Final Boss: Sweetie Belle

by Blueninetails

Chapter 6

It's now Wednesday, and so far it's been a rather positive week since Sunday for Button Mash as Sweetie Belle seemed to be leaving him be for the time being. Still though, it hadn't been completely perfect: Sweetie Belle still took whatever chance she could to sit next to him and flash him an adorable smile; Spike, while still a friend, had been shooting him a suspicious look due to current events whenever the two crossed paths; and, he had noticed that Diamond Tiara had been occasionally stealing inquisitive glances at him with a stare that seemed to try cutting deep into him before going back to whatever she was doing.

It unnerved him occasionally knowing that Diamond Tiara seemed to be watching him in a way that he felt was like a wild manticore stalking its prey before going in for the kill.

Still though, a pretty good week so far.

Button yawned audibly and stretched his forelimbs out to wake himself up, trying to stay awake and listen to their 'star guest', Princess Twilight Sparkle, lecture about the processes of making laws on both the local and empire-wide levels. Normally, Button wouldn't care much about such processes, but given that a majority of the class looked to either be spacing out, barely awake, or completely asleep, and their teacher's annoyed expression, there's a extremely good chance that much of the lecture was going to be on a test in the near future.

"Spike wasn't kidding about Ms. Twilight being able to ramble on once you get her started." He thought to himself before lazily looking around the class to see who among the his fellow classmates were still paying attention. By the looks of it, it was only Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara, Twist, and himself who looked to be fully paying attention.

Looking from the corner of his eye, he looked at Sweetie, who was once again seated in the desk next to him. The young unicorn mare had completely fallen asleep in a rather amusing, yet unlady-like pose.

Sweetie had fallen asleep some time ago, and was currently holding a pose that both looked unusual, surprising, and at least borderline funny. Sweetie had fallen asleep sitting up in her chair, her back against the back-rest, with one of her fore-limbs straight out and resting on her desk, the other curled up against her chest, and her head slightly leaned back and to her left with her mouth open. Also, while it wasn't completely clear, Button could swear he could hear her lightly snoring every now and again.

Button couldn't help but chuckle, and shook his head. "Stupid mare." He thought to himself as he looked at her. His attention stayed on her for a moment, particularly how a bit of mane hung over her eyes from how she was posed, before averting his gaze once he realized he let his eyes rest on Sweetie for longer than necessary.

Upon turning his attention back to the front of the class, he caught some slight movement from another desk and looked in that direction. If he wasn't fully awake before, he certainly was now, as he saw Rumble peering towards him with a smirk that seemed read as: 'Caught ya staring.', and caused Button a massive amount of embarrassment.

Button let out a silent groan, and slammed his head against his desk, "Hayseed...!" He muttered.

At that moment, the school bell rang, ending another day at school for the young ponies, which also woke up anypony who had fallen asleep during Twilight's lecture. This included Scootaloo, who woke with a start at the sound and instinctively flared her wings open, tossing up a couple of loose feathers from her wings.

A few in the class let out a light laugh at the sight.

"Okay, that's enough class." Their teacher stated, "We'll continue our lesson tomorrow, unless of course you had other plans, Ms. Twilight." She said as she turned her attention to Twilight.

"Not at all, I'll be glad to come back in tomorrow."

She gave a nod of thanks before looking back at her class, "Remember, class, next week your three-page reports will be due, so if you haven't started on it yet, now would be good time to get on that. Have a good day, and I'll see you all tomorrow."

Everypony quickly packed away their things, and as orderly as they could left the the schoolhouse.

Just as Button was leaving the premise, he heard Sweetie's voice call out to him.

"Button, wait!"

Button took in a sharp breath as he clenched his teeth, "What now...?!" He muttered before turning to look at her.

"Thanks for waiting Button."

"Yeah, yeah, no problem. So what do you want?"

"I w-was wondering, if, you know, we can walk together for a little bit...?"

That stunned Button for a brief moment, "What for?! Why don't you walk with Applebloom and Scootaloo, like you always do?" he asked a little louder than necessary.

Sweetie took a step back at Button's loud reply, "I-I-I thought it could be something, you know, nice for us to do together." She stated with her ears pinned back against her head.

Button was going to say something, but stopped when he remembered that they were still in front of the schoolhouse, and a good portion of their class was still present. Letting out a sigh, he hesitated before saying, "Alright, I guess I'll walk you home. Or are you going to Carousel Boutique?" Immediately cheering Sweetie Belle right up.

"I need to pick up some stuff from my sis's place, soooo to Carousel Boutique."

"Great..." He thought to himself, not really looking forward to potentially seeing Rarity again, as the duo started on their way to Carousel Boutique.

A peaceful silence fell between the two as they traveled to the ever fashionable clothing store, the sounds of everyday life in Ponyville being the only sound between the two. At least, until Button decided to speak up.

"You never answered my other question by the way."

"Hm?" Sweetie responded as she turned to look at him, a smile still on her face from Button agreeing to walk with her.

"Why aren't you with Applebloom and Scootaloo today?"

"Oh, they're busy doing their own things today. Applebloom said she was going to talk to Zecora about a potion for a sick cow at Sweet Apple Acres, and I think Scootaloo said something about hanging out with Rainbow Dash today."

"Of course..." He mouthed as he rolled his eyes.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at Carousel Boutique, and as they did, Sweetie seemed to visibly become more nervous and uncomfortable.

Button seemingly didn't notice as his expression remained stoic, at least until he turned to look at her. Sweetie's ears were pointed backwards, she held her head a bit lower than she had earlier, and her tail seemed to twitch nervously every now and again.

"What's with her?" He thought to himself.

"Come on, Sweetie, you've gone on one date with him, and you've woken up hugging him." She muttered to herself, feeling a little warmth at her cheeks at remembering last Saturday, "You j-j-just have to ask him."

Silence remained between the two for a while longer until Button said, "So, yeah..., we're here at Carousel Boutique. Soooo, I guess I'll see you later, Sweetie Belle." and immediately turned to leave.

"Button, wait!"

Button knew he should keep moving, just ignore her, or at least come up with some impromptu excuse; but, the feeling at the back of his head seemed to say: 'stop', and his body was willing to obey.

"What is it, Sweetie Belle?" he asked as he turned his head to look at the young mare.

Sweetie hesitated before saying, "I wanted to ask if..., you know, if you'd like to play together, again?"

"You mean like last Friday night? On Minecraft?"

Sweetie smiled and nodded.

"I dunno, I kinda have to work on that report for next week." He remarked, somewhat glad school had given him a proper excuse to not spend any time with Sweetie, "And what about you? I'm sure you have to work on the report too."

"Oh, I already finished the report."

"Wait...You already finished your report?!"

Sweetie nodded, "My sister, Rarity, heard about it from Miss Twilight, who heard it from our teacher, and she refused to let me play unless I finished the report. She said that diligence is a quality every lady should have, and that it will make my reward for being diligent with my work all the more sweeter, and my reward was that I get to play video games."

"But the report...," he silently muttered, "it was assigned just two days ago."

"How about you, Button? Did you finish your report?"

"No..., not yet." he admitted honestly as he scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, well..., that's okay. You still have till next week to finish it anyway. Did you at least pick a topic yet?" she innocently asked while smiling that ever cheerful smile.

"Oh, yeah...of course I did." He replied nervously with a wide grin. No, he didn't. He hadn't even given it much thought since it was assigned.

"I thought that maybe...I could spend my video game play time with you." She explained before finishing with a wide, hopeful smile and a slight wag to her tail.

Button gave a light groan, before saying, "I dunno, Sweetie, I got some work to do. I mean sure, I'll play a little bit before I do, but it'll be easier if I just go home."

Sweetie's smile fell from her face, "Oh...,okay," she replied with a forced smile, "That's alright, maybe next time...?"

"Yeah...sure." he replied, before adding, "Whatever." Under his breath when Sweetie turned away to leave.

He watched her as she slowly walked up to the front door of Carousel Boutique. Sweetie seemed to take it rather hard as she seemingly forgot that she could use her magic to open the door, which would have been normal for unicorns her age, and the fact she didn't have to dig through her saddlebag for a door key.

Button watched her with some modicum of amusement, especially after Sweetie's expression changed from disappointed to confused, then to annoyed as she couldn't find the key she was looking for. After a moment though, it just became depressing in a way.

"Sweetie, if you're looking for a house key, isn't Carousel Boutique also your sister's store, so...wouldn't the door already be unlocked?"

"Oh...,right." she replied with a nervous grin.

"Dumb mare." he muttered under his breath.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay and play even for a little while?"

Yes! Button just stared at her with a serious look, and trying hard to not audibly groan or growl.

She looked at him with pleading, soulful eyes that both annoyed and disturbed him in a way he couldn't quite explain.

He sighed, "You were really looking forward to playing with me today, didn't you?"

She nodded.

"Fine!" He begrudgingly stated and started digging around his saddlebag for a sheet of scratch paper and pencil. He quickly found what he needed and quickly jotted down something before giving it to Sweetie, "Here, that's my alias. I have no time to just hang out today, but if you give me fifteen minutes, I should be on, and you can shoot me a friend request and we can play together. You do know how to search for another player, right?"

"Mm-hm!" she responded with a nod and excited smile.

"Good. Like I said, wait for fifteen minutes, search up my alias, and send me a friend request." he repeated, making sure she understood completely what she had to do.

"Don't worry, I understand." As quickly as she could, she bolted into Carousel Boutique and shut the door before Button could get another word in.

Button let out an audible sigh as he rubbed the bridge of his snout, before turning to leave for home. Well, at least she couldn't say that he never tried to be a little friendly. Besides, he had to admit it, he did find it sort of...commendable that Sweetie finished a long assignment in two days.

Button took his time getting home, hoping that if he wasn't available to respond to Sweetie, he'd be able to avoid her without detection, at least for now. Still, he could only draw out how long he could stay away from home till his mom got worried about him, and arrived back at home. As soon as he got home, he went to his room and proceeded to check for any friend requests.

He raised a brow upon finding that there wasn't any indicator that anypony, especially Sweetie Belle, had sent him any friend request. It'd had been at least thirty minutes since he last saw Sweetie, that was double the time he asked for, more than enough time for her to send him a request. Still...he couldn't help but let a grin appear on his face.

What luck! Seems he didn't even have to worry at all; and, with that, he decided to go get a snack before going back to his old plan, which was to get in some game time before he starts on his homework for the day.

He about 20 minutes into a game of Minecraft, working on a rail system which will expedite the travel to and forth between his 'homebase' in the game and a ravine he found that was loaded with iron, gold, and potentially some diamond ore, when he heard a 'ding' through the headset he was wearing.

Looking at the corner of the screen, he went wide-eyed at seeing a somewhat familiar alias requesting to be friends.

"It's been 55 minutes. Is she sending it to me now?" he muttered, "Might as well." he added with a groan and accepted the request and went to join the game.

"I can't believe this. Well, at least it'll probably be short. Just a little this and that before- WHAT THE-?!" he was thinking as the world loaded before he saw his character start falling just as he spawned in then heard the 'grunt' sound associated with falling and just barely surviving the fall damage.

"Hi, Button!" he heard Sweetie's voice in his headset. Oh great, she has a mic too...

"Sweetie Belle!" he shouted, "Why did I just spawn over a hole?! And..., why is there even a hole here to begin with?" he asked as he started thinking of a way out of hole in the ground he just spawned over.

He heard Sweetie Belle give a forced nervous giggle at his question, "That's probably one of Scootaloo's holes she made with dynamite." and true to word, that's exactly what the hole looked like: a straight vertical cavern into the ground.

"Scootaloo...?"

"This isn't the same world from Friday night. This is a separate world I made whenever the others come over and want to play for a little while."

Button didn't say anything as he, not finding any other option at the moment, started the long tedious work of digging a staircase for himself. Also as an added bonus, he could probably imagine punching out his annoyance on the blocks of smooth stone.

"The world is kinda part adventure, and part creative. I kinda...spawned in some stuff for the Applebloom, Scootaloo, and I to use."

"So you're pretty much cheating?" He dully stated just a second before he was teleported to where she was, which was near a quaint wooden home at the base of what looked to be a mountain or a tall hill.

"Not entirely! Just for some things, like extra saplings, smooth stone, and...dynamite."

"Dynamite...? I'm gonna guess that's why Scootaloo was able to put a deep ditch where I spawned, right?"

"Hehe...yeah..., Scootaloo occasionally wants to just blow up parts of the world; and, she says she doesn't like having to hunt creepers to do it."

"But that's half the-!" Button started, but stopped short as he groaned, "Whatever. So is there anything in particular you were hoping on doing?"

"I was thinking, maybe you could make a house around here too!" she stated excitedly.

"A house...? You just want me to make a house?"

"Mm-hm!" she replied, as her avatar looked up then down as if nodding, "Well, that and some other stuff too, but I want to help you feel welcome here. Applebloom and Scootaloo already have their houses on this map. Well..., maybe not Scootaloo. I let Rumble play once, and he started a fire to clear out some trees, and I think it was in the same area as Scootaloo's house. Not entirely sure though, I never bothered to check."

"Probably your fault. You didn't stop him before it got out of control." He quietly muttered to himself, then said, "Do you have some spare tools for me to use? Or do I have to make 'em myself?"

"Oh, right. Stay right here for a moment." and went into her house.

Button sighed, loud enough for it to be heard over the mic, but Sweetie didn't seem to notice as she said nothing, and tried having a closer look at the environment around his character. It appears little about the surrounding environment had been greatly altered. Aside from Sweetie's quaint home there, there was also a path that lead off somewhere and a fence, otherwise everything else seemed untouched.

When Sweetie came back out, she came out holding a lever in the mouth of her character.

"Uh, Sweetie, that's not a tool, that's a lever."

"I know, just follow me." and started trotting towards a cave opening on the side of the land formation her home was located at.

Button was curious as to what Sweetie was doing with a lever, though he did have some idea. Probably some hidden area or an iron door that wouldn't open without it. He was betting on the latter, considering he was the experienced gamer, and even he had a few issues coming up with functional redstone circuitry. Sure enough, not far from the entrance of the cave was a iron door.

Sweetie placed the lever on a block next to the door, flipped it, and the duo proceeded to walk into the small dug out room.

"This was Applebloom's idea. The cave had a lot of iron and coal, but it was hard to tell what time of day it was in the cave so she proposed building a makeshift home inside the cave in case it got dark out and don't want to fight any of the monsters outside."

The room itself was rather small, it was about 6 by 6 in size, two blocks tall, and had only one bed and two, two-block wide chests. Button figured that this is where the extra supplies were and went ahead and started looking through the two chests that were there. Finding nothing other than a couple of tools that were very near to breaking, he was just about to complain when he heard the sound of pistons activating.

Looking back towards Sweetie Belle's character, a surprised look appeared on his face as he noticed a two by two opening had opened and Sweetie Belle was walking into another room.

"Sweetie Belle...?" he asked out as he approached the opening, taking a moment to notice the second lever that Sweetie stuck to the wall.

"Here you go!" Sweetie shouted excitedly and dropped a diamond pickaxe and shovel in front of Button Mash.

"Sweetie, is this a...?"

"Yep, it's a hidden room I built." she stated with a proud grin, though Button couldn't see it, he could imagine it given the tone in her voice, "You have no idea how long it took me gather up all the redstone dust and time to build the door. I just did it since I noticed Scootaloo would occasionally take stuff from my chests back at home, so I started hiding some of my rare stuff in here."

Button could only stare in disbelief as Sweetie hit the lever again closing the hidden door way, before knocking the lever off the wall.

"This will be our little secret, okay?"

"Uh..., sure." he gave a pause, "Wait, you actually know how to work with redstone?!"

"It took a little while, and a lot of messing around; but, after I heard how useful it can be, I just couldn't stop thinking of ways to use it. So I played around with it for a bit, before finding a good way to make it work."

Button could only stammer as Sweetie dropped a stack of 64 solid wood blocks, some iron, and a stack of 20 glass blocks in front of him.

"Hopefully that will be enough to get you started. Let me know if you need some help building some stuff or need some other stuff." and with that she trotted out of the small room.

Button stayed put for a moment, in disbelief. Sweetie Belle knew how to work with redstone, something he wasn't terribly good at, and HE was suppose to be the gamer. If she could do that, then was there something else she could do better than him, at least as far as gaming?

Shaking off the slight warmth in his cheeks, he came to the resolution that wouldn't do at all. He's the most experienced gamer in all of Ponyville hooves down, and there was no way he going to give up that title without a fight, especially not to Sweetie Belle of all ponies.

Sweetie Belle was no longer just a nuisance to him, she was also now the enemy; and, not just a simple enemy, but an enemy he has to figure out what were her strengths and make sure he could do better at those things than she could.

Author's Note:

Took longer than I wanted, but here is the next chapter. I did want to submit with the next chapter over, but my editor hasn't seen it yet. Sorry, for the wait, hope you guys enjoy.

Comments

[FelixTheBrony]

...Why do I get the feeling that Button taught Sweetie Belle how to do that, but couldn't remember because he got drunk. XP

Another fun chapter! Glad to see Button's still in denial! Always fun! :D

Keep on keepin' on!

[reader238]

sweetie belle is such a spoon lol