//------------------------------//
// Pinkie Pie and the Mask of Gravity 
// Story: Video Game Journeys: Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time 
// by CrashGuy41 
//------------------------------//

Our heroes made their way into the next era, which was the Eggipus Dimension 88 Million B.C.B.  Upon arriving, thought, Rarity looked down and freaked out at her clothing ensemble.  The Rainbooms were all wearing outfits made out of leopard skin.  Crash and Coco, on the other hand, looked more like their prehistoric ancestors than anything else.





"Oh, my goodness!  What is it with these outfits we are wearing?!  They're downright atrocious!" Rarity cringed.

"Quit yer bellyaching, Rarity.  It's only for this one specific era," Applejack chastised.

"Besides, we need to find that last mask.  That's more important than how we look right now!" Twilight added.  "So, what is the name of the last mask we're looking for?"

"Oh!  His name's Ika-Ika.  He controls gravity," Lani-Loli said.

"Ooohh!  Sounds like my kind of mask," Pinkie said slyly.

"Alright, look.  We'll find the mask a lot easier if we split up.  I'll go off with Cortex to make sure he doesn't do anything that'll cost us the mission.  The rest of you, go on ahead the other way.  We'll catch up with you when we can."

"Okie-dokey-lokie," Pinkie said, giving a salute.





As Crash, Coco, and the rest of the Rainbooms headed off into the jungle, Twilight and Cortex made their way towards a volcano.

"Why did you insist on teaming up with me?" Cortex asked.

"You know EXACTLY why!" Twilight growled.  "I'm not letting you out of my sight even for a minute, little man!  If you so much point your laser gun at any one of us, you're going to wish you would've went to that tropical island instead of teaming up with us!"





Meanwhile, Crash, Coco and the others were stopping to rest, as their feet were really starting to hurt, as most of them weren't wearing shoes.

"Wow.  No wonder shoes were invented," Rainbow groaned as she rubbed her feet.

They didn't stop to rest for long, however, as they suddenly heard a thunderous roar nearby.

"What was that?" Fluttershy gulped.

"Uh-oh.  I hope it ain't what I think it is," Applejack shivered.

She slowly turned around and was face-to-face with a red Tyrannosaurus Rex.

"I hate it when I'm right!"

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Pinkie shouted.

Everyone ran from the T-Rex as fast as they could.





As they were running, no one seemed to notice that Dingodile managed to find his way into the era, as well.  Seeing the T-Rex just as he was about to enter another Quantum Rift made him panic.  Luckily, he used his vacuum cannon to float across to the other side.  He climbed the rock structure in order to get into the rift before the T-Rex could have him for dinner.  Once he got in, the structure collapsed, stopping the T-Rex dead in its tracks.

"Woah.  What just happened?" Sunset asked.

Pinkie thought hard for a while, but came up empty.

"I got nothing," she said, shrugging her shoulders.





Eventually, both groups reunited and found the last mask, Ika-Ika, sleeping in a nest.  He was shaped like a double-sided arrow, with two faces being on both sides.  One side had a turquoise color with markings that resembled mountains.  The other side was more blue in color and had markings that resembled the ocean.



"WAKE UP!" Lani-Loli screamed.

The scream was so loud that it managed to startle Ika-Ika and caused everyone to flip up onto the ceiling of the cave.

"Bwah?  Goodness, if it isn't Lani-Loli!  How are you brother?" Ika-Ika greeted politely.

"Uhhh, sorry to interrupt, but existence could end at any minute, so can we hurry?" Coco interjected.

Ika-Ika flipped over 180° and instantly changed personalities form happy-go-lucky to a downer.

"When's existence ever done anything for anyone, anyway?"

"Hey there, Mr. Grumpy Mask, quit being a downer.  Turn that frown upside-down!" Pinkie said happily.

Suddenly, Ika-Ika flipped over again and managed to flip gravity back to normal for everyone.

"Don't mind Grumpy Gus, he's always a downer."

"Yeah.  Don't mind me.  I don't matter.  Nothing matters."

"Can this guy be any more negative?" Rainbow groaned.

Just then, Applejack elbowed her in the stomach.

"Ow!  What was that for?!"

"Be nice!" Applejack hissed.

"Now that we found Ika-Ika, that's all four!  What's next?" Coco asked.

"We can't close the rifts in this world until we stopped whatever is opening them," Lani-Loli said.

"That would be N. Tropy and his precious Rift Generator," Cortex said, making quotations on the last two words.

"If I understand correctly, YOU had a part in that, as well!" Twilight scowled.

"Wow.  And I thought I had anger issues," Sunset muttered under her breath.

"Guys, can we not be at each other's throats right now?" Coco asked sternly.

"Sorry, Coco," Twilight apologized.  "You're right.  We should focus on going after N. Tropy and giving him the beating of a lifetime!"

"Hell, yeah!  Let's do it!" Rainbow exclaimed.





Everyone entered a Quantum Rift and ended up in an outpost near Bermugula's Orbit, somewhere in space.  Once they entered, they finally came face-to-face with Dingodile.  Thinking he was still an enemy, they all prepared to take him on in a fight.

"Easy, chums.  If I was here to fight you, you'd be cactus," Dingodile said.

Just then, Tawna appeared from right behind him.

"He's with me.  Found him lost out there.  Caught up in the whole... time, space, y'know, thing," she said.

"I'm just trying to get home.  I was enjoyed to retired life, see?  Like Crash does every day."

Satisfied with that answer, Crash ran up to Dingodile and gave him a hi-five.  The two of them then belly-bumped each other.  Since Dingodile was larger than Crash, he ended up knocking Crash right into Applejack.

"You're lucky I believe you on this one," Applejack said gravely.

Just then, everyone heard a voice that was awfully familiar.

"Silence, whelp!" the voice commanded.

"But, sir!" another one said.

Everyone then realized that the voice was coming from a nearby monitor.  Walking over to it, they saw N. Tropy with what appeared to be a female version of himself ordering an alien-looking creature known as Nitros Oxide.

"You try my patience, Oxide!"

"But--!"

"Now, now.  I'm sure this insect knows how to obey an order," the female N. Tropy said, pulling on Oxide's snout.

"N. Tropy!" Tawna and Cortex both said.

Tawna pointed at the female one, whereas Cortex pointed at the N. Tropy that he was familiar with.

"Take your ship to planet Bermugula and be on the lookout for ships approaching the Rift Generator.  We can't afford any unwanted visitors."

The female N. Tropy let go of Oxide's snout so that he could obey her orders.

"At once, your foulness!" Oxide grumbled.

"You manage our affairs with such poise," N. Tropy said slyly.

"Naturally.  As do you," his female counterpart remarked.

It was then clear to everyone what was going on.  Both versions of N. Tropy were flirting with each other.

"Oh... my!" Fluttershy whimpered.

"Blaurgh!" Coco said in disgust.

Rarity tried to keep herself from vomiting again by holding her hand up to her mouth.

"That's... really creepy," Pinkie cringed.

"Ugh.  Barf," Tawna said in disgust.

Twilight hung her mouth open in disbelief.  She could not believe what she was seeing.

"They're literally the same person!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Now that is just wrong," Applejack said, shaking her head.

Dingodile, on the other hand, found the exchange to be hilarious.  As such, he was the only one who ended up laughing, due to how stupid he thought the N. Tropys looked.





After all of that, everyone headed towards the direction where Oxide's ship was located, which was the location of the Rift Generator.  Just as before it could get away, though, Cortex barely managed to activate the tractor beam in time, resulting in the ship to stop dead in its tracks.  Crash, Coco and the Rainbooms came towards the docking area and saw Oxide's racing kart.  Coco made the assumption that the kart would be a lot faster to travel in in order to get to the Rift Generator.  Before anyone could get in, however, Tawna tied them up.

"I'm not losing you guys in this dimension, too!" she said.

"So, what?  You're just going to leave us here while you go and possibly sacrifice yourself to a couple of psychos?!" Rainbow chastised.

"I'm not willing to take any chances.  I'll handle this."

Tawna hopped into the green hovercraft-like kart and took off.

"But... I thought we were a team," Pinkie said tearfully.

Just then, Dingodile and Cortex showed up just in time to untie everyone.

"Oi!  What'd I miss?" Dingodile asked.





Once they got untied, everyone decided to go forward and find another spare kart for the bandicoots to use.  Pinkie, who wanted to test out the new mask's power, decided to go on ahead.  Eventually, she came to an area that looked like a puzzle of some sort.  Pinkie loved puzzles.  To her, they just added fun to everything.

"Time to put that new mask to use," Pinkie said in determination.

She stretched out her arms and Ika-Ika created an outfit specifically for her.  He then stuck himself to her back, giving her his power to flip herself upside-down onto the ceiling.

"GRAVITY FLIP!"

As soon she exclaimed those words, she instantly flipped onto the ceiling and was standing upside-down.  Looking around for a solution, she then spotted an iron exclamation crate on her right.  She went over to it, deactivated her gravity flip, then bounced on it, causing several of the large crates to move.

"GRAVITY FLIP!"

She flipped herself upside-down again to get back towards the middle.  She then spotted another iron exclamation crate on the other side.  Upon reaching it, she deactivated the gravity flip again and hit the switch.  As soon as she did, the large crates started moving towards her.  Thinking fast, Pinkie jumped onto the nearby vertical crate just before the smaller one could squish her.  She flipped gravity again upon seeing another iron exclamation crate directly above her.  She made her way over to it and activated it, moving more of the large crates.

"GOING DOWN!"

The large crate she was on moved down, making her act like she was on a very old elevator.  She then saw the final iron exclamation crate on the other side.  She had to flip gravity several times for herself before she could actually hit the switch.  As soon as she did, however, the path was clear and the way to the ship's main controls were right in front of her.  Upon making her way there, she noticed that they were just coming out of hyperspace and headed towards the planet, Bermugula.  Just then, the voice of Oxide came over the intercom.

"Attention crew: asteroid field ahead, buckle your seatbelts!"

"That can't be good."

Indeed it wasn't.  The ship managed to get hit as soon as Crash and the others arrived.

"Not good!  Crash, Coco!  Find an escape pod!  Ships like this always have an escape pod of some kind!" Twilight said.

"But what about you guys?" Coco asked worriedly.

"Don't worry about us!  Just go!"

Both Crash and Coco took the elevator down and raced towards the escape pod that looked like a yellow version of Oxide's hovercraft kart.  While the bandicoots managed to escape to Bermugula, eventually finding a Quantum Rift to take them to the Rift Generator.  They are extremely unsure about what happened to their friends.  Did they survive the crash?  Actually, yes, they did, thanks to a random Quantum Rift that managed to pull them in just in time.  But who or what managed to make that appear?  Was it the same mysterious being that urged them to fix the game's ending?  Or was it something else?