Roly-Polys On-Line!

This fanfic is also on AO3.

Back to the main Roly-Polys shrine.

It was a cloudless day. The air was fresh, but the birds did not sing as much as normal, for it was April Fools' Day (2019)!

Pon opened up his eyes to greet the morning, but he continued to lay in his nice, soft, fluffy bed, as he was feeling especially lazy that day. That was lucky for him, as Cho was feeling especially mischievous that day...

Cho knocked on the wooden door to Pon's home and said, in Banaten's voice, "Please let me in! I have invented the greatest gadget in the whole, entire world. It is the gadget that will change the whole world, maybe even the galaxy! Let me show you it!"

Pon was surprised to hear Banaten, but he simply politely responded, "Banaten, you may show me your world-changing gadget later today! I'm too lazy to do anything at the moment, and you do know I need time to relax and not think about anything. Thinking about things too much is bad for the mind, after all, and I've been thinking too hard lately, due to me having revisited my Photo Album of the World Tour recently. So, show me later today. I'm very eager to see it!"

"But, I really want you to see it now! Please! It'll only take a second of your time," requested 'Banaten'.

"I kind of want to see it now too," replied Pon. "But, alas, I absolutely need to rest for a bit. I promise I'll see it later today, though!"

"OK," said a disappointed Banaten-Cho. His first trick was foiled!

Cho decided to sneak into the house and write a letter in Pon's sketchbook. He wrote:

Dear everyone…

You are bad friends. You always discourage me from doing Nothing and force me to do things I don't wanna do. I feel strained around y'all, so I'm leaving you forever. Goodbye!

Love, Pon.

Then, he ripped the page out of the sketchbook, and sat under the Del Montas' tree.

"I found this important letter on Pon's desk!" he shouted, waving the letter in the air. "Come here and read it!" The Roly-Polys ran over to him and read the letter. "What do you think?" Cho asked everyone.

Banaten slapped him upside his head and ran off.

Jumping Jack Bu said, "The handwriting is completely different; it is not like Pon's masterful paw-writing at all! In fact... it looks like yours, Cho!"

Cho got beaten up by Bu and bruised badly. Everyone else watched the spectacle in awe. After it was over, they left. Cho's second plan was ruined!

"Third time's the charm, right?" thought Cho, as he plotted out his next trick.

Cho walked around Pon's yellow house, looking for windows. There was only one window, but luckily for him, it was next to Pon's bed! Cho looked around, checking to see if anyone was there to see him. There was! Banaten was visiting Pon. Cho, shocked but sniggering, hid in a nearby bush.

Banaten knocked on the door. "Hey there, Pon! My newest gadget is really cool! Can I come in and show you?"

"I already said not now!" Pon replied. "I told you, I'm too busy doing Nothing. You know I need to take a break from thinking too much! Come back at... this afternoon, maybe."

"Already said?" Banaten asked. "I just now invented it! Okay. I'll come back then."

"I really, truly wanna see your world-changing gadget!" Pon said.

"World-changing? I never thought of it as that. This is just a really cool gadget. I'm glad you think I can invent a world-changing gadget though, since that's my No. 1 goal in life. Bye, Pon!" Banaten waved bye and ran home.

"Bye!" Pon called. Then, Pon resolved not to say anything more until the afternoon, when he always was filled with energy, at least compared to his incredibly lazy state at the moment.

After the quick brown fox felt he was safe, he exited the bush and leapt through the window!

...And sailed straight over the lazy dog. "Argh!" He crashed onto the floor. Pon didn't even notice him, though! He just took in a deep breath.

"Pon! Hello!" Cho waved his hand over Pon. "It is April Fools' Day, my favorite day! I've been trying to trick you all morning, but none of my plans have worked so far, which is creepy because they always work! On today of all days they stopped working! What's happening? Is Tengu back for revenge?!"

Pon didn't listen to any of Cho's babbling. He simply tuned it out while meditating.

But the words 'April Fools' Day' managed to sneak in and start a brand new train of thought. Pon gave up and shook his head. "Oh! Hi, Cho. I give up on doing Nothing, at least for now, since it's April Fools' Day today, which means Banaten might be trying to trick me with his 'new gadget'! I'm not too worried about this as Banaten's my best friend, but, should I answer the door when he arrives, or not?"

"Don't answer," said Cho. "You're right; Banaten loves April Fools' Day, just like me! He probably has no new gadget! Just stay inside."

"Hmm..." Pon pondered this. On the one paw, if Cho was right he'd get to do Nothing, which was good for him. On the other paw, though, it was way more likely Banaten wasn't tricking him with the promise of a gadget, so he would get to see a cool new gadget, and while many years have seen him get to play with lots of new gadgets, this could be a revolutionary one; after all, Banaten did say earlier that it was world-changing, and even galaxy-changing, although then he became modest. Unless that was just Cho tricking Pon, and Banaten arriving was just a coincidence...

Pon got a little headache from all this thinking. He barked, "Look, I've decided to answer the door when he arrives, alright?! I just wanna see the gadget, and if there's none we'll have a good laugh instead of me chasing him up a tree. Final decision. But, for now..."

Pon said no more, even as Cho kicked him high in the air and sneaked away. After Pon fell back on his bed, he simply said his catchphrase, "Yesh!"

It was afternoon. Pon checked his George clock, which was George's birthday gift to him many years ago. He had his ears perked up for Banaten. He had no headache anymore and was ready for anything involving Banaten.

While waiting, Pon drew in his sketchbook. While he did notice the ripped off page, he simply shrugged it off, as he couldn't do anything about it, although he was a little bummed about having lost a couple of pages.

While he was drawing a cute, pink pony, the doorbell rang. Pon was instantly at the door. He opened it, only to see...

"Hi," said George.

"...Uh, hey," greeted Pon.

"Um..." George walked towards the desk, his feet making a funny sound as he walked. Pon. by now, had gotten used to the sound, so he didn't have to try hard not to laugh anymore. But, he remembered a particular time when he was a pup, and-

"What is this?" asked George, pointing at the drawing on the desk.

Pon ran to George and, embarrassed, explained, "Uh, just a pony drawing. Nothing more. Nothing less. I draw random stuff, all the time!" He panted.

"Why you panting over a simple pony drawing?" asked George. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. I just really want milk, but the store's all out, so I was wondering if you had any."

"Hmm, I'll go look in the fridge,” replied Pon. “Hey, I think I may have bought the last milk carton in the store! Wow!" He went to the kitchen, which was spotlessly clean.

"Wow indeed..." George whistled.

Pon opened the tomato-colored fridge, but suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Pon ran to the door and opened it.

It was Mr. Okhotsk! "Hello Pon! And George!"

Pon jumped in shock. "Hello Okhotsk! I expected Banaten! Welcome!"

Okhotsk scuttled in and Pon, closing the door, explained, "It's just that, I'm waiting for Banaten to come over so that he can show me this cool new world-changing revolutionary gadget, but instead, everyone else except Banaten shows up! I'm really glad you two came, but I'm maybe a little too eager to see this gadget, 'cause to be honest, we haven't had an adventure in a really long time and I'm amazingly ready for one now. Really excited. Anyway, off to get some milk for George."

Okhotsk said, "Ah, I see. I came because I thought you were having an April Fools party here, and I thought I could help you cook food for it."

Pon said, "Might as well be a party at this point! Thanks." He smiled.

Pon walked over to the fridge, opened the fridge door and finally took out the milk for George. They all sat down in front of the door and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

By this time, George had nodded off to Dreamland, so the sound surprised him, making him jump high in the air. Pon caught him and opened the door in a swift motion.

Las Vegas Akiko greeted them! Since it was a holiday, she didn't have to work, so she had her feathers on. Still, Pon was very surprised, and instead of welcoming her in, exclaimed, "What's with everyone except Banaten coming over today?!"

"Eh?! I came over so I could tell you something amazing! Hmph!" Akiko slammed the door.

Pon gasped. "Wait! I'm sorry for being rude! Let me explain!" Pon re-opened the door.

Akiko, after a few seconds, reluctantly came in and Pon explained the situation to her. "At least it's an actual party now, but still..."

Akiko replied, "Hmm... OK, I forgive you now. But, well, the amazing news, is that I'm getting a whole week off next week! So come over to my place to see the wonderful shows I'll put on during that week!"

"Awesome!" cried everyone. "Woohoo! Yeah!"

As they cheered, Pon heard a knock on the front door.

Pon slowly walked towards the door, and said, "If this is not Banaten..." Then, he opened the door.

A few minutes later, all of the Roly-Polys gang (except Banaten) was in Pon's house. Pon had fainted by the time the Del Montas had arrived, but George was happily drawing around the pony drawing, Jumping Jack Bu was doing karate on Pon's bed, Akiko was dancing for everyone, Mr. Okhotsk was, of course, cooking something in the kitchen with the various fruits and vegetables in it and some dog food, and Cho was standing still in the center of Pon's room and thinking of devious things.

Pon woke up, but continued to lay down. He sighed, for it was evening and Banaten didn't come.

A while later, he suddenly barked, "What's taking Banaten so long?!" Everyone jumped out of their skins.

"Hey!" cried Okhotsk. "I almost didn't turn off the oven in time!"

Cho's evil laugh was interrupted, so he said, "Well then-"

"Sorry everyone," said Pon, sheepishly grinning. "I just wish Banaten had come earlier."

There was a knock at the door.

In an instant, Pon opened the door.

As soon as Pon saw Banaten, he hugged him. "Finally! You ca-ha-ha-ha-me!" He had happy tears in his eyes.

Banaten raised an eyebrow. "Uh, wait, I didn't take TOO long, I just had to fix a few minor bugs and tweak some stuff in the world-changing gadget." He grinned. "But I'm most definitely ready now!"

Pon sat back down, grinning back.

Banaten took a bite of his fried banana chip. His eyes twinkled. He lead the other Roly-Polys towards the living room, in which Pon watched TV. They all saw a big box in the living room and sat down in front of the box.

Banaten patted the big box and announced his new invention. "This here is the gadget that may or may not change the world - let us find out together!"

Cho giggled.

Banaten sweatdropped. He started to carefully open the box. Pon ran off to get his food.

Ten minutes later, Pon's food was finished and the box was finally opened. Inside was...

A computer.

The computer was magenta, with blue accents. It looked like one of Banaten’s computers.

There was also a strange yellow rectangular box to the right of it.

Akiko scratched her head again. "Uh... this small rectangle is the world-changing gadget?"

Banaten simply nodded.

Pon fainted...

When Pon woke up, he found himself sitting in front of the Modem Computer, Banaten's new invention, in Banaten's computer room. The yellow dog saw that everyone else was also sitting in chairs in front of the magenta computer's monitor and were discussing among themselves about it, making a lot of noise. The computer was on. The desktop consisted of a wallpaper of the Roly Polys having a picnic, as well as three icons; the Trash, the Documents folder, and a shortcut to a program called 'Intenet Surfer', whatever that meant. The icon consisted of two black letters, I and S, bordered with white. Banaten was nowhere to be seen, even as Pon looked around the room.

"What happened to Banaten? Where is he?!" Pon asked.

Akiko, who was to the left of him, replied, "Banaten will be back; he just needs to grab some necessary tools."

Pon gasped loudly. "I had already been waiting for quite a while now..." He sighed. "Fine, I'll wait. But wait a minute." He looked at the clock on the blue and green taskbar. "It's evening now! Should I just sleep?" He yawned.

Akiko said, "Keep yourself busy with the Modem Computer! He'll come back very soon, don't worry about a thing!"

"What is a Modem Computer?" asked Pon.

Akiko facewinged. "The computer you're sitting in front of right now! It's called that, because it's the computer the rectangle is connected to, and the rectangle is called a modem. I don't know what it's for though, but I'm patiently waiting."

"Okay, okay! I'll wait, really. Besides, I'd love to see what's on this computer anyway," said Pon, as he clicked on the 'Intenet Surfer' icon.

What came up was called InteRnet Surfer, and Pon was confused, only seeing a white screen in front of him and nothing more. "What is this Surfer?"

"What? Me?" replied George before Akiko could open her beak. "I'm George, the greatest surfer ever!"

"Not you," replied Pon. "I clicked on an icon that said Something Surfer, and now there's nothing on my screen." He cocked his head. "What's going on?"

Akiko opened her beak and was about to answer, but everyone was chatting about various topics. George was chewing crackers loudly. The Del Montas were too amazed by the computer to say anything, though.

Akiko shouted, "Can I try and explain without anybody saying anything?!"

Everyone instantly stopped chatting and turned to Akiko, staring at her. George swallowed his crackers quickly, but succeeded in not choking because he drank some milk afterward.

Akiko looked at the monitor. "Internet Surfer... Huh, I don't know what that is, actually. I'm sorry. It doesn't seem to work for the time being anyway, though. Banaten will come and fix it, OK?"

The Del Montas started competing over who would leave the room quickest out of boredom, but Akiko ran over to the door and blocked their way out, so they randomly ran around the room.

Pon replied, "Alright sure, let me just close it..." He tried to close it, but the computer had completely froze! Pon decided to discuss with the others about when Banaten would be back. "Montas, can you stop running around for just one moment and tell me when Banaten will be back? Or make a guess about it?" But when they tried to reply, Pon couldn't hear them, so he shrugged and asked the same question to Mr. Okhotsk.

Okhotsk replied, "I'm sorry, but I can't even guess! Remember what happened earlier today? He said he'd come in the afternoon, but he didn't, only in the evening!"

Pon growled. "Don't talk about Banaten like that! He's an amazing guy! He even invented the Banabana spaceship, and lots of other cool tools! Can't you see he invented something that I'm sure is awesome and world-changing?"

Okhotsk said, "Yeah, but does that make up for the fact that he's been delaying quite a bit, and that too on April Fools' Day of all days?!"

Cho quipped, "Cool tools for fools..." He got slapped, but whoever slapped him has forever been a mystery, although they weren’t Pon...

Pon, ignoring him, whimpered. "But, Banaten's only delayed twice so far; he rarely does that! I'm really, truly hoping this whole modem invention and stuff isn't an April Fools' Joke... but you guys have gotten the better of me in past years quite a bit, and you've been quite convincing as well, AND one of Banaten's favorite days is April Fools' Day... Argh! I'm far too optimistic about him, so I'll wait further! I said earlier, after all, that if there's no gadget and this was all a prank, we'll all have a good laugh and I won't chase Banaten up a tree like last time, or last time before last time, or last time before last time before-"

Cho facepawed and shouted, "SHUT UP! I've had it with everyone arguing and ranting! I may even shoot all of you- Er, I mean, pull a humongous, hilarious prank on y'all... Before the day ends! Hmm..."

Pon said, "Okay." He smiled.

"So, um..." said George to Jumping Jack Bu. "When's Banaten coming? I can't wait any further. I HAVE to know what a 'modem' does!"

"Patience is a virtue, as I have learned from my training days," replied Bu. "You see, when I was a young piglet, like you, I was always impatient. I HAD to do this NOW, or learn this right away, or..."

George dozed off to sleep. Bu continued, "...luckily, Cho taught me the value of patience and hard work..."

Pon typed on the keyboard, knowing it wouldn't do much. He typed "Please come Banaten", "asdfghjkl", and lots more random key combinations, but soon, he got bored and said, "Akiko, please turn off and on the computer. I NEED it to forget about the fact that Banaten is taking an unusually long time to come!"

Akiko blinked. "I mean, I could try, but I recommend you meditate instead. You yourself said that's a wonderful form of relaxation. I've been using it too! So, I'll turn off the computer, but not on again, as you must meditate instead. OK?"

Pon replied, "Yeah, but this is simply not the right time! If I meditate now, I'll mostly be meditating about whether Banaten will arrive or if this was all a huge prank, bigger than any of Cho's pranks! I think it's because I'm rather impatient right now and the computer is not working!"

Akiko said, "I thought you weren't worried about Banaten! Anyway, it doesn't matter, because either way you'll be in a good mood. You said earlier you'll either have a good laugh, or a grand adventure."

"Guess which one I vastly prefer..." Pon sighed. "I know Banaten's my very best friend, but when I'm impatient I can't help but think-"

Akiko sighed. "Yes, but... Just, don't think about Banaten at all. There are many other things to think about."

"Yes," said Bu. "This will certainly help, especially if you end up having to fight anyone later."

"What do you mean, Bu?" asked Akiko.

"It is simply a helpful tip," explained Bu. "Chances are you won't actually have to fight anyone later, hopefully..."

Pon was finally encouraged to meditate. He sat in a cross-legged position, closed his eyes, and breathed in quite a bit.

Meanwhile, Banaten was waiting in line at the moonlit hardware store. He, being at the very back, facepalmed. So many dogs waiting in the line! He really wanted to get it over with, buy the wires, and run off, especially since Pon would be rocking to and fro right about now, but he couldn't.

"Hello?" Banaten asked. "Could you guys please hurry things up around here? I'm in a hurry for my best friend, Pon, who-"

"Shut up," said the pink dog in front of him. "I'm in a hurry too, but I'm not complaining or saying anything, unlike YOU!"

Banaten mumbled and grumbled.

Banaten waited for quite a while, but soon, he grew tired of waiting, and sneaked through the line. Suddenly, one of the bigger dogs caught him and looked closely at him. Then, she wordlessly threw him back to the back of the line.

Banaten shouted, “Sorry guys, but I’m far, far more urgent than any of you could ever possibly be in your entire lives! Seriously, I can’t imagine anything more urgent than preventing a dear friend of mine from getting so bored and restless that he ends up... trashing my house, or something!”

An orange dog shouted back at him, “Sorry, Banaten, but I need these wires, otherwise my promise will be broken! And that is the absolute worst thing in the world! Your friend can entertain himself just fine, I’m sure of it! Don’t worry!”

Banaten asked, “What promise?!”
“I’ll tell you later, OK?!” shouted the orange dog. “We’ll meet here tomorrow and I’ll tell you about it.”

“Sure,” replied Banaten loudly.

Finally, as the last, green dog paid for his purchase, Banaten talked quickly. "Ineedthesewireshere'sthemoneythanksbye!" he said. He paid the money, and ran away.

As the moon rose, everyone was asleep (except Cho, who was pacing in the kitchen). Banaten was walking home, panting. He sighed. "I hope Pon hasn't gone crazy from waiting. Oh well, it'll be all worth it..."

Soon, Pon woke up, hoping to see Banaten in front of him. But, he did not.

"Um... where's Banaten?" he asked softly. No one else was awake, it seemed (for Cho had suddenly fallen asleep on one of the couches).

Pon slowly got up from the chair without making a single sound, and tiptoed towards the door. He carefully opened it, but the blue door creaked a little, making Pon jump back and bump into a shelf, causing a purple vase with colorful varieties of flowers in it to wobble. Pon turned around and quickly caught the vase. He breathed a sigh of relief. Then, he saw Banaten coming through the door. He quickly put the vase away and ran to hug Banaten.

"BANATEN!" Pon exclaimed. "Thank you so much for coming but you have been taking so long-"

"Yes, I know, I know, and I'm very sorry, but at least I'm here now so you can stop going crazy," said Banaten.

"Yep," responded Pon. They went over to the MC and woke everyone up. Cho instinctively scratched at Pon as he was woken up, but as soon as Cho fully woke up he stopped scratching.

The hardest of the gang to wake up was Jumping Jack Bu, so Pon carefully tapped his eyelids and showed him a picture of the modem that Banaten took. Bu calmly woke up. That was the only way to wake Bu up without him getting mad and Tatsuro breathing fire.

"First off, we need to use some wires and cables to connect the modem to the computer,” said Banaten. “Then, I need to tweak the settings, and finally, the magic will be revealed!" Banaten and Pon grinned.

Okhotsk clipped the cables with his claws, and Banaten and Pon connected them carefully after turning off the computer. Banaten sat in front of the computer, and, after turning it on, fixed the typo in the Internet Surfer shortcut. "Akiko, why didn't you restart the computer for Pon?! Pon could've gone crazy waiting!"

"I decided that meditation would be better for him," explained Akiko. "Don't worry; he was perfectly fine the whole time, and even slept a bit!"

Banaten set the settings and opened up Internet Surfer...

But it still showed only a blank page and nothing else!

Everyone gasped and were about to rant, but Banaten said, "Guys, don't worry." He sighed. "I probably just got the settings wrong."

Banaten changed some of the settings and reopened IS. It finally worked! A site opened up. The site was the official Roly Polys webpage from the Wayback Machine. Banaten backed away from the monitor to let everyone else see it.

Everyone gasped.

Pon sputtered. "WHAT?! Wha-wh-HOW?! How did you find pictures of us?! How?!"

Banaten smiled wistfully. "Ah, it all began earlier today, while I was making the modem..."

"In fact, it was the middle of the night. I was about to (hopefully) get some shut-eye, drool falling from my mouth, eyes drooping.

"I was almost done with my latest new invention, the modulator-demodulator, a.k.a the Modem. It would allow you guys to access the Internet.

"I'll explain what the internet is later, but for now, all you guys need to know is, that I was (hopefully) almost done. I opened up the newly-installed Internet Surfer again to check whether the 'net was working. It was! But it was very slow at the time.

"I shrugged it off as best as I could, and the page open was the search engine Doogle. A search engine searches for pages on the World Wide Web. Unlike books, the WWW has pages 'scattered' everywhere and the only way to find loads and loads of pages is by using a search engine. I searched for our names, just for fun, but all that came up in the search results was random stuff about an alternate spelling of upon and places in Russia and Indonesia, so I chuckled and gave up, deciding to search for other stuff instead. I searched for funny game videos and tried to watch a couple of 'em, but I had to mute the sound to not wake up Cho, and they kept loading slowly anyway, so I decided not to watch them. I also searched for 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz' for fun, and found some more odd videos.

"I decided to check the bookmarks included with IS. Bookmarks are basically links to pages on the Internet, that are stored on the Surfer. Interestingly, there were quite a few non-default bookmarks. I don't really know why; maybe we can find out later! One of them was a series of playthrough videos of a strange game called LSD: Dream Emulator, made by a guy, Osamu Sato. There were also bookmarks of playthroughs of two of his other games: Eastern Mind and Chu-Teng. Anyway, one of the bookmarks was... this page! I clicked on it and was as shocked as you all are right now! But, since it was all in Japanese, I searched for a translator..."

Banaten typed in "translator" in Doogle Search. The search results included Doogle Translator. "And then, I used Doogle Translator, but the translation was weird and kind of funny, so I looked for an English version and found one in the bookmarks! Turns out, we starred in a computer game called Roly-Polys (full name is Roly-Polys: The Vicissitudes of Life; cool title), which is an educational computer game about us! I thought it was popular and had a lot of coverage on the Internet, since WE starred in it! More on that after we see the funny biographies of us the site has!" As he said all this, he showed everyone all the relevant pages. Everyone's head spun except Banaten's, for his had already spun yesterday.

The dog, Pon, commented, "Hey! I'm not 'slowly'! You are, Banaten, since-"

"But, I'm a genius! It says so right here! But it's spelled wrong," the monkey, Banaten, replied.

The fox, Cho, giggled. "I AM unfair! Yes!"

The pig, Jumping Jack Bu, blushed in embarrassment. "I'm not fat! Am I? Grr, I practice karate daily, thus I am not fat!"

"Yes, I do cook very well, thank you very much," said the crab, Mr. Okhotsk.

"WAAAAAH! I do NOT act like a baby! This bio is stupid," said the ferret, George. "But, our pictures and logos are cool!"

"I am not loud!" cried the peahen, Las Vegas Akiko. Everyone stared at her. "Maybe a little." She sweatdropped.

No one could hear the basketworms (the Del Montas)'s comments.

Everyone laughed at their bios.

"Yeah, actually I really love these logos. They fit us so well!" said Pon. "Especially yours, Banaten!"

"Yep, it looks like a computer-y font!" said Banaten. "Anyway, some sad news coming up now. I should've shown you the funny bios AFTER telling you the sad news... but, oh well, we have a funny playthrough video to look forward to. The sad news is that Roly Polys, the game we star in, is a lost game. The good news is that it has a sequel called Roly Polys: World Tour, but the bad news is that that's also lost. Both games were released in 1997."

"What does lost mean?" asked Pon worriedly, tilting his head, frowning. "Also, does the sequel contain-"

Banaten sighed. "Wait, let me answer your first question first; if a game is permanently lost, that means it cannot be gotten from anyone, or anything, at any time so far, and thus cannot be played ever again!"

Everyone gasped.

Then, everyone panicked and ran around the room, shouting all kinds of mean words to everything. "How could the internet users do this to us?!" barked Pon.

"I demand to see the creator and ask him to re-release Roly-Polys!" shouted Mr. Okhotsk, waving his tools around.

"Coaa! Coaa!" cried Akiko.

"If Tatsuro knew who to burn alive..." Bu growled.

"Alive? No! But, we must type an angry letter to everyone responsible for making the game lost!" declared George.

"Yes! Find Roly-Polys! Find Roly-Polys! Find Roly-Polys!" everyone chanted, forming a line.

Banaten shouted as loud as he could, "Let me explain!" But the voices grew louder and louder than he could ever shout on his own! He whispered into Akiko's ear, "Everything will be fine after I tell the gang the good news."

"Stop!" cried Akiko. Everyone stopped, since her voice was louder.

Banaten said, "Calm down, y'all. There's good news now, without ANY bad news!"

"Ya sure?" asked Pon.

"Yes, absolutely, for, in this case at least, Roly Polys and its sequel, Roly Polys 2, CAN be found! We just have to be patient," replied Banaten.

"Why?" asked Pon, crossing his arms.

"Calm down, and then I'll explain, guys." Banaten sat down.

Everyone sat down.

Banaten explained, "Well, games can become lost for a variety of reasons, BUT! Not to worry. The team who are looking for Roly Polys 1 have found copies of it, but they have to wait a little while for people to install their game and make a distributable copy of the game beforehand. I sincerely believe they're only 2 months or less away from finding the game! Then, Roly Polys 2 will be found, although it may take years as they don't know what copies there are of it, although they DO hope that there are possible copies floating around; they just haven't found 'em yet. So, keep up hope, and our games will be found!" He grinned.

Everyone sighed in relief.

Pon thought for a bit, but afterwards, he too grinned and said, "Phew! Alright, then. But, now, my question is: What are the PLOTS of the two games?"

"Roly Polys 1 is simply a collection of medium-sized cartoons and games featuring us, and Roly Polys 2... I found a link to the official site for it in the bookmarks and translated it! The plot: It's the Roly-Polys' first big adventure! They must travel all around the world on the spaceship, Banabana, and collect all 7 keys to save the celebrity, Otane-chan, from the villain, Tengu!" Banaten replied. "But anyway, it'll be awesome to see us on the small screen." He winked.

Pon smiled. He was glad to hear that it was the memorable World Tour they were on all those years ago.

George asked, "Uh, how did these guys take videos of us? Did we even give our permission for them to take videos of us for the games?"

"I'm pretty sure we did, but it's simply been way too long ago, and I have no idea how they took footage of us, so, let's just see the LSD playthrough!" Banaten grinned. "Also, our games are made by the same guy as the LSD game; Osamu Sato."

"Wow! He's a God!" George commented. He winked, unbeknownst to himself.

"What?" Banaten scratched his head.

"Never mind," replied George. "I don't really know what I said, anyway."

"Also, about the Internet," said Banaten, "it's basically lots of interconnected computer networks using the same protocol suite for communication and sharing information, and a browser is used to navigate the World Wide Web on the 'net and see those pages. You can even make your own cool websites, but we'll do that later!"

They watched part of the playthrough and had a good laugh, and then Banaten said, "Well, time to sleep now, guys! Go back home, y'all. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Goodnight, Banaten," said Pon.

Akiko said, "Goodnight everyone! And Cho, no foolin' us with your pranks!"

"Yep, Cho, no foolin'!" said Pon. "Cho, no foolin'! Cho, no foolin'! Haha!" Pon blew a raspberry at Cho.

"You can try, but what's the point?" said George.

"Aww, man," said Cho, snapping his finger. But inside, he was chuckling…

That night, as Pon slept, Cho hid a bomb under Pon’s bed, and went to sleep.

The bomb exploded just five minutes later. "Yesh..." Pon said, flying in the air.

The next day, Pon was the first one to wake up. By the time everyone else woke up, he was at Banaten's, on the Modem Computer (MC), having a blast searching for info related to their games and their creator, Osamu Sato.

"Roly-Polys, look!" he said after everyone (except Akiko, who was at work) arrived at Banaten's to see him. "Look what I found! I found cool info about our franchise! Did you know, that there's THREE videos with footage of the first one?! I haven't even watched 'em yet; I wanna watch 'em with you guys!"

Banaten rubbed his eyes and replied, "Sure, very sure, but wait; gotta brush my teeth first and stuff..."

"OK," said Pon. "Give me doggy treats then."

"Maybe, possibly, I can make them for you," said Cho.

"Not from you," said Pon.

"Why not?" asked Cho. "I'm a nice guy, deep down."

"Not buying that," replied Pon. "You're a big ol' meanie. Yesterday, you bombed my bed, and while I seemingly didn’t mind, I’m seriously considering putting you in jail. The only reason why I’m not doing that yet is because your pranks are usually sort of funny, so I’m giving you one final chance. I'm gonna go outside and do some cloud-watching while everyone else brushes their teeth and stuff. Also, it's not April Fools' Day anymore, sorry, so I feel as lazy as usual today. But, it was a very exciting day yesterday, and I'm glad the MC is real."

Cho had vanished by the time Pon had finished his speech, so Pon was on high alert as he ran outside.

Okhotsk ran up to Pon and said, "I'll cook up some nice meals for you instead, Pon!"

"No, I want doggy treats," said Pon. "Nothing else. Maybe some nice yummy meals later though."

"Alright then," said Okhotsk, scuttling over to Banaten's kitchen.

A while later, everyone was sitting around the MC and watching the first of the three videos. This video was called "Time Flies". The video obviously made Banaten squirm in his seat.

"Um, when does the video end?" asked Banaten multiple times throughout the video, each time louder than the last. Sadly for him, nobody answered the question; they all shushed him every time he asked it.

As soon as the video was over, Banaten dried off his sweat and said, "Phew! Let's watch the next one… unless it is as creepy as this stupid one!" He panted.

"It's not, I promise! In fact, it's lighthearted and not creepy in any form," promised Pon.

The next video was the intro to the Roly-Polys 1 game. Everyone laughed at their antics, including Pon, but Cho laughed the hardest, and after the video ended he slapped Pon on the head. Pon did not care in the slightest.

The final video was the Roly Polys theme song and some funny clips of the gang.

"Ho ho ho!" laughed Bu as he won multiple times in the video. Okhotsk simply smiled.

George laughed at his clip. "Delicious, yummy milk!"

"Cool theme song," Pon commented as the video ended. "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog..."

They sang it for a bit, then everyone left Banaten's except Pon, leaving Pon to make a choice: either continue searching for info about Roly Polys, or watch the clouds more...

An hour after Pon went cloud-watching, when he was writing notes in an important document on the MC, Cho tiptoed towards Pon and suddenly shouted in his floppy ear, causing him to make a terrible typo. Pon leapt out of the chair, but when he landed back on the chair, it exploded with a colorful big bang. Pon recovered quickly, shaking his head. “Cho, it’s official; you are going to be taken to jail,” said Pon slowly.

“Your pranks are getting quite annoying now,” continued Pon. “I can certainly recover quickly from most of them, but one, I don’t know how, and two, it doesn’t matter. You will be taken to jail.”

Cho pleaded with Pon not to do this. “Pon, no! Please! I promise I’ll be...” He growled. “A goody two shoes from now on. Why doesn’t it matter that you can recover easily from most of my pranks?”

Pon laughed menacingly. Then he shook his head and laughed. “I was joking! I’m simply going to show you around jail. You won’t be put in it... yet.”

Cho sighed in relief. “No more bombs, promise.”

Later that day, Banaten was on the MC, searching for the site he downloaded Internet Surfer from. He clicked on it, and noticed a note on the official PolyMedia Internet Surfer page. “Note: We have included some interesting Example Bookmarks found by a fan of Osamu Sato's work who works at PolyMedia," Banaten read.

That night, everyone watched the three videos again, this time with Akiko. Akiko sang the theme song, and her comment on the final video was: "That was a pretty nice video. In fact, it was such a nice video, that I want to see more of the game starring us now!"

On July 22, 2019, Pon woke up. He was more lazy than usual today, for some reason. Despite this, he managed to get up as he really wanted to check Roly Polys news, which he mainly did through the Osamu Sato subreddit.

A post caught his eye and he automatically clicked on it. The post announced, "WE SAVED ROLYPOLYS".

He downloaded Roly Polys and rushed to the middle of town to tell everyone the good news.

He barked, wagging his tail, "THEY FOUND ROLY POLYS! COME OVER HERE AND WATCH ME PLAY IT!"

But he could only hear excited crickets chirping back, "Sure!"

Pon said, "You're welcome to stay at my place, crickets, but only after I find my friends." Pon decided to visit their houses and see what was up. First, he went over to George's place, as he was usually blobbing out around his pipe-house anyway. But, he couldn't see anyone. "George? You there? There's something very important I need to show you!"

Pon waited. Nothing happened; only the cool wind ruffled his fur as he looked around the beach.

"George!" Pon called again. "Roly Polys has finally been found! Come over to Banaten's and watch me play it!"

Again, nothing happened. Pon searched the place. He looked beneath the waves and under George's items, including his lifeboat. But no matter where he looked, or for how long he looked, George did not appear.

Pon visited everyone's houses, but they weren't at home. Bu wasn't sleeping for Pon to potentially jump on (not that he would ever do so again after the incident). He also went to each and every store in town, and they weren't there either. Akiko was not at work, and Okhotsk was not grocery shopping.

Pon went to his home to search for them, but Cho didn't suddenly pop up. He checked under his desk, the fridge, the stove, and all around the house, including the bushes, but not a single trace of his friends was to be found.

The final place Pon searched was Banaten's house. He checked in between the mess of wires connecting each computer to another, and all the peripherals to the computers. He checked the basement too, but no one was hiding in any of Banaten's boxes.

Almost defeated, Pon got ready to search the last place he could think of; inside the computers themselves. He had checked everywhere else after all, and with no clues in sight, he was ready to try literally anything to get his friends back, or even a hint.

Pon opened up the File Explorer, and checked the Documents Folder. What he saw thrilled him.

Inside the Documents folder, there was a couple of ReadMe files, as well as 7 program files, each one with the name and icon of his friends! There was also a folder called New Folder inside.

Pon first double-clicked on Banaten.exe. "He could help with all this technological stuff," Pon thought.

Banaten popped up on Pon's screen and was greatly relieved to see Pon. "Pon! Thank you so much for opening me up! Wait... Never mind, that sounded weird."

"Haha! Hi, Banaten!" said Pon.

Banaten said, "It doesn't matter how or why we're in the MC now, since all that matters is to get us out as soon as possible. Open up the other... err... you know what to do."

Pon opened up all of the other, uh, "programs". George was the first one to pop up, saying, "Hey there Pon! I love being in the computer, since I get to visit the Internet without moving a little bit. YOU have to do all the work, lazy dog!"

Pon growled. "Where did that bit of meanness come from?!"

"I'm sorry," said George. "I'm sorry. I was just referencing the theme song. I wasn't trying-"

Okhotsk secondly appeared, saying, "Hmm, I may really need to get out of here. Unless... maybe I can restart my cooking show on the 'net! I just need a whole different persona... Hmm..."

Akiko came third. "I need to get back so I can continue my work! Please help us, Pon!"

Bu appeared fourth, with the words, "This could certainly be interesting. I haven't yet decided whether to stay in the computer or leave."

Finally, the Del Montas arrived. "As long as you guys don't fight, I'm not going to close ya," Pon said to them. They did not move. That was the only way they could stop competing.

Pon got an idea and giggled. "Hey guys, can I open more copies of you?"

"Nope, that's blocked; sorry," replied Banaten.

"Aww man," said George. "I would've LOVED to see copies of me runnin' around!"

Pon nodded. Banaten suggested, "Anyway, why don't you open up Cho.exe? He might be helpful, and you can always close him if needed."

"He does so many bad things to me and George that I may as well close him the second I open him," said Pon, growling. "Even after I took him to jail! Erm, anyway, now that you guys are all here, how to get you guys out of the MC?"

Banaten replied, "Ah, I'm sorry, but I haven't completed the plan yet. But check the readme files for important information."

Pon said, "I almost forgot," as he opened the readme files.

The first one contained a story about how his friends got abducted by a UFO and then ended up in the MC. The second ReadMe contained important info about his friends and himself, such as the gang's favorite colors, food, their most important values, etc.

Pon asked Banaten, "What's the point of the second readme?"

"Just in case," said Banaten, winking.

"In the meantime, let's just have some fun exploring the internet!" George suggested.

Banaten sighed. He explained, "Guys, I wish we could, but I just realized that explaining how we got into the computer, which is not normally possible, is actually vital to rescuing us. In three words... Tengu is back."

"WHAT?!" exclaimed Pon.

Pon commented, "Another reason not to open up Cho! He was worrying Tengu was back on April Fools' since none of his pranks worked!" Then, he fainted.

Banaten facepalmed. "WAKE UP, PON!"

George freaked out because of the extremely loud noise and hid inside the New Folder. Then, he freaked out again and fled from it, running all across the screen, like a screensaver.

Pon finally woke up after 10 whole minutes. In that time, Banaten had finally come up with a plan.

"Pon, listen," said Banaten. "Since Tengu is going to permanently delete us if we take too long to escape, we need to escape now, so we simply need to print out a picture of our icons, in color or black and white, and we'll be rescued. The problem is I don't know whether .ico files can be printed out, and whether taking screenshots will help instead or not. So, the plan now is to find the answers to those two questions by downloading software (hopefully without malware in it!) and taking screenshots!"

"Alright! Let's do this!" said Pon. He pressed the screenshot key on the keyboard, opened up the default Paint program, OSPaint, and pressed Ctrl+V. Then, he cropped out only the icons in the image. "Here's a screenshot! How to print it?"

"The printer's already connected, luckily," said Banaten. "Simply click on the menu and press the 'Scan or Print Image' option."

Pon did so and printed out the screenshot. After it finished printing, Pon picked it up and looked at it. "Guys? Are you finally rescued?"

There was no answer.

Pon randomly decided to blow on it.

Sadly, nothing at all happened.

Suddenly, George shrieked from the computer. "Oh no! The screenshot didn't work! We're doohoohoomed!" He wailed.

Pon rocketed into the air out of surprise.

"OK, then we just have to find a way to print out our .ico files directly. Calm down, George," said Banaten. When Pon finally returned to his seat, Banaten continued, "Pon, the .ico files are in New Folder."

"Thanks," said Pon. He clicked on the New Folder, only to see many text files! They were all labeled with numbers, from 1 to 100. The icons were also there. "Uh, can I open those text files up, Banaten?"

"Sure, you may!" replied Banaten. "But, only one at a time."

Pon opened up 1.txt. It simply said, '1' and nothing more. Same with 2, 3, etc. Pon started opening up random files. But when Pon randomly opened up 54, there was finally something! A hidden message, that is, which read:

'Zhununun! V, Grath, gevpxrq lbh! Pub urycrq jvgu gur gevpx. Gur gevpx vf gung V pynvzrq lbhe sevraqf jbhyq or qryrgrq nsgre gjragl-sbhe ubhef. Ab! Bayl nsgre gjragl-sbhe qnlf gurl'yy or qryrgrq. Lbh'ir tbg cyragl bs gvzr gb erfphr lbhe sevraqf! V bayl qrpvqrq gb gevpx lbh fvapr V'z ergvevat sebz gur onq thl ohfvarff, orpnhfr V'ir tbg rabhtu zbarl gb yvir ol zlfrys va crnpr sebz abj ba. Grath bhg!'

There was no message in 100.txt, so Pon stopped checking, due to lack of time. "Hmm... what could that message mean?" asked Pon. "Do you have any ideas, Banaten?"

Banaten replied, "Well, it has many repeating words, such as 'GevPix', and 'jig ragil sbhe' with a hyphen... Um... The people involved are apparently 'Grath' and Zhununun', although I don't know who those two are... Nothing else to analyze, looks like gibberish otherwise... rhyme! It could possibly be a code of some sort."

"I'm afraid I don't care about coding or whatever this all is," said Okhotsk. "Let's just have fun on YouTube. I've always wanted to surf the 'net and see what crazy shenanigans-"

"I AM the greatest surfer ever," said George.

Okhotsk mumbled, "Interruptions suck."

Banaten said, "Sorry y'all, but Tengu said 24 hours and we're gone. Deleted. Kaput. It's already been... 8 hours! Eek! Only 16 hours to go! Pon, search for .ico printing programs right now!"

Pon searched for exactly that and got... printer icons (i.e. printer photographs made into .ico files). "Argh! Sorry but I'd rather download all these cool looking icons than help you, since Doogle's returning randomness every diggin' time!"

"No! We'll be gone forever if you don't help!" said Banaten. "The world is in your paws now."

Pon took a deep breath. "Sorry about that outburst; it's just, there are only 16 hours remaining; I know that's a lot of time, enough to have some fun times on YouTube, but if we can get saved before then that'd be way better and I'd get to show you the proof that Roly Polys 1 has been found!"

Everyone gasped. "Show us now! You can show us now!" shouted Akiko. "Yeah! Yay! Hurray! Woohoo! Hurrah!" everyone cheered.

Pon grinned and typed in "Osamu Sato reddit", and showed his friends the relevant post...

"Woah, that's so cool!" said Okhotsk.

"Yeah!" said George. "Can't wait to see all the cartoons and play all the minigames! Then, we'll see if there's anything else in this game..."

Jumping Jack Bu commented, "I am sorry that it took so long, but I am more than glad that it's finally here!"

"So, the person responsible is Gohald," said Banaten. "Hoorah for Gohald!"

Akiko said, "Let's play it now!"

The Del Montas tried to comment, but couldn't as they couldn't move.

Cho.exe was not open, so Cho couldn't do anything either, but if he could, he would push the cursor forcefully towards the download link.

Soon, the game was installed in DOSBox and ready to play!

Pon said, "Hmm, actually we should explore the 'net some more, since there's plenty of time remaining! I'll set a timer for 2 hours though, don't worry Banaten!"

"Sure!" Banaten said. Pon closed DOSBox and the Roly-Polys explored the 'net. Okhotsk watched cooking videos, Cho watched funny prank videos, Banaten watched videos about obscure games, Akiko watched fish and reptile videos, George visited a forum about card games, the Del Montas watched nature videos, Bu watched movie trailers, and Pon visited a random page, which turned out to be a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic forum.

"Hmm... looks like an interesting show," said Pon after reading info about MLP:FiM on Wikipedia. "And it also features a pink pony..." Pon gasped. "...who looks just like my drawing! Shall we watch the first episodes now?"

George almost giggled mischievously, but stopped himself just in time before Pon could close him. Banaten said, "Hmm, OK! But if the alarm rings, I'm afraid we'll have to stop until we escape."

And so, they watched the first two episodes of MLP. Immediately after they were done, the alarm rang. "That was a cool show!" said George. "I wanna watch more later," said Pon, as he opened up DOSBox. Everyone else nodded.

After the intro to Roly-Polys Nanorobi Yaoki finished, Banaten jumped 'into' the game, merging with their copies in the game, and suggested, "Hey! Why not take a screenshot of us now? We're in our own game now, so maybe that will help!"

Pon said, "Okay, but I'll show y'all the rest of the game as soon as you're rescued, assuming Tengu is finally gone for good!" Then, he took a screenie, printed it out, and blew on it...

Nothing happened.

"Weird," said Pon.

George, with a defeated sigh, held up a white flag and said, "Let's just enjoy the remaining time we have..." Then, he fell asleep, with an unusually loud snooze.

Suddenly, Banaten suggested, "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you close us and see if we finally appear? After all, we can't be copied!"

Pon closed the game and then his friends. Then, he blew on the pic again.

Nothing happened.

Pon growled as he reopened his friends.

Banaten thought and thought. While he was thinking, Akiko remembered something. "Pon, I think it didn't work because Cho was not originally opened. Maybe if you take a screenshot with him open and use that, it'll finally work!"

Pon said, "Fine."

Banaten said, "Maybe if we decode the hidden message in 54.txt somehow, it'll give us clues as to how to rescue us. I honestly think that'd be more helpful than trying random combinations."

Pon said, "Hmm, that one? The one with Grath? If so, I may have some trouble with that. Frankly, it might be better just to try out Akiko's method first beforehand, and whether you guys are finally out of the Modem Computer or not, we can decode the hidden message together."

Banaten saw no problems with this, so he agreed to the new plan.

Pon growled as he double-clicked on Cho.exe. As Cho finally appeared, he stretched and yawned. Scratching his back, he asked, "What did I miss?"

"Sorry Cho, but you missed a lot of discussion because of your meanness. Unlike you, I'm not so mean as not to tell you that Roly-Polys 1 has finally been found!" replied Pon.

Cho got startled by Pon's loud voice, but a second later he said, "Oh, cool. Show it to me."

"Only after you're rescued, sorry," said Pon. "Also, even if you don't like it, you may need to watch a cool show, called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic."

"No," said Cho. "It sounds like a lame show!" He mumbled something unheard by the Roly-Polys.

"You'll see," said Pon, winking. He opened the game and took a screenshot of everyone in it, and printed out the screenshot. Then, he blew on the printed image.

Nothing happened.

"Whoops, forgot to close you all!" said Pon. He closed them all and blew on the printed picture again.

Something happened.

In fact, two things happened.

First, of course, his friends finally escaped out of the computer, through the printer!

Second, all of the printed images vanished.

"Hurray! Yeah! Woohoo!" Everyone cheered around Pon and danced.

“We should celebrate this by throwing a party!” said George.

"Phew! Wonderful! I finally freed y'all!" said Pon. "Now we must decode the hidden message, just in case Tengu returns. Then, PARTY AND ROLY POLYS TIME!"

"Eh?! You said we were gonna play Roly Polys first!" Cho growled.

"Don't worry, it'll be quick, I'm sure of it! I hope," Pon replied, opening up the message. Cho coughed.

"Hmm... Grath..." Banaten stroked his chin. His glasses glinted and he ate his fried banana. "Maybe we can just find a list of easy decoding methods on the Web and use those."

Pon searched for 'easy message decoder'. He got a lot of possibly useful links. "Welp, looks like we have to try ALL of these, sorry Cho!" He grinned.

Cho crossed his arms and sneaked away without anyone noticing.

And so, the Roly-Polys tried out every single decoder using a portion of the message. Banaten helped by deciding which decoder would be the easiest to use.

Just a couple minutes later, they figured out that the message's author had used a really trivial form of encoding; ROT13!

The decoded message was: 'Muhahaha! I, Tengu, tricked you! Cho helped with the trick. The trick is that I claimed your friends would be deleted after twenty-four hours. No! Only after twenty-four days they'll be deleted. You've got plenty of time to rescue your friends! I only decided to trick you since I'm retiring from the bad guy business, because I've got enough money to live by myself in peace from now on. Tengu out!'

Pon wasn't sure whether to facepalm and then laugh it off, or laugh it off and then facepalm. He was not surprised about the fact that Cho helped. Finally, he facepalmed and laughed at the same time. Suddenly, Cho appeared in front of Pon with a hammer. "Hello, Pon," said Cho. "Now that you've finished decoding, we can play Roly Polys and party! Or do you want to waste some more time?"

Pon rolled his eyes and closed everything on the computer. "I was already gonna open up Roly Polys. If you had knocked me out earlier, you would be the time-waster here."

Cho accidentally dropped the hammer... on Pon's leg.

Banaten picked up the hammer and stored it in a nearby shelf. Then, he ran off. "Guys, I think you too should escape the ensuing chaos that's about to happen." Akiko, George, Okhotsk, Bu and the Del Montas also ran away.

Pon growled. Then, he barked at the fox. "Alright, if you wanna waste some time, let's waste some time!"

The quick red fox fought with the lazy dog. They clawed, bit, and threw various items at each other, such as screwdrivers, computer mice, and rocks, in a dust cloud.

5 minutes later, they were on the ground, panting. "Ow!" said Cho. "Yesh!" said Pon.

"Let's just play Roly Polys now," said Pon, getting up. He sat down and opened up Roly Polys, then called everyone back. "Fighting time's over! IT'S PARTY AND ROLY POLYS TIME!"

The Roly Polys ran over to the Modem Computer…

They took turns for who would click on each letter. Banaten warned everyone not to click on the letter T, but it was too late and so he left the room while everyone watched the cartoon.

When Pon clicked on the hearts in H and in-game Banaten said "George", Banaten hid his blush by running away, but George caught him.

George, later on, said, "There are so many valuable lessons in this game, some of which I forgot, but most of which I've been practicing to this very day!"

The Roly Polys commented on the Roly Polys World Tour Promo included in Roly Polys 1, which they viewed after 'finishing' the first game (viewing all the videos, checking out all of their rooms and playing all the mini-games).

Bu said, "Check out that backflip!"

Pon commented, "Oh hey! It's me! Haha, I fell into the cavern. I forget how we got out of there, but it must've been interesting trying to solve that puzzle."

George said, "While I loved to get to go to a lot of cool places with you guys searching for the 7 keys, I kinda always wished we'd be done sooner than we were done."

"why?" Pon asked. "Because Otane-chan needed to be rescued as soon as possible? 'Cuz I recall you actually wanted to stay forever in some of those places..."

"No," George replied. "It should be pretty obvious why."

"Oh..." Pon snickered, pausing the video.

"Hey! Didn't you also want to do that? Didn't you also want to watch the clouds and do nothing?" George asked.

"Yes, but I also really wanted to save our idol, Otane-chan!" Pon replied. "Far more than doing nothing... which I guess is why I slept for a whole month after we saved Otane-chan." Pon unpaused the video.

Banaten said, "Can't wait for this game to be found! The style of the interface on the bottom looks like another one of Osamu Sato's games though, called Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou. I read in some pages that that is one of his best work. Maybe we should see a playthrough of it after this, or better yet, play it ourselves!"

"I'll certainly consider it, but if it's hard to run on here, we shouldn't be above watching a playthrough," said Pon.

"Yes, yes, but I don't see any of me in this promo!" said Okhotsk.

Akiko said, "You were underwater at the start of the video! Anyway, teehee, I was catching stuff in my basket, so apparently I was very courageous."

Cho pointed out, "See, Pon? I was also going on the adventure."

Pon replied, "Well, it's only because Banaten said you'd be helpful."

Cho growled and grumbled.

Pon said, "Check out the bunch of colorful cute doggies watching the koala show! Anyway, I played an active role in the World Tour. I was the one gathering the keys and defeating Tengu. Due to my laziness though, after we went back home, I slept for a whole month. It was very nice. See, there's me getting one of the keys from the... spaceship? It looks like just four stars though. I don't remember, never mind."

Banaten said, "I sure hope it does 'come' soon... By which I mean be found soon..."

The Del Montas winked. Then, Okhotsk realized something. "Pon, play the video again. I'd like to know whether the Del Montas are in this promo."

Pon did so and they all searched for the Del Montas in the video.

"Sorry Montas, but you only appeared in the Banabana scene," said Banaten. Of course, they started fighting.

"Anyway, apparently we gain Courage (to find Roly Polys World Tour), Hope (that the game will be found), Dreams (of the game), Friendship (over us bonding over waiting for the game to be found), and Wisdom (to know where to track down the game) by playing the game," said Banaten.

Pon laughed. "Banaten, haha, how can we, haha, find the game, haha, without playing it then? That's, hehe, a paradox!"

"Yeah!" said George. "Let's watch Eastern Mind, and then... Pony time!"

"Pon time?" Pon asked. "Haha, I mean, MLP time!" They all grinned, except Cho who turned around and was about to leave, but Pon grabbed him by his tail and dragged him to the computer. He was about to tie Cho down when Banaten shook his head.

Banaten said, "I don't think Cho will like the show if you force him to watch it like this. It's great that we love the show; shouldn't that be enough? Besides, I think Cho won't like the show anyway, even though it's a really great show with fun characters like us. Let him watch it on his own time, for I’m sure he will."

Pon considered this for a moment. Then, he shrugged and let Cho go. "Fine, but if you set off any bomb anywhere again, it's obvious what your punishment is…”

"Finally," said Cho. "And Banaten's right even then, right, Banaten?" Then, Cho ran off.

"Hmm..." Banaten was unsure. "Um... I think the punishment should be something else, since if he discovers the show himself he might like it a bit more," Banaten finally said. Pon nodded.

“Only jail then,” Pon whispered to himself.

Now it's 2020. Specifically, Mar 6, 2020.

The Roly Polys are laying down in a circle around their picnic blanket, just like Banaten's wallpaper. "So, what have we learned in-between April 1, 2019, and Mar 6, 2020?" Pon asks. "Personally, I learnt that I can stand up to Cho and beat him at his own game. I also learned that I should trust my friends and never assume the worst, both from Party of One - wow - and the Modem Computer being a thing. I also learned a lot of fun stuff, such as us being on the internet, (although World Tour's still not found yet, rhyme!), MLP:FiM's existence, and us having a lot of cool fans! Of course, the last part is what all of us learnt, so let's hear lessons that aren't common to all of us!"

"I learnt to get my own milk most of the time, and a lot of cool lessons from MLP, and that I say random stuff sometimes," George replies. “But that’s about it. It was a fun experience anyway, though, so that’s good.”

Okhotsk replies, "I learnt that making a new cooking channel on YouTube is not an option at the moment."

Bu replies, "Nothing! Teehee! Other than that letting your friend beat up your teacher is probably okay, especially when he deserves it..."

Cho replies, "I heard that! Anyway, I learnt some cool new pranks to try out on Pon and George (and maybe Bu) when they're 'doing Nothing'. I also learnt never to set off bombs ever again."

Del Montas reply with something unhearable.

Akiko replies, "I learnt... nothing! No, really, nothing."

Finally, Banaten replies, "I learnt that I truly can make the greatest invention ever, and that technology is wonderful and amazing- oh wait, already knew that last part. Another thing I actually learnt though, is that we, the Roly Polys, can stick together no matter what happens, and I couldn't be more prouder than I am right now of that."

Pon grins. "Yep."

Banaten says, "I also learnt that we have an actual fanbase, which is pretty awesome. To Roly Polys World Tour being found!" He gives everyone fried bananas, which they all eat.

The Roly Polys joined the Osamu Sato Discord Server (a.k.a Satocord) on Jan 1 to admire their fanart, and are considering posting on there...

THE END?

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Ella