Part Three of the Season Title: "The Danger, the Duo, and the Dance in the Dark"
(A Note from the Author: Can you guess the 'duo' of this chapter? I promise it's not obvious, but they're super important to the Farmworld timeline. Onward to the pain! Wee!)
Fionna Mertens is the daughter of a farmer and a resident of Junktown, an average tomboy, but with a mechanical arm thanks to her reckless ways as a little girl. When her family is threatened by the Destiny Gang, she goes off to sell a friend, only to discover an ancient secret and what seems at first to be the answer to her problems. But... the crown is only a nightmare for all who touch it.
"Fionna! Fionna, come in here, please!"
The young blonde sighed heavily. "Mom sounds pretty steamed… guess I donked something up again. C'mon, Cake."
"Mrrraoow!" Her little brown-spotted white cat answered, following close behind as Fionna, having been playing her flute, rose to go inside her family's little farmhouse. There, she found her mother cradling her baby brother, Finn, and Fionna found a very worried expression on her mother's normally-smiling face.
"What's up, Ma?" Fionna asked quietly.
"Honey… I need you to go to the market and sell the mule."
"But Mom!" Fionna cried. "I love Berry, she's like one of my best friends!"
"Honey, please…" The blonde woman turned to the window, and beyond, Fionna saw what had her mother so worried. Her kindly old father was facing three members of the Destiny Gang, a group of ruffians who regularly terrorized Junktown and its surrounding area including the Mertens Family farm run by Fionna's parents. "We need the money to stop the gang…"
"… Okay…" Fionna murmured as she saw her father pushed to the ground. She turned, Cake on her heels, and headed for the barn. Berry was their only mule and had been around Fionna's entire life like a big dumb auntie who smelled like hay, but Fionna loved her all the same. Taking a lead rope from the barn wall, Fionna approached and looped it around Berry's neck. "Come on, Berry. Time to go to town." She climbed on the mule's back with Cake in her lap, and they set off for Junktown Market. Along the way, Berry suddenly paused.
"Hey," Fionna patted Berry's shoulder. "Come on, we gotta get to town." But the mule suddenly bolted. Hitting the ground, Fionna saw stars for a few seconds. When she finally looked up, she found Berry up in a dead tree. "What the hey, mule!" Fionna exclaimed. "Get down from there!" She rose and made her way toward the tree, and in trying to step over a low bush, Fionna slipped with a yelp, and was falling down into a hidden hole with Cake clinging to her backpack. When Fionna sat up and rubbed her then twice-bumped head, she gasped to see a giant metal object, frozen in ice coming down from the ceiling of the little cavern, and beneath it was an ancient skeleton with a golden crown on its head. "A crown!" Fionna cried excitedly. "We can sell that and save Dad and Berry!" She rose and reached for it, but a dark, cloaked figure appeared from the shadows with a snarl. Fionna was met with the aged face of a blue-skinned, black-haired, point-eared old man wielding a black gun out from his cloak.
"Back off, human!" The old man spat. "Leave Symone in peace!"
"Whoa," Fionna whispered. "Uh… I'm not gonna disturb Symone. Promise. I'm just gonna ta-"
"NO TOUCHING! Dark magic, very evil!" The old man hopped up and down as he shouted at her.
"Dude, magic is fake. Daddy says it's all parlor tricks used by nubs to control people and get babes, like ten hot babes each."
"Magic is real! You stupid humans just forgot about it!"
"You're human too, man, even if you look weird."
"I'm a half-demon and I'm a thousand years old! I saw this world nearly destroyed when I was only a child! If it weren't for you filthy mortals… Symone would still be alive! She saved this unworthy planet at the cost of her own life!"
"You… are nuts," Fionna reached for the crown again.
"NO!" The old man pulled the trigger on the black gun, and Fionna shrieked in terror as the red laser beam fired out straight at her… and straight through her. Harmless. "Augh!" The man growled. "Blasted thing…" he smacked the gun a few times, but immediately jumped in front of Fionna when she tried again to take the crown. "Don't touch it! That crown make Symone crazy and it'll do the same to you!"
"Who the heck is Symone, anyway? And who are you?" Fionna crossed her arms.
"My name is Marshall Lee… as for her… Symone Petrikov…" the man sighed and closed his eyes as he lowered his head. "She was human once… until she bought the crown from a Scandinavian dock worker. The first time she wore it, it took over her mind. She grew more and more insane as the Great Mushroom War set in, until she found me when I'd gotten separated from my mother. She took care of me, saved me from the horrors of the War… that was, until the day the planes came…"
"Marshall! Get under cover, honey!" Symone pushed the little demonic boy toward a tree hollow.
"Symone!" Marshall Lee cried, "You promised!" But it was too late, Symone had already donned the ice crown and stood atop the lone hill amid the ruined city, facing the incoming bomber planes. Shells fell all around them, but Symone was focused on the largest plane, a massive carrier that was holding what had, before the war, been rumored to be the most destructive bomb ever imagined. It'd only been a concept on paper before the war, but now at the height of the death and violence, its production had been rushed and it was now very real. The Manhattan Project that had destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki was like a child with a magnifying glass compared to this killer. It was the first nuclear bomb, nicknamed 'Cloud' for the mushroom clouds its tiny predecessors had created. Cloud would not only create a mushroom-shaped explosion, it would rain down nuclear fallout and debris across the world.
Symone had to stop it. If not for the self-doomed human race, then for the teary-eyed little boy behind her, begging her to take the crown off. The last thing she remembered before the icy grip of the magicks took over her mind was Marshall Lee's arms wrapping around her leg as he clung to her. "For him…" she whispered.
Marshall Lee sniffled quietly, wiping tears from his eyes. "If she'd only had longer with the crown, even if it made her insane, her power would've been complete enough to stop the bomb and still live… but she didn't have enough strength. She froze it, and it crushed her to death… the crown was so upset by losing its master that it cast the world into a four-hundred year Ice Age, and it's been six-hundred years since that freeze ended… I've been here protecting the crown the whole time."
"Stop saying all this crazy junk," Fionna said slowly. "No way any of that happened. Daddy said the real 'Cloud' bomb was a dud and the war ended because the earth got all freezy, so people stopped fighting so they could all survive."
"LIES!" Marshall Lee screeched, but he stumbled as he threw his hands up in the air and Cake ran between his feet. Fionna took the chance to grab the crown as Marshall threw the gun (poorly) at Cake. "Bad beastie!"
"C'mon, Cake!" Fionna called, scampering up and out of the hole. Cake was right behind her and they took off riding on Berry. Fionna held on tight, the crown clenched in her metal hand and against her stomach to make sure she didn't drop it. Within the hour, she was in the middle of the village trying to sell the crown. "Golden crown with rubies, people! C'mon, it'll look great on you! I promise it just belonged to an old dead lady!
"I'll take it!" A man called out.
"How much can you offer?" Fionna smiled.
"Oh…" the man began to twiddle his thumbs. "I'm poor… but I can give a concert at your house! Like a whole four songs! I do mostly covers, but I've got some originals. What do you say?" He beamed as if he were sure she couldn't resist. Fionna just stared at him blankly until suddenly, the crown was pulled from her hand.
"Hey!" Fionna turned to see one of the Destiny Gang, the lackey Tromo, giggling away as he stole the crown. "Give that back! I found that, it's mine!"
"Property of one-arm go to Big Destiny," Tromo explained teasingly and turned. "Hey boss!" Not too far away, the leader of the Destiny Gang stood facing away. Tromo tossed the crown and Big Destiny caught it easily.
"A crown? Huh?" He turned to look at his lackey. "You tryin' to tell me what to wear?!"
"No, boss! You tell us what to wear! I just thought you'd like it!"
"Psh, if you were in charge of what I wore, I'd look like a total dork!"
"No way you could ever look like a d-"
"Shut your face! Bam! Crown shorts!" Big Destiny stuck one of the tips of the crown into his too-short shorts and Tromo and the other gang members clapped and hollered in approval, yelling at the locals around them to do the same. When one old lady wasn't quite quick enough, Tromo kicked her.
"Clap harder!"
The woman, crying silently in pain, clapped as quickly as she could while she lay curled in a ball on the ground. Tromo looked to Fionna. "Clap!"
"No way! That's mine!"
"It's MINE!" The voice of Marshall Lee made them all look to the old man who'd appeared out of nowhere. He was panting heavily from the long run following Fionna and Cake.
"Tromo!" Big Destiny growled. "Jack up the crazy guy! Trami! Take the mule back to the crib for din-din!"
One of the other gang members bolted out and grabbed Berry's lead, tugging her away. When Fionna tried to stop him, Trami pulled out a hammer from his belt and struck her across the face with it. Fionna fell and Cake hissed as Trami ran off toward the lift at the end of town that would take him, Berry, and Big Destiny up to the gang's mansion on a hill overlooking Junktown.
"Later, one-arm!" Big Destiny laughed as he went. Fionna sat up slowly and watched hopelessly. "Berry…'
"Augh!" she heard Marshall Lee cry as he was thrown to the ground by Tromo. Fionna rose and pulled her flute from her bag, ramming it up Tromo's nose when he turned to face her. When a head of lettuce struck Tromo hard in the back of the head, he began to retreat. Fionna saw the fellow attacker was the local rhyming merchant, Choose Bruce. Tromo backed off with a mumbled warning.
"You're gonna pay…"
"Destiny gang get outta town! We're sick of being bullied around!" Bruce shouted.
"You tell Big D," Fionna growled. "My name is Fionna Mertens, and I'm comin' for my stuff!"
"Oh, you just try," Tromo snapped as he dodged another head of lettuce and ran for the mansion.
"Fionna," Choose Bruce stepped up to the girl. "If you're gonna lay down the hurtin', you'll need this for certain!" He held up a box he'd fetched from his shop.
"What is it, Choose Bruce?" Fionna tilted her head and opened up the box.
"It's a weapon for your arm! With this you will defend from harm!" Inside lay a blade. Bruce pulled it out and, taking Fionna's metal arm, replaced her grabber hand with the sword.
Swinging it a few times to test, Fionna smiled to herself. "It feels natural… Like sucking your thumb. Kind of."
"Best not to take the lift, my friend," Choose Bruce warned as Fionna looked back to him. "Else the Destiny Gang will see you comin' in!"
"No," Fionna turned to look up at the mansion. "I want them to see me. I'm gonna go up there AND SHOW THEM MY FACE!" She charged across town and up the lift, and when she reached the doors, she kicked them in. "DESTINY GANG! I'M HERE FOR-" but then she stopped. The whole place was silent and empty. Where were they?
Fionna heard a braying coming from another room."Berry!" She hurried to the door. Charging through, she was tripped by the outstretched leg of none other than Big Destiny himself. "Gimme my stuff back, you big lump!" Fionna cried as she rose to attack the gang leader. With pure ease, Big Destiny threw her aside.
"You want Big D's crown?" He smirked.
"Yeah! And Berry!"
"Here ya go, then," Big Destiny tossed the crown at Fionna's feet and motioned toward Berry in the corner, completely unharmed.
"Wh-… what?" Fionna's expression grew confused. "Why…?"
"Consider it your last possession," Big Destiny turned to the window. "The last thing you'll ever own.
"What… do you mean…?" Fionna rose as he turned away.
"Look down there, stupid," Big Destiny pointed out the window before disappearing from the room. Fionna approached the window as Cake joined her side. Below the mansion, Fionna's eyes filled with terror and tears as she same flames engulfing Junktown. Bolting from the mansion on Berry's back, they hurried down to the village to find Choose Bruce on his knees before his shop, crying pitifully.
"Choose Bruce!" Fionna called, and the merchant looked up with a gasp.
"Fionna, thank heavens you're well! The gang set fire to the town and my shop as well! All my stuff is gone! Now they're going after your home!"
"Berry, come on!" Fionna shrieked, hurrying Berry into a gallop.
"Hurry, little bunny!" Choose Bruce called out the nickname the town had called Fionna as she'd grown up. "You can still save your mummy!"
Along her way, Fionna saw Marshall Lee up ahead, limping back to his hole. "Marshall Lee!" She shouted ahead. He paused and turned, only to be scooped up onto Berry's back with a yelp.
"Fionna! Return th-"
"I will, but first I gotta save my family!"
The scene Fionna came upon truly horrified her. The Destiny Gang, now joined by Big Destiny, was tossing torches at her family's farmhouse, and she could hear her mother and father inside screaming for help and her little brother crying. Fionna stared into the flames as she dismounted from Berry's back, and she drew the ice crown from her backpack. "… You said this was magic, right…?"
"Yes. Powerful and very dangerous," Marshall Lee nodded as he too climbed down.
"But you're totally bonkers."
"Even if I am, I remember what happened when Symone used that crown!" Marshall hissed.
"… I believe you."
"No one ever bel-… wait… you do?"
"Yeah," Fionna murmured as she lifted the crown.
"No! No, wait!" But it was too late. As the crown touched to Fionna's head, everything went black and Fionna's conscious mind fell to the power of the crown. She blasted the house with her newfound magicks, creating a safe passage through the flames for her family, and as they fled, she attacked the Destiny Gang until they all lie wounded and frozen except for Big Destiny. He fought back, and it was just as the hammer that he'd taken from Tromo's bloody hands, chipped and now sharp, tore into Fionna's belly that it simply became too much.
"Stop this! No more!" Flint cried at Prismo as the two, accompanied by Cake, Marshall Lee, and Gumball, all watched Fionna's wish pan out. They were safe from the effects of the wish in Prismo's Time Room, but if they left, they would become part of that world like Fionna had.
"This is how it is now, seeing as the Lich never existed," Prismo explained. "The only thing that can change it now is-"
"Another wish!" Flint cried. "I wish Fionna's wish had never come true!"
"But-"
"NEVER CAME TRUE!" Flint roared, exploding like never before out of pain and fear for the girl he loved.
"Flint!" Marshall cried, but it was too late.
"Alright, alright…" Prismo sighed, opening up a portal to the reality of Flint's wish. "Here you go." But he'd hardly spoken when Flint raced through the portal.
He pulled as hard as he could, holding onto Fionna with the help of Cake, Gumball, and Marshall Lee, trying to stop the Lich going through the portal made by the Enchiridion. But at the last moment, the Lich paused, and kicked Fionna back through, and the portal closed.
"Oh, Glob…" Gumball whispered, and the entire group was momentarily blinded by a bright flash, and deafened by words ringing out across the world.
"THE EXTINCTION OF ALL LIFE!"
Once they could see again, they all looked up to see the Moon growing larger… no, not larger… being blown apart from the inside. It shattered across the night sky, and it was only minutes before fiery grey pebbles began raining down from the sky, pieces of the destroyed celestial body.
"She… she really did it…" Fionna murmured, then looked to Flint, who was looking at her. "We… we're gonna die… Everyone's gonna die…"
"But we won't die alone…" Flint told her softly, wishing he could reach out and hold her like a proper boyfriend should. "I'll be with you, Fionna…"
Marshall Lee looked across the group, terrified as they all were, and he felt a deep sadness settle into his chest. "Wait… wait, guys, we can escape! Come on, we can go to the Nightosphere!"
"Marshall… she wished for the extinction of all life…" Gumball told him sadly. "That includes the Nightosphere too…"
"No… No! I'm not giving up!" Marshall roared, and suddenly exploded into the sky despite the danger of the falling grey meteorites, racing toward the person he'd once run to for help as a little boy: Symone Petrikov.
Oooh, that last bit was painful to write... What do you guys think of my take on Farmworld? I eighty-sixed the 'Jake the Dog' (or in this case, 'Cake the Cat') part of Farmworld in the interest of the fact that it really wasn't required for my plans for the next chapters. I also wanted to give Flint the chance for his wish. It hurt so badly to see Fionna the way she ended up, not to mention probably fatally wounded, that he thought of nothing but saving her from her own wish, thus dooming the multiverse once again to the Lich's wish. Love makes you do crazy things, and sometimes not the right kind of crazy. I'll get to work on the reality of Flint's wish.
Can you guess who the first 'duo' is? It might surprise you.
It's actually Symone and Marshall, because Symone's crown and Marshall's guarding over it is at the center of Farmworld's existence. Oho, clever, aye? Let me know what you guys think, and see if you can guess who the 'duo' from the next chapter will be!
-Taiylor Wallace