> Game On!
>  by Midknight_Stardust
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Jump Force!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset Shimmer's Apartment

Sunset Shimmer was excited. So very excited and she could hardly contain herself. As she went about her apartment setting things up just how she wanted them given her perfectionist nature she kept a big goofy and excited smile on her face. Sitting on her couch was her best friend out of all of her best friends Twilight 'Sci-Twi' Sparkle and she was just as excited as Sunset was if not a little bit nervous since she was going to be helping Sunset with this endeavor.

All of the girls as of late had been doing more things online in their spare time, using social media to their individual advantages and lately a lot of them had been taking to using a camera and posting videos on ViewTube. Each of them had their different channels and Sunset was just now getting her jump into thing because she wanted to wait for a really hype game to come out to make her debut and what better game than the one every single anime fan was going to be playing upon its release?

Rarity had her fashion channel where she kept everyone up to date on the latest trends and fashions, talked gossip, did Q & A's, charity streams and a lot more as of recently since she'd been having her friends help her with ideas.

Pinkie Pie had her channel that hosted a variety of different content ranging from baking tutorials, prank videos, comedy skits and reaction videos since Pinkie Pie's reactions to things with absolutely hilarious.

Rainbow Dash had her channel for sports and awesome things she would do while skateboarding or playing any kind of sport. Recently she'd been getting a lot of views on a couple of epic fails after Indigo Zap posted a recording of Rainbow biting it big time attempting a new trick and while at first it start it bit of a beef between the two it quickly began a collaboration type thing with the two now working together.

Even Twilight had her own channel that was all about reviewing forms of technology, doing cool and fun experiments, explaining science in a fun and friendly way to people, full educational tutorials that had proved very helpful to many other students struggling with their studies and since Twilight was in fact a geek and a nerd? She also on the side reviewed anime and manga along with video games she liked.

So now it was Sunset Shimmer's turn to get in on the fun and at first she had a hard time picking exactly what to have her channel based around but then she came to the conclusion that none of her friends had a purely gaming based channel and out of all of them? She was most certainly the gamer of the group surpassed only by Rainbow Dash.

So that being the case Sunset decided to have a purely video game based channel where she would play video games either alone on stream or with a friend or two in person, review games she liked in a way that was informative and funny and she was even thinking of doing animation on her channel since she had the artistic know how in order to animate and Twilight could most certainly help in that regard.

And so here she was, walking about her apartment with a pep in her step as she got ready to debut the first episode of her gaming channel Shimmer-Code! She couldn't begin to contain her excitement and had pony'ed up by accident several times but she was far to giddy to care and her joy was infectious because Twilight was practically bouncing in place where she sat on Sunset's blue couch with the controllers next to her.

"Alright lets see; controllers charged? Check! System Updated and connected to WIFI with full bars? Check, Check! Headset fully charged and room at decent temperature to avoid sweaty controller hands? Check and Check! And last but not least? Game loaded in, downloading and camera set up for recording. Check-a-roo! Alright We are all set for the first episode of my gaming channel! Ooooh I'm so excited but like also really nervous."  Sunset said smiling as she ticked off each of the boxes of the check-list Twilight helped her make for organizing her channel.

"I'm sure you'll do great Sunset; I mean you're the leader of our band and our group in general. I bet people are gonna flock to your stream like crazy when you start!" Sci-Twi said with a smile on her face as she sat on Sunset's couch as she watched her friend set up for her very first gaming stream for her ViewTube channel.

"Heh yeah and hopefully I won't have to flash my tits at all" Sunset joked remembering how she once watched Lemon Zest and Indigo Zap do a gaming stream and someone dared them both to flash their tits and they did which got them tons of subs and likes but also got the stream closed only moments afterwards.

Sci-Twi blushed at her friends crass joke but giggled all the same. "I still can't believe that they did that!"

Sunset chuckled and came and plopped down next to Twilight. "Funniest part was that Vice Principal Luna saw it too! A-And Celestia recorded her reaction." Sunset remembered and began to laugh as she recalled the shocked and dumbfounded look on the Vice principals face when she saw the breasts of two students on her computer and that her older sister came in and misinterpreted what she was doing.

Twilight laughed along with Sunset even if she tried not to at first as she didn't want to laugh at her Vice Principal but even she couldn't deny her reaction was a priceless one to behold. "Hehehe I know and then that started that whole prank war thing they have going on over on their channel. Heh I'm surprised they even have one!"

"Everyone's gotta have a hobby right? It was actually Ms.Luna who suggested I try video games as a way to curb my mood and my anger issues awhile ago and its been so helpful. I even played a few games with her on her gaming channel back when I was still going through the beginning of my redemption. Ms. Luna and I are more alike than I ever thought really" 

Sunset said with a slight somber tone as she remembered her meeting with VP Luna after her defeat at the Fall formal and while she did receive punishment in way of suspension from school for 2 weeks, marks off on her grades that she had to make up and aiding in rebuilding the front of the school? She expected worse however the VP had showed her mercy after sharing details about her own troubled past and circumstances that lead her to where she was now.

"I just really hope I can do this; I mean there are bound to be haters and scumbags. I'm just hoping I don't well...'regress' if someone gets too under my skin." Sunset said with a genuine tone of concern as she knew gaming could bring out the worst in some people and she didn't want it to bring out the worst in her if some troll was going to try and ruin her reputation and she flips off the nice switch and blacks out.

Putting a reassuring hand on Sunset's shoulder Twilight smiled. "Words are just words and all the hate they spit at you is simply spat because they want to make you look bad. Don't let those kinda people get you down. People leave mean and stupid comments on my videos and especially Pinkie's all the time but Pinkie of course just laughs it off and I pretty much do the same cause they are just that stupid" Twilight said smiling at Sunset to reassure her that what she was venturing to do would bring results as long as she did her best and didn't let the negatives get her down.

Sunset smiled in return and hugged her friend. "Thanks Twi; that means a lot." She withdrew from her hug with a cocky smile. "Don't think that mean's I'll go easy on you though!"

Twilight's smile matched Sunset's own and she chuckled. "We'll see about that! I'm going to totally pick Jo-Jo, Kenshiro & Deku can kick your butt!" Twilight wasn't as crass as Sunset was only cursing when she felt it necessary or if she let it slip in anger. Twilight along with Pinkie, Fluttershy and  Rainbow were the resident anime geeks of the group and Twilight had a special spot in her heart for the characters she mentioned.

Sunset rolled her eyes and scoffed at her friend seeing this as a challenge. "Psh please in your dream dorky cause when I fully customize my own character and pair her with Boa Hancock & Sasuke your sparkly ass is as good as mine!" Sunset said playfully shoving her friend.

Twilight blushed and puffed out her cheeks. Sunset was in fact her closest friend out of all of the girls and as such she often found herself playfully teased by Sunset more than the other girls and it was typically done in a flirtatious manner to purposely fluster Twilight. "Hmph Oh yeah?!"

"Yeah" Sunset rebutted quickly smile smug still adoring the flustered look on Twilight's face.

"Then how's about a bet then?" Twilight said her grin turning mischievous which was rare for the normally shy nerd.

"Ooooh color me intrigued" Sunset said teasingly raising an eyebrow wondering just what wager Twilight had in mind.

"Loser has to pay for pizza" Twilight said smiling and held up her phone. "And I'll even toss in the added bonus of using my pizza points to get you a desert if you win without taking an losses!" Twilight knew Sunset wouldn't be able to resist this kind of bait having long since decoded the pony turned human's weakness for baked goodies especially cupcakes and ice cream.

Sunset as expected took the bait and smirked with all her devious confidence. "Oh you are on!" Sunset then noticed a notification go off on her game system and noticed that the game was now fully installed and ready to be played. Her laptop and camera were already set up for use near her and she had a remote to activate the camera from her current position on the couch. 

Picking up her headset and putting it on she also handed one to Twilight and they both picked up a controller as Sunset started up the game allowing the opening credits to play out. It took a good two minutes for the sequence to finish and once it completed fully it arrived at the start menu reading JUMP FORCE in bold letters across the screen and it was at that moment that Sunset pressed record on her camera and she saw all the lights indicate she was in fact live and streaming.

"Hey everyone! And welcome to the first livestream of my new gaming channel! This is Shimmer-Code and I'm your lovely flame headed host Sunset Shimmer." Sunset said with a playful and cute flip of her red and yellow hair and she smiled when she saw Twilight rolled her eyes and giggle. 

"And with me on my first episode I have my friend, classmate fellow Rainboom and the most adorkable girl in Canterlot; Twilight Sparkle otherwise known as Sci-Twi on her channel The Magic of Science! Say hi Twi" Sunset said panning the camera over to her friend using the small remote in her hand.

Twilight smiled bashfully and waved at the camera. "Hi everyone; for those of you joining us from my channel? Thanks for coming! It was so much fun helping Sunset start her new channel up and I'm so happy to be here for the first stream and of such a highly anticipated game no less!" Twilight said with great joy giving her best greeting to fans of hers she had in the stream.

"And thanks a bunch to everyone else who helped spread the word for this first stream! It was so much fun to rock the Canterlot Stadium last month for that epic dodgeball tournament which of course was won all the way by our resident speedster Rainbow Dash! You rock Dashie! And you all be sure to go check out her channel 20%-Cooler." Sunset said giving a shout out and peace sign to her friend Rainbow and her channel. Taking a look at her screen she smiled to see they already had a few hundred viewers in the stream and a few of them she could recognize as friends from school and every students from Crystal Prep and Everfree High were in the stream.

"Thanks so much for all the support so far you guys! We've got exactly 250 viewers in stream now so I think it's about a good time to start up! For this game we'll be doing personal matches and for those who send in a super chat we will do requested fights. Although I think we all know who the clear winner is gonna be" Sunset said with a playful and cheeky smirk on her face as she popped the collar on her jacket.

"We'll see about that. Let's get your character created and start" Twilight rolled her eyes monitoring the chat.

"Right; gosh this is so exciting! I really can't tell you all how much fun this is about to be. Oh hey Twi look! I can see a few of the girls in the chat! Pinkie just sent in a $10 super chat and it reads; ahem..." Sunset shook her head to frazzle her hair into a style similar to Pinkie Pie and she put on a goofy smile and upped her happiness to Pinkie levels or as close as possible and did a imitation of Pinkie. "Omg omg omg! Super duper congrats on your first stream sunny! Have fun!!" Sunset then calmed herself and straightened out her hair smiling at all the lol's, lmao's and rofl's she got in the chat for her imitation and Pinkie had sent in another super chat for $20 that just read LMFO-ROTFL.

"Heheh thanks Pinks and we totally will with humor like that coming in! Make sure and go check Pinkie's channel: Pinkie's Fun-House for even more laughs! Oh we got another super chat for whoooooooa! $150 from you guessed it the primadonna and fashion queen herself; Rarity! Hehehe c'mon marshmallow you're spoiling me! Her's reads" Sunset quickly brushed her hair into a style similar to Rarity's and she adopted a tone of voice more regal and refined to imitate Rarity. 

"Congrats on opening your first stream strong darling; do your best and feel free to count on your friends for any help."  Sunset then stopped her imitation and smiled. "Aw thanks Rarity! I'm glad you girls are so willing to help us out! Since she was so generous to me just now I can only return the favor by shouting our her channel Diamond-Darling. Trust me if you want cool threads like mine or Twi? Hit up Rarity's shop online or in person and she will totally hook you up!" Sunset said with a smile making sure to properly promote Rarity and her business as a show of thanks for donating so much money.

"Alright lets slow down on donations and chats for now and get to making our character. Twi will be monitoring the chat while I put in work to this character." Sunset said as she got to the beginning screen and the game opened up with a cinematic cut-scene showing the opening events of the game with Frieza and various nameless grunts attacking a city that looked a lot like Manhattan.

The graphics for the game were certainly something to behold as the game was amazingly detailed and the effects on character models were very fluid and crisp looking as to be expected from a next generation system. Sunset had the most updated version of the Playstation 4 pro and even had a friend modify her games skin to look like a phoenix and it even had her cutie mark on it and she also had a special red controller with her cutie mark on it as well.

As she got through the opening cut-scene and she was brought to the main character creation menu of the game which for now was merely allowing her to give her character a body type, hair, eyes, mouth, nose and ears as it would seem changing their outfit and attack moves would come later on as she progressed through the game. Naturally her character was roughly modeled after herself with the same yellowish skin, bluish green eyes and of course her iconic two toned crimson and yellow hair.  As for a name she opted to call herself Phoenix Sunshine since that was the name of an original character she had created for a comic book she was writing alongside Rainbow, Twilight and Pinkie.

"Alright I've got my basic look; what does the chat think?" Sunset said asking Twilight who was monitoring the chatroom from the laptop next to her.

Turning on the slow-chat for the live stream Twilight looked through the various responses and they were all pretty positive with the occasional troll comment here and there but Twilight was smart enough to ignore those. With a smile she would read off a few of the comments to Sunset.

"Rumble-Boy11 says; awesome character! She's hot!" Twilight said to Sunset which was obviously set up to be a pun.

Sunset gave a 'really?' look at the camera for the kid who just made that pun but she smiled still as she did it. "You guys are terrible but I love ya! And yeah she is pretty hot isn't she? She's based off yours truly after all" Sunset said with a smug smirk and stick out of her tongue.

"The-Flash says; hey Sunset glad to see you online and doing your thing! Hit me up to play sometime its been awhile" Twilight smiled and giggled a bit knowing for a fact that was Flash Sentry from school.

"Heh sure anytime Flash just don't think I'll go easy on you cause you're my ex-boyfriend." Sunset said chuckling as she continued through the game learning the basic controls and layout of the game and for the most part it was pretty straightforward to her as it reminded her of other fighting games she had played before with similar mechanics.

"Alright so I think I got the basic hang of this now. So how about I do a couple story missions, unlock some characters and moves and then Twi and I can play. Oh I wonder how many of you are actually online playing this right now too? See if you can come and find me in the lobby! I'll take any challengers!" Sunset proclaimed.

As she made that bet the chat began to go crazy with people saying they were playing or waiting for the game to finish installing so they could play and a bunch more were accepting Sunset's challenge. With a smile Sunset crossed her legs on the couch and allowed her character to wander around the lobby until she located a shop where she could purchase a few upgrades since she had the funds to do so after completing the tutorial. She decided to buy all fire based moves at first with the first 3 moves being: Red Hawk, Fireball Jutsu & Pegasus Meteor Fist with the element of fire added to it since she managed to unlock that early.

Then she got a chance to change some of her clothes and she put her character with long flowing hair like her own along with a jacket, red shirt, shorts and sneakers as well as some fingerless gloves and earrings. Smirking as she got a funny and also pervy idea she asked the chat.

"So how big should I make my tits in this game?" Sunset smiled as she saw Twilight's reaction first and she couldn't help but laugh at the dorky girls blushing and sputtering.

"Ah uh...pft ummm....same size as they are now?" Twilight answered as best she could 

Sunset couldn't resist teasing her friend some more as she said. "Sooooo big or small?"

The burning blush on Twilight's face caused her to cover the front of her face with her hands and mumble something.

Putting a hand to her ear she leaned in closer to Twilight. "I can't heeeeeear you flutter-Twi." Sunset said with a cheeky smile throwing a small jab at both Twilight and Fluttershy for being so meek and easily flustered. Her smile widened as she got another idea and she knew she might catch some flack for it but she was having too much fun now. 

"If you can't give me an answer from looking; you can always touch and gauge that way. You're pretty smart so I'm sure you could figure it out" Sunset said in playful tease to her friend pushing her chest a bit closer and since Sunset often didn't wear a bra? Twilight could see right down her shirt when she got close enough and she was borderline nose-bleeding.

"..........." Twilight fell over on the couch, her face steaming as she lay there unable to reply.  Twilight Sparkle .exe has stopped working. Please reboot.

"Heheh whoopsy. I think I broke her. What should I do to revive her chat?" Sunset asked looking at the screen of the laptop with a smirk and she blushed when she saw many of the replies. Many of which said kiss her and others said to give her a certain amount of CC's of friendship. Since she wasn't trying to make out with Twilight on her first live stream she opted to go with the second option.

"Ok looks like she could use about 50 CC's of friendship." Sunset grinned still wanting to be bad and tease her friend as she put her controller down, rubbed her hands together fast to build up friction and smirked at her friend. "CLEAR!" She then slapped Twilight smooth on the ass causing the purple geek to yelp and shout in surprise.

"EEEEP!!!" Twilight yipped and fumbled off the couch and landed on her butt. "Ow! Sunseeeeeeet?!"

"Pffffffahahahahahahhahahh" Sunset laughed in place on her couch. "I-I'm sorry Twi that w-was just too good to pass up!" Sunset smiled at her friend in a cheeky manner.

"Ooooh you are so mean!" Twilight pouted but knew full well Sunset was just toying with her.

"I am not; the chat told me to do it!" Sunset defended.

"Hmph we will see who has the last laugh! Hand me a controller!" Twilight demanded as she was now determined to get revenge. 

"Oooooh I'm sooooooo scared; heheh your cute when you get all aggressive." Sunset teased further sticking her tongue out at Twilight and handing her a controller.

"Then I guess I'm about to be the most adorable thing since baby Fluttershy because I am about to kick your ass!" Twilight said now more determined than ever even using foul language.

Sunset's eyebrows shot up in surprise and she chuckled "Ooohoho looks like I woke up the beast inside; alright Dorky your on! And our bet still stands; loser has to pay or pizza and desert." She said taking a controller and getting back on the couch and sitting down determined to wipe the grin off Sunset's face and cease her taunting.

"Place your bets chat! Who will win? Me or Twi?" Sunset asked the chat-room and looking at the replies she could see it was pretty much in her favor and she gave Twilight a cheeky grin. "The chat has spoke and so I have to represent. No hard feelings Twi."

"Then put up or shut up Sunny" Twilight said fully ready to play and show Sunset a thing or two.

After that little back and forth Sunset motioned her character to the online battle counter and selected P1 vs P2 and they were taken to the character select screen where they were able to pick out the characters they wanted. Sunset set the time to unlimited and the amount of rounds to three and with that said and done? She began picking her team.

"So lets see I'm gonna go with; Phoenix Sunshine. Kenshiro & Jo-Jo" Sunset said as she picked her female character and then two other male characters. One was tall with brown hair and scars all over his chest dressed in black leather and the other was dressed in all blue and purple wearing a hat and looking just plain bad ass.

"Not a bad selection; I'm picking Luffy, Deku & Hancock." Twilight said picking her characters. Two of which were from the same series One Piece and the other character with green hair and a green suit was from Boku No Hero Academia. Surprisingly to most Twilight was actually a big fan of Shonen manga and she even got Rainbow Dash into reading manga not long after she got her into the Daring Do books.

"Alright lets fight and you're sure you don't wanna practice first?" Sunset asked.

"Best way to learn sometimes is as you go and under pressure." Twilight answered simply.

"Wisely said my friend. Let's do this!" Sunset said as she selected the fighting stance at random and once the screen came back up it was revealed that Japan was going to be their battleground.  After a few moments the match would begin and their respective characters would clash with Luffy saying he was going to beat their ass while Sunset's character said nothing which made Twilight giggle.

"Guess your OC isn't as chatty as you" Twilight teased sticking her tongue out at Sunset.

Sunset rolled her eyes and grinned still. "Pft talk is cheap; lets fight!"  Sunset said dashing in right away only to be dash countered by Twilight and then dashed at again and pummeled with a full combo into a gomu gomu no Red Hawk. Sunset was dumbfounded and looked over at Twilight.

"You wanted a fight? Lets fight!" Twilight said having Luffy go in again to attack Sunset's character but Sunset blocked and kept blocking; that is until Twilight used a heavy smash to break her guard and then switched to Deku and caught her with a  Smash finishing off the rest of her health and winning her the match which left Sunset stunned.

"Lucky shot!" Sunset semi-snapped and the second match started and she began to dash in and got in a couple good hits with a red hawk in the middle and when Twilight tried to counterattack? Sunset used to fast dodge feature by giving up some of her dash gauge and she continued her combo with her created character only to then switch to Jo-Jo and that's when Sunset's grin began one that would look more at home on Adagio's face as she attacked Twilight with Jo-Jo and then used his special move.

"EAT THIS! ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!" Sunset shouted with a devious gleeful smile as she ended that combo and switched to Kenshiro only to allow Twilight enough time to breath and herself to charge her energy and once she was fully charged? She dashed in to attack again but Twilight forced her to dodge to the side after having switched to Hancock and fired off her special pistol kiss. When She dashed in to try and attack Kenshiro Sunset used a move called 100 rending fist and Kenshiro countered the incoming attack and a cut-scene reoccurs and Sunset in sync with Kenshiro shouted.

"ATATATATATATATTATATATATATATATATTATATA!!!" And it was that combo that finished the second round and Sunset chuckled in slight triumph and shot Twilight a look and smirked at her. "Final round Dorky; think you can win?"

"You bet your little pony ass I do" Twilight reaffirmed still high on the adrenaline from the fight that just occurred and her desire to win. While she may not have always been the most win crazy of the Crystal prep students? She did have a competitive streak when she found a worthy rival in terms of intelligence and in this cause? Video games and Sunset was a worthy rival in both categories indeed.

Smirking back still she looked at the chat and saw everyone was having a fun time, laughing, leaving funny comments about who would win and imitating phrases the characters they were playing as. Truly everyone was having a blast and she could see tons of unread donations and super chats and this made her happy as could be. 

"Final round; chat, who do you think will take the win?" Reading the chat again she could see that it was completely divided between the two of them and she went back to the couch and sat down now not crossing her legs she sat in a more serious 'I am gonna kick your ass in this fighting game' position that she had often seen Rainbow Dash take when she had to 'get serious' on Applejack in video games they played during their slumber parties.

"I do believe this calls for some mood music." Twilight said pulling out her phone and the miniture speaker it was wirlessly hooked up to from her backpack and she scrolled through her list of anime OST's and found the perfect battle theme for this fight.

"Lets go!" Twilight said as the epic music came on and Sunset knew full well this meant Twilight was not playing games anymore. She fully intended to defeat Sunset...in her own house! Oh it was on now!

As the music began the two dashed in and clashed and began to exchange blows and for every hit one got in? The other got in just as many. They would dodge each others attacks, break guard, use their specials in combo's in ways both of them had trouble keeping up with and it was now down to 35% for each of them and they each had the option to awaken or use their ultimate move. Both Sunset and Twilight had determined looks on their faces as they squared off, sizing each other up to see who would slip first.

"Time to end this!" Twilight said going in and using Red Hawk.

"To slow! I've got you no-" Sunset said as her character had just enough energy to hyper dodge but she leaped in too soon and even though Red Hawk missed? She couldn't escape from what Twilight was about to do next.

"GOT CHA! GEAR 4TH!" Twilight said as she activated Luffy's ultimate move and he entered Gear 4th bounce-man which turned the normally slim and buff Luffy into a hulking armament haki coated bouncing beast that could shatter mountains with a punch. He would fly forward and a cut-scene would occur when he got close enough to Sunset's character and he unleashed a barrage of punches and it was with that the fight was ended and Twilight whooped and cheered in triumph.

"WOO-HOO! BOOYAH BABY!" Twilight shouted giddily hopping up and down. "Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!"

"Aaaargh that was a load of horseapples!" Sunset said not angrily but she was incredibly salty.

"Heheh got any fries for all that salt?" Twilight said in a cheeky manner mirror how Sunset was earlier feeling very good about herself right now.

"Oh kiss my cutie marked ass you dork! How are you already so good at this game?!" Sunset demanded to know.

Twilight blushed and waved a dismissive hand. "I maaaaaay or may not have played the beta when it came out" Twilight said sticking her tongue out at Sunset. "Got cha; and now you owe me pizza and desert."

Sunset was flabbergasted that the dorky science girl was able to play her so well and she chuckled clapping impressed. "Twilight Sparkle you devious little minx you. Okay points to you for giving me the old run around but I'll get you next time! But I'm a lady of my word so I guess we can take a small break while I order pizza." Sunset said pulling out her phone and selected the app for the pizza place she was going to order from and order her usual with a drink and desert.

"Alright there we go; order all set....sooooo. Rematch?" Sunset asked Twilight.

"Game on!" Twilight replied with a smile as they would begin to play another match while the others watched in the stream and she and Sunset knew this would be the beginning of many fun times to come.
> Shimmer & Shy Play: Sly Cooper & The Thievius Raccoonus(Part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canterlot High School: Music Room.


It was Friday; everyone's favorite day of the week and the true beginning to their weekend and today was a special day. It was report card night and so students were being sent home early for a half a day and each of the girls currently had their plans and were currently discussing them as they gathered together like normal in the music room. Right now the big topic of conversation was Sunset Shimmer and the growing popularity of her gaming channel given the shout out she was given by VP Luna earlier that day during the morning announcements.

"I still can't believe she challenged you; in front of the ENTIRE school!" Rainbow said as she sat near the Piano next to Fluttershy as she spun a soccer ball on her finger. 

"I know right?! I heard VP Luna actually has won a couple of tournaments before she became the VP. She's really into fighting games I hear." Pinkie stated sitting at her drums.

"Well ah'll say Sunset yer channel really has blown up over the past week huh?" Applejack said sitting near Rarity who was braiding her hair into a ponytail at the moment.

"I concur darling; but did you HAVE to do such crude impressions of us? I do NOT sound that posh!" Rarity said turning her nose up.

Rainbow snickered "Pfttteheheeh y-you totally do though" 

"I loved when you copied me! That was so funny! Hehheheheh I totally sound like that!" Pinkie said giggling as she remembered how spot on her impression of her was.

"Ahahah and you even called Twilight Flutter-Twi; hheh haaaarsh." Rainbow teased and noticed Fluttershy retreat into herself.

Sunset blushed and smiled apologetically at Fluttershy. "You weren't upset by that were you Shy? I promise I won't make jokes like that anymore if they upset you." The last thing she wanted anyone to think was that she was potentially bullying Fluttershy again like back when she was evil but that was far from the case. 

Sunset often teased her friends and they often teased her right back so the friendly jabs were often mutual however with Fluttershy being the most emotionally sensitive? She didn't wish to hurt her feelings by making light of her shyness.

Fluttershy blushed and cleared her throat to speak up. "Oh um no. It was fine heh I know I can speak pretty low and get really flustered sometimes. Rainbow has been poking fun at me for that since we were both little kids so it's okay." Fluttershy said opening up that she didn't actually mind the teasing so long as it wasn't mean spirited.

Sunset smiled calmly at Fluttershy. "Thanks Flutters; I promise not to make too many jokes at your expense. So enough about me; what're you girls all up to today? I mean we've basically got the whole day to ourselves now."

Rainbow sighed and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Well given its report card day? I'd say there's a solid 50/50 chance I'm grounded when I get home after practice." Rainbow huffed.

"That's what you get for being a slacker" Twilight stated pushing up her glasses.

"Pft oh suck one Dorky, don't get fresh just cause you beat Sunset in Jump Force" Rainbow said with a shit-eating grin in Sunset's direction.

"You saw the match I uploaded! It was DANGEROUSLY close! Besides we are tied for win's and losses anyway!" Sunset rebutted with a small anger vein popping in her forehead. She then calmed down and crossed her arms with a huff.  "I still can't believe she got access to the Beta before me!" 

"What can I say? Being a nerd has its privileges and I got an early access code for the beta from Button Mash after I modded his controller for him" Twilight said with a cheeky smile at both Rainbow and Sunset who looked sheepish since she had also done mods for them as well.

"Tch whatever pointdexter." Rainbow scoffed rolling her eyes and then looked at her phone seeing the time. "Well I gotta dash; got basketball practice, then baseball and then track and then I gotta go home and see if my parents grounded me." Rainbow said giving Fluttershy a quick hug, a high-five to Sunset, a fist bump to Applejack and a wave goodbye to everyone else.

"Aaaaand finished! Oh it looks marvelous darling." Rarity said as she finished braiding Applejack's hair and pulled out a small mirror for her to get a good look.

Applejack smiled as she turned her head and got a good look at the ponytail Rarity gave her and she put her hat back upon her head giving Rarity a hug for her generous efforts. "Thanks sugarcube; it looks great. Ah'll see ya tonight okay?" Applejack said grabbing her backpack.

"You'd best be at the spa by 4 sharp Applejack! I mean it!" Rarity said wagging a nagging finger at her friend.

Applejack blushed and waved a dismissive hand at her. "Ah relax I'll be done apple-pickin' and  doin' my chores by then I promise." Applejack said as she too left the room.

"How about you Pinks? You have work today don't ya?" Sunset asked her Pink friend.

"Yupparooni! I decided to take Sugar Belle's shift today at Sugarcube corner. She's been trying really hard to impress Big Mac lately so I took her shift so she could work on her baking! She's gotten so good making apple goodies!" Pinkie said with a cheery smile as she spoke about the Crystal Prep girl she had befriended who had a crush on her cousin Applejack's big brother.

"Awww how sweet! I certainly can't blame her. Applejack's brother would be quite the catch." Rarity said as she ran a comb through her own flowing purple locks.

Sunset shot a cheeky look at Rarity. "Not trying to move in on someones crush are ya Rarity?"

Rarity scoffed and huffed at her fiery haired friend. "Scandalous! Why of course not! And besides-" Rarity said putting her brush away and fluffing out her hair with a smile. "You ALL know my sights are set on a different kind of apple." 

Sunset giggled and rolled her eyes. "Oh just quit it with the cat and mouse with her already Rare; I'm pretty sure AJ would say yes...I mean I know you're worried about her family but-" Sunset knew full well the reason why Rarity was so hesitant to ask out Applejack though in her mind? If she was as in love as she had told her that one night she called her rambling drunk off a few glasses of wine she snuck from her mothers stash? It was worth the risk.

"It's complex darling and I wish not to make our lives any more complex as it is. I will ask her in time; when the time is right. Applejack is far too stubborn and stuck in her ways to try and think about dating at the moment and her family means the world to her for obvious reasons." Rarity said with a small expression of grief on her face as she spoke of Applejack's family and the tragedy that had befallen them not long before Applejack got to High School.

Sunset sighed and nodded in understanding. This was something Rarity had to do when SHE was ready and when Applejack was ready as well. The last thing they wanted were splinters in their relationship by entering a romantic relationship with another friend in the group who had family that were exactly OK with same sex relationships with that mostly coming from Granny Smith and the more conservative members of the Apple and Pear family.

"I know. Just try not to wait too long; you never know what could happen and you don't wanna act too late." Sunset said giving a small longing look at Twilight Sparkle. She still cursed herself for not snagging her when she had the perfect chance to but alas at the moment? She belonged to Timber Spruce and she had to accept that.

"I know darling I know; I just need a little more time is all. For now I am perfectly content with the time we spend together at the spa and whenever I go over to her house to learn more about cooking 'less fancy' meals." Rarity said rolling her eyes and blushing a bit as she gathered the rest of her thing and prepared to leave and then she remembered something.

"Oh yes before I forget; Twilight dear? Did you still need a ride to work at the mall?" Rarity asked the nerdy girl.

Twilight's eyes widened as she remembered that she did in fact have a shift at 2:30 today and it was already 1:30. "Oh yes! Thanks for reminding me Rarity!"

Rarity smiled waving a dismissive hand. "Think nothing of it dear. I needed to actually stop by the mall and pick up a couple new materials for a dress I am making. You were actually the inspiration if you wish to come see it; I remembered how you said yours and Timber's last date went so I wished to lend my assistance." Rarity said with her tone sounding a bit somber as she remembered Twilight sharing the details of her last date with her boyfriend.

"Oh? What happened?" Sunset asked now curious as this is the first time she was hearing of this. She knew that she and Timber had iffy dates in the past but it wasn't enough to make Twilight want to dump him or vise versa.

Twilight blushed sheepishly. "Oh um well we were going out to dinner and well um I had to pull a late shift and when I finally got to the restaurant? I hadn't changed out of my uniform and he was dressed rather nice. The entire thing felt awkward." 

Twilight said with a sigh and groan. "Honestly a lot of our dates have been feeling that way lately and I can't pin down why! I mean we get along, he's really nice and treats me nice; sure he isn't exactly the smartest but I'm okay with that but...ugh I don't know" Twilight said sounding very conflicted about her standing with Timber.

"Sounds pretty rough; maybe you just need a little time to sort things out? I'm sure it's just a rough patch like any couple goes through. No need to worry too much." Sunset said attempting to reassure her friend. 

Twilight smiled at Sunset's words. "Yeah you're right; its probably just my nerves getting to me. Timber and I actually have a date tonight after I get off work. We were going to go star gazing" Twilight said with a tinkle in her eye.

Sunset couldn't resist the joke and said. "I certainly hope you don't plan on making him 'see stars' in the way I think" Sunset chuckled.

Twilight blushed and stammered in embarrassment. "Ack wha, I...You...but we....aaaaargh" Twilight groaned and covered her face with her hands as Sunset laughed.

Rarity held her laughter back behind a hand trying not to laugh at her friend but Sunset's wit was sometimes too quick to be prepared for. "Oh Sunset darling you are terrible!"

"Ain't I a stinker?" Sunset said with a cheeky smile and tongue stuck out.

"Heeeeey that's my line!" Pinkie proclaimed banging on her drums one time.

"Pft I don't see you with a monopoly on that catch phrase; last I checked it was coined by a cartoon rabbit" Sunset retorted to her clown of a friend.

"Nuh-uh! Bugs Bunny does not own that catch phrase and I'll prove it!" Pinkie said with a determined look and Rarity knew all too well what that meant.

"Oh goodness here comes detective Pinkie Holmes again." Rarity rolled her eyes.

"Pft don't be silly Rarity! This isn't a job for Detective Pinkie Holmes! Theres no mystery! Unless there is a mystery! In which case I'll need to clone myself so I can have detective Pinkie team up with..." Pinkie styled her hair into a style similar to that of a video game lawyer. "Pie! Attorney at law!"

"Uh Pinkie you don't have a degree in-" Twilight began to say but then Pinkie shouted over her.

"HOLD IT! OBJECTION!!" Pinkie said pointing at Twilight in dramatic fashion and flashing a certificate in front of Twilight.

Inspecting the document Twilight put on a flat expression. "Pinkie you bought this off Amazon"

Pinkie smiled still and put the paper away. "Regardless! I will crack this case WIDE open-" She looked at her watch and then saw the time and quickly grabbed her things and began to race out the door. "After I go to work and finish my double shift see ya later girls byyyyyyyeeee!" Pinkie zipped out of the room leaving the other girls confused.

"Well now that Pinkie is done with...whatever that was...I guess you'll be heading out now girls?" Sunset asked Twilight and Rarity.

"Indeed; I must get to the mall before the traffic of midday hits so I'm not stuck in those lines. Plus I wanted to grab a little treat from the pastry stand as well. Then it's off to the shop with me to work on some new costumes for the amusement park's new stage show featuring Trixie's magic show. It's so nice that she managed to get that position; now if only the poor dear wasn't so fickle about how her costume was supposed to look" Rarity said with a sigh and smile. "But then again? It wouldn't be fun if it wasn't a challenge so I digress. Come Twilight; we must not have you tardy for work"

"Right; I'll see you tomorrow Sunset. Same to you Fluttershy." Twilight said as she got her things together and headed out of the door with Rarity.

"Ta-Ta darlings; I hope your evenings are eventful." Rarity said now leaving the room with Twilight leaving Sunset alone with Fluttershy.

"Well looks like its just you and me Shy. Got any plans tonight? I have the day off work today since I've been working double shifts all week so I was gonna hang out at home and maybe see if I could come up with a new episode to put out for Shimmer Code." Sunset said as she was gathering her things together.

"Oh um no I don't have anything to do tonight. My brother is going to have his friends over tonight, my mom and dad went on a nature hike for the weekend and I have the day off work too. So um I guess we can hang out if you'd like." Fluttershy said in a meek manner.

"Really? Treehugger or Wallflower aren't free?" Sunset asked surprised that Fluttershy didn't seem to have any other friends to hang out with besides her at the moment. Not that Sunset would mind hanging with Fluttershy but she really did want to go home and play video games and work on her channel but at the same time she didn't want to leave her friend alone.

Fluttershy shook her head. "No. Wallflower said something about going out to the forest to study some new flora with a friend and Treehugger went to Manehatten for the weekend to visit family. If anything I'll just go home and spend time in the garden with my animals until my brothers friends leave. The house always smells funny when they come over and the animals don't like it very much." Flutter-sigh. 

Sunset didn't like it when she would Flutter-sigh. It often meant that the meek girl was unhappy but too meek and shy to say anything about it and it would seem she didn't really know how else to spend her time since her brother was too much of a stoner and a douche to give his sister any peace on the weekends. That's when she got an idea and smiled patting her friend on the back.

"Say no need to frown Flutters; tell ya what you can come hang out with me!" Sunset said with her newly trademarked 'magic of friendship' smile as Pinkie Pie had come to calling it.

"R-Really? You don't mind? I thought you had you games to do" Fluttershy said not wanting to be a bother or a burden to her friend and her new channel's success.

Sunset scoffed blowing a small raspberry dispelling the girls concerns with the wave of a hand. "Pffft what? Of course I don't mind Shy! You're my friend just like the other girls and we can hang out even when they aren't all with us. We can even make it a sleepover and you can join me on my stream! It'll be fun; whatdya say?" 

Sunset asked almost pleading; she really did want to spend more time with Fluttershy as she was the member of the group she spent the least time with alone and she wanted to remedy that especially considering how awful she used to be to the shy girl.

Poking the tips of her fingers together in an adorable manner Fluttershy's cheeks burned a little. "Oh um well ok i-if you insist. Sure; I would love to um but what kind of games do you have? I'm not very good at a lot of them if they involve shooting or driving or fighting." Fluttershy admitted, its not like she didn't play video games. 

She did but they were mostly mobile games or simple games that were often seen as childish. The only real games she had any experience with were a kart racing game and a battle royale fighting game she used to play with Rainbow Dash they were little in the 3rd and 4th grade.

"Hm well thats no problem. I'm sure we can find something we can both enjoy at the game shop at the mall, I wanted to grab a couple of games to get for my stream. I may have the day off today but its still payday!" Sunset said with a giddy smile slugging her backpack over her shoulder and motioning Fluttershy to join her.

"Oh okay coming" Fluttershy said grabbing her bag as well and following Sunset leaving the music room and turning off the lights before doing so. As the two left they also locked the door and would head to the front entrance of the school but before they could exit Sunset was called out too.

"Have a good day Ms.Shimmer. And I do hope you are ready for quite the humbling when our online paths cross." VP Luna said with a cock smile standing in the doorway of her office looking more cool and collected than anyone normally saw her.

Sunset gave a cocky smirk of her own and cocked her hips to the side with on hand on her right hip. "That right? Guess we will see. Just don't give me detention when I school you!" Sunset snapped her fingers in a sassy manner and in the distance Snips and Snails shouted out.

"Oooooooooooooooooh!"  

Luna chuckled and turned back to her office and said. "I will show you fear child. Mark my words." She said nothing further and the door to her office closed and Sunset and Fluttershy felt a chill run down their spines which was instantly warmed when a second voice interjected.

"I have to say Sunset you must be quite talented at those games if my sister is SO determined to challenge you the way she did" Celestia said as she was just leaving her own office with a stack of papers in hand.

"Heh what can I say? I guess I just attracted the talented with something to prove. I'll be sure not to embarrass her to bad" Sunset said with a cheeky smile to the principal and noticed all the papers she had with her. "Need some help with that?"

"Hm? Oh no no its quite alright Sunset dear, just old documents that need sorting and report cards that need to be delivered personally." Celestia said with a small sigh. "That is going to be eventful. The last thing I want is for my students to resent me but it is clear some of them are avoiding their studies and slacking with no repercussions from their parents due to the, fabricating their report cards or just outright getting rid of them."

Sunset sucked in the air between her teeth and knew that was gonna be tough on Celestia. "Ouch. Yeah I can tell that won't be easy but it has to be done....Um not to pry but uh is Rainbow's among them?" Sunset was too curious for her own good sometimes and she knew that but she wanted to know.

"Well between you and me? Yes however I am personally delivering hers to show her parents just how well she has improved since taking on tutoring from you and Twilight. She may be our top athlete however she needs to main her grades if she wants to make it to college and while as a principal I would prefer straight A's from her? Straight B's works too" Celestia said with a proud smile.

Sunset's smile turned proud as well as she could hear with her own ears that her tutoring of Rainbow had paid off and thank goodness because Rainbow was VERY difficult to teach. "Oh thank the Sun for that." Sunset said with a chuckle

Celestia giggled in tandem. "I see you've learned to stop praise me like a Goddess."

Sunset blushed and rolled her eyes. "You say glory to Celestia's Sun ONCE and you never get to live it down." 

Celestia smiled and walked past the two of them. "I'm afraid not dear. Oh Fluttershy dear I'll be coming by the pet shop tomorrow to come check on Philamina and her eggs. I do hope the little ones hatch soon." Celestia said with a hopeful smile.

Fluttershy smiled in response. "Oh my yes! They're growing so healthy and she's taking such good care of them. Why I wouldn't be shocked if they hatched in the next few days. I'll be sure to call you if they do" Fluttershy said happily to the principal whom she was delighted to know was not just into gardening but animals as well which warmed her heart.

"Thank you dear. You two have a wonderful rest of your day. I'll be rooting for you Sunset. I've $100 riding on your victory over my sister" Celestia said with a wolfish smile.

Sunset blushed and a bead of sweat dropped down her face. "Um oh wow. No pressure or anything."

"Call it a external motivator. Good day girls." Celestia departed to the nearby teachers lounge.

Sunset took a small breath and shook her head. "Well I guess that's something else they have in common."

Fluttershy walked up behind Sunset. "What do you mean?"

"Principal and Princess Celestia. In Equestria Celestia also has a pet bird of but its a phoenix named Philomina. She was such a beautiful and majestic bird." Sunset giggled remembering that time when it was losing its feathers and it was trolling her into thinking it was sick.  "Y'know when it wasn't being a total troll and a prankster"

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. "You got pranked by a bird?"

"A very smart and magical bird!" Sunset pointed out with a raised finger.

"But still...a bird" Fluttershy giggled thinking about Sunset getting outsmarted and outwitted by a bird.

"Oh yeah laugh it up; I'm telling you that damn bird was clever as I don't know what! Plus? I was just as kid back then!" Sunset stated with a small pout as they two left the school and Sunset made her way to Fluttershy's car. Out of all of the girls who could drive Fluttershy, Sunset and Rarity were the only ones with a license and Fluttershy and Rarity were the only ones with cars period both of which belong to their parents.

"Awww I bet you were so cute as a little filly" Fluttershy said with a smile imaging what Sunset looked like as a filly.

Sunset blushed as she got in the passenger side of the car and put down her bag and buckled up. "I was not cute!" Sunset pouted sitting in her seat and she muttered under her breath. "Bitch I was adorable"

"What was that?" Fluttershy asked

"Nothing Shy." Sunset said with a side smirk as she started up the car and began to drive.

"So um what kind of games were you going to get?" Fluttershy asked as she stopped at  red light.

"Not entirely sure. I've been in a kind of action-y kind of moody lately but since we are gonna be hanging together tonight? How about you pick a few games? I'm sure we can find something fun you for to get into. I'll even let you borrow the game if you wanna play it more at home." Sunset said as she watched the other cars go by thinking about what games she did in fact want.

"Oh that sounds nice. Hopefully I can pick out something fun."

Fluttershy saw the light turn green and she accelerated forward and kept a steady pace to their destination and it wouldn't take them long to cross from in the suburban area their school resided in and entered the more busy streets of Canterlot City. Since many students got off early today many of them were occupying the shops and various hang out spots earlier than usual although they still made it to the mall all the same in the usual 15 minutes it would take.

Once she found a spot to park she would make sure she was lined up and then would turn off the car, step out and Sunset would step out along with her. Once they were both out they closed the doors to the car and Fluttershy locked it and once she heard the beeping of the car to indicate it was locked the two of them would head inside. The mall was bustling with people but it wasn't overly crowded and lucky for them the game shop was on the first floor and close to the front entrance since it was one of the most popular stores in the mall.

Heading into the store they saw all sorts of banners and posters for new games coming out, the shelves were neatly organized with a clerk or two tending to any racks that were not. The store had an abundance of gaming merchandise ranging from key-chains, T-Shirts & Pop-Funko's to Full scale models of comic book characters, prop weapons, retro game systems and so much more. Sunset knew she had much to choose from and she would help Fluttershy find the thing for her. Going over the the section where the used games were she began to take a look and tried to find anything that would be good for her shy friend.

"Hm okay lets see here....how about...this one?" Sunset said plucking a game with a short fuzzy long earred cat like creature with a very big gun and a small white robot with green eyes next to him on the cover and it read 'Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction'

"This looks pretty fun; and look? The main character is a cool looking cat...thing...with a robot sidekick!" Sunset said thinking that this game would actually be pretty cool since it looked to have a level of grit and humor that she could probably relate to. Plus the cover looked really good and based on the description of the game she saw on the back? She was very interested in it.

"Hmmmm I guess that would be nice but maybe we could find something with a few less guns?" Fluttershy said not opposed to the game shown to her but she was always wary of playing shooting games ever since she played that one really violent one that her brother left inside the game system at home. That game was really scary. Why did that man in the green suit and helmet have to kill so many things?

"Sure no problem. I still wanna get this one though. Allllright then hows aboooooout....this?" She picked up another game, this time the cover showed a blue creature with red and white sneakers but his image was split in half. One half looked normal and the other looked more beast like. Sunset had always heard Rainbow Dash talk about how good this game was even though it could have been better but Sunset wanted to judge for herself. The title of the game being 'Sonic Unleashed.'

"This game doesn't have any guns. You just explore and get to run around super fast during the day as this cute blue hedgehog...but then at night he turns into a vicious werehog!" Sunset said with a excited grin. Now this game sounded really exciting to her, the concept just sounded so damn cool!

"Hmmm sure I could get behind that. Um I guess one more and I will be okay...Oh um what about that one?" Fluttershy pointed to a game that was tucked in the 'S' section not far from where she selected the sonic game.

"Hm? Lets see what we got here" Sunset said picking the game up and looked at the title that said 'Sly Collection'. Looking at the game cover she saw a couple different characters all of which were anthropomorphic animals. At the center was a tall raccoon with a cane, to his right was a green turtle with a helmet and in a wheelchair and on the far left was a chubby but muscular looking pink hippo in a wrestling mask. 

"The Sly Cooper collection huh? A game about a dashing, cunning and charming master thief who steals from other criminals with the help of his two best friends Bentley and Murray. Huh and it's all three games for...WHOA!? $10.00?! That's crazy good! I'm sold! We can get these and I'm gonna make a couple pre-orders and we can go." Sunset said taking the games they selected to the counter.

As the clerk looked at the cases he went to the drawer behind him to grab the actual games and placed them into the correct individual cases. Once they were properly packaged he would ring them up, Sonic costing $15, Ratchet and Clank Costing $10 and The Sly Collection costing $10.

"Do you have a rewards card?" The young man asked

"Eeeyup" Sunset said taking her rewards card out from her wallet and swiping it and the price dropped by $5 and she fist pumped. 

"That'll be $30 and would you like an insurance on the games in case of damage?"

"Hmmm nah I'm good. I usually take good care of my games." Sunset said turning down the offer.

"Alright oh and hey? Awesome stream by the way. I tuned in for that first episode and it was hilarious." 

Sunset blushed and chuckled. "Oh my thanks! Glad to see I have fans so close to home, I'm actually gonna be streaming tonight with my friend here. Be sure to tune in if you can." Sunset said with a smile.

"Oh totally! Have a nice day" The young game clerk said cheerfully.

"You too! Bye!" Sunset said as she grabbed the games and walked out of the store along with Fluttershy but then remembered something.

"Ah crap I almost forgot! I wanna pre-order Devil May Cry V" Sunset said coming back to the counter with Fluttershy right behind her.

"Why would you want to make the devil cry? What did do?" Fluttershy asked genuinely curious.

Sunset resisted every urge she had not to laugh but a few giggles escaped. "N-No shy; that's not what the game is about. Devil May Cry is the name of the main characters demon hunting business." Sunset explained.

Fluttershy's cheeks burned red. "Oh."

"It's okay easy mistaken."

"Right so a pre-order on DMC 5; in full and what system?" The clerk asked.

"Yes in full and for PS4" Sunset said.

"And extra $10 and you can get the deluxe edition. Comes with new devil breakers, the mega-buster and new costumes." The clerk said trying to persuade Sunset into spending more and from the look on her face it would seem he succeeded.

"Ooooh tempting and I am going to give into it. You got a deal." Sunset said with a smile paying for the game's Deluxe edition in full. Once the transaction was completed she was given a receipt. "Sweet I'll be here next week to pick it up; see ya. C'mon Shy."

"Coming" Fluttershy said following behind Sunset out of the store and the mall as a whole. Once they were out they returned to the car loading in their games to the backseat and then they got in and Fluttershy stated up and drove off out of the mall parking lot. It didn't take very long to reach Sunset's apartment from there and once Fluttershy found parking? She locked the car and that's when Fluttershy realized.

"Oh no! I forgot I don't have any pajama's or anything with me" Fluttershy said with a sad expression.

"No worries Shy; I have spare towels and pajama's for you to use and wear. Plus I can just run to the store real quick and grab you any bathroom stuff you need no problem. You're my guest so don't you worry about a thing." Sunset said as she walked up to her door and unlocked it opening the door to her apartment and she was happy to finally be home.

"Ah home sweet home at last." Sunset said putting down her backpack and putting the games on her couch as she went over to her mini fridge to grab a soda for herself and a iced tea for Fluttershy. With the drinks in hand and seeing her friend seated on her couch she smiled sitting down next to her and handed her the cold beverage.

"So I guess you've never been that into gaming huh?" Sunset asked her friend

Fluttershy shrugged. "Not really; I mean I play them and I like them but I'm not exactly 'a gamer' like you or Rainbow."

Sunset smiled and tickled the side of her friend a little. "Hehe its alright to be a casual Shy; not every gamer has to be hardcore and aggressive and have a drive to win all the time"

The meek girl giggled at the tickling contact and then was surprised by her friends words. "R-Really?"

"Totally! I mean yeah being good at multiplayer is great and all but there are times when I like to just kick back and play a solo game and enjoy a good story"

"Yeah I have a couple of games like that at home. The only ones I ever really play back home are Spyro the dragon, Crash Bandicoot & sometimes Donkey Kong though I can never play that one or even play as Donkey in any game Rainbow plays...well I mean I could but Rainbow gets...upset." Fluttershy said trying to put it delicately how upset that video game Gorilla made her.

Sunset snickered and raised an eyebrow. "Why's that? She got something against monkey's?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "No its just that whenever we used to play this one racing game when we were little? Donkey Kong would ALWAYS mess with Rainbow. Never me. All the animal characters always left me alone for some odd reason." Fluttershy said this and her tone made it clear she was not lying or pulling sunset's leg.

"Wow. Guess some characters just hate certain people and for Rainbow? That character is a red tie wearing Gorilla." Sunset chuckled and thought of all the ways she could use that to tease Rainbow Dash but that would be for another time. Right now Fluttershy would be her main focus and she wanted to do her best to make her feel comfortable.

"Anyway whatdya say we start the game? Did you wanna do a livestream now or wait till later?" 

"Um could we wait? I'm not sure I'm ready to play in front of other people." 

"Hm alright then how about I just record us playing? I know how to edit so when I put it up on my channel it'll look really good trust me." Sunset said to her friend turning the camera setting from stream to record.

"Oh um o-ok sure" Fluttershy said not entirely sure she was ready but she would try for her friend. Walking up to the game console she would insert the game and Sunset would turn on her TV smiling as the crisp picture came up. She would then switch it from HDMI 1 to HDMI 2 since the game in question was for PS3 not PS4. She would also put on her headset and also hand one to Fluttershy so they could record their audio.

"Man I love 4K picture and audio. Worth every penny" True she had to 'ask a favor' and get bits from Equestria that she exchanged in the real world for cash to get this expensive TV but she had resolved to only call in favors like that in the future for more important matters.

As the game fully loaded up Sunset started it up and when it was on the title screen she pressed the recording button and Fluttershy sat next to her just in time to get in frame. Smiling at the camera she would adopt her more gamer like persona and put on a charming smile and waved at the camera.

"Hey there everyone and welcome back to another episode of Shimmer-Code! I'm you lovely flame headed host Sunset Shimmer and today with me I have another one of my friends. So let me ask you all something? What does sugar, spice and everything nice make? The answer? The perfect little girl and while she may not be little? She is certainly a perfect girl in the eyes of many so allow me to introduce you all to my friend Fluttershy! Say Hi Shy"

Fluttershy blushed and waved at the camera "Hi"

Sunset smiled and nudged the shy girl with an elbow. "D'awww isn't she cute everyone? A precious little butterfly this one is and today? She's going to truly earn her wings! Ya'see tonight? Poor Shy was all alone with no one to hang out with and me being her friend? Couldn't have that! So I invited her over for a sleepover and to be the second guest on my channel! So tonight we are gonna be playing a bunch of things. This first gameplay is gonna be pre-recorded since Fluttershy is well...you get the idea"

Fluttershy blushed and muttered "Sorry"

"It's alright Shy no harm done; anyway lets get to the game! This is one that Shy personally picked at the store today. I've never played it before or even heard about it till now but it looks like a fun one so lets see what Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus has in store for us!" Sunset pressed start on the select screen that had the title for the first game on it and would wait for the game to begin.

"Time to break the law...yay" Fluttershy said in a cute and ignorant manner as to what they game was truly about but trying to still have fun.

Sunset rolled her eyes and giggled at how adorably noob her shy friend was. "Hehhe Shy? Never stop being cute ok?"

Fluttershy blushed and smiled a sheepish smile that somehow up'ed her adorable level. "Um o-ok if you say so"

'Oh I am gonna have to try so hard not to catch diabeetus from her tonight.'  Sunset thought as the opening scene of the game began.

To Be Continued!
> Shimmer & Shy Play: Sly Cooper & The Thievius Raccoonus(Part 2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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