Slices of Button

by MichelleTwistaloo

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, Human, Other, Equestria Girls, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Diamond Tiara
Length: 3603

Short, slice of life events of a humanized high school aged Button Mash. A place for me to put my short Button Mash Stories.

Button Mash...Gamer, friend, Ok student. And often subject of my writing.

This is the holding place for a lot of that writing, or, at least, the one where he's the same age, and has the same characteristics. Not much changes between chapters, but they can all be pretty much be read as individual oneshots. Unless specifically stated otherwise in the beggining.

So far the chapters present are:

Get Out of the Way, Diamond Tiara!

After pushing Diamond Tiara out of her way so he has time to eat and still beat his retro game, Button gets a witty retort from her, but when Diamond sees that that witty retort hurt Button, she may just need to reveal more than she wants, in order to cheer him up again

If a tree falls in the woods....

After being assigned a work assignment about the classic question "If a tree falls in the woods and nobody's around to hear it, does it still make a sound", Button teams up with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle to work on it, problem is, Scootaloo doesn't like the way he's more interested in playing his handheld than helping them work. Can they resolve the issue?

A monster battle!

After what seemed to be days, and in fact were hours of boring, talks about Same type attack bonus, abilities, weaknesses, type coverage, advantage, and different stats, Button Mash is challenged to a Monster battle by Diamond Tiara, just so the little twerp is quiet for a few seconds (kind of a sequel to the first story, can be read as an individual story)

Published 2016-02-05 20:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-04-03 07:40:40 UTC

If a tree falls in the woods....

“...You will be organised in groups of four and will have to write a short paper on the subject if a tree falls in the woods and nobody's around to hear it, does it still make a sound? Now this is an issue that philosophers have debated for years and haven’t come to a conclusive answer...and I want to hear your opinions…” - Miss Cheerilee smiled as she looked at her class. As always there were more attentive faces, and less attentive faces. In fact some weren’t even looking at her, some had earbuds on and some were looking down, whether at a gaming device, whether at a smartphone, it didn’t really matter. It was her job to make sure they were paying attention.

Such was the case with Button Mash...she sometimes pretended that she didn’t see the way he played his way through most of the classes, and his grades were...acceptable. Not as great as some of the best of the class, which were found in Silver Spoon and Twist, but, still well into the 60’s and occasional 70’s. It was clear Button, whether he studied outside of the class and kept himself in touch with the curriculum, whether, he just listened to the classes and took things in, was capable..but he could do so much more.

As soon as she had spoken those words friend’s gazes had meet across the room, though she was well aware that perhaps some groups wouldn’t have the four necessary without pairing them off. Groups like Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara., little pairs like these. She would have to make pairs later on, but, for now, she watched amused as her students’ went to their friends.

Apple bloom looked at Scootaloo who looked, bored out of her mind, at Sweetie Belle, Sweetie Belle smiled at pointed at Button Mash, who was still oblivious to it all. His eyes probably glued to some screen.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes, but Apple Bloom encouraged her friend with a thumbs up. And one group was set. Cheerilee noticed other groups being formed, and, when someone or other wasn’t paired off, she paired them off with someone else. She knew that the number of people would be adequate to the groups. She had done the math in her head, it should work just fine. What kind of teacher would she be if she couldn’t organise 24 kids into groups of 4?

The bell finally rung and it was clear to all three of them that Button Mash wasn’t even aware that there was a work to be done. He was just gathering his things to leave, without realising he had already a group.

“Hey Button!”

Button sighed and paused his game, contrary to when he was younger, he had learned to pause the games he played, you mostly just pressed the start button.

“Are you ready to do the work?”

Sweetie smiled at Button, who looked unaware of what kind of work she was talking about, he hadn’t had his ear buds on, true, but the battle against the mythical dragon had been so intense that he had, in all actuality, not paid much attention to the class. Why miss Cheerilee didn’t stop him, he wouldn’t know, maybe she didn’t care? Either way he wasn’t really aware of the work.

“Wh..what work?” - He was taller than Sweetie, truth be told, and he had to look down at her, But that didn’t mean he wasn’t paying attention. Sweetie might just be one of the few things in the world that made him stop playing his video games and pay attention.

“I’ll explain in the way, c’mon let’s go.”

They all sat down in a table, discussing the issue , though some were paying more attention than others. Same as with school. Button was paying his video game handheld, which he had outfitted with an alternate battery so it lasted longer, Scootaloo was just shrugging her shoulders and throwing ideas into the air. Apple Bloom was looking into the idea like a farmer, and Sweetie Belle, well Sweetie Belle, was mostly murmuring to herself and was the one taking notes, since she had the nicest handwriting..

“Ah mean, there were times where we found trees broken in tha orchard, and we didn’t hear it…” - Apple Bloom was an apple farmer, so she might have an idea of what to say.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes.

“That doesn’t mean it didn’t make noise, you guys were just too far away to hear it”

“Yes, but how can we be sure it did make noise if we didn’t hear it? It’s the question here isn’t it? It’s philosophy it doesn’t make sense…”

Button furrowed his brow and put his handheld down.

“This is stupid! The question makes no sense, I mean I know there’s often a gray and things aren’t black and white, but it’s just like an artistic game, no freaking sense””

Scootaloo glanced at him.

“Maybe it’d make more sense if you paid attention instead of playing in your console all day long! Help us out here!”

Button looked offended.

“I study at home! And for your information it’s not a console it’s a handheld!” - He picked the device up - “See, it’s portable?”

Scootaloo opened her mouth and pushed a finger in Button’s direction.

“Like I care about the difference! It plays games, it has a mic…” - An idea came to her. - “right? Maybe we should hit record, weaken the tree, let it fall, and see if it made a noise!”

Button was horrified at the idea of letting his precious handheld with all his saves and such in the middle of the dirt. He was ready to retort when Sweetie came in between her friend and her other friend who were throwing daggers with their eyes at one another.

“Please, calm down, c’mon!” I mean, we’re all friends here!”

Scootaloo took a deep breath, and so did Button, Button extended his hand to hers and told her….

“I’m gonna extend the mercy option to you. Not because you are a monster, but because you are my friend, and I care about you”

Scootaloo couldn’t help but smile.

“Big words, just speak normally, you dork. Also Sweetie really cares about you” - She pressed her hand against his. Unlike Sweetie and Diamond Tiara, Scootaloo was tall enough to stand face to face with Button, and they glanced at each other’s eyes.

Sweetie’s face was becoming red, and she quickly stopped the encounter.

“So...what do you all gather, does it make a noise?”

“Nah”

“maybe…”

“If no one’s around to hear it, how can we be sure?”

“I think so too...and not just because I’m agreeing with Button…” - She coughed, to hide her embarrassment - “Anyway! Wonder how the other groups are doing this….”

“I’m telling you Silver, If I outfit this video drone with a chainsaw and cut the tree we’ll get our answer, we’re technically not nearby!”

“But Dia that’s no….”

“It’s a great idea!”

“But!”

“I need focus!”

Dinky, Silver, and Alula looked at one another before standing back, unsure of what to say. This was an awful, awful idea.

A monster Battle!

“Ok Dia!”

“Please don’t call me that!” - Diamond tiara pleaded, her face covered by her hair, which she had let loose for the occasion. - “I mean you do know that’s just a nickname and my actual name is Diamond Tiara right?”

Button Mash’s eyes shifted from the screen, where the screen name of “Dia” was displayed, to the girl’s well placed hair. She was gorgeous of course, but she wasn’t here to woo him. She was here to be trained, to become a true ma….herm, woman of the battlefield. A support for him in videogames.

“I know your name Diamond! - He bit the inside of his lip, making sure to taste the taste of it. - But you choose to name yourself Dia so that’s what we’re going with!” - His voice came through, excited and Diamond Tiara, or Dia, softly cursed to herself.

Why had she brought the handheld to school? Why had she referred to Button by his gaming nickname? All questions that were left to her imagination, but that she didn’t not only not only have an answer for, but also, in fact, had done the answer to.

Quite clearly.

In fact the two handheld devices had been getting pings and pongs and whatever the heck Button called them every day for the past few months, holidays and weekends excluded. He had called them something dorky, something like “streetpasts” or something like that, but, in his daze, he didn’t know what.

“Alright, let’s just get this over with!” - Her hands in her two screened handheld, her face scrunched up, the girl was clearly - oh so clearly - not interested in the long winded explanations that Button had to offer about type advantages to cover, and such.

“And remember Dragon is weak to ice and fairy...now fairies are a fairly new concept...relatively speaking, dating back only a few years, so you don’t have to worry about in the re releases of the old games but…”

Diamond Tiara dazzled out of the stream of information, that passed through her ear and left through the other, what sort of information was that for! And whom did it matter? She was no nerd! She didn’t care for it, what the fudge! It was b to the o the ring!

“Alright that’s enough!” - She let out a good smile, as she saw him look down on her, only because he was taller, nobody looked down upon Diamond Tiara. She was top of the top, the best of the best, after all.

“What...I haven’t even explained Same type attack Bonus or Evs, yes, they’re pronounced like the monster, or…”

Okay...it was time for something...drastic...something which would require an immense amount of finesse.

“I hum, I think I get it now, ButtonthePaladin” - She made sure to pay him in full, using his full username, gamer id, tag, whatever, instead of simply calling him Button. To see if he understood, how insulting it was.

He didn’t get it, if anything his smile became wider, like he liked that she was getting used to the idea of them treating themselves by their tags. - Dorks, what could they do about it? - Diamond Tiara shook her head. - In fact let’s battle.

It was a stupid call, Button’s team had been selectively carried and bred across three games to be the best around. He had been not only Button the Paladin, he had been Button the Master. He also played the occasional rpg, this being one of them. Sure his button hovered the skip dialogue button, but still.

And now Diamond Tiara was challenging him, Button Mash to a battle. If Button still wore his stupid (in her opinion) propeller hat, she would have likely seen him push it back, as he said.

“This are the official rules! As dictated by the game, first to lose all monsters loses!” - And then it was on.

Diamond got some good hits, the game automatically put all monsters to the same level, but her stats weren’t breed properly or perfect, it was, so hard, for her to do any damage. She didn’t know what type of team Button had, but she had gone for the classic cutesy designs, which were weak.

“Alright whale on kitty action! A classic!” - Button laughed as he launched a powerful water attack that knocked her monster unconscious, and made it faint, but - Diamond noticed. - never die, they never stated it. Though she had passed a graveyard in the game already.

Her hands struggled against the controllers as she tried to remember every piece of info Button had given her, and he had given her a lot, she had drank 3 milkshakes (even when on a diet), because he spoke so much about the game, this monster game had a lot of depth over 20 years, a LOT of it. There were weaknesses, and abilities, and…

But she couldn’t remember anything, and she was sure that if Button applied half his brain to school like he had applied to this matter he’d be better even that Silver Spoon. Which had grumbled when they latest project and the video project had only gotten B - , apparently missing the point of the project. But earning them for creativity sake.
What was even the point? She was on her last monster, an innocent looking thing, and she hadn’t even beaten one of Button’s own, he still stood, his health yellow, she had done some damage but not much.

“You’re right Button.” - she dropped the paladin part in her speech. - “I was never much for this kind of game.” - She stopped herself, before using a move that was sure to knockout the opponent, but would forfeit the battle for her.

“Risky...you basically committed suicide. I respect that, brave padawan” - Button tufted, messing up his hair in a way that Diamond found totally and...weirdly enough...cute. - “I knew you couldn’t beat me, but I was just trying to get some humility into you…”

“Heck, maybe you’re right, maybe I’m not the best teacher” - He pointed at the messy sheets of paper with his notes on the game. Downloaded straight from the internet and then improved - “There are guys and girls out there as passionate as me, if you’re not into that, and want to be a casual...well I respect that!”

Diamond Tiara smiled...being a casual sounded nice.

“Thanks”

The school bell rung, they were going to be totally late. An unladylike curse word may have been uttered from Diamond’s lips, Button smiled.

Get Out of the Way, Diamond Tiara!

“Get out of my way! We only have one and a half hours of lunch time and I have to eat, get all the Chaos emeralds and beat all the Stages...and you know how much Labyrinth Zone and Marble Garden Zone are a slug to get through!” - Button’s easily excitable voice drifted through as he pushed Diamond Tiara out of the way, he already had his portable gaming device out of his pocket, and strapped to his wrist , via wrist strap. Thankfully, or it might have just fallen to the ground, as Diamond Tiara was not about to take Button Mash pushing her like that, such a disrespectful thing to do!

“Chaos emeralds...Marble Garden...is he really playing that game about the blue hedgehog?” - She murmured to herself, before extending her arm and pulling towards her. Button, whose eyes had drifted to the screen of the device, nearly fell, and he sighed in annoyance as he was forced to drift his gaze and look at Diamond.

“You don’t get it Diamond Tiara, if I don’t stop the evil Doctor from capturing animals and turning them into robots, using an animal that somehow is more humanized than all the other critters, even though he’s also an animal…”

“Yeah, yeah, total world annihilation, or at least domination, we’ve had this dance before” - Diamond Tiara pushed a strand of her hair from her face, deciding that blowing into it to push it out of the way would be way too undignified for her. She was Diamond Dazzling Tiara, after all, she had to keep herself dignified. And having a single hair strand out of its place? Undignified! Though not as much as what Button was doing. - “It’s not like videogames plots were the main focus of the games, back then...is it? Save the princess, run around and jump. Whooptee freaking pee!”

Button lifted a finger to retort. But he came up short of an answer, what could he say? She was kind of right. After all. He could mention all the great examples that proved otherwise, that rpg with final on its name and which was in the double digits in installments, , That one with time travel, Chrono...something, that one with the sage with the hard to pronounce name and the Master Sword...all of those had a plot that was more than a few lines of dialogue, like “thank you, now do this”. Button played those games for one reason, they were fun, he didn’t really need much of a story, and, in fact, when he was smaller and his voice was even higher pitched he found himself skipping most of it. Mostly because he couldn’t read, but even if he could, he had the notion that he wouldn’t read it.

Button looked at her, his gaze drifting downwards as he admitted defeat, it was just like several spoilerific situations he could think of, or dying in the first stage of a brand new game. Embarrassing! He liked to think of himself as a decent enough gamer...he was Button the Paladin! Button the knight! Button the gamer. Yet he was giving up this easily? It was frustrating to the poor little boy. Though of boy he had little.

Button had grown since he was younger, and had gotten quite a tall and lanky body, though he was still as pale as a corpse, mostly because outside the school to house and home to school path that he did with his eyes on his portable device, he didn’t get much sun. He sat in the back, away from the windows so he could play without being caught, and he spent his break times inside playing. Diamond Tiara didn’t reach much more more than his lips with the top of her head, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be intimidating.

Diamond Tiara smirked, having had her revenge, she didn’t enjoy causing pain in others, not anymore, she had reformed a lot of years back, but this was, admittedly a pretty dumb subject to be bent over.

She couldn’t stand , however, to see him like that, he looked like a lost and kicked puppy, when in fact all she had said was the truth. She...felt bad for him. It was like these pesky remorses. They always got to her and she hated them.

“Hey there, then...don’t you have to save those animals? Those special stages aren’t going to play themselves...you know the stage rotates and stuff?” - Button barely reacted to what she said, though it might have perked up her interest, if he were paying some more attention. After all, who knew that Diamond Dazzling Tiara was a gamer? Or had played the game before?

“And maybe...maybe I wasn’t being fair…”

Button noticed his device was dangling from his wrists and made a motion to catch it with his other hand, the cheery startup music from the 16 bit game played in a loop, and though it was barely hearable over the motion of people going around them and chatting, it gave a cheeky tone to the whole thing, even if Button was not in the mood to notice it.

“That clown villain in that rpg was pretty was pretty nasty...his plan was devious! and what about The rpg version of the plumber? Clever writing…” - Diamond tried to smile, a weight had formed in her throat, it looked like she had utterly hurt the poor boy. Now, she knew what she said wasn’t inherently that bad...not really, but his reaction, that was causing her serious remorses.

He looked at her, with a gasp she realised he was biting his lips and there was a small trinket of blood where he had bitten with too strength for the fragile skin to hold. But why was that? Was it rage? Contempt? Sadness?

“Those are….no...those are exceptions that prove the rule.” - Button turned around, ready to leave her like that. But she couldn’t leave him be.

“Wait! First of all it’s obvious that story couldn’t be shoved into those cartridges, they had what? 2, 3 megabytes? They had to focus on the gameplay! Which was always very fun, second of all...maybe it’s best...if the blue hedgehog keeps its story simple after all….the next gen version of that game you’re playing, the one in all caps, that I should scream. Bestiality…time travel. And who can forget. Suspect seen heading south, block all major roads and capture the suspect?”

Button looked at Tiara, his eyes widening, he gurgled, then a thin smiled formed, he tried to hold it down, but then he could no more, a loud chuckle came, and then another, and another.

“S...bes...oh, boy, Diamond, that’s really funny…”

Tiara smiled, feeling better for making him feel better.

“Just don’t push me around...hum....Buttonthepaladin”

Button gave her a strange look.

“What?”

“How did y…”

“How did I what?”

“That’s my gaming nickname…” - Realisation came to him…. - “And you knew about the next gen version of the game I’m playing and the kind of special stages, and even rpgs!”

Diamond Tiara smile became shaken, and she started to sweat, she wanted to run back, but there were still people advancing so she’d hit one of them, in fact they were in the middle of the crowd, who had been having to walk around them.

“You are totally a gamer! And you…”

“What that’s ridiculous, me?”

“Yes you! I’ve been getting hits! I should have figured that Dia was you, but I assumed it was a reference to the goddess of day in that obscure game...it’s just the start of your name! Now tell me” - His smile became predatory! - “Shield, wand, or sword?”