It had seemed like an eternity since the Time Twister machine imploded on itself. In fact, it had seemed like 22 entire years had passed. Yet, Twilight and her friends hadn't aged at all, due to reasons that had not been explained to them, although Pinkie immediately referred to it as video game logic. Despite that, they had spent the last 22 years searching high and low for Sunset, but to no avail. Twilight hoped and prayed that they would one day find her so that they could all go home.
Elsewhere in the volcano they were imprisoned in, Cortex and N. Tropy were up to some evil scheme. Or rather, at least N. Tropy was. Cortex, on the other hand, was busy attacking a makeshift dummy of Crash that he had made with a stick.
"Hush, simpleton," N. Tropy hissed as Uka Uka tried to help everyone escape.
"Face it, N. Tropy. It's going to fail... again," Cortex groaned, noting the markings he made. One for every year they tried.
"At least Uka Uka and I attempt to free us from this prison! I won't sit idly by and listen to you inane ramblings for another decade!"
N. Tropy slowly leaned towards Cortex complaining about how he chewed his food. Cortex was about to come up with a retort, when suddenly, Uka Uka finally got enough strength to levitate the rocks in front of him and create a rift in time and space. After doing that, Uka Uka had used up so much energy over the course of 22 years that he collapsed from exhaustion.
"Is he... dead?"
"Leave him. He's served his purpose."
N. Tropy was so happy, that he let out a crazy laugh that echoed throughout the volcano.
Meanwhile, back on N. Sanity Island, Crash was resting on a blue couch near his house. Aku Aku, on the other hand, sensed that a great power had somehow awoken. It wasn't just him, though, Twilight felt it, as well, thanks to her geode glowing.
"Twilight, do you feel that?" Aku Aku asked.
"Yes, Aku Aku. I do. It's as if something powerful has just awoken," Twilight replied.
"I fear it portends an event of reality-shattering proportions."
"And it's coming from N. Sanity Peak way up there!"
She pointed towards a mountain that was the source of the power that she felt.
"Come on, Crash! We have to..."
She noticed that Crash was still sleeping, much to her annoyance.
"Crash? Craa-aash! CRASH BANDICOOT! GET UP THIS MINUTE!"
Thankfully, her yelling got Crash up and ready to go do whatever it was that needed to be done.
"Ugh! Come on, lazy bones! We don't have time for your constant sleeping habits. We need to get up to N. Sanity Peak, now!"
She dragged him by the arm and forced him up towards the temple in front of them beyond the beach.
As soon as they reached the bamboo balcony on the other side of the temple, Twilight noticed that her geode was starting to flash rapidly, due to a raging blue storm over at N. Sanity Peak.
"Okay, now this is weird. Why would my geode be reacting to that raging storm over at N. Sanity Peak? It just doesn't make any sense! Unless..."
She was soon cut off by the sound of mysterious-looking natives behind both her and Crash. These weren't the same natives from before, however. Rather, these were mysterious energy-based mask-wearing creatures that were hostile towards outsiders.
Both Twilight and Crash were so startled that they ended up unintentionally jumping off the balcony.
"Oh, CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPP!"
Thankfully, the two of them landed on a vine and started grinding towards the nearby village, which was inhabited by the Jungle Spirits. After making their way through it, they passed through a cave and saw N. Sanity Peak just in front of them. As they were nearing it, Twilight's geode started to flash even faster. It was as if her geode had some sort of radar to let her know when a mysterious magic-like power was nearby. The sight of the raging storm at the top of N. Sanity Peak was enough to make anyone squirm. Still, Twilight knew that she had to get there with Crash in order to find the source of the mysterious power. Eventually, they made it to the entrance of a cave, where the mysterious power was emanating from.
Upon entering the cave, though, both Crash and Twilight could hear a deep growling noise that shook the cave.
"Did you hear that, Crash?" Twilight asked.
Crash nodded his head fearfully.
"Come on, we can't stop now. We're almost there."
Despite being a bit on edge thanks to the mysterious growling, the two of them eventually made their way to a podium. On the podium, they found a sleeping light blue-colored mask that was making platforms disappear and reappear. The mask was an hourglass shape with a fan-like crest at the top. The top half seemed to be made of stone, while the bottom half looked like it was phased out of existence.
Curious, Crash took the mask from the podium. As soon as he did, however, the mask woke up and started getting nervous.
"Uh, sorry. We didn't mean to disturb..."
Suddenly, the podium began to sink, opening a hole underneath them. They all fell down a floor and landed with a thud. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Just as Crash and Twilight got up however, the mask noticed a giant menacing monster-like spirit emerge from behind them.
"I don't know what that thing is, but I know what we need to do... RUN!"
Twilight dragged Crash by his arm and started running after the mask until they eventually reached the edge of a cliff. They stopped dead in their tracks before they could fall off to their potential deaths. Suddenly, they heard the growling of the guardian coming closer. Crash looked down, knowing that, at this point, their only option was to jump.
"Nononononononono! Don't even think about it, Crash! Our chances of survival of a height this high are extremely slim!"
Just then, she noticed that the hand was getting closer.
"On second thought, screw probability at this point!"
She grabbed onto the mask with Crash and started to fall towards the beach where the whole thing started. Down below, the others were huddled around Coco's new pink tablet, with Coco herself having a slightly new look. Instead of the pink flower in her hair, she now sported a pair of goggles on her forehead. She also had a pink utility belt with an item pouch attached to it and a heart-shaped patch sewed to the right knee of her overalls.
Eventually, Crash and Twilight landed on the beach with a thud. Miraculously, no one was hurt, but Twilight ended up with a bunch of sand in her mouth. Getting up, she spat out all of the sand in her mouth in disgust. As she did, Crash pulled his out from underneath the sand, only to discover that the mask was somehow stuck to his face.
"Yiiii! Get him off! Get him off! Get him off!" the mask whimpered.
"My word! Who in heaven's name is that?" Rarity asked as Crash tried to get the mask off of his face.
"Lani-Loli?" Aku Aku exclaimed in surprise. "If the Quantum Masks have returned, then..."
Just before he could finish, Crash finally got Lani-Loli off of his face, who then proceeded to make small talk.
"Hey Aku, how's it g-g-gah?! Is that a QUANTUM RIFT?!"
Right before everyone was a hole that seemed to rip the very fabric of space and time itself. The Rainbooms all gasped in horror upon seeing it.
"Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-THAT'S THE VERY THING THAT BROUGHT US HERE!" Rainbow stammered.
"What?! How?! How were brought here through a Quantum Rift?"
"Dude, we're not even from this world. We got sucked into our friend's new GameStation after some weird voice told us that we had to fix the game's ending."
"Hold on! You were brought here by someone who had control over the Quantum Rifts?"
"Weird as it may seem, partner, that's exactly the gist of it," Applejack confirmed.
"Um, excuse me. If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are these Quantum Rifts and why are you so concerned about that?" Fluttershy asked.
"Okay, well, if you really want to know, these rifts are basically a means to travel to different universes," Lani-Loli explained.
"Like some kind of multiverse?" Twilight asked.
"Exactly. Thing is, though, me and the other Quantum Masks have to keep these rifts closed so that the boundaries of the multiverse don't end up changing the course of history. But if what you say is true about how you got here, then that means that someone has definitely brought you here for reasons other than fixing our world! For now, though, we have to go through this portal, find my siblings, and fix this Quantum Rift situation in this world before some putz with a big evil plan and a bigger ego does something monumentally stupid!"
Everyone glanced at each other worriedly, knowing very well who would probably be behind this scheme: Cortex.
Speaking of Cortex, he was in a laboratory called the Rift Generator with Dr. N. Tropy, helping with the evil plan to take over the multiverse.
"Uka Uka unknowingly paved the way for our bright future," N. Tropy said, smiling.
Cortex proceeded to make some adjustments to the machine and even had a chance to mock N. Tropy behind his back as he kept on rambling.
"Once my Rift Generator is complete, dominion over all of time and space not only of this world, but worlds even beyond our reach, including those brats' own world, will be within our grasp!"
Just then, both of Cortex's assistants, N. Gin, and his former colleague, N. Brio, walked up to him tell him about their projects. N. Gin had a new giant robot ready to hypnotize people for Cortex to use as his minions, whereas N. Brio had a potion for said minions to make them and himself more powerful. Cortex, however, couldn't care less at the moment, as he was far too busy working on the Rift Generator.
"Have fun with your... ray guns or whatever," Cortex said dryly as he worked on the machine.
As N. Gin and N. Brio were getting ready to leave, N. Gin bumped into N. Brio, causing the two of them to start fighting each other.
"Hasten your steps!" N. Tropy barked, breaking them up.
Both N. Gin and N. Brio decided that fighting each other wasn't worth the time and instead went into separate Quantum Rifts to prepare for the arrival of their enemies.
"By my calculations, our enemies are already moving against us. And this time, We. Will. Prevail."
He smiled sinisterly as he finished his sentence. Just who was it that was controlling the Quantum Rifts that allowed the Rainbooms to be transported into this video game world, anyways, and why? And what of Sunset Shimmer? Will the girls be able to find her before it's too late? It looks like their journey through the world of Crash Bandicoot is far from over. In fact, it was only just beginning.