Oedipus Wrecked

by Shakespearicles

Setting the Stage

Button Mash sat with his hooves in his lap and stared at the floor. Across from him, sat Vice Principal Sunburst behind his office desk. "So what happened out there, champ?" asked the older stallion.

"I don't know," Button muttered.

" 'I don't know' doesn't help you or me," Sunburst said sternly. "You can't just be starting fights."

"He started it!"

"That's not how I heard it," Sunburst said. "Everypony I talked to said you threw the first punch."

"He was talking shit about my mom!"

"Language!"

"Well, he was!"

"Be that as it may, you can't escalate it to a physical level. 'Yo Mama' snaps have been around for as long as public schools have. They're not going to go away. You can't let that stuff get under your skin." Button huffed and crossed his hooves. "Button, listen... I want to be on your side here. But you have to talk to me. I know these last couple of years have been tough for you with the divorce. Where's the anger coming from?"

Button just sneered.

"Button? Where's the anger coming from?"

---

Button Mash sat in his bed, leaning against the wall as he played with his Joyboy. It was late. Out in the house, he heard the front door open, and then close again. His mother must have been back from her 'date'. He was about to go out to greet her when he heard the deep voice of a stallion talking with her.

"No, come on, my son's home," she said.

"He's must be asleep by now," he said.

"Okay, but we have to be quiet."

The shuffle of hoofsteps moved down the hallway to his mother's bedroom. Button felt his stomach turn over. He knew what was coming next. The walls of the small home were paper thin. He covered his head with his pillow. But he could still feel the rhythmic bumps of his mother's headboard against the wall they shared. But his pillow could not drown out her shriek. He tossed the pillow away and sat up.

There was the sharp slap of a hoof on flank.

"Ow!" Smack. "Ow! Stop that! I don't like that!"

"You said we need to be quiet, so shut up!" SMACK.

"OW!"

Button Mash stormed out of his room and kicked in the door to his mother's bedroom so hard it broke the jam frame. He dove across the room and caught the stallion in the jaw with a right hook, sending him reeling out of her bed and onto the floor.

"She said she doesn't like that!" Button screamed, punching him in the face again as hard as he could. "Stop! Fucking! My! Mom!"

"Little shit!" Filthy Rich shoved him off and stood up, bringing his hooves to bear. Button might have gotten in a couple sucker punches, but he was still the larger stallion.

"No! Don't!" Cream Heart shouted, putting herself between him and her son.

"Bah! Fuck this!" Filthy spat, grabbing his things and storming out of the house.

Button Mash was still gritting his teeth so hard it was giving him a migraine. If it wasn't so dark, he would have been seeing red.

Cream Heart covered herself with her bedsheet and rubbed her forehead with her hoof. "Button, go to your room."

"I was in my room! I could hear him f- hurting you! I wanted him to stop hurting you!"

"That wasn't what you said," she groaned. "Button, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. I should have told him to be quieter."

"You should have told him to leave!" Button's voice broke.

Cream Heart heard him sniffle. "Button..."

"He was hurting you, Mom!"

"I'm a grown mare, Button. I can take care of myself," she said. She heard him whimper. "Come on, don't cry." He did anyway. "Hey, listen. Go back to your room, and I'll be there in a few minutes. I just need to go to the bathroom to... freshen up. Then we can talk, alright?"

Button nodded and left. He waited in his bed. Just as she promised, she came in a few minutes later and sat at the foot of his bed. She sighed, unsure of where to even begin.

"I'll try to talk to him tomorrow and see if I can smooth things over with him," she said.

"He doesn't deserve you!"

"You didn't even give him a chance to get to know him," she said.

"You don't deserve a pony that hits you!"

Cream Heart rolled her eyes. "Button, he wasn't hitting me? Okay? He was just patting... my butt... very hard. Some stallions just need to get out a little aggression. Kind of like your little display tonight."

"They don't take it out on you!"

"Button, I told you, I can take care of myself. You know, things haven't been going so great for him either. He just got out of a pretty nasty divorce, himself. She took half of everything. But it's still a lot more money than we have."

"I don't even want to think about my mom being a whorse that fucks for money!"

His mother bristled, but couldn't bring herself to scold him. His words cut deep because they were true. "I just wanted to be able to provide you with a good life. A nicer house. Get you into a good school. Get some of those nice video games on your wish list."

"I don't care about that stuff!"

"It would have been nice to have a father figure back in your life. And a new sister."

"You really think I want Diamond Tiara as a step-sister!? She's awful! And she chipped one of my permanent teeth!"

"It was an accident. You fell off the jungle gym."

"She pushed me!"

Cream Heart sighed. She had exhausted every other excuse to dance around the real issue. "Button, you know you're the most important pony in my world. But I'm just a mare. You're old enough to understand that I have my own needs, too, okay?" Button couldn't look at her. "Okay?"

"Yeah," he grumbled and rolled over, facing the wall.

Cream Heart frowned. She could always tell when her son was lying, because he could never look her in the eyes. She got up and pulled his covers up to his neck to tuck him in like she used to, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Get some sleep. You have school in the morning."

---

Sunburst chewed on the end of his pencil as he listened. It broke his heart to hear what he was going through. "You know, you're not the only pony with a single parent."

"Yeah, I know. Diamond, too," Button muttered.

"I was talking about myself," Sunburst said, picking up the framed portrait of his mother on his desk and turning it to him. "My mother had to raise me herself after my father died. I was only a little older than you when it happened, so I was also already pretty much an adult, nearly done with school. But I still remember what it was like dealing with her trying to date again."

"So what? Are you going to try to convince me that it will be okay?" Button asked.

"Of course not!" Sunburst chuckles. "I was pissed!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! I would think most any son would be," Sunburst said. "But what we need to do is find a creative outlet for these feelings, okay? Something like..." Sunburst's eyes drifted across his desk to the flyer for the spring play. "Have you ever considered going into theater?"

Comments

[Autumnblazelover61]

So how did Spoiled Rich die?

Not that I’m complaining.

[Shakespearicles]

10806979
Not dead. Divorced.

[Thundercloud93]

Filthy Rich lives up to his name loved the story