"Yes!" Button jumped onto the treasure chest. It was enormous. Compared to an adult, it was sizable, but he was no adult, and it was huge! It was also just like it was in the game, and he was all on board for that. "This is so great." It meant the adventurers who saved the world were not him, and did not 100% the game. There would be treasure to find besides the random encounter stuff.
Burning stepped up towards the oversized box. "Well, what is inside it? We are not taking the chest."
"Oh, right." If it were up to him, he would take the chest. It'd look neat in his room! Pity he didn't have many ways to reach his room... Huff..." He grabbed the lip of the opening and fell backwards off the chest, dragging it along with him. With a loud creaking pop, the chest flew open in a burst of light that was entirely unrequired, but also cool. Inside was a sword, hovering just over the chest in a position that would have been impossible a moment before.
Sidestep's eyes shone, but she didn't reach for it. "Sir Mash, can you use your talent of yours? Is that better than the sword I already carry?"
"As you request, m'lady." He burst into giggles. "I always wanted to say that." To a real lady, of course. A filly or his mom did not count for that!
Buttons squinted at the sword. Lightning element. Of course. That woulda been handy a fight or three ago! He looked over its numbers with a low whistle. They were nice compared to the mace he had. "But..." He had to look at her sword. Air element, like she was. Decent stats, but not as high as that sword. "This is an upgrade," he announced. "Enjoy!"
Burning nodded in agreement. "I won't hold a sword maiden back from a new sword of all things. Have at it, lass."
Sidestep patted the blade sheathed at her side. "How does your weapon compare to this?"
Button inclined an ear. "Huh? Your sword's pretty nice, better than my mace, but that's still an upgrade." He waved at the sword hovering over the chest.
"Then I propose a trade." She took the sword, lightning arcing along and off it. "I accept this." She drew her original blade free and thrust it towards Button hilt first. "You accept that. Then two of us are better than where we began."
Sidestep's sword? "Neat!" He grabbed the offered hilt and began swinging it around wildly. "Burning, you want the mace? You like more than one weapon." He'd seen it! Well, if hooves counted as a weapon. Burning's hooves certainly deserved to be counted as lethal weapons.
Burning chuckled softly. "I wouldn't mind it." He set out a hoof for the mace to be handed over, where it suddenly grew larger, becoming his-sized. "We all got an upgrade." He shoved the mace away. "I'd say that's the end of our jaunt, but I get the feeling it ain't."
"No way!" Button pointed back the way they had come from. "This is just the first chest in here, not the last." Button marched towards adventure, and loot, but there was a big arm in his way. "Huh?"
Burning poked the eager colt. "Sorry to bother, but what is your plan?"
Sidestep cocked a brow. "He is an adventurer, adventuring. Is that not normal? You are one too. Don't you want to do this?"
Burning turned a hoof upwards in a shrug. "Sure. Lots of us are happy doin' what's asked, earnin' gold enough to live the way they want to. This ain't no job. Just shovin' our head right into danger, and he don't care. Figure he has a plan, or he's crazy, and I'm getting real curious which it is."
Well... every time he'd tried to be sneaky, it had failed, so... "I know where the treasure is, and I want to get it, all of it." He clopped his hooves together. "Like that!" He twirled to point at the box they had just opened. "I want to win."
Sidestep applauded gently.
Burning was not joining in. "What is it you're winning?"
"Um..." Well, he wasn't saving the world... "Look, I can see stats." He tapped the side of his head. "I want my numbers to be the highest. Is that so wrong?!"
Burning quirked a little smile. "Not exactly. I'm just wondering what you want to do with those large numbers." He directed a hoof at Sidestep. "She wants to serve a lord. I know where her numbers are going."
Sidestep blushed on being mentioned. "You make my motivations sound so simple..."
"Compared to his? Maybe they are. So what will you do with those large numbers?"
But it wasn't true. Button didn't even have those grand aspirations. "Um... Look... I just wanna win... so I can go home."
Somepony was touching his face. It was Sidestep, brushing a few tears aside. "Tears do not suit you, Sir Mash. If you wish to return home, should we not go there directly, instead of seeking lost treasures?"
His cheeks burned, realizing he had looked like a big sissy in front of the pretty pegasus warrior. "It's not that easy... Home is not even a direction I can point at. I don't even know how to go that way. I'm pretty sure winning is what I gotta do, so I'm winning. Now..." He wiped his face clear. "Are you gonna help me win?"
"You already had my blade." Sidestep advanced back down the hallway, looking around for trouble as she went.
Burning chuckled as he nudged Button ahead. "Well, at least I know what we're fighting for. Let's get you home 'Sir Mash'. You know, she only calls you sir, right?"
Button's sorrow turned to a bright red embarrassment. "No way!" But he thought back on it. She hadn't used the 'sir' title on anypony but him. "What does that mean?! Is it good?!"
Burning laughed, walking past him with heavy hoof falls. "Why don't you ask her yourself? Pretty sure she'd prefer it if you did, but she may not say it."
But there were monsters that didn't care even one drop about the colt's confusion, and the battle resumed. The sword felt good in his mouth as he lashed out at the enemies. Sure, he wasn't a sword maiden and couldn't do the fancy moves she did. No great big lightning zaps for him, but he could slice things up, and the air element meant it swirled and whooshed as he did it, and that was cool!
Those that had come before had found some of the chests, a fact he was ready to gripe about. "Aw man." He kicked the chest that was rude enough to already be open before Button even reached it. "The heroes got here first."
Burning huffed. "What heroes?"
Button waved at the empty chest. "The ones that saved the world? Every time we run into an empty chest, they got it instead of us."
Sidestep blinked slowly. "We travel in their hoofsteps? How... remarkable... How do you know this is the way they came?"
Oops! There was no easy way to explain that, even if he wanted to be open. "I can feel where the treasure is. If it wasn't them, who else would have taken them?"
Burning shrugged expansively. "Another adventurer?"
"Point." Button didn't fight the alternative proposed. "Coulda been them, but I bet it was the heroes." He marched away from the sadly empty chest. "Doesn't matter! We got more treasure to find!"
With Sidestep equipped with a lightning sword, they had the edge they needed to press through the caves with little true resistance. There was only one chest they hadn't reached. Button pointed across a clear patch of stone. "Right past there, after the boss."
Burning raised a brow at that. "Boss? What boss? The guild bosses are far away."
Sidestep drew her blade with her head half bowed. "You speak strangely, Sir Mash, but so far not wrongly. If you beleive there to be a 'boss', then there is."
"Aw, thanks." It was nice having a pony that trusted him, but also... "There may or may not be..." The heroes may have mashed it to bits. They kinda had to. Did it respawn? One way to find out! He strolled out into the room. "Hey, boss, gonna jump me or not?"
"Dang it!" A dark-dressed pony emerged from across the room, glaring at Button Mash. They were a crystal pony and an elf with long ears even for a pony. "This should be a safe place for me to study. Why are you here?"
Button clapped his hooves, recognizing the pony. One of the early bosses! "You tried to stop the heroes, and got your tail kicked."
The pony turned red with anger and embarrassment. "I was not prepared for them, but they left anyway and I could return to my work! What do you know...? Are they spreading rumors about me?! Those fiends." He drew a long thin rapier and bounced to two legs. "You came here expecting an easy battle, but that couldn't be further from the truth."
Burning took several heavy steps forward. "He's not alone. We're adventuers, here looking for treasure. We don't actually care about you. Step aside and we don't have to get anypony hurt today."
"Oh, that's rich." He swished the rapier in the air, glaring at the lot of them. "Brigands then, asking politely I not resist as they plunder my home."
Sidestep took a slow step back. "I am no brigand. Such is not the way of the sword maiden. If this is your home, we claim no right over it."
Button, if it needed to be reminded, was not a sword maiden. "I'm checking out that chest. And you're a bad guy anyway, so get out of the way, or let the battle music begin."
The affronted crystal elf blinked slowly. "What?"
"Ya get used to it." Burning slammed his burning hooves together. "If ya survive the day. So getting out of the way or not?"
"I wasn't prepared the last time some wastrels wandered through. It won't be true again." He leveled the rapier at Button. "We'll start with you. I'll teach you the manners your father should have, if you even have one of those."
Button squinted at the guy, but he was already charging, and way too quick. Button was sent flying to bounce off a rock wall with an oof. Burning smashed a hoof down at where the crystal elf had been a moment before, fire and rocks exploding from the point of impact. "Stop movin' so fast!"
Button rolled up to his haunches, stars swirling about his head in his dizziness. He could see Burning was fighting the guy, but neither side was taking the victory easily. "Ah ha." But that meant nopony was looking at him. He gathered his hooves up, energy swirling. "Prepare to be blasted!"
One downside of announcing one's intent when in the middle of battle, others can hear what one had in mind. The elf aborted their strike on Burning to lunge at Button, rapier first. The pointed tip came at him far too quickly, just to stop in the middle of the air.
Burning slammed the pony down into the dirt, spraying rocks over the area with a great roar of battle. "Did you forget who you're fighting with?!"
"That's my tank!" Button hurled his fiery dart at the nimble rapier wielding baddy. "You had your chance!"
A pity the elf kicked Burning into the way of the magical assault just in the nick of time. Burning roared with anger, but not much pain. "Your friend has poor aim," taunted the elf, bouncing to his hind hooves with rapier at the ready. "Come on then. You want to take my things? Over my dead body."
Button got the idea that wasn't exagerating.