Elfilin guided the Warp Star north past the Natural Plains, and we approached a vast coastal area. The majority of it was covered in water except for the southernmost part, but there were plenty of islands to safely land on.

"This area is called Everbay Coast," the cyan creature explained. "Great place for a swim, but you'll want to watch out for the structures that were made by the people who lived here; some of them are submerged from being flooded, so be careful when taking a dip!"

"Got it," Izzy replied with a nod. "So, what's our first stop?"

"I'd say the Abandoned Beach would be a good place to start searching for Waddle Dees." Elfilin drove the Warp Star down to the beginning of a series of coastlines close to the sea, where we set foot on the sand.

While waiting for Izzy's equipment to arrive, we enjoyed watching the local ocean life swimming about from where we stood on the first coastline. While most of them were harmless, I took note of the round red fish wearing goggles, called Blippers. They look and act harmless, but I know from experience that looks can be deceiving. Further away, I also spotted a green limbless creature with red tentacles on its head sitting atop a wooden crate floating on the water. Glunks like that one are pretty similar to Blippers in that they're cute but not harmless.

But even though watching some sea life can be fun, I understood that we had a goal, so after a few minutes, I put on an inner tube and swam to the next patch of dry sand, followed by Gim–E and Elfilin. Once we reached that islet, we stopped and waited for Izzy. She was able to wade across since the water was shallow between here and our starting point, but partway through, she got distracted by the Blippers. "Well, aren't you just the most adorable little oxymoron, decked out in those goggles?" she beamed as one swam close to her. "Looking snazzy!"

"Oxymoron is correct," Gim replied. "Blippers and their larger counterparts the Mamatees have eyes that aren't developed properly for seeing underwater, so they wear those goggles to prevent damage to their eyes."

"Oh, really?" Izzy's quizzical expression turned into one of wonder as she returned her attention to the Blipper. "Well, what do you know! Life gave you lemons, but you found yourself a lemon squeezer to make—"

Whap!

While she was focused on the Blipper, a second one jumped out of the water and headbutted the back of her head, causing her to lose her footing and tumble into the water.

My eyes went wide with terror. "Poyo?!" Izzy was about to drown!

I hurriedly dove into the water, inhaling and shooting the Blipper bullies away in the form of a Blaster Bullet before tugging Izzy out to dry land by the tail. Once she was a safe distance from the water, I pushed her onto her back, then I bounced up and down on her fuzzy belly to force the would-be liquid assassin out of her lungs.

But no water came out. Only... giggles? "Hehe, that tickles! S–stop!"

Surprised by her voice revealing that Izzy was alive, I hopped off. Looking at her head, I discovered that it was completely dry... And around it was a magic barrier she had conjured up. "What, you thought I was a goner?" she asked with a grin. "For a happy-go-lucky little pink puffball, you sure worry about me! I didn't know you'd warm up to me this quickly, Kirby!"

"...!"

I couldn't believe it. Izzy Moonbow was right: I totally lost it when she went under, even though I didn't want to convert to being a fan of the new generation of ponies. I knew in my heart that the one and only generation for which I held the most earnest love would be the one famous for Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and the rest of the Mane Six. So why... Why did I act as though that wasn't strictly the case? This couldn't be right! ...No, wait, it had to be because I care about protecting ponies no matter the generation for the sake of their fans, not for myself. It had to...

In an attempt to hide the fact that I seemed to be fond of the generation from which Izzy hailed, I hurriedly regained composure and forced a heroic grin, as if to say I was just doing my job as a hero. "P–poyo..."

"Guys, look! There's a Waddle Dee over there!" Saved by the bot... Our gaze followed Gim's extended index finger to a coastline further ahead, but there was no way to it except by swimming or wading, and I didn't want to risk Izzy nearly drowning and thus my accidentally losing composure again.

But I had an idea. I tapped Gim and pointed at the water separating the coastline from us. "Freeze!"

"Ooh, smart! The water ain't always gonna be this shallow, so if Izzy can't wade, why not walk over it?" Switching to Blizzard mode, the green robot rolled his yo-yo across the surface of the water, turning it into a bridge of ice for us to tread along.

This time, I stayed behind Izzy, keeping an eye out for more mischievous Blippers. It wasn't necessary, though, because they all kept away; no doubt they saw what happened to the ones that smacked her before and didn't want to suffer the same fate. The Glunk tried to break our ice bridge by shooting out a group of three orange energy pellets, but Gim dispelled the pellets with some yo-yo strikes before they could hit it. Thanks to his efforts, Izzy could levitate the Glunk away, where it sank and could no longer reach us with its attacks.

After she snacked on a watermelon slice hidden inside the crate, we proceeded to the next coastline, where a frustrated Waddle Dee was knocking some kind of big walnut-like thing against the post holding up an electronic arrow sign.

"Yo, Waddles!" Gim called out. "What're you doing with that nut you've got?"

The Waddle Dee turned and saw us. "Huh? Oh, hey, Kirby and Gim-E!" He began walking over, waving the nut for us to see. As he did, he unluckily strolled across the shadow of a pale yellow, teardrop-shaped creature hovering with leaf propellors, called a Foley. "I heard something rattling around in this thing, and I've been dying to know what's—Gyah!"

Gim wrapped his yo-yo around the Waddle Dee, pulling him over to safety as the Foley disconnected from its propellor leaves. The top of its head giving off sparks like a lit fuse, the Foley exploded as it collided with the nut, blasting open the nut and revealing its contents...

"...A baby bottle inside a nut?" The Waddle Dee stared in bemusement alongside everyone except Elfilin at the bottle. "I'm pretty sure that's not how nature works."

"That's a Knock-Knock Nut," Elfilin explained, floating over and picking up a piece of the nut. "It starts out already open but can be glued shut with a sticky resin excreted by the rims; thanks to the strong nature of the resin, knocking them around until they crack is the only way to get them back open again. Members of the Beast Pack like to use them to protect food they want to save for later."

The Waddle Dee laughed. "For a bunch of animals, those guys are pretty crafty! Maybe you guys can find some more goodies if you crack open any more of these Knock-Knock Nuts." He ran over to a few stacked crates and moved them aside to grab a pile of Star Coins, which he brought over to take with him. "Well, since you're here, Kirby, I guess that means I'm no longer stranded. See you later, and thanks for the save, metal man!"

Once he left for Waddle Dee Town, we tiptoed past a snoozing pink creature wearing an orange nightcap with yellow polka dots, a Noddy, before Gim formed an ice bridge towards a lonely islet populated only by a Sir Kibble and decorated with some grass and a palm tree.

"Heads up, guys!" Elfilin pointed towards a dark crocodilian creature with a massive head and mouth swimming around the islet. "That thing's called a Gnawcodile. They'll try to gobble you up from below, so don't go over them when they submerge!"

Izzy nodded. "Nobody's eating us on our watch. We'll blow right past that feisty feaster like he wasn't even there!"

Shoving another bothersome Glunk away from our path, the four of us ran behind the sluggish beast as it swam by. We considered our options once we made it to the islet and dispatched the Sir Kibble; we couldn't spot any more nearby patches of land to move to after this one, and the only other notable thing in the vicinity was a Gotcha Capsule floating on the water and a Knock-Knock Nut that contained an omelet. With nothing else to do while waiting for Barry, we made the decision to take the Warp Star to another spot in the Abandoned Beach infested with Beast Pack members.

Elfilin landed the Warp Star near the base of a cliffside that stretched a long way forward. Up ahead, we found a Sir Kibble and a Hot Head with their backs against the cliffside on a grassy patch of dry land.

"Kirby!" The Sir Kibble saluted as we came over. "Bonkers have joined the so-called Beast Pack, and one guards the way forward. Fight your way past that ape, and more importantly, find out the cause for this madness!"

I saluted back to him. "Poyo!" I inhaled the Hot Head next to him, re-gaining my Volcano Fire ability.

He eyed my Volcano Fire hat with surprise and intrigue. "It seems you have been improving on your existing Copy Abilities. Excellent, for such enhanced capabilities will be more than useful for battling the vicious fiends and overcoming the many obstacles in this world. I bid you good luck!"

The four of us proceeded to the next plateau, where a huge spiky nut—a durian, as Gim informed me—almost landed right on top of me. I managed to dodge it in time to avoid its explosion with a backwards handspring as the one responsible for it jumped down: a big ape (not nearly as big as Gorimondo, luckily) with peach-colored skin and bluish-purple fur, which I could tell was a Bonkers despite the unusually shaggy fur and war paint on its arms and face. It took out a crude hammer made from a tree branch and a chunk of rock, which it waved menacingly with a roar.

Piggyback time. I leaped onto an all too eager Izzy's back, and my evolved Fire ability caused her hooves to turn into stone that glowed red with magma at the bottom. Her mane similarly changed to stone, and she met the scowl of the Wild Bonkers with a grin. "Let's give him a trial by fire, Kirby!"

Izzy took the initiative, swinging her hoof to launch a magma ball, but the Wild Bonkers effortlessly smacked it away with his hammer and began advancing towards us. She then plunged her hoof into the ground and caused an eruption beneath his next step, causing him to shriek and grab his foot in pain. The Wild Bonkers retaliated by tossing another explosive durian, but I inhaled it and sent it back at him, only for it to be crushed under his oversized chisel.

"That hammer's quite a doozy..." Izzy got out of the way as the Wild Bonkers swung his hammer at us. Training her eyes on it, her ears perked up. "Hey! Kirby, I need you to keep the pressure on this guy!"

A grin crossed my face as I felt Izzy was coming up with another idea to take a baddie down, and I obliged, sending a steady stream of magma at the Wild Bonkers. He defended by holding his hammer up against the magma, but the way they collided made it hard for him to see Izzy approaching. A volcanic hoof strike to the hand caused him to let go of his hammer and clutch his burned hand, leaving him vulnerable to punches to the gut and face.

With that, the Wild Bonkers was taken down, so I dismounted Izzy and claimed the Hammer ability from him.

"Don't be fooled by this ability, our equine comrade!" Gim noted as Izzy checked out my wooden mallet. "The Hammer Ability may be a go-to for some powerful blows, but it's got some utility as well. Consider how the hammer's weight is concentrated in a small area; this allows application of high force to close single targets when swung, so it's optimal for pounding suspicious protrusions on walls or the ground."

Izzy nodded in understanding. "Which means if there's something sticking out, Kirby can smash it back in and make stuff happen!"

Gim gave her an approving thumbs-up as I broke some crates and slammed my hammer into a blue sea turtle creature called a Walf. "You've got a mind like a recently honed sword—that is to say, sharp! Yep, Kirby can smack fools and gimmicks alike with that hammer on loan from the king himself."

We continued past a concrete structure and climbed a ladder on our left guarded by a measly Glunk. At the top, I walloped another Walf guarding a wooden stake atop the structure. With one good whack, I pounded the stake into the ground as a demonstration to Izzy of the Hammer Ability's utility, causing the concrete structure to lower and reveal a Waddle Dee in an alcove it was covering.

"I owe you big-time, Kirby!" the Waddle Dee cheered gratefully. "I tried to hide from those beasts, but then a huge one came and trapped me in here. Good thing they weren't interested in having Waddle Dees for dinner, huh?"

One more Waddle Dee saved, we kept going onwards, taking down a couple of Blippers in a shallow pool-like body of water to enjoy their bananas. Not many steps later did we find a yellow Star Door, but it was guarded by—

"Hey, look how talented those animals are!" Izzy eagerly pointed past the door, leaping across to a sand sculpture of an Awoofy. "They can't be all that barbaric if they're willing to go out of their way to make this adorable work of art. C'mon, we gotta at least take a moment to appreciate their hard work!"

"Credit where credit's due, they do seem to have decent artistry amongst themselves. We saw that with the propaganda against Kirby we saw through that tunnel." Gim went over to observe the sculpture as well, and Elfilin and I followed suit. "Such an intriguing peculiarity of this animal-made monument!" Gim lightly knocked on the sculpture, and it didn't budge. "This sand is packed very tightly. Whoever put this together clearly did not want it to come apart, no matter what."

Elfilin nodded, pressing his paws up against the sculpture. "You're right about that. It's almost as if..." He trailed off, his huge ears picking up a sound Izzy and I couldn't hear. "Kirby. Bust this open."

Izzy did a double take. "You want to deface the animals' property?"

Gim understood Elfilin's logic, also detecting a faint sound from the sculpture. "Sorry, but it's got to be done. This was built not just for amusement, but for the purpose of concealment."

"Aw, okay. I'll be sure to make it up to them after our whole adventure is done and over with."

Having prepared myself to destroy the animal sand sculpture, I held my hammer out behind my back for a wide swing. However, when I brought my hand forward, the hammer was missing! We turned around to see what happened to it.

Behind us was a pair of dangerous enemies, the ones who were guarding the door. Floating orange blobs with catlike ears and a cute, unassuming face; one of them had my hammer in its mouth.

"Don't you know not to take what isn't yours?" Izzy chastised. "Bad floaty kitty! Come on, give it to us, give it..."

She tried to take back the hammer with her magic, but the familiar creature only strengthened its grip. It angrily spun around and transformed into a monstrous cyclops form, sending a chill down her spine.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure kitties aren't supposed to turn into monsters..."

"Those ain't no kitties, Izzy," Gim warned as I jumped and did a spinning kick, knocking the aggressive blob away and freeing my hammer. "One thing you need to know when you're up against a Scarfy like those two: When they get mad, they get MAD."

"And here I was, thinking most of the regular enemies Kirby took on would be all cutesy the whole time. This'll teach me not to make assumptions!"

The angered Scarfy came back and began flashing as it dove for Izzy. She was able to get out of the way, so it instead ran into the sand Awoofy, invoking an explosion that destroyed the sculpture and revealed an unconscious Waddle Dee inside of it.

Seeing the mistake its comrade made, the second Scarfy grinned sheepishly before wisely taking off.

"HAH!" The Waddle Dee woke with a start, gasping for air after we freed it from the sculpture. "Ah, ugh... The warm sand caused me to doze off, but the next thing I knew, I was totally covered in it. That's got to be one of the cruelest pranks an animal has ever pulled on someone..."

With the next Waddle Dee saved and Izzy's composure regained after having the poyo scared out of her by the Scarfies, we continued onward through the door.

On the other side of the door, we found ourselves up against another obstacle: the water ahead had plenty of whirlpools littering it.

"Watch out, you two!" Gim scanned the whirlpools. "These ain't the kind of water twisters you're used to, Kirby, the kind that just spins you around like near the City Wharf in that place you test out your air-riding skills. Nah, bro, you'll get sucked right in if you get too close." Gim experimentally shot out his Blizzard Mode yo-yo over the nearest whirlpool, and whatever ice it formed was quickly shattered and pulled into the vortex. "...Yeah, there's no cheesing our way across the whirlpools either."

We treaded carefully past the whirlpools and took out the Walf and Glunk that tried to break Gim's ice bridge, as well as a Scarfy that tried to ambush us from atop a cliff on the right.

"Hey, don't you guys think that's a bit weird?" Before we kept going, Izzy pointed out the face of the cliff the Scarfy had come down from. Several parts of it were jutting out. "You'd think one of the animals would've climbed up there with those to act as a lookout, but it was a floaty guy hanging out at the top instead. Those crafty critters had to have made some use for that conveniently formed rock face..."

Elfilin nodded in agreement. "Izzy's got a point. The animal members of the Beast Pack had the cleverness to set up traps like the giant boulders we had to swerve past with Kirby's Car Mouth, so they should definitely have the smarts to utilize that rocky cliff and climb up to the top rather than having a floating or flying creature get up there instead..."

I decided to investigate, platforming and hovering my way up the footholds to where the Scarfy had been. At the top, there was another stake to pound with my hammer, so I went ahead and did so. Back down near the water, on the opposite side, a part of the cliff face slid back and revealed a passageway.

"Woo! Your utility and Izzy's logic make a great pairing!" Gim cheered as I hopped down. "How's about the two of you go check out what's in there while Elfilin and I scout ahead?"

What Gim asked of Izzy didn't make any sense. I couldn't risk Izzy drowning, and Gim was our main means of getting Izzy across water safely with the ice bridges from his Blizzard Mode yo-yo, so why would he even think of having her—

"Copy that, Gim! The puffball and I are off to investigate!" My question was answered when Izzy used her magic to levitate herself and float into the side path. Wouldn't be the first time I'd heard of a unicorn using self-levitation, but it was still a clever way to take care of that problem.

I followed after her, and after taking the right path in a split, we found ourselves in some sort of side chamber where a tall wire fence almost entirely split the room in two. Metal blocks above powerful water currents made a path around to the exit, where another caged Waddle Dee sat without a Clocker... at least, that's what it seemed like, but that'd be too easy, just like the one on that Rocky Rolling Road. I spotted a red Clocker with a purple beak hidden away in a sneaky little alcove, ready to swoop in and grab the cage as we'd get close.

Instead, I chose to whack the stake near the metal bridge, which caused a plate filled with birdseed to slide out of a slot next to the cage. The Clocker eagerly flew down to the birdseed and began pecking away, during which a timer it had been holding in its beak started to tick down.

Getting the picture, Izzy hoisted me onto her back and started across the metal blocks. About halfway across to the other side, though, sat a Glunk on the water's surface. It shot a Bomb Block on the underside of the metal blocks, causing them to burst apart right in front of us!

"Hang on, Kirby!" Izzy had good enough reaction time to leap over the growing gap. She just barely made the jump, and we made it to the caged Waddle Dee in time.

The Clocker heard the sound of a cage breaking and turned around, only to find us sending the Waddle Dee back to town. Unbothered by its captive being rescued, it went right back to eating as we took the exit...

...which led us right back to where we had gone in, but through the left path instead.

"Nothing major to report, guys!" Gim and Elfilin came back from their scouting session, with Gim carrying a Gotcha Capsule. "All enemies in the way have been incapacitated, including Gnawcodiles for the time being, and we acquired a Gotcha Capsule to open once we return to Waddle Dee Town."

I stored the Gotcha Capsule as Izzy levitated onto the ice bridge. "We scored another Waddle Dee," she explained. "It was being guarded by this neat red Clocker that we distracted with some birdseed."

"A red one? Those are Timer Clockers," Elfilin noted. "They've got a big appetite and are very laid-back, so they take a lot of snack breaks."

"I dunno about you, but I think they should've been called Tick-Tock Clockers."

Elfilin couldn't hold back his laughter. "Pfft, haha! I should tell that to the animals after this mess is all taken care of!"

As Gim stated, the Gnawcodiles we encountered through the rest of the submerged path were left relatively harmless; he had frozen their maws shut, so they couldn't chomp at us as we proceed past them and out onto dry land where we went on to the next area.

The first thing we saw as we exited the Star Door (besides a flopping Blipper that Izzy shoved back into the water) was a building sunken into the water. Towards the front of the roof was a group of symbols with lights built into them, held in place by bent metal pipes. One of the pipes was dislodged from the roof, though, and a Waddle Dee with a camera was trying to lift a ring-shaped symbol into place.

"Oh, hey Kirby!" The Waddle Dee put down the ring and came down to meet us. "I wanted to take a picture of this sign for Wise Waddle Dee so he could help us better understand this world's culture, but it's incomplete. Think you guys could keep the round symbol in place for a moment?"

My mouthful senses started tingling again as I approached the ring, so I knew just what to do. "Poyo!" Inhaling the ring, my body stretched out all around, and my mouth opened real wide so I resembled a giant capital O.

I stepped into the gap between the first and third symbols, and the Waddle Dee held up his camera and took the picture.

"Picture perfect!" he cheered as he put away his camera. "Now I can get this back to Wise Waddle Dee so he can try and decipher or translate this—"

"Hotel," Gim interrupted.

"Really? That was fast, even for a robot!"

Gim tapped the side of his head, where his temples would be if he had those. "Shortly before beginning our adventure through this forgotten land, a reliable mechanical comrade transmitted to me folders containing information about this world; one such folder covered the new world's language, which can be deciphered into English but itself is spoken differently due to being a language of its own rather than a mere code. I haven't bothered to look through the more spoiler-y files such as lore and background, and I don't check out entries such as the names of various animals either until we encounter them for the first time, so as to ensure we go into this just blind enough to be surprised."

"Oh. Well, at least Wise Waddle Dee will have something new to learn anyway."

We quickly learned that my Ring Mouth wasn't just good for looking like an O. By taking a deep breath and exhaling hard, I could blast out air like a cannon, which I used to blow away some crates in the path as well as several enemies that tried to stand in our way.

After launching some more ground-bound Blippers back into the water where they belonged, I was also able to use the gusts to spin a windmill nearby, which raised some ground that had some Star Coins to collect. Now knowing that there were windmills that acted as switches, we used a Scarfy-guarded log and another sunken building to platform safely around a Gnawcodile to another Windmill Switch on the left. Activating this Windmill Switch raised some ground, as well as a boat tied to a metal dock.

Seeing the boat, Izzy got a look in her eyes that gave me a bad feeling.

"And... gust!" WHOOSH! "Gust!" WHOOSH! A few seconds later, she and Elfilin were captaining the boat, Bluster Mode Gim using my wide-open mouth as a sail. I wished I could see where we were going, but at least I could see what she maneuvered us past, and from the sound of it Izzy was a competent enough captain who knew to attack or break through stuff with the boat by having my gusts give it a burst of speed. The boat was sturdy enough to send the Gnawcodile we went around earlier into the air!

Thanks to my boating Ring Mouth, we could speed over a whirlpool to a Knock-Knock Nut that held a Maxim Tomato, then shoot past some Walfs and break through a weakened wall in the cliffside to reach a room guarded by three Gnawcodiles that received the same treatment as the first one we charged into. I left behind the ring and leaped onto a bountiful islet in the middle, where I got the Ice Ability from a living snowman called a Chilly and rescued a Waddle Dee wearing a delivery hat.

Noting the hat he was wearing, Izzy hopped over to the islet. "Hey, by any chance, do you happen to know a Bronto Burt named Barry?"

The Waddle Dee nodded, a hopeful look in his eyes. "Barry's my coworker; I'm Delivery Waddle Dee. He helps by making deliveries while I do the packaging and paperwork. Why, have you met him?"

"Sure have! He should be waiting for you down south in a town full of Waddle Dees if he's not already bringing a delivery Kirby and I are anticipating."

"Great! Then I'm headed there right away so we can resume our business. See you, potential future client and Kirby!"

Once Delivery Waddle Dee was on his way back to Waddle Dee Town on the Warp Star, I got to showcase the frigid powers of my newly acquired ability. I demonstrated to Izzy that I could skate over the water, making a path of ice as I went so Izzy could safely follow without needing Gim to make any ice bridges for her. The four of us left the hidden room and returned to near the whirlpool, where we left the water to rescue the Waddle Dees in a golden cage that looked to be unguarded aside from its Clockers... that is, until we looked up. Way up high, several Foleys were detaching from their propellors and dropping down to detonate on us.

They didn't account for the possibility of me freezing them with ice breath so they couldn't self-destruct.

Author's Note

Waddle Dees rescued: 55/???

Sorry this chapter took so long to release! I've been busy with online college classes, not to mention collaborating with other writers in this Fimfiction group called The Storyboards (before that was a thing, I instead did stuff in the group Friendship is Awesomes). If you have OCs and are interested in sharing them with other writers, go check it out!