//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Button Mash Joins the Cutie Mark Crusaders // by PinkRoyalty //------------------------------// It was the first day of school. Students were chatting noisily, catching up with their friends, talking about what they did over their break, and gossiping in the Ponyville schoolhouse. Miss Cheerilee strolled through the door with her supplies and trotted to the front of the classroom. The students quickly shuffled back to their seats and became silent. “Hello, everypony. I hope all of you had a wonderful summer break! Now who’s ready to learn?” As expected, the response was a loud groan from all the students. Cheerilee chuckled and said, “Alright, alright. Let’s first start by introducing ourselves. Tell us what you did over summer! Diamond Tiara, why don’t you start?” “Well, Daddy announced at the beginning of summer that we were going to Haywaii! And then we took this train, and it took fooorrrevvver to get there and it was like, super boring. So then I complained to Daddy and told him to make the train go faster. But then he told me he couldn’t and if the train went faster it’d-” Sweetie Belle had tuned out. She already knew most of the foals in the class from last year. She turned to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. She was excited to talk to her. During the summer, Apple Bloom was visiting her cousin, Babs Seed in Manehattan, Scootaloo was exploring Cloudsdale with Rainbow Dash, and Sweetie Belle herself was stuck in her parent’s house with Rarity, which didn’t leave any time to do some crusading. “Psst! What do you want to do after school?” Sweetie whispered, even though school had just started, she had other things on her mind. “I dunno,” Scootaloo replied. “Maybe we can as-” Sweetie started. “Girls, please be quiet!” Cheerilee turned her head towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Please respect your fellow classmates!.” “Oops. Sorry!” Sweetie scooted her desk back and went back to twirling her pencil on her desk in boredom when an unfamiliar voice caught her attention. She looked up. “Um...I’m Button Mash. I spent the summer playing video games,” A brown colt with a messy, orange mane said in a quiet, shaky voice. He was an earth pony, and wore a little propeller hat. “Very interesting. I haven’t seen you around before Button, are you new to Ponyville?” Cheerilee replied. “Y...yes, I moved here from Fillydelphia this summer.” Apple Bloom started whispering to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle again. “Hey, he doesn’t have a cutie mark either! Maybe we can get him to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” “He seems really shy. I dunno if he’ll want to join us.” Scootaloo responded. “Yeah. Imagine what happened to him when Pinkie threw her “Welcome to Ponyville” party. The poor colt must’ve fainted,” Sweetie joked. “Ahm sure once we get to know him he’ll be quite talkative,” responded Apple Bloom “Are you sure?” Scootaloo said. “Whatever. Let’s talk to him at recess!” Apple Bloom said. *** The Cutie Mark Crusaders walked into the schoolyard. Most students were playing hoofball, chatting with their friends, or eating a snack. Button, however, was sitting in the shade under a leafy tree, alone, playing with a small, green, object. He seemed to be very concentrated on it, eyes glued to its small screen. The object occasionally made weird beeping and booping noises. “There he is!” Scootaloo pointed at Button. “What’s that do-hickey he’s playing with?” Apple Bloom asked. Scootaloo responded with a shrug. Sweetie started walking towards him, and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo followed. “Hey, Button Mash. My name is Sweetie Belle, and these are my two friends Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.” Sweetie introduced. “Yeah. Can’t talk. About to finish this level.” Button didn’t even look up, he was too concentrated on the object. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle took a moment to look at the device. It consisted of a screen and a few buttons at the bottom. Near the screen, it read “JoyBoy”. On the screen, it showed a very pixelated scene, which the trio couldn’t make out. “He-” Sweetie Belle began to ask a question. “Yes! Yes! Die dragon! Just a little more HP! No longer will-” There was some violent beeping. As the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked over again, they saw that the screen read “Game Over”. “No! I knew I should’ve done more level grinding at the swamp. Nooo...now I have to start all over!” Button furiously threw his Joyboy onto the grass. He started sniffling. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon noticed Button’s yelling. “Haha! What a crybaby!” Diamond Tiara teased, loud enough for Button and the three crusaders to hear. “Yeah! What a crybaby!” Silver Spoon echoed. A tear rolled down Button’s cheek, which shortly turned into full-fledged crying. “Hey! Leave him alone.” Scootaloo stomped over to Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. “Hahaha! Button doesn’t even have a cutie mark either! Blank flank, blank flank. Next thing you know, he’ll be joining the Cutie Mark Lame-saders!” Scootaloo defending Button just caused Diamond Tiara to want to mock him more. “Haha! Cutie Mark Lame-saders!” Silver Spoon laughed at Diamond Tiara’s terrible play on words. “So what? Just because he doesn’t have a cutie-” Scootaloo yelled angrily, raising a hoof, ready to stand her ground. “Crybaby, crybaby, Button Mash is a crybaby!” Diamond Tiara smirked. Scootaloo shuffled her hooves around furiously and gave Diamond Tiara a piercing glare. Even though she had known Button Mash for less than a day, he couldn’t stand to see anypony being bullied by Diamond Tiara. “Apologize,” Scootaloo was trying to keep calm but was still trembling. “Now. Or you’ll regret it.” Scootaloo still had her hoof raised, ready to punch Diamond Tiara in the face if she responded with another insult. “Ooh, says the filly who can’t fly.” Diamond Tiara mocked. “What the hay di-” Sweetie Belle pushed Scootaloo away from the fight before she had an opportunity to punch Diamond Tiara. “Listen, Scootaloo. You can’t pick any more fights with Diamond Tiara. I know you have this grudge against her and all, Last time you got in trouble, Cheerilee said you might get expelled!” “You heard Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon making fun of Button. I can’t stand to see anypony bullied by those two. And remember last time?” Scootaloo pointed out the time when Diamond Tiara had bullied her. “Ah think Sweetie’s got a point. Mah big sis told me if ya respond to a bully, that’ll just make them wanna bully ya even more.” Appplebloom said. “What are you talking about over there, blank flanks?” Silver Spoon asked. “None of yer business. Go away!” Apple Bloom said. “Blank flanks, blank flanks,” the two sing-songed as they skipped away. The Cutie Mark Crusaders walked up to Button. “Are you okay?” Scootaloo asked. The brown colt sniffed and attempted to stop crying, but a few tears still streamed down his face, and was still hiccupping. “Y...yeah. Thanks for defending me against those two.” “No problem.” “Back in Fillydelphia, these three colts bullied me a lot. They called me a nerd because I always played on my Joyboy. I didn’t have any friends back there either.” “Didn’t anypony try to stand up for you?” asked Sweetie Belle. “No.” Shortly after Button’s response, the bell rang. Button and the Cutie Mark Crusaders got up and headed off back to the schoolhouse. “Aw man, we didn’t even get to ask him if he’d like to join us.” Scootaloo said. “Let’s just ask him after school.” Sweetie Belle said.