ML54: Warning! This chapter is Brutal! I mean BRUTAL!
Sweetie Belle: I'm sure it won't be that bad!
ML54: Ehehe...Yeah. I'm just getting ready for the Sweetie Bele fans to hate me now. MLP is owned by Hasbro.
Madness
"If you think anyone is sane, you just don't know enough about them."
Six Weeks after the Fall of Ponyville
Sweetie Belle
Sweet Apple Acres
I tried my hardest to get a word out of Button. A whisper. A murmur. A sound. Anything...
...nothing.
"C'mon Button! You love playing with the train!" I stressed, moving the toy train in front of him left to right. He just stared forwards, not even so much as glancing at the train, and right at the wall.
I sighed and just pushed the train to the left watching as it finally stopped a few steps away. I then turned to Button to talk to him.
I was about to speak before a sudden light caught my eye and I turned to find that the toy train had burst into flames. I quickly, and in a panic, grabbed my water bottle and doused the flame before...well I guess I didn't have to waste the water. The rain yesterday made the grass too wet to set fire to.
I glanced back to see that Button hadn't even so much as twitched in response to all of this. I grunted and threw the empty bottle away in frustration. "C'mon Button! Please talk to me!"
He didn't even move a fibre of his mane. He sat like a statue in front of me, still staring at the same section of wall. I grunted again and turned to try and find what was so interesting about it.
There was nothing I could see there. It was just a simple piece of wall. "Button! There's nothing there!" I stressed, waving my hoof in the area in front of me.
He finally turned to face me. His eyes couldn't tell me anything, but he gave me a crooked grin. Kind of creepy if you ask me, but then again it could be because it's the first smile I've seen him give. "Button?"
"Mommy will find me..." I finally heard him say. I tilted my head to the side in confusion.
"Your mom?"
(POV Change, Button's POV)
"Yes! My mommy! Mommy's always there! Mommy will be here soon!" I cried, not believing what I saw before. Of course Ditzy didn't kill my mommy! Mommy would never die! Mommy can't die!
"Um...B-Button?" I heard a voice next to me. I remember that voice! I think...Sweetie Belle? She's here!
"Hi Sweetie Belle!" I yelled, giving her a big, warm friendly smile...
...Why's she backing up?
"U-um...Button? Are you okay?"
"Of course I'm okay! I just got the new Call of Cutie game! Parkour movements and everything!" It was Heart's Warming after all! Or was that last week? Ah who cares!
"Button...Please stop being scary."
(POV Change, Sweetie's POV)
What the heck was he talking about?! That game was supposed to be out today, sure, but I'm sure production might have been put on hold to deal with the apocalypse...
...Though you could never tell with companies like that.
"Scary?! What's scary about Call of Cutie?! That game is anything but scary!" He kept yelling, his eye twitching every now and then and his huge, creepy smile on his face. It looked like he wanted to eat me or something!
…I really shouldn't think about ponies eating ponies. I've dealt with that enough.
"B-Button, that game never came out!"
"Really? Oh well, we'll just have to play something else!" He carried on, about to trot off. I panicked and grabbed his hoof.
"Wait!"
(POV Change, Button's POV)
I jolted when I felt something grab me and turned.
To my horror, it was one of those monsters!
"I'm going to kill you Button!" It groaned at me, trying to pull me towards it. In panic, I threw my hoof into it's jaw and smacked it down on the ground in front of me.
"STAY AWAY! GO AWAY AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" I screamed, picking up a rock, ready to throw it at the creature.
The rotting carcass looked up at me, rubbing it's jaw and...was it crying?
I shook my head and threw the rock, hitting it in the flank, causing it to flinch and I swear I saw tears fall.
"STOP IT! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE AND GO DIE!"
(POV Change, Sweetie's POV)
I trembled as I withdrew from a furious looking Button. Why was he saying these things?
"B-Button...What d-did I..." I sniffed, looking up at his angry face.
"SHUT UP! I HATE YOU!" I gasped and held my chest as a sudden thump seemed much too sharp and painful to be real. Button...hates me?!
I shouldn't have bothered him! Why didn't I just let him deal with it?! This is my fault!
"Please Button! Please don't hate me! You're my best friend! Please!" I cried, trying to hug him.
(POV Change, Button's POV)
I grit my teeth as that thing tried to grapple me and get to my neck. I struggled to get out of it's hold long enough to sock it in the eye! Haha! I'm good at this!
It trembled and sobbed on the ground, but I wasn't gonna fall for this! Not by a long shot!
I grunted as I nudged my head under a big rock and picked it up.
The zombie looked up as I stood over it, ready to smash it's skull in.
"Say bye-bye you rotten piece of shit!" I cried, about to drop the rock...
...before I was tackle to the ground by another one.
(POV Change, Sweetie's POV)
I looked up as I saw a large rock fall just a few centimetres away from my muzzle. At least I think that's what it is, my tears were really obscuring my vision right now.
"SWEETIE BELLE!" I heard my name being called and I, painfully, turned to see my sister looking over me, incredibly horrified at what she found. "Oh my goodness! Sweetie Belle, what happened?!"
"LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" I heard Button crying in the distance. I glanced that way and found Thunderlane holding Button in a choke hold. I saw Button suddenly get sleepy before losing consciousness.
I whimpered as Rarity lifted me into a hug. "Oh Sweetie! Please tell me you're okay!" I choked back a sob before replying.
"Y-yes...But he...H-he...He doesn't like me anymore..." I suddenly wailed, hugging my sister close. My jaw, flank and eye were throbbing in pain, but not more so then my chest right now.
My sister did nothing except hold me tighter, though I did hear a few hoof steps come up to us. I looked up and saw Thunderlane looking down at me in worry. "C'mon kid, we're going to see Fluttershy."
I nodded before feeling myself lifted into the air and onto Rarity's back. "Don't strain yourself dear, you've been through enough..." I didn't say anything, my throat was sore, but silent tears were still falling down my cheeks.
I nuzzled myself into her fur, burying my snout into my sister's mane, hoping she didn't mind. She didn't seem to, so I just kept it there, taking in the scent.
It would usually smell like perfume or something like that, but since she didn't have any of that, her mane smelt strangely like jasmine. It was strange, but it was slightly comforting.
A sudden throb in my jaw and eye reminded me of the pain that was inflicted onto me earlier. I placed my hoof, carefully, over the area in which I felt the pain. It luckily didn't feel swollen or broken, but there'd be a heck of a bruise there.
I glanced back at the unconscious Button, cringing as a flash of his wild, angry eyes appeared in my mind. I shook my head and looked at him, seeing that his eyes were closed, his eye twitching every now and again.
"Why would he suddenly attack her?" I heard Thunderlane whisper to my sister. I glanced in their direction in time to see Rarity shake her head.
"I don't know. I thought the two of them were best friends. They used to do everything together." She replied, making me glance back at him again.
Now I felt kind of guilty. It's true that we used to do everything together, but ever since me and the girls formed the Cutie Mark Crusaders, I've been...kind of neglecting him.
Maybe...Maybe that's why he hates me? Because I just...abandoned him...
"I'm sorry Button..." I muttered before I felt myself fall asleep.
Later that Night
(POV Change, Button's POV)
I woke up with a start, looking around and finding myself in a barn of some description. I was on top of one of the hay beds, a knitted blanket over me.
I shook the remainder of sleep off and stood up, taking some hay and munching on it. Sure it tasted bad, but hey, food's food.
I jumped off the bed and headed towards the open barn, glancing outside...
...and into the barrel of a gun.
I jumped back and came face-to-face with a one-eyed filly. I think she was one of Sweetie Belle's friends. Which one was it again?
"Ya shouldn't be awake..." She said, holstering the weapon.
Well she wasn't going to kill me. That's good, but she kinda looks like she wants to. "Um...Why?"
She regarded me like a crazy pony, before she shook her head and jabbed me in the chest. "It's curfew, that means lights out ya abusive dirt-bag!"
"Oh..." I replied before two thoughts struck me. "Wait! Who are you calling an abusive dirt-bag and shouldn't you be asleep too?!"
"Ah'm on night watch wit' Thunderlane tonight, an' after tha beatin' ya gave Sweetie Belle, who do ya think Ah'm callin' a dirt-bag!"
My heart stopped when I heard that. "W-what?! I-I'd never do that!"
She gritted her teeth and jabbed me in the chest again, causing me to flinch back. "Um, yeah ya did! Rarity and Thunderlane saw tha whole thin'! If'n they didn't stop ya, ya woulda killed her!"
"N-no...You're lying! I'd never do that to Sweetie Belle! She's my best friend!" I yelled back, causing her to grab my ear with her hoof and yank me, quite aggressively, back into the barn. "Arg! Arg!"
She then let go once we were far enough in, then grabbed my mane and yanked my head to face what she wanted me to see. "Tell me Ah'm lyin' again, Ah dare ya!"
My breath hitched when I saw her. The white Unicorn filly with the two toned mane. But that mane was fairly ruffled up, her eye was black and her jaw had a nasty looking bruise on it.
My eyes watered at the sight, threatening to spill out at any second. "B-but...I...I didn't...I wouldn't..." The yellow one yanked my head back round to face her, and boy did she look even more angry.
"Don't you dare lie ta me!" She spat at me, shoving me into the ground. "You're tha one who did this an' there ain't no use tryin' ta hide it!" She then prodded me in the chest again. "Now ya better enjoy bein' this close, 'cause if ya even think about goin' near her again..."
She pressed her forehead against mine, her one eye portraying as much hate as a dog for a cat, causing me to be shaken to my very core. "Ah will end you!" She said, turning to leave.
I stepped back, incredibly scared, and about to agree.
But then I looked at Sweetie Belle again...
...She...I...
"No..."
Her head snapped back around to face me, as if she were regarding an insect. "What was that?"
"I said no..." I said, looking into my mind for any semblance of bravery or stupidity and using it now. "I don't know what I did, how I did it or why I did it. All I know is that I have to make up for it and I'm not going to be able to do that if I can't go near her."
I looked up and into her eye, that was twitching violently at this point. "So...Do your worst..."
She and I stood there, staring one another down, her eye and mine locked, waiting for any sign of either of us backing down.
Suddenly she started to advance towards me, slowly. Deliberately trying to psych me out or strike some fear in me.
I noticed a stirring near me.
(POV Change, Sweetie's POV)
My eyes fluttered open after I heard Button say something about making something up to me and doing my worst. It was strange. It was as if my dream Button was both sweet and caring, but still violent and confrontational like earlier.
But, when my eyes opened, I saw that Button was actually in front of me, Applebloom staring at him in barely contained rage.
I soon noticed her advancing towards him, which caused me to open my eyes wide with fear. I've only ever seen Applebloom that angry once and it was something I never wanted to see again.
"Button..." I croaked out, causing his eyes to snap to me. His bright, charming brown eyes.
"Sweetie Belle, are you okay?!" He said, lifting his hoof to my face.
"DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!" Applebloom screamed, tackling Button into one of the wooden beams.
I heard a sickening crunch sound as his back collided with the beam and he cried out in pain, before Applebloom's hoof caught his jaw.
"Applebloom! Stop!" I screamed, jumping onto her back.
"Let go Sweetie Belle! He was askin' fer it!" I heard a loud wailing in the distance and noticed the cake twins crying their eyes and everypony else starting to wake up.
Applebloom pushed me off and sighed, trotting over to the cake twins, but had paused to glower at Button. "If you do anything to hurt her, just remember that there are plenty o' trotters out there who'd kill fer tasty, young Earth Pony..." She hissed, kicking him in the flank before trotting away.
I ran to Button's side, hearing him moan in pain. "Button!" I cried, leaning down. "Are you okay?!"
He looked up at me and, rather then the rage I saw over take them before, or the pure insanity, I saw concern and kindness...
...My Button Mash is back.
"I should be asking you that..." He said, struggling onto his flank and almost falling over to the other side.
I quickly moved over to support him as he lied into my side. "How...How can you...How can you stand to look at me?" He asked me, dejectably. "I hurt you so badly..."
I felt his hoof stroke the black eye he had given me and I sighed, glancing down at my hooves. "Because it wasn't you..."
"Huh?"
"I...I know you Button. You're one of the sweetest, gentlest and goofiest ponies I know." I explained, having been thinking about this as I slept. Luna must have given me the dream to explain what had happened. "You must have had an episode of madness..."
"I...I remember trying to kill a trotter earlier..." His eyes snapped open and he whipped his neck over to face me. "Oh dear Celestia, that was you wasn't it?!"
I didn't answer him, but I did feel a tear slide down my cheek.
"You said you hated me..." I heard his breath hitch at that and I smiled a small smile.
"I'd...I didn't mean you Sweetie Belle...I could never mean you..."
"I know..."
"Let me finish." He interrupted, placing his hoof onto my cheek. "Because if I don't get this out now I'll never be able to say it."
I said nothing, but I did have to hear what she had to say.
"I...I could never hate you Sweetie Belle because...because I...I l-love y-you..." My heart suddenly thumped hard in my chest when I heard his confession. "For the longest time I've loved you...Ever since we stopped hanging out, I wanted to spend time with you again...but I never had the guts to ask..."
"And you were having so much fun with those other two that I didn't want to be the reason you were missing out...So I let you go...So that you'd be happier..." He turned away, his face red with embarrassment.
"Button..." I let out, breathlessly. I had no idea that he felt that way! I mean jeez, how would you feel if your best friend suddenly told you they loved you.
But...
"Button..." I repeated, looking down at the ground. "I...I can't, Button."
He looked at me, incredibly dejected, so I decided to continue. "Not while you...You have that madness...The one that almost killed me." I looked away, feeling almost ashamed of myself for saying it. "I want to love you too, Button, but I'm too scared."
We sat in an awkward silence, the crying of the babies and the pain in our bodies but a distant memory.
After a few more minutes of silence, Button spoke up. "I'll defeat them..." He said, looking up at me with that adorable little determined face he makes when he sets himself a goal. "I'll defeat my daemons! I'll make sure that I never do this to anyone ever again! Not just for you, but for me as well!"
I felt myself smile at his little speech as he stood, only to fall down a bit. "Um...Do you mind helping me to my bed? My back's sort of in blistering pain."
Despite the mood and tone, I giggled and helped him up, assisting him towards his hay bale.
The others who were awake looked at us strangely, almost as if they were trying to process how in Equestria this managed to happen. But some seemed to be smiling contently, happy to see that we had made up.
Scootaloo winked at me as she curled up with Rainbow again, causing me to blush and smiled bashfully back.
We finally made it back to his hay bale where he struggled up and onto it. I used a small bit of magic to lay the covers over him as his face took on a more content look. "I promise I'll beat them..." He whispered, before falling back to sleep.
I blushed and kissed his forehead. "I know you will, you crazy colt." I whispered back, making my way to my bed to sleep off the rest of the night with a weight off my shoulders and hope in my heart.
ML54: I tried to introduce a Hell of a conflict here, but I'm unsure if this is how people in the real world would react to the situation.
Sweetie Belle:...Why would you write that?
ML54: I...I was trying to get the mood of this story back to a horror setting! Nothing horror related has happened yet. So I felt somepony having a psychotic episode, and somepony as unexpected as a kid, would put the ponies in the shelter, as well as the audience, on edge. Please review, but please don't flame me Sweetie Belle fans!