The sky was a pastel purple this time. Tori instantly recognised this place. This was the field that she had seen in her dreams those two times. The field was much larger this time - the grass stretched out as far as the eye could see. And the pigs were still there, too. Tori smiled wide. She loved the pigs.

One of the pigs bumped her left leg with its nose. Tori looked down at it and said, “Hey, Steve!! How’s it goin’, buddy?”

Steve oinked. Tori crouched down and gave Steve a pat on the head. After a few moments, Steve nudged Tori’s hand away and returned to eating grass.

“Fair enough, buddy.” Tori stood up and looked around. “So is my test to pat all the pigs? That’s…! …That’s a lot of pigs.”

But there wasn’t any time to waste! Tori began to walk to the north, stopping to pet every pig she came across for a few seconds. Things were smooth going for the first couple of minutes, until she encountered a very strange pig. This pig was vibrant green instead of the light tan of the other pigs, and was visibly angry. For some reason, its eyes had a red shine in them. It glared up at Tori.

“Uh… Hey, buddy!” Tori nervously greeted the green pig, waving a little.

The green pig remained silent.

“You look a little mad right now, buddy. Do you not want a pat?”

The green pig rammed into Tori’s legs, knocking her to the ground.

“What the heck, man?”

The green pig ran up to her and stomped on her stomach. Even through her thick uniform, it still hurt. She sat up, and looked down at the pig.

“I don’t wanna hurt you, okay? Give it a rest!” she told it.

The green pig didn’t listen, and pushed her to the ground and stomped on her again. After whispering an apology, Tori threw the green pig off her body and fired a PK Fire Gamma at it. This harmed the pig quite a fair bit, but wasn’t quite enough to to defeat it. The green pig began to charge up to her, but was stopped by Tori firing a PK Fire Alpha. The green pig vanished into thin air. It was out of self defense, but she still felt bad about fighting a pig.

Tori clutched her stomach and muttered to herself, “Well, let’s find out if there’s any place to rest. Hopefully I won’t have to fight more pigs.”

Unfortunately, there were more pigs to fight. Not too many, but more than one was more than enough. The friendly pigs that Tori came across were given a pat on the head. Soon, Tori came across four small wooden cabins. She quickend her pace, and soon arrived in front of them. She stepped up the steps of the very left cabin, and knocked on the door. A small, white, wooly creature, with large ears, presumably some sort of sheep changed by dream powers, stood at the door, giving her a raised eyebrow.

“Uh, hey there!” Tori said, waving a little. “I was just wondering if there’s any room in you cabin for me to rest for a bit?”

The small, wooly thing stared at her for a moment before replying with a surprisingly deep voice, “‘Fraid not, but I can help ya learn a new PSI technique. Come on in.”

The wooly thing motioned for her to come inside as it did the same. Tori glanced to the side for a brief moment before entering the wooly thing’s house. She closed the door behind her and looked around. There was nothing but the wooly thing and herself in the cabin, a window on the back wall, and almost no space to move around. It looked a lot bigger on the outside.

“Now, I would get you to run around the place saying some dumb chant that means nothing, but you don’t have time, and Magicant is Magicant, who knows what weird power it’ll draw out instead,” the wooly thing told her.

“This place… is Magicant?” Tori asked.

“Yup. Now. New PSI technique. Let’s stay focused.” The wooly thing clapped its hands twice as if to prove its point, then asked, “It’s been a while since you learned one, ey?”

Tori nodded.

“Well, not to worry. Lil ol’ me’s gonna help you get a new one, no fighting Bad Piggies involved. Here I go.”

The wooly thing rubbed its hands together and began humming really loudly. The hums turned into bleats, and only increased in volume. It then held its hands out at Tori and shouted. Tori felt a little bit of energy flow through her, which then redirected itself to her fingertips.

The wooly thing cleared its throat and said, “There. One PSI Magnet Omega, just for you. You’re done here, and so am I.”

With that, the wooly thing vanished in a cartoonish white cloud. Tori stared at the cloud wide-eyed as is slowly dissipated. Once the cloud was gone, Tori exited the cabin and went to the next one. She knocked on the door and waited. No reply. She frowned, and knocked on it again. Still no reply. She knocked again. Squeaker toy squeaks came from inside the cabin and up to the door, and it was kicked open. Tori stepped back as it swung out, then leaned forward and held it in place. Inside the cabin was a Mr. Saturn, who looked delighted to see her.

“Hi ho!” he greeted. “How you?”

With a great big smile, Tori replied, “Good! What about you?”

“I fine!” The Mr. Saturn noisily breathed in, then out. “Air good. You smell air? It smell like grass!”

Tori took a couple of sniffs. Like the Mr. Saturn said, the air did smell like grass. It was a nice smell. A comforting smell.

“Enjoy smell!” the Mr. Saturn told her. “Won’t smell lot of it soon. Why the deeper areas take it away?”

The Mr. Saturn then waddled inside, and Tori closed the door behind him. She… didn’t like the sound of what was ahead. She shoved her hands in her pockets and went on to the next cabin. Hopefully she could take her time.

The door of the next cabin opened before she could even knock on it. The… thing living in it was some sort of… bull? Maybe? It had horns. It was a weird, dull green, with closed (probably?) eyes and stood on two legs. Or were those four legs that looked like two? It was hard to tell what exactly it was.

“I knew you would be coming to see me,” the thing told her.

“Oh. Uh…”

“The things you see here aren’t real. You can touch them, hold them, all sorts. But they’re not real. None of this is. It’s all in your mind.”

Tori was stunned into silence. She stared wide-eyed at the horned thing.

It smiled as it said, “That’s the nature of Magicant!”

It then slammed the door in front of her. Tori stood there for a few moments, trying to make sense of what had just happened, before moving on to the final cabin. She knocked, and the door opened just a split second after she had finished. The inhabitant of the cabin was a small rabbit-looking thing. It was hard to tell if it was a rabbit or a monkey. It kinda looked like both.

“Hey there…! Uh, what have you been up to?” Tori asked the rabbit/monkey.

“Reading,” the rabbit/monkey replied. “All the truths of the world exist in a place out of reach. Not even I, a being of your subconscious, can reach it. I doubt you could reach it, but who knows.”

Tori stood completely still for a few moments, looking down, wide-eyed, at the rabbit/monkey, then slowly stepped back down the stairs. She then hastily walked a short distance away from the four cabins.

“Well, that was… something,” she murmured to herself. “Only one of those cabins helped me in some way!” She sighed, then kept walking, slower this time.

As Tori walked through the field, an invisible sun began to set. The pigs wound down to sleep, even the Bad Piggies. Before long, the sky had become a deep blue, and the stars twinkled in it. There was still no trace of any other area around, contrary to what the Mr. Saturn from the cabin had mentioned. Was she going to be stuck here forever?

Tori spotted a fire in the distance. It was far from where she was at that point, but it was better than nothing. She quickened her pace as she headed towards the fire. As she got closer, she started to hear the sound of a guitar. She arrived at it a few minutes later, and sitting next to the fire was a man wearing a cowboy hat and a red bandana around his neck. He was gently playing a guitar, and behind him was a pale blue tent. Tori sat down next to him quietly and watched him play it for a couple of minutes. The man noticed her, and stopped playing.

“Y’alright there?” he asked. He had a very thick southern accent.

“Uh, yeah! I was just watching you play,” Tori replied.

The man adjusted his hat. “Fair ‘nough.” He looked over at Tori as he told her, “You can rest up in my tent fer the night, if ya want. Ya look a bit beat up.”

“Oh! Thank you, sir!” Tori said.

The man returned to playing his guitar, and Tori watched him for a while longer. The sound of it was calming to her. In that moment, it felt like all of her worries had melted away - it was just her and this kind stranger in front of a campfire. She didn’t know how long she had sat there listening to the man play his guitar, but it must have been a while when she let out a yawn. She crawled into the man’s tent and stuffed herself into the sleeping bag inside. She drifted off to sleep shortly afterward.

Tori awoke feeling refreshed. She fought her way out of the sleeping bag, then crawled outside. The man was gone, and so was any trace of the campfire.

‘Weird.’

Not seeing much else to do, Tori kept walking the same way she had been before she fell asleep. It wasn’t long before she could start to see a door in the distance. She headed towards it, taking notice of the distinct lack of Bad Piggies. She could have sworn she saw Buzz Buzz, Gran and Leicra somewhere in the distance, too, cheering her on. Even though they didn’t seem to get any closer as she walked, it still put a smile on her face. Soon, she reached the door. She turned the doorknob and opened it, and a bright white light flooded her vision and blinded her.

…She wasn’t really sure what she was expecting from that. Once the light had faded, she found herself in a bustling city. There were greys and blue-greys and pink-greys and other various grey-tinted colours all around, as well as towers that reached up into the sky. The place reminded her of home, somewhat, though the amount of pig snouts slapped onto some buildings and the billboards indicated that the tales of New Pork City had she had heard had influenced this place too.

As Tori walked down the footpath and took in the sights, she noticed something odd about the other people walking around. Their colour was gone. They all had grey faces, and walked with their hands in their pockets and their faces to the ground, desolate and miserable. She paused to take a sniff of the air. She almost gagged on the scent of car fumes.

‘That Mr. Saturn was right, hot damn,’ Tori thought as she looked around with a frown. ‘This place reeks.’

Tori kept walking, hoping to find someplace that looked familiar, or at least comforting. She hadn’t been paying attention to where she was going, though, as she bumped into someone much larger than her. She looked up to see who she had bumped into - a tall, muscular man with only a large eye on his face. The man smoked a cigarette despite having no mouth to do so. An anthropomorphic pig wearing the standard Pigmask uniform peeked from behind the man.

“So, thought you could just walk into me and my pal here, did ya?” the man growled.

“No- I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention, I just got lost in thought. It won’t happen again!” Tori replied.

The man narrowed his eye at her and stared for a few too many long moments, then looked down at the pig. They stared at each other for a couple of moments before the man looked back at Tori.

“Yeah, na. We don’t believe ya. Get ready for a beatin’!”

The man threw a punch at Tori, who quickly stepped out of the way. He growled, then tried again. He hit her this time, in the chest. Tori let out an agitated yelp before firing a PK Fire Gamma at the man and the pig. The pig squealed in pain, while the man seemed indifferent to the flames scorching him. The man yelled at the pig to attack Tori, and the pig followed orders. It tackled her to the ground, and Tori retaliated by throwing the pig off her, then getting up and kicking it in the crotch. The pig squealed in pain again, much louder this time, then ran off.

“PUSSY!” the one-eyed man yelled after the pig. The insult did nothing to bring the pig back into the fight.

The man growled, then threw another punch. Tori got hit again, and retaliated with another PK Fire Gamma. The battle went on for another couple of minutes, with the man throwing punches, occasionally kicking, and Tori mainly using her PSI against him. The man soon lost.

“Don’t think you’ve won just yet,” the man panted after his defeat. “There’s still more of us City Slickers and Piggy Guys around this city!” With that, the man ran away.

‘Huh. I guess that guy was a City Slicker and that pig guy was, uh- a Piggy Guy? Makes sense to me.’

Tori continued to explore the city, having to battle some more City Slickers and Piggy Guys along the way. They usually came separately, but sometimes they’d team up with each other or come in a City Slicker/Piggy Guy pair. She liked to call those pairs Road Hogs.

She stumbled upon one apartment building in the Magicant city with a big sign on it reading, “Safe House”. The door was one of the only ones that was unlocked. She glanced around before slipping inside.

The people sitting in the small lounge inside were the only human people she had seen who didn’t have grey faces. It was a relief. Her younger brother, Benji, and Doctor Andonuts sat opposite each other, watching TV. The TV was filled with static.

As the door closed behind her, Benji and Doctor Andonuts turned to look at her. Doctor Andonuts waved politely, and Benji called out, “Hey Tori! Long time no see!”

“Yeah it has! How’s it goin’, dude?” Tori asked as she gave her brother a high five.

“Good, you’re sure.”

Tori frowned with confusion. It took her a few moments before realising exactly what he meant.

Doctor Andonuts cleared his throat, and adjusted his glasses. Both Tori and Benji looked over at him.

“There is a cannon upstairs that will take you to the exit of this part of Magicant,” Doctor Andonuts told Tori.

“Dude, doesn’t that lead to the mech, though?” Benji asked. Tori gulped.

“It does, but going there is necessary,” Andonuts replied.

Tori quietly let out a sigh.

“Well, I know your friends are up there, too,” Benji told her. “They’ll help you blast off.”

A faint smile appeared on Tori’s face. “Well, that’s a relief.”

“You should get going soon,” Doctor Andonuts told her. “I know you’d like to stay and chat, but the fate of the world is up to you, as well as your friends.”

“Right. Well, I’ll see you later, then.” Tori waved goodbye as she headed out of the lounge and up the stairs. Benji and Doctor Andonuts waved back.

There were two sets of stairs, separated by a strip of floor that served as a corner of sorts. It didn’t take very long to climb up both of them, though. One the second floor was a single room with a large window in the wall, opened up. Buzz Buzz, Gran and Leicra were standing nearby the aforementioned cannon, which was sitting in front of the window. Buzz Buzz gave her a thumbs up with one of his right hands.

Gran took a step forward as she asked, “Are you ready to go?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Tori replied, casting a glance out the window.

She walked around to the front of the cannon and climbed inside. Leicra walked over to the end of the cannon, got out a lighter, and lit the fuse at the end of the cannon. The flame sizzled up the fuse, and only a few seconds passed before Tori was shot out of the cannon and sent flying through the air. It was only then she realised that she should have gotten some safety gear, but it was a bit late for that now, wasn’t it?

Tori landed and skidded on the ground front first. Ow. She gingerly stood up, brushing herself off. She then looked out in front of her. There was a wide road in front of her, but no cars, or even buildings to the side. Instead, there were four statues, and that mech standing on a pedestal in the distance. There were a large amount of grey-faced people wandering about, looking at the statues, though.

Tori reluctantly sighed.

‘Well, at least there’s these statues I can look at first.’

The first statue on the left she recognised as King P - or at least, how she imagined he looked. Not very many had seen what he looked like, and those who had were made to promise not to tell. So, she imagined him as a stereotypical cartoon king with the roundest tummy, complete with the bushy eyebrows and moustache. The only discrepancy from the cartoons was the pig snout in place of a regular human nose.

The statue had a plaque underneath, and Tori assumed the rest did too. She read the King P statue’s plaque to herself under her breath.

“King P. He’s an asshole. I’m not sure how he gets his propaganda to be so effective - it’s like brainwashing. Super creepy. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here in 200X right now. At first, I thought that was a bad thing, but now I’m not so sure…”

Tori looked over at the other statues to the right.

“So I guess these statues are like, reflections of what I think…? Weird,” she mumbled to herself.

She made her way over to the first statue on the right. The figure in question was much taller and thinner than King P, but didn’t have many details on him at all. Tori didn’t need to read this statue’s plaque to know who this was at all. But she read it anyway.

“Captain Zeta. I’ve heard a lot about him. Who is he? Is he someone I know?”

Tori frowned at the plaque for a moment, then up at the statue. She decided to move on.

The second statue to the right was of a kid no older than 12, with his hands clasped together and singing. He didn’t have many features either, but for a different reason than the Captain Zeta statue.

“Ninten, that kid who defeated that alien guy back in the 80’s. I think he had some weird method for defeating him? I don’t actually remember, I never paid much attention in History.”

The second statue off to the right, and the final statue Tori could visit, was simply of the Devil’s Telephone. There was no other way to visualise the… being. Not because he was such an abstract concept, but because she had never seen the guy in person before. At least the plaque was comprehensible.

“Giygas, leader of the Starmen. Or some of them, apparently. He took over this timeline’s Earth… and he gives me the creeps. I hope he doesn’t cause any more problems for Earth, or for the Apple of Enlightenment’s chosen ones.”

With all the statues visited, there was only one last landmark in the area to visit - the mech. Tori bit her lip, then tentatively walked up to the mech.

The mech was only based on rumours passed down from Pigmask to Pigmask, but damn, if it wasn’t terrifying to even thinkabout. It had six monstrous legs, three on each side, and had thorns coming off them. The seat of the mech sat inside a capsule, and that capsule was surrounded by a lumpy frame, constructed of a sleek and shiny black metal. Standing so close to it terrified her, but nobody else seemed to notice. Instead, they flocked to it like a flock of seagulls to dropped takeaways, gawking and aweing at the sight of the mech. They just didn’t seem to understand what the mech meant, the story behind it - and it was only now that Tori noticed that the mech didn’t have a plaque. The crowd’s chattering grew louder and louder, until it overwhelmed all of her senses. It was hard to keep a grip on both her temper and her surroundings; everything was becoming a grey blur, but the crowd’s excited chattering remained clear.

Something erupted from her throat - she wasn’t sure if it cut through the crowd or was drowned out by it, though. She did hear a loud bang, and everything went black.

A few moments passed before Tori realised she had her eyes closed. She cautiously opened one, and the other followed. She found that her surroundings were grayscale, and in front of her, a small house. She recognised it, though.

“This was the house I was staying in when this all started,” she murmured.

She opened the front door and went inside. Everything stayed right where she left it. Nothing had moved. She cast a couple of nervous glances around, before going into the room where she did her studies.

Only one thing had changed in this room. The potted plant on the window sill. It had grown tall and strong, and its green shone like a beacon compared to the grey of everything else around. Her mouth had dropped open slightly at the sight. She slowly walked up to it and stared for many a moment.

After those long moments had passed, the plant spoke. “Tori. It’s been a long road getting here, hasn’t it?”

Tori could only find it in her to nod.

“You’ve been very strong. I admire your strength and your perseverance. It’s started to wilt, though, I’ve noticed. Do not be afraid. Everything will turn out alright in the end. I know this to be true, since you haven’t given up thus far. Do not give up hope, alright? You’re very strong. When you wake up, Magicant will disappear. But my words will remain in your heart. Now go. It’s time for you to face the end of your long journey.”

Everything around Tori began to fade to white. The potted plant was one of the last things to fade, but as it did, she could have sworn it waved goodbye.