The Chronicles of Shiny Bird: Part 3 of 4

This is part three of a four-part extended “My Place in Poptropica” guest post series by ShinyB1rd. Catch up on part one and part two here. Enjoy!

…He will rise!

It wasn’t long before the second coming of Shiny Bird. After so much time had passed, Poptropica and its many islands had been flushed into chaos. It was bound to happen, but without a hero, who would restore peace across Poptropica? With no hero in sight, Poptropica was doomed forever.

Until. Out of nowhere. Reports of sightings of a man with a familiar face, seen traveling in a yellow blimp. The news spread like wildfire. “Could it be?…” All of Poptropica wondered. The old remembered a time of peace and prosperity, and the young were praying for a brighter future. But no one knew for sure if the sightings were true. It could all just be false rumors for all they knew… They could only hope…

Just days after the completion of Poptropolis Games Island, I logged back into Poptropica. It was inevitable. After catching a glimpse of all the new islands and content, it had been on the back of my mind for days, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Plus, my previous history with the game further fueled the fire. I hopped onto the yellow blimp, loaded the map, and set off to fresh horizons…

The Gilded Age

…With the return of our beloved champion of Poptropica, Shiny Bird, along with his dedication, works of love and restoration… Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure to officially announce to all citizens of Poptropica that peace has been restored! … May these lands prosper for another glorious age!

Transcript of Poptropica-wide televised special announcement, Year 0 of the Gilded Age

I was just wrapping up the final island: Mocktropica. A couple months had passed, and I was just about to complete all of the islands (thus far) once again. Somehow, I managed to beat the crap out of a giant robot by throwing a bunch of coins at it (spoiler? oh, too late, hehe).

Now that I’m done with everything every single island, you might be thinking “OH NO HE’S GONNA QUIT AGAIN—” Wrong. I didn’t. You see, as I was exploring new islands, I discovered this hot new thing called “common rooms.”

“BuT sHiNy,” I hear you say, “CoMmOn RoOmS hAvE BeEn A tHiNg SiNcE LiKe FoReVeR. wHaT dO yOu MeAn YoU jUsT dIsCoVeReD tHeM???”

Nonono you don’t understand, I knew they were a thing when I originally played Poptropica, but I never knew what they actually were (back then, I had a sucky internet connection that couldn’t even load up common rooms). Look: It was pretty revolutionary for me when I found out you could meet other players who share the same passion for the game (cuz let’s be real, in 2013, you weren’t gonna find anyone irl who still played or admitted that they played Poptropica).

With this new discovery, I headed to the common rooms. I settled over at the Soda Pop Shop on Early Poptropica, which was the most popular common room at the time.

As time pressed on, I continued to hang around the Early Poptropica common room, and completed new islands as they were released to the public. In the common rooms, I made a few friends, competed with some rivals, and strived to master all the head-to-head games (except for Sudoku, cuz 1) who the heck plays Sudoku? lol, and 2) I could never figure that game out… I had a little brain back then, plz don’t make fun of me, have mercy).

Of all the games though, I was most proficient at Hoops. I loved it because it was quick and intense, especially when matched up with other fierce competitors. I grew a hatred for Sky Dive, mainly because every single person asked to play Sky Dive and I eventually grew tired of it since I wanted to play other head-to-head games, but it seemed no one really wanted to play anything else.

Somewhere around this time, I also discovered the PHB. It’s not anything too exciting of a story, but one day I was just casually looking for something that had all-things Poptropica and voila! There it was: the PHB, in all its glory! I spent hours exploring this site and discovered cool things I never knew about the game.

At the same time, I realized that there existed a little community who loved the game as much as I do, and who do cool things inspired by it. The PHB was my first taste of a fandom. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but it did motivate me to continue playing the game knowing that there are people who actively express their love for Poptropica.

Something else worth mentioning is that I also created two new Poptropica characters. After a while, I sort of got tired of playing with Shiny Bird, so to combat my boredom I set off to try creating new characters. The first was Golden Rider: the fallen champion of Poptropica from an alternate universe.

“Shiny,” I hear you say. “Why do you say fallen champion?” Well, it’s a long story. In short, I had plans for her, but somewhere down the line, I was messing around with ASGs and suddenly she became a he and I didn’t know how to change it back. I got so mad that I quit playing for a while, and abandoned her entirely.

But I eventually came back to create a new girl character, where I originally planned for her to be an exact copy of Golden Rider so I could, in a sense, continue where I left off. Lo and behold, the mythical Mighty Sky was born. As time went on, I abandoned my original plan for her to be an exact copy of Golden Rider and set off to construct a unique identity for Mighty Sky. She became my favorite character, and I mainly played on that account for the rest of Poptropica’s peak years, what I call the Gilded Age…

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Hope you enjoyed part three of this “My Place in Poptropica” story! Stay tuned for the final part of the Chronicles of Shiny Bird, coming soon to the PHB.

If you haven’t already, we invite you to send in your own (and they don’t have to be as long as this one!). Please include your username and a minimum of 500 words, typed with good spelling and grammar, and divided into labeled sections. If you send in your story, we will continue to post new community MPIPs!

Interested in writing for the PHB under a different Pop-topic? Take a look at our Write for the PHB page for ideas, guidelines, and more. We’d love to hear from you!

~the Poptropica Help Blog