//------------------------------// // Have Buttons, Will Push. // Story: Button Mash! Master of the Arcade Arts! // by Clockworklich //------------------------------// "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. Sound Graphics General Stats Bestiary Help 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. WIZ+1 "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. Quest Accepted! I Believe It's Magic! 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. Tides of Darkness! Prepare for the first world event. Attain your first class and gain 5 levels in it. Attain a weapon of common rank or higher. Get one stat to 50. (Optional)Get multiple stats to 50. Rewards 1,000xp 1 random loot box Bonus rewards 2 stats: Common consumable 3 stats: Uncommon consumable 4 stats: Common unslotted skill book 5 stats: Common class skill book 6 stats: New Trait 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. A class can be attained from a class giver, one who has mastered the class in question. You can find a class giver by the golden graduation hat floating over their head. It may be required to have a high amount of reputation or take a quest to convince the class giver to teach you. A class will come with a trait and allow you to learn skills for that class, not just skill books but self-taught. For example, if you try to sneak around you won't get a sneak skill from the action unless you take a stealth class. Mobs will also start dropping new loot depending on what classes you have. Once you've attained a class you won't be able to get a new one until you've maxed out the level of the one you have. There are two ways to get levels in a class, the first is to practice with skills for that class such as forging weapons and armor for a blacksmith, or leveling up while holding a class that hasn't been maxed out. Some classes require you to have other classes before you can begin to learn them, such as an archer and tamer needed for the ranger class. "Okay, not much I can do about that now." Button said before checking out stats. Strength: Affects physical damage, carry weight and ability to craft using heavy or durable materials. Vitality: Affects HP and SP, chance at poison and disease resistance and rate of aging. One point in VIT = 5 points in HP and SP. 10 points in vitality slows aging by 1% Dexterity: Affects aim, reaction speed, balance, and precision. Intelligence: Affects XP gain for skills and increases the success rate for created potions, enchantments, spells and machines. Wizdom: Affects illusion resistance, mana recovery, and puzzle-solving. Magic: Affects MP, spell power and duration and level of spells you can cast. 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. "..." STR+1 "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.