Before the Friendship Games: Twilight Sparkle

Twilight's dinner with her family went swimmingly as she excitedly told them all about her new friendship with Lemon Zest. Her parents hadn't seen her smile like that for so long in quite a while! After dinner, she helped her family clean up.

Now that Twilight had finished cleaning, she went upstairs to her room to play a video game. She didn't often do this, but today was special. She logged in.

Twi_Sparkly73 has logged on.

Team 1
Dashin8r
SunShimPwny
FarmGurlAJ
Fashionista_4_life
Flutterbutter
P0nk4_P0

vs.

Team 2
Zest_iz_Best
Gr8npwrfl
Sweets_CMC
Scoots_CMC
Bloom_CMC
Twi_Sparkly73

Twilight quirked an eyebrow upon noticing that three of her teammates had similar names. She let a smile come on her face. They must be part of a team, she thought excitedly. I think there's a good chance for victory! Unfortunately, this match didn't have headsets enabled. Twilight frowned. Okay, so teamwork might be a little challenging then. She rubbed her hands together in anticipation. Doesn't mean there's no chance of winning! As she waited for the match to begin, she got a good look at the opposing team and herself.

Dashin8r's armor was a light cyan with rainbow stripes. Her selected idle animation suggested confidence, maybe even cockiness.

SunShimPwny's armor was red and yellow, and her helmet had a horn accessory adorned. Her idle animation was cool, calm and relaxed. Twilight made a mental note to keep an eye on that one.

FarmGurlAJ's armor was orange and yellow, with a few tiny white dots on each cheek of her helmet. He stance, too, was relaxed.

Besides being white and purple, Fashionista_4_life's armor had diamonds glittering all over her character skin! It was almost too bright and shiny to take seriously. Her stance was...was she posing? Twilight decided to ignore that and moved on to the next player.

Flutterbutter's armor was light yellow with pink accents. Her animation suggested timidity, but Twilight dismissed that as a head game.

P0nk4_P0's armor was pink all around, and she couldn't stop skipping. Wait, that was an animation now? Twilight must've missed an update or something.

Twilight's armor was purple and rose, just like her hair, with little white specks all over it to look like the night sky. Her animation was simply her cupping her chin in thought.

The match began, and Twilight went up to Scoots, Sweets, and Bloom. Zest immediately charged in full tilt, and Gr8npwrful simply hid, waiting for the right moment to strike. "Ho boy," Twilight said as she put a hand to her forehead. "This is going to be a lot more challenging than I thought."

Twilight stifled a laugh as she saw Fashionista walk onto the playing field. Her opponent made a pose, which was confusing. Did she want to-oh crap, she was just a distraction, wasn't she? Twilight turned around to see SunShim, aiming at her point blank. She died immediately.

Upon seeing this unfold, the CMCs scattered in different directions. Sweets was suddenly blocked by Fashionista, Bloom soon found herself cornered by FarmGurlAJ, and Scoots nearly ran into Dashin8r. The three died almost instantly.

Twilight respawned right next to Zest, who looked at her, then ran off, firing willy-nilly. Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed as she hid in a barrel. She heard a rifle cock behind her, and despite her better judgement she looked up to see Ponk4. She was again shot point blank.

Twilight sighed heavily as she respawned next to Great. "This is getting us nowhe-" she was cut off as Great was sniped by Flutter. "Oh crap." Twilight ran off, then into a respawning Zest. The two were almost immediately dispatched. The CMCs were grouped up together, keeping an eye on all of their surroundings.

Twilight's eyes widened as she looked at the timer. It had been only three minutes?! She took a quick drink of water from a glass she had nearby, then wiped her mouth off. Who were these people? She wasn't a pro gamer by any standard, but never had she ever been so overwhelmed in such a short amount of time!

Twilight shook her head back and forth rapidly. This was no time for self-doubt! There were still twelve minutes left in the match. Perhaps they could all pull it together and she was killed again. She grunted in frustration, then decided to get serious. She kept her eyes peeled and ears open intently. She heard something snap behind her, and she turned and fired. Her jaw dropped as she saw Great fall to the ground. Twilight yelped, then apologized for the friendly fire despite the fact that she couldn't be heard.

Several moments later, Great respawned, then sought out Twilight. Once she found her, Great used the fist-shaking taunt. "I said I was sorry, what more could you want from me," Twilight muttered under her breath as she rolled her eyes. Clearly frustration was starting to get the better of her. She didn't like being angry, so she resolved to keep her cool throughout the rest of the match as best she could.

There was just one minute left in the match, and Twilight was infuriated. Fourteen minutes had passed. Fourteen fucking minutes and not a single kill from her team. The score was so lopsided she could hardly bring herself to look at the screen! She disabled the scoreboard in order to concentrate better.

Twilight took a deep breath, then exhaled. Surely her team could at least score one kill. Right? Right?! Twilight took another deep breath, then exhaled again. It's just a game, Twilight Sparkle, she thought to herself. It's just a game. She shouldn't give up hope. Even if there was a chance that-

GAME OVER - RAINBOOMS WIN

Suddenly, it hit Twilight. She just wasted the last two minutes of the match deep in her thoughts. She felt anger and frustration well up inside her, and she slowly walked to her bed. She laid down with her head on her pillow, and screamed like a banshee until she began to cough. She got up, then drank some more water.

"Well, that just happened," Twilight muttered. She checked the time and sighed. Just enough for a shower. Her eyes widened momentarily. Ooh, a shower! She smiled. I still have some stress left over... She ran into the bathroom without another moment's hesitation.