Button Mash and Sweetie Belle Love

by Masked_Frenchman

7: Knowing The Game

Chapter 7: Knowing The Game

Button Mash stared at the screen of his joyboy for a good three minutes. Not moving, not blinking, and steadily breathing. After a while he shook his head, blinking and staring at the screen with an expression of confusion frozen on his face. “Um, uh, alright,” He slowly placed the hoof held device onto his bed as if it was a bomb ready to blow, leaning away from it. “What kind of game is this?!” He asked himself in alarm.

The game stopped speaking to him as if letting him think about everything that was just said. He picked the game back up and stared at the griffin, who then continued speaking. “Every choice you make throughout your quest will change your ending and it’s options. You must make the correct choices in this life to see to the true ending, but you will not be stopped and/or limited in your choices. For this game, is a game of free will,” Button Mash absorbed every word he spoke, a smile forming on his face.

“I see. . . I get it, I know what this is about!” He listened more about examples of his choices. “This is a choose your own adventure game! I beat one of these before,” He smiled to himself as he listened further. With a chuckle to himself, he whipped a few beads of sweat from his forehead. “This is a really good intro. It really had me going there!”

The griffin disappeared after he was done talking, opening up a character creation screen and a new character appeared in the bottom right corner of the screen. She was a princess, with out a doubt. She had a long, beautiful, light purple mane tied in knots all the way down. She had a light grey coat, almost smokey, and crystal blue eyes. “Hello adventurer, I see you have come to begin your grand quest. If you have a moment, let us see who you are. What is your name?” Button Mash smirked, tapping his chin with his hoof.

“Hmmm. . . . . I need a cool name! Let’s see. . . “ He thought for a moment, trying to think of a name for his character. “I got it! Ripe Tide!” With a smile he typed it in with excitement.

“I don’t think that is your real name, could you please put in your real name,” Button Mash raised an eyebrow in annoyance.

“How would you know!” He pouted at his game as he tried to think of a new name. “Ok. . . what about Iron Hide! I haven’t used that name in a long time!” He typed that in only to see the young princess giggled softly.

“I am sure that is not your name either, please give me your real name. The one given to you at birth,” Button Mash stared at his game in disbelief then in question.

“Hmmm. . . too many characters, too little maybe? let’s try my name then, see if it’s too few,” He typed in his name on the character creation and she smiled softly at him.

“Was that so hard? Now let’s see what you look like,” Button Mash stared at the screen in shock and panic.

“What, no, NO!!! Noooooo, that is a stupid name for a hero!!” He glared at the screen but with a defeated sigh, he gave up on it. “What is up with this game? So much for choose your OWN adventure!” Button Mash thought out loud with a pouty face. He scrolled around to create his character, adding a short, spike red mane and black eyes, and many other features.

“Well. . . . at least they really go into detail with the character creation. . . . I’ve never seen so much detail like this!” Once he was done, he selected enter which the princess smiled, shaking her head.

“I really doubt you look like that. How about you create your character to make it look like you,” Button Mash glared at the joyboy, his hooves clutching it tightly.

“Oh come on!!” He chucked his joyboy at his bedpost but it bounced off and hit him in the head, knocking him down. Tears welled up and he gripped his head in pain, trying not to cry. “Owww! That hurt!” He rubbed his head where it was struck. He heard the joyboy speak out where it landed a few feet away from him, earning a glare from him.

“It seems you wish to become someone else on this adventure. I wonder why that is?” Button Mash’s glare softened, looking away from the game, pouting. “Is it because you feel like you have no power? That you find yourself a weak individual who is not worthy of becoming a hero? Is that why you play games like these, so you can become the stallion you’ve always dreamed of being? So does that mean that you think yourself as someone who can’t do these grand and heroic deeds? So to feel needed, to feel loved, and to feel important you play games where you can live the life of someone who has done those things? Why don’t you let yourself be the hero for a change, ” He stared back at the game, shocked and surprised, his eye twitching at it as his game fired odd questions at him. He even felt his heart twitch a little, feeling a strange and powerful, unknown force hitting it.

“What?! It’s. . . it’s like. . . “He questioned the game in his head, wondering who made it and why. Such a game was baffling to him, it was as if the game had gotten in his head. He went over and made his character look exactly like him, making sure to get as much detail as he could. The princess looking mare smiled warmly at him.

“See, that wasn’t so hard. Now we know your name and what you look like. Now we can start your adventure. Your grand quest awaits, new hero!” Button Mash got through the opening act, listening carefully but still annoyed that he can’t skip it, which he was trying.

“In the year 832, the kingdom has been divided by two separate groups, the Empire and the Lunar Knights. The Empire believes that peace can only be obtained through hardship and trust in their kingdom while the Lunar Knights believe that peace can only be obtained from the people being independant. In this story you must choose what you must do and decide what is best for your survival. You live in a little village called Sunset Town. People will try to use you, people will make fun of you and say you are wrong. You alone must choose who is right and who is wrong and choose your allies wisely. Your story begins now,”

Button Mash paused his game and exited it, the auto save marked his place as the joyboy slowly faded with life and shut off. After that he pulled out the game from the little device, grabbed his saddlebag, and went downstairs were his mom was finishing up the dishes. “Hey mom, I am gonna go to the video game store and try to figure out what this game is, is that ok?” Button’s mom looked over to him with her usual kind smile, nodding at him.

“Of course dear, just make sure you are back in time for dinner,”

“What is for dinner?”

“Mac and cheese with hay fries. It will be done in an hour,”

“Awesome! Thanks mom, I’ll be back as soon as I can!”

“Ok sweetie, please be safe,”

“I will!” Button Mash waved good bye to her and walked out the door, closing it behind him. He walked on over to his usual video game store over near the center of town. It opened up recently but they recognize Button Mash easily for being a frequent customer. “I wonder if anyone knows about this game, hopefully Game Pad knows something about it,” Game Pad was the closest to a friend Button Mash had with out the title of being friends. He saw him often and usually can answer any question he came in with, and if he didn’t know he could point him in the right direction to find out for himself.

Button Mash came across the small store that had a game controler on the sign that read “Game Land” in big, red letters. Pictures of future games were on the windows at the front. He pushed it open, chiming a little bell. “Hang on, I’ll be right out,” A voice called out from behind the counter. Button Mash turned towards it, seeing the usual red and black curtain. He was usually back there, “testing out” the new products so he says. After a moment, a unicorn with a midnight black mane, blue eyes, and sun bleach blonde fur came through the little curtain behind the counter. “Oh, hey Button Mash, what’s up? Your game hasn’t come in yet, still got nine days until it get’s in,”

Button Mash shook his head. “No, I am not here about Darkness Rises, I have this indie game that has no labels and I was wondering if you had any idea on who made it,” He walked up to the counter and placed it down in front of Game Pad. He walked over and picked it up, bringing it closer to his face to get a better look, turning it over to look at the back.

“I see, no labels alright. Hmmm, no company logo, no brand name, no description. . . This looks familiar but I can’t put my hoof on it,” He looked at the unknown game for a moment longer before a light bulb came to life in his mind. He put the game down and went out back. A moment of hearing some things getting moved around he came back with another game. He placed them side by side, looking at them both. Button Stared at him with a puzzled look.

“Did you find something?” Game Pad took a moment further to look at both games before smiling, nodding to him.

“Yup! They are from the same indie group without a doubt! The art design is the same! Take a look,” Game Pad pushed both games to him, putting them side by side. Button Mash put his front hooves onto the counter to get a look, even then he barely reached it. The game he had was Destiny, the other game was called Fate Through Fire. The other game had a black dragon breathing fire up at the sky and a couple of knights in shining armour fighting it off in the center of a village. When he looked closely at the games, the artwork was the same style. “See? Now tell me a bit about your game,”

“Well, mine has a weird character creation screen, nothing like I have ever seen before. I tried to put in a name but it told me to use my real name, it did that twice! I ended up using my real name and THEN it worked and let me design the looks of my character. I tried two different designs and it denied them both, telling me to look like me. Then it when on this speech about why it thought I don’t like using myself as a character or something like that,” His friend nodded with a smile.

“Yup, that is definitely Shadow Studios! They try to do this 4th wall breaking thing on players to spook them out. Looks like it worked on you, Button!” Game Pad explained confidently, sticking his tongue out at the little colt. He glared at him.

“Hey! I never played a game like this, I was just surprised!” Game Pad laughed over at him, rolling his eyes.

“Oh yea, suuuurrrrre. I know you Button, I wouldn’t doubt it if you almost cried from being so scared,”

“Did not!” Game Pad raised his front hooves, trying to calm him down.

“Relax, either way it’s fine. They do this often, I’ve been playing this game for a while now, it’s pretty good. They do some awesome choose your own adventure stuff, like it’s really you doing everything, LOT’S of choices. It looks like you got their newest game. Lucky!” Button Mash smiled victoriously at Game Pad, sticking his own tongue out at him, making Game Pad chuckle, waving his hoof at him. “Yea yea, what ever, hot shot. Anyway, so do you have any other questions or was that it?”
Button Mash shook his head with a joyful smile. “Nope, that’s it. Thanks for the help,” He grabbed his game and started walking away but then stopped. “Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention. This game doesn’t let me save, and it tells me that if I die, I can’t restart or anything,” Game Pad’s smile disappeared and he looked over at Button Mash with a puzzled look. “Have you ever had a game that did that?” He thought for a moment, leaning against the wall behind him, tapping his chin with his hoof.

“No. . . . . I can’t say that I have. That sounds like a weird game to me, doesn’t even let you save. What is it an auto save feature?” Button Mash nodded his head. “Ok, but still. Why won’t it let you keep playing if you die?” Game Pad thought out loud for a while, thinking really hard on the subject. “It makes no sense!” He came across another game, a smile spread across his face. “Wait a second, remember that one game. . . ummm, what was it. Light Spear! Right, remember how you couldn’t save in that game? Maybe they are trying to pull something like that,”

“Isn’t that the game that when you die, you have to start over from the very beginning of the act?”

“Yea, that’s the one! Maybe Shadow Studios is trying a new thing, taking that idea. There’s no way they would make you not play again after you die. So relax, dude, you’re good. Judging from Shadow Studios, they are trying to spook you out. It’s kinda their thing.”

“Well, if you are sure, then ok! Thanks again!” He waved at him, saying his good bye and left the shop, heading back home. He looked at the game and smiled. “So I guess that means you will be a tough game to beat. Well I know that I can beat this!” With a confident look plastered on his face, he slid the game back in his saddlebag. He now knew about the game he was playing and now he felt so much better about the whole subject. Little did he know. . . his entire life was about to change, for better and for worse!

Author's Note:

Alrighty, I managed to write this one right before I went to bed. I am leaving tomorrow to live with my girl friend. So this will be the last story for a while, this time it is. I think around June 5th I will be able to get it back up, but I am not quite sure yet, I'm sorry everyone I hope this doesn't drive you guys TOO insane with mystery Anyway, I was stuck on this chapter for so long that I had to make a quick, one shot story just to make myself feel like I was doing something. Luckily that got my gears working again and I managed to finish, so me! So I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it (Although it caused me lot's of head aches ) I hope to see you in the future chapters ahead. I hope you have a great morning/day/evening. As always, bye bye for now!

Comments

[Masked_Frenchman]

4367648 Hahaha, yea I decided to do a little thing to troll with everyone

[multiple bronies]

It will be worth the wait, i'm sure.

[BureYaAkili]

4393123
Just use a rubber ;)

[Shadow_Dashiom]

You little jerk

[OfficialDerp]

Woah. I thought for sure that the guy at the game store wouldn't even be able to tell who made the game. Like it was some kind of magical something-or-other.
But whatever.

As always, I loved the chapter and it'll really be worth the wait for the next one!

[JustAnotherPegasister]

I just love this story it will be worth the wait see ya june 5th then

[Gods Man]

Hm...Interesting. Very interesting indeed.

[RealityCheck]

I'm getting a real "hate on gamers" vibe here....

"you're all losers who can't cope with reality," etc.

[Phoenix Nebula]

Okay there's a reference hear I know it.