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