Author's Note

I do sincerely apologize how long it's taken me to put out Chapter II. With learning how to be a manager at my job, I've been a little distracted lately, and I've dragged my feet on this for longer than I'd like to admit.

But regardless, here it is ^3^ Proofread again by my good friend Some Leech. I'll try to get the following chapters out at a much better rate. Keep being yourselves, I hope you enjoy reading the story as it's written out, and may the force be with you.

Also.. here's a link to the drawing depicting Sunnie's appearance on my DeviantArt page if you wanna take a look.

https://www.deviantart.com/sun-saber/art/Human-Sunset-Sunnie-commission-874241723

Chapter II: Family Reunion/Starting the "game"

"Welcome, brave mortals, to the game of a lifetime. Survive if you can. Muahahaha!"

And with those treacherous words, the game began at last - though for one, it was just merely a continuation of an endless cycle. Perhaps this time things would turn out differently, with the arrival of some new players.

"Alright, looks like it's game on," Cocoa remarked once she had spawned in. Fudge spawned a second later, followed by Celestia.

"Goodness, it's so poorly lit in here I can barely see!" Celestia commented, rubbing her eyes.

The area they appeared to be in was the cafeteria of Canterlot High, but with an assortment of tables and chairs displaced and damaged. The lights all around appeared to be damaged and or simply shut off due to a lack of a sustainable power source. So although the room was barely lit, they all could see just where they were, and someone else in there with them could see some of the people she'd hoped would come and find her.

"Cocoa? Fudge? M-Mom? You guys came for me?" Sunnie said while practically running into her mother's arms and sinking into a deep, long awaited hug.

"Oh honey, it's so good to see you're alive," Celestia replied while hugging her beloved daughter, trying not to cry. "I'm sorry it took so long, sweetie, but we're here to take you home now." Sunnie on the other hand, began to softly cry into her mother's arms, elated to finally be with her mother again after so long.

"I m-missed you, m-mom. I r-really missed you.." More and more Sunnie cried as Celestia gently caressed her hair, trying to calm her down while continuing to hold her deeply.

"Shhhh, it's okay, honey. It's okay. We're here now. We'll all be back home soon. I promise." Celestia continued to console her precious daughter, gently rubbing Sunnie's head. But sadly, this tender, loving moment wasn't going to last very long.

"Uh, girls? We got company," Fudge exclaimed, pointing to one of the doors leading into the kitchen of the school's cafeteria. Creeping out of the kitchen doorway closest to the main lobby, were a small handful of undead corpses that appeared to be modified versions of their friends from the outside world.

"Jeez, I've seen Rarity disheveled, but not to that extent,” Cocoa boasted. Undead Rarity appeared to have been bitten multiple times in different areas, her sparkly blue Fall Formal dress almost completely drenched in her own blood. Shambling behind her was an undead Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and a few others, all of their eyes glowing a bright, moderate cyan.

"Alright, sniff, cut the chatter," Sunnie commented, wiping off her face of any tears. "I want to go home. Check your pockets, guys." As the undead shambled even closer, Sunnie pulled out an M1911 pistol from her pocket, pulled the slide back, and emptied four bullets into "Rarity's" head, sending her body to the floor.

"Wow! Nice shot, sweetie," Celestia commented, patting and then reaching into one of her own pockets and pulled out a pistol. "I hope my old lessons from the range aren't as rusty as I think they are." Backing away just slightly, Cocoa and Fudge reached into their own pockets, but didn't feel any pistols. Just the weapons they kept concealed from the outside world unless they needed them for an absolute emergency.

"Fudge-," Cocoa began to speak but was swiftly silenced by her brother.

"Yeah, I know, I know, we have to use them. Not like we have much choice in the matter anyway," Fudge interrupted, pulling out his weapon and instantly ignited it, the pink glow of his blade now adding another source of light to the poorly lit cafeteria. Cocoa followed suit and ignited her own lightsaber, hers casting off an Indigo blue glow.

"Woah… Where did you guys get those?" Sunnie asked as Fudge ran towards and sliced through "Rainbow" and "Pinkie" with swift precision, their bodies and decapitated heads slumping to the floor.

"It's a somewhat complicated story. We'll explain along the way, I promise," Cocoa replied as she had just sliced "Fluttershy" from her shoulder down to her waist. "Ok, Sunnie, you've been in here for a while. There's gotta be an easter egg of sorts that'll allow us to escape. How do we find the steps?"

"Well, I haven't been able to get very far since it was just me, but I know for sure that we need to get the power on first," Sunnie replied, as she and her mother Celestia eliminated the rest of the zombies, initiating the end of the first round. "But um, I'm curious though. How long have I been gone?"

Cocoa, Fudge, and Celestia were at a loss for words as to how to break it to Sunnie, until finally Celestia spilled the truth.

"Sweetie, um, I don't know how to really say this, but…. you've been missing for over two and a half years," Celestia responded, placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder. Fudge and Cocoa left them for a moment to barricade the doorways and pick off any stragglers that remained.

"W-What? But… But it only feels like it's been months. Time here is fucking confusing….. Two and a half years…. Fucking hell…" Sunnie froze when hit with the revelation that she had been gone for so long, trapped in an endless cycle of dead end attempts to escape a near realistic version of a game she had enjoyed for a very long time.

"But Sunnie, you can start to relax. We're gonna get you home. We missed you," Cocoa commented as the last of the zombies were exterminated, signalling the end of the round. "Ok, first round is done. Now to get these doors open."

"Um, Sunnie… how do we check how many points we have?" Fudge inquired.

"Press your right palm on your left wrist. It displays your point counter, perks, and any weapons you have in your loadout," Sunnie answered, showing them how to pull up their Heads Up Display. One by one they followed Sunnie's instructions, pulling up their huds which appeared as a sort of hologram.

"Woah..," Fudge commented, amazed at what he was seeing. "This is.. weird. But oddly fascinating."

"What's this supposed to be?" Celestia inquired, looking at an odd looking machine.

"Oh. That's quick revive. In the games, like this one, it allows you to revive other players faster. Or if you're playing by yourself, you can basically revive yourself. But come on. We gotta find two fuse boxes to get the power back on," Sunnie explained.

Cocoa opened the main doors leading to the main lobby of the school, cutting her points down by one thousand points, leaving her with twenty. As they began heading into the lobby just as the second round was beginning, something off in the distance caught Fudge's attention.

"Hey guys, I found the mystery box," Fudge pointed out, running towards it. The mystery box was a simple wooden crate with two big glowing question marks on the lid, sitting atop what appeared to be three small Apple crates, illuminated by a glowing pink beam of light shining through the roof and up into the sky outside to indicate where the Box is at any given time. "Aunt Celestia, keep this in mind. This thing right here can be a bit of a pain in the ass. Sometimes you'll get something good, or something that can fuck you over."

"Thanks for letting me know," Celestia replied as she began to curiously investigate their surroundings. If the cafeteria wasn't already poorly lit, the vacant hallways were just as bad. Parts of the floor and surrounding lockers were stained with dried blood, with a few of the doorways leading to classrooms also doubling as barricades for the zombies to climb through.

The sound of the wooden barricades being torn down put them back to work. Fudge turned and went to head down the corridor that leads to and past the Vice Principal's office, finding a glowing chalk outline of a weapon on the locker doors, knowing this to be a wall weapon.

"Huh. An MP-40. Not exactly the type of weapon to see in modern times, but I guess it's still a classic though," Fudge announced, as he tried to figure out how to purchase it. Hovering his hand over the outline, Fudge also found out he had twelve hundred points, more than enough to purchase it. And after doing so, an MP-40 magically appeared in his open hand. "Woah…"

"WOOO! THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Sunnie shouted, but with the school as quiet as it already, not counting the zombies and everything, it was amplified to a significant degree. She had just spun the Mystery Box and was lucky enough to get the favored Ray Gun Mark II. Fudge laughed to himself and rolled his eyes as he ran back to join the others.

"Sweetie, could you not shout like that again? That really hurt my ears," Celestia inquired as she finished boarding up a barricade.

"Sorry, mom. I just got so excited. It's rare to get a weapon like this on the first spin," Sunnie responded, displaying the weapon in her hand. Continuing down the blood-stained hallways, and through another pile of debris blocking their path… they all find themselves just outside the doors leading to the stage and gymnasium. "Okay. The first fuse box is up the ladder to the catwalk above the stage where the stage lights are usually operated."

"Alright. Let's get to it then," Fudge said, opening the doors leading to the stage, with the doors to the main gym on their right.

"Actually, um.. could I talk to Cocoa alone for a moment? We won't be too long," Sunnie requested.

"Of course, sweetie. Don't let your guard down though," Celestia replied as she and Fudge headed up the stairs, walking towards the ladder that leads up to the catwalk.

"What is it, Sunnie?" Cocoa inquired as to why she wanted to be spoken to, alone.

"I'm sorry, but I have to know. Why do you and Fudge have working lightsabers? Is there something you haven't told me?"

"Okay. Here's the thing," Cocoa spoke, finally ready to spill the beans on her family's past. "Mom didn't really want anyone to know about our powers, and our lightsabers, 'cause of what she had escaped from. As after the war, being a Jedi was like signing your death warrant. She was afraid of everyone on Earth casting us out, or even killing us."

"Wait, what war? The clone war? She was a part of that? Your mom was a.. a Jedi?" Sunnie asked, turning quickly to blast a zombie that had rounded a corner.

"Yes. She was. And at the time, me and Fudge were just a few weeks old. She had built two extra lightsabers so that someday, we could have them as protection if it came to that. And I especially didn't want anyone at school to know 'cause our school's reputation was slandered already with all the magic shit running around…. all because of that stupid bitch from Equestria." Cocoa responded, her tone having just a touch of anger at the end.

"Wait. The who from where?"

"Okay. I didn't think much of it at first, but when we found the game that you've been trapped in, it all came together in my head," Cocoa spoke. "You've been stuck in here because your counterpart from another world opened a portal that connects our worlds, and basically took your place."

"What?!" After learning the truth, Sunnie was outraged. Reasonably so.

"That's how I felt too when I realized it. Her arrival in our world created an imbalance in the spacetime continuum which in turn cast you out of our world and into this game world. When we get out of here, I'm going to make sure that the other Sunset goes back to where she came from. Or else." Cocoa then ignited her lightsaber, signalling just what she meant. "I won't kill her of course. That'd be taking it a bit far. But I may have to get into some… aggressive negotiations if she doesn't agree to give you your life back."

A few seconds passed, and some of the lights came back on in full force, but the other side of the school was still without power. "Okay, that's half of the power back on. The other fuse box is in the principal's office, but it's locked. We need to find a key," Sunnie said, killing the last zombie of the second round. "So. This… other me… what's she like?"

"She's quite a handful, other than looking and sounding like you. When she first arrived after you had disappeared, she was the biggest bitch I had ever heard of or dealt with. But now she claims to be all "nice" and everything. I don't buy it. I feel sorry for the girls, having been manipulated by her obvious lies. It's her fault you've been stuck here for almost three years!" Cocoa replied, getting enraged once more.

Moments later, Celestia and Fudge walked out from the stage entrance and regrouped with Cocoa and Sunnie.

"Hey, Sunnie?" Fudge asked, holding a small golden key in his hand. "Is this needed for anything?"

"Yes, actually. That's the key to unlock the principal's office where the second fuse box is located," Sunnie replied. "I don't know why it'd be in there of all places, but it's a game, so logic means little, but come on. Let's go."

And with that, they turned and headed back the way they came towards what is the principal's office with the third round being well underway. Cocoa, Sunnie, and Celestia temporarily acted as guards while Fudge fiddled with the key to unlock the door, killing any and all zombies that approached.

With an audible click , the door was unlocked and Fudge pushed it open. The girls stayed outside the office as he located the second fuse box and then flipped the switch to turn it on. Seconds later, the rest of the lights in the school began to turn on, fully illuminating all rooms and hallways.

"Okay, that did it. Now what, Sunnie?" Fudge asked.

"Ok, now we need to head to the computer lab. There we have to solve a code puzzle to-...," Sunnie replied. But before they moved an inch… a door down the hallway slowly creaks open, and Sunnie peeked around the corner to find the source. "Um… that door has never opened after I've turned the power on by myself in the past. I have a bad feeling about this…"

Another mysterious thing that happened is that all the zombies just… vanished. They all stopped spawning. "Well things just got worse," Cocoa announced, recognizing that. "The zombies just disappeared. One thing that makes zombies similar to piranhas is that if there aren't any piranhas in the water… that means there's a shark nearby.."

"I don't like the sound of that," Celestia said, understandably concerned. "Let's get moving befo-.."

"WHO DARES SET FOOT ON SCHOOL GROUNDS AFTER HOURS?!"

"Oh dear…."