It is a truth universally acknowledged that a pony in possession of a cutie mark, must know of the nature of their special talent. Blue Button, though, was an anomaly in the world, a rogue shadow.
"I know that you're worried about me, Tealeaf. I can tell." Blue spoke in a monotone, flat croak. "I'm sorry for that. I will try and be a better pony as soon as I can, I promise."
Tealeaf could barely manage to squeak out a response due to the shock.
"How did you know I was concerned?" she asked. The exhausted stallion hesitated to respond for a short moment.
"I don't know, I just felt like I knew. I just don't want you to be unhappy because of my attitude. I may be in a bad place right now, in fact I have been for many, many moons, but I won't let it get in the way of our friendship. It's not worth you or anypony else in this town getting so concerned about me. No biggie..." But Tealeaf was now alarmingly concerned.
How had the strange stallion known what was on Tealeaf's mind? Was it that obvious? She had done, at her greatest strength, to keep her worries for him, from him. Had he read her mind? She knew he was insightful about other ponies' relationships with him, but this was strange. She desperatly wished to show him emotion and that she cared for his health, his essence, his very life, but she couldn't. She cared so much about her friend that she was afraid of the unseen consequences of being truthful to him. Tealeaf's thoughts had always been on others before herself, a highly sought-after quality in a good friend, but now, it was that very way of living that was killing her slowly on the inside, leaving her as but a withered shell of who she once used to be. But she couldn't let go, it was not the pony she was, nor the pony she wished and strived every day to be.
The three ponies had arrived at their destination rather quickly. This was, perhaps, due to Tealeaf's impatience to get to the menacing mines that awaited the trio, as a swamp Cragadile would wait for its prey with its mouth open, quietly analyzing the force of the bite required and the way in which it would catch the next tasty morsel. The Unicorn workers had long since departed the caverns which, by now, were shrouded in a foreboding, penetrating darkness that seemed to drain the energy out of everypony for miles around. Blue Button was startled by dim flashes of light which seemed to disrupt his vision for a few moments. Once recovering, confused, he searched around his blind spots for the source of these emanations, his eyes eventually landing on Arion's horn. The clumsy pony's signature light gold magic aura was pulsing with light, slowly, in groups of three. Blue, frightened, called for Tealeaf in order to bring her attention to the anomaly. However, she also did not respond.
"Tealeaf! Your brother's horn is acting weird! Tealeaf?"
After making an abrupt about-turn, the disastrously dishevelled stallion's muzzle began a distinctive downwards curve. He didn't notice of course, for he was far too used to it, as the magic of a special talent in his life had not even been stolen or snatched away, it had never existed in the first place. Tealeaf was under the same strange trance as her brother. Before he could contemplate the same thoughts he had been droning over for many years, he decided to act to assist his friends.
"Is anypony there!" shrieked Blue, but no one answered, which was most disheartening.
Galloping through the outskirts of the jagged town, looking for anypony to help, the stallion skirted past piles of rocks and barrels, knocking them over and causing the contents to spill out. The orderly conduct of the citizens of the town had been undermined by his clumsiness. The city had been living like this for as long as Blue Button could remember, probably intending to work under the same system of unwritten rules far into the future from now. The Unicorns of Cliffside were known throughout the western kingdom for their sheer efficiency in their principal trade; gems and ore rocks from the mysterious mines that constantly overshadowed the town and everypony willing to take up residence inside its boundaries. The rough, sharp walls of the imposing buildings were second only to the way in which they stood on their foundations, like an army of soldiers marching in a strictly uniform way, being precisely in shape and texture with each other. Blue would frequently feel uncomfortable and threatened when walking from his house to the marketplace. Exiting the forest of buildings would have been a comfort to any other pony, except staring eyes of city-goers would await Blue once he became free of the tough buildings.
After searching for what felt like many moons, Blue Button screeched to a halt. Making a sharp turn around a dark, shadowy corner, he was relieved to find what he was looking for. A lone Unicorn with a dark brown coat, a black and white mane and a cutie mark of three yellow stars inspected a scroll and trotted out of sight. Pursuing the stallion, the shattered Blue wailed at the top of his lungs for his target to halt and turn around to face him. Racing around another corner in this thick end of the city, he gasped in fright after the stallion surprisingly scared him, waiting right out of sight in the shadows before loudly asking what was wrong. It was as if the pony meant to deliberately scare him, knowing he was not as brave as other ponies living here. The thought of his friends quickly took priority in his mind, however, and he jumped into action.
"Excuse him, but this pony does not take kindly to interruptio-"
"I need your help! My friends are under some sort of spell and I can't find anypony else to help me!"
"This stallion is on the hunt for a very rare sample of beezlenut oil and is not in the mood for your flailing about, good sir." He trotted around a corner, and Blue's heart sank, as he was seemingly back to square one.
"Wait!" The stallion's voice echoed from the alley he had escaped to.
"Did you say, a spell?"
"Yes!" Blue said.
"A spell!" Blue felt forced to raise his voice after the Unicorn didn't seem to respond.
"The name's Artemis!" He darted back around the corner and awaited Blue's lead. Not caring about the strange eccentricities of his new assistant, he began swiftly bolting back towards the entrance of the mines. The two ponies hardly spoke to each other on the trip there. Their initial encounter was awkward enough, and this new pony's mannerisms were most unusual to Blue Button.