Sunset Shimmers Apartment
As the game began the screen faded in from black and had both girls attention captivated as the accordion, strings and drums began to play, the camera panning up to show the city of Paris and the nighttime sky. The Eiffel Tower standing tall in the distance. Across the rooftops scurried a mysterious rouge, he would leap from building to building and when met with a chimney in his way? He swung his golden hooked cane at it and smashed it into bits leaping through the rubble to a ledge below.
Once he would leap off a few more platform's he would land on a nearby water tower and the game would be brought to its start menu.
"Well that was a pretty interested way to introduce the main character. Seems pretty good at what he does." Sunset said as she looked at the screen analyzing the characters model in full. She liked the art style of this game and from what she understood this was a remastered version from the original that came out 10 years prior.
"Well while I don't think it was very nice for him to smash that person's chimney; he is so adorable with his little mask" Fluttershy said fawning over Sly and his design. She adored his hat, boots, belt and backpack.
"Well hopefully they won't have me rummaging through people's garbage." Sunset teased with a chuckle and then remembered something. "Oh yeah and I guess we can do this on a mission by mission and death by death system. So we each get a mission depending how this game sets them up, if I lose a life? I'll pass it onto you and vice versa. Deal?"
Fluttershy nodded in understanding. "Deal."
Sunset smiled and handed Fluttershy the controller. "Good, because since this is your game? You get to play first!"
Fluttershy blushed and stammered and sputtered her words, unprepared to have been put on the spot like this but when Sunset gave her a reassuring look she calmed down and nodded. "O-Ok um lets play some cops and robbers I guess" Fluttershy said pressing the start button and it was then Sly took out his binocucom and began talking to a turtle with large glasses and a nasally voice.
"SLY! COME IN! SLLLLLLLLY?! DO.YOU.READ.ME?!" Bentley shouted in a panicked manner.
"Yeah I read you...loud and...very loud!" Sly said with a dash of sarcasm in his tone.
"Sorry I'm a little nervous! Trying to break into Police Headquarters does that!"
"Get over it Bentley you're safe in the van; I'm the thief here! I've got to steal those files from Inspector Carmelita Fox."
"Well count on me to be your eyes and ears buddy; got there security system totally scoped. To get inside? You'll need to go through that air vent."
"And don't forget you got me at the wheel Sly! All you gotta do is grab the file and get back to van; we'll do the rest!"
"Just keep that engine running Murray; I'll be down in no time!"
Sunset giggled hearing Sly's retort to his friend. "I like this guy already"
"His friend was being a bit loud." Fluttershy responded.
"He kinda reminds me of Twilight." Sunset joked.
Fluttershy giggled and agreed with how worried the turtle seemed to be but she liked all the main characters already as they seemed to have a friendship similar to that of some in their own group. Sly reminded Fluttershy already of Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer; he seemed like a cunning, suave, cool, calm, collected, talented and kind hearted individual that even though he was a criminal? He wasn't a bad guy by what Fluttershy could assume.
His friend Bentley as Sunset stated; reminded her of Twilight Sparkle. He seemed incredibly intelligent but also seemed very lacking in self confidence and seemed to act as a pain support for Sly but they were good at that and didn't mind it. Finally there was Murray and he automatically reminded her of Pinkie Pie and her bombastic cheery attitude and it would seem he was the getaway driver. As a fan of Daring Do this reminded her a bit of that and if memory served her right? Daring Do even had a video game.
As Fluttershy took control of the character she pressed the various buttons to figure out what they do figuring out that the blue X button was to jump and the pink square button was to swing his cane. Sunset examined the tool he carried and wondered how practical it would be in real life. If she may not have been the type of girl to go stealing anymore but it was fun to imagine and she could totally see herself as a sneaky master thief with a group of other rouges to back her up in her endeavors; maybe she would even had a pet to bring along. Perhaps a snake?
"Oooh look Sunset; coins! I sure hope that no one minds if I take these" Fluttershy said giggling a bit as she felt so 'naughty' taking what did not belong to her like back when she was little and she would sneak cookies from the pantry after dark.
Sunset smiled and was happy to see her meek friend was having fun with the game getting immersed into the experience and she was just as happy watching her.As Fluttershy scurried around the roof and broke various boxes and antenna on the surface she collected 75 coins and then returning to the water tower she saw some blue sparkles.
"I wonder what those are?" Fluttershy said taking the character to them and then he pulled out his binocucom again and spoke.
"Hey Bentley I think I'm seeing things. Must be vertigo or something; can you see those crazy blue lights?"
"Fascinating; I've read about this! According to my research, master raccoon thieves are able to sense thieving opportunities that manifest themselves as unexplainable blue auras. According to my research all you have to do is get near them and hold down the circle button to preform a super sneaky master thief move!"
"Hold down the circle button near blue auras. I'm on it!"
The conversation ended and Fluttershy did as she was instructed and Sly went up to the ledge and snapped to the edge and as Fluttershy moved him he crept along the side. Sunset watched and since this gameplay was being recorded live decided to keep providing commentary.
"So far you are in the clear Shy; either your really good at this game or the security in this place must suck" Sunset joked.
"Oh I'm sure whoever monitors the security is doing their best" Fluttershy said as she came up to the air vent Bentley mentioned, breaking it open and collecting the coins that fell from the broken machinery.
"If only breaking things in real life gave you gold coins" Sunset said with a chuckle even though she was just a little bit serious.
"Rainbow Dash would literally be rich." Fluttershy joked in response with a giggle. "She was always crashing into things when we were little"
Sunset snickered knowing full well Rainbow would trying and high-speed kick her ass for making this joke but she was doing it in good fun not to be malicious and she said. "Heh yeah I know and she still does even now. Guess that's why her nickname will forever be Rainbow Crash." Sunset smirked as she thought of inserting a couple of Rainbow's epic fail and crash clips she had recorded a few times when she was helping Rainbow film her stunts for her channel.
The girls epic crashes and fails had become a good point of comedy on Rainbow's channel and so since they were all friends Sunset knew the time would come where she would have to poke fun at each of them at least once and she'd already jabbed at Fluttershy, Pinkie & Rarity. Now it was Dash's turn.
"Oh goodness I hope Dashie doesn't get too upset."
"Oh I'm sure her pride and ego can survive a little ribbing from us; hey careful shy! Wouldn't wanna trip those lasers would you?" Sunset pointed out as Fluttershy lost focus and almost tripped the laser beams and it was then Bentley spoke in the game saying something similar.
"Be extra careful here Sly! Trip one of those laser beams and you'll set off the alarms...Not to mention you'll be fried to a crisp!"
"Wow this guy is paranoid" Sunset retorted rolling her eyes.
"I'm sure he's just concerned for our safety Sunset." Fluttershy replied as she commanded Sly to jump through the laser grid with ease and she smashed the little alarm bell that disabled the lasers and opened the doorway she needed to proceed through.
"Yeah while he sits in the van and shouts orders"
"Alright you're in! Inspector Carmelita Fox's office is behind the Red Door"
"Thank you Bentley" Fluttershy since Sly didn't say anything in this scene.
"You don't have to thank him Shy; its his job to be helping you"
"True but its still nice to tell your friends thank you when they give you their help." Fluttershy pointed out as she ran about the hallways of the police station quickly finding the red door but it was locked. Seeing an open window she went through it and crept along the sides of the outside and made her way into Carmelita's office and it was the typical set up of a police officer though it would seem this one in particular had a bit of an obsession with Sly having his picture and files placed all over her office seemingly the officer in charge of his case so it would make sense that she would hold his personal case file.
In the far left corner of the room near another window was a large combination lock safe and once Fluttershy got Sly close to it he would kneel down in front of it and would begin talking to Bentley.
"Alright you're in. I've hacked into the police Headquarters data based and discovered this vaults combo. Input 9-3-7."
Doing as Bentley said she input the code and then Sly used his cane to spin the large tumbler wheel of the vault to open it up and inside was his case file. Grabbing it he would then get a message from Murray.
"Alright; you got it! If you head down the fire escape and come through the parking lot? We'll be waiting in the getaway van"
Sly put the file away in the red backpack on his back and then from his sleeve he took out a calling card in the shape of the symbol on the front of the game and this made Sunset smile. Clearly this guy was a master of his craft if he was so confident as to rob one of their head inspectors and then leave a calling card saying it was him.
"I really like this guy" Sunset said smirking. "Gotta have some real balls to say fuck the police like that"
"Sunset! Language!" Fluttershy said aghast.
Sunset blushed and chuckled "Whoops. Slipped."
"Its okay." Fluttershy said as she lead Sly outside but then the camera panned out to a nearby neon sign and out popped a Fox with blue hair and a gun.
"Oh dear. That must be the lady we are stealing from." Fluttershy said nervously.
"She's kinda hot" Sunset said pretty much without thinking.
"Sunset?!" Fluttershy retorted
"Whaaaat? She is! Besides I'm not technically human anyway!" Sunset retorted. She figured she didn't have to worry about anyone questioning that as she was hoping it would simply be taken as a joke. Plus she couldn't lie; Carmelita was looking good especially since she was only wearing a jacket and what appeared to be a crop top.
"I uh well...ok good point." Fluttershy couldn't retort and simply gave up.
"Criminal! You foolish raccoon! I've caught you red-handed!"
"Ah Carmelita; haven't seen you since I gave you the slip in Bombay"
"Which reminds me; you need to return the fire stone of India to its rightful owners"
"Aw and I was just gonna give to you as a little token of my- hey you know? That bazooka really brings out the color in your eyes...very fetching"
"Oooooh he is smooth!" Sunset giggled.
"Hmph you think? This pistol packs a paralyzing punch. You ought to try it; might snap you out of your crime spree"
"And give up our little rendezvous?"
"Plenty of time for that once you're safely behind bars!"
"Would love to stick around and chat; but I just drop by to pick up this case file. I think you've had it long enough"
"Okay I REALLY like this guy!" Sunset smiled loving his quips and rebellious nature
"He is rather cunning and he doesn't exactly seem like a bad-eeep! Oh gosh she's shooting at me! She's shooting at me! Why is she shooting?! I haven't attacked her!" Fluttershy panicked and began to run dodging the electric bullets flying at her and breaking the fire escape. Once she was on ground level she managed to dodge all of the blasts narrowly dodging one that blew up a car and she got in the back of the van and it drove off as Carmelita shouted shaking her fist in the air.
"You can't escape me raccoon!!!"
"Pretty sure I just did" Fluttershy said which caused Sunset to sputter out and laugh with how quick witted and just nonchalant Fluttershy was about it.
"Heheheheh good job Shy! See? This game is fun isn't it?" Sunset asked Fluttershy with a smile.
Fluttershy blushed and nodded smiling as well and then began to watch the animated cutscene for the game. The art style was something akin to a comic book or Saturday morning cartoon and Sly was narrating and giving the two girls details on his life, his mission and his motives. The first learned that Sly comes from a long line of legendary master thieves and that all these thieves recorded all their secrets and adventures in an ancient book called The Thievius Racoonus which is where the first game got its title from.
"That's a pretty effective way to pass a legacy down I suppose." Sunset responded.
"Awwww he's so cute as a child" Fluttershy pointed out how adorable Sly appeared as a child.
It was then they found out that at age 8 his parents were killed, his house ransacked and his family heirloom stolen leaving Sly an orphan. This brought tears to Fluttershy's eyes seeing the young Sly sad with no family but she perked up when she found out that it was this time in his life that he found his two friends and partners in crime Bentley the Turtle and Murray the hippopotamus.
"At least he had his friends to get him through all that." Sunset said admiring the friendship it seemed the three bandits shared through growing up orphans.
He then went onto explain that he and his two friends made a vow to train, build reputation, track down the group known as The Fiendish 5 and steal back the Thievius Raccoonus or die trying. Sunset could admire his determination and Fluttershy was impressed by his noble nature and she was happy to know he didn't steal from normal every day people, just other criminals. As the screen would fade in from black the gang would be stationed in the back of an old train car as their hideout and Bentley would compliment Sly on his ability to evade capture once again and that they were ready to begin their first mission.
"Well that does it for the tutorial; see Shy? You're not bad at video games. You just needed to start slow" Sunset said with a smile to her friend.
"Thanks Sunset; so its your turn now right?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yup! Alright lets see how well I do" Sunset said taking the controller from Fluttershy and selected the first level which seemed to have a steampunk and pirates theme too it which instantly grabbed Sunset's attention. Selecting the level the screen would fade to black then fade back in and would show the gang in the van traversing the world headed to their first location.
Their first target was a spoiled rich bratty genius frog named Sir Raleigh and Sunset upon seeing him was instantly reminded of some of the students at Crystal prep who were stuck up assholes. Sure a good majority of them had changed after the Friendship games but there was still a group of elitist assholes there and this frog seemed like he would totally be one of them. After hearing his backstory explained by Sly and discovering he was held up in the Welsh Triangle on a place called Isle O'Wrath.
"So this one is called Tide of Terror." Sunset said in an ominous spooky voice.
"S-Sounds scary" Fluttershy said sitting next to Sunset, the title having the word terror in it made Fluttershy feel exactly that.
When the van would pull up, Sly hopped out and control switched over to Sunset and she took the character through a small tunnel and when coming out on the other side he would have a short conversation with Bentley about how to climb things and such. With that information in mind Sunset went ahead and then noticed a little green bottle with a question mark on it.
"Hm what's this thing?" Sunset said smacking the bottle and then it was explained by Bentley that there were a set number of them and locating all of them would grant access to a vault. Sunset was a completionist and a trophy whore so whenever she had a change to get 100% and max out a game she went for it even as much as it would enrage her sometimes. When going to get a couple more of the bottles she encountered what appeared to be a mole with a giant mallet.
"Awww look a gopher; hi there Mr.Gopher sir um could you please not try and smack my friend with that very large mallet?" She asked the video game character as if he would reply or comply but he did not causing Sunset to have to smack him with the cane Sly held defeating him in one blow which shocked Fluttershy.
"Oh goodness! I-I thought he didn't kill?!" Fluttershy in shock
"Oh I'm sure he isn't dead that's just's the games way of letting you know you beat him." Sunset said reassuringly as she went and collected a few more bottles and admired the design of the level as she did so. Once she climbed up a small ladder and made her way past some prickle bushes she encountered what looked like a walrus with throwing stars.
"Who gives a walrus throwing stars?!" Sunset asked incredulously.
"Maybe he doesn't like guns?" Fluttershy replied.
"What kinda guard of a heavily guarded compound doesn't use guns?" Sunset asked snark like
"I mean you use a stick." Fluttershy replied.
"It's a cane" Sunset defended and huffed. "Hmph just for that? You see that one walrus with a flamethrower?" Sunset said running up to the aforementioned walrus.
"What're you- OH MY GOSH!" Fluttershy said aghast as Sunset attacked the creature and knocked him off a cliff. "Sunset!? How could you!?"
"Easy I just jumped and hit the square button!" Sunset retorted.
"Hmph." Fluttershy pouted and continued watching.
"Nyeh" Sunset stuck her tongue out at the shy girl and continued her advance collecting bottles as she went and eventually she would come to the end of the level and having found all the clues she unlocked the first vault and was gifted the dive move.
After acquiring this move Sunset would test it would and was pleased with the special attack she earned and moved on to smash a treasure case that held an ornate key which she then used to open the passageway to the next half of the level.
"Aw yeah! Got in no problem!" Sunset boasted smiling.
"Still could've let those few guards live" Fluttershy muttered.
"What was that squeaky?" Sunset taunted with narrowed eyes at Fluttershy using a teasing nickname for the meek girl she hadn't used since she was a bully.
"N-Nothing" Fluttershy retreated into herself blushing not wanting to incur Sunset's wrath.
Knowing that she needed to dial herself back a bit she took a deep breath and smile at her friend. "Well hey I think that's long enough for this first part. How about we take a break and get something to eat?" Sunset said pausing the game and saving it also ending the recording of which she would edit later on to be posted on her channel.
"O-Okay" Fluttershy said taking off the headset on her head and setting it down with Sunset doing the same and stopping the recording to be edited and posted later on.
To be Continued