//------------------------------//
// From Bad to Horse 
// Story: As Cutie as a Button 
// by Scrucee 
//------------------------------//

The two ponies slowly made their way back to the workhouse. Through the town the two ambled, past the Cliffside wishing well, through the market, and beyond the great city's central hall. Tealeaf had instinctively noticed the defeat in Blue Button's eyes, similar to how a Wonderbolt trainee would carry them self after receiving a letter of rejection from the elite flying team. But Tealeaf did not care to think of such depressing things. Being the sweet mare she was, she instead began to make small talk in an attempt to connect with her woeful company.


"So, did you see that new employee at the hair salon yet? I hear he's recently moved here from Manehattan, of all places, haha." she slowly asked with an interested yet awkward tone.


"No, but I hear she's really very talented." Blue Button responded with an exasperated, slow and melodramatic huff.


Aware of what was on her co-worker's mind almost instantly, Tealeaf instead quickly turned to the easier and less provocative conversation topic of the recent news that the resident unicorn mineworkers had discovered a large deposit of Foal's Gold within the dark caverns and would be making a noticeable attempt to extract and retrieve it from in amongst the hard rock inside. In fact, a huge amount of the townsfolk were going to take part in hauling the heavy substance back to the city treasury, where it would be melted down and traded for a hefty sum all across Equestria. The only drawback preventing this lucrative concept from becoming a refreshing reality was the revelation that Foal's Gold prevented Unicorn magic users from casting any spells, including levitation. Blue, along with Tealeaf, her brother Arion, as well as several other residents, were tasked by the cold-hearted, cold-minded mayor, Polar Eclipse, to construct the supports to the cave so that the mineworkers may begin their excavation in relative safety from cave-ins. Arion was to meet the pair at the entrance of the caves with the supplies at precisely ten in the morning.


The shoddy, shabby stallion had spared no attention to Tealeaf's appraisal of how many Unicorns it might take to lug the Foal's Gold out of the caves, nor how many bits the valuable heaps would come to when sold to the next town along. His motivation had hit rock bottom, about as far down as it could reach, further still than the steep cliffs and treacherous ravines that flanked and fenced-in the town from the west. However, the only flank the stallion cared for was his own, how covered yet bare it was, the round shape of his cutie mark, his use in Equestria meaning nothing to him in the world. He was empty inside. He was but a shadow of a great pony he knew he could never become. He was crushed.


The next morning, Blue Button never made it to work. Why should he? Everyone knew that he was a waste of space and cared little for his way of life. He was a stranger to them, somepony who hadn't ever had a great deal of use other than superior strength for heavy lifting. And why should they need to help him live if he can't even help himself?


The light blue-eyed stallion lay in his bed, defeated, with only his own misery to keep him company like a cold chill or a darkness that would never be broken by a warm beam of sunlight. He had contemplated his cutie mark for many hours that night. The wretched pony's cutie mark was a single large button which filled much of his peach-coloured flank, the cold, wintry sky blue contrasting to the warm, cosiness of his coat. What did this mean? What could a blue button possibly symbolise? What unique talent did the stallion possess, if any? In his colthood, the Earth pony would wonder what such a mark meant to him, he would giggle on with his two foal friends that it obviously meant that he was a constructor of buildings, as a button was the finishing touch to any designer's ensemble, reminiscent of creative flair and a knack for holding things together, as a button would often do. Alas, the personality of the once zesty colt had declined into a depressed, senseless and unresponsive stallion in the midst of an emotional breakdown. This trouble was never hidden from many of the citizens of Cliffside, however, as even they would always skip precious seconds from their busy schedule to notice the stallion with the issues.


A loud rattle on the dusty front door brought Blue Button out of his deep and depressing contemplation. He jumped suddenly and had himself thrust his head into the bedside table. He took a few seconds to recover, dazed, the door still rattling, he peered through the window as he always would. It was Tealeaf and Arion. Taking a while to get to the door, Blue Button stumbled through over toppled furniture and bad feelings. It was eventually answered and the two colleagues were let in.


Tealeaf had seen decay before, at work, whilst mending the crumbling, rotten, old shacks overhanging the east slope of the mountain, but never before like this. The stallion obviously possessed no sense of order or consistency, what a slob! Everypony talked about it in town, though, except for the pure-hearted and pure-minded Tealeaf and her silly, phased-out brother.


"I love what you've done with the place. Especially the way you've made it look like an irredeemable, chaotic hoarder lives here!" he enthusiastically exclaimed. Blue Button glanced awkwardly around what appeared to be the destitute, defunct living room. Tealeaf shoved the nearest of her four hooves into her blabbering younger brother's mouth and hurriedly changed the topic of the now wavering conversation. 


"You didn't turn up to our appointment, we waited for what felt like a whole 20 moons, but decided to come get you. Get your things ready, we need to make up for the time we've lost."


Tealeaf had never seen such disparity. She was in shock that a stallion of Blue Button's age was capable of making such a mess of their life. She did not wish to stay at the dreadful dwelling any longer.


"Yeah, what she said, although that rug really tied the room together." noted her bumbling sibling. 


Blue Button slowly slunk out of the front door, after which Tealeaf employed her magic to close it behind the trio. The gentle and kind mare was deeply worried at this point for the stallion's wellbeing. However, she was unable to find a way to ask him if he wanted to talk about it. Tealeaf had always cared for others' emotions and was almost always highly aware of those around her. She felt as if she was stuck in between the livelihood of her dear friend and the possibility of offending him should she not approach the situation from the correct angle. The mare was unnerved by this situation, as either way, there was to be trouble brewing down the road for the two.