Ch10: Fattest Pinball Game EVER

Upon arriving into the first part of the Ripe Kingdom and making our way forward a bit, our group noticed 3 distinct things that were important. First off, the entire place was coated in giant piles of food! The trees were made of mashmallows, the hills were made of cake, and even the very ground we walked on was made of chocolate! The second thing that we noticed were the Onii on the hills attempting to throw giant cakes at us... but I guess no one told them that cake is a very soft, non-dangerous food...

But the third thing was the most important. Upon reaching a small clearing ahead of us, our group witnessed an Onii minion eat a piece of chocolate from the ground, only to have his gut swell upon eating it, almost as if just eating the stuff would make you fat and unhealthy. "Okay guys, I can't believe I'm saying this, don't eat the delicious stuff surrounding us. The last thing we need is to be overweight from eating a single bite of this food," I warned them. "No kidding! But when we do beat this kingdom, if anyone does feel like eating from this place, I can return them to normal weight afterwards with my healing magic," Apricot smiled. "Thanks, but I don't want to get fat at all anytime," Jaden, my Mega Carpenter chuckled.

After that frank discussion, we continued forward to see another clearing with an obstacle in our way in the form of a small chocolate house... and we could hear sounds that included slurping and chewing from within. "I think.. um.. we may have found our foe," I gulped as I tried to carefully slice through the cake with my sword, being surprised when I went through it quite easily, only to hit a slightly harder part after slicing off the right side a lot. "OW! That was incredibly uncalled for!" said a soothing male voice from within the large chocolate hut, surprising our group when he spoke.

"Um... are you King Shishkebaboo by any chance?" Apricot asked as I had our group blocked in case of attack. "Tres Bien! That is me, King Shishkebaboo! And who was the one that cut my delicate arm?" he asked. "A certain Queen of Alpoko looking to add the Ripe Kingdom to her territory, as well as rescue a certain princess," I frowned at him. "Oh my! Queen Korrina ala mode has come to join the Forest Tea Party! Then let us have some fun! Oofa!" he exclaimed as he burst out of the chocolate hut and we all saw what we were truly up against.

King Shishkebaboo was five feet tall and five feet wide... and that was just his torso! He had eaten so much of the food in the Ripe Kingdom that his girth became the exact same as a pinball! It was then that he rolled uphill behind him and I quickly realized his tactic when he tried to roll right into me, my sword slashing at him and sending him directly to the top of the arena, hitting a boulder at the top, cracking it, and revealing a large, pointy fork within it.

"I have an idea guys!" Apricot smiled as she hit Shishkebaboo into the top right corner with her wand. "We need to have him hit into a ton of stuff in order to get him thin enough to the point where the fork up top can damage him, like so!" Apricot smirked as she hit him again into a cave in the left side, resulting in Shishkebaboo rolling on the top of a nearby mountain. "Is that your only idea?" I asked her. "You have another one? Because he didn't get hurt at all from your sword hitting his belly!" Apricot frowned. "Good point. Everyone, push him into the different stuff of this field!" I commanded, my citizens going in front of us and hitting him into everything, acting as paddles to his enormous ass pinball.

I then began to take notice that, overtime, Shishkebaboo was indeed getting smaller by the second, Apricot's wand glowing meaning that each of our attacks were, indeed, making him shed pounds. "Okay! He should be small enough now! Guys! Send him to the fork!" I smiled. The moment Shishkebaboo came down again, Letty the Farmer hit him with her hoe directly into the top of the arena, his fat ass colliding with the fork and him getting skewered by it ass-first. After struggling a bit, his butt expelled a powerful pastry gas of sorts and he shot right into the sky! "Comment allez vous!" he exclaimed as he was shot into the distance, a small bottle falling off his person and landing into a giant pile of cake.

"Yes! We defeated Shishkebaboo! The Ripe Kingdom is ours!" Apricot smiled happily as the other citizens cheered and I picked up the cake-covered bottle and noticed it was the exact same type of sealing bottle used to imprison Apricot. "Hey, Apricot? I think we may have found the one who gave us that map," I said as I showed her the bottle. "Then what are you waiting for?! Free her already!" Apricot said loudly. "Alright!" I smiled as I cracked it onto the ground, the same thing happening with this princess that I did with Apricot as she began to materialize right in front of us.

When she finally completely materialized, I saw that she was chubby just like Shishkebaboo, the only difference being that she could actually stand on her own two feet. "Hmm? Shishkebaboo?" she asked in a slightly deep voice, most likely from the meat on her bones. "Are you by chance Princess Spumoni?" I asked her. "Indeed I a- Oh!" she gasped when Apricot used her magic to actually make her shed weight and look much skinnier than before. Now she was about 5 feet tall, her dress now fitted her instead of being ready to burst, and her complexion looked much better as well.

"Oh my! You made me look just like I did before I married that worthless swine!" Spumoni bubbled in less deeper voice than before, a smile on her face. "Wait, did you actually marry Shishkebaboo?" Apricot asked her. "For a time, yes, but when I finally realized he only wanted me to be fat for him, I quickly divorced him. And before he could seal me in that jar, I put a map of the world into that letter he sent you, since I knew a heroic Queen may come for my aid... and I'm assuming that you are that Queen?" she asked, looking at me with kind, flirty eyes.

"I am. My name is Queen Korrina. It's nice to meet you, Spumoni," I smiled at her. "Well, now that you have rescued me and beat that overweight pig, we can be married, right?" Spumoni smiled with a kiss. "So long as we have no jealousy between any of my other wives or you, you can join us," I smiled to her. "I can deal with that, Queenie!" she giggled cutely. "Now what do we say we head back to Alpoko using the Jump Cannon?" I smirked widely. "A Jump Cannon?! Lead the way!" Spumoni giggled like she was about to go on a roller coaster.

Upon returning to Alpoko and shocking everyone with Princess Spumoni joining us and me, Apricot, and our Royal Guard having defeated King Shishkebaboo, we were all celebratory. "Queen Korrina! Congratulations on defeating the Ripe Kingdom and rescuing Princess Spumoni!" he exclaimed, all of us cheering at that, even Verde and Liam having smiles of pure joy on their faces.

But it didn't last long as something completely unexpected happened a few seconds later. Out of nowhere, the ground around us began to shake and shake, dust falling from the ceiling as Apricot, me, and Spumoni all fell on our asses from the tremor. It was what I had feared since Skinny Ray had mentioned them. An Earthquake!

"Um... Queen Korrina? What did Skinny Ray say about earthquakes again?" Apricot asked with worry. "He said that they are caused by the outside world... but hopefully that was the only quake. We can't be worried over a single earthquake now can we?" I smiled, putting up a fake ruse. Little did everyone know that I was terrified inside at what may happen if we got anymore quakes. And I could see the worry in Verde's eyes too.

If what my dad had told me before and from my own astronomical studies, if the box that contains our world shakes, then our world pays the price. Whatever lay outside of that box was causing these quakes, something that worried me deeply. The next morning, I knew I had to talk to Skinny Ray before I set out to go defeat the Kingdom of the Jolly alongside Spumoni.