Sweetie Belle sighed and kicked over a pebble with her hoof. Behind her, lights were flashing and music was pounding, but she didn’t have it in her to go back to the party. She was happy for Applebloom, she really was, but it was hard to be happy when two of the three crusaders had already gotten their cutie mark. Sweetie Belle was starting to doubt she’d ever get hers.

“Got tired of the party?” Sweetie Belle turned around to see Button Mash, one of the colts she sometimes hung out with, standing behind her, an apologetic smile on his face.

“Not exactly,” Sweetie Belle shrugged. “It’s more like I’m not really in the party mood today.”

“I understand. It’s gotta be hard, being the last Crusader.”

“How do you-”

“For a ‘secret organisation’, you guys are pretty open about your club. You had a whole song about it, remember?” Button Mash nudged Sweetie Belle lightly with his shoulder, and she half smiled.

“Yeah, not our best work.” Sweetie Belle admitted sheepishly. “We could probably do better this year, if Applebloom and Scootaloo weren’t so busy showing off their cutie marks. I mean, I’m happy for them, but they completely forgot about me!”

“How could anypony forget about you?” Button asked, staring slightly wide-mouthed at Sweetie Belle. “You’re one of the most memorable ponies in Ponyville.”

“Not to them,” Sweetie Belle murmured, more to herself than to Button Mash. Button wanted to console her, but he wasn’t sure how. Sweetie Belle had always been memorable to him. Even before she’d joined up with Scootaloo and Applebloom as one of the crusaders, Sweetie Belle had stood out to him as one of the prettiest fillies in the school. Not that he could ever admit it to her of course.

Instead he just nudged her shoulder with his own.

“It’ll get better, I promise. You’ll get your cutie mark soon, and everything will be okay again.”

“Will it? Is our friendship really just based on if we have cutie marks or not? I don’t want to be friends with ponies that are only going to keep me around if I have a cutie mark.”

“That’s not why they’re friends with you and you know that. They’re your friends.”

“What if they’re not?” Sweetie Belle asked, her bright green eyes locked with Button’s amber. “What if we’re only friends because we were all blank flanks together, and we’ll only be friends now when I get my cutie mark?”

“If that’s the case, you don’t need them. You have other friends. Friends you made because you were you, not because you were a blank flank. You have me. And I’ll always be here for you, regardless of cutie mark.”

Sweetie Belle smiled weakly and nudged Button’s shoulder.

“Thanks, Button. That’s sweet. I’ll see you at school, okay? I’m kind of tired, and Rarity wanted me home before it got too late.”

“Want me to walk you home?”

“I’ll be okay. I’ll see you later, okay?” Sweetie Belle’s smile fell as she headed back into Ponyville, away from the party going on at Sweet Apple Acres, leaving Button Mash in one of the many apple fields.

Button tapped his hoof lightly on the table in front of him, staring at the door and waiting. His bowtie was starting to get itchy as sweat gathered up along the collar. He glanced up at the clock on the wall, his nerves only increasing as he realised that Sweetie Belle was nearly an hour late. Was he supposed to pick her up? He couldn’t remember making any plans aside from meeting at Sugarcube Corner, but he was considering running down to Sweetie Belle’s house when the front bell tinkled.

The mare who walked in was beautiful, but she wasn’t Sweetie Belle. Her styled mane was slightly ruffled from the wind outside as she looked around the room, her eyes lingering on Button Mash.

“You’re the stallion who wanted to take Sweetie Belle out, correct?” The mare had the same snow-white coat as Sweetie Belle, as well as the same sort of musical voice. Button Mash nodded slowly, recognising the mare as Sweetie Belle’s sister, which he found odd. Sweetie Belle had been very adamant about him never meeting her sister.

“Um, Button Mash. Yeah, that’s me. Is she here...?” Button Mash peered around the mare, trying to spot any sign of his date for the evening. Rarity smiled sadly, shaking her head.

“I’m afraid Sweetie Belle has had to cancel for the evening. Scootaloo and Applebloom came by as she was getting ready with an emergency. They’re spending the evening with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, if you’d like to go and speak with her there.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that,” Button Mash forced a smile and slid off his stool, his damp bowtie weighing down his neck. He knew Sweetie Belle hadn’t spoken to her other friends since they’d spoken at Sweet Apple Acres all those years ago, and he also knew that Sweetie Belle couldn’t stand Diamond Tiara. The only way she would even think about spending any time with Diamond Tiara would be if she had nothing better to do. Button winced against the incoming winter wind and started the long trek to the outskirts of Ponyville.

“Button, I thought you were going to a movie?” Button’s mom asked, glancing up at the clock in confusion.

“Change of plans. I’m going to my room.” Button ignored his mother’s protests as he stomped up the stairs, ripping his bowtie off and throwing it across the room and slamming his door shut behind him.

“Best friends, Button. Forever and ever, Button. I’d love to see a movie with you, Button,” he muttered to himself, pacing back and forth across his room. He should have seen it coming. Sweetie Belle hadn’t spoken to him in months. He’d given up everything for her, and she’d dropped him as soon as High School had started. She couldn’t be seen with somepony like him. He was just some geek, and she was a goddess.

His gaming sets were neatly tucked in the corner, out of sight whenever Sweetie Belle came over to talk about anything. He’d given up gaming for her, and she’d ditched him to gossip with a few high-school mares. Button sighed and pulled one of games out of the stack, hooking the cables up and booting up systems he hadn’t touched in years.

“Button!” someone hissed from outside Button’s window. There was a clicking noise as pebbles tapped the side of the window, and a pale green light was glowing from outside. Button barely looked up from his game, his eyes unblinking and focused on the screen in front of him. Just one more enemy left and...

“Button!” Whoever was outside his window half-shouted, the light grew brighter, and a small rock made contact with the window, creating a crack that spread across the glass in a small web of broken glass. Button lost his concentration, looking to his now destroyed window. The small moment of distraction cost him his final life. A single shot sounded quietly through his speakers and his character collapsed to the ground.

“What?” He hissed, carefully pushing the window up so as to not cause further damage. “I hope you know you just cost me--Sweetie?” Sweetie Belle smiled up at him, her mane tied up in a simple ponytail.

“You gonna let me in?” She asked. “My teleporting has gotten a lot better since the last time I was here. Watch.” Before Button could even open his mouth, Sweetie Belle was screwing her eyes shut and, in a flash of pale green, she was standing in his bedroom.

“What are you doing here?” he hissed as Sweetie Belle looked around his room, her eyes lingering on his gaming system.

“I missed you. And I felt bad for ditching you. I couldn’t get away. Applebloom was whining about how things used to be so much better, how close we used to be, yadda yadda. Then they wanted to go hang out with Diamond Tiara, because they’ve ‘always been so close’. I swear I’m the only one who remembers what a bitch she used to be. She still is one, really, but Applebloom and Scootaloo are too busy being popular to care. Whatcha playin’?”

“You wouldn’t know it. And I wanna talk to you about this whole thing. Why did you agree at all, and why did you come back here?”

“Try me.” Sweetie Belle smirked, digging Button’s second control out of his pile. “First to three kills wins? You win, I tell you what you wanna know. I win, you tell me what I want to know. Deal?” Button rolled his eyes.

“I’ll make it easier on you. First to five. You’re so on.”

Button stared in shock at the screen, his jaw dropping and his eyes wide.

“How did you--?”

“Beat you? Easy. I’ve been practicing since we met.”

“But I never told you--”

“Your name is Button Mash, and you got your cutie mark at the school video game fair. It was pretty obvious. I wanted to see what you liked about them so much, so I started playing whenever Rarity was out of the house. Now, for answers.”

“You never even asked any questions.” Button pointed out.

“Why’d you ask me to the movies? Why’d you get so upset when I didn’t show?”

“How do you know I was--”

“Why’d it take you so long to ask me out? Were you planning on making this a regular thing, or was it just a one night kind of deal? And were you really planning on wearing that stupid bowtie?”

“I didn’t know what to wear to the movies.” Button admitted. “I didn’t know what ponies wore on dates.”

“So it was a date.”

“I guess.”

“You guess or you know?”

“It was.” Neither of them spoke for a while as Button tried to work out the answers to her questions. “I took so long because you made a big deal out of calling me your best friend all the time. I didn’t want to ruin that. Or risk ruining that. I don’t know.”

“That doesn’t explain why you did it though,” Sweetie Belle pointed out. “I mean, it explains why you didn’t, but that doesn’t tell me why. Did you just wake up one day and say ‘oh, hey, she’s kinda hot’ or what?” Sweetie Belle pulled the hair ribbon out of her hair, letting her mane fall in neat ringlets down to the middle of her hooves.

“I’ve always thought you were the prettiest mare in Ponyville. Ever since we were foals. But how do you tell somepony they’re the prettiest mare in all of Ponyville, maybe even all of Equestria? How do you go up to your best friend and tell them they’re even more beautiful than the Princess of Love herself?”

“Like that,” Sweetie Belle whispered. “That’s exactly how. You don’t need to pretend you want to go see some cheesy movie. You just have to say it. It would have been a lot easier than not talking to me.”

“You’re the one who chose not to talk to me.” Button protested. “I tried, and you told me you were too busy.”

“Because you got weird. You started shying away from me when I would hug you. I thought you got tired of me.”

“I promised I’d always be there for you.”

“Yeah, like, a million years ago. Nopony really means things like that.”

“I do.”

They sat in silence for what felt like hours. Button wasn’t sure where they were on the relationship scale. He hadn’t outright said he liked her, and she hadn’t outright said she liked him, but the understanding was there. She was still the prettiest mare in Ponyville. He was still the geeky stallion with one or two friends.

“You know, this is the part in movies where the stallion sweeps the mare up in his hooves and asks her to be his marefriend. Then she’ll agree, and he’ll usually kiss her. Fade to black, show the names, play the happy song. You know, the usual.” Sweetie Belle smiled and Button couldn’t help but to laugh. He nudged her shoulder with his own, their foal-hood gesture of affection, and Sweetie Belle leaned against him, nuzzling his cheek with her muzzle.

“So,” Button said quietly. “You’ll be my marefriend then?”

“You missed the dramatic sweeping into the hooves, but I can overlook that. Yeah, Button. Course I will. There was never really any doubt.” Button smiled and looked at her, her green eyes twinkling. “This is the part where you kiss me,”

“I was getting to that,” he breathed. He leaned slightly forward, unsure how to proceed, when Sweetie Belle wrapped a hoof around him and pulled him towards her, closing the distance between them quickly. Their lips only touched for a few seconds before Sweetie Belle pulled away to make herself comfortable in Button’s bed, but that was all he needed. He curled up beside her, planting kisses along her forehead.

“You’ll answer my questions tomorrow,” he said quietly. Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and cuddled up beside him.

“You’ll have to play me for it,”

“You’re so on.”