THE ROCK FESTIVIALLLLLL

"HIBBY!" Duskie yelled, nudging Hibby awake. "Hibby, Hibby, Hibby, Hibby... wake up! It's time for us to go to the festival!"

Hibby opened an eye (luckily, his visible one) and turned his head.

"The Rocks And Gems Festival, remember!?" Duskie pulled out a flyer and pointed it directly at her. "I bet they have a rock-eating contest!"

"Duskie, you are the only soapuppy in a 50 mile radius who eats rocks around here!" Knight yelled.

Well, maybe there's a soapuppy 51 miles away who just loves to chow them on them! And maybe we can be friends!

Hibby stirred, stretched, and walked out of bed, making sure to stretch their back legs in the process.

"Come on!" Duskie yelled. "Let's go!" And with that, he ran out the door, Hibby walking behind him.

"HIBBY! Hibby, look at this!" Duskie yelled. "You turn the little crank and it winds up and it gives you a little rock and the rocks are nice and tasty-" He said this as he was winding the crank again, causing a rock to be deposited right into a spot meant specifically for it, and Duskie paused to gulp the tiny peddle whole.

Hibby walked over to him and watched as he turned the crank again. "... I believe I understand how this machine works." She signed. "By turning the crank, you deposit some of your own magic to be used to create a peddle."

"If I eat the peddles after they come out, does that mean that I'm eating my own magic back into my body?" Duskie asked, still turning the crank. He took a moment to lick up two peddles with his tongue, then turned back to face Hibby again, who pointed their paw at a sign saying 'PLEASE DON'T SPEND ALL DAY HERE'.

Duskie winced. "How long has that been there?! What is that doing here!?"

"And now..." The announcer said. "The World's Greatest Ever Rock Trap! Who'd like to go first through it?"

"ME!" Duskie yelled, jumping up in the air. "Me, me, me, me, me-"

Hibby raised a paw and the announcer picked him.

"Save me the delicious rocks!" Duskie yelled as Hibby went into the transparent box, wherein a giant rock fell right behind her. She ran off, instantly, jumping through hoops and running up ramps, all while the rock followed close behind, and at the end she jumped through a magical pond and hopped out behind Duskie, starling him. All and all, it had gone off like clockwork- a perfect ride with no risk of injuring the soapuppy inside.

The rock teleported back to it's original place.

"Does anyone else-?"

"ME!" Duskie yelled, raising his paw and causing some foamy soap to fall from it. "Me, me, me me me me ME!"

"Of course. Now, step over here and..."

Duskie's first action, of course, was to turn around, open his jaws wide as they could, and-

"Sir- SIR, YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO EAT THE ROCK!"

After Duskie had gotten kicked out of the Trap, he just decided to start skipping around and singing.

"Five tasty crystals, all sparkling so bright..." He sung. "All shone enough to sparkle through the night!"

Hibby smiled at him.

"Four shining stars! All granting every wish!" He spun around. "Every one wanting eternal bliss!"

Hibby sung a melody herself, purring and spinning with him.

"...Duskie, why are you singing?"

"Three brothers together, one dumber than the rest!" Duskie stuck out his tongue. "Who will be the one to withstand God's eternal test?"

"You're making up rhymes on the spot, aren't you?"

"Two singing lovers!" Duskie yelled, getting up close to Hibby. He nuzzled her face before continuing on. "Two shining stars! Uh, um- MARS!"

Knight snorted and Duskie winced, but... seeing Hibby hit those notes brought a smile to his face, and he took a deep breath and sung with all his heart and soul.

"One perfect moment, two joined as one!" Duskie smiled. "And so the song ends just like as it began!"

"This is a meteorite." Siffrin said, showing off a shiny multicolored rock. "It's from space, and it's said that it absorbed magic from the stars-"

"Siffrin!" Duskie ran over to him. "I didn't expect to see you here!"

"Duskie!" Siffrin tapped on his meteorite. "And Straybow! Straybow, do you know about the magical properties of meteorites?"

"Meteorites hold a large amount of magical energy collected from space." Hibby signed. "It is said if you break a meteorite open with a single strike and wish for something with all of your heart, that your wish will come true due to the magic released by the blow. It is also said that someone once trapped themselves in a time loop with such a wish, and that is why you should make sure to wish carefully so that you don't end up trapping yourself in a similar fate."

"Wow, you know a lot about magic!" Duskie yelled.

"I guess you can say these rocks are pretty... space-ious." Siffrin snorted.

Duskie then proceeded to try to eat the meteorite whole, causing Siffrin to have to chase him off with a broom.

It was day two of the festival. Duskie was currently pondering many, many things.

"Hibby..." Duskie asked. "How come there aren't any buffet carts?"

Hibby spat out her drink. "Duskie, you know you're the only one who-"

"Only one out of all of you!" Duskie yelled. "But this is a festival for rock enthusiasts! How come I'm the only person around who enjoys eating rocks!?" His ear twitched and he grit his teeth. "I'm serious! Why isn't there anybody else here who enjoys eating rocks?"

"Actually, it's because all the rock eaters went to this other festival!" Siffrin said, holding up the flyer for the 'Eater Of Inedible Objects Convention', or EIOcon for short. "Apparently there's even a star-eater there..."

"... THERE WAS ANOTHER FESTIVAL!?" Duskie yelled, loud enough to break the sound barrier. "But it's so far away! Even if I flew there right now I'd never get there in time!" He sighed. "I guess I'll settle for this one..."

Hibby gave Duskie some sympathy pats on the back, and Duskie's attention was soon grabbed away by a stand exhibiting beautiful and tasty-looking gemstones! He. Needed. Those.

Duskie was running place to place, ready to try all sorts of new gemstones. Day 2 was really when people started showing off their shinest, tastiest gemstones and their prettiest rocks, and Duskie had spent at least half the day drooling over them.

However, he now had a problem.

"We're out of Duckies." Duskie said, starting at the empty hole in his pockets where Duckies once were, but now aren't.

Hibby sighed, shrugged, and carried on.

"Hibby, what if there's a tasty looking gemstone and I can't afford it?!" Duskie yelled. "We're out of Duckies! That's not good at all! What if there's a national rock shortage and-"

Hibby put a paw to Duskie's mouth. "Shhhhh." He went with his mouth, shushing Duskie. "Shhhhhhhh."

Pure shock froze Duskie, and he settled down. "You're right." He sighed. "I guess I'll have to do something else."

After that, Duskie decided to take a break from the festival and ran out into the woods, where he was greeted by-

"Barkley!" Duskie yelled.

Barkley wagged his tail and smiled in response. "Duskie!"

"What are you doing here?" Duskie asked. "Are you here for the festival?"

"I'm here because Siffrin said he was going to do something really, really cool involving a meteorite today!" Barkley yelled. "Wanna see?"

"A meteorite-?" Duskie then remembered yesterday. "Hibby, we gotta turn back, now! Or we might miss something really really cool!" He ran off back towards the festival, Hibby and Barkley in tow.

"First!" Siffrin grinned. "This meteorite is only a meter long! This means it's a... meter-ite!"

The audience groaned, and as the trio shuffled into said audience Duskie hoped that this wasn't just going to all be meteorite puns- but Barkley said it was something 'really, really cool' and if those were Siffrin's own words, then-

He bumped into a white and green rabbit with ice on their legs. "Sorry!" He yelled out, before moving into a proper spot.

"It's the final hour of the festival!" Someone said, and which that prompted Duskie to look up and- oh, that was indeed the sun setting.

It took a few more puns before Siffrin pushed the meteorite off of the table. "And now... For my final act, I shall perform..." He stepped back from it, before moving to run right at it as if it were an enemy that needed fighting. "BUY ONE, GET ONE THREE!"

He slashed right through it. The cut glowed dazzlingly in the night sky, and above it was a tiny little '3' just floating above it.

"Siffrin!" Duskie yelled. "You used a wish for a party trick?!"

Siffrin paused. Duskie continued

"If I had that meteorite, I would have wished for... A LIFETIME SUPPLY OF ROCKS!"

"Duskie-"

Hibby tapped Duskie's shoulder. "You have a lifetime supply of rocks." She signed, before gesturing to the ground below. "Look, they're all around us."

"What she said."

Duskie gasped. "THE LEFTOVER MAGIC FROM THE METEORITE MADE MY WISH COME TRUE!" He squealed, and then started to lick rocks off the ground like some sort of animal that wasn't a cat.

"DUSKIE!"

"Hibby, let's cuddle together..." Duskie mumbled sleepily, curled up in his bed.

Hibby tapped on his shoulder, causing him to look up with tired eyes.

"Tomorrow needs to have an important thing done, first." She signed.

"Wha... I didn't know..." He mumbled. "...Then why'd you go with me?"

Hibby nuzzled Duskie's face, then signed. "Because I love you, dear."

Duskie squeaked. "T- Thank you..." He closed his eyes, smiling. "I hope you get your thing done..."

He drifted off, and awoke to a note and a meal nice and ready for him, cooked and preserved with love and magic. Even added a gemstone at the side- which his brothers had... opinions about.

"YOU DON'T NEED TO ENABLE HIM, STRAYBOW!"

"Why... Hibiscus..."

You're just jealous because it's yummy! Duskie hopped off the bed, hopped towards the meal, and went to work.