Journey to an Empire
Kirby found himself abruptly awoken for a second time. The puff squeaked as he was hoisted into the air by some unseen force. As Kirby was jostled about, he could make out the sound of Twilight's voice. She sounded pretty frantic about something, though he didn't exactly know what that something was. Looking around Kirby managed to find Spike who seemed to be running around the library, trying desperately to keep up with Twilight and picking up various objects as he went along.
"Come on Spike!" Twilight commanded, "We have no time to lose; we need to get the girls together and get a move on!" Twilight spun around to see how far along Spike was with her tasks only to find him running wildly back and forth, struggling to figure out which ones had the highest priority. The drake was toting a suitcase filled with quills, notebooks, and enchanted inkwells; all ready for note-taking if it ever came to that. Twilight's horn flared with magic before the suitcase was ripped from Spike's grasp, sending the baby dragon to the floor. Before he could protest however, Twilight hoisted Spike into the air with her magic. "Spike you're moving too slow! We need to pick up the pace!"
"Twilight calm down!" the baby dragon retorted. "Even if we got everything packed and everypony together we still wouldn't be able to go anywhere!" Spike pointed towards the clock. "The train station won't be open for a while."
Twilight sighed. Spike was correct. It was far too early to attempt gathering the rest of her friends and the train station wouldn't be open until much later in the day. But the unicorn couldn't simply go back to sleep with the knowledge of having such an urgent task. Twilight simply sat down, contemplating what her next course of action would be. It didn't take too long as the unicorn felt a disturbance in her levitation field. Looking over she saw Kirby starting to struggle within her magical grasp. Twilight stopped her magic, letting Kirby fall to the floor.
"Ah yes." Twilight mused "I almost forgot about you." Kirby looked over to Twilight. The unicorn gazed at him intensely, as if trying to peer into his very soul. Spike walked up to the two and looked at them both.
"Twilight?" he asked softly "Is something bothering you about Kirby? Did he do something wrong?" He was seemingly ignored by the unicorn, until she eventually spoke up.
"No Spike. Kirby didn't do anything wrong." She admitted. "But there's a lot of things that bother me about this little puff." Standing up, the unicorn walked closer to Kirby. Kirby simply watched as Twilight walked around him. She seemed to be studying his body, trying to figure out something about him.
"Poyo?"
Twilight leaned in close, squinting her eyes as her gaze bored into the pink puff. The two looked at each other once more, time seemingly nonexistent.
Then Kirby poked her muzzle.
Rearing back from the unexpected contact, Twilight yelped, flailing her hooves in a slight panic. Then, before she could stop herself, she lost her balance; falling onto her side.
"Ugggh!" she groaned, "I just don't know what to make of it Spike." Reorienting herself, Twilight turned to Spike and pointed towards the puffball behind her. "This little marshmallow has done so many things that don't make sense! "Twilight whipped around to face Kirby once more. "For starters, he can eat large amounts of food in a very short time frame. He ate two whole baskets of apples in the span of 6 seconds!" Spike looked over towards Kirby, who seemed ready to fall back to sleep at any moment.
"I'll give you that." said the drake, "Kirby does seem to love food. You should've seen how he reacted at Rarity's when we fixed breakfast!"
Twilight's gaze narrowed.
"And just how did Kirby react at the mention of breakfast?" asked the unicorn, suspicion evident in her tone of voice.
"Well..." Spike began, scratching the back of his head. "All things considered, it could've been far worse! The worst he did was tackle the table and make a mess." Twilight was caught off guard with this answer.
"Wait, it didn't try to eat you?" She asked. Spike groaned.
"No Twilight, Kirby didn't try to eat me." he replied. Twilight raised a hoof and opened her mouth. "Nor did he try to eat Rarity, or Sweetie Belle." Twilight closed her mouth and dropped her hoof.
"But Spike" Twilight pleaded. "We don't know what its truly capable of! The only things I managed to find out about it is that, it can eat far more than its size suggests, make bubbles, and fly!"
"Wait Kirby can fly?" asked Spike. "How? He doesn't have any wings." Twilight's eye twitched.
"It inhaled a large supply of air and inflated itself." The unicorn began, "Then it began to flap its... arms at a pace far too slow to give lift and floated into the sky." Twilight quivered at the broken laws of aviation. Spike however was intrigued. He turned to Kirby to voice his budding idea, only to find that the puff was now fast asleep once more. Seeing the puff snoozing away so comfortably induced a yawn on the young dragon.
"Well Twilight, I think Kirby has the right idea." He said softly. "We can talk about this a little later. For now we should *yawn* probably rest."
"But Spike-!" But it was no use. Spike, given another opportunity to doze off, had fallen back to sleep rapidly. Twilight looked at the two beings sleeping on the floor of the library, before lifting Spike up with her magic.
As she made to go back upstairs, she heard a quiet groan. Turning back she saw Kirby was shivering on the wooden floor. Twilight bit her lip, internally debating on what she should do. After a moment she sighed and reluctantly lifted the puff with her magic and carried him upstairs as well. As she entered her room, she placed Spike down upon his bed. Still levitating Kirby, she made her way to the bathroom. She looked around a bit before she found what she was looking for; a large, fluffy towel. Though it wasn't too big compared to her, to Kirby it would be huge. Carefully, the unicorn wrapped the towel around the sleeping puff. Kirby cooed at the sudden warm that cradled him and pulled the towel tighter around his body.
Satisfied with the result, Twilight made her way downstairs. Looking around, she spotted a cushion made for ponies who wanted to read within the library. Looking back at Kirby, she sighed before levitating him over to it, placing the puff on the center of the soft cushion. As soon as he made contact, Kirby seemed to melt into the soft surface, snuggling deeply into the fabric of the pillow. Despite her feelings against Kirby, Twilight had to admit the sight of the sleeping puff was absolutely adorable. A small smile unknowingly crossed her lips, as she watched his body slowly rise and fall.
Eventually Twilight left Kirby downstairs and trotted back to her bed. As she got comfortable, she thought back to how Kirby behaved, and how all her friends aside from Rainbow stood up in Kirby's defense. Despite how many parallels there were between parasprites and Kirby, there were many unknown variables that she needed to address in order to draw a proper conclusion on whether Kirby was safe around pony-kind. Maybe Rainbow Dash was being paranoid, she is easily excitable and a bit quick to judge at times, but her concerns weren't without merit. There was nothing in any animal or creature books that were close to whatever Kirby was, and parasprites were the closest thing that mimicked Kirby in any way shape or form; aside from that thing in the market square. Yet Kirby would likely only be a distant relative to them at best if Dash's theory was true.
"But either way." she muttered to herself. "Dangerous or not, we have to lay ground rules for handling Kirby, otherwise there will be trouble." Twilight didn't think about the subject any further, as she found herself drifting back sleep, slowly letting her worries melt away to be dealt with at another time.
A few hours later
Twilight's eyes slowly fluttered open. Moaning quietly she pulled herself out of her bed, asking herself what the current time was. Making her way to the window Twilight pushed the blinds aside, only for sunlight to assault her eyes full force.
"Nyyygh." she hissed, sloppily attempting to shut the blinds back again with her hoof to end the onslaught of light. Then the realization struck her, stopping her in her tracks.
"We're going to be late!" She screeched. Horn flaring to like in a roar of magic, Twilight focused her power on every important object and body within the library for her quest, levitating them into the air. Spike awoke abruptly, flailing his arms around in surprise at the sudden movement.
"Twilight!" He shouted, "What's happening!?"
Twilight whipped around, panic shown across her face.
"We overslept! We need to gather the girls, there's no more time to waste!" She cried. "Oh I knew we should've stayed up until the sun rose!"
Twilight teleported them downstairs, where the majority of her magic was being put to use. Inkwells, paper, and quills soared around the library's interior, driven by the magic keeping them airborne. They would fly around before shooting into a designated suitcase for the journey. Spike's eyes widened at the display. Though he had seen this kind of thing happen before, it was always a sight to see a unicorn use magic with such flexibility and grace; even if Twilight didn't look very graceful at the present moment. As Twilight continued sorting things out, Spike noticed Kirby floating in the center of the madness.
"Kirby!" he called out. "You okay over there?" He got no response back, Spike squinted at the puff through the flying quills and paper and was shocked to find that, despite everything that was currently going on, Kirby was still fast asleep! Spike couldn't believe his eyes. "Must be a pretty heavy sleeper." He thought to himself. As he made to try calling out to his friend again Twilight had finally finished packing the "essentials."
Sighing with relief, she focused her magic and teleported the three of them towards Sugar Cube Corner.
Twilight, Spike, and Kirby appeared outside the bakery in a burst of magic, catching the eyes of a few passing ponies. The unicorn walked inside, with baby dragon and puffball in tow. There weren't many ponies on the inside, but when they noticed Kirby most stopped what they were doing to look at the still sleeping puff. Twilight ignored this and made her way up towards the counter where a blue earth pony gave them a wave.
"Hello Twilight! "What can I get you today?" Asked the pony.
"Oh!" I'm fine Mrs. Cake." Twilight replied hurriedly. "Is Pinkie in right now? I really need to see her!"
"Oh yes! She right in her-" Twilight raced upstairs before Mrs. Cake could finish her sentence.
"-room...."
Twilight knocked on Pinkie's door and stood back. She waited there for a moment. Nothing happened. Twilight knocked on the door again, this time with more force. Still nothing.
"Maybe she's asleep?" Spike offered.
"Pinkie? Asleep at this hour? That'll be the day." Twilight retorted as she knocked on the party pony's door once more. Still, no overly energetic pony came out from within the confines of the room. Twilight groaned in frustration. "I don't get it!. Mrs. Cake said she was in her room! Where could she possibly be!?"
"I'm right here silly!"
"GYYAAH!?!" Twilight and Spike shrieked simultaneously. Kirby showed no indication that he was affected, and continued to sleep.
Once the two had calmed down from the initial shock, Twilight glared at the pink pony.
"Pinkie Pie, where we're you!? Why didn't you answer the door!?"
"Well...." Pinkie began. "I saw you three teleport outside the bakery, and I thought "This would be a perfect time to sneak up on Twilight!" So I jumped out the window and waited until you went upstairs and-." A lavender hood was shoved into the pink pony's mouth, silencing her abruptly.
"Sorry Pinkie, but we have more urgent matters to attend to." Said Twilight, giving her friend an apologetic look. "I need you to gather the rest of the girls and meet me at the train station!" Twilight removed her hoof from Pinkie's muzzle and Pinkie gave a salute.
"Sir yes sir! You can count on me!" Pinkie barked, before she bounced away. Spike snickered.
"Did she just call you sir?" he giggled.
Twilight simply shook her head, and teleported the group back outside. Spotting the path towards the station, Twilight began to gallop down it; levitating Spike, Kirby, and all of their luggage well above the road to avoid any possible collisions with another pony. Every now and then she'd teleport further to cover more distance and she was making great progress.
"The station isn't too much further!" She thought, as she charged down the road. At last, the station came into view. Her horn grew brighter as she increased her magic output one last time to cover the remaining distance with a teleport. With flash, they all appeared in front of the station. Twilight slumped down, exhausted. She let Spike and Kirby down, along with the baggage. Spike dusted himself before turning to Kirby. Despite all odds, the puff had remained asleep throughout the entire run. Deciding not to bother him, Spike turned to speak to Twilight, only to be be interrupted by a shout.
Twilight and Spike turned towards the sound to find the rest of their friends rushing towards the station. Rainbow Dash streaked overhead, reaching the station far before the others did.
"What's up egghead?" she joked, circling overhead before landing beside the purple unicorn. "Pinkie Pie said to meet you at the station. Said it was really important." Twilight nodded. The rest of the group soon arrived each with their own luggage, though it seemed that Rarity had over packed a little bit. With everyone present, Twilight turned to Spike.
Spike could you present the letter please?" She asked. Spike nodded before unfurling Princess Celestia's letter. Each of the ponies looked it over.
"So we're going back to the Crystal Empire?" Rarity spoke, looking up from the letter.
"Yes." Twilight confirmed. "Princess Celestia said that something weird was happening and its making the citizens uneasy. Our task is to go there and find out what's causing problems and stop it before it can get any worse." Rainbow's eyes narrowed as she continued reading the letter.
"What's this about the pest needing to go with us?" she growled. Twilight sighed.
"Princess Luna said that what's happening in The Crystal Empire, and what she saw in Kirby's mind are incredibly similar." the unicorn explained. "She thinks that Kirby might have some knowledge about what's going on."
"And just where is Kirby anyway?" Rainbow snorted. "I thought that Kirby was safe to be around. It's only been a day, and now the Princess is saying that marshmallow may have something to do with whatever is happening!"
"Hold on now!" Applejack interjected, "So far it seems that Kirby isn't here to cause trouble. He's been nothing but kind to us, so you can't go accusing 'em without proof that he has it out fer us!"
"Applejack you saw what he did!" Rainbow protested. "He eats way more than a pony does, and he bust up that monster the other day with just a few of those stars he spits! What if he turns on us huh? What if he grows up into that thing from the market? They have similar abilities!"
"Darling, if Kirby wanted to eat us, he probably would have attempted to by now." Rarity reasoned. "He was with Spike and Sweetie Belle, and they're perfectly fine." Rarity pondered for a moment. "Thinking back on it, that brutish creature just used you as ammo rather than a meal and it certainly had the opportunity to do so. If by chance Kirby does grow into whatever that thing was, he'd have the same diet." Rainbow raised a hoof to protest, but found that the argument was pretty sound.
"Fine..." she relented. "But I'm still keeping an eye on it! For all we know, it could be playing us for chumps!"
The group turned towards the station and made their way to the ticket booth. Twilight paid for Spike, Kirby, and herself while the rest of the girls paid for their own tickets. Once they all had their tickets, they all waited on the platform for the train to arrive. It wasn't too long before there was a whistle in the distance. The Friendship Express rolled smoothly into the station, and came to a stop. Ponies soon began to board and disembark the train.
"Looks like its time for us to head on out." said Applejack. The ponies made their way towards the the nearest passenger car, handing the conductor pony their tickets as they boarded the train. One by one, the ponies got on, Spike sticking close to Rarity. Twilight was the last to board. She levitated her belongings and Kirby as she made her way onto the train. However the unicorn had lifted Kirby up a bit too high. As she got on, Kirby bumped into the top of the rail car's frame. He wasn't hurt, but the jolt was enough to finally stir him from his slumber.
"Poy...yo?" He squeaked. Looking around he found that he was in an unfamiliar place.
Where was he? He had fallen asleep in the library hadn't he? This place was smaller and had no bookshelves. Looking around he found that he was suspended in the air. Why was he floating? His thoughts were interrupted when he was unceremoniously dropped to the ground.
....
Why was the ground so soft?
Kirby wiped his eyes and took a better look at his surroundings. It seemed like he hadn't hit the ground at all, but rather had landed on a cushion. He saw rows of benches and a door at the each end of the small room. There was a third door on the side that was open, but it was soon closed by an unseen force.
"Poyo?"
Looking to the other side, he saw the ponies getting themselves comfortable. He hopped off of the bench and started to make his way over when he heard a whistle. The room he was in began to rumble and jerked forwards slightly throwing the puff off balance a bit. Being so small he couldn't see too much from his current position, but a glance upwards out of one of the windows let him see a tree branch slide slowly out of view. The sounds, the strange feeling of the ground, and the whistle all seemed familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place it. Then it all clicked.
He was in a train.
There weren't a whole lot of them back in Dreamland. In fact, the only thing that came to mind when he thought of rails were mine carts. Kirby frowned. When the Haltmann Works Company attacked, trains had become far more common. Yet they all seemed to be death traps, made to injure the puff on his quest. They didn't even seem to serve any real purpose as they didn't have any real cargo. How they had made a full blown transportation system, that doubled as a death trap, in about a day's time baffled him. Then again, Star Dream was kind of like Nova from what he had seen, so maybe it wasn't too crazy to think that the company had the capability make such a crazy endeavor a reality.
Putting his thoughts aside, he continued towards the group. He soon found Spike staring at Rarity. Kirby couldn't be sure, but it almost looked like the dragon had hearts in his eyes. The puff had closed the distance between them, hoping to get some more information about the current situation.
"Spike?" Kirby voiced. He didn't get a reply.
"Spike?" Kirby voiced again louder this time. He poked the dragon slightly. Spike jumped, before turning around, meeting Kirby's gaze.
"Oh!" Spike sighed. "It's only you Kirby. What's up?" Kirby looked at the drake before motioning towards the window.
"Were ah we goin?" asked the puff. Spike seemed to brighten up.
"Oh! We're going to the Crystal Empire!" He said proudly. Princess Celestia said that there was something going on in the empire and that we needed to check it out. The princesses asked us to bring you along, because they think you might be able to help."
Kirby nodded in understanding.
"I'll help!" the puff proclaimed excitedly, bouncing in place slightly.
"Calm down little guy." Applejack called out. "We have to get there first. It'll be evening tomorrow when we actually get there. We won't be doing much but waiting for now."
"Well hopefully we get there soon!" grunted Rainbow, tapping her hooves in annoyance. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get some action!" The pony plopped onto her side after that. Pinkie Pie bounced over to her friend.
"Don't worry Dashie!" She bubbled, "I brought a whole lot of stuff to do in case we get bored!" The bouncy pony pulled out a stack of board games and sweets. Kirby's mouth watered at the sight. He quickly bounced over to Pinkie's position. Pinkie looked down at Kirby and was met with cute eyes staring back at her.
"Aw you're so cute!" she squeed. She popped open a box and handed the puff a chocolate cupcake, who ate the confection within seconds, wrapper included. Rainbow goraned. This might be the longest train she'd ever have to take.
Later, in Canterlot Castle
Princess Celestia watched as the final noble pony left her court. By now it was late in the day, and soon it would be time to lower the sun to give way to Luna's night. As she got up from her seat, she was surprised when her sister walked into the room,
"Luna!" She emoted, "I wasn't expecting to see you up quite yet. Is something the matter?" Luna groaned.
"It's that puffball, Kirby." Luna voiced. "No matter how I try to see it, I can't help but feel that I've made the wrong choice asking the elements to bring him with them." Celestia was puzzled, by her younger sister's words.
"Would you like to explain once I've lowered the sun for today?" she offered. Luna thought for a moment before sighing softly.
"I suppose it would be best to talk about what troubles me." she muttered. "Very well Tia. Once you have lowered the sun meet me in the dining room. We shall talk about the matter there." With that the lunar princess walked away.
Princess Celestia eyed the spot where her sister once was, before leaving the room herself. Ask she walked through the castle halls she began to wonder what about Kirby had Luna so upset.
"Perhaps she questions the integrity of Kirby's character?" she thought to herself. But soon she came to a small snag in that theory. "Yet it was her idea to send Kirby with Twilight and her friends in the first place. Surely she isn't having second doubts so soon. So what could it be?"
Deciding that the questions could wait until she met with Luna, Celestia continued towards the balcony. As she stepped out into the outdoors, she looked down at the kingdom below. The city light were starting to turn on and began to illuminate the darker patches of Canterlot. Celestia smiled and began to focus her magic. Her horn glowed as she felt the familiar magic flow through her. Soon she began to lower the sun beyond the horizon. The sky grew darker, fading from orange, to a dull red, and finally to deep blue. Glancing away from where the sun had set she watched as the moon rose into position, signalling the true start of the night.
With her task completed, the solar princess left the balcony and made her way to the dining room. Once she arrived at her destination, she walked inside to find Luna sitting at the far end of the table, staring in her direction.
"There you are sister." Luna called out. "Come, I believe we may have a bit to discuss." The solar princess walked over towards the table and sat down across from her sister.
"Alright Luna." She said in a caring tone. "What has you so upset?" Luna looked away, attempting to look anywhere but her older sibling's eyes."
"Well..." She began. "Like I said earlier, it's about Kirby. I cannot help but wonder if sending him with the Elements was the best course of action. His character seems to be genuine with no ill intent towards anypony. However, as I mentioned before, he seems to have a selective fear of technology and he truly believes he hails from another planet, which is absurd!" Luna looked down towards the table, her mane covering her face. "Yet what his dreams depict and what Princess Cadenza writes in her letter are far too similar and extreme to be mere coincidence. Perhaps I misjudged his innocence, what if something happens?"
"Luna I'm positive that you made the right choice." Celestia said softly. The alabaster alicorn draped a wing around her sibling, who seemed to calm down slightly at the touch. "Decisions like these aren't always easy make and its true that they can have unforeseen consequences. However, you said yourself that Kirby seems to have good intentions. If worst come to pass, and he turns out to be a threat to our little ponies, I'm confident that Twilight and her friends will be able to band together and stop him."
Luna sighed.
"I supposed you're right." She mumbled. "But still, I cannot shake the feeling that there is more to that Kirby than meets the eye." Celestia smiled at her sister.
"If there is, I'm sure we will hear of it." She replied. "Twilight does tend to be rather thorough when it comes to researching the unknown." The solar princesses then yawned, letting the two sisters know that they had been speaking for some time.
"It is getting late for you sister," Luna chimed. "You should go and get some rest. I'm sure you've earned it after dealing with so many nobles." Celestia simply gave a weary smile and chuckled, before leaving her sister in the dining hall. Once celestia had left, Luna turned to look out the window. There were still many questions and feeling s that she held within her that didn't make sense. Deciding to think about it later, Luna teleported to her bedroom. She looked around the dark room for a bit, before she found what she was looking for.
A quill and and an inkwell.
She quickly scribbled a small note, before sending it away in a dark blue cloud of smoke.
"That should take care of any issues that may occur." She thought to herself. She thought about wether she should continue thinking about the strange enigma that was, Kirby. However, the night was progressing and it was her duty to protect the dreams of Equestria. Deciding to save her thoughts and questions for later, Luna focused her magic and began helping the sleeping ponies of Equestria within the dream realm.
Kirby was slowly starting to awaken. The the girls, spike, and himself had all tucked in for the night abord the train's sleeper car. The puff looked around and found that Twilight and he friends weren't in the room with him, minus Spike, who was snoozing away on the bed next to him. Deciding to to find where the rest of group, Kirby hopped out of the bed and landed on the floor, barely making an sound. He looked around the car again, before deciding to head towards the engine.
Now, the sleeper car had plenty of windows installed within them so that anyone aboard could look outside just as easily as on passenger car. However, these windows had blinds to allow passengers to sleep, whether it be in the day or night. Most of the blind were down, blocking the view of the outside world. The few windows that didn't have blinds pulled down were letting sunlight pour into the rail-car in great amounts, and as Kirby walked into the light on his way to the next cart, the light surged into his eyes. Kirby yelped in anguish, as the assaulting light blinded him just long enough to trip him up. The puffball tumbled to the floor squeaking slightly.
Kirby's cry was just enough to stir Spike from his slumber. The baby drake, smacked his lips and he creaked his eyes open.
"Morning already?" He mumbled. He looked around a bit and was just about to go back to sleep, when he noticed that Kirby was on the floor. "Kirby? What are you doing on the floor? Did you fall out of the bed?" The dragon questioned groggily.
"Kirby recovered and shook his head."
"Gurlz gon!" the puff pointed out.
"Could you repeat that?" Spike asked softly. "I didn't quite hear that."
"Teh gurlz ah gon!" Kirby repeated, louder this time. Spike looked around. Indeed the rest of his friends were gone. Even Rainbow Dash, who was about as heavy a sleep as he was, was nowhere to be seen within the room.
"Huh..." the drake voiced softly. "So they are." This new development had motivated Spike enough to get out of the bed. As he got up and dusted himself off, he looked around. The sunlight pouring into rail-car didn't catch him as it did Kirby, yet it still seemed to be pretty bright. Spike turned to Kirby and waved him over. "Come on Kirby, let see what's going on."
Kirby nodded and ran up to Spike. The two of them left the sleeper car and strayed into the dining car. Strangely enough it, it was devoid of ponies.
"What the...?" Spike muttered. "Where's the staff? Or anypony else for that matter? Surely at least one pony would be here to eat something." Kirby simply shrugged before pointing to the door leading into the next rail-car."
"Onwar!" he exclaimed. Spike nodded and the two went through the door.
The next car was yet another sleeper car so the two simply continued on. Ponies or no ponies, it would be rude to peer in on someone sleeping. As the two grew closer to the door, they could hear the sound of conversation on the other side.
Sounds like we'll find out what's going on once we step in." Spike noted.
The pair opened the door to meet a mass of color. Ponies lined the sides of the passenger cars, looking outside with what seemed to be confusion and worry.
"Whats going on in here?" Spike wondered looking around at the conversing ponies. Kirby glanced around before spotting a familiar violet tail that seemed rather extravagant in design.
"Poyo!" he called out, pointing in its direction. A few ponies glanced in his direction, but most seemed more preoccupied with whatever was going on outside. Spike turned to see what Kirby wanted, when he saw what he was pointing at. Instantly the dragon perked up, and groomed himself before jogging over towards the tail's owner. As he grew closer, he saw vaguely familiar mane styles and coat colors around his goal, but that didn't matter to him at the moment.
"Hello Rarity." he cooed, sliding to a stop behind the mare. However, he wasn't greeted by the fashionista pony's voice but rather the one he heard almost every day.
"Spike what took you so long to wake up!?" We're almost to the Crystal Empire!" Spike, shaken from his romance induced stupor, could barely stammer out a reply.
"S-sorry Twilight. I didn't know we were so close already."
"Well at least yer up now." Applejack chimed in. "Now you can get a look at what has everypony all turned around." Spike was confused at what the farm pony meant, but before he could ask about her words the drake was covered in magic and was levitated up to the window. Spikes jaw dropped at what he saw outside. Kirby managed to regroup with the team at this point.
"Poyo?"
At Kirby's voice, the group turned back around to face him. Each had varying degrees of emotions across their faces. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak up.
"Alright marshmallow, you're apparently the expert here, so whats the big idea with all of that!?" She snorted, pointing towards the window. Kirby tilted his head in confusion, having no idea what the pegasus meant.
"Wat?" he questioned.
"Perhaps you'd better see for yourself." said Applejack. She beckoned the puff over with her hoof. Kirby simply jumped onto Applejack's back. When he looked out the window he gasped.
The ground was silvery-white in color. At a simple glance he might've mistaken it for snow. However, a closer look revealed that the ground was segmented. Each tile had four bolts in each corner, and the tiles stretched for what seemed like miles. Peering around the ruined landscape, he saw that there were patches of ground that weren't made of metal, and actually had beautiful blankets of snow covering them. These patches didn't last forever though, as the metal portions of the ground seemed to expand over them, hiding the land from sight. Kirby was horrified.
The problem that he had set out to correct had followed him here, and was putting the citizens of the planet in grave danger!
Kirby teetered off of Applejack's back, falling onto the floor.
"Well thats not the most extreme reaction I've seen on this train." Twilight commented. She picked the puff up with her magic. The action seemed to shake Kirby back into reality.
"P-poyo...." He shivered. The group took notice of Kirby's demeanor.
"You seem pretty upset about whats out there." Twilight noted. "Do you know anything about what's going on?
Kirby didn't get to answer as a voice blared throughout the passenger car.
"Attention all passengers. We shall be entering the Crystal Empire in five minutes. Please gather your belongings and be prepared to disembark the train."
All other conversations ceased as the other ponies left to get ready to get off the train.
"Come on girls. We can ask Kirby what he knows about it once we meet with Cadence." Said Rarity. The girls and Spike agreed, though Twilight and Rainbow weren't so enthusiastic with the idea.
As the doors swung open, The group walked off the train to see a rather empty station. he only ponies around were the staff and the ponies getting off the train. A quick glace to the board revealed that all further trains had been cancelled until further notice.
"Looks like this is more serious than we thought." Spike commented idly. The gropu made there way out of the station. As they walked outside, Twilight brightened up. Not too far away from them, was a pink alicorn, accompanied with a few guards.
"Cadence!" she called out. The alicorn looked over and gave a wide smile.
"Twilight!" Cadence replied. Kirby watched with interest as the the two ponies partook in a ritual that he never would have expected from Twilight.
~ Sunshine Sunshine! Ladybugs bugs awake! ~
~ Clap your hooves and do a little Shake! ~
The two giggled once their greeting was done and exchanged a hug.
"It's so good to see you again Cadence!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Same goes to you!" Cadence replied back. She sighed. "I just wish it wasn't always when there's trouble." Cadence's drop in mood brought the group back to the task at hand.
"So whats been going on around here Princess?" Applejack spoke up. "The ride here was mighty strange indeed."
"Yeah!" Pinkie bubbled. "The ground was all shiny and metal-like!" The party pony frowned. "It doesn't look like it would be very fun to play in..."
"Things have been rather hectic around here as of late." the pink alicorn said softly. "But I think we should head back to the Castle and continue talking there." The ponies nodded in agreement. As Cadence made to turn around, she saw something unfamiliar towards the back of the group.
"Hello?" she said softly, intrigued by whatever was tagging along with Twilight's friends. The group broke up and left Kirby standing by his lonesome. Upon witnessing the puff, Cadence instantly perked up.
"Awww what a cutie!" she cooed. She picked the puff up in her fore-hooves, rocking him back and forth in a tight hug. She turned to Twilight. "Twilight where did you find this little guy, its so adorable!" Twilight nervously rubbed the back her head, giving Cadence a rather forced grin.
"Well actually." she began. "That's Kirby. Princess Celestia told us to bring him when we came to the empire." At the reveal of Kirby's name, Cadence stopped smiling and abruptly dropped the puff from her grasp, turning towards the lavender unicorn in shock.
"Wait. THAT'S Kirby?" she asked. Twilight was surprised but nodded her head towards the question. Cadence was stunned and turned back to the puff. He looked at her for a moment before raising an arm and opening his mouth.
"Hi!"
Silence fell upon the group.
"W-well." She stuttered. "I wasn't expecting this. Princess Luna said that she was sending somepony named Kirby to help us out, but I don't think I could've seen this coming even if I was a thousand years old!" Twilight gave a small chuckle..
"He does seem to have that effect on ponies." she said idly. Cadence nodded before a voice spoke up.
"Hey we're wasting daylight! Let get to the castle already!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity squeaked. "Cadence may be our friend, but she's still a princess! Show some respect!" Cadence waved a hoof.
"Its alright Rarity." She said calmly. "Besides, Rainbow has a point. We should head back to castle so we can, think about what we need to do to avert this possible crisis."
The group nodded and started off, leaving the station and officially making their entrance into the Crystal Empire.
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Oh god...Star Dream followed him. This does not bode well.
This is gonna be spooky!
9096525
Um... that was made blatantly obvious from chapter 1
9096592
No, as far as I can tell, it was just strongly hinted at. The only thing made blatantly obvious, was that it was sending enemies after kirby. We didn't know if it actually followed him itself.
9096769
Pulled right from the end of chapter 1
9098322
OK, OK goddamn... It's been a year since then, do you really think I re-read the entire story after every update?
9098379
Not really, I'm just a bit picky when it comes to details
Can’t wait to see what happens
This dead?
9295833
Hopefully not! Sorry, I've been busy. Life cares for no one unfortunately... But I do know what it feels like to watch a story grow, only for it to fall in the "forever incomplete" zone. Even though progress may be slow, I do intend to see this to the end, if only to make sure you all don't have to suffer the feeling of watching a story die.
Any progress..?