Sweetie Belle lay on her belly, legs kicking softly back and forth as she drew on the paper in front of her face. She hummed a happy tune to herself as she drew a picture of her sister Rarity's Boutique, paying very careful attention to the details. She was convinced her special talent was art; the drawing was coming out so good!
Rarity suddenly came down the steps, looking distressed. Sweetie Belle rose to her hooves, thinking something was about to happen.
And it did; Rarity walked over to Sweetie Belle, saying, "I've run out of sequins! And I need them to finish this dress; the order is to go out tomorrow!"
Sweetie Belle shrugged indifferently, picking up her beautiful drawing, "What're you gonna do?" She walked to the kitchen, intent on hanging her drawing from the fridge.
Rarity followed her into the kitchen, "Well I'm going to have to go shopping for more!"
Sweetie Belle stiffened, "Oh...yay...!" she cheered half-heartedly, ducking her head in an effort to become invisible.
Rarity noticed her reluctance, "What's wrong, you don't want to go shopping with me?" she asked in mock astonishment, fluffing her mane vainly.
"No?" Sweetie Belle said experimentally, hanging her drawing from the fridge, "Why can't I just stay at home?"
"Now Sweetie Belle, you know you're still too young to be left home alone," Rarity said, turning away and tapping her chin thoughtfully.
"No I'm not!" Sweetie Belle expertly argued.
"And I can't get a foal-sitter on such short notice," Rarity thought aloud, ignoring her sister.
"I don't need a foal-sitter!" Sweetie Belle pointed out, tugging at Rarity's leg, "C'mon, just let me stay at home! I'll be fine!"
Rarity thought for a moment longer, "But I really need those sequins..." she said, still ignoring Sweetie Belle.
"Then go and get them!" Sweetie instructed, pushing Rarity towards the door, "I'm old enough to be left alone; I don't need a foal-sitter!"
Rarity allowed herself to be pushed towards the door as she tapped her chin thoughtfully, then gasped as an idea struck her. She planted her hooves, halting Sweetie Belle's forward advancement, "I know! Why don't I go shopping-"
"Please!" Sweetie begged.
"-And leave you next door!" Rarity finished.
Sweetie Belle recoiled, "Oh, uh, no, no, that's okay," she immediately conceded, "why don't I just go shopping with you? You could use an extra pair of hooves anyway."
Rarity shot her a look, "Sweetie Belle!" she said scoldingly, "I thought I told you to make the new neighbors feel welcome!"
"I am!" Sweetie argued, "It's just...all he cares about is his games-"
"That's no excuse," Rarity said, tapping her head lightly, "You should know, some things that may seem trivial to you are very valuable to others."
Sweetie Belle looked down out of shame, knowing she was referring to her Cutie Mark Crusader status. "...alright," she agreed.
Rarity straightened back up, nodding approvingly, "So come on, let's go." She opened the door and lead Sweetie Belle outside, taking a sharp right and heading to the next house down. Sweetie followed, albeit reluctantly. They reached the door and Rarity knocked thrice.
The door was opened by a mare with pale yellow fur and a light brown mane swept to the side. She smiled warmly at Rarity, "Rarity!" she greeted, "What can I do for you?"
"Hi!" Rarity greeted friendlily, "I hate to bother you like this, but I need to go out and buy some sequins for a dress I'm working on for a very important client, and-"
"Say no more," the mare interrupted knowingly, "You want us to watch over Sweetie Belle while you're away?"
"If it's no trouble," Rarity conceded bashfully. Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes at their boring adult talk.
"No trouble at all," the mare assured, "I'm sure Button Mash would love to have company." To make a point, she opened the door wider and called up the stairs at the far room, "Button Mash! Somepony's here for you!"
"Mom!" snapped a squeaky, high pitched voice from upstairs, "I'm! Playing! My! Game!"
"Button! Get down here!" Button's Mom instructed sharply.
Button let out a long sigh of angry exasperation from upstairs, and a short while later the colt in question peeked his head around the top of the stairs, "What?" he requested.
"Button Mash," Button's Mom said sweetly, moving out of the way of the door, "Look who's here! Come down and say, 'Hi'!"
Button saw Sweetie Belle and Rarity standing outside and didn't move. "Hi," he greeted flatly, and ducked his head back around the stairs.
"Button!" his mom snapped.
Button Mash's head peeked back out from around the stairs.
"Down. Here." his mom instructed, pointing to the ground in front of her for emphasis.
Button sighed and slowly made his way down the steps, his hooves clonking on each stair heavily. He made his way to the front door, and looking at the ground, greeted the sisters again, "Hi,"
"Hi," Sweetie Belle greeted half heartedly. She would've chosen shopping with Rarity over this, but Rarity's mind was made up.
Rarity then cleared her throat, "As long as it's no trouble-"
"None at all," Button's mom assured sweetly.
Rarity nodded, reassured, and turned to Sweetie Belle, "Have fun! I'll be back in an hour or so," she gave Sweetie a hug and left, off to market.
Sweetie Belle watched her leave, then sighed and stepped inside the building which would house her for the next few hours. Button's mom closed the door behind her and immediately went to the kitchen, saying, "Can I get you something to drink, Sweetie Belle?"
Sweetie Belle shook her head politely, "No, I'm fine."
Button Mash stood in the middle of the room looking at the ground. After a few quiet moments, Button's mom spoke up, "Button!"
Button's head snapped up and he looked at his mom, "What?"
"Why don't you show Sweetie Belle your games?" She suggested sweetly.
Sweetie Belle looked back to Button Mash. He didn't look happy. He gestured to Sweetie Belle and complained, "But she's a mare!"
"Excuse me?" his mom asked, brow scrunched and eyes narrowed at Button Mash.
His eyes widened and he cleared his throat, "I said, um, 'okay, mom,' he he..."
Button's mom nodded, and she turned around, attending to something else.
Sweetie Belle turned back to Button Mash; he gestured for her to follow him, and then hopped up the steps. She followed him into the first room on the left upstairs, where Button Mash was pulling open a rather large wardrobe.
She approached the wardrobe and looked inside. It was filled, top to bottom, with games of all kinds. Video games, mostly, but there was a fair amount of board games and toys in the bottom compartments. "That's a lot of games," she observed.
Button nodded proudly, "Yep!" he then walked around her to his desk, hopping up on his chair and getting on the computer in front of him. "Find something you want to play, and I'll help you hook it up," he instructed, clicking away.
Sweetie looked over the large collection of playable materials, but nothing stood out to her. After picking out a game, glancing over the cover, and tossing it lightly onto the bed, she turned to Button Mash and suggested, "Why don't we try to get our Cutie Marks?" noticing he didn't have his as well.
"Why would we do that?" Button asked flatly, not looking away from the screen in front of him.
Sweetie Belle was off-put. What could be more important that getting your Cutie Mark? She walked up to the desk and peeked over Button's shoulder, scrunching up her nose and ignoring the odor of cheese puffs on his fur. The game he was playing looked weird; it was a huge landscape of blocks, and he was breaking the ones in front of him. "What's that?" Sweetie Belle asked.
Button Mash recoiled, not noticing her over his shoulder, "Minecraft," he answered carefully, "It's pretty popular. How do you not know about it?"
Sweetie Belle ignored his question and watched him play 'Minecraft'. True to it's name, Button Mash mined several blocks, and then began crafting tools out of them, only to mine more blocks. "What's it about?" she asked finally.
Button Mash paused it and turned towards her, "You mine. And craft." He unpaused it and continued playing, "It's not exactly rocket science."
"Well, yeah," Sweetie Belle said obviously. He was just so difficult to deal with! "But, like, what do you do?"
Button rolled his head side to side, "Well, a lot of things," he started, "But I guess the most important thing you can do in the game is find diamonds."
"Diamonds?" Sweetie Belle repeated, "sounds like a game Rarity would like."
Button let out a chuckle at that. Sweetie Belle felt mixed emotions at that, not sure if she was happy or disgusted that she had made Button laugh. "It's not as easy as it sounds," Button said mysteriously, repeatedly hitting a tree with what looked like a square cactus on screen.
Sweetie watched him play a few moments longer, and finally asked, "Can I play?"
Button turned towards her, "Well, I mean," he started awkwardly, "It's not really a two player game..."
Sweetie Belle put on a pair of puppy dog eyes, an art she perfected by living with a drama queen like Rarity.
Button looked into her eyes, and his eye twitched. After a tense moment, he sighed and stepped off of his chair, "Fine," he conceded.
Sweetie happily seated herself on the chair, immediately recoiling from a wet spot on the pillow beneath her. Button took the pillow off of the chair and inspected the spot, "juice," he concluded, tossing the pillow on his bed.
Sweetie Belle carefully lowered herself on the wooden surface of the chair, "So how do I play?"
Button reached over her shoulder and pointed to the keyboard, "You use these four keys to move," he said, pointing to the classic WASD setup, "Use the mouse to move your camera; left click to mine and use tools, and right click to place blocks and interact with them. Space bar is jump, and E is your inventory."
Sweetie Belle nodded understandingly, and carefully moved her character, thrilled as she saw the blocky landscape move as she pressed the keys. She hopped around the landscape, breaking blocks of dirt and placing them in random places. "This is fun!" she said happily.
"You're not really doing anything," Button Mash observed skeptically.
Sweetie frowned; he had killed her mood, "Fine, then, what should I be doing?"
"You should be looking out for that creeper!" Button said suddenly, in a panicked tone.
Sweetie Belle spun her character around spastically, "What's a creeper?" she asked in a high pitched voice.
She was answered by a loud 'boom,' and the screen went red, with the words, 'you died' written across the screen.
"Oh, no!" Button whined, pulling the keyboard and mouse over to him, "My stuff!"
Sweetie Belle folded her hooves and pouted, "That game is hard!" she complained.
"You just don't know how to play," Button Mash argued, checking the damage Sweetie had caused.
Sweetie Belle hopped down from the chair, saying, "If I were in that game for real, it'd be much easier."
Button climbed into his chair, "Yeah, well," he agreed, "you can't."
Sweetie Belle looked at him, "Uh...?"
Button Mash turned towards her questioningly, "What?"
Sweetie Belle gestured to the horn protruding from her forehead.
Button Mash sat there, mouth agape, for a few moments. He started when it clicked, and a slow smile spread over his face, "No way," he hopped down off his chair, standing very close to Sweetie Belle, "Can you do that?" he asked excitedly.
"Well, I don't see why not," Sweetie Belle said, "I've never really used magic much before, but-"
"Do it! Do it!" Button Mash said, hopping up and down in glee, "Dooooiiiit!"
"Okay, okay!" Sweetie agreed to shut him up, "shut up! I'll do it!"
"Yay!" Button cheered.
Sweetie Belle looked at the computer on the desk and narrowed her eyes in thought. It seemed possible, but Sweetie doubted she could do it. She looked over at Button; he was bouncing up and down in excitement, grinning from ear to ear. She sighed, knowing she would have to at least try, and turned back to the computer. She focused, and her horn began glowing. Button Mash began bouncing even faster, if it was possible. After a moment of focus, Sweetie blasted the computer with her magic. The computer bounced up and over, and fell back where it was, unchanged.
Button stopped bouncing, "Did it...did it work?" he asked.
"I..." Sweetie Belle started questioningly, "I don't know..." she neared the computer carefully.
The computer jerked to the side, and a large, magical vortex spilled out of it with a clap of thunder, immediately sucking Sweetie Belle and Button Mash into it. The vortex dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, and the computer fell back to it's original position, skewed slightly. Button Mash and Sweetie Belle were gone.
Sweetie Belle coughed, climbing to her hooves. The ground beneath her hooves felt strange. She cleared her throat and squinted into the sudden sunlight. The landscape she saw was...blocky.
"NOOO WAAAY!" Button Mash cheered, zipping this way and that, relishing in the blocky landscape, "I don't believe it!"
"Me either," Sweetie Belle responded cautiously. "Where are we, exactly?"
Button stopped relishing and got up, looking at Sweetie as if her horn had just turned into a carrot, "We're IN Minecraft!" he cheered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Sweetie looked this way and that, noticing how similar the new world was to the computer game she had just been playing. "Oh,"