The fluffy green critter yawned and rubbed its eyes. His brothers and sisters were softly snoring, warmly cocooning on top of the Royal Pod.

Something felt odd. The critter flapped its wings and flew towards the pod's door. It wasn't messy or dark inside, like the first hours of their daily routine.

The queen didn't call them with a song and, confused, the critter looked down to see trolls walking around and doing their chores like they used to in mid-morning.

A twinkle lightened the Hug Watch that was thrown on top of the fluffy scrapbook table, camouflaged among pieces of colorful papers, scissors, glues and roughly cut characters.

The queen was already up and out there, going through her agenda! The critter panicked and flew inside the pod, taking a good look at everything.

They hadn't helped her with the shower, they hadn't helped her to put on her crown - which was hanging next to the door! - They didn't help her with the morning song.

Holy cupcakes! They had no morning song that day!

The queen must be sick! She must have lost her mind! Or even worse, her inspiration.

ooooooooooooooooooooo

Smidge found Guy Diamond helping a teary Biggie to set the table for the weekly potluck. They were whispering to each other and hugging tightly.

"Is everything okay?" Smidge asked, noticing that they were behind the schedule. Trolls would start arriving in ten minutes and they still needed to decorate the napkins.

"Oh, Smidge, if you could give us a hand. We were counting on Poppy to help us with the decorations, but…" Guy Diamond swallowed hard and looked at Biggie, who was sniffing, trying to control his tears. "... she said she gave herself the day off."

Day Off…

The words made no sense. Guy's lips moved in slow motion. Day Off. Tachycardia was the instant biological response to the absurd she had just heard. Poppy and day off didn't fit in the same sentence. She was a workaholic, she loved being Queen. Her day off was… well… having fun working! Smidge felt her palms sweaty.

"She came by and picked three Banana and Trollsberry Smoothies and went off. Now we're on short on Smoothies and Poppy is filling herself with sugar somewhere else!" Biggie made a ship out of a napkin and quickly went to the next, "She's not fine. I could see it in her eyes."

"If she wants a day off, something must be wrong, indeed." Smidge replied. It was her job to go after Poppy and check on her, but at the same time, she couldn't ignore that the potluck was going to be a disaster if Biggie and Guy didn't finish the decorations on time. As Poppy's Helper, she was supposed to help, right?

The sense of urgency made Smidge decide to help her friends to finish the decorations and next she was going to rush to every corner of Trollstopia to find her queen and make sure she was fine.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Val watered her Strum Plum, humming a rock song as she went through her morning routine. She could barely believe her adventure to the past had worked out and she had her plant safe and sound.

Yes, it was amazing that six months later she was far from the troll she had been when she first arrived at Trollstopia. Who could have guessed that Poppy would be able to soft her up… in a good way!

The purple rock girl yawned and rubbed her eyes. The coffee was nearly done and once the caffeine worked on waking up her properly, Val would be able to start her day. Who cared if it was nearly noon?

"Hey, Val. Val." Laguna showed up at the window in a rush, nearly knocking the precious plant on the ground.

"Oh, jeez, be careful!" Val took the vase from the windowsill and placed it on the table. "Where's the fire?"

"Well, technically it isn't a fire, but I presume it's just as urgent." Laguna tapped a finger on her cheek, wondering.

"Then say it at once," Val crossed her arms, fighting the urge to roll her eyes in annoyance.

"I'm looking for Poppy, have you seen her?"

"Why would you assume I'd have seen Poppy?" Was Val's quick and escapist answer. Old habits die hard, apparently.

"Well…" Laguna started, "early this morning I was going to the library to research my latest archeological findings: an ancient glitter pot that was absolutely fascinating."

"Yeah, super fascinating." Val rolled her eyes.

"When I got there I found Poppy going through a pile of books."

"Well, Poppy teaches the kids in the afternoon, so she needs scrapbooks, right? No surprises there."

"No, she was going through books about medicine and herbs." Laguna explained and, hearing that, Val uncrossed her arms and frowned, finally intrigued. "She seemed very distressed when I showed up and questioned what she was looking for."

"Do you think Poppy is hiding something?" Val asked.

"I can only assume so!" Laguna continued, "When I insisted, she said she was looking for a specific plant." And to prove her point, Laguna opened her bag and showed Val the book Poppy was reading earlier. "This is a Feliz Pea. It's a plant that was used to cure any sad or gloomy feelings in the past."

"So Poppy wants a plant that can cure sadness?" Val questioned, "Why would she go to the library and not… I dunno… Meadow Spriggs?"

"Because this plant is extinct. Meadow wouldn't have that plant in her greenhouse." Laguna adjusted her glasses wisely, "I fear I made a big mistake."

"What?" Val slammed her hands on the windowsill. Laguna took a step back, startled.

"I joked about only being possible to get that plant in an alternative universe." Laguna gulped when Val's eyes widened, realizing the mistake.

"She wouldn't go to another universe just to grab a plant, right?"

"I'm afraid so, because…" her eyes filled with tears, "I saw her color flick."

"Flick?"

"Just for a second, she looked gray. Then she ran towards Hard Rock Hollow, so I assumed she had come to you for help."

Val palm faced. It was a ridiculous assumption. Why would Poppy go to her for help? Val had no experience with alternative universes trips or with Funk Trolls' tech and… oh…

The Funk Spaceship… was hovering over Hard Rock Hollow that day.

"Look, Laguna." Val pointed at the sky. "She didn't come to me. Who would she look for to help her cross universes?"

"Oh dear… R&B?"

"Or Lownote Jones!" Val jumped out of the window, pulling Laguna with her. "C'mon, we must get inside that spaceship."

oooooooooooooooooooooo

"A Day Off and no morning song." Smidge shook her head in panic. She had looked for Poppy in her pod, at the beach, at every party she found on the way.

Oddly, everyone who had seen Poppy wasn't very excited about it. She seemed to have left a trail of low spirits on the way.

Smidge had found a group of trolls cleaning the remains of a party that had taken place the night before. They mentioned Poppy had danced so much that whenever DJ Suki took a break she'd beg for more upbeat songs. By sunrise, trolls had fallen asleep right there, in the middle of the dance floor.

Aspen complained that Poppy had taken his coffee when she passed by, without getting in the line to order one herself. She had added so much sugar to her hot drink that Aspen gave up asking for it back.

And there was Minuet who was incredibly sad to have her invitation turned down. Apparently she was going to perform the Valkyrie opera that afternoon and Poppy said she couldn't go because operas were usually sad and she wanted to have a joyous day.

"I'm devastated that my singing won't bring joy to our Queen."

It was all terribly odd and Smidge's confusion grew as she talked to trolls along her search. She had decided to go looking for Poppy at the Hard Rock Hollow, after all, it seemed Val was becoming a close friend. She'd definitely be someone Poppy would go for help.

Crash

"Ouch!"

Two running trolls knocked her down and also fell back from the impact. Smidge was very surprised to see Val and Laguna looking as confused as she was.

"Look where you're going." Smidge yelled.

"I was looking!" Val lied; after all she was aware that she had her eyes fixed on the Funk Spaceship.

"What is going on?" Smidge asked, still annoyed.

"No time to explain," Laguna said, preparing to start running again.

"We need to get into that spaceship." Val waved her hands in the air, trying to get the Funk Trolls' attention.

"Yeah, I can see that." Smidge replied in confusion.

"What are you guys doing?" R walked towards them, holding an ice-cream

"Yes, why are you guys waving up?" B asked, following her sister.

The three girls stared at the funk sisters for a moment, noticing that they were probably wrong about Poppy's whereabouts. It was Val who spoke first, after looking at the spaceship and blinking a couple of times.

"We thought Poppy was there."

"And we're worried about her." Smidge added, "She must be sick."

"Oh, she's there." B answered with a happy giggle. "And she looks pretty healthy as well."

"Wait." Laguna stepped forward. "Did you Poppy alone in the spaceship?"

"Oh no, we wouldn't do that." R took a bite of her ice cream before continuing. "We wouldn't leave her alone with the entire tech. That would be a potential disaster. She's with Lownote Jones."

"You ladies were so right." A smooth voice joined the chat, coming from behind the girls holding two ice creams, "a nice break for some refreshment was in order indeed."

Smidge nearly freaked out.

"Lownote, what are you doing here? Where's Poppy?"

"Poppy?" He softly laughed, "She's in the spaceship."

"Alone?" All girls yelled in unison.

"She required a moment so I went for some delicious ice cream. What's the matter?"

"Lownote, did you notice something strange about Poppy?" Laguna chose her words carefully, keeping her emotions in check so she could figure the situation as rationally as she could.

"Strange? No. She just asked to go through some universes to find a fruit." Saying that, Lownote laughed and shook his head. "I knew she wasn't done with the Scavenger Hunt."

"But Lownote, don't you think it's dangerous to leave Poppy unsupervised when going through the multiverse?"

"Oh no, she knows the basics of it. She'll be fine. Besides," he went put a hand on his pocket "I can always bubble inside and… wait a minute." He tried another pocket and then another. "Oh, fudge. I must have left the keys on my desk."

"Lownote!" R growled in frustration. "How are we going to get inside?"

"Oh well… let's hope Poppy gets her fruit and returns soon."

Smidge nearly broke down. Val frowned so deeply that Branch would be proud and Laguna sighed and took out her notebook, calculating the odds of getting Poppy before she got lost forever.

Little did they know, Lownote had spoken the truth, but not all the truth.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Poppy stepped inside the funk spaceship and felt the cold floor once the bubble popped. She tried to breathe out in relief, but she found that somehow her chest was too filled with anguish to be able to let it all go.

Her eyes watered and she immediately popped two marshmallows in her mouth with two extra sugar cubes.

"Queen Poppy, what a pleasure." Lownote walked towards her, lowering his glasses with his usual charm.

"Hey, Lownote." Her voice failed and Poppy mentally cursed herself. She wouldn't allow her friend to spot sadness in her. So, she pretended to yawn and continued, "It's so early, but I couldn't help myself. I'm after something that doesn't exist in our world anymore."

"Tricky." Lownote laughed, "But easy to solve. What is it? It's my pleasure to track it down through the other dimensions."

"Ah… well…" Poppy had hoped to find it out for herself, although she was strongly discouraged seeing a board with more buttons than she could count. The chances of messing it up were too big to be overlooked. "I'm after Feliz Peas."

Hearing that name, Lownote Jones's humor vanished. He raised a curious eyebrow to the pink girl, who suddenly felt even smaller near her tall and wise friend.

"Why would you need something like that? You do know it used to be prescribed to the saddest Bergens, right?"

For a moment, Poppy was surprised Lownote knew about the Bergens, but convinced herself that it was to be expected, after all, he had access to multidimensional knowledge.

"Yes, I know that." Her finger flicked gray and she hid her hands behind her back. "Can you help me?"

He hesitated, but turned to his computer anyway.

"Sometimes a friend willing to listen is better than a plant…"

Yes. He was right. The one and only troll Poppy felt comfortable talking about sadness was currently unavailable because he was the one who caused her to sink to a deep in her owes.

Dear Branch was tormented by his dreams for months and he kept it to himself to spare her. It was unjust to reveal the depressed state she was left in after his confession. After all, he was being honest.

It was her turn to be strong and deal with her feelings on her own.

"Look…" Lownote spun in his chair and showed Poppy a remote. "You can go on, if you want, but allow me to give you some advice."

Poppy merely nodded, ashamed. Lownote had noticed her current sorrowful spirit.

"You don't fix problems by eating a plant. You fix problems by understanding them." Rigid, Poppy looked at the ground, avoiding his eyes.

"I can't…" it wasn't possible. Poppy would never be able to understand why Branch would dream about another version of herself.

"You know…" Lownote turned back to the board in front of him and started typing, "You're not the first troll who came asking to look to other dimensions." Poppy raised her head, seeing a wormhole materialize in front of her. "I don't ever clean the navigation history so…" Lownote stood up, giving Poppy the remote to guide herself through the alternative universes. "... be careful not to snoop on what trolls have searched before."

Pink eyebrows shot up and her breath caught in her throat. What Lownote was implying…

"Well, it's hot today. I'm out to get an ice-cream. See you in a couple of hours."

Poppy, unusually wordless, saw her friend blinking at her before taking a bubble to be transported to the ground.

Her heart started beating faster.

Would she dare to try to understand?