SOLmaster is here with another SpongeBob SquarePants story. If you are thinking the title of this story looks familiar then you're right. I actually had a SpongeBob story of this title already on here and it was a straight up parody of The Prince and the Pauper. However, I deleted it and decided I would rewrite this to give it a more original plot. Though to tell the truth, after I finished my last story, Keeper of the Spatula, I wanted to write something more original and simpler, but I could not think of anything entertaining enough. So I wrote this instead, but I can assure it'll be entertaining and it'll definitely have some originality in it.

So without further delay, here's the first chapter of the story…

The Prince and the Sponge

Chapter 1: Imagination

It was a beautiful morning under the Pacific Ocean in Bikini Bottom, and while it was normal by the city's bystanders, it was another fun day for SpongeBob SquarePants. After waking up and eating breakfast, the sponge went outside on his front yard to play with his best friend, Patrick Star.

A trumpet sound was heard, being blown by SpongeBob's handy small trumpet as he rode on top of Gary, who had reigns tide around him. SpongeBob wore a knight's helmet as he shouted, "Spring forth thy noble steed and let us meet with our prince!" he gave the reigns a flick while Gary responded with a, "Meow." Before slithering forward with his owner riding on top of him.

On what looked like a decorated lawn chair was Patrick, wearing a bathrobe and a crown made out of newspaper. He sat there with a bored frown until SpongeBob and the snail approached him.

"It's about time." Patrick said in an angry tone. "The prince does not like to be kept waiting." He pointed at SpongeBob and yelled, "TWENTY YEARS IN THE DUNGEON!"

When Gary stopped, SpongeBob gave a courteous bow from atop of his steed and responded, "My apologies, Your Majesty. The traffic was so bad it moved at a snail's pace. Ha ah ah ah ah!"

"Hmm…" Patrick hummed as he rubbed his chin. "Seeing as you are my noble knight, the prince has made an acceptance and relinquished his previous sentence."

"Bless you, my prince." SpongeBob said as he hopped off of Gary and bowed.

"Why? I didn't sneeze."

"Meow." Gary said as he rolled his eyes.

SpongeBob then took out a rolled up piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it to read out loud, "I come bearing news of an army of nematodes that come to invade your humble kingdom."

"Aah!" Patrick screamed in panic as he sprang from the chair. "What do we do, SpongeBob? I love my kingdom!"

SpongeBob smiled calmly and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, "At ease, Prince Patrick. As your trusted captain of the royal guards, I have just the weapon to take out thy enemy."

He signaled to a perfectly handmade catapult with an also homemade pie on the launcher. Patrick's eyes widen at the sight of it. "Ooooh!" he turned to SpongeBob and instructed, "You may fire when ready, loyal subject."

"Yes, Your Majesty." SpongeBob responded with a salute.

But then the two broke character when they excitedly shouted simultaneously, "Secret Handshake!" and proceeded to slap their right hands together, slap their left hands together, overhead high-five with both their hands, spit a wad of saliva on their right hand and shake, and finally body slam.

SpongeBob then ran over to the catapult and pulled the string, firing the pie through the air. However, he did not calculate the trajectory of the catapult and the predictability of the target became obvious when Squidward came out of his house in his bathrobe to get the morning paper.

As Squidward took a sip of his coffee, the side of his face was suddenly splattered with pie, causing him to drop his coffee on the floor, breaking the cup into pieces.

"Long live the prince!" SpongeBob cheered with his fist held in the air.

"Long live me!" Patrick cheered as well.

As Squidward wiped the pie bits off his head, he glared in hatred at his two neighbors and asked, "What are you two idiots doing?"

"Patrick and I are playing Castles and Knights." SpongeBob explained giddily.

"SpongeBob's the knight." Patrick pointed out. "I'm the prince."

"You wanna play with us?"

"You can be my servant…or my court jester…or my servant who is my court jester."

"Thanks, but no thanks, nits of the round table." Squidward angrily replied. "But fine of you to catapult your baked goods at me right after I just took a shower."

But SpongeBob seemed to ignore Squidward's whining and curiously asked, "Hey Squidward, how come Bikini Bottom doesn't have any royalty running it."

"Well, funny you should ask, SpongeBob." Squidward explained as he looked at his newspaper. "You see, it's obvious that Bikini Bottom is too much of a hick town to have anyone ruling it or even be worthy of being in the presence of a king, queen, or-" but then he stops as his eyes widen in shock as he sees the front page of the newspaper. "Prince!"

"Hey, I'm a prince." Patrick said, pointing at his homemade crown. "I think I make a pretty good prince."

SpongeBob got a small smile as he mentioned, "Honestly, you tend to go a little mad with power in the arms of royalty."

Patrick crossed his arms defiantly and responded, "I only go mad if you run out of ammunition, lowly subject."

SpongeBob reached behind him and pulled over a wooden basket of backed pie that was to be used to shoot more invaders with the catapult. "I stand corrected."

When Patrick grabbed a pie out of the basket, Squidward shouted to them, "You two don't know anything about princes! Haven't you read the paper this morning?"

SpongeBob and Patrick peer over Squidward's shoulders to see what the octopus was going on about when they see the headline, "Prince of Luau Bottom to Visit Bikini Bottom"

"The actual prince of Luau Bottom is coming to Bikini Bottom." Squidward said in excitement. "It can't be possible."

"Luau Bottom has a prince?" SpongeBob questioned.

Patrick pointed to himself with a happy smile. "I'm a prince." He said again.

"This is a real prince, you ignorant buffoons." Squidward bitterly pointed out. "The royal prince of Luau Bottom and heir to the throne has never been seen by the public eye. Rumor has it that he travels around the sea for reasons unknown and it would seem that Bikini Bottom is one of his destinations."

"Wow," SpongeBob said with his eyes glowing big in excitement. "A real prince coming through Bikini Bottom." He turned to Patrick with even more excitement. "Just think of it, Patrick. We can actually meet a real prince. Maybe we can get his autograph or get him to play Castles and Knights with us."

"Dream on, SpongeBob." Squidward said with a smirk. "There's no way the prince would be interested in meeting village idiots like you two." As he walked back into his house, he began to chuckle. "Heh heh heh, village idiots."

Once Squidward slammed the front door of his house, SpongeBob turned to Patrick and asked, "Wouldn't it be cool to be a real prince? We'd get to live in big castles, and wear fancy robes…"

"And sleep in big cozy beds…" Patrick added.

"And wear big crowns on our heads…"

"And eat pizza and cookies and ice-cream!"

"Patrick, we can already do all that stuff." SpongeBob reminded.

The starfish raised his index finger and pointed out, "But they would be royal pizza, cookies, and ice-cream." And started gorging on SpongeBob's homemade pie, not realizing that as a prince, he certainly didn't have the manners of one.

This made SpongeBob laugh while Patrick finished the whole pie in no more than six seconds. Gary then slithered over to his owner as his stomach began to growl. "Meow," the snail said with a hungry look.

SpongeBob bent down and pet him. "Aw, that's okay, Gary. I'm hungry too. Why don't we all go inside and have a little snack?"

"About time. These pies tastes kinda burnt at the bottom" Patrick said, throwing the empty pie tin over his shoulder, until he raised his right hand and the two friends both shouted, "Secret Handshake!"

Both slap their right hands together, slap their left hands together, overhead high-five with both their hands, spit a wad of saliva on their right hand and shake, and finally body slam.

Gary just rolled his eyes again and said in a dull tone, "Meow."

At this, Patrick pointed at Gary and yelled, "TWO HUNDRED TWENTY YEARS IN THE DUNGEON!"

Playing make-believe is always a fun pastime, especially when it'll lead to a later encounter that will have an effect on you in the future. Hope you enjoyed it so far and stick around for the next chapter that will certainly get things going!