That Time We Swapped Spit

Button woke up the next day in a state of near complete confusion and disarray. The image of Aura standing in his doorway and trying her hardest not to completely break down was practically branded behind his eyelids. No matter what else he tried to think about or what ludicrous imaginings he tried to conjure up to distract his reeling mind with, it all seemed to go back to Aura and her tear streaked face.

Button hoisted his leadened limbs out of his bed and drug himself toward the bathroom. He tried to clear his head with a sobering splash of water in his face, but it did little to clear his head. He looked into the mirror and was taken aback when the reflection he saw didn’t even look like it belonged to him.

“What’s wrong with me?” A knock on his window stole his attention from the frown of his reflection and toward the window opposite of his bathroom. Confused, he went to open the window and was hit in the forehead by a rock.

“Ow, what in Equestria?” It was Scootaloo, and she looked none too happy.

“Downstairs, now!” Scootaloo snarled. Button felt a cold shiver of fear grip him as he watched Scootaloo perch herself in front of his door like some victorian era gargoyle, Apple Bloom and standing resolutely beside her.

Button scaled his stairs as though he were traversing a treacherous rock face and every step could be his last. He stopped at his door to prepare himself both physically and mentally, looking for all the world like he was a condemned prisoner sentenced to be food for the lions.

The barest hints of light caressed his face as he eased open the door before it was forced open the rest of the way by a very angry Scootaloo. Button did his best to abate the onset of fear that raced up his spine like an electric shock, but the speed at which Scootaloo advanced on him was like that of an enraged bull.

“You’ve got some nerve, you pig!” Button had pitched backward from the suddenness and resorted to a panicked scurrying in the opposite direction Scootaloo was charging at him from. “I don’t know what you did to him, but whatever it was, he didn’t deserve it!”

By this point, Button was backed into a corner and had nowhere else to go and no way to contend with the razor sharp teeth and fire from Scootaloo. His only godsend was the tight collar Apple Bloom had on her rampaging friend. Button absently wondered if, after her years of working on a farm, she had developed an acumen for such things.

“Scoots,” Apple Bloom said, and like a well trained dog, Scootaloo switched from a state of aggression to a mere guarded baring of teeth.

“What in the hay happened with you and Rumble yesterday? I thought he came to work it out with ya?” Apple Bloom asked. Even with the snarling animal not two feet from him locked in the ostensibly capable hooves of Apple Bloom, Button couldn’t help giving in to the stale fear gripping his limbs and making them shake and shiver.

An uncomfortable, protracted minute set itself over the scene like fluttering snow. Apple Bloom hardened her eyes.

“I don’t know…” Button offered.

“That’s horse shit and you know it!” Scootaloo pulled at the hooves constricting her. Apple Bloom squared her stance and tightened her grip like she’d done so many a-time before with the more unruly of livestock.

“You better not be lying to me, Button.” Apple Bloom’s tone was stone cold and unforgiving.

“I swear, I don’t know what happened.”

“He was crying, you jerk!” Scootaloo interjected hotly. Button half expected steam to start billowing from her nostrils. Apple Bloom stepped forward, her eyes were hard and hawkish on Button’s supine form.

“Now, I may not have seen what happened between you two yesterday, but I do know that ponies don’t just up an’ run off toward their houses, crying for no good reason.” Apple Bloom waited a long minute for Button to produce a reason for the mess of a pegasus they’d had to walk to his house the night prior. But when-instead of offering a feasible excuse-Button simply averted his eyes, Apple Bloom felt some of the tightly coiled wraps she kept on her self-control slip a little.

“Button…” The exclamation was simple yet firm. Button felt himself buckle under the weight of it.

“I swear I didn't meant to hurt him. I was just trying to get my point across.”

“What did you do to him?” Button breathed out shakily.

“I was with Aura and we-” Button couldn’t bring himself to explain. By the looks on their faces, however, it would seem he wouldn’t have to.

“You were trying to make him jealous,” Apple Bloom’s statement was so pointed in almost hurt.

“I swear I didn’t want any of this to happen.” A violent thrashing followed by a blinding flash of orange and Scootaloo was in his face again, somehow looking more angry than she had minutes prior.

“If Rumble didn’t like you so much, I’d mess your face up something fierce.”

“Scoots, stop it.” Apple Bloom exercised the mysterious power she seemed to have over her cantankerous friend, and just like that, Scootaloo was back to a show of teeth and growls.

“You realize what a rotten thing you did?” Apple Bloom asked. Button nodded like a scorned foal.

“And you realize that you can’t leave things between you two the way they are now?” Button nodded again.

“So you’re gonna fix it, right?” A third nod.

“I’m just not sure how,” Button admitted.

“Sorry would be a heck of a start,” Scootaloo snorted.

“I guess you’re right…” Scootaloo roughly injected herself into Button’s personal space again.

“You guess?!”

“Okay, okay. You are right. I was acting like a total mule.”

“And…?” Scootaloo’s nostrils flared dangerously.

“And Rumble deserves an apology.” Scootaloo nodded her head almost sagely.

“Damn right.” Scootaloo extended a hoof and helped Button up.

“Yeah. Thanks guys,” Button dusted himself off. “I guess I needed a serious kick in the rear.”

“I’ll say,” Scootaloo drawled. Apple Bloom politely nudged Scootaloo back into line again.

“So?” The yellow mare questioned with a raise of her brow. “What are you waiting for? Get going!” With a look of encouragement from Apple Bloom and a threatening glare from Scootaloo, Button meandered past the two fillies toward his best friend’s house while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo watched parentally from the doorway.

“Honestly, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo started as she watched Button’s silhouette shrink in the distance. “We should start charging for this.”

For ponies with stringent work schedules and grueling work days, getting time to relax and unwind was like a sort of rebirth. Most ponies in such a position spent their entire work week-or month, in Thunderlane’s case-planning to squeeze as much nothing as they could out of their time in repose.

“Ah, buck yeah,” Thunderlane sighed as he threw himself into the tender embrace of his couch cushions. “Finally, a bucking day off.”

Shimmying a comfortable groove into the couch and letting out a groan that could only be complete satisfaction, Thunderlane stretched himself along the entire length of the couch until his joints popped in approval. “Time for some much need R&R.”

Knock Knock Knock

“Seriously?” Thunderlane glanced at the door with a shrug of his shoulders. “Probably somepony selling something. All I have to do is ignore them and they’ll go away.”

Knock Knock Knock

“I swear to Celestia, this better be the most important visit of my entire life.” Thunderlane heaved himself off of the couch, drug his limbs toward the door and threw it open with an undignified scowl gracing his maw.

“Whatever it is, I don’t want any.” Thunderlane blinked, entirely nonplussed as he came nose to nose with an admittedly meek looking earth pony with a beanie on his head.

“Is Rumble here?” The earth pony asked.

“Nope, sorry. Just missed em.’”

“Can you tell me where he went?”

“I’d say by now he’s about halfway to Phillydelphia by now.” The statement was like a punch in the gut.

“What?”

“Yup. He took the first train to Phillydelphia this morning.” Button felt his breathing pick up.

“Why?”

“I don’t know the nitty gritty, but he came home yesterday night pretty messed up. We had a long talk and he said he needed to get away from Ponyville for a while. Clear his head, y’know? Took his entire savings with em’ when he left.”

“Did he say when he was coming back?”

“Nope. And considering how many bits he has with him, he could probably stay out there for a while.” Button’s eyes widened and his jaw fell open in shock.

“Aren’t you even worried about him?” Thunderlane shrugged his shoulders.

“Half of me is, but he’s practically an adult. He can do what he wants as far as I’m concerned. But let me ask you something. Why in Equestria are you so worried about him?”

“Because I think I’m the one who made him want to leave.” Thunderlane regarded the earth pony with a look as though he was straining to remember something important.

“Your name isn’t Button Mash, is it?”

“Yeah, why?” Thunderlane wordlessly pushed the door open.

“Come in.” Was all Thunderlane said as he retreated back into the house. Button tried to take a step but he faltered, instead blinking owlishly at the wide open door before finally stepping through and shutting it behind him. A can of something was tossed his way, which he fumbled with for a few seconds before he felt he had a solid hold on it.

“What is-”

“Beer,” Thunderlane cut him off. “Now, pop a squat, dude. I wanna pick your brain for a second.” Button-who was still wholly unsure of the older pegasus’s intentions-awkwardly sidled onto an empty couch cushion, his beer unopened between his fidgeting hooves. Thunderlane sat himself down a second later, stretching his gangly limbs over more than his fair share of couch space.

“So, you’re the Button Mash my brother is absolutely ga-ga about.” Thunderlane’s tone was affirming-almost accusatory. Button felt his insides shifting the longer Thunderlane’s scrutinous gaze lingered on him. The blatant, unabashed vetting continued for what felt like ages until Thunderlane shrugged and took a sip of his own beer. “You seem alright, as far as colts go I guess.”

Button wasn’t sure how deep he should read into what felt like an already cavalier comment to begin with, so instead he just offered an uncomfortable “thanks” and took to absently reading the labels on his beer can in an effort to abate some of the awkwardness.

“Why did you want to see Rumble so bad, anyway?”

“I don’t know. I guess I came to apologize for being so unfair to him.”

“Unfair?”

“Yeah. We sort of had a fight and when he tried to come and apologize to me, I basically ignored him.”

“So, that’s why he was so upset yesterday?” Button’s ears folded flat against his head.

“Yeah, probably.”

“You do realize how much he likes you right?”

“Yeah…”

“Do you not like him back?” Button sighed heavily.

“I don’t know anymore. I thought I didn’t but it’s like...I can’t  stop thinking about him.”

“You know what that sounds like to me?”

“That I like him?” Thunderlane nodded and readjusted himself in his seat so that he was sitting up straight.

“Let me ask you something-completely judgement free. How do you feel about Rumble?”

“Well, I think he’s a great friend and he can be one of the sweetest ponies you’ll ever meet-”

“No,” Thunderlane interrupted. “I don’t want to know what you think, I wanna know how you feel.” Button took a moment to let Thunderlane’s statement sink in.

“Well...I guess I prefer his company over anypony else’s.” Thunderlane nodded in a way that made Button feel implored to continue.

“And I guess hanging out with him does make me kind of happy.”

“So how would you feel if he suddenly decided he didn’t want to be around you anymore?”

“I guess I’d feel pretty bad.”

“So don’t you think that Rumble felt the same way?”

“Yeah. But, at the time, I guess I was just so annoyed at him for being so...I dunno, insistent.”

“Let me tell you something, Button. Rumble used to come home every day raving about you like you were the best thing since sliced bread.” Button gave Thunderlane a look rife with disbelief.

“I’m serious. Every day, he would sit there and give me and mom the play by play of whatever stupid thing you two did that day. Then, one day he came home and he looked kinda out of it. I went to his room to ask him what was wrong and he told me he didn’t know why but his stomach felt funny whenever he was around you.”

“Yeah,” Button began, his face bright red. “It took me a while but eventually I figured it out.”

“Yeah. Well, after that little fight you two had the other day, he was absolutely crushed.” Button’s ears perked.

“Really?”

“Yeah, after that I didn’t see hide or hair of him until last night. Kid was holed up in his room like some kinda hermit or somethin.’” Button made a face like he was about to be sick.

Thunderlane stood and took a long swig from his beer can before crushing it against the floor and heaving it into the trash beside the kitchen table. “Whether you like it or not, kid, you have some very significant sway in my little brother’s life and I would prefer you didn’t use it to make him miserable.”

Button shrunk away from the older stallion as if it were his own father scolding him. “I didn’t mean to make him feel so terrible, I swear. I was just confused. I didn’t know what I wanted.”

“Well, hopefully this little talk we had cleared your head up some?” Button nodded.

“Yeah.”

Thunderlane returned from the kitchen with a grocery receipt with a barely legible address scrawled on the back “You said you were going to apologize, yeah?” Button nodded again.

“This is the address he’s staying at. If you’re serious about making it up to him, I suggest you start here.” He handed the slip of paper to Button, who had to squint to make out the writing. “You should probably give him a little time to cool off first. I won’t go into detail, but he said some pretty nasty things about you.”

“Oh Celestia, really?”

“Yeah, whatever you did, it tore him up pretty bad.” Button looked from the hastily scribbled directions to the pegasus sitting across from him.

“You aren’t even mad at me?” Thunderlane laughed, which surprised Button Mash so much that he actually jumped a little in his seat.

“To be honest, if you hadn’t told me you were planning on apologizing I’d have probably beaten you up already.” At that, Button felt a pressing need to exit the room as quickly as possible.

“Alright, well, I think I’m gonna head home now. Thanks for helping me get my head on straight and everything, Thunderlane.” Button could feel the stallion’s eyes following him with surprisingly strict attention as he traversed the length of the room and moved to open the door.

“Anytime, I guess.” Thunderlane waved from his seat, not bothering to turn as Button opened the door. “Oh, and Button.”

“Yeah?” Button stopped halfway out the door.

“If you hurt him again, you can be sure I’ll pay you back tenfold. Deal?” Button felt the cold hand of fear sneak up and grab him by the throat.

“Yeah, got it.”

“Good.” Thunderlane said as he turned to watch the colt leave and close the door behind him.

“Now,” Thunderlane sighed as he sunk into the couch. “Where were we?”