//------------------------------//
// Chapter One: The Beginning 
// Story: Do Gamers Get Girls? 
// by Malice In Wonderland 
//------------------------------//

	Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were sitting at a lunch table together, glad that they had found a table together. The rest of the lunchroom was full of ponies talking and moving around, trying to find a table. A colt named Button Mash walked by the girl’s table, trying to find somewhere to sit.

“Oh, hi, Sweetie Belle.” He said when he saw her.

“Hi, Button.” Sweetie said, giving him a shy smile. Button smiled back and then walked on, trying to find a table he could sit at. Sweetie Belle turned around to face her friends to see them holding their hooves up to their mouths, giggling.

Sweetie Belle’s face began to glow red. “Wh-why are you guys laughing?” She asked.

“You totally have a crush on him, Sweetie Belle. You don’t know how obvious it is.” Scootaloo said.

“But I don’t!” Sweetie Belle said. She turned away from her friends. “We’re just friends.” She scanned the crowd of ponies for Button Mash, and she saw him standing with his lunch tray, looking around for someplace to sit. Sweetie Belle felt kind of bad for him, she turned back to her friends. “Do you mind if he sits with us?”

“Why? Because you looooooooove him?” Scootaloo asked, and then burst into giggles.

“N-no…. He… He just can’t find a place to sit, and since there’s only three of us, maybe he could sit here.” She said.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom took a minute to calm their giggling and then nodded. Sweetie Belle smiled widely and then she turned back to Button and waved her hoof in the air, trying to get his attention. He turned and saw her and walked over to her.

“Hi, Button. Do you want to sit with us?” She asked.

“That would be great, thank you Sweetie Belle,” He paused for a moment, and then realized Scootaloo and Apple Bloom sat with Sweetie, “And Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.” He said, taking a seat and putting down his lunch tray. Sweetie Belle sat back down as well and the three of them began eating their lunches.

Once they had all finished eating their lunches, they sat and talked until lunch was over. “So, Button, what’s the story on how you got your cutie mark?” Scootaloo asked.

Button looked down at his flank to see his cutie mark. It was a joystick with two red buttons next to it. “Well…” He started, his gaze leaving his flank and turning towards the girls. “One day, I was playing games in the arcade and a bunch of foals were watching me play. A few of them told me how good I was, and that’s when I realized that I didn’t just like playing video games, but I was actually good at it.” He paused. “That I am actually good at it.” He corrected himself, smiling slightly at the memory.

The girls all nodded, none of them really enjoyed playing video games, but they all knew how much he liked them. The bell rang for lunch to be over and the four of them got out of their seats and headed to their next class. They separated and each went to their next class by themselves.

Sweetie Belle sat in her equestrian history class doodling in her note bad. She drew a little heart and inside it she wrote SB and BM with an infinity sign underneath it. She sighed happily and turned her head to look out the window. Her teacher passed by her and looked down at her notes, seeing the little doodles and the perplexed look on her face, she smiled and just walked away, not bothering to get the little filly in trouble.

“Now class.” She said. Sweetie Belle jumped slightly from surprise and she turned to face the front of the classroom. “Who can tell me one of the ponies who helped found Ponyville?” She asked.

Nopony moved and raised their hoof. “Anypony?” The teacher asked. “Sweetie Belle?” She asked, turning her head towards where Sweetie was sitting. She had turned her head to stare back out the window and hadn’t heard her name be called.

“Sweetie Belle?” The teacher asked again.

“Yes ma’am?” Sweetie Belle asked, turning to face the teacher.

A few of the other ponies in her class giggled. “Can you tell me the name of somepony who helped found Ponyville?” The teacher asked.

Sweetie Belle was friend’s with Apple Bloom, and her granny had helped found Ponyville, so this was an easy question for her. “Granny Smith.” She said.

“Correct.” The teacher said with a smile. Sweetie Belle smiled at her accomplishment and turned back to face the window.

Button Mash was sitting in math class. Math was his worst subject, and he didn’t understand a thing. He knew he should be paying attention, but he was too distracted. The mare of his dreams had asked him to sit with her and her friends at lunch today. Did that mean anything? Or was she just trying to be nice?

Button sighed and laid his head down on his table. He had been up all night trying to beat the last level of his favorite game. Having his head down, he quickly fell asleep. He was awakened a few minutes later by a loud thud right next to his ear. He brought his head up so quickly, that he almost fell back in his chair.

He searched for the source of the sound which had woken him up, and he saw a math textbook sitting on his desk, surrounded by a magical aura. He looked up at his teacher, whose horn was surrounded with the same magical aura.

“Button Mash.” The teacher said sternly. “You have earned yourself another detention.”

“B-but sir, I-”

“No buts. Now, answer this question.” The teacher looked down at the textbook on the desk in front of him. It was opened to a random page somewhere in the middle. The teacher cleared his throat. “Can you find the slope of a line with the problem 5x - 5y = 7 ?” He asked.

“Ummmmm…… Is it 5?” Button asked.

The other students began laughing and whispering to each other. “Silence!” The teacher bellowed, and the room quickly became silent. “No, Button. It’s not 5. Please explain to me how you would find the answer.” He said.

“Ok….” Button said awkwardly. “Ummm.. Well first you would rewrite it so it’s in the format y = mx + b.” Button said.

“Yes, and what would that be?” The teacher asked.

“-5y = 5x + 7.” Button said. “And then you would divide everything by positive 5, right?”

“That is correct, but can you tell me how you came up with that solution?” The teacher asked.

“Well, you need to get the y all by itself. In order to do that, you need to divide everything by positive 5.” Button explained. “And that would be…..” He paused for a moment, doing the math in his head. “y = x +7/5.”

“What next?” The teacher asked.

“That’s it, I think. You said to find the slope, and the slope is the coefficient of the x, in this case it’s 1.”

“Good job.” The teacher said. He directed his attention back to the rest of the class. “Now, does everypony understand how to do this?” He asked. There were mumbles and groans and nods. He nodded swiftly and moved on to the next problem.

When school was finally over, Button rushed to find Sweetie Belle. He had written a note for her during his free period, and he wanted to give it to her. He was extremely nervous, and he didn’t know if he could pull it off.

He spotted Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom sitting together at a table outside, probably enjoying the nice day a little before heading home. He stood for a second, watching them, and catching his breath. Sweetie Belle had been cute when she was a filly, but now she was drop dead gorgeous, probably even more beautiful than her sister, Rarity. Finally, he started to make his way towards her.

As he was making his way towards Sweetie, he saw Featherweight walking towards the two of them as well.  He had cleaned up a little since back when he was a young colt. Button saw him stop and talk to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Button saw Featherweight’s face glow bright red when he started talking to Sweetie Belle.

Button then saw Sweetie Belle gasp, and her face turned slightly red. He saw her say something, but he couldn’t make it out. Featherweight looked like he became very sad, he said his goodbyes and then walked away. This made Button even more nervous, why did she turn him down? Was it because she likes somepony else? Button gulped nervously and continued walking towards her.

“Hi Sweetie Belle, hi Apple Bloom.” Button said when he arrived.

“Hi Button!” The girls said simultaneously. They giggled a little that they had spoken in sync. “What’s up?” Sweetie Belle asked him.

“I uhhh….. I just wanted to say hi.” He said. He thought of the letter he had written that was sitting in his saddlebag now. “I mean bye…. Since I’m leaving now…. To go home….” He said awkwardly. “So ummm….. Bye.” He gave a nervous little wave with his hoof and then took off.

“That was weird.” Sweetie Belle said, turning back to Apple Bloom. She knew why Sweetie thought it was weird, but she knew exactly what just happened. Button had a crush on her, and since she just turned down Featherweight he didn’t want to do anything. Poor Sweetie Belle is just too naîve.

Button Mash arrived back home not long after the little fiasco with Sweetie Belle. He groaned when he walked in, and his mother must have heard him. “Button? Is that you?” She asked from the kitchen.

“No mom, I’m a burglar.” He said, kicking the door shut. He walked through the house to his room, passing his mom in the kitchen.

“Honey, did you have a bad day?” She asked.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” He mumbled. He walked into his room and closed the door. He threw his saddlebag on the floor and jumped face-first onto his bed. He groaned loudly into the pillow and punched it a few times. He rolled over onto his back and just stared at the ceiling for a little while.

After a few minutes, he hopped out of his bed and turned on his gaming system. He heard a soft knock on his door, and a second later his mom came in, holding a box of apple juice. “Thanks.” He said, taking it from her and setting it down.

“Honey, you can tell me anything that’s bothering you.” She said.

“I just don’t want to talk about it, ok?” He said.

His mom sighed and looked around his dirty room. “Button, how many times do I have to tell you to clean your room?” She asked. She picked up his saddlebag, and a piece of paper fell out onto the floor. She draped the saddlebag over her back and she picked up the piece of paper. “What’s this?” She asked, about to open it and read it.

“It’s probably nothing.” Button said, turning around. “MOM!” He screamed. “Don’t touch that!” He jumped up and snatched it out of her hoof. He quickly tore it up and stuffed it into his trash can, which was full of other ripped up pieces of paper and apple juice boxes.

Button’s mom awkwardly left the room, hanging Button’s saddlebag up on her way out. Button sighed and closed his door after her, and got back to his game. He started by playing some Minecraft. He selected a world he had played on many times before, a creative world where he just created pixel art. He flew around, looking at all the things he had made previously, mostly hearts with his and Sweetie’s names in them.

He sighed and started creating another heart with colored blocks. He got bored quickly, and decided to play something else. He scrolled through his games until he found one of the Legend of Zelda games. It was Twilight Princess, his personal favorite. He selected it and waited for the game to load and then he started a new game.

While he waited for the load screen to pass and for the beginning of the game to start, he thought out loud to himself. “Why do all the heros always get the girls?” He said to himself. “Why do the gamers never get their girls?” He said.

When the start screen started up, he realized that it didn’t start exactly as he remembered it. Epona was galloping towards the screen instead of away from the screen. Button stared at it, wondering what was happening. Then Epona jumped through the screen and landed on top of Button, knocking him unconscious.