It always seemed like there was something interesting happening in Ponyville, and this was something her citizens had grown accustomed to. The little upsets or terrible catastrophes never stalled them out for long. Invasions, plagues or magical mishaps were all forgotten in the span of a day. Life in Ponyville resumed quickly, falling back into the same comforting routine that kept her ponies sane.
"So booooored!" the little filly cried, sitting on the bridge that separated the two sides of town. She huffed, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her face. Sweetie Belle was not normally a filly with a lack of things to do. Today, however, seemed to be going wrong in all the worst ways. The schoolhouse was closed from some holiday, she wasn't sure what. Her mom and dad still had work, however, and had asked Rarity to take care of her for today. Rarity was in the middle of an order (as usual), so she had shooed Sweetie outside to play with her friends, with the promise of some free time later in the evening.
Normally, that would not have been a major problem for the filly, but today was shaping up to be laughing at her. Apple Bloom was helping her sister on the farm and Scootaloo was off training with Rainbow Dash. This left the young filly in the very odd situation of having nothing to do. She usually had the opposite problem, so much to do and not enough time.
"Hi there, silly-billy-filly!" came a sing song voice from behind her. Sweetie jumped in surprise, and would have fallen off the bridge if it hadn't been for a quick grab from the mare's teeth. Of course, that grab didn't account for much when the mare in question then decided to jump off the bridge anyway. A muffled squeal of delight accompanied the fall and the splash.
Sweetie Belle broke the surface with a surprised gasp. Thankfully, the streams current wasn't actually fast, so the two of them hadn't been in any danger. Well, aside from the danger of getting soaking wet in a freezing stream. "P-P-Pinkie! W-w-why'd you do that?!" she managed out through her chattering teeth. It may have been summer, but the water was still a shocking cold when you fell in.
Pinkie broke the surface as well, spraying up a fountain of water out of her mouth as she did so. "Well duh, silly! Now you're not bored anymore. Now we need to find something fun to do, like ice skating! Or eating ice cream. Ooooh, or eating ice cream while ice skating!"
Sweetie Belle swam to the edge of the river, climbing out and shaking out her coat a bit. She turned back to see Pinkie still swimming in the river, not giving any consideration to how silly she looked. "It's summer!" she said, her voice cracking slightly, as it did from time to time. "You can't ice skate in summer!"
Pinkie eventually climbed out of the stream as well, shaking her coat off as her mane instantly resumed its puffed out appearance. "Nuh uh! We totally skated on Applejack's farm when Discord made it snow that one time! And it was June, too."
Sweetie Belle wanted to argue, but Pinkie was right. Discord had made it snow in summer before. Come to think of it, things were never dull when he'd been in town. Maybe Pinkie was on to something. "So, are we going to go find him and have fun?" she asked, trying to keep up with Pinkie's brain. Easier said than done.
Pinkie began trotting down the road as she responded. "Nah, he's super, duper far away in Canterlot being big and important. Plus Twilight always gets really mad when I play with him, Fluttershy is ok with it though," the pink mare responded, before freezing up. "Ah, ah, ah! Itchy hoof, twitchy eye, burning ear. That means somepony's toy just burst into flames!" she declared with utmost certainty.
Sweetie Belle stood in the sun for a moment, trying to get more of the water out of her mane and coat. How did Rarity and Pinkie do it? With one shake they could become nearly pristine. It was a good thing that it was summer, or she'd have been damp all day. Hopefully, it should go away soon enough. "How do you... ?" she began, before stopping. "Oh wait, Spike told me once, the Pinkie Sense?"
Pinkie turned with a giggle. "Yep! Now come on, we need to go find the pony with a burnt up toy!" she declared, running behind Sweetie and running her head between her hind legs. Sweetie found herself quickly picked up and practically riding on Pinkie's back.
"Adventurrrrrre!" the pink mare shouted as she galloped down the road.
Well, Sweetie at least had to admit that she wasn't bored anymore.
It hadn't taken the two ponies long to find the meaning of Pinkie's declaration. Sure enough, there was a burnt out toy train laying on the grass. Sweetie Belle looked around, but didn't see anypony who would own something like this nearby. She climbed down from Pinkie's back, the warm sun doing its part to warm her still damp mane. "Did somepony do this on purpose?" she asked, not thinking that anypony could be so cruel.
"Nah. It just randomly burst into flames. It's a twitchy nose, bouncy mane and neck shiver if somepony lights another pony's toy on fire." Pinkie skipped over to the burnt-out toy train, before pulling out an odd pipe and blowing a few bubbles. "Inspector Pinkie is on the case! I have never failed a case when it dealt with trains before!" she declared with an expression that was clearly intended to be thoughtful.
Sweetie Belle would have asked her to clarify that, but she decided it was probably better to chalk it up to Pinkie being Pinkie. Suddenly, she heard an odd noise, almost like a buzzer or something. She looked up to see that there was actually another pony here. They'd missed the young colt earlier because he was a chestnut brown color, sitting right next to a rather large tree. He had sort of blended in, and if it weren't for the occasional beeps of the weird toy he was holding, they likely would have missed him completely. He didn't seem to notice them, at any rate.
Sweetie Belle tilted her head slightly as she watched the young colt. "Maybe it was his?" she thought out loud, causing Pinkie to glance towards the tree. She seemed shocked at what she saw, and Sweetie Belle heard a thud on the ground next to her. Had Pinkie fainted or something? She turned to see nothing except a pipe laying on the grass. Confused, she glanced back to the colt, who now had Pinkie giving him a huge hug, as he tried to keep his eyes on the screen in front of him. It seemed that Pinkie being Pinkie was a bit overbearing to him, or maybe just annoying.
"Ohmygosh! Hi Button Mash, it's been sooooo long since I've seen you! Have you been good? What about your mom and dad? Oooh, and your brother too, are you being a good colt?" Her rapid fire questions did not seem to effect the colt, who nodded and gave a series of one syllable responses as he continued poking his hooves at the weird device.
Sweetie Belle looked awkwardly between the colt and Pinkie. She'd seen him around the school house, but she didn't ever talk to him. He was kind of quiet, and she didn't see him around town very often. Pinkie continued to attempt to get his attention, to no avail. Sweetie Belle was used to being pushed aside, as horrible as that sounded. Rarity was really busy a lot of the time, but her sister never ignored her. She might have postponed together time, but she would always at least hear what Sweetie had to say. This colt was outright ignoring Pinkie, and that upset the young filly.
"Hey," she squeaked indignantly, "you can't just ignore Pinkie like that!" The colt looked up suddenly, but a different toned sound from his toy dragged his horrified expression down.
"Nooo, my last life!" he wailed in despair. "I was so close to beating the level and defeating the evil Szanlak King of Clinthal Bay!" Sweetie was left without words at his outburst, having no idea what on Equestria he was talking about.
Pinkie stepped in at that precise moment, always ready to smooth a situation over. "Aw! Did you remember to use the warp point behind the third torch in the Hall of Nelthingor? Oooh, or the power up under the fifteenth tree in the Meldona Swamp? Here, go get a milkshake, my treat." she offered, shaking her mane as a bit flew out towards the colt. Sweetie would have loved to know how that bit didn't fall out after their swim.
Sweetie was lost, but Button Mash seemed more stunned by what Pinkie was saying. "Warp point? Power up? Zeykamiff!" he said, to which Pinkie gasped.
"Little colts shouldn't be saying meanie things like that!" she chastised the colt. "Your mom might give you a soap milkshake if she heard that. Oh, I just remembered something!" Pinkie wore an expression that suggested she had never forgotten what she had apparently 'remembered'. "Mr. Milkshake Pony is having a giveaway! Two milkshakes for one today, you should go treat my friend Sweetie Belle to one! I have to go check on the latest batch of cupcakes. If you two come by later, I might have some for the two bestest filly and colt friends today!" she declared.
Pinkie Pie bounded off, leaving two very confused children in her wake. That wasn't uncommon, as Sweetie Belle had never really understood Pinkie, but something about this was bothering her. Oh well, free milkshake!
"Um...Button Mash, right? Hi, I'm Sweetie Belle! You're in Miss Cheerilee's class, right? What's that toy you have?" She looked at the odd green gadget which was now dark. Its screen had been glowing before, but no longer.
"Yup!" he nodded with a smile, his beanie propeller spinning in the summer air. "It's my JoyBoy!" he answered, picking it up as he started walking towards the milkshake shop, bit in hoof. "Es fer vedyo geymes," he tried to explain with his mouth full. Thankfully, Sweetie Belle was actually good at understanding ponies with their mouths full. Thanks especially to spending so much time with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.
"I thought 'video games' were big, like those really big boxes they have out sometimes," she said. Button Mash shook his head, and went into a rather lengthy explanation of how those machines were different from his JoyBoy. This time, Sweetie Belle caught every third word. Well, the day was certainly not boring anymore.
"Order up!" came the cry from the counter as two milkshakes sailed across the shop. After all the years of working here, they had gotten quite good at 'aiming' their milkshakes. Sweetie Belle was always impressed that they never seemed to miss a toss. Not to sound rude, but Button Mash had finally stopped talking when the milkshakes had been done. He sure could talk, on and on without end. It was almost like Pinkie was, except she didn't understand what he was talking about. Once or twice she'd asked him to explain, and he'd gone on another explanation that was even more confusing! She learned her lesson after the third question and just let him talk, he seemed to be enjoying it anyway.
She smiled happily as he went on and on, finding some enjoyment in it. There was always something enjoyable about seeing somepony talk about something they loved. It was part of the reason she would endure Rarity's endless talks about fashion and appearance, even if Sweetie had no interest in fashion herself. It was something her sister loved, and Sweetie Belle could sense that in her voice when she spoke. Button had the same way about him, he just seemed so totally enthralled by these things.
Her peaceful train of thought was interrupted as Button pushed his face towards hers with a devious grin. "Milkshake race, one, two, three, Go!" The colt then attacked his milkshake as Sweetie Belle watched in confusion, and a bit of apprehension. What was he doing? She barely got to a count of three before his eye started twitching, and he released the milkshake with a scream of pain: brain freeze.
He continued to wail, falling off his stool and twitching on the ground in 'agony'. Sweetie Belle felt bad for him at first, but now she just thought he was an idiot. Her ears slipped back in annoyance as she slid her own milkshake over and began slowly drinking from it. The sounds of the colt writhing on the ground in exaggerated pain drew a little attention, but most ponies just chuckled, shook their heads, and went on their way. Sweetie Belle would have done the same herself, but she didn't want to let a delicious vanilla milkshake go to waste!
After about a minute, with Button showing no sign of stopping his anguished cries, she took notice of his toy on the table. She moved it over to herself as she sipped on the treat. It was an odd design, a little cross and two small buttons. She pressed one of the buttons and the screen lit up. A little figure of a pony with a sword in their mouth greeted her, oh! This pony looked like Daring Do! Was this one of her adventures? Sweetie timidly pressed one of the buttons, watching as the figure jumped. A few moments was all it took for the unicorn to decipher how the game was played, it was easy enough.
She heard a surprisingly normal exclamation from the colt on the floor, as he sprung back up to the table. She spared him a glare that communicated her annoyance with his drama, but he paid it no mind as he shifted over to see what she was doing. He wasted no time in returning to his talkative state. "Oh! You wanna dodge the arrow guys. Jump now! Oh watch out behind...no, not like that! Pit!" An electronic bleep marked the game as over and Sweetie grumbled.
"Don't shout over my shoulder!" She stood up from the table, holding her head high as she'd seen done many times before. "You can have it back, I'm going home!" she declared in a huff. Button may have been just a colt, but he knew enough to see when he made some pony angry.
"H-Hey! Wait a minute!" he called out after her as he followed her out of the shop. "What did I do wrong? I was just trying to help."
Sweetie Belle had made it outside by the time he caught up with her, and she turned to look at the colt now standing in the door frame. "You didn't let me talk at all, screamed like a little foal, and then told me I was doing everything wrong! Colts are so dumb," she decided, turning away again. After saying it out loud, she was even more annoyed then she had been before. She started walking now, and didn't stop even as he followed her.
"B-But...the heroes always act like that... and when they get hurt it's such a big deal and..." he started, more mumbling than anything else. "I'm sorry, I didn't wanna make you mad."
Sweetie turned fully this time, and paused as she did so. She could understand him, because his mouth was empty. "...Where is your toy?" It seemed unlikely that the colt would ever willingly part from it, since it was such an integral part of his life.
Button Mash jerked his head over his shoulder. "It's in the shop. I couldn't talk to you if I brought it," he explained. For some reason, that made Sweetie think. Making her angry had bothered him, so much that he left something important to him behind to try and make it right. It was a nice thing to do, she guessed, but it just didn't seem like enough to forgive him humiliating her. What would Rarity do in this situation?
Sweetie Belle inwardly sighed as she knew the answer to that. Rarity would forgive him, because Rarity forgave everypony who asked. "Oh all right, you big drama king," she shot back at him, a half smile going back to her lips. "We need to go see Pinkie at Sugarcube Corner anyway."
That thought was cut short very quickly. "Make way everypony, coming thruuuuu!" came the shout from down the road. Sweetie Belle and Button Mash both looked up in time to see a very odd sight. Pinkie Pie galloping, full speed down the road. And, of course, she was balancing a tray of cupcakes on her nose. This meant, by rules of biology, that she was looking up and not paying attention to where she was going.
The entire scene seemed to play in slow motion for Sweetie. Pinkie's hoof slipping, her falling forward, and a dozen cupcakes launched straight ahead like arrows. Of course, Sweetie was in their path. With Pinkie, one never knew if such things were a coincidence or an accident.
"Nooooooo!" came the surprising shout from the side.
And then she was shoved. Her new friend had just crashed into her, shoving Sweetie Belle into the dirt as he dove into the path of the flying confections. At least half of them impacted into the colt, causing a very dynamic (and overly dramatic) fall to the ground, covered in frosting.
"Ooof, hey!" she squeaked in annoyance. "You got my coat all dirty, ahh mud!" she realized in terror. Her coat had almost been dry, the key word being almost. Now she had a bit of mud on her coat, and she knew Rarity would flip if she saw it. "Why did you do that?" she accused him, looking over to where the colt had landed.
She got her first good look at him now, a good deal of frosting covering his chestnut coat as he lay on the ground in some pose you would expect to see in a movie or comic. Sweetie Belle just rolled her eyes, this colt was unbelievable. After a moment he stood up sheepishly, refraining from shaking off his coat so he didn't spray the frosting everywhere. "Hee...uh, sorry. I just felt like...you know, like a hero! They always have to jump in and save their friends by pushing them out of the way of danger!"
"Yeah, but now I'm all muddy! My sister won't stop complaining about it," Sweetie griped, stopping when she heard the familiar sound of Pinkie trying to muffle her giggles. She turned to face the pink mare as Button moved a bit away to shake the worst of the icing off without spreading it around too much.
"Hee hee! You sound just like Rarity! Your knight protects you and you're all upset 'cause of the dirt!" Pinkie quickly descended back into her giggles, bringing a small tinge of color to the little filly's cheeks. She wasn't like Rarity that much, if anypony was it was him. So dramatic and over the top, such a perfectionist and...
Her thought process paused for a moment. Rarity always acted the way she did to draw attention to herself, Sweetie knew that well. Had Button been doing that too? But he only acted out around her, he was never like this in school, was he trying to get her attention? Running out to talk to her after she was angry, taking 'injury' for her, wanting to be a 'hero'? Had those all been his ways to try and get her to pay attention to him?
"Oooh! One survived!" Pinkie's shout drew her back to reality, as the filly saw that one of the cupcakes had indeed landed next to them on its base. Still perfectly edible! For the first time, Sweetie got a look at the cupcake. It was a simple design, a delicate mix of chocolate and vanilla frosting splitting it in two. "You like vanilla, but he likes chocolate! I couldn't just make cupcakes that only one of you would like." Pinkie's explanation made sense, at least as much as she ever did. "You should totally thank your knight for saving you from the horrible, evil, icing monster! I mean that was so cool! Have you ever seen a pony do such a dramatic dive in your life? He just jumped out of nowhere and was all 'Nooooo!' and then Sweetie was all 'Button Maaaaash!' and then he lays on the ground and confesses that..."
"Pinkie!" Sweetie Belle interrupted her, causing the goofy pony to smile down at her from ear to ear. "It was just icing."
"Awww, come on! It's the thought that counts? Don't you think he deserves a rewards for being such a rainbow-ing hero?"
"That's not even a word!" Sweetie Belle complained. "It's 'dashing' hero!"
"See? Told you so! Come onnnnnnn." she pleaded, beaming brightly. Sweetie Belle saw Button coming back, the worst of the icing gone, and felt a bit more warmth in her cheeks. It was kind of nice to have somepony treat you like that. Also, the icing likely would have made a much bigger mess then a little bit of mud did. He actually had 'saved' her, in a way.
"Sorry about the mud, Sweetie," the young colt said as he returned to the conversation. "I guess I got too caught up in the moment." Button laughed sheepishly, before turning towards Pinkie Pie and opening his mouth to speak.
The words never came. Sweetie Belle had chosen just that moment to be bold, and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. This had the added effect of snagging a little bit of the excess frosting that he hadn't gotten off. Chocolate, but she didn't mind it.
"My hero," she said sweetly, as Button's eyes shot open. The propeller on his beanie began spinning so fast he might have taken off like Tank in a moment. Instead he merely stood there, his body seemingly locked up in shock.
Sweetie Belle licked her lips for a moment. "Mmm, chocolate isn't so bad after all," she stated savoring the leftover taste of the icing. Pinkie Pie, however, was busy waving a hoof in front of Button's face.
"I think you broke him," she remarked, before grinning wildly. "Oh wow! Both you and Rarity can do that! It must be genetic, like a super power handed down from ancient ponies that practiced a long forbidden technique! I've gotta go tell her!" the pink mare exclaimed.
Sweetie Belle caught that part of the conversation. Pinkie Pie, going to tell Rarity what just happened. Her face went a deep shade of red at the thought. "P-Pinkie! Wait, you can't!" she called, starting after the mare before pausing and turning around.
"Bye Button, see you at school tomorrow!" With that, she was off, leaving a star struck colt to stand there with his eye twitching and a single un-ruined cupcake sitting on the ground.
Author's Note
So yeah. I have seen a few ButtonBelle romance stories, but they always seem to end on 'THEY ARE IN LOVE!', and since they are both kids, that seemed a little beyond the suspension of disbelief to me. So, I decided I wanted to try and display puppy love. That first, innocent crush that kids can have. The dumb ways kids try to show they like each other, and all the lovely parts of childhood.
I hope I did a good job, and that you enjoyed it!
-Lumino
