Are my eyes lying? It can’t be? All of these questions traveling through Button’s mind. He felt that his eyes were betraying him because he couldn’t believe that his former best friend and love interest, Babs Seed, was standing in front of him in a town miles away from the city of Manehattan. Babs couldn’t see Button’s internal stress but was not blind to his body’s physical reaction as drops of sweat started to flow down his body as well as his face, in a state of disbelief, particularly his mouth since it was frozen allowing any bug to comfortably rest on his tongue.
His face altered when Applebloom appeared besides Babs, “Hey Button! This is my cousin Babs, she is from Manehattan just like you and she is going stay for one week and attend the dance with us! Hey are you okay?”
Button shook his head violently attempting to return to the present, “Huh? Yea I know Babs. She was an old friend of mind from elementary school. Yea I’m fine just that I didn’t think I would see her in Ponyville especially when school is in session.”
“You know Babs?” Applebloom now had a grin expanding from cheek to cheek, “Oh sweet Celestia that’s wonderful! Ah was hoping you two would get along but this is just perfect! If only you knew. Yea, she and I are both surprised that she was able to make it this week. She didn’t have that many friends at her new school so she didn’t want to go to her homecoming so I suggested that she should come to mine but neither of us had the bits to buy a train ticket at such a late notice. Then something miraculous happened, Babs received a package in the mail that contain just the right amount of bits for her to buy a ticket to Ponyville. It was too good to be true!
Yea…too good…
Babs placing her hoof on Applebloom’s shoulder, “Hey cousin, I know you’re excited about what just happen but I was wondering if you can give us some time to catch up.”
“Sure cousin, I’ll see you after school. See you later Button” cheerfully answered Applebloom as she left towards the original consisting of Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo leaving Button and Babs by themselves. Button completely clueless, wishing that he was a unicorn so he could teleport himself out of this situation, stood in front of Babs but not directing his attention at her but instead at the ground below.
“Well at least you were honest about one thing,” responded Babs breaking the silence between the former friends.
“And that was?”
“Used to be friends in elementary, because friends that keep in touch don’t react like they saw a ghost when they see an old friend.”
“Well sorry for being cautious but the last time I saw you, you left me by myself, on the floor, crying, leaving me for a group of bullies.”
“I know,” looking down at the ground and no longer be able to hold her emotions as tears began to flow down her face and she started to stutter, “That’s why I wanted to talk with you.”
Button hearing the different tone of her voice looked up directly at her seeing the visible emotional distress state on Babs leaving him in complete silence.
“Ever since that day, I could never forgive myself. I wanted to apologize to you but it was either too soon or too late. Then I heard you moved from Manehattan and it was then that I gave up and realized that it was truly too late. I just had to move on…until I saw you today and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Now I know Celestia is giving me a second chance to make up for my actions. I know this is a lot for you to process right now so can we talk about it after school, please?” were the desperate words that match the same emotions as her body actions as she switched roles with Button looking down at the ground covering her face with her hooves as a small puddle of tears formed on the ground.
Button now even more confused than before started to change his attitude about the situation as he lifted the face of the fallen mare from the ground to look straight at her. “Hey it’s okay. Please don’t cry anymore.” Releasing the breath of air he was holding, “Alright, I’ll meet you after school and we can talk about it.”
A small smile emerged from the sea of discomfort on Bab’s face as she he hugged Button, “Thank you. Even with the way I treated you, you still give me a chance. I…appreciate your forgiveness.”
Still in Bab’s embrace Button replied, “It’s okay. I rather gain a friend then for us to stay the same.”
Both ponies, letting go of each other’s embrace, walked towards their destination as the school bell rang notifying the students that the time for their education had started. Today is going to be a long day thought Button as he trotted to his class preparing himself for it but his mind set in the events that was going to happen after school.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Those were the sounds of freedom that traveled through the halls of Ponyville High releasing the students from their classrooms to the sun-light filled hallways. Stallions and mares galloped side by side to their lockers to prepare themselves for the weekend as well as the school festivities center week of Homecoming following the weekend. All the students having a contagious smile on their face and a gleeful step especially on Sweetie Belle as she approach her locker. Unloading the unnecessary textbooks from her saddlebag, she notice Button Mash approaching his locker that is in front of hers’. Unlike most Friday’s in which he would rapidly get rid of his textbooks in order to commence his long Friday gaming session, now he was traveling at a slower pace than a turtle with his eyes in the direction of the floor. His face was immune to the virus of smiles occurring throughout the hallway making his aesthetics stick out like a rotten apple.
Sweetie Belle concern for his well-being started to approach the brown stallion’s locker with a steady pace and a grin on her face hoping she could change his current state with the school’s virus of excitement. “Hey Button!”
Moving his eyesight from the ground and now focusing his senses to the precious white mare in front of him bringing him out from his enclosed mind. “Oh hey Sweetie Belle. Excited that it’s Friday?” asked Button as he grabbed his textbooks from his saddlebag and placing them inside his locker.
“Of course! This weekend the girls and I are going to get ready for spirit week and the dance. We have to see what we’re going to do for each special day and what dress we are going to wear…” She halted her speech noticing Button’s robotic stiff movements while organizing himself and his constant head nodding even when she stopped halfway through her sentence. “Hey Button, are you okay?”
“Huh?” shutting his locker with tremendous force shocking both Sweetie Belle and himself. “Yea I’m totally fine just really tired. I’ll catch up with you later, okay bye!” Moving around her and guiding his direction towards the nearest exist until she trotted in front of him preventing his exodus from the school. “Button look at me,” moving his head towards her as she starred at him with her mesmerizing emerald eyes, “Please tell me what’s wrong. I want to help you.”
Button now starring at Sweetie Belle, fully aware that there was nothing he could do to avoid this minor confrontation. I really wish I can say no those eyes. Sighing, Button carefully sat down placing his body in front of her, “You know Babs right?”
Moving her head backwards and with one eye brow raised, she quickly responded with a small cheerful giggle. “Babs? Yea Applebloom’s cousin. She was the first pony to ever join the Cutie Mark Crusaders. At first we didn’t have the best time with her since she bullied us with Diamond Tiara but she changed and became one of us.”
Eyes completely open showing no signs of distraction Button replied, “Not surprise that she hurt you three too.”
“Huh? You know Babs?”
Shuffling his mane with his hooves looking at her emerald eyes, “Yes. We used to be friends in elementary school” lowering his head while finishing his statement.
She approached him placing her hoof on his shoulder, “Used to be friends? What happen?”
“I don’t want to go in detail but let’s just say that the last time I saw her she hurt me…really bad,” looking down at the checkerboard floors using the front of his mane to cast a shadow over his face. “Now she is here, in Ponyville, and she wants to talk to me after school. It looks like she regrets what she did to me.”
“I’m sorry Button. You don’t have to tell me what she did but do you want me to accompany you?”
Standing up from the floor and fixing his mane, he looked at her now with a small grin emerging from his sea of confusion. “No it’s fine. It’s something I have to deal on my own but thanks any way for your support.”
Sweetie Belle with a concern face and insecure tone in her voice asked him, “Are you sure? I mean it’s no problem it won’t…”
Interrupting his friend’s concern, Button wrapped his hooves around her placing his head on her shoulders’, during their embrace, causing a visible sea of red to rise from her white pearly face. “It’s fine Sweetie Belle. Thank you for your help and for listening to me. I will tell you what happen later.” Letting go of her he turned around and continued his journey towards the exit with a reinforced spirit in his step marching onward. Sweetie Belle calmly sitting on the floor looking at the exit watching him leave her grasp and entering the outside world filling her with worries. I know he’ll be fine. I just hope I can be patient enough to wait…I’m going to follow him just to be on the safe side. She immediately stood up and silently, like a butterfly in a forest, followed his trail towards the outdoor trail that connected the courtyard with the forest.
No! No! I can’t lose track of them. Sweetie Belle was a broken record player for her mind saying that phrase over and over again as if her commands will be able to alter her current reality. She had lost sight of both Button and Babs. She follow them cautiously hiding behind statues and bushes trying to the best of her abilities to hear the banter between the two Manehattan ponies. She couldn’t understand everything they discussed but she got the gist of it. Her strategy was working to almost shear perfection until she had to remain hidden for a longer duration, almost being caught red-handed by either one of them. I hope you’re okay Button.
“Well hearing the story from Sweetie Belle and now from you on how you met the CMC, it doesn't surprise me,” expressed the brown stallion to his companion on the dirt rocky trail guiding their path through the forest.
“What doesn't surprise you?” question Babs shifting her head towards Button.
Slowly reducing his pace until stopping on the trail surrounded by large oak trees, Button inhaled a chunk of fresh autumn air and immediately releasing it along with the emotional stress attach to the words he was about to say. “I’m not surprised that you were willing to hurt somebody just to defend yourself from a bully.”
His eyes were close and his face shut preparing for the incoming slap he thought he was going to receive for his honest statement. His preparations were in vain, all he received was silence. The silence worried him making him slowly open his eyelids like flowers emerging from the ground after winter until his eyes discover the frozen face of Babs. It was staring at him with a mouth fidgeting to release a shock wave of truth from a damaged mare. Her eyes were repeating the same story as her mouth holding a river of tears contained within her lime eyes.
“Babs?”
“Are you ever going to forgive me?”
“I already did Babs…”
“Then why do you still bring up my mistake!” professed Babs no longer able to hold herself from releasing a wave of emotions through tears and sobbing. “I know I messed up! I had so many regrets since I betrayed you and I thought I couldn't do that again to any other pony.”
“Babs it’s fine,” expressed Button placing his hoof on her shoulder regretting his decision to release those judgmental words.
She quickly moved her shoulders escaping any form of sympathy being expressed from the brown colt.
“No it’s not fine! After betraying the CMC, I knew that I had to change. That I’d rather protect and be friends with ponies that care and like me then those judgmental devious kind. To Tartarus with them!” Slowly regaining her composure after exposing her inner machinations, she stood up looking straight at him with teary eyes. “I just wish that ponies could forgive and forget my wrong doings, especially one in particular who I’m currently looking at.”
“Babs…I forgive you, but asking me to forget…that’s something I don’t know I can do,” confidently answered Button looking at Babs delivering an honest response to a distressed mare.
“But why?” asked Babs as she approach Button placing her face near the comfort zone causing his eyesight to illustrate, with great details, her natural beauty from her adorable freckles contrasted by her heavy coat that would have driven younger Button into a crazy love state.
“Because you have created emotional wounds that are still visible and that still hurt!” answered Button with a fierce honest voice stomping one hoof on the ground. “I might have been young but thanks to that ‘mistake’…I haven’t been able to handle rejection well. Imagine the person that was your friend and that you love betrays you in front of your face.” All of those words drained his energy bar making him move his head to the ground covering his face with his hooves and mane.
Feeling a pair of soft hooves lifting his head from the ground towards the area near Bab’s muzzle. “Button…I’m really sorry. Not only did I learn to appreciate the ponies that care for me but I also realize that I lost something special. I lost the chance to feel the love of another pony who loves me, loves spending time with me, that loves me more than a friend.”
Button pupils’ enlarge to its maximum capacity after hearing those passionate words. “Huh?”
“I’m saying that I really miss you, more than you can imagine. Now that I had the chance to make up my actions. I was wondering if there is still a chance for something to happen between us.”
‘Button.exe is not responding’ was the programmed message being send through his body as his face froze and his legs became stiff. His external aesthetics seemed lost but it didn't even compare to the inner civil war going on within his body.
This is your dream coming true
Your old dream
It doesn't matter, it can still work
No! You know you’re thinking about somepony else
Sweetie Belle? We don’t even know if she likes me?
It’s a risk you need to take
Screw risks! This is secure
No, You like Sweetie Belle and that is not going to change
The internal war eventually reaching a cease fire when an external force halted the conflict. “So what do you think?”
“I don’t know. As much as I loved you before, those feelings don’t exist anymore.”
“Button please! I know somewhere deep inside of you lives the same love you had for me and I have for you right now. I’ll show you.”
Before Button could retort, Babs placed her hooves around his neck embracing him and then joining her lips with his. At first his eyes were the last line of defense disapproving of his actions but slowly closing as the kiss extended sending Button to a nostalgic euphoria. His old friend and love is now kissing him. This is too good to be true. As much as he was enjoying the kiss from the past, there was an image of a beautiful white mare that stuck inside his mind. Even though he was kissing Babs, he could only think of Sweetie Belle, and there was nothing that he or Babs could to alter his current feeling for that lovely mare. After their lips departed from their passionate unity, Babs opened her eyes filled with passion and hear shaped pupils fully awaiting a similar response from her dream stallion. Unfortunately for her, he avoided eye contact with her love stricken eyes moving his face to the other directions of the forest. “I’m sorry Babs. Those old feelings don’t exist anymore the same way old Button doesn't exist anymore. I've changed.”
“Button…please….”pleaded Babs trying to get his sympathy but it was ultimately futile as he started to move away from her and towards the trail leading back to the school.
“I’m sorry Babs. I like somepony else and there’s nothing I can do to change those feelings.”
Babs just stood there silent and destroyed like the fallen heroes that attempted to defeat Medusa. Now I know how you truly felt Button…being leaved by yourself…crying…I’m sorry Button.
Unbeknownst to Button, not only did he break Bab’s heart but also of a unicorn that was covering her face with her mane, covered in tears, as she galloped to the school courtyard ignoring the observations and concerns of the other students’. As Bab’s hope for a relationship died in the forest so did the potential for Sweetie Belle to understand the feeling of love, the love shared by two perfect strangers when she saw Button kissed his 'former friend'.