Love's a Roller Coaster Ride

by The Lord Thunder

Chapter 11

Sunburst stared across the street with a faraway look in his eyes, his mouth cracked open a bit.

“What’s up?” Starlight asked. Sunburst pointed to a building across the street, and Starlight read the sign out loud. “The Equestria Pinball Museum? What about it?”

Sunburst smiled and gave a quick hop. “I love pinball!”

“You do?” Starlight asked. She didn’t know that about him.

“Of course! Let’s go check it out.”

“Eh, I never was very good at pinball. But I guess if you want--”

Sunburst galloped across the street and pushed open the door to the museum, leaving Starlight with little choice but to follow him. What awaited inside the building surprised even her; rows on rows of neatly arranged pinball machines giving off a sort of dazzling light show. Her ears were assaulted from every angle by the classic bleeps and dings of pinball targets being struck, as well as synthetic voices, music and sound effects as dozens of ponies mashed the flipper buttons.

“Wow, there sure are a lot of them.” Be patient with him, Starlight. Be willing to embrace his likes.

“Yes! There’s got to be at least a hundred different machines in here!” Sunburst glanced around with an excited smile on his face. “Oh, boy, which one should I play first?”

“Do you think we’ll have time?” Starlight asked. We as in, I’m here, too.

“Just a couple games.” Sunburst gasped and pointed to one machine with a marquis of a pony clad in black armor. “Look, they have Dark Pony! And Mad Manticore! There were only fifty of these made. I can’t believe they found one!” Sunburst reached into his pouch and plopped a bit into Mad Manticore’s coin slot. “Ok, going for the high score!”

Starlight looked at the scoring board beneath the marquis of the machine. “Wow, 50,000,00? Think you can do it?”

“Foal’s play.” Sunburst rubbed his front hooves together in anticipation. “Watch and learn, Starlight.”

***

“Well this is an odd little diversion,” Trixie said as she and Maud stepped into the pinball museum. “Trixie can make a better light show than these things. I haven’t played pinball since I was a filly, but we shouldn’t stay here too long. We don’t want to get caught, right, Maud?” There was no answer. Maybe Trixie hadn’t heard Maud’s quiet voice over the noise of all the games. Trixie spun around, finding that Maud had disappeared. “Maud?”

Trixie scanned the rows of machines and found Maud at a game named Hard Rock, with Boulder sitting on the glass of the pinball table.

“What are you doing?”

“This one’s Boulder’s favorite,” Maud said. Trixie’s eyes followed the ball as Maud hit the flipper and sent it spinning up a ramp.

***

After ten minutes and Sunburst still only on his second ball, Starlight surrendered to boredom. She’d have to experience a game herself if she wanted to understand why Sunburst liked pinball so much, so she glanced around and found an artistically detailed machine called “King Sombra’s Castle” that even had a tiny model fortress housed within the glass of the play field. She put a bit into the slot and hit the start button.

A synthetic voice declared, “I am King Sombra! You will never defeat me!” Starlight giggled at this and pulled the plunger, then flipped the ball towards the ramp on the left of the playing field. It hit just off the mouth of the ramp and rebounded down the left drain. Starlight flattened her ears against the irritation-- one ball gone already. Another one plopped into place against the plunger just as Starlight saw Sunburst approach from the corner of her eye.

“75,000,000. I told you I could beat it,” Sunburst said.

“Nice job!” Starlight said. “I’d give you a hoof bump but I’m a bit busy right now.”

“Ah, King Sombra’s Castle. A lot of pinball enthusiasts consider this to be one of the best ever made.”

Starlight hit the flipper, rebounding the ball off the middle timber wolf target. She grumbled as the ball dropped straight between the two flippers, leaving her no chance to catch it. “Wow, you’re a lot better at this than I am. You make it look so easy.”

“It is, once you get the hang of it.” Starburst adjusted his glasses as he looked at the table’s scoreboard. “On ball three already? Are you even trying?”

“I told you I stink at this,” Starlight said. She watched her third and final ball overshoot to the left and drain down the hole between the flippers. Wicked laughter came from King Sombra’s synthesized voice, accompanying a “game over” message.

Starlight flattened her ears and hung her head in embarrassment. “Great. Even the machine’s laughing at how bad I did.”

Sunburst put a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey, It just takes practice, and patience.” He regarded Starlight silently for a moment. “Patience never was your strong suit. Don’t feel bad; I had to feed these machines a lot of bits to get as good as I am now.”

“Practice, huh?” Starlight let out a nervous chuckle as her mind formed a plan to draw him near. “Maybe you can show me. You can stand behind me and we could practice together.”

Sunburst’s face flared as he stepped behind her and placed his hooves over the buttons so that his front legs were practically hugging her. “Y-you mean like this?”

How close he was. Starlight let out an anxious breath. If he was this near, why not take it one step further? “Here, let me take the buttons and put your hooves over mine. That way you can show me how it’s done.”

Shuddering from the awkward closeness, Sunburst let Starlight put her hooves on the buttons, and his hooves over hers. He stepped nearer so they were nearly touching, his face inches from the softness of her mane.

Starlight giggled as she put a bit into the machine and hit the start button. “Sunburst, you’re shivering. Are you nervous? Just think of it as practice.”

“Practice,” Sunburst sighed. “Right.”

They launched the ball into the upper area of the playing field. Sunburst pressed their hooves over the right flipper, halting the ball. “See, if you hold the button down, the flipper will catch the ball and give you time to line up your next shot. Once you familiarize yourself with the angles, you’ll be hitting those ramps every time.”

Sunburst released the button and hit it again at the perfect moment, sending the ball rolling up the left ramp. “See? Piece of cake, right?”

Starlight watched her reflection grinning off the glass, enjoying his touch and the way his hooves communicated with hers. “Yeah. But maybe you can show me some more.”

A synthetic voice called out, “take my castle, if you dare!”

“What’s that?” Starlight asked.

“We started the castle challenge. See the castle in the back corner? Let’s try to hit the drawbridge.”

Starlight gauged the size of the target and frowned. “That’s like two inches, I’m not that accurate!”

“I’ll help you.”

Again, Sunburst caught their ball with the right flipper and flung it at the drawbridge with pinpoint accuracy. The bridge lowered, allowing a path inside the castle.

“Ok, now see if you can hit the ball inside the castle. You’ll destroy it and get a huge bonus to your score.” Sunburst let go of her hooves and backed off a couple steps. “You can do it!”

Starlight nodded, aimed and flipped the ball across the drawbridge and inside the little castle. The entire machine rumbled with an explosion sound effect, then the castle broke into three separate pieces.

“You have defeated me for now, but next time won’t be so easy!” King Sombra said.

Starlight beamed with pride. “I did it! Sunburst, did you see that?”

“Nice shot, Starlight! I knew you could!”

Licking her lips, Starlight narrowed her eyes in focus. “You know what? I think I’m starting to like this game.”

Sunburst regarded Starlight with a smile as he wiped his eyes. “So proud…”

***

Trixie and Maud stepped out into bright daylight from the relative darkness of the pinball museum after Maud finished her game.

“Nice job beating the high score on Hard Rock, Maud,” Trixie said. “You were pretty good. Come on, we don’t want to get caught.”

“Starlight was even better.”

“A better player?” Trixie asked, raising an eyebrow. From the few glances she got of Starlight, it didn’t look like she was faring so well.

“Not at pinball,” Maud corrected.

Trixie rubbed her chin as her mind worked to put the pieces together. “You mean when they--she was--and she got him to--and he showed her…”

Maud nodded a confirmation.

Trixie looked over her shoulder at the entrance to the museum, smiling slyly. “Oh, that was good, Starlight. Real good.”

The warm, fluffy feeling was growing. This was getting better with each stop!

Comments

[Thatguywiththeface]

I'm loving the matchmaker trixie, it's really nice.

[TasermonsPartner]

Heh, Sunburst and pinballs; who knew? And he doesn't even have a pinball machine in his home (hint-hint Starlight, come next birthday). Maybe he thought he'd spend so much time on it that he'd never get any work done. Then again, we didn't know about Starlight's kite obsession until the episode where she met Maud.

Wow, a pinball machine based on Sombra! And the Crystal Empire only reappeared a few years ago, so the game must be pretty new. (Better not show up in any Crystal Empire arcades though, lest the crystal ponies go into shock over bad memories.)

Hehe, Starlight's got some moves of her own! Player in the pinball arcade, baby!

[The Lord Thunder]

8981027
The Great and Powerful Shipper strikes!

[The Lord Thunder]

8982328
Fun fact: I originally didn't think of this chapter until I found out that the Pinball Hall of Fame is in Las Vegas. I had an opportunity to go there recently and just had to add this bit in as an homage to it. I based the Equestria Pinball Museum off of the Pinball Hall of Fame, which has literally over a hundred different machines.

Another fun fact: I based the Sombra game loosely off of "Medieval Madness", an actual pinball game regarded by many to be one of the best ever made, which does have a castle you hit the ball into to destroy it and get a big bonus.

[PopopamAJ]

Oh Starlight, you're still evil >;)

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Sunburst’s face flared as he stepped behind her and placed his hooves over the buttons so that his front legs were practically hugging her. “Y-you mean like this?”

...Giggity.

No, really. Love the innocent provocative movement here.

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

I like Sunburst being so encouraging, it's sweet.

[Yoshifan30]

Wow I never thought of Sunburst as a pinball gamer I would say that's pretty cool I kind of suck at that game as well but I do love playing it but I do love the encouragement that he gave Starlight and not only that helping her how to play the pinball correctly and it looks like Trixie and Maud also play a little video games as well but it looks like Tracy's plan is sort of working