Off Her Game
"There's no way that you'll beat me again, " Sunset Shimmer taunted into the microphone of her headset. "You've backed yourself into a corner with no way-" Sunset abruptly stopped as an explosion claimed the last of her character's lives. "H-how?" she stammered in disbelief as her left eye began twitching violently. "HOW?!"
The chatroom on her Twitch channel had exploded with laughter emojis and mild insults of her gameplay. This had become the norm for her daily streams in recent weeks. She would log on, dominate for about two hours, her "rival" would join the lobby, she then gets beaten by her rival repeatedly until finally she gets made fun of on the chat until she rage quits.
"Y-you... are gonna get your..." Sunset growled as the next round started. The redness that was overtaking her face could be visibly seen on the webcam in the bottom left corner of her viewers' screens. "I am going to kick... your..."
Before she could finish her sentence, however, her screen turned black with the message that her character had been killed.
"THE FREAKIN' ROUND JUST STARTED!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "HOW DID THEY GET ME THAT QUICKLY?"
It was then that the sound of a key being turned in the deadbolt of the apartment door.
"Hey, Sunny!" Twilight said cheerfully as she opened the door. "I'm home! I got you a new-" Twilight suddenly ducked as a black object whizzed by her head, barely grazing her hair in the process. "Geez, if you didn't want me to come home you could have..." Twilight paused, "Oh."
The sight before her was something that she had gotten accustomed to seeing. Sunset's laptop, which she used to interact with the chatroom, had gotten slammed shut. The console had been pulled from its resting place on the entertainment center. To top it off, Sunset was mere inches from her 72" 4K television shaking it violently as she shouted every obscenity known (and unknown) to both humans and ponies alike.
Twilight looked behind her at the object that had nearly given her a concussion moments earlier. She shook her head as she set the shopping bag down and scooped up the remains of Sunset's latest controller. "Good thing I bought this before I left work, " said Twilight as she pulled a box from the bag on the floor.
Sunset, having finally realized that she wasn't alone in the room, turned to face her fiancé. She had released the television and had balled her hands up into fists. "Hey... Twi..." she said as she tried getting her breathing under control.
"You got your butt kicked again, didn't you?"
"How did you guess?" Sunset asked before Twilight showed her the shattered controller. "Oh."
"Sunny, we really have to get your temper under control," Twilight said as she handed the box to Sunset. "It's only a game."
"Babe, it's more than that. This is my second job," Sunset told her as she clung to the other girl. "I'm trying to make this into my full-time job since its tough to get something besides a sushi waitress without legal documentation."
Twilight kissed Sunset's forehead as the two of them sat down on the sofa. "I know. But we can't keep buying new controllers and keyboards every couple days." Twilight pulled Sunset closer. "We're spending nearly two hundred dollars a week on new gaming equipment to replace what you've smashed or thrown across the apartment."
"I know but it's just the same person beats me over and over again. It doesn't matter what game I play or when I log in," Sunset explained. "They always log on after I do and it's only when I'm streaming, babe."
Twilight just rubbed Sunset's back in an attempt to calm her down. As the two women sat on the couch, Twilight began humming a tune that she remembered her own mother humming when she would get upset as a child. After a few minutes, Sunset had begun breathing normally and her face had returned to its normal color.
"Thanks, Twilight," Sunset said, easing her grip. "It's just frustrating and embarrassing to be beaten over and over and over again. It's like this person knows me personally and how my gaming habits are."
Twilight guided Sunset's face toward her so that she could look her in the eyes. "I highly doubt they know you personally, " Twilight reassured. "But hypothetically speaking, if it was someone you know, do have any idea who it would be?"
"Well, at first I thought it might be one of the girls trolling me but all five of them were here during our last sleepover," Sunset said as she rubbed her chin. "But this... jerk was online kicking my butt that night too."
"What about Trixie?"
"It can't be her. I've played against Trixie before and Ray could probably beat her using just his tail."
"Sunny, we should get this mess of yours cleaned up, " said Twilight, standing up and guiding the fiery-haired girl to the center of the room.
"And I should probably apologize to my followers for the sudden ending."
"Yeah that would probably be a good idea," Twilight agreed.
"<censored>, " Sunset swore.
"What happened?"
"I slammed the laptop closed so hard the keys are broken off, " Sunset booted up the computer. "And the screen has multiple cracks in it."
Twilight just shook her head as she put the Ponystation 4 back where it belonged.
"I guess im going to have to forego the console for now and stick with PC gaming until I get a new laptop," Sunset relented.
"Let me guess, the warranty is expired."
Sunset slowly nodded.
"For the record, what is this person's gamertag?"
"I'd rather not say," Sunset said looking at the floor. "It's kind of embarrassing."
"Please, Sunny," Twilight begged.
"Fine." Sunset drew a deep breath. "Their gamertag is... 'silentbutdeadly2000'."
Twilight covered her mouth trying to stifle her laughter.
"I know, right?"
Meanwhile, in another part of Canterlot City, another recent CHS graduate sat on an armchair in her parents' living room. A confident smile adorned her face as someone else entered the room.
"Has she figured it out yet?" the second person asked.
The first person grinned and shook her head. "Thanks to you she probably never will."
Her phone suddenly chimed with a notification from her Twitch app.
"fiery_unicorn13 has gone live."
"What do you think, Zephyr? Should we do it again?"