Love's a Roller Coaster Ride

by The Lord Thunder

Chapter 4

Starlight and Sunburst walked away from the game booth, a look of mild annoyance on the mare’s face at the fact they were doing so empty-hooved.

“Forty rings and they all missed,” Starlight mumbled.

“I’m not surprised. Like I said, they have to make a profit. If it was that easy, they’d be ruined.”

Thinking back on the game brought a smile to Starlight’s face. “Well, at least we had fun. And getting a ringer on your horn was funny.”

“That was pretty funny, wasn’t it?” Sunburst chuckled. “I mean, the odds of the ring rebounding at that angle were-”

Sunburst’s voice muffled as Starlight put her hoof over his mouth to stifle him. “No math, Sunburst. It makes my head hurt. Besides, we’re here to have fun! What should we do next?”

Sunburst glanced around, noticing the entrance line to a tour train off to his side. They’d seen the tracks stretching across Corrals of Fun; circling the entire park. “How about the train? It’ll give us a tour of the park and we’ll have a better idea of what’s here.”

“That’s more like it! Come on, what are we waiting for?”

The two trotted up to the queue and found their place in the steadily moving line. Their turn came and they took a seat in one of the train cars, waiting for the rest of the passengers to board.

Finally, the pony working the queue line shut the ropes, signaling that the ride was full. The other ponies would have to wait. A loud toot and a jolt signaled the train’s start. It began with a crawl, slowly picking up speed as it went.

“Here we go. I can’t wait!” Starlight shouted.

“Me either,” Sunburst said. “I’ll bet we’ll learn all about the park from the tour guide.”

Muffled crackling came through the speaker attached to the roof of the car, followed by the conductor’s voice. “Good morning, fillies and gentlecolts, and thank you for riding Corrals of Fun’s train tour! I will be your guide this morning. As we get started, I would like to remind our passengers to keep all body parts inside the train cars while the ride is in motion and please remain seated until it comes to a complete stop.”

The ground rushed beneath them now as the train moved at a steady pace.

“Corrals of Fun first opened one hundred and five years ago, created by legendary entrepreneur Ferris Gale, the pegasus who gave us the Ferris Wheel,” the conductor said.

“I didn’t know a Pegasus designed this park, or the Ferris Wheel,” Starlight said. “Thinking of my friends, architecture and entertainment seem more like earth pony specialities.”

“I knew about it,” Sunburst said. “It just proves you can’t assume what a pony’s good at from their race. Ferris was a entrepreneurial mastermind who knew just how to appeal to both foals and adults. I read about him when we were kids and wanting to come here.”

Starlight smiled at Sunburst. Her magical abilities might have impressed him, but his vast knowledge never ceased to amaze her in return. “Of course you did. Same old Sunburst. You always were so smart.”

Hot circles flared on Sunburst’s cheeks as he averted his gaze, playing with his glasses. “Heheh, well, you know…”

The overhead speaker crackled again, followed by the tour guide’s voice. “If you look to your right, you will see the Lumberjack, Corrals of Fun’s first roller coaster. It’s been here since the park opened and is one of the oldest wooden track coasters in Equestria.”

Starlight turned her head to see the coaster speed down a one hundred foot drop that still seemed tame compared to The Plunge. This roller coaster was indeed built out of wood, but held fast and sturdy despite its age. “That thing’s over a hundred years old?”

“Well, the preservation of wood has been an art in Equestria for thousands of years,” Sunburst replied. “Still not sure I’d want to go on that thing, though.”

Rolling her eyes, Starlight giggled. “You never were a glory seeker.”

Sunburst adjusted his glasses and shut his eyes in that typical teacher-like expression. A lecture was inevitable.

“Adrenaline is the body’s natural response to danger or extreme stress. Therefore, willingly subjecting yourself to a thrill for the pleasure of the adrenaline rush, aka being a so-called ‘adrenaline junkie’, is just foolish, if you ask me.”

“I’d rather be an adrenaline junkie than a coward,” Starlight countered

“Well I’d rather be a coward than dead,” Sunburst shot back.

Starlight scoffed, giving Sunburst another playful nudge. “Now who’s overreacting?”

“Am I?” Sunburst challenged.

“If anypony died on these rides, this park would get the horseshoes sued right off their hooves.”

A two-story building made of wood and built in the shape of a castle loomed in the distance, catching Starlight’s attention.

“Hey, what’s that?” she asked, pointing to it.

“Looks like a wooden castle of some sort,” Sunburst answered.

As if in answer, the conductor’s voice came again. “Up ahead you will see Chateaux Foal, one of Equestria’s largest indoor playgrounds. Two stories of slides and rides for foals of all ages will make your kids feel like royalty!”

There were open doorways on both stories that led to battlements on the outside of the castle. Starlight could see foals playing on them from where the train was crossing. Twisting slides from inside the top floor wound all the way to the ground outside.

“Wow, that’s so cool! Why didn’t they have stuff like this when we were foals? That would have been great to play ‘Castle’ in like we used to.”

Starlight gasped suddenly at her own words. The two of them locked eyes for a moment, both silently lost in the past.

“Heh,” Sunburst chuckled, shyly glancing away. “That was always fun, wasn’t it? I was the prince and you were the princess.”

“Yeah,” Starlight sighed, looking away herself. She fidgeted with her hooves, heart fluttering. “Or sometimes you’d be a brave wizard pretending to save me from a dragon or something. Good times, huh?”

They both sat in nervous silence for a moment as the train continued its round, but Starlight could almost feel a sense of comforting warmth radiating from Sunburst. She cracked open her mouth to offer something to break the awkward quiet. The conductor’s voice, however, interrupted her.

“And now we’re about to cross over the Lazy River. Why not hop in, relax and let the current carry all your worries away?”

The train came to a bridge built over an artificial river that looped around in a circle. All the ponies in the water below were riding in inflatable inner tubes.

“By the way, I don’t literally mean jump out of the train when we cross the bridge. Don’t do that.”

A few snickering chuckles followed the quip.

Starlight looked over the side of their car, watching the ponies in the water drift along. “That looks like fun, Sunburst, and it’s certainly no thrill ride.” She shot him a teasing smirk. “Unless you’re afraid of getting wet, too.”

“Says the pony who was afraid of being in charge of festival decorations.”

Starlight giggled. “Touche, Sunburst. Touche.”

Holding his head high, Sunburst shut his eyes and put a hoof to his chest in pride. “I have my moments.”

A warm, tantalizing smell wafted into Starlight’s nostrils as the train moved towards a series of buildings erected in a circle, some of them emitting steam from their smokestacks.

“Do you smell that?” Starlight asked. Her mouth began to water. She took a bigger sniff, closing her eyes to savor it. “It smells like-”

“And here we have the main food court,” the tour guide’s voice rang, “with cuisines from more than ten different parts of Equestria as far as Saddle Arabia. There are also Minotaur, Buffalo and Yakyakistonian restaurants.”

“Food!” Starlight felt her stomach growl with a pang of hunger. Which reminded her; she’d been so nervous about meeting Sunburst that morning that she hadn’t been able to keep down much of a breakfast. “I’m getting pretty hungry, Sunburst. You feeling up for some lunch?”

“I’m hungry as a horse,” Sunburst said. “But I don’t think we should eat here.”

The passed through the center of the circle now, offering a perfect view of all the restaurants. “Why not?” Starlight glanced around at their options. All off them looked and smelled delicious. Choosing one place would be hard. “Just look at all this food!”

“It’s a tourist trap. All these places are going to be terribly overpriced. Let’s look for something outside the park.”

It made sense, Starlight realized. This was the kind of place that would charge a pony 20 bits for a daffodil sandwich. “Good point. You won’t get any complaints from me on that,” Starlight agreed. “Any ideas?”

Sunburst rubbed his chin in thought, abruptly cut off from his concentration by the screeching of steel against steel and the sensation of their world slowing down.

“What’s going on?” Starlight asked

“What do you think?” Sunburst answered. “End of the line.”

The train slowed to a halt at the entrance line from which it left, followed by the conductor’s voice ringing over the speakers one last time. “And that, fillies and gentlecolts, concludes our train tour. Thank you for choosing Corrals of Fun, and enjoy the rest of your visit!”

Starlight and Sunburst stepped out of their train car to the designated exit opposite end of the entrance line.

“So, how about lunch?” Starlight asked again as they walked through the crowd of other ponies getting off the train.

“Well,” Sunburst started. “I did see a Hayburger Patty’s on the way in this morning.”

“Oh, come on!” Starlight gave Sunburst a little push. “There’s Hayburger Patty’s everywhere. Take some risks, try something new!”

Sunburst sheepishly adjusted his glasses, glancing away from Starlight. “Ah, right. How about you choose, then?”

“Well, eating local is one of the best parts of travelling, and this IS Las Pegasus, so there’s bound to be something good around every corner besides a boring old Hayburger.” Starlight stepped ahead, waving for Sunburst to follow. “Let’s go take a walk and see what we can find.”

Comments

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

I love the near argument/tiff and banter. Just noticed Sunburst is more cautious and street smart while Starlight is (as in canon) an adrenaline junkie. It's an interesting dynamic.

[Yoshifan30]

“It’s a tourist trap. All these places are going to be terribly overpriced. Let’s look for something outside the park.”

He's not wrong fine example Universal Studio Disney World restaurants are very very expensive to eat there yes they do look great but unfortunately very expensive

[Yoshifan30]

So after the failed attempt to win at the ring toss they went to a train ride tour which it's always pretty nice to see how the Carnival and the rides and the history and once again a cute moment between those two and now they need to find some lunch