Sugar Rush Speedway

Candy Castle Entrance

System Clock: 2012.12.24 23:09

She'd raced the Sugar Rush Speedways countless times, and knew them like the back of her hand.

She held the fastest lap times on Sherbet Road--a narrow, guardless track suspended dozens of feet in the air. She'd done downhills on the near-vertical Peppermint Pattycake Plains. She'd once carved a shortcut through Gobstopper Valley to regain first place in a race. She'd even skimmed the sides of Smoothie Swirlpool, and lived to rub it in everyone's faces. Taffyta Muttonfudge was not one to show fear, no matter what danger she happened to be staring down.

That did not mean, however, that she was incapable of feeling it. She would never admit it, but the tiniest bit tugged at her right now as she was escorted into Sugar Rush's royal castle by two walking gumdrop guards, both of whom were armed with candy-cane spears.

Single-striped spears, even. Their ruler had known enough to use the reinforced ones. If things got out of hand, escape wouldn't be easy.

Once inside, she slowly spun her head to look around the huge throne room. Truth be told, it actually wasn't too different from when King Candy had set up shop here. Still full of pink and candies and smiling faces and candy swirls and gummi ornaments--while hiding the bitterness which lay beyond each and every single one of its walls.

But front and center of it all, was the most important and influential piece of decor: a girl about her age, dressed in black, brown and turquoise, sitting on the throne. The girl kicked her legs back and forth with a happy smile as she stared at Taffyta, looking as if she hadn't a care in the world.

A couple of months ago, that girl would have been silently lying.

But things change.

---

"All hail Princess Vanellope Von Schweetz!" one of the guards called. Both stood at attention and set the tips of their spears onto the hard candy floor, giving off a loud clack which echoed through the throne room. "Presenting Miss Taffyta Muttonfudge, as requested!"

And as quickly as Taffyta had seen Vanellope's smile, it disappeared from her face, replaced with a look of annoyance. "You guuuyyyys! It's 'President.' Pres-i-dent." She threw up her hands. "Ugh. They even sound almost the same. How do you keep screwing this up?"

One of the gumdrops stepped back. "S-s-sorry, Y-Your Highness! It's just that-"

"HEY!"

"I-I mean, Miss President! Please, forgive us!"

Vanellope lowered her head into one palm. "Ugh. Just... just get outta here. But thanks for bringing who I asked for, at least." She looked back up and waved the gumdrops off. They slowly backed away, their spears temporarily pointing at Taffyta until they were satisfied enough to exit the room completely.

Vanellope shook her head and turned to Taffyta. "Sorry. I've tried to explain the title thing to them tons of times. Turns out it takes a while to break monarchy guards outta monarchy habits." She rolled her eyes. "Almost makes me wish we still got upgrades like back in the old days, y'know?"

Taffyta gestured around the room. "You know, in their defense? This place still gives off, like, every royal vibe imaginable. Just saying."

Vanellope's smile slowly returned. "Heh. Yeah, I know, you're right. Still totally has the princess mojo all over it. But look, if you inherited a place this big, would you complain?" She bounded out of her seat and walked towards Taffyta, who resisted the overwhelming urge to take a step back.

"I guess not? But I would complain about your guards dragging me here without even giving me a chance to get ready! Since when does our game support teleporting? Like, one second I'm doing a time trial. Next, those gumdrop guys show up and point a stick at me. And the last, poof, I'm here!" Taffyta sighed. "My ride's probably a wreck."

Vanellope gasped with delight. "Sweet! That means it worked!" She laughed. "Heh heh, yeah. Effective, huh?"

"Yeah! Effective! Also extremely rude! I'm going to have to build a whole new kart now!"

Vanellope simply blinked.

Taffyta stifled a low growl. Vanellope didn't seem to get it at all. Frustration drowned out apprehension for a split second, and she acted on it, stamping one foot and using her most practiced demanding voice. "Vanellope. Why am I here?"

"...oh. That."

The noise and tone did not go unnoticed. Vanellope's smile became smaller, and her voice became more level, taking on less of a squeak. "Simple," she said, walking towards an opening to the rear left of the room. "There's something I've been preparing for you for a while now." She nodded. "And I think today's the perfect day for it."

"For what?"

Vanellope nodded her head towards the side and walked through the opening, beckoning for Taffyta to follow. "C'mon. You'll see."

The second they were both on the steps, she indeed saw it. A huge sign marked "This Way To the Fungeon!" could be seen, clear as day, adorning a two-way winding staircase. The sign pointed downwards.

At that moment, Taffyta stopped fighting the fear, and let it take over completely.

So it was time, after all.

---

Sugar Rush

"Double-Sided"

Chapter 1: The Summons

by Bookish Delight, 2012

All characters and referred properties belong to Disney.

---

She'd heard tales of King Candy's Fun Dungeon. How Rushers who were either naughty on their own, or whose players made too many mistakes on the racetrack, were sometimes sent here after the arcade was closed for "time-outs." A minigame centered around the room had even been implemented at one point: Rushers who ended up in the Fungeon would be tortured--hilariously, of course!--in an effort to improve their stats for the next race.

However, the minigame had been commented out at the last minute once focus-group testing of the game had gotten under way. Fortunately, a console version of the game was never released, which both attributed to the arcade machine's lasting popularity, and made sure that one of the game's shameful secrets so far never saw the light of day...

...at least in public. The populace of Sugar Rush were still very much aware of its history, and Taffyta afforded herself a single shiver. She'd taken pride in never ending up there herself.

Vanellope noticed Taffyta's frozen hesitation once she was halfway up one of the stairs' flights. She called down. "Hey Taffyta! Why are you looking so..."

Taffyta backed away with a shiver. "This is why you brought me here?" she said in a weak voice. "We apologized. I apologized. We had a huge re-coronation race, remember? We welcomed you back!"

Vanellope followed Taffyta back into the throne room. "Yeah, I do remember all that! It was awesome!"

"Well, then, if you were still mad, why didn't you just tell us instead of disappearing for over a month? Just to pull this?"

"What? Taffyta! It's not like that! Come back!"

Taffyta turned around, making an outright running break for the castle entrance. Her footsteps echoed across the walls, double-time. "No way! There's no way I'm going in there! You can't make me, or any of us!"

Vanellope started to run after Taffyta, who by now was already halfway to the doors. Seeing this, she stopped, closed her eyes, and concentrated for a split second.

Aquamarine light surrounded her, then became her. One instant she was where she'd started--the next, she was directly in Taffyta's path. The strawberry-topped Rusher slammed into her and landed on the floor.

Realizing her predicament, Taffyta scampered backwards until she could stand, then ran in the opposite direction... only to smack directly into Vanellope again. Three times. Four. On her fifth failed flight attempt, the futility of her situation sank in.

Vanellope sighed and shook her head. "Look, Taff, we can do this all night, but I really don't wanna."

From her sitting position, Taffyta looked once more at the junior brunette, her mind flashing, for a split second, on the days when their positions had been reversed.

Sparks popped in her mind as she did so, bringing forth brief, scattered, vivid moments filled with anger and sadness... and she was quickly reminded that, current situation or no, things were still better this way.

Maybe.

She held up her arms in resignation. "Look, go ahead and lock me up. I was the meanest to you, and I've had it coming. But leave the others out of it, okay? They really were just following my orders."

"Lock you up?" Vanellope blinked again, utter confusion now written across her face. "What are you talking about?"

"Y-you know!" sputtered Taffyta, pointing back to the stairs. "The Fungeon! For the way we all mistreated you..."

The second the words sunk in, Vanellope's hand loudly hit her forehead. "Sheesh! That sign's gonna be the sudden death of me, I swear." She sighed. "Look, I only keep it around to remind myself of what I don't wanna become. But the actual place? It's been quintuple-bolted since I moved back in here."

"It..." A spark of hope made itself known inside Taffyta for the first time since she had arrived. "...it has?"

Vanellope nodded. "Yeah! It has!"

"So you didn't warp me here just to toss me in there?"

And suddenly, Vanellope looked hurt. Her eyes closed and her head angled low, a forlorn look crossing her face. It was the last thing Taffyta expected, and she was unable to help her pangs of regret at making the suggestion.

"I would never put you there," said Vanellope in a barely-audible voice. "It's cold, and dark, and sad--and I've been thrown in there before so many times, just for being myself. I would never subject anyone else to that."

"V-Vanellope, I..." Taffyta's mind went frantic, rethinking things from the new perspective. Meanwhile, Vanellope nodded towards Taffyta with open and wide eyes.

"I just wanted you here in a hurry. Warping you here was easier than having you take a really long drive from wherever. You got the royal escort and fast-travel 'cause I wanted you here in style! Though thanks to King Candy I've only got so much to work with right now." She paused and took a deep breath, as if to brace herself for her next words. "Sorry for getting all excited. I should have thought this through better."

"You're not going to punish all of us after all?"

Vanellope shook her head and sighed. "I totally get why you'd expect me to. I know it's been a while, but this game used to be run a lot differently." Vanellope extended her hand. Taffyta took it, surprised at its warmth as she allowed herself to be helped to her feet. "And that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about today."

Vanellope's eyes moved up to meet Tafyta's. The latter looked back into them, and saw a familiar-looking sincerity she couldn't quite place...

...and the images raced through her mind again, like a random-chance bonus stage; they were in pieces, they ran in a constant roulette, and it was impossible to land on anything that matched...

Taffyta stopped thinking about it, deciding instead to remember that she was no longer a prisoner. "I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions, Vanellope."

Vanellope winked. "And I'm sorry for scaring the underwear off of the great Taffyta Muttonfudge."

"W-What?" Taffyta recoiled. "You did no such-"

Vanellope put her hands to her cheeks, making with the morbid mimicry. "Oh, please, President Vanellope, don't throw me into the mean nasty dungeon! I'll be gooooood!" She cackled and bounded back to the stairway.

With a blushing laugh, Taffyta gave chase. "I take back anything good I ever said about you!"

"Back around the turn of the century, you mean?"

They went back to the staircase, upon which Taffyta afforded herself one last look at the sign, and a shudder to go with it.

"Hey!" Vanellope called from up the stairs. "Seriously, stop looking there. Unless you really do wanna see what it's like." She walked down and grasped Taffyta's wrist with both hands while moving back up the spiral staircase. "C'mon already. Your legs aren't bugged, are they?"

"Huh? O-Oh, right!"

And Taffyta ran up the stairs as well.

---

They walked for three floors until they came to a door, arched and encrusted with candy canes, sweet-sours, and jellybeans. This close, the smell of syrup nearly overpowered. The door was also five times as tall as either of them and three times as wide. Vanellope threw it open with ease. "Aaaand... ta-da!"

Taffyta simply stared.

Vanellope giggled. "Nah, I ain't that strong. It responds to my code. Who knew?"

"Oh." Taffyta walked in, and in moments was greeted with the most majestic sight she'd laid eyes on since the Fruit-Flavored Fireworks show last summer.

Cotton candy adorned the walls and ceiling. The desks were made of cinnamon and chocolate. Gummi bears surrounded the bed, some laying on it, some wearing clothes. The bed itself was propped by four huge candy-cane bedposts, curtained by fruit tape, and lined with sheets of wax paper and a cookie-dough comforter.

"Wow," was all she could say with a small squeal. "Fit for a princess, huh?"

Vanellope let out a long sigh and a sheepish chuckle. "Heh, yeah, right down to the crazy amount of pink that came with the place. Totally wish we still got upgrades. I'd have 'em get some green up in here." Her grin showed white, cavity-free teeth. "Maybe even some of those stone gargoyle thingies! I hear they become real at night. They'd be killer castle guards."

Taffyta held back a shudder at the mental image... then did so anyway as more flashed in her mind. Herself. Vanellope in a frilly gown. Both in a room just like this. Both scared out of their minds. She'd been here before. She was sure of it. "Well, gargoyles or not, it's still pretty impressive," she said.

"Thanks! This isn't what I actually wanted to show you, though." Vanellope approached a dresser drawer. "That's in here." She opened it, and took out a black box, with a picture of two striped lollipops crossed together on the top.

Taffyta peered at the box. "What... is it?"

"Well, for a while, whenever I tried to go to sleep, I could just... feel something calling me, over in this direction. And when I finally got up the nerve to go check it out, I found this. It says I can't add to it anymore, but I can read the heck out of what's on it. Um... well, most of it." She handed it to Taffyta.

"What's on it?" asked Taffyta, just one second before she took the box. It glowed in her hands, and she gasped as images splayed and scrolled across its surface--some of which she'd seen only minutes earlier.

Some of them were still. Some of them moved. All of them involved herself or Vanellope--complete in her princess gown--or both, in some way. On racetracks, laughing with the other Rushers, hanging out in or around the castle...

"There... there's so many," Taffyta breathed. "A lot of these... I don't remember them all that well, but..."

"Yup, that's what I said." Vanellope stood beside the mystified Taffyta. "All the locks on our memories might've been undone, but they still kinda got scattered all over the place. I know I'm still struggling to remember things. Finding this helped a lot."

Taffyta gasped. "So that's why so many things are still fuzzy to me and the others. It makes sense!"

"Uh-huh." Vanellope nodded. "This's like the door to my room. Responds to my code, except this door leads to a whole bunch more stuff. And that's why you're here. It's not just asking for my code anymore--it's asking for yours, too."

"Mine? Why would it..." She trailed off, looking at the images once more. "Hmmm..."

"I'm not sure why either, but I want to find out." She looked at Taffyta with pleading eyes. "Can you help me?"

Taffyta thought it over for a few seconds, then nodded. "Sure."

Vanellope squealed. "Thanks! Okay, so all you gotta do is put your hand here..." She took hold of Taffyta's hand, placing it on the box. "...and whatever hits your mind? Don't fight it."

"If you say so." Taffyta firmed her hold on the box, closed her eyes, and began to concentrate, only to find out she didn't need to. The box freely offered its contents, and did so with energy.

Her head felt light and tingly. The world around her pixelated into nothingness. Through her mind, she could feel holes being filled, scraps being glued together, blurry images clearing.

The restoration had begun.