Button Mash, the best video game player in class, and one of the most troublesome. Ever since first grade, Button has always snuck a portable video game into class, playing it silently behind Ms. Cheerilee's back. Only by seeing the light illuminating his face did the teacher take action. After school, he would complete his homework as hastily as he could to spend time playing his prized possessions, often resulting in unsatisfactory answers. Often these play-throughs last well into the next morning, as evidenced by his tired snout.
It is now after the first quarter, and the report cards are being sent over to all the parents. Having come back from her job at the nursery, Mrs. Mash found Derpy Whooves stuck in her mailbox.
The wall-eyed Pegasus took out an envelope, "Letter for you."
"Why thank you, Derpy!" - Mrs. Mash placed the letter in her saddle bag before inspecting the mail mare's dilemma - "Do you need some help?"
"Oh no, I can handle it." Said Derpy before applying her strength to the mailbox.
Walking inside to the usual chip tunes coming from her youngest son's room, Mrs. Mash took out the letter.
To the Parents of Button Mash - Ponyville Elementary
Opening it with a cutter, Mrs. Mash pulled out a blue slip and carefully looked at it. Her eyebrows furrowed as her eyes fluttered up and down on the card.
Button, his life bar just one hit point away from dying, was just about to inflict the last blow to his virtual enemy when he heard the door slammed open and the game shut off on its own.
"Wha?" - Button crawled towards the TV - "No! NO! You can't quit on me now! MOM!! The TV's-"
Button found his mother holding the power cord in one hoof looking furious.
"What is this?" Mrs. Mash showed the young Earth Pony the blue slip.
"A... report card?"
"Read it to me." She commanded.
Button looked at the writing of the report card, looking up to notice his mother raising an eyebrow.
"Science: 64, Social Studies: 68, Art: 85, Magic Studies: 62, P.E.: 70." - Button looked at the comments section - "Always interrupts class sessions by bringing in portable video games."
Button drew his ears back as he looked up at his angered mother with puppy dog eyes.
"This is getting ridiculous! You stay up all night-" - She looked down to find Button playing on his Joy Boy before grabbing it from him - "Button, stop. It's gonna mess with your head."
Unplugging every system, Mrs. Mash carried them to her closet and locked them in. Her head aloof, she walked towards the kitchen.
"But, Mom," - Button pleaded as he held his mother's leg, dragging himself along the floor - "I need to fight the Cohurt to save the village of Combay if I want any luck in defeating the Alexes of Humgonia."
Mrs. Mash had a dumbfounded look; kids learn the weirdest things from playing video games. Snapping herself back into focus, she answered,
"NO. Until you can raise your grades by the end of the school year, you are grounded. No TV, no video games, no arcade nights."
She left Button Mash all alone in his room, defeated as his body flopped on the floor about to cry when an idea clicked into his head as the propeller on his hat spun rapidly. Pulling out his laptop, Button logged in and was about to play a game of Minecraft when a cream colored hoof closed the screen, lifted it in her mouth and walked away.
"Zangcomlif!!!" Button kicked a rubber ball. The ball retaliated as it bounced off the wall and smacked the colt in the face.
Button, now deprived of any entertainment system to bring, trudged over to the school in the muggy air. His friends were talking about their grades, their happy expressions implying that they have done much better. They turned to find Button walk by them into the classroom, squishing his face on his assigned desk. Rumble, Cosgrove, Featherweight and Pipsqueak surrounded him with looks of concern. The brown colt grumbled inaudible words. His friends gave each other a look.
"Bad grades." They said.
A few hours after, the end of school bell rang, and with them, every school student galloping off in a big stampede. That is, except for Button Mash as he slowly trudged out of the door. No arcade, no portable console to play while in the park, Button’s desire for gameplay rumbled like another stomach. In his sad travels, without taking another glance, he found himself in a forest green tent. Around him were shelves of bottles, chests, and draperies over the wooden pillars.
“Come in, come in!” - the colt looked forward to a glass ball being rubbed by two pink hooves - “For Madame Pinkie will read your fortune. What troubles you, young Button?”
Button Mash sat on the chestnut pillow before him. “I’ve been grounded from the one thing in life. How can it get any worse?”
Pinkie looked into her magic ball, rubbing it with her hooves. She looked deeper and gasped. “The crystal ball knows the worst! I see…. I see… a group of ponies lining up to receive their diploma.”
Button joined in; as the party planner has said, multiple rows of chairs spanned a majority of the town square before the Mayor’s office. A majority of those chairs were occupied by ponies with apple related cutie marks. Other chairs were occupied by the Elements of Harmony among a various selected amount of other adult ponies wiping away their tears. The colt watched as Pipsqueak, now the same height as Button is right now, receiving his award. Rumble, half again taller from the British colt, received his diploma next.
Button looked to the right of the office building, tracing the moving Earth Pony and Pegasus colts take their seats. Alphabetically they were arranged; Apple Bloom having the first seat, then Boysenberry, then Cogsworth, then Cosgrove, and so forth. As Snails, now even taller than most of the other colts, took his diploma, Button did notice one particular thing missing: himself.
“I don’t graduate?!” Button jerked his head back, causing his helicopter cap to fall off.
“Right-a-roonie!” - Pinkie said with a smile - “You’ll be at home eating chimicherrychangas, drinking soda, and be glued to the couch.”
Button gasped, “Wait, will I still play video games?”
Pinkie looked into the orb again before saying with confidence, “Nope.”
Button ran clean away, screaming his head off. Pinkie Pie turned off the light in the orb as Gummy popped out of her turban.
“Wow, Button can take a joke huh, Gummy?” She asked, getting a response with a small squeak from the reptile.
Button ran as fast as his legs could carry him before he almost collapsed from exhaustion at the town bazaar. The exertion and the fear of being a few steps back made his heart race so hard that he heard a pounding in his skull. He could only imagine the consequences: no video games, no friends his age to hang out with, and the possibility of being kicked out. The propeller on his hat began to spin.
“I need… help.” Button raised his head up “Someone who can give me a walkthrough, somepony like”
“Me?” Asked Cogsworth as he was about to leave the Castle of Friendship.
“You're one of the smartest of us.” Button watched as the technologically infused earth pony colt raised an eyebrow “Please, I beg you, be my senpai, and I shall honor you with... things... your mind can't imagine!”
The mechanic shook his head, “I need to get my head examined. Just be at my house tomorrow after school.”
When the class exited the school, Button Mash happily trotted away from his usual destinations. Such poise made his friends curious as they joined him.
“You’re a lot happier today.” Said Rumble as he landed on the ground.
“Yep,” Button raised his head up with pride “by this time tomorrow I'm going to be an academic ace!”
“That's not how tutoring works.” Featherweight warned as he hovered about.
“Sure it does,” Button increased his walking speed “I have Cogsworth.”
Button walked over to the mechanic's house and tapped the door three times.
“Cogsworth! Time to tutor!” It didn't take even three seconds before the colt started banging on the door and screamed, “Cogsworth!!! It's time to-”
The door pulled back, showing the red colt that will serve as his master. He took a deep breath.
“Shall we get started?” Cogsworth lead Button up the ramp and to his room. Removing the harness, the mechanic pulled himself onto his bed, looking down at his “protege” looking up at him with a smile. “Well, where is your textbook?”
“Don't need one, you can pass on the knowledge over to me.” Button grinned even wider.
Cogsworth not so much as he pulled out his math textbook. “Okay, let's just use mine.”
Button sat next to him, presenting Cogsworth with his answers to today's math homework. What the mechanic saw weren't even related to mathematics, let alone any academic subject. A majority of answers related to popular culture, but otherwise had no work shown nor correct answer. In his mind, the mechanic took back everything he thought about Snails.
“Okay, let's start with the odd numbers.” Cogsworth looked at question five “Now, what is the square root of two thousand, four hundred one?”
“Uh…” Button fidgeted his hooves “Sixty-two?”
Cogsworth slowly placed his hoof on his head, gently rubbing a circle on the fur and skin. “This is gonna be one long afternoon.”
Indeed, an insult to his intelligence, what would have taken two minutes for Cogsworth to answer a question would take Button twelve minutes. Thirteen of these tortuous corrections and the mechanic felt like an old worker who didn't have his cup of coffee. How Button could keep his energy up he didn't understand. But then again, he didn't take his time to hang out with his friends between the camping accident and his time in juvenile detention.
“Whelp!” Button slammed the math book shut, waking up the dazed colt “That does it for today! I’ll see you tomorrow.”
When Button rushed out and slammed the door, the mechanic sighed with relief. The following morning, Button strode over go school and turned in his homework. A few hours of subjects and recess, and Button got his homework back. It was graded sixty-nine percent; better than what he usually gets, but still behind. In red ink, Cheerilee wrote, “Much better, but keep trying.”
The following afternoon and Button was back at Cogsworth's home. At his request, they would work the even numbered problems. They worked long and hard on the social studies problems.
“Laughter, Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, and Magic all constitute the Elements of what?” Cogsworth turned his attention away from the book to his video game playing friend, who just tapped his muzzle.
“... Cringe?” Button answered, irritating the mechanic further as he lifted his upper body.
“Really!?” - Cogsworth snarled as he slammed the book - “They've been used since Princess Luna returned, we trotted among them, you're in cahoots with the generous one's sister! How the hay do you not know that!?”
Button tapped his chin before waving his hoof in an uncertain manner.
“... Lack of practice?” - Button watched Cogsworth shut his book and turned away from Button - “What's wrong?”
“Oh, nothing.” The mechanic hooked himself to his wheelchair and began walking towards the door. “I'm just thinking I am wasting my time.”
Button’s ears lowered as he picked up his books. “No, you're-”
“Forget it!” - Cogsworth stopped and turned around - “You’d never get your grades up because you hardly put any effort in solving problems.”
Much as he didn't like to admit it, Button took off his hat, sitting down as he placed it on his chest.
“Please, I just want to raise my grades so I can play video games again.” - Button began to sniffle - “That's the only good thing I'm good at. I want to make video games when I grow up.”
Keeping his red fur from becoming any redder, Cogsworth looked at a cartridge of the game, “Pokémon Stadium.” He lifted it to his mouth, looking at Button again. With a wave of his hoof, he led the gamer to the Castle. Back in the refurbished library, Cogsworth plugged in the game into the computer. With a few commands, the computer monitors displayed the tech specs, 3D asset files, and mathematics for the physics engine and UI. The mechanic turned to find Button in awe, much to his prediction.
“You want to build video games?” Cogsworth dragged his wheelchair laden body towards the young stallion, raising his hoof. “Then get smart!”
Button Mash watched Cogsworth leave him before looking to the monitor. All these math equations, the sciences used for the physics engine and the transitions for each animation. Harsh as the fact is, Button had to grow up. No one’s going to be a colt or filly forever, and their lives must be so that their parents wouldn’t have any ripples. Button walked out of the laboratory and out of the castle.
When he reached his home, Button Mash took out his notebook of all the past assignments he did in the semester so far. Aside from a few B’s, Most of them had been graded either as D or D-plus, with the red ink writing asking him to redo them. Taking out his math textbook, he began with the long division problems. His mother, having not heard of her son in a while, went over to check on him. With the sight of him re-doing his assignments had her draw a smile as she walked away and continued to cook tonight’s meal.
A few days have passed. Button was “in the zone” as he wrote down his notes. As he did, he received the whole stack of his old assignments, placed on his desk. When the recess bell rang, Button stayed behind and looked at each one assignment. Grades that were formerly D range have been bumped up to a B. He looked up, seeing Cheerilee grading her newly received assignments. With a smile, he places the re-graded assignments into his saddlebag, Button walked out of school, joining his friends as his future became much brighter.