TWINKLE-TWINKLE
PSHOO!
“Ooh!” awed Leon and Parker as they noticed a collection of ethereal sparkles of many colors spiral around a central position in the room.
SHWEEP!
The team did their best to shield their eyes from the explosion of light that left behind a large treasure chest and a pair of yellow mice. The one mouse had a crescent moon on its head and on its belly while the other had suns, much like Princess Celestia’s Cutie mark, in the same places as its twin.
“Congratulations!” the mice cheered. “You beat Sewing Sombra!”
Leon moved alongside his plush-like brother.
“Hey!” cried plush Discord as he flopped haplessly on the ground. “A little restoration magic would be great about now.”
Oh!” gasped Leon upon realizing he was the only member of the team who had not been afflicted by Sombra’s status condition.
SPOP!
“Ah!” cried Parker as he felt something bulge out from his tail. Pulling it towards himself he noticed he was now on sale for ten bits. “Fix this, Leon!”
The ebon dragon thought for a moment. He then turned his attention to the Nixi plush and smiled.
“Ensuna!” he cried while raising his staff.
BWEEP-BOOP-FWOO
Streams of light radiated from the staff’s gem that engulfed the party, rose them into the air, returned them to their normal forms, and plopped them haplessly back down.
“Ooh,” moaned Leon as he suddenly felt extremely tired. “I think I’m going to go nappy time.”
THWACK!
“Ow!” Leon cried as he felt something painlessly smack loudly upon his back. Turning he noticed that Parker had brought his sword down upon him.
“What was that for?” he angrily asked while still fighting his fatigue.
“You’re not falling asleep on me!” the more aggressive Parker protested. “You’re not bailing out on me like you did during Sprites and Spires!”
“Ooh!” awed Discord as he snaked around. “I think I now understand why Nixi wanted the weapons to not do any real damage. How interesting.”
“Hey!” cried the mice as they used their tails, which both had their respective sun and moon symbols, to apparently draw a picture within a circle on the floor.
BWUM!
“Ta-da!” the happy mice cheered as they raised their hands and started to dance around the now gleaming floor marking. “You now go to next area!”
“First I restore all your HP!” the one with the sun cheered as it ran around each of the party members. The action made yellow sparkles appear about the team the felt warm as they realized their health stats had been returned to maximum.
PSHOOP!
“My turn!” gleed the moon mouse as his brother dived into the shimmering circle. “I return your MP!”
Before anyone could react the twin of the sun mouse did the exact same thing prior to bailing into the sparkling circle. However the sparkles that arose around each party member were blue and felt like one may after having been told the best news they had ever heard in their entire life.
“Eeyup!” proclaimed Big Mac. “Now that’s more like it!”
Spike felt about himself with growing glee at discovering he was back to his old scaly self.
“So now what?” he asked. “I don’t know how much I trust those, uh, whatever-they-weres.”
“Those were Pokemon!” cheered Parker and Leon in unison. “They are helpful cheerleader types!”
“So do we follow after em’?” wondered Big Mac.
“If it’s like any of our other games,” stated Parker. “Then we definitely should follow them into the rainbow portal.”
“What about the treasure chest?” considered Discord as he snaked around it. “Shouldn’t we take a peek inside?”
“I don’t know,” thought Spike as he approached the colorful and elaborately decorated chest. “It could be a mimic.”
“No way!” barked Parker. “We beat a boss and that’s always a free pass at treasure!”
“Perhaps you should open it, oh fearless leader?” suggested the draconequus.
Spike thought for a moment.
“Not before it is tested for traps,” he replied to his snake-like colleague.
“Are you implying I waste some of my newly recovered MP to detect if this innocent chest is booby trapped?” he asked with a hint of displeasure.
“I am,” Spike stated firmly.
“You’re such a baby,” teased Discord while slithering about the gilded chest. “Whatever happened to rushing headlong into adventure?”
The emerald-eyed dragon wasn’t going to hear it.
“Is it trapped, or not, Captain Wuzz?” he inquired.
Discord slithered away.
“No,” he stated in a very agitated tone. “Now I’m out MP and you still have a box to open.”
FLICK
“Oof!” gasped Spike as he was flicked by the draconequus’ giant paw towards the chest. “Here goes.”
KA-REEK
THWUMP!
SHING!
“Ah!” Spike cried as a burst of bright yellow light greeted his eyes. He then fell back to a very unsuspected easy landing.
There was a brief pause in the room as everyone looked towards Spike.
“What?” he asked as he worked to get himself up. It felt a bit trickier to do so but his dedication to check inside the chest that was now without the bright light kept him from thinking twice about the odd waddle he had taken to. “I don’t see anything in here?”
Spike leaned into the chest enough to raise his stubby legs and chubby tail into the air. This revealed a massively puffy diaper now adourning his waist. The way it crinkled as his feet scampered during his deeper search of the chest brought the rest of the party to burst into total laughter.
“Huh?” the purple dragon asked from within the seemingly empty chest before losing his hold and plopping with a puff of powder upon the matted floor.
“Whoops!” Discord grinned while pretending to be sorry. “It seems I must of rolled a ‘1’ in my checking for that particular trap.”
“What do you…?” wondered Spike until he looked beneath his robes to see the hefty white garment that was made of plastic and featured pink frills at the leggings along with jeweled designs all around its cover.
The entire team laughed.
“Discord!” snarled Spike as he worked to get the diaper off. However his attempts were met with an odd ‘clicking sound’ that soon was followed by the fairy from earlier appearing and stating, “Cursed Diaper of Ultimate Protection: This item allows the wearer to fall any distance without taking damage while increasing defense by 10. However it cannot be removed until the end of the current adventure and is not applicable to additional quests nor can it be sold or transferred.”
More laughing ensued.
“Well,” shrugged Leon. “At least your one of us now.”
Spike grew a very upset face as he gritted his teeth towards Discord.
“You didn’t check,” he snarled. “Did you?”
“Oh, but I did,” shrugged the draconequus as he flew over to inspect the garment his colleague was wearing. “Apparently Rubber blade, Safety Pants, and his mom have more influence on Spiketopia than I first thought?”
“Or you just didn’t care,” spat Spike.
“Hey,” stated Parker. “You can at least fall as far as you like without losing HP and have a ton of defense!”
Spike failed to see the benefits as much as he saw himself looking far from a high level magician.
“Wait!” cried Leon as he dove into the chest. “I found something!”
SHWIP!
“Ooh…,” awed Leon as it attached itself with a flash to his staff. “I wonder what-”
The fairy appeared again.
“Emerald of Influence: Able to make violent enemies into friends if used prior to engaging into an attack phase,” it said. “Defense plus 1 and Magic Power and Defense raised by 2.”
“What about me?” grumped Parker as he leapt into the chest to find nothing except a bunch of baby powder at its bottom.
“Perhaps the next one?” grinned Leon in his small victory as being ‘just the cleric’.
“Right!” boomed Parker as he got out of the chest and ran for the glittering portal.
PSHOOP!
“Parker!” panicked Leon as he chased after his ebon twin.
PSHOOP!
“I guess that’s that,” stated Discord as he took hold of Spike and threw him into the circular portal.
“Ah!” cried Garbunkle the Green and Padded before disappearing to wherever the gate lead to.
“Are you with me, sir McBiggun?” asked the draconequus.
Big mac nodded.
“Eeyup!” he exclaimed before the remaining two party members entered the portal to wherever it may take them next on their glorious quest through Spiketopia.