//------------------------------// // Royal Mishaps // Story: "Can I Keep Him?" // by pepdog1 //------------------------------// "Meta Knight!" Bandanna Dee ran into the courtyard after the knight. Meta turned as he heard his name, confused as to why the king's personal guard wasn't asleep. It was six o'clock-ish, after all. "Bandanna." He replied. "Why are you up at this hour? What is it you so desperately need?" "Hold on... g-give me a sec..." The Waddle Dee adjusted his trademark bandanna, still panting from the running. "Need to... catch my breath..." Meta waited. But no matter how long he waited, nothing would prepare him for these next two words. "Kirby's missing!" Meta drew a blank on that sudden outburst. "Come again? Kirby... is missing?" Bandanna nodded. "Since morning! Tokkori heard a weird sound this morning at four-ish, and when he woke up, Kirby was gone! We've been looking everywhere all morning!" Meta Knight stood still for a moment, staring at the Waddle Dee. "I'll go get the guards." "I'll get the king." Bandanna nodded, running away again. Meta Knight wrapped the Dimensional Cape around himself, and teleported off. Magolor squeaked as he saw Discord. I say squeaked because even though it was going to be along the lines of a scream, Discord had covered his mouth with his paw. "Mph! MmmmmMMMHP!" Discord didn't know whether to be amused or downright laugh-until-he-fainted-amused. This little creature, as weird as he was, was hilarious! "Now, don't be afraid, little one!" He smiled. "I am Discord, the God of Chaos! Well, more like the gathering and physical personification of chaos, but God has a much better ring to it, doesn't it?" He started laughing, but his chuckles were cut off by a clicking from behind him. "Let Master Magolor go. Now. The barrel of some sort of... gun was looking Discord in the face as he turned around. He chuckled again, though it was a little on the nervous side. "Oh please, random voice that came out of nowhere! I just want to be friends with this little guy! Magolor, is it? And I'm only just making sure he doesn't shout. I'm not hurting him!" "... You may want to reconsider that statement before I shoot you with my ion cannon." "Reconsider?" Discord looked down at Magolor, who was seemingly trying even harder to get away. Discord let him go, though not before wrapping around him with his snakelike body. Magolor quickly tried (in vain) to escape, gasping for air. "C-couldn't... b-breathe...." He choked out, Discord put his hands --well I say hands, but it really is more of a paw and a...foot-- up into the air, turning back to the Lor's cannon. "Um... oops?" The cannon started to charge up. "How was I to know he couldn't breathe?!" Discord exclaimed. "I was just curious! Come on, I can help you! I don't exactly know what you need help with, but if you're here you must need something! I can take little Magolor here to see the princess!" The cannon didn't stop, and was almost at full power. Discord covered his face with his arms. Of course, he could teleport away, but best to put the ship into a false sense of security. "Lor..." The cannon still hummed, but didn't fire. "Yes, master?" "Don't shoot." Though she was hesitant, the Lor soon put the cannon away. "Yes, master." Discord dropped his arms, still wrapped around the little alien. He looked at Magolor, smiling widely. "Oh! So you'll come!" Magolor sighed. "With the engine gone, I can't get off the ground. I'd have to go out and find it anyway, so I might as well have help from somebody who knows the land." Discord's smile somehow got even bigger. "Yes! I'll help you find the engine! Come with me!" He teleported a few meters away before walking out, making sure Magolor was following him. Magolor waved one last time to the Lor before following behind. "I'll come back, Lor." He whispered. "I promise." The Lor Starcutter sighed as soon as they left. "I hope you do, master... I hope you do..." Magolor was rather scared, having to follow this... thing around, but he had no other choice. Besides, Discord wasn't going to hurt him, right? He seemed like a nice guy. On the inside, at least. Discord, however, was delighted. That had gone rather easily, in fact easier than he had expected! Maybe a little too easily... But whatever. The point was, he had done it. He had found what Celestia was hiding from him. And now that he had taking Magolor away from the Lor, when Celestia came back, she'd be in for a shock. ...Or so he thought. Of course, he had no idea that Celestia wasn't hiding anything from him. But that doesn't matter. After all, maybe his little mishap will strike up some chaos! Dedede put a flipper over his mouth, looking at Meta Knight attentively as he explained what Bandanna had told him. True, he was tired, and true, he usually didn't care about what Kirby did, but the way Meta explained it made it seem so... important. "We have to find him." He muttered, his flipper sliding up and scratching under his crown-hat-thing. "Who knows what might happen if we don't?" "I didn't know you cared so much about the little guy, Dedede." Escargon smiled, leaning on the arm of the throne. Dedede looked back at the snail with a slight scowl. "I don't." He insisted. "I'm more worried about me. I mean, what if I go missing! We can't have that!" He closed his eyes to prove his point, but as it got no reaction other then a few skeptical looks and sly smiles, he gave in. "Alright, I'm worried about him. And, I also don't want any of you to go missing, either..." Bandanna chuckled. "Aw, I always knew you had a soft side, sire!" Dedede smiled and chuckled softly too. "Yeah... But I can be stern too. Get all the guards and split up!" He stood up. "Search all over Popstar if you have to! Heck, search Ripple Star and even Shiver Star! We will find--" Vwoosh! Everybody stared at the spot Dedede once was. "You guys saw that, right?" Escargon asked, pointing a shaking finger at the spot. Meta Knight turned around with a flick of his cape. "Guards! The king has gone missing! We must go find him at once! Nobody is to rest until we do!" Escargon sat down on the throne as Meta left, shell shocked. "He just... disappeared." He said, almost not believing what he had was. "Just like that. W-where could he have gone? People don't just disappear like that, and there he went. Poof. Gone." Bandanna went up to him, taking his hand into his paw. He didn't say anything, but Escargon appreciated the gesture all the same, and it made him smile, until he thought of one small thing. "Who's going to be king while Dedede is gone?"