What a way to wake up....
"Button, it's time to wake..." says a startled Button's mom. She looked at her son as he practically vibrated on the spot, his bloodshot eyes giving the occasional twitch. "Have you been up all night?!"
"Of course I have! Muzzle VR comes out today!" said Button excitingly whilst pacing around his room. "You promised to take me to the store to buy it, right?!" he asked as he hopped up and down, eagerness dancing in the whites of his eyes.
"I did, but I really think you should get some sleep first." she says in a motherly fashion.
Button rushes as he says, "Mooom! When using the VR set you'll practically be asleep. It takes over your minds control of your body and it rests while your mind plays the game!"
"I guess that'll have to do since you seemed to have drank all my coffee..." she said while yawning.
The two left the house, both half asleep. "Since I don't seem to have any coffee this morning, we'll have to stop for some." It was a ten minute drive to the nearest Star Bucks.
Disappointed and drowsy, Button says, "Moooooooom! There's no tiiiime!"
"If you didn't drink all of my coffee and slept like a good boy then you wouldn't have to wait!" his mother said angrily. The rest of the ride to the Star Bucks was silent. They both walked inside for Button's mom to order her drink.
"Mooooom," he moaned, slumping against the table, the smell of milk and ground-up coffee beans beginning to nauseate him. "... We're gonna be late for the laaaaauuuunch..."
"We'll be on our way shortly. Just be patient." she said to calm him.
"If we don't leave soon then we won't be able to pick up Sweetie Belle." he said, insisting that they leave.
"We'll have plenty of time to get Sweetie. Let mommy drink her coffee and we'll be on our way." she said to reassure him. Button gave a pout, grumpily staring at the linoleum floor as his rear legs dangled from the stool.
They left the coffee shop, and set a course for Carousel Boutique, where they would be meeting with Sweetie Belle. It was another ten minutes before they arrived at their destination. "Hi, Sweetie Belle. How are you?" questioned Button's mother.
"I'm doing well, Mrs.Mash. How about you?" Sweetie Belle politely replies.
"I'd be doing better if my son didn't drink all of my coffee." she says jokingly.
"Come on! We're gonna be late!" Button says to Sweetie and his mother. After saying a goodbye to her sister Rarity, Sweetie Belle hopped into the car and they departed.
"How have you been, Button?" asks a slightly confused Sweetie Belle after seeing Button disheveled.
"I'm doing fine! I mean, I stayed up all night thinking about Muzzle VR, and didn't get any sleep at all. But other than that, I'm great!" Button says while his eye twitched.
"Good to know..." said Sweetie.
After a minute of silence, Button says, "Mom, can we listen to the radio?" "Of course, Button." says Button's mom as she turns on the radio. She flips through the stations trying to find something good."Wait! Stop!" says Button when his she passes a song sung by Sapphire Shores. She turned a few stations back until she found the song Button wanted to listen to.
"Ooh, I love this song!" said Sweetie Belle with a crack in her voice.
A little too sincerely, Button says, "I do too!"
"Caaaaan't you seeeee? You're the only colt in the whole wide world for meeeeee?! You broke my heart, stamped it out, and all I'm left to do is pout...." sang Button in a horrid voice.
"I don't even know what to say about that sound you just made..." said Sweetie, cringing after being subject to Button's singing.
"C'mon! You know you love my singing!" said Button jokingly. "FILLY, GIRL, HE AIN'T GOOD, I SAY HE AIN'T GOOD, GIRL, HE'S JUST A FOOL, YOU WANNA PLAY IT SAFE, YA GOTTA PLAY IT COOL!" Button shouts along with the song.
".....I think I may have gone deaf..." said Sweetie Belle, in pain of the sound of Button's singing.
The song ended and the station continued to play the average junk. For the rest of the trip to the store Button Mash and Sweetie Belle discussed various things about Muzzle VR and what games were compatible. About twenty minutes had passed when they arrived at Trotting Toys and Games, Ponyville's most popular games and electronics store. "I can't wait to get my hooves on that sweet piece of technology!" said an overly eager Button.
"I hope the setup process doesn't take too long." Sweetie Belle tells her friend. The trio of ponies find their way into the busy establishment.
After seeing the crowd in the store, Button's mom exclaimed, "There are a lot more ponies here than I thought there would be. I knew video games were popular, but this is madness!" She struggled to make a path into the store.
Button and Sweetie Belle led the way to the aisle where the Muzzle VR sets were located. "It looks even better in person!" said Button hugging a box on the verge of crying.
"It'll look way better from the inside!" said Sweetie Belle as she picked up the box. They managed to make their way to the counter, which they then payed for the devices.
"I'M SOO EXCITED!" screamed a very enthusiastic Button Mash.
Author's Note
I'm a gamer. Not the "Hardcore gamer" that plays nothing but FPS, but a real gamer. One who plays all sorts of video games. I thought that I would give Button a chance in a fanfiction.
A Step into Virtual Reality
After what seemed like an eternity, the group of ponies returned to the home of the Mash family. Button and Sweetie practically flew up the stairs, eager to try out their new devices.
"This is going to be SOO COOL!" Button exclaimed as he nearly crushed the box in an iron grip of excitement.
Sweetie Belle, unable to speak, rapidly nodded her head in agreement.
For several minutes they continued to stare at the unopened boxes, examining them as any true gamer would. Then to break the silence, Sweetie Belle asks, "Alright, who's going to open it first?"
"I don't care, as long as I get to play it!"
"...I guess I'll open it then." Said Sweetie Belle in confusion to hearing Button refuse the opportunity.
She leans hesitantly over the box, carefully searching for the tape that seals the cardboard flaps in place. Once spotted, she slowly removes them as not to tear the paper off of the container. "Hurry up, already!" Shouts Button, too impatient to wait.
"Alright, I'm going!" Says Sweetie, trying to speed things up. She removes the rest of the tape and folds back the flaps. Then, she removes the styrofoam that lays upon the top of the helmet. She tosses the manuals aside so that she can get to the desired component, the helmet itself.
She pulls the helmet out of the box, and a tear forms in her eye at its sight. Button starts to bawl. "It's... so... beautiful..." The pair marvel at the piece of technology.
Something falls from the helmet as Sweetie Belle held it. Curious, Button picks it up. "It's the software! WE HAVE TO INSTALL IT IMMEDIATELY!" Button shouts.
"I'll take care of installation while you open your helmet." Assures Sweetie Belle.
Button giddily trots over to his box where he opened it just as Sweetie Belle did, although he cried the whole time.
While Sweetie Belle installed the software, Button thoroughly examined the inside and outside of the helmet.
He put on the helmet and snuck up on Sweetie Belle, who was in front of the computer. He pokes her shoulder and she jumps backwards in fear at the sight of a robot lurking about her personal space.
"BAHAHAHA!!!" Button fell to the ground, laughing hysterically.
"That's NOT funny, Button!"
"Oh, yes it was! HAHAHA!" He continued.
After calming herself, Sweetie tells him, "This isn't the time for games. It's time for action!'
"Is the installation complete?" Inquires Button.
"Yes, now are you ready to play or are you going to continue playing jokes?" Sweetie says rhetorically.
"Let's do this!" Screams Button, with the helmet in his hooves.
He connects the helmet to the computer and slides it on. A wide grin appears on his face as he powers on the device. Through his eyes, he sees an array of colours fly past him from far away at an amazing speed. Floating text appears welcoming him to Minecraft where he then stood on a beach within his favorite game. It looks just as he expected, yet somehow even better. The graphics weren't enhanced in any way, they were still pixels.
Knowing that nobody outside of the game could hear him, he exclaimed, "Sweetie Belle, you've GOT to try this!"
He reaches a hoof out in an attempt to press forward on the keyboard. But it was not there. He quickly realized that he was actually inside of the game. Button was in awe at how immersed he could be in a video game. He spoke in a confused, calm voice, "None of this is real, but it is..."
Moments later, Sweetie Belle phased into the game. She stood there in awe as Button just had. Repeating his motions almost exactly. They turn to each other and started dancing in place with wide smiles and quickly began to run into the forest to start the game like they knew how.
Button instinctively started bashing his hoof into a tree where, moments later, a log popped out of place leaving half of a tree floating in mid-air. The hovering log, now miniaturized, drifted towards Button and flung into him, disappearing. He then pondered how to open his inventory. Without a keyboard, he thought it would be impossible. "How are we supposed to open our inventories?! We can't do anything without it!" Button screamed to his friend.
"If you were smart, you would have bothered to read the instruction manual like I did." She replied. She then lifted her right hoof and swiped the air in front of her. Three circles appeared from nowhere, creating a bell sound. The circles read Settings, Achievements, and Inventory. Button looked over her shoulder to see what she had done to open this menu.
"That looks simple enough." Button thought out loud. After his observing, he tried for himself. He picked up his right hoof, trying to imitate Sweetie Belle exactly, and then swiped the air in front of him. The circles appeared like they did for Sweetie. Overjoyed at his accomplishment, Button once again began to dance in place.
"This is SO COOL!" He shouted, created an echo through the silent forest. He continued to punch down trees until he had 18 logs.
Button turned to find his friend, but she wasn't where he last saw her. "Sweetie Belle!" He called.
"Up here, genius!" She replied from atop a tree.
"What are you doing up there?"
Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, "I'm scouting places to build a home. There's a mountain to the east that has a rather flat top."
Button didn't care where the house was, he was too distracted by the fact that he was inside of a video game. "Lead the way!"
As they journeyed to the mountain that Sweetie Belle had spotted, Button began to feel weak. "Hold up, Sweetie Belle. I got tired all of the sudden."
Confused, Sweetie asks, "How's your hunger?"
Button face-hoofed. "I completely forgot about hunger... I guess since I'm moving as if I was in the real world I thought hunger would be that way too..."
"Here, I got a few apples from a tree." Offered the unicorn.
"Thanks..." Button tried to say while stuffing his face with an apple.
"We should probably find more food before we build our house." Sweetie Belle suggested.
"Sounds like a plan!" Sounded a revitalized Button Mash.
Continuing toward the mountain, the ponies crafted a set of wooden swords and pickaxes, which the used to retrieve pork-chops and beef from pigs and cows respectively. Night began to fall as they scaled the mountain. Instead of risking their lives by building a reasonably sized abode, they'd build a shack for the night.
"We don't have the wool to craft beds... Looks like we'll have to wait out the night..." Said a disappointed Sweetie Belle.
Author's Note
I started the writing process on the first chapter over a month ago. What kept me from starting the second was that I didn't know how to start it...
As often as I do it, I don't like to put off projects.
With the release of Mario Kart 8, I thought it was fitting to push myself to write more about these gamers.
I know that ponies are herbivores, but I'm not going to find a way around eating the most prominent foods in Minecraft.
