The game disc could not be read. Please refer to the instruction manual

by vitaltoast

Rating: teen
Tags: Drama, Original Character, Comedy, Equestria Girls, Sunset Shimmer, Profanity, Violence, Dark, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 1775

A sudden loud noise makes Flamera’s demon tail come out, leaving Sunset curious.

A casual gaming session ends in a screeching game crash making Flamera scream. Demon things ensue and curious on why, Sunset begins to ask. As the conversation goes however, the deeper it becomes. Sunset's questions become unintentionally more personal.

one shot of my au that involves a species of demons banished by starswirl and blended into society, retaining most of their magic.

Published 2024-10-30 15:20:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-10-30 15:20:00 UTC

Chapter 1

“I’ve sunk too many hours on zelda randos on the schools computers, my flash drive is filled with a tonof-“

*wii crashes and plays high pitched crash noise*

“MOTHERFUCKER!”
*flamera clings to sunset in fear as her tail flares to life while screaming*

While the noise continues to blare through the house, they both look at each other with blank expressions. Sunset slowly grabs the remote and turns off the tv, still keeping her eyes locked on flameras.

A few seconds pass

Flameras face turns beet red, as she instantly detaches from Sunset.

More silence follows which is interrupted by flamera getting up and unplugging the wii from its power brick. The console is plugged in again but is not turned on. Flamera retreats back to the couch and stares idle at her hands.

Sunsets expression has changed to a moderately amused one. She chuckles a bit and then breaks the ice.

“Am i allowed to ask-“

“NO…”

Sunset begins chuckling even more while flamera looks meekly at her.

“I’m sorry this is just extremely funny coming from you. You were the person that was doing violent vigilante work in Canterlot City with a scary mask and this is how they react to a game crashing?”

“LISTEN my brothers never kept their gamecube disks clean when we were younger so they would always show disk read errors randomly.”

“…”

“…and i was incredibly scared of the alarm sound that happens when you get a new character in melee”

The red head stares at flamera in shock, then bursts out laughing.

“SUNSET I WAS LIKE 5 THEN SHUT UP”

“THEN WHY DID YOU JUST FREAK OUT OVER THIS???!?”

Flamera grumbles loudly as she looks to the side. Sunsets laughing subsides as she glances to flamera who’s almost pouting at this point

“You said you were 5? When did you start playing video games??”

“I dont know like maybe 3 or 4? Back in whinnyapolis our neighbors apparently gave my parents a ps1 for free and it eventually blossomed from there i guess”

“Is that why your so fucked up” sunset says trying not to laugh even more

Within seconds flameras head whips around with the most aggravated face.

“DO YOU THINK I PLAYED RESIDENT EVIL OR SOME SHIT??”

Sunset bursts out laughing again in response. Flamera eventually softens up and begins to chuckle a bit in realization that its a silly thing to get upset about.

Sunset finally stops laughing as she glances to flameras tail with is being slightly obscured by her own body but is in grabbing range for her. She gently grabs it and holds it up. Its silky smooth texture melts into sunsets hand as she slightly caresses it.

“Does this normally happen when you get startled?”

“What the tail? Yeah i think so??”

“Did this happen when you were younger?”

“Like how young are you referring to?”

“I dont know somewhere around the age you were just talking about?”

“Oh, no. I never had any demon features until i was around 12 or 13. My mom claims my eyes began to slit around 7th grade or something.”

The question doesnt seem to bother flamera, so sunset begins questioning her more. She starts the questions as soon as she returns back into her game.

“Sooo….. Were you able to transform into your full demon form once it started?”

Flameras focus of the game dwindles. She picks up her head thinking about the question. She turns her head to sunset who’s smiling, showing genuine interest.

“U..uh no. No it wasnt until later actually”

The melancholy response dampens the mood of the room. Obviously this was a trigger point for flamera, but the other girl pressed on but with more sensitivity. Flamera begins zoning a few seconds begin sunset speaks.

“…so when where you able to…?”

Continuing to zone out, flamera remains absolutely silent.

“Flamera?”

“Huh?”

She looks at sunset who face is now concerned. She shakes her head attempting to get herself out of her dazed state.

“Sorry what did you ask again?”

“When were you able to fully transform? If its too much to talk about you dont have t-”

“No its fine.” flamera cuts in

“I was 15 i think….”

She nits her eyebrows

“No actually im very certain i was 15…”

She lift her head looking at sunset.

“Im sorry, im completely ok with being asked questions like this but mentally im guess im still not really over how it happened.”

“What have i told you about my home life? I dont want to sound like a broke record thats trying to fish for attention or something.”

“Mmm not much? You’ve mentioned your immediate family and your grandparents but i dont think you ever got into specifics.”

Sunset scratches her neck awkwardly

“I also never really asked because kind of already knew certain things through my geode”

“Wait like what exactly?”

“I cant quite remember because it was all out of context. All i could rly fit together is that well… you were homeless.”

The half demon shifts uncomfortably in response. While not embarrassed by her living situation, it still made her seem oddly pathetic. She was very aware that sunset would never judge her for something like that, seeing how she never brought it up despite knowing about it. Still, the upcoming conversation would definitely show how weak she was.

“In any other circumstance id say thats all you needed to know in order to protect myself. But i know damn well how that would go.”

“We lost two of our houses due to my familys lack of stability. Mostly financially but the cracks started to show that no one in my family was stable, especially me.”

“I lived with my biological grandma along side my brother and my mom during the winter of freshman year. My parents were essentially separated and the amount of conflict between my grandmother and the rest of my family kept rising. I was able to conceal every ounce of anguish i had. Whether it was about my grades, my horrible friends or the lack of a proper family.”

“I dont want to spend too much time dwelling on the specifics but all you need to know is over the course of a year and a half i was subjected to argument after argument, fight after fight. I never took part on any of these out of fear of retaliation, but my brother on the other hand was incredibly vocal.”

Flameras face morphs into something of disgusted and fear

“And not even in the “i need to argue against this” way. His outbursts were actually destructive in that he’s done things from punching his fist through a window to ultimately slamming his head as hard as he could into concrete. It only made the situation worse, and i couldn’t handle it anymore.”

Flameras voice starts to slightly quiver in fear.

“I only remember the before and after of the situation, but i remember running downstairs in utter fury and yelling something off the top of my lungs, then everything went black.

“When i woke up, i was being held by my mom holding me back, my brother missing and my grandmother on the floor, bleeding with scratches.”

Flameras face stiffens. She looks at sunset.

“Before i continue, i need you to know that i honestly don’t regret what i did. She isnt dead. I didnt put myself into this situation. My dad has always told me the dirty secrets about this woman and seeing it first hand i hold no regrets.”

“Do you understand? You may disagree with how i see things but my grandmother was abusive.”

Sunset slowly nods in response.

“My body was shaking as i woke up. I had little time to process anything before my grandmother yelled for us to get out. My body was completely altered. Despite my new form my mom quickly ushered me upstairs to grab any belongings i could.”

Flamers takes a deep breath in.

“I was stuck in that form for 2 days straight and ended up vomiting the next day. We ended up staying in the hotel we were just at for another 3 nights until my dad could convince his mom to let us live with her again.”

“…we were previously there because the house had an inspection and we were living there without anyones knowledge”

The silence in the room went on for a full 5 minutes before flamera picked up her controller and resumed playing. All the memories that sunset saw made complete sense now. She subtly looked over to the girl next to her trying to examine her body language to gauge how to approach this. She wasnt too sure how flamera felt about physical contact, but remembered when the wii crashed and she clung to sunset like her life depended on it. She tentatively reached for flameras hands which were currently occupied. She jolted in response, with tears threatening to release.

They stood there for a second. Flamera anxiouslt waited for sunset to say anything but was left with silence.

“Can i help yo-“

Flamera is immediately thrusted into a hug after she speaks. Sunset wanted nothing more than to say “im so sorry that happened” but the reality of the situation demanded that it was unnecessary. The demon would know what this meant. Anyone would after dumping this information. The calming scent that radiated off of sunset eased her initial tension. The walls flamera had just rebuilt came crumbling down, as she begins to tremble, ultimately ending i’m her sobbing uncontrollably.

“im so sorry”

Author's Note

PLEASE DON’T BE TO HARSH LMAO.
I JUST TAKE TOO LONG TO DRAW OTHERWISE THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A COMIC.

if there is remotely any interest in this fic i will release more info about my oc but if anyone wants to know more i frequently babble about flamera specifically on my socials. (vitaltoast on most platforms). or feel free to ask idc.

pretty nervous about posting this because of the stigma around oc x canon ships.

slight context about flamera’s demon heritage:

she comes from a bloodline of demons that were banished to the human by starswirl.
its kind of a long story that im going to have to write at some point but atp i dont really care about it. all you need to know is that her “magic” is apart of her DNA, its not the same magic that sunset brought via the crown. its similar but demons contain it, compared to the mane seven harnessing it. ( if that makes any sense )