//------------------------------// // CH2: Attack of the Mash // Story: Sunset Helpers // by Spirit Shift //------------------------------// Sunset let out a warm breath into her light pink scarf as she looked up at the large grey building in front of her. Rolling her eyes only served to bring her gaze over to Coco who was staring at the building in awe. Unlike Sunset’s puffy winter coat, jeans, and scarf, Coco’s attire was composed of a significantly less thick trench coat and winter leggings. “Coco, you’ve lived in Manehatten, surely you’ve seen a mall before.” Coco looked up at her and immediately her face flushed in embarrassment. “O-of course. It’s just… that I…” Her blush intensified, turning her normally fair skin a full rosy pink color. “I got in trouble at a mall one time and ever since my parents were hesitant to take me with them,” she mumbled. Sunset simply stared at her. She wasn’t so much surprised as she was skeptical. “You got in trouble? How?” Coco fidgeted, clearly hesitant about telling her story. “Well one time when I was a little girl, I got lost. And when a nice policeman tried to bring me to the place where lost kids go I got scared and threw him down an escalator.” Sunset’s jaw hit the ground in shock. She expected something small and innocent like accidentally taking a toy or something that every foal does. Coco saw her look and quickly amended her last statement. “It was an accident of course! He was completely fine afterwards… Well, he was in the hospital for a few months but… L-let’s just go inside now please.” Sunset still gave her a nervous look. “Sure just… stay close to me. Alright?” Coco nodded and they both entered through the automatic doors. To Sunset’s immense pleasure, they were blasted with a warm gust of air. If there was any one thing that she enjoyed about the mall, it was that it was a nice haven from the weather outside. It was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. While Sunset appreciated the environmental neutrality of the building, Coco was busy surveying the many stores in the immediate vicinity. She saw the game store, the Hemline Fashion Department, one of Hot Topic’s Hot Topics, and the various food stalls settled into the corners of the hallways. “Ohh, they have a Donut Joe’s here,” observed Sunset, examining the map by the door. “That’s new.” “Sunset this place is amazing!” gushed Coco. She continued to look around in awe until Sunset grabbed her arm and led her further into the store. “Jeez, Coco it’s just a mall,” she grumbled. “Not like they have a decent bookstore or anything.” Coco took her arm back and caught up to her side. Together they walked down the hall aimlessly. “I’m sorry, it’s just I haven't been inside a mall in so long.” She raised a brow of confusion in response. “Your parents never tried to bring you back to one?” Coco frowned slightly. “They did once. A few months after the incident. Though they were pretty set on not letting me look around that time. I was pretty much attached to their hips for the whole time.” ‘They probably just didn’t want you to suplex anyone else,’ thought Sunset. Smirking at her own joke, she took a look around herself. “Alright so we’re here now. Who do we buy stuff for first? Personally, I think Rainbow Dash would be the easiest.” Coco looked up at her curiously. “Why do you think that?” Sunset stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned to face Coco. “Well she basically likes three things from what I’ve seen so far; Daring Do, video games, and being a fast athlete. We’ve already fulfilled her DD fetish by dressing her up. So we’re stuck with video games and sports equipment. The game store is right over there so I say we check that out first.” Seeing the logic in her statement, Coco nodded and the both of them began to make their way over to the store across the wide hall. Sunset quickly grew annoyed with all their socially required "pardon mes" and excuse mes" as they crossed opposite the natural flow of foot traffic. She hated crowds to begin with, but being here on a weekend so close to the holidays only made the density of the crowds that much worse. Although at least Coco seemed to enjoy herself. “Why don’t we come here more often?” Coco wondered. “All six of us, I mean. It could be fun just walking around the mall together.” Sunset glanced back at her, still slightly annoyed from weaving through people. “Well, a few reasons; the first is that there’s seven of us unless you’re not counting yourself.” Sunset let out a small chuckle at Coco’s mistake. “Secondly, I don’t know. Those guys just like hanging at Sugarcube corner for some reason. Probably because Pinkie Pie works there… Oh jeez.” Sunset paused abruptly. Seeing that, Coco stopped next to her and examined her expression. She had on a deep grimace, one completely different from her ongoing expression of not wanting to be here. She was staring ahead, intently directing her gaze at the store in front of them. Coco looked up and read the overhead sign out loud. “GameMash: Gaming to the Max.” She looked back to her friend. “Is something wrong with this store?” Sunset shook her head gravely. “Not the store, the cashier…” Sunset pointed through the window towards the true source of her ire. Coco’s eyes weren't as good as Sunset’s so she had to slightly strain her eyes to see what she was pointing at. Leaning on the counter was a bored looking teenager with dark brown hair and a black shirt decorated with a brown guitar behind a white musical note. He was currently playing on his phone. “Who is he?” “Gibson,” Sunset hissed his name with all the venom she could. “Let’s go somewhere else. I’m sure there’s another game store here somewhere.” Sunset turned to leave only for Coco to grip her sleeve. As usual her grip, as unintentional as she made it seem, was like iron. “Why? What’s wrong with him?” Knowing that she wasn’t likely to get away without answering, Sunset turned back around. “Nothing he’s just… really annoying.” She took Coco’s expression as a silent question to further elaborate. “It’s hard to explain… Fine, let’s go in and you’ll see.” Sunset walked up and grabbed the door handle. Before opening it however, she turned to Coco one more time. “Don’t make eye contact.” Without waiting for a response, Sunset opened the door and walked inside. The interior of the small shop was pretty much everything one would expect a video game store to look like. There were shelves upon shelves of video games, most of which were separated into sections based on system and release dates. Large standee’s of famous or popular characters were placed in various corners. And posters of upcoming releases were covering any remaining wall space. As soon as the two girls entered his range, Gibson’s head snapped up into a wide smile. Seeing that one of them was Sunset Shimmer only served to widen the smile. “Well hello there, your royal hotness. Haven’t seen you in a while.” Sunset suppressed a shiver at his tone. “Stow it, Gibson we’re just here to buy a present.” Gibson leaned forward and sat his other elbow on the desk. “Sunset, you don’t have to buy me anything. Being your boyfriend is present enough.” Coco’s head snapped up to face Sunset’s in surprise. “Sunset, I didn’t know you had a boyfriend. Why didn’t you tell me?” Sunset groaned loudly and turned to Coco. “He is not my boyfriend!” Sunset growled. She then leveled a finger towards Gibson. “You are not my boyfriend! Stop saying that.” Gibson pouted, “B-but Sunset… why would you say that?” Coco frowned at her friend. “Sunset, even if things didn’t work out between you two, it’s really disrespectful to say things like that.” Sunset slowly turned her head with a pure slack jawed expression of are you kidding me?” Before she could add any words to it, however, Gibson hopped over the counter and made his way over to her. Coco quickly noticed that he was about a year or two younger than she herself was. He gave her a heartfelt. “Thank you,” before looking her up and down. Upon finishing his inspection, his smile turned slightly more perverse. He held out his hand. “Well, hel~lo there, mi’lady. My name’s Gibson Mash. What’s yours?” Coco reached out to accept the handshake, but before she could Sunset held her arm back. “Gibson if you kiss her hand, I will break yours,” she growled. “W-what? K-kiss? Break?” Gibson rolled his eyes. “I wasn't going to do that.” He winked at Sunset. “That greeting’s only for you, my love.” He reached for her hand only for her to turn away and gag. Conveniently, he turned back to Coco just in time to miss it. “Oh, sorry. My name’s Coco Pommel,” she greeted, this time keeping her hand to herself. “How do you know Sunset?” A wide grin grew on Gibson’s face, but before he could answer, Sunset stepped between them with a furious blush on her face. “No! No! We are not visiting that story. It was a mistake and we’re not talking about it.” She turned around to face the boy behind her. “Gibson, shut up and do your job. What are the top ten newest games that have come out recently? Sports games included.” Gibson turned back to his counter, but not without one more wink. “Sure thing, baby. But I can’t tell ya off the top of my head. My brother could, but he’s out with his little girlfriend and her club.” He leaned over and reached under the desk and pulled out a multi paged list. He shifted through it for a few seconds before handing it over. “Here, this is a list of the recently released and soon to be released games. Just tell me which ones you wanna check out.” While Sunset checked out the list, Gibson cracked another perverted grin. “So I heard about what happened over at Canterlot High. I gotta say, demoness… pretty hot.” Unnoticed by Gibson, Sunset’s grip nearly tore holes in the paper. “Man,” he groaned. Unaware of how close he had come to death, he leaned backwards on the table. “Crystal Academy’s cool and all but it’s so boring compared to Canterlot High. I feel like I’m missing out. Like all the cool stuff happens there.” Coco gave Sunset a confused look. “Crystal Academy?” Sunset continued to try and ignore the current situation, still focusing on the game titles. Thankfully, Gibson answered for her. “It’s a small private school on the edge of town. My mom wanted my brother and I to go there since she thought it was safer than public school.” Coco let out a small chuckle. “It’s a good thing that my mom didn’t know about it. Or else I would probably be going there.” Gibson released a light dreamy sigh. “Your laugh is beautiful.” He instantly flinched back from the sheer amount of death rays coming from Sunset’s glare. “I mean… I’m not surprised. It is pretty new. If you’re not from here you probably wouldn’t know about it. Where are you from anyway?” “I used to live here when I was a small child but I moved to Manehatten. I only recently moved back.” Gibson let out a impressed whistle. “From the big city, huh? I heard you city girls are all about—” Sunset slammed down the list on the counter, interrupting the conversation. “I circled the games I want.” Gibson frantically grabbed the paper. “No! You weren't supposed to write on it! This is the store copy.” Sunset shrugged. “Like I care. Just go get the games,” she ordered. Pouting, Gibson turned around and rifled through the cabinets behind him to find the games that she had circled. While his back was turned, Coco turned Sunset around so both of their backs faced his. “Sunset, that was mean,” she whispered. “You should apologize.” Sunset frowned back at her. “Why should I? He’s creepy.” “Right here,” said Gibson. “I can still hear you.” Coco continued. “He seems like a nice guy. Why don’t you like him?” “Awww!” Sunset grimaced. “He keeps hitting on me. And I get the sick feeling that he’s taken a liking to you…” “I will admit that she’s pretty hot too. But then compared to you, Sunset…” “Well that’s not really a bad thing,” Coco argued. “You said that you wanted to be treated normally.” “And I’m being completely ignored then.” Sunset gave her a disgusted look. “You call that normal?” There was a small thump and Gibson rose his voice to get their attention. “I got the games.” Sunset turned back around and examined the small mountain of video games. “What took you so long?” Gibson simply gave her a look. “I got distracted.” “I’m so sorry.” Coco bowed her head in an attempt to apologize for her friend. Sunset, on the other hand, had no such qualms as she picked through the games she requested. Most of the games she had picked out were either sport related or games that she thought sounded like Dash’s brand of cool. She read the covers out loud so that Coco could hear them. “Let’s see. We have Madden, FIFA, WWE, NBA, Kingdom Hearts 3, Half Life 3, 240-592...huh?…” Sunset stared at the white case before glancing up to see Gibson twerking his eyebrows. In response, she sat the other games down and crushed the case with his number before dropping it on the ground. While Gibson gaped at the action, Sunset continued to read off the games. “Star Wars Battlefront 3? Why did I pick that? And two Sonic games.” She turned to Coco. “So which do you think she’d like?” Coco flinched, not expecting to be put on the spot. “I don’t know,” she admitted, chuckling nervously. “I thought you might know. I don’t play many video games.” Sunset sighed and turned back to the cashier. “Hey, Dorkson.” “Gibson.” “Shut up. You’ve seen Rainbow Dash around town right?” Gibson reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small black book. He flipped a few pages before settling on one in particular. “Sexy tomboy athlete with chromatic hair. Loves Linkin Park and pop rock?” Sunset glared down to the small book. “What is that?” Gibson nonchalantly slid the book away behind him. “What’s what?” ‘Why did I even ask?’ she thought. “Whatever. In your opinion, as a worker here and not as a perv, which game do you think she’d like? In fact, what does she usually buy?” While Sunset and Gibson traded info, Coco took some time to wander around and check out the various games sitting along the wall. She was never all that into video games but she supposed that if her friends liked them then she could give it a shot. She even considered buying one for herself just to try out on her downtime. ‘There are so many titles here,’ she thought. ‘Maybe I should ask them to choose for me.’ She glanced back to the two by the counter. One was leaning over the counter while the other one had taken several steps back, clearly uncomfortable. ‘On second thought, they look busy.’ “Who’s that?” “It must be Sunset Shimmer’s new lacky. Probably Snips and Snails’ replacement.” “But she’s so pretty.” “No matter. It’s just another minion.” Coco quickly turned around and faced the door of the shop. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she turned back around to face the games. ‘That’s weird. I could’ve sworn that I heard someone say Sunset’s name…’ “Do ya’ guys think she saw us?” “Where’s a cardboard box when you need one?” “Cardboard boxes aren’t the answer to everything, stupid.” Coco turned back to the door. This time she was certain that she heard something. Taking quiet steps, she snuck over to the doorway and discretely poked her head out. Crouching under the window were four kids. A girl with red hair and a large pink bow, a girl with purple hair, a boy with brown hair under a multicolored propeller beanie, and a girl with two-toned lavender hair. They were all wearing different colored sweaters, though the girls all had matching symbols on theirs. They seemed to be in the middle of a deep conversation. The boy punched a fist into his open palm. "Now is the time to plan. But soon we will advance!" he announced, keeping his voice low. The purple haired girl simply looked at him. "What?" “Button, what’re you talkin’ about?” asked the red haired girl. “Alright then... Sweetie Belle!" Sweetie flinched as Button suddenly thrust his finger towards her to get her attention. He then leaned down close to the floor and began running his finger along the ground, moving around pieces on a war room map that only he could see. "First you’ll stay along the back row to hit the boss with the classic debuffs. You know, stuff to make it easier for us to attack her. As soon as you’re done with that then you can get to work buffing us three…" He stopped and looked between himself and the other two girls. "Actually, reverse that. Buff us first then hit Sunset with the debuffs. We'll need it ‘ASAP’.” He turned to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom and pointed to them in addition to himself. “We’ll rush her and form a perimeter. This way we can stop her from   escaping and we can swap aggro between us. Scootaloo you go and fight her first. Since you're a monk you can dodge her attacks better. When you get low on HP swap over to Apple Bloom who can hit the hardest. I think her warrior skill ‘Shield Bash’ will work the best. I’ll take the last round as the ninja to give you two a period to recoup and reload your skills. Then we’ll restart the cycle." He then turned back to Sweetie and smiled confidently. "Sweetie Belle, play close attention to our health, specifically the one of us with the aggro. You don’t have raise or revitalize so if one of us dies then the cycle breaks and we’ll lose this battle. I don’t want to have to go back to leveling in the lower minefields again.” He sat his hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye. "I'm counting on you." He looked up to the entire group. “Is everyone clear on the plan?” Two clueless faces greeted him. “Ah have no idea what you just said," Apple Bloom admitted. Scootaloo deadpanned. “I actually forgot why we were here in the first place…” Sweetie, however, looked ready to rush in there. With her eyes sparkling in anticipation, she cheered, "I'm ready!" “Umm, girls?” All three of their heads jerked upwards to see Coco standing over them with a nervous look. “Umm… I don’t really know what all that meant but it sounds like you’re going to attack Sunset. I, uh, I just wanted to ask why?” The boy hopped up and thrust her finger toward her. “It’s the minion! It heard our plans! ATTACK!” All four of the kids simultaneously pulled out yellow toy guns from their pockets and aimed them at Coco. She was instantly bombarded by dozens of small black darts, most of which suction cupped to her skin. “Aghh! Stop!” she cried desperately trying to cover herself with her arms. One particular dart caught her in the eye, leaving her seeing stars. Hearing Coco scream prompted Sunset to rush out of the store to see what was happening. Seeing her bombarded by darts threw her for a loop for a second before she regained her composure and threw herself in front of her. “What are you guys doing?” she demanded. “Coco are you alright?” Coco rubbed her eye and gave a few test blinks. “I-I’m alright.” A few people walking down the hall turned their heads to the spectacle, but like typical ignorant background characters they simply assumed that the kids were playing a game and turned away. Button held up his arm and ceased the attack. Taking a step forward, he narrowed his eyes dramatically. “Sunset Shimmer: The Demoness of Canterlot High. We meet again,” he monologued his voice low and serious. Sunset however, simply gave him a confused look in response. “I’ve never met you in my life.” “Nevertheless! You’ve terrorized the people of this world for too long! You may have subjugated your generation but we are the new resistance!” “What?” “We will not stand by as you regain your power and kidnap the princess. The Sith will fall, Sunset Shimmer!” “What?!” “Now you have two choices… stay and fight to the death. Or call off Meteor and return to the lifestream.” “What.” Scootaloo was just as confused. She glanced over to Apple Bloom and whispered, “Why do we hang out with him again?” Apple Bloom shrugged. “He keeps things interestin’ I guess. Plus, jus’ between you an’ me, I think Sweetie here has a crush on him.” She gestured over to Sweetie who, unlike the others, was completely engrossed in the speech. “You decline to choose eh?” Button continued. “Then I was right,” he said solemnly. Letting out a small sigh he continued. “What are you? Just a miserable little pile of secrets? Well no more!” At once the girls turned and reached into the bags that they had hidden behind them. Each one bore the symbol of the local toy store. Once Sunset recognized what they were retrieving she gripped Coco’s hand and yelled. “Run!” Yanking Coco along with her, both girls quickly made their way down the hall, shoving various people aside along the way. The girls aimed three identical large, battery powered dart guns after their prey. Button lifted a small foam sword and declared. “ALLONS-Y!” The girls stared at him and he sighed. “It means let’s go get them.” The girls’ mouths all shaped into O’s in understanding. “Ohhh.”