The Magical Quest

While Mickey and Donald continued on their journey, Goofy and Minnie had also just recently entered the forest. They still had quite a ways to go, but one thing was for certain: they were close. Upon taking a few steps forward, Minnie started to tremble, Goofy munching on what looked like a pastry of sorts.

Minnie still couldn't bring herself to have the same kind of positive attitude the jester had. Not even one of his sight gags could help her now. There was just something about this particular forest that got to her.

"Ahyuck, want a doughnut?" Goofy asked, pulling one out of a small bag that he pulled out of nowhere, Minnie sighing, "Well, I am a little hungry."

Goofy chuckled and reached into the bag, but rather than pulling out a doughnut, he instead pulled out a baloney sandwich. The jester blinked at the sight of this, shrugged and handed it to Minnie anyway, the princess taking a bite out of it. It seemed even this hadn't quite calmed her down. If anything, all this food could have just as easily attracted unwanted attention.

Goofy looked at the tree and noticed many leaves, but panicked when he spotted six moving. He shook his head and blinked, noticing that the leaves hadn't moved at all. The dog then chuckled and said, "I must be hole-oos-a-na-jate-ing," turning away from the tree as the leaves moved again, Goofy turning for one last look only to notice the leaves had formed an evil smile on the tree.

When the leaves flipped upwards revealing themselves to be the caps of some small bugs, Goofy laughed again and said, "Ahyuck, leaf bugs," returning to his travels only to end up bumping into Minnie, the princess about to fall forward as the jester quickly grabbed onto the back of her collar, pulling her to safety.

"Thank you, Goofy," the princess said, then turned back to a river right in front of her. How were they to get across this? There were big trees blocking their path around it, so they had no choice but to cross it. And with a school of huge fish swimming around, Minnie wasn't sure what to do.

However, Goofy noticed big tree branches and leaped at one, Minnie's eyes widening at the sight only for her to calm down when she noticed that the jester was actually doing. Goofy was bouncing on one of the branches as he signalled Minnie to join him. However, this was short-lived as one of the fish jumped up, catching Goofy's teeth between its jaws and dragging him under the water.

"GOOFY!" Minnie cried out, and without a second thought, she simply dove in after him. Right now, nothing mattered more than his safety.

But when she was under the water, something strange happened. Her ring started to glow as soon her princess garments were replaced by what looked like a pink gown with a yellow princess's hat much like the ones in fairy tales, a yellow cape added for good measure. What was even stranger was that she had a bubble surrounding her head, but why? Well, that didn't seem to matter to Minnie as strange enough, she hadn't really noticed. She was too focused on saving Goofy right now.

With that in mind, she fought off the other fish coming at her. Each time she touched one, a light would shine from her pointing finger, a blast of energy sending each one flying. Again, Minnie failed to notice this as she was too focused on saving her friend.

Goofy looked as if he was about to drown when Minnie finally reached him, pulling on his arms and prying the jester's feet out of the fish's mouth, not even questioning why it had been so easy. However, the fish wasn't going to give up its meal so quickly as it swam after Minnie. However, just as the fish closed in, another blast of light shot from the princess's right pointing finger, sending the fish crashing into the sand below.

As Minnie finally resurfaced, the ring glowed once more as she returned to her regular attire, now soaking wet as she breathed heavily, Goofy spitting up a gallon of water. The jester looked over at Minnie and chuckled, "Gorsh, you saved my life."

Minnie smiled and replied through deep breaths, "What are friends for?"

The princess was now curious as to how she'd saved him. If anything, she had expected to get eaten herself, yet she'd fought off a group of fish without knowing it, not even as out of breath as she would have expected to be.

Well, one thing was for certain. The two needed to continue their journey if they wanted to find Mickey and Donald. Things would only get more difficult from here.

The mouse and duck were currently carrying on their journey, nothing really going wrong at the moment. Nearby, Ingo was attempting to hone his abilities and failed to notice the duo walk right past him. Pete wouldn't be happy about this, that's for sure.

Donald noticed a look of worry on Mickey's face as he patted the mouse on the shoulder asking, "What's wrong, Mickey?" the mouse letting out a sigh and replying, "I can't help wondering how the others must be doing without us. Surely they must have figured out we were gone by now. They might be worried. Can you imagine what Goofy would do without us around?"

Donald looked up dreamily and nodded saying, "I can't wait to reunite with Daisy," Mickey rolling his eyes and wondering if Minnie was okay.

All the while, Minnie and Goofy had cleared the river, the leaf bugs watching them go by, Minnie looking at her hands, wondering what exactly allowed her to fight off the fish so easily. As stated, her eyes were too focused on saving Goofy for her to notice anything out of the ordinary. She hadn't even taken note of her outfit change let alone the magic air bubble the allowed her to breathe, and at the very least, she should have noticed the strangeness in that. However, she was also worried about Mickey and it showed.

Goofy looked at the princess and noticed that once again, Minnie had a look of doubt on her face. The jester let out a sigh and pulled a small mallet out of his sleeve, bashing himself over the head with it, a dopey smile on his face. Minnie looked up at this, forced a weak smile then put on her worried look again.

The jester pondered this situation harder than ever before, which wasn't really saying much as he hardly ever thought remotely hard about anything previously. Then an idea came to him as he started to whistle a tune, Minnie looking up at him wondering what the jester was up to.

Then out of nowhere, the dog wrapped his arms around the mouse's neck, holding her close while stating, "Things might look dangerous and hopeless now. Just suck it up and face what you're afraid of."

Minnie forced his arm off of her as he placed another hand on her shoulder adding, "When things get at their worst, just look inside. Show the world just what you are made of!"

The princess put on a light smile, stating, "If I forget my troubles and believe too, there's nothing in this world I can't do!"

Goofy chuckled and nodded, replying, "There is no crooked bridge that you can't cross! You see a monster? I'm sure you can take it! Nothing will prevent you from making it to the end, not even spike-eed pit! You can't put yourself down!"

While the two advanced through the forest, doing a much better job than before, the leaf bugs giving them assistance, Minnie laughed and said, "There is no crooked bright that I can't cross!" Goofy nodding and adding, "You see a monster?" the princess stating, "I'm sure I can take it!"

With that, the two marched forward exclaiming together, "Nothing will prevent us from making it to the end, not even an acid-filled pit! We can't put ourselves down!"

But as Minnie's confidence had finally grown, the two of them had entered the area where Ingo was preparing himself. Finally, he had mastered his abilities as he let out a sigh of satisfaction saying, "Now I'll be ready when those fools show up," noticing two people standing before him adding, "Well, speak of the devil."

However, he noticed something odd. As Goofy and Minnie stood there staring, the demon grinned wickedly.

"Oh, forget the peasants!" he said fiendishly, "I have the princess right in front of me! So, didn't have faith in your servants, did you?"

Minnie looked at Goofy with a confused look as the jester simply shrugged. It wasn't like he knew what the demon was talking about.

"You know, those two peasants you sent to retrieve your dog were a real pain in my side," he stated, Minnie's eyes going wide, "But if I capture you, King Pete will be even more pleased! He may even promote me from second-in-command to ere to the throne!"

At that moment, Minnie gasped as she asked, "Did you just say you work for Pete?"

"Why, that'd be silly," Goofy replied, chuckling, "If he worked for Pete, then that would make him..." then pausing, the dog turned to face Ingo with fear shouting, "THE BAD GUY!"

"You're rather slow, aren't you?" Ingo remarked as Goofy shrugged, putting on an embarrassed smile.

"Look, we're looking for our friends!" Minnie spat, Ingo folding his arms while the princess continued, "If you don't move out of the way right now, we'll have to make you move!"

Ingo blinked and paused for a long time before realizing the princess was being serious, the demon breaking out into hysterics. Minnie folded her arms angrily, failing to see what was so funny as Ingo wiped a tear from his eye retorting, "A princess defeating me? Is this a game to you? I'm King Pete's general! Meanwhile, you're a pampered princess, and I seriously doubt anyone ever trained you to fight!"

Minnie angrily charged at the demon, Goofy biting onto his fingernails nervously while the princess rammed her fist hard into Ingo's face, the demon falling hard on his back, rubbing his jaw while the princess grinned with confidence stating, "Just because I'm a princess doesn't mean I'm weak!" Goofy chuckling, "Ahyuck! Powerful little girl, ain't she?"

"Good," Ingo replied, slowly climbing to his feet as he cracked his knuckles and said, "Now I won't have to go easy on you."