G5: trip of friendship

by Cristel

Chapter 3

Sunny and Hitch walked into the arcade, which appeared to have seen better days. They were curious by a green unicorn colt that had entered the building. He was stadium lawn colored. His mane was calamansi and creamy mint. His cutie mark was a video game controller.

"Yipes!" he shouted. He hid behind an arcade machine and slowly peeped his head up.

"What are y'all doing here?" he nervously asked.

"We could ask you the same thing." Hitch said. The unicorn came out and gave a flamboyant look.

"Well I'm Beta Bonus, the arcade's highest-scoring player, or at least I want to be." he bragged, before looking down in embarrassment.

"Why aren't you?" Sunny asked.

"None of the games in the arcade actually work, so I have to pretend playing the games." he explained. He demonstrated by moving the joystick on one of the games called Party Power but the screen remained black.

"See? I just have to pretend Party Prizewinner the pony is actually moving and collecting the party favors. Heh." he muttered.

"Why don't they work?" Hitch asked.

"The powersource was destroyed by Shadow's machine years ago, and any attempt to repair it only makes it worse."

Sunny and Hitch were dismayed because it was clear that this unicorn was born to play games but he couldn't anymore. Naturally, they were compelled to assist with the restoration of the arcade in order to help this pony in need. Sunny pondered for as long as she could for any indication of a solution. In a similar vein, Hitch strategized what could be done besides just kicking the arcade games to work.

"Say Beta, where is the powersource?" Sunny asked.

"It's up on the roof, but you're not going to be able to fix it. It's like playing a game on hard mode! Hehe." Beta explained.

Sunny and Hitch weren't really sure what that meant but they were willing to try. They galloped to the top of the roof via the deteriorating stairwell (Luckily it was sturdy enough for them). They noticed a curious contraption on the roof. It was a bunch of cogs and pipes hooked to a massive metal box that had rusted over time. Sunny started looking at it, trying to figure out how to fix it. Hitch, on the other hand, didn't waste any time and kicked it with his hind legs.

"Work, you bucket of bolts!" he demanded. Sunny quickly pushed him aside. Just then the machine began to whir up again. A purple dot appeared on the screen.

"All systems go." it spoke in a soft, malicious voice. "Execute pixelization protocol."

"That can't be good!" Sunny fretted. A purple laser shot out of the purple dot, hitting both Sunny and Hitch. They froze into place, unable to move. Then they began to break apart into small cubes, though it didn't hurt. The small cubes then entered the monitor in a flash.

Beta was still waiting for Sunny and Hitch to come back down, when suddenly one of the arcade games began to flicker. As he got closer, the image became clearer and clearer. Sunny and Hitch reappeared inside in one piece. They looked around confused at the black void they were now standing in.

"Where are we?" Sunny asked.

"Look!" Hitch shouted pointing. She looked up and saw a huge screen in the sky with Beta looking down at them as if it were a window.

"No way!" Beta exclaimed, bewildered beyond words.

"I think we're trapped in one of the arcade games!" Hitch concluded.

"Correct." the soft voice said again. The purple dot then uploaded into the game, appearing as a glowy purple sphere from Sunny and Hitch's point of view.

"Who are you and why did you send us here?" Sunny demanded.

"I am Malicious Automated Logistics or MAL." it responded, "And I sent you here to prevent you from removing me from the arcade's mainframe."

"Wait a minute, the powersource was never destroyed, it was infected by malware!" Beta realized, "Don't worry, I know an extermination code that should eliminate MAL from the system."

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't let you do that." MAL said, "This arcade will remain inoperational for as long as I function, it's what Shadow programmed me to do."

"Come on, let's show this crazy virus whose boss!" Hitch said, stomping his hooves on the ground.

"Game on." MAL said with an even more malicious voice. Just then, the dark nothingness they were in began to flicker. The scene became a polygonal park as it became clearer and clearer. MAL then slowly transformed from a glowing purple ball into a yellow colt wearing a party hat. But, like MAL, his eyes remained purple and pupiless.

"Run." Sunny gulped. The two ran for dear life as MAL gave chase in its new form.

Beta started moving the joystick and pressing the action buttons, trying to access the extermination code. Sunny and Hitch were attempting to dodge MAL by jumping over bushes that the game's programming made unpassable.

"Beta! What'll we do?" Hitch shouted. Beta hurriedly examined the side of the arcade machine, which provided a detailed description of the game.

"According to the game's description, the objective of Party Power is to help Party Prizewinner collect all the party favors before dark. Just keep MAL occupied and collect all the party favors before the 2 minute timer runs out." Beta explained. When Sunny and Hitch looked up, they saw a 2 minute timer ticking away. They instantly started looking for the party treats Beta had specified. Party hats, noisemakers, bead necklaces, bracelets, and spinning tops were littered over the area. They promptly picked them up with their mouths as they ran away from MAL. They vanished, and a message showed on the screen, indicating how many more they needed to collect.

A minute and a half had already passed and there were only 30 seconds left. Beta was still fruitlessly trying to access the code.

"What's taking so long, Beta?!" Sunny shouted.

"I'm sorry, I'm left down, down, DOWN I TELL YOU! Coding does have its ups and downs, but it's not like I got a BA in it." Beta ranted. Suddenly, he thought about what he just said. Finally, the last party favor was in the sights of Sunny and Hitch. They galloped as quickly as they could to it, but suddenly MAL came out of nowhere in front of it. It shattered the last party favor into a million pixels with its hooves.

"It's game over now!" it said very menacingly. With the timer running out, no way to gather all of the party favors, with MAL closing in on them, Sunny and Hitch felt like it was truly game over. The two embraced each other prepared to meet their fates and the timer counted down to 10 seconds and MAL was about to do another attack on them.

But then everything came to a halt. Everything in the game became locked in place, like a photograph. MAL began to glitch uncontrollably.

"NOOOO!" It said, its voice becoming lower. It flattened like a piece of paper and vanished in a ball of light. Sunny and Hitch had no idea what just happened.

"It worked! The extermination code got rid of MAL!" Beta resounded. In an instant, Sunny and Hitch were pixelated and transferred out of the arcade game and back into the arcade room. All of the arcade games switched on again, much to Beta's pleasure, allowing them to be played once more.

"Thank you both!" he grinned, hugging Sunny and Hitch, "you were very brave to discover the true problem."
"We owe our thanks to you Beta." Sunny explained humbly.

"It would have been game over for us had you not did what you did." Hitch added. The new friends exchanged warm hugs and began playing all of the arcade's games.

Author's Note:

Here is your succulent chapter 3, I hope you enjoy it as always and don't forget to comment on what you think about this story or questions and see you with the next chapter.
bye Bye