Sunshine gasped and smiled hopefully. "You know my mother?"

Delta nodded, smiling at the young troll's excitement as she hugged Branch and Poppy. This was it! She had finally found her family! Branch knew that this was going to tear him apart emotionally, but it would be worth it to see Sunshine happy. The young troll gave Delta Dawn a hopeful, excited smile, not yet noticing that her eyes were showing a hint of sadness. "Your folks were a mighty fine pair of trolls."

Upon hearing this statement, Sunshine's smile slowly faded. "What do you mean 'were?'"

The mayor sighed and motioned for her to sit on her back. "C'mere, kiddo," she said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, "I've got a little story to tell ya."

…

(A/N: I imagine this part would be animated in the scrapbook format.)

"A while before you was born, there was a Pop Troll who went by the name of Dotty.

(A felt figure of a troll that looks a bit like Sunshine, only with more pinkish hair, pops up on the page.)

She fell in love with a Country Troll, Desperado.

(A Country troll with light brown skin and a bandana over his hair pops up next to her. Hearts fly around them.)

'Fore they was wed, he had a son named Rascal.

(A smaller Country troll with orange skin appears next to Desperado.)

Now, Rascal was super excited to have a full family, and even more excited to be a big brother.

(A yellow egg with multicolored polka dots is placed in the center of the family. They all gather around and Rascal hugs it, squealing "Yay!" as he does so.)

But around the time the egg was due to hatch…"

(Scrapbook format over.)

Ten years ago...

"Everybody take shelter," Delta Dawn shouted as she closed the door to her home tightly. Everyone in Lonesome Flats was struggling to fight the intense wind and rapidly flooding waters, locking and some barricading their doors.

As one family was fighting to close off the one gap between safety and certain death, the mother troll suddenly patted her hair and gasped in horror. "Where's my egg?" She grabbed her husband by the shoulders and shook him as she shouted, "where is it, Des?!" Glancing out the window, they watched as the egg was swept out of the sand by a strong gust of wind. The mother troll could have sworn she saw at least one crack in the shell. Whether it was from damage or if it was on the verge of hatching, she wasn't sure which outcome was worse.

"No, my baby," she cried, making her way towards the door.

"Dotty, no," Desperado shouted, grabbing her by the arm, "You can't! It ain't worth it!"

"Don't you tell me my baby isn't worth it," she yelled angrily as she shook herself free from his grip. Nothing was stopping her once she stepped foot outside.

Trying not to panic, Desperado turned to his young son, who was cowering in a corner. "Stay here, Rascal," he ordered.

"But Pa—" Rascal protested as he reached for his father's hand.

"I ain't gonna tell you again, boy," he interrupted, cursing himself under his breath for speaking so harshly. He took his son's hand in his for a brief moment, squeezed it tightly, and said, "I love ya, son," before rushing out after his wife.

Rascal tried to follow his dad, but the wind slammed the door shut, and he curled himself back into the corner.

...

"By the time the storm had finally passed, it was too late," Delta Dawn finished, "There was no savin' them."

Sunshine turned away from the Country mayor as tears began to well up in her vision once more. "M-my mom and dad are…" she sobbed.

"Sunny," Poppy said, her and Branch looking at the child with sympathy.

"This whole time they've been…"

"'Fraid so, sugar," Delta sighed.

This was getting to be too much for Sunshine. She had spent the first decade of her life longing to see her family, and now that she finally set out to find them, it all turned out to be for nothing?

Refusing Delta Dawn's outstretched arms, Sunshine slid down to the ground, buried her face in her hands, and let out all of the emotions she had no point in holding inside.

She heard Poppy and Branch's voices, but she didn't listen. She saw them walk up and attempt to comfort her, but she didn't acknowledge them. All her life, everything that she had always yearned for had never existed. She didn't have a mom, or a dad, or—

Wait!

Maybe she did still have a family!

"Ms. Delta," she said as she quickly got back on her feet, "Rascal…he'd be my brother, wouldn't he? Did he survive the storm?"

Delta's eyes lit up slightly as she told her, "He's always held out hope that he'll find ya."

"Well, here I am," Sunny beamed, "so where is he?"

"Hate to say it," the mayor replied, "but I have no clue. He tends to keep to himself most o' the time. Haven't seen hide nor hair of him today."

Sunny's ears and hair drooped. Could someone please just give her some good news already and stop getting her hopes up?

She felt a hand rest on her shoulder. "Come on, Sunny," Branch said, "let's just go home."

Sunny shook her head. "Not until I find Rascal," she said, shrugging his hand away. She began to march ahead, not knowing or caring where she was going.

"Wait, Sunny," Branch said, following after her, "I'm not letting you go off by yourself again. You don't even know who you're looking for!"

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," she retorted, "But I'm not ready to give up."

A loud screech blared overhead as they argued, and everyone looked up to see a large bird circling the crowd. "Okay, everybody knows the drill," Delta Dawn shouted, concealing her belt buckle from the bird's vision, "Just keep anything shiny out of its line of sight and we're in the clear!"

As all of the other trolls were tucking jewelry and Hug-Time bracelets out of view, Branch grabbed Sunshine by the hand and began walking back to the balloon. "Come on, Sunny," he repeated.

"No."

He stared at her as she jerked her hand away from his, shocked at her impudence. "Sunshine if-you-had-a-middle-name-I'd-say-it-now," he stammered; it was rare that he ever had to talk to her like this. "I have worked and worried my head off looking for you. Now that you're back, I'm not letting you go again. We're going home, end of discussion!"

"Do you not realize how important this is to me," Sunshine protested, all of her sadness quickly being replaced with anger, "My home is wherever Rascal is, and I'm not going anywhere until I find him."

"You didn't even know he existed ten minutes ago."

"Enough! Both of you!"

The two quarreling trolls turned to Poppy as she came between them with surprised looks on their faces. Her raising her voice in anything other than song was definitely a rare occurrence. "Okay, I get it," she said, "We've all been through a lot of stress these past few days, but it won't do you any good to take it out on each other. So let's take a deep breath," she mimed the action and urged Branch and Sunshine to do the same, "and hug it out."

As if on cue, everyone's Hug Time bracelets went off, and another screech rang out overhead.

Poppy and Branch hadn't concealed theirs.

They watched in horror as the bird licked its beak before diving towards them. "Well," Poppy joked half-heartedly, "I guess now would be as good a time as any for a hug." They wrapped their arms around one another, Poppy burying her face in Branch's shoulder, and braced for the shadow racing in their direction to make them a meal.

Then, without warning, the shadow disappeared. Poppy slowly raised her head, confused but relieved. "Well," Branch said, laughing breathlessly, "I guess we didn't look that tasty after all."

Poppy laughed along, until she noticed something was missing from their hug. Or rather, someone.

"Where's Sunshine?"

They frantically looked around, panicked, until they spotted the bird flying away with Sunshine gripped in its talons.

She thrashed helplessly in the bird's grasp, reaching a hand out to the trolls below. "Help me!"

For a split second, nobody seemed to know what to do. Before long, Branch found himself pushing through the crowd of gobsmacked trolls until he made it to Delta Dawn, jumping on her back and giving her tail end a hard kick.

"Ow," she yelped, annoyed, "you know I understand words, right?"

"Sorry," he apologized, "heat of the moment, kind of an emergency, after that bird!"

Poppy hopped on behind Branch, and they set off as fast as Delta's hooves could carry them.

They weren't going to lose Sunshine again .

…

Yep, starting off the new year with some angst.

Well, at least Sunny has some closure now about her family. Be glad I ended the chapter here and not where I'm starting the next one. You would have probably hated me.

Also, for the record, I'd been planning to give her a long-lost sibling before I'd even seen the second movie (the movie had come out when I came up with this story, but I hadn't seen it yet).

Stay tuned for the next chapter!