Fifteen minutes into the event, Sunset and Twilight had barely made it past the front section of the Chuck E. Cheese’s, which was two stories tall and therefore twice as big as any Dave and Buster’s. However, despite its size, there was very little about it that made it truly ‘upscale,’ as even though there was a mini-restaurant coated with glass inside, one could still order subpar pizza and watch animatronic shows on the other side of the building. What’s more, both had a feeling the walls of the fancy restaurant were far from soundproof, and that the cacophony of video games could still likely be heard inside.
“I’m cutting you off!” a freshman with pink-and-purple curls yelled as Twilight and Sunset passed by. Her intense green glare was directed at Rainbow’s friend Scootaloo, who brandished a black pipe, decorated to resemble a firehose, with exaggerated bravado. “You know that dumb firefighter game doesn’t give you any tickets. It’s just a money suck that makes you give it tokens every five minutes!”
“It’s only asked for three, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo countered. “And I have a thousand. Besides, when it comes to saving the innocent, no price is too much to pay.”
Scootaloo struck a heroic pose and put another token in, causing Sweetie Belle to groan even more.
“Seriously,” she whispered to Sunset once she realized the older student had been listening in the whole time, “does she even realize this is just a game?”
“Who knows?” Sunset chuckled.
Meanwhile, Twilight’s eyes were already caught on something else entirely—a vending machine-like device near the firefighter game. As Sunset kept watching, she moved toward it, admiring the objects inside and, more importantly, how she would work up the courage to ask her friend about them.
Four machines full of capsules—“gachapons,” as Twilight remembered they were called—lay in front of her, all advertising the same prizes. Cell phone charms like these were the huge friendship trend even when she’d still gone to Crystal Prep, but she’d never had anyone to exchange them with until now. Of course, with everything they’d been through, Sunset was the first person that came to mind to get them with as her best friend in the group of seven.
“Where’d you head off to, Twilight?” Sunset asked after talking with Sweetie Belle. When she finally ended up finding her, she was greeted with a strange mixture of embarrassment and excitement.
“Rainbow told me you’re into Pokémon now, right? Well, they have a whole thing filled with Eeveelution phone charms, and I’ve kinda got my eye on one.”
All Sunset could do was smile as the other girl played with her hair nervously. The singsong way she ended her sentences in times like this was just so cute. And the way she was so coyly suggesting they should get matching straps? It took everything Sunset had not to blush.
“You go first,” she replied, trying to keep her skyrocketing giddiness levels to a minimum.“Since it was your idea and all.”
She watched as Twilight placed her token in and cracked the knob, already trying to decide which charm she’d want. But, considering it was Eeveelution-themed, it only took her all of five seconds to know. She was a fire type player, after all, and it’d be almost sacrilege to get anything other than—
“Espeon!” Twilight cried, opening the capsule to reveal the tiny purple charm. “My favorite!”
“That really doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Cute, purple, good with magic...”
Even if she hadn’t particularly intended it, her friend was already blushing at the implications.
“…so let’s see if I get the same kind of luck, okay?”
Sunset acted as cool and collected as she could as she cranked the knob, but on the inside, all she could do was chant Flareon in her head. If this strange human machine could tell Twilight’s ideal Eeveelution with a single touch, then surely she could have the same—
Black. The plastic figure inside the capsule was black.
“In what world am I Umbreon?” Sunset muttered under her breath, thinking no one would hear.
“Same world where pop culture jokes with ‘in what world’ are still funny.”
The voice that’d answered her question had been both familiar and unfamiliar, and when Sunset moved to turn around, the third figure was already gone.
“Pegged yourself for Flareon, huh?” Twilight asked.
“Well, only because everything about me screams it. My hair, my name—“
Just as Sunset was about to rant, Twilight placed the small Umbreon figure straight up against her leather jacket, and all Sunset could do was facepalm.
Black with yellow patches, she thought to herself. How could I have missed that?
“Oh well, at least it matches something,” she muttered. “And weren’t Espeon and Umbreon released in the same gen, anyway?”
“We really do match!” Twilight whispered in realization.
The two hugged for all of five seconds before Rainbow Dash came bolting in from across the arcade, already feeling the need to interrupt.
“Twilight!” her blue friend yelled. “You can levitate stuff now, right? Help me rig the Skee Ball machine!”
Sensing both of her friends glaring straight at her, Rainbow interjected, “We can split the jackpot!”
“Nah,” Twilight replied, pulling herself closer to Sunset. Even if Dash wouldn’t have asked her to cheat, she still wouldn’t have wanted to let go.