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Chapter Text

Kirby snuggled into the Lor's guest room blankets. He knew that he should get the day started, especially since he'd agreed to help both Magolor and Marx make their meals for the Star Allies Magolor Day (Sunday) potluck!

Mmmh the potluck. He started drooling at the mere thought of it.

Dedede's and the Waddle Dees endless meat selection! Steak, hamburgers, hotdogs, pork chops, ribs, chicken!

The meta-knights sweet ice cream! Will it be sundaes, parfaits, milkshakes, or perhaps maybe it'll be soft served this time!

Bandana's freshly picked vegetables and fruits!

The freshly fished fish that Gooey would bring!

Adeline's painted food is always a treat!

The Squeak Squad would always bring something new from their latest adventure but Kirby still thinks about the extremely cheesy and delectable off world pizza they brought one time. Maybe they'll bring some shortcakes this time!

The animal friends freshly baked bread on sandwiches!

Marx's star block cake was always delish!

Taranza would bring the most refreshing drinks in all of Floralia!

The mage sisters and Hyness always bought an abundance of different foods. Flans, spicy chili, shaved ice!

And of course Magolor's Mac and Cheese! A favorite amongst every Star Ally. Hence the reason why Kirby was staying in the Lor. They'd always run out of Magolor famous Mac and Cheese so Kirby said that he'd help the wizard. That way all his friends could get some and maybe even have seconds!

Mmmh… Kirby wondered if Magolor would mind if he taste tested some of his Mac and Cheese.

Speaking of which, he's surprised that the two jokers haven't woken him up yet.

But hey, if they were gonna let him sleep a little longer then it was fine by him.

"Oi Kirby, wake up!" An unfamiliar voice yelled at him.

His eyes jolted awake and took a quick look around his surroundings. 

This is not the Lor Starcutter. He was back home. The pink puffball blinked a few times. Right in front of him was an unfamiliar yellow bird.

"C'mon pinky! Get up! Did you forget that you've got a playdate with Fumu and Bun?"

Playdate? With who?

"W-what are you talking about? Who are you?!" Kirby asked with a squeak in his voice.

"Whoa! Since when could you talk?" The yellow bird was shocked at Kirby's words.

"Since forever? Why are you in my… home?"

Kirby finally stopped and looked around the house. 

Furniture was either missing or simply not there. His pictures of his friends weren't up. His crayons were missing! None of his plushies were there either!

"This… isn't my house…" 

-----

King Dedede was always slow to start when he woke up. He yawned as he stretched himself. 

The king slowly got himself out of bed. He sleepily looked out the window. The sun was higher than it normally was when he woke up. Huh. Bandana wasn’t there to wake him up.

He smirked. ‘He must be sleeping in too. Good.’

Contrary to popular belief, the King of Dreamland wasn’t an idiot. He knew his favorite waddle dee worked hard and was most deserving of a break. 

He was damn proud of that kid too. Especially after he and Kirby kicked both his and Meta’s ass at the tower. He’d have to ask Taranza if he’d bring some fresh apple juice for the young dee for the potluck later.

He loves hosting the Star Allies potlucks and even more so hosting the after parties. So he'd better get a move on to make sure the Waddle Dees had everything needed for their part of the potluck.

He rubbed his sleep filled eyes and finally took in his surroundings. 

This wasn’t his room…

This wasn’t even a room for any of the other star allies!

Where was he?!

Suddenly he hears the large door open. A short purple snail appeared from behind the door and let himself in. 

“Ah, your majesty you’re awake.” He said it with a hint of familiarity. “The waddle dees are almost ready with your breakfast.”

The King blinked a few times. Who was this guy?

He shook his head. He’d take a page out of Meta Knight's book and play along until he’d find a moment to look for answers.

“Thank you for telling me.” 

The snail gasped out dramatically. “You of all people thanked me? Are you possessed your Majesty?” He laughed as he nudged Dedede’s side.

He grunted hating the response the snail gave him. 

He rolled his eyes. He knew full well he had to play along. “Would you mind escorting me to the dining hall?”

“Now where’d you learn a big word like ‘escorting’.” The snail said in a joking but insulting manner. 

Dedede felt his eye twitch. 

-----

Meta Knight was usually an earlier riser no matter how late he went to bed. 

Though he had to admit working all day and night on Kirby’s surprise with his crew until 4:30 in the morning probably wasn’t his best idea. He went to bed exhausted knowing full well what event was going on today.

 In his defense, it wasn’t until dinner time so no one could fault him for wanting to sleep in longer but he did have other plans today before then. Especially since he knew after the potluck was the movie marathon and the follow-up Star Ally sleepover. 

He knew full well he wouldn’t be home until tomorrow. 

He rose out of bed and instantly noticed a problem. 

This isn't the Halberd. 

He doesn’t know where the hell he is.  

Looking around the unfamiliar room he noticed two familiar knights.

“Ah, good morning sir!” Sword said.

“Did you sleep well?” Asked Blade. 

Meta had to question why the two were so casual about this.

"Can you two tell me where we are?"

The two knights looked at each other questionably.

"We're in Castle Dedede… Are you feeling alright sir?" Swords' voice was full of concern.

"Of course, I feel fine. But this isn't Dedede Castle. Why aren't we in the Halberd?" 

He knew the castle like the back of his hand. This wasn’t his nor anyone else's room. Too much of this ugly shade of green. 

"Sir the Halberd was destroyed during the fight with Nightmare, don't you remember?" 

Meta Knight couldn't stop the confused expression on his face. He was just in the Halberd and it was nowhere near the Nightmare fight all those years ago. 

This earned shared whispers from the two knights.

The masked knight could only make out bits of the twos silent conversation 'I thought his eyes changed color when he expressed emotions?' And 'Why does he think this isn't Dedede's castle?"

He began to think this had been some cruel joke from the two. Nova knows he isn't a stranger to them especially since he knew Dreamlands resident pranksters personally.

He swiftly got out of bed.

"Sir, I don't think you are well." Sword grabbed his shoulder. "I think you should get more rest."

"I think this joke has gone on long enough. Don't you two agree?"

Meta Knight unfurled his wings causing Sword to fall to the ground as he saw his master take flight.

"Now I'm off to find Dedede. Maybe he-"

"Demon Beast!" Blade shouted.

Meta Knight looked to the left, then the right, and finally pointed to himself.

"What have you done to our master?!" He screamed at him.

"What are you on about?"

"Nightmare may be dead but you still choose to bother us!" Sword clenched his fist.

The blue knight rolled his eyes and flew out of the room. Off to explore the strange new castle he'd found himself in. He swore he could still hear his two subordinates yell out to him.

-----

"What?! Kirby suddenly learned to talk?" An unfamiliar girl with a ponytail in a pink and green dress said in a voice filled with shock and concern.

"Yeah and what's worse is that he doesn't remember any of us!" 

Kirby recently learned that the yellow bird was named Tokkori. Said bird brought him into Castle Dedede. This wasn’t Castle Dedede… Both the outside and inside were completely different and the room that they were currently in wasn’t a room that was ever in the castle.

Another kid was right next to her, presumably, her brother, who had baggy orange and green hair that covered his eyes and wore overalls with only one strap.

Kirby had to assume that these two kids were Fumu and Bun whom Tokkori said he had a playdate with. Still didn't know any of them.

"Hey Kirby, since you can talk now, say the first thing that comes to mind!" 

"Bun!"

"Maxim tomato! No, wait… watermelons! Wait wait..!" 

Bun laughed. "Should have figured that the first thing I'd hear out of your mouth would have been food related!"

"That's not what we should be focusing on!" Fumu looked sadly at the pink puff. "Do you really not remember us?"

"I'm sorry but I really don't." Kirby felt bad for her but he couldn't do anything at the moment.

The two thought for a moment until the younger of the two snapped his fingers.

"What if it's a star warrior thing? We should go ask Meta Knight!"

"Meta Knight's here?!" Kirby didn't know what a star warrior was but he was happy that a familiar face would be with him. 

"I guess it's good that you remember Meta Knight but you don't remember that he lives here too…" Fumu said.

Kirby tilted himself. Meta Knight never lived in the castle. He lived in the Halberd with the rest of the Meta-knights. Though he has been visiting the castle more often after the tower fight.

"Let's hope Meta Knight has answers…" Fumu slowly opened the door when suddenly voices could be heard shouting.

"Leave me alone!" 

That was Meta’s voice!

Kirby ran past the trio straight into the hallway.

He watched as Meta Knight flew away from both Sword and Blade Knight. He didn't know why he was flying away from them. He was extremely happy to see a fellow Star Ally though!

"Meta Knight! Hiii!" Kirby waved his nubs in the air instantly getting the knight's attention.

"Oh, Kirby." He scooped up the young hero as he quickly flew by. He flew around the corner out of sight from anyone currently in that hallway 

Fumu blinked a few times, trying to take in all that happened. 

Did Meta Knight just… fly and take Kirby with him?

The green knights stopped to catch their breaths right in front of Fumu's home door.  

"What’s going on?" Her brother asked 

"When did Meta Knight get wings?" She asked

"He doesn't!" Blade quickly said.

"It's gotta be a demon beast!" Sword finished his sentence.

"What!" All three shouted. 

"B-b-but I thought Nightmare w-was gone!" Tokkori's voice stuttered.

"Just because he's gone doesn't mean all of his creations are gone too…"

This was bad. First Kirby lost his memories of them and now Meta Knight's been replaced with a demon beast!

What else could happen?

"Well, we can't just stand around! Let's go, Bun!" 

Her brother nodded and the two were off with Sword, Blade, even Tokkori following.

-----

“Weird day today huh Meta Knight?” Kirby innocently asked as he looked up to the blue knight. The blue puff nodded in agreement. “I meet people who said they knew me but I didn’t know them!”

“I suppose I dealt with something similar. Sword and Blade are acting as they’ve never seen my wings before. Do you have any idea where Dedede could be?” 

Just then the two heard an unfamiliar voice followed by a very familiar voice. 

“I meant to ask this earlier, your majesty, but when did you start wearing a kimono under your robe?” 

“Uh, a while now. Why do you ask?”

“I’ve never seen you with it. I think it completes your look.” 

Meta Knight smirked under his mask while Kirby giggled. The blue knight flew faster in the direction of their friend's voice. In just a few flaps of his wings, they found their king. The two nodded at each other before calling out to him.

“Your Majesty! Catch!” Meta yelled as he threw the pink child towards his king. 

The king looked up for a quick second and smirked. “Incoming child.” 

The purple snail gasped as he watched both Meta Knight, who apparently had wing now, threw Kirby towards the king and said king skillfully catching the pink menace like they had done this tones of times before. 

“Hi, Dedede!” Kirby said as he snuggled into pengu’s chest.

“What’s up you little menace. Good to see you too, Mety Knight.” 

Meta Knight gracefully landed on the King’s shoulder wrapping himself up in the process. “Glad to see you too. It has been quite a day.” 

“Yeah! And the people here are saying I lost my memory and are supper surprised that I can talk! I don’t anyone here!” Kirby added.

“Mmh. I’m in the same boat as you two.” He pointed at the purple snail who twitched at his words. 

Just as he finished his sentence, more people made their way to them. Each of them through winded breath had something to say.

“I don’t know how you ordered a demon beast but you’re not gonna win Dedede!” One of the young kids said. Anger in her voice.

“Are you the reason why Kirby doesn’t remember us!” The other said. 

“What do you mean you don’t remember me?” The snail he had been accompanied by asked. 

“Where’s Meta Knight you incompetent fool!” Sword said as both she and Blade raised their weapons.

“I know it’s a demon beast but does anyone else feel weird seeing Meta Knight resting on Dedede’s shoulder?” A small bird trying to get his voice to be heard.

Through the chaos of everyone’s words. The King finally put two and two together. He sighed deeply “Oh no, it’s another dimensional thing!” 

Chapter Text

“What do you mean ‘Dimensional thing’” Fumu was suspicious of anything the self-proclaimed king said. Though she must admit, this did make her curious. 

The king rubbed his temples. "Uuuh ok ok. How much do you all know about different dimensions, rifts, and what not?"

Each of the strangers looked at him like he was crazy. Not a great sign.

"Alright shoot, how do I explain this? You know how random portals open up?"

Their confusion had only gotten worse. Shoot. The king knew he shouldn’t have assumed every dimension they visit would have portals randomly appear. But you can’t blame him for thinking that! It’s such a recurring theme!

"You're starting in the middle, Dedede." Meta Knight patted his king’s back softly. "Allow me to explain. What my king should have said first is that we come from a different dimension. We’re we come from there is a problem with portals opening up at random, leading us into different dimensions, planets, and whatnot. I'd have to assume that while we were sleeping last night a few opened up and dropped us here in your dimension."

A collective 'oooh' swept through the small group.

"So the multiverse theory is true then!" The girl with the ponytail was in awe at the knight's explanation.

“What’s the multiverse theory?” The younger of the two siblings asked. 

“Multiple dimensions separated from one another. Each dimension is either extremely different or has little difference. Like Meta’s wings apparently. ” The king simply explained.

The dark knight nodded. "I also have to assume that due to this we may have switched with the ones that you all confused us with." 

"Sorry for the confusion!" Kirby apologized politely. 

"You seem very calm about being in another dimension" The younger of the two children pointed out. 

“Yeah, this ain’t our first rodeo.” This would be what, the third, fourth time this has happened? Dedede had to wonder if they should have Susie or Magolor design a machine that would detect these random portals so they could better prepare. 

"So then since we don't know you and we only look like your friends. How's about a proper introduction?"

The girl nodded in agreement. "My name is Fumu."

"I'm her brother, Bun!" The young boy excitedly added. 

"Yo I'm Tokkori!" The small bird flapped his wings until he finally landed on Bun's head.

"...Escargon." The snail eyed their king suspiciously.

"You already seem to know us." The taller of the two knights said.

"Alright since that's done and over with!" The king's stomach loudly growled in the hallway. "Can we please get some grub! I'm starving!"

Meta Knight pinched the King's cheek. "Don't act as if you rule over this land. We are guests in this dimension."

"But Meta I'm hungry too!" The young pink puffball whined.

"I don't doubt that but we still need to be polite about it." The Knight was cut off by an even louder growl than the king's startling everyone in the hallway.

"Kirby was that your stomach?" Bun cried out.

"Uuh yeah sorry!" He chuckled as he leaped out of the King's arms.

"Hey, you." Dedede pointed at Escargon.

"Y-yes?" 

"You said that the Waddle Dees was almost done with breakfast right? Well, I hope they made enough for us all! Come on show us where the pantries at!" The King smiled wide.

"Y-yes your majesty! Right, this way!"

Each of them followed the short snail towards the dining room. The King eyed the knight sitting on his shoulder and quietly laughed at him. "Guessing you didn't eat your midnight snack last night huh?"

The masked knight rolled his eyes but King Dedede knew there was a smirk underneath. "If you must know. I did not, as I was working on Kirby’s surprise." He whispered back.

"Heh, you’re lucky the kid loves you enough to take the fall."

-----

Breakfast was quickly served by the many waddle dees. Today's breakfast dish was a stack of blueberry pancakes topped with power sugar and wiped cream. Drinks consisted of coffee for the adults and apple juice for the young ones.

It didn’t surprise Fumu that both the King and Kirby started stuffing their faces the minute their plates hit the table. Nor did it surprise her when Meta Knight said he would wait until everyone else was done eating to eat his. No, what did surprise her was the fact that Dedede thanked the Waddle Dees and even pet one of them!

The other thing she found odd that surprised her was how much sugar the other Meta Knight kept putting into his coffee. Watching him rip open each individual sugar packet one after the other leaving an evergrowing pile was mesmerizing. She almost didn't take her eyes off him if Dedede hadn't spoken up.

"Hey Meta Knight, you want some coffee with your sugar?" 

"Haha very funny my liege. You know how I like my coffee" The knight scoffed at him, continuing to add more sugar.

"Plus sugar makes the coffee taste better!" Kirby playfully added as he continued to stuff his pink face.

'They're certainly closer than our own version of them' Fumu thought to herself as she took another quick sip of her apple juice. 

“I must apologize for this inconvenience. Most of us Star Allies have been trying to do more research on these random portals but unfortunately, it’s getting us nowhere.” Meta Knight stirred his coffee as he spoke.

“Star Allies..?” Fumu questioned. 

“It’s the name of our little squad. Kirby named us.” Dedede answered after he had swallowed his breakfast. 

“Yeah! It’s made up of all my closes friends and we protect Popstar and other planets!” Kirby excitedly explained.  

“Speaking of which, I hope we can get back in time for the annual potluck. ‘Specially since I’m the one who hosts them!” The king chuckled. 

“You… You’re the one who hosts?” Escargon hesitantly asked. Almost as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Meta Knight nodded. “Every Magolor Day, King Dedede hosts our Star Allies get-together potluck.”

“Then afterward we have a huge sleepover and watch movies we found on another planet!” The pink puff chimed in. 

“Magolor Day? Is that some holiday you celebrate in your dimension?” Fumu had to wonder what kind of holiday Magolor Day would be. 

Meta Knight smacked himself in the face. He deeply sighed. “Dedede, remind me to smack Magolor upside his head when we get back. I meant every Sunday.

Oh.

Well, there goes one question she had. But that did raise another. 

“Who’s Magolor?” 

“He’s one of us Star Allies.” The knight simply put. “As you can tell he’s got a bit of an ego.”

“So much so that he changed all of our calendars from saying Sunday to Magolor Day!” The king growled out annoyance clearly in his voice. He sighed. “But he is a good kid… well trying to nowadays. Plus he has a cool ship.”

“That’s it!” Meta Knight’s snapped his fingers. “The Lor Starcutter!” 

“The what?” Tokkori asked.

“It’s a ship that travels in between dimensions.” The King answered. 

"So then, is this Magolor’s ship the quickest way to get back to your dimension?" The shorter of the two knights asked.

"Most likely yes. Unless another random portal opens up soon." Meta Knight calmly stated.

“So how are you gonna get in contact with him?” Bun sipped the last of his apple juice as he waited for an answer.

"We call him!" The young star ally smiled as he pulled out his pink phone stylized in multiple different stickers ranging from stars to hearts, even some of his own hand-drawn ones of his friends.

“Is… is that a phone?” The other green knight, Sword questioned as soon as he saw the pink touch screen. 

“Yeah! Our friend Susie gave each of us Star Allies one! Haven’t you guys seen a phone like this before?” 

“No. The most advanced one I’ve seen is a flip phone.”

The King and Knight shared a worried glance at each other.

That wasn’t a good sign. 

The pink puffballs smile dropped the moment he clicked on Magolor’s name. 

“Guys it’s not going through…”

Both Dedede and Meta Knight wiped out their own customized phones and checked themselves. 

No connection available. 

“Try texting in the emergency group chat!” The King yelled.

“They're not going through! Nova damn it! What’s the point of these damn things if we can’t make a call out in the dimensional boonies!” No one in this dimension had ever seen Meta Knight this upset. 

“Watch your tone. We’ll just have to wait and hope they’ll find us. Or y’know we get kidnapped by a portal while we sleep again.” The king said it in a calm voice but by his body langued you could tell he was still royally pissed. 

“Then we shouldn’t have to wait too long. If our counterparts really did switch with us then mine should be with Magolor and Marx! I stayed over there last night to help Magolor make his Mac and Cheese!” Kirby tried cheering up his friends and for a quick second, it worked. Until.

“But isn’t there hundreds of different dimensions? Wouldn’t it take a long time to find ours?” Fumu the everloving woman of facts and logic pointed out. 

“Shit.” 

The King angrily glanced at the Knight. “And I doubt our counterparts also don’t know anything about dimensional travel either.” He watched as every single one of them shook their heads ‘no’. “... Of course.” 

“But it isn’t all bad you can stay here in the castle until we can find a way back home.” The young girl said with a smile. 

King Dedede perked up. “Hey yeah, we can make this into a little vacation too!” 

“Yeah! We can wander around this new dimension and have fun while we wait!” Kirby agreed instantly. 

Meta Knight didn’t look too pleased by this answer.

“We’ll still look for a way home, Mety Knight! But since we’ve been so busy in our dimension, we could use a break and just enjoy ourselves too.”  The King faked whimpered doing his best to win the masked knight over. 

Meta Knight rolled his eyes. “As long as you both promise to actually look for a way home with me.”

“We promise!” They both shouted. 

“How’s about me and my brother give a tour?” Fumu politely offered. 

“Yeah, and you can tell us stories about your dimension while we do!” Bun jumped out of his seat and ran towards the three. 

“Before you do can you please tell us the whereabouts you were before you were transported to our dimension, Meta Knight?” Sword quipped. The dark knight smiled under his mask. Happy that no matter what dimension his followers were loyal to him. 

“And his majesty's whereabouts as well!” The old snail practically yelled at them. 

“Well, I was in my castle last night. Taranza was supposed to come early today too. Plus all my dees are there. So your king is in good hands.” Dedede didn’t miss the fact that the two kids plus the bird sighed in disappointment. He’ll have to ask about that later. 

“I of course was in the Halberd. My crew should be able to handle another variation of me” Meta knight was about to leave it at that until he remembered something important. “...Then again there is the matter of my quote-unquote new recruits… Eh, he’ll be fine.” He shrugged it off. 

“Sir what does that mean-” 

“Alright, let's leave Meta alone so he can eat alright.” Dedede cut off Blades's sentence as he practically shoved everyone out of the room. Before the King, himself left the room he scurried his way back towards his knight. 

“Hey if you can, can you ask the Waddle Dees to give you another helping. We haven't found Bandana yet and I know he’s probably freaking out right now since this isn’t our castle.”

“Of course your majesty. I’m actually quite surprised he hasn’t shown up either.” 

“He’s gotta be here, right? It’s always the four of us together when it’s something like this.” 

Meta nodded in agreement. “Now get the hell out of here I want to eat finally.” 

Dedede laughed. “All right see you soon.”

Chapter Text

“Rise and shine Kirby! And a happy Magolor Day to you!” Magolor happily shouted into the Lor’s guest room. He watched as the pink hero squirmed around in the guest bed tugging the blankets closer to him. "Now now, there's no time to be sleeping in! We got some macaroni to make!"

Magolor floated his way towards the sleeping hero. He ripped off the blanket and picked the puffball up. "But don't worry we'll still have some breakfast first! You know how Marx is without his meals."

The young hero woke up full of energy as soon as he heard the word breakfast. "Poyo!"

"Yeah, I thought that would cheer you up!" He patted Kirby on the head. 

Magolor had studied the young puffball and even turned him around a few times and squished him."...Kirby did you get smaller?" He asked. 

"Poyo?" Kirby tilted himself to show confusion in the wizard's words.

Magolor felt worried. That's two poyos now. Not even a full sentence. Just poyo poyo. "Hey, do you feel alright dude?" As he asked a boastful voice came into the room.

"MAGS! KIRBY! I'M HUNGRY! C'MON, I WANT WAFFLES!" The purple jester ran around the room on his beach ball.

"Hold on Marx, I think there's something wrong with Kirby." He set the pink puff back on the bed. 

Marx flipped from his ball to his bed. “Why is he sick?” He nuzzled his head against the small hero. Kirby let out soft baby-like giggles as he did. “It’s not a fever… What’s wrong, pink demon?” 

The child had only looked at him questionably. Marx thought to himself for just a moment. "Mmh nothing like a good breakfast to make you feel better right Kirbs!" He got a very agreeable poyo from the pink puff.

Magolor wasn’t fully convinced but knowing how both Marx and Kirby acted when they weren't properly fed he had come to a decision. With a heavy heart, he let out a reluctant sigh. "Alright, I'll make the waffles! But then we gotta figure out what's wrong with Kirbs here.”

"Psh we can probably just call Meta Knight afterward. They're the same species right? He'll know what to do."

Magolor knew Marx was probably right but everything about how Kirby was currently acting was… off to say the least. He wasn't speaking in full sentences and Magolor swore he had gotten smaller.

It wasn’t possession, to say the least. Magolor knows what possession looks like. Plus who'd even be able to possess the pink demon known as Kirby?

Magolor had almost thought Kirby had somehow reverted back into a baby.

But that's impossible.

Right?

As the three of them made their way to the Lor's kitchen, the wizard looked back at the young puffball who was babbling like a baby. Sure Kirby sometimes used poyo when he talked because it was a verbal tic he had. But this was weird.

Both his roommate and his houseguest sat themselves down and 'patiently' waited for Magolor to finish the waffles.

Magolor poured the pre-made batter into his waffle maker. He'd known he'd be there for a while since two out of the three people in his ship had crazy appetites. So he decided to ask the pink puffball a few questions."So Kirby… what do you want on your waffles?" 

Of course, Magolor knew the answer, the pink demon would want everything he could have on his waffles. But if Magolor could get an actual verbal confirmation that'd be great. Hell if this was just a prank on the wizard that'd be great. Plus it would explain why Marx was chill about this. 

The pink child thought for a moment before excitedly letting out a few poyos.

Well, that's not good. 

Finally, Marx became just as worried as his roommate. "Uuum Kirbs, are you gonna actually answer him?"

Kirby stared blankly at the jester. "Poyo?" 

"Are you pulling a prank on us? If you are, it's not funny dude." Marx furrowed his brow. 

"Poyo poy!"

Magolor set aside some already made waffles. "That's it! I'm calling Meta Knight!"

"Meta Knini!" The child happily yelled out.

Magolor whipped out his custom blue phone decorated in yellow gear stickers to match his ascetic. He clicked on the blue knight's name. 

It rang. 

And it rang. 

Until it went straight to voice mail. 

"Meta Knight here. I'm busy at the moment so-"

Magolor clicked the end button. "Alright let's try again."

Once again his phone rang through the Lor's kitchen and Meta Knight's voicemail filled everyone's ears. "Alright, then how's about our King," Magolor growled out in annoyance. 

"Already tried. He's not answering either." Marx sighed. It wasn’t like their king or Knight to not answer their phones, especially if it was either of the pranksters. Usually, because they called when they got in too much trouble. But that was a problem for later. He looked at the pink puff whose stomach growled loudly. "You don't think its possession do you?"

"No way!" Magolor set a stack of waffles covered in whip cream, powdered sugar, cherries, and syrup in front of the pink puff who instantly inhaled them down. "He's still acting like he normally does and isn't attacking us. If I were to guess I'd say he's acting like an actual baby…"

The wizard set a plate down for his jester companion but he didn't engulf them down as he'd normally would. "I don't like this Magolor. Who the hell would turn someone back into a baby?"

"I don't know but I'm gonna text in the emergency group chat."

-----

Meta Knight awoke extremely startled. The moment his eyes opened he was greeted into a completely different room. This wasn’t even a room in Castle Dedede. 

Had he been kidnapped? Possibly by some of Nightmare's remaining demon beasts? He wasn't tied up or injured. In fact, he was in a very comfortable queen sized bed. 

He looked around. The first thing he noticed was a shelf right next to the bed he awoke on. Said shelf contained an open planner with his symbol on it and a framed photo.

The photo was odd, to say the least. It showed both Kirby, who was wearing sunglasses and relaxing on a lounge chair, and a random waddle dee wearing a blue bandana on his head in the foreground. While in the background both he and his majesty were in a fountain of some kind.

His majesty was in an innertube while he himself was pushing him around while he was… flying. 

Meta Knight hadn't used his wings in years. Not since…

He shook his head. No need to think about that now. No, now he had to wonder who had fabricated this photo. Though he doubts he would get any answers any time soon.

He looked at the planner that was decorated with his logo of all things. For some odd reason, every Sunday was replaced with Magolor Day. The Knight didn't think he wanted to know what that was all about. He skimmed through what was written down for today's date. 

1. Don't kill the mirror bastard

2. Work on main engine 

3. Sword training 

4. Don't kill the mirror bastard

5. Maintenance check

6. Work on Kirby’s surprise 

7. Potluck

The Knight had to scratch his head. The writing looked like his own but he never wrote any of this. He wasn't even sure what some of this meant. Of course, he understood Sword training but he didn't need to work on any engines nor do maintenance checks. He wasn't working on any surprise for the young star warrior. Nor would he go to some potluck.

Also who was this "mirror bastard" and why did whoever wrote this need to be reminded twice not to kill them. 

He had to take a moment and try to remember if there was a demon beast who could fabricate such lies. He knew Boukyakku could make others completely forget about whoever it was possessing. But he doesn't remember if there was one that could make false lives and memories.

His thoughts came to a screeching halt as he heard the yell from an unknown voice. 

"Aaah the ice cream machine wants to start a fight again!" 

"Javelin! How many times do I have to tell you to stop picking fights with the ice cream machine!" A woman's voice shouted back at the supposed Javelin.

"It started it!" He whined. 

"It's not sentient! It just needs a tune-up!" 

Where these people seriously arguing about an ice cream machine? Meta Knight would never admit it out loud, but he loved ice cream but he didn't think it would be argument worthy.

The Knight moved closer to the door and contemplated whether or not he should see if it was open. 

He turned the knob. It opened.

Maybe he wasn't captured. It couldn't have been this easy if he was captured. 

Right?

As he opened the door he was greeted by many faces he had never seen before. Each of those unfamiliar faces turned to him, each shouting. "Good morning Sir Meta Knight!" All except for the woman who was working on a machine. The Knight had to assume that was the ice cream machine two of them were arguing on.

Meta Knight watched as the woman worked on the machine. Out of everyone there, she seemed like an oddity.

Long pink hair, an outfit that would fit better in an office environment rather than the battle ready environment everyone else in the room was in. Her hands seemed… floaty? And when she turned around she had big blue eyes and no mouth like the Waddle Dees.

"Hey, Mety Knight." She happily said the minute she noticed the knight.

He grunted in response. Mety Knight? What a ridiculous nickname.

That earned a laugh out of the pink haired woman. "Right, I forgot that only the king can call you that."

The king? 

What kind of relationship did this woman think he and Dedede had? They weren't even friends.

"Ms. Haltmann! Please refrain from teasing our lord." A tall bird in a white high ranking uniform yelled at her.

"Aw, you're no fun Vul. I think it's funny!" One of the knights who was covered in purple armor cheerfully said.

"Yeah lighten up a bit!" Another Knight who bore a skull mask added.

The supposed Vul scoffed at them. "I have no idea how or why Meta Knight agreed to let her stay…" He whispered under his breath."Anyways. Would you like your breakfast now sir? Sailor made waffles today! Extra sugary just how you like it."

"Yes, thank you."

“Just don’t eat them all. Sword and Blade aren’t up yet.”

Meta Knight had too many questions that weren't going to get answers anytime soon. 

For one, both his loyal followers were here apparently. Secondly, these strangers all acted as if they knew him for years. Friendly banters. Offering him breakfast. These feelings weren't foreign to him. It's just been years since he's experienced this. Sure he had Sword and Blade but they were too loyal to engage with banters like this.

Meta Knight snuggled closer into his cape. He almost wished this was genuine but he knew that there was a logical reason why these strangers were acting like this. 

He was so deep in thought that he hadn't noticed that the woman had been staring right at him. 

"Did your eyes just change color?" She asked. 

Ah right. His eyes tend to change along with his emotions. He had to assume they changed green this time since he was just in deep thought. 

This was common knowledge to everyone that knew him. They all acted like they knew Meta Knight so well. So much so that they knew he had a sweet tooth. Why didn't they know his eyes could change color?

“Maybe they did maybe they didn’t. What’s it to you Ms. Haltmann?” 

She walked closer to him. "You're acting weird…" 

"Is that so?" He responded as she continued to study him.

She brought a hand to where her mouth would be if she had one. She sighed and gave an unimpressive look. "Dark, quit impersonating Meta Knight."

What?

"I didn't know you could change your eyes into multiple colors though. That's pretty cool. But seriously, Meta will shatter you if you keep pretending to be him. I don't feel like picking up all that glass." She giggled.

"Uh, Susie?" A deep voice came into the room.

As if this day couldn't get any more confusing. A puffball much like the knight himself entered the room. He had a near-replica of the Knight’s own mask but it seemed thinner and had a more angled slit in his mask, giving him the impression of a constant scowl. He also bore red shoes and a tattered black cape.

"W-wait Dark? Then who's."

Before Susie could finish her sentence the replica unraveled his torn wings as he launched himself at Meta Knight successfully pinning him down. “I Swear to Nova if it’s possession again.” He hissed. 

“It can’t be, I just upgraded the halberd’s defense system!” Susie cried out. 

Each of the crew members jolted to the three star allies. 

“Possession? Oh, Nova not again…” One said.

“He wasn’t attacking us though… so maybe not?” Vul added. 

“I thought it was weird he didn’t call Susie a bitch.” The one in the skull mask mused. They each nodded in agreement. Even Susie herself nodded which Meta Knight thought was weird. 

“What’s happening here!?” A familiar voice shouted through the chaos. Meta Knight had just enough vision from being pinned down to see his two loyal followers dressed in green armor, Sword and Blade. 

“It’s about time you two woke up. Something’s wrong with Meta Knight!” Vul scoffed at them.

Meta Knight kicked Dark off of him. Earning a very sound ‘oof’ from the replica “Sword! Blade! Come, help me deal with this demon beast.”  

“Oh, you wanna fight now!” Dark unleashed a near replica of Meta Knight’s sword, Galaxia, only his was silver with seven branches of blades instead of the typical five.

“Alright, you two no need to start a fight this early.” Blade began. 

“We know you two like fighting each other but save it for later.” Sword finished for him. Dark rolled his eyes and reluctantly put his sword away.

“What are you on about? I’ve never met this man before.” Meta Knight confessed. 

The room fell silent. 

“Uh huh. I know you wish you didn’t know me, you bastard.” Dark mocked. 

“No, I’m serious. In fact, I’ve never met any of you. I only know Sword and Blade.” 

Panic filled the ship with the only two people remaining calm being the businesswoman, Susie, and his lookalike, Dark. Susie’s mind was going a mile a minute thinking of any possible answer from Meta’s response. Dark simply looked like he didn’t care. 

“Mmh Dark, can you take this Meta Knight to the interrogation room. We’ll be joining you in just a minute.” 

“Yeah, whatever. C’mon you.” He dragged Meta by his cape. 

Vul looked at Susie with suspicious eyes. “I know that look Ms. Haltmann. You better not be planning anything bad.” 

“Oh please,” She scoffed. “I’m not going to revert back to my old ways. But I do believe this issue with Meta has reached into Star Allie's territory.” She whipped out her customized phone bedazzled in the Haltmann symbol and little music notes. 

-----

Bandana Dee felt bad. He had accidentally slept in today. In his defense, he did train all day yesterday and hung out with his best friend Kirby for some rest and snacks. The apple pie he gave the dee was amazing! But that was then and this was now. He had to get to the King’s room so that they could finish up some important duties before today’s potluck. 

With spear in hand, Bandana swiftly made his way to the King's room. Knocked and waited for an answer. As he suspected there wasn’t any. The great King was always a heavy sleeper. The waddle dee let himself in and gently shut the door behind him.  

“Great King, it's time to get up!" The waddle dee watched as his king groaned as he snuggled deeper into his bed's blankets. "I know you like to sleep in but we gotta get the day started!" He happily said.

Bandana nudged the King a few times. He heard the King angrily growling. That wasn't normal. He nudged King Dedede one last time. In doing so he was met with the great king's mallet that he quickly dogged.

"Great King?!"

"Who are you and why are you trying to wake me up!?" The King's scream filled the room. 

"Dedede it's me, Bandana!" Bandana Dee cried out.

"What the- a talking Waddle Dee!"

Something was very wrong. Yes, the Great King was known for getting possessed. A lot. But this was just off. Why was he so surprised that he could talk?

"Great King, somethings wrong come with me and-"

"Get away from me Demon Beast!" The king swung his mallet again and again which Bandana gracefully dogged each time the hammer came down. 

'He's not really skilled with his hammer right now…" Bandana thought as he quickly took his spear and parried the hammer out of Dedede's hands successfully disarming him as it went flying to the other side of the room.

His eyes locked dead onto that of the King's. Who seemed terrified that Bandana Dee was able to do all that. He kept his trusty spear raised at the King to make sure he didn't run away as he studied the king.

The more Bandana observed Dedede the more he noticed the differences in his attire. Firstly he didn't have his kimono under his robe. If Bandana recalled correctly the last time he didn't wear his kimono was during the crystal shard incident. Or as the Great King called it, "Dark matter problem number 3."

Secondly, he didn't bear any of the scars he had gotten on their many adventures. If his current fighting skills had anything to go on it made the Waddle Dee think he'd never gone on any.

Thirdly, just how he acted was making Bandana's skin crawl. He hated it. He always hated when the king was under someone’s control but this was just worse. 

"Bandee? Great King?" A young voice came into the room. Bandana instantly recognized the voice of Taranza. The young spider gently opened the door and let himself in.

"I heard fighting what's going on?" Taranza let out a startled gasp. The sight of his bandana wearing friend threatening their king with his spear was not something he had expected to see today.

"It's a long story!" Bandana quickly replied. The moment Taranza opened the door Dedede tried to make a run for it. "Taranza grab him!"

The self proclaimed king was just about to make it outside of the current room until he was met with webs quickly surrounding his body. The webs engulfed the King's body leaving only his head poking out of the webbed cocoon.

"Sorry about this King Dedede." The silver haired spider said as he grabbed a loose string of web and pulled him back into the room.

"Oh he's heavier than normal… What happened Bandee? Did he get possessed again?" Taranza questioned as he struggled to get Dedede back into the room.

"It doesn't look like possession…" Bandana let out a sad wanya. He grabbed the loose piece of web and helped Taranza pull it. "He did attack me when I came to wake him up. But he wasn't good at it. Like he hasn't been in an actual fight before." 

"If it's not possession what is it?"

"I don't know. He just feels off." 

The King aggressively bashed around in his cocoon trap. Even after the two Star Allies set him up beside the King's king sized bed.

"What is this? Who are you, you floaty hand freak!" Dedede screamed out.

Taranza blinked a few times. "Dedede it's me Taranza! Don't you recognize me?"

"I've never met you or the weird talking Waddle Dee!" 

That stung the spider but it did give him an idea. "Maybe someone or something took his memories?" He whispered to the small hero.

Bandana hoped that wasn't the case. They did not need another Haltmann situation whereas a machine could just casually delete certain memories.

"King Dedede, what's the last thing you remember?" Bandana asked with uncertainty in his eyes.

"Why do I have to answer to you?!" 

Taranza sighed. "It would help us better understand this situation."

The self proclaimed king grumbled. "Fine! The last thing I remember was talking to Escargon right before I hit the hay."

The two Star Allies shared a looked at each other and then back at the King.

"Who?" They both simultaneously asked. 

"Y'know, Escargon my advisor!"

"Dedede we're your advisors!" Taranza voice sounded more worried. 

"Like I said, I don't know you! Plus you two would fit better in the demon beast department than being advisors!"

This wasn’t making any sense. Something has happened to their great king and Bandana couldn't fully grasp what it was yet. 

There was only one thing he could do at that moment. He turned to Taranza with a heavy heart. "Taranza can you inform the other Star Allies of our situation. I left my phone in my room. Please." 

Taranza nodded his head in agreement. He took out his green phone that looked just like his cape and began typing. 

-----

Emergency Chat!

Magolor : We gotta problem!!!

Susie : We have a problem.

Taranza : We've got a problem!

Chapter Text

Emergency Chat! 

Daroach: Oh look at that a triple whammy

Daroach : Not a good sign

Magolor : Shit

Susie : Oh dear…

Taranza : Uh oh 

Rick : Dear Nova I just woke up

Hyness : Oh dear. What happened?

Gooey : Wwwhhaat haapenned 

Adeline : It's not another world ending cosmic entity again is it!?

Ribbon: I hope not it's Magolor Day! Our potluck day!

Coo : If that were the case then we would have been texted by either Kirby, Bandee, the King, or Meta Knight.

Kine : That's true 

Zan Partizanne : Speaking of whom, I'm surprised none of them have joined our conversation yet…

Zan Partizanne : Especially since those four are always first to respond.

Francisca : They take their hero job very seriously.

Flamberge : Yeah where are they?!

Magolor : That's actually the problem!!! Kirby is acting strange!!

Susie : That's what I wanted to talk about. Meta's not acting like himself.

Taranza : Bandee's actually with me right now, but there is a problem with the King.

Magolor : …

Susie : ...

Taranza : ...

Daroach : I don't like where this conversation is going

Ribbon : WHAT HAPPENED!!?

Rick : It must be bad if Kirby is acting strange!

Susie : Hmm…

Susie: I suppose we should each take turns explaining our situations in the order we first texted.

Susie : Magolor you go first, then me, and finally Taranza.

Susie : Sound good?

Taranza : Yes

Magolor : Yes boss!!

Gooey: iiiiis iiit possssessioon?

Daroach : I think I can speak for all of us in saying that none of us want to fight a possessed Kirby

Adeline : That's true but we'd do it anyway to help save our pink demon!

Daroach : Right you are

Magolor : No no 

Magolor : It's not anything like that

Magolor : At least we don't think it is…

Magolor : Me and Marx think Kirby might have reverted back into a baby

Several people are typing…

-----

Susie choked on her own spit from the sheer absurdity after reading the last line of text from her wizard friend.

Kirby… reverted back into a baby?

How?!

Why?!

And most importantly. Did this somehow connect with how Meta Knight was acting?

"Are you alright Ms. Haltmann?" Vul questioned.

"Yes, I'm quite alright." She waved him off as she composed herself. "Let's get to the interrogation room before anything happens."

Vul nodded in agreement. Dark was currently alone with "Meta" in the interrogation room. Sure it had only been a few quiet minutes. Though, leaving the two knights alone was usually a recipe for disaster. Susie knew that well enough. The crew on the halberd knew that. Every single star ally knew that.

Though she had to commend the mirror knight, she hadn't heard any fighting.

Not yet anyway. 

Susie turned the knob and was met with Dark's frustrated screaming.

"BLINK NOVA DAMN IT!"

Dark gripped the table and stared daggers into the blue knight that was sitting right across from him.

"Dark, what are you screaming about?!" Vul demanded to know. 

"HE DOESN'T BLINK AND I HATE IT!" Dark growled loudly that Susie was sure everyone in the ship could hear it. 

The secretary sat herself down right next to the mirror knight. "Calm down. We have more important matters right now." She gave a quick glance at Meta Knight who was silent as ever and unblinking. 

Susie didn't want to admit it but it scared her. Who doesn't blink? Being watched by a gaze that never looks away was unnerving. But she had a job to do!

She let out a little 'ahem' as she tried to copy the same serenity the Knight in front of her had. "Now I'm sure you know how this goes. We'll ask you some questions and you must answer them truthfully. Captain Vul will be standing guard by the door so you can't escape. Understand?" Susie brought out both a pen and paper.

He nodded. 

Good, he wasn't hostile. Another sign that he wasn't possessed.

She clicked her pen. "Question one. What is your name?"

"What an odd question since you all seem to know the answer. I am Meta Knight." His voice was calm and impassive.

Susie began scribbling down. "Yes, you certainly look like him." She looked up and saw that his eyes had once again changed color. 

"Second question. Are you feeling sick? Head injury? Or perhaps somethings there that shouldn't be?" 

She watched as the Knight shook his head no. "I feel perfectly fine." She wrote down the answer swiftly.

"Third question," Dark began. "What's with the eyes?"

The businesswoman rolled her eyes. "Really Dark?" 

"I need to know Susie! You'd think he'd been possessed with his eyes acting like that!" 

Truthfully Susie couldn't blame her fellow Star Ally as she too would have liked to know.

"My eyes change color to match my current emotion. Many people know this fact." The Knight stated matter of factly.

"Uh-huh, and what about the no blinking?" Dark pushed the question. 

"I assure you I am still blinking under my mask. This mask was specially designed to make sure it looks like I am alert at all times. So that no demon beast can sneak up on me."

'Does that mean it looks like his eyes are still open when he sleeps? Oh, that's creepy!" Susie thought to herself as she wrote down his response.

 She checked her phone which was vibrating every few seconds from the emergency chat. Everyone was still talking about the baby Kirby situation.

"All right, back to the important questions. Question four! Where were you last night?" She stared at the Knight intensely waiting in anticipation for his answer.

"I was in my room at Castle Dedede." Meta Knight simply put.  

Normally Susie would have teased him for such an answer. But that answer was completely and utterly wrong! Just last night all the meta-knights had all pitched into work on Kirby's surprise! They were so close to completion too!

She shared a knowing glance with the darker knight.

"Next question. What does Star Allies mean to you?" Dark questions.

The Knight thought for a moment. "I don't know what a Star Ally is but I know what a Star Warrior is." 

Dark let out a single flat laugh. "And we don't know what a star warrior is." 

Quickly Susie wrote down the response. The moment she finished dotting her i's and crossing her t's, she turned to Dark. "Have you read our emergency group chat lately?"

"No, why?" 

"You might wanna catch up." She handed him her personal phone. He scrolled up to the beginning of today's conversation. His eyes got wider as he read each of the Star Allies' responses.  

"What the fuck?!"

She hummed. "That leads to my final question." She slammed her hand on the table. "Do you know why Kirby turned back into a baby?"

"Kirby turned back into what?!" Vul's shocked voice came into play.

Meta Knight showed no emotion but by the tone of his voice, both star allies could tell he was confused. "What are you talking about? Kirby is a baby."

The room fell silent for a few short seconds.

"I see." Susie finally said. "I believe I found my answer." She grabbed her phone back from Dark and began rapidly texting. 

-----

Emergency Chat!

Susie : If I could get everyone's attention!

Susie : I do believe it is my turn now. 

Magolor : Right! Sorry!

Magolor : It's just really weird and we don't know how it happened. 

Susie : Don't worry about it!

Susie : Plus I believe I figured out what's going on. 

Daroach : Enlighten us then. 

Susie : Gladly

Susie : I believe we are experiencing another one of our dimensional problems.

Susie : Based on the answers Meta Knight has given us during his interrogation I must assume that he and most likely both Kirby and King Dedede are from another dimension.

Susie : His answers were too precise and he sounded truthful each time he answered mine and Dark's questions.

Susie : Apparently Kirby is a baby in his dimension!

Adeline : Oooh 

Taranza : I knew it wasn't possession!

Coo : Thank Nova…

Magolor : Muh a couple of portals must have opened up.

Susie : Right.

Flamberge : Baby Kirbs just a lil guy

Daroach : That leaves the question

Daroach : where are our Kirby, Dedede, and Meta

Susie : I have to assume their counterparts' home dimension.

Susie : Dark is currently explaining the situation to this Meta. He seems like he has some understanding of this whole mess.

Bandana Waddle Dee : Thank goodness it's not possession.

Zan Partizanne : Finally joining in the conversation Bandana?

Bandana Waddle Dee: Yeah I left Taranza with that Dedede for a moment to get my phone.

Taranza : You looked like you needed a break from guarding him…

Taranza : He's very different from our Great King. And loud

Francisca : How so?

Taranza : You'd have to see it yourself…

Bandana Waddle Dee : In any case, we need to figure out how to get them back home and save our friends!

Ribbon : Right 

Ribbon : Do any of them know the coordinates of their home dimension?

Susie : Unfortunately no.

Taranza : No

Magolor : This is a baby

Magolor : So I can't just take the Lor and go get them…

Magolor : Nova Damn I knew I should have implanted tracking chips on everybody.

Daroach : Ayo??

Francisca : Mmh no…

Flamberge : BAD

Coo : No

Hyness : Magolor, think about what you are saying. 

Rick: nO

Ribbon : UM

Adeline : Hey no.

Gooey : Nooooo

Kine : Magolor no

Zan Partizanne : Juh?!

Taranza :Nope bad

Susie : Mmmh 

Susie : Not an entirely bad idea.

Susie : I don't mean on us but perhaps an extension on our chat app in case we get lost and need someone to pick us up.

Susie : Especially because of our current situation.

Daroach : See if you had phrased it like that Magolor you wouldn't have given us all heart attacks.

Magolor : >:[

Bandana Waddle Dee : Anywho

Bandana Waddle Dee: @Susie @Magolor could you two bring the counterparts to the castle. 

Bandana Waddle Dee : And maybe stay and help us, please. 

Susie: Of course.

Magolor : Yeah!!

Bandana Waddle Dee : Thank you!

Bandana Waddle Dee : Everyone else please be on the lookout for random portals

Bandana Waddle Dee : I hate to be the one to say it. But I think we have to cancel our potluck for the day. 

Flamberge : But Magolor's Mac and Cheese!!!

Bandana Waddle Dee : I know…

Flamberge : NOOOO

-----

Meta Knight watched the pink haired woman now properly known as Susie put her phone away and replaced it with a pink remote with a single yellow button on it.. She turned to the two knights.

"All right let's go."

"Where to?" Dark asked.

"Why did I make you a phone if you're not gonna use it?" She deadpanned as she idly played with one of the buttons. "Bandana wants us and this Meta Knight at the castle." 

The mirror knight shrugged and once again took his tattered wings out. "Ready whenever you are." 

The two Star Allies stared at the star warrior as they were waiting for him to take out his own wings. 

He would if he could.

Meta Knight looked away from them. "I'm afraid I don't have the same access of flight as you do." 

"No wings?" Susie silently said. "No worries you can join me." 

He solemnly nodded. Such an oddity has occurred. Finding himself in an all new dimension. He wasn't the only one apparently. Both his majesty and the young Star Warrior Kirby have also found themselves switched with this dimensions version of them.

Instead of the Star Warriors, they had the Star Allies. Which this dimensions version of him seemed to be a part of. 

There were many similarities and differences from what that Dark variation said. Like the Halberd for instance. It still flew high into Dreamland's great big sky.

It was all so strange. 

He followed the two star allies to the deck of the halberd. Dark instantly took flight while Susie pressed the button she had been fiddling with. In a flash, a little machine with a propeller appeared in Susie's hand. 

She gestured her free hands towards the blue knight. "Grab on."

He did as he was told and they instantly took flight. 

The wind on his skin brought nostalgic feelings to the Knight. He looked down to see this Dreamland's greenery. It was gorgeous from this height. It had been so long since he's felt this. 

It was pleasant.

-----

From the castle's courtyard, Bandana watched as both Dark Meta Knight, Susie, and who he had to assume was the other dimensions Meta Knight begin a slow descent down.

He waved his free nub in the air. "I'm glad you guys made it!" 

When they were close to the ground Susie's flying machine disappeared. Both she and the Knight landed safely on the ground. She waved back to the young Waddle dee. 

"It's nice to see you Bandana." Even without a mouth, you could tell both of them were smiling. 

The waddle dee looked on to the knight and casually approached him. “And you must be the other Meta Knight! I’m Bandana Waddle Dee!” He lend out his nub for a handshake. 

Meta Knight shook it but was in complete awe of the waddle dee in front of him. Waddle dees did not talk in his home dimension. 

“Did your eyes just change color?” Bandana asked. 

He jumped as he felt a pat on the back from the secretary.“Yeah, this one’s got quite some differences from our Meta Knight.” Susie answered for Meta. 

Just then both Dreamland’s famous pranksters flew down right beside Bandana. On top of the purple jester was a much smaller Kirby who gleefully enjoyed his flight from Magolor’s ship to Dedede’s castle. 

“Hello, fellow Star Allies!” Magolor said as he picked the pink puff off his companion. As he did Marx put his colorful wings away. 

“Is that… Kirby?” Bandana questioned. Magolor answered his question with a single nod. 

“He’s so… cute!” Susie cooed as she brought both her hands to her face. “He’s so much smaller than normal! I wanna pinch his cheeks!” Kirby poyoed along with her words. 

“Maybe later Susie. Where’s Taranza and their Dedede.” Marx commented. 

“Taranza is currently untangling him from his webbed cocoon,” Bandana embarrassedly answered.

“Ha! You had to cocoon him?” Dark laughed. 

“He tried to run away and kept swinging his mallet at me.” The waddle dee’s voice grew quieter. 

“Sorry that I’m late,” Taranza’s soft voice was heard. Three out of his six hands held tightly to the penguin's arm to make sure he didn’t try to run off. “My web magic is hard to get off sometimes!” 

“More weird floaty hand people…” Dedede took notice of the Star Allies. “That one doesn’t even have any. And what’s with that one? Meta Knight’s edgier twin?” 

“Eh kind of.” Marx joked getting Dark to roll his eyes. “What’s our game plan Bandana?” 

All eyes turned to the bandana wearer. He gulped. “I suppose first we should all properly introduce ourselves to our dimensional guests and maybe give them a rundown of how things work here.” 

“That’s fair,” Susie nodded. “Dreamlands culture and etiquette are quite different from most places. We should teach them how most things work around here.” 

“Especially since we have no idea how long they’ll be here,” Magolor added.

“Yeah, we don’t want any of them falling for LIGMA!” Marx crackled as he earned a few silent chuckles from both Dark and Magolor, an unimpressed look from Susie and Bandana, and a small pained smile from Taranza. 

The self proclaimed King was puzzled by what the jester said. Which wasn’t fun since he was already confused to high heavens from this whole ordeal. 

“What LIG-”

Chapter Text

In retrospect, Fumu should’ve expected that Meta Knight was a fast eater. It didn’t stop her from jumping when he appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the barely started tour. 

Dedede laughed at her jump, saying that Meta did that on purpose. Fumu expected that this Meta Knight would object to that statement but to no avail. The Knight simply shrugged.

She steadied herself and with a cough. “Now we can begin our tour!” 

Touring around the castle was pretty quick and easy. There were many side remarks from both the knight and king about how much green was in the castle and that this Dedede had much better statues of himself back in their home dimension. 

Fumu giggled at that. ‘Guess no matter the dimension Dedede will always have some sort of ego.’ the young girl thought to herself. 

After a swift look around they stopped at one of the castle’s balconies and admired the village that lay beneath it. 

The King whistled at the view “Well look at that. We don’t have a village like that back at home.”

“Dreamland doesn’t really have any villages, your majesty” Added Meta Knight.

Fumu was stunned by those words. “Then where does anyone live?” 

“Yeah! What is your dimension’s Dreamland like?” Bun seized the opportunity to ask. 

“Mainly people just pick a spot and start building their new home. We don’t really care. Sometimes you have neighbors and sometimes you don’t.” The penguin king waved her off.

"Also, Dreamland is a real nice place to live. Dedede’s really good at ruling!” The pink puff added. “It's real peaceful! There's lots and lots of fun things to do!" Kirby answered, matching the tone of the excitement of the young boy. “When it’s peaceful you can take nice long naps, participate in tournaments, go to Magolor’s amusement park, and have really tasty food!” Kirby could feel the drool running down his mouth after that last statement. He quickly wiped his mouth.

The alternate King let out a boastful laugh startling the young girl beside him. “Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty much the low down of it if you forget to include all the invasions that happen every once in a while.” 

“Hence why we have the Star Allies now.” Meta Knight concluded.

The three star allies talked amongst themselves leaving the two siblings to watch in astonishment. To Fumu it was such a strange feeling to see that this Dedede was so kind, helpful, and tolerable ruler… in any dimension! And for him to be so close to both Kirby, who she was still getting used to the fact can talk, and Meta Knight, who seemed just a bit more open then theirs! For her brother Bun, he had other thoughts on his mind…

"Go back one second. Your friend Magolor owns an amusement park!?" Bun's excitement grew more and more.

“He sure does! It’s gotten even better now that Susie help him recently! There are so many games and rides to play! And the food is good too!” Kirby answered drool reappearing. 

“The reason why he now owns an amusement park is no laughing matter, however,” Meta added. 

“Why’s that?” The younger brother asked.

“He made it as an apology for making us go through such nonsense!” Dedede explained with a snarky laugh at the end. “Most of us have forgiven him except Mety here. But I think it’s just cause Magolor got a better high score than him in scope shot.” 

“You know what a deceitful egg he can be your majesty. He cheated.”

Fumu could practically feel the salt coming off of the mysterious blue knight. Though she had to wonder what this Magolor figure could’ve done that would warrant him to make an entire amusement park as an apology. Though she figured she wouldn’t have to wait for an answer for too long considering her brother was chock-full of questions. 

“Well, that wraps up what the castle has to offer.” She clapped her hands together. “ We can take you guys on a tour of the village if you’d like. I’ve already sent Tokkori down there to tell the cappies what’s going on.”

“Your village is home to cappies?” Dedede questioned with amusement. “A regular old cappy town huh.”

She nodded. 

The young girl knew full well that if anything major happened at the castle the villagers should be informed right away. Sometimes they listened to her. Other times… not as much. It wasn’t hard to admit, the cappies weren’t always the sharpest tool in the shed. Maybe that’s why Dedede has remained ruler for so long. 

“I only ask if you all want to see the village since I know how the villagers are. You’ll probably be bombarded with questions and not get a moment of peace for a while.” 

“Nah I like the attention.” Dedede struck a pose with a checky smile. Kirby clapped his nubs together and Meta Knight looked at him with little to no amusement. 

“Plus I wanna check it out since I didn’t find Bandana here.” 

“Bandana?” Both her and Bun had a puzzled look on their faces.

“Y’know Bandana Waddle Dee. My bestie!” Kirby spoke up. “Also known as Bandee!”

“I don’t think we have a… Bandee.”

“Huh?”

-----

“For the last time, I’m telling you all the truth!” Tokkori shouted at the top of his lungs. The tiny bird knew that what he was saying was really out there and only a fool would believe him. But the villagers were usually so gullible all the time. Why wouldn’t they listen to this one actual true thing? 

"I've heard some crazy things in my day but that has to be the craziest." Chief Borun laughed. 

"We all dealt with Nightmare almost two years ago and this is where you all drop the line!"

“Even if you’re telling the truth about different dimensions I doubt any King Dedede would be kind.” Mable joined in. “I especially don’t see him being friends with Sir Meta Knight nor Kirby.” 

“Yeah! The last time his majesty was nice was because he was possessed by a demon beast!” Kawasaki pointed out having each and every cappy there murmur in agrement. 

The yellow greenish bird rolled his eyes and sighed in annoyance. He had no doubts Fumu would be pleased to know that the villagers were finally being skeptical for once. But this was not the time for that!

“Fine! Don’t take my word for it! But when-” 

Suddenly at that very moment, a scream was heard. Not just any scream, a scream from their mayor. 

All heads turned as they watched the horrified Mayor Len quickly driving away from an onslaught of projectiles aimed at him. One finally hits his front tire causing him to spiral out of control. 

Mass panic filled the village. They all ran in different directions trying to make sure they didn’t get hit by both the unknown source enemy or the Mayor’s car. 

Through the hysteria to notice that the car was on a direct course toward a single cappy child. 

-----

“But it’s always the four of us!” Dedede once again cried out. 

Fumu never once guessed she would ever see these three characters be so bummed out that their one friend was potentially not with them. At first, they had thought that even if this dimension didn’t have a counterpart of their friend Bandana he could possibly still be here. But as she pointed out, they had all woken up where their counterparts were last at. 

Meta Knight gave his king a pat on the back. “It’ll be alright your majesty. This might actually be a good thing.” 

“How could this possibly be a good thing!” The king yelled at his favorite knight. 

“Think for a minute Dedede. If Bandana is back at our dimension that means he can keep things in check in Dreamland. Would you trust any of the other Star Allies to run it?” 

The penguin sniffed. “You have a good point.”

“I don’t know I think Adeline or Zan would be pretty good.” The pink child added. 

“Ok, you have got to tell me who every Star Allies is.” Bun said to Kirby who nodded in agreement. 

As they got closer to the village they could hear the panic screams from each of the cappies and see the chaos coming from it. 

Fumu gasped after seeing Mayor Len’s car swerving out of control and straight into her friend Honey. 

The King was the first one to react. With a quick high jump he found himself between the car and the crying girl and with his bare hands he grabbed the upcoming out of control car stopping it completely. He lifted the damaged car slightly into the air and noticed that the tire was punctured by a shuriken still placed in there neatly. 

“You two alright?” The King asked.

Chapter Text

Very shakenly the mayor peered over his car and his mouth dropped.

“Your Majesty!?” he gawked.

The king smirked at the startled mayor, hands still gripping his running car. “Hey, I’m gonna need you to hit the breaks so I can put you down, kay?” Dedede watched as the mayor slowly nodded and did what he was told. With that the penguin king carefully put the car down, making sure not the scare the already straddle cappy.

Swiftly his fellow star allies made it to his side while their young guides ran toward their cappy friend.

“Honey are you alright?!” Fumu yelled her concerns as she held her friends still shaking hands. 

Honey nodded. “Yes, I’m alright. Thanks to… Dedede?” She sounded like she couldn’t believe what she was saying. Fumu couldn’t blame her.

“Dedede that was awesome!” Bun praised. “You looked like you didn’t even break a sweat!” 

The king let out a hardy laugh. “That’s 'cause I didn’t. Honestly, my hammer’s probably heavier than this.” he lightly knocked on Len’s car. 

“But how-”  The question was left unanswered as more projectiles flew out of the sky aiming right at the small group. 

Kirby was the first to react this time. With quick timing, the pink puff inhaled whatever it was attacking them before it even hit the floor. 

Once he saw that the onslaught was over he felt himself transform into one of his many copy abilities. 

“Ninja?” The masked knight questioned. 

Fumu thought for a moment, trying to think of who or what could possibly be attacking them. Then she felt a sinking feeling in her gut at the quick realization.

The young girl slowly looked up and saw him on top of one of the tallest buildings in the village—a man who betrayed the star warriors, who carried excellent ninja skills. 

Yamikage. 

The ninja let out a fearsome cold laugh. “There you are, Meta Knight.”

The masked knight looked up at the mysterious ninja with slight confusion. “Fumu, Bun, who is this carrot looking bastard?” He whispered. 

Fumu had to stiffen her laugh while her brother and the other dimensional King didn’t bother to lower their laughs. Kirby, the poor puffball, was confused about why they were laughing. 

“That’s Yamikage, he’s a strong ninja who betrayed the star warriors years ago,” Fumu whispered back. “Our Kirby fought him a while back…” So why now of all days has he decided to reappear? 

“What the hell is a star warrior… You know what never mind.” Beneath his mask, the knight smirked as he locked eyes with the treacherous ninja. “So you here for a fight?”

Yamikage cackled.“Not originally. I was given precious information and was told to give it to you,” he played with his weapon withholding the urge to attack right away. “But something so valuable shouldn’t be for free…” 

His eyes got darker. “You want it? Come fight me for it.” 

“Challenge excepted.” Meta Knight unfurled his wings and flew straight toward Yamikage. 

“Don’t destroy him too bad Mety!” Dedede shouted at his Knight though he doubts he heard him over the sound of their weapons clashing. 

Bun looked up at the king. “Your Meta Knight is a lot more battle hungry than ours.” 

“That so?” He got a chuckle in response. “He’s always been like this. Ever since we were kids.”

“Since you were kids?!” Shock filled the child's voice and his sister didn’t need to speak to show how startled she was. 

“Yes..?” Dedede’s voice was wary. Were they not childhood friends in this dimension?

“I think he’s shocked 'cause you two are really old. It’s hard to imagine you guys as kids.” Kirby said with a mischievous tone. 

That set him off. “We aren’t that old you pink brat!” He was just about ready to chase the young puffball but felt a small tug on his robe. He looked down to see the young girl he rescued. She had a small shy smile on her face.

“Thank you for saving me, King Dedede.”

He flashed her a smile and patted her head. “It’s no problem kid. It’s just what we do.” 

Soon enough multiple cappies surrounded the small group all with the same thought on their minds. 

“I can’t believe it.” The chief of police was the first to speak up. 

“Are they really..?” Another voice let out. 

“HA! I told you all they’re from a different dimension!” Tokkori flew in and landed on Bun’s baggy hair. “ None of you believed me! But I was right! As always.” 

It was clear he took great pride in proving everyone wrong. Fumu rolled her eyes at the small bird. “Ok I think they get it Tokkori but right now that’s not our main concern. Is everyone alright?” Throughout the crowd, there were plenty of affirmatives that they were ok albeit shaken up from the sudden attack.

Fumu watched the fight above the skies. Even though she wasn’t as trained as much in the art of fighting as others she could tell that Yamikage was struggling with his fight with the other Meta Knight.

It made the young girl feel more at ease but she couldn’t get rid of the underlining feeling that something awful might happen. 

But could you blame her? While everyone went on to bombard questions to both Dedede and Kirby, she seemed to be the only one concerned about why a worker for Nightmare appeared the same day the two star warriors and the village's false king were swapped with the star allies.

“You don’t have to worry about them,” Kirby appeared beside her, he had dropped the ninja ability. Fumu turned to see a small reassuring smile on the star ally's face. “Meta wouldn’t let anything happen to the village. I bet he’ll be done with him soon.”

Fumu thanked the other Kirby for the reassurance. As she did the puffball grabbed her hand in his nub and pulled her closer to the rest of the crowd. 

“C’mon were sharing stories about our dimension! I don’t want you to miss any of it!”

That was certainly something she would love to hear. They don’t quite get stories like that anymore. Still, she couldn’t help but ponder what information Yamikage could possibly have. 

-----

To put it lightly, Meta Knight found this battle to be a bit…

Boring to say the least. 

Anyone who knew the masked knight personally knows that he couldn’t say no to a fight. But this was too easy.  Perhaps he was just too used to fighting world ending entities and Kirby. The knight didn’t even need to use any of his magic this time. 

He could tell that the masked ninja had some kind of personal vendetta against this dimension's version of himself. But he wasn’t gonna ask what it was about simply because he didn’t care about that. Though, he could say that he was curious about what sort of knowledge the carrot looking bastard could be keeping. 

It could be info on how to get back to their dimension, or it could be total garbage that only his counterpart would find usual. Either way, the knight felt like he had to get it. Random people from different dimensions don’t just randomly attack them unless it furthers the small group's adventures. Nova knows how many times they’ve been attacked the minute they stepped foot into a different dimension. 

Yamikage threw more of his shurikens at the blue knight which he swiftly deflected and was soon met face to face with the man with his katana out and ready to slice Meta Knight’s wings. Unfortunately, Meta was prepared for that and parried the traitor's sword out of his hands. With Galaxia tightly in his hand, the Knight took advantage and left a finishing blow across Yamikage's body.

He watched as the old traitor fell to the ground. It was an instant win. 

As he began his descent to the ground he could hear unsettled laughs from his opponent. 

“Haha, I can’t believe you brought out your wings. Truly you have changed, even after all that.” His voice was low. 

Oh, so his counterpart did have wings. ‘Why didn’t he use them?’ The knight wondered. 

He waved off that thought. “You’re finished. Tell me what you know and maybe you will get to live.” The knight was bluffing of course but he knew he had to get the point across.  

Yamikage scoffed. “Listen up then you rejected blueberry, not long ago I was given a message directly from the company's old messaging system. I don’t know who sent it but they made it very clear that they would love it if you and the young star warrior came over.” 

Company? What company? Haltmann’s? No that couldn’t be the case. Fumu nor Bun seemed to know who Susie was. 

“What are you talking about?” Meta knight asked. 

“Did you hit your head or something?!” the man yelled. “Holy Nightmare! Apparently, not all of it had been destroyed and there have been reports that some have seen parts working and you know what that can only mean.” Crazed red eyes meet the masked knight's yellow eyes. 

“Nightmare must be back.”

Yet another individual spoke of Nightmare. 

That was a man Meta Knight hadn't thought about in years. Though apparently, Nightmare was a fairly recent threat in this dimension who also somehow owned a company. Which was off to the knight to put it simply.

Meta knight let out a mighty victorious laugh causing the injured ninja great confusion.

"Let Nightmare return all he wants. My team and I have been through many battles that were ten times worse than that wizard. When all of us come together we can take down any crisis the galaxy may face."

Yamikage was stunned for a few seconds and then solemnly laughed. " You have changed." He closed his eyes as he bared himself to the Knight. “Go on kill me. I’ve done what I needed to do.” 

The knight’s face bared an unimpressed look. “Nah, do it yourself. I need to get back to Dedede and Kirby.” 

With those final words, he took flight leaving the ninja by himself. 

-----

No surprise to the knight, his fellow star allies had been caught up by the locals each trying to get their questions answered.

Many of which asked questions the two children asked them much earlier. Though this time Kirby had brought out his pink phone presumable to show everyone pictures of the rest of the star allies and Dedede had others admiring his strength as he told stories of the past. 

“And this picture is from our last potluck. Flamberge,” 

“Who is that one again?”One of the children asked. 

 “She is the one with red hair and can control fire, bet Taranza that she could,” The puffball looked up and saw the knight in the sky. “Hi, Meta Knight!” He waved his free nub in the air. 

“There’s the man of the hour! We were just talking about you.” The King said. 

Every villager cheered at the return of the other dimensional Knight filled with extreme happiness that their village was safe for another day. 

“Hey, Meta Knight is it true that you and Dedede are childhood friends in your dimension?” Bun asked. 

“Yes.” he simply answered as he landed on the ground. 

That got the crowd excited like they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. 

“I can’t believe how different you guys are compared to our dimensions version of you.” The girl that Dedede saved said.

Meta could. He and his mirror counterpart, Dark had multiple differences.

He fought fairly. Dark liked to cheat, Meta Knight could sing while Dark drew, Meta took care of his sword Dark liked to hit things randomly with his, and by far the biggest difference was that he liked sweets while Dark liked spicy. The Knight was certain that he would soon learn what this dimensions version of him was like. 

“So what did Yamikage have to say?” Fumu asked as she approached him.

“He said some interesting things that I will share in private.” Meta Knight didn’t know what Nightmare had fully done in this dimension but he felt like it was safe to keep from all the, who he still can’t believe are cappies, villagers. 

Fumu nodded in understanding.

Soon more villagers came to the crowd over the three all speaking at once. 

This wouldn’t be the first time nor the last time he has been crowded like this but was it too much to ask for a little privacy and of course, his fellow star allies paid no mind to any of them. 

“How’s about later tonight we hold a fest for our interdimensional travelers as a Dreamland hello and as thanks for saving our peaceful village.” The mayor shouted over the others. They all unanimously agreed.

Meta groaned. Well, that’s one thing he wasn’t going to do but he knew both the king and the young puffball would love that. 

His mind kept racing back to what Yamikage had said and he had to wonder. 

Would figgering out where Nightmare was or at the very least his company provide them a way home or should they wait and see if the other Star Allies could find them? 

Dear Nova, what’s it gonna take to get back home?

Chapter Text

 The castle halls were filled with extravagant decorations and vibrant colors, all while this dimension's waddle dees were either working hard to keep the palace in tip-top shape or napping on the ground.

“You three will have nothing to worry about," Magolor said to the caped knight. “We’ll try to find a way to get you home before you can even get used to this dimension's Dreamlands lifestyle.”

Meta Knight nodded as he continued to look around this version of Castle Dedede, his golden eyes landing on two waddle dees chattering away that the young star warrior walked up to and waved at. The differences between the two dimensions couldn’t have been any more apparent once the star allies brought them into the castle's walls.

"This castle is completely different compared to the one in our dimension. It’s very impressive. " Meta knight explained.   

“It ain’t that impressive…” King Dedede puffed his chest and let out a jealous scoff.

Susie nodded to the dark knight’s words. “That’s to be expected. Every dimension, no matter small or large, has its differences. Be thankful you three landed in this one. There are quite some dangerous ones.”  Her eyes grew tired and her words were knowing. 

“We shouldn’t even be in a different dimension in the first place!” The King argued. “How did we even end up here? Was it one of you ‘star allies’?”

Taranza waved his hands frantically. “O-oh no, I can assure you none of us had anything to do with your appearance. I can speak for everyone when I say we didn’t even know your dimension existed until this morning. This is all just one strange accident.”

“How do you end up in a whole other dimension by accident?!” The tyrannical king screamed. While the knight didn’t agree with the king’s tone, he made a valid point. How does someone get sent to a different dimension by complete accident?

“Oh, I can think of a few ways.” the pink-haired secretary said with no emotion in her voice. Beside her, the blue-capped wizard slowly nodded his head.

Magolor brought his hand to his mouth. "Well for a while now we’ve been having some issues with random portals showing up. Marx, our Kirby, and I even got close to one when it randomly appeared by the Lor. But it was… strange.” 

“Strange how?” Meta Knight asked intrigued.

“Well-”

“For starters, the shape was all wonky!” The jester shouted, interrupting Magolor’s chance to further explain. “Secondly it had such a weak pull into it! I chucked some rocks at it when Mags told me we should just ignore it and they didn’t even go through!” 

“I remember that report,” Susie said as she checked her customized phone. She quickly scrolled up into their emergency chat. “Marx said that he, Magolor, and Kirby found a weak portal together while they were getting ready to go pranking, then three days later Bandana sent that he and our King found a similar one near the arena when they were visiting.” 

Dark snapped his finger. “Oh yeah, that reminds me I saw a portal just like those a good while back when I was forced to sweep the Halberd’s deck.”

“And you didn’t report this, why..?” Susie gave the mirrored counterpart an irritated look.

“Well for one, Miss Pinkalicious, you and that rotten blueberry forced me to clean alone. For two, it was weak so I didn’t think much of it.” 

Susie sighed as the darker knight gave her a raspberry underneath his mask.

“Of course, there are other reports, but those were all too well placed,” Bandee spoke up. 

“Why are you all so nonchalant about these portals?” The Tyrant asked.

“We’ve dealt with portals for a long time now but these are different we’re used to random portals opening up but not used to them not trying to suck us up the instant they form.” Bandee sighed. 

“Please note that we have been trying to gather data on these… What would we call them? Broken portals? Not only were they weak but they disappeared quickly. So it's been difficult.” Taranza added.

The king groaned as the words left the young spider’s lips. “Why can’t anything be easy for me?” 

Magolor wiggled his finger. “Aha don’t sound so glum chum. We’re the Star Allies and we’ve gotten through plenty of sticky pickle situations! Give me and Susanna a few days and I’m sure we’ll have a machine that’ll send you home.”

The other-dimensional knight took in their words. The star allies were sincere in their promise to get them home. Was the whole dimension’s version of Popstar like this? He had to wonder.

Magolor clapped his hands. “Well now that we got that sorted let's talk about life in dreamland!” 

“It’s a quaint little place known for its peaceful lifestyle,” Susie added. “Plenty to do and see. Beautiful landmarks, and delicious food to find and buy. We have a pretty impressive arena nearby.”

Meta Knight’s eyes widened in interest over the casual fact that they had an arena nearby. The old star warrior had to ponder how often it was used. 

Before he could ask, Magolor integrated seemingly making a tophat appear out of nowhere, and placed it on his head. “And if that’s not your style you can always come hang out at my amusement park!”

Both the young star warrior and the tyrant's eyes lit up with sheer excitement at the wizard's words. 

“Poyo!” the young puffball jumped with happiness.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” The King grinned.

“Yes, sirs with free admission for the first time for your minor inconvenience being brought into our dimension!” The knight didn’t bother bringing up the apparent fact that it was only free the first time so as not to dampen the young warrior’s happiness. Oh, and the king’s too, he guessed.

Bandana fiddled with his spear in thought. “U-um… you three are free to go wherever you want of course. Wouldn’t want you getting cabin fever… B-but I don’t think any of you should explore our dreamland without one of us Star Allies to guide you around.”

“You saying that I need a babysitter?!” The false king roared. 

“No no! It’s just that when something this level of crazy happens, sometimes this star can get a little dangerous!” Bandana felt his sweat drip on his face. “I’m sure all of you can handle yourselves just fine-”

“Some of you more than others.” Taranza said under his breath, getting a laugh out of his fellow star allies.

“But I think having a guide with you could lessen the risks of any of you getting hurt.” Bandana continued. 

Susie snapped her fingers. “Speaking of getting hurt. Is your dimension aware of the sharing technique?” They all watch as the other dimension version of their King and Knight shake their heads. 

“Royalty doesn’t share with anybody,” Dedede said flatly.

“No, not like that!” Susie nearly shouted. “Well, kind of… It’s more like… mh actually it’s best that we show you.”

Never in his long life on the battlefield had Meta Knight heard of a ‘sharing’ technique. With a name like that, he had to assume that it had to do with multiple people but what they would be doing he had no idea. 

The Knight’s eyes widened as he saw the secretary pull out a blaster and aim it toward the jester.

“Ok Marx, hold still.” She said with a wink.

“Weh..?” It was all that left his mouth as he was hit with a huge ball of energy. He fell to the ground with a silent thump and a decently-sized wound on his side.

Not even a second of silence goes by before the caped wizard rapidly floats over to the fallen star ally all while screaming. 

“NOOO! MY ROOMMATE! How will I ever pay rent now!” Magolor wailed out, fake tears forming in his eyes. 

“You don’t pay rent…” Bandana said with a peculiar tomato in his little numbs paying no mind to the mixture of confusion and fear coming from their interdimensional visitors. Then the confusion became more abundant as Magolor let out a “Huzzah” as he took the tomato and scoffed it down himself and lowered himself closer to the jester and…

…What the hell was he doing?

It was quick, a one and done thing, but Meta Knight could have sworn that the two star allies…

Kissed?

And just like that the jester awoke, wings already out he took flight into the air. “Haha! I live!” He crackled out. Magolor joined in the laughter flying closer to his companion.

“Amazing acting skills you two.” The mirror knight commended clapping at the lovely conclusion. He elbowed Susie on her side urging her to clap along. 

“Oh alright.” She gave three sarcastic claps at the duo as they bowed in the air. She did let out a small chuckle as the young star warrior joined along with the clapping “Anyways there you have it! The sharing technique! A quick and effective way to obtain healing when needed. Marx do a twirl. ” 

He did what she had commanded and sure enough the bruise that was on his side was nowhere to be seen.

The knight's eyes color changed from their normal yellow to orange. “...And how did you all come across this… technique?” His eyes didn’t emote but by the tone of his voice Susie had made a mental note that orange eyes must mean the knight was confused.

“Well it wasn’t any of us who discovered it. It was our Kirby who came up with it.” Bandana answered the knights' question. 

“In our dimension a couple of our foods have healing properties. Such as the Maxim tomato that Bandana gracefully brought.” Susie continued her pitch. She was in full business mode. “Now you may be wondering why we use the sharing technique when we could just eat the whole thing ourselves. That’s quite simple really!”

As Meta knight listened ever so carefully and the young pink child pretending to listen, the kings mouth was gaping wide open and his eyes showed pure disgust at the very idea of sharing his lips for even a second with anyone in the room.

“So you all just kiss each other regularly?!” Dedede nearly screamed.

“It’s not kissing, it's sharing!” Marx nearly shouted back.

“What’s the difference!” Dedede’s face blushed as he shouted back.

“If you got the healing food in your mouth it’s sharing, if you don’t it’s kissing! What kinda question is that!”

The disgust didn’t leave his face and Meta Knight couldn’t help but agree with his king. “I have to agree with his majesty. I don't think I could in good conscience partake in this technique.”

“Psh if that’s the case you better hope nothing happens around here if you wanna keep livin.” Dark lazily responded to Meta Knight. “Or you're with Adeleine . She’s perfect for making sure you're healthy and ready to fight.” 

“Oh! That reminds me. I’ll be right back, everyone.” Susie said already making her way to the door.

“Where are you going?” Bandana called out to her before she left.

“To the lab I’m going to make some gifts for our dimensional guests~” She waved as the door slammed shut

The waddle dee knew what she was going to do and it was smart on the secretaries part. He turned back to the whole group staring at him. All their eyes screamed out ‘what now’. He could feel himself beginning to sweat.”

“Um… How about a tour of the castle!” He cringed at how loud his voice sounded Just so you know where everything is.”

Chapter Text

“Tada!” Susie triumphantly said as she held three newly made phones. “Some gifts for our guests! Made by yours truly.” 

She happily handed them out to the castle's dimensional guests eager to have the chance to show off the latest model she had created.

The first phone she handed to was the King himself already knowing what his attitude would be like if she hadn’t given to him first. 

Sure her king could have his moments where his attitude was less than pleasant but as the years went by his attitude adjusted and he had gotten better. Unfortunately, according to her spider friend, Taranza this version of Dedede was the worst. Which is saying something since they just met this version.

As the penguin tyrant took the gift he looked less than pleased.

But could you truly blame him? 

They just finished spending hours touring this little run down lesser version of his castle. Seeing almost everything it had to offer.

The kitchens they could raid when they were hungry. Which room he, the knight he paid too much for nothing, and the pink pest would be sleeping in for the duration of their time spent in this wacky dimension. A library that looked like it was used way more than the one at home. The bathrooms, even though the little bandana wearing waddle dee said that each of their bedchambers should come with their own washrooms. The lab that Susie was in for the entire duration of their tour. Even a fitness room for god’s sake.

And why in God’s name did his alternate self have so many portraits of the other star allies?! With every new room or brightly colored hallway they entered there just seemed to be more and more portraits of the star allies. He should only be focusing on how great he himself was! Next thing you’ll tell him is that he has special statues that are dedicated to the brooding knight.

It was agony going through this tour. He’d argue about it, and trust him he wanted to, but between the death glares he’d gotten from the star allies when he made stupid comments and the hunger he felt he went against it. God he was so hungry. 

Who ends a tour with no food!

“What is this?” He questioned, looking at the rectangle the secretary handed him.

“It’s a phone, your majesty!” She responded chipper as ever as she handed the phone she made specifically for the dark knight. “Figured it would be best for everyone to stay connected.” 

The king looked it over a few times, playing with the dark black screen. “Shouldn’t there be a flippy part?” 

Susie stopped in her tracks. Face horrified at the words the kings spoke of. “You’re still in the flip phone era?” Her free hand covered where her mouth would be. “Oh I’m so sorry.” 

Magolor snorted at the girl’s reaction. “Well trust me when I say that these bad boys are way better. So much more to do with these.” 

Finally she handed the last one to the baby version of the pink demon. “Here you go!” He let out an excited poyo as she petted him on the head.

Taranza gave a puzzled look, hand scratching his chin in thought “Is it wise to give a baby a phone? Can he even read?” Taranza questioned Meta Knight.  

“Of course he can’t.” The King laughed triumphantly. Only the knight knew he was hiding his own inadequate abilities to read.

Susie waved them off. “No worries, I thought of that.” She took out her bedazzled pink phone and demonstrated one of her new updates. “Not only did I download some learning apps for him but I added a new feature that can read off texts!” 

She clicked on her message app and chose a recent text between her and their dimension’s Meta Knight. 

It spoke in a very feminine automated voice. ‘When do you want me to pick up those parts?” 

Then it switched to a masculine voice reading off the next text. ‘They should be ready around three. So anytime around then.” 

Magolor oohed at the new addition. “That’ll be perfect for when I’m busy toying with my machines.”

The secretary clapped her hands, eyes displaying happiness. “I know right! The update is ready to download whenever!”

Each star ally, except for Dark, took out their phones and with a simple click, the new update was already on their phones.  

“Neat!” Marx giggled until he noticed a notification from their emergency chat sent by Susie herself. He clicked on it to see what it was. 

It was a link to another new chat.  “What’s this new chat for?” 

“For our new companions of course. Would be confusing if we let them in our other ones.” Susie explained nice and simply. She turned to the dimension hopping trio. “I’ve already got you three there.”

The Knight thanked her as his phone buzzed multiple times signaling each time another star ally joined. 

He opened and read all the welcoming messages they gave to the three. “How do I respond?” He asked. 

“Oh like this.” Susie pointed her finger on the screen clicking under where the messages popped up. “This is your text field. You can write anything you want here.” 

 “Or if you’re tired of texting you can always just use text to speech!” She moved her finger a small bit to the right pointing at a small picture that looked like a microphone. 

As she explained. Screenshots of past conversations rapidly popped up in their new chat. She glanced at who was posting. Susie turned towards the jester.

“Marx! What are you doing?!” 

Both he and Magolor were cracking up a storm. “Oh just showing them what we're really like.” Somehow Marx spoke a coherent sentence through his laughing fit. “So they can get more comfortable around us!”

Susie groaned out in annoyance.

“What we can’t share with our new friends?” Magolor playfully said. “Or was the real reason to make a new chat was to make sure they couldn’t read our best moments.” 

Susie’s face blushed an extreme shade of pink. She faced away from the rest of the group, arms crossed. 

Curiosity overcame the knight and read some of the shared photos the jokers sent. 

-----

Marx: screenshot56.jpg 

ApplyJuice: All this talk about wings makes me wonder what type Kirby might get.

ApplyJuice: @StarDemon if you could choose what wings you’d have what would you want?

StarDemon: Honey Barbeque  ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )

StarDemon: I

StarDemon: I read that wrong

JesterBoi: BWAHAHA 

Marx: screenshot8.jpg 

EeppySecretary: So due to some concerns from our king I have made it so that swears will be automatically censored.

EeppySecretary: And we all know who that’s really only going to affect

MetaKnightmare: **** I don’t know what the **** you’re talking about

MetaKnightmare: Wait no

EeppySecretary: That was used via text to speech I heard him @everyone point and laugh

THEKING: ( ´∀｀)σ)

GardenSpider: ( ´∀｀)σ)

Marx: screenshot59.jpg

FlameGeneral: 

FlameGeneral: Me when I fight Meta

FlameGeneral: HE’S AT MY DOOR

Marx: screenshot27.jpg 

JesterBoi: Ok but can we talk about how out of all of us KINE is the only one of us who is MARRIED?!?!

Hampter: They’re actually on a date right now!

FshFriend: No fishes?

Marx: screenshot17.jpg 

TheCoolerMetaKnight: ƨɘυniɈnoɔ Ɉi ƨɒ Ɉlυɔiʇʇib ɘɿom ƨɈɘϱ γlɘviƨƨɘɿϱoɿq ɈɒʜɈ ɈƨɘɈ γɈiɔɒqɒɔ ɔidoɿɘɒ ɘϱɒɈƨiɈlυm ɒ ƨi ɈƨɘT ɿɘɔɒԳ mɒɿӘƨƨɘnɈiᆿ ɘʜT

ThunderGeneral: Hold on gonna reflect what Dark is saying and type it out for everyone else

ThunderGeneral: @MetaKnightmare Shatter him

Marx: screenshot54.jpg 

EeppySecretary: Someone PLEASE have some coffee, tea, nova even boil me up some soda when I get to the castle I’ve had a long day

FrostGeneral: “boil me up some soda” girl is too far gone

GardenSpider: Susie, are you ok?

Eggboi: Cauldron boil and cauldron bubble, baja blast to fuel her trouble

Marx: screenshot66.jpg 

TheCoolerMetaKnight:Once I figure out how art magic works it’s gonna be all over for you idiots 

DaRatMakinTheRules: Uh @PainBrush what are you teaching him?

PainBrush: I’M MAKING HIM STRONGER

Marx: screenshot57.jpg 

StarDemon:

Eggboi: ON MAGOLOR DAY OF ALL DAYS

Eggboi: YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE NICEST ONE HERE

Marx: screenshot77.jpg 

THEKING: So cool

THEKING: So cool

MetaKnightmare: DEDEDE

THEKING: So cool

THEKING: So cool

MetaKnightmare:SHUT THE **** UP DEDEDE

-----

After that last one the knight shut off his new phone. It kept constantly buzzing as the jester continued to post more and more.

He thought the differences between the mirror dimension of himself was different. The one who called this version of Dreamland home was certainly more… ‘out’ to put it lightly.

“You all are a colorful bunch.”

Another small but noticeable blush appeared on Susie’s pale skin. “We really are professionals, I promise.”

The king sneered. “Professional? I wouldn’t even call this tour professional! I would much rather prefer a hearty meal than this fancy gizmo.” His stomach growled as loudly as his voice. “In case you haven't noticed, we didn’t eat breakfast!”

Bandee quickly glanced at the time on his phone. Dear Nova, it was already twenty minutes past twelve. The loyal waddle dee knew that Kirby had eaten a sugary breakfast thanks to the two pranksters of Dreamland, but he knew his Kirby could go for fourths and this one was a baby for Nova’s sake! He needed to have his meals to grow into a fine warrior.

This is without saying the appetites of the two older members of the quartet. Everyone knew their King had an insane hunger for all things delectable and edible just as the pink demon did. However, not many knew of Meta Knights hunger as well. Bandee has heard all sorts of stories from his Dedede back when he and the dark knight were kids. He could clean out an entire ice cream parlor if you’d let him.

Oh how he felt like a bad host.

“A-Ah well I suppose we can take this to the dining hall!” He stammered out fiddling with his spear in the process. “We’ll still be able to chat with the other Star Allies while we eat. Follow me!”

The alternate Dedede huffed as he watched the spear wielder waddle away. “That’s better. Hope you freaks have something better than the slop they serve back home!” He as well as the young star warrior marched after Bandee along with most of the star allies following behind leaving only Susie and both Meta Knights.

The mirrored counterpart tsked. “Is he always that annoying!” His words laced with venom as he locked eyes with Meta Knight “Even I wasn’t that bad way back then.”

Susie put her hands on her hips. “I concur. Are we sure he at the very least isn’t possessed. We have a multitude of ways of handling that certain subject.”

Even he, as uncaring as he tried to appear to be, couldn't stiffen the soft chuckle that escaped out of him.

“You’ll have to excuse him. His majesty has always acted like that ever since I started working for him.”

The Secretary and the Darker Knight shared a look with each other.

“Just since you started working for him huh.” Dark queried, not sure what to make with that information.

Susie thought for a moment. “Well in any case, we should make our way down to the dining hall. I know you probably would rather eat alone, but I insist you join us. We’ll most likely be discussing more matters about your situation and helping you learn and customize your new phones!” the secretary couldn’t tone down the pride she had in those last few words.

Under his mask a smile formed. The pink haired woman reminded him of Fumu with how excited she sounded wanting to teach them all how to work their new devices. 

He wondered how she was handling their dimensional guests.

His inner thoughts came to a halt as he watched the mirrored knight take flight.

“Not joining us Dark?” Susie asked.

“Nah, don't feel like Kitchen staff waddle dee cooking. They never make it spicy enough for me. Stopping by Kawasaki’s.”

“Ah you have a Kawasaki as well?” Meta Knight added not missing the shared realization of what that could possibly mean between the two.

“You might want to check if that one is actually ours...” the secretary sighed.

“Right. See ya soon.” 

-----

It didn’t take the kitchen staff long to cook up and prepare everyone’s meals. The waddle dee’s even made sure that both the King and Kirby get extra helpings and knew not to serve Meta Knight just yet.

Each star ally thanked the waddle dees before stuffing their faces.

Everything looked and smelled great to the dimensional tyrant. You can’t go wrong with two big steaks with sides of both rice and mash potatoes with gravy on the side and some creamy soda to help wash it down! The blue penguin would have dug in right then if he weren’t being stared at with starry eyed anticipation by at least ten different waddle dees.

Bandana took first notice. “Ah remember, he’s not our Dedede!”

Each waddle dee looked visibly disappointed and let out a sad wayna before shuffling out of the dinning hall.

Weird little things, Dedede’s still trying to figure out how they can talk with no mouths and if they can talk without them, why can’t they talk back home?

Ah but who could care about that right now when he’s got such a delectable meal in front of him and his mouth was watering waiting for a taste. He cut his steak with enthusiasm and with just one bite the tyrant king was in flavorful heaven. Dedede had to hand it to his counterpart, even though his stylised choices for his castle were in need of a drastic upgrade the food he got to indulge in were decadent. How come his waddle dee’s couldn’t cook like this?!

“Now this is flavor!” Dedede couldn’t stop himself from saying in between bites. “Can barely get something as delicious as this back home.”

In between the small star warrior’s own bites the smaller version of the pink demon agreed with two poyo’s.

“That so? Well, be sure to give your compliments to our chefs.” Magolor snickered. “Anyways, hope you all are a little more familiar with your new phones. Noticed how Meta’s been getting himself familiar with our other teammates.”

The dark knight nodded. “They’ve all been quite friendly and trying to give us insight on this phenomenon. I’m also surprised to see some familiar names here.” 

Taranza perked up after swallowing some of his rice. “Oh and who else from our group has a counterpart from your dimension?”

“Rick, Kine, and Coo.”

The King erupted with laughter. “Wait, those three are a part of your little club? What help are they!”

“They’re fantastic help!” Bandee shouted, banging his nub on the table without meaning too. “Those three were some of the first people to help Kirby protect our Kingdom when we needed it! We’re glad they’re a part of the star ally team!”

Dedede was a bit taken aback by the sudden outburst from the bandana wearing waddle dee. Normally he wouldn’t let anyone talk to him like that but considering what he saw the little spear wielder was capable of he’d let it slide just this one time, at least til that spear was far away from him.

“They’re also the few of us who actually have a clean wrap sheet.” Marx muttered with a giggle.

Dedede stopped from taking another bite. “What does that mean?”

“Oh lore for later.” The other prankster waved him off. “I think we should shift our focus on how strange it is that even though they’re are more counterparts, only three of them have been switched.”

The secretary hummed in agreement, taking a sip of her creamy drink before speaking. “Dark just now confirmed that our Kawasaki is still all fine and dandy and operating his shops.” her bedazzled phone buzzed once again. She looked a little annoyed. “He keeps sending me pictures of his food.”

Taranza leaned in close to the secretary, staring at the picture of spicy ramen the mirror knight had ordered. He gave a thumbs up right in front of his meal. “Maybe he’s trying to make you jealous. You know how delicious Kawasaki’s cooking is.” Susie huffed, agreeing with the spider.

“Ooh there’s an idea. Since there isn’t gonna be a potluck tonight, maybe we should get some takeout from Kawasaki.” Marx grinned his head turning towards the magician beside him. “Unless someone still wants to make his special mac and cheese.” his eyes fluttered hoping the wizard would say yes. 

“No potluck, no mac and cheese!” Magolor finalized arms crossed. “You guys trying to get me killed by the others!?”

It was somewhat humorous watching the so-called protectors of this dimension whine and groan about some macaroni but all the king could feel in that moment was deep envy.

How come they were able to enjoy such delicacies on a day to day basis? Already talking about what they’ll have for dinner while eating lunch! They even talked about how well their Kawasaki can cook while the version of that ‘chef’ he was stuck with made anything he cooked taste disastrous.

That was just unfair! He angrily chewed his food.

Maybe his counterpart wouldn’t mind trading dreamlands from time to time.

Through his angered shewing, the new phone kept buzzing from the constant messages of the other star allies. It was rather annoying feeling it vibrate every moment while he was trying to enjoy a tasty meal.

He was sure that pink hair girl must have programmed a way to turn off having to hear the constant buzzing but she must have withheld that information once the food had gotten there. 

“Mmh Adeleine makes a good point.” Said pink haired woman spoke up again, eyes still attached to her phone. “We have no previous knowledge of any known individual having such a power to cause people to trade dimensions with their counterparts. At least in this dimension. What about yours?”

Meta Knight shook his head. “I have no recollection of such a demon beast with that power.”

The jester blew a raspberry at that. “ Darn. What about you baby Kirbs?”

Kirby looked up in thought for a few seconds. “Poyo poy… Poyoo!” then dove right back to his almost finished meal.

Both of dreamland's pranksters nodded their heads with the small Kirby’s words. “We’ll have to keep that in mind.” Marx said rather seriously with Magolor agreeing with him.

Dedede tapped his fingers on the table annoyed. Did they seriously ask Kirby before him?! A version of their King! Who can actually talk and not just speak in poyos!

“In case anyone was wondering, I don't know any powers like that either!” Dedede spoke, trying to act nonchalant about it.

“Not surprising…” Bandana sighed playing with his food having not eaten a single bite.

The dining room grew quiet with the only sounds of constant typing filling the room with each star ally, plus the dimensional knight pondering their unanswered question.

Between that waddle dee and the nonstop buzzing the tyrant wanted to scream but kept  refraining himself lest he wanted to be covered in webs and speared again. Honestly he should be showered in praise with how much he was holding himself back.

To help hold himself back he decided to finally turn on the phone he was given.

First thing first it was way too bright. That secretary woman did show them how to lower the brightness before they got their food, among other things. Why even make it that bright in the first place?

Second of all they’re were a lot of messages waiting for him to at least check.

The blue king gulped.

It wasn’t like he couldn’t read as much as Escargon liked to poke fun that he couldn’t. He clearly could! How else would he be able to read that demon beast manual Holy Nightmare Co. had sent him!

It was just that sometimes words seemed to be jumbled up for him especially when they were teensy tiny like they were in most chapter books and this weird version of a phone. Which was unfortunate for him. Sure the pink girl did programe a way that he could just listen to the words but he most definitely wouldn’t use that feature in front of them all!

Then again Susie also said that since these phones were ‘tough screens’ he’d be able to zoom in on certain things.

He clicked on one of the messages taking him into the group chat that had a new message every second. He took a mental note that the buzzing stopped when he was in the chat. Perhaps he could just zoom in on… Woah!

Somehow he was able to make the text super huge. Which was perfect for him! He wasn’t sure she made mention of this feature but she should have!

He smirked to himself. Now he could read this! First thing he got to read was a message that just popped up by someone named Hyness.

Weird name…

-----

Dimensional Chat!

Hyness: It almost sounds like baby magic

-----

“Baby magic…?” Dedede couldn’t help but repeat. His eyebrows raised. What the hell was baby magic?

Magolor’s ears twitched and jumped from his chair. “By Nova’s radiant light I completely forgot about baby magic!” He rapidly began typing on his phone.

“Oh stars he’s right!” Taranza added one of his six hands covering his mouth.

“What’s baby magic?” The dark knight asked, eyes changing to orange yet again.

“It’s basically a nickname we magic users call the type of magic young individuals use when they are just learning magic!” Magolor explained while typing out a thank you to Hyness for bringing the possibility of baby magic into their conversation.  “With magic you can’t just jump into the big spells! You gotta practice the small stuff first! One of the first lessons for learning how to teleport is being able to swap objects from long distances with portals!”

“That could explain why the portals looked so wrong!” Bandee beamed.

“Yes yes!” Magolor nodded. “Now we just need to figure out which dimension they come from.”

“Who cares which dimension they come from just hurry up and find us a way home!” The pengu snarled, finishing up the last bites of his lunch.

“Hold on your majesty.” Meta Knight spoke up. “It would be very crucial for us to learn the location of this foe so we may put a stop to them.”

Dedede groaned.

“If we do not find them they could possibly keep sending us back here.” the dark knight added.

The king let out a long sigh. “That’s a good point I suppose.”

“More likely than not they gotta be from here right.” Bandee spoke. “It did seem like the portals were mainly targeting our friends.”

“Ah a classic get rid of the strongest first move.” Susie commented, texting at fast speed, updating the rest of their teammates. “Perhaps they plan on invading Popstar?”

“Still stupid on their part then!” Marx argued. “Weak magic and they didn’t try to get rid of the rest of us!”

“There still could be more portals popping up…” Bandee looked up in thought. “I’ll have to ask the mage sisters and maybe the squeaks if they can patrol off star for a bit to see if anything unusual is happening.” He jumped off of his chair and pushed it back into place. “I”m gonna go patrolling around dreamland to see if any of those weird portals will appear.”

“I think I’ll join you.” Taranza stated wiping away the crumbs off his face with a napkin. “We can pick up Dark as we patrol. Lest he ‘forgets’ that he has to come back to the castle.“ the spider quoted with all six hands.

“Sounds like a plan.” Magolor gave the two a double thumbs up. He then turned to Susie. “Susanna, you ready to spend hours designing a machine to send our dimensional guests back to their home!”

She winked at him, “Don’t threaten me with a good time Mags.” 

“If you’ll allow me.” The alternate Meta Knight started. “ It would be an honor helping you with the process.”

The capped wizard nodded. “Of course we could use all the help we can get!”

“We’ll be in the lab! Join us when you’re done with your meal!” Susie added in.

The jester beside him started to laugh maniacally. “While you all are doing that I’m gonna hang out with baby Kirbs!” Instantly a small beach ball appeared and with perfect balance Marx began rolling close to the young star warrior. “I’m gonna teach him some of my best pranks! And how to lie!”  

“Marx…” Bandee gave the purple jester an annoyed expression that matched his tone.

“What? It’s a good skill!” He laughed, urging the little baby warrior to follow him “C’mon baby Kirbs, let's have fun!”

“Poyo!” The baby agreed and off they went rolling out of the dinning hall both eager to start some mischief around the castle.

Bandee sighed, adjusting his bandana. “Let's get started then. We should all rendezvous around six just in time for dinner.”

All but the king agreed as they all made their way out of the dinning hall. Both Susie and Taranza pushed the king out of the room telling him both to ‘move move’ and ‘Meta Knight needs to eat’.

“The waddle dees should be here with your food in just a minute. Hope you enjoy your meal Meta Knight!” Bandana Dee shouted before shutting the door. He fiddled with his spear and was ready to march out of the castle along with Taranza. Both their mechanic geniuses were already on they’re way to the lab until.

“What about me?” The tyrant questioned.

Ah that’s right, whilst everyone had their own game plan for the time being. The alternate Dedede didn’t come up with anything.

Bandee did say that that trio should stick close to any star ally, he shouldn’t go against his word.

“A-ah well you could go on parole with me and Taranza.” He stuttered out not missing the young spider’s face trying not to cringe at that idea.

“No way that’s for soldiers.” Dedede flatly stated.

Susie tsked. “Our King Dedede would have.” she barely whispered to the wizard beside her.

Bandee saw the dimensional tyrant’s eye twitch. “T-then what about joining them in building a machine to send you three home?”

“Royalty doesn’t build things themself!” He growled this time.

Magolor rolled his eyes. “Our great king would have done that too.” He said in a sing-song voice not even trying to whisper it.

“Then what about playing with Marx and Kirby!”

Dedede’s teeth grinded so hard that he was certain they’d be turned to dust. “ABSOLUTELY NOT!” He yelled, gaining the attention of nearby workers. As if he’d ever want to hang out with that annoying pink gumball! He huffed and crossed his arms, turning away from the waddle dee. “I’ll just take a nap!”

The bandana wearer sighed. “That works too. Don’t forget we’ll be back around six.”

“Fine whatever.”

-----

The fake king was able to find his way back to this dimension’s version of himself’s room. It wasn’t that hard finding his way back. He just needed to remember the pictures leading into the hallway with all the rooms after all.What was hard was all the servants that tried to stop him and chat with him when all he wanted was to sleep the day away til he got more grub to scarf down.

The Dedede of this land certainly had a different representation than he himself had.

Which bothered him for some reason.

The tyrant could already tell based on castle aesthetics alone that he was the superior King Dedede. Though the way the star allies treated both star warriors highly and respectfully annoyed him to no end.

They clearly respected their version of himself! Even going far as calling him Great King Dedede. He himself only ever called himself that title and was angered every time someone didn’t refer to him as such.

So where was his respect? They must have only been given respect to Meta Knight and Kirby because of their version of themselves here! So far all he’s gotten was pain, various different looks and entangled in webs!

It wasn’t fair!

He felt tears welling up in his eyes.  No he wasn’t going to cry here, all he was gonna do was crawl into bed and come up with a better plan to force those crazed star allies to respect and love him. He’d definitely come up with something. Right? He’d always have a crazy scheme prepared.

Then again. Escargon would always help with those.

This dimension didn’t have an Escargon.

His hands rubbed his temples as he crawled into bed. Having his advisor would have been a big help right about now…

Whatever! He didn’t always need that annoying snail to come up with good ideas! He’s plenty smart without him! 

He could figure out what that other Dedede had that he didn’t. Plus so far no Fumu or Bun so that was lucky for him!

The pengu tucked himself into the red blankets of the bed. If there’s one thing he definitely didn’t have was this extremely comfy bed. It was like laying on clouds! Man that other Dedede just about had it all!

Before he closed his eyes he tossed to his side and noticed a small shelf near the bed containing a big photo book.

All forms of sleepiness evaporated from the king and were replaced with an overwhelming urge of curiosity.

He picked up the book and began flipping the pages.

First photo he saw was the other Dedede sleeping away along with that waddle dee with the bandana sleeping right underneath his arm. The two were even holding hands! All while Meta Knight sat under a tree, his sword galaxia, resting in the ground beside him as he stared daggers at an orange butterfly on a flower.

Huh the king didn’t realize that the waddle dee was so close to the other Dedede.

How weird.

He kept flipping until he hit a page that in big letters and underlined said Star Allies.

 One was that edgier version of Meta Knight coloring with three other people. Wow his art skills were bad, the others weren’t as terrible. The girl in the beret was certainly the best though how she looked reminded him of customer service. Almost anyways.  

Another with that jester running with Rick, Kine, Coo and some… blue goo creature with a very long tongue that freaked Dedede out with a rainbow in the back. How Kine was breathing the king couldn’t tell you.

There was even a photo of those three floaty handed people all holding hands as Magolor led them somewhere. Right behind them was an impressive blue and silver ship and an enormous flower. There was something else in the back but he couldn’t tell what it was.

The final photo on the page was of three women all wearing the same uniform but in different colors that matched their hair and someone covered head to toe in robes. They all surrounded a sleeping Kirby that was picked up by the cheek by the redheaded one. They too had weird floaty hands. They all looked so happy…

Dedede wasn’t too sure what to make of those photos. So far it only reiterated a fact that he already knew, and that being that these people were freaks. But they must have been somewhat important to their king if they were in a photo album near his bed.

He sighed and went back to the beginning of the book's album pages.

There were a lot of photos with him, Kirby, Meta Knight, and that damned Bandee doing various different activities together. It almost made him sick looking at them all.

How could any version of himself be friendly with Kirby? In fact, why was he friends with any of these weirdos? Questions he’d have to ask the other King once they figured out how to get back into the right dimension.

As he countied to look at the photos he let out a laugh.

He’d also have to ask how he was able to get the gloomy knight to get into any of these silly outfits. Much less let him take a photo. 

Seeing Meta Knight in a Cowboy outfit was killing him.

Speaking of that good for nothing knight there were also a lot of photos of just the King and the Knight together. And he meant a lot of photos.

Photos posing together, fighting together, hanging out with the other star allies together, building whatever that scrap in the photo was together, hell even eating at a cafe together! Meta Knight was even wearing a little fedora hat as he sat there drinking coffee.

He had weird feelings he couldn’t explain looking at those photos, why was he even looking at this again? Just curiosity he supposed. Maybe just one more page of photos then he’ll hit the hay like he said he would.

He flipped the page and- What the hell??

He felt his heart stop for a moment and stared at the photo in complete awe. In bold letters on top of the page read. ‘first potluck!’ in all caps.

The photo contained all of the star allies sitting together on a big park table, a park table that the king who called this Dreamland home was carrying like a strongman would do with weights all while both their Kirby and Bandee were hanging onto his arms like he was a jungle gym. All of them were posing and smiling as they were all high in the air.

Even that Dedede was smiling wide like crazy, not even breaking a sweat carrying them all!

“How was he doing that!” The tyrant had to question yelling into a room that would give him no answers.

No, the better question was. ‘Is that why they respected him?’ Dedede thought to himself.

Of course it had to be! This Dedede was clearly insanely strong and strength was everything for a king to have! This Dedede must’ve been the strongest in their club!

‘Those pesky star allies didn’t respect him cause he got beaten by a lowly waddle dee!’ He reasoned to himself.

Oh but they’ll see. He’ll get strong, stronger than their Dedede and they’ll be begging for him to rule this dreamland. And guess what he’ll say no! HA!

There was a fitness room in this castle, no?

Chapter Text

“EH?! You’re telling me there’s a possibility Nightmare’s returned?!” Fumu gasped as an intense feeling of dread and fear built up in her body. Memories instantaneously flooding back to the time she herself had gotten captured by Nightmare. The feeling of the giant wizard’s boney hand grappling around her entire body was something she could never fully forget even if she tried. 

The interdimensional knight gave her a simple nod. “According to, void, what was that bastard’s name again? Yamikage? Stated that he had received a message from a company’s messaging system.” 

“Holy Nightmare Co…” the young girl looked down, twiddling her fingers envisioning all that went down on that horrid day. “I can’t believe it…It’s been nearly two years. Why now of all times?”

Meta Knight tilted his head examining her movements. Observing her fidgety twitching, he spoke softly, “So many differences between our dimensions. I haven’t thought of Nightmare for a multitude of years.” 

“Huh you’ve fought Nightmare before?!” 

The knight gave her a simple nod. “Although, the credit goes to both his majesty and Kirby.”

The young girl looked back at both the tall blue King Dedede and the pink puff Kirby still chatting away with both her younger brother and many of the cappy villagers. The dinner held for them ended not that long ago but many of the villagers still wanted to chat with the interdimensional heroes.

Fumu couldn’t help but feel a small flickering amount of envy towards the alternate version of the man she and many others were forced to call a king. How could anyone not find how flabbergasting it was to see the face of someone who caused such pain and mischief in her dimension for years be regarded as a high hero in another. 

The two locked eyes. The King smiled wide at her, as he did he bid farewell to the remaining cappies and motioned both the pink puff and her brother Bun to follow him. He carried a decently sized container in one of his hands, that Kirby tried to jump up and grab multiple times, most likely being left overs. 

‘Maybe this Dedede could teach a thing or two to ours...’ Fumu couldn’t help but imagine. It would make living under the same castle with him more bearable.

“Grabbed you some grub Mety.” King Dedede said while pushing the pink gumball. “Better get it before this menace tries anything.”

“But Dedede, I’m still soooo hungry!” Kirby faked a whine, grabbing onto the king’s robe playfully tugging, not even bothering to try and steal the container when it was passed off.

“I’m fairly certain you’ve had your fill.”the knight said, taking the container swiftly poketing it in his cape.  “Thank you, your majesty.”

“So are we gonna talk about what that ‘carrot looking bastard’ spoke to you about?” The king crossed his arms as he crudely attempted to copy the knight's voice.

Once more the siblings couldn’t quite keep their chuckles to themselves at the meanspirted yet accurate description of the ninja that had terrorized their village twice now.

“You mock my language yet you agree with me.” Dedede rolled his eyes smiling at Meta Knight's accusation. “Nevertheless, according to the information shared to me. The Nightmare of this dimension may have returned.”

Dedede’s face soured.

“What!? Nightmare’s ba-” Fumu rapidly covered Bun’s scream with her hand, her other free hand motioning into a ‘shh’ position not wanting his loud mouth to alert any of the cappies that were still packing up and leaving the mayor’s house.

Bun ripped her hand off his mouth, angrily whispering to her. “How else do you expect me to act sis?! This is serious news!”

“Right now it’s just a possibility.” She reasoned watching her brother cross his arms and turn his back on her. He couldn’t deny Fumu had a point. No point in getting everyone riled up on a possibility. She didn’t have to put her hand on his mouth though!

Even though watching the siblings bickering was fun, the young pink puff‘s gaze landed on the moon. Illuminating a silver glow in the night sky. So pretty and …full. How long has it been since he saw a full moon on Popstar?

“You guys dealt with Nightmare too?” Kirby asked. “Where'd you fight him?” 

The two mutually shared a confounding look at the young puffball. 

“At his company of course.” Bun answered matter of factly. 

“His what?” He blinked and thought for a millisecond. “Oh right, duh, different dimensions, different rules.”

“Stupid dimensional differences.” The King groaned, rubbing his beak in frustration. “So what, Nightmare’s like Haltmann in this Dimension?”  

“ A great question.” Meta knight hummed, turning back to Fumu. “Can you give us the details of all of this Nightmare’s deeds?”

“Nothing good I can tell you.” Bun summarized. 

His sister nodded in agreement. “He’s a powerful wizard who created an army’s worth of Demon Beasts.” She thought back to the first demon beast that had done critical damage to her home. Remembering how it devoured the local sheep and almost destroyed the castle sent shivers down her spine. Octakon barely even scraped the tip of the worst of the demon beasts that had been made by that mad man. Wolfwrath, Boukyakku, and the demon frog were a few to name that truly frightened Fumu.Thank goodness for Kirby. She didn’t want to imagine her world, or better yet her whole galaxy would be like without him.

Although thanks to the Star Allies pure existence being here proved that there could very well be a dimension where they lost… and Nightmare reined forever more. 

Fumu shook her head.

No need to think about that. She’s safe, her family and her friends, safe. They’re all safe and sound thanks to Kirby. 

Fumu continued,“With those demon beasts he conquered over half the universe. I’ve learned from our Sir Meta Knight that many of those planets have only just begun rebuilding themselves with the help of what little remains of the Galaxy Soldier Army” 

“So how does the company part come into play?” Dedede queried. 

The young girl dreaded this question that was bound to come from the alternate King. She turned to her younger brother who seemed to share her same dread. 

“He sold his demon beasts to customers like…” 

“Like our version of you.” Bun finished for her. “He used to terrorize all of us with them for years. Always trying to destroy Kirby with him. He hasn’t been able to do that since Kirby defeated Nightmare once and for all!” 

The King blinked once, twice. That was a bit to take in “Like me?” He rubbed the back of his neck as he stifled a laugh. “ Well that’s embarrassing to learn. Could you imagine me paying Nightmare for something I could do on my own?!” 

“Current you? No. Past you? Well…” Kirby snickered. 

“Hey!”

“Enough you two.” Meta Knight intervened, sounding more like a scolding parent than anything else. “We’ve more pressing matters. It seems like this version of Nightmare has had more nuance here than our own.” 

The pink puff nodded while sticking his tongue out at his king getting the agitated reaction he was hoping for. “Well I’ve defeated him once and the me here did so too! With, let me guess… The Star Rod!” 

Both Fumu and Bun gawked at the mention of the Star Rod.

“How’d you know?!” the younger brother asked, astonished. 

A wide smile appeared on the young Star Allie’s face. “I was hoping that was the case! It was the same back home!”  

“Thank the stars.” their king let out a sigh of relief.

“So all we gotta do is grab the Star Rod and we'll all be okie dokie! No problemo!” Kirby beamed. His smile almost faltered as he saw the pair of siblings avoiding eye contact with the three heroes, eyes sorrowful staring downward. 

“Well, unfortunately.” Fumu began “the last we ever saw the star rod was in our fight with Nightmare…” 

Kirby’s cheek puffed up and deflated with a raspberry leaving his lips. “Ppsh okay problemo.” The little pink gumball closed his eyes, ruminating all he could on the ancient artifact he once wielded.  Eyes widening as realization settled in. “Wait no star rod means…” 

The young star ally began running in a panic. “No no no! I don’t wanna sleep without dreams!” 

The small group watched as Kirby ran back and forth shrieking out no after no. Fumu had never expected to see him act like that! Even her Kirby seemed more neutral or rather naive to certain issues.

But what was sleeping with no dreams about? Why would that be a problem? 

With timed precision, the penguin king grabbed Kirby leaving him to dangle in the air. “Calm down kiddo.” 

“An unfortunate circumstance, but we must focus on the main issue,”  The dark knight's golden eyes narrowed in resentment yet voice remained composed. “Without that artifact we can do nothing against that wizard.”

“You said Nightmare may have returned.” the little puffball rebutted. “For all we know it could be Dark Matter!” 

“I’d rather fight Nightmare bare handed.” The great king groaned. He moved Kirby under his arm, holding him like a beachball. Said beachball didn’t put up any fight when moved. “Did the ninja say anything else Mety?” 

“He stated that he had received a message expressing that whoever wrote it would love for both this dimension of me and the young star warrior. I presume this young star warrior is your Kirby?” He turned to Fumu for confirmation.

As expected she nodded ferociously. “That in itself feels like verification that it has to be Nightmare!” 

“Only the two gumballs? “ King Dedede tsked. ”After all you put me through Nightmare… Now you don’t wanna see my beautiful mug.” His gaze turned to Kirby, still nice and snug under his arm. The child smiled, sticking his tongue out at the penguin. “Regardless, Nightmare being back and there being no Star Rod makes me queasy.  I’d like to check your Fountain of Dreams. Don’t want anyone else getting corrupted over his dream magic.”

“Fountain of Dreams?” Fumu questioned. A few moments of silence followed once the words left her mouth.

“You don’t have a Fountain of Dreams?!” In his shock, The great king dropped Kirby who made a little squeak once meeting the ground. It didn’t seem to phase the young ally as he quickly picked himself up sharing Dedede’s bewilderness.

“You guys don’t dream in general??!” Kirby added.

Fumu brought a finger near her mouth thinking. When was the last time she had a dream that wasn’t a nightmare because of the wizard that shared that title? “I suppose I don’t. Bun?” 

He shook his head. “I’ve gotten a few nightmares but only cause of Nightmare’s products.”

The expressions on both Dedede and Kirby looked as if they were a few short seconds away from passing out from new information shared with them.

Meta Knight shook his head. “Ignore them. If you do not possess the fountain then when did you procure the Star Rod?” 

“That’s easy! Kirby brought it with him when he first came to popstar.” Bun answered.

Fumu hummed in agreement. “Originally we thought it was just the warp star. But during the final battle with Nightmare, Kirby inhaled it and it transformed into the Star Rod.”

How strange.

 That was definitely a new one for all of them. 

“I never thought to inhale the warp stars.” Kirby brought up shock wearing off quickly. 

“I’m sorry, warp stars? Plural?” 

Oh all these differences between dimensions was gonna give each of them a headache.

Dedede clapped his hands together. “All right let’s save some of these questions for tomorrow yeah? This is all given me a migraine. I need some shut eye.”  No dreams and the possibility of getting nightmares can go to hell. It’s been a long day for the king.

The older penguin rubbed his temples. As he did he felt a tap on his side from his favorite knight. His eyebrow raised on what Meta could want. It wasn’t hard for him to decipher what a few eye motions could mean from him. After all, they've known each other for how long now? He sighed and gave his sworn partner a smile. 

“Just one more question for the night.” Meta Knight said. “You’re absolutely certain you have no Fountain of Dreams?” 

“Not to my knowledge. I don’t even think our Sir Meta Knight has said anything about that.” Fumu tried to think back on all her studies. Whether it be from her own scholarly research from the castle’s library or her expeditions with Professor Curio. 

“If you really want to check you should ask Kabu! He’s a prophet!” Her brother offered. 

“Kabu?” Meta’s eyes showed the confusion his voice refused to act on as he thought of the living little wooden statues with gaping mouths from his homeland he would sometimes run into time and time again. He couldn’t image those small things being able to make predictions. 

The two siblings pointed south. “A little way outside of the village there’s a valley. There should be some torches lit up. That's where Kabu is.” The younger of the two spoke first. 

Fumu continued from where her brother left off. “He’s also where we used to stow away the warp star.” Before it disappeared, went unspoken.

“Interesting.” Meta unfurled his bat wings and instantly took flight. “I think I’ll satisfy my curiosity by talking to this Kabu.” 

“Don’t start any problems all right Meta Knight.” Dedede joked watching the dark blue knight fly higher in the night sky. 

“No promises.”  

“See you soon Meta Knight!” Kirby yelled, waving. “We should all have a sleepover in one room when you get back.” 

“Oh that sounds fun!” Fumu giggled, waving off the interdimensional knight. The idea of a sleepover with both Dedede and Meta Knight seemed barely tolerable and impossible knowing how they were like. 

A simple salute is all Meta Knight gave as he flew away at what seemed like an unimaginable speed.  

“Well guess we better start walking.”  

“That’ll take forever.” The king gave a big yawn. “Hop on my back we’ll fly back.” 

“You can fly!?” Both children gasped stars in their eyes. 

“What your king can’t?” He chuckled, kneeling down to let them both climb.

“You just keep getting cooler and cooler.” Bun stated already trying to hoist himself up on Dedede’s back. 

----- 

It wasn’t too hard to find. A valley on the outskirts of the village litten up with a few torches. There was a totally different vibe coming off of this place then the village Fumu and Bun had lived in. 

He landed himself gracefully in front of the giant totem, not bothering to put his wings away feeling as this shouldn’t take too much of his time. 

He gazed upwards.

Yup. That was definitely a giant kabu. Same deep black square eyes and gaping open mouths like the ones back home. He’s seen big kabu’s before. Anyone who lived on Popstar has, but this one certainly took the hypothetical cake. 

Meta coughed trying to see if he could get his attention. Nothing. Oh well that can’t stop him from trying. “Kabu I am not the knight you may know. Nonetheless-” 

“Kabu knows who you are, interdimensional knight.” Kabu’s deep voice boomed. “An ally to the stars, brought here against your will by weakening magic. Alongside the counterparts of this realm King Dedede and star warrior Kirby. 

Well color him surprised. He really knew what he’s talking about. 

Wait a Nova countdown second. 

Weakening magic? 

“Do you know who brought me and my friends here?” Meta asked.

“Kabu can not say for certain. For that individual’s heart, soul, and mind seem to be in constant battle with itself.” 

That wasn’t good. That sounded like the perfect recipe for corruption to take hold. Or worse turning into a soul form. With Nightmare making a comeback, that very well could be the case.

“But that is not the reason you came to Kabu. Come inside.”

He did as he was told walking into the cut out hole of Kabu stars led down to a small makeshift bluish gray bunker. In the middle there was a pedestal with an empty star shaped holster.

He put his arm on the pedestal. So this is where they would put it. How odd. 

“So mind telling me why they put the top of the star rod in here?” He also should ask why it doubled as a warp star in this dimension. But the important questions must come first when it comes to prophets. 

He pulled his arm off as soon as he felt the shudder from the pedestal as it suddenly slid slowly down into the ground uncovering another layer of dusty spider webbed infested stares in Kabu. 

“During the long era that Nightmare reigned this galaxy, many Kabus weren’t just built to heal the star warriors and they’re warp stars. Kabus were built over the holy fountains to conceal them from Nightmare’s corruptive dream magic.”

Smart of them. Nightmare’s ability to control others through dreams was something to be feared if you didn’t know how to fight him. He didn’t want to think of all those whose minds and matter were tainted. That’s exactly what his majesty was trying to avoid when he first shattered their star rod. Although he really should have communicated some things better so that whole debacle could have been avoided. 

He shook the thought away and began his descent down the second star case.

The masked knight had assumed that it would get darker the deeper in he went but no in fact it got brighter with each step he took. Almost like the stars themselves were shining the way down for him. 

Before he knew it, there it was hidden away from all eyes to see Popstar's fountain of dreams. Its water still and colorful, its decorative stars a bit too dim for normal, the plant life surrounding it close to wilting but refusing to give up, and at the very top of the fountain's centerpiece, the artifact he once held the shard too, broken and missing three shards. 

‘How nostalgic.’ Meta Knight thought.

There was magic here but it was weak, dying almost. How long has this fountain gone without its centerpiece being complete? 

As he got closer to the fountain something caught his golden eyes. Carvings written long ago. Though they were not written in the common letters most were familiar with. He’s seen this language before long ago.  How long ago? Presumably sometime when Dedede and himself met as children.

There were only three words carved into the side.

‘Dedede Was Here!’