• Published 25th Dec 2020
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Harmony of Heroes: Ultimate Multiverse Explorers - Lucar



Several months after her adventures on Popstar, Sweetie Belle decides it's time to start new adventures in new universes

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Chapter 122: Dilemma And A New Adventure

"CURSE THAT FIEND!!!" one of the Luna broke the silence with the Royal Canterlot Voice, making almost everyone put their hands or hooves on their ears. "THIS IS THE WORST THING HE COULD HAVE DONE!!!"

"Can you please turn off your Voice, Luna? You are deafening everyone!" Sweetie Void pleaded.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Yeah, I can't believe he played all of us for fools! He seemed so nice! And he was funny!" Little Ghost said.

"She wasn't talking about that, even if this is a very good reason to be angry, but of his ultimatum," Phantom said.

"Uh? Why? I mean, of course we won't join him, right?..... Right?"

"You shouldn't bet on this..." Captain Falcon said through gritting teeth. "Any leader worth their salt would pass the well being of their people before the rest. Some of us are here specifically because we thought that we would have no other choice but to work together to face the Subspace Army or risk becoming one of their many victims, but their leader just said that he won't attack our universes if we join him. And what do you think would be the less risky choice? Remaining with the barely forming alliance that is just starting to develop dimensional technology and that knows almost nothing of their enemy, or the obviously super powerful multidimensional army that now knows almost everything about us."

"....... Oh..."

"Captain Falcon perfectly resumed the situation," another of the Luna said. "As much as I despise the thought of joining them and helping them to invade other universes and use these bombs to potentially ruin countless lives, for the safety of our ponies, we may have no other choice. It's either that or we gamble everypony's lives on a weak chance of winning or on Master Hand being able to defeat these Galeem and Dharkon without having to go to the point that the places trapped by the bombs will be destroyed with everypony in them. Of course, that is assuming Master Hand told the truth, but after how he tricked us, I'm hesitating in trusting his words. After all, he was so good that he even managed to trick the three Applejack, so who knows if that's not another trick."

Phantom snorted. "It's not complicated to trick Applejack. Chrysalis did it easily at Cadance's wedding, and her acting was horrible."

The three Applejack glared at her, and one said, "Ah may be the bearer of Honesty and Ah may be good at seeing lies, but Ah'm not a lie detector! Ah just thought that it was the stress of the wedding, like everypony else! And how could Ah have seen that Master Hand was lying? He doesn't even have a face to read!"

"What she said," the two other said.

Zelda intervened. "But since we can't prove that he lied or he said the truth, then his words will successfully bring discord in our alliance. Leaders will want to join him, others will refuse, and others will hesitate. My father in the past version of Hyrule will certainly be among the first ones. I'm among the last ones, even if I want to be among the second ones."

"He really got us good, uh?" Falco said before he looked at Ness. "What about you, kid? Joining Master Hand would bring your hometown and your family back."

The boy had tears in his eyes as he took several seconds to answer. "I don't know... I don't know..."

Sweetie Void suddenly violently stomped the ground, creating some cracks, making some of her friends jump in surprise. "I refuse to join him! If I have to step down as queen, then I will, but I will NOT go around risking to kill innocents for some "Greater Good!" This is why I have been seeking allies! Master Hand thinks of fighting Galeem and Dharkon by himself, but I'm sure that we can win too without having to use these bombs or whatever if we work together! He gave us one month! That's one month to prepare!"

"But one month is a very short time," Jeff said.

"But a lot can happen in a month," Sweetie reminded. "We will continue to search for new allies, we will continue to study the technologies of the Ancients, we will train, we may even learn new stuff about the Subspace Army. Please, everyone, wait before deciding to give up."

...

"So... What now?" Luigi asked.

"Now... We just return to our respective homes, spread what we learned, and... I guess... we continue our lives," Gold said. "Of course, some of us will have a lot to think and debate about. I'm already seeing the many sleepless nights," he continued with a groan, and the other Champions present followed.

Blue chuckled. "For once, I'm glad to not be a Champion anymore. Sucks to be you, guys."

Fox sighed. "This will be a long month... Wait, no... It will be longer or shorter for most of us because of our universes' time speed compared to this one."

"Uh... That's right. I should maybe finally ask the three Discord to do something about that, like one did with Mario's universe," Sweetie Void said. "It will make things simpler."


"So, can you three do it?" the alicorn asked.

"Of course," one of the three gathered Discord answered.

"By uniting our powers..."

"Modifying time in all our current universes..."

"Will be doable."

"It will be tiring however."

Sweetie Void gave them a deadpan look. "You know, this is not because you three are like triplets that you have to speak like triplets."

"Aww... But this is so fun."

"Triple the chaos..."

"Triple the fun!"

Sweetie Void put a hoof under her chin and thought aloud, "Mmh... I wonder how long Twilight will last if you three do that while talking to her."

"Ooh! That's an excellent idea!"

"You are good!"

"We should make you a honorary member of our chaotic club!"

"I'm surprised we haven't already done that."

"Yeah, you are such a bundle of chaos."

"Literally and figuratively."

"This is why I shouldn't join you, guys. There would be too much chaos gathered in one place."

"There is never too much chaos!" the three Discord shouted.

"Tell that to Harmony!"

"Bleh!"


By the next day, the news of Master Hand's ultimatum quickly spread everywhere, and it had the expected political effect. The moral dilemma shook all the members of the alliance to the core and destabilised barely forming foundations. Samus' Galactic Federation already seemed to be on the brink of a civil war between the ones who wanted to refuse to join the Subspace Army and the ones who were willing to. The Galactic Federation from the F-Zero-verse didn't have this problem because it hadn't been contacted yet by diplomats so it wasn't on the process of joining the alliance, and Captain Falcon decided to remain silent, so they didn't know about the ultimatum. Mario's home world, Future Hyrule, and Corneria had serious doubts. They just came out of catastrophic events (the Cankens' invasion, Ganondorf's rule, and the Aparoid invasion) and were barely recovering, so they didn't really want to enter a war even if they didn't want to join the Subspace Army. Past Hyrule was barely stopped from agreeing to join the Subspace Army thanks to Past Zelda who was able to convince her father to take some time to think about it with the help of Impa and Link. Ness' home world was ready to join too, having already been victim of one of the bombs, and so, already having an idea of the power of the Subspace Army, and the poor Ness didn't know what to do. As for Mobius and the three Equestria (plus the allies of Phantom's Equestria), they decided to take a wait-and-see approach like Sweetie Void asked to do, especially the Equestria despite a few voices rising for or against joining. Most were simply scared of what the future will bring, no matter the choice.

But Sweetie Void decided to put all this in the back of her mind for now. She had a closer problem to deal with. More specifically, these vortexes that were sucking in people all over Popstar. Not long after speaking to the three Discord, as she was confirming the loyalty of the people of Floralia who agreed with her about refusing to join the Subspace Army (so that was already at least two confirmed countries that will remain loyal to the alliance (the other being New Halcandra, obviously, Magolor promised their loyalty)), she learned that Meta Knight disappeared too. So she decided to patrol Dream Land with Kirby and Bandana Dee, hoping to catch one of these vortexes. But it was up to luck because not even Galacta Knight managed to get one, and Void was still away rebuilding the second world-portal.

"At least, once we find Dedede and Meta Knight, I know that I will be able to count on them to back me up, no matter what," she said to Kirby and Bandana while walking on a road crossing Cookie Country. "So I can add Dream Land, and pretty much all of Popstar, in the list of the ones that will remain loyal against the Subspace Army."

"Of course!" Bandana exclaimed. "So, how long do you think it will take before we find a vortex?"

"I'm betting on one hour."

"I'm betting on ten minutes."

"Poyo poyo poyo."

And right on cue, several giant, star-shaped vortexes appeared in the sky and began to suck in everything. The pull was so strong that even pieces of the ground were teared off. Stuff like trees, star blocks, or simple people had no chance of resisting.

Sweetie Void had no problem resisting, and she made sure to keep a hold on Kirby and Bandana.

"Seems like Kirby wins the bet," she said while Bandana sighed and Kirby shouted in joy. "Alright, let's go inside one of them before they close."

Kirby and Bandana nodded, and Sweetie flew toward the closest vortex while levitating them at her sides.

"I wonder what awaits us at the other side," she wondered.

"We will find out soon enough. I just hope that King Dedede and all the others who got sucked in are alright."

"I hope too."


"This isn't too much for you?" Shadow Speedster asked.

"Not at all," Jeff answered. "Installing weapons in a vehicles is child's play for me, as long as I have the necessary materials, which is the case thanks to Magolor."

"Thanks Jeff. This will help a lot if I want to be useful against the Subspace Army. Racing is nice, but I doubt that this will help winning a war. And I don't think that the small training I got from her is enough for now."

"Well, you apparently managed to stop a villain from conquering an universe thanks to winning a couple of races, so who knows?"

"Good point. But no matter what will happen, I will be with Sweetie."

Meanwhile, somewhere at the outskirt of the Everfree Forest, not far outside of Sweetie Apple Acre, Black Apple planted a seed into the ground. Then, she placed her forehooves above the small mount of earth.

She took a big breathe and said, "Ah hope this'll work this time." before she began to pour energy from her hooves into the ground where the seed was planted.

And after a few seconds, a little sprout poke out.

Seeing this, Black Apple stopped, out of breath, and smiled.

"Finally!"


"WELCOME BACK, MASTER," a being entirely hidden under clothes welcomed Master Hand. The bottom of a purple robe was visible under a green cloak with a green pointed hat that had a green tissu partially surrounding the being's head head from behind. All the pieces of cloth had golden embroidery decorating them, and the cloak also had a golden brooch that consisted of a circular part with a blue center above an horizontal crescent. At both sides of the cloak were also two decorations that looked like giant red and golden arrow points with a large ring-like extremity, and the pointed hat had two ribbons flowing from the top. The only part of the being's body that could be seen were his large, circular, glowing yellow eyes, under his hat, and he was speaking with a robotic monotone voice.

They were both in a large, empty room that served only as Master Hand's place from which he exited and entered the universe while inside the Subspace Army's HQ.

"Minister, did anything happen while I was gone?"

"NO INCIDENT TO REPORT, MASTER. WE ARE APPROACHING ONE MILLION BOMBS PRODUCED, AND THE FIRST STABLE GALLEOM UNIT WAS SUCCESSFULLY CONSTRUCTED... DOES THIS MEAN...?"

"It took that long to successfully produce a Galleom, it would take too long to produce the necessary number. The bombs remain our best mean for me to gain the necessary power in time."

The Minister looked down in visible sadness, displaying emotion for the first time. "I UNDERSTAND. BUT THE PRODUCTION OF GALLEOM UNITS SHOULD ACCELERATE NOW. IT SHOULD NOT BE LONG BEFORE WE HAVE MORE OF THEM. SO LESS OF THESE BOMBS SHOULD BE NEEDED."

"That's right. In my side, I found potential new recruits. If they agree to join us, their backup will allow us to accelerate our operations. In case they refuse, I found a few villains while exploring their universes that should make up for it. I already entered in contact with them, and they agreed to join us. Surprisingly, some of the villains currently working for us come from some of their universes. Somehow, our roads were already crossing before the first encounter between them and Porky. I will have to avoid mentioning them to Andross or Eggman, or this would end badly."

The Minister tilted his head in visible wonder. "IT CAN'T BE A COINCIDENCE. THE POSSIBILITY THAT THIS HAPPENS THREE TIMES BY ACCIDENT IS INFINITELY CLOSE TO ZERO."

"This is definitively not a coincidence. They already knew about us, Galeem, and Dharkon. Someone who knows must have been guiding them."

"IT WOULD MEAN THAT THERE IS A MOLE AMONG US, THIS WOULD BE THE ONLY EXPLANATION, BUT IT CAN'T BE."

"I can't explain it either, but we will have to do a sweep of our ranks just in case, and tell your R.O.Bs to double their patrols, or even triple them."

"VERY WELL, MASTER."


Sweetie Void woke up on a small, empty beach, alongside Kirby and Bandana Dee, facing a forest. Groaning, she rubbed her head.

"Ugh... The inside of that vortex was wilder than I expected. It made the craziest rollercoaster seem like a carousel ride. Hey! Are you alright, you two?"

"Poyoooo..."

"F-five minutes... Please..."

Seeing that her two friends were alright, if still a bit dizzy, Sweetie Void looked around. "Uh. Just a simple a beach, like any other simple beach. I didn't expect to land in a place like that."

"Where did you expect us to land?" Bandana asked as he slowly sat up.

"In or not far of some fortress or whatever whoever created these vortexes uses."

"Well, maybe they're somewhere not far in that forest."

"Maybe. I don't know. I don't feel anything that would indicate the presence of something powerful enough to open vortexes."

Before long, the three friends were up and ready to go.

"Let's explore that forest. There's a path just before us," Sweetie Void said.

"Poyo."

"Yes."

They followed said path, entering the forest. While it was the middle of the day in whatever world they landed in, it quickly got dark once inside the forest, and the presence of a fog didn't help. And beside birds, they could hear nothing else.

Remaining on guard, they continued to follow the path, crossing a wooden log that formed a bridge over a small gap, passing beside some star blocks that must have landed here from the vortex, before they finally encountered their first local fauna.

The creature looked like some kind of orange canine about the size of Sweetie Void, Kirby, and Bandana. It looked very adorable, and Sweetie Void couldn't stop herself from letting out a "awwww!" However, upon hearing her and spotting her, the canine turned hostile right away and ran toward them with the clear intent to attack them. But Sweetie caught it with her magic and brought it to her before she began to hug it.

"Kiai!"

"I'm keeping you!"

"Uh... Sweetie Belle... I'm not sure that-"

Bandana stopped himself as the canine growled and bit Sweetie Void on the neck.

"Hey!" She punched the canine against the ground, knocking it out in one it. "Bad boy! Bad! No biting!"

"Let's... Uh... Continue."

Leaving behind the unconscious canine, the three heroes continued to follow the path between two cliffs, passing beside a lamp post and an empty soda can, much to their wonder. Before long, they reached the exit of the forest, and they could start to see something between the foliage.

And then, the three stopped and looked in awe as the forest left place to a modern city overrun by nature. The path they had been following turned into an asphalt road partially covered in grass, the road revealing to be an elevated one as it was just beside the roof of some buildings at the left which were also partially covered by plants. A guardrail was present at the left to stop people from falling, and a fence at the right was playing the same role, excepted that it was facing the cliff which continued there, with some electric poles present among them. The road itself wasn't flat anymore like it should be, bumps and irregularities having formed with times.

With all this, it quickly became obvious that this city was abandoned, leaving Mother Nature to reclaim her rights.

"Have we fallen into some post-apocalyptic world?" Bandana wondered. "I swear, if this is one with zombies..."

"Then we will just destroy them. This wouldn't be the first time I fight zombies."

The three resumed their exploration, following the road until they were at the base of a skyscraper. Here, they saw some beings that they knew very well: a couple of Blade Knights, a couple of Cappys, a couple of Bronto Burts, and a Kabu.

"It didn't take long to find some of the ones taken by the vortexes," Sweetie Void said.

"And they seem OK, beside how they are staring at us with hostility. They should be happy to see us! We are here to bring them back to Popstar, after all!"

"Poyo!" Kirby ran ahead and easily knocked out all them as they were beginning to attack.

"Inhabitants of Popstar being hostile to us just because they feel like having a fight? That's nothing new. But I wouldn't be surprised if this hostility is the resulting of some mind control or brainwashing. It happened often enough that this is very possible," Sweetie Void pointed out.

"True."

"Poy."

Continuing at the right of the skyscraper, they climbed on another building on which more enemies awaited them, including Poppy Bros. Jr. Traversing the roof of the long building, they then reached a billboard that had turned into a bridge toward another elevated road which was however blocked at both sides by barriers, grids, and vegetation. But, just at the opposite side, there was the entrance of another building, and judging by the name that they could read thanks to the translator, it was some automobile store. They decided to explore it.

Inside, not minding the shelves containing mechanical stuff, tools, and wheels, as well as the rusty blue car on a round platform that was in front of them, they continued to the right toward the rest of the building.

But then, the car shook, gaining the heroes' attention, and from behind the car jumped out three canines like the one they encountered earlier. As the canines ran toward the heroes, Kirby decided to get it over with rapidly and opened his mouth, sucking them up.

And sucking up the car by the same occasion.

Which may be too big for Kirby to eat without the Hypernova.

And yet, to Sweetie and Bandana's surprise, the car entered Kirby's mouth, the puffball stretching to make place for the huge object. But the car wasn't swallowed. Instead, it partially came back out, the bottom with the wheels, with Kirby's body covering the rest.

...

...

"Uh. That's new," Sweetie Void eventually said.

"Wh...? Ho...? Whe...?"

"Were you hiding some new ability from us, Kirby?"

Kirby shook his head, making the front of the car move left and right. Then, having a feeling, he tried something, and he was successfully able to control the car, making it advance.

"Mmh... I don't know when or how you got this, but let's make use of it." Grinning, she grabbed Bandana and jumped on the roof of the car where she dropped Bandana beside her. "Let's roll!"

"Wait! There are no belts!" Bandana shouted.

Only for Kirby to roll into the path at the right, full speed.

"WAAAHHH!"

"WEEEEEE!!!"

They passed under a metallic gate and slalomed between shelves, remains of cars, and other stuff, destroying blue crates, before they reached a cracked wall at the end. Sweetie and Bandana both braced themselves as Kirby smashed through the wall, landing behind the building, on another road. Kirby followed the road, everything standing in his way either getting flattened or smashed, until he rammed into a group of logs, making them fall and form a bridge toward the roof of a small building from which he jumped.

They then reached a raised drawbridge, and Kirby rammed it too, making it drop so they could continue to the next part of the city. But before Kirby could kick off again, Sweetie grabbed a boom box at the side.

"Nothing is better while travelling in vehicle than listening to some music!" she exclaimed before she turned it on, making Kirby bop to the music that started playing.

"Hey! It's really good! Let's go, Kirby!"

Kirby agreed with a small bounce before he took off, crossing the bridge with his passengers enjoying the view in music.


Not long later, they were leaving the city when they suddenly heard some shouts from above. Looking up, they saw dark blue birds transporting cages with Waddle Dees trapped in them.

"Not on my watch!" Sweetie Void shouted. "Continue without me!" she told to Kirby and Bandana Dee before she flew toward the birds and their cages.

What followed was a whole minutes of birds squawking in pain or confusion and of Waddle Dees shouting in joy while blue feathers began to rain all over the place.

Meanwhile, Kirby reached the end of the road. Or rather, the road continued a bit, but it was impossible to continue with the car, so Kirby was forced to spit it out and to leave it behind. So he and Bandana continued on feet and quickly reached where the birds with the trapped Waddle Dees were coming from.

It was a ruin fields, with destroying buildings everything, different from the buildings of the city they just left. These ones seemed to have an architectural style more familiar to Kirby and Bandana, the style found on Popstar. And among these ruining buildings, Waddle Dees were running around, trying to escape canines that were chasing them only to be trapped by birds dropping cages on them. The cages had a hole at the bottom to allow the Waddle Dees to enter them, and once the cages were full, the hole closed, keeping the Dees trapped.

There was another creature that tried to escape the canines. It looked like an adorable flying blue chinchilla with giant ears, smaller than the canines chasing it. It was quickly cornered, and three birds used the occasion to drop a golden cage that looked like the head of a lion on it, trapping it like the Waddle Dees.

Only for one of the birds to be hit by a laser from Kirby using the Laser Ability while also using the Archer Ability to fire arrows on other birds to make them drop their cages. Bandana Dee also entered the frail by targeting the canines, making short work of them. With only two birds, they couldn't lift the golden cage that was too heavy for them, so they were left at the mercy of Kirby who continued to fire at them. Having no choice, the birds left the cage behind and escaped along with other birds who didn't want to remain here. Some of them still transported cages, but they found themselves stopped by Sweetie Void who appeared before them.

Before long, all the animals were kicked out of the ruined town and were left to run or fly away with their tails between their legs, literally in the case of the canines, leaving behind many of the Waddle Dees that they attempted to capture as well as the blue creature.

"They are all gone. You are safe, now," Sweetie Void said while she destroyed the golden cage, freeing the blue creature. Sweetie remarked by the same occasion that the creature had a small hole in its right ear.

"You saved us!" one of the Waddle Dees exclaimed before he looked down in sadness. "I really thought that we were done for! However, they still managed to capture many of our friends before you came..."

"I can't believe the heroes of Popstar are here!" another shouted in joy.

"Ahah! Now, the Beast Pack is doomed!"

"It's over... Phew!"

"Thank you, heroes!"

"But now, we have to rebuild everything..."

"Doh!"

"Hey! Thank you for saving me too!" the little blue creature then said too once the Waddle Dees calmed down a bit. "We fought those beasts as hard as we could, but they kept coming back for more, and our number constantly diminished. But then, you arrived and stopped their assault when everything seemed to be over! You are very strong!"

"And you saw nothing!" Bandana boasted. "That barely counted as a warm up!" He then pointed at himself. "By the way, I'm Bandana Waddle Dee, or Bandana Dee, or just Bandana for short, the second in command of the Great King Dedede from Dream Land, on Popstar! Speaking of, have you heard of him? Is he here? He must have landed somewhere around like all these Waddle Dees."

The creature shook his head. "Sorry, never heard of him. He must have landed somewhere else. The vortexes randomly drop new people everywhere."

"Oh..."

Sweetie Void then presented herself in turn before pointing at Kirby. "I'm Sweetie Belle, but I'm going by Sweetie Void recently, and this is Kirby. Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you! I'm Elfilin! And I'm sure that, with your help, we will be able to save all the Waddle Dees!"

"I don't doubt it. But first, how about you explain to us what's going on here? And also where we are?"

"Of course! But I don't really know everything. The Beast Pack - that's what these Awoofys and Clockers are part of - is hunting the Waddle Dees, but I don't know why. As for where we are, we are in what we call the Natural Plains. Uh... But if you ask about this country, or even this world, then sorry, I don't know their names, just that this world was once inhabited by an advanced civilisation, and they are all gone by now. They went to some other place in another universe."

"Really? No, wait, it doesn't matter right now. Why did this Beast Pack try to capture you?"

"I don't know, sorry. Maybe for the same reason that they capture Waddle Dees."

"Well, I guess that nothing can be done about this. We will eventually find out everything as we go after them. But before..."

Sweetie Void took her dimensional phone and began to text.

Sweetie Void:
Starting a new adventure in a new world. Finally caught one of these vortexes that sucked up people all over Popstar. Anyone interested to join me?

Object of this adventure: mysterious vortexes are sucking up people all over Popstar and dropping them all over this new world, and a group of animals called the Beast Pack is hunting Waddle Dees and possibly other beings for unknown reasons.

Objective of this adventure: explore the new world to save the captured Waddle Dees and other beings from the Beast Pack and discover the origin of the vortexes.

Length of this adventure: unknown. Will certainly last several days.

Warning: may somehow end up fighting something with cosmic powers or some abomination of that kind, or even a God. Adventures with Kirby generally end like that.

Confirmed allies: Sweetie Void (me), Kirby, Bandana Waddle Dee, Dedede (once found), Meta Knight (once found).

Author's Note:

Happy new year!

With this, we end the First Saga and start the second one! Starting with something that many has been waiting for: Kirby and the Forgotten Land!

Also, in the video, imagine Sweetie Void and Bandana Dee sitting on Kirby being cute.

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