Button's cry of pain didn't last long, as he had been through worse. In fact, it could barely be considered pain, more of... discomfort, like he was being pressed between two walls. The light blinded him and he winced, his eyes closing tigjtly. It was then that he noticed someone was holding onto him. He squirmed around, trying to get out of their grip, to no avail.
He was carried elsewhere, and washed slowly and carefully, as well as someone checking on him, he thought. After a bit, he was carried back in, bundled up in blankets and set into another's arms. He was tired, the memories of dying still with him as he slowly opened his eyes. He saw a tired face of a young woman he hadn't seen in years. He smiled and tried to speak, but found that he couldn't, only coo.
He blinked a bit and looked around, taking in his surroundings for the first time. He was in a white room with off white lights flickering slightly above head. He saw various ponies in smocks and having surgical masks on. He assumed he was in a hospital room. He then saw his mom, only much younger than what he remembered, and still as happy as he remembered, even with the bags under her eyes, sweat on her brow, and mane splattered flat against her forehead.
"Oh he's beautiful..." she said weakly. He remembered his mother telling him that he didn't cry after his birth. That he just... laughed. So that he did. He opened his mouth in a smile and laughed, happy to be alive and to see his mother.
His mother, back in his past life, had to leave for a job of some type, and couldn't take Button. So she just let him have free reign of the house as long as he cleaned up, even letting him go spend the night at any of his friend's houses. She said she would send him letters and texts whenever she could. The last he had heard from her, she was somewhere in the north east.
He then heard three chimes. One with a light grey bar appearing in the top left of his vision, saying that he had earned an achievement, "Fairy is Born". Another is a window, saying that he had gained Good Karma by dashing his mothers worries and making her extremely happy. The final was an explanation of the Karma system. Good, often selfless or time consuming, complex actions gains good rewards and missions, as well as making him liked by the people around him. Bad, often easy, harmfull and selfish actions lead to bad rewards and missions, as well as eventually being hated by even those closest to him. But he already knew this. He had played all of the inFAMOUS games, of which had introduced a Karma based system in order to dictate the ending of the story as well as what powers you would get.
He could see in the top right of his vision a large half-circle, blue on top, orange on the bottom. And he could see that there was a little bit of blue on the bar.
When asked, his mother told the doctors that she was gonna name him Button Mash.
~~
A year and a half later, Button was starting to get the hang of the Game. He did tasks around the house for his allowance, and some jobs around the town in order to get EXP and some loot.
Two years after that, he had gained a reputation among the little community as a handiman, though he mainly found himself being a courier of sorts, taking letters and objects from his temporary employers and delivering it to the place or pony that it was meant for. A nagging feeling in the back of his head told him that he was gonna get something big here soon. He shrugged it off.
Another year later, and it was around the time he had first discovered video games. Like in his previous timeline, it took up his free time. But unlike his past life, he still had a social life and did jobs, not letting the addictive activity dictate his life.
Then years passed, seemingly in a blur. Button'd Karma Meter had raised in the Good scale, just slightly under the rank of Guardian. And just seemed to... sit there. It never moved, never declined, just... sat there as if waiting for something.
He shrugged to himself, mentally checking his basic stats; his Name, Job, Title, Rank, Level and his Bars.
Name: Button Mash
Handiman
The Gamer
Rank: None (Yet)
Level: 15
HP: 15600
SP: 15600
MP: 15600
He grinned a bit at seeing them. During his almost fourteen years of new life, he had focused on working out the limits of the Game. And once he had found them out, he, like in many games, exploited the shit out of the weaknesses and strengths. Such as him only being able to add ten points to either HP, SP or MP each level.
This was an exploit that he loved. He had founded that, due to his achievements and not using any of his points, he had close to millions of points to add anywhere.
And that was why his Bars were so unbelievably high compared to his level.
He blinked when his alarm went off. He found that he didn't actually need to sleep, eat or drink, just like a video game character. He did though, occasionally, to ward off any suspicions or worries. And in case that he somehow lost parts of the game in some sort of glitch, or an update.
He got out of bed, closing the window before his eyes, and headed to shower before getting dressed. He had to look good for his first day after all.
~~
Miss Cheerilee's School for Fillies and Colts was a magnificent school, designed to educate the young ones of Ponyville's community. As such, it had a lot of students, ranging from barely out of foalhood to almost full maturity. And Button was almost directly in the middle. He was happy though, despite this. He was finally going to make more friends, and help people. If only the nagging in the back of his head would go away...