"So what do you girls have planned for spring break?" Sunset asked as she sipped some more of her soda as she sat around her friends at their usual table at the sweet shoppe.
"My parents secured us a lovely vacation in Las Vegas this year! Sweetie Belle is of course quite excited to be allowed to finally go on a big vacation with us." Rarity exclaimed with an elegant smile.
"I'm goin' to visit family in Cloudsdale and I'm going to a pro soccer game with my dad! He got us front row seats to the Strikers game!" Rainbow said practically vibrating in her seat with excitement.
"I'm going on a nature retreat with Tree hugger and Wallflower Blush, apperently there is a very rare animal in the Everfree forest they wanted my help finding." Fluttershy said as she nibbled on a piece of a cupcake she had ordered.
"It's harvest season for me, Spring time is fruit time and that means I've got a heck of a lot a apple pickin' to do but on the bright side? The Zap apples are comin' in a few days!" Applejack said with gleeful excitement as she finished off the apple cider she had ordered.
"Well my parents, shinning and Cadence are going on vacation but asked me to stay behind and babysit Flurry Heart which I am more than happy to do! Oh she's gotten so big" Twilight said with starry eyes and a happy smile to be spending time with her niece for a whole week, she then looked to Sunset curiously. "What about you Sunset? Any plans?"
Sunset Shimmer would ponder that question, she often spend her spring break time cleaning her apartment, gaming and if she had time, she'd make a hop over to Equestria to partake in the annual spring friendship festival held in Ponyville but that was her normal thing to do after they'd graduated from Highschool a few years ago. She figured she would do the same thing this year though she did yearn to spend a little more time with her friends like she used to back when they were in Highschool oddly enough.
There hadn't really been any magic crisis to deal with in the past few years which was good all things considered but it did leave the naturally energetic and proactive Sunset Shimmer feeling rather bored and in a rut, she needed some more excitement in her life but wasn't quite sure how to get it. After pondering for longer than she would've liked, she gave a nonchalant shrug.
"Eh, not much, the usual I guess. If anything I'll just hang out with one of you girls or maybe hop over to Equestria for a few days." Sunset said with total honesty.
"Oh, oh, how about we hang out?" Pinkie asked with joy in her eyes as she skated over to the table wearing her work uniform and carrying a metal tray stacked with milkshakes and ice-cream.
"Hey Pinkie, your shift almost done?" Sunset asked
"Yupperoni! Just gotta make one last table run and clean up!" Pinkie replied dashing off on her skates to do just that, giving the ice cream and shakes to those who had ordered them in spectacular fashion. Soon after she would skate around and clean up any dirty tables she had served quickly and effectively and once she was done she wiped the sweat from her brow and smiled widely. "All done! Clock out time!" Pinkie raced over to her time clock and punched out and then made her way over to her friends table to join them.
"So you wanna be my hang out buddy for spring break huh Pinks?" Sunset asked with a cheerful grin as she playfully nudged her party loving friend. "It'll be a real party of two"
"Totally! It'll be seven days of Sun-Pie!" Pinkie said with a big smile and giggle not noticing the roll of Sunset's eyes only focusing on her smile.
"Hehe you are still so goofy for calling us that." Sunset said with a giggle in her voice.
"Goofy is my middle name after all!" Pinkie smiled and took a sip of a pink milkshake she pulled from...somewhere.
"I thought your middle name was Diane?" Sunset said with a smug grin.
"Yeah, everyone knows your Pinkie D. Pie" Rainbow said with a smirk as she sipped her soda.
"Eater of the fun-fun fruit and one day? I'll be queen of the parties!" Pinkie said as she put a straw hat on her head and struck a heroic pose in her seat.
"You watch WAY to much anime" Sunset giggled and motioned Pinkie to sit back down.
"guilty as charged." Pinkie giggled in response and her friends followed suit.
"Well darlings, this was fun as always but I must be going; need to finish packing and pick up Sweetie Belle so she is ready to go for the trip. Ta-Ta" Rarity said as she stood to leave, waving kindly to her friends and looked to Applejack to whom she extended her hand. "Coming darling?"
"Ah reckon I should mosey along too, gotta get back to the farm and make sure everything is set up for the harvest, plus gotta get dinner started, I'll drive sugarcube." Applejack said tipping her hat to her friends as she got up to leave, taking Rarity by the hand as they walked out together; Rarity blushing as she stood close to Applejack.
"Yeah, I gotta bounce too; wanna hit the gym for a bit before I turn in for the day." Rainbow said giving a two finger salute to her friends as she got up and dashed off using her powers, Sunset would've told her off but by this point? They'd gained enough mastery of their powers to use them in normal day life without overdoing it.
"Oh, that reminds me I need to pick up Spike from your place Fluttershy, thanks for watching him this week by the way." Twilight said to Fluttershy kindly.
"Oh it was no worry at all, he's a sweetheart as always. Hehe I think he might also have a crush on one of the stray puppies we took in lately, little smolder seems to like him a lot too." Fluttershy said with a euphoric giggle as she remembered the two pups getting along.
"Awww my little Spike is growing up, let's go then, see you Sunset, Pinkie; if you wanna come and see me and Flurry with the Twins I'm sure she'd love to see you all."
"Oh that sounds super duper Twi! I'll ask Mr. and Mrs. Cake if we can schedule a playdate!" Pinkie responded gleefully.
With that the rest of the friends would take their leave, now only leaving Sunset and Pinkie Pie alone at the table. Sunset would smile at her party loving friend and brought an arm around her and brought them close together.
"Welp, guess that just leaves you and me then."
"So what're we gonna do tonight Sunset?"
"Same thing we do every night Pinkie."
"Try and take over the world?!"
"Hehe no, no. Have fun!" Sunset said with a chuckle as she pinched Pinkie's nose and giggled more when it honked like she had a clown nose. "Oh now you're just doing that on purpose!"
"It made ya laugh though didn't it?" Pinkie replied with a smile and stuck out her tongue at her friend making a silly face at her.
"Ohoho you think you're sooooo funny don't ya?" Sunset said pinching and wiggling her nose some more.
"Hehehe I think I'm hilarious! Element of laughter remember?" Pinkie said with a big smile that just didn't seem to waver.
"Heh yeah, how could I ever forget? After all you were the first one out of everyone to really give me a chance back when I was still a big meanie." Sunset said with melancholy having released Pinkie's nose, remembering the past didn't bring her pain anymore though she did still harbor some small bit of guilt for how she used to be back then.
"Hey, everyone needs a friend to make them happy! You didn't have any back then and so I wanted to be! Sure you told me to buzz off like, a lot; but remember what finally got you to open up?" Pinkie said with a smile as she remembered their interactions back them, her hand atop Sunset's.
"We shared a milkshake. I was surprised you knew what my favorite was and as it turned out? We shared a favorite flavor. Strawberry" Sunset said as she remembered too, a chuckle escaping her lips as the memory came flooding back as she activated her magic when Pinkie touched her hand.
The Sweet Shoppe: 4 Years ago~
"ooooorder up! Here ya go Sunny!" Pinkie said with a smile as she skated up to the scowling former Queen B.
"I told you to stop calling me that but thanks. Now go away." Sunset said sourly, taking her milkshake, paying for it and shooing Pinkie off as she slurped from her plastic cup.
"Okie dokie loki!" Pinkie replied still smiling, taking the payment and skating off, not the least bit bothered by Sunset's attitude.
Sunset sighed and huffed, she didn't understand why she kept coming here, she didn't have any friends, she had no power, no influence; nothing. She had to pay for her own milkshakes now and that meant she couldn't order the usual large size strawberry blast she often got. This delicious drink was one of the few comforts she found in this world upon coming here and when she was the queen of the school, this shoppe was a frequent hangout spot of hers and anyone who was anyone would try and get a seat with her and more curry her favor by buying her a milkshake.
However now? Now no one wanted to be anywhere near her, much less buy her anything. With a deep frown and huff, Sunset suppressed a sniffle as she looked around to see others talking and laughing with their friends, she envied them but was too prideful to admit it. Suddenly though something broke her out of her brooding when a tray landed on the table in front of her. Looking up at it, she saw two large milkshakes and the one presenting them was Pinkie Pie who was now out of her work uniform and in her more casual clothes.
"Hiya!"
"Didn't I tell you to go away?"
"Yep!"
"So, why are you still here?"
"Hehehe I work here silly filly!" Pinkie replied with a giggle as she sat down and took one of the shakes and began to drink from the silly straw inside of it.
"Yeah well, you can sit somewhere else you know"
Pinkie simply ignored her and continued slurping her milkshake. Sunset huffed and looked at the other shake sitting on the tray and back at the one she had been drinking which by this point had melted and ceased to taste good. Looking at the second one Pinkie brought, she didn't notice anyone else coming and so she would reach her hand for it and took it.
"Thanks...I guess."
Pinkie didn't respond and just kept slurping her shake.
"So...what, is this supposed to make us friends or something?" Sunset asked as she took a sip
Pinkie would keep slurping her shake but nodded.
"How? I don't know the first thing about friendship and no one likes me or wants to be my friend after what I did."
Pinkie kept slurping her shake but shook her head as if to disagree with that claim, pointing to herself and then holding up 4 fingers.
"Okay but that's YOU girls, you're all...weirdly friendly. I still don't understand how you could wanna be my friends after everything I put you all through."
Pinkie Pie would finish slurping her shake and exhaled a small sigh of satisfaction and looked at Sunset. "Well, we promised princess Twilight we would help you but more than that? I can tell you just wanna be happy and no one who wants to be happy can be all that bad!"
"But..."
"Sure...you were a meanie, you did lots of bad things and hurt our feelings really, really bad. But you said you were sorry, you haven't tried to do anything bad since then and we all forgive you because we want to, not because the princess told us to." Pinkie said with a odd sense of seriousness that was rare for the goofy pink girl.
"I...I don't understand. I made you so miserable, I made it my mission to hurt all of you as much as I could but you want me to be happy?" Sunset asked Pinkie, befuddled.
"Of course I do silly! Sure I was sad back then but that was then! Not now, I'm happy now and I want you to be happy too! That way you'll wanna make people happy rather than sad from now on. Isn't that what you REALLY want?" Pinkie asked curiously, her innocent blue eyes staring at Sunset intently.
Sunset would think about it as she continued to sip her milkshake. What DID she want? At one point she had thought it was power but she had gotten that and instantly regretted it. So what could she say she wanted now? As she looked at Pinkie Pie, then to the other groups of friendly folk chatting and having a good time, it clicked. She just wanted to be happy, to have friends.
"Yeah, I guess...but do I deserve it? To be happy I mean?"
"I think everyone has a right to be happy as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. I can tell you don't wanna be a big stick in the mud meanie beanie anymore, right?"
Sunset shook her head and Pinkie giggled and pat her on the back and extended her pinky finger.
"Then how about this, lets make a Pinkie Promise, if you promise you try and be happy and make friends? I promise to always be by your side to make you happy!" Pinkie said gleefully.
Sunset stopped slurping her shake and looked at Pinkie's extended tiny finger and raised her own hand to look at her own. She had heard of pinky promises before but she felt like this was particularly special to Pinkie herself and she had heard that she NEVER broke them. Deciding to take a leap of faith, sunset would lock her finger with that of her pink friend.
"Yay! Now repeat after me! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye! I Pinkie Promise!"
Pinkie and Sunset would shake their hands with their pinky fingers connected and would recite the chant that went with the promise , using their free hands to cross their hearts and placing a palm over one eye. Once the promise was sealed, Pinkie smiled at her new friend, taking the silly straw out of her milkshake and placing it in Sunset's so they could share.
"Cheers! Betcha I can finish first!" Pinkie began slurping quickly
"H-Hey, no fair!" Sunset replied quickly beginning to slurp her straw as well, though not soon after the two would be seen clutching their heads and pounding the table laughing and groaning through a killer bout of brain freeze.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow! Make it stop, oh sweet Celestia make it stop!" Sunset groaned but for some reason was smiling and laughing despite the pain in her forehead.
"B-B-Brain freeeheheheheheheze!!!!" Pinkie giggled and groaned as she clutched her head, her face having turned blue from the brain freeze.
After they'd gotten their brain freeze to thaw, the two shared a good laugh and Pinkie would order them a large strawberry sundae to share. One thing that always made fast friends was sharing ice cream!
As the memory faded, Sunset and Pinkie were brought back to reality with only seconds having passed them by. Pinkie giggled happily and Sunset did as well, she adored that memory and ever since then she had come here to share a frozen treat of some kind with the pink party animal.
"And you kept your promise!" Pinkie smiled and hugged her friend to reassure her.
"What can I say? I've had good friends to keep me on the right track. Now I do believe we have some fun to partake in; so whatdya say we head to the mall? I feel like hitting up Fun Zone" Sunset knew that Pinkie would be overjoyed to hear this as Fun Zone was her FAVORITE hangout spot.
As expected, the party animal lit up like a Christmas tree, her smile threatening to split her mouth in two as she hugged Sunset and giggled gleefully.
"Oh yay! I was thinking the same thing! I hear they have a new trampoline dodgeball court!" Pinkie said with a devious smile.
"Oh game on, lets go." Sunset would get up from their booth with Pinkie tagging along, both of them smiling ear to ear as they got ready to go and paint the town pink and red.
When it came to having a fun time or finding fun things to do, no one did it better than Pinkie Pie on a weekend, with no school and time off from her job at the Sweet Shoppe, she would have the entire length of spring break to make fun and silly memories with Sunset Shimmer and she didn't plan on wasting a single second! Ideas bounced around and danced in her head about what they should do but then Sunset mentioned Fun Zone and Pinkie since that moment couldn't stop smiling. As the name would suggest, Fun Zone was the central hub of all things fun in Canterlot City; food and games galore was what the place was all about and Pinkie LOVED hanging out there and of course, Sunset Shimmer & Pinkie Pie would arrive in style.
Rolling up into the parking lot with the roaring rev of her motorcycle engine, Sunset pulled into a parking space and shut off her bike and removed her helmet. Pinkie Pie would release her midsection and would take off the helmet she had gotten for when they go on rides, shaking out her helmet hair back into its puffy volume.
"Golly we got here super fast! Hehehe you always fly down the road on this thing Sunny!"
"May not be a raging she demon anymore but speed demon is still an title I hold with pride" Sunset giggled as she put her kickstand up and locked her bike up. Taking a look ay her watch she saw it was roughly 7:30 and the sun was beginning to set on the horizon which meant the evening rush at Fun Zone was about to be getting well underway.
"C'mon, let's go, lets go! I wanna get in line for the new attractions!" Pinkie would tug Sunset along by her hand smiling and giggling as Sunset came along.
"Heh you really love this place huh?" Sunset asked as they entered, the loud music and sounds of games blaring in her ear as she crossed the threshold from outside.
"Course I do silly filly; its a place for friends to have fun! Remember when I first brought you here?" Pinkie asked with a smile remembering when Sunset had finally begun opening up to the girls and wanting to willingly hangout with them.
"Heh I'll NEVER forget that, after all I got my love of gaming here." Sunset said as she began to remember back to when she and Pinkie first started hanging out.
"Sunny! You came, you came!" Pinkie exclaimed with a big smile as she hugged Sunset Shimmer.
"Heh hey Pinkie, sorry I'm a little late; you know how detention goes." Sunset said sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head.
"Heheh aw no worries Funny Sunny! I was okay waiting for you!" Pinkie said as she brought Sunset over to the table where the rest of her new friends awaited.
It had been about a month since the Fall formal and Sunset had now officially made herself the 6th member of this little group of friends and while she was still rather nervous and awkward around them, particularly Fluttershy given their history of bully and victim; she had since given a heartfelt apology to ALL of them and they'd all accepted. Today was as Pinkie put it "her welcome to the world of friendship party" and she was nothing but grateful.
"Giiiiirls! Sunset made it!" Pinkie waved to her friends who were all waiting at a table a large pizza having seemingly just arrived.
"Finally, I'm starving." Rainbow replied having grown impatient waiting for Sunset to show up since Rarity and Pinkie wouldn't let her eat until the newbie showed up.
"Rainbow, have some manners. Pardon her darling, she gets cranky when she's hungry and has a pocket full of game credits" Rarity said in her usual posh tone.
"All that fussin' only to get whooped by me and Pinkie later" Applejack grinned at a now glaring Rainbow Dash who was giving her the "oh you are going down" look.
"I'm glad you could make it Sunset, detention wasn't hard today was it?" Fluttershy asked
"Hm? Nah, it wasn't so bad. Finally got through fixing the entrance so that's the biggest workload done, lesson learned; never tamper with magic you aren't meant to have." Sunset said as she sat down, a melancholy look on her face.
"Hey, hey, hey! No frowns! Tonight is a night for you to smile! So c'mon girls; cheers to our new bestie!" Pinkie raised her pink milkshake to the center of the table smiling.
"Yeah c'mon Shims none of that sad crap, tonight's supposed to be a fun night" Rainbow replied with a snarky smirk.
"Ah reckon Dash is right sugarcube, can't have ya frownin' up the fun so looks like we're gonna have ta fix that" Applejack gave a kind tip of the hat.
"We wish only for you to feel accepted and comfortable darling; your happiness is truly important to us and tonight we seek to prove it."
"I agree with the others. We should all have a good time" Fluttershy replied smiling as well.
The rest of the girls would follow suit without a moments hesitation, all except Sunset that is. Her hesitation coming from the pure shock, she still was in disbelief that this was real. That after all the horrid things she'd done to these 4 girls that they would still accept her with open arms and want to be her friends and for a moment her thoughts would drift back to her days in Equestria when she was a filly learning from Celestia.
'One day Sunset, I pray that you too know the joy that comes with sharing your happiness with those you may call friend.'
Remembering those words and seeing the four sets of smiles in front of her, she sniffled and wiped away a stray tear but didn't bother to try and hide the action. She felt comfortable crying in front of these girls, they had all reassured her many times that she could and that they wouldn't judge her. Though these tears weren't sad and regretful like ones shed previously, no these were happy and remorseful tears of joy as a wobbly smile formed on her face.
"T-Thank you girls." Sunset chuckled and choked down her sobs as best she could, raising her glass that was filled with orange soda to the center of the table clinking it against her friends drink glasses and once they all took a drink Pinkie brought them into a group hug and smiled brightly.
"Now it's fun time! Let's eat!" Pinkie would sit next to Sunset and handed her the largest slice of the pizza and then placed a fake crown on her head that read "Princess of Fun" on it.
The group of friends sat together smiling, laughing and eating while they exchanged stories, talked gossip and eventually after their food was done, they all went about to play various games and win many different prizes. Sunset even managed to use her big brain to figure out how some of the more scam like games worked and managed to massively increase their prize output. Needless to say? It was a fun night all around and Sunset and Pinkie had been coming here ever since.
As her memory came back to the present, she found herself sitting in that same spot they'd usually find themselves in when they came to Fun Zone, as regular customers the staff were all pretty friendly with the two of them, especially Pinkie since the place was surprisingly or rather usurpingly owned by her Aunt Surprise. As the two sat with a pizza between the two of them, pinkie was munching on her 2nd slice while Sunset was finishing her first.
"Mmmm this pizza is so good! I gotta find out the recipe." Sunset hummed to herself as she finished off another slice, pizza was one of her favorite things to eat in this world and the way the humans made it was vastly superior to that of pony kind.
"Knowing your big brain you'll figure it out in no time! C'mon and lets start the fun! Betcha I can beat your score in Power Ponies 3! I've been practicing!" Pinkie said with a gleeful grin as she finished off another slice and got up ready to go and challenge Sunset to their favorite fighting game.
"You're on!" Sunset said as she got up as well, leaving a generous tip of $5 before scurrying off with Pinkie towards the game section of the Fun Zone.
As they made their way into the area of the Fun Zone known as Gamer Galaxy, the sounds of various games being played could be heard mixing together, cheers of victory, groans of defeat, all of it was like music to Sunset Shimmer's ears. As they got deeper and deeper into the area they spotted their first target of the evening, the arcade machine for Power Ponies 3 Hyper Edition! There seemed to be a match that was just finishing up and Sunset was quite happy to see who was playing against who, it was a Crystal Prep student vs a Canterlot High student and from the looks of it? It appeared to be a friendly rivals match, friends of both cheering on either side.
"You can do it Sunny! Just remember the combos I taught ya!" A teenager from CHS shouted with a smile, she had purple skin, purple hair that faded off into a baby blue, a bracelet around her right wrist and was wearing a sparkling purple shirt and skirt that matched and a jacket over her shirt.
"I know Izzy, I know!" The girl playing was about the same age as her friend cheering for her, her skin was orange and she had purple hair with a light pink streak. She wore overalls, star pattern knee high socks, a pink shirt and pink sneakers. She seemed to be concentrating hard trying to match her opponent blow for blow and was inches from victory.
On the other side were the Crystal prep students whom in years gone by had changed significantly with Cadence being the new principal and implementing many a new policy that made the lives of the Crystal prep students a lot more livable and invited friendship. They'd even dropped the shadowbolt name entirely and were now known as the Crystal Hearts and Sunset couldn't have been more proud. Looking over the group of friends the one who was playing for her group was similar to Rainbow Dash in that her cocky smile made it clear she knew was she was doing in this game and was merely 'playing with her food' as it were.
She had bright pink hair with a lightning blue streak that was slicked up into a sort of mohawk, she had on jeans that had a lightning bolt symbol on them and a leather jacket over her pink crop top along with a pair of black boots. Her fingers mashing skillfully at the buttons in front of her as she gave a slick side eye to her opponent, she was about to end this.
"C'mon Zip! Finish this so we can go and play DDR!" Her friend who seemed to be recording the match on her phone encouraged her to finish up. She had pink skin and well styled purple hair very similar to Rarity.
"Welp you heard her, ya put up a good fight Sunny but this is where it ends! Gotcha! EX baby!" Zip replied as she activated her level 3 move and the entire screen filled with explosions winning her the match.
"Awww! I was so close this time!" Sunny pouted
"Close but no cigar Sunny! Now pay up!" Zip held out her hand grinning.
"Ooooh I'll get you next time" Sunny reached into her overalls and pulled out the tickets she'd won and handed them to Zip.
"Hehe just a few more and that big unicorn plushie is MINE" Zip would take the tickets and stuffed them into a bag that was looking pretty weighed down and then looked around for any other worthy challengers, leaning on the arcade machine with a cocky grin. "Anyone else want some?"
"I'll take you on" Sunset stepped up smiling as Pinkie followed close by. "Can't have you freshman getting cocky on my turf now can I?"
"Oh my God! You're Sunset Shimmer! Like, THE Sunset Shimmer!" Sunny said with shock and awe like she was meeting her hero. Her eyes filled with stars and her smile as wide as Pinkie Pie's she bounced on her heels and giggled. "I've always wanted to meet you! I read all about you in the school year books!"
Sunset blushed and rubbed the back of her head remembering that she and all of her friends had biographies in the schools year book and by the end of their time at CHS the Rainbooms had earned the title of Best Friend group and often times when they'd meet CHS students from this current era they'd often react something like this and it always made Sunset blush. From behind her, Pinkie Pie popped up and smiled and waved at them all.
"Hiya girls!"
"Oh hey Pinkie! You didn't tell me you'd be here with Sunset tonight"
"So you're the Sunset Shimmer Sunny keepin' blabbin' about eh?" Zip asked as she walked over to join her friends
"Uh huh, that's her alright; I follow her on Whinny, didn't know she'd be here tonight though" the trendy girl with the phone replied as she too came over to join them.
"That's the name don't wear it out. So to whom do I have the pleasure of meeting hm?"
"Names Zip Storm." Zip gave a cocky grin that once again reminded her of Rainbow.
"Pip Petals, follow me back by the way" Pip said with a sly smile and playful wink at Sunset
"I'm Izzy Moonbow! I love your hair by the way!" Izzy replied with a smile as she admired Sunset's hair.
"And I'm Sunny Starscout but my friends just call me Sunny" Sunny said with a sheepish smile as she tugged at her ponytail a bit.
Sunset chuckled at that and smiled. "Heh same here, how's spring break going? I'm glad to see CHS and Crystal Prep still getting along so well."
"Oh our break has been splendid so far, we actually just got here not long ago and have been trying to move on to other games if SOMEONE would just come along already." Pip thinly glared at Zip who scoffed and waved her off.
"I toldja you and the others can go and play that dancing game, I wanna keep on kicking noob ass over here"
"Language Zip" Pip chastied only to have Zip roll her eyes.
"Tell ya what, if Big Sunny here can beat me? I'll step off the game for the rest of the night."
"Challenge accepted." Sunset removed her jacket and handed it to Pinkie Pie who gasped.
"Oh she's SERIOUS!" Pinkie smirked and knew exactly what was about to happen here.
Sunset would step up to the arcade machine and pulled out her game card and swiped it allowing herself to enter the game and select her character. Scrolling through she selected her main, Phoenix. Zip would pick the character that Rainbow Dash often picked which was Zapp, fitting Sunset thought. As the battle began, Sunset would make it clear how wide the skill gap was, capable of pulling off moves Zip didn't even think were possible in this game on an arcade machine.
"Aw what? Didn't know there was a parry system in this game? Tsk, tsk, tsk; rookie" Sunset said with a sly smirk that she only wore when she was being smug.
"Don't underestimate me Sun-Butt" Zip retorted as she tried her hardest to fight back, dodge and copy the parry that Sunset was using.
"Heh man you're more predictable than Dash; too slow, absorbed that and now you're out of counters. Time to teach you a lesson." Sunset grinned and unleashed a flurry of fiery combo attacks that seemed to go on forever and once she was done, she scored a perfect victory having taken no damage at all.
"Winner of round 1! Sunset Shimmer!" Pinkie cheered and held up a score card she pulled from...somewhere.
"Sunny 1, Zip 0; fitting don't ya think?" Sunset chuckled seeing the freshman starting to get upset.
"Rematch!" Zip shouted
"Zip I don't think that's a good-"
"REMATCH!!!"
"Fine, but how's about we make it interesting? Loser has to buy pizza for everyone."
"Deal!"
"Oh dear" Pip sighed and stopped the recording knowing this was going to be embarrassing.
For the next 15 minutes Sunset continued to wipe the floor with Zip in Power Ponies 3, having cycled through every character in the roster and yet Zip hadn't managed to score a single win, she'd managed to at least get a few good hits and combos in but she never once won a single match against Sunset Shimmer, who stood proudly over her defeated would be rival, Pinkie had been keeping score and it was safe to say Sunset was the winner.
"Sunny 20! Zip 0! We have a winner!!!!!!"
"I can't believe this...how...how are you this good in this game!?" Zip was completely besides herself and demanded to know Sunset's secret.
"Pft oh that's easy, I own a copy of the game at home. Emulation is wonderful thing." Sunset said with a nonchalant shrug and pat Zip on the shoulder and ushered her off to her friends. "Now go and have some fun playing something with your friends, we can split the bill on the pizza" Sunset said with a kind smile as Zip dashed off to meet with her friends who all congratulated her on not giving up.
"Our turn now!" Pinkie said as she stepped up and swiped her card and selected her character, Filly Second.
"Game on!" Sunset said as she swiped her card as well and they prepared for battle, each of them smiling as they began their night of fun.
