//------------------------------// // Like a BOSS! // Story: Button Mash! Master of the Arcade Arts! // by Clockworklich //------------------------------// "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" The young ponies screamed as they ran out the door, a fearful Spike not far behind. Fortunately, as there were too many eyes when they went into town hall Button was unable to put his go-kart back in his inventory so he had it parked next to the door. Jumping in, Button wasted no time in starting it up, waiting only long enough for the others to cram in. "Get back here! No pony breaks a Pinkie promise!" Button took off at top speed as the doors to town hall exploded from the force of the charging nightmare. She barely paused to lock on to her targets before giving chase. "She's gaining on us!" Scootaloo shouted as she looked back. This caused the others to give a glance back at the oncoming nightmare. Pinkamena Element of Fear Lv. 50 "Wait, you made me make a Pinkie promise! What happens if you break one?!" Spike asked in a panic. "Don't!" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo shouted out at once. "Pinkie Pie takes her Pinkie promises very seriously." Sweetie Belle replied. "She says that breaking a promise loses trust and losing a friend's trust is the fastest way to lose a friend." "Forever!" Pinkie Pie cried out as ominously as she could. The party looked in surprise at Pinkie Pie, dressed as Link, and the upper half of her body sticking out of her nightmare counterpart's mouth. Her forehooves on each jaw, keeping the mouth wide open so as not to be bitten by the nightmare's sharp teeth. Giving one last warning look Pinkie slipped back into the nightmare's mouth. Other than spitting out a piece of curly pink hare Pinkamena showed no reaction to what just happened. Not even slowing down for a moment. "...Did... did the real Pinkie just..." Spike tried to ask with a disturbed expression. "Remember what we said about Button Mash doing pink things?" Apple Bloom asked Spike. "Don't ask questions?" Spike replied with uncertainty. "Don't ask questions." Apple Bloom confirmed. "But wait! Didn't she go off with the others? Does that mean Twilight and the others will know to come help us?" Spike asked the others. Button Mash felt his heart drop to his stomach at hearing this. If they come and defeat the boss then he would lose out on the XP and Loot. He might even fail the quest! "Hold on tight if you don't want to get flung off!" Button warned his party members as he looked back at the nightmare. It was close now, its jaws open wide as if ready to bite into the kart. Once it was close enough he slammed on the breaks allowing Pinkamena to crash headfirst into the back of the vehicle. Hoping that it was enough to stun her Button tried to get the kart moving again but all he heard was the sound of tires screeching. Looking back they saw that Pinkamena had bit down on the back of the kart and was holding it in place. With a grunt from Pinkamena, the party felt themselves being lifted up as the nightmare lifted the go-kart, passengers and all, off the ground, and started spinning around in circles. "Button! Do something!" Sweetie screamed out as they all clung to the kart. Looking at the four buttons next to the steering wheel, Button pushed the B button causing six slots to open up in the back and gave Pinkamena a point-blank blast of bubbles. With a shriek, Pinkamena let go of the kart and allowing it, and its passengers to go flying two blocks before crashing down. "How much bubble solution do you have!?" Spike asked after looking back at the bubble smoke screen. "All of it. I bought every drop in town." Button replied as he turned the kart around to face the boss. "Well, do you have anything stronger? Like a gun that shoots spinning buzzsaw blades or maybe a bomb to throw at her!?" Scootaloo asked as she gestured at Pinkamena who was slowly walking towards them, her eyes had turned from blue to red with pulsing blood vesicles clearly showing. Her sharp teeth bared as she growled like a wolf, drool dripping to the ground as she fixated her hatred at the team. "I'm a colt! Who's going to sell me buzzsaw blades or explosives!? I can only work with what I have!" Button Mash exclaimed as he started driving towards Pinkamena at full speed. With an unholy scream, Pinkamena met Button's charge with her own. "Button! What are you doing!?" Sweetie cried out when she saw that they and the nightmare were on a collision course. Button didn't respond, he only moved one of his hooves to the Y button. Once they were close enough he pushed the button turning on his headlights making Pinkamena, who was already having to fight to keep her eyes open from the pepper bubbles, close her eyes and give out a pained shriek as Button quickly pushed the A button causing two slots to open up on the front and fire off two nerf rockets that stuck to the charging nightmare and once they peeled open to cover more of Pinkamena they let loose sixteen overcharged joy buzzers worth of electricity into her. "She's not stopping!" Spike cried out as he pointed at the pink engine of destruction barreling towards them. Eyes widening Button tries to make a quick turn to get out of the way of the charging nightmare with no success. Pinkamena crashed into the go-kart, sending it flipping through the air, causing the party members to go flying in all directions, and without slowing down from the collision she continued charging forwards and crashed into a two-story house with enough force to bring the entire thing crashing down on her. Slowly, the young party got up with groans. "Ug, is everypony alright?" Button asked before getting whacked upside the head. "What in the hay were you thinking!? We should've just kept driving away not playing chicken with her!" Apple Bloom shouted as she glared at Button. "But... but she was catching up with us anyways!" Button tried to defend himself while covering his head for protection. "Don't give me that! Yall had a bubble smoke screen doohicky built into your go-kart. Yall could have used that to slow her down!" Apple Bloom shouted back. Button was about to shout back when their attention was drawn to a loud thud. "No way," Spike said in a tone of disbelief as they all looked at the remains of the collapsed building. It was at that moment that Button realized something. "Crap! I never got any XP or loot from her! That means we haven't beaten her yet!" Button exclaimed as he rushed back over to the kart and pushed it back onto its wheels. Giving it a look over he was relieved that it was still working, even if the hood was missing, the front bent, the driver's and passenger's seats were missing their backs, and the paint was scratched all over. 'Thud' "Quick, get in!" Button shouted as he jumped into the kart. 'Thud' "Oh no you don't! If you want to attack her so much you can do it while she's chasing us. I'll drive." Spike said as he pushed his way into the driver's seat. 'Thud' "I can't find my punch gun!" Apple Bloom cried out. "No time just get in the kart!" Scootaloo called out as she and Sweetie jumped in themselves. "You can't run forever! It makes no difference where you are or how fast you move! You can't hide from me! You can't get away! When you break a Pinkie promise..." With one final thud a large chunk of brick wall was knocked aside. Pinkamena crawled up with unnatural movements, almost like a bad stop motion animation. As she stood they saw that her head was facing the wrong direction and had a piece of metal pipe pierced through her chest. One of the toy rockets were still stuck to her, causing flashes of electricity across her body. Gripping her head in her forehooves she gave a sharp twist and with a crack so loud it echoed off the building walls her head was facing the right way again. "YOU WILL PAY!" "Apple Bloom get your flanks in the kart now!" Scootaloo shouted in panic as she watched Pinkamena pull the shock rocket off and slowly pull the pipe out of her chest, some black sand bleeding out. Not needing to be told again, Apple Bloom jumped in and they were off. With a scream of rage, the pink juggernaut was on their tail again. Fortunately, after the mini-boss Button took each break re-collecting the ammo for the gun that took down the evil bunny and, after fully reloading the weapon, put the gun back into his inventory. Pulling it back out and doing his best to secure it to the back of the kart. Skootaloo and Apple Bloom helped by holding it down by its base. Taking aim, Button bombarded Pinkamena with a volley of golf balls. "Come on, how many hit points does she have?" Button asked out loud as Pinkamena just took the shots and kept charging forwards. If anything she was speeding up as she grew angrier. He was even pretty sure that she was suffering from a bleeding effect from the hole made from that pipe. "Push the B button!" Button called out but when Spike did, all they got was grinding noises instead of a bubble smokescreen. "Ummm... what does the X button do?" Spike asked nervously. "It pops the hood." Button replied as he kept shooting. She was close, too close for any of their comfort. Remembering how he finished off the mini-boss Button reacted as soon as Pinkamena lept at them, her jaws wide open to sink her sharp teeth into the party members. Pulling his spiked bat out he swang it with all his might right into her open mouth. with the sound of gagging and cracking bones, Pinkamena lost her balance from the shock and botched her landing causing her to land on her chin making her jaws slam shut. All but Spike who was watching the road cringed at the nails protruding from Pinkamena's muzzle. Quickly, Pinkamena managed to grab onto the back of the go-kart with one hoof and was now being dragged along on her belly as she glared up at the foals. Not wanting to give her a moment Button kept firing point-blank shots at her head getting headshot after headshot. Giving off a cross between a growl and a gurgle Pinkamena used her free hoof to grab onto the bad and started tugging at it until she was able to rip it out while giving out an ear-piercing scream. Muzzle now black and leaking more of that sand Pinkamena swung the spiked bat and smashed Button's gun. "Spike, I'll take the wheel, go help them!" Sweetie shouted as she took over for the dragon. In a rush, Spike turned around and started blasting Pinkamena with a continuous stream of fire, making her scream in pain and rage. Pulling the spiked bat out of the large weapon Pinkamena readied another swing, this time at Spike's head. "Get back!" Button shouted as he used his strength to lift the now damaged weapon and bring it down on the nightmare's head. HEAD SHOT! Level Up! Class Level Up! Level Up! Class Level Up! Level Up! Class Level Up! Level Up! Class Level Up! "That's it! We won!" Button exclaimed making the others sigh in relief and Sweetie Belle brought the Kart to a stop. And with a flash and some music, several chests appeared around them. Each with a name written on them except two. One had a lock in the shape of a bunny head and the other was made of black metal with purple gems encrusted patterns. Button practically teleported to the last two which he recognized as quest rewards and started looking through his winnings while giggling with joy. "What's going on?" Scootaloo asked as she watched. "Loot from defeating the boss. Look, those chests have our names on them so the prizes in them are for us." Spike replied resulting in Scootaloo shooting over to her own chest to see what she got. Despite the situation they were just in, the others rushed to their chests like they were Harthswarming presents. A little while later and miserable failure in Scootaloo's and Apple Bloom's attempts to get Button to part with anything in the boss chests as those wore rewards for his quest that they didn't have, the group was sitting in a circle going over their rewards while Button explained everything. "And that's everything that happened up to this point. Oh sweet! A pet!" Button exclaimed when he found a pet carrier that gave a popup asking if he wanted to claim the pet. Button didn't even hesitate in pushing yes making a toy-sized Pinkamena appear in front of him. This caused the others to freeze in fear for a moment at the sight of it. "It's okay, it's just a pet. She can't hurt us." Button assured. "You sure about that?" Apple Bloom asked as she eyed the tiny nightmare. "Yes, pets, unless they're used by a pet class, just follow their owners around and in some games do tricks." Button explained. To demonstrate he put his hoof down in front of his pet only for her to respond by giving him a hoof bump. "Dawww, that's cute." Sweetie gushed. "Yes yes, creepy pinkie doll won't try to kill us. Now on to the important thing... You said that a quest gave you your cutie mark?" Scootaloo asked getting the other fillies full attention. "Yes, it was a quest reward." Button admitted. "Why are you three looking at me like that?" "And as long as we're in your team we could get a quest that would give us cutie marks as a reward?" Sweetie asked. "I don't see why not. As long as you keep your promise I don't plan on kicking you guys off the team." Button replied getting beaming smiles from the fillies. "We aren't going after Nightmare Moon are we?" Spike asked nervously. "As much as I want that loot and XP I don't think we could take her. Not when the normal boss was that tough." Button admitted. "Besides, all the ponies that left had matching titles. Pinkie was chosen of laughter, Applejack was chosen of honesty, Rainbow dash was chosen of loyalty. That just screams chosen ones. I'm sure they'll win." "Okay, so what now?" Spike asked and Button had to pause at that. As soon as he saw that countdown timer he focused on that quest and never once consider what he would do after. Then, he remembered something his teacher had once said. Oh, oh, maybe he somehow got superpowers and is training to be a superhero! He can go by, The Gamer! Or, or maybe Game Over! A huge grin spread across Button's face at the idea of becoming a superhero. No, a team of superheroes! A grin that spreads to the others when he suggests it. They were surprised when the sun rose and at Button's instruction they shoveled all of their loot, chests included into their inventory. "Right, be thinking of your classes, and remember don't spend stat points till you've at least grind the stat past 50." Button said. "I have a question," Spike said getting the other's attention. Pointing at the mini Pinkamena who was chewing on a normal size piece of gum with her sharp teeth he asked. "How are you going to explain that?"