Rhonda came to a sudden stop due to sudden exhaustion from running and they fell from the impact, John Dory was able to safely protect Crystal from the fall as she giggled.
"Is everyone ok?" Floyd asked, rubbing his head.
"I think so" Bruce slowly got up.
"I think we just went through a wormhole" Clay said.
"What else could've it been genius?" Bruce said dryly and then helped John Dory up.
"Where did it take us?" Floyd wondered.
They all turned to look and were surprised that they saw what looked to be ice cream? All they could see was a light pink sky with what looked like hills that looked like giant ice cream scoops, all different flavours and the ground had a waffle cone-like texture and also some other colors and things in the distance but couldn't make it out from their view, Crystal saw all the pretty colors and cooed happily wanting to go outside.
"Something tells me that we're not in Pop Village anymore" Floyd said.
"Why don't we go check it out?" Clay suggested.
"Why?" Bruce looked confused.
"Because I want to and it looks like Crystal wants to as well" Clay pointed out.
Crystal kept reaching out towards outside in John's arms.
"Well Rhonda needs a few minutes to breathe after going that fast so I guess it wouldn't hurt" John Dory concluded.
They all slowly went outside and at first they were hit by a chill breeze, it was cold like snow day. They all shivered for a moment except Crystal who seemed to like the cold wind, but they were able to get a better look at their surroundings so the brothers could fully take in where they had teleported to.
"I've never seen so much ice cream in my life, I gotta tell Viva about this!" Clay said excitedly.
"How will we get back?" Bruce asked.
"I don't know, I'm sure another wormhole will open up somewhere" John Dory replied.
"I'm just gonna try the ice cream" Clay got himself ready to run before Floyd held his hair to stop him.
"We need to find a way home now, we can't just wait for a wormhole to open" Floyd said.
"Floyd makes a good point, we need to escape this ice cream wonderland! It's freezing!" Bruce was trying to warm himself up by rubbing his arms.
Crystal wanted to be put down as she reached for the ground. John put her down gently, watching her.
"Well at least Crystal is enjoying this place" John Dory smiled.
Crystal cooed and smiled seeing all the ice cream around her.
"Well I'm not! I'm already missing the beach and ocean waves" Bruce complained.
"Would you stop complaining for one second?" Clay facepalmed.
"We wouldn't be even in this mess if it wasn't for John!" Bruce glared at his older brother.
"Would you stop blaming me for everything?!" John Dory asked, feeling offended.
"Well if you closed Crystal's playpen gate this wouldn't have happened!" Bruce crossed his arms.
"It was an accident!" John Dory got up, annoyed.
"Guys we won't make it out of here if you argue like this" Floyd pointed out.
"Floyd's right besides maybe some ice cream will help us think of a plan eh?" Clay hugged a scoop of mint ice cream.
"How can you be thinking about your stomach at a time like this?" Bruce asked.
"Well obviously because WE DIDN'T GET TO HAVE OUR FOOD!" Clay shouted also starting to get irrated from lack of food.
"That's not my fault! I was just making food for us but then Mr square-face wasn't doing his job and caused this mess!" Bruce yelled back.
"My square face has nothing to do with this!" John Dory pointed to his face.
Crystal started to whimper and tear up, she didn't like hearing her uncles argue like this so she started crawling away from their loud arguing.
"Great job guys, you upset our niece" Floyd said with sarcasm and went after her.
The brothers went quiet and started to feel bad about causing their niece to be upset. Floyd picked her up trying to calm her down but stopped when he heard fast footsteps. They got louder as the brothers were quickly surrounded by little bunnies but they seemed to be different from what they usually looked like, they stood up on two legs and their bodies weren't made of fur but of dripping chocolate fudge sauce and had glowing white eyes, they looked rather upset at the brothers. Crystal looked at them and calmed down seeing how adorable they looked. One of the bunnies was fast and snatched Crystal out of Floyd's arms.
"Hey!" Floyd exclaimed.
"Give her back!" John Dory demanded.
"Knock them out and take them to the palace and bring the baby to the king and queen" One of the bunnies ordered.
The brothers were confused about what the bunny meant before they were quickly knocked out by the small creatures, dropping to the ground. The bunny holding Crystal was able to rock her gently to sleep and they started making their way to the palace.
Later John Dory started to wake up and felt ropes around his body and felt he was upside down which in fact he was, as were his fellow brothers.
"W-what happened? Where are we?" John Dory tried focusing his eyes adjusting to the light.
He saw where the chocolate fudge bunnies had taken them, the room was a light pink with cloud-like patterns walls, the ground looking like the texture of a mattress, with two throne seats that were made of plush and the brothers were all tied from the ceiling with rainbow colored rope.
"Did we seriously get captured?! Sugar!" Clay exclaimed.
"Where's Crystal?!" Floyd looked around panicking.
Suddenly there was the sound of fluttering and the faint cooing of their niece.
"Oh do not worry, She's perfectly safe with us" A voice echoed in the room.
John Dory was surprised, the voice sounded familiar but not familiar at the same time, it sounded like Poppy? But that couldn't be right because she was at the hot springs with Branch, it sounded more formal but still had that upbeat tone that they were familiar with.
"Who are you?! Give us back Our niece!" Clay was trying to undo the ropes but they were too tight.
"And where did you put my precious Rhonda?!" John Dory shouted.
Suddenly two trolls flew into the room, they looked like Poppy and Branch but with a few different features. The one that looked like Poppy had two antennas that had glowing clouds at the tips with a matching glowing cloud collar and light yellow wings that sparkled, a light blue nightgown and glowing cloud puff stud earrings. The other troll who looked like their baby brother also had two antennas that had glowing stars at the tips and also had light yellow sparkling wings with matching light blue pajama shirt and pants and was also holding Crystal. The chocolate fudge bunnies who knocked them out before also followed them as they went to their positions.
"Please try not to struggle so much, there isn't any point and as for your critter, she's safe in the stables" The blue fairy troll said calmly.
"Well there goes our transport" Bruce sighed.
"Poppy, Branch? If this is about loosing Crystal earlier we're so sorry!" John Dory exclaimed.
There was a moment of silence before the two fairies chuckled a little.
"I don't know who those two are but we are not Pranch and Broppy" The pink fairy explained.
"It's Poppy and Branch-" Bruce tried to correct.
"I'm Queen Dreamcloud and this is my lovely husband King Nightlight" Dreamcloud smiled.
"Where are we exactly?" Floyd asked.
"Well this is Dreamstar Village! A magical place where dreams come to life" Dreamcloud explained
"More specifically you are in the royal palace, who might you four be?" Nightlight questioned.
"Um...well I'm Floyd and these are my older brothers Clay, Bruce and John Dory" Floyd gave a nervous smile.
"I would say it's nice to meet you but I honestly don't think there's anything nice about you four" Dreamclouds smile faded into a disappointed look.
"What are you talking about?" Bruce asked.
"Well we noticed how poorly you were treating... Crystal was it? All that arguing in front of a child, since you are her uncles I presume you really should be doing a better job, it's just shameful" Nightlight explained.
"So to keep Crystal safe we are going to keep her with us" Dreamcloud tickled Crystal's tummy which made the tiny baby giggle.
"What?!" The brothers all exclaimed.
"Crystal would be much better with us, unlike you we will take excellent care of her" Nightlight said.
"That's absolutely crazy! You can't just take her! She has a mom and dad already" Bruce explained.
"The fact that they trusted you guys to look after Crystal just make them as unfit to look after her as you" Dreamcloud said dryly.
"Ok now that's uncalled for! They're amazing parents!" Clay exclaimed.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter, she has a new family now, one that will look after her and raise her perfectly" Dreamcloud said.
"Please don't do this! We are capable of looking after her! We promise!" John Dory begged.
Dreamcloud thought for a moment before she got an idea as she smirked.
"Well how about this, since you are so sure of yourselves that you can look after her, why not prove it to us? I propose we have a fun game to see if you're capable of looking after Crystal!" Dreamcloud mischievously giggled.
"Huh?" The brothers were confused.
"Here's what'll happen, if you can complete the challenges that we give you, you can have Crystal back and we'll surrender custody, sound fair?" Dreamcloud smiled.
"What kind of challenges?" Floyd asked.
"You'll have to wait and see emo boy!" Dreamcloud flew up to the brothers level.
"Are you sure that's a good-" Nightlight tried to speak but was innterupted.
"So do we have a deal?" Dreamcloud asked.
"We need to discuss it first" John Dory replied.
"Fine by me, you have two minutes" Dreamcloud flew back down to the ground.
"Ok guys, Bro-huddle" John said.
"We can't really when we're tied up" Clay pointed out.
"Just do your best" John Dory said.
They tried moving closer to each other but with the ropes keeping them in place it didn't work so they just talked in whispers.
"So we all up for this?" John Dory asked.
"A game just to prove we can look after our niece? This is ridiculous" Bruce replied.
"But it might be our only chance of rescuing her" Floyd pointed out.
"Plus I'm always up for a game, we can totally win this, it'll be easy as" Clay said.
"I don't know about this" Bruce was doubtful.
"C'mon what other choice do we have? We'll win the game so fast that we'll be home before you know it" John Dory reassured.
"Fine, but this is for Crystal" Bruce agreed.
They all nodded and John looked over to Dreamcloud.
"We accept your challenge" John Dory said.
"Great! Let's get started then!" Dreamcloud snapped her fingers and they all got teleported out of the palace.
"Are you sure you thought this through? What if they win?" Nightlight asked, shaking a baby rattle for Crystal.
"Oh don't you worry, they won't win, and even if they do make it past the first challenge I'll see to it that they'll lose and Crystal will be our daughter forever" Dreamcloud smiled evily.