As Cutie as a Button

by Scrucee

It's a Blue Day for Blue Button

Now trotting quickly through the streets of his hometown, the stallion could not stop to get a bite to eat, nor could he admire Celestia's beautiful sun like the fillies and colts around him were. He much preferred the moonlight, as he was used to its gentle glow, gleaming through his window and onto his face, which would provide a relaxing and safe slumber from the noisy town on the outside. He found himself trotting faster as time went on, as if he were trying to escape the glaring eyes of the townspeople, who would notice his lack of a horn. The worst aspect of this was the children. The adults would at least be polite and not stare at him. The children, however, did not understand the subtle nuances of high society as of yet, consistently stopping what they were doing and silently following him with their eyes before continuing with their playful shrieking after his disappearance around a sharp corner. He felt as if he had no one to blame but himself for living in a place so taken back by an Earth pony, as he knew there were not many of them around this area, there hadn't been for decades. Who could blame foals for staring? Though it was clear to the young fillies and colts that nopony was better than anypony else and it was obvious to them that the Earth ponies could do things they never could, they would still isolate him because he was different. He represented a different way of living, a way in which the Unicorns of Cliffside were strongly opposed to. They were swift to their jobs, he was late, they were productive, he was not, they possessed talents, he did not.

The stallion had arrived at his usual destination, suddenly possessing an intense desire to enter his workplace instead of linger in the streets where watchful eyes could see him. The imposing iron gates of the town's industrial workshop were present to look down upon him with their usual monotone malignity. The workshop was a massive, dull grey institution situated in the north of the town, closest to the dangerous steep cliffs. He had worked there for a large number of moons, yet he was required to muster up the courage to walk through the boundaries of this uphill battle. The peach-coated pony pushed the gates open slowly, as if to test their resolve, then sheepishly entered.

"MR BLUE BUTTON!" the mare in charge of the institution screamed from the entrance to her office, obviously displeased with his tardiness, which was usual. Madame Urbmane was her name, a dull name for an equally dull pony, perhaps so dull that she could compete with the iron gates for the Most Monotone Awards and win. The strong desire held by the stallion to rush inside the tall building's walls for his duty shift quickly diminished, as if evaporating away from Blue's body in a flash.

"Why must you constantly undermine our establishment with your frequent lateness!?!" she growled. Blue Button thought quickly about what his response to his manager might be. He had used many excuses before. His pet Quetzalcoatl had eaten his mane brush, his alarm clock had been stolen by Parasprites, his tie had been back to front, the list went on. He was out of ideas.

"I am sorry Madame. I have no excuse this time. I apologise." he responded. He had limited his apology to a short sentence in order to not seem as if he was weaving a lie. The purple mare with the teal cutie mark gazed at Blue from his head to his hooves as if studying his body language for a hint to his honesty. She nodded silently as if to hold back any anger and slunk back into her domain, much to his surprise. He may well have got away with it this time, not that it made him any happier.

"Pick up your things!" barked one of Urbmane's subordinates. "We have work to do..." Blue Button obeyed. His work uniform consisted of a purple saddlebag with his cutie mark engraved on it, a gold hard hat, a gold jacket and a lanyard showing off his worker designation number. He had never lost any of these items because he could tell which were his through the stark contrast in colour to the other workers' uniforms, all of which were a consistent dark, dull blue. Blue marched toward the steel lockers located inside the locker room and quickly fetched his hammer, nails and assorted work tools, which were required to be an Equestrian maintenance pony. His co-worker, a Unicorn, was named Tealeaf and he much preferred her company to the presence of his superiors. Tealeaf was more sympathetic of Blue's situation than any other pony he did his job with.

"How are you today, Blue?" she asked in a gentle, quiet tone. She had avoided the topic of why he was late because she knew how much it upset him. She was aware of these deep emotions through years of having known Blue Button, carefully studying his feelings in an understanding way.

"Why, I'm delightful!" chirped Blue Button, sarcastically mimicking Urbmane's cultured, posh, Cliffside accent. He immediately regretted this instinctive outburst, as Tealeaf had only meant well. What a foolish friend he was!

"Sorry..." he said, ashamed of how rude he had just been. Tealeaf rested one hoof on his back in a supportive stance, before quietly walking to the now open gates of the workshop. Blue Button followed her, already dreading the day ahead.

The streets were now empty. Not a sound came from the sweet shop, the overgrown park nor the gazebo, not one peep. The playful foals who had been enjoying Celestia's warm sunrise had all left for school. School was at precisely eight o' clock in the morning and would be attended on the dot by a gaggle of chattering students, waiting for their first lesson at eight thirty. This greatly comforted Blue as he was now able to walk the streets of Cliffside without having to avoid any staring eyes and as such, he adopted a more positive demeanour. Tealeaf would notice this often and would gladly snap up the occasion to begin eagerly questioning Blue about his life.

"So, where does your family live now, didn't you say Manehattan? I've always wanted to visit there, but I've never had the time."

"Yes" Blue noted. "My mother tells me it's very beautiful, especially in the summer. I've never been there myself, of course. I mostly write letters to my parents and they write one back to me. I do the same for my sister now."

"How is your sister? I haven't seen her in years." Tealeaf asked.

"She's well, she is currently in a quaint little town called Ponyville studying the Griffon language. It's not an easy subject of learning."

"Ponyville? Never heard of that town." Tealeaf noted with interest.

"It's a backwater town near the Rambling Rock Gorge." Blue explained. He had heard of the Gorge since his foalhood. He would wonder how Earth ponies would scrape out a living from turning rocks over and rotating them into fields all day. Before he could ponder this enigma of a mystery any longer, the pair had arrived at their first duty of the working day. Their first task was to repair an old, creaky shack which had been damaged in a storm the year before. The town contemplated that a lazy Pegasus Pony weather captain had most likely fallen asleep whilst on duty, with the resulting storm subsiding multiple buildings, causing much distress and innefficiency. Because the building was of a low priority, the building was left until last and its only inhabitants had been a pair of mountainous Quetzalcoatl during the while. The pair of ponies studied the building. Blue, being the stronger of the two, had carried some wooden planks from the workshop in order to replace the rotten wood of the shack, while Tealeaf, being magic, could delicately and gently slide the wood into place before Blue hammered it down.

As always, Tealeaf was much more skilled at repairing than Blue, as any nails he would bolt into the wood would either bend into a stubborn, crooked shape, or escape out of his reach, flying into a pile of hay or even off of one of Cliffside's treacherous cliff sides. On the other hoof, Tealeaf would precisely balance the planks with her magic and slot them into the correct position. It was not only Blue who would notice this pattern, but Tealeaf too. She was saddened by her friend's situation, which one could compare to a parent watching their child leaving home for the last time to combat the wide, wide world of Equestria as an adult.

"Please see if there's anymore nails in the toolbox, will you?" she asked politely. Blue Button then carried the nails from the toolbox to the wooden slots and began to hammer them in with his hooves.

"Alright, now let me just...no not there...careful you'll blunt them!" Tealeaf exclaimed. Her warnings to her colleague were warranted, as the shack, seconds later, came tumbling down in a heap of rubble. Tealeaf scanned the remains of the shack, checked for anypony who may have gotten unfortunately trapped underneath and silently down at her hooves in despair.

"I'll take this one, Blue." she positively offered with a smile on her face. "You sit back and take a break."

All Blue Button could think about was the utter failure he had been at building, how much he failed at being a friend. How could he just sit there as the one and only pony in this graveyard of a town struggled to do the job of two ponies on her own? Was he a good, supportive friend to Tealeaf at all? But Blue also knew his weakness, understanding silently that he could do more harm than good to the situation.

"Okay..." he relented with a defeated tone of voice. He made sure to quell it quickly, however, as he knew Tealeaf would otherwise pick up on it, and he hated to see her worry for him. He was used to relenting, as this was not the first time Tealeaf had asked him to "take a break". In fact, this would happen a rather large amount of the time. After the talented mare had fixed up the shack, the two decided to call it a day. Though the peach-coloured pony did wonder, more than ever, why he had failed at his task, his calling in life. He truly felt crushed under the unmovable force of a life, stuck with a talent, a part of him he wished he didn't have, fighting with unimaginable force against him.

Author's Note:

In this chapter of our story, the protagonist is under constant pressure, both from himself and from others to deliver on a task he simply does not have the necessary skills to perform. I wanted to make sure the reader would be able to empathise with Blue Button's struggle, as through our lives, I'm sure we've all gone through a phase where we don't know what our true calling or worth in the world is.