//------------------------------// // Power Player. // Story: Button Mash! Master of the Arcade Arts! // by Clockworklich //------------------------------// INT+1 INT+1 INT+1 Pinkie Pie was an amazing teacher! The more Button's INT stat grew, the easier it was to comprehend. The easier it got, the more Pinkie upped her game to keep it mentally stimulating as well as understandable. Through your actions you have attained a skill! Analyze Lv 1. Attempt to get information on objects. Only works on items related to your classes. Analyzing items made by you will automatically succeed. 5% + INT chance of success. "Yes!" Button exclaimed when he saw the new skill. It was learning time again and Pinkie was teaching Button how to look for any parts in a machine that might need to be replaced. "Think you're ready to try giving something a checkup?" Pinkie asked getting an excited nod from Button. "Okey dokey lokie. Try giving these a looky-loo." Button was snatched up and sat down in front of several gadgets that were painted with festive designs. Without any delay, Button used his new skill on what looks like a jack in the box with a smile but that smile quickly dropped when he saw that his new skill came with a loading bar that was slowly moving towards that 100% mark. Emphasis on the word slowly. It looks like it will take about 10 minutes to complete so he picked up some tools and started opening it up. "Let's see... It is a jack in the box, but it has a motor that will wind the crank on its own. The clown has also been replaced by some kind of disk." Ding! Pie in the box. A mechanical box built to launch pies at unsuspecting victims. Gadget type - Trap. Toughness - 63% Oh, neat. If I actually look through the machine it loads faster. Button thought as he looked through the insides of the pie trap. To his eyes, the parts all had a light glow to them. Green was great, yellow was okay for now and red needed work. The trigger needed to be fixed and the spring that launched the pie needs replacing. Everything else was working fine. It was an easy fix and as soon as it was done he moved on to the next item. "A bombchu?" Button asked before looking over the rest of the things she set out for him to work on. "Pinkie, why are a lot of these gadgets video game items?" Button asked his teacher. "I made them so you can learn faster silly. Besides I didn't have enough things that needed fixing." Button blinked at her reply. It was true that his cutie mark trait lets him grind his skills 200% faster while working on video game items, not counting the other xp buffs, but how could she know that. Ding! Party Bombchu. A mouse-shaped confetti bomb that moves at high speeds. Toughness 100% Ding! Reverse Engineer triggered. Gained schematic: Bombchu. "Yes!" Button cheered in a whisper. Giving the bombchu a one over the only thing wrong with it is the fact that it had no confetti to blast out. As Button moved on to the next gadget he wondered how his party members were doing on their class hunt. "Yes yes yes yes yes!" Sweetie couldn't help but look freaked out as this pony she didn't really even know clutched Sweetie to her chest and started swinging the filly around. "Yes yes yes ye-oh! Um... sorry." Twilight said with a nervous chuckle as she sets Spike's new friend back down, growing even more embarrassed as she watched Sweetie stumble around dizzily. "I'm just so excited that somepony wants to learn magic from me! Oh, there is nothing like learning to bring a smile to your face is there? Oh! I've got to work out a schedule!" "So, mage?" Spike asked after Twilight teleported out of the room. "That's what I wanted to ask but I only got as far as 'can you teach me' before she started going nuts," Sweetie replied as she started to regain her balance. "It's called Twinanas. That was a first stage example. Excitement never goes past the first stage but a legit freakout can climb up through the stages fast." Spike said with a smirk. "Should I be worried?" Sweetie asked. "No... but if you see her hair start to get disheveled come get me right away." Spike replied. "Oh, okay. What about you? What are you going to be?" Sweetie asked. "Tank. My dragon trait gives me a natural fifty percent magic resistance, a twenty-five percent physical damage resistance, and I get twenty hit points per vitality instead of five so it will work best for me." Spike said, though decided not to mention that his primary reason was to be a knight in shining armor for a certain fashionista. "Twilight's brother is the captain of the royal guard so I sent him a letter asking him to send me a trainer with the guards that are coming in and he said yes." "As if on cue, there was a hard knock on the door. Walking over Spike opened it and looked up with wide eyes at the old earth pony that was looking down at him. Despite his wrinkles, he looked like he could take Big Mac easy. His body was covered in scars and he was missing his left eye. In its place was a false eye with rings like a target. "Spike?" The earth pony asked in a deep, gravelly voice while scrutinizing the baby dragon. "Yes," Spike answered in an unsure tone. He could tell by the way the old pony looked at him that he was unimpressed with his new student. "Be at the fountain at O-eight-hundred hours tomorrow. Don't be late, you'll regret it." With that, the two kids watched as the hulking old pony marched off. Turning to Spike with a deadpan Sweetie spoke. "Well, he's got a great personality. Good luck Spike, you're going to need it." Spike just gulped as he watched his new teacher disappear around a building. "Please teach me to be a martial artist. Please please please please please please please please please please please," "Okay okay, just let go of my leg already!" Rainbow dash gave in after three and a half hours of her biggest fan begging her for lessons. Rainbow was regretting her lie that she was too busy, just to go nap. "Oh, um, I'm sorry, but you need to brush with the fur, not against it." Blinking in confusion, Apple Bloom looked back at Fluttershy. "Why are y'all apologizing ta me when I was doing something wrong?" "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to confuse you."Fluttershy said. "Y'all don't need ta keep apologizing ta me." Apple Bloom told her teacher for the tamer class. "Oh, am I apologizing too much? I'm sorry." ". . ." With Button, two hours later. Class Level up! Congratulations! Your class Gadgeteer has reached level 25! The trait Adept Gadgeteer has evolved to Expert Gadgeteer! Expert Gadgeteer Gadgets made will lose toughness 25% slower. Can attempt to design blueprints for Expert-quality gadgets. 30% chance for double the gadgeteer drops from mobs. Can tell when created schematics are failures. Button gave a hoof pump after reading the popup before taking a glance at Pinkie. "Now, Pinkie says... stand on your head!" At Pinkie Pie's latest proclamation she jumped into the air and landed on her head. Her mane making the sound that stretching balloons makes when they get filled as it held her weight. Pinkamena on the other hoof pulled her own head clean off her shoulders with a small pop before setting it on the ground and balancing on it with one hind hoof. Eyes wide as saucers, Pinkie stared at Pinkamena with an unreadable expression before her eyes narrowed and she spoke in a challenging tone. "You win this round." Hopping over to Button Pinkie looked over his work before looking him up and down. "Looks like you're ready for the next stage. Here, you can read this stuff and I'll have the next stage lessons ready for next time." Pinkie said as she dumped the rest of the books on Button's back which, thanks to his high STR and DEX stat, he had no problem with. Being gently nudged out the door along with Pinkamena, Button started walking home, excited to have more books to grind his INT stat with. After all, it's not like he's just going to sit on his backside while the others grind their stats to fifty. It took him a week to do that and he wasn't going to waste that kind of time. One week later. Button was in his secret, underground lair. Actually it as a system of tunnels and rooms he dug out using Minecraft pickaxes. He was in the gym where he was using the only machine in the room at the moment. It was a slanted treadmill to simulate running uphill with a large fan blowing in his face. Once Button's stamina ran out he rode the tread down to the cushion at the bottom and crossed his legs and started playing a difficult video game to grind his DEX and STR at the same time. Once his stamina was refilled he paused the game and jumped back on the treadmill to start grinding his VIT again. He couldn't wait till the others were finished with there stats so they could do something. One week later. Button was a little annoyed that it has been twice the time he took to grind all of his stats to 50 and they told him that they still haven't gotten there. He even gave them tips on power grinding and lent the fillies portable games to grind their DEX with hard platformers and WIZ with puzzle games, Spike already had his own. Speaking of WIZ, It was late and Button was playing ChessMaster64. A tad old school but playing chess against a computer is hard and basically a puzzle. And after using all of his parts building things in his lair it was his best option for grinding. Taking a moment to stretch his hind legs he crossed them again to keep grinding his STR. Yet another week and a half later. "...One month... How did it take you guys a month to grind your stats to fifty!?" Button exclaimed after bringing the others down to his lair. "How did you do it in a week?" Scootaloo asked in agitation. "It's impossible!" "Seriously! What? Did y'all just grind nonstop without sleeping or nothing?" Applebloom agreed. "You slept?" Button asked in wide-eyed shock. "...Button... when was the last time you slept?" Sweetie asked in concern. "I don't need sleep anymore. None of us do. Besides, how can I miss out on all those stat points? Especially now that I know there is a cap." Button proclaimed proudly while doing his best attempt at a cool pose. "Wow... you are... such a loser." Scootaloo deadpanned, making Button drop his pose. "I am not!" Button pouted. "Are too!" "Am not!" "Are too!" "Am not!" "Are too!" "Am not!" "Are too!" "Am not!" "Stop arguing!" Apple Bloom shouted. "I'm not arguing!" Button and Scootaloo shouted at once. "You are too!" Apple Bloom shouted back. "Calm down guys." Sweetie tried to break up the fight. Grumbling, Button and Scootaloo sat back down and stayed quiet. "So... caps?" Spike tried helping by changing the subject. "My DEX stat capped at one-hundred. I can't grind it anymore but I did get a trait called lightning reflexes. No lag between brain and body, I can react at the speed of thought now." Button explained. "Anyways, look these over. They're pictures of different vehicles from a game called sonic all stars racing transformed. Pick the one you like." "They can turn into boats and planes!" Spike cried out excitedly. "My class has gone up quite a bit since my first kart. Don't get too excited though, I only had enough parts to make one and it's mine. I'll need time to get all the parts for you guys." Button boasted. "I take it back, you're so cool!" Scootaloo proclaimed as she looked her sheet over. "This is definitely going to draw attention." Apple Bloom said as she looked over her options. "SHUSH! Don't blow this for us." Scootaloo said with a glare. "Don't worry about it. Pinkie's apprentice plus colt genius, and yes with my high INT stat I am one and can prove it, I'm sure we can make it work." Button dismissed. "Besides, what's the point of having video game powers if we don't have fun with it?" Sweetie added. "Not like we'll have much to fight around here. On a dirt road, a single pony hummed a cheerful tune as he trotted along. It was such a nice day after all. And he was close to his destination. He had six ponies he needed to meet and he was so excited. Cut Strings Puppetmaster Lv. 65