Josh couldn’t wait to relax in his dorm room. After driving for the last day and a half, he finally arrived at Solar Flare University, obtained his map and key card, and moved as swiftly and surely as his legs would allow, without appearing to be desperate to the people walking by. It took him nearly ten minutes to get to the dorm where he’d be staying, and it was the closest one to the receptionist office, the heat of the afternoon sun making the short walk even more unbearable. Josh wasn’t one to complain about the heat, but even he had his limits.
Entering the building he was greeted with cold, refreshing air and he nearly collapsed right there. If he hadn’t been worried he’d damage his laptop he probably would have. He trekked on, and was pleasantly surprised that no one was around to watch him stumble his way to the elevator. His room was somewhere on the 20th floor, and he enjoyed the brief respite as he ascended.
The doors opened again and there was still no one out and about. Was this floor unoccupied, or was everyone still unpacking? Whatever, the solitude was even more relaxing than the air conditioning.
He found his room, unlocked the door, and found that someone else's stuff was already inside. Not that he didn't expect this, but he still found the sight unnerving. He had given a lot of thought into getting a single bedroom, but he knew this was the better choice. Not only was it cheaper, but he knew if he didn't suck it up and get a roommate he'd never make any friends. He just hoped they weren’t too overbearing.
The room had four separate parts, a foyer, two bedrooms, and one bathroom. The foyer had a couch, which was where his roommate’s bags were, and two windows. The wall the couch faced was completely barren, but it had a couple of power outlets and a large wooden desk, which immediately set his mind to the perfect way in which he’d fill that space.
He set down his stuff on the desk and wasn’t able to think of it much further as the hall had filled with sounds of people walking around and the muffled exchanges between them. He heard the door unlock and he steeled himself to finally meeting his roommate.
The door swung wide open and in it stood a yellow person with long, pink hair flowing down her back and over her face. She wore a green, long sleeved, thick T-shirt, and gray sweatpants. She was a little shorter than him, and despite the thickness of the shirt, it was apparent she had a lot to hide. She stopped dead in her tracks and a pair of yellow wings billowed out from her back and his steeled mind turned to lead. For a moment they just stood there. Whatever he expected, he had not expected to be rooming with one of them, especially not one of the opposite gender..
“Um, hi.” Josh said, waving his hand.
The equine screamed and shot back out into the hallway, causing Josh to flinch. Seconds later, a blue equine burst into the room, took one look at the puzzled human and tackled him to the ground. He was put into a full nelson and hoisted up. His captor was a little shorter than him as well, but she held more power than her frame suggested. The mass squishing into his back told him she had a lot to hide as well.
He struggled a bit, but not to break free. He knew he wouldn’t be able to break out of her hold, so he just tried to get more comfortable. This was made even more difficult because her body was full of hard muscle, which wasn’t very comfortable when they were taut, nor when she’s handling him so roughly. The equine dug into his underarms and, ignoring his angry cries of pain, she half carried, half dragged him out of the room and flung him into the commons area where he was surrounded by many more equines.
“What the hell was that for?”
“Shut up! You’re not supposed to be here, human. How’d you get in and what were you doing in Fluttershy’s room?” The blue one said. She wore a tight, black shirt and form fitting jeans, and her straight, rainbow colored hair was just below shoulder length. He noticed that she sported some blue wings as well, ones that looked far more powerful than the yellow one's, this Fluttershy's. She was also slightly taller, though not nearly as well endowed.
He stood up and with the burning sensation under his arms he struggled to keep the irritation out of his voice. “I was putting my stuff in the room the key told me to go into.” Holding the key up to the blue one, she snatched it out of his hand and examined it. “I ask again, what the hell was that for?”
“This can’t be right. You must have taken this off some mare and now you’re trying to steal something else.”
“I didn’t come to steal anything. The receptionist said to go into the building marked on the map, and that the key was marked for the 5th room on the 20th floor.”
“I don’t buy this for a second! This isn’t even your dorm, the human dorms are clear on the other side of campus.”
“Rainbow! What’s the problem here?” A purple equine joined the inner circle. She wore a purple sweater vest over a white dress shirt, and a purple skirt. Her hair was dark purple with a violet and pink stripe and in the center of her forehead was a horn.
“This human broke into Fluttershy’s room and was trying to steal something!”
“Actually, I --” Josh said
“Shut it!”
“Rainbow! Don’t be so rude,” she turned towards Josh. “What were you saying?”
Having calmed down enough for his tone to be more pleasant he said, “I used the key I got to get in. I was just setting my stuff down in the room. I didn’t know these were the equine dorms. I didn’t even know they were separated until now.”
“See Rainbow, it’s just a mistake. If we just go to the receptionist they’ll put him in the right dorm. Now, show’s over everyone! Go back to your rooms!”
The equines quickly dispersed. Impressed by how the purple mare took charge of the situation Josh could see that she held their respect. “Thank you, I’m sorry about the mix up.”
“You better hope this was just a mix up,” Rainbow threatened.
“Rainbow! Since you seem so eager to get him out, why don’t you go get him his belongings,” Twilight ordered.
“Yeah, whatever.” Rainbow disappeared into the hall for a second and came back with is black satchel and suitcase. Amazed by her speed, he was unprepared when she shoved them in his chest, effectively knocking the wind out of him and almost toppling him.
“Thanks.” He said as he put the satchel on and dropped the suitcase onto it’s wheels. He, Rainbow, Twilight, and Fluttershy boarded the elevator. The trip down was dead silent, further increasing the tension in the group. Fluttershy clung to Twilight, and Josh wondered if he had actually scared her. He did have one question cross his mind as the elevator doors opened.
“So, why was the dorm so empty when I came in?”
“Most of us were out touring the school. I’m assuming you missed orientation then?” Twilight asked.
“Oh yeah, I had to drive here, and there were a few problems along the way, so I missed it. I wasn’t too worried about it anyway. I’ll learn the layout soon enough and exploring makes it all the more fun.”
“Oh, you have one of those motor vehicles? Your human technology is very interesting. To think a train could be compacted into such a tiny body, and it doesn’t run on steam either.”
“It is kind of cool. The purring of the engine is sometimes more pleasant to listen to than my music. It does get tiring after a while though. I wanted to get out of it six hours into the journey, and I was relieved when I finally got here and could rest inside the dorms. I just wish they gave me the right room the first time.” They arrived at the receptionist’s office and Twilight turned towards him.
“Well, it’ll all be fixed soon. By the way, I’m Twilight Sparkle.” She extended a hand towards him and after slight hesitation he took it gingerly. Her hand clamped around his unexpectedly tight, and he quickly adjusted his own grip to try and match her own.
“I’m Joshua Dickerson, you can call me Josh, it’s nice to meet you.”
They entered the office and the receptionist looked up from her computer. "Hi, how can I help you all?
"Yes," Twilight said. "It seems there's been a slight mix up. This human, Joshua Dickerson, was given a key to a room in the equine dorms."
"Oh, alright. We'll see about fixing that then." The clerk went on the computer. After a couple minutes and questions, the clerk pulled up the information. "Well, actually, it seems he has been put in the Equestrian dorms."
Twilight reared her head. "There has to be some sort of mistake."
"Well, that's what we have here in the computer. No matter though, if we have room in the other dorms..." She typed away again and after a minute she frowned again. "It seems like we don't have room anywhere else to put you."
"This can't be possible. A human can't share a room with one of us. I thought they were segregated for a reason."
"Well," the clerk said. "They are supposed to be, but we only did that as a precaution. As long as you're okay with it, it's not a problem."
"It is too a problem!" Rainbow said. "We can't let him live with Fluttershy!"
"Rainbow! We'll discuss this back at the dorm." Twilight turned to the clerk, "Thank you for your assistance."
"No problem, just let me know what you decide."
They didn't make ten feet outside the building before Rainbow said, "We can't let him room with Fluttershy, Twilight!"
"Would you rather room with him?"
"Hell no! I don't want him in our dorm!"
"You heard the receptionist. He can't be moved anywhere else."
"Why can't he live back in the city, or in a tent?"
"It's against school rules to camp out on the lawns without permission, and it takes two hours to get out here from the city. He'd have to get up incredibly early to make it to class and he'd have no time for anything else."
"Yeah, waking up at 4 am doesn't sound very fun," Josh said.
"Fine! But I still say he shouldn't room with Fluttershy."
"Okay, but we'll have to ask the others in order to move him. My room is already full, and I won't make a decision without consulting anyone."
They traveled back to the dorm. Josh could feel his strength ebbing away from carrying his heavy bags around and just wanted to sit down. Of course, he didn't let this show. Being in a car all day doesn’t seem all that draining an activity, but even if it was it still felt like a lame excuse.
They entered the dorm again and rode the elevator back up, and when the doors opened Josh saw three other equine sitting on the couches. The pink coated one jumped up when she saw them and was suddenly in Josh's face.
"Oh yay! I was hoping you’d come back. I wasn't here when you came in and was sad I didn't get a chance to meet you. I'm Pinkie Pie, what's your name?"
"Uh, hi. I'm Josh.” Pinkie backed off a little bit. Her large, curly hair was a darker shade of pink than her coat. She wore a yellow shirt that couldn’t have been more full, and a pair of short shorts. Normally, Josh didn’t like it when women wore such shorts, but Pinkie made them work, probably because she wasn't human. Thankfully, he wasn’t allowed to stare too long before the orange one spoke up.
“And why is he back here? I thought you were going to return him to the human dorms?” Her southern accent made the rest of her attire seem less out of place. She wore jeans, a white t-shirt, and a red flannel shirt. She put on a large, tan stetson over her blonde hair and stood up, brushing her long ponytail off her shoulder.
“Actually, it seems that Josh here actually is supposed to be in this dorm,” Twilight said.
“Really! That’s so wonderful! You know what this calls for? A PAR--” The orange one covered Pinkie’s mouth.
“Now hang on just a minute. Why would they put a human in our dorms?”
“The receptionist told us that the human dorms were all full. She even said that there really wasn’t a reason to separate the dorms, and that it was alright as long as we thought it was okay."
"Which we don't," Rainbow muttered.
"Well I have no problem with it," Twilight said. "But that still leaves us with the problem of who he's going to room with. We can't let him stay in Fluttershy's room."
"I guess," the orange one said. "Why don't I switch with him?"
"Hold on, Applejack," said the white mare. She wore a blue, collared shirt and a black, knee length skirt, both of which hugged her bountiful features nicely. Her purple hair was slightly curly, and out of the six equines, she was definitely the most beautiful. "Before we decide anything we need to get more acquainted with each other."
"Rarity's right," Twilight said. "In order to find out who should room with you, we have to find out more about you."
All eyes turned to Josh, and for a moment he stood in silence. Eventually, he said “W-well, what would you like to know?”
“What do you do when you go to bed, when you wake up, when you have free time, that sort of stuff,” Twilight said and sat down next to Rarity.
“Okay, before I go to bed I usually stay up playing video games, or I read or write.”
“So, you’re generally pretty quiet at night, except for the video games. I’ve never played one before, but I’ve heard they get noisy.”
“Well, I’ll turn down the volume when you’re trying to sleep, but sometimes I’ll play well into the night trying to beat a level and I get pretty frustrated, but I’ve gotten better at raging quietly. My sister even commented on how I don’t wake her up anymore. But, I’ve gotten pretty good at video games in general, so I don’t get frustrated often and, as I said, it’s not the only thing that I’ll do at night. I’ve actually done a lot more writing recently. Haven’t touched a game in months.”
“What kind of things do you write about?”
“J-just whatever is in my head. Sometimes I’ll be walking around in public and I’ll find myself imagining something strange or cool happening. None of it’s really good.”
“Alright, well what’s it like for you to wake up?” Rarity said.
“I don’t have much to do other than basic hygiene. I’ll be up and out in ten minutes if I have to be anywhere. If I don’t, I’ll sleep forever.”
“And what happens when ya don’t have anything important to do?”.
“Normally I’ll just sit in my room and play games, watch tv, read or write.”
“What about parties, or being with people?”
“Unless you want me to hang out with you, I won’t get in the way, but parties aren’t really fun for me. They’re noisy, the music isn’t any good, and I don’t dance or talk to random strangers. It’d be more fun if we got together and played games.”
“Oh, you just haven’t been to one of my parties,” Pinkie said. “When I throw a party, everyone has such a blast!
“Well then I will try one, but don’t feel bad if I slink away to play a video game.”
“It seems like these video games are pretty important to you. Most of us haven’t had a chance to play any of them. What’s so great about them?” Twilight said.
“Well, the stories are usually good, for one thing. The ones I’ve played have at least. The cut scenes and animations are pretty cool, and the music is often better than what normally plays on the radio. Obviously, the best part is the level of interactivity the game allows, and how active the battle system is has a big effect. Though, even if it’s not very active, the flashy animations usually keep me interested. They’re probably more fun with other people; I don’t have many people to play with, but it’d be better if I showed you. I’ve brought some of the best games ever and a few of them are multiplayer.”
“Ooh, that sounds like so much fun! We should totally go do that!”
“That does sound like fun, but not right now. We still have to figure out which room you’ll be setting up in.”
“Alright, final question, and this is the most important one: How comfortable are you with rooming with one of us mares?”
“I don’t have any problems with it. I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to have a roommate, and I don't have a problem with Equestrians. I just want to be able to have some peace and quiet every so often.”
Rarity stared at him with an unwavering gaze, "Yes, but what do you think about rooming with a mare? Female Equestrians?"
"Oh, well, I've been living with my mom and sister for years, so I don't really mind."
"And what was it like living with them?"
"Frequently out of toilet paper, I had to shower in the evenings to get hot water, and the bathroom was just crowded with an assortment of lady products, but it didn't really bother me much. Sometimes I'd get called out of my room at inconvenient times, and they weren't exactly the most conservative dressers at home. They assumed I didn't mind, and I really didn't, but it did make things a little awkward sometimes.
"Okay, but we're not your mother, or your sister, darling. We're college girls of no relation."
"Well, it shouldn't be too different. The bedrooms and bathroom are separate, so there's plenty of room for privacy."
"Hmm, yes, but you see," Rarity slid off the couch and started slowly walking towards him. "Those problems you had at home will continue here, but there'll be even worse as well."
As she drew closer she started to swing her hips with every step.
"Bathroom crowded with beauty products.
Step. She stands a little taller, now eye level with him.
"Some progressive choices of clothing."
Step. She's now inches from him, her bust even closer, and starts circling around him. He turns his head to keep her in sight and as he can't turn any further he feels her lightly run her fingers across his upper back.
"Maybe we forget our clothes in the bathroom?"
Josh turned on his heel to face her and move a bit further away. She looked him straight in the eye and said, "Maybe you won't think twice about staring."
Josh felt his face heat up, he forced his eyes into her own, knowing full well enough of the buttons were open. She took one step forward, her bust closing the distance just barely enough, his breath hitched in his throat, and she whispered:
"Maybe...we won't mind if you do?"
The void of silence fell on their floor. The mare began wrapping her arms around his waist. As she slid one hand up his back to his head and tightened her hold on him to draw him closer, he regained enough of his senses to resist.
"Um, Rare, you think you could lay off now? You've got him all tensed up and I think he quit breathin'."
Rarity stepped back from him giggling. "Oh, I know. I already have my answer, I just wanted to see how far he'd let it go."It seems like he'd be the perfect roommate. Respectful, honest, and handsome." She giggled as his face turned beat red again.
"Uh, thanks...so who should I room with?”
"What the hell was that about?"
"You need not worry about that right now, Rainbow." Rarity said.
"Well...okay, so Rarity probably has a lot of stuff to move, so I should switch with Fluttershy or Josh."
"Actually, I don't mind if he rooms with me."
Everyone turned to stare at Fluttershy, the other five in bewilderment. Josh was surprised as well, but it was too late for just shock.
Rarity was the first to speak up, "Are you certain, Fluttershy?"
"Yes. I think it'd be a good idea."
Rainbow scoffed. "Good idea? Have you forgotten what these humans have put us through?"
"N-no, but not all humans are like that."
"What makes you think this one will be any different?"
"He seems to be a nice fella, Rainbow."
"He could be lying for all we know!"
"I wouldn't lie about this! I promise you, no one will regret letting me stay here." Another stunned silence followed this outburst. He looked around, feeling sheepish, and saw Fluttershy’s eyes were glued to him. They looked stunned, but he saw something else in them, though he hadn't had much experience with reading eyes.
"And we believe you," Twilight said. "Rainbow's just trying to look out for what's best for Fluttershy." She turned to Fluttershy, "But, are you sure you're okay with this?"
After a slight hesitation, “I-I’m sure.”
"Then it's settled, Josh and Fluttershy will share a room.
"Well, I have to finish unpacking as well," Rarity turned and walked away to her room.
"Only because you couldn't help but pack everything but the kitchen sink!" Applejack said, following close behind. "It's a good thing he's not rooming with you, you'd bury him under your wardrobe the whole year."
"Nonsense! I only brought what I absolutely needed." She turned just outside their room and yelled back, "Also, even though you're not rooming in here, I shall require your services. You're the only human male on this floor." She entered the room, leaving Josh perplexed.
"If you call thirty different outfits for each season a necessity." No one heard Rarity's retort as the door slammed shut.
"What does she mean by that?"
"She's a fashion designer, and she hasn't had much practice on humans. That's only one of the things you'll have to deal with when living with us," Twilight sighed. "Anyway, I have to finish unpacking as well. See you guys later."
Twilight walked off and disappeared. Rainbow snorted and went to her room as well. Pinkie, looking sheepish, said "Heh, don't take too long to unpack, I'm throwing a party in a couple hours, so don't be late!" and walked off. Josh and Fluttershy stood in silence for a moment.
“Well, shall we go get settled in?” Josh skirted around her to get to their room. That’s when he realized that Rainbow still had his key. “Um, could you unlock the door? I think your friend still has my key and I don’t think I should bother her at the moment.”
“Y-yeah, that'd probably be best.” Fluttershy opened the door and Josh set down his stuff on the desk again.
“So which room do you want to take?”
“You choose first, I don’t mind.”
“Alright.” He looked inside each room and they looked pretty much the same. Same bed, same desk, same closet. Though the layout was different, the rooms were the same size as well.
“I guess I’ll just choose the one at the back of the unit.” He grabbed his stuff and threw everything in. He heard Fluttershy do the same, but they mostly unpacked in silence. Josh threw the bed sheets in the wardrobe, instead pulling out a sleeping bag that he laid on top of the bed. Next, he put the clothes he packed in the closet. He didn’t take up half the space it offered. There were mirrors on the inside of the doors, and he took a second to move the doors to make the Infinity Mirror effect. Satisfied, he pulled his laptop out and set it on the desk, plugged it in and booted it up.
There was only one more thing for him to do. Grabbing his suitcase, he went outside to the foyer and placed it right next to the desk. From the suitcase he pulled out a TV and the smallest of his black consoles and set them in the middle of the desk. He connected their power cords, and the HDMI cable between them, all being fed behind the devices and desk.
Once he was done, he excitedly got up and went to knock on Fluttershy's door, but he hesitated. Instead, he went back to his room and set up one of his other consoles in there. He used the laptop as a monitor and put his suitcase into the closet. Exiting his room, he tried knocking on her door, but stopped himself again. He went back to the first console and turned it on, making sure the volume wasn't too loud. Having done that, he stopped in front of Fluttershy's door again.
Taking a deep breath, Josh raised his fist, but still did not knock on the door. He lowered the fist and instead went back to the console, turned up the volume, and put in the best game he could find.
He started up a new game and, after a short cut scene, was lost in the game.
He was just entering the first temple when he felt that he wasn't alone. He turned and Fluttershy was watching him play, and he wondered how long she was standing there.
"Hey," he said.
"What kind of game is that?"
"It's called Metroid Prime: Echoes for the Wii U. It’s a pretty awesome first person shooter game.”
“What do you do in it?”
“You really just run around and shoot things. It’d actually be easier for me to show it to you. You’ve actually caught me at a pretty good moment in the game.”
He started playing again and explained some of the things he was doing. He told her about the scan visor and how it fills the logbook, and he showed her the save point, and some of Samus’ abilities.
"How can she fit inside that tiny ball?"
"She's pretty flexible, but it's not actually that small. It's one meter in diameter, so that's a little more than three feet. Samus would actually be bigger than either of us too, so we could fit inside that thing no problem. Though, that big gun on her arm doesn't seem like it'd fit very well, unless it gets smaller as well, which it could very well do, but I don't know."
He rolled her through the hole from the save point, and bounced her up on the ledge and to the door for the next room.
As he shifted Samus out of her morph ball form, Fluttershy said, "Oh, then I hope she doesn't get dizzy rolling around all the time."
He gave her a puzzled look before turning back and pondering the sentiment. Samus never swayed or anything after changing back from the morph ball, but now he thought about it, it was odd that she didn't. "I don't know. Maybe there's some sort of function that keeps her from rolling with the ball. I'd have to read up on that, but I guess it wouldn't make for a good detail to add in the game. Samus swaying around every time she gets out of the ball would definitely cause a few problems during battle. Which, by the way, one important battle is right in this other room."
He entered the room, careful not to look up, and scanned several objects. Once he was done with that, he finally turned the visor to the giant cocoon in the center of the ceiling.
Fluttershy gasped, "What is that?"
"That," he said as he finished the scan, "is what we will be fighting soon."
He read the scan info out loud then moved forward and triggered the cut scene. The splinter eggs hatched and descended to the floor and Fluttershy gasped again.
"Aww, they're so cute!"
"Cute?" he asked, pausing the game.
"Yeah, they're like huge, adorable spiders or ants."
"Uh, sure, I guess they could be, but they're gonna start trying to kill me in a few seconds."
"Oh, are these what you have to fight?"
"Yeah, they're territorial creatures and will attack anyone who comes close to their nest."
"So then, why don't you just avoid their nests? They didn't do anything to you."
"No, but I can't go through here without fighting them. The game won't let me," he said as he looked away and rolled his eyes.
"Alright. If you have to."
He reared his head and looked back at her. Her ears drooped behind her head, her mouth was set, and her eyes were shimmering with tears. Josh's chest felt like it was being crushed with a fifty pound brick.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better about it, see what happens to them before we start fighting."
He unpaused the game and they watched as the Splinters became engulfed in a black cloud and he paused it again.
"What's happening to it?!"
"It's being corrupted, and the stuff doing it isn't very gentle either even after it's done taking it over. Now it'd attack me even if I could get away, and the poor thing's being hurt the entire time. I have to kill it now."
"Can't you just kill the thing possessing it?"
"Unfortunately, no. The only way to get rid of it, and to get out of this energy barrier, is to kill it."
Fluttershy's ears pressed into her skull, her mouth set again, and her watery eyes now flickered with an intense flame. "Those poor little critters. Alright, just make it quick. I don't want them to suffer."
He snorted in amusement and let the scene continue again. Once he was in control again he saw how intently Fluttershy was staring at the screen, and as he killed one of the dark splinters he leaned back into the couch and started exaggerating his movement of the wiimote. He also didn't use the lock button to target them, and he managed to damage all of them at least once and kill one. Then he got hit. It was the first bit of damage he'd taken since starting the game, and his hand faltered. He killed another, but got hit two more times. Just before killing a fourth, he took two more hits and quickly sat up on the edge of the seat. He locked on to the last splinter, and as he launched a charged power beam shot at it, it attacked as well. The last splinter disappeared in a black cloud of smoke, and Josh was now left with only nine energy points. He cursed silently as he hit pause.
"That seemed like a hard fight. I'm glad it's over."
Through gritted teeth he corrected her, "There's still one more to fight."
He took a deep breath and let it continue. A small cut scene played where the larger cocoon hatched and the alpha splinter fell to the ground. The scene ended and he quickly scanned the thing, and re-positioned himself and his arms as he read the description out loud.
"This one doesn't seem to be possessed."
Ignoring that, he shot the creature a couple times and another black cloud appeared and engulfed the larger splinter. He charged up the beam, locked onto it, and began circling the arena. Once the health bar showed up he launched the first beam and as he charged it up again, it crouched and jumped at him, and he made Samus jump out of the way and shoot it with the beam and a missile right after. He repeated the process until the last shot, and instead of jumping out of the way he launched his last missile as it pounced.
The missile hit as the splinter got half way across the arena and a cut scene began. Josh laid back into the couch again, and Fluttershy jumped up and yelled "Yay!" in what was the least powerful cheer he ever heard, even considering from himself, but he didn't care. His chest felt tighter again as she stared at Fluttershy's excited face, and as she landed he couldn't help but notice how she wasn't the only thing bouncing around.
She sat back down and Josh moved Samus forward, but was suddenly very uninterested in what was going on in the game. He stared straight at the screen, but wasn't really watching as he entered U-Mos' room and began the next scene. He leaned forward and gripped the wiimote and nunchuck a little tighter.
U-Mos' monologue came to an end and Josh scanned whatever he could and left. He just got out of the elevator when something warm and furry grabbed his arm and pulled it into something big, squishy, and covered in cloth.
"Um, Josh? Would it be alright if I could play for a little while?"
"Y-yeah, sure, why not?" he said, putting on a smile and handing her the nunchuck. She released his other arm and took the controllers. He directed her out the doors and towards the red blast door in the same area. She burst it with a missile and retrieved the energy capsule in the room, then went out and to the first encrypted door, scanning as they went.
Then, after grabbing the missile expansion in the elevator room he set her loose. Looking at her from the corner of his eyes, he noticed her long, pink mane was kempt and framed her face. As she coasted through the game, her expressions changed from curious as she wandered the areas--taking the time to look in every nook and cranny, which earned her another missile expansion--to shock and awe as she encountered new creatures--which she ran away from when they started to attack. There was an elegance similar to Rarity's, but it was much softer than her's.
Her ears twitched from every sound and moved in seemingly random way whenever her expression changed. He just noticed she switched the thick, green, long sleeved shirt with a small, white t-shirt that left nothing to the imagination. The fur on her arms was smooth and glossy, and had kind of small, but hard and well defined muscle. Her wings stood out as wide as her shoulders, and covered her entire back, which had a nice arch in it while she sat up on the edge of the couch. She changed from her sweatpants to a pair of jeans that clung tightly to her lower body. They weren't stretched quite like her shirt, but he could tell they were sculpted masterfully, all the way down to her hooves.
The hooves were kind of weird. He was glad they didn't lose their fur like on a real horse, and he wasn't particularly interested in feet in general, but this was certainly one thing he would have to get used to seeing. The wings were strange, too, though he was a lot more fond of the way those looked, as well as the fur. However, despite these details certainly being very prominent, and marked her as a non-human, he was far more interested in the mounds protruding from her shirt. The white fabric was stretched thin almost straight out, showing a bit of the green bra underneath, but the neck was still high enough to cover up to her collar bone.
He noticed that he had turned his head more in her direction for a better view and quickly snapped back to look at the screen. She had now gotten to the room with the morph bomb guardian, and was scanning the creature, much to his complacency. Then the fighting began and she tried running away from the creature until she found she couldn't escape. Then the black cloud had returned and possessed the guardian and the same determined she had before returned. She began circling it just like Josh had done with the alpha splinter, and locked onto the tail. Every shot made it pulse yellow and she became puzzled. She tried to look for something else to shoot, but was brought back to that little pink spot every time. Shooting it a couple more times cause the worm to rear it's head, and Fluttershy's confused look grew deeper as it lowered back down and started charging again. She had already suffered a few hits, but she was still good on health and knew how to dodge the bombs.
She shot at the pink end until it reared up again and she quickly fired a couple shots at it, and her confusion dissipated. It took her only a couple more minutes after that to drain it's health bar. After killing it, she jumped off the couch, giving a soft squeak as she did. The noise was really cute, and her shirt bounced entrancingly again.
Cute. He never thought he'd say this about a girl in real life, but she was really cute. Kind, too, even with ugly bugs that try to eat you. Definitely shy and quiet one too. Best of all, it seems she's interested in video games. As he stares at his roommate, eyes wandering every which way, he can't help but think this is gonna be a great year.