• Published 25th Feb 2024
  • 379 Views, 41 Comments

Video Game Journeys: Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time - CrashGuy41



The Rainbooms continue their journey with Crash Bandicoot to find Sunset.

  • ...
0
 41
 379

Sunset in the Hazardous Wastes

Despite having questions about the rifts and why it brought them into this video game world, the Rainbooms knew that it wasn't exactly the right time to be asking. For now, their goal at the moment was to close the rifts in this world in order to fix the ending, reunite with Sunset, and return home to Canterlot City. They soon found themselves in a dimension known as The Hazardous Wastes 2084.

"So, we need the other masks to close the rifts?" Coco asked.

"Correct!" Lani-Loli confirmed. "Now my brother Akano is around here somewhere..."

Just then, N. Gin made his presence known by flying towards everyone on a jet pack.

"Welcome to the show, vermin and friends!" N. Gin exclaimed. "Looking for your precious mask?"

"Behold the aforementioned putz," Lani-Loli sighed.

"Don't worry. We have a thing where we fight, he loses. It's a well-established dynamic," Coco said reassuringly.

"Not this time!" N. Gin retorted. "I've got a backstage pass for you to get up close and personal with my weapon of mass percussion!"

As he left them, Rainbow groaned at his bad pun.

"Oh, my God! That has to be the WORST pun I've ever heard!" she groaned.

"Yeah, that was pretty distasteful, not to mention a bit corny," Pinkie said in in agreement.


The group continued onward, all while having to listen to N. Gin's constant chatter over the loudspeakers. Eventually, they came up against a muscular minion that was about to hit them very hard until Applejack decided to give him a low blow so hard that he died of embarrassment.

"FRANK! You cowgirl brat! Kill my favorite minion, will you?!" N. Gin yelled over the loudspeakers.

"For the love of... JUST SHUT UP, ALREADY!!!" Rainbow shouted, covering her ears in annoyance.

Eventually, they came up towards a garage and sat down to rest, as they were all getting exhausted.

"Damn! I cannot take another step!"

"Just hang in there, Dash. We'll stop that crazy robot-obsessed lunatic and get the mask, while we're at it," Applejack said.

"Well, we better. Otherwise, who knows what might happen?" Twilight said as she sat down to rub her sore feet.

"I simply do not understand why this N. Gin character would pick such a desolate wasteland to use as his base!" Rarity complained.

"And why would he use people for his army? It's just so gruesome," Fluttershy cringed.


Meanwhile, on the inside of the garage, a tall, female bandicoot with yellow-and-blue hair, along with a very familiar red-and-yellow haired girl with orange skin climbed on top of a huge makeshift monster truck called the Doom Rig. The girl in question, was in fact, Sunset Shimmer, who was somehow travelling with this bandicoot to find her own friends.

"Woah! This has to be one of the coolest looking pieces of transportation I've ever seen!" Sunset whispered gleefully.

The bandicoot immediately shushed her, to keep them from getting caught.

"Here, help me with this hook," the bandicoot said as she started moving said hook into place.

Sunset pushed with all of her might to get the hook onto the monster truck. Once it was in place, the garage door started opening and the truck started up. While the bandicoot managed to get out in time, Sunset wasn't so lucky. The shaking of the monster truck made her fall onto her knees while still on top of the truck.

"Uh-oh."


Back outside, the garage door opened and everyone noticed the Doom Rig with a mutated human called a Rambler in the driver's seat, while N. Gin was in the passenger's seat. Everyone got up and instantly knew that N. Gin was going to try to run them over with that truck. Darting her eyes, Twilight instantly noticed a few go-karts conveniently placed in front of them next to two atlaspheres.

"Okay, I don't know how those got there, but I'm not complaining. Everybody except the bandicoots, get in a go-kart!" Twilight said.

As if by instinct, the girls all got into the vehicles and started the engines.

"Are you ready?" N. Gin announced over the speaker, which was in the monster truck. "Start! Your!"

As soon as the Doom Rig roared to life, however, it stopped dead in its tracks from going too far out, thanks to the hook. Seeing an opportunity to escape, Crash and Coco leapt into the two atlaspheres and started running away while the girls drove off in their go-karts. While all of this was happening, no one was aware that Sunset was hanging on to the top of the Doom Rig for dear life as N. Gin chased them down the road. They eventually made it inside another garage, where they were all able to rest from the rampaging Doom Rig. The girls turned off their karts as they stopped to catch their breath. Just then, they heard the Doom Rig start back up again. That was their cue to skedaddle. Turning their karts back on, the girls sped off as Crash and Coco got in brand new atlaspheres.

"Run run Vroom vroom! Ehehehehehe!" N. Gin taunted as the monster truck continued to chase them.

Up ahead, Twilight noticed a ramp that led to the other side of a cavern.

"Everyone, full speed ahead on that ramp!" Twilight yelled.

She slammed on the gas pedal and drove as fast as she could, with the others following close behind. Soon, the Rainbooms and the bandicoots all took the ramp and made it to the other side, while the monster truck managed to destroy the ramp, as it could take both of the roads and not be affected by the gap. Seeing her friends in the air made Sunset realize that she had to make her presence known.

"GET ME OFF THIS CRAZY THING!" she screamed at last.

"Well, looks like we have an unwanted passenger," N. Gin said, referring to Sunset. "Too bad this vehicle wasn't built with a handicap in mind. Ehehehehehe!"

Upon hearing the voice, Twilight immediately turned her head and saw Sunset dangling from the top of the truck for dear life.

"SUNSET! HANG IN THERE, WE'LL SAVE YOU AS SOON AS WE CAN!" Twilight shouted.

"DO I HAVE MUCH OF A CHOICE?!" Sunset shouted in response.

"What's taking you imbeciles so long?! Two of your targets are caged, for cripes sake!" N. Gin roared as the karts and atlaspheres took the final ramp.

After doing so, their rides exploded and everyone landed on the other side with a thud. Shaken, but thankfully, no one was hurt. As the truck tried making it over, it hit the edge of the road and knocked Sunset off of the vehicle towards the others. Seeing that Sunset was falling fast, Rarity used her magic to create a diamond-like platform for Sunset to safely land on. Sunset slowly got up and saw her friends around her.

"Guys? You all saved me!" she cried, giving everyone a hug.

"Woohoohoo! Everyone's reunited again!" Pinkie shouted excitedly.

"Aw, how sweet," Coco cooed.

Upon seeing both Crash and Coco in front of her, Sunset raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, guys? Who and what are they?" Sunset asked.

Everyone let go of each other, ending the hug. Twilight then walked over to Crash and Coco and introduced them to Sunset.

"Sunset, this is Crash and Coco Bandicoot. If it wasn't for them, we never would've found you," Twilight explained.

"Okay, but what about those floating masks?"

"I am Aku Aku and this is Lani-Loli, one of the Quantum Masks," Aku Aku said.

"Wow. First I meet some edgy bandicoot with a personal goal, now I'm talking to two masks with two other bandicoots."

"You saw another bandicoot?" Coco asked.

"Well, yeah. She never gave me her name, but she seemed kind of nice. So, what have you guys been up to?"


Later, the girls, along with Crash, Coco and their mask friends settled down over a campfire. Sunset explained to them how she managed to survive all this time in this parallel universe.

"And then, that's when I met her and eventually met up with you guys, again," she said as she roasted some marshmallows with the others.

"Wow. You're lucky to be here in one piece, Sunset. A lot of us probably wouldn't last a day in this environment," Twilight said.

"Yeah, well, when you're from a place where magic is pretty much abundant, you learn to pick up a few things when you're in the Everfree Forest."

"You have magic, too?" Coco asked.

"Yeah, but where I'm from, it's actually natural. See, the truth is, I'm not even from this world or the world we came from. I'm not even a human."

"What?"

"If you're not human, then what exactly are you?" Aku Aku asked.

"I'm what's called a unicorn. I studied under Princess Celestia until my ego got the better of me. I ended up only wanting power until the princess of friendship, who's also named Twilight, came along and taught me the true values of what it means to be a friend."

"Wow. That's... amazing," Coco gasped.

"I know, but it's true. So what about you guys?"

Twilight sighed heavily. She didn't really want to talk about it, but knew she didn't really have a choice. She told Sunset everything that had happened when they all got separated. Sunset was in shock. She didn't expect her friend to actually form a close bond with Coco, who was originally created to help Cortex take over the world, during her time in captivity. And yet, despite their heartwarming reunion, they all knew that the only real way for them to get back home was to truly fix the game's ending so that the hero would win and the villain would lose, just like it should be.

Author's Note:

For those wondering, the karts shown in the chapter are karts from Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled. Here's who has what kart.

  • Twilight Sparkle: The Champion
  • Fluttershy: The Cabrio
  • Pinkie Pie: The Roadster
  • Applejack: The Dusty Rider
  • Rarity: The Doom Buggy
  • Rainbow Dash: The Rocket

I gave them these specific karts, because the default color schemes of those karts resemble the colors of their geodes.