Sunny wandered onto the beach, carrying a tin and a beachball with her. She'd been told that there was something going on there, and naturally she wanted to join in.

Sure enough, she saw some kids playing beach volleyball, and naturally she wanted to join in. "Hey guys! Wait for me!" She dashed across the sand and came to a stop in front of where the group were playing.

The smile on her face evaporated when she saw who was there. One of them was Sprout, who still had an ugly sneer locked into his face. "Oh, if it isn't the little liar," he sneered. "You got me sent to bed without desert because of what you said!"

Sunny knew what this was about. Sprout had basically faced no consequences for hitting her when he'd been over for a playdate, and to be sent to bed without desert (which was probably something unhealthy if her knowledge of the Cloverleafs was anything to go by) wasn't that big of a deal. Sunny knew if she'd acted the same way she'd have been grounded. For a week.

"No I'm not!" Sunny protested. "You hit me!"

Then another person turned around, a girl with yellowy hair. It was another person who seemed to have an axe to grind with Sunny for no obvious reason.

"Well, if it isn't Sunny," she said.

"Not now, Mandy," Sunny said. "I just wanna play."

"Well, you can't," Mandy smirked, walking towards Sunny. "Not since you got me in trouble for no reason."

"You pushed me down the slide!" Sunny protested.

"Not to mention that this beach is only for English kids. And you're not."

Sunny was pretty confused. "But I am British," she said.

"Not with that voice you're not," Mandy replied, and abruptly snatched the tin from under her arm.

"Give that back!"

Mandy pinned Sunny in place whilst she looked through the tin. "What are these?" she asked.

"Those are cookies," Sunny started.

"Cookies?!" Mandy said. "You can't even talk properly. Those are American words. We don't speak American here."

"Uh, guys, her mom's American," one of the other boys pointed out.

"Well, no wonder!" Sprout snorted.

Mandy laughed, and closed in on Sunny. "I bet you'll end up really fat. Your kitchen probably smells like Burger King!"

"If an American cuts themselves, they probably bleed cooking grease!" Sprout laughed.

Sunny had backed up onto a rock. "Dad does most of the cooking anyway, and who cares if I sometimes use different words? You know what I mean!"

Mandy was about to say something else, when suddenly another voice spoke.

"How about you pick on somebody your own size, eh Mandy?"

Sunny glanced over to see a boy with yellow skin and green hair standing next to her. He didn't look hugely happy.

Mandy looked at him. "The hero speaks."

The boy still looked stern. "Just because Sunny's mom is from somewhere else doesn't give you the right to be mean to her. Besides, you've eaten at KFC, which is originally from Kentucky, which is in America. So you're a hypocrite. Besides, I don't think Mr Marshall would want to hear you've been bullying people, would he?"

Mandy growled at him, and walked off, tossing the tin to the floor. "Come on guys! Let's move the game somewhere else. Let's leave Hitch and his girlfriend alone."

Sunny looked like she was about to speak, but Mandy and Sprout were already out of earshot. "Thanks," she said.

"I couldn't just stand there and let them bully you, could I?" the boy said, before extending his hand. "Hitch Trailblazer."

"I'm Sunny," Sunny replied. She showed the tin. "Wanna try one? It's a recipe from Rhode Island, where my mom's from."

Hitch tried one, and smiled. "Wow. These are really good. Now then, fancy some volleyball?"

"You're on!" Sunny said.

"Hitch, would you like to come over for a sleepover at my house?" Sunny asked. It was the end of the school day, and they were busy packing their bags in preparation to meet their parents.

"Is your dad cool with that?" Hitch asked.

"He suggested it!" Sunny replied. "Mom's overseas, so the house will be really quiet and we won't interfere with her work. Besides, school isn't until Monday again."

"I'll ask my mother," Hitch asked, as they began to file out into the playground to meet their parents. Sunny made her way over to Argyle, whilst Hitch went over to his mother.

"Hello Hitch!" Marigold said, with a smile. "How was school?"

"Great, Mom," Hitch replied. "Hey, uh, can I go to a sleepover at Sunny's tonight?"

Marigold thought for a moment. "Well, I don't see why not. Let me just clear this up with Sunny's dad."

Sunny and Hitch waited, whilst their respective parents discussed arrangements for the next day. And then they turned back to their respective charges.

"I'll be over to pick you up around lunchtime," Marigold said to her son. "Make sure to do what Dr Starshine tells you, OK? Be on your best behaviour."

Hitch nodded. "I will, mom."

"Good boy." Marigold began to walk in the direction of her home. "Have fun!"

"I will!"

Hitch had never been to Sunny's house overnight before. True, he had been over for morning and afternoon playdates (given that Sprout was persona non grata in the home and could only be there if Hitch was there also), but staying overnight in somebody else's house was quite the novelty.

He and Sunny placed their bags down next to the door and sat down at the table. "Wait here," Argyle said. "I've got a special treat lined up for both of you. But I propose we eat first, and it's a Starshine specialty- a pizza recipe that's been in the family since the time of the Chicago Starshines."

"Thank you Dr. Starshine," Hitch said.

Argyle laughed. "Call me Argyle. I prefer not to use my title for a number of reasons- not least as people think I'm the other kind of doctor."

Sure enough, once dinner was concluded, the trio stepped out of the kitchen and into the corridor. But the corridor had undergone an astonishing transformation. Argyle had turned it into a jungle!

"Welcome to some live action roleplay!" he said. "Deep within this jungle lies a powerful artefact, which is at the top of a tall tower. This tower has been lost for generations, so today we shall follow some clues and hopefully find it!"

Hitch looked around him, astonished at how much work had gone into creating this spectacle. Plants had been added, and books had been rearranged to create rockwork and other scenery. "You really pulled out all the stops," he said.

"I used to do a lot of this sort of thing at University," Argyle explained. "And we have game night on Sundays, which you're welcome to attend if you want."

"Let's go find the treasure!" Sunny said, looking quite excited. Hitch smiled. One thing that had always amazed him about Sunny was how easily she could immerse herself in fantasy scenarios created for this sort of work. Once they'd been required to tell a fantasy story as part of a creative writing assignment, and Sunny had gotten so engrossed in creating an entire world for the story to take place in they'd had to mark her worldbuilding notes (as she actually hadn't gotten round to starting the story). She'd gotten a good grade for them, though, so it wasn't all lost.

Sure enough, they got to work searching for the treasure. They searched high and low, through jungle and treasure hall, but at last they found some steps to what seemed to be the tower. Argyle led the way, his lamp glowing in the darkness as they climbed through the tower. "These are steeper than I remember," he said.

Hitch figured out where they were, but as he didn't want to ruin the immersion he chose to keep quiet. But soon they reached the top, and there it was- the ancient artefact.

"We've found it!" Argyle said, with a smile. "Now then, let's see what it does." He walked over to the side and pushed a button. Suddenly, with a rumble some machinery started into life, and some machine began to rotate, with a light being produced.

"You got the lighthouse working again?" Hitch asked.

"Didn't need a huge amount of work if you know what you're doing," Argyle said. "Just the foghorn to work on now."

Hitch pulled himself into a sleeping bag as Sunny hopped into her bed. "Thanks for coming over, Hitch," she said. "That was great fun."

"I'd love to do that again at some point," Hitch said. Then he noticed something on one of Sunny's walls. "Hey. What's that?"

Sunny hopped out of bed and pointed to it. "Oh, this? That's a map of Sodor."

"What's Sodor?" Hitch asked.

And so, Sunny began. "The Island of Sodor is surrounded by beautiful blue sea. It has fields of green and sandy yellow beaches. There are rivers, streams, and lots of trees where the birds sing. There are windmills and a coal mine; and docks where visitors to the island arrive. The island also has lots and lots of railway lines..."

Author's Note

Hello again! A question I've often been asked is how Sunny and Hitch's friendship began, given that they are pretty close already at the start of Thomas and Friends: a New Generation. This chapter is that answer.

The opening sequence of this story is modelled on common attitudes British people have towards Americans. Many are only really familiar with the common stereotype of people eating fast food and going everywhere in gas guzzlers, and it is common to query US English as 'modern' (which is ironic as many common American turns of phrase such as 'trash' are Shakespearian in origin). Many are not aware that the United States is an incredibly diverse place, and is arguably 50 countries in one.

Mandy is a reference to this story:

TSunny.exe

• Equestria Girls
• MLP Gen 5
• Comedy
• Horror

Rainbow Dash finds a strange game cartridge that opens a new world of horror.

• Gore
• Violence
• Death
• Rainbow Dash (EqG)
• Izzy Moonbow
• Sunny Starscout
• Misty

SigmasonicX · 9k words  ·  23  7 · 787 views

The story is a parody of old creepyastas, particularly Sonic.Exe. However, it contains a set of flashbacks which give Sunny a backstory loosely modelled on the creepypasta Jeff the Killer (complete with Argyle being reworked to be an utterly incompetent parent).

The passage explaining Sunny's approach to worldbuilding is an allusion to Tolkien. Tolkien, who is best known for creating Middle-Earth (the setting of Lord of the Rings amongst other stories), was rather critical of the concept of suspension of disbelief. This is because, as he articulates in his essay 'On Fairy Stories', if a reader is having to willingly suspend disbelief for a story to work, the author has failed to engage the reader. Instead, Tolkien proposed an alternative called secondary reality; if the world a story takes place in functions according to an established set of rules and laws, the reader is more willing to accept fantastical things occurring within the story. This requires the creation of an internally consistent fictional world, and this can be a lengthy process; Middle-Earth took the best part of a decade to create. One notable reader of this essay was Wilbert Awdry; he mentions it in a letter to his brother George, and Tolkien's approach would prove to be a profound influence on the creation of the Sodor setting, with all the history and lore developed for the backstory. It's a writing approach which influences my own work too.