Button Mash! Master of the Arcade Arts!

by Clockworklich

First published 5th of April, 2020

Button Mash wakes one day with the Gamer ability. Ready to embark on epic quests, as soon as he finishes his homework.

All his life Button Mash has been absorbed into his video games. He lives them, he breathes them and every night he dreams of them. Then one day he wakes up in his dream come true when he is given the gift of the Gamer ability. Of course, now that he has the gamer power, he must play the game.

Editor: Malandy

New Game.

"Button, wake up or you'll be late for school!" Button's mom called up to him.

"Mmmmm... mu."

"Button!" His mother called again before coming into his room only to see him asleep on the floor while drooling on his controller in front of a TV showing the words 'Game Over!' on it. "Button mash wake up!" She yelled as she nudged him which only got more mumbling out of him. With a roll of her eyes she looked to the game he was playing before. Picking up the controller she went to the save files. "I'm deleting your save files." She said aloud.

"I'm up! I'm up!" Button Mash shouted as he jumped up fully awake.

"Then get ready for school. Breakfast is on the table." His mother told him as she turned the Neighstation off and walked out of the room. With a sigh, Button walked over to the bathroom and grabbed his toothbrush. Once he started brushing he looked into the mirror and stopped at what he saw floating over his head.

Slowly blinking he looked up to see the words floating over his head. Blinking a few more times he started brushing again as he turned back to the mirror. After finishing all of his business in the bathroom and getting his propeller hat and school bag on, he hopped downstairs and into the kitchen where he sat down to eat breakfast. While eating he followed his mom with his eyes as she opened his bag and put in his lunch.

"What are you looking at?" Mommy asked when she saw Button staring.

"Nothing mom. Just trying to figure out the difficulty level of this area." Button said in a dismissive tone getting a raised eyebrow from his mother.

"Well, you'd best finish up and head out on your quest for the legendary straight-A report card." His mother said straight-faced as she placed his saddlebags on his back. "Otherwise you won't get the achievement."

"Right!" Button exclaimed as he stood up. Now more motivated to go to school than his mother ever thought possible. Jumping up to give a kiss on his mom's cheek he took off out the door, leaving a wide-eyed Mommy behind.

"...Note to self, express all future chores like an NPC giving a quest." Mommy said to herself before closing the door.

Button had to repeatedly stop to rest on his way to school to let his stamina replenish. Fortunately, it appears that his stamina increases with each point in Vitality so he could run full speed a little longer each time it went up. During the entire trip, Button would keep track of his surroundings for any mobs to slay but never found any. Much to his confusion, he saw a few quest markers over some ponies but they were all greyed out for some reason. Deciding to not think too much on it, Button continued on his way to school, managing to make it through the door just in time for the bell to signal the beginning of the first class.

"Alright class, today we'll start on geography. The locations of all the major cities in Equestria to be exact." Miss Cheerilee said as she pulled down the map. At first, Button was smiling as he listened, but as the lesson went on his expression turned into a frown.

"Um, Miss Cheerilee?" Button asked with a raised hoof.

"Do you have a question Button Mash?" The teacher asked with an encouraging smile.

"Yes, I wanted to know when you'll talk about what monsters spawn and in and around those cities or ancient legends about each one," Button asked, getting whispers from the rest of the class.

"Monsters? Why would there be monsters in any city? If any such thing managed to get into such a populated location the guards would rush to deal with it as quickly as possible. What makes you think that there would be monsters living in a city?" Miss Cheerilee asked Button with a bewildered look on her face. For the first time Button showed a look of doubt before looking to a spot over Miss Cheerilee's head.

"I thought it would be more interesting." Button Mash replied, getting laughter from the rest of the class.

"Well, I'm afraid the princess is a bit too nitpicky about pony safety to let roaming monsters make your lessons more interesting." Miss Cheerilee said getting more laughter from the other kids. "But old legends might be okay, I'll look into those and see if there are any that would work in future lessons." With those words, Miss Cheerilee turned back to the map and restarting her lesson.

Confused and a little embarrassed, Button's eyes wandered around the room before stopping on Diamond Tiara. Thanks to making a spectacle of himself only a moment ago it didn't take long for the local bully to give him a glance and noticed his staring.

"What?" She asked in a harsh whisper.

"I'm waiting for you to turn into a troll and capture Sweetie Belle so I can rescue her." Was Button's immediate and straight faced response causing the surrounding children who were listening in on the whispered conversation to snicker.

"What?" Diamond Tiara asked in confusion. Button just leaned closer to Diamond he squinted his eyes as he looked her up and down.

"Are you changing slowly?" He asked before looking at her midsection. "Oh, you're already starting to bloat."

With a cry of pain Button Mash fell out of his seat and crashed onto the floor.

"Hey, that hurt!" Button mash shouted before freezing with a sudden look of realization and horror. "That hurt..."

"You're about to hurt a lot more!" Diamond Tiara shouted as she jumped out of her seat and moved in on the downed colt.

"Diamond Tiara! What are you doing!?" Miss Cheerilee shouted once she saw what was happening.

"He called me fat!" Diamond Tiara exclaimed as she pointed at Button Mash accusingly.

"Is this true Button?" Cheerilee asked as she marched over.

"I thought I was dreaming!" Button said in a panic.

"You dream about rescuing me?" Sweetie Belle asked with a blush.

"Why would you think you were dreaming?" Miss Cheerilee asked Button as she bent down to check if he was hurt. Button, however, didn't give her a response. The only reaction to her question was his eyes quickly looking up and staring at the name and level floating over her head.

"Ummmmm..."

Author's Notes:

What can I say, I love gamer fics.

Have Buttons, Will Push.

"Button, I don't want to hear any video games until I've seen all of your homework done!" Mommy Mash called out from downstairs as Button was entering his room.

"Okay, mom!" Button shouted back before closing his door and dropping his saddlebag next to his desk. After his little wakeup call, Button Mash decided to ignore the video game stuff until he was back in his room to avoid standing out any more than he already had. Looking around as if expecting sompony to be spying on him in his room he quickly moved to close his windows.

"Call GM." button said out loud only for nothing to happen. "Help?" Again he got no response. "Start, pause, menu." At that last one, he got a popup.

Now for one of my favorite parts of getting a new game. Pushing all the buttons until I know what everything does. Button thought as he began playing with the menu.

Sound was simple enough. It just gave him background music, with a list of every videogame background and boss music he had ever heard in his life and volume control to go with it. After playing with that for a while he just turned it off and moved on.

Graphics was trippy as it allowed him to see the world through the textures of different games. Though how much this changes what others see came to question when he ran into a problem when he tried to move on from 8-bit.

"Grrrrr... Why can't I hold still!" Button asked in frustration. Just like many retro game characters Button suddenly found himself bending his knees up and down and swaying from side to side. His attempts to stop this were foiled as his body's involuntary movements resulted in his hoof hitting every part of the box that didn't have a button on it.

"Button Mash, are you okay?" Mommy Mash called out as the sound of hoof steps approached.

"I'm fine! Everything is fine!" Button Mash shouted back, not for the first time wishing that he was allowed to have a lock on his door.

"Then why did I hear you shouting?" She asked before opening the door. "Button... what are you doing?" Asked the vaguely pony shape collection of blocks he knew to be his mother. Just like him she was bobbing up and down and swaying from side to side.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Button asked nervously.

"It looks like you're attempting to dance after getting a concussion," Mommy replied. Okay, so she can see me bobbing but not herself.

"I'm stretching. You know, all that sitting I've been doing today." Button lied.

"Well stop stretching and do your homework. If it's not done by the time dinner is ready no dessert or videogames." Mommy threatened before leaving. Turning back to the menu, Button took a calming breath and tried again. With careful aim, he was able to hit the default button and stop his movement.

"Right, sticking with default from now on." Button mumbled as he moved on to general.

"Mini-map on, show health stamina and mana bars...wait!" Button quickly covered his mouth as he looked to the door. He hadn't raised his voice this time and he didn't want his mom coming up here again. Fortunately, he didn't hear her coming back up so it looks like she didn't hear. Still, just to be safe he moved over and put his books on his desk and sat down to make it look like he was working.

"Mana bar! Mana! That means I can cast spells!" Button whispered excitedly, practically vibrating in his seat. Forgetting everything else Button Mash moved to check his stats.

Name: Button Mash
Level: 1
Class: None
HP: 90
SP: 90
MP: 1

STR: 7
VIT: 9
DEX: 37
INT: 21
WIZ: 33
MAG: 1

Traits

Gamer Mind
Protects the gamer from mental corruption and fatigue.

Gamer Body
Allows the gamer's body to function like a video game character's.

Earth Pony
+1 STR and +1 VIT when leveling up. Get 10 points in HP and SP for each point in vitality instead of 5. Gains only 1 point in MP for each point in Magic instead of 5.

"One... I only have one point of MP!" It took every ounce of willpower for Button to keep from crying. Not only that but his earth pony trait means that he will need an insane amount of points in his magic stat in order to cast the good spells.

"You know what, no. I will not accept this. A pure mage class may be out of reach but I will have my magic!" Button vowed. For the first time showing his childish nature by grabbing his toy keyblade from where it lay on the floor and thrust it like it was in the game when using one of the spells.

Button blinked at the popup until it faded away.

"Quest log?" Button asked out loud and was rewarded with a new window. However, before he could read the details of his new quest his attention was drawn to another quest he didn't know he had. What was especially attention-grabbing was that it came with a countdown timer.

Taking out a sheet of paper Button did some quick math.

"I hate it when long countdowns only use minutes... One week? That's the summer sun celebration!" Button exclaimed. "But if the bad guy can kidnap Princess Celestia I'm way too under-leveled." Forgetting the magic quest Button went back and clicked on help. The first thing he looked up was Class.

"Okay, not much I can do about that now." Button said before checking out stats.

Okay, time to start the grind. Button thought as he changed the way he was sitting to the way Lyra sits and crossed his hind legs, one he tried to push forward, the other pushed back. That way the difficulty stays the same as he's pushing his strength against itself.

"..."

"Yes!" Now for vitality. I gained points in it running to and from school at full speed so I guess I need to drain my stamina and let it refill to grind that. Dexterity is my highest, probably from all the video games I play. I'll pull out some of those old games that made me rage quit and play them on the hardest difficulty. Intelligence I can probably get from schoolwork. My wisdom must be high from puzzle-solving so I can grind it that way. But I have no idea how to grind magic other than maybe draining my mana and letting it replenish over and over... But I don't know how! Button thought in frustration. Maybe there is a book for young unicorns I can look into. Shaking the thought for now Button started doing his homework.

Later

"Game over!"

"NOOOOooooooo! I was so close!" Button Mash cried out. Growling he started a new game, jumping from platform to platform while running from the spiked wall following him and dodging the crazy number of projectiles coming at him from all sides. He was so focused he didn't even notice his mom enter the room until she unplugged the T.V.

"Mom! What are you doing!? This game doesn't let me pause!" Button cried out as he looked at his mom like she just randomly bashed a pony's head in with a hammer.

"Saving your bedsheets. We've been through this before Button." Mommy said as she pointed at his hind legs. He saw no reason why he couldn't grind his strength stat at the same time as his dex so he had been using the method he thaught up earlier. He didn't realize until now how having his legs crossed and the way they shook with strain made it look like he had to go. "I don't care how 'in the zone' you are. We don't want to put the rubber sheets back on your bed now do we? When you have to go to the bathroom then go to the bathroom. I'm not cleaning up the mess. Now get those flanks off that bed and on that potty!" Mommy ordered as she pointed down the hall.

"Mooooooom!" Button exclaimed in embarrassment. "It's been almost a year!"

"And it would be a horrible shame if you broke that track record now wouldn't it? Now hurry up, then come down for dinner when you're done." Mommy said with finality as she was walking over to check his homework. Grumbling, Button turned off the game console and left to pretend to use the bathroom.

Author's Notes:

Everyone always does the super mage thing so I gave Button a reason to be a little more diverse.

I also apologize for being unable to come up with any funny jokes for this chapter.

Getting to Class!

"Button! It's time to get up!" Mommy's voice called up, surprising Button and getting him a game over. After dinner, he played video games until his mom made him get ready for bed. Then he pretended to go to sleep, hung his blanket on the door and put his pillows at the bottom to block any light from getting out, turned the volume all the way down, crossed his legs so he can grind his DEX and STR. He hadn't realized that he had been grinding all night until he heard his mom call out to him. He didn't even feel tired.

"Coming mom!" Button called back as he got up, only to fall over, sucking in air through clenched teeth as tears started forming around his eyes. "Owy owy owy owy owy owy!" As it turns out, having your hind legs pushing against each other at full strength for several hours without rest tends to make them a little temperamental when you start moving them again. Fortunately, Gamer Body kicked in and slowly washed the pain away.

"I better have gotten lots of points in strength for that." Button said through sniffles as he wiped his tears away. Once his vision was clear he brought up his stats to see what a full night of intense grinding did for him.

"Yes! One down!" Button cheered as he did a little dance in celebration. "Tonight I play puzzle games!" Quickly tossing his pillows and blanket back onto his bed, Button put on his hat and went down for breakfast.

"Morning mom!" Button greeted with a happy skip to his step.

"You're certainly in a good mood this morning," Mommy said as she put down a plate with pop-tarts.

"This is going to be a great day, I just know it!" Button cheered as he hopped up onto his chair and inhaled his breakfast. "I'm just going to drop my stuff off real quick after school and head into town."

"Alright, I'll pick you up at the arcade after I do a little shopping," Mommy said. This was the normal Friday schedule after all.

"I'm not going to the arcade today mom. I'm going to take a walk around town" Button said before jumping in surprise at the sound of glass shattering. Looking to his mom to see what was wrong he saw her staring at him with eyes as wide as saucers. "Mom... are you okay?"

"You... want to go outside... and get exercise?" Mommy asked in shock.

"Yes." Button said in an uncertain tone. Button Mash just sat there in uncomfortable silence as his mother just kept staring at him in shock. "I'm not that bad." He said, though his tone made it sound more like he was trying to convince himself than his mom. "Well... I'm off to school." And with that, he grabbed his bag and ran out the door.

Wheezing, Button had to stop for another break. He had been running around town for a while now. Not just to grind his Vitality but also to search. After all, he still needed a class and he wanted to find a good class giver today. And though he found a few ponies with the golden graduation hat floating over their heads he didn't want to have a class like gardener. Soon he came across a new one and focused on the golden hat. He had discovered if he did that he could see what class, or classes, he can get from a pony.

"May I help you?" Bonbon asked Button when she and Lyra noticed him staring.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Button screamed as he turned around and ran away. Something that would soon teach him something new about the game he didn't know before. When his stamina runs out and he keeps attempting to run, he is forced to slowly walk instead.

"What? Was it something I said?" Bonbon asked her best friend. Lyra, seeing the opportunity for a prank, gave out a large gasp while looking at the top of Bonbon's head.

"Bonbon you have a huge spider in your mane!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Bonbon screamed as she turned around and ran away. Head swinging around rapidly in an attempt to dislodge the imaginary spider.

Huffing and wheezing once more Button Mash leaned against the wall. As much as he wanted his first class to be cool he wasn't dumb enough to confront a pony with classes like that. Looking around franticly to see if he had been followed he only saw some ponies giving him some strange looks. Not surprising when they just saw a colt leisurely walking down the road while screaming like he was being chased by a pack of timberwolves. Once everypony had calmed down Button got up and kept up the search. Turning around the next corner he saw another hat, though this one was hopping up and down.

Gadgeteer? More superhero than fantasy. Button thought before suddenly being struck by inspiration. Iron Mare was an earth pony gadgeteer who built a suit of power armor that let her channel and shoot blasts of raw magic that was powered by a rare gem called a mountain heart that had been lodged in her chest in an explosion. Button had seen a path that he was sure that the gadgeteer class was needed for. One that might help with his magic problem if he can store up his mana in some kind of battery. He will become an artificer! It helps that he was sure he had high rep with this class giver, seeing as he was sure everypony had high rep with her.

"Miss Pinkie Pie! Miss Pinkie Pie wait!" Button called out as he chased after her. This caused Pinkie to stop moving forward and turn to face the colt.

"Oh, you don't have to call me miss. Just call me Pinkie Pie! All my friends do."

Button's eyes widened in shock at Pinkie's response because she didn't actually say anything at all. Instead, she just opened and closed her mouth rapidly while making that sound that was made in old games when text showed when the characters were talking. And while she was doing that a popup showed up with text showing what Pinkie was saying. At first he thought he had a glitch.

"Pinkie, why are you making those sounds?" One of the passing ponies asked.

"Oh, I was just making an old video game joke. Because I'm talking to Button Mash." Pinkie replied while picking up the Text popup to show the pony, revealing that it was just made of cardboard.

"Oh, alright then." The pony said before walking off.

"So what's up Button?" Pinkie asked with a cheerful smile. Button Mash gave a sigh, knowing that his secret was safe.

"Well, I heard that you can make some really cool stuff, so I was wondering if you could teach me to be a gadgeteer?" Button asked the bouncing pink pony.

"Sure, follow me." Pinkie said happily before turning around and hopping away.

"Yes!" Button cheered as he chased after Pinkie as she hopped back to Suger Cube Corner, up the stairs, and into her room. To Button's surprise, Pinkie pushed a hidden button on the wall causing a hidden door to open revealing a bookcase.

"Here, let's start with this!" Pinkie said as she pulled out a book that Button was sure was heavier than he was, making Button gulp nervously. It was at that moment that Button considered the fact that gadgeteer may be a complicated class to take first, especially when on a time limit. It also just occurred to him that in his excitement in getting his first class that he took Pinkie Pie as his teacher.

"Oh boy..."

Author's Notes:

Well, this one was fast. I just started writing and didn't stop. This is strange because I have restless leg syndrome and have trouble holding still. This means I normally stop writing to walk around often.

Hickory Dickory Dock, Button Works Around the Clock.

Button had to admit, Pinkie Pie was a good teacher. She was thorough in her lesson, explaining everything twice, first in the complicated way, then the dumbed-down version to make sure he could understand. She also knew how to make a lesson impossible to not focus on. No matter how repetitive it got this way. Pinkie froze in her lesson when there was a knock on her door.

"Pinkie, what's going on in there? You brought a colt up to your room three hours ago and have been singing nonstop ever since." Mr. Cake asked through the door. That's right, Pinkie had sung every part of the lesson, changing costume every time she changed the style of music from all sorts of levels from various video games. Even using different items that players can get from video games as well as dungeon traps and mechanisms as examples.

"Just teaching my new apprentice!" Pinkie called back cheerfully.

"Well it will be time for dinner soon and I'm sure his parents will get worried if he's out too late... They do know that he's here right Pinkie?" Mr. Cake asked in concern.

"Nope." Pinkie replied in a tone that made it clear that she saw nothing wrong with this.

"...Pinkie... Just... take him home and talk with his parents about this apprentice thing. We'll keep your plate ready for you." Mr. Cake said in exasperation.

"Okey-Dokey-Lokey!" Pinkie replied before turning back to Button Mash. "So, any questions before we go?" Button had so many questions, few of them even having anything to do with the subject matter. A shame he didn't have the time.

"A few, first I gotta know. I'm sitting in front of your door, blocking the only way in and out of this room. Where did those backup singers come from and where did they go?" Button asked.

"Backstage silly. They're probably in their dressing rooms." Pinkie replied without missing a beat. Button just gave a confused look at this before once more looking around the room. Deciding to just ignore it for the sake of his sanity points Button went back to the subject he was there for.

"Where can I get parts and tools to start making my own gadgets?" Button asked. He wanted to get a few levels in it before leveling up if he can help it. Even with that timer hanging over his head it went against his nature as a gamer to not squeeze out every point he could get.

"I'll tell you later. I'll give you parts and tools to practice with while I watch." Pinkie gave a cheery reply before hopping over to her closet and fishing out a box and tossing it to land in front of Button.

"My first robot minion?" Button exclaimed when he read what was on it. Pinkie just snorted and giggled at his reaction.

"Yep! This toy was what I used when I started out. It comes with parts you can click together, a wind-up motor and a book with schematics for different toy robots you can make with them. Oh, but don't worry, the word minion may make them sound like bad guys but they won't actually try to hurt you. At least, they never tried to hurt me. But I always threw each one a little party before taking them apart to make another. Maybe you should throw the mini robots some mini parties just to be safe." Pinkie said with a smile.

"Sure, they'll probably like hanging with my action figures... I think." Button said in uncertainty.

"Great! Oh, you can make a cake out of legos! And you'll need some balloons!" At this exclamation, Pinkie pulled a bag of balloons from... somewhere and put it on top of the robot box. "Anyways, let's get you home." Pinkie said as she flipped the box onto her back and went trotting out the door.

"So, what kind of cool gadgets are you going to teach me first?" Button asked excitedly as he followed her out.

"Mom, I'm home! And I brought somepony who needs to talk to you!" Button called out as he opened the front door to his house. Pinkie took this time to slide the box off her back and on to Button's.

"Who is it?" Mommy asked as she came into the living room. "Pinkie? What a surprise. What do you need to talk to me about?"

"Button asked me to teach him how to make gadgets. I'm supposed to talk to you about it." Pinkie replied as she hopped over to Mommy. Blinking, Mommy looked to Button, then to the box on his back, back to Pinkie and then repeated that motion a few more times before sighing.

"This is the closest thing to normal that Button has done in the last couple of days. You do realize that this is going to cut into your gaming time. Right, Button? You're not going to do this for a day then quit are you?" Mommy asked as she gave him a look.

"Don't worry mom, I won't quit. I'm going to be the greatest gadgeteer in the world. I have to." Button said in a serious voice as he stood tall with a deep look on his face as he looked off into the distance.

"...Boop!" Button shot his head back as his muzzle scrunched up.

"Moooooooooom! You don't just boop a pony when they're being all mysterious!" Button complained with a pout. This reaction got some giggles from the two mares.

"I don't see why not as long as Pinkie promises to be responsible about teaching you. Your father will certainly be ecstatic at you taking an interest in something like this." Mommy Mash said as she gave Pinkie a questioning look.

"Oh, I will be super-duper ultra mega responsible! I know the rules about teaching gadgeteering from my teacher. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Pinkie assured while going through the motions of the Pinkie Promise.

"Alright, whatever has gotten into Button I'm glad it's making him so productive," Mommy said with some joy.

"Oh, oh, maybe he somehow got superpowers and is training to be a superhero! He can go by, The Gamer! Or, or maybe Game Over!" Pinkie said with excitement making Button's eyes shrink to pinpricks.

"I don't think that's it Pinkie," Mommy said with a good-natured chuckle. "Would you like to stay for dinner so we can work out a schedule?"

"Sorry, the Cakes already made dinner and mine is waiting for me already. But I can come by tomorrow. And if he's free Button can come over any time tomorrow. I can watch him so he can start making things." Pinkie replied.

"Alright, I guess I can let him off the hook for chores tomorrow seeing as it's in pursuit of an education." Mommy agreed.

Button quickly went up to his room. He had the simple plan to work on the robot toy until his mom sent him to bed, then he will begin his Wiz grinding with some Puzzle heavy games. And who knows, maybe Button will gain some levels in gadgeteer and possibly a skill or two in it. Opening the box Button's eyes widened at what he saw.

"That... is a lot of parts." Button said out loud as he looked at the color-coded pieces. Taking out the thick book Button blinked at the popup.

Considering skill books and the like disappear in games Button pushed no as he didn't want to destroy Pinkie's things. Opening the book he read the first few pages which explain how to read schematics, nothing Pinkie hadn't already covered, before finding the first one. It looked simple enough as it didn't use that many parts. Flipping through the book he saw that the designs grew more and more complicated with each new page. Turning back to the first one he searched for the parts and started building.

"Sweet! My first skill!" Button said excitedly before continuing his work. On his fifth robot design where he tried to challenge himself by glancing at the picture and trying to figure out how to build it from that he got a pleasant surprise.

That was when he realized something about his chosen class. He was taking pieces and putting them together in the right way to get the desired results. This is a puzzle. Throwing his head back Button gave a dramatic, maniacal laugh.

"Button, stop laughing maniacally and take your bath." Button's mom called out.

"Moooooooom!" Button wined.

"I made it with lots of bubbles." She called out again.

"...Okay."

Gotta Go Fast!

With a start, Button looked over to his alarm that had suddenly started ringing. He wanted to get as much done as he could so he set it to go off around the time that Sugercube Corner opens. In his moment of distraction, his latest creation crashed into his head.

"Ouch!" Button exclaimed as he rubbed the side of his head. Looking over at the makeshift dirigible Button made with the robot parts, the balloons Pinkie gave him and some string as it crashed into the side of his bed and fell apart. After finding out how he could grind his class and wisdom at the same time Button continued to give each picture nothing more than a glance before trying to build it. Once he ran out of those pictures however he instead tried to grind by thinking up a simple function and trying to figure out how to make something with what he had.

"Right, let's see what I got." Button said as he brought up his stats.

"So close." Button grumbled as he looks at his WIZ stat. "At least I got strength out of the way." Button had remembered to grind his STR stat while he worked, though this time he remembered to rest his legs now and again so as to avoid the pain that he had suffered the first time. "It also appears that Pinkie Pie's lessons did wonders for my intelligence. Probably because of how complex what she was teaching was." After looking over his stats, Button looked to his new skills and how far they progressed.

"Right so get WIZ up to fifty, try to get more lessons for my INT, and I need to find a way to grind my magic." Button mumbled to himself as he got ready to go. Running down the stairs just in time to see his mom picking up some toast with butter and jelly.

"Thanks mom gotta go bye!" Button called out as he jumped up, grabbed the piece of toast in his mouth and ran out the door. Mommy Mash just stood there with tired eyes as she stared at her hoof where the toast used to be, her mouth still open from her attempt to take a bite. Once her sleep-addled mind registered what just happened she gave a sigh and went to make another slice of toast.

"Hi Pinkie!" Button called out cheerfully as he ran into Sugercube Corner and came to a stop in front of the counter.

"Hey Button! Wow, you are early. Are you ready to build some super fun stuff?" Pinkie asked as she gave a smile so wide that he could see all of her teeth while opening the side door for the counter to let him in. Without a word, Button charged right through and immediately locked onto the large box in the corner that literally had his name on it. On top of the box was a case filled with tools that were super girly. The handles were pink with glitter that looks like it was fused into them and a flower design was somewhere on all of them.

"Um... Pinkie Pie... These tools have been wiped down for cooties right?" Button asked in concern causing Pinkie to burst out laughing.

"Don't worry Button, all my things are cooty free. I even have all my cooty shots, I mean, we serve food here so we can't let any cooties or any other yucky germs in here." Pinkie assured.

"Great!" Button exclaimed as he opened the large box to see all the different parts he had to work with. Opening another box he found two books.

"One of those is to read and the other is for making. I'll just keep an eye on you. If you impress me you'll get a reward." Pinkie sang out when she saw Button pulling out the books.

Yes! All the yes! Button thought as he accepted the quest. Cracking open the book on making your own schematics he got right to studying.

INT+1
INT+1

Half an hour and two stats later Button wasted no time on grabbing the book full of Schematics, quickly denying the instant learn options and started flipping through it, every now and again glancing into the box to see what parts to use. Assemble don't fail me now! Button thought as he got to work on a wind-up top. Taking the case, at least he thought it was the case for this thing, and started putting the parts into place. He had some trouble with the spring at first but he was able to keep it in place at the end.

Sealing the lid on top and setting the key, Button wound it up to test it out and set it down. Once the key was let go the top began spinning on its own.

"One down." Button said as he started flipping through the options again. As simple as that gadget was it had taken him longer than he would have liked. So he searched out the easiest ones. Every once in awhile Button would look with worry up at the clock.

Having finished his last mandatory gadget Button grabbed some paper and a pen. I'm still an apprentice gadgeteer. I can't design anything too complicated yet. Button thought as he looked up to the clock in worry. I need something that a normal pony can do. Think Button think! Searching his memory Button came to a decision when he remembered one of his mom's stories from one of the photo albums. Only, with a gamer flair. The motor should go there. But how would I crank it? Oh! Pedals! Looking up at the clock he saw he was close to the deadline. But this isn't enough for a gadgeteer. It needs tricks...

"Done!" Button exclaimed just before the bell ding signaled lunchtime.

"Wow!" Pinkie exclaimed as she trotted over and looked over the completed design. "You work fast. And Ambitious." Pinkie said with a giggle. "This looks like fun! I think I'll design one for myself tonight." With those words, Pinkie stashed Button's Schematics into her mane. "I'll make you some lunch. Then you can spend the rest of my shift being creative with what I have here."

Level Up!
Class Level Up!
Class Level Up!

Button waited but to his confusion, the mystery prize he earned for completing the quest on time didn't show itself. He even checked out his inventory to see if the quest dropped it in there but it was completely empty.

"What gives? Where is the mystery prize?" Button complained.

"You have to wait until after my shift is over!" Pinkie called back. Button paused at hearing this. He was under the assumption that the loot would just show up. Not like I'm going to be doing anything other than grinding till I leave anyways. So Button prepared to do what he did last night and gave one page a single glance. He needed to finish his WIZ stat after all.

Hours later.

"Times up Button." Pinkie said as she walked over. "I've got one more thing for you to work on today." Looking up in surprise Button checked the clock to see that the workday was over. Putting her tools back in their case she picked it up and gestured for Button to follow. Walking around the bakery into the alley between shops Pinkie opened up a large trap door with a ramp leading underground. Following Pinkie Button looked around in wonder at all of the complex machines before his eyes landed on where Pinkie stopped next to several large parts... familiar parts. On the wall nearby hung the very blueprints that he made for the quest.

"Come on Button!" Pinkie said excitedly as she started building the motor. "Let's get to work!"

More hours later.

Mommy Mash had just clocked out from her job at the local daycare center. With Button off with Pinkie Pie, she figured she would get an extra day in. But as she was walking away from the building she heard the sound of music getting closer. Turning to see what was going on her jaw dropped at the sight of her son driving a go-kart towards her with a radio strapped to the top playing born to be wild. The kart was sleek and black with a green X on the hood that made anypony think of an X box console.

"Hey, mama. Like my new ride?" Button asked as he leaned back while giving his best cool guy face. "Wanna... take her for a spin?" Button patted the passenger seat with a grin. Mommy Mash stood there with wide eyes, one of which was twitching.

Author's Notes:

I had a hard time thinking of a way to make Button spending a full day just practicing gadget making entertaining, even with Pinkie Pie there so I'm sorry if some of you might not like this chapter.

As for Mommy Mash, her cutie mark in a heart and a baby bottle so I figured that would be the kind of job she would have.

For those that are thinking that a go-kart is beyond the average pony to make, I say-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJENzTNAx6I

Some of those karts could only move the way they did if they had some kind of motor. I’m sure they got it from somewhere rather than making the motor themselves but that doesn't apply for two gadgeteers.

You Break the Law, You Go To the Dungeons!

It was night and Button was laying in bed with his back to the door. In front of him was a variety of parts from the robot toy Pinkie gave him to practice with. When he completed his latest toy gadget, he turned to look at his clock.

After finding out about that timed quest Button has been grinding nonstop. Why? Because Button Mash is a completionist! And he was running out of time. Tomorrow is Sunday. His last free day before he will have to be back in school. And he still had no idea how to grind his magic! So for the first time in his life, Button was planning to commit a crime. Golden Oaks Library has been closed ever since the old librarian passed away. So to get to the possible answer to his problem, he was going to break into the library to gain access to those books.

Sure that his mom was asleep by now, Button placed the practice toy on the ground, uncrossed his legs, because why not grind something when you can and it doesn't interfere with what you need to do, and grabbed his alarm clock which has been pre-set to go off at 4:00 AM. Placing it in his saddlebag, he snuck out of his house. His heart pounding at the thought of getting caught. Fortunately the only pony he came across on his trip was Berry Punch, the town drunk, who happened to be asleep with her head in a knocked over trashcan. It was when he reached his destination that he got his first surprise.

"How can a treehouse give a quest?" Button Mash couldn't help but ask when he saw that there was a quest marker on the door. "Hello? Do you need help with something tree?" The lack of a response made Button feel even dumber than he did just asking the question. His next thought was to try knocking on the door which got him a popup on first contact.

On reflex, Button lifted his hoof to the insane option but managed to stop himself. Challenging himself in a game is one thing, but this is his life. And he didn’t want to find out the hard way if this power comes with any extra lives. Not to mention that this is his first dungeon and he doesn't even have a weapon. He quickly pulled his hoof back as if the popup were about to bite him.

“Maybe I should start a little light. Just to be safe.” Button said nervously as he backed away from the door. Until proven otherwise Button was going to assume that they’re the giant kind of rats and spiders found in RPGs. He was still going to do it, he needed to get to those books after all. Now the question was, where can he find a weapon to fight the mobs with. So, not wanting to actually steal anything, Button started searching trashcan after trashcan.

"Ew... No... Nothing good here... Double ew.... Glass bottles? I can work with that... Triple Ew... Nothing... Nope... What even is that?... Who throws away an unopen box of rubber bands?... No... Oh sweet. Somepony has been cleaning out. Jar of rusty nails and a baseball bat! Cracked guitar." After a moment's consideration Button just dumped everything in that last trashcan into his inventory, looked through it to make sure he didn't get anything gross, then rushed back to the library where he hid behind one of the bushes.

Taking the bat and rusty nails first, Button used his strength to hit the nails through the bat until he had a spiked bat. Putting that aside he took out the guitar some kind of curved stick an old sippy cup and some clothespins. Taking a moment to draw a blueprint in the dirt with a stick so that it won't count for his Jury-rig skill Button was able to make a sort of makeshift crossbow only the sippy cup was in the middle so it could launch whatever he could put in it.

"Cool" Button said happily. Locked and loaded with one of the baseballs that were in the can with the bat, Button felt as ready as he could be. So with his weapons, he walked up to the dungeon, and reluctantly pushed normal. He couldn't bring himself to take easy, but without experience with how real-life dungeons work or weapons he could take time to make properly, he didn't think it was a good idea to play hard this time.

Gulping, Button looked around the dark room he found himself in. It didn't take long before he was attacked by a charging rat. Thankfully, though larger than the average rat, it was still in the range of possibility. Taking aim he fired and the ball hit it in the head. The word headshot appeared over it before the rat disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Oh, maybe this won't be so bad." Button said after seeing the rat go down so easily. A thought that went out the window when two spiders charged out from under the table. Two spiders, that happened to be as big as the average house cat. With a girly scream Button quickly brought the spiked bat down on one, killing it instantly. Unfortunately, the other one managed to jump onto him and sank its fangs into his foreleg that he brought up to defend his face. With a cry of pain, Button pushed the spider off and brought the bat down on its head.

-1hp
-1hp
-1hp
-1hp

Button's eyes widened in fear as he watched his hp being eaten away by a poison effect. Once the effect wore off he had lost 12 hp. 10 to the poison and 2 from the bite itself. As tears began to fall from his eyes Button quickly reloaded his crossbow and quickly looked around in a panic, waiting for the next attack. Thankfully, none came and he was able to get his tears under control. Once he calmed down he learned something new about the game. There was no bite mark to show that he had ever been hurt, but his HP wasn't regenerating.

"I hope eating restores HP like it does in the games." Button said nervously. Looking around for any loot drops he found nothing other than the ball he first fired. So he checked his inventory and found 3 metal plates, one box of bolts and seven bits that weren't there before. Deciding that he should move on he walked over to the next room which happened to be the kitchen. The sound of skittering and squeaks told him that it was infested with rats. Carefully he snuck over to a nearby stool and climbed up it. Seeing one of the rats across the room he took aim with his crossbow.

That had gotten the attention of the other rats which all stopped what they were doing to look at him.

"FPS for the win!" Button cheered as he reloaded his crossbow with the last ball. By now the rats were scurrying towards him. Taking aim for one last shot he fired but before it hit another rat got in the way when it ran across his target. The hit didn't kill the rat but it stopped moving and had little swirls over its head showing it was dazed.

"Oh, come on! It's bad enough when NPCs and my teammates online do that without other baddies getting in the way too!" Button complained as he took up the bat and started swinging at the rats that were unable to climb the stool. One freaky version of wack-a-mole later and the kitchen was mostly clear. Fortunately, Button Mash remembered one of the most important rules of dungeon diving. He remembered to look up. There were five spiders on the ceiling. Looking into his inventory he pulled out one of the alphabet blocks and loaded his crossbow.

"This little nope-spider went to the market..." Button said as he shot one down before quickly reloading to take another before they all attacked. But to his surprise, they didn't move. "This little nope-spider staid home..." He shot down another one and again reloaded as quickly as possible, yet still no movement from the others.

"Seriously what's going on here? Are they traps that drop on me if I walk under them?" Button asked out loud. Deciding not to test it, because giant spiders, he finished them off before re-collecting his ammo. The trip upstairs was much the same with six what Button now calls drop-spiders and one nope-spider that managed to get him by jumping out at him from the side the moment he got at the top. He was proud that he only cried a little.

Peeking into the first room Button quickly pulled back and closed the door. It was a bedroom and if that horror survivor game he played that one time taught him anything, it was that if there is a bed, there is something horrible under it. That game was one of the reasons he needed the rubber bed sheets for so long. Taking an empty bottle from his inventory the opened the door and tossed it under the bed before pulling up his crossbow.

Just as he thought three nope-spiders charged out. Quickly killing one with a shot from his crossbow he then closed the door and waited. After a while the sounds of the spiders scraping against the door stopped and Button opened the door again and quickly smashed the second one. When he tried to close the door again the last nope-spider made it halfway through. Screaming like a little filly Button kept trying to pull the door closed while the nope-spider tried to pull Button towards its awaiting fangs with its front legs. This short struggle lasted until the spider finally died from the crush damage causing the door to slam shut and cause him to fall onto his behind.

"Strength stat good. Strength stat very good." Button said shakily. Taking another break to calm down Button opened the door again and found another drop spider to shoot down. Making sure the room was cleared he then moved on to the bathroom. He shot down the drop-spider which left one more. Slowly creeping towards the closet he was surprised when the last nope-spider launched itself out of the toilet like a jack in the box.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Button screamed as he swung the bat and killed it. "Oh come on! What was it even doing in there!" Button demanded as he breathed heavily before walking out of the room while grumbling about jump scares. Moving on to the last room, the one marked with a sign that said 'basement' that he left alone because he was sure that it was were the boss was. With a deep breath, Button opened the door and moved down the stairs. With a loud bang the door slammed shut and the sound of a lock being, well, locked.

"It's okay Button. You can do this! You can win, you can win, you can oh my Celestia it's bigger than Big Mac." Button said when he saw the super nope-spider sitting in a giant web.

Gulping Button checked his inventory for anything that could give him an edge. "Why did I get three mana potions but no health ones?" Button asked in a whisper. Taking out one of the empty glass bottles he smashed it against the ground and used one of the metal plates drops to scoop it up into the sippy cup. Looking over he saw that the glass breaking had caught the boss's attention and it was moving towards him. Shakily Button waited until it was close then shot it point blank with shards of broken glass.

As the boss gave a pained shriek from the attack Button wasted no time and took his spiked bat, jumped up as high as he could and when he came down he swung his bat down with everything he had.

Shrieking louder now the boss spider jerked back, dislodging its head from the spikes. At this point it was flailing wildly in its rage, kicking Button around like a kickball. Desperately Button started doing his own flailing with his bat, crippling several of the spider's legs as a result. At that point, the fight was just embarrassing as Both Button and the boss spider were just screaming while swinging wildly at each other. One out of panic and the other because it had shards of glass and a spiked mace take out its eyes.

As the smoke vanished after the body of the boss dissolved Button continued to swing his bat around, screaming the entire time. It wasn't long until there was a flash of light and the sound of fanfare as a chest appeared out of nowhere. And just like that Button's panic vanished as it was filled with excitement at the loot. Opening the chest Button looked inside to find one health potion, a schematic, and 20 bits.

"Yes!" Button exclaimed as he pushed the button. "Oh, sweet! It's how to make the hook shot from the Zelda games!" Happy with his prize Button headed for the stairs to get to the books, paused, then came back and stuffed the empty chest into his inventory before rushing up to the books.

Obsession.

"Feel the warmth flowing through me. Feel it flow like a river..." Button chanted to himself as he sat with his eyes closed. It hadn't taken Button long to find a book called 'introduction to magic' in the foal's section, though it did take him half an hour to find the magic within. "I think I've got it... okay, now what?" Button asked as he looked down at the open book. "Imagine the flow of magic flowing up to your horn and will it to... wait." Button looked up at nothing as if trying to find an invisible horn. Not seeing any reason not to try, Button followed the instructions and brought the mana up to his forehead.

Button let out a cry of pain as the energy ruptured out of his forehead, knocking him on to his back. Tears ran down his face as he brought his hooves up to the spot that was hurt, thankfully finding no injury as the pain went away. With a sniffle, Button sat back up.

"Well... I got a point." Button said with uncertainty as he gave the book a weary look. As much as Button wants to grind this stat he wasn't about to literally beat himself up to do it.

"Okay, I have video game powers, so what would a video game character do?" Button asked himself. Browse furrowing in concentration, Button thought through all sorts of video games before having an idea. Leaning back, Button held one foreleg out straight and held it with his other hoof in his best imitation of Mega-Mare. He had just earned a point of mana and was about to spend it on this. Following the instructions from before, Button focused the energy, only this time he directed it towards his outstretched hoof. There was a weak glow on the bottom of his hooves but it was over so fast he almost missed it.

"Well, that was a dud." Button said as he looked at his now empty mana bar.

"Yes!" Button shouted out with glee as he gave a victory lap around the room.

Button knew that the lower the stats the faster they went up, but he didn't expect two from his mana refilling once. Then again he never played a character with only one stat in anything. Emptying his MP once more Button looked around the room. He still needed to get vitality, intelligence, and magic up to 50 and this room looked like a good place to grind. It was round so he can run in circles and was full of books to read.

Putting the book on magic back where he found it, Button then started looking for any book he thought was complicated enough to quickly grind his INT stat and tossed them all into his inventory.

"I'll return them later, not like there will be anypony to notice them missing any time soon." Button said aloud. Once Button had cleared out a good chunk of the library's contents, draining his MP every time it got close to filling, he started running in circles around the room. This was going to be a long night.

4:00am.

Button stopped in his tracks when he heard the alarm clock in his saddlebags going off. Quickly removing the clock to shut it off Button rushed out the door and back home. Making sure that he left no hoofprints, Button snuck back up to his room. Sure that he was home free, Button brought up his stats.

It was a good thing that leveling up had restored his HP. As bad a beating he got from the boss he didn't think he had much left to lose and the 20hp from that failed experiment might have pushed him over the edge. He could swear that near the end of his boss fight he heard that annoying sound from the Zelda games when you're running low on hearts. Slipping into his room Button climbed into bed and turned on his bedside light to read some books to grind his INT until he had to get up. continuing to empty his mana bar all along.

"Are you holding his video games hostage?" A unicorn mare asked.

"Blackmail?" An earth pony mare gave a guess.

"Is there a new game system coming out that I'm not aware of?" Another earth pony mare asked.

"No! I have no idea what's going on!" Mommy Mash exclaimed. She and some other mothers were sitting on a bench in the park with a picnic basket. "He has this look in his eyes that I normally see before I have to take a game away from him. This look of obsession. I have no idea if I should be worried or proud!" Mommy said as she took another juice box out when Button came back around. Once he got to them he just stopped as Mommy held the juice in front of him to drink while the mare next to him used a fold-up fan to cool him off. He didn't stay long though. As soon as he finished his drink he started running again.

"How long has he been at this?" The unicorn asked.

"Since this morning. He ate breakfast then ran over to the park and just didn't stop, outside of lunch and those quick rehydration breaks at least. Sometimes, when I go up to his room to wake him up in the morning, I find him playing video games, exhausted because he never went to sleep. This morning when I went into his room I caught him reading an introductory book on physics! Physics! I have no idea where he even got the book! I don't even know where it went. When I looked away it was gone and when I asked about it he tells me that he has physics books hidden all over town in case of physics emergencies." Mommy said with a sigh as she leans back, never taking her eyes off her son as he ran around the park like he was being chased by a hydra.

"Sounds like something Pinkie Pie would say." One of the mares said.

"Yes... I let him apprentice under Pinkie in gadgeteering yesterday. But she couldn't have rubbed off on him that quickly could she?" Mommy asked.

"Yes! And then there was one!" All of them quickly turned their heads towards the shout to see Button jumping with joy before letting himself drop to the ground and roll around while laughing happily.

"..."

"... Well, he started acting strangely before Pinkie got involved so it's not just her..." Mommy Mash sighed at the looks her friends gave her. Meanwhile, Button Mash was looking at his stats.

3...2...1...GO!

Button paused at the popups floating in front of him, placing the toy bazooka onto the ground.

"I can only grind my magic to fifty?" He asked out loud after reading the screen. He furrows his brow before shaking his head. With his path, it didn't need to grow forever, as nice as that would have been. At least, so long as his plan to use gems as mana batteries works. With those thoughts, he finished upgrading the toy weapon to have some real power behind its shots and put it in his inventory.

After he got his vitality up to 50 he decided that he would use some of those bits he got from that dungeon to do some shopping. He still needed at least one common quality weapon and he wanted a small armory just to be safe. Hopefully, he can make one that's good enough, seeing as he has no tools so his weapons are literally being held together with ducktape.

"I really need to get some kind of appraisal skill or something." Button grumbled to himself. Not being able to see how much XP he had annoyed him, but he could deal with it. But not being able to tell the quality, damage, or how close one of his creations is to breaking is bad. Hopefully Pinkie could teach me something like that. Button thought as he got to work on the special ammo for his latest weapon. He had been working hard on this and was sure that he would be as prepared as he could be once he used up all the things he bought. He even still had 27 bits and 69 bittybits left over if needed.

"Button, it's bedtime!" Mommy Mash called up to him. Groaning, Button put everything into his inventory and went to brush his teeth. Ready to get back to work as soon as his mom went to sleep.

Button finished the last of his weapons and just sat there for a moment, not sure what to do. He considered getting some sleep for the first time since getting this power, but that 'just a little more' mindset was still in place. He still had a few days and had no idea what he would be facing or what its level was. It was a world event after all. Biting his lower lip Button considered his skills and stats. For his class, it was clear that INT and DEX were the most important.

Obsessive drive in full force with that countdown continuing to tick Button got out his headset and laptop which he connected to his game console. He was going to keep grinding until the world event was over. So he might as well give to his fans while grinding his DEX. Adjusting the volume to be as loud as he felt was safe Button spoke quietly into his mic.

"Hello every creature this is Monster Masher here and I've got a treat for all of you. Now, in the past, I've bought some of the most insanely difficult and unfair games around but wound up rage quitting and leaving them sitting in a box in my closet. Well, this week is glutton for punishment week where I do let's plays on the highest difficulty. Now let the games begin."

Day of the Summer Sun Celebration.

Button finished looking over his stats before leaving his house. Not bad considering how much stat grinding slows down after they reach 50. School was out today for the celebration so Button walked around to see if there was anything he could do. Whenever he saw a quest marker, and there were a lot of them today, he would walk right up and ask if he could help.

"Yes! And all it took was six fetch quests!" Button said happily when he saw Pinkie Pie looking more excited than normal with a quest marker over her head. "Hey Pinkie! Need some help with something?" Button asked as he rushed over. Stopping, Pinkie paused as she gave a hum, looking up while scratching her chin.

"Yeppers! There's a new pony in Ponyville! And a new dragon too! And on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration! Which means I need to throw a super-duper extra fun welcome to Ponyville party! Could you make some deliveries for me so I can work on that?" Pinkie asked.

"Yes!" Button exclaimed as he jumped with joy. He wish he had them sooner but the tools alone make the quest irresistible.

"Great! I have some doughnuts for some construction ponies at the edge of town, some muffins for the post office, and Sweet Apple Acres ran out of cinnamon." Pinkie said as she hopped into the bakery before coming out with the boxes on her back and placing them into...

"Wait what? But that's.. how in the... Pinkie how did my go-kart get here!?" Button cried out in shock. Not just because it was sitting there, never mind the black and white checkered line it was in front of, but because he managed to, with some difficulty, get the thing into his inventory in case he needed it at some point during the event.

"Well, how else are you going to make the deliveries on time silly?" Pinkie asked with a giggle as she gestured for Button to get in. Eye twitching Button climbed into the driver's seat. As soon as he started it up his attention was drawn to a squeaking sound. Looking up he saw Pinkie Pie sitting on a bunch of white balloons as she held a fishing pole with a traffic light on the end of the line. With a beep, the first light lit up. Gaming instincts taking over Button tensed up and got ready to floor it. When the green light lit up he was off like a rocket.

Button continued to be surprised by his power as he saw large rings for him to drive through. Following the giant rings which nopony else could see based on the lack of reaction, Button came to the construction zone and, following the ring's path, drove up a ramp, jumping the fence and landing near some tables where some surprised looking construction workers were standing. Driving forwards with a quick turn he slid the box of doughnuts onto the table before driving off again.

"Should we have yelled at him for that stunt or given him a tip for the fast delivery?" One of the workers asked.

"He's gone now so no point in asking." Another replied as he took out a doughnut and started munching.

Meanwhile, Button was driving down the road, zigzagging to get through each ring leading him on his path. Unfortunately, unable to drop off while staying in his go-kart, Button was forced to run the muffins into the post office himself.

"Special delivery!" Button called out as he jumped up and dropped the muffins in front of a walleyed mare then rushing back out. Taking a stamp the mare pressed it into the boxes then placed them in the outgoing box to be delivered. She then sat back down and waited for her muffins to show up.

Button was in the home stretch now, coming up on Sweet Apple Acres he made a sharp turn at the gate and shot down the path, passing a surprised looking lavender unicorn and baby dragon on the way. Finding that the apples had just finished eating he drove up to Big Mac.

"Cinnamon delivery!" Button called out as he tossed the box onto the red stallion's back.

"Yep." Was Big Mac's response as he gave Button a quick tip in the form of an apple fritter. With a thank you Button was off once again as he followed the rings as they led him back to behind the library, Where he saw Pinkie signaling for him to quickly get inside.

Hours later.

Button was looking around with that sick feeling in his gut that comes with waiting for something scary to happen. While the other ponies were waiting for Princess Celestia Button was focused on his countdown timer. It was almost time...

...3

...2

...1

"Mwahahahahahahahaha!"

Let's Get This Party Started.

There are few things that could draw a young pony's attention away from an evil supervillain when they're monologuing. It just so happens that getting a cutie mark is high on that list. Eyes widening Button turned his head to look at his flank. On it, he saw a video game cabinet like from an arcade, except that the front part under the controls was open with gears and pistons inside. There was also a prize slot on the side like from a claw machine that was spitting out a bob-omb from the Mareio games, Dr. Robotic's Egg mobile that he's always flying around in when fighting Sonic Hooves, and a health potion.

"I know who you are!" The lavender pony that was with the dragon exclaimed. "You're-"

"My flank!" Button Mash cried out in joy.

"She is?" Pinkie Pie asked as she looked between Button and the black alicorn. "Wow, Button you lost so much weight!"

"Did you just call me fat!?" The alicorn demanded.

"Well, isn't that what ponies shed when they're losing pounds?" Pinkie asked innocently. This broke some of the tension in the room as some chuckles started spreading in the crowd.

"You dare mock me!? I am Nightmare Moon! Queen of the night!" The dark alicorn proclaimed while adding lightning for effect. This caused the crowd to gasp with recognition and fear. Smerking at the reaction of the crowd she was about to continue her speech when she was interrupted once again.

"You're the pony that keeps taking so much of our candy every nightmare night! No wonder you're so big!" Pinkie called out in an accusatory manner just before Applejack managed to grab Pinkie and forcefully hold the pink mare's mouth shut while continuing to hold on to Rainbow Dash's tail with her teeth. Not that it did anything to stop the laughter filling the room.

"Enough! I will not be mocked! I have brought you all night time eternal so that you may all bask in my works. But it appears that you all must first drown in terror before you can appreciate it. And supply the first soldiers in my army!" Nightmare Moon shouted as she charged up a spell. Button, as a gamer, recognized a charged attack to mean two things. One, get out of the way. Two, hit them while they're just standing there. He chose both options. While everypony was looking up at the charging spell Button pulled out a nerf gun from his inventory but from under a table sheet, just in case he was being watched, took aim, and fired at Nightmare Moon's horn. His high DEX stat served him well and the upgraded toy hit its target, disrupting the spell while at the same time the ball it fired broke open, covering Nightmare Moon's face with sneezing powder.

As soon as the shot had been fired Button decided that he should find someplace to hide for one very important reason.

No way was he going to just stand there out in the open with a boss that's a high enough level to show 4 skulls. So he dove for cover under a table while keeping an eye out for if he needed to move or attack again.

Growling Nightmare Moon shook her head to try and get the powder off while once more attempting to cast the spell. But as it was charging the sneezing powder took effect and with a mighty sneeze, Nightmare Moon managed to launch herself out a back window while at the same time letting off a watered-down version of the spell. Rarity, who was on the balcony with the dark alicorn, was out of the line of fire. Twilight, being a powerful mage, managed to protect herself and the baby dragon with a shield spell. Pinkie Pie's famous Pinkie sense kicked in and she tackled Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who were with her, under a nearby table. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo were already hiding under a table together, Fluttershy had also hidden under her own table as soon as Nightmare Moon showed up.

The rest of the ponies in the town hall were less fortunate and were hit with the dark magic, making them quickly fall to the floor and start snoring.

"What in the hay happened!?" AJ demanded when all of the lucky ponies who managed to avoid the spell stuck their heads out to look around.

"Button... where did you get that?" Sweetie asked as she pointed at his toy gun.

"That's my apprentice!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she scooped Button up in a hug while beaming with pride. "What a great prank gun!"

"Never mind," Sweetie said as she and all the others stopped questioning him pulling a sneeze gun out of nowhere as soon as they heard 'Pinkie's apprentice'. Anything else that might have been said went out the window when Twilight ran out the door. Suspicious, Rainbow quickly flew after her.

"Oh for the love of, Apple Bloom you stay here and keep hidden!" Applejack called back as she gave chase as well.

"You too Sweetie Belle," Rarity added as she followed.

"I'll just wait here and watch the kids if that's alright with eep!" Fluttershy's words were cut off as a passing Pinkie hopped under the flying mare, causing the yellow pegasus to grab on by reflex and with wide eyes, rode the bouncing earth pony out of the building.

"... So, I'm Spike. Nice to meet you." The baby dragon said to the group. While he got helloes from the others Button was thinking of a way to get out unnoticed. He didn't do all that grinding to sit on the sidelines after all.

"So, about that..." Spike began to ask as he pointed at Button's gun.

"Don't. Trust us, I don't know how Button can learn from Pinkie let alone learn how to do... pink stuff, but you don't want to ask questions about it." Scootaloo said while the other two fillies just nodded.

As soon as he finished reading the new quest Button's attention was drawn to his mini-map where several little red dots started to appear. Looking in the direction of those dots he saw the sleeping ponies tossing and turning as some kind of black sand started falling off them. He watched as the black sand started to lift up while purple bolts of electricity started shooting around them and they started to take monstrous forms. Button Mash only had one thing to say about this.

"Oh dang."

"Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!" Nightmare Moon was sneezing herself through the air and was halfway back to Canterlot when she collected her thoughts enough to take on her mist form, allowing the sneezing powder to fall through her. Once that was done with she flew back to the small town just in time to see some ponies rushing into a treehouse. Slowly, Nightmare Moon slithered like a snake through the air towards the closest window.

"The Elements of Harmony, a reference guide." That gave the dark alicorn pause. Rather than bust in, She waited by the window, staying just out of sight to listen in on the conversation. Nightmare Moon was a little confused about what she learned. Why would Celestia just leave such important and powerful artifacts just sitting in the old castle? Whatever the reason she couldn't just leave them out there to be used against her. So Nightmare Moon left directly towards the old castle to search for them, breaking off a piece of herself to stop any who might go looking for them. Not long after Nightmare Moon left the six ponies that were inside the library departed towards the Everfree Forest.

"Pinkie darling... what are you wearing?" Rarity asked as she saw that at some point between when they were inside the library and now, Pinkie had dressed up in a green tunic with a matching green hat that would be in the shape of a cone if it weren't flopped over to the side.

"They're hero clothes silly." Pinkie answered.

"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with... this." Rarity said as she looked at Pinkie's outfit with disgust.

"Why would y'all even need them clothes for?" Applejack asked.

"Because we're on a quest to get some magic artifacts to defeat a dark lord." Pinkie replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. None of the others had any kind of response for this so opted to drop it.

"What are you doing!? Run!" Sweetie shouted at Button. When they heard Button mash say 'oh dang' they followed his line of sight to see monsters taking form. When the others screamed and ran, Button pulled another gun from nowhere and started shooting. Unlike the one before, this one didn't shoot status effect ammo as he called them, but baseballs instead. The gun had two wheels that once he pulled the trigger started spinning at high speeds while balls were continuously pushed into it for rapid-fire.

"I'm covering your retreat just go!" Button shouted back without taking his eyes off the warped looking clown whose head he was turning into a smashed lump. After a few more headshots the clown gave one last demented laugh before breaking apart into particles of black sand.

Doing a quick reload, Button Moved on to the giant snake, he let loose with another shower of balls at its head. Dodging the snake's strike he realized too late that there was a giant bat flying right at him, its mouth open wide to sink its fangs into the currently airborne colt. Button was about to pull an airhorn from his inventory when the bat was chased off with a blast of green flames. Quickly taking aim and firing on the giant snake once more, Button spared a glance at the frightened but determined Spike that had joined him in battle.

"This is a bad idea!" Apple Bloom screamed while the 3 fillies charged in together to try and tackle a moving tree. When the three of them hit it the nightmare tree fell over and coughed up a glob of tree sap that landed on the fillies. Undeterred, Apple Bloom started bucking the tree's branches off while the other two just wailed on the now defenseless nightmare.

Finishing the snake while Spike watched his back, Button reloaded his weapon once more to finish this first wave. With a screech, the bat flew down at the fillies, causing Sweetie and Scootaloo to jump out of the way. Instead of aiming for the head, this time Button aimed for one of the wings. The shot managed to knock the bat to the ground head first while all of them save for Apple Bloom, who was still bucking the nightmare tree, ganged up on the bat. Enraged and in pain, the giant bat flailed around to get its attackers off of it. Seeing an opening, the bat managed to bite down on Sweetie Belle's hind leg and flung her across the room.

"Sweetie Belle!" Button cried out causing the bat to look at him and give out a screech. Something that Button took advantage of by shooting a ball down its throat where it got stuck, causing the bat to choke on it. They all then left the bat to choke to death and the tree to just lay there uselessly while they ran over to a crying Sweetie Belle. Without a second thought, Button quickly pulled out a health potion and put it to her mouth.

"Quick, drink this!" Button said as he tilted it up, causing Sweetie to chug the entire bottle. The wound on Sweetie Belle's leg almost instantly started glowing green with little particles floating off of them. Once the lights were gone, so were any signs that she had ever been hurt. Not even the blood that had already fallen to the floor remained. Carefully, Sweetie moved her leg to see that it was fine. Not even a little pain was felt. Slowly they all looked to Button Mash who just realized that in his rush to save Sweetie he forgot to use any slight of hoof and just pulled a potion out of thin air for all to see, not to mention that he produced a potion that instantly healed such a bad injury. Looking at their questioning gazes he tried to think of some way to salvage this situation. He could only think of one way.

"I'll tell you... But only if you make a Pinkie Promise to keep it secret." Spike had no idea why the three fillies suddenly got so tense. Sweetie was the first to make the promise to keep his secret, followed shortly by Scootaloo and Applebloom. All eyes now on Spike, the young dragon gave in to both peer pressure and his own curiosity and copied the motions of the others. Nodding, Button Mash decided to start by using a feature that he read about in the help list from the menu.

"Invite Sweetie Belle to party. Invite Scootaloo to party. Invite Applebloom to party. Invite Spike to party." With each invite, he saw the others flinch back in surprise at something he couldn't see. "Just accept the invitation, it will help."

Eyes wide, the new players looked around at the names and levels floating over each other's heads. As this was happening Button Mash noticed that new red dots were starting to appear on his mini-map.

"Sorry but complete explanations will have to wait. The next wave just showed up!" Button called out as he dumped several of his creations on the ground for the others to chose from. Turning he saw what looked like Diamond Tiara in a ballerina outfit but where her face should be was a gaping mouth inside another mouth which was inside yet another mouth, all of which had sharp teeth. There was also a group of 4 ponies, two wearing fancy suits, and two in normal clothes, all of them wearing white masks that look like the faces of dolls. Next to them as a pale unicorn with no hair anywhere on his body. In his magic, he held a round puzzle, though the most attention-grabbing thing was the buzzsaw blades stuck in his head. Speaking of buzzsaws, the last one to take form was a robot that moved on 4 spider-like legs and had a buzzsaw tipped arm that came out of the top like a scorpion tail.

"Dibs on the robot." Button said as he put his ball gun away then took out a toy bazooka and shot it at the death machine. A foam rocket flew out of the weapon and hit the robot, peeling on contact to cover as much of the robot that it could and sticking to it. Then several overcharged joy buzzers that were built into the rocket let all of their electricity out at once doing major damage and inflicting a stunning debuff. Quickly taking some sunglasses from his inventory he put them on and smiled.

"You've just... been nerfed," Button said.

"How long have you been waiting to use that line?" Spike asked as he picked up a bat that covered every part of itself except the handle with electricity when the young dragon pushed a button.

"Since I saw the nerf guns in the toy store."

Author's Notes:

I was going to end this chapter after giving the monster descriptions but went a little further because I wanted to make that nerf pun before anyone could make it in the comments.

Nightmares in Punyville.

Again? Button thought as he got another level up. In the library dungeon, he only gained one level-up and even then it was only after killing the boss. Now he got two level-ups in two waves and those are just the normal mobs. Wow, nightmares are great for XP! I wonder how much XP the bosses give. Button thought as he watched the last pony in a doll mask break down into black sand. The pony with the buzzsaws in his head had already been taken out by Spike and the two were working together on the doll masked ponies, and now the two were rushing over to help the three fillies take on the ballerina with the mouthes for a face as it danced while fighting the three.

"How in tarnation is this thing able to be more annoying than the real Diamond Tiara!?" Apple Bloom demanded as the nightmare danced around another shot from the punch cannon. As soon as the punching glove retracted back into the weapon's barrel she fired it again, the nightmare dodged it by giving a graceful bow towards Apple Bloom, as if thanking her for the compliment.

"I'm out of ammo! Hold her off while I reload!" Scootaloo called out as she started running around the room to collect baseballs. As she was doing this, Sweetie had given up on her first weapon and just planted herself where the weapons were piled. She would pick up one weapon, give a few shots to see if she'd like it, then toss it aside to find a different one. Taking aim, Button fired at the dancing nightmare only, much to his surprise, he missed! This was the first time he missed a shot thanks to his DEX stat. But the nightmare hadn't looked like it had any trouble dancing out of the way.

"Sweetie, use the big blue one that looks like a cross between a water gun and a cannon! When she fires, every creature else back off!" Button called out. Looking around Sweetie found the weapon and with a grunt, lifted the gun that was almost as big as she was. When she pulled the trigger it started sucking in air from some vents in the back and fired off a wave of-

"Bubbles! What in the hay are bubbles going to do to it!?" Scootaloo screamed when she saw the large wave of bubbles overtake the nightmare. Any further criticism was cut off by a bone-rattling shriek from the dancing nightmare.

"Well, for one I bought the hottest peppers I could find and left them to soak in the bubble solution for a few days," Button called out over the racket the nightmare was making. "And another thing is when enough bubbles pop in one area, it covers that area with small amounts of the bubble solution, and on a smooth floor like this..." Button let the sentence trail off when the dancing nightmare slipped and fell to the floor. An opportunity that all with a ranged weapon took advantage of to bombard the nightmare until it joined it's comrades as black sand on the ground.

"Is everypony alright?" Spike asked the others.

"We're fine. Every time it tried to attack one of us the others forced it to back off by shooting at it. I think it needed to hold still a sec to attack and we didn't give it one." Apple Bloom replied.

"Can I get one in pink with hearts on it?" Sweetie Belle asked as she hugged the bubble gun like it was a favorite stuffed animal.

"Can I get some answers now?" Scootaloo asked while giving Button an accusatory look.

"Well, I should start with the fact that I have video game powers." Button began.

"Okay, that is really cool," Spike said aloud.

"Which includes quests like this one where I have to stop ten waves of nightmares, one mini-boss, and one boss." Button continued. He let that sit for a moment as he tightened his grip on his weapon.

"And we've defeated two waves," Spike said in fear as he looked at the sleeping ponies. The others looked as well and sure enough, they could all see more of that black sand falling out of the tossing and turning ponies. Black sand that was starting to take on several forms.

The first monster of wave three was a lycanthrope that was killed by Scootaloo getting a lucky shot, getting a baseball lodged in its throat. Not to be outdone by Button's earlier one-liner, she gave her best cool pose and said, "Go fetch, now play dead."

Then there were two unicorn doctors, one with bloody surgical tools in its magic and the other with a needle that was bigger than it was. Spike went after those two and used his fire breath on them. "You two are needed in the ER stat! For some forth degree burns!"

A mummy that Sweetie defeated by shooting at it with random guns from the pile seeing as the bubbles didn't appear to have any effect. "And that's a wrap."

A group of scarecrows that Apple Bloom took down by just running around them while pounding them with the punch cannon. When the last one went down she opened her mouth but paused. "Dagnabit! I got nothing!"

And the last of the third wave was a horde of zombies that Button handled by baiting them into the slick floor where the bubble gun was used on the dancing nightmare, and when they all fell to the floor he took out his old spiked bat and started smashing their heads, waiting till they started turning back into black sand before giving his line. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

"I beat the stuffing out of them!" Apple Bloom shouted out excitedly but her face fell at the looks the others gave her. "...too late?" She asked getting nods from the others.

"Don't worry Apple Bloom, we still have seven waves to beat up!" Sweetie Belle assured while patting Bloom on the back.

Two waves, one level up and several puns and one-liners later the room started filling with ominous music. Tension rose as the light started to dim and the sleeping ponies had a spike in fear causing more black sand than normal to come out and concentrate in one spot.

"Here comes the mini-boss. Get ready." Button warned though it was not needed.

"No way," Scootaloo said when the nightmare took form.

"It's him." Apple Bloom said with wide eyes.

"It's a bunny rabbit." Spike deadpanned.

"It's angel!" Sweetie exclaimed.

"I think that the nightmares get stronger the more scared the ponies are of the form they take. So the two bosses probably take the form of something the entire town knows could show up for real." Button theorized.

"It's a bunny rabbit," Spike repeated in exasperation. 'Angel' apparently took offense to that as it turned to face Spike with a murderous glare and crouched down before jumping at the young dragon with enough force to send him crashing into the wall behind him. He didn't have time to recover before 'Angel' was on him again, clinging to Spike's arm and biting into it with sharp pointy teeth. Screaming in pain, Spike started desperately swinging his arm around in an attempt to dislodge it. He tries to smash the little nightmare against the wall only for it to shoot across his body and start chewing his other arm by the time the first arm struck the wall.

"Help! Get it off!" Spike cried out as he stopped, dropped, and rolled but the 'Angel just wouldn't let up.

"I'll save you!" Sweetie called out as she took aim.

"No! Not the bubbles!" Spike cried out in fear but Sweetie fired anyways. A wave of bubbles bombarded the baby dragon making him cover his eyes and keep his mouth shut in hopes that the burning juices wouldn't get to him. But thanks to the wave of bubbles being so thick when he took in a breath some of the smaller ones went up his nose. The burning sensation caused him to open his eyes wide and his mouth to open to let out a scream. The consequences of which were easily predicted. At the very least the bubble attack had the desired effect of making 'Angel' give up its attack. The little nightmare gave off a demonic sounding wail from its eyes getting blasted as well as chewing on an extra spicy dragon with soapy seasoning.

Now blinded and gagging the nightmare hopped away to escape the sadistic bubbles, allowing the others to attack it without worrying about hitting a comrade. Ears twitching at the sound of the attack it jumped away in time to avoid the attack.

"Hold still ya varmint!" Apple Bloom shouted as she continued to fail to land a single shot.

"Well, I was saving this for a boss." Button said as he pulled a large weapon mounted on a stand and attached to a large container filled with golf balls. Turning on the motor he took aim and pulled the trigger causing the four barrels to rapid-fire the balls at the rabbit. The widespread fire and high DEX of the one shooting made it impossible for the blind nightmare to dodge them all. As 'Angel' started taking large amounts of damage it started hopping towards Button as the bombardment didn't allow it to charge up a cannon jump. Once it was close Button reached into his inventory grabbed onto his spiked bat. Using its ears to pinpoint its target 'Angel' jumped at Button just in time for Button to swing the bat with every point of STR he had.

With a sigh of relief, Button looked towards his comrades to see that apparently the waves didn't wait for one fight to be complete as they were fighting off a fresh wave of monsters after seeing Button had the mini-boss. Quickly Button rushed over to his friends to do battle for five more waves. Once that was done Button passed out health and stamina potions before taking some himself to be ready for the boss.

"If Button is right, then whatever shows up will be the thing the town fears most. So what is that?" Spike asked the others causing the ponies to scrunch their faces in thought.

"We're about to find out," Scootaloo said as she pointed to the sleeping ponies that were now flailing and whimpering in their sleep as large amounts of black sand fell from every sleeper and pulled together and took on the form of one of the ponies from town. One eye showing looking at them as the other was covered by her long pink main.

"But she's so nice," Sweetie said in confusion. "Why would ponies be afraid-" Sweetie Belle was cut off as the boss did something none of the other nightmares before did. She spoke.

"You..." She said as her other eye came into view as she moved her strait main out of the way, her face contorting in rage. "You broke a Pinkie promise... NOPONY BREAKS A PINKIE PROMISE!

Author's Notes:

Name: Button Mash
Level: 20
Class: Gadgeteer- Level 17
HP: 640
SP: 640
MP: 50

STR: 77
VIT: 64
DEX: 65
INT: 61
WIZ: 55
MAG: 50

Points 95

Like a BOSS!

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The young ponies screamed as they ran out the door, a fearful Spike not far behind. Fortunately, as there were too many eyes when they went into town hall Button was unable to put his go-kart back in his inventory so he had it parked next to the door. Jumping in, Button wasted no time in starting it up, waiting only long enough for the others to cram in.

"Get back here! No pony breaks a Pinkie promise!"

Button took off at top speed as the doors to town hall exploded from the force of the charging nightmare. She barely paused to lock on to her targets before giving chase.

"She's gaining on us!" Scootaloo shouted as she looked back. This caused the others to give a glance back at the oncoming nightmare.

"Wait, you made me make a Pinkie promise! What happens if you break one?!" Spike asked in a panic.

"Don't!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo shouted out at once.

"Pinkie Pie takes her Pinkie promises very seriously." Sweetie Belle replied. "She says that breaking a promise loses trust and losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend."

"Forever!" Pinkie Pie cried out as ominously as she could. The party looked in surprise at Pinkie Pie, dressed as Link, and the upper half of her body sticking out of her nightmare counterpart's mouth. Her forehooves on each jaw, keeping the mouth wide open so as not to be bitten by the nightmare's sharp teeth. Giving one last warning look Pinkie slipped back into the nightmare's mouth. Other than spitting out a piece of curly pink hare Pinkamena showed no reaction to what just happened. Not even slowing down for a moment.

"...Did... did the real Pinkie just..." Spike tried to ask with a disturbed expression.

"Remember what we said about Button Mash doing pink things?" Apple Bloom asked Spike.

"Don't ask questions?" Spike replied with uncertainty.

"Don't ask questions." Apple Bloom confirmed.

"But wait! Didn't she go off with the others? Does that mean Twilight and the others will know to come help us?" Spike asked the others. Button Mash felt his heart drop to his stomach at hearing this. If they come and defeat the boss then he would lose out on the XP and Loot. He might even fail the quest!

"Hold on tight if you don't want to get flung off!" Button warned his party members as he looked back at the nightmare. It was close now, its jaws open wide as if ready to bite into the kart. Once it was close enough he slammed on the breaks allowing Pinkamena to crash headfirst into the back of the vehicle. Hoping that it was enough to stun her Button tried to get the kart moving again but all he heard was the sound of tires screeching. Looking back they saw that Pinkamena had bit down on the back of the kart and was holding it in place. With a grunt from Pinkamena, the party felt themselves being lifted up as the nightmare lifted the go-kart, passengers and all, off the ground, and started spinning around in circles.

"Button! Do something!" Sweetie screamed out as they all clung to the kart. Looking at the four buttons next to the steering wheel, Button pushed the B button causing six slots to open up in the back and gave Pinkamena a point-blank blast of bubbles. With a shriek, Pinkamena let go of the kart and allowing it, and its passengers to go flying two blocks before crashing down.

"How much bubble solution do you have!?" Spike asked after looking back at the bubble smoke screen.

"All of it. I bought every drop in town." Button replied as he turned the kart around to face the boss.

"Well, do you have anything stronger? Like a gun that shoots spinning buzzsaw blades or maybe a bomb to throw at her!?" Scootaloo asked as she gestured at Pinkamena who was slowly walking towards them, her eyes had turned from blue to red with pulsing blood vesicles clearly showing. Her sharp teeth bared as she growled like a wolf, drool dripping to the ground as she fixated her hatred at the team.

"I'm a colt! Who's going to sell me buzzsaw blades or explosives!? I can only work with what I have!" Button Mash exclaimed as he started driving towards Pinkamena at full speed. With an unholy scream, Pinkamena met Button's charge with her own.

"Button! What are you doing!?" Sweetie cried out when she saw that they and the nightmare were on a collision course. Button didn't respond, he only moved one of his hooves to the Y button. Once they were close enough he pushed the button turning on his headlights making Pinkamena, who was already having to fight to keep her eyes open from the pepper bubbles, close her eyes and give out a pained shriek as Button quickly pushed the A button causing two slots to open up on the front and fire off two nerf rockets that stuck to the charging nightmare and once they peeled open to cover more of Pinkamena they let loose sixteen overcharged joy buzzers worth of electricity into her.

"She's not stopping!" Spike cried out as he pointed at the pink engine of destruction barreling towards them. Eyes widening Button tries to make a quick turn to get out of the way of the charging nightmare with no success. Pinkamena crashed into the go-kart, sending it flipping through the air, causing the party members to go flying in all directions, and without slowing down from the collision she continued charging forwards and crashed into a two-story house with enough force to bring the entire thing crashing down on her. Slowly, the young party got up with groans.

"Ug, is everypony alright?" Button asked before getting whacked upside the head.

"What in the hay were you thinking!? We should've just kept driving away not playing chicken with her!" Apple Bloom shouted as she glared at Button.

"But... but she was catching up with us anyways!" Button tried to defend himself while covering his head for protection.

"Don't give me that! Yall had a bubble smoke screen doohicky built into your go-kart. Yall could have used that to slow her down!" Apple Bloom shouted back. Button was about to shout back when their attention was drawn to a loud thud.

"No way," Spike said in a tone of disbelief as they all looked at the remains of the collapsed building. It was at that moment that Button realized something.

"Crap! I never got any XP or loot from her! That means we haven't beaten her yet!" Button exclaimed as he rushed back over to the kart and pushed it back onto its wheels. Giving it a look over he was relieved that it was still working, even if the hood was missing, the front bent, the driver's and passenger's seats were missing their backs, and the paint was scratched all over.

'Thud'

"Quick, get in!" Button shouted as he jumped into the kart.

'Thud'

"Oh no you don't! If you want to attack her so much you can do it while she's chasing us. I'll drive." Spike said as he pushed his way into the driver's seat.

'Thud'

"I can't find my punch gun!" Apple Bloom cried out.

"No time just get in the kart!" Scootaloo called out as she and Sweetie jumped in themselves.

"You can't run forever! It makes no difference where you are or how fast you move! You can't hide from me! You can't get away! When you break a Pinkie promise..." With one final thud a large chunk of brick wall was knocked aside. Pinkamena crawled up with unnatural movements, almost like a bad stop motion animation. As she stood they saw that her head was facing the wrong direction and had a piece of metal pipe pierced through her chest. One of the toy rockets were still stuck to her, causing flashes of electricity across her body. Gripping her head in her forehooves she gave a sharp twist and with a crack so loud it echoed off the building walls her head was facing the right way again. "YOU WILL PAY!"

"Apple Bloom get your flanks in the kart now!" Scootaloo shouted in panic as she watched Pinkamena pull the shock rocket off and slowly pull the pipe out of her chest, some black sand bleeding out. Not needing to be told again, Apple Bloom jumped in and they were off. With a scream of rage, the pink juggernaut was on their tail again.

Fortunately, after the mini-boss Button took each break re-collecting the ammo for the gun that took down the evil bunny and, after fully reloading the weapon, put the gun back into his inventory. Pulling it back out and doing his best to secure it to the back of the kart. Skootaloo and Apple Bloom helped by holding it down by its base. Taking aim, Button bombarded Pinkamena with a volley of golf balls.

"Come on, how many hit points does she have?" Button asked out loud as Pinkamena just took the shots and kept charging forwards. If anything she was speeding up as she grew angrier. He was even pretty sure that she was suffering from a bleeding effect from the hole made from that pipe.

"Push the B button!" Button called out but when Spike did, all they got was grinding noises instead of a bubble smokescreen.

"Ummm... what does the X button do?" Spike asked nervously.

"It pops the hood." Button replied as he kept shooting. She was close, too close for any of their comfort. Remembering how he finished off the mini-boss Button reacted as soon as Pinkamena lept at them, her jaws wide open to sink her sharp teeth into the party members. Pulling his spiked bat out he swang it with all his might right into her open mouth. with the sound of gagging and cracking bones, Pinkamena lost her balance from the shock and botched her landing causing her to land on her chin making her jaws slam shut. All but Spike who was watching the road cringed at the nails protruding from Pinkamena's muzzle.

Quickly, Pinkamena managed to grab onto the back of the go-kart with one hoof and was now being dragged along on her belly as she glared up at the foals. Not wanting to give her a moment Button kept firing point-blank shots at her head getting headshot after headshot. Giving off a cross between a growl and a gurgle Pinkamena used her free hoof to grab onto the bad and started tugging at it until she was able to rip it out while giving out an ear-piercing scream. Muzzle now black and leaking more of that sand Pinkamena swung the spiked bat and smashed Button's gun.

"Spike, I'll take the wheel, go help them!" Sweetie shouted as she took over for the dragon. In a rush, Spike turned around and started blasting Pinkamena with a continuous stream of fire, making her scream in pain and rage. Pulling the spiked bat out of the large weapon Pinkamena readied another swing, this time at Spike's head.

"Get back!" Button shouted as he used his strength to lift the now damaged weapon and bring it down on the nightmare's head.

"That's it! We won!" Button exclaimed making the others sigh in relief and Sweetie Belle brought the Kart to a stop. And with a flash and some music, several chests appeared around them. Each with a name written on them except two. One had a lock in the shape of a bunny head and the other was made of black metal with purple gems encrusted patterns. Button practically teleported to the last two which he recognized as quest rewards and started looking through his winnings while giggling with joy.

"What's going on?" Scootaloo asked as she watched.

"Loot from defeating the boss. Look, those chests have our names on them so the prizes in them are for us." Spike replied resulting in Scootaloo shooting over to her own chest to see what she got. Despite the situation they were just in, the others rushed to their chests like they were Harthswarming presents.

A little while later and miserable failure in Scootaloo's and Apple Bloom's attempts to get Button to part with anything in the boss chests as those wore rewards for his quest that they didn't have, the group was sitting in a circle going over their rewards while Button explained everything.

"And that's everything that happened up to this point. Oh sweet! A pet!" Button exclaimed when he found a pet carrier that gave a popup asking if he wanted to claim the pet. Button didn't even hesitate in pushing yes making a toy-sized Pinkamena appear in front of him. This caused the others to freeze in fear for a moment at the sight of it.

"It's okay, it's just a pet. She can't hurt us." Button assured.

"You sure about that?" Apple Bloom asked as she eyed the tiny nightmare.

"Yes, pets, unless they're used by a pet class, just follow their owners around and in some games do tricks." Button explained. To demonstrate he put his hoof down in front of his pet only for her to respond by giving him a hoof bump.

"Dawww, that's cute." Sweetie gushed.

"Yes yes, creepy pinkie doll won't try to kill us. Now on to the important thing... You said that a quest gave you your cutie mark?" Scootaloo asked getting the other fillies full attention.

"Yes, it was a quest reward." Button admitted. "Why are you three looking at me like that?"

"And as long as we're in your team we could get a quest that would give us cutie marks as a reward?" Sweetie asked.

"I don't see why not. As long as you keep your promise I don't plan on kicking you guys off the team." Button replied getting beaming smiles from the fillies.

"We aren't going after Nightmare Moon are we?" Spike asked nervously.

"As much as I want that loot and XP I don't think we could take her. Not when the normal boss was that tough." Button admitted. "Besides, all the ponies that left had matching titles. Pinkie was chosen of laughter, Applejack was chosen of honesty, Rainbow dash was chosen of loyalty. That just screams chosen ones. I'm sure they'll win."

"Okay, so what now?" Spike asked and Button had to pause at that. As soon as he saw that countdown timer he focused on that quest and never once consider what he would do after. Then, he remembered something his teacher had once said.

Oh, oh, maybe he somehow got superpowers and is training to be a superhero! He can go by, The Gamer! Or, or maybe Game Over!

A huge grin spread across Button's face at the idea of becoming a superhero. No, a team of superheroes! A grin that spreads to the others when he suggests it. They were surprised when the sun rose and at Button's instruction they shoveled all of their loot, chests included into their inventory.

"Right, be thinking of your classes, and remember don't spend stat points till you've at least grind the stat past 50." Button said.

"I have a question," Spike said getting the other's attention. Pointing at the mini Pinkamena who was chewing on a normal size piece of gum with her sharp teeth he asked. "How are you going to explain that?"

All It Takes For Evil To Thrive Is For Good Ponies To Do Nothing.

"Will you accept my friendship?" Princess Celestia asked her little sister with hopeful eyes. Princess Luna hesitated for only a moment before brushing her face against her sister's neck.

"I missed you so much big sister," Luna said with tears falling from her eyes.

"I missed you too" Celestia replied as she started to cry as well. Though not as much as Pinkie pie who was crying out a greater volume of salty water that should be in her entire body. However, the pink pony quickly got over it, and instead became excited.

"Hey, you know what this calls for? A party!" Pinkie exclaimed. "We can have it in Ponyville as soon as you wake all of the ponies you put to sleep!"

"We would need to clear out the nightmares first. There might have also been some damage to the town as well." Luna said getting confused looks from most of the ponies in the room, so she explained. "The spell we used didn't just put them to sleep but turned their deepest nightmares into reality. I... was going to use those abominations as troops in our conquest." The room became deathly quiet at that statement.

"Are you telling us... that after we left the town hall started filling with bloodthirsty monsters?" Rarity asked as she somehow managed to grow even paler than she already was.

"Indeed, but worry not. They will not attack their dreamers, so all of the ponies we hit with the spell are safe." Luna tried to reassure them but instead, she and her sister were bolled over and trampled by a white unicorn and an orange earth pony who were rushing out of the castle. There was an explosion of rainbows in the sky as Rainbow Dash took off out of a hole in the wall, followed shortly by Fluttershy who took off like a yellow and pink bullet. Even Twilight ignored the princesses getting trampled as she teleported out of there. "Was it something we said?" Luna asked with a groan.

"Wellllll, Twilight protected Spike with a force field and four foals didn't get hit because they were hiding under tables. And they told the kids to wait in the town hall where you just said all those monsters showed up in." Pinkie Pie explained causing the two princesses' faces to twist into a look of horror. Jumping to their hooves, the princesses took off after the two runners while Celestia carried Pinkie Pie with her magic.

With a flash of light, a frazzled and slightly singed Twilight appeared in the middle of town and after taking a moment to shake off the disorientation she rushed back to town hall as fast as her squishy nerd legs could run. She managed to make it there just in time to see Rainbow dash fly in through the door and ran in at the same time as Fluttershy.

"Spike! Spike where are you!?" Twilight cried out in a panic.

"Scoots say something!" Rainbow shouted.

"Children please come out!" Fluttershy begged. But there was no reply. The only sound other than from the three mares was the grunts from a moving tree that had gotten a brutal trimming and was wiggling on the floor, unable to get up. The place looked like a war zone with all the decorations and tables trashed, the food everywhere, and the ponies laying on the floor like dead bodies. With a flash of golden light the princesses, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie appeared in the room.

"Wow, Button has been busy," Pinkie said as she saw the makeshift weapons all over the place.

"Pinkie this is serious! We have to find the children!" Twilight shouted.

"Then why are you looking in here? They left already." Pinkie said as she pointed to the door that had been smashed apart from the inside. It had just dawned on them that the children probably would have run away when the monsters started showing up. Rushing out the door it didn't take long for them to notice the obvious tracks leading away. It was no secret that Button was a proud owner of a shiny new go-kart so it wasn't hard to imagine the kids using it to get away. More concerning was the hoof prints that let the same way. They looked the right size for a pony but they were too deep. Whatever made them was ether unnaturally heavy or monstrously strong.

Not wasting a single second they all followed the tracks. The first strange thing they found were deeper hoof prince in front of two deeper parts of the tracks with thrown dirt like they were trying to drive but the nightmare had caught them and was holding them back. The tracks disappear from that point and reappeared further away where the ground had been torn up and the hood of Button's go-kart had been laying, bent, and stuck in the ground. Smaller hoof prints could be found in the area as well where the tire tracks started again. They had been thrown, kart and all. The most distressing part was the collapsed building not far away.

"You don't think-?" Fluttershy asked as she looked at the building with fear but was quickly corrected.

"More tracks heading away!" Luna said as she pointed down the new path. As the ponies followed there was something new that Princess Luna noticed. A trail of black sand. Whatever was chasing the children had been hurt. Luna became more confused as the trail grew thicker but was soon distracted by cries of happiness when they found the foals next to the wreckage of Button's go-kart. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom gave out surprised yelps as their big sisters tackle-hugged them and gave out cries of protests at being smothered.

Things were not adding up for Luna. There was a pile of black sand, fear made solid in the form of tiny crystals. Based on the size of the pile it should have been too much for mear foals to handle. And yet they appear to be fine. Her eyes narrowed at the only colt of the group who was obviously keeping Luna in the corner of his eyes. She could feel it, another nightmare behind him. But when she tried to move around to get a clear shot he kept moving to block her sight. Narrowing her eyes she cast a fear sight spell. The nightmare wasn't affecting his mind. Putting the kill on sight plan on hold when she made a quick movement she caught sight and cast a spell to compel it to do what it wanted. This would reveal how bad it was and decide her next course of action. The colt's eyes widened as the small nightmare ran up to his head and as Luna charged up a spell to eradicate it... It jumped up onto the propeller on Button's hat and just sat there, enjoying the experience of just spinning around and around.

That's what it wanted to do most of all? Luna thought as she watched, flabergasted as the twisted creation of dark magic simply rode on the spinning piece on Button's hat like an excitable child. Quick as lightning, the colt grabbed his hat with one hoof, the nightmare with the other, and stuffed the pink little monster under his hat and secured it back onto his head. Did it help fight whatever was chasing them? Luna wondered. She decided not to ruin the moment and let it go for now. But she was definitely going to keep a close eye on those two.

"Useless." Nightmare Moon said as she finished off the tree nightmare and absorbed its black sand. No, not Nightmare moon, but her shadow. A fraction that had been broken off and as such escaped the rainbow cannon. She had failed. She had tried to stop the ponies from getting the Elements but she was too weak. After failing with the rainbow-haired one she would have returned to her body but instead came back to collect the nightmares as reinforcements. But when she got there they were already slain and nothing more than black sand on the floor. And to make matters worse the sun had risen high into the sky. This was bad for her as she didn't have the ability to survive for long in the sunlight.

"I need more power, more fear." She growled. She looked down at the sleeping ponies but discarded the idea of using them again. She barely managed to hide in time when she heard the Elements of Harmony coming. She needed to leave now. But she also needed more fear. And she dared not enter the dream realm until she felt that she was strong enough to crush Luna. She would need help. There must be those out there who crave power. She could use them, with her knowledge of forbidden magics long forgotten to the world 'if Celestia had anything to say about it' she could have powerful minions to spread fear for her until she was strong enough to claim what is rightfully hers. With a scowl, she tore off a banner to use as a cloak and fled the town.

Jackpot Winner!

Once the group had made it back to town hall, Luna looked around.

"Thou are certain that thou have defeated all of the other nightmares here?" Luna asked the children.

"Yep, we dusted them all!" Scootaloo proclaimed.

"All except the... hey, were did the evil tree go?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"It may have used the nightmare sand of its fallen comrades to heal itself." Luna guessed. "We can not feel its presence though, it must have fled."

"I'll have some guards sent to keep watch until it's found," Celestia told them. Without further words, Luna's horn lit up the room and all of the sleeping ponies awoke with groans and groggy questions about what was going on.

"Attention my little ponies," Celestia called out getting the crowd's attention. "First I would like to assure you all that the threat of Nightmare Moon is over." At those words, the ponies started stamping their hooves while cheering. "And I would like to thank these six ponies for not only saving all of Equestria from Nightmare Moon but even more so I would like to thank them for saving my sister Princess Luna, who has finally returned home." Celestia smiled at her blushing sister while letting the cheering go on a little more. "And we should all thank these little ones." Celestia gestured to Button and his party. "For when there was no one else, these brave young heroes defended the town from invading nightmares-"

"WHAT!?" Eyes widening, ponies quickly scrambled in an attempt to get out of the way. Moms were terrifying when they think their children were in any danger. When that mother's special talent is, in and of itself, being a mother...

How did mom's level jump into the triple digits?! Button exclaimed in his mind as he watched his mom crash through the other ponies like an out of control train. Button's ears folded back as he braced himself for the coming humiliation.

"My baby! Button are you hurt?!" Mommy Mash asked as she quickly snatched him up and lifted him to eye level. This, however, resulted in his hat being knocked off. Blinking in surprise, Mommy looked up at the thing on her son's head. It looked like a tiny Pinkie Pie but with darker shades of pink and its mane and tail were perfectly straight. That alone raised some red flags as a Pinkie that looks like that is not a happy Pinkie. And a not happy Pinkie is either a sad Pinkie, which this clearly was not, or an angry Pinkie. And an angry Pinkie is scary. On top of that, the whites of its eyes were black with pupils that glowed red. And then there were the teeth. Those things look like they could punch holes in a guard's armor.

With a startled scream, Mommy Mash struck the little nightmare and sent it flying into the crowd and landing on the muzzle of one of the three worst ponies it could have possibly landed on.

"The horror! The horror!" Let it never be said that those flower sisters didn't have an astonishing talent for spreading panic amongst their fellow ponies. Once more there was a scream and a tiny Pinkamena was sent flying across the room to land on another pony who reacted in kind.

Soon the two princesses and hero parties were watching a screaming hoard of ponies running around and a flying pink nightmare that would be sent flying again upon landing by the kick of a pony that really didn't want her to be too close to them.

Celestia turned to her sister, wondering how she could have missed that thing only to see Luna watching on in morbid fascination. That made it clear that Luna did know that the nightmare was there. Turning to look at Celestia, Luna gestured to the children which were giving the expression that Luna had been giving as they watched on. This meant that the children also knew about it.

"We think it is like Spot," Luna whispered. At first, Celestia was confused before an old memory came back. Nightmares were monsters that fed on fear, but they were also created from the mind. This means that they will follow rules based on how they're viewed by the one that dreamt them up. For example, a nightmare that came from a child that dreamt of a monster his parents told them about that would gobble up bad little children would prioritize hunting bad children because that's how the dreamer perceived it. Spot was a nightmare of a dog dreamt up by a thief that had a close call with one in a house he had marked and as such, it was a nightmare that hunted criminals. Before it could be destroyed, it was claimed as a familiar of a unicorn in the guard after it saved some ponies from a mugger.

Celestia was about to raise her voice to try and defuse the situation but she stopped when she saw that she had been beaten to it. With joyous laughter and shouts of "Weeeeeeeee!" the panic slowly started to subside at the appearance of Pinkie Pie who had started running around in the crowd. Her dark counterpart was still being sent flying around the room only instead of being kicked, Pinkie was catching the little nightmare with her poofy tail and playfully tossing it across the room, only to run over and catch it again.

"Look! Look! It's a mini-me!" Pinkie Pie called out excitedly once she had the situation under control. She bounced back towards her friends with Pinkamena being bounced up and down in Pinkie's hair like it was the floor of a bouncy castle.

"What is that thing?" Twilight asked in fascination as she followed the bouncing nightmare with her eyes.

"Oh, that's just Button's pet nightmare," Spike said nonchalantly.

"We hath called it!" Luna exclaimed.

"What?" Mommy Mash asked in confusion as she looked between her son and Pinkamena.

"Please, mom." Button pleaded while giving her the dreaded puppy pout. Pinkamena jumped from Pinkie's head to his and joined in with its best attempt at being cute.

"...I don't believe this. The first filly my son wants to bring home and it's to be his pet?! I can't take it anymore! What is going on with you?! I want an explanation now!" Mommy Mash cried out. Button leaned back while giving a look of panic. There was no way he could give an honest answer to that question. But what could he say that would be excepted as a believable answer? At that moment Sweetie Belle grabbed the panicked Button by the head, turned him to face her, and planted a kiss right on his lips. Button went blue screen as he fell onto his back with a goofy smile on his face. Without blinking, Mommy shifted her eyes between Button and Sweetie as gears turned in her head. The sudden need for improvement, how he started working out, the slick kart, how he was so much happier now, and finally Button's reaction to that kiss. Mommy's eyes stopped on the blushing Sweetie Belle who had a dreamy look on her face. Even in Canterlot, they could hear Mommy Mash.

"Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Button examined the stick that he gave Pinkamena to try and damage for his experiment. He wanted to know what she could do as a pet and it looks like his earlier assumption was correct. She can interact with things but she can't damage them. And judging by the beating she got from those ponies yesterday and the fact that she has no health bar she can't take damage either.

Button was honestly surprised at how easy it was to keep Pinkamena. It was just after the fact that Button Mash truly grasps the full benefits of his first choice as a teacher. He had been concerned about slipping up and drawing too much attention to his abilities, but all it took were two words, 'Pinkie's Apprentice' and not only did nopony ask any questions, but they also went out of there way to avoid an explanation. To many migraines in the past. He can't take it too far, but it does give him a little more wiggle room if he uses slight of hoof.

Though he was a tad confused about the princesses. They had taken him aside to talk about Pinkamena. When they asked if he knew what she liked to get fear from to eat he didn't know what to say. He didn't even think she needed to eat at all being a game pet but he couldn't say that. So what did he tell them in that moment of panic? He told them that she ate bad dreams. Basically, he told them that she was a cannibal. After he realized what came out of his mouth he expected them to not believe him but he can't figure out why they suddenly forgot about Pinkamena and started giving Pinkie Pie disturbed looks and assigned two guards to watch only her. I wonder how long those two guards will last. Button thought to himself.

Regardless Button now found himself with some time to kill as he had promised to not take any more quests until the others had caught up by getting a class and grinding their stats up to 50. Though he didn't say anything about doing more grinding himself, he decided to work on experimenting with what he had, and maybe find something for his INT stat seeing as he had run out of books.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Button exclaimed. He took a moment to look around to see if anyone was around as he was experimenting in the Whitetail Woods. Seeing it was clear he took out the eleven random loot boxes he got from the event and unlatched one. Instead of opening the box just disappeared leaving a first-aid kit. Looking inside he found several potions. Putting it in his inventory he used the next box and got a crafting table from Minecraft. To test it out he placed a rock and some sticks on top and got a stone shovel.

"Neat!" Button said as he grabbed the shovel and tried it out only for it to fail to sink into the ground. Blinking in confusion for a moment he tried just hitting the ground with it instead until, with a pop, there was a perfectly square hole and a small block of dirt floating above the ground. Grabbing the block he looked it over before placing it in the hole causing it to grow back into place, leaving no sign that a hole had ever been there.

"So cool!" Button cried out while looking at the table with sparkles in his eyes. "I can make a super awesome secret underground base with this!" Suppressing his desire to start playing with the table right then in their he put it and the shovel in his inventory and used the next box and got a box of gears. In the inventory it went. Next was a skill book.

Could be useful. Button thought. It did come with some free trap schematics but nothing Pinkie didn't already cover.

"Let's see what's next." Button said as he used the next box, only to get a Fallout bobblehead. As soon as he touched it he got a pop-up.

Pushing no he tossed it in his inventory to use when a skill is much higher in level. So far he was happy. These loot boxes had a much better payout than in real games. Excitedly he used the next one and got a cookie. Staring at his cookie like it was his mortal enemy he was about to kick it for being such a lame prize, but it was chocolate chip so instead, he destroyed it by eating it.

The next prize was a simple bag of 200 bits. Tossing it into the inventory he moved on to get...

"Why is one of the prizes for a loot box... another loot box?" Button asked with a twitching eyebrow. Using the new loot box he got a pair of dice. Something about those dice gave him a bad feeling that made him think he would regret it if he were to roll them so in the inventory they go. Next prize however made him grin like a loon. It was a spiky blue turtle shell. This would be great for chasing a bad guy too fast to catch. Opening the next one he got a gun buddy from that old battle tanks game.

"A turret that never runs out of ammo, always useful." He said as he used the last loot box. But what he got quickly wiped the smile from his face and made him go pale. For what he got was infamous in the Fallout games. Carefully, so as not to jostle it, Button put the mini-nuke in his inventory. "Never-ever-ever-ever using that."

Author's Notes:

I'm still working on the next chapter for, The Beating of My Heart, but it is going much slower than I would like so I decided to pump one out here.

And to answer the question now, Mommy Mash's cutiemark has an effect where if any child she is put in charge of is viewed by her as being in danger her level temporarily goes up by x10. That means her lvl was at 170 at that point.

Name: Button Mash
Level: 24
Class: Gadgeteer- Level 21
HP: 680
SP: 680
MP: 50

STR: 83
VIT: 68
DEX: 65
INT: 65
WIZ: 55
MAG: 50

Points 115

Power Player.

Pinkie Pie was an amazing teacher! The more Button's INT stat grew, the easier it was to comprehend. The easier it got, the more Pinkie upped her game to keep it mentally stimulating as well as understandable.

"Yes!" Button exclaimed when he saw the new skill. It was learning time again and Pinkie was teaching Button how to look for any parts in a machine that might need to be replaced.

"Think you're ready to try giving something a checkup?" Pinkie asked getting an excited nod from Button. "Okey dokey lokie. Try giving these a looky-loo." Button was snatched up and sat down in front of several gadgets that were painted with festive designs. Without any delay, Button used his new skill on what looks like a jack in the box with a smile but that smile quickly dropped when he saw that his new skill came with a loading bar that was slowly moving towards that 100% mark. Emphasis on the word slowly. It looks like it will take about 10 minutes to complete so he picked up some tools and started opening it up.

"Let's see... It is a jack in the box, but it has a motor that will wind the crank on its own. The clown has also been replaced by some kind of disk."

Oh, neat. If I actually look through the machine it loads faster. Button thought as he looked through the insides of the pie trap. To his eyes, the parts all had a light glow to them. Green was great, yellow was okay for now and red needed work. The trigger needed to be fixed and the spring that launched the pie needs replacing. Everything else was working fine. It was an easy fix and as soon as it was done he moved on to the next item.

"A bombchu?" Button asked before looking over the rest of the things she set out for him to work on. "Pinkie, why are a lot of these gadgets video game items?" Button asked his teacher.

"I made them so you can learn faster silly. Besides I didn't have enough things that needed fixing." Button blinked at her reply. It was true that his cutie mark trait lets him grind his skills 200% faster while working on video game items, not counting the other xp buffs, but how could she know that.

"Yes!" Button cheered in a whisper. Giving the bombchu a one over the only thing wrong with it is the fact that it had no confetti to blast out. As Button moved on to the next gadget he wondered how his party members were doing on their class hunt.

"Yes yes yes yes yes!" Sweetie couldn't help but look freaked out as this pony she didn't really even know clutched Sweetie to her chest and started swinging the filly around. "Yes yes yes ye-oh! Um... sorry." Twilight said with a nervous chuckle as she sets Spike's new friend back down, growing even more embarrassed as she watched Sweetie stumble around dizzily. "I'm just so excited that somepony wants to learn magic from me! Oh, there is nothing like learning to bring a smile to your face is there? Oh! I've got to work out a schedule!"

"So, mage?" Spike asked after Twilight teleported out of the room.

"That's what I wanted to ask but I only got as far as 'can you teach me' before she started going nuts," Sweetie replied as she started to regain her balance.

"It's called Twinanas. That was a first stage example. Excitement never goes past the first stage but a legit freakout can climb up through the stages fast." Spike said with a smirk.

"Should I be worried?" Sweetie asked.

"No... but if you see her hair start to get disheveled come get me right away." Spike replied.

"Oh, okay. What about you? What are you going to be?" Sweetie asked.

"Tank. My dragon trait gives me a natural fifty percent magic resistance, a twenty-five percent physical damage resistance, and I get twenty hit points per vitality instead of five so it will work best for me." Spike said, though decided not to mention that his primary reason was to be a knight in shining armor for a certain fashionista. "Twilight's brother is the captain of the royal guard so I sent him a letter asking him to send me a trainer with the guards that are coming in and he said yes."

"As if on cue, there was a hard knock on the door. Walking over Spike opened it and looked up with wide eyes at the old earth pony that was looking down at him. Despite his wrinkles, he looked like he could take Big Mac easy. His body was covered in scars and he was missing his left eye. In its place was a false eye with rings like a target.

"Spike?" The earth pony asked in a deep, gravelly voice while scrutinizing the baby dragon.

"Yes," Spike answered in an unsure tone. He could tell by the way the old pony looked at him that he was unimpressed with his new student.

"Be at the fountain at O-eight-hundred hours tomorrow. Don't be late, you'll regret it." With that, the two kids watched as the hulking old pony marched off.

Turning to Spike with a deadpan Sweetie spoke. "Well, he's got a great personality. Good luck Spike, you're going to need it." Spike just gulped as he watched his new teacher disappear around a building.

"Please teach me to be a martial artist. Please please please please please please please please please please please,"

"Okay okay, just let go of my leg already!" Rainbow dash gave in after three and a half hours of her biggest fan begging her for lessons. Rainbow was regretting her lie that she was too busy, just to go nap.

"Oh, um, I'm sorry, but you need to brush with the fur, not against it."

Blinking in confusion, Apple Bloom looked back at Fluttershy. "Why are y'all apologizing ta me when I was doing something wrong?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to confuse you."Fluttershy said.

"Y'all don't need ta keep apologizing ta me." Apple Bloom told her teacher for the tamer class.

"Oh, am I apologizing too much? I'm sorry."

". . ."

Button gave a hoof pump after reading the popup before taking a glance at Pinkie.

"Now, Pinkie says... stand on your head!" At Pinkie Pie's latest proclamation she jumped into the air and landed on her head. Her mane making the sound that stretching balloons makes when they get filled as it held her weight. Pinkamena on the other hoof pulled her own head clean off her shoulders with a small pop before setting it on the ground and balancing on it with one hind hoof. Eyes wide as saucers, Pinkie stared at Pinkamena with an unreadable expression before her eyes narrowed and she spoke in a challenging tone. "You win this round."

Hopping over to Button Pinkie looked over his work before looking him up and down. "Looks like you're ready for the next stage. Here, you can read this stuff and I'll have the next stage lessons ready for next time." Pinkie said as she dumped the rest of the books on Button's back which, thanks to his high STR and DEX stat, he had no problem with. Being gently nudged out the door along with Pinkamena, Button started walking home, excited to have more books to grind his INT stat with. After all, it's not like he's just going to sit on his backside while the others grind their stats to fifty. It took him a week to do that and he wasn't going to waste that kind of time.

One week later.

Button was in his secret, underground lair. Actually it as a system of tunnels and rooms he dug out using Minecraft pickaxes. He was in the gym where he was using the only machine in the room at the moment. It was a slanted treadmill to simulate running uphill with a large fan blowing in his face.

Once Button's stamina ran out he rode the tread down to the cushion at the bottom and crossed his legs and started playing a difficult video game to grind his DEX and STR at the same time. Once his stamina was refilled he paused the game and jumped back on the treadmill to start grinding his VIT again. He couldn't wait till the others were finished with there stats so they could do something.

One week later.

Button was a little annoyed that it has been twice the time he took to grind all of his stats to 50 and they told him that they still haven't gotten there. He even gave them tips on power grinding and lent the fillies portable games to grind their DEX with hard platformers and WIZ with puzzle games, Spike already had his own. Speaking of WIZ, It was late and Button was playing ChessMaster64. A tad old school but playing chess against a computer is hard and basically a puzzle. And after using all of his parts building things in his lair it was his best option for grinding. Taking a moment to stretch his hind legs he crossed them again to keep grinding his STR.

Yet another week and a half later.

"...One month... How did it take you guys a month to grind your stats to fifty!?" Button exclaimed after bringing the others down to his lair.

"How did you do it in a week?" Scootaloo asked in agitation. "It's impossible!"

"Seriously! What? Did y'all just grind nonstop without sleeping or nothing?" Applebloom agreed.

"You slept?" Button asked in wide-eyed shock.

"...Button... when was the last time you slept?" Sweetie asked in concern.

"I don't need sleep anymore. None of us do. Besides, how can I miss out on all those stat points? Especially now that I know there is a cap." Button proclaimed proudly while doing his best attempt at a cool pose.

"Wow... you are... such a loser." Scootaloo deadpanned, making Button drop his pose.

"I am not!" Button pouted.

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Stop arguing!" Apple Bloom shouted.

"I'm not arguing!" Button and Scootaloo shouted at once.

"You are too!" Apple Bloom shouted back.

"Calm down guys." Sweetie tried to break up the fight. Grumbling, Button and Scootaloo sat back down and stayed quiet.

"So... caps?" Spike tried helping by changing the subject.

"My DEX stat capped at one-hundred. I can't grind it anymore but I did get a trait called lightning reflexes. No lag between brain and body, I can react at the speed of thought now." Button explained. "Anyways, look these over. They're pictures of different vehicles from a game called sonic all stars racing transformed. Pick the one you like."

"They can turn into boats and planes!" Spike cried out excitedly.

"My class has gone up quite a bit since my first kart. Don't get too excited though, I only had enough parts to make one and it's mine. I'll need time to get all the parts for you guys." Button boasted.

"I take it back, you're so cool!" Scootaloo proclaimed as she looked her sheet over.

"This is definitely going to draw attention." Apple Bloom said as she looked over her options.

"SHUSH! Don't blow this for us." Scootaloo said with a glare.

"Don't worry about it. Pinkie's apprentice plus colt genius, and yes with my high INT stat I am one and can prove it, I'm sure we can make it work." Button dismissed.

"Besides, what's the point of having video game powers if we don't have fun with it?" Sweetie added. "Not like we'll have much to fight around here.

On a dirt road, a single pony hummed a cheerful tune as he trotted along. It was such a nice day after all. And he was close to his destination. He had six ponies he needed to meet and he was so excited.

Author's Notes:

Name: Button Mash
Level: 24
Class: Gadgeteer- Level 27
HP: 910
SP: 910
MP: 50

STR: 117
VIT: 91
DEX: 100
INT: 83
WIZ: 97
MAG: 50

Points 115

The Curtain Calls.

This is it! The time Button had been waiting for for years. The time his name will go down in history!

Accepting the quest, Button moved to the closest available game and put in a bit. After reaching the grinding cap of 100 on his WIZ stat he figured that with that and his DEX he could reach a goal he had set for himself long ago. He will rack up points until he's one point away from a kill screen on all the games then lose so that it's impossible for any creature to take his place at the top!

"I hope you're hungry Pac-Mare because you're going to feast today." Button said as the game started. And so he played, winning level after level in his quest. "I never thought of it before, but isn't Pac-Mare basically devouring the souls of the dead after eating the big dots? That's messed up."

A few hours pass as the score climbed. He had already beaten the former top score an hour ago and was coming close to his goal. He was three levels away from his stopping point.

"What the!" Button exclaimed at both getting a forced quest out of nowhere and the fact the popup blocked most of his view of the screen. The sound of Pac-Mare getting killed was like the screeching of twisting metal to his ears. Granted he had yet to lose a life but... wandering boss. That means it won't stick around and he had no idea for how long.

Shaking his head he realized that the confusing optional talking about innocent ponies meant that they would be in danger! Forgetting his game with an aching heart at his loss he ran out of the arcade, bringing up his mini-map to find the rest of his party. From the way their dots were running towards the red dot, he guessed they got the quest as well. However, there was something strange about the map. Every now and then there was a flicker of more red dots but only for a moment before they vanished. Once he arrived he joined up with Sweetie who had gotten there first and was hiding in an alley, the others not far behind him. Button was momentarily distracted by the marbles that Sweetie was keeping around her neck like a neckless with her magic. Using them to grind both her telekinesis and MAG stat. Button approved.

"What are we fighting? A manticore? A hydra?" Scootaloo asked.

"A skinny unicorn playing with dolls." Sweetie Belle answered. This gave the others pause before looking over at the pony giving a puppet show.

"Wait, what happened to his level?" Sweetie asked in surprise.

"Watchya mean?" Apple Bloom asked.

"His level got higher since I first got here," Sweetie replied. Looking over the situation they realized that as he was distracting the crowd with his show, now and again a magic glow covered the back of the heads of the ponies farthest from the stage. They would then appear to lose interest in the show and walk away, the names over their heads flickering from friendly blue to hostile red and back.

"That can't be good," Spike said as he watched this happening. He then cringed as he saw that the boss did go up one level after doing whatever it was he was doing to another pony.

"Right, let's do this!" Scootaloo said as she tried to charge out there but was stopped by Spike grabbing her tail.

"Hold on! You can't just go out there and attack him. As far as they know he's just putting on a show." Spike explained.

"Well, we can't just leave him alone either!" Scootaloo exclaimed as she rounded on Spike. With the party distracted none of them noticed that Button's previously napping nightmare had stuck her muzzle out from under her owner's hat and started sniffing. Apparently smelling something she liked she carefully dropped to the ground as to not alert the others and started making her way through the hooves of the audience. Sneaking behind the puppet theater she found a bag. Tugging at the ropes she looked inside to find some black sand. Does Pinkamena need to eat as a game pet? No. Can she eat? Yes. Licking her chops she wiggled her way through the opening of the bag.

Meanwhile, the party had moved on from arguing about if they should just attack, to how to separate him from the potential hostages.

"We can shout out hey look! A distraction! It works every time in comic books." Scootaloo suggested.

"Won't work. He's a boss and he has a high level. It won't distract them long enough to take him down. There is also the problem of them thinking that we attacked an innocent pony." Spike shot the idea down.

"Um, guys." Sweetie tried to say.

"We can sneak up behind him and set his tail on fire. Then when he runs away screaming we can ambush him when he's alone." Scootaloo tried again.

"Hey, guys," Sweetie said with just a little more force.

"The ponies out there would just rush closer to him to help put it out." Spike rejected.

"Guys!"

"Well, maybe we could scream out that there's a bunny stampede," Scootaloo said excitedly.

"Guys!"

"Why would you think that would work?" Spike asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What am I, Fluttershy?"

"Actually," Apple Bloom spoke up with a deadpan. "It probably would work."

"Hey, listen!" Sweetie's shout caused the others to turn to her as she pointed out of the alley. "He left." Blinking, they all looked out to see that as they were talking the crowd had dispersed and the boss and his portable puppet stage had vanished.

Looking around Button pointed towards Sweet Apple Acres. "He's heading that way!" He exclaimed.

"How do you know?" Spike asked as Cut Strings was completely out of sight.

"Hit my grinding cap for my WIZ stat. It gave me a trait called wise guidance which basically just gives me a world map and quest markers. I can see a little arrow pointing downwards where he is and it shows through obstructions." Button answered.

"My family!" Apple Bloom cried out as she rushed back home.

"Wait for us!" Spike called out as he tried to keep up with his stubby legs. Button helped him out by using his well earned STR stat to pick Spike up and let the baby dragon ride on his back. When they were halfway to the farm however Button noticed something.

"Wait! He's leaving!" He shouted getting the others to stop and look to him as he pointed to the right. "He's going that way now."

Applejack, her big brother Big Mac, and their new best friend were jogging over to meet Fluttershy at her cottage. She had just met this new pony but she already knew that they were going to be the best of friends. Why he's already practically part of the family. At least as far as she was concerned. Good old... whatever his name is. So the Apple siblings dropped everything right on the spot to help him meet all of her other new friends. The strangeness of this thought prosses never occurred to her.

Author's Notes:

For those who don't know what a kill screen is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ6tyi6iULE