Luigi stopped cold at the voice—it was Yoshi's voice, and it sounded like it came somewhere behind the multitude of expectant Toads. But that wasn't really what made Luigi stop.
Because how could he have heard Yoshi's voice behind the Toads when he was just directly to his left?!
Luigi strained to follow where he'd heard the voice, and found Yoshi behind the Toads.
"I—I—" Luigi's head spun, confused; bewildered. "A-why are there two Yoshis?!"
He looked at the Yoshi who was directly to his left, who looked just as shocked as he was, and he had the black hump on his back that the green plumber continued to question to himself.
Then he looked at the Yoshi behind the Toads, who looked more afraid more than shocked, and who looked like he'd had a few battles from who knows where. He checked the hump on his back, and saw that it was red—the color all Yoshi humps were.
"Don't eat that sandwich, you hear me?!" the red-humped Yoshi shouted in a warning. "It's a trap—all of it is a trap! None of this is real!"
Luigi was surprise that everyone—the Toads, the black-humped Yoshi beside him, Princess Daisy, Princess Peach, Toadsworth (which was an odd thing to witness), and even his brother Mario—laughing at the scared Yoshi's words. It was as if what he was saying was a huge joke.
"Seriously, Luigi," Princess Daisy laughed, "can you actually believe this guy's words?!"
"Exactly," Princess Peach chimed in with a few giggles in between, "imagine this guy—breaking in just seconds before our hero takes his first bite, then shouts that this whole thing is a trap? That's just gold!"
"The hilarity of it all," Toadsworth said in a chuckle. (Luigi shook his head in disbelief, still not used to what he just saw and heard from Princess Peach's ward.)
"A-just what we needed, though," Mario guffawed, "a good laugh!"
Luigi blinked in surprise.
"Don't listen to any of them, Luigi," the red-humped Yoshi warned, still determined despite the continuous jeering from the audience. "This is just a—"
"Okay, okay, laugh time's over," Princess Peach interjected, her face and tone serious now as she glared at the red-humped Yoshi. "If you have nothing better to do than get in the way of Luigi's Hero's Welcome Party, then I'm afraid I'll have to get rid of you at once."
Luigi blanched at the ferocity of Princess Peach's words.
The red-humped Yoshi still stared back at Princess Peach, unafraid. "There's nothing intruding about saving my friend from all the lies going on around here!"
Luigi gaped, shocked that his dinosaur friend would actually have the guts to talk to Princess Peach in an ice-cold tone.
"Such disrespect in front of the princess!" Toadsworth gasped in disbelief.
"The nerve of it all!" Princess Daisy scoffed.
"Really, Luigi," Mario said to the green plumber, "do you really ought to believe the words from a faker who just disrespected Princess Peach?"
"I—," was all Luigi could say.
"Exactly," Mario concluded, "you know the real Yoshi would never have done that."
Luigi shook his head, but it did nothing at all to even make the confusion go away a bit. "Lies? I'm so confused..."
"Seriously, Lil' Bro, a-don't you think that faker of a Yoshi should get out before he ruins this great party just for you and all your mighty-mightiness?"
Luigi started. "A-hold on." He turned to glare at the red plumber. "What the...? 'Lil' Bro'? 'Your mighty-mightiness'?" he quoted sourly. "The real Mario would never say words like those!"
"Yes, Mario can, and he's older than you, Luigi. He's very much capable of saying what he wants," the black-humped Yoshi said in an off-handed tone. "It hasn't occurred to you, has it? I'm not surprised with your heckuva train of thought right now, slick."
Luigi narrowed his eyes at the green and black-humped dinosaur. "The real Yoshi would never have the words 'heckuva' or 'slick' in his dictionary."
The black-humped Yoshi's eyes turned blank as Luigi's words registered in him. His mouth screwed to the side like he was sucking lemon—or like he'd just been disarmed and caught on the act.
But what act?
The red-humped Yoshi smiled and, under his breath, muttered the words, "Gotcha. Way to go, Luigi."
The black-humped Yoshi looked at Luigi coldly. "So it comes this, pal. You would believe someone who ruined your special day."
Luigi glanced at the red-humped Yoshi and back to the black-humped one, with a fiery look. "He may have a-ruined everything, but he didn't a-ruin it for himself, but for me. That's the Yoshi I know." He stood up and glared at everyone, even Princess Peach, Toadsworth, Princess Daisy (that was the hardest for him to do), the black-humped Yoshi, and (even harder to do) Mario. "I suspected just as much when I saw the black hump from Yoshi's back—a-that could've been enough to give him away. But it didn't. Because I was so full of the whole 'hero' thing, so blinded by what I saw—what I wanted—that I a-failed to see that tiny thing that made the while scene before me wrong. All of this!" He pointed at the walls of the Castle's dining room. He gestured to everyone; save for the red-humped Yoshi whom he felt now was the real deal. "This whole thing is a lie! Now I get a-what the riddle meant! 'Stay real, this is where imagination keeps the deal!' I got what I wanted—what I wished for—but it was all a lie!"
Everyone gasped—Princess Peach, Toadsworth, Princess Daisy and Mario all looked at him like the green plumber had lost every bit of his mind.
The black-humped Yoshi didn't gasp; instead, he clapped his hands slowly and sneered—more proof that he wasn't the real Yoshi. "Excellent, you little green fool. And here I thought I had you good. And I was just so close, too. One bite on that sandwich could've been enough to put you out for good. But I'm afraid it all ends here. I'm not going to allow you to put a stop to King Bowser's plans any longer."
The black-humped Yoshi lifted his hands, and a surge of electricity flowed around them, even going around his arms. Then, everything and everyone faded, like clouds around a swirl, and suddenly Luigi and the red-humped Yoshi—the real Yoshi, the only other one who hasn't faded away with the others—were surrounded with the familiar white and fluff of World Seven, only they weren't so white anymore; the color was more like those of storm clouds.
The swirl of graying storm clouds surrounded the black-humped Yoshi—the fake one now—and, after a while, the graying swirl disappeared, and there was no longer a black-humped Yoshi in front of the green duo; someone else replaced the fake Yoshi.
He was black-humped, but not green and Yoshi-shaped—he was more of a Koopa since the black hump was now like his shell; he was yellow, and had black glasses. He rode on top of a storm cloud, and his hands surged with electricity...or was lightning the better word?
Luigi and Yoshi gasped in unison.
"Lakithunder?!"
"You two are finished, chumps. This'll be the last place you'll be," he sneered.