//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Final Boss: Sweetie Belle // by Blueninetails //------------------------------// Button Mash, a young adolescent, brown earth pony stallion who lives in Ponyville, may be a simple little colt, but he is a colt of many titles. He's a warrior, a truly skilled swords-pony, an upholder of truth, justice, and honor, a defender of the weak, and savior of countless princesses and royal families. He's stopped hordes of countless goblins, slayed dragons, and thwarted the plans of many powerful, dark-magic wielding, evil masterminds. Some might even say, a warrior so strong, his skill would even match the Princess of the Night herself. At least as far as video games go. He has many times been challenged by others to prove their experience, only to fall short of claiming the victory title from Button Mash. His only real rival would be Princess Luna, where it was still undetermined who was the better. Except in Ponemon, since he never took the game concept too seriously, and hardly ever tried to out-do Princess Luna in crafting a truly competition-worthy team. Yet, despite his experience, there was still one annoyance that he could never rid from his existence: a white-coated filly around his age with pink and purple mane and tail and light green eyes. Her name was Sweetie Belle, who was a fellow classmate of his for several years now, and only recently, he had started suspecting liked him. Scratch that, he knew she liked him. Now Button Mash may be a gamer at heart, and is typically seen either playing on an arcade machine, his JoyBoy, or other console like Ponystation, but he might as well have been blind for him to miss the number of times he had seen Sweetie Belle looking at him. Normally being eyed by ponies of the opposite gender would be down right flattering to an adolescent colt like him, but there was something about Sweetie Belle that just irked him so much. Whether it was due to her almost-always positive attitude (which did annoy him on the occasion), the fact she seemed pretty adept at disrupting his attention from a game when it mattered the most, or that one time when they were younger and they had been forced to partner up for a project and Sweetie accidentally made a huge mess of it, he didn't know. Either way, he really didn't like her, and he probably never will like her; yet, there she was, sitting in the seat right next to him. She had the option of sitting at any other desk in the classroom. Heck there were even open seats where her friends Applebloom and Scootaloo sat. So why the hay did she have to choose to sit in the seat next to him?! He cursed under his breath as he knew Sweetie Belle was once again looking in his direction. Well, at least it was only a couple more minutes until the bell would ring, he could retreat to the sanctuary of his room, and away from Sweetie Belle until Monday came around. Sweetie Belle fidgeted as she looked at him from the corner of her eye, mumbling a few words under her breath as she did so. "Why does this have to be so hard?" Sweetie Belle thought to herself. "Does she really have to keep staring at me?" Button thought to himself. "I have to though, I have to ask him, I can't back out now." "Why can't she just disappear? And never come back!" "What if he doesn't want to though...?" "I wish she would just disappear from Equestria." "No! I can't think that. I have to think positive." "Tartarus! Why won't you just quit staring at me?!" The school bell finally rang out, indicating the end of the school day, and the start of the weekend. Sweetie took a deep breath before muttering a quick prayer that her courage will hold before getting out of her chair and looked at Button. "Um...H-hey there Button." she said, trying as hard as she can to sound as polite as she could, as well as hide her nervousness. Button took a deep breath, then letting it out slowly as he clenched his teeth, "Hey, Sweetie Belle," he replied, trying to sound at least a bit respectful while they were still in earshot of the rest of the class, "do you need to ask me something?", then thought to himself, "Please say 'no'." "Y-yeah." Button cursed silently at her response, "I-I w-w-was wondering, I mean if you want to, you don't have to if you don't. I just wanted to ask since it was Friday, and it's suppose to be a nice full moon tonight." she started saying as she fiddled with her front hoof-tips, and her tail whipped from one side of her body to the other. "Uh, Sweetie Belle, can you just say what you want to say. I kinda don't want to waste the rest of my Friday in a classroom." He remarked irritatingly. By this time, only a hoof-ful of their classmates were still there, still putting away their things into their saddlebags. "Would you like to go out with me tonight?" she asked, maybe a little louder than she probably should've. "Out...? Like, as in, a date?" He asked in a surprised tone, before looking at the others in the class. The loud question did attract some attention, particularly with a couple of colts that Button Mash were friends with, each one smirking or grinning. Applebloom and Scootaloo were still around also, waiting for Sweetie Belle, the look on their faces saying they knew what Sweetie Belle was gonna ask. "NO!" That's what he wanted to respond, but didn't, at least not yet. He didn't like her at all, not even as an acquaintance, so why in Equestria would he want to date her?! He should just say 'No' and be done with it, but he had an audience and knew that. If he said 'no' like he wanted to, he would look like an absolute jerk. He could already see it happening, she'd start tearing up before meekly saying 'okay...', then start walking away, the whole time Scootaloo looks to be about ready to punch him so hard it would be a perfect one-hit KO. The whole time, the remainder of the class would be glaring at him and shaking their heads disapprovingly because Sweetie Belle just asked a simple question and he shot her down harder than Rainbow Dash crashing into the broad-side of a barn, then the rest will find out, and he'll become the villain of the class. Forget jerk. If he did that, calling him a jerk might be a compliment to all those real jerks out there, he'd be worse than just a simple jerk. What should he do then? If he says 'yes', he'd have to go on a date with Sweetie Belle -ugh, he felt the coldest chill go down his spine-, but he if he says 'no', he'd be no better than half the bad guys he defeats in all those video games he plays. His worse nightmare come to life, or be branded 'worse than a jerk' for the remainder of his school career, and perhaps even longer? Well, at least one option will only last at the most six hours. Taking a deep breath, he stallioned up and nodded. "Sure, I'll go out with you." "Really?! Oh, thank you!" she then jumped and pulled him into a hug. He groaned, "Hey, no big deal." he then looked at the others, "Um...you can let go of me now." "Sorry." she apologized, "How about tonight at seven? Pick me up then?" "Sure, but you might wanna come to my place if I'm not at yours by 6:45. My mom might...you know, get all excited, and take forever micro-managing how I present myself." "Okay." then Sweetie Belle merrily skipped toward Applebloom and Scootaloo, before the trio disappeared out the door. Button Mash gave a loud sigh before slamming his face onto his desk. "Good luck, Casanova. Make sure you don't do anything I wouldn't do." he heard one of his classmates say, the voice sounding like Rumble, before he heard the colt chuckle and leave. Button merely felt that chill go down his spine again. What has he gotten himself into?