//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 
// Story: Let's try again 
// by Bru-swan-sen 
//------------------------------//

The sound of rumbling rollercoasters passed by Sunset and Flash as the two of them walked around the rides. People were screaming and cheering as they went up and down on the snake-like ride.
The two teens look up at the monster of a ride and walk over to it. Using the gold pass given to them by Discord they were able to get on the ride without waiting.
“Please keep your hands and feet in the cart at all times.”
The two of them sat in their cart waiting for the ride to start, but when nothing happened for the next few minutes they thought that the ride was broken.
“I guess our luck isn’t with us todAAAHHHHHHH!” Sunset was interrupted by the moving cart.
Suddenly the ride darts off and they are hit with a loop and drops. Both teens were screaming and yelling as their cart twisted and turned.
When they finally came to a stop they both walked off with shaky legs. Their hairs are a mess as if they both just went through a hurricane. Looking up to see each other they let out a snort and at the same time begin to laugh at each other’s new “hairstyle.”
From a distance, Rarity was watching them with an excited look. Her companion on the other hand was less than excited.
“Why are we spying on them again?” Twilight asks.
“For…educational purposes.”
Next, Sunset and Flash went around the carnival games to find something to both their liking. Nothing really pops out for either of them other than seeing the funny sight of Applejack trying her best to win in a game of ring toss. She had three buckets of red rings in front of her with Fluttershy standing behind with a teddy bear five times her size.
Twilight had a bored expression on her face while Rarity was watching Sunset and Flash walk around the park with each other.
“Rarity can we…”
“Hush darling I’m observing.”
Letting out a sigh, Twilight sees a carnival game that gains her interest. Though, before she could even get a chance to play her arm was grabbed by her friend and was dragged away.
About twenty minutes passed and Sunset and Flash found themselves sitting at the food area of the park. Sunset was drinking a large soft drink while Flash had some cheese fries.
Flash notices her interest in his snack and lets out a small laugh as he pushes it towards her.
Without any complaint, Sunset digs in happily and she decides it was only fair that she offers him some of her drink. Flash shakes his head and pushes the drink away.
“So, what now?” Flash asks Sunset watching her finish half of the fries.
“Meh…I don’t know, maybe we'll just sit here for a while.” She says swallowing the fries.
Both teens are at a loss as to what they should do next.
A loud explosion rang from a building not far from them and Sunset knew all too well what that sound meant. Grabbing a hold of Flash’s hand as he was about to eat a fry, she pulled him towards the noise causing him to drop the rest of his fries.
“Wow what’s with the hurry all of a sudden?” Flash jokingly asks, but he got no answers as the fiery haired girl was too focused on the sound. Within a few minutes he sees an arcade coming into view and from it comes the source of the noise that has caught Sunset’s attention.
Upon entering, they finally skid to a stop with Sunset facing a large screen displaying some kind of gameplay. The screen was covered in virtual magic and fire and in the background, was a low laugh who belonged to someone demonic.
Flash looks up to see what the name of this extremely graphic game is.
“The Rise of Tirek VR edition.” Flash says out loud. “Uh Sunset what’s VR?” He gets no answer turning to her and notices that she was nowhere to be found. “Sunset?” Looking around Flash sees that Sunset is already in the line for the game. She was nearly bouncing up and down in excitement. She waves him over to join her in line. Laughing, Flash walks over to her and stands next to her.
“I can’t believe it’s here? I mean I’ve seen the videos, but actually get to play it?” Sunset says to herself.
“Huh…never thought you were the gaming type?”
Sunset turns to him and blushes a little.
“Well it was a recent hobby of mine since I’ve stopped…you know…scheming of taking over the school and stuff.” Sunset says. “And seeing that I had so much time on my hands I kind of got bored and well just started playing to pass the time.”
Flash just nods his head.
“If you don’t want to do this we can just go and find something else!” Sunset quickly says seeing that she just dragged him in here. “I just got so excited and…”
“Sunset relax,” Flash interrupts her. “I’m fine with this and besides this looks fun um…V…R?”
“Virtual Reality,” Sunset tells him. “Think of it like a movie but instead of just sitting there and watching you can be part of it as if you were in it.”
“Next.”
The people in front of the two walk up and enter a black room. Seeing that they are next in line, Sunset begins to bounce in excitement again.
Holding back a laugh, Flash looks back at the screen displaying the game. One of the players just blasted a creature with some sort of laser. He turns back to Sunset, her eyes glued towards the black room.
“So…what are you supposed to do?”
Sliding her hair back, Sunset takes a big breath.
“Well first off you have three-character choices: the magical power house of a wizard, the extremely fast flier and the extreme power of guardian.” Each character was posed out by sunset judging by their main attribute. “After you choose your class you must travel across the land to gather six magical items in order to defeat the Evil lord Tirek and stop his magical conquest to steal all magic in the world.”
“Huh that sounds interesting…”
“Interesting? That’s not the best part, usually the game can be either played in third person or first person with a controller, but with his VR system you can play the game as if you were actually there in real life.”
“Next.”
Sunset quickly turns around as the employee calls them over. She grabs Flash’s hand and pulls him into the black room.
Upon entering they’re met by a man wearing what seem to be snorkeling goggles and a glowing vest and some gloves.
“Hey there, you two I hope you’re excited because it's time to…”
“Wreck Tirek!” Sunset finishes by shouting.
Flash turns to her with a surprised look at her sudden outburst.
She blushes lightly as she realizes what she just did.
“Wow ho looks like we got a veteran here.” The game instructor cheers. “Alright you two I want you both to gear up.” He pulls in a rack with two pairs of goggles, vests and gloves.
The teens grab the gear, Sunset had hers on within seconds while Flash was having a hard time figuring out what clips goes with what.
Sunset smiles and walks over to him and helps with his head set. Making sure he was all set she stood next him shaking with excitement.
“Alright before we begin I want you both to choose your character.”
A small screen appears before them with three images of human silhouettes posing in a similar way Sunset did earlier when she was explaining the game to Flash. It only took Sunset a second to figure out who she wanted to play. Flash was a little lost, but he chose a random image and shrugs his shoulders.
“Oh, nice suits you perfectly.” Sunset compliments his choice.
“Alright since your girlfriend is a veteran of the game she can give you your mission object, but don’t worry I’ll be guiding you through the game through your microphone headset.
The look of excitement disappears from Sunset’s face.
“Girlfriend?” but before she could say anything else her head gear activated and the two of them began to be immersed in the game.
The blush on Sunset’s face disappears as the view of the game takes her breath away. Just like in the game back at her apartment she found herself in a forest that was all too similar to the Everfree forest back in Equestria. A white screen appears in front of her and she taps the ready box.
When she receives a ‘go’ sign the screen goes away. Looking down she sees the robes she was wearing with a spell book latched to her side. She runs over to a stream and looks into the water to see her reflection.
“Wow.” Was all she could say.
“Uh Sunset where are you?”
Turning around, Sunset runs back to where she spawned and sees that Flash was walking around aimlessly with a blank white screen on his face.
“I can’t see a thing.” Flash says waving his arms in front of him.
“Just tap the ‘go’ box and you should be good.” Sunset says.
Raising a hand and poking the box the white screen closes, and Flash is finally able to see around him.
“WOW.” Flash says with wide eyes. He looks around the world amazed at how everything looks and then looks down and notices his apparel. “Oh…that’s…awesome.” His fit was that similar to that of an ancient roman centurion. He turns his head and notices a pair of metal wings on his back.
“Yeah it’s pretty awesome.”
Flash looks up to Sunset and smiles.
“Alright so what do we do?”
Sunset was about to answer him, but a caution window opened up signaling the arrival of their first wave of enemies. From the distance a pack of wooden wolves’ spring out of the bushes, their eyes glowing green and the wooden fangs and claws as sharp as knives.
“Pony feathers, Timber Wolves,” Sunset curses in equestrian. “Watch out, these guys are pretty tough to beat.”
“Uh…Sunset what do I do?” Flash asks, sounding nervous.
A battle menu pops up in front of Sunset and an option of spells are given to her.
“Choose your battle option and just do what the direction tells you.” Finishing, Sunset fires a light blue magical bolt at one of the wolves causing it to break into bits and pieces of wood.
The same screen appears in front of Flash and with no experience Flash just chooses the first thing he sees. Within seconds he was in the air unexpecting this he falls back in real life and onto the ground.
“Wow you ok Flash?” Sunset says looking up into the sky to see him lying down in the sky.
Picking himself off the floor, Flash looks back at Sunset.
“Yeah I’m okay, just got a little spooked.” He says getting a grip of the virtual world and his actual self.
“Remember you’re a flier, you're all about speed and hitting from above.” Sunset says blasting another wolf.
“Ok I got this,” Flash’s battle menu pops up once more and Flash studies the option and thinks he found the proper action. This time his iron wings made a slicing noise signaling that they were ready for use.
Selecting his target, Flash targets the closest wolf and swoops in and flies right past a wolf with his left wing slicing it in half. He flies back up into the air and smiles.
“Alright this I can get used to.” He does the same action again and again, joining Sunset in the fight against the Timberwolves.
After what felt like hours the two of the teens stood next to each other surrounded by the wooden remains of their enemies.
“Man, that was pretty fun.” Flash says.
“Oh, that’s not the best part.” Sunset says kicking a twig. This leads to all the wooden pieces and branches to shake and slowly gravitate towards each other and bit by bit they begin to assemble with each other.
“Uh…Sunset what’s going on?” Flash asks.
“Well…remember when I said these are tough to beat?”
Within minutes the twigs became a giant version of a timber wolf letting out a horrifying roar.
“Oh…uh…ok.” Flash gives Sunset a nervous but was gone when he saw the look of excitement on her face. This causes a smile to grow on his face.
“Oh, this is going to be fun.” Sunset says, cracking her knuckles.