Kirby Star Allies: Friend Hearts are Magic (REMASTERED)

by The Kelduo

Chapter 10: Seeing Double (Kirby)

While we continued to Twilight’s castle, Applejack decided she wanted to get to know me better. “I gotta say, you sure surprised me back when you sucked up all them apples. It was like you were a big parasprite without wings! But what was up with you setting a few apples aside and sucking up all the rest?”

I looked up at the still-unconscious Twilight. “Picnic.”

AJ remembered the picnic she and the other five ponies were having when I fell from the sky. “Oh, right! Twilight had to skip the picnic so she could do her studies on you! It sure was nice of you to leave those apples for her, though we’ll probably have to wait for her to wake up to give her them.” She smiled at me. “You’re not all that bad of a critter, you know?”

I nodded. “Poyo!”

Once we reached the castle, we saw that the doors were open. I bet it was because Bright Fountain left the doors open for us. We went in, and it was clear that we’d have to find the right doors to open to get back to Spike in the library.

“Head’s up, little guy,” Applejack told me. “This castle of Twilight’s is huge. There’s a lot of doors, and no doubt it’ll be a bit confusing to get back to where she was studying you. Do you want some help with returning to--”

“Poyo.” I’d normally accept help, but going through castles and the like is no problem for me. I ran about, only stopping every once in a while to remember where in the castle I was.

I only had to open a few doors to figure out my way to the library. But when I entered, I was in for a surprise. “Uh… Poyo?” Spike was cautiously watching a staredown between two ponies, both of them being Bright Fountain.

“Kirby?” Spike looked at me. “I’d ask why you’re back first, but this isn’t the time for that.”

Then AJ came into the library with Twilight still on her back and a confused expression on her face. “Uh… Does anyone care to explain… whatever is going on right now?”

The Bright on the right side answered, “Isn’t it obvious? One of us two identical ponies is an imposter, and we’re having a stereotypical imposter staredown while we wait for someone to figure out that I'm the real Bright Fountain.”

The left Bright replied, “I'm pretty sure you mean I'm the real Bright Fountain. I doubt the imposter could spout off information that would be useful in various circumstances.”

The right Bright put his hoof to his mouth dramatically. “Ooh, self-burn! See, insulting the imposter is exactly the kind of thing that the imposter would say in an attempt to blame the real deal.”

“And what you just said is also the kind of thing that an imposter would say! Isn’t that somewhat suspicious?”

The two continued volleying insults at each other until Spike stepped in. “Stop it! We’re getting nowhere with this! You said one of you was an imposter, right? Then let’s do this the way Twilight would solve the problem…” He pointed at Applejack. “AJ, knock Kirby into one of the walls lined with books. Trust me on this.”

Applejack recoiled. “What the?! I-if you say so…” She turned around and lifted her back right hoof. I got ready for impact. “Kirby, I hope you’ll forgive me for this…”

Bam! I was launched right into the wall on the far side of the room. “Oof!” I exclaimed as I got squashed against it. It looked like it hurt a lot, but I’m tougher than I seem. I looked up and saw that some of the books were about to fall onto me. “Eep!”

Suddenly, Twilight appeared beside me and used her magic to keep the books from falling. I guess Spike expected this to make her wake up. “Whew, they’re all safe. You really should be more careful--” She stopped as she saw me, Applejack, and the lookalikes, and she began to assess the situation. “Wait a minute… Did I pass out during our visit at Sweet Apple Acres, forcing Applejack to carry me back home where a pair of identical ponies are calling each other an imposter?”

I nodded. “Poyo.”

AJ confirmed my answer. “Yep, word for word.”

“I… I’m surprised I didn’t see that coming,” Twilight bashfully chuckled. “I should’ve known doing a field study on an alien would eventually cause me to faint.” She looked at the two identical ponies. “So, what’s the name of the real deal here?”

Spike answered, “Bright Fountain, apparently. He claims he loves to gather information that would be useful in many situations, so most likely he’s a nerd like you.” He thought about whether to talk about what AJ did. “Also, I had Applejack knock Kirby into the books to wake you up so you could help figure out who the imposter is.”

“If you wanted to get me to wake up, why didn’t you just have Kirby knock down one of the books?”

“Because Kirby seems so innocent! If you woke up to him knocking down your books, you’d think he was doing it because he was rude! We wanted to make it look like Kirby just accidentally bumped into the books.”

“Kirby went along with it just fine,” Applejack added. “It seemed like he didn’t want to lose your trust, Twilight.”

I gave Twilight a nervous smile. “Poyo…”

“Kirby…” Twilight smiled back at me. “You really are a good alien! Even though we just met, it seems like you care a lot about me! Thank you so much.”

I beamed. “Poyo!”

Twilight looked back at the two ponies who were still having their staredown. “So, one of you is Bright Fountain, an intelligent pony who loves to gather information that would be useful in a large variety of situations, while the other is an imposter? I think I have the solution…” She took some books down from the shelves. “A trivia competition!”

“A trivia competition?” the two Brights asked.

“That’s right!” Twilight gave each of them a card, the first with 1 on it and the second with 2 on it. “Since you two are identical, you will be referred to as the number on your card instead of who you both claim to be. As for how the competition itself will go--”

“Kirby! Kirby! I’m back!” All of a sudden, Gim came through the doorway. “Sorry if I missed anything, it’s just that--” He stopped and stared at the two Bright Fountains. “Hold up... This can't be right! I met Bright Fountain while running the Boutique for Rarity, and I don’t remember seeing anyone else who looked just like him.” He pointed an accusing finger. “One of you two is an imposter!”

They both deadpanned, “We know.”

Twilight waved. “Hi, Gim! I was just about to hold a trivia competition to determine who’s the real Bright Fountain.”

“Oh man, a trivia competition?” Gim pointed at himself. “My primary purpose may be yo-yos, but when it comes to trivia, I’m still the robot to go to! Can I host part of the contest?”

Twilight nodded. “Sure! Since you’re Kirby’s friend, I’ll divide the contest into two rounds of questions: ponies and Kirby.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it!” An invisible curtain rose and revealed something that looked like a combination of all kinds of animals. “You can’t have a trivia contest without one of the categories being miscellaneous!”

Twilight started to get mad at the creature, but then she considered the idea. “...Huh, you’re right, Discord. Alright then, the contest will consist of three rounds of questions. I will host the Equestrian questions, Gim will host the Kirby questions, and Discord will host the miscellaneous and random ones.”

“Oh, but this place isn’t quite fit for a trivia show, is it?” Discord snapped his fingers, and some game show-related stuff appeared in the room, including a screen, some recording stuff like the ones used by the Channel PPP Crew, and fun lights everywhere. He, Gim, and Twilight each stood at a blue and yellow podium. The two Bright Fountains stood at their own respective stands. The rest of us were seated in audience seats. “That’s much better. Now then, welcome to Brightest Bulb, where we are going to find out which of our two contestants is the truly bright one! The winner earns bragging rights, while the loser gets their tail kicked! Not literally, though. If only that were the case. Twilight, would you like to start us off with the first round?”

“Gladly, Discord. Here’s the first question…” Twilight opened one of her books. “There are three main tribes of ponies. To which tribe does the pony who successfully performed the Sonic Rainboom belong?”

Contestant 2 pressed the button in front of him. “Pegasus!”

“Correct!” Contestant 2 was showered with confetti. “Question two: When a Windigo is around, what changes in the atmosphere?”

Contestant 1 pressed the button. “It becomes colder.” Contestant 2 seemed impressed by Contestant 1’s knowledge.

“Correct! Perhaps I should move on to some more difficult questions.” Twilight searched through her books for tougher questions. “Alright! Question three: What is one of the various kinds of creatures, excluding ponies, that has enrolled at the recently-established School of Friendship?”

After a short pause, Contestant 1 answered. “A Changeling." Contestant 2 looked like he was about to get more serious.

“Correct! I must say, I’m surprised you chose one of the more subtle answers!” Twilight closed her books. “Time to see just how intelligent you really are! Question four: It was thanks to the Sonic Rainboom that I was able to perform which task as a filly?”

Contestant 2 answered. “Hatch a dragon egg. And the aforementioned egg hatched into Spike, who you would make your assistant.”

Twilight smiled, but she was astonished when Contestant 2 talked about Spike hatching from the egg and becoming Twilight’s assistant. “That’s… incredible! I don’t know many ponies besides my parents and Celestia herself who knew such a personal fact about me!” Contestant 2 got shot with a party cannon blast. “You get a bonus point!”

“Wait, there are bonus points?” Contestant 1 asked.

Ignoring Contestant 1’s question, Twilight moved on. “Here’s the final question of the pony round! I don’t remember seeing you around Ponyville, so it’s safe to ask this one. When I was a unicorn, I realized once that I hadn’t yet found a friendship lesson for the week to send to Celestia. What did I do in an attempt to provoke a friendship problem?”

With a smug look on his face, Contestant 1 answered. “You cast a love spell on a doll, causing a horde of ponies to recklessly go after it. No doubt Celestia had to step in and chastise you for doing something so foolish.”

Twilight frowned. “You earn two bonus points for being so precise, but I’m cancelling the bonus points because you arrogantly called my mistake foolish. You only get one point.”

Contestant 2 tried to hold back his laughter while Contestant 1 grimaced. “What else can I say? That’s not very friendly, Contestant 1.”

“And that’s it for round one!” Twilight looked up at the scoreboard above the two contestants. “Right now, our contestants are tied with three points each. We’ll have to see if the tie will be broken in the second round. Gim, will you do the honors?”

“Of course, Princess Twilight,” Gim replied. “As one of Kirby’s friends, I’m the host of the second round, and it’s all about Kirby! Let’s see what kinds of questions my database can come up with…” He made some robotic noises. “Got it! Here’s the first question of round two: Kirby is a child, so he can’t talk very well. Instead of proper speech, what does Kirby normally say?”

Contestant 2 answered. “Poyo!”

“That is correct! I guess that wasn’t really much of a quiz question… Question two: Stone, Sword, Fire, Beam. Which of these did Kirby use to defeat Octacon, a squid monster that once invaded Cappy Town?”

Contestant 1 stood still in baffled confusion while Contestant 2 answered. “Kirby used the Fire Ability to give the multi-legged threat a taste of his own medicine!”

“Contestant 2 is correct again! Contestant 1 needs to up his game if he wants to prove he’s not the imposter!”

Twilight asked, “Fire Ability?”

“That’s right,” Gim confirmed. “Kirby can adapt to various situations by taking on the powers of enemies he runs into. More details on that later. Now then, here comes question three! Marx and Magolor are both creatures that Kirby has met during his adventures, but they both shared a desire that Kirby didn’t know about until it was too late. What was that desire?”

Contestant 1 answered. “They both wanted to rule over Kirby’s home planet, and most likely the planets surrounding it.”

“Looks like Contestant 1 is catching up again! Let’s see if he can even the match again with question four! During his most recent adventure, Kirby has encountered various situations in which he had to utilize the combined might of himself and at least one friend. What is one of the two options you have if you need to pound an electric stake?”

Both contestants answered at the same time and said the same thing: “Encase a stone in psychic energy and slam it down on the stake!” Immediately after, they stared at each other with surprised faces.

“You’re both correct! One point to each of you!” Gim held out one finger. “This is the last question of the Kirby round, so get ready. Some of the villains Kirby has fought had the resolve to keep battling even after losing. What is the physical appearance of the villain that fused with a massive vine in order to destroy Kirby and rule over Pop Star?”

Contestant 1 answered, much to Contestant 2’s frustration. “An insectoid monarch queen not unlike a bee or wasp.”

“Nice! You got that one right too!” Gim checked the scoreboard. “I can’t believe it! After two rounds, it’s still a tied game!” He looked up at Discord. “Well, looks like it’s your turn to host, big guy.”

“Don’t mind if I do.” Discord held a microphone in his paw and put on a pair of glasses. “Folks, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! That’s right, it’s the random/miscellaneous round!” Applause came out of nowhere, although the real audience clapped too. “The first question is this! If one in the hand is worth two in the bush, how many bushes equal seven hands?”

Contestant 2 answered. “Zero.”

Discord blinked. “You’re one smart cookie for seeing through my little trick. Nothing was in the bushes or hands!” He adjusted his glasses. “Very well, on to question two. What would happen if I tried being normal?”

Contestant 2 answered again. “You would be destroying yourself, and you would slowly fade away into non-existence.”

Discord shuddered. “You got that right. You got it right on a personal level… Anyway, now for question three. If you met someone with absurdly high power levels, what would be the most awesome thing to do?”

Contestant 2 answered yet again. “Crush your scouter in your hoof and exclaim that their power level is over nine thousand!”

“And now I know that your reference levels are over nine thousand! Question four: What are the usual characteristics of a weak spot of a boss?”

For the fourth time in a row, Contestant 2 answered. “It’s red, big, or glows.”

“That’s exactly right! Time for the final question of the day!” Discord smirked. “True or false: I am the perfect host for this round.”

Contestant 2 returned the smirk as he answered. “True, obviously. You’re literally the god of chaos and all things random!”

“Well, duh!” Discord looked up at the scoreboard with a smile on his face. “And I’ve got to say, the results aren’t surprising. Contestant 2 wins by a landslide, 11 to 6!”

Eye twitching, Contestant 1 angrily slammed his front hooves on his stand. “This is absurd! You’ve been asking questions that only yourself and creatures who know a lot about very specific categories could answer without getting confused!”

Discord crossed his arms. “Exactly! That was the random round for a reason! But if you’re really going to be that salty, fine. Let’s do something that you are actually able to do.” He snapped his fingers again, and the game show stuff disappeared. Then, in the middle of the room, a dance floor appeared. “Everyone knows how to dance! Surely you stand a chance in a dancing competition!”

“A dancing competition?” Twilight asked. “That might actually work. A studious pony such as Bright Fountain would likely use both proper dance moves and innovative moves to tell a story, while an imposter would probably do… their best.”

“But there’s one problem with hosting a dance competition…” Gim put his hand to his chin. “None of us are dance experts. We have no experience with hosting this sort of thing. Who is gonna be the judge of how well they dance?”

“Looks like I came just in time.” A light brown unicorn mare with her auburn mane neatly wrapped into a bun invited herself into the library. “Call me Power Beat. When it comes to the dance floor, there’s nopony better to judge a competition than me!”

Discord took out a notebook and began to write in it. “First Bright Fountain, then Power Beat… Are there any other original characters in this story I need to know about?”

“Nope,” the victorious Bright Fountain answered. Then he winked at Power Beat. “Not yet, at least. Power Beat, we’re trying to figure out who’s the imposter: this guy or me. Would you mind judging a dance competition between us to figure out who’s the real deal?”

“I live for dancing and music, Upbeat! Of course I will!” Power Beat’s cutie mark, a whole note, began to glow. Music came from it. “Let’s see how you and Backbeat match up when I play the soulful Moonstruck Blossom!”

Backbeat and Upbeat? I guess that sounds a lot better than Dancer 1 and Dancer 2. And it’s way less annoying to say something like Backbeat and Upbeat instead of Contestant 1 and Contestant 2 all the time.

Backbeat performed a series of graceful movements in sync with the melody. Upbeat, on the other hand, told a story with his dance. A story that sounded very familiar to me.

Two good friends, ruling peacefully over a land in the sky. But one day, one of them became corrupted by a toxic desire for eternal beauty after the other found her a seemingly harmless gift, a mirror. Forgetting who she truly was, she made her former friend her servant and ruled over the people of the sky with malice. She sent her former friend to capture the hero of the land below to prevent said hero from stopping her cruel reign, but the servant got the wrong guy. The real hero came to save the day, rescuing the person that was captured by the servant and foiling the plans of the monarch. This angered her, and she used her magic to transform in order to defeat the hero once and for all. The servant was saddened that his old friend had taken a turn for the worse, but he helped the hero put an end to her tyrannical reign and became the hero’s friend.

Wiping a tear from her eye, Power Beat smiled from ear to ear. “Upbeat, or should I say, the real Bright Fountain… I wondered why you looked so unique, but not anymore. Only a select few know the story of the moonlit fatal bloom, and even fewer are able to portray the story with dancing. And that means we both have something we’ve been hiding from these ponies.”

“And dragon,” added Spike.

“Not to mention draconequus,” Discord replied.

"Of course, I can't forget about you two. Anyway..." Power Beat looked at the creatures in the room with a shy smile. "I don't like to deceive others, but I'm not really Power Beat. I'm not even a pony!" This caused Twilight to grab a feather and paper in anticipation. "I took on this form in order to fit in with the locals in Equestria. My true identity is..."

Power Beat's body started glowing, then it dissolved into musical notes, revealing a small bipedal girl with Power Beat's hair color and hairstyle. Everyone was awestruck.

"Meloetta!" A sphere of energy quickly covered her, and it disappeared just as fast, showing that she now had green, flowing, wavy hair.

"Ah, if it isn't the melody Pokemon herself! There's a lot I need to catch you up on." Bright Fountain walked over and hoof-bumped Meloetta. "So, what brings you here to Planet Equus?"

"Mele!" Meloetta pointed at the dance floor. "Melemele! Meloetta!"

"The very mention of a dancing competition lured you here? I should have known. Leave it to the music master to judge a dance-off!" Bright looked around at the confused looks the others were giving him. "Meloetta and I, we've known each other for a long time. I'll explain later. Right now, I think it's time you all know that I've been hiding something."

"I've reason to assume I already know what you've been hiding..." Without warning, the imposter yanked Bright Fountain closer using its magic.

“...love.”

It opened its mouth and bared its fangs, to everyone’s horror except Bright Fountain and Meloetta, who were smirking.

Nothing happened, to the imposter's confusion. “What?! I should be able to steal your love!”

“On the contrary. It’s impossible to steal love from someone…” Right before our eyes, Bright Fountain’s body dissolved away. In its place was a weird gray bird robot with purple light-up eyes and a yellow beak and arms. “...who is incapable of feeling real emotions!”

The imposter backed away with disbelief in its eyes. Everyone else was shocked as well, except for me and Power Beat. The imposter stammered, “You… you’re…”

“You’re a robot!” Twilight exclaimed. "No wonder you weren't drained of love... You didn't have any to be drained of!"

I jumped with joy. “Poyo! Friend!”

“Indeed I am,” the robot said. “My full identity is Roborygon Mk. Z, but you all can simply call me Roborygon. As for the imposter, I believe I already know who it really is…” He turned his right arm into an electric blaster of some sort and electrified the imposter, revealing it to be a black and green insect pony with a horn. “Queen Chrysalis, just as I thought!”

Chrysalis turned from astonishment to rage. “You tricked me, you disgusting hunk of intellectual metal! You turned into a pony so you could deceive me!”

Roborygon shook his head. “That isn’t the reason why I turned into a pony. I took on that form so I could blend in with the crowd on my journey to rescue Kirby and his friends from this world while the Mane Six beat up a new villain Kirby encountered. I am a robot, but that doesn’t mean I can’t pretend to feel. I emulate emotions, and that somehow caused me to be able to trick you." He tsked. "I am quite disappointed, to be honest. I expected you to be able to sniff out love with those nostrils of yours, but you must be nose-blind. Why do you even have nostrils while other changelings don’t? That’s a question that’s been on my mind for a while.”

“That’s… a good question, actually. I never really thought about it. But if I had to guess, it’s because I am the dominant--wait, why am I even answering your question?!” Chrysalis pushed Roborygon away with her magic and pulled me in. “You, pink thing! I’ll take your love instead! Do not resist!”

“Poyo.” She wanted love, so I gave her love. I concentrated friendship into a pink heart, then I shoved it down her throat.

The queen comically choked on the Friend Heart. “Mother of Faust, you have some nerve, preventing me from savoring the taste of that... love in physical form!”

“In any case, you ought to be honored to eat a Friend Heart, Queen Chrysalis.” Gim produced a green heart in his hand. “Kirby gained the ability to throw these friendship-imbued hearts when a pink heart given off by the Heart Spears landed on him. The Heart Spears were keeping a Dark Lord trapped in a heart of pure darkness called the Jamba Heart.”

Twilight looked at my yo-yo-wielding friend with a raised eyebrow. “And you know that about the hearts… how?”

Gim scratched his head. “I honestly don’t know. When I met Roborygon’s pony persona in the Carousel Boutique, a bunch of stuff got added to my database for some reason. But I do know that I heard this Hyness guy ranting about being banished and trying to revive this Dark Lord, among other stuff.” He put his hand to where his mouth would be. “Oops, I think I said too much. Kirby, blow her into next Tuesday!”

Chrysalis gasped. “Oh no, you know about him! I must go warn--”

Before she could finish, she was sucked into my vacuum-like mouth.

“Whoa…” Spike’s jaw dropped. “That’s so cool! Kirby just inhaled Queen Chrysalis into his mouth like it was nothing!”

Applejack chuckled, “Now you know what caused Twilight to pass out. She saw Kirby suck up a bunch of my apples to fill his belly.”

Discord followed me as an eyewitness while I waddled my way out of Twilight’s castle. When I finally got to the exit and left the castle, I looked around for a good target to aim at. My sights settled on a dark forest. And… Ptooey! With one good spit, I launched the changeling queen clear into the forest.

Discord giggled as he closed his camcorder. “Oh boy, the ponies are NOT going to believe this at all. But they’ll have to, because I got it on camera!”

Author's Note:

For clarification about Meloetta, my headcanon in my stories leading up to this one is that Meloetta acts as a sort of deity of music. She can empower others and herself by singing and playing music.

But I really am curious about Queen Chrysalis, though. Why is she the only changeling with nostrils and "regular" eyes?