“Quit it guys, I am doing it, so get off!” Button Mash squalled, doing his best to push his friends off from the dog pile they formed on him. He was shocked as it was that they would even dare him to do that, but for them to do this to him to ensure he did it? “I will, just get off!”
“You are really doing it?” Hammer Smash asked, lightening his load on the friend by just a bit, flexing his forehooves over so that he may push his chest off of him.
“Yes, now get off! This hurts!” Button Mash cries in desperation. It is getting hard for him to breath now, and he was getting scared that if the game wasn’t the end of him, his friends would be.
“Okay okay okay, just calm down” Sweetie Belle squeaks, now lifting her body off of the brown colt. Button gasp in relief as his lungs can be fully filled again.
“Thank...(Gasp)…You…(Gasp)…Sweetiebelle!” He chokes out, pushing himself up a bit more, quickly shaking the other two colts off of him. They tumbled rather weightlessly to the ground. At 8 years of age, the young ponies most likely weight 50 pounds at most if bulked up.
Button stands up fully and flexes his shoulders a bit, allowing his chest some room to expand and take in deep breaths. Now that he was up and the blood was flowing, his face was no longer flush, and his body was starting to cool again from the combined heat of the other ponies. He was calming down and finding his comfy spot to think about the dare.
“Button, you need to do this. You need to realize that it is all just superstition. There is nothing here to fear about the game…” Broken Glass pressed, hoping to get through to the irrational colt.
“And..and I promise it won’t be bad” Sweetie Belle remarks, hiding her face a bit. She is a bit ashamed to be forcing her friend through all of this. It is obvious that it scared him, and forcing him to do it is just…immoral to her. She was raised a bit better by her sister, and feels that this is a bit extreme for her.
“And…I will be here” she says, hoping to lighten the load for him a bit. Putting him through this would probably hurt her more than it hurt him. She really had a liking to Button Mash, and really only tolerated Broken Glass and Hammer Smash so that she could be around Button. The other two were a bit immature for her, and she felt that the quiet and reserved Button Smash was a bit more interesting than the ecstatic and outgoing Hammer and Glass.
Button blushes a bit in return to this response. Sweetie Belle would be there for him? Knowing that he would have some pony there to comfort him throughout this helped him to cool down a bit. He sometimes feels that he is singled out among his friends and is the outcast, seeing that he is alone. No pony really tries to "help" and comfort him. This definitely helped to calm him and get him to settle down.
He shuffles and adjust his hooves, making a comfortable patch on the ground that he may sit on. Plating his plot, he adjust his weight from hoof to bottom, and looks up to his three "friends".
“So…what am I going to do guys?” He asked in a frantic desperation. Even when calmed, he is still scared at the thought of trying to tackle this task, and honestly was still contemplating on backing out of this dare: His first back out.
Hammer Smash stands forward, clearing his throat a bit. He is the obvious leader of this group, and would always be the one to approach Button in an authoritative fashion to present to him his dare. This helps to keep the order among the friends and allow for a “healthy” friendship square. After all, what is a clique without order?
“You are going to play the whole Lavender Town challenge. You will enter the Pokemon tower and visit the grave site. It’s all very simple, like basic game-play. You will wear headphones so that you may hear the music, and you will only focus on the game. Until you finish with Lavender Town, you will not turn off your GameColt.” The little foal nods to finish off his line. “And then you will be done Mash”
He remains sitting, wide-eyed and hopeless. His friends are bringing him to his final outcry, and he was nearly on the edge of breaking. He had nearly forgotten about the Pokemon grave site. The music alone was scary enough that it just seemed to overshadow it, so it must have simply slipped his mind that it was even a part of the story for the game.
“The whole entire thing?”
The three other foals nod in unison. They have all agreed with this ahead of time, days in advance really, and with that have sealed his fate.
Button gulps, closing his eyes to shake his head a bit. “S-so when do I have to do this? Like…I do not have to do this today do I?”
This was something they had not considered. Did Button Mash really have to do this today? Maybe later today, or even tomorrow? The three continued to look at each other in confusion, not really achieving anything before Broken Glass had finally stepped forward to take his charge on this.
“You have three days to prep up Button. We want you comfy for this, not…unready.” He falters a bit, looking back to his friends. Of the three, Button Mash was really his favorite among his friends, though aware that he normally would be calling Hammer Smash his best friend, and Button calling Sweetie Belle his best friend. He has bonded best with Button, and why wouldn't they? They were both earth ponies, and lived really close by. They have practically known each other since birth, and have celebrated countless victories in multiplayer together. He just didn’t enjoy seeing Button like this. He knew that after this dare was all done and over, it would all be better for him, but Glass still feels some remorse for him and his friends’ actions.
“After then, we will have you do the challenge. Okay?”
Button runs this through his head, nervously shifting his hooves back and forth….back and forth, such as the pendulum that constitutes his life. At first, his mind was racing at such a speed it was impossible to think rationally and make sense of anything. Over time, it had pulled together perfectly.
Three days wasn’t too short. He would be able to close ties off with other friends, clean his room a bit to make his mom happy, and simply make all his wrongs right. He was determined he would leave this world without leaving a negative mark.
“O-okay guys,” He stands up, shaking his plot off to clear it of the grass and dust, posing into a square and confident step, making him appear larger and more masculine than his string bean figure would normally be.
“I am going to do this. I will do the Lavender Challenge”
A smile is forced to crack his lips, not really catching the meaning of the words as they leave his mouth. At this point, he was only going along with the actions and not really realizing what the consequences may be. To his friends, it would simply be nothing. To him, it could be his life.
The three foals join around him and catch him in a quick group hug. Button continues to smile, and even rest his head against Sweetie Belle’s shoulder within the hug. He may seem relaxed and smiling on the outside, but deep inside he was screaming from the pain of something being severed from his being.