The group was lead down through the winding halls, except for Marvin. The mallowolf flopped around in a limp stupor, knocked out by one of guards for resisting beyond his arrest. The cold of the Pinarctic blew through, freezing their bodies to a hunching, shivering cold posture. It wasn't until they were lead to the throne room that the warmth greeted them once again. Hudson was the first to comment on the change.
"Sheesh! How can you guys put up with this insane temperature? I can feel the candy inside me freezing ov-OOF," He was instantly silenced with a blunt jab to the gut, nearly bringing him to his knees.
"Quiet criminal! You're before the king!" The chippopotamus bellowed, kicking the horstachio to keep moving. Paulie's eyes lit up, wondering what kind of dystopian nightmare this place turned out to be to require a king and not some general.
"King? You kidding me?" The pretztail glanced around, the throne room didn't look anything out of the ordinary, only the temperature keeping them warm was the only difference. A light from the howling outside had peered into the room, drawing a long path to the stoney throne itself. None other than Teddington himself sat upon it. Tina was the first one to speak up definitely at him.
"Teddington..." Strong resentment carried in their voice as they closed the distance. Her voice alone had gotten her other half's attention, seeing him seethe and scowl witnessing her in his presence.
"Tina..." He grumbled back, their bitter feelings mutual. Though the brother had lightened up momentarily at the sight of his old pals. "Hudson and Paulie?" He raised an eyebrow at the two, wondering what wicked scheme Tina was cooking up. "What's the meaning of this?" He directed the question at his sister.
"Trust me, I tried to stop 'em but apparently they're to bullheaded to listen to me." He glared at the pair, their focus still remained on the brother twingersnap. "They think they got a big shot at hitting Pinata Central and taking it down. More like big heads if you ask me," Tina put a dig in them, hoping to gain enough favor from her brother to at least leave with her life.
"Hmm..." Teddington mulled over the words as he inspected a Paulie and Hudson war torn by the test of time."No... Can't help you with that. Guards, show our unwelcomed guests the way out!" The twingersnap ordered.
"Wait! Hudson protested immediately, "It's more than just getting back to Pinata Central! We need to knock some sense into Fergy!" The horstachio pounded one hoof into the other, rubbing it in deep.
"Fergy?" Teddington, Tina, and Paulie replied in a uniformed shock. Suddenly the rest of the previous revelations from before poured back into the pretztail. His subconscious couldn't repress it any longer, he was left to face the truth.
"Yes.. our Fergy, the one and only, is responsible for this, all of this," Hudson confirmed as Paulie came to terms as realized he would have to face down his best friend eventually. Would have the courage and resolve to fight against him? Or would his lifetime friendship get in the way of that?
"Unbelievable!" The king twingersnap exclaimed in disbelief. "I would have considered Pester being behind something this dastardly before even suspecting Fergy!" He glared down Hudson's eyes. "Do you even have a shred of proof to this claim?" He challenged the horstachio's accusation.
"I..." He could provide anything but his word, "Why else would I be here?" Hudson tried to counter, "We're looking for all the help we can get! We need everybody to get through to Fergy! He won't listen to reason!" He stepped forward to have a guard push him back in place.
"Or... You were looking for a five fingered discount of our precious supplies? In these trying times why should I trust you? Especially when you're with her!" Teddington motioned upwards with his snout at his disowned sister, refusing to even look at her.
"Well to be fair, she came to drag us back to the sewers," Hudson kicked himself mentally, figuring his chances at negations would have been much better without the halved twingersnap.
"The sewers? How fitting," It got a dry chuckle out of Teddington. "Expel them from my kingdom!" He ordered shortly after with zero remorse. The guards followed the command, pushing the prisoners back into motion.
"Move it!" The chippo closest to Hudson grumbled loudly, not having anymore of his shenanigans. Hudson did his best to keep facing the tyrannical twingersnap.
"You can't do this Teddington! We need you! You need us! We were friends Teddington!" Hudson shouted across the room as he continued being hustled out by the rough guards. It was no use, nothing the horstachio could say could convince the twingersnap to call off his guards.
It was a long and difficult walk to the exit, or what the horstachio thought was the exit. Ending at what appeared to be a giant iron cannon. "Can't you just walk us out? What's the meaning of this! This is inhumane!" Hudson protested as the guards uncuffed him and soon shoved him inside the cannon, locking him inside! "If lawyers were still a thing you'd be hearing from mine!" He shouted through the cold and solid material, his voice muffled on the other side.
His clamoring went ignored as a chippo guard lit the cannon, prepping it for fire. They remained unfazed as the blast shot Hudson back into the freezing Pinartic. The snow and wind scratched against the horstachio's exterior welcoming him in it's cold, snow bank embrace.
Pulling himself out from the snow, Hudson glanced back trying to spot the twingersnap's kingdom among the mountains, spotting no such thing in between. Another pinata shot into the sky, approaching towards the horstachio's location. Using his hoof as a visor and squinting through the snowy conditions, he spotted the pinata as none other than Paulie Pretztail. Too bad the realization came too late, plowing Hudson back into the snow.
"Ugh! Watch it next time will ya Pretztail?" He spoke at Paulie as he pulled himself back out of the snow.
"Geez, Sorry Hudson, I don't have as much canonatta experience as you do," Paulie replied, adding a bit of subtle sarcasm to his response, falling on the deft horstachio's wit. It wasn't the only thing to fall on Hudson, getting sent back down by Marvin's force and soon topping off the pile with Tina.
"Well, that coulda gone better," Marvin hopped off the of dazed horstachio. "That dang twingersnap definitely has a syrupent in his boot. What's he got against ya?" He directed his question at the other half.
"It's a long story," Tina slithered off of the mallowolf, inhaling sharply as her body touched the icy cold fluff. "Rather not talk about, at least not right now, I'm freezing my tail off, literally!" But where was there to go? Stranded in the middle of the pinarctic didn't leave them with many options, and with Fergy's forces ever on their tail, it was only a matter of time before Teddington's kingdom found itself with some new visitors.
"So now what guys?" Paulie consorted with his party, unable to draw a logical solution beside fall victim to the pinarctic and freeze into a pretzsicle. "We're out of leads, no where to go, and eventually no where to run."
"I'm sure I'll survive," Marvin replied casually. "It ain't like I haven't gutted out a pinata before," his confession had gotten disturbed stares from across the board. "What? You'd rather have me die like the rest of you chumps?" El Sketcho grunted, offended by their sensitive response. "Look, just keep movin' and there won't be any problems, I'd expect you to do the same for me if I were to succumb to the Pinarctic."
"Uhh... Let's just not think about it and head out, I'm sure we can make something of that old run down cabin Fergy and I bought from the Bonboon years back." The pretztail suddenly recalled, gaining a newfound confidence in himself. "I just... Dunno where it is," And he lost it.
"Figures, good fer nothin'," the mallowolf chastised Paulie verbally, taking out his knife and wiping the flat sides with his other grip, knowing the worst was yet to come. "Less talkin' more movin', we'll work out the details when we get there," He waved the group off with the knife, sending them off in the opposite direction... which unfortunately happened to be directly into the wind and snow.