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My Past is not Today1,325 words
Fun on the Rails1,025 words

Fun on the Rails

Jimmy (or should I say Sunset, given who that was he was being at the time and would always be in that state unless the state of things were to change before they normally did, which was not now as the story was yet to finish) reopened the door to her home, having left it a little while earlier. What had happened had surprised her somewhat, as things that were going on did not usually occur like this, or at least had not occurred like this for a long time. So, it was needed to solve this mystery to prevent it from occurring again.

But enought of this random rambling and pseudo philosophical nonsense, as we have a story to get on with, and a story to get on with I shall give you, unless you especially want to read random rambling and pseudo philosophical nonsense (as I assume you don't). Sunset, having stepped in through the door of her home, shut the door again and locked it. "Last thing I need is an obsessive fanboy getting in here and doing weird stuff."

She walked upstairs and saw Ray, her pet crested gecko, looking up at her from inside his tank. "Hey buddy!" she said. "How've you been?"

Ray seemed to nod in response to her words, and Sunset smiled. "Yeah. I know. Life's crazy, huh? Still, I've got some stuff to do. See ya."

She sat down in front of her desk, and fortuitously her computer of the personal variety was already switched on. Glancing over the icons, a sudden burst of sound from her speakers knocked her back. "AAAH! WHAT THE-?"

Looking at her on the screen, from the other end of a piece of visual communication software, was a mysterious person wearing a hood that covered their entire face, making it impossible to see what it looked like at the end on which they were on. When they did speak, a few moments later, their voice was almost totally unintelligible, seemingly as if they had voice changer software in use.

"So, you're the mighty Sunset Shimmer, huh?" they asked, the look of a sneer on their face.

"Who are you?" Sunset asked. "How do you even know my name?"

"That is not relevant, I'm afraid," the mysterious stranger replied, their calm tone and level voice unnerving Sunset greatly, a level of unease that the person on the other end did not share. "What is relevant is your skill in games. You appear to be a very experiences gamer, having racked up hundreds of achievements and thousands of hours on various games. Mechanicus, Emergency 20, even Climb the Tree, though you haven't got very far with that one. I remember that on the livestream. You being unable to control it was hilarious."

"That's because the controls were impossible and made no sense!"

"Shift plus E to climb the tree."

Sunset facepalmed. "Why would I think to even try that button combination? It makes no sense!"

"You did with the B12." There was a pause before the speaker began to speak again, as speakers are usually known to do, as otherwise they would not be speakers and captions would need to appear on screen in order to establish what is being said. "That brings me onwards to today's order of business."

"Which is?" Sunset asked.

"Race. Train Simulator 2020 race. London to Faversham High Speed, from London St Pancras to Ebbsfleet International. Class 395."

Sunset grimaced. "If I win, you'll go away, right?"

"Of course," the mysterious figure replied, before the picture vanished.

Sunset booted up the game, loaded the route and appropriate train (6 car version, as it ran considerably faster than the 12 car version) and glanced over from Platform 6, which she had picked as it allowed for a faster run by avoiding the platforms at Stratford International. Another train was sat in Platform 13, also 6 cars. Sunset's earpiece suddenly buzzed.

"Ready?" the voice asked, the same as the one that had been heard earlier.

"Ready," Sunset replied, and reached for the A key.

"Three, two-" Suddenly, the other train began to move.

"That's cheating!" Sunset cried.

"Gotta use all the advantages you've got," the voice replied as they sped away. Sunset held down the A key and let the train accelerate out of the platform, rolling forward at 25 miles an hour as the TVM 430 (Transmission Voie Machine, or Track to Train Transmission 430) started up, displaying a flat speed of 80 on a solid white background, indicating a maximum permitted speed of 80 kilometres per hour.

"Here we go," Sunset said to nobody in particular, as her train roared into London Tunnel One. The TVM suddenly flashed a new speed at her of 225 on a green background, or 225 kilometres per hour. Sunset cranked the throttle open to full as the Javelin roared down the gradient, reaching top speed by the time it popped out at Stratford and zoomed through, down into another drop of one in fourty as her set maintained full speed (as 225 kilometres per hour was the fastest speed allowed on this stretch of line). As the train emerged at Dartford Crossing, the TVM suddenly began playing up, displaying a speed of 20 on a white background, before jumping up to 90, then down to 70, and endlessly changing between signals.

"What the?"

"Gotta use all the advantages you've got," the voice said again, taunting her. Sunset just decided to drive by sight, and ignore the signalling, cranking open to full power as she flew along. It was even time to ignore the speed limit for a time, as she put power open the train rolled through the speed limit and was soon up to 250 kilometres per hour. Up, up, and up the speeds went as the train shot down hills and up slopes, before thundering into Ebbsfleet International platform in first place.

"YES! TAKE THAT!"

"Well done," said the mysterious voice. "You beat me. Goodbye."

Elsewhere, the mysterious voice sat back and smiled. "Round one to you, Sunny," she said. "But next time, I'll have all the control I need."

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