A/N: I'm glad my story is becoming so popular. I don't think I've ever gotten this amount of reviews in such a short time.

There was silence in the room. The only sound was the wind as it breezed through the open door. Everyone was silent at the Nightmare Queen's affirmative tone. Even Tabitha was speechless.

Vanellope took the opportunity to crawl from under the guillotine. Breathing heavily, she glanced at the Nightmare Queen and noticed a few more of her features. She was dressed heavily in black, with a few red stripes on her gown. She had a spiky lace collar, and a small cape. She oddly enough had no crown. However, the red stripes on her gown specifically resembled one.

Vanellope cringed. The crown shape reminded her of the crown worn by Turbo in his King Candy disguise. However, ignoring it, she found that Penelope's dress looked far more elegant than her own Princess costume, which she hardly wore anyways.

Her thoughts were cut off, however, when Tabitha finally felt to urge to speak. "Your Highness," She gulped, clearly nervous. "We, uh, we didn't expect your arrival."

Penelope simply glared at her, annoyed. "Would you care to explain why you have the guillotine out?" She asked, gesturing her hand at her.

"Oh, we were just, uh…" Tabitha mumbled, at a loss of words. Vanellope just stared at her, bemused. The once loud and abrasive Taffyta palette swap was suddenly muttering and cowering.

"They were trying to beat us up," The Candlehead palette swap butted in, trying to help Tabitha's case.

"Yeah, exactly," Tabitha agreed, nodding. "They entered our kingdom with obviously malevolent intentions, so we had to take matters into our own hands."

"And you didn't notify me, why?" Penelope asked, a deadpan look on her face.

Tabitha's skin paled a bit, and she struggled to find a way to answer her queen. It appeared her lack of a response irked Penelope, who approached Tabitha slowly.

Tabitha whimpered as Penelope came inches away from her. Penelope closed in on Tabitha as the other Nightmare Racers watched on intently.

All that happened was that Penelope said, "Don't ever make a public decision without my information again, understand?"

Tabitha nodded, and Penelope strutted past her. Vanellope's pupils shrunk in fear when she saw that the Nightmare Queen was now approaching her.

Vanellope felt her insides emptied. If the prideful Tabitha cowered at being confronted by Penelope, what horrors could she inflict upon her counterpart?

Penelope stood in front of Vanellope and narrowed her eyes at her. Vanellope gulped. Penelope looked like a ghoul, what with her stone gray skin and black attire.

Penelope stared hard at her counterpart, and then whispered, "Kneel."

Vanellope may have been the president of Sugar Rush, but she realized that in this part of the game, her status meant nothing. Reluctantly, she kneeled down in front of Penelope, and turned around and silently signaled for the other racers to follow.

"Don't worry guys, we'll be out of this in no time," Vanellope reassured her frightened subjects. However, it appeared she had spoken too soon as the Nightmare Queen promptly latched her staff into Vanellope's hoodie.

"H-Hey, what are you doing?!" Vanellope asked, awestruck, as Penelope forcibly dragged her through the room. Vanellope struggled and squirmed, but Penelope dragged her out through the open door with ease.

"Hey, stop!" Rancis shouted, but the Nightmare Racers blocked him and the others. "Vanellope, NO!" He shouted before he was engulfed by Francis and Tabitha.


Once the two rulers were outside, Penelope released Vanellope's hoodie. Instantly, the president jumped up and took a fighting stance.

"You want a piece of me, huh?" She challenged Penelope, who had an un-interested look on her face. Vanellope did a few kick and punch moves in the air and shouted, "You messed with the wrong president! Prepare to feel the-"

Vanellope was cut off when Penelope casually performed the Vulcan nerve pinch on her. "Oh my mod," She squeaked quickly before collapsing on the ground, twitching.

"I don't have time for your silly games, recolor," Penelope scoffed, folding her arms. "You're the Queen of your kingdom, I expected better from you."

Vanellope would've responded, but she was still recovering from the nerve pinch. Penelope grabbed Vanellope by the collar and began dragging her through the town of Horror Rush.

Vanellope glanced around as she was pulled through town. She noticed several aspects of Horror Rush. It was incredibly large, and all the houses were double the size of even Taffyta's strawberry mansion, the second largest building in Sugar Rush aside from Vanellope's castle. There were several giant trees in the town, all of which were spiked and coloured red and black. The sky was black, and there were multiple red clouds. But, above all, everything was black and red.

"You seem to have a pretty blunt color scheme," Vanellope mentioned to the Nightmare Queen. "Everything's red and black; nothing else."

"Shut up," Penelope snapped without even looking down at her. Vanellope rolled her eyes a bit and then noticed a few candy fans in the town. They looked more threatening than the candy fans in the Sugar Rush kingdom, but oddly enough, they fled when they saw Vanellope.

"Why is everyone so intimidated by us?" Vanellope muttered quietly to herself. Penelope stopped and announced, "Well, we're here. The Horror Acropolis."

Vanellope glanced up and her mouth hit the floor when she saw the Horror Acropolis. The place was enormous; likely ten kilometres wide and six miles high. There were dozens of windows and a large tower stood magnificently at the top of the castle.

Vanellope felt a twinge of envy. Her castle was practically dwarfed by the Horror Acropolis. In fact, just about everything in her kingdom seemed to be dwarfed by Horror Rush.

Penelope unexpectedly resumed dragging her up the large steps leading to the Horror Acropolis. The back of Vanellope's head banged against the staircase as she was roughly pulled up the steps.

"You *oof*, know I can *ow*, walk, right?" Vanellope muttered in-between her head hitting the stairs. Penelope just shrugged in response. The two finally reaches the doors leading inside.

"Now, apparent leader, we are going to consult my primary advisor," Penelope said. Vanellope raised an eyebrow. She had a good idea who that would be.

"Sour Bill?" She suggested. Penelope shook her head. "No, you idiot," She insulted. "It's SORE Bill."

"Yeah, sure thing," Vanellope said. "I should really notify you of our names," Penelope said. "But only afterwards." With that, she kicked the doors open and she dragged Vanellope into the massive palace.

Not long after entering, Vanellope noticed gray palette swaps of Wynchel and Duncan, sweeping dust with some lollipop brooms.

"Hey, it's the doughnut cops," Vanellope said. "I thought they were the chief of police?"

"Not anymore," Penelope explained. "They were so inept at their job they couldn't catch a stray gummy bear, so they were demoted to janitor."

"That's harsh," Vanellope mumbled. "No more talking, we're about to meet him," Penelope said. She quickened her pace, yanking Vanellope across the floor until the two finally met the gray palette swap of Sour Bill.

Vanellope squinted her eyes when she saw Sore Bill. He looked like Sour Bill, except for the obvious gray skin, but something irked her. Sore Bill simply lay motionless in the corner, a drowsy expression on his face. His eyes were only half-open, and his mouth hung open, his tongue hanging out. He practically looked like a statue.

"Greetings, Sore Bill, I would like to ask you of something," Penelope said, seemingly unaware of Sour Bill's frozen appearance. She received no response from Bill.

"It has come to my attention that palette swaps have gotten loose in our game, but we have successfully detained several of them, including their leader," Penelope said, pulling Vanellope in front of Bill for emphasis. Again, Sore Bill didn't respond.

"As you are my main advisor, I would like to ask what you think we should do with our prisoners," Penelope said. Sore Bill simply lay in the corner, not responding.

Penelope let go of Vanellope and leaned in closer to Sore Bill, turning so her ear faced him. She cupped her hand around her ear as she listened for an answer.

"Yeah, uh-huh, I see…" Penelope whispered to Sore Bill as if he was talking to her. Vanellope raised an eyebrow at her counterpart, confused.

Penelope stood up. "Sore Bill has decreed that to avoid hostilities, you and the other racers will have to remain with us for the time being to attempt to reach peace," She announced.

Vanellope sighed in relief until she fully comprehended what she said, "WHAT?!" Vanellope shouted. "We can't stay with you! We have races to participate in!"

Penelope leaned in on Sore Bill once more, then stood up again. "He has added that you can leave Horror Rush during game-hours," She said. "Oh, and you can leave the game for a maximum of two hours after the arcade closes."

Vanellope sighed again, but Penelope approached her. "Don't get her hopes up yet," Penelope snapped. "Make one slip up with me, and your subjects WILL pay."

Vanellope gulped. "What have I done?" She whispered to herself.

A/N: End of chapter seven. R&R.