//------------------------------// // Game 5 // Story: Fighting Games Aren't Just For Mares! // by DizzyChicks //------------------------------// "A MATCH MADE IN TARTARUS!" The Hoof Fighter announcer shouted. "READY? STAMPEDE!" With that audio cue, both players immediately had their respective characters rush at each other, not wanting the other to get an advantage. Sunset Petal fought the urge to suppress a laugh. Challenging her with her own main? Such a silly foal. She knew the inner workings of her character like she knew the back of her hoof. She quickly spun her joystick with her hoof, while using another hoof to mash light punch. Sunset Petal's Hugger grabbed Damien's character and slammed him to the ground with a glorious pile-driver. She then quickly inputted a medium punch, hoping to further her advantage. Damien however, responded with a parry and followed up with a piledriver of his own. "Let's go, Damien!" A random voice yelled. "Agghhh!" Sunset Petal's character screeched in pain. "That Celestia-damned colt. Sunset Petal mumbled vehemently, "He probably thinks he's so cool now," "I'm so fucking cool," Damien thought. With both players playing exceedingly patiently, the match crawled to a standstill. Damien and Sunset Petal watched as their respective characters safely poked at each other from a distance using their safe normals. Damien glanced at the in-game timer. Ten seconds were left on the clock and Sunset Petal currently had the life lead due to the previous chip damage from their last interaction. Damien hated to admit it, but her defense was immaculate. It took so much time to get her to make a mistake on defense and Hugger's normals weren't exactly very fast. Damien quickly peeked at the timer. Nine seconds left. He had to risk it. Eight seconds left. Damien quickly mashed forward, forcing his Hugger to move forward. Seven seconds left. Sunset Petal grinned. She had no problem winning by timeout. Damien had started the battle, but she was winning the war. Six seconds left. Damien frantically double-tapped forward on his joystick. He just needed a trade for a possible double K.O. Five seconds left. The crowd was so loud, it started to hurt Rainbow Dash's ears. She looked around at the part of the crowd she had been pulled into. "What the heck are all these nerds screaming about?" she thought. "It has to do with the game Damien is playing. I hope he wins so we can go." Rainbow Dash wasn't exactly a huge gamer herself and didn't understand the stakes or pride on the line. Four seconds left. The crowd's cheering was getting so boisterous, other patrons from other areas of the business came to view the spectacle. "Three!" The crowd cheered. "Two!" "One!" Damien moved his character and made Hugger quickly jump and punch out of desperation. Sunset Petal quickly dashed back and Damien's attack completely whiffed. "TIME OVER." The in-game announcer said. Sunset Petal was given game one of the final set of the best of five. "Like taking candy from a foal," she exclaimed, making sure Damien could hear her. Frustrated, Damien put his hands on his head and took a deep breath. "Come on, don't let her get to you," Damien thought. He knew that's exactly what she wanted. Losing himself to his rage would be nothing but an assured victory for Sunset Pedal and he would be fifty bits down the hole. He prepared himself for his potential last game. The possible final game quickly began. Damien quickly caught Sunset Petal's Hugger back dashing at an ill-advised time. Damien punished the back dash with inhuman reaction time, giving Sunset Petal no time to come up with a counter-strategy. Sunset Petal gulped. She was in the corner. This was one of the worst places anypony in a fighting game could be. She had nowhere to run and her opponent had multiple chances to get her to drop her defense. Being in the corner with a grappler as slow as Hugger wasn't a great position either. His slow attacks didn't scare his opposition in this position. She could try to get away with a command throw, but the more she thought about this strategy, the more holes she could poke through it. Damien was also playing Hugger. He most likely was looking for a command throw or a light punch to keep her checked in the corner. Was this what he was banking on counter-picking with her character? Sunset Petal started sweating. She looked at her super bar. She had enough for a Hail Mary super that would probably be enough to move her out of the corner and put Damien's Hugger in her position. Nodding her head at her quickly thought up plan, she masterfully inputted two-quarter circles and pressed all the punch buttons. "MUSCLE POWER!" The virtual minotaur screamed. He dashed forward with his arms stretched outwards, attempting to grab his virtual doppelganger. Damien's Hugger quickly jumped in the air to avoid the super move and quickly dive bombed towards Sunset Petal's character. Sunset Petal attempted to block but realized she couldn't! Her character was recovering from the end lag of using its super. The move connected, and Sunset Petal's Hugger fell to the ground. Game two of the final set was given to Damien. Damien breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at his shaking hands. He could feel his heart thumping and his ears ringing. Was he enjoying this? "FINAL ROUND! LIVE OR LET DIE!" The in-game announcer shouted. This was it. For all the marbles. Damien tried his best effort to calm himself regardless of hearing his heartbeat roaring in his chest. He wasn't going out like some punk. He wasn't like the stallions here in this sack of shit dimension. He looked back into the crowd and noticed a familiar-looking yellow unicorn cheering him on. It was Golden Flash. That stallion helped fix his house when Rainbow Dash decided to play Hoofball in it. Damien winced. Maybe that previous comment was uncalled for. Damien also noticed that Sunset Petal was completely silent. She hadn't said anything since she lost the previous game. A small smile worked his way onto his face. Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Her gameplay also seemed a lot more sloppy. She kept dropping easy combos and her spacing was no longer as precise. She no longer was blocking as much and she was currently one out of four in breaking throws. Sunset Petal was startled. Damien's dominant win from the previous game destroyed her momentum. "Time to take some risks," Damien thought as he reached over his arcade buttons. It was now or never. Sunset Petal was nervous and no longer fighting as calculated as before. His character quickly dashed forward and quickly threw a jab. Sunset Petal responded to the sudden aggression and had her character throw a heavy kick out to close the distance. It wasn't a safe option by any means, and it was a sloppy option selected by her. Damien was expecting some type of unsafe aggression. This was his chance! He pressed forward heavy punch, standing heavy kick into a lariat. His character obeyed the command and performed a devastating combo on Sunset Petal's Hugger. Damien heard that familiar groan once again. Sunset Petal had completely lost her cool at this point. She kept inputting unsafe moves that Damien simply waited for and punished. Desperation started to cloud her mind. What would the other mares think if she lost to a stallion? Twice? Fighting Games were for Mares! Damien could practically taste victory. He had the life lead and the clock was at twenty seconds. He moved his character close to Sunset Petal's character and started teabagging. He giggled to himself. This was just too funny. Sunset Petal saw nothing but red. She mashed every button on the controller, attempting to hit Damien's character. "KO!" The MC cried. Hugger fell to the ground after receiving a swift kick to the head. The crowd cheered. Stallions continued to cheer Damien's name, while various mares talked among themselves about beginner's luck. Sunset Petal stopped mashing buttons. She lost? She could have sworn there were still twenty seconds on the in-game clock? She looked closely at the screen. Hugger was in a completely different spot than when she last remembered. She couldn't have? Did she really? She lost control and began to auto pilot. How embarrassing. She wasn't a beginner! How could that happen to her?! End Music The light orange earth pony softly laid her head on the arcade cabinet. She was a MARE! How could she let herself get THIS worked up over a game? Against a stallion? "I'm pathetic," She thought sadly. Damien, on the other hand, was elated. He finally put that stuck-up mare in her place. No one insults Damien Freeman and gets away with it! Unless you were his mom. Damien stood up and looked at the mass hoard of ponies gathered around him. They were starting to leave and were going back to do whatever they were doing before Damien and Sunset Petal's little competition interrupted them. He walked over to Sunset Petal, who still had her head down. "So," Damien started, "the bits?" She tossed the bits near him. She then looked up at him with misty eyes. She clearly had been crying. "I-I hope you're happy," she stuttered weakly. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash flew directly into Damien's face. She was covered in sweat, probably from being in that hot crowd. She crossed her hooves together and shot a mean look at Sunset Petal. "That's the mare that was bothering you? I'll set her straight." Dash got ready to knock the lights out of Sunset Petal, but Damien snatched the small pegasus out of the air before she could move. "Dash," said Damien, "It's fine, the problem has been resolved." At this point, his head was pretty much clear as the adrenaline wore off. He honestly felt a little bad about the teabagging. He should've been the bigger man. As much as he wanted to continue to gloat and make fun of the light orange earth pony, he understood it wasn't going to fix the problem at hand. He pulled up a seat next to the crying pony. "Uh," he started. What the fuck was he supposed to say? Sorry for kicking your ass and you'd better watch yourself next time? "Sorry for the teabagging. I got a little too excited. Damien rubbed his head sheepishly. Sunset Petal looked at Damien inquisitively. Why was he the one apologizing? She was the one who started it first! "Alien stallions sure are weird." she thought. "I-I-was a bit rude. I just couldn't believe some colt beat me playing that lame. " Damien slightly shifted his weight in the chair. "Hey, where I come from, we got a saying," Damien says, as he smiles again. "Play lame, win game." Rainbow Dash snickered. "That's pretty rich coming from somepony like you! Remember when we played hide and seek last week? " "Dash, you fucking cheated and hid in your dumbass cloud home in the SKY!" "Hey, you said anywhere was fair game!" Damien fought the urge to deck her in the face. "Anyway, it's all part of the game," he said. "There's no point in getting your pants in a twist." As much as Sunset Petal wanted to argue, she knew she couldn't. He was right. Sunset Petal apologizes, "I guess I'm sorry for being a bad sport." Damien gets up and points at Dash and motions towards the front of the building. It seemed like the business was getting ready to close. Workers were going into changing rooms or wiping down greasy equipment. "No problem," said Damien. "Maybe we can play again on friendlier terms?" Sunset Petal nodded. Damien extended his hand, and she shook it. They exchanged good-byes and Damien and Rainbow Dash left the building, leaving Sunset Petal alone. She looked at her reflection on the screen of the now turned off Hoof Fighter machine. She still felt pretty bad about her immature actions and promised herself she would make it up to Damien. It was the least she could do. After leaving Controller Hooves, Damien explained the entire situation to Rainbow Dash. She lamented that Damien stopped her from knocking the mare into next week. He gave a hearty laugh and took the fifty bits he had won out of his pocket. "I think we're even now, Dash." His parents may have taught him to be the bigger man, but that didn't mean he couldn't be a little richer as well.