Chapters 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?"
"Alright everypony, gather round!" Sunburst said, to the assembled students in the school theater.
"Um, Principal Sunburst?" one filly asked.
"Ah ah!" Sunburst chided, and pointed his hoof at the fancy beret he was wearing. "It's Director Sunburst in here."
"Director Sunburst," she amended, "I forgot my copy of the script."
"Alright, well share with another student."
"Director Sunburst?" Button Mash asked.
"Yes?"
"I don't understand the story of this play. It doesn't make any sense to me."
"Alright, I'll give you the short version," Sunburst said. "The play, Oedipus Rex, is an ancient Pegasopolis story about a king who unknowingly married his mother by mistake. That brought about a terrible curse upon the city and-"
"Yeah, that's the part I don't get!" Button said. "How does A lead to B?"
"Well that's a..." Sunburst chuckled. "That's a complicated question. You see, the ancient pegasi believed in a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses that controlled the workings of nature and the fates of ponies. And so, because Oedipus had married his mother, as the oracle foretold in her prophecy, the city was cursed by a plague from the gods as it was a sin in their eyes."
"Yeah, but why?"
Sunburst took a deep breath. "Featherweight, grab me some water?" Featherweight fetched him a glass of water. "Thank you Featherweight." Sunburst took a deep sip of water and cleared his throat. "Ahem . Well you see... at the time when this story was originally written, the three tribes were still split before the unification of Equestria. And each of those three tribes had leaders of their race. But there were also others who ruled under them called 'nobles'," he explained. "The power of these nobles, Dukes, Duchesses', Lords and what have you, their power of rule was passed down through their family line. And as with most any ponies with power, these royal families didn't want to share it. Not with other royal families, and certainly not with the commoners. So, as was often the case, they would intermarry within their own families."
"Eww!" Several fillies cringed.
"Yes, yes. That reaction is to be expected," Sunburst said. "But as I said, it was quite common back then. But after the unification of Equestria, there was a commoner uprising to overthrow the ruling class. And part of that was a propaganda against family intermarriage and..." he cleared his throat. "incest," Sunburst explained.
Button Mash flipped through the pages of his script. "So this play... billed as a tragedy, is ancient propaganda that we are continuing to... propagate? "
Sunburst stared at him for a long, uncomfortable moment. "... Yes."
"Can I make some constructive criticism?" Button asked.
That evening, Button Mash opened the door to his home. Cream Heart was in the kitchen, doing the dishes when she greeted him. "Hey sweetie. You're home late. How was school?"
"Fine," Button said, giving the standard response. He was about to walk past her without nary a second glance.
"You didn't get detention again, did you?"
He paused. "Actually, I got a part in the school play," he said.
Cream Heart immediately stopped what she was doing and dried her hooves with her towel. She turned around and whisked him into a hug. "Really! That's amazing! What play?"
"Oh, uh..." Button hesitated, "You'll see."
"Oh? What, are you a tree in the background or...?" she asked. trying to not sound disappointed.
"Actually I got the lead role," he said.
Cream picked him up in her hooves and kissed him on the cheek. "That's amazing sweetie! Ooh! My little thespian!"
"Mom! I'm a stallion!"
Cream Heart laughed. "I said thespian , not..." she just giggled. "But really, the lead role!?" she asked again. Button nodded. "Well I'm sure you'll need lots of time to practice your lines and rehearse!"
"Yeah..." Button said. His mother turned back around to resume her work on the sink full of dishes. He turned to go up to his bedroom, where his video games were. "Actually..."
Cream Heart looked back over her shoulder. "Yes?"
"There's a... um..." Button cleared his throat and choked out the words, "...a kissing scene."
"Ooh-hoo-hoo!" Cream tittered. "Is it Romeo and Juliet?" she asked. Button gave no response. "Ooh, I bet it is! That's how I met your father, you know!"
Button groaned, "I know."
"Oh, my little Romeo!" she cooed. "I bet you're looking forward to rehearsal with your Juliet!"
"Well that's just it..." Button said. "I don't want my first kiss to be... bad. "
"Well, yeah, that's why you rehearse!" Cream said.
"No, I don't mean for the play. I mean... I don't want my first kiss with a filly to be bad," he said.
Oh, well... Button, the first time you... do anything , it's going to be a little awkward."
"Yeah but... I don't want her telling the other fillies I'm an awkward kisser, you know?"
"Button..."
"So can we just..."
"Button..."
"practice a little?"
"Button..."
"Mom?"
"Button, no. "
"Please?" he begged.
Cream Heart winced and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. It was just a kiss. It wasn't even that. It was just practice. Pretend practice for a pretend kiss in a pretend play. For goodness sake, this colt used to drink from her teats. What was a little kiss on the lips? "... Okay."
"Really!?"
"Yeah. Pucker up, Romeo . Come on, quickly , before I lose my nerve," she said. He licked his lips and did so, closing his eyes. She leaned down and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "There you go."
Button opened his eyes and glared at her. "That wasn't a kiss."
"Yes it was."
"It was barely a kiss!"
"It- it's good enough for a play."
"Really? Is that the kind of kiss Dad gave you on stage?" he asked.
She looked away, unable to look him in the eyes, but also unwilling to lie to him, "No."
"Mom, you have no idea how important this is to me! I really don't want to screw this up!" he pleaded.
"Alright, alright! Just... just give me a second..." she said, taking a deep breath to ease her nerves. He was supposed to be the nervous one, after all. "Alright let's... try again." She closed her eyes and leaned in to kiss him again.
His lips met hers. Instead of a quick peck she forced herself to linger there. His lips parted slightly, leading her to do so as well. The moment she did, he put his hooves on her shoulders. His tongue rushed out to her lips, seeking hers. Her tongue met his briefly, and his dove into her mouth to dance with hers. She felt the hot breath from his nose against her cheek, joined by his hoof, holding her closer. It was so incredibly passionate and intimate all at once. Cream heard herself moan into her son's mouth, snapping her back to her senses. Her tongue pushed his away and she pulled her lips away from his. He followed her as she pulled away, but her hoof planted against his chest put a stop to his advance.
"That- that's enough," she said, a bit more terse than she meant to. "I- I think you've got the gist of it," she breathed.
Button Mash's face was awash with a myriad of emotions, from ecstasy, to disappointment, before finally settling on gratitude.
His eyes glanced at hers for just a moment before he looked away again. "Thank you."
"Button, are you okay?" she asked, with concern.
"Yeah," he answered, still looking at the floor.
"Button, I can always tell when you're lying to me, because you can never look me in the eyes when you do it." She put her hoof on his shoulder. He shrugged her away.
"I said I'm fine!" he snapped and trotted upstairs.
The angsty colt remained an enigma to her.
Button Mash peeked out from behind the curtains. The school theater was packed full. Every seat was taken. There was standing room only. It was opening night. The second Sunday of May.
Mother's Day.
Button's eyes scanned the crowd, looking back and forth through the rows of general seating. Most of the guests were prominent ponies with their mothers for the holiday. The advertising for Princess Twilight's school play had done well. Even Princess Twilight's brother, the Prince from the Crystal Empire was in attendance with his mother.
Button looked until he found her. His own mother, Cream Heart, sitting there in the middle of the crowd, three quarters of the way to the back of the theater. At once he felt both that she deserved better, to have a front row seat, and simultaneously wished that she had not come at all. But she was there. Even in the dim light, the features of her face were unmistakable to him. She glanced down at the program in her hooves. Button felt his heart jump into his throat.
Princess Twilight Sparkle's School of FriendshipButton Mash
Button started to panic. His mother was here. His mother was about to see this play. His mother was about to see this play, and know that it was co-written by him.
Sunburst found his lead actor hyperventilating backstage. "Hey, HEY!" he said, trying to calm him. "Deep breaths. Stage fright?"
"UH HUH!" Button gasped.
"Just try to imagine the audience naked," he said.
"That's not helping!" Button yelped.
Sunburst glanced through the gap in the curtains at Stellar Flare. "I know."
Button Mash promptly vomited from over-excitement. Luckily, he had eaten bananas before the show. 'For stage fright'.
~"Do they prevent stage fright?" "No. But they taste about the same on the way up as down."
"There you go. Just let it all out," Sunburst coached, rubbing Button's back. "You still scared?"
"Terrified."
"Just remember the giant meteor," Sunburst said. Button Mash closed his eyes and listened to his director's words. "A giant meteor is about to crash, and we're all about to die. What's the one thing you wish you had done?"
Button Mash silently focused on that question.
Sunburst smiled. He turned and walked through the curtains to announce the beginning of the play. Then the director stepped down off the stage to take his seat in the audience.
The supporting actors took their place on the stage and the play began. On his cue, Button Mash entered from stage left. It was show time. And the show must go on.
For the entire play, Button looked at the other actors and actresses. Even when the stage directions told him to look out at the audience, he just looked at the back of the room, over the heads of the audience, into empty space. Anywhere but where he knew his mother was sitting. He couldn't bear to meet her eyes.
It was the final act of the play. Button Mash, playing the part of King Oedipus, was at last confronted by his mother, Jocasta, being played by Miss Cheerilee.
"Oedipus!" Miss Cheerilee said, dramatically, as all dialogue lines of the dramatic play were said.
"I can not bear the thought of you taking another stallion's hoof as a suitor, Mother!" Button Mash said, as Oedipus. "They seek not your love, but power! They seek what you could offer them as their queen, by making them king! When you have always been my queen!"
"And you, my sweet prince!" Cheerilee said.
"Abash! I wish not to be thine prince, Mother, but thine king! "
"Prithee! Doth this be true!? That this plague borne upon thine house and hold be because of whom thee holds dear to thine heart!?"
Button Mash looked away from his co-star dramatically, as all stage actions for the dramatic play were to be acted.
"Tis!" he said.
"Nay!" she insisted. Button Mash looked out at the audience. Only this time, he looked directly at his mother. Cheerilee continued, "I can always tell when thou art being untruthful, Oedipus! Thy can'th look me in the eyes!" Even squinting into the harsh spotlight, Button Mash could see his mother bristle in her seat, hearing her own words spoken from on stage. "Surely thee jests!" Jocasta spoke. "Thy can'th truly be in love with thine own mother!"
Button Mash had practiced the lines a hundred times before. But as he looked out at his mother, Cream Heart, sitting there in the audience looking back at him, the words caught in his closing throat. The tears running down his cheeks glittered in the stark spotlight. Of the hundreds on ponies in attendance, he was only speaking to one. And it wasn't his co-star.
"I am!" he said. "And I'm tired of pretending that I'm not!"
Sunburst felt his mother's hoof on his thigh.
Shining Armor held his mother's hoof a little tighter.
Button's eyes never left Cream Heart's. "Mother, I love you! I say these words, not as platonic platitudes, but in true romance! I want to scream it from the mountain tops! I want to hold you, take you as my queen, if you would have me as your king! I want you, even as I know that it is wrong to. To wed. To bed. To bear my heirs!"
This time, Cream Heart was the one who looked away. Button's lips trembled. He frowned and pulled his belt from his costume. "These thoughts plague my mind. That I should atone for these sinful desires that haunt my soul- A thousand lashes across my back!" The clasp of his costume cape broke, causing it to fall to the stage floor, and with it, the protective padding. But the show must go on. "OPUS DEI!" He threw the belt over his shoulder, bringing it across his bare back.
The heavy belt connected against the skin of his bare back with the sharp crack of a whip. Everypony in attendance tensed in their seat. It was a whipping that would have broken any other stallion to his bawling knees. But Button didn't even waiver where he stood, taking the lashing in stride. The long, straight, deep-red welt appeared through his fur, identical to the other scars that crisscrossed his back.
~During the proceedings of the divorce, Cream Heart had thought that Button's father used to beat him. Button swore up and down that he hadn't, and testified to the same under oath, even as he refused to explain the injuries.
At last Cream understood. He had been punishing himself for how he felt about her this whole time, and she had been so blind to it. She didn't want to believe it. She felt awful for the anguish he had been in this whole time. She couldn't bear to look at him.
Button's lip trembled. The familiar sting across his back was nothing compared to the pain he felt from the look on her face. He could tell his mother was disgusted with his confession. She couldn't even look at him, at her disgusting , deviant son. He felt ashamed. He deserved this. He brought the belt up again. "OPUS DEI!"
Miss. Cheerilee caught Button's hoof and took away the belt. "NO!" she shouted. "No... Oedipus!" she added trying to regain the course of the script. "Take me! Have me as your queen! My prince- nay , my king! " Her hoof on his cheek turned him to face her.
Button didn't even remember the words, but the rote practice of rehearsal had them spilling from his mouth.
"But what of the gods?" he asked.
"Damn the gods!" she said.
They embraced and kissed each other. It was just a quick peck, all that Cheerilee would allow.
The lights dimmed and the curtain fell, ending the play.
Everypony in attendance was on their hooves, clapping and cheering. A few minutes later the lights came back up and Sunburst walked up onto the stage, waving out the entire cast of the play. There were many supporting characters between the cities of Corinth and Thebes. They all filed out onto the stage as Button continued to scan the raving crowd, unable to find his mother.
He walked down off the front of the stage and the crowd converged on him.
"Dude! That was amazing!" one stallion said.
"That whip sound was some great special effects!"
"That love confession at the end? I felt that! It was so real!"
"This play speaks to me- to a lot of stallions, I think!"
Hoity Toity pointed at the corners of his eyes. "You see this? This is where the tears would be if I could cry. But I can't. Botched face-lift. But my goodness how I wish my mother were here to have seen this! Magnifique! You really should consider bringing this rendition on the road to Broadway in Manehattan!"
"Please," Button Mash begged, as he pushed his way through the crowd. He looked at every face as he went, but she was gone. "I just, I just need some air!" He ran for the exit, out of the back of the theater.
Button ran outside and looked around frantically in the dark. There, leaning against the wall of the school building, was his mother. She didn't look over at him, but she knew he was there.
Cream Heart sighed. "You know, I read Oedipus Rex when I was in school... It used to be a tragedy. But I guess someone took some artistic license." She looked down at the play program in her hoof. "Co-written?" she asked.
"... Yeah." He braced himself for her to roll up the program and start swatting him with it.
Cream Heart just snorted and started walking home. She got to the edge of the street lighting before she looked back at him. He stayed where he was standing by the exit. "Is there an after-party you're waiting for?" she asked.
Button Mash trotted after his mother, catching up with her. "I... wasn't sure if you wanted me to come home."
Cream Heart scoffed. "Save the drama for the stage , Button." Button let out a sigh of relief. "But I do have a few criticisms, Mr. Playwriter ."
"Wha- which part?" he asked.
"The ending, obviously," she said. "It's so easy to just end with the dramatic kiss, and just assume they lived happily ever after. But what happens after that kiss, hmm?"
"Well... I don't think they'd allow that in a school play."
Cream stifled a chuckle. "I mean, the next day. The next week . The rest of their lives?"
"I dunno. I didn't think that far ahead," he said.
"Exactly," she said. "You'd have to consider what other ponies would think. The rest of their extended family. Their friends and neighbors and coworkers. It's not just about them. A relationship affects everypony around them. Especially if it's... unusual ." Her words cut deep, because he knew in his heart that they were true. "Oedipus really should find a princess his own age."
"I know..."
"And his mother should be able to do the same with a stallion her own age."
Button felt his jaw tense again. "I... I know." Even still, he held on to his small glimmer of hope. "I think they could make it work," he mumbled. He couldn't tell if she heard him or not. Back home, they walked upstairs to their bedrooms' hallway. Cream Heart stepped inside her bedroom. Button Mash waited by her door. She looked at him. He looked back at her, hopefully, expectantly .
"What?" she asked. "You think after that dramatic little love confession of yours that I'm just going to have you climb between my legs and go for it? Go to bed! "
Button Mash was the picture of crestfallen as he shuffled away to his bedroom.
Cream Heart felt no better. As a single mother to a colt, she'd heard more than her fair share of 'Jocasta' jokes. As she took the ribbon out of the hair of her tail, she saw the remnants of the dull bruise on her hip from where Filthy Rich had struck her. She remembered how Button had come charging in, fending off a stallion much larger than himself for her aide.
After the divorce, and everything leading up to it, and everything since , her heart had been broken into so many pieces.
Next door, Button Mash had been crying silently into his pillow until he had no tears left to give. He felt his small bed shift as a weight joined beside him. He felt the warm embrace of a hoof around his torso, and a calming voice cooing in his ear, bidding him to stop crying. He wanted to turn over to hold her, to kiss her, to-
But she held him fast, shushing him to remain still.
"Shhh," she hushed him as her hoof ran along her chest. "It takes more than just a grand gesture, Romeo ." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He tried to turn to kiss her back, but she backed away. "I'll stop trying to date other stallions, and we can see where it goes." Her hoof moved to touch the tender welt across his back. "No more of this, okay?" Button whimpered but nodded in agreement. "I'm not making any promises, but I'm willing to give this a try. But for now... go to sleep. "
Button didn't know what tomorrow would bring. What, if anything, might come of this. But laying there, in his mother's loving embrace, it was the first time in a long time that he felt at peace.
For tonight... that was enough.
