DEAR IVY
Chapter 1: True Colors
Dear Ivy
So, here I am, in a strange new world, full of things I haven't even begun to figure out how to describe. Black stone roads, crawling with bizarre metallic bugs with rubber feet. Metal trees bearing weird glowing fruit that change color. I tried one and they taste terrible.
I miss you sooooooooooooooooooo much. And that's with 19 o's so you know it's a lot. Hop Pop says it'll help if I write to you. He said it helped him when he was on his travels many years ago, and… I guess this is sort of a travel. I have no idea how any of these letters are going to get to you. Anne's world does have a post office but she says that nobody uses it anymore except to send bills and junk mail, and anyway I don't think they can deliver to another dimension. But I promise I'll hold on to these letters until I can finally give them to you.
I guess I should start with everything that happened since we left for Newtopia. Once we landed, Marcy took us right away to King Andrias to send Anne and her friends back, but as soon as we got there, all of a sudden Sasha and Grime stole the music box, beat up the king, and had us all rounded up. Turns out he had a bunch of soldiers already set up in the city, and lots, lots more on the way. Wow, who could have possibly foreseen – me, I foresaw it, I totally foresaw it, never trusted them for a minute.
So there we were, being led down to the dungeons. I had never seen Anne this mad before. It's kinda strange how people used to think of her as some kind of beast but then we all got used to her, but right now, I was starting to remember why people did. Because she was big and strong enough to take down the toads who were leading her along. Still, there were a lot more, maybe more than she could handle. And then we were rescued by… you'll never guess.
I'm talking General Yunan. THE General Yunan. Scourge of the Sand Wars, defeater of Ragnar the Wretched, and the youngest newt ever to achieve the rank of general in the great Newtopian army! Right there! In the flesh! And she was every bit as legendary as the stories say! She took down the toad soldiers like they were tadpoles. I'm really sorry I didn't have the time to get you her autograph but we were kind of pressed… what with the whole invasion going on. Lady Olivia – remember her? – was also with her, and between the two of them they were able to sneak us out of the castle dungeon.
We escaped to an abandoned deli and we had a whole new problem; we had to free the King and take back the city. Just the [I am counting on my fingers right now] eight of us. Anne came up with a plan; Hop Pop, Marcy and Olivia would free the king, Polly, Yunan and Frobo distract the toad troops, And as for me and Anne, it was up to us to take down Sasha and Grime themselves.
And let me tell you… I totally kicked his butt! I even got to bash his ugly face in with this huge rocket-powered Warhammer… you know, I think it might actually have been the one that belonged to Barrel the Brave himself. Now there's a toad I would've loved to meet. I didn't get to see Anne beat Sasha, but I bet that was epic too.
So, long story short, the others managed to free the king, we sealed the gates to the city so the Toad Army couldn't get in, and it looked like everything was going to be okay. Well, there was the whole thing where we were going to have to say goodbye to Anne and Marcy (and Sasha, I guess, but good riddance to her), but I rationalized that as long as the King had the box, we could go back and forth between her world and ours whenever we wanted, so it wasn't a permanent goodbye.
I was so wrong…
So, Anne handed over the box, and, suddenly, everything went horribly wrong. The King started going on about how Amphibia used to be a glorious empire that conquered many worlds, and that he was going to invade Anne's world next! Then he set the music box down on this stand thingy, and all of a sudden, the whole caste just rips itself out of the ground and starts lifting itself up into the air! Then he blows up Toad Tower with some sort of lightning beam that came out of the top of the castle, and calls in an army of dozens of Frobos to surround us!
And just when you think things can't get any crazier, Marcy dropped a huge mudshell… it turned out she knew the whole time that the music box could send people to different worlds… in fact, she wanted to run away from Anne's world, and made a deal with the King that instead of sending them bac, they would all get to use the box to travel to all sorts of new worlds in some kind of endless adventure like one of those Arpee Gees she's always talking about.
And the King just looks her in the eye and tells her that he was lying to her the whole time. All he wanted was the music box and he was just stringing her along until he got it. Then he ordered his Frobos to kill us. We kinda needed all the help we needed at that point so we cut Sasha and Grime loose, and together we trashed a whole bunch of bots. It was looking good until Andrias pulled this huge fire sword out and smashed it into the ground! If it seems like I'm going really fast, well, that's just how crazy this whole thing was getting! Anyway, he was about to stomp on Polly, but Frobo – our Frobo – tried holding him back, but Andrias smashed him to pieces with one punch, and then was about to do the same thing to Polly! But, as if there wasn't enough going on, Polly picked that moment for her legs to pop! Heh, remember when you got your legs a week before I did and you kept lording them over me until mine grew in? You were such a terror…. And I feel like Polly's gonna make you look tame.
Anyway, she made a run for the box and grabbed the box! And I was so distracted that I didn't even notice when Andrias grabbed me. He threatened to drop me out the window unless Polly put the box back. I told her not to do it. I figured I was okay because I think I read somewhere that frogs can glide. Well, she put it back, but the King dropped me out the window anyway, and it turns out frogs can not glide. I'm honestly not even sure where I read that they could, it might have been a dream or something.
Well, don't worry, I was okay… I mean, obviously, I lived to write this letter. Marcy managed to get on Joe Sparrow and save me.
Well, I must have missed something, because when we got back up there, the whole throne room was all smashed up and all the remaining Frobos were scrap. Polly told me later that when Andrias dropped me, Anne started getting all glowy and her hair turned blue, and she started beating the mucus outta the King. I… guess that's a thing humans can do? I really don't know a lot about humans. Anyway, it was all over by the time we showed up… I guess her power boost wore off, and she was really out of it. And more important, Andrias wasn't, and was about to finish her off.
But right then, the castle began shaking. Marcy had grabbed the box, and opened an escape portal for everyone. Anne managed to get Polly, Hop Pop, and me to it and Marcy was right behind us… when…
…well, like I said, I really don't know a lot about humans, but I assume it's pretty bad when you shove a fire sword through one's back. The portal sent us away before we could see how things turned out, but Anne seems sure that Marcy's going to be okay, and I guess she would know better… so I'm gonna assume she does, which is good, because maybe Marcy told some lies, but in the end, I wouldn't be here writing this letter if it wasn't for her.
And I guess I hope Sasha and Grime are okay too. Well, a lot less than Marcy, but like, I wouldn't want them to die or anything. The did have our back in the fight, after all.
Okay, this letter's getting long and I do not have the attention span to keep writing right now, so I'll tell you the rest in the next one. Bye for now!
Hoppily yours
Sprig
A.N.: Well, Anne's Journal was left back in the Plantars' house, so there was no way she could have recorded the events of "True Colors" in it, but I had to touch on them somehow, and I figured Sprig wouldn't want to leave out how they got to Earth inn the first place.
Next: The New Normal