Button Mash blinked and moaned slightly as the world came back to him. Where was he? This wasn't the arcade. The colt lifted his head and wearily observed his new surroundings. He seemed to be in some sort of control room. The walls had strange circles on them, and were those- branches coming from the floor? Button turned his head to a stallion, who was at the controls. He was mumbling furiously to himself, frantically pulling levers and pushing buttons. Suddenly, a popular 80's song began playing. The loud music caused Button to jump.
"Agh, no, no, no!" The stallion jumped about, trying desperately to rid of the music. Button got to his hooves. He coughed and said,
"M-maybe try that one." The stallion turned and looked towards the lever Button Mash had pointed at. He eagerly pulled it upwards, and the music stopped. The pony smiled in triumph. Then, all emotions wiped away and replaced by a serious one, the stallion trotted up to Button. Reaching into the breast pocket of his brown coat, he pulled out what looked like a screwdriver, with a blue tip at one end. He flicked a button and ran the screwdriver along Button's body. The colt giggled.
"That tickles!"
The stallion did not reply, only continued his strange behavior. Button noticed the stallion wasn't blinking. Then his own pair of eyes widened.
"Hey!" He exclaimed, tumbling backwards. "You're the stallion from that game!" The Earth pony cocked an eyebrow. He stared blankly, then nodded.
"Oh," he said. Button noticed he had a British accent. "Yes, I suppose that's what I would seem to be." Button Mash was extremely confused by the stallion's reply. "Actually, this 'game' you were playing was a portal to another dimension," the stallion said, "which we are in now."
"I'm the Doctor, by the way," he added. Button stared. The 'Doctor' flicked the button again and put away his screwdriver. "Damn, that really hurts my eyes," he said, rubbing them with a hoof. Button Mash opened his mouth to speak.
"W-what's going on? You're a doctor? Where am I? I want to go-" The Doctor shoved a free hoof into the colt's mouth.
"No time to explain. We've got to save Heartha!"
"Heartha?"
"My companion. Now, hold onto something, the Mares are getting closer!" With that, the Doctor pushed more buttons and pulled levers. Button Mash was thrown into a railing, letting out a small 'oof!'. The stallion held onto the control panel as the room began making loud noises and shaking. Button grasped the railing and prayed for the rough ride to be over soon. A large tube with blue substances inside was going up and down, faster and faster. Lights flickered, and Button thought he was going to be sick.
Then it stopped.
Both Button Mash and the Doctor sighed in relief when the motions stopped. Button leaned over the railing and barfed up his breakfast. "Oh, that's disgusting," the Doctor said, getting to his hooves.
"Sorry," Button croaked. "So," he said,"now will you tell what's going on?" The Doctor sighed and tapped his hoof.
"Fine, fine, but we haven't much time. Bollocks, i'm starting to rhyme! Gah, that blasted zebra!" Button wondered if the Doctor was possibly talking about Zecora. "Anyways," the brown stallion continued, "I'm the Doctor, i'm from the planet Gallopfrey, i'm an alien, my planet exploded, i'm the only survivor, we're in my spaceship called the T.A.R.D.I.S (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space), we're being chased by Weeping Mares, if they touch you you are teleported to another time and place, my companion was touched, and now it's my mission to send you home and save her." The Doctor panted loudly from his long string of words.
"Oh, and I can travel through space and time," the Doctor added. Button understood none of it, but simply tried to conceal his confusion and nodded.
The Doctor trotted over to a set of doors behind Button. He gazed at the colt, motioning for him to follow. Button Mash did, and waited for the Doctor to open the doors.
"Now, listen to me," the stallion said, "if the Mares are here you must not blink. Do you hear me? If you blink, you'll be teleported and never be found! Do you understand!?" Button nodded.
"D-don't blink, y-yeah, got it." As if the irony was requested, after that sentence, Button Mash blinked. The Doctor sighed and facehoofed.
"Let's go," he barked, pulling out the screwdriver and placing it in between his gleaming white teeth. "Sonic screwdriver," he said, answering Button's question before it left his mouth. Button nodded, having no idea what that meant.
This is all one big crazy dream, Button concluded, i'll wake up soon. The Doctor swiftly pushed open the doors, and Button tried his best not to blink when a blinding light attacked his vision.
"D-Doctor?"
"Heartha? Oh damn, they sent you back in time? Oh, this is bad, really really bad!"
Button rubbed his eyes and stepped out of the T.A.R.D.I.S. He moaned as the area around him came back into view. They were on a street corner of a children's playpark. The Doctor was talking to a young filly, a concerned expression on his face. The filly was white-coated, blue-eyed and pink-mane-and-tailed. Her mane was tied up in an adorable bun, but her tail was left alone. Button smiled as he saw she had a cutiemark, just like he did. Hers was a large red cross with tiny pink hearts in the corners.
The filly blushed as she saw the colt staring. Noticing this, the Doctor turned.
"Oh, ah, this is Heartha, my assistant. Heartha, this is- uh," the stallion realized he had never asked Button's name.
"Button Mash," the colt whispered, looking at the ground. He was not very good at making friends, especially pretty fillies like Heartha.
"Hi, Button Mash! This is kinda strange, i'm usually older," Heartha replied, smiling awkwardly. Lifting his head at this, Button gave the Doctor a raised eyebrow.
"A Weeping Mare touched her, and they sent her back in time, so now she's a filly." Button remembered what the Doctor said about the Mare's touch and something about time travel.
"Well, Heartha, do you have your equipment?" The Doctor asked. Heartha shook her head.
"It's at home," she said. The Doctor nodded.
"Well, the first part of our adventure begins." Heartha smiled. Button noticed she had shiny braces.
This was certainly an interesting dream.
Button Mash blinked as beads of sweat ran down into his eyes. He had been playing this new game for hours. The arcade runner had thought more than once to ask him to leave, as the colt had unknowingly caused a line to form behind him. A grumpy-looking stallion poked him in the back.
"Hey, there's a line here. Can you leave?"
Button casually waved a dismissive hoof, not looking away from the game. His tongue was poking out of the side of his mouth, his eyes narrowed in concentration.
"When I die, okay?" he replied. He was playing 'Cry', a new game where the player had to defeat stone mares in the form of angels by galloping through each level, not getting touched. Moans rose from the line behind him, and two mares and a colt grumpily left the line.
Button Mash drew a breath as he entered the final level of the game. This time, the mares, called the 'Weeping Mares' were going faster and faster, nearly catching him. As he raced into the graveyard, the game did something strange. The stallion Button had been playing as, a brown coated and brown maned Earth pony, turned his head towards the screen. A speech bubble popped up next to him.
D O N' T
Button Mash nearly stopped playing, but the stone mares were getting closer. He eyed the speech bubble nervously, and continued playing. New words appeared in the bubble.
E V E R
Just as Button left the graveyard, he was in front of a strange large, blue box. The doors flew open. Button Mash bit his lower lip nervously. He raced inside of the box, dreading what was going to happen next. An angry sounding mare called out to him but he didn't pay attention. The game screen went black. Button stared in awe, anger and confusion. Big white letters flashed in front of him.
GAME OVER
The colt stepped back in disbelief. Had he just lost?... That was the last thing that entered his mind before the arcade game let out a long, loud beep.
Before Button Mash blinked.
