//------------------------------//
// Game Hopping 
// Story: Hex-It Twilight 
// by My Little Scribbler 
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Hex-It Twilight
Chapter 2: Game Hopping


Pinkie happily skipped along the massive walkways of Game Central Station, singing to herself as she passed all the video game characters going about visiting friends in other cabinets. The station was filled with dragons, goombas, medieval mercenaries, rolling geometric shapes, robots, and all manner of creatures, and Pinkie bounced alongside the commuters, greeting each one she passed.
“Good evening, Princess Peach. How’s it hangin’, Solid Snake? Looking as good as ever, Samus. My, you’re looking very cheerful today, Kratos.” Pinkie suddenly stopped in mid-skip. “Oh, my left ear is tingling. That means there’s something really sweet nearby.” She turned her head up to the outlet port nearby, and she could see the words Sugar Rush written over the entrance. “Well, I can’t ignore my Pinkie Sense, especially if there’s sugar involved. Lalala!” With a skip and marry hum, Pinkie entered the tunnel.
Upon exiting the other side, Pinkie was hit with a surge of joy as she saw before her a delectable land of sweets as far as the eye can see. Molten milk balls stuck out of the ground like boulders, forests made of candy cane trees, rivers of chocolate flowed between them, and liquorish vines hung from branches.
Pinkie looked at the land before her, rubbing a hoof on her chin in thought. “It looks nice, but all it’s missing is—“ There was a flash of lightning and up above, she could see a cotton candy cloud raining chocolate milk on her. “Now it’s perfect. Weee!” She charged toward the nearest candy cane tree, and devoured its trunk clean through in seconds, causing the tree to topple over with a loud crash.
“Oh, that was so good.” Her ears perked up when she heard the sounds of cheers coming from far off. Nearby was a road. She followed the road with her eyes to see decorated stands where spectators sat watching. Several race carts were lined up in front of a finish line and she could barely make out a group of racers standing before the crowd. “I wonder what could be going on over there.”
Suddenly, from out of the trees rang a voice. “Hey, what did you do?”
Pinkie turned around to see two cops in the shape of doughnuts hovering over her with large sneers on their faces. Unbeknownst to Pinkie, the two doughnut cops were the security team of Sugar Rush. The long éclair-shaped cop named Wynnchel was branching his baton at Pinkie.
“What’s a pink pony doing here?” he asked.
“And more importantly, did she just eat one of the candy cane trees?” said Duncan, the ring-shaped doughnut.
The two cops hovered over Pinkie, prodding her with their batons as she stood there staring nervously like a child in trouble.
“Well, say something,” demanded Wynnchel.
“Uh!” Pinkie dashed off.
“Hey, get back here,” shouted Duncan.
She ran through the trees toward the stands. As she got closer, she could hear a voice over the loud speakers.
“Attention, the race to determine tomorrow’s avatars will commence.”
As Pinkie cleared the trees, she could see the racers were all standing in front of the crowd of anthropomorphic pieces of candy cheering them on. Thinking fast, Pinkie noticed a red and white striped peppermint candy imbedded in the ground. She bucked the candy with her hind legs, freeing it from the ground with a soft crack. She dove into an empty seat of the stands. She licked a flat side of the wheel-shaped mint and stuck it to her muzzle.
By the time the two cops arrived, Pinkie had settled into the seat, resembling one of the candy themed members of the audience.
“Where’d she go?” asked Wynnchel, shouting over the noise of the crowd.
“She can’t have gotten far,” said Duncan. “You go that way and I’ll go this way.”
Out of the corner of the mint candy, Pinkie could see the two cops split up in search of her. Deciding it was safe to escape, she squeezed her way through the crowd.
Meanwhile, the voice over the speaker continued to speak. “As you all know, all racers must submit their coins to the pot and the winners of the race will get to be tomorrow’s avatars.”
There was a loud ching sound as one by one, the racers placed their coins on a catapult that launched the coins into the giant trophy cup. However, Pinkie couldn’t see what was happening because of the giant mint stuck to her face. She heard the audience members yelp in surprise and anger as Pinkie pushed and bumped into them while fumbling to find her way. Not wanting to go near the cops, she continued blindly upward, her hooves outstretched to feel her way.
“Now that the coins have been put into the pot, the winner will get the coins once the race is over. Now, everybody, we should start the race and—what the...?”
The mint on Pinkie’s face fell off at last and she realized that in her blind search for the exit, she had accidently found her way into the announcer’s booth. Standing before Pinkie with a microphone in her hand was Vanellope who stood there staring dumbfounded at the intruder.
“What the heck is a pink pony doing in my booth?” asked Vanellope over the microphone. “Is she a marshmallow?”
Pinkie glanced over the edge of the balcony and saw the two cops glaring at her from the foot of the stands before frantically looking for a way up. She spun around to run, but Vanellope teleported in front of her in a bright flash.
“Hey, where’re you running off to?” she demanded, glaring at Pinkie.
Pinkie spun around and dashed the other way, but Vanellope once again teleported into her path. She frantically kicked the mint she left on the ground, sending it flying toward Vanellope who caught it in both of her hands. With that distraction, Pinkie leaped over Vanellope and onto the head of a large chocolate bar.
“Hey!” shouted the chocolate bar as Pinkie leaped off and landed on the stairs. She galloped down to the road, but the Wynnchel and Duncan were already there.
“You’re not getting through us,” shouted Duncan.
Pinkie leaped through the air with her hooves outstretched. She sailed through the hole in Duncan’s body and landed behind him.
“Gang way, coming through,” shouted Pinkie as she charged through the crowd of racers as she pushed passed them.
“Come back here,” shouted Wynnchel.
Pinkie galloped into the open road, heading off toward the Gumball Mountains. Just when she thought she was free, in a flash of light, Vanellope teleported from the stand and appeared right before her.
Pinkie slid to a stop, the two doughnut cops gently bumping into her.
“Oh, who’re you?” asked Pinkie.
“My name is President Vanellope von Schweetz, and I want to know what you’re doing interrupting my race?”
“I don’t know. I was just minding my own business snacking on some candy cane trees when all of a sudden, these two doughnuts tried to arrest me. Normally I don’t see something like that unless I was getting drunk on apple cider.”
“It’s true,” said Duncan, “she ate right through the whole tree.”
“I saw it too,” chimed Wynnchel. “She’s under arrest for vandalism.”
Vanellope glared at Pinkie with her arms folded. “Is this true?”
Pinkie submissively lowered her eyes to the ground. “Yeah, I’m sorry.”
“Well, if all she ate was just a candy cane tree, it’s not that big of a deal,” said Vanellope. “It will regenerate by the time the arcade opens.”
Pinkie immediately perked up. “Oh good, for a second there, I thought I did something wrong.”
“Who’re you, anyway? I’ve never seen you around her before.”
“My name is Pinkie Pie and I come from My Little Pony. I’m the excitable one with all the cool weapons and power-ups.”
“Like what?”
“Like my trusty party cannon.” Pinkie pulled out her party cannon out of nowhere and fired it into Vanellope’s face, covering her in confetti.
Vanellope laughed as she wiped off the confetti. “Not bad, but can you do this?” She teleported behind Pinkie and tapped her on the shoulder.
“Oh, that’s so awesome,” said Pinkie as she spun around. “You can teleport just like my friend Twilight.”
“Yeah, and I can even teleport through walls.”
Pinkie hopped merrily. “Oh wow, I want to see that up close.”
“Sure, you can race us and see all of our moves up close.”
“Uh, but Miss President,” stammered Wynnchel. “If the pony wins the race, won’t she wind up as a playable character in the morning?”
“Of course not, she didn’t pay to get in the race, so she’s not on the roster. Besides, she’s certainly got some moves and good reflexes if she could get away from me like that. I would like to see what she could do behind a wheel, that is unless of course you’re chicken.”
“I’m not a chicken. Scootaloo is the chicken.”
Vanellope gawked at her. “Okay...Then let’s get out King Candy’s old cart and get this race started.”


While Pinkie was borrowing a racing cart, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow were at Tapper, sitting at the counter on bar stools as they waited for their root beers. However, the bar was particularly busy that day, leaving Tapper to scramble about sliding root beers and ice cream to his patrons and keeping the four mares at the counter, tapping their hooves.
Rainbow leaned over the counter with her chin resting on her hoof. “Ugh, what’s taking Tapper so long?”
“I’m sure he’ll get to us once he’s served every pony else,” said Fluttershy.
“I’m curious as to where Pinkie went to,” said Applejack. “Where in the hay is she? I thought she went ahead of us.”
“Don’t worry about her, darling,” said Rarity. “Knowing her, she’s probably off hoof-wrestling Ryu and Ken again.”
Tapper appeared by their counter and slid four root beer floats to them.
“Oh finally.” Rainbow reached for her float, but her hoof would not slide through the handle designed for fingers. “We need to get Tapper to make us some pony sized mugs.” She leaned over and slurped the root beer through the straw.
The front door to Tapper’s bar swung open as Spike charged inside and ran into the ponies. He waved his arms frantically, hopping up and down as he tried to draw their attention to him.
“Guys—Twilight—mermaids—help!” screamed Spike.
“Is this a new word game?” asked Fluttershy.
“No, Twilight’s been kidnapped,” shouted Spike.
“Good heavens, who was it?” asked Rarity, leaping off of her stool, the others joining her on the floor.
“I don’t know who it was. It was this strange looking mermaid who just grabbed her after a failed magic experiment. I don’t know where he took her.”
“This is serious,” said Applejack. “If we don’t get Twilight back to her game before the arcade opens, we might get unplugged if Mr. Litwak notices Twilight is missing.”
“But who knows where Twilight could be?” said Rainbow.
“Yes, we need to find more information and I know who to ask.” Rarity turned around and called out to Tapper. “Excuse me, Mr. Tapper.”
Tapper was busy tossing mugs of root beer to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles seated in a booth.
Rarity got up onto the stool. “Excuse me, Tapper.”
Tapper continued tirelessly handing out root beers, not once acknowledging Rarity.
With a huff, Rarity’s horn glowed with her magic. Tapper let out a yelp of surprise as a magical blue haze lifted him off the floor, leaving him flailing as he was suspended off the ground before plopping him onto the floor before Rarity.
“Jeez, lady, you don’t have to be so pushy,” said Tapper, brushing off his suit.
“Sorry, but this is an emergency,” said Rarity. “Our friend has been kidnapped by a mermaid. You know everything about the games in this arcade, so where can we find a mermaid.”
“A mermaid, eh?” Tapper put a hand to his chin in thought. “The only game I know of that has mermaids is the game Sea Bottom, but that game is going to be unplugged at dawn so all the inhabitants have already left the game.”
“Oh dear,” said Fluttershy. “Where did they go?”
“Here at the Litwak Arcade, whenever there are characters who are homeless, they always go to one game, a place where the locals there have opened up their game to the homeless.”
“That’s so nice of them,” said Fluttershy. “Where’s this game?”


The five of them followed Tapper’s directions through Game Central Station to a game on the far side of the station.
“Are you sure this is a good idea,” said Fluttershy as she swerved around sprites from Marble Madness. “Perhaps we should go to Princess Celestia for help.”
“We don’t have much time,” said Applejack, “and this is our only lead. We should at least check it out first.”
Rainbow flew ahead of them, hovering in front of the entrance to the game they were looking for. “Hurry up, I found the entrance.”
The five of them gathered outside of the entrance. Over the entrance were the words Fix-It Felix Jr. written in large red letters.
“So this is the game where the mermaids went to?” asked Rarity. “I’ve never been here before. I hope they’re a little more accommodating than those badniks from Sonic the Hedgehog.”
“Well, if Twilight is there, I’ll fight my way through if I have to,” said Applejack.
“Me too,” said Rainbow, “let’s go in there.”
“Well...maybe we shouldn’t...” Before Fluttershy could finish, the others dashed inside.