High above the clouds, Poppy took a deep breath and smiled as she leaned on the edge of the balloon basket. Flower tried to pull herself up to take a look at the view for herself up.

"Isn't the world beautiful, Flower?" Poppy asked as she helped her up. The princess nodded in agreement. "And just think of all the wonderful new friends you're going to make!"

"I wike making fwiends!" Flower said, clapping her hands.

"Alright," Branch said, opening up a book titled You And Your Balloon. "In a short four hundred and fifty-six pages, I'm gonna know how to fly this thing."

"Ugh, Branch, we don't need a giant, comprehensive manual," Poppy insisted, tossing the book out of the balloon to his chagrin. "How hard can it be?"

Poppy hummed casually as she pressed a button on a console, only to send the balloon flying across the entire Troll World!

"All right, Poppy!" Sheila B shouted. "Easy on the buttons!"

"Sorry!" Poppy apologized. Flower thought she was going to barf.

"Shh! What was that?" Branch whispered. They heard what sounded like snoring coming from the pile of cotton candy. All three of them pushed some of it aside to find a familiar face slumbering with his little friend sucking on his finger. Both were covered in the sticky sugars.

Poppy smiled. "Biggie?"

"Oh, hello," he replied, waking up. "Sorry. I couldn't help myself. You know how I am around cotton candy. Oh, dear! Now look what's happened, Mr. Dinkles got all gummed up!"

Biggie tried to shake Mr. Dinkles clean, only to accidentally send him flying out of the balloon!

"Mr. Dinkles!" he gasped, looking over the basket. Luckily, he was just stuck to the edge. "Oh, there you are. I thought you were- Oh. Right, then. We'll just be on our way-"

Biggie screamed in shock as he noticed they were hundreds of feet in the air!

"Poppy, wh-where are you balloon-flying us to?!" he asked, still surprised.

"We're on a mission to help Barb unite the Trolls, and I'm so glad you're coming with us!" Poppy answered excitedly.

"I did what in the who now?"

"Hey, man, join the club," Branch said sarcastically. He noticed his daughter playing with a flower he attached to a basket he snuck on. He pulled her away and tried to readjust it.

"And I hope you didn't eat all the cotton candy, because Barb is gonna love it," Poppy added. She noticed Branch and the extra basket, and cleared her throat. "Branchifer?"

Branch cleared his own throat nervously. "Y-Yes, Poppifer?"

"What is this?" she asked suspiciously.

"Oh, it's nothing, nothing!" he lied, covering the lid with his whole body. "That-that-that-that's just my... man stuff."

Poppy gasped. "I love man stuff!"

Branch didn't know how, but he found his entire body being lifted with the lid as Poppy found wooden stakes and stones inside.

"Weapons? For shame!" Poppy scoffed. Branch wasn't quite sure how to respond. "Violence never solves a problem, Branch."

"I'm not saying we have to use them," Branch tried to reassure her. Flower just climbed into the basket and played with one of the stakes. "I'm just saying it's better to be prepared in case we need them."

"We won't need them unless these pointy sticks help you listen or these rocks help you put yourself in someone else's shoes!" Poppy argued, putting on a set of brass knuckles. "And what about these?! Is this- What, I- Is this some kind of jewelry? Oh, it's actually kinda cool-looking. Oh!"

"Gi-Give me that!" Branch muttered, taking the brass knuckles. He pulled Flower out of the basket and took the stake from her. "We don't even know what's out there."

As Poppy nodded, Branch smiled in relief... only to watch her kick the basket out of the balloon.

"Wait! No- Oh, man" Branch groaned as he could only watch his weapons fall to Earth. Flower mimicked her father's facial expressions. "By the way, I whittled those for hours."

Flower nodded with a defensive scowl, although she wasn't quite sure how long an hour was.

"Branch, the only weapons we need are this guy and this guy," Poppy pointed to her own muscles, "for hugs!"

"Uh, you may want to take a look at this," Biggie warned. They all found themselves heading for a village in ruins, with fire and smoke everywhere. The four Trolls had never seen anything like it.

"This is gonna take a lot of hugs," Branch muttered to himself.

🖤☠️🖤🌺🖤☠️🖤🌺🖤☠️🖤🌺

The buildings of the village were quite beautiful... except for the fact that they were destroyed. They had the shapes and curves of musical instruments, which were damaged and scattered all over the place.

The balloon came in for a landing, and the four Trolls explored the ruins. Branch picked up a burnt piece of sheet music and looked around to find many more.

"Whoa," he said quietly. "Something gnarly happened here."

"Gnawly," Flower repeated quietly, holding Poppy's leg.

"Don't be scared, Flower," Poppy reassured her. "You're safe with Mommy."

"Hello?" a scared voice called out.

"Who said that?!" Branch asked, holding up a bow for a stringed instrument as if it were a sword. "Identify yourself!"

"Uh, are you nice or are you mean?" the voice squeaked.

"W-We're nice, we're really nice," Poppy answered sweetly.

"Yeah, but not too nice!" Branch warned. "So don't even try it."

"Okay," the voice said, and a tiny woodwind instrument with two large eyes and a tiny mouth rolled down a small hill to Poppy's feet. Poppy picked her up and held her gently.

"Hi, I'm Fwower!" Flower greeted, trying to brighten the mood despite how pointless it seemed.

"Oh, hi," the instrument said softly. "I'm Pennywhistle."

"What is this place?" Poppy asked.

"It used to be called Symphonyville," Pennywhistle answered, coughing through one of her finger holes. "Where the Classical Music Trolls lived. But... that was in the before."

"What happened here?" Poppy asked again, although a part of her had a pretty good idea. Pennywhistle explained everything.

Flashback

Symphonyville was the most wonderful place one could ever come across. A place where all of the Classical Music Trolls could live in perfect harmony. Wherever Trollzart the conductor led, the orchestra followed. Everything was perfect...

Until Queen Barb and her Rock Army showed up.

"'Sup, Trollzart dude?" she called out. "I'm here for your string!"

"We will not go quietly!" Trollzart said in defiance, and had his orchestra play a classical piece. Barb just rested her head on one of the bus' teeth and snored.

Barb gasped as she pretended to wake up. "Oh! Oh, I'm sorry, I-I must've fallen asleep, because your music is so boring! Where are the words, bro? Right?"

"You could get someone to sing an opera solo," Ash suggested.

"Yeah, what she said," Barb agreed. "Now give me your string!"

All of the Hard Rock Trolls turned the power up to ALOT, and destroyed Symphonyville with powerful blasts as they played a rock version of a classical piece. Once Trollzart was down, Barb grabbed his baton and snapped it open, pulling out the yellow Classical string. All of the Classical Trolls in Symphonyville were locked up and taken away with the string.

End flashback

"She took our string, our- our music!" Pennywhistle concluded. "She took everyone. We lost everything."

"I'm sowwy, Penny-wish," Flower said quietly. She looked up and noticed her mom's stunned expression.

"Barb doesn't want to unite us," Poppy realized in horror. "She wants to destroy us!"

Branch noticed how distressed Poppy's voice sounded as she placed Pennywhistle back on the ground.

"We need to make sure our own string is safe," he told the Pop queen, who turned around to face him with a guilty look on her face.

"Uh, our string is safe," Poppy admitted, pulling it out of her hair.

"What?!" Branch exclaimed in disbelief. "Poppy, are-are you crazy?!"

"I thought it was a good idea at the time," Poppy said, her voice full of regret. "I-I can't believe another queen would use her power for evil!"

"What's Eva?" Flower asked innocently.

"Okay, change of plans," Branch announced, scooping Flower up into his strong arms. "We need to get home as fast as we can and get everyone in the bunker."

"Uh, no," Poppy argued. "Change of plans. We have to stop Barb from destroying all music! If we don't stop her, who will?"

"Poppy, you said this could be handled with hugs," Biggie pointed out. "How are we gonna hug our way out of this one?"

"It's okay, Biggie," Poppy tried to reassure him.

"Really? It's okay to be terrified?!" he hyperventilated. "When am I gonna learn to stay away from the cotton candy?!"

"No," Poppy said, and then made a vow. "As your queen, I promise that I will protect you, no matter what. I... pinky promise!"

Biggie gasped as Poppy held up her pinky finger. "Poppy, you know you can't go back on a pinky promise."

"Never did, never will," she swore. Biggie and Mr Dinkles nodded at each other and he linked his pinky with hers. As the two Trolls spun in the air, a powerful shockwave was released, causing Sheila B to blow away!

"Farewell!" she yelled. Once the wind died down, Poppy and Biggie completed the pinky promise.

"Let it be so," Poppy said formally.

"And so it is," Biggie finished, pounding his chest with his fist.

"Whoa!" Flower gasped in amazement. Branch, on the other hand, wasn't so convinced. How could three Trolls and a baby take on Queen Barb and her army of Hard Rockers? Branch was worried about what damage she could've already done to Pop Village, but he had to keep going, to ensure Poppy and Flower's safety.

"This just got real," Pennywhistle said in awe. Poppy pulled out the map and pointed to a part that featured a desert.

"We have to get to the Country Music Trolls in Lonesome Flats before Barb does," Poppy declared, and turned to Pennywhistle. "Will you come with us?"

"Pwetty pwease?" Flower begged.

"Oh, no," she denied. "Someone has to rebuild. And Pennywhistle is that woodwind for the job."

Poppy smiled at the little instrument and put a tiny hard hat on her reed.

"Good luck, little Pennywhistle," Poppy whispered as Flower and Biggie waved goodbye.

"Goodbye, Poppy," Pennywhistle said quietly as the Pop Trolls headed off to save their world from Barb's tyranny.

Oh, Flower, why'd you have to be so cute, it's almost unrealistic?

The beginning of the next chapter, you might find kinda weird, so you've been warned...