waddle Dees that were playing cards on the other side of the room.
"Get up, you slackers! Just because Dedede is gone, doesn't mean that you don't have jobs to do! GO!!!"
The Waddle Dees ran off, scared. Escargoon smiled.
"I like this job." He said to himself. "A lot. And I think that I'll be keeping it..."
Meta Knight and Fluttershy walked down calmly through the labyrinth, the star warrior holding tightly onto the Pegasus's wing.
As they came into a big room with a tall roof, Fluttershy noticed something sitting in the corner.
"Is that a... kitten?!"
Sure enough, there was an orange kitten sitting in the corner, licking itself clean.
"What is this kitten doing inside this labyrinth?"
Suddenly a powerful laugh filled the room. A speaker on a pole lowered itself down from the ceiling.
"That's not just a kitten!" Dedede's voice said. "It's also part Scarfy!!! Watch out, it has a very short temper!"
Meta Knight's eyes glowed red through his mask. "Fluttershy, run."
"B-but..."
"RUN!!!"
The yellow mare did as she was told, and flew up to the corner opposite the strange hybrid.
A small canon, only as big as Angel Bunny, came out of the ground. With a small ping! it shot a small pebble at the Scarfy-cat.
The kitten looked at it, then suddenly roared, showing its fangs. It suddenly grew giant, it's claws became huge, it's teeth became like those of a Ursa Major and its two cute beady eyes became one big eye. Even Dedede got a fright from seeing it.
Fluttershy hid her face under her hooves, too scared to watch. Meta Knight attacked it, realizing that it would kill them both if he didn't get rid of it. Flinging his cape off, he flew up to it's face and stabbed its eye with his trusty sword, Galacta.
The Scarfy swiped at Meta Knight with one paw and held his eye with the other. The blue warrior dodged the first attack, but the second swipe caught him off guard and sent him flying towards the ground. The Scarfy then wrapped its tail around Meta Knight and brought him up to his face.
"You'll pay for what you did!" The Scarfy hissed, bringing his paw up and taking Meta Knight's mask off. He then started squeezing, like a boa constrictor squeezing his prey. The star warrior tried to fight back, but he had dropped Galacta and was now defenseless.
The Scarfy soon got bored and flung Meta Knight into the wall. The star warrior dropped to the ground, limp and lifeless, and a light blue colour, the sure sign that he was hurt.
Fluttershy peeked out from behind her hooves, only to see the Scarfy laughing at the fallen warrior before raising his paw to finish him off. She became furious.
"HOW DARE YOU HURT HIM!?!?!" She shouted.
The Scarfy looked up, only to see Fluttershy dive-bomb him in the face. As he rolled backwards, the mare grabbed his front paw and threw him to the other side of the room. He hit the wall, hard, and turned into a pile of dust.
Fluttershy flew quickly to the fallen knight's side. "Oh, are you OK?! Please tell me that you're OK!!!"
Meta Knight opened one eye and looked up at the Pegasus. "I-I'll be fine... Th-thanks to you."
Fluttershy started crying happily as she pulled him into a hug.
Suddenly there was a loud rumbling from behind them. The two looked, just in time to see a door open. On the other side, there was grass and the sky.
Fluttershy lifted the knight onto her back and walked outside. As soon as they were out, the door shut.
The two lay on the grass, Meta Knight laying his head on the Pegasus's back. His midnight blue colour was returning. Fluttershy looked back at the labyrinth.
I hope that they're OK. She thought.
And now, there was nothing left to do, but wait...
Unfortunately for both you and Fluttershy, we won't be finding out about what happens to the others until the next act. But, before we end this story, lets take a small look at something happening on the other side of Equestria, in the middle of the desert near a small town called Appleloosa...
He woke up to total darkness. Who is he, you ask? Well, he didn't really know. He was supposed to be dead. Twice. But that didn't matter right now. What mattered was finding out where he was.
He soon realised that it was dark because he was lying face down in some sand, and so he decided to get up. Now would be a good a time as any for me to describe him to you.
He was a light lavender puffball, sort of a Twilight Sparkle colour, if you can imagine. He had large, violet eyes that were currently half opened as he tried to get used to the change in lighting. Two golden wing-like metal appendages (or arms, I guess) came out of his sides where a normal puffball's arms would normally come out. (And of course by arms I mean stubs.) These wings (let's just call them that for now) had two claws each in the middle, hanging down. They also had big heart shapes at the ends, which he mostly used to control his flight (yes, he could fly). Each wing also had a number of brightly coloured and quickly flashing crystals hanging off of them, that of which were currently dragging in the sand as he propped himself up with his claws. Also, he had a pair of sharp fangs inside his mouth.
His clothing consisted of a red and blue two-pointed jesters cap upon his head, decorated with triangles and circles, a red bow-tie around his neck and two brown and slightly scuffed boots with yellow laces on his feet. A bit of a freak if you ask me. (But don't ever say that to his face, or we're both dead, alright, dear reader? And it won't be pretty.)
The jester, for that is what he was, managed to get up on his feet. As he did so, he looked up. The clouds looked... strange... nothing like he had ever saw in Dreamland. And where was he, exactly?! Raisin Ruins? Rock Star?! Some crazy under-grown part of Green Greens?!? Well he didn't care. As long as he didn't run into that horrid puffball, Kirby. After what happened (and only NOVA knows exactly,) he never wanted to see that menace again.
Then suddenly...
"Hey, you!!!"
That voice wasn't him. Oh no. It had come from behind. It was a female voice, too. Maybe it belonged to Fumu, that annoying girl who thought she was smarter then everybody else. Or maybe it was that demon beast, Lalala, and her brother, Lololo, who used to be one entity, Lola. No. As he soon found out, it wasn't any of these Dreamlandians. Heck, this person wasn't even from Popstar, or Gamble Galaxy at all!
It was a young female buffalo.
"Are you lost?" She asked, tilting her head to one side. "I don't think I've ever seen something like you in Equestria!"
The jester blinked, confused. "I'm sorry, where did you say I was?!"
"Oh! You can talk! Well, to answer your question, you're in Equestria! Where else do you think you would be?!"
He didn't answer. A plan had just popped into his head.
This place is definitely nowhere near Popstar. He thought. Maybe I could take this planet over. There's no Kirby to stop me, no stupid comet messing up my plans and bringing me back as a horrible monster... It just might work!
He suddenly snapped out of his train of thought as the buffalo spoke up and asked another question.
"My name is Little Strong Heart, but you can call me L.S.H. for short. What's your name? Do you even have a name?"
The jester smiled at the buffalo, a red and blue flash dancing across his violet eyes.
"My name..." he said, "Is Marx."
What is Marx doing in Equestria? How did he get there? Didn't the portal close? And, maybe more importantly, with Twilight and the others be able to make it out of Dedede's labyrinth alive? And what does Discord have to do with all of this?! Will the author ever stop her ranting and random notes?! Find out the answer to most of these questions and more next time in Act 3: Attack at Appleloosa!