It has been eight years since Buttonmash and the CMC have graduated school and moved on with their lives. Button is a famous videogame designer, Sweetiebelle is on tour, Scootaloo is a stuntspony, and Applebloom is working on real estate while expanding the CMC. The CMC are still helping others, but have jobs as well, leaving almost no time to be free. Button, under the pressure of designing a new game, has become anti-social, and has blocked everypony out to focus. Rarity, worried for Button, calls the CMC for help to bring the Buttonmash, that Ponyville knows, back.

Button Mash has spent the last three years of his life studying without distractions. For three years, he’s avoided the old things in life that used to provide him joy. 

His friendships and his passion for games have been left neglected, but he believes it’s for the greater good. With his lead in academics, he's certain to be ahead of the curve and secure a stable future for him and his family; it’s all that he needs in his life to be happy. 

He was wrong. 

He spent three years closed-off from the outside studying, wasting his life away through books. Meanwhile, the rest of the world continued to evolve and move on without him.

In Ponyville, nopony can be left behind, and a few fillies and colts will make sure that this remains true for their friend.

Cozy Glow is preparing to make her move to become the Empress of Friendship. With Tirek's help and the ponies in Ponyville and the School of Friendship trusting her, her plans to rule Equestria are going smoothly.

But while Cozy Glow gets ready to strike, she finds herself strangely drawn to a whiny, nerdy boy named Button Mash. She begins to write on a diary to express her interest in the earth pony while trying to figure out why she wants to be around him and feels jealous whenever Sweetie Belle spends time with him. What happens when she figures out that she realizes that she has developed a twisted form of love for the young gamer?

Written for the Cozy Glow Short Story Contest: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/213908/folder/72106/contest-1?fbclid=IwAR10yklTP6FpU5Bgg9iz0Ns4_T9fyFs0b25FH6tKym4-GEKniuyTB5cRnO0

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Button Mash, Dinky, Rumble, and Silver Spoon are sent to a summer camp for two months, where they are split apart into the two competing camp teams, Camp Hephaestus and Camp Gaia. Sweetie Belle and Button Mash must suffer through separation anxiety (and having to be on opposing forces); Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon must reluctantly make an alliance to deal with a few bullies; Scootaloo finds love in with a flamboyant Pegasus; and Dinky and Rumble have to handle the troubles of their fellow campers.

Six years after getting her big break, Sweetie Belle is back in Ponyville filming for a new documentary about her life. She's a famous singer now, selling out concert halls and producing top 40 hits all across Equestria. Now, she's collecting interviews from all the ponies that played a major part in her life story as she grew up. However, there's one pony who she wants to interview more than any other: Button Mash. In addition to being six years since she got her start, it's also been six years since he broke up with her.

Despite keeping in touch with letters over the years, Sweetie had never brought up the topic of the breakup since it happened, yet she wasn't satisfied with the reason he gave. Deep in the back of her mind, she couldn't help but think that it was somehow her fault. Now though, she had the chance she wanted to get the answers she sought. The only questions left to be answered are will she be able to handle the truth, and what will revealing the biggest secret he's kept the last six years do to Button?

No matter what happens, both their lives will never be the same.

When a mysterious cult of ponies kidnaps Button Mash and takes him to a mysterious island to be sacrificed, the Mane Six, along with four stowaways, set out to save him and find out why he of all ponies was targeted. However, the reasons behind this may bigger, stranger, and more malicious than anything the ponies could ever imagine. The Dark Entity is asserting its dominance over their world once again.
(The title is clearly a reference to "Hades Persistence," the title of an episode to Beyblade Metal Fury.)

Button Mash is a connoisseur of video games, an owner that prides in keeping his CDs and cartridges in good order even though the same can't be said about his room.

Then why does he find a damaged cartridge hidden within the mess around him?

Sweetie Belle and Button Mash are transported to Minecraft.
And it's not that fun anymore...

Especially when you could really die.
Especially when you have to kill to survive.
Especially when you have to protect the one you love...

Button Mash experienced something he never thought was possible. He experienced what life would be like if he had died. Now he must right all his wrongs so that if it does truly happen, he will be prepared.

To understand the story will need to read the sequel. This is a sequel to Nopony will remember by ya-RlnA. Go and follow him.

After realizing her dream of earning her cutie mark—in the company of her best friends, no less—Scootaloo’s life should have been on an upward course. Instead, she sees herself on yet another crusade, one which will lead her to question her friends, her family, and what it means to love, and be loved. — Takes place immediately after "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" (S05E18).

New to the story? Start with the Recap Chapter!

Chapters 1-36 written by jowijo. Chapters 37+ written by myself. Information here.

(Need more? Scrapped chapters)

Editors:
Dreams of Ponies (21-36)
Level Dasher (36)
brokenimage321 (1-23;31)
Eruantalon (21 & 22)
JackRipper (26, 29, 31)

Prereaders:
I Thought I Was Toast (31-37)
TheGreatEater (1-24)
Krack-fic Kai (37)
jowijo (37)